Dheere dheere lo kahaan aa gaye hain ye kadam
Posted on: December 3, 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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2 December 2023 was the 9th Remembrance Day of Deven Verma (23/10/1937 – 02/12/2014) who had taken comical performances in Hindi films on a different level. Gulzar had said about Deven Verma that he was not a comedian but an actor. I think, he must have made this statement with his experience of working with him in ‘Angoor’ (1982). His performance was devoid of buffoonery but was loaded with gentle humour, wit, and pun. His wife, Roopa Ganguly had said that her husband was a witty person in his real life.
I first came to know about Deven Verma in the film ‘Devar’ (1966) which I had watched in a theatre upon its release. His role in the film had a shade of a villain because he had married Sharmila Tagore in deceit who was a sweat heart of his cousin, Dharmendra. In the same year, I had also watched ‘Anupama’ (1966) in which Dharmendra, Deven Verma and Sharmila Tagore again acted together. But in this film, Deven Verma has a positive role. He does not go ahead with his planned marriage with Sharmila Tagore. It is his friend, Dharmendra who marries her. In the 1970s and 1980s, Deven Verma had majorly transformed himself in the humourous roles.
Deven Verma (Real name: Devendu Verma) was born in Kutchh to a Rajasthani father and Gujarati mother. He had two elder sisters and two younger sisters. His father, Baldev Singh Verma had a business in silver. Later, he also became a film distributor in partnership with his friend. The family shifted to Pune because his elder sister got admission for MBBS in Pune. Deven Verma, after completion of his school in Panchgani, joined Wadia College in Pune from where he completed B.A. in Political Science and Sociology in 1957.
During his college days in Pune, Deven Verma participated in plays and youth festivals. He was also a part of the Pune delegation representing the city at Youth Festivals in Delhi. His father wanted him to become a lawyer whereas he was more interested in becoming an actor. In keeping with the wishes of his father, Deven Verma, after graduation, joined Government Law College in Mumbai. During this period, he got involved in stage shows with Johny Whiskey, doing mimicry of film artists. The stage shows made him to leave his law study halfway. It was his one-act play at a function of the North India Punjabi Association when producer-director, B R Chopra who was in the audience, picked him for the film, ‘Dharmaputra’ (1961) at a monthly salary of Rs.600/-. The film failed at the box office.
Deven Verma continued with his stage shows in India and abroad. On return from stage shows abroad, A V Meiyappan of AVM Studios hired him on a contract for Rs.1500/- per month, for three years. He had to shift to Madras (Chennai) where he underwent training in acting. In the meanwhile, B R Chopra’s ‘Gumraah’ (1963) got released in which he had a role of a servant of Ashok Kumar. The film was a box office success. A V Meiyappan asked him to choose between Chennai and Mumbai and he decided to shift to Mumbai after a year.
On returning to Mumbai, Deven Verma did ‘Qawwali Ki Raat’ (1964). Next, he did ‘Devar’ (1966), ‘Anupama’ (1966) and a Bhojpuri film, ‘Nahihar Chhutal Jaaye’ (1964) in which he was in the lead role with Kumkum. But none of the films resulted in pushing his acting career. Unable to make much headway in his acting career, Deven Verma turned producer with ‘Yakeen’ (1969), directed by Brij Sadanah. The film was a box office success. Next, he produced and directed ‘Naadan’ (1971) and ‘Bada Kabootar’ (1973).
Deven Verma’s acting career took off with ‘Chori Mera Kaam’ (1975) for which he got his first Filmfare Award for the Best Comedian. With this, he was flooded with many acting assignments. During 1976-78, his 28 films and during 1979-82, his 30 films were released. His notable performances in humourous roles were in the films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee ( ‘Golmaal’ 1979, ‘Rang Birangee’, 1983), Gulzar (‘Angoor’, 1982) and Basu Chatterjee (‘Khatta Meetha’, 1978, ‘Priyatama’ 1978, ‘Dillagi’ 1978). In ‘Angoor’ (1982), he gave a memorable performance in which he and Sanjeev Kumar played double roles. Deven Verma won the Filmfare Award for the Best Comedian in this film.
