Taras taras gaye nain
Posted by: Atul on: January 28, 2020
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Blog Day : |
4211 | Post No. : | 14410 | Movie Count : |
4246 |
Hindi Songs in Bangla Films: 15
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Recently, while browsing through the internet, I came across an old article, Gems that never got their due, published in the ‘Times of India’. The article lists 8 critically acclaimed Bangla films which have been forgotten mainly due to their commercial failures. Of the 8 such films, one film to which I got interested because of its unusual title was ‘Antariksha’ (1957) directed by Rajen Tarafdar. Luckily, the film was available for viewing on a video sharing platform with English sub-titles. Probably, after restoration, this film may have been shown in one or more of some international film festivals.
My awareness about the Bangla film personalities have been limited to those who had also been associated with Hindi films. Ranjen Tarafdar, the director of ‘Antariksha’ (1957) was a new name for me. A statement by the writer of the article referred to above that “Rajen Tarafdar was of the same school of thought as Satyajit Ray. He was a painter himself and would sketch each shot division before starting to shoot. ….” prompted me to know more about him. This took me to another article, Tale of a forgotten director which appeared in ‘The Statesman’ on the occasion of his birth centenary in July 2017.
Like Satyajit Ray, Rajan Tarafdar (07/06/1917 – 23/11/1987) got associated with the Bangla films with the background of working in an advertising company in Calcutta (Kolkata). A graduate from Government College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata, Tarafdar joined an advertising company as a Graphic designer where he worked up to 1958. His debut film which he directed apart from writing dialogues and screen play was ‘Antariksha’ (1957). It is said that his style of working and uncompromising nature did not suit the Bangla film producers. Hence, during his 3 decades of association with Bangla films, he directed only 7 Bangla films – 6 between 1957-75 and the last one in 1987. He also acted in 4 films of which 2 were Hindi films – ‘Arohan’ (1983) by Shyam Benegal and ‘Khandhar’ (1984) by Mrinal Sen.
‘Ganga’ (1960) was Rajen Tarafdar’s second Bangla film which won a Certificate of Merit in National Film Awards, 1960. ‘Palanka’ (1975), his 6th film won the Best Feature Film in Bengali at National Film Awards, 1975. The reason as to why Rajen Tarafdar has been forgotten is that most of his films were not available for viewing. It is mainly during the last couple of years, his films were restored and now available for viewing on the video sharing platforms.
As mentioned earlier, ‘Antariksha’ (Space, 1957) was Rajen Tarafdar’s debut film which he made mostly with new actors except some character actors. The star cast included Chhabi Biswas, Kajal Gupta, Prabir Kumar, Dinen Gupta, Premangshu Bose, Padma Devi, Kalipada Chakraborty, Kamala Adhikari, Sandhya Roy etc.
The film’s story is weaved around Raja Babu (Chhabi Biswas), a landlord in a rural Bengal who is stubborn, dictatorial and egoist as expected in a feudal system that was prevalent in those days. As against this, one of his employees, Jayanta is honest and a sincere worker who has been brought up by the landlord as his own son. Hence, he has the liberty to discuss with the landlord without any hesitation. For instance, he suggests to landlord to give donation to a rural school. But the landlord disagrees. Jayanta tells him that as a landlord, he has also a duty to safeguard the interest of his subjects.
Jayanta likes Bani (Kajal Gupta), the daughter of a priest of a local temple and has the intention to marry her. He conveys his wish to the priest who agrees after some hesitation. The landlord after his wife convinces him, agrees to the proposal. The landlord takes care of all the marriage expenses. He even arranges for a courtesan to sing for his guests during the marriage functions.
However, soon after the marriage, a mystery breaks out when an unknown person visits his house and tells him that he is Gagan Ganguly, the husband of Bani. He also says that as a proof, he is in possession of a letter which mentions that Bani was married to him when she was 7 years of age. The fact is that Bani was indeed married to one Gagan Ganguly in her childhood. But he went missing immediately after the marriage with the dowry amount and jewelries. Since he was never found, he was presumed dead. Now the unknown person impersonating as Gagan Ganguly wants to blackmail Jayanta by making the letter public if he does not pay him Rs.25000/-. He had gotten hold of the crucial letter written by the Priest while pick-pocketing Jayanta’s his purse. The letter was to be handed over to Priest’s spiritual guru while on his visit to Varanasi for purchase of saris for the wedding.
