Jodi tor daak shune keu na aashe tobe ekla cholo re
Posted on: October 14, 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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There is a saying in Hindi – भगवान जब देता है,तो छप्पर फाड़कर देता है. This saying is used in the context of unexpected gains, not necessarily in terms of monetary gains but in any form. For example, this saying applies to a farmer who gets a bumper crop in the backdrop of the loss of crops due to drought or floods in the preceding one or two years. This saying also applies to Sujoy Ghosh when his low budget film, ‘Kahaani’ (2012) earned a bumper box office collections after his preceding two films – ‘Home Delivery’ (2005) and ‘Alladdin’ (2009) failed at the box office.
‘Kahaani’ (2012) is a suspense thriller which is jointly produced by Jayantilal Gada, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Sujoy Ghosh who also directs the film. Vidya Balan plays the lead role with supporting actors consisting of Parambrata Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Indraneil Sengupta, Saswata Chatterjee, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Darshan Jariwala, Masood Akhtar etc. In this film, Amitabh Bachchan gives voice-over commentary and also renders a Bangla song. The film was majorly shot on locations in Kolkata.
Sujoy Ghosh, in an interview which appeared on April 27, 2012, in ‘Hindustan Times’ revealed that with his two flop films behind him, he faced a host of problems during the planning stage of ‘Kahaani’ (2012). Apart from finding the financiers, getting the actress for the lead role of a pregnant woman who had appear as such throughout the film was a real challenge. Vidya Balan who first had some apprehension, agreed to do this role only after reading the entire script. Except Nawazuddin Siddique, he had no luck in getting male actors from Bollywood to do a couple of important roles in the film. So, he decided to rope in a few unknown actors from Kolkata. Even after the completion of the film’s shooting, Sujoy Ghosh was not sure of its box office success.
The story of the film is given below in details:
A poisonous gas attack in a bogie of Kolkata Metro train kills all the occupants. About two years later, a pregnant Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan), a software engineer, travels from London to Kolkata on the eve of Durga Pooja in search of her husband, Arnab Bagchi (Indraneil Sengupta). He is a software engineer who came from London on an assignment with National Data Centre (NDC). He has been missing in Kolkata for about two weeks. After landing, she goes straight to the police station. While the police take their own time to investigate her missing husband, it is newly recruited sub-Inspector, Rana (Parambrata Chatterjee) who helps Vidya in the investigation, sometimes without authorisation.
On checking, Vidya comes to know that no employee with her husband’s name has ever worked in NDC. A further talk with the CEO of NDC, Agnes D’Mello (Colleen Blanche) reveals that her husband’s face resembles a former employee, Milan Damji (Indraneil Sengupta). However, Milan Damji has been missing for the last 2 years since a CBI team had come to interrogate him. Agnes D’Mello has some information about Milan Damji which she has promised to pass on to Vidya. However, Agnes is killed in her house by Bob Biswas (Saswata Chatterjee), a contract killer suspected to be working for Milan Damji.
The Intelligence Bureau (IB) which has also been investigating the Kolkata Metro attack under Deputy Inspector General, A Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) comes into picture. Khan advises against Vidya doing further investigation on Milan Damji who is suspected to be responsible for poisonous gas attack in Kolkata Metro as he is investigating the matter. But Vidya tells Khan that she will independently pursue the investigation since it is about her missing husband.
Now, there are three agencies on the investigation trail. IB under the leadership of Khan is investigating to identify the real culprit of the Kolkata Metro attack. Kolkata Police is investigating the missing Arnab Bagchi, Vidya’s husband. Vidya herself is independently investigating with the help of Sub-Inspector Rana about her missing husband. In all these investigations, the common link is Milan Damji. So, it is important to get the lead to reach Milan Damji.
Finally, Vidya gets the sensitive information about Milan Damji by hacking the website of NDC. When Milan Damji comes to know about it, he calls Vidya to handover the documents against which he will release her husband. She meets Milan Damji at an empty Durga Pooja Pandal and asks him whether he is sure that he can release her husband (she knows that her husband is dead). He gets a clue and takes out his gun to shoot her. However, before he shoots, she takes out her prosthetic pregnancy pad from her stomach and throws at his gun which makes him off balance. She takes out her thick hair pin and pierces his neck making him injured. She picks up his gun and pumps the bullets on him till he is dead. After hearing the gun shots, Khan and Rana who are already following Vidya, rush towards the scene. But Vidya has already mingled with a large Durga Puja crowd on the street and vanished.
At the end, Rana realises that Arnab Bagchi is Vidya’s fake creation to find the whereabouts of Milan Damji. Vidya Bagchi never existed as in reality, she was the widow of Arup Basu, an IB operative who had died in the poisonous gas attack on Kolkata Metro train because of which she lost her still born child in miscarriage. She has made the use of the police to avenge the death of her husband. And what an irony! The Kolkata police and IB thought that they were using Vidya Bagchi to reach Milan Damji to capture him alive to get more information as to who was the kingpin of Kolkata Metro train attack.