Deven Verma worked with Ashok Kumar in maximum number of his films. He was also a regular visitor to his home during which he and Roopa Ganguly, Ashok Kumar’s younger daughter, fell in love. They wanted to get married. But Ashok Kumar delayed giving his consent for the marriage by telling him that she was too young, and he would decide later. Finally, it was Kishore Kumar who intervened to get them married.
During his 4 decades in Hindi films, Deven Verma acted in about 150 films and produced/directed 7 films. His last released film was ‘Calcutta Mail’ (2003). He had also worked in some TV serials in the 1990s.
Deven Verma announced his retirement from the films after the death of his father-in-law, Ashok Kumar in December 2001. After the completion of his remaining acting assignments, he permanently shifted to Kalyani Nagar, Pune where he had bought a bungalow in 1993 with the intention of settling there.
Deven Verma passed away on December 2, 2014, in his house in Pune due to heart attack and kidney failure.
‘Chhuppa Chhuppi’ (1981) was probably the only Hindi film in which Deven Verma got the lead role with Aruna Irani. The film was produced by Ram Films and was directed by Arun Jaitly, the only Hindi film he directed. The other cast of the film included Madan Puri, Shammi, Paintal, Indra Kumar, Satyen Kapoo, Aparna Chaudhary, Helen, Sunder, Seema Deo, Keshto Mukherjee, Tun Tun, Master Bhagwan etc. The film belongs to ‘detective comedy’ genre.
The gist of the film’s story is as under:
Rani (Aruna Irani) is the daughter of a wealthy parents (Madan Puri and Shammi) and stays in Delhi. Due to pressure of marriage from her parents, Rani runs away from her parents and lands in Mumbai. She stays in a hotel. She gets a job as a Secretary to private detective, William Bose (Deven Verma) who was brought up in an orphanage for which he monetarily helps.
Rani’s parents search almost all the places in Delhi where Rani is likely to visit but still there is no trace of her. They do not wish to lodge a missing person’s complaint with the police as this may spoil the marriage plan. They presume that Rani may have gone to Mumbai as she often used to say to her parents for a visit. Rani’s father engages a private Detective, Bose, for investigating Rani’s whereabouts at a fee of Rs.50000/- which Bose needs to give it to the orphanage for surgery on one of the orphan boys. With this, Rani is in the verge of getting exposed.
Rani plays a trick. She intercepts the photo of her sent by her father to Bose and replaces with some other photo from a studio which happens to be that of Rossie (Aparna Chaudhary) who is the sweat heart of a smuggler (Satyen Kapoo). Bose is after Rossie believing her to be Rani to capture her and get Rs.50000/-. Smuggler believes that Bose is trying to expose his smuggling business through Rossie. What follows is the situational comedy in which smuggler trashes Bose while trying to capture Rossie. In his second attempt, Bose is able to capture Rossie and brings her to the police station to be handed over to Rani’s parents.
Rani’s parents reaches police station. However, their happiness is short-lived as the girl in the police custody is not Rani who is actually watching all these events from a safe distance. Rani realises that getting Rs.50000/- from her parents is important to Bose as he is required to pay that sum to the hospital for the surgery of an orphan boy. She promises Bose that by the next day, she would find Rani and hand her over to the parents to get him the money.
The next day, Rani makes a visit to her parents in their hotel room and surrenders herself by telling them that Bose has sent her. Parents are happy and Bose is called at the hotel room to get his fess. But he refuses to accept the money by telling them that he has not done anything, but it is Rani who has come in her own volition. But Rani forces Bose to accept the money and return it when he gets reward of the like amount from the police in helping them to nab the smuggler. At the end, Rani’s parents have not only got back their daughter but also Bose as a bridegroom for her.
The film had 7 songs written by Lokendra (6) and Arun Jaitley (1) which were set to music by Bhuban-Hari (Pandit Bhubaneshwar Mishra-Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia). The duo have composed music for many Odiya films.
