Saanson mein dard dard mein saansen basi huyin
Posted on: February 26, 2024
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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‘Aakrosh’ (1980) was produced by Devi Dutt under the banner of Krsna Movies Enterprise and was directed by Govind Nihalani. The cast included Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri, Om Puri, Smita Patil, Mahesh Elkunchwar, Bhagyashree Kotnis, Arvind Deshpande, Dr Mohan Agashe, Vinay Apte, Vihang Nayak, Vasant Soman, Achyut Potdar, Reema Lagoo, Nana Palshikar etc. It was an off-beat film which was reportedly based on a news report which appeared in a local newspaper of an Adivasi woman mysteriously found dead. The story and screenplay were written by Vijay Tendulkar and dialogues were written by Satyadev Dubey.
There were many ‘firsts’ for ‘Aakrosh’ (1980). It was Devi Dutt’s first film as a producer. For Cinematographer, Govind Nihalani, it was his debut film as a director. It was also a debut film for Reema Lagoo and the music director, Ajit Varman. For Om Puri, it was his first film in a major role for which his acting prowess was recognised for the first time. He won the Filmfare Award for the Best Supporting Actor for this film.
The film’s producer, Devi Dutt was one of the younger brothers of Guru Dutt, other brothers being producer-director, Atmaram and advertising filmmaker, Vijay Padukone who had done small roles in ‘Manthan’ (1976) and ‘Bhumika’ (1977). Not much information about Devi Dutt’s childhood is available. It is through some of his interviews which appeared in media, about Guru Dutt’s film, I got some information about his growing up days.
Devi Dutt (Real name: Devidas Padukone, born in 1938) recalls that they did not have an easy childhood as there was always conflicts between his mother Vasanthi Padukone who was a teacher and his father, Shivshankar Padukone over the financial conditions. His father was first, a headmaster in a school in Panambur village (now an industrial hub and a part of New Mangaluru Port). Thereafter, he changed the job to work as a clerk in a bank in Bangaluru and thereafter a clerk in Burmah Shell (now Bharat Petroleum) in Kolkata.
Devi Dutt’s mother’s first cousin, Balkrishna Benegal (uncle of Shyam Benegal), who was an artist and the film publicist, helped the family. He was instrumental in Guru Dutt getting admission in Uday Shankar’s India Cultural Centre in Almora for learning dances. Later, after returning from Almora, he helped him getting employed as an assistant choreographer in Prabhat Films in Pune. From about late 1940s, Padukone family stayed in Matunga in a small house.
Geeta Dutt encouraged Devi Dutt to complete his education first before getting involved in films. His earliest connection with Hindi films was when Guru Dutt made him as a trainee soundman, assisting senior recordist, A Majid in ‘Pyaasa’ (1957). His first work was handling the sound while shooting of the song, ’jaane kya tuney kahee’. He became the Studio Manager when ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ (1959) was being made. He was instrumental in importing lens for shooting in cinemascope from 20th Century Fox. He has assisted Guru Dutt in administrative matters while making ‘Chaudhvin Kaa Chaand’ (1960) and ‘Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam’ (1962). He was Publicist for ‘Bahaaren Phir Bhi Aayengi’ (1966). Interestingly, in all Guru Dutt’s films, Devi Dutt remained uncredited.
Since his brother, Atmaram had become the advertising filmmaker, Devi Dutt also wanted to make a beginning in ad films. Guru Dutt made available to him all that was required for making an ad film free of cost. Geeta Dutt gave him Rs.6000/- to start his company for ad films. He has made many ad films, some of which jointly with Atmaram.
After the death of Guru Dutt, he joined in the team of Shyam Benegal and became the Executive Production Controller for ‘Ankur’ (1974), ‘Nishaant’ (1975) and ‘Bhumika’ (1977). He was the Production Manager for ‘Gandhi’ (1982).
Devi Dutt turned producer with ‘Aakrosh’ (1980) giving the opportunity for Govind Nihalani his debut as a director. I guess, Devi Dutt role as a producer was mainly for raising finances for an off-beat film for which the usual sources of finance (film financiers/distributors) were difficult to come. He raised the major funding requirement from NDFC which then required a certain percentage of the film production cost to be borne by the producer. (Presently, NDFC does not grant loan for filmmaking. Either NDFC will produce or co-produce the film). The film won for the producer and director the National Film Award for the Best Film in Hindi. It also won the Golden Peacock Award for the Best Film in International Film Festival of India (1981) with a cash prize of Rs.40 lakhs to be distributed equally between the producer and the director.
