Mere to giridhar Gopal doosro na koye
Posted by: Atul on: February 26, 2020
- In: Bhajan | Guest posts | Hindi Songs in Non-Hindi Films | Krishn Bhajan | Lord Krishna related songs | Meera Bhajan | Post by Sadanand Kamath | Shreya Ghoshal Solo Songs | Shreya Ghoshal Songs | Song from regional movies | Songs of 2010s (2011 to 2020) | Songs of 2015 | Yearwise breakup of songs
- 3 Comments
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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Hindi Songs from Bangla Films : 19
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‘Jogajog’ (Relationship, 2015) was a Bangla film which was based on a novel of the same name written by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and published in 1929. The film was directed by Shekhar Das. The main cast included Bhartya Basu, Suvalagna Mukherjee, Ananya Chatterjee, Arjun Chakraborty, Shaheb Chatterjee, Locket Chatterjee etc. By the way, Bhartya Basu, the lead actor in the film was the MLA and the Minister of Tourism of the Government of West Bengal when the film’s shooting started. It was a debut film for the lead actress, Suvalogna Mukherjee.
Unfortunately, the film is not available on video sharing platforms. So, I had to depend upon the English edition of Tagore’s novel which is available online as well as review of the film on the Times of India. Having gone through both the sources, I get an impression that the film’s director, Shekhar Das has, by and large, adhered to the story of the novel including the names of the characters. The novel itself is a commentary on the declining influence of aristocracy of landlords in Bengal Presidency from early 20th Century and the emergence of neo-rich business class and their clash of culture and values. It is a feminist novel but at the end, it is the defeat for the female protagonist in the novel.
The gist of the story of the film is as under:
The story revolves around the hostility of two families – the Chatterjees and the Ghoshals. The Chatterjees are landlords whose fortunes have declined while that of Ghoshals have improved considerably thanks to their flourishing business. Bipradas Chatterjee (Arjun Chakraborty), current head of Chatterjee family is indebted to Madhusudan Ghoshal (Bratya Basu), the middle-aged head of Ghoshal family. To resolve the debt issue, Madhusudhan offers Bipradas to marry his younger sister, Kumudini (Suvalogna Mukherjee), a strong-willed, religious minded and cultured girl. She agrees to get married to Madhusudan who is twice her age to save her elder brother from the clutches of indebtedness to Ghoshals.
From the day Kumudini comes to Madhusudhan’s house after her marriage, she is assigned a subsidiary status in an already dysfunctional Ghoshal family in which there is a hen-pecked younger brother, a sister-in-law, Shyamasundari (Ananya Chatterjee) who has become widow at a young age. Kumuduni carries out her work in the household which is expected of a married woman. As she has been brought up in a cultured family where women have been treated equal with their men folks, Kumudini finds Ghoshal house exactly opposite of her cultural upbringing. Here she is treated as a sub-servient to Madhusudan as well as an object of his sexual desires. His vulgar display of wealth and the rustic way of conversations with her puts her off to such an extent that she develops aversion towards her husband. Added to her woos is Madhusudan’s illicit relationship with his sister-in-law, Shyamasundari. With these background , she takes recourse to spirituality. She identifies herself with Meerabai and find solace in singing Meera bhajans.
Over a period of time, Kumudini is subjected to emotional trauma and the marital rape. Not able to cope up with her emotional trauma any more, Kumudini comes back to her elder brother’s house. He gives her assurance that she is not a burden on him. On the contrary, it is her right to be in his house. However, when Kumudini’s pregnancy is revealed, her elder brother does not agree with Kumudini to get her liberation from the marriage as she is carrying Madhusudhan’s child. He justifies his stand by saying that it is not right to deprive the child from the father’s home. Kumudini is sent back to the Ghoshal household.