I found the film very engrossing. Sujoy Ghosh has very impressively presented the film with the story-like narrations and a build-up of suspense weaving with thrilling elements. The audience till the last moment does not know the real identity of Vidya Bagchi and of her fake pregnancy. The bonus for the viewers of the film is that drama is happening in the backdrop of Durga Pooja in Kolkata. Vidya Balan has given a stellar performance for a role which otherwise would have been performed by a male star actor in mainstream Hindi films. Nawazuddin Siddiqui has given the feel of a typical IB official like Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Zanzeer’ (1973). Almost all the local actors have given good supporting performances to make the film worthy of watching.
Interestingly, Sujoy Ghosh, being a fan of R D Burman, has partially used about half a dozen songs from the films of 70s and 80s, composed by R D Burman as a part of background music.
The film has six songs (including one second version song) which are written by Vishal Dadlani (3) and one each by Sandeep Srivastava, Anvita Dutt, and Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Five songs are set to music by Vishal-Shekhar while the remaining one is a Rabindra Sangeet which I am presenting. The song is one of the most popular and inspirational Bangla songs, ‘ekla chalo re’ which was written and composed by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in 1905. The original song is interspersed with a few lines in English and Hindi which are basically the translation of some of the lines from the original Bangla poem.
In the film, only the opening two lines of Bangla song are played in the background following Vidya’s realisation that IB and Kolkata Police were using her as a bait to reach Milan Damji. The full song is played in the background as the closing credit titles run through the film.
Video Clip(Partial):
Audio Clip:
Song-Jodi tor daak sune keu na aase tobe ekla chalo re (Kahaani)(2012) Singer-Amitabh Bachchan, Lyrics-Rabindranath Tagore, MD-Rabindranath Tagore
Chorus
Male voice
Amitabh Bachchan +chorus
Lyrics (based on Audio Clip, Bengali lyrics as per http://www.geetabitan.com)
open
the mind
walk alone
we are not afraid
walk alone
jodi tor daak shune keu na aase
tabe ekla cholo re
jodi tor daak shune keu na aase
tabe ekla cholo re
tabe ekla cholo
ekla cholo
ekla cholo
ekla cholo re
tabe ekla cholo
ekla cholo
ekla cholo
ekla cholo re
open
the mind
walk alone
we are not afraid
walk alone
jodi keu kotha na koy
o re o re o abhaaga
keu kotha na kaye
jodi sobai thaake mukh phiraaye sobai kare bhoy
jodi sobai thaake mukh phiraaye sobai kare bhoy
tabe paran khule…….
tabe paran khule
o tui mukh phutey tor moner katha ekla balo re
o tui mukh phutey tor moner katha ekla balo re
jodi tor daak shune keu
na aase tabe ekla chalo re
ru….
ru ru ru ru ru
ru ru ru ru ru
ru ru ru ru ru
ru….
ru ru ru ru ru
ru ru ru ru ru
ru ru ru ru ru
ru…..
jab kaali ghata chaaye
o re o re o
andhera sachh ko nigal jaaye
jab duniya saari dar ke aage sar apna jhukaaye
jab duniya saari dar ke aage sar apna jhukaaye
tu shola ban jaa…..
wo shola ban jaa
jo khud jal ke jahaan raushan kar de
ekla jolo re
jo khud jal ke jahaan raushan kar de
ekla jolo re
jodi tor daak shune keu na aase tabe
ekla chalo re
open the mind
the mind walk alone
walk alone
we not afraid
walk alone
open the mind
walk alone
jodi tare daak shune keu na asse tabe ekla chalo re
jodi tare daak shune keu na asse tabe ekla chalo re
jodi tare daak shune keu na asse tabe ekla chalo re
jodi tare daak shune keu na asse tabe ekla chalo re
———————————————–
English translation of full poem by Rabindranath Tagore (source:www.geetabitan.com)
———————————————–
If they answer not to thy call, walk alone,
If they are afraid and cower mutely facing the wall,
O thou of evil luck,
Open thy mind and speak out alone.
If they turn away, and desert you when crossing the wilderness,
O thou of evil luck,
Trample the thorns under thy tread,
And along the blood-lined track travel alone.
If they do not hold up the light
When the night is troubled with storm,
O thou of evil luck,
With the thunder flame of pain ignite thine own heart
And let it burn alone.
—————————————————–
Hindi translation of full poem by Jalaj Bhaduri
(Source: http://www.geetabitan.com)
——————————————————
जो तेरी पुकार पे कोई न आये, तो अकेले चलो रे ॥
अकेले चलो, अकेले चलो, अकेले चलो, अकेले चलो रे ॥
यदि कोई बातें न करें, ओरे ओरे ओ अभागे
यदि सभी तुझसे मुहं फेर लें ओर सभी डरें, तो प्राण खोल के
ओ तु मन की बातें मन ही मन अकेले बोलो रे ।
यदि सब लौट ही चलें ओरे ओरे ओ अभागे
यदि राह गहन चलते कोई गौर न करे, पथ की काँटे –
अपते लहू-लोहित चरण तले अकेले दलो रे ॥
यदि कोई दिया न धरे, ओरे ओरे ओ अभागे
यदि बादल और तूफानी रातों में द्वार बंद करें, तो वज्र-अनल में
तु हृदय-पंजर आप जलाए अकेले चलो रे ॥
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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