Chhalke palkon ke peechhe
Posted on: February 19, 2023
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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‘Ankur’ (1974), the first Hindi feature film made by Shyam Benegal gave push to the movement of new wave films (also called as the parallel cinema) in Hindi film industry. Perhaps, it was the first Hindi parallel film, that too in a rural setting, which became a commercial success. His next two films, ‘Nishant’ (1975) and ‘Manthan’ (1976) was also based in rural setting, and they were also commercially successful. Shyam Bengal had made some more such films like ‘Kondura; (1980), ‘Aarohan’ (1982), ‘Susman’ (1987) etc which were critically acclaimed. But these latter films did not receive the same reception from the film audience as his first three films.
With ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ (2008), Shyam Bengal once again came back with a film based in a rural setting. He took a middle path between parallel films and the mainstream Bollywood films. There was no star-actors in the film. The story of the film was more like the events happening in a small village of Sajjanpur which were being witnessed by a letter writer for the illiterate villagers. Some of the events were subtle and satirical commentaries on various socio-economic-political issues like land acquisitions, urban migrations, influence of goons in a village level election, widow remarriage, superstitions and rights of the transgenders. The film had some hard-hitting dialogues which were sweeten with light comedy. The film was majorly shot in Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad.
‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ (2008) was produced by Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures. Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Rao were in lead roles supported by Ravi Kishan, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Divya Dutta, Ila Arun, Yashpal Sharma, Ravi Jhankal, Lalit Mohan Tiwari, Vallabh Vyas, Vineeta Malik, Mangala Kenkere etc. Rajit Kapur and Kunal Kapoor made guest appearances.
The protagonist of the film is Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade), the art graduate in Sajjanpur who wishes to be a novelist. But presently, he has to be happy with writing letters for the illiterate village folk. The literate persons also come to him for his ability to write letters with persuasive and colourful language. His clients ranges from his childhood crush Kamla (Amrita Rao) for whom he writes letters to her husband who is working in Mumbai, a mother (Ila Arun) worried about her rebellious daughter, Vindhya’s (Divya Dutta) manglik horoscope, a compounder Ramkumar (Ravi Kishan) who is deeply in love with the young widow Shobharani (Rajeshwari Sachdev), the villainous ex-Sarpanch Ramlal (Yashpal Sharma) and a transgender (Ravi Jhankal) to whom he also writes a song for her electioneering campaign. The two hours of the film give us a glimpse of their lives in a village called Sajjanpur.
While writing letters for Kamla, Mahadev learns that her husband who works in Mumbai had not return home for the last 4 years. He had not taken his wife to Mumbai as promised. Mahadev thinks that he has a chance to revive his secret ambitions to be Kamla’s partner if her husband does not return and deserts her. He uses his letter writing skills to attempt creating a rift between Kamla and her husband. On behalf of Ramlal, Mahadev writes a letter to the Collector that the transgender, Munnibai’s candidature for village sarpanch be rejected. On the other hand, he also writes a letter on behalf of Munnibai to Collector for protection against the goons of Ramlal.
The most poignant moment in the film is when Mahadev learns the truth that Kamla’s husband has been trying to earn extra income through his regular blood donation and he is now on the verge selling one kidney for money so that he can buy a house and bring Kamla to Mumbai. This changes the perspective of Mahadev towards Kamla. His crush on her turns into sympathy and a well-being of her husband. He decides to indiscreetly provide financial help to Kamla’s husband by pledging his farmland so that he can buy a house without selling his kidney and take Kamla to Mumbai. At the end, Mahadev puts Kamla in a Mumbai bound train to be united with her husband. But this is not the end of the film.
In the next scene, Mahadev is sitting in a publisher’s office with his manglik wife (Diya Dutta) where he gets his cheque for his published novel from the publisher. The publisher asks whether all the characters in his novel are real to which Mahadev replies that most of them are real and a few are his imagination. It turned out that the entire film was the narration from his novel and Mahadev is the protagonist in the film.
This film once again proves that Shyam Benegal is master storyteller. There is no dull moments in the film. I will highly recommend to watch this film for those who have not yet seen this film.
‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ (2008) has six songs written by Ashok Mishra(4) who is also the dialogue writer of the film and Swanand Kirkire (2). All songs are set to music by Shantanu Moitra. I am presenting the first song from the film to appear on the Blog. It is a romantic song, ‘chalke palkon ke pichhe’ written by Swanand Kirkire. The background to the song is that Ravi Kishan wants Shreyas Talpade to write a love letter to Rajeshwari Sachdev on his behalf in a language that would impress her. Shreyas Talpade says that he requires time to think and he will write the letter in the night. After he goes home, Mahadev starts writing the letter thinking about his crush, Amrita Rao. The song is picturised on Shreyas Talpade, Amrita Rao, Ravi Kishan and Rajeshwari Sachdev as an imagination of Shreyas Talpade and is rendered by Mohit Chauhan and Madhushree.
It is a lovely song with magical lyrics interspersed by beautiful Veena recital in the first interlude and the Flute recital in the second interlude.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Chhalke palkon ke peechhe (Welcome to Sajjanpur)(2008) Singers-Mohit Chauhan, Madhushree, Lyrics-Swanand Kirkire, MD-Shantanu Moitra
Lyrics (Based on Audio Clip)
chhalke palkon ke peechhe
chhalke tanha aansoo koi
teri yaad jab sataaye
wo chhalke chhalka jaaye youn hi
iss khat ki jo hai sihaayi
sun mere aansoo se hai bani
mera dard bhi tu hi hai
jaana hai dawa tu meri
ik meetha marz dene
aana tum youn hi
ik dawa kaa karz dene
aana tum youn hi
sooni sooni raaton mein
khoye khoye khwaabon mein
aa..aa aana
aana youn hi
ik meetha marz dene
aana tum youn hi
ik dawa ka karz dene..en
aana tum youn hi
tum jo nahin to zindagi ke andhiyaare raushan nahin
tum jo nahin to zindagi ki tasveeron mein rang nahin
chanda nahin…ee
sooraj nahin
jo tu nahin..ee
kuchh bhi nahin
thhodi chandni lutaane
aana tum youn hi
thhodi dhoop chhidak jaane
aana tum youn hi
tum jo nahin to meri sookhi hai ghazal
koi sur nahin
tum jo nahin to meri sooni hai dagar
manzil nahin
tum jo nahin to mere rookhe nainon mein
kaajal nahin
tum jo nahi to mere paanv baje
paayal nahin
saawan nahin..een
bhaadon nahi..ee
jo tum nahin..ee
kuchh bhi nahin
ik meetha marz dene
aana tum youn hi
ik dawa ka karz dene
aana tum youn hi
sooni sooni raaton mein
khoye khoye khwaabon mein
aa..na
aana youn hi
ik meetha marz dene
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
ik dawa ka karz dene
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
chhalke palkon ke peechhe
chhalke tanha aansoo koi
teri yaad jab sataaye wo
chhalke chhalka jaaye youn hi
chhalke palkon ke peechhe
chhalke tanha ansoo koi
teri yaad jab sataaye wo
chhalke chhalka jaaye youn hi
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm lalalala
7 Responses to "Chhalke palkon ke peechhe"
February 19, 2023 at 10:50 am
Sadanand Ji,
Thanks for writing on ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’. I liked the movie( on TV). Though it is not the best of Shyam Benegal, it is close to his best.
Though I did not take note of this song while watching, on hearing it now ,I find it is a sweet song
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February 19, 2023 at 5:29 pm
I have seen this film, and I thought this this film story got the shades of Rajesh Khanna-Hema Malini starrer “Palkon ki Chhaaon mein”
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February 19, 2023 at 6:11 pm
Prakashchandra ji,
I had also read about this film having the shades of ‘Palkhon Ki Chhaaon Mein (1977), which is a romantic drama. But ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ is a social, economic and political commentaries told in a humorous manner. There are films which have something in common, but stories are, by and large, different and presented in the films differently.
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February 19, 2023 at 7:06 pm
Thanks Sadanand ji for writing to me,
Hope Next in the line will be “Well done Abba” !!! ??? ,
Just joking/guessing ….Hope You don`t mind Sir
Regards
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 19, 2023 at 9:08 am
Such a lovely song.
Didn’t know that the movie was a Shyam Benegal movie
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February 19, 2023 at 11:49 am
Peevesie’s Mom,
I was also not aware that this was Shyam Benegal’s film. The song took me to the film.
In this film, Shyam Benegal makes serious statements through satire and light humour.
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