Songs, Stories, Books and more…

There was a delightful post in one of the blogs I follow (Conversations over Chai) which talks about songs that never got filmed or got deleted from the final movie.

A song that falls into the same category of “never filmed/ deleted songs” is that rare Geeta Dutt solo from Paying Guest (1957) – Gaye Ghabra ke Mil Do Dhadakte Se Dil. (It is also the only song she sings in Paying Guest.)

Paying Guest was a 1957 Filmistan production directed by Subodh Mukherjee, starring Dev Anand, Nutan and Shubha Khote. Nasir Hussain wrote the story of this movie (during his stint as a writer with Filmistan between 1948 to 1957; Hussain graduated to direction with Tumsa Nahin Dekha in the same year as this one).

Filmistan movies in the early fifties boasted of superb music – take for example Anarkali (1953), Nagin (1954), Munimji (1955) or Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957). Paying Guest is no exception! The music of this movie composed by Sachin Dev Burman is remembered to this day. The songs are light and frothy, keeping in line with the nature of this romantic comedy .

Gaye Ghabrake Mil Do… had been filmed, according to some old timers who had seen the movie just after its release, on Shubha Khote. But it got deleted subsequently and hasn’t figured in the movie since.

In the movie, Shubha Khote plays the vampish, grey character, Chanchal. She is a friend of Nutan (the good Shanti). And her character, if I remember correctly, is introduced in a college debate where the topic being debated is – what makes a marriage successful – love or wealth? (What a topic, man! Wonder if this was actually what was debated in colleges back then or was it a topic for the filmi Hazratganj college?).. Chanchal advocates that money is the most important thing in life and not love. One needs to use one’s brains and head while deciding whom to marry is this lady’s stance. Her opponent in the debate, who else but the good and pure Shanti, however believes in true love (sachcha pyar) and spouts passionate lines about how love makes the world go round. She naturally wins the debate. Our hero (Dev Anand as the unemployed vakil, Ramesh Babu) is perched on top of a tree and listening to this debate! As is clearly established in this scene, that Chanchal is materialistic, uses her brains, and is hard hearted…. tsk tsk. (no wonder she has to be bad!)

This is of importance – Chanchal weds a rich but an old lawyer and promptly falls for her husband’s employee (yes, our vakil babu who has now found a job and his love, Shanti) and causes much grief – she seduces a susceptible Ramesh babu (who by this time has taken to alcohol, due to reasons I do not remember) and separates him from Shanti. Of course, Shanti gets implicated later in the murder of Chanchal’s husband and guess who saves her and unites with her? Our Vakil babu who uses his education at last!

Since I read about the song being filmed on Shubha Khote, I was planning to see the movie again to conjecture where this could have been placed in the movie. Was this the song that she wooed that rich, old lawyer with? Or was this the song, she sang when she was trying to get Ramesh Babu (Dev Anand)? I think, going by the lyrics, it is the song she sings while flirting with Dev Anand. After all he is the ‘haseen‘ in the movie!

Or did this get deleted cos the censor board objected – may be because they found it scandalous?

Considering we will never know, my guess is as good as any!

An interesting aside about this tune is that this is a rehash of a Bengali number sung by Burmanda himself. The original song is Tumi Ar Nei Sei Tumi.  You can find the Bengali song’s lyrics and the English translation in this interesting blog post about Dada Burman’s Bengali songs.

If you haven’t listened to Gaye Ghabra ke mil…,do listen to it. It is a rare song sung masterfully by Geeta Dutt. It is rather a pity that it got left out of the movie.

kisi haseen ne
meraa dil chheena
dillagi mein
aankhon aankhon mein
kya kisi ne
aisa nashaa pilaaya
aa haa haa oui
la la laa aa oui
mazaa aa gayaa
aa haa haa
gaye ghabraa ke mil jo
dhadakte thhe dil
gaye ghabraa ke
gaye ghabraa ke mil jo
dhadakte thhe dil
bachna hazaar chaaha
hmm hmm hmmm hmmm

oh ho ho ho
ho oo oo
ho ho ho
ha ha ha
aa haa haa
dhadkoon main to
dil ko roke
bade pyaare thhe
unn ke dhoke
mile pehle to door ho ke
Phir paas hamen bulaaya
aa haa aa
oui
la la laa aa
oui
mazaa aa gayaa
aa haa haa
gaye ghabraa ke mil jo
dhadakte thhe dil
gaye ghabraa ke
gaye ghabraa ke mil jo
dhadakte thhe dil
bachna hazaar chaaha
hmm hmm hmmm hmm

mere tanman ka
jab khazaana (?)
wo paseene mein
doob jaana
kuchh na kehnaa
haar na jaana
uss ke na kaam aaya
aa haa aa
oui
la la laa aa
oui
mazaa aa gayaa
aa haa haa
gaye ghabraa ke mil jo
dhadakte thhe dil
gaye ghabraa ke
gaye ghabraa ke mil jo
dhadakte thhe dil
bachna hazaar chaaha
aa haa aa
oui
la la laa aa
oui
mazaa aa gayaa
aa haa haa

(Lyrics Courtesy: Atul’s Bollywood Song a Day)