Mhaare aangan lachchmee padhaaree re
Posted on: November 11, 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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‘Sanshodhan’ (1996) was jointly produced by NDFC and UNICEF and was directed by Govind Nihalani who was also the Cinematographer for the film. The main cast comprising of Manoj Vajpayee, Vanya Joshi, Lalit Parimoo, Anupam Shyam, Uttara Baokar, Utkarsha Naik, Kavita Rairath, Harish Khanna, Ashutosh Rana, Kishore Kadam etc.
Uttara Baokar, one of the actors in the film, has kept herself in a low profile career. She has been mainly associated with Hindi theatres. She had also worked in Hindi films, mostly of parallel and the ‘middle of the road’ types of films, donning the roles of elderly woman. The first time I watched her in a film was ‘Tamas’ (1988), a Tele-film directed by Govind Nihalani. I used to wonder as to how a Maharashtrian girl has been majorly associated with Hindi theatre and films.
Uttara Baokar (05/08/1944 – 12/04/2023) was born in Kolhapur in Maharashtra but she spent a major part of her life in New Delhi’s Karol Baug. Her father worked in LIC at New Delhi office. She had an interest in becoming a Hindustanis classical singer for which she had started learning. During the annual Ganeshotsav organised by the Maharashtrians staying in Karol Baug, Uttara Baokar used to get the role of singer-actor in ‘sangeet natak’ (musical play). Her ultimate goal was to work in the professional Marathi musical plays in Mumbai.
After passing B.A. from Delhi, Uttara Baokar joined Dev Vaani Sanstha, an amateur theater group as a singer for their Sanskrit musical play which sometime used to get broadcasted on AIR, Delhi. In one of her Sanskrit plays, Ebrahim Alkazi, a noted theatre director and a teacher noticed her performance and suggested her to join the National School of Drama (NSD) where he was also a teacher. Uttara Baokar joined NSD on his advice in 1965. Her batchmate included Surekha Sikri, Prema Karanth, Savita Bajaj among others. While in NSD, her first major role was that of Priyamvada in ‘Abhigyana Shakuntala’ which was directed by her mentor, Ebrahim Alkazi.
After graduating from NSD in 1968, Uttara Baokar’s career took a decisive turn from being a singer to an actor which she has never planned. She joined NSD Repertory Company in 1968 as an actor. The Company presented works of various playwrights and directors who have been associated with it from time to time. Uttara Baokar was associated with the Company from 1968 to 1987 during which she acted in many professional plays including ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’ directed by Ebrahim Alkazi. ‘Tuglaq’ directed by Girish Karnad, ‘Umrao Jaan’, ‘Chhote Saiyad Bade Saiyad’, ‘Bivion Ka Madarsa’, ‘Begum Ka Takiya’, ‘Aadhe Adhure’, ‘Andha Yug’ etc. In 1984, she won Sangeet Natak Akademy Award as a performing artist of Hindi theatre.
Uttara Baokar commenced her filmy journey with a small role in ‘Aadharsheela’ (1982). It was her second film, ‘Tamas’ (1988), where she got a recognition for performance in the role of Jasbir which was originally offered to Smita Patil but could not accept due to her pregnancy. This was followed by Mrinal Sen’s ‘Ek Din Achanak’ (1989) for which she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. Sometime in mid-1990s, Uttara Baokar shifted to Mumbai and started getting good elderly roles in the films like ‘Sardaari Begum’ (1996), ‘Thakshak’ (1997). ‘Dor’ (2006), ‘Aaja Nachle’ (2007), ‘Island City’ (2015), ‘Sandhya Chhaaya’ (2018) etc. She worked in a Marathi film, ‘Uttaraayan’ (2004) which won the National Film Award for the best Marathi film. She also acted in Hindi TV Serials like ‘Udaan’ (1989), ‘Rishtey’ (1998), ‘Kora Kaagaz’ (1998), ‘Antraal’ (1999), ‘Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi’ (2005),‘Kashmakash Zindagi Ki’(2006) etc.
Uttara Baokar passed away on June 12, 2023, at a Pune hospital following a prolonged illness at the age of 79.
Coming back to ‘Sanshodhan’ (1996), the film is set in a village in Rajasthan where the affluent people control the village politics through their hold on Gram Panchaayat. The film exposes the ground realities in the village despite the passing of Constitution Amendment Act (1992) in parliament, mandating the reservation of 1/3rd of seats for women in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and in urban local bodies. The Gram Panchayat of the village implements the affirmative actions by nominating 1/3rd seats for women for election in a farcical way. In place of 3 male members, it is their wives who have filed nominations so that their husbands of the women hold de facto powers in the Gram Panchayat. However, one woman member of the Panchaayat turns out to be an exception who finds that the empowerment of the women is only on paper. The decision-making is still in the hands of the old guards with patriarchal mindset.
The story of the film is as under:
In a village in Rajasthan, the Gram Panchaayat is controlled by the Sarpanch (Vineet Kumar) with nine male members, all being his cronies. In one of the meetings of Gram Panchaayat, the Sarpanch reads out the Government notification that a third of the seats in Panchaayat must be women, including people in schedules caste and tribes. Sarpanch requests BDO (Block Development Officer) present in the meeting to notify the election date for the members of Gram Panchaayat to let the women run for the election to elect 3 reserve seats for them.
