Chamke Poonam Ke Poonam Ko Chaand
Posted on: July 21, 2017
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
‘Ladies Only’ (1939) was produced under the banner of Sagar Movietone and it was directed by Sarvottam Badami. The star cast included Surendra, Bibbo, Sabita Devi, Prabha, Harish, Budho Advani, Sunalini Devi, Kaushalya etc. The film was released on 16th February 1939 and Moraraji Desai, the Revenue Minister of the then Bombay State was the chief guest.
The film was a satirical comedy with an unusual end. In this film, Surendra was not a conventional hero in the sense that he did not get any of three main actresses at the end. I have made a synopsis of the story of the film based on the review published in April 1939 issue of ‘Filmindia’ which is given below:
Three girls from three different states, Bengal, Gujarat and Punjab viz Chhaaya (Prabha, Bengali), Sarojini (Sabita Devi, Gujarati) and Asha (Bibbo, Punjabi), meet at a railway station in Bombay (Mumbai). They decide to stay together for their boarding and lodging for which they rent a flat. Satish (Surendra) also meets these girls who come to know that he is passionate about music and stays opposite their rented flat.
The girls staying together for sometime now know each other’s nature. Asha, the Punjabi girl is crude, greedy, music lover, lazy, comfort seeker etc. Chhaaya, the Bengali girl is miser, coy, primitive, and childish. Sarojini, the Gujarati girl, is educated, resourceful and has a great organisational capacity but these are all at the expenses of other two girls. They also display one-upmanship about their respective states.
All the three girls not only live together, they also aim at the same man, Satish who spend much of his time with these girls either on outings or in their rented flat. One day, girls decide to visit his house across the street without notice and find a stout woman welcoming the girls. The stout woman turns out to be Satish’s wife. It is shocking for the girls. The girls walk out of the house muttering something derogatory about the men folk in general.
For Sagar Movietone, ‘Ladies Only’ (1939) gave them a good start for the year 1939 with a box office hit. This was followed by another box office success viz ‘Ek Hi Raasta’ (1939). The banner had also planned for their ambitious films like ‘Alibaba’ (1940) in Hindi and Punjabi and ‘Kumkum the Dancer’ (1940) in Hindi and Bengali. But before these films could be released, Sagar Movietone found themselves in a dire financial crunch. By the end of 1939, the banner was amalgamated with General Films to form National Studios.
‘Ladies Only’ (1939) had 11 songs written by Pandit Indra and Zia Sarhadi but the name of the specific lyricist for each song is not available. All the songs were set to music by Anupam Ghatak.
Here is the first song ‘chamke poonam ko poonam ko chaand’ from the film to appear in the Blog. The song is sung by Surendra and Bibbo. It can be observed that the structure of lyrics are not in usual form and the song is composed for Surendra and Bibbo on different notes and tempos. The song is probably picturised on them separately.
With this song, ‘Ladies Only’ (1939) makes its debut in the Blog.
Song-Chamke poonam ke poonam ko chaand (Ladies Only)(1939) Surendra, Bibbo, MD-Anupam Ghatak
Lyrics
chamke poonam ke
poonam ko chaand
chundariya mein
chundariya mein
haan
chamke poonam ke
poonam ko chaand
chundariya mein
chundariya mein
aadhi raat ko paayal baaje
aadhi raat ko paayal baaje
aadhi raat ko paayal baaje
aadhi raat ko paayal baaje
aadhi raat ko paayal baaje
oonchi atariya mein
oonchi atariya mein
chamke poonam ke
poonam ko chaand
chundariya mein
chundariya mein
haan
chamke poonam ke
poonam ko chaand
chundariya mein
chundariya mein
tan man kaa itihaas chhipa hai
tirchi najariya mein
tan man kaa itihaas chhipa hai
tirchi najariya mein
chamke poonam ke
poonam ko chaand
chundariya mein
chundariya mein
badi bedhab nainon ki maar
badi bedhab nainon ki maar
shikaari
khud ho gaya shikaar
shikaari
khud ho gaya shikaar
badi bedhab nainon ki maar
shikaari khud ho gaya shikaar
bik gayi main be-mol tol
is prem nagariya mein
bik gayi main be-mol tol
is prem nagariya mein
chamke poonam ke
poonam ko chaand
chundariya mein
chundariya mein
haan
chamke poonam ke
poonam ko chaand
3 Responses to "Chamke Poonam Ke Poonam Ko Chaand"
July 23, 2017 at 6:59 am
Here is another song from the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlNUdtMxP0A
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
July 21, 2017 at 11:21 am
How come Surendra, Harish and Bhudo Advani were starred in the ‘Ladies only’ film?
Jokes-apart, a very good composition in Kaherwa-Dadra duet. Doctor, can you research and find out if any MD has used such treat earlier than 1939?
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July 21, 2017 at 11:54 am
Bharatbhai,
In fact, I had written in my article more or less the same query whether this was the first song of this type in Hindi films. In the final draft, however, I deleted that portion as I though it was too technical.
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