Jamuna kinaare mero gaaon
Posted on: November 8, 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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Writing is a constant search for someone who understands it. I love literature but I would like to love it a hundred times more. I am not an angry young man. I am a hungry young man. I want to learn Kannada, Urdu, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu. I want to love literature in a hundred different ways. My only worry is that I cannot love it enough.
The relationship between Rabindranath Tagore and me is that of a donor and a forever unsatisfied solicitor (अतृप्त याचक).
Thus said P. L. Deshpande on his literary journey in Film’s Division’s documentary on his 60th birthday. What he said sums up his infinite love for literature.
Remembering today, P. L Deshpande, the cultural icon of Maharashtra on his 105th Birth anniversary. Pu La Deshpande (पु.ल. देशपांडे) as is affectionally known, was a multi-faceted personality – Marathi laureate, a humourist, a playwright and, the producer-director-writer-actor-music director-lyricist-singer in Marathi films and plays. I have been his great admirer since my younger days. Even though my knowledge of literary Marathi is not that great, I have enjoyed reading dozens of his Marathi books, articles and watched his many solo story-telling performances on TV. I had also watched his popular Marathi play, ‘Ti Phulrani’ (ती फुलराणी) in theatre in which, Satish Dubhashi and Bhakti Barve played the lead roles. The play was adapted from Gerorge Bernad Shaw’s English play ‘Pygmalion’ (1913).
Purushottam Laxman Deshpande (Pu La) was born on November 8, 1919, in the family of Gowd Saraswat Brahmin in Gamdevi, Bombay (Mumbai). His parental family belonged to Jangam Hatti village in Kolhapur district. They probably came here to work under the then royalties and got surname ‘Deshpande’ (Deshpande is the title given to a person who keeps revenue account of the territory). His maternal grandfather, Waman Mangesh Dubhashi was a Marathi poet, a writer and a social worker who was originally from Karwar and settled in Vile-Parle, then an outskirt of Mumbai.
Pu La Deshpande’s family shifted to Saraswat Baug in Jogeshwari, now in Mumbai. He had his schooling in Vile Parle’s Parle Tilak Vidyalaya and had his undergraduate studies in Ismail Yusuf College, Jogeshwari, Mumbai. He completed BA from Fergusson College, Pune, and LLB from Government Law College, Mumbai. Later, he completed his MA at Willingdon College, Sangli.
Pu La’s parents and grandparents were fond of music. With such an environment in the house, he developed a keen interest in listening to songs. His father bought him a harmonium and put him under Dattopant Rajopadhye of Bhaskar Sangeet Vidyalaya, Vile Parle for learning harmonium playing. Later, he started as a harmonium accompanist to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Pandit Vasantrao Deshpande and Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur. Simultaneously, he continued his academic pursuits. His early influence which shaped his interest towards acting, singing, music and writing were actor-singer, Bal Gandharva, Charli Chaplin, Marathi writer, Ram Ganesh Gadkari and Rabindranath Tagore.
The sudden death of Pu La’s father sometime in 1950 put responsibility of running the household on him for which he had to look for a permanent source of income. He had started working in Marathi films and plays in various capacity. During 1947-54, he was associated with around 25 Marathi films. He got a job as a clerk in Income-Tax Office in Mumbai. However, his interest was on music. He would invariably leave his desk and visit a floor above his office where some well-known singers used to come there for rehearsal and recording of songs.
After leaving the clerical job, for sustenance, he worked as a professor in Rani Parvati Devi College, Belgaum (Belagavi) and thereafter in Kirti College, Mumbai while simultaneously pursuing his interest in writing, theatres and music. In 1958, he joined All India Radio, Mumbai as drama producer for 2 years during which time, he was sent for training to BBC for introducing TV broadcasting in India.
