Taakat raah kamalnainan kab se
Posted by: Atul on: January 30, 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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‘Sitamgar’ (1958) was a Hindi dubbed version of Tamil film, ‘Uthama Puthiran’ (Perfect Son, 1958) which was produced by S Krishnamoorthy, T Govindrajan and C V Sridhar under the banner of Venus Pictures and was directed by T Prakash Rao. The cast included Sivaji Ganesan, Padmni, M R Radha, Ragini, Kannamba, M N Nambiar, K V Thangavelu, Helen, Reeta and Chandra etc. The Tamil film itself was a remake of another Tamil film of the same name released in 1940. This film was loosely based on the third part, ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’ (1847) of Alexander Dumas’s novel ‘The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later’. The Tamil version of the film was a box office hit which put Sivaji Ganesan in Super Star league among the Tamil film actors.
There are some trivia associated with ‘Uthama Puthiran’ (1958), two of which I found interesting. First, ‘Uthama Puthiran’ (1958) was Sivaji Ganesan’s first dual role. When Venus Pictures announced the making of this film in a newspaper, on the same day, M G Ramchandran had also announced the making of the film on the same story with the same title and on the same newspaper, probably to score over Shivaji Ganesan for having his first double role. Eventually, M G Ramchandra did not go ahead with making the film.
The second trivia was that this was the first Tamil film in which zoom technique for filming was used albeit in a bizarre way. Cinematographer A Vincent was picturing the romantic song on Sivaji Ganesan and Padmini at Brindavan Gardens in Mysore. He observed that a man of French origin among the crowd of watchers was simultaneously filming the same shot on his camera in which the lens on it began to move backwards. When asked by the director about the lens movements, he said that his camera has a technology which can project the objects closer than they actually are. When he showed the portion he had shot with his zoom camera, he was requested to give them the clip so that they can use in the song. After returning to his country, the Frenchman processed the clip and sent it to one of the crew members of the film which was used in the song. That shot is one in which Sivaji Ganesan and Padmini are seen in a close-up. (Sources: ’56 years of Uthama Puthiran…..’ by Sujatha Narayan on filmcompanion and Logesh Balachandran in ‘India Today’, March 31, 2020).
As mentioned earlier, the film was based on Alexander Dumas novel. During the reign of Louis XIV in France, there was a mysterious prisoner who was jailed for a long period with his face masked so that his identity was kept hidden. Hence, no one knew at that time as to who he was. There were many assumptions about the prisoner. One of them was by the legendary French philosopher and writer, Voltaire who wrote that the man in the iron mask was an illegitimate brother of Emperor Louis XIV who kept the look-alike brother in the iron mask so that he would not cause problems for him and France. In ‘Uthama Puthiran’ (1958), cinematic liberty was taken to present the story in the Indian setting.
Unfortunately, the VCD/DVD of Hindi version film, ‘Sitamgar’ (1958) is not available for watching on any of the video sharing platforms. I have watched a major portion of Tamil version of the film without the facility of English sub-title but with the plot in the mind which I have read on Wikipedia, the story of the film is visualised as under:
In the kingdom of Malarpuri, the Queen (Kannamba) is pregnant but her brother and the army commander, Naganathan (M N Nambiar) is not happy because he has his eye on the throne. So, when the Queen delivers a boy, Naganathan declares the boy dead but actually he passes on the boy to a maid servant to dispose of. However, immediately, thereafter, the Queen delivers another boy by which time, a King’s Minister has arrived. So, the second boy survives. The maid servant, instead of killing the first new born boy, takes him to a distant forest and raises him as her own son. The twin grow up separately, the first as Parthiban (Sivaji Ganesan), the good son raised by the maid servant and the second, Vikraman (Sivaji Ganesan in double role)
King Pandiyan (M K Radha) is seriously ill. He appoints Naganathan as the guardian of Crown Prince Vikraman and issues orders to him to take care of the Crown Prince. However, with his ultimate aim of getting himself as the King of Malarpuri, Naganathan introduces Vikraman to all kinds of vices and he becomes drunkard and womaniser so that he becomes dependent and subservient to him. After the death of King Pandiyan, Vikraman becomes the king with administrative controls to Naganathan.
One day, Parthiban while strolling in the forest saves a girl who turns out to be Amuthavalli (Padmini), when she loses the control of her chariot. She is the daughter of a minister in Malarpuri. They fall in love and occasionally Parthiban makes nocturnal visits to her palace. Once Amuthavalli comes across Vikraman to whom she mistakes him to be Parthiban. Vikraman likes her and tells Naganathan to fix his marriage with her. Amutha does not accept the proposal. In one of his night visits to the palace to meet Amutha, Parthiban encounters Vikraman and his mother Queen. From the maid servant, the Queen comes to know that Parthiban was her son. She tells Vikraman to accept him as his brother.
Vikraman, his mind poisoned by his uncle, fights Parthiban and defeats him, later clamping an iron mask on his face and locks him up in the prison. But through some strategies, Parthiban escapes