Is nadi ko mera aainaa maan lo
Posted on: June 4, 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.
| Blog Day: | 4339 | Post No.: | 15638 |
She was born in Mumbai, raised in Lucknow and Canberra (Australia), grew up in Pune, did some theatre course in Paris, spent a considerable time in Delhi and now she spends time commuting between Mumbai and her ancestral home in Pune. She has worked through almost all the segments of mulit-media – a radio announcer, television producer, documentary film maker, Hindi film writer-director, author and some more. She is not shy of mincing words about those personalities even of high statures who have one time or the other rubbed her in a wrong way. She is Sai Paranjpye (born on March 19, 1938). It is interesting to note the background of family as she seems to have inherited some genes from them.
1. Her maternal grandfather, Sir R P Paranjpye was an alumnus of University of Cambridge and a renowned Mathematician. He was the Chancellor of University of Bombay and the University of Lucknow. He was Indian High Commissioner in Australia during 1944-47. He had interest in literature.
2. Her mother, Shankuntala Paranjpye had been an alumini of University of Cambridge and worked in International Labour Organisation in Geneva for about 2 years in the 1930s. In the 1930s and 40s, she acted in Marathi and Hindi films. She also wrote novels and plays in Marathi and English. She did a pioneering work in propagating family planning as early as in 1938. She was a nominated Rajya Sabha member and was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1991.
3. Her father, Youra Sleptzoff was a Russian painter to whom her mother married in Geneva but divorced him after the birth of her daughter, Sai.
4. Her paternal Grandmother, Babushka was a theater personality. She had acted in some major plays.
With these backgrounds, Sai Paranjpye became proficient in Marathi, Hindi and English with some working knowledge of Sanskrit and French. She started her career as an Announcer and Compere of children’s programme in All India Radio, Pune. She also did some children’s plays in partnership with Arun Joglekar to whom she married. She joined Film Institute of India as Lecturer in which Jala Agha, Sadhu Mahadev and Rehana Sultana were her students.
In 1963, Sai Paranjpye joined the National School of Drama, Delhi and completed her graduation. She joined All India Radio, Delhi. During the 1970s, she worked with Doordarshan, Delhi as producer and director. During this period, she produced and directed many teleplays and documentaries. One of her documentary films was on Pankaj Mullick (1973) which was based on an extensive research and was made with some rare photographs as montage. Unfortunately, according to Sai Paranjpye, this documentary film is not traceable in Doordarshan’s archive. She had also directed children’s films, ‘Jaadu Ka Shankh’ (1974), ‘Sikander’ (1976) and ‘Bhaago Bhoot’ (2001). After coming into National Doordarshan channel in 1982, Sai Paranjpye made her debut TV serials ‘Ados Pados’ (1985) followed by ‘Chhote Bade’ (1985).
Sai Paranjpye produced/directed 8 Hindi feature films – ‘Sparsh’ (1980), ‘Chashm-e-Baddoor’ (1981), ‘Katha’ (1982), ‘Disha’ (1990), ‘Chooriyaan’ (1993), ‘Papeeha’ (1994) ‘Saaz’ (1997) and ‘Chakachak’ (2005). In all these films, she has taken up issues in each film like visual impairment, migrants, alcoholism, playback singing career, environment etc. In some of these films which are available for viewing, she does not preach nor creates melodramatic moods. These films are more like an eye opener to the audience.
In the decade of 2010-20, Sai Paranjpye has been mostly busy with writing her biography in Marathi which was published and got released in 2016. The title of her autobiography is interesting – ‘Sai – Maza Kalapravaas’ meaning ‘My Artistic Journey’. She has restricted the coverage in the biopgraphy to her artisitc jpourney only. She is now working on the English version of her autobiography. In 2006, Government of India awarded her with Padma Bhushan.
Coming to ‘Chashm-e-Baddoor’ (1981), Sai Paranjpye, in one of her interviews, revealed that at the screening of her first film ‘Sparsh’ (1980) at Tashkent Film Festival, she met Gul Anand, who liked the film. He said that he would like to make a film with her but it should be a comedy film. Fortunately, she had a teleplay ‘Dhuaan Dhuaan’ ready which she turned into a script for the film ‘Chashm-e-Baddoor’ (1981) produced by Gul Anand and directed by her. The star cast included, Farooq Shaikh, Dipti Naval, Rakesh Bedi, Ravi Baswani, Saeed Jafrey, Leela Mishra, Vinod Nagpal, Vinod Doshi etc with Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha making cameo appearances. The film was digitally restored in 2013. The film was shot in Delhi. Some people had told Sai Paranjpye that ‘Chashm-e-Baddoor’ (1981) is the publicity material for Delhi.