The success of his one-man play of 3 hours named ‘Batatyachi Chawl’ in 1961 was a turning point in Pu La’s career. All the fictional characters in the play was performed by Pu La himself. This show ran for nearly 14 years. His other popular Marathi plays included ‘Amaldaar’, ‘Tujha Aahe Tujhpaashi’, ‘Asaa Mee Assami’, ‘Sundar Mee Honar’ (Hindi film, ‘Aaj Aur Kal’, 1963 was based on this play) etc.
Sometime in 1970s, Pu La realised that he has yet to start going through Rabindranath Tagore’s literary works and to understand his works, it would be necessary for him to have a good knowledge of Bengali. He visited Shantiniketan and stayed there for a few months to learn Bengali. He revisited Shantiniketan two more times during which he traveled to the nearby villages. The visits to Shantiniketan culminated in his work of Marathi translation of many Bengali poems written by Rabindranath Tagore.
Pu La Deshpande has written and published about 60 books comprising fictions, non-factions, dramas, articles, travelogues etc during his life time. His book, ‘Vyakti Ani Valli’ earned him the Sahitya Akademy Award in 1965. He was also awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademy Award in 1968. He was the recipient of many awards including Padma Bhushan and honorary doctorate in literature from Rabindra Bharati University. .
Pu La married Sundar Diwadkar, daughter of his father’s close friend in 1940. However, she died within a few months of the marriage. In 1945, he fell in love with Sunita Thakur, actor, writer, freedom fighter and the daughter of a Ratnagiri lawyer. At that time, both of them were teachers in Orient High School, Mumbai. They got married in June 1946. They did not have any children. But they treated Sunita’s nephew, Dinesh Thakur as their own son. Pu La always gave credit to his wife for nurturing his creative works through her efforts as a guide and manager.
In mid-90s, Pu La and his wife Sunita Deshpande set up Pu La Deshpande Foundation with a initial corpus of Rs.10 lakhs and with earnings of royalties and commission from sale of his books and copyrights. Pu La Deshpande, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease towards the end, breathed his last in Pune on June 12, 2000. Incidentally the date coincided with his 54th wedding anniversary.
Sometime in 2018, Mahesh Manjrekar decided to make a Marathi film on Pu La Deshpande covering some important events in his life. From the books he read, he had earmarked about 60 events in his life. But it was too much to cover in the normal length of the film. So, he shortlisted a few key events for the film titled, ‘Bhai – Vyakti Kee Valli’ (2019) which he directed and also co-produced with Viacom-18. The title of the film was inspired from his most popular book, ‘Vyakti Aani Valli’ (Person and Creeper).
After the final editing, the film was still lengthy with a duration of over 3:30 hours. So, the film was released in two parts with a gap of one month. The first part was released on January 4, 2019, and the second part on February 8, 2019. Incidentally, 2019 was Pu La’s birth centenary year.
I had watched part-1 of the film in the theatre when it was released. I watched part-2 of the film on a video sharing platform after a long time. I was not disappointed with the film but those who had gone to watch the film as a biopic of Pu La may have been disappointed. Pu La’s public persona was so large that it would be impossible to make a biopic film within a normal-length film.
Director Mahesh Manjrekar seems to be very clear about covering in the film, Pu La’s keen interest of being a part of mehfils of his close friends at any time. The film has covered two such mehfils of long duration of about 10 minute each. I am presenting one of the very popular traditional Dadra songs, ‘Jamuna kinaare mero gaon’ which has been recreated for the film by Music director Ajit Parab in its original format, composed by Pandit Kumar Gandharv.
The origin of this Dadra is said to be one of the folk songs of Malwa region. Pandit Kumar Gandharv suitably molded the folk song in the genre of Hindustani semi-classical music in Raag Maanj Kamaj. Pandit Kumar Gandharva had spent nearly 4 decades in Dewas (Madhya Pradesh), a part of Malwa region. Later on, this Dadra was also rendered by other eminent Hindustani classical vocalists like Pandit Vasantrao Deshpande, Vidushi Prabha Atre, Pandit Mukul Shivaputra (son of Pandit Kumar Gandharva), Kaushiki Chakraborty (Daughter of Pandit Ajay Chakraborty), Rahul Deshpande (grandson of Pandit Vasantrao Deshpande) etc in their own style.