Pandit Bhubaneshwar Mishra was the doyen of Odiya traditional music. Trained in both Hindustani and Carnatic classical music, he was throughout associated with Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra and Sanjukta Panigrahi, in composing music for their Odissi dances. Just as music director, Sudhir Phadke is well known in composing music for G D Madgulkar’s ‘Geet Ramayan’ in Marathi, Pandit Bhubaneshwar Mishra has done pioneering work in composing music for the Jayadeva’s ‘Geeta Govinda’ in Odiya.
I am presenting the first song from the film, ‘Chhuppa Chhuppi’ (1981), ‘dheere dheere lo kahaan aa gaye hain ye kadam’ to appear on the Blog. The song is written by Lokendra and is rendered by Anuradha Paudwal. The song is picturised on Aruna Irani and Deven Verma as a background song when they realise for the first time that they are in love with each other.
Note: The biography of Deven Verma is mainly based on his interview which was published in http://www.rediff.com on July 23, 2013.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Dheere dheere lo kahaan aa gaye hain ye kadam (Chhupa Chhupi)(1981) Singer-Anuradha Paudwal, Lyrics-Lokendra, MD-Bhuban Hari
Lyrics (based on audio clip):
dheere dheere lo kahaan
aa gaye hain ye kadam
dheere dheere lo kahaan
aa gaye hain ye kadam
kal kahaan thhe
ab kahaan hain
kal kahaan thhe
ab kahaan hain
kal kahaan jaayenge hum
dheere dheere lo kahaan
aa gaye hain ye kadam
dheere dheere lo kahaan..
ghaayal tera tan paagal mera mann
jaage hai dil mein kaahe ye uljhan
ghaayal tera tan paagal mera mann
jaage hain dil mein kaahe ye uljhan
koi to aaye
mohe bataaye
koi to aaye
mohe bataaye
kaisi hai dil mein ye jalan
dheere dheere lo kahaan
aa gaye hain ye kadam
dheere dheere lo kahaan..
maine to… rokaa
jee bhar ke… tokaa
maine to… rokaa
jee bhar ke tokaa
khul hi gaya par dil kaa jharokhaa
khul hi gaya par dil kaa jharokhaa
poochhoon main jee se
chhuppa chhuppi se
poochhoon main jee se
chhuppa chhuppi se
chubh gayi jaisi ye chubhan
dheere dheere lo kahaan
aa gaye hain ye kadam
dheere dheere lo kahaan..
ab na daroongi dil ki karoongi
tu hai bas mera sab ko kahoongi
ab na daroongi dil ki karoongi
tu hai bas mera sab ko kahoongi
main to manaaoon tujhko hi paaun
main to manaaoonn tujhko hi paaun
chaahe jitne hon janam
dheere dheere lo kahaan
aa gaye hain ye kadam
kal kahaan thhe
ab kahaan hain
kal kahaan thhe
ab kahaan hain
kal kahaan jaayenge hum
dheere dheere lo kahaan
aa gaye hain ye kadam
dheere dheere lo kahaan..
3 Responses to "Dheere dheere lo kahaan aa gaye hain ye kadam"
December 3, 2023 at 8:30 am
Sadanand Ji,
Thanks for remembering Deven Verma, who I took note of from his role in ‘Gumrah’ onwards. He was never over the top.
Todays song is pleasant ( never heard by me before)
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December 3, 2023 at 9:32 pm
Thanks Sir
for the informative post about Deven Varma and Bhuban Hari
Thanks for a new song I have not heard till today, eventhough I have heard about the film,
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 3, 2023 at 6:59 am
Thank you Sadanand Kamathji for remembering Deven Verma on his death anniversary.
I loved him in all the Basu Chatterjee Hrishida films as well as his in Chori Mera Kaam, and some other dilma made by Brij
Also he made a cute friend to Jeetendra in Judaai. Also in Khatta Meetha with Piloo wadia his timing was too good
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