Koi ajnabee saa wo insaan thhaa
Posted on: March 10, 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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‘Duniya Kaa Mela’ (1974) was produced by G M Roshan under the banner of Pearl Pictures and was directed by Kundan Kumar. Sanjay Khan and Rekha were in the lead roles supported by Rehman, Bindu, Ranjeet, Mehmood, Jeevan, Purnima, Sundar, Jagdish Raj, Rajan Kapoor, Bhagwan Sinha, Narbada Shankar, Brahmachari etc. Ajit, Asrani and Mukri made the guest appearances in the film.
As per filmfare.com, the film was originally titled ‘Apna Paraaya’ with Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha in the lead roles. The first scheduled of shooting was started some time in 1972, after which Amitabh Bachchan was replaced due to his poor track record on the box office front. The fresh shooting of the film was started with Sanjay Khan replacing Amitabh Bachchan under the new title, ‘Duniya Kaa Mela’.
According to an article in rediff.com, Amitabh Bachchan had villanous roles in ‘Parwaana’ (1972) and ‘Gehri Chaal’ (1973). Distributors suggested to the director, Kundan Kumar to replace Amitabh Bachchan from the lead role, but he did not agree with them. It was only when the distributors saw the rushes of the first schedule of the film’s shooting, they insisted that Amitabh Bachchan be replaced failing which they will back out of the film. So, Amitabh Bachchan was perforce replaced by the then saleable actor, Sanjay Khan.
But the destiny played differently for both the actors. By the time, ‘Duniya Kaa Mela’ (1974) was ready for release, Sanjay Khan’s career was on the decline. The film failed miserably on the box office front. On the other hand, ‘Zanjeer’ (1973) pushed up the career graph of Amitabh Bachchan. It took another 4 years for Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha to act together in lead roles in ‘Do Anjaane’ (1976).
The story of ‘Duniya Kaa Mela’ (1974) follows the success formula of many films – separation of siblings or sweet-hearts during some mass gatherings like Kumbh Mela or due to some other circumstances. it is called ‘lost and found’ genre of Hindi films. After a lot of action and emotional dramas with coincidences, the separated ones get united with happy endings. The gist of the story of the film is as under:
Judge Jamuna Prasad (Rehman) and his wife Shantidevi (Purnima) with their son, Shyam (Raju Shrestha) and daughter, Shyama (Baby Shanoo) visit Kumbh Mela. Badri Prasad (Mehmood), a drama troop owner also visits Kumbh Mela with his son, Munna (Master Bittoo) for his dance programme. Suddenly, Kumbh Mela venue is hit by a storm creating a stamped maont the huge crowds. In the melee, Jamuna Prasad’s son and daughter and Badri Prasad’s son get lost. Both of them fail to find their lost children. Shantidevi loses her mental balance. Doctor tells Jamuna Prasad that if their children are not found, Shantidevi may lose her life.
Judge’s servant finds Munna and so is Badri Prasad’s servant finds Shyama. Both decides to adopt them with Munna becoming Shyam for Shantidevi while Badri Prasad retaining Shyama as his daughter. Jamuna Prasad’s son, Shyam is picked by Jaggu (Bhagwan Sinha) who runs a pickpocket gang. Both the children grow up as Shyam (Sanjay Khan) and Shyama (Rekha). Shyam completes his college and Shayma learns dancing and becomes a dancer in Badri Prasad’s drama troops. For better prospects, the drama troop shift to Mumbai. Shyam grows up as Raja (Ranjeet) who does not want to become a pick pocketer. He is aiming for something better for which he shifts to Mumbai. So, all the three lost children in the Kumbh Mela are in Mumbai as grown-up persons.
For his first dance show in Mumbai, Badri Prasad request Judge, Jamuna Prasad to attend the show with his family. Shyam (earlier Munna) is impressed with Shyama’s dance performance. They meet quite often and falls in love after Shyama’s initial reservation about Shyam who is actually Munna. However, Jamuna Prasad is deadly against Shyam meeting Shyama as she belongs to a dancing profession which is below his status in the society.
