Meree taraf zaraa dekho Kanhaiyya
Posted on: January 15, 2025
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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‘Teen Bahuraniyaan’ (1968) was produced and directed by S S Vasan and S S Balan under the banner of Gemini Films. The main cast included Prithviraj Kapoor, Ramesh Deo, Agha, Rajendranath, Sowcar Janaki, Kanchana, Jayanthi, Shashikala, with the supporting cast of Jagdeep, Dhumal, Vaishali, Lalita Pawar, Niranjan Sharma, Kanhaiyalal, Farida etc. The film was a remake of a Tamil film, ‘Bama Vijayam’ (1967). The roles of three daughters-in-law were enacted by the same actors as that in Tamil film. Later, a Marathi film, ‘Lapwa Chhapwi’ (1990) was made as a remake of ‘Teen Bahuraniyaan’ (1968) which was in the list of top 25 Hindi films released in 1968 in terms of box office success. This film can be put in the bucket of ‘Padosan’ (1968) and ‘Chupke Chupke’ (1975) as cult comedy films.
This was one of those films I had watched in the theatre as a part of almost every weekend routines in my younger days. It was fun to watch this film without any melodrama as was generally expected in the Hindi films from the South those days. The other surprise was that the film did not have any star actors of those days. Shashikala in the role of a film actress and Rajendranath in the role of one the three sons of Prithviraj Kapoor had fairly lengthy roles.
In most of the films, Rajendranath would usually get a role of a comedian side kick to the hero and that too in a sub-plot to the screenplay of the film without context to the story of the film. In ‘Teen Bahuraniyaan’ (1968), his role was the main part of the screenplay. It is one of his few films for which he must have got professional satisfaction. Apart from the length of his role, there was no need for Rajendranath in this film to resort to buffoonery types of comedy.
In one of the interviews of Rajendranath which journalist V Gangadharan had taken some time in 1997, he revealed that of all the roles he has done in about 250 films in his career, his role in ‘Teen Bahuraniyaan; (1968) was most satisfying one for him as an actor. He firmly believes that unless the comedian’s role is a part of the screenplay, he cannot create an impact on the audience. This interview sheds another light on Rajendranath. Contrary to the general perception about him, which may have been formed due to his image in the films, Rajendranath appears to be a well-articulated person who can talk on the varieties of subject.
In the same interview, which was conducted after his retirement from the films, Rajendranath also shared his experiences with Hindi film industry. After dropping out from the college in Rewa (now in Madhya Pradesh), he shifted to Mumbai sometime in 1947 and stayed with his elder brother, Premnath who wanted him to continue his college in Mumbai. Instead, he joined Prithviraj Kapoor’s Prithvi Theatre and worked for a long time in various capacity including doing side roles. In early 1950s, Rajendranath thought that with his elder brother’s status coupled with his brother-in-law being Raj Kapoor, he would get an easy entry in the films. But it was not as he thought.
It was only when Premnath asked Rajendranath to leave his house and made his stay arrangement in his second home in Juhu to learn to sustain independently, he started going round the studios to solicit work. Initially, he had to do bit roles in films including Premnath’s own films, ‘Shagoofa’ (1953) and ‘Prisoner of Golconda’ (1954). During this period, he gained understanding as to how Hindi film industry works. His small comic role in ‘Ham Sab Chor Hain’ (1956) gave him some limelight.
Finally, a day came when Shashidhar Mukherjee, who had left Filmistan and set up his new film production company, ‘Filmalaya’, offered Rajendranath a comedian’s role in ‘Dil Deke Dekho’ (1959) directed by Nasir Hussain. The film became a superhit and with this, Rajendranath got stamped as a comedian. When Nasir Hussain launched his own banner, Nasir Hussain Films, he selected Rajendranath for the comedian’s role for his first film as producer-director, ‘Jab Pyaar Kisi Se Hota Hai’ (1961). Rajendranath in the role of ‘Popatlal’ was so much appreciated by the film’s audience that he was identified by this name whenever he had to pass through the general public. In the TV Serial, ‘Ham Paanch’ (1995) in which he worked in a few episodes, his name in those episodes was Popatlal.
With these success, Rajendranath got assignments from some of the bigger banners like Prasad Productions, Navketan, AVM, Gemini, Bimal Roy Productions, Sunil Dutt’s Ajanta Arts, Sippy Films, in addition of Filmalaya and Nasir Hussain Films. He could successfully make his career as a comedian in the midst of competition from Johny Walker and Mehmood mainly because his style of comedy was different from them.