After the meeting gets over, the Sarpanch decides not to stand for the election but asks his son, Inder Singh (Lalit Parimoo) and his wife, Manju (Kavita Rairath) to file the nomination papers. However, Inder is not in favour of his wife standing for the election as she is pregnant and also it would appear odd that two persons from the same family are contestants. As an alternative, Inder asks the wife of another Panchaayat member as well as Vidya (Vanya Joshi), the wife of a small shop keeper, Bhanwar (Manoj Bajpayee), who is his close friend. Bhanwar is indebted to Inder because he had helped in his college fees. In this way, Sarpanch and his son, Inder hope to control the women through their respective husbands, and rule over the Panchayat as they have done before.
After attending a couple of meetings of the newly elected Gram Panchaayat and meeting other villagers, Vidya learns from Mahisa (Utkarsha Naik), a daily wage-earner that a school which was under construction has been left incomplete as Sarpanch on whose land the school was to be built with Govt. funds, deliberately left it incomplete so that after some time, he can use that as a godown. Vidya raises question as to the end use of the fund for school as she fears that funds for school were misappropriated. She also asks the Sarpanch to call for a meeting Gram Panchayat in which all the villagers can voice their concerns and grievances. It is at this juncture that Sarpanch and Inder decide to influence Bhanwar to control Vidya from raising uncomfortable queries in the Panchaayat meetings.
Despite being an elected member of the Gram Panchaayat, Vidya is pressured and publicly insulted by her husband, Bhanwar for not obeying the Sarpanch’s direction. There are attempts to intimidate Vidya when most of the villagers rally around her. Her close friend, Manju, Sarpanch’s wife is trapped in an oppressive marriage, and she becomes a moot spectator. In desperation, she leaves her husband, Inder’s house to stay at her maternal village. It is Vidya’s mother-in-law (Uttara Baokar) who stands by her even at the cost of earning displeasure of her son, Bhanwar. Despite all the obstacles, Vidya gets supports from villagers – both females and males. At the end, the misdeeds of Sarpanch and his cronies are exposed in front of villagers. Sarpanch tenders his resignation. The construction of the school building is completed, and the school starts functioning with children of the village attending the school which they were deprived of for a long time.
Knowing the subject of the film, I was skeptical about the film as the subject was likely to become dull for the audience. Thanks to the master craftsman, Govind Nihalani, he turned the film into a feminist one without being preachy. I found the film interesting to watch without any dull moment. All the main characters in the film have performed well.
One of the most interesting scenes in the film which shows the dominance of patriarchy is that Bhanwar gives some documents to Vidya to sign which she does without reading. He gives the signed documents back to Sarpanch which is her nomination papers as a candidate for Gram Panchaayat election. In fact, Bhanwar does not feel it necessary to tell his wife that these documents are her nomination papers. She comes to know of it only when she watches an election campaigning procession passing by her house when she finds to her dismay that her name has been displayed on a placard requesting villagers to vote for her.
‘Sanshodhan’ (1996) had two songs written by Suryabhanu Gupt which were set to music by Vishal Bhardwaj. I am presenting the first song from the film, ‘mhaare aangan lachchmi padhhari re’ to appear on the Blog. The song is rendered by Pt. Sanjeev Abhyankar, who is the Hindustani classical vocalist and the disciple of Pt. Jasraj belonging to Mewati Gharana. The tune of the song appears to be based on some Rajasthani folk song.
The film starts with this song when the newly married college graduate, Vidya (Vanya Joshi) and Bhanwar (Manoj Bajpayee) are on their way to her husband’s house in a village of Rajasthan. After reaching home, the bride and groom are received by groom’s mother (Uttara Baokar) after which they play a fun game symbolising as to who is going to be more powerful in their married life by finding the ring in the milk pool.
Acknowledgement: The profile of Uttara Baokar is mainly based on her interview which appeared on a Rajya Sabha TV programme, ‘Guftagoo’.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Mhaare aangan lachchmee padhaaree re (Sanshodhan)(1996) Singer-Pt. Sanjeev Abhyankar, Lyrics-Suryabhanu Gupt, MD-Vishal Bhardwaj
Chorus
Lyrics:
mhaare aangan lachchmee padhaaree re…. ae ae ae
hey hey hey
mhaare aangan lachchmee padhaaree re ae
hey ae
jaagyo jaagyo bhaag hamaaro re ae
jaagyo jaagyo bhaag hamaaro re ae
mhaare aangan lachchmee padhaaree re.. ..ae ae
hey hey hey
mhaare aangan lachchmee padhaaree re ae
hey
soorat suhaagan kee
dhaanee dhaanee dhoop see
man mohe mohinee
laal laal roop kee
hey man mohe mohinee
laal laal roop kee
aayee maruthal mein hariyaalee re….ae ae ae
hey hey hey
mhaare aangan lachchmee padhaaree re… ae
hey
legee bhent sooraj kee
aartee karaayee main
aartee karaayee main
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm
hmm hmm
chandrmaa wo paavegee
aaj munh dikhaayee mein
chandrmaa wo paavegee
aaj munh dikhaayee mein
dulhaniyaa jag se nyaaree re…..ae ae
hey hey hey
mhaare aangan lachchmee padhaaree re… ae
hey ae
jaagyo jaagyo bhaag hamaaro re ae
jaagyo jaagyo bhaag hamaaro re ae
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 13, 2024 at 2:47 pm
Sadanand Ji
Thanks for the post detailing career of Uttara Baokar.
Like you, I also first noticed he in her impactful role in ‘Tamas’.
I did not know she acted in that many movies and TV shows.
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