Hindi Songs with ‘Anokhe Bol’

I was thinking about this post for a long time. It slipped my mind for a while, until I came across its rough write up last week. This post is a nostalgia for my father’s generation, who used to listen to a program called, ‘अनोखे बोलवाले गीत’ on Radio Ceylon. The songs played in that program used to have some meaningless or nonsense words as a part of the lyrics. Usually the song opens with those words, and further some proper lyrics take over. Though the words used to be meaningless, the songs used to be melodious and generally had a good entertainment value. The lyrics used to be difficult to understand and pronounce. Some of the songs had some words from foreign languages, so those words did have some meaning! So I’ve tried to exclude these songs.

In old Hindi film songs, the lyrics play an important part to the narration of the story. For many films, the songs were a part of the story and used to help the story move forwards. Mainly the directors, who had a definite vision of their own about the structure of the film, used to take care that the songs are a part of the film, in a flow and should not appear superfluous. Directors like Raj Kapoor, Vijay Anand, K Asif had this vision and even if a film like Mughal E Azam had more than ten songs, the film does not become boring and songs help the story move forward. Here I must add that, in a few films, the songs were the only attraction and audience tolerated many films just for the melodious, beautiful songs. In either case, the songs were the life and soul of the film and special attention was paid to the quality.
But in some costume dramas, or films based on a fairy tale, some liberty was taken to add a comic song with dancers having funny costumes and I think, here lies the root of these ‘Songs with Anokhe Bol’. In a social film, such songs may appear as dream songs, where it wasn’t mandatory that it should have either meaning or a logic. I think some of the songs on the list, might have this element in them. As I haven’t seen all the movies on the list, it’s just a guess. Some of the songs are dance numbers at the climax of the film, or a club song.

There are plenty of such songs in old Hindi films, but I have chosen only single song per composer. Otherwise the list would have got a number of songs by C Ramchandra.          In his heyday, in early 1950s, C Ramchandra composed many light hearted songs. As its part, songs with Anokhe Bol made their appearance.
A few examples can be cited as – La bulbula from Ustad Pedro, Bambina ba ba ba bambina from Khazana,

Without a further ado, let’s go to the list. As usual, my list has songs from pre-70s films and the songs are in No particular order.

1. Babdi Bubdi Babdi Bum – Khazana (1951) Lata Mangeshkar, Chitalkar & Chorus / C Ramchandra – Rajendra Krishna
I have selected this song, amongst a number of songs by C Ramchandra in this segment. I couldn’t get its video, but audio is available. This song could be a dream sequence song.

2. Chaai Laigo Zingar Zingar – Gul E Bakawali (1963) Shamshad Begum & Minu Purushottam / Hansraj Behl – Naqsh Lyallpuri
Gul E Bakawali was a perfect fantasy movie starring Jairaj & Nishi. A story of a prince of a kingdom, who had to live in a jungle right from his birth, and a princess of Bakawali. A jungle provides expected scenario for a tribal song. Usually in such films the tribal characters have their own language, difficult to understand and pronounce. Such films are pure entertainment, no message, a wholesome package for relaxation and usually good music. This particular song is an enjoyable, cute song, appearing perhaps at climax. A few captives are seen in the song.The princess signals the prince, about some specific time may be for his easy escape. Enjoy it.

3. Bogi Bogi Bogi – Hum Log (1951) Shamshad Begum & G M Durrani / Roshan – Vishwamitra Uddhav
An unexpected, light hearted club song by Roshan, who was otherwise considered as a serious composer. Cuckoo was a famous dancer at the time, and many films had a dance number by her. The song appears as a mix of Rock N Roll with Rap. Shamshad sings a few lines at a very fast pace and Durrani in a Rap fashion. In all an enjoyable song. Durrani himself makes a very short appearance (The man with dark glasses and pipe). He has acted in a few films, ‘Kaise Kahoon’ is another one, that I know about.

4. Lara Lappa Lai Rakhada – Ek Thi Ladki (1949) G M Durrani, Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar & Chorus / Vinod – Aziz Kashmiri
I think this song should have topped the list. Many of you might think so as well. This song was hugely popular and one of the early hits by Lata Mangeshkar. The song helped her reach every corner of India and gain recognition in masses as well.
The song represents a never ending light hearted rattle between genders. Both the teams claiming their superiority over the other team. It’s a great fun! (please see the comments by Dustedoff and Arunkumar Deshmukh)

5. Teriya Teriya – Chalis Baba Ek Chor (1954) Lata Mangeshkar & Chorus / S D Burman – P L Santoshi
S D Burman didn’t compose many songs in this genre. I couldn’t confirm the male singer in the song. This song has a flavour of ‘Koli Geet’, which are the songs sung by the fishermen in Maharashtra. Koli Geet has a typical rhythm and a classic style of dance with cute steps performed on the rhythm. Burman da was otherwise a serious kind of composer, and it’s a pleasure to have a song like this from his film.

6. Tiki Riki Tiki Riki Takori – Woh Kaun Thi (1964) Asha Bhosle & Rafi / Madan Mohan – Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
I think, this is the only song by MM that fits the bill. Again this is a neglected, forgotten song (again I think so!) from a suspense film. The song appears as a dance number in the opening minutes of the film. The hospital staff has arranged a get-together. Manoj Kumar (who’s a doctor) dances with his would be fiancé Helen. Parveen Choudhary (again a doctor) secretly loves him and envies Helen. She looks vampishly (oops! a new word invented) at the couple.

7. Chinchin Papul – Baghi Sipahi (1958) Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey & Chorus / Shankar Jaikishan – Hasrat Jaipuri
A dance number, most probably! The name tells this film could be a costume drama, again opportunity for such type of songs. King and his kingdom, his subordinates, his troops etc. A dance number is must, at his court. Or on the battle ground, the opponents lay a trap with a beautiful dancer and a song. It could be either. The latter is more likely.
This was an obscure film by SJ, starring Madhubala, Chandrashekhar, Om Prakash, Purnima.
Still some of the songs are good, in my opinion. S J have obviously contributed to a few more Anokhe bol songs. Most memorable ones are Us Paar Sajan (Chori Chori) & Ille Belle Aare (Kali Ghata).

8. Tiru Lilla Tiru Lilla – Daman (1951) Lata Mangeshkar / K Datta – Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
K Datta was a talented composer, but couldn’t create wonders after Noorjahan left India. The mukhda of the song is full of Anokhe bol, I wonder what would have been the situation in the song! It also has the Lata’s name in it.
“गाए लता गाए लता”
It’s a coincidence that she herself has sung it. It’s a rare song from a composer like K Datta.

9. Dhoom Dhadakka – Amber (1952) Shamshad Begum & Rafi / Ghulam Mohd.- Shakeel Badayuni
This is again a dance performance that talks about the characters from playing-cards. A bit lengthy song, but interesting to watch. Of course anokhe bol make their appearance in antara as well every now and then.

10. Aara Ra Rum – Footpath (1953) Asha Bhosle / Khayyam – Majrooh
A club song, a forgotten song from the movie. There is nothing more to talk about it. It’s there on the list, as it fits in perfectly. Of course, Asha Bhosle’s performance is fantastic as usual.

Would you like to add a song?

Disclaimer – Mehfil Mein Meri, claims no credit for any image, screenshots or songs posted on this site. Images on this blog are posted to make the text interesting. The images and screenshots are the copyright of their original owners. The song links are shared from YouTube, only for the listening convenience of music lovers. The copyright of these songs rests with the respective owners, producers and music companies.