I had watched this film in a theatre when it was released in 1981. While I have a general idea about the plot, the scene which has still firmly stored in my mind is when Dipti Naval visits Farooq Shaikh’s room to market the ‘chamko’ brand of washing powder. And seeing her, Rakesh Bedi and Ravi Baswani run out of the room before she enters. Recently, I watched the digitally restored film to recapitulate the plot of the film which I have summarized below:
The film starts with Omi (Rakesh Bedi) smoking a cigarette and then passing it on to Jomo (Ravi Baswani) who smokes and passes it on to Sid (Farooq Shaikh). In the background, a gramophone record is symbolically playing Meer Taqi Meer’s ghazal ‘ye dhuaan kahaan se uttha hai’, rendered by Mehdi Hasan. It is clear from their dialogues that the trio are the University students who are sharing a rented room in Delhi. They are enjoying their summer vacation. While Sid is a serious type who keeps himself busy in reading books, the other two, Omi and Jomo are vagabonds who like to indulge in impressing girls and watching plays in the theatre.
Omi and Jomo have an arrangement with Lallan Miyaan (Saeed Jaffrey), the shopkeeper from whom they buy cigarettes on credit but they postpone clearing their debt with some pretext or the other. There are always some friendly banters between Lallan and the trios.
A girl, Neha (Dipti Naval) staying in a neighbouring house becomes the centre of attraction to Omi and Jomo who decide to individually visit her house to impress her. While their experiences of meeting in her house was not good, but for the sake of impressing one another, both Omi and Jomo pretend to each other and also to Sid that they had a gala day with Neha.
One day, Neha visits their room to market ‘Chamko’ washing powder. Seeing her through the peephole of the main door, both Omi and Jomo run away from the room lest their true experiences with her would be exposed. It is Sid, who opens the door and get to know the purpose of Neha’s visit. It is for the first time that Sid has experienced talking to a girl. Neha leaves the room after showing the demonstration of washing powder. Sid is now attracted to Neha. After their frequent meetings at a restaurant, both decides to formalize their relationship in to the marriage.
This sudden developments in the life of Sid is not digestible to his friends, Omi and Jomo. They try to discourage Sid by concocting stories about Neha to break their relationship. They succeed in their efforts. Sid is devasted so is Neha. Sid losses interest in office work and his studies for Ph.D. He even tenders his resignation to his boss in the office. Both Omi and Jomo are alarmed at Sid’s depressed mood especially when they find Tik-20 bottle in Sid’s drawer (which he had actually bought for eliminating bedbugs). They decide to reunite Sid and Neha. Both had heard a spate of kidnapping in Delhi. So, both Omi and Jomo hatch a plan under which they would kidnap Neha with Neha’s grandmother (Leela Mishra) being kept in the loop and Sid would turn a saviour of Neha.
But before their fake kidnapping plan is operationalized, Neha is actually kidnapped by a gang. It is Sid who with the help of Omi and Jomo captures the kidnappers. As a satire on mainstream Bollywood films, when everything is over, the police team comes to arrest the kidnappers. Sid and Neha are united.
On the basis of some of the films I have seen, Sai Paranjpye must be a keen observer wherever she goes. She must have observed the college students during her long stay in Delhi when she was associated with Delhi Doordarshan. She may have encountered or observed some timid stalkers like Omi and Jomo in the 1970s. The wits and humour in the film may not turn the audience laugh but certainly the smile will be written on their face. This is Sai Pranjpye brand of humour which I have also witnessed in ‘Katha’ (1982) and in TV Serial, ‘Ados Pados’ (1985).
With the advent of information technology, everything is changed now. Therefore, it is difficult to recreate the environment of Chashm-e-Baddoor of 1981 in the 21st century setting. The remake of the film, ‘Chashm-e-Baddoor’ (2013) did not create the same interest among the cinegoers as the cult status of ‘Chashm-e-Baddoor’ (1981) has created. I can watch this film any number of times.
‘Chashme-e-Baddoor’ (1981) had 7 songs of which 5 songs have been covered in the Blog. Here is the 6th song, ‘is nadi ko mera aaina maan lo’ sung by Shailendra Singh and Haimanti Sukla. The song is set to music by Raj Kamal. Indu Jain who wrote the lyrics was an author and a poetess who was known for writing poems on the contemporary issues. She also uses imageries which are evident in the lyrics of the song. Probably, she would have given a tough competition to Gulzar saab if she was actively involved in writing Hindi film songs in terms of the use of imageries.
Indu Jain was the Head of Hindi Department in Indraprastha College, Delhi when the film was being shot in Delhi. Duriing this period, she was scheduled to visit Japan as a visiting professor. While leaving India, she had taken the situation of the songs in the film in detail and dictated the lyrics to Sai Paranjpye over the phone. (Source: ‘Sai – Maza Kalapravaas’).
The background of the song is that Omi (Rakesh Bedi) visits Neha’s (Dipti Naval) house to impress her. But she thinks that he is the plumber who has come to repair her kitchen’s sink. She tells him to bring his tool box and get the work done fast. He goes out of the house never to return to her house but return to his own room. When his competitor Jomo asks him as to how the meeting went on with Neha, he narrates a false story upon which the screen shows the song under discussion.