Jayanta loves his wife who is pregnant. She is not aware of the mental agony Jayanta is going through. He cannot afford to pay Rs.25000/- to the blackmailer nor he can let the matter becomes public that he has married a girl who was already married in her childhood. Because of the agony, he starts reaching home very late. Bani starts questioning him as to why he so much immersed in thoughts. But he evades answer.
To come out of the blackmailer’s clutches, Jayanta decides to run away from the village in a bullock cart with his pregnant wife with cash taken from his landlord’s treasury without his knowledge. The blackmailer comes to know when he visits Jayanta’s house to collect the money. He chases and confronts Jayanta on the way to handover the money. In the shuffle, the blackmailer gets killed. Jayanta is arrested and is put behind bar for fraud and murder.
While all of the landlord’s staff and family members think that Jayanta is innocent, the landlord is not convinced. Jayanta’s well-wisher tried to get him bail so that he can look after his pregnant wife whose health has deteriorated. The only person who can arrange bail for Jayanta is the landlord who is not willing to pursue his bail application. It is now the Priest who tell the landlord true facts from the letter written by Bani’s grand mother requesting him to adopt Bani as his own daughter when Gagan Ganguly, Bani’s husband had deserted her. Though, this leads to soften his stand against Jayanta, still he is not convinced as to why Jayanta had fraudulently taken money from his treasury to run away from the village. Since all his family members including his wife, real son and daughter-in-law, all his staff has gone to be with Jayanta’s wife who is seriously ill, he feels isolated and has a change of heart. The film ends with landlord visiting Jayanta’s house to enquire about Bani’s health and then proceeding to the police station on his horse carriage to wriggle Jayanta out of the piquant situation.
The director has presented this film in a very realistic way. Even though at some points, the story moves slowly, the film was not boring. Much of the story has been told by way of expressions and gestures of the artists supplemented by an excellent background music by Sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. He has prominently made use of the combination of Sarod, Sitar and Flute for the background music. Dialogues are minimal and that too mostly short – one or two sentences. The romantic scenes are shown in a subtle manner in keeping with the rural setting. There are some poignant scenes in the latter part of the film without much melodrama.
The film has only one song, that too a mujra song in Hindi which a courtesan sings on the occasion of the marriage of Jayanta with Bani. The song is ‘taras taras gaye nain bichaare’ sung by Pratima Banerjee and Swarooplata. The song is written by Pandit Bhushan which is set to music by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
Audio Clip:
Song-Taras taras gaye nain (Antariksha)(Bangla)(1957) Singers-Pratima Banerjee, Pratima Banerjee+ Swarooplata, Lyrics-Pt Bhushan, MD-Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
Lyrics (Based on video clip)
taras taras gaye…ae nain
o o o o o o
o o o o o nain
haay
taras taras gaye nain bichaare
taras taras gaye nain bichaare
taras taras gaye nain bichaare
piya ke daras ko ye matwaare
piya ke daras ko ye matwaare
taras taras gaye nain
kabhoon tu aahiyen mukh dikhalainhen
kabhoon tu aahiyen mukh dikhalainhen
haan mukh dikhalainhen
dukh se kati hain din rain
haan more raam
dukh se kati hain din rain
o more raama
taras taras gaye nain bichaare
taras taras gaye nain
more piya jab angna milaihain
more piya jab angna milaihain
phulwa ki aankhen chhil chhil jaihain
haan chhil chhil jaihain
ho chhil chhil jaihain
mann mein basi hain sukh chain
haan more raam
mann mein basi hain sukh chain
o more raama
taras taras gaye nain bichaare
taras taras gaye nain
more piya aa aa aaa aa aa jab
more piya…..aaaa aa jab
gharwa mein..aen hain
more piya jab gharwa mein aaihain
more piya jab gharwa mein aaihain
roothhi hoon main piya moko manaihen
moko manaihen
haan moko manaihen
bole hain meethhe meethhe bain
o more ram
bole hain meethhe meethhe bain
o more rama
taras taras o o
piya ke daras ko
taras taras gaye nain bichaare
taras taras gaye nain
1 Response to "Taras taras gaye nain"
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 13, 2020 at 11:13 am
Kamath Saheb,
Many thanks for this post and detailed information about Rajen Tarafdar (we have to correct the typos in his name at two places in above write up).
Listened and enjoyed the song too.
Thanks again,
Since only one song in this movie ‘Antariksha-1957’ congratulations to Atul ji and Kamath Saheb on the movie ‘Antariksha-1957’ joining to the ‘List of Movies- All Songs covered’. 🙂
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