Chin-Chin Chu

Actress Helen in 2015.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement.

An Urdu poet and a well-known lyricist of Hindi film songs, Qamar Jalalabadi (1917-2003), wrote lyrics for nearly 700 songs for over 150 Bollywood films. He was born in Jalalabad village of Amritsar district of Punjab as Om Prakash Bhandari. Among several hit songs written by him are Aaiye meherbaan by Asha, set to music by O.P. Nayyar from the film Howrah Bridge (1964); Piya, piya na laage mora jiya by Asha; and the Asha-Rafi duet Ik pardesi mera dil le gaya, both from the film Phagun (1958), which had music by O.P. Nayyar; Wo paas rahen ya door rahein by Suraiya from the film Badi Behen (1949), which had music by Husnlal Bhagatram; the Mukesh song Main to ik khwab hoon from Himalaya ki god mein (1965), with music by Kalyanji Anandji, who had also set the tunes for three super-hit songs written by Qamar Jalalabadi for film Chhaliya (1960): Mere toote hue dil se by Mukesh, Teri rahon mein khade hain dil thaam ke by Lata, and Baje payal chham chham hoke bekaraar also by Lata.

But perhaps the very unique lyrics written by Qamar Jalalabadi were for the song Mera Naam Chin-Chin Chu sung by Geeta Dutt for Howrah Bridge. It was picturised on Helen, who plays a flirtatious Chinese dancer from Shanghai in this film. The initial catchy part of this racy tune had Hawaiian guitar played by S. Hazara Singh to create “swing” music. The song was a super-hit for Geeta Dutt, O.P. Nayyar and Qamar Jalalabadi himself. In fact, for Helen, it was her first major hit.

Looking back, Qamar Jalalabadi must have spent quite an effort to write simple lyrics for this song in order to appeal to the audiences of those times. Very adeptly woven into the lyrics were words such as Singapore, Shanghai, Alladin, Sindbad the Sailor, and even a sentence in English “Hello mister, how do you do”, keeping the choice of the Chinese name Chin-Chin Chu for the dancer, to rhyme with Hindi lyrics. It continues to be a popular song played by orchestras on stage, and when people hear Mera naam chin-chin chu, chin-chin chu baba chin-chin chu, raat chandani main aur tu, hello mister how do you do, there is no mistaking the Helen-Geeta Dutt-O.P. Nayyar magic. But the listeners often check who wrote the lyrics, and are impressed that Qamar Jalalabadi accomplished this feat.

Once, a young poet sent the draft of his first poetry book to Qamar Jalalabadi for expert comments. After about a month or so, he was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply that Qamar Jalalabadi had indeed read them all and had, in fact, an advice to offer: “You need a bit of Islaah!,” by which he meant that the young poet, being a novice, needed professional guidance.

Urdu poetry for Qamar Jalalabadi was a serious business, after all.

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