Probably, this may be the first time when Rakesh Bedi has got chance to sing a song with the heroine of the film.
Audio Clip:
Video Clip:
Song-Is nadi ko mera aainaa maan lo (Chashme Baddoor)(1981) Singers-Shailendra Singh, Haimanti Shukla, Lyrics-Indu Jain, MD-Rajkamal
Both
Lyrics(Based in Audio Clip)
is nadi ko mera aaina maan lo
is nadi ko mera aaina maan lo
ki muhabbat ka bahta nasha jaan lo
is nadi ko mera aaina maan lo
tarangon mein dhadkan larajta jigar
raks karte kamal thharthharaata bhanwar
tarangon mein dhadkan larajta jigar
raks karte kamal thharthharaata bhanwar
ye chheenten kisi ki tamaanna na ho..o
ye chheenten kisi ki tamaanna na ho
kahin aapke haathon tanha na ho
is roopak ko mera aaina maan lo
unkahe raaz ki daastaan jaan lo
is nadi ko mera aaina maan lo
ude baadalon mein bala hasraten
parindon si chhoo aaye behad haden
ude baadalon mein bala hasraten
parindon si chhoo aaye behad hade
hawaaon ko itni izaazat na do
hawaaon ko itni izaazat na do
ki auron ka bhi sabr tauba karo
ye kinaara mera aaina maan lo
har lahar se meri aarzoo jaan lo
is nadi ko mera aaina maan lo
tani doriyon par saji zindagi
ishaaron pe chadhti utarti khushi
tani doriyon par saji zindagi
ishaaron pe chadhti utarti khushi
dupatte se tinke jhatakti raho..o
dupatte se tinke jhatakti raho
gul o naaz se mera daaman bharo
is nadi ko mera aaina maan lo
ki mohabbat ka bahta nasha jaan lo
is nadi ko mera aaina maan lo
7 Responses to "Is nadi ko mera aainaa maan lo"
June 4, 2020 at 12:38 pm
The title of the post made me think “yeh kaunsa gaana hai, looks like one which i know”
The the first para made me think “who is this? Renuka Shahane?” Then i read further and before i reached the part where yo said “Sai Paranjpe” I knew it was Sai Paranjpe.
As Shenoyji has said and you have also written her body of work was different from that of others of that time. And she was brilliant
Thank you Sadanandji for taking Chashme Baddoor one step closer to YYIIPPEEhood
LikeLike
June 4, 2020 at 1:33 pm
Peevesie’s Mom,
In one of her interviews, Sai Paranjpye called herself as ‘first-class writer and the second-class director’. However, on the basis of some of her films I have seen so far, I can say that she is a writer-director extra-ordinaire.
LikeLike
June 4, 2020 at 6:22 pm
Dear Sadanand ji,
When the spate of ‘ New wave’ cinema started, I started enjoying these films, as they were different than the routine films.
When I saw this film, Chashm-e- Baddur, I was so pleased that I saw almost all of Sai’s films. However, this was her best film, I feel. It gave me the same pleasure which I got from such films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Basu Chatterjee or Bimal Roy- as far as clean entertainment was concerned.
Thanks for Sai’s biodata, from which some of the things I learnt first time.
You took me 40 years back.
Thanks again.
-AD
LikeLike
June 4, 2020 at 6:45 pm
Arun ji,
I have also the same feeling about Sai Paranjpye’s films as that of films by other directors you have mentioned. What differentiates Sai Paranjpye from other like-minded directors is that she takes one different subject for her each film on which she focused painstakingly – the subjects which even some of the new wave directors would hesitate to take up.
LikeLike
June 4, 2020 at 9:04 pm
Sadanand ji,
This was Ravi Baswani’s Debut film.
Contrary to popular belief, the 2013 remake of this film with the same title, made by David Dhavan, was a successful film and grossed 68 crores, in first 3 months. The cast was Tapsee pannu (Debut in Hindi), Ali Zafar, Siddharth and Divyendu.
This remake and the digital version of the 1981 film was released on the same day-5-4-2013.
This was the first film of Faruq Shaikh and Deepti naval. They went on to work together in many films like Saath saath, katha etc etc.
-AD
LikeLike
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
June 4, 2020 at 9:53 am
Sadanand Ji,
Thanks for the nice post on Sai Paranjape, about whom I had little knowledge beyond films directed by her. I have seen most and all of them were highly enjoyable.
I read that she and Dharmendra had planned a movie titled ‘Bichoo’. with music by SJ. I was highly disappointed that it was shelved
LikeLike
June 4, 2020 at 10:22 am
Satish ji,
Yes, ‘Bichoo’ was to be directed by Sai Paranjpye. Dharmendra had seen her first film ‘Sparsh’ (1980) which he liked. So he agree to produce ‘Bichoo’ in 1983. Dharmendra and Shabana Azmi were to play the lead roles. However, after the first schedule of the shooting, the film was shelved as it was said that Dharmendra was feeling uncomfortable taking orders from Sai Paranjpye as a director.
LikeLike