In the meanwhile, Rai (Ajit) comes to know the real identities of Shyam, Shyama and Munna through the link from Jaggu and the childhood photos from Jamuna Prasad. With the intension of settling a score with Jamuna Prasad who had sentenced Rai’s son to life imprisonment for killing his fiancée, Rai plans to kidnap both Shyam and Shyama to extract a big amount from Jamuna Prasad. However, with the help of Shyam (Munna) and Badri Prasad and Jaggu’s men, Shyam and Shyama are released, and Rai is handed over to the police. Film ends with Jamuna Prasad and Badri Prasad hugging their real sons, Shyam and Shyam (Munna) who gets Shyama back.
I had gone through the story in nutshell, of some of the popular films based on the ‘lost and found’ formula which were released during 1940s to 1970s. I was surprised to note that the story of ‘Duniya Kaa Mela’ (1974) almost matched with that of Mehboob Khan’s ‘Taqdeer’ (1943). Even the names of the main characters in ‘Taqdeer’ (1943) were repeated in ‘Duniya Kaa Mela’ (1974). Chandramohan’s role was replicated by Rehman as Judge Jamuna Prasad. Charlie’s role was replicated by Mehmood as Badri Prasad. Sanjay Khan replicated Motilal’s role and Rekha did Nargis’s role as Shyama. Just to make the story different, in Taqdeer’ (1943), Judge Jamuna Prasad had only his daughter lost in the Kumbh Mela as against a daughter and a son in ‘Duniya Kaa Mela’ (1974) which led to a sub-story Jaggu’s pickpocket gang.
“The film had 5 songs written by Anand Bakshi and set to music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Two songs have been covered on the Blog. I am presenting the third song from the film, ‘koi ajnabi saa wo insaan thhaa’ rendered by Lata Mangeshkar. The song is picturised on Rekha. Sanjay Khan and Mehmood can also be seen in the picturisation.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Koi ajnabi sa wo insaan thha (Duniya Ka Mela)(1974) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Anand Bakshi, MD-Laxmikant Pyarelal
Lyrics (based on video clip):
koi ajnabi ee saa
wo insaan thhaa
mere dil mein
kal raat
mehmaan thhaa
badaa bewafaa thhaa
beimaan thhaa
mohabbat ki mujhko sazaa de gayaa
mohabbat ki mujhko sazaa de gayaa
kisi aur kaa wo zaalim pataa de gayaa
dagaa de gayaa
meraa yaar karke pyaar
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
mohabbat ki mujhko sazaa de gayaa
kisi aur kaa wo zaalim pataa de gayaa
dagaa de gayaa
meraa yaar karke pyaar
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
baaton baaton mein
chaandni raaton mein
chhand mulaa aa aakaaton mein
mere dil pe nazar ki chhuri chal gayi
mere dil pe nazar ki chhuri chal gayi
main to iss aag mein
jal gayi
jal gayi
main to iss aag mein
jal gayi
jal gayi
main tadapti rahoon baddua de gayaa
dil ke sholon ko aakar hawaa de gayaa
dagaa de gayaa
mera yaar karke pyaar
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
aane jaane mein aise zamaane
mein mausam suhaane mein
main to masti mein thhee
khaak main jaanti
main to masti mein thhee
khaak main jaanti
hosh hotaa to hargiz naa main maanti
hosh hotaa to hargiz naa main maanti
jaane kyaa le gayaa aur kyaa de gayaa
dard wo de gayaa yaa dawaa de gayaa
dagaa de gayaa
meraa yaar karke pyaar
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
mohabbat ki mujhko sazaa de gayaa
kisi aur kaa wo zaalim pataa de gayaa
dagaa de gayaa
meraa yaar karke pyaar
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
kahaan dhoondhoon kahaan jaaun
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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