Do Bhai

Do Bhai (Urdu: دو بھائی‎;Hindi: दो भाई; English: The Two Brothers) is a 1947 Indian Bollywood film directed by Munshi Dil. Its starred Ulhas, Kamini Kaushal, Noor Jehan, Dipak Mukherjee, Ramayan Tiwari, Rajan Haksar and Paro in lead roles. It was the second highest grossing Indian film of 1947.

The features the song, "Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya" and "Yaad Karoge", sung by Geeta Dutt, with music composed by Sachin Dev Burman, and lyrics by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan.

Geeta Dutt (nee Roy), born in 1930, had no formal training in music. Music director Hanuman Prasad heard her voice and made her sing two lines in a chorus in his film Bhakt Prahlad (1946). Considering a film took one to one and a half years those days, young Geeta would have been about 15 years old when she sang two lines in the Chorus.

S.D. Burman heard those two lines, and though her voice was part of that chorus, he realized her potential. He went to her place in Dadar to persuade her father to let her sing in his forthcoming film Do Bhai (1947). The film was being produced by Filmistan, the biggest production house those days. Geeta would have been all of 16 then.

Burman-da decided to make her sing most of his songs. Naturally, the producers objected to a young and untrained girl singing most of the songs in their film. But Burman Dada would not listen. Finally, a compromise was arrived at. Dada put his reputation at stake by declaring that he would record one song with Geeta, after listening to which the producers may arrive at their decision. Dada was so confident of his ability to make her sing. The first song to be recorded by Geeta was ‘Humein chod piya kis des gaye’. Everyone liked it and Dada was allowed a free hand to decide. Do Bhai had nine songs, out of which Dada made Geeta sing six songs. Geeta sang her life’s first super-hit song ‘Mera sunder sapna beet gaya’ under SD Burman. Viewers used to see the film again, and again, for its music. The film became super-hit, and completed silver jubilee.

It was also first film for lyricist Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. Both Geeta Dutt and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan got name and fame after the film. Geeta became number one singer till Lata took over in 1949. Even then she held her own in the 1950s.