In the golden era of 1950s and 60s of the Hindi film songs, Lata Mangeshkar had sung quite a large number of songs composed by almost all the renowned music directors ( of course with the exception of O P Nayyar) of that time. Many of her songs of that era are still popular. However, there were some songs she sang under the batons of C Ramchandra and Madan Mohan which were, in my view, a class by themselves. Unfortunately, some of these classy songs were from films which flopped miserably and soon they went into oblivion. With them songs from such films were almost ‘buried’ under the ‘debris’ of the new songs over a period of time like that of Harppan and Mohenjodaro civilisation.

Thanks to the internet, we are now able the ‘excavate’ some of these ‘heritage’ songs by way of video/audio clips. One such song which I came across during my search was “kaali kaali ratiyaan yaad sataaye” from the film GHUNGROO (1952). This is a ‘separation’ song written with some colloquial words by Rajinder Krishna which has been beautifully sung by Lata Mangeshkar on a soft music composition of C Ramchandra. One can notice that the usual C Ramchandra stamp of dholak beats is missing in the orchestration in keeping with the mood of the song.

Although I had heard this song sometime in early 70s during one of the sittings in my friend’s house who had a large collections of 78 RPM records of old songs, I had completely forgotten about this song thereafter. I had no idea about the name of the film either. A search on Indian Film Trade website revealed that this film was directed by Hiren Bose and the cast included Om Prakash, Sumitra Devi, Kuldip Kaur, K N Singh, Murad and Badri Prasad. It appears that Om Prakash and Sumitra Devi were lead actors. So I guess,this song may have been picturised on Sumitra Devi.

As happens with songs from such obscure films, only the audio clips are available. I have preferred an audio clip which retains the originality of the audio of 78 RPM record.

This is one of those Lata-C Ramchandra combination songs which, I am sure, is going to cast a magical spell on the listeners.

Song-Kaali kaali ratiyaan yaad sataaye (Ghunghroo)(1952) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Rajinder Krishan, MD-C Ramchandra

Lyrics

kaali kaali ratiyaan
kaali kaali ratiyaan
yaad sataaye
ae ae
yaad sataaye
kaali kaali ratiyaan
yaad sataaye
sudh bisaraayi meri
doon mein duhaayi teri
haaye morey baalamaa
kaali kaali ratiyaan
yaad sataaye

ratiyaan suhaani bhooley
batiyaan puraani bhooley
deke nishaani bhooley
preet kahaani bhooley
ratiyaan suhaani bhooley
batiyaan puraani bhooley
deke nishaani bhooley
preet kahaani bhooley
manwaa mein chain naahin
manwaa mein chain naahin
katati ye rain naahin
sudh bisaraai meri
doon mein duhaayi teri
haaye more baalmaa
kaali kaali ratiyaan
yaad sataaye

chup ke se chhod gaye
manwaa ko tod gaye
itnaa bataa do saiyaan
itnaa bataa do saiyaan
kaahe mukh mod gaye
ankhiyon se door piyaa
ankhiyon se door piyaa
huaa majboor jiyaa
sudh bisaraayi meri
doon main duhaai teri
haaye more baalmaa
kaali kaali ratiyaan
yaad sataayen
ae ae
yaad sataaye