Devi Dutt’s second film as a producer was ‘Maasoom’ (1983) giving directorial debut for Shekhar Kapoor. The film won 6 Filmfare Awards for the Best Film (Critic), Best Director (Shekhar Kapoor), Best Actor (Naseeruddin Shah), Best Music Director (R D Burman), Best Lyrics (Gulzar) and Best Female Playback Singer (Arati Mukherjee). He produced his third film, ‘Bhaavana’ (1984) in which he gave directorial debut for Pravin Bhatt. This film was no match with his first two films. Shabana Azmi won the Best Female Actor for the film. After this, Devi Dutt seems to have given up producing films. Incidentally, for both “Maasoom’ (1983) and ‘Bhaavana’ (1984), Chnada Dutt, his Punjabi wife was a co-producer.
At 85, Devi Dutt has retired from filmmaking. Currently, he is associated with Music Verandah as a Mentor which was started during Covid lockout period to connect the people through music for healing and joy.
The story of ‘Aakrosh’ (1980) is as under:
The film starts with a caption that on 25th December 1978, a dead body was found in a well in Kondachi Wadi village (in Maharashtra). The dead body was that of Nagi (Smita Patil), a young married tribal girl. The scene shifts to the cremation ground where the body of Nagi is being cremated with her husband, Bhiku (Om Puri) performing the last rites of his wife. Bhiku is taken back to the district jail as he is charged with killing his wife.
In flashback scene, it is made known to the audience that Bhiku and Nagi are tribals who work as labourers for Forest Contractor (Mohan Agashe), they live in abject poverty with his aged father (Nana Palshikar) and an unmarried sister (Bhagyashree Kotnis). Bhiku’s criminal case comes up for hearing in the district session court where public prosecutor, Dusane (Amrish Puri), a tribal, represents the Government and Bhaskar Kulkarni (Naseeruddin Shah), a brahmin, is a court appointed lawyer to defend Bhiku. For Bhaskar, it is his first case as a lawyer, and he has been trained by none other than Dusane who, in turn, has been trained by Bhaskar’s father.
As a defence lawyer, Bhasker talks to Bhiku to get the full background which led to the killing of his wife. But Bhiku does not answer to his any question. Rather his face and eyes indicate that he is stunned. Bhasker gets the same responses from Bhiku for his next 3-4 visits. He also visits the office of the editor whose paper had earlier published the news about Nagi’s dead body being found in the well. Even editor does not speak anything about the death, The editor is so fearful that he reminds Bhaskar that he did say anything about the case. Lastly, he meets Dr Patil (Arvind Deshpande) who has done the postmortem of the dead body of Nagi. Though he agrees to meet Bhaskar in the night, at the appointed time, he is missing from his house.
Bhaskar is frustrated because Bhiku’s silence would take him to nowhere in solving the case. And he does not want to lose his first case. Also, there is another reason that if he loses the case, tribals can cast an aspersion on him that he has deliberately lost the case because Bhiku is tribal. Bhaskar tries to get information from Bhiku’s father and sister on two occasions, but they also do not utter a single word. So are the other villagers living in their vicinity.
In the meanwhile, Bhaskar gets a feeling that some one is keeping surveillance on him whenever he goes out for his work. Once in the night, there is stone throwing incidence in his house. In another night, he is attacked by an unidentified person by a knife, getting a deep cut on his hand. Even the editor of the newspaper who had published the news of the death of Nagi gets assaulted by a unknown person. Things are getting weird, and Bhaskar thinks that all these incidences are connected with his handling of Bhiku’s case.
In one night, a person visits Bhaskar’s house who calls himself as a social worker (Mahesh Elkunchwar) who is trying to organise the tribals in the village for their welfare. Actually, he is a Marxist to make tribals fight for their rights against their exploiters. He reveals to Bhaskar that Nagi was gang raped by the Forest Contractor (Achyut Potdar), Zilla Parshad Chairman, Bhosle (Mohan Agashe) and Dr Patil as a punishment to Bhiku who used to raise his voice against them. Thereafter, all the three were involved in killing Nagi. The social worker says that he does not have any proof or witness to the act. He also says that in their organisation they can handle such criminals in their own method. But as a defence lawyer, it is Bhaskar’s duty to find witness or proof and punish the criminals.
In the next hearing in the court, Dusane, the prosecution lawyer brings 3 witnesses who testify before the judge that Bhiku used to force Nagi to spend nights with them to write off his debts to him and they had sent her back. One lady witness also says that she has seen Bhiku in a inebriated state, trashing Nagi and she had freed Nagi from his trashing.
In the meanwhile, Bhiku’s father dies and Bhiku is once again brought to the cremation ground to complete the last rites of his father. As soon as he competes the rituals, he walks with two policemen for returning to his jail. Suddenly, he snatches a dagger from a person and kills his sister. After which he gives a loud scream as he is being taken back to jail by policemen.