The background to the song under discussion is that Bhimsen Joshi (Ajay Purkar) and Vasantrao Deshpande (Padmanabh Bind) decided to have drink together and the task of bringing the drink has been given to Pu La. Absent-mindedly, Pu La picks up almost an empty bottle due to the darkness in his house and hands over to them. Bhimsen Joshi, in desperation, says that he has now lost interest in drinking. Instead, he is in the mood to sing. But where to find a place for singing in the night is the moot point.
Bhimsen Joshi hires a taxi and all the three reach the house of Champutai (Veena Jamkar). They hears the faint sound of the Dadra song, ‘Jamuna kinaare mero gaaon’ rendered by Kumar Gandharv (Swanand Kirkire) when they are at the downstairs of her house. By the way, among her close circles, Vidushi Heerabai Barodekar is known as Champutai.
After seeing the trio, Kumar Gandharav pauses his singing and welcomes them. The trio are disappointed as to why they were not invited to his mehfil. Kumar explains that he had come to enquire about Champutai’s wellbeing. Having visited her, she insisted on him to sing. He then invites all three to join him in the mehfil. He continues the remaining part of the Dadra during which Vasantrao Deshpande joins him singing the mukhda. After this Dadra, they sing many more songs before winding up the mehfil.
What a coincidence! The playback singer for Swanand Kirkire in the role of Kumar Gandharva is Bhuvanesh Komkali, the grandson of Pandit Kumar Gandharva. The playback singer for Padmanabh Bind in the role of Vasantrao Deshpande is Rahul Deshpande, the grandson of Pandit Vasantrao Deshpande.
I have also given the video link of the full Dadra rendered by its original composer, Pandit Kumar Gandharv in an private baithak (get together).
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Acknowledgement: Pu La Deshpande’s profile is mainly based on Film Division’s documentary film on him in which he himself gave account of his life journey on attaining his 60th birthday. Some information is also taken from the memoirs of Pu La’s wife, Sunita Deshpande in Marathi, ‘Aahe Manohar Tari’ (Yes, Charming But…) published in 1990.
Video Clip from the film:
Song-Jamuna kinaare mero gaaon (Bhai Vyakti Kee Valli)(Marathi)(2019) Singers-Bhuvanesh Komkali, Rahul Deshpande , MD-Ajit Parab
Chorus
Lyrics
mal mal ke…….ae ae ae
mal mal ke main asnaan karaawahun
mal mal ke main asnaan karaawahun
ghis ghis chandan
ghis ghis chandan ghor lagaaun
ghis ghis chandan ghor lagaaun
pooja karoon subah aur shaa…m
maakhan khaat jaiyyo saanwre
maakhan khaat jaiyyo saanwre
saanwre aai jaiyyo
saanwre aai jaiyyo
ho o o Jamuna kinaare mero gaaon
o o o Jamuna kinaare mero gaaon
saanwre aai jaiyyo
ssanwre
saanwre aai jaiyyo
saanwre
saanwre aai jaiyyo
saanwre
saanwre aai jaiyyo
saanwre
3 Responses to "Jamuna kinaare mero gaaon"
November 14, 2024 at 11:29 am
Sadanand Ji
Thanks for this excellent post on Pu La Deshpande. Though I come from a non Marathi back ground , from time to time I had a limited exposure to PU La Deshpande.
Your post made me fully aware of his persona. A keepsake write up for repeated reading.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 8, 2024 at 7:03 am
Sadanand ji,
Thanks for a very good post on my favourite writer and an all rounder.
even after so many years, his books give the same pleasure after reading them.
Thanks again.
-AD
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November 8, 2024 at 10:49 am
Arun ji,
Thanks for your comment. I am glad to know that Pu La Deshpande is your favourite writer also.
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