Many years ago, I had done a post of credits songs: songs that appear at the beginning of a film, playing as the credits roll. Not just music, not just a verse or two, but a full-fledged song, often (as in the case of Garjat barsat saawan aayo re or Rangeen bahaaron se hai gulzaar Chinatown, to give just two examples) songs that were there only through the credits; they didn’t appear otherwise in the film.

Some readers suggested it might be interesting to find songs that did the opposite. Songs that ended a film, but were complete in themselves. Not (as is common in a lot of films) a verse or a refrain from an-already-heard song that is reprised at the end. Not like the hit love song of which the refrain is played again while the happy couple, now married, go off into the sunset.

No. These are songs which appear only at the end of the film. Not necessarily at the climax: Yeh mahalon yeh takhton yeh taajon ki duniya comes near the end, but there are several scenes beyond that. But songs which actually end the film.

Because such songs seem to be actually few and far between, I have given myself some leeway: these are songs which end the film, or have no more than two minutes of the film remaining after the song ends.

As always, these are all from pre-1970s Hindi films that I’ve seen, and are in no particular order.

1. Kar chale hum fida jaan-o-tan saathiyon (Haqeeqat, 1964): This was the song that first came to my mind when I began compiling this post. At the end of the most hard-hitting, grittily real Hindi war film comes this patriotic song that is both a tribute to the nation as well as to the immortal soldiers who lay down their lives for it. Interspersed with the scenes of the dead across the battlefield are the scenes of those they leave behind: the mourning family and friends and sweethearts, the colleagues who have somehow survived, even the Republic Day parade that celebrates the armed forces.
An iconic song.

2. Meri aawaaz suno pyaar ka raaz suno (Naunihaal, 1967): Another song following a death, and also, in its way, a song celebrating a life lived for the country: Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, to meet whom this film’s young protagonist has journeyed all this way, has passed away. Real-life footage of the cavalcade leading through teeming thousands across Delhi’s streets form most of this song, with only a few shots here and there of the film’s characters. A beautiful paean to the stature of Chacha Nehru, the affection with which countless Indians regarded him.

3. Ae maalik tere bande hum (Do Aankhen Baarah Haath, 1957): One more song for the dead and the dying, and then we’ll move on to happier (or at least different) themes. This is one of two songs in this list which is a version of a song that appears earlier in the film: V Shantaram’s character sings Ae maalik tere bande hum in his attempt to reform the criminals he’s taken charge of. At the end of the film, the woman who’s fallen in love with him offers comfort (and homage) to him by sitting by his deathbed and singing the same song back to him. Not just a single verse, not just a few bars, but the entire song.

This, also, is a song followed by a bit of dialogue (no more than two minutes) before The End comes on. Here, a senior police officer arrives to announce that the prison sentences of the convicts have been cut short: and the now ex-convicts, though they have the option to now go their way, decide unanimously that they must honour the man who turned their lives around.

4. Chal ri sajni ab kya soche (Bambai ka Babu, 1960): There is something very dramatic about a song ending a film, which is why most of the songs in this list focus on films that end with a death. Here is another dramatic, sad (from one point of view) end to a film: a parting of ways for two people who are deeply in love but can never be together. Dev Anand’s character, a fugitive who’s reformed thanks to the love and affection he’s received in a faraway village, has ended up falling in love with the sister of the man he’s impersonating. Even though she eventually discovers his real identity and reciprocates, to the rest of the family, he will remain the long-lost son, the man they don’t know killed their real son.

A poignant song, and one of my favourite Mukesh songs. This one does have some dialogue near the end, but the music and humming recommences right after that.

5. Mere saajan hain us paar (Bandini, 1963): One of the most haunting songs in SD Burman’s unmistakable voice, Mere saajan hain us paar is—like Chal ri sajni ab kya soche—a woman’s thoughts expressed in a song sung by a male. Nutan’s character, off to marry the kindly doctor (Dharmendra) to whom she is affianced, waits for the steamer on which she is to travel. A man at a nearby teashop starts singing, and even as the woman moves about, restlessly, she spots the man she once loved. Still loves. Broken, frail, needing help even to walk—but the sight of him, combined with the despairing words of the song—gives her the impetus she needs to decide what she must do.

What a beautiful song this is.

6. Jaago Mohan pyaare (Jaagte Raho, 1956): Through the space of one long, harrowing, extremely eventful night, a thirsty villager (Raj Kapoor) in the big, bad city of Calcutta has chased a sip of water. He has encountered hypocrisy, corruption, evil on different levels. Finally (and symbolically) when the dawn comes, he washes up at a temple, where a jogan (Nargis) gives him water to drink. The entire sequence plays out as a background song, while Nargis goes about her morning work and worship, as the city comes awake, as a literal—and metaphorical—dawn arrives.

7. Hum laaye hain toofan se kishti nikaalke (Jagriti, 1954): If Do Aankhen Baarah Haath was a story of an idealistic jailor trying to reform a bunch of hardened criminals, Jagriti told the tale of a teacher who takes it upon himself to show the way to a group of jaded schoolboys, long neglected and subjected to teachers who are lackadaisical at best, tyrannical at worst. One of the plus points of Jagriti (and it had several, including a stellar performance by Abhi Bhattacharya) was its music, composed by Hemant Kumar. The film ended with this song, when the teacher is finally bidding farewell to the boys he’s nurtured all these months.

8. O door ke musaafir (Udan Khatola, 1955): Another song that ends a film, and also heralds the end of a life. Unlike Meri aawaaz suno, O door ke musaafir does not sing of a gentle going into the night, a long life well-lived: this is a dramatic death, a death that is imminent and therefore perhaps the more painful for the one who is left behind. Nimmi’s character, a tribal princess, must save her tribe from the wrath of their deity—by sacrificing herself. All her tribe gathers around to witness her death, but at the forefront is the outsider, the foreigner who has fallen in love with her (Dilip Kumar), and it is he who sings this song of desperation, begging the doomed ‘traveller’ to take him along as well.

9. Yeh zindagi usi ki hai (Anarkali, 1953): Even as she is bricked up for daring to fall in love with the Crown Prince Salim, Anarkali sings a song of farewell, very much akin to O door ke musaafir, although this song is from the opposite point of view: this is the song of the one who is dying, leaving behind the one they love. Yeh zindagi usi ki hai has two versions, a happy one (when Anarkali and Salim are vowing eternal love, joyous in their relationship) and this one, when she sees the end of all her hopes and dreams, and can only think of still vowing her devotion to the man she loves.

10. Dil par yeh kaisa tune khanjar maara re (Police, 1958): And, to end the list, a very unusual song. Pretty much all the songs in this list have a dramatic, often sad, context. A death; a separation; the light at the end of the tunnel: all classically impactful ways of ending a story. But Police, a fairly amusing, entertaining thriller, had a surprising end to it. Just when all ends have been neatly tied, the criminal has received his due punishment and justice has been served, the two lovers have been united—he decides to sing a song to his lady love. Not even just a verse or so from a previously-sung song (as in Sagaai or umpteen other films) but a full-fledged, new song. Composed by Hemant and sung by him, I love this one: so peppy and infectious.

Do you have any other songs to add to this list? Please share!