When Rajendranath was having the best days of his filmy career, in 1969, he met with a serious car accident requiring the hospitalisation for a long period. This affected his career as an actor. He decided to become producer which turned out to be a blunder. He did not have the experience of producing the film nor dealing with the people associated with film production. The result was that all money which he has borrowed got exhausted within 10 days from the start of the shooting. The film was abandoned.
With heavy debt, the creditors started pestering him. He had to accept whatever role he got as a comedian without bothering about script of the films to repay his loans. This is the reason that his latter films especially in the 1980s, he worked in record 85 films which were mostly listless as far as his roles were concerned. But with these roles, he repaid his outstanding debt.
Rajendranath’s filmy career ended by 1995. After about a decade of aloofness from the film industry, he passed away on February 13, 2008, due to cardiac arrest.
‘Teen Bahuraniyaan’ (1968) is the story of a middle-class joint family led by a patriarch and a retired teacher with his three married sons and the grandchildren. The family lives in a peaceful atmosphere. However, when a popular film actress buys the house in their neighbourhood, the peace and tranquility in the family is disturbed due to competitions among daughters-in-law and among sons as to who would be able to impress the actress the most. The ‘demonstration effect’ (a terminology used in economics) on the family creates an havoc on their financial conditions until the patriarch steps in to bring the joint family on the right path.
The film had five songs written by Anand Bakshi and set to music by Kalyanji-Anandji. Three songs have been covered on the Blog. I am presenting the 4th song, ‘meri taraf zaraa dekho kanhaiyaa’ rendered by Asha Bhosle and picturised on Jayanthi who is trying to impress her husband, Kanhaiyaa (Rajendranath), dancing with her new attire. Sowkar Janaki and Kanchana are peeping through curtains and watching her dance with their surprise expressions.
The context of the song is that each of the three daughter-in-law receive an anonymous letter in which one of their husbands, either Shankar (Agha), Ram (Ramesh Deo) or Kanhaiyyaa (Rajendranath) is alleged to have an affair with the film actress, Sheela Devi (Shashikala). All the three daughters-in-law seek guidance from their father-in-law (Prithviraj Kapoor) who advises them to have a proper control (वश) over their husbands. One of the daughter-in-law, Radha (Jayanthi) takes the literal meaning of वश and decide to entice her husband, Kanhaiyyaa by her new attire with a dance performance.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Meree taraf zara dekho Kanhaiyya (Teen Bahuraaniyaan)(1968) Singers-Asha Bhosle, Male Voice, Lyrics-Anand Bakshi, MD-Kalyanji Anandji
Lyrics:
meree taraf zaraa dekho kanhaiyaa
meree taraf zaraa dekho kanhaiyaa
radha se ban gayee reeta main kanhaiyaa
kanhaiyaa
ha aa
o kanhaiyaa
ha aa
kanhaiyaa
oh o
o kanhaiyaa
aa ha
meree taraf zaraa dekho kanhaiyaa
radha se ban gayee reeta main kanhaiyaa
kanhaiyaa
o kanhaiyaa
kanhaiyaa
o kanhaiyaa
badlee
teree nazren
main bhee aa gayee roop badal ke
haan haan
kaisee
hai ye dooree
mere paas to aa zaraa chal ke
naa baaba naa baaba
aajaa khelen pyaar kee holee
aankh michaulee
o hamjolee
hooooooo
haaaaaaa
meree taraf zaraa dekho kanhaiyaa
radha se ban gayee reeta main kanhaiyaa
kanhaiyyaa
ha haa
o kanhaiyaa
ho o
kanhaiyaa
haaa
o kanhaiyyaa
ari baaba ori baaba
ari baaba ori baaba
o baaba baabaaba
khoi
meree nindiyaa
tujhko bhee main sone naa dungee
kyun kyun
o balma
main tujhko
kisee aur kaa hone naa doongee
achchaa baaba
main teraa jee behlaaoongee
sharmaaoongee
muskaaoongee
hooooooo
hahahahaha
hahahaha
meree taraf zaraa dekho kanhaiyaa
radha se ban gayee reeta main kanhaiyaa
kanhaiyaa
haaaa
o kanhaiyyaa
ha haa
kanhaiyyaa
ho o
o kanhaiyaa
ha aa
main to
shabnam se
tere pyaar mein ban gayee sholaa
sholaa
reh gayee main jal ke
tu phir bhee hans ke naa bola
kyaa boloon
kyaa boloon
tu naa samjhaa mere ishaare
chaand sitaare
samjhen saare
hoi…..
meree taraf zaraa dekho kanhaiyaa
radha se ban gayee reeta main kanhaiyaa
kanhaiyaa
haan
o kanhaiya
arre haan
kanhaiyyaa
arre haan haan
o kanhaiyaa….aa
yeah haahaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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