Who composed "saari duniyaa ko piichhe" ?

The kind of musical talent that abounded in the early 1950s is something that is extremely difficult to fathonm for those absorbed in today's music. Its very probable that music chroniclers and historians will tend to just pick at the surface, the composers who managed to hit it big, ignoring the multitudes who remained unknown but occassionally, a magic melody plays and you are totally overwelhmed by the music. You rush to the Geet Kosh to find details on the music maker. You expect to see Anil Biswas or Naushad or C.Ramchandra or S.D.Burman, but no - it is Basant Prakash or maybe V.Balsara or perhaps Mohammed Shafi.

I had a similar experience when I was first totally mesmerized by "saarii duniyaa ko piichhe chhoaDakar" from "Naadaan". The film did not ring a bell and I referred to that Holy Book of film music history, the Geet Kosh. I discovered it to be a Madhubala-Dev Anand starrer released in 1951 and that the music director was Chic Choclate! However, the fact that C.Rachandra was mentioned as a "music arranger" raised a lot of questions about who the real melody maker was. It is a rumor that that C.Ramchandra composed under multiple names, one of which was Chic Chocolate, However, in an interview years later when questioned on this, C.Ramchandra dismissed this rumor saying that Chic Chocolate was one of his assistants who also indulged in musical composition independently. Perhaps it is the fact he was CR's assistant accounts for the fact that his music is so-CRish, both the tunes as well as the orchestration. This is particularly true in case of his Lata meldies like "saarii duniyaa ko piichhe chhoDar" and "aeasaa kyaa qasuur kiyaa" from "Naadaan", "chandaa ko sitaaraa mile", "ham naino.n me laaye hai.n pyaar" and "koii dard hamaaraa kyaa samajhe" from "Rangeelee". The online reference site earthmusic.net adds further confusion by listing "saarii duniyaa ko piicche chhoDakar" twice - one crediting Chic Chocolate as the MD and the other C.Ramchandra.

So the mystery is still unsolved as to who created one of the greatest chorus-backed melodies ever for Lata in "Naadaan" - was it the master himself or was it his assistant? There may be three who could tell us - two of them (the MDs) have passed on and the third, the Lady no longer has a very reliable memory, paricularly when t comes to a man called C.Ramchandra.

Listen to this great song