Baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein
Posted on: August 26, 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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Deepti Naval is known for her roles in parallel/experimental Hindi films. After watching a couple of her TV interviews, I have come to know that she is a multi-faceted personality. Apart from acting, Deepti Naval is a writer and director. She is also a poet, a painter, and a photographer. Probably, she is the first Indian American who has been associated with Hindi films in India.
The Amritsar-born Deepti Naval had shifted to New York sometime in 1971 when her father had taken a teaching assignment. After completing her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from a college in New York, Deepti Naval was pursuing painting and poetry writing as hobbies. But she took a decision to be part of Hindi films in India. Her parents who were settled in the USA were taken aback as none of their family members were directly or indirectly associated with the film industry. Her father did not object to her chosen career provided she took it seriously. She was resolute that she would work only in meaningful roles in socially relevant films. Before she came to India in 1978, she had already listed the names of the directors with whom she would like to work, like Shyam Benegal, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar, Basu Bhattacharya etc whose films she had watched while in the USA. In Mumbai, Deepti Naval was helped by her friend, playback singer Rano Mukherjee through her father, Hemant Kumar in introducing her to Hrishikesh Mukherjee who in turn introduced her to Basu Bhattacharya. But it was Shyam Benegal, who offered her a small role in ‘Junoon’ (1978) which also became her training ground.
Deepti Naval got her first lead role in Vinod Pande’s ‘Ek Baar Phir’ (1980). From ‘Kamla’ (1984) onwards, she switched over to accepting intense roles which included her roles in ‘Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho’ (1984), ‘Daamul’ (1985), Main Zinda Hoon’ (1988), ‘Didi’ (1995) etc. Until now, she has acted in nearly 80 films. She has also acted in TV Serials like ‘Sauda’ (1992), Muqammal’ (2003) and has directed TV Serial, ‘Chhota Sa Assmaan’ (1995). She has published ‘Lamha Lamha (1983)’, her collection of poems and has been holding her painting and photographic exhibitions periodically. In 2015, she made her theatre debut in the play ‘Ek Mulaqaat’ in which she played the role of the legendary author, Amrita Preetam.
I was not aware that Deepti Naval had produced and directed a full-length feature film until a few days back when I accidentally came across a song from that film. The name of the film was ‘Do Paise Ki Dhoop Chaar Aane ki Baarish’ (2009). Incidentally, Gulzar wrote a title song for the film which gives me an intuition that he may have suggested the title for the film. The main cast of the film consists of Manisha Koirala, Rajit Kapur and Master Sanaj Naval (nephew of Deepti Naval) supported by Saurabh Dubey, Rajendra Gupta, Usha Jadahv, Rajiv Kachroo, Ravi Khote etc. Milind Soman, Makrand Deshpande, Aly Khan, and Anoop Soni made their special appearances in the film.
The film was premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2009. Thereafter, it was shown in a few more International Film Festivals around the world. The film won the Best Screenplay writing award for Deepti Naval at the New York International Film Festival in 2009. However, the film could not get a theatrical release in India. In 2019, the film was released on an OTT platform. I watched the film on one of the video sharing platforms where it was made available for viewing about a year back. My impression is that the film is mainly meant for the niche audience.
The crux of the film’s story is embedded in its title which broadly means that no matter how much heavy rains bring misery to the people, a small window of sunshine brings hopes and aspirations to the people. The film’s story centres around three main characters, Juhi (Manisha Koirala), Debu (Rajit Kapur) and Kaku (Master Sanaj Naval) who are facing different kinds of worries. Juhi is a call girl who is in her middle age. She is worried that as years pass, her demand from the clients would get reduced putting her in financial distress. Debu is a gay with effeminate behaviour who is trying his best to get a break in Bollywood as lyricist. His boyfriend has broken up with him, and Debu has become homeless. Kaku, the son of Juhi is handicapped. He is dumb and cannot walk. Most of the time, he is at home in a wheelchair. He does not get as much attention from his mother as he wishes as she is busy with her clients.
An accidental meeting of Debu with Juhi in a taxi leads to Debu finding a shelter in Juhi’s house. Homeless Debu gets a home to stay as a caregiver to Kaku and for doing other household work. Kaku gets company to indulge in activities which he could not have taken up alone. Juhi is relieved that there is at least Debu to take care of Kaku. All the three are bonding well. There is a role reversal as Debu becomes a homemaker while Juhi is a bread-earner. There are some frictions in Debu and Juhi’s relations as Juhi does not like Debu’s effeminate behaviour and Debu does not like Juhi’s seducing behaviour with him. At one time, there is a tension in Juhi that Kaku has become more close to Debu than her. Debu does not like Juhi to pursue her vocation as there are other ways of earning money. But each of them accepts their respective roles as there are limitations for any other alternatives. In the end of the day, they happily reconcile over a cup of tea as if they believe in the maxim in a verse from a Hindi film song :
thode shiqwe bhi hon kuchh shikaayat bhi ho
to mazaa jeene kaa aur bhi aataa hai
There are some poignant and melodramatic moments in the film, but they are presented in such a way that those scenes turn into light humourous situations. The film also makes a point that intimacy between man and woman need not to be physical.