In a way, it is a defeatist end in the novel to Kumudini. Probably, Tagore went with the stark reality of that time. Since director, Shekhar Das had made this film in the 21st century, the film’s end comes with some minor changes so as not to make the film with a defeatist end for Kumudini. I have seen the end part of a pirated version of the film on a video sharing platform in which Madhusudhan visits Chatterjee’s house and meets Kumudini privately. He tenders his apology to Kumudini for his wrongdoings and request her to come back home.
‘Jogajog’ (2015) has two Meera bhajans of which I am presenting one of the most popular and famous bhajans ‘mere to Giridhar Gopal doosro na koi’. The bhajan is rendered by Shreya Ghosal whom I consider as ‘Lata Mangeshkar of 21st century insofar as per playback singing is concerned. I have watched her growing from the winner of ZEE TV’s ‘sa re ga ma’(children) programme sometime in the 90s and her first playback singing for Hindi film ‘Devdas’ (2002) and thereafter. I still remember the confidence and the pose with which she rendered a song in front of stalwarts like Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Girija Devi, Anil Biswas etc on the dais and many more stalwarts in the audience.
The song is picturised on Suvalogna Mukherjee and Bratya Basu is an impatient listener. The bhajan is set to music by Pandit Debojyoti Bose who is a Sarod player and a disciple of Sarod Maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. He is more into concerts than the music director.
I checked and found out that this Meera bhajan has been a part of more than a dozen Hindi films from 1932 onward. The singers varied from Zubieda, Sitara Kanpuri, M S Subbulaxmi, Mangeshkar sisters (Lata, Asha, Usha) to Vaani Jayraman. This is not an exhaustive list. There may be more singers in non-film segment.
I find Shreya’s Ghoshal’s version of this popular Meera bhajan equally pleasing to listen.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Mere to Giridhar Gopal doosro na koye (Jogajog)(Bangla)(2015) Singer-Shreya Ghoshal, Lyrics-Meera Bai, MD-Pandit Debojyoti Bose
Lyrics
mere to Giridhar Gopal doosro na koi
mere to Giridhar Gopal doosro na koi
jaake sir mor mukut mero pati soi
mere to Giridhar Gopal
taat maat bharta bandhu apna nahi koi
chhaadi do kul ki kaani
chhaadi do kul ki kaani kaa kariye koi
mere to Giridhar Gopal
aayi main bhakti ka jo jagat dekhat mohi
daasi Meera Giridhar prabhu
daa..aasi Meera Giridhar prabhu taaro ab mohi
mere to Giridhar Gopal doosro na koi
mere to Giridhar Gopal doosro na koi
jaake sir mor mukut mero pati soi
mere to Giridhar Gopal
3 Responses to "Mere to giridhar Gopal doosro na koye"
March 1, 2020 at 2:57 pm
Sadanand Ji,
Thanks for introducing Shreya Ghishal version of this Meera Bhajan.
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February 27, 2020 at 8:40 pm
Dear Sadanand ji,
An excellent write-up on an extremely challenging Subject. There are plenty more Bangla Films with Hindi Songs, although not many Hindi Films with Bangla Songs (Anubhav ’71 comes readily to mind). This is one of the more compelling novels of Kabiguru and most such stories have been made into Films long back. It is surprising that no one made this story into a Film all these years. It would have been an ideal subject for Ray.
Perhaps the defeat of the protagonist, as you have pointed out, could be the chief reason.
Will have to wait to see the Movie on YouTube or on TV.
Thank you once again, Sadanand ji.
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
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February 28, 2020 at 9:13 am
Partha Chanda ji,
Thanks for your appreciation of the write-up.
Yes, I am also not able to remember Bangla songs in Hindi films except the one which I came to know about it recently while writng an article on ‘Anokha Milan’ (1972). The film is probably dubbed HIndi version of Bangla film ‘Paari’ (1966) or both versions may have been made simultaneosly. In Bangla version, there was a song ‘tora sundor saami paabi’ in Bangla which was retained as a Bangla song in the Hindi version of the film, It is based on a Bangla pre-marriage folk song.
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