The film ends with about 5 minutes of conversations between Bhaskar and Dusane which are the eye-opener as to how the lawyers and judiciary system work in the country.
The most effective scene of the film is the second last scene of the film in which Bhiku kills his sister. As he is being taken back to jail, he gives a series of long loud scream signifying his bent up ‘aakrosh’ (anger) against the system. Generally, in all other films of this type, it is the exploiter/s who gets killed by the sufferer. In this film. Bhiku kills his sister apparently without any reason in the audience’s mind. But there is a subtle hint as to why he did so. When Bhaskar, in his last attempt to make Bhiku speak, warns him that if he does not speak, his sister can be the next victim of the perpetuators of the crime. Probably, that made Bhiku to kill his sister so that she does not become victim like his wife.
One of the main features of this film is that throughout the film, Om Puri in the role of Bhiku does not utter a single word except in a flashback scene when he is reprimanding his wife (Smita Patil) for visiting the Forest Contractor’s (Mohan Agashe) house and accepting a saaree from him. His reactions to any questions by Bhaskar and jail staff is met with stunned eyes. Even in the jail, he is always shown awake and in a tormented state.
The sum and substance of the film is that it is not few persons, but the entire system is responsible for the spread of corruption, the exploitations and atrocities of the weaker section of the society. The film has highlighted the two types of exploitations and repressions of tribals. The first, the financial exploitation in which workers are paid less than they are entitled to and the second, sexual exploitation of their women folks not only as object of pleasure but also as a punishment for raising voices against the powerful starta of the society.
I watched the film in one sitting, and it is not boring. The scenes of melodrama and of violence in the film are virtually non-existence. Still, the film is very discomforting to watch because the reality about the death of Nagi (Smita Patil) is known to everyone in the village including her husband, Bhiku and the law-enforcing agencies in the film. Still, the villagers are silent and more importantly, the silence of Bhiku (Om Puri) is deafening and haunting. And the law-enforcing agencies and the prosecution lawyer is bent upon sending Bhiku to life imprisonment. The film is more than 4-decade old, but we read in media that such things happen in the tribal and Dalit belts even now.
The film had 3 songs written by poets, Vasant Dev (2) and Suryabhanu Gupt which were set to music by Ajit Varman. One song has been covered in the Blog. I am presenting the second song from the film, ‘saanson mein dard dard mein saansen basi huyi’ which is written by Suryabhanu Gupt. The song is rendered by Madhuri Purandare as a radio song which the defending lawyer Bhaskar (Naseeruddin Shah) is listening in a frustrated mood when none of those in the know with the murder of Nagi (Smita Patil) including the accused Bhiku (Om Puri) are prepared to open their mouth out of fear of those in power.
The song on the film’s soundtrack starts from the third stanza whereas in the audio clip starts with two additional stanzas.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Saanson mein dard dard mein saansen basi huyin (Aakrosh)(1980) Singer-Madhuri Purandare, Lyrics-Suryabhan Gupt, Md-Ajit Verman
Lyrics (based on audio clip):
saanson mein dard
dard mein saansen basi huyin
saanson mein dard
dard mein saansen basi huyin
ham mein koi
kisi mein samaaye huye hain ham
hokar bhi apne aap ko
paaye huye hain ham
ham mein koi
kisi mein samaaye huye hain ham
saanson mein dard
dard mein saansen basi huyin
lete hain ab to saans bhi
ilzaam ki tarah
lete hain ab to saans bhi
ilzaam ki tarah
ghar aise bastiyon mein
basaaye huye hain ham
ham mein koi
kisi mein samaaye huye hain ham
saanson mein dard
dard mein saansen basi huyin
chhodaa hai ham ko laake
mohabbat ne ye kahaan
chhodaa hai ham ko laake
mohabbat ne ye kahaan
apne liye bhi jaise
paraaye huye hain ham
ham mein koi
kisi mein samaaye huye hain ham
saanson mein dard
dard mein saansen basi huyin
aayaa hai pesh ham se
zamaanaa kuchh iss tarah
aayaa hai pesh ham se
zamaanaa kuchh iss tarah
apne galey se khud ko…
lagaaye huye hain ham
ham mein koi
kisi mein samaaye huye hain ham
saanson mein dard
dard mein saanse basi huyin
ham mein koi
kisi mein samaaye huye hain ham
hokar bhi apne aap ko
paaye huye hain ham
ham mein koi
kisi mein samaaye huye hain ham
saanson mein dard
dard mein saansen
basi huyi
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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