A novel feature that has been adopted in the film is the use of a few lines of some Hindi film songs, mostly of the golden period of Hindi film music in place of background music which relevant in the scenes. In addition, Rajit Kapur and Manisha Koirala sing a few lines of half-a-dozen old Hindi films songs in their own voices which fit well into the situations in the film. There are a couple of scenes where Juhi and Debu exchange dialogues through the verses of popular Hindi film songs of the golden period. One can say that their liking for the old Hindi film songs is also one of the factors that bind them together.
Another interesting feature I find in this film is that most of the scenes are with the backdrop of Mumbai rains and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) which was under construction then. Probably, rain was used as a metaphor for misery of the three main characters in the film and BWSL, as metaphor for trying to establish a connection between three of them.
The film has four songs written by Gulzar (2), Irshad Kamil (1) and Deepti Naval (1). All the songs have been set to music by Sandesh Shandilya. None of the songs were released on albums. A few months back, Deepti Naval has uploaded the video clips of all the songs on her official Youtube channel. I present the first song, ‘baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein’ from the film, to appear on the Blog. The song is written by Deepti Naval which has been composed in two versions, one rendered by Sukhwinder Singh and other rendered by Sadhana Sargam. The songs are picturised on Rajit Kapur, Manisha Koirala and Master Sanaj Naval.
The background to Sukhwinder Singh version of the song is that Debu (Rajit Kapur) is very happy that he got his first lyrics accepted by a producer for which gets the payment. So, he takes Kaku (Sanaj Naval) out in his wheelchair in the pouring rain for his first experience in the rains. Sadhana Sargam version of the song is played when Juhi (Manisha Koirala) returning from her disappointing day is pleasantly surprised that Kaku and Debu have arranged for her birthday cake to be cut. These two songs are also partly featuring in the background of some scenes in the film.
Sukhwinder Singh – Version-1
Video Clip:
Sukhwinder Singh – Version-2
Video Clip:
Sadhana Sargam Version
Video Clip:
Song-Baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein (Do Paise ki Dhoop Chaar Aane Ki Baarish)(2009) Singer-Sukhwinder Singh/ Sadhana Sargam, Lyrics-Deepti Naval, MD-Sandesh Shandilya
Chorus
Whispering voice
Lyrics
Sukhwinder Singh version lyrics
———————————–
(Based on Sukhwinder Singh Version-1)
———————————–
baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein
baarish baarish jalen
baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein
baarish baarish jalen
aa bheeg chalen
chal aa bheeg chalen
bhaag chalen . . .
aa bheeg chalen
chal aa bheeg chalen
bhaag chalen . . .
baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein
baarish baarish jalen
aa bheeg chalen
chal aa bheeg chalen
bhaag chalen . . .
aa bheeg chalen
chal aa bheeg chalen
bhaag chalen . . .
duniya hai faani
(duniya hai faani)
khushi aani jaani
(khushi aani jaani)
shiqwa kyoon hum karen……en
duniya hai faani
(duniya hai faani)
khushi aani jaani
(khushi aani jaani)
aur shiqwa kyoon hum karen……en
gham azeez hai apna hai
gham se kyoon daren . . .
arre baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein
baarish baarish jalen
aa bheeg chalen
chal aa bheeg chalen
bhaag chalen . . .
—————————
Sadhana Sargam Version
—————————
baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein
baarish baarish jalen
baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein
baarish baarish jalen
aa bheeg chalen
chal aa bheeg chalen
bhaag chalen . . .
aa bheeg chalen
chal aa bheeg chalen
bhaag chalen . . .
dil mein umang ho
hawa ka sang ho
dil mein umang
hawaaon ke sang
ik baar khul ke jee lein
aansoo bhi gar aa jaaye to
hum aaj hans ke pee lein…aen aen
baadal baadal chalen aasmaan mein
baarish baarish jalen
aa bheeg chalen
chal aa bheeg chalen
bhaag chalen . . .
[English Verses]
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 26, 2023 at 2:20 pm
Thank you very much, Kamath sahib for this post about a song which would otherwise have remained hidden from us but for Dipti Naval.
About two months ago, I had purchased her autobiography and found it quite engrossing. She appears to be a multi-faceted personality who succeeded in almost all the fields she entered.
The song has sensitive lyrics and sung equally well by the singers. The beautiful composition of Sandesh Shandilya fits the mood to the T.
Regards,
Avadh Lal
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August 26, 2023 at 6:44 pm
Avadh Lal ji,
Thanks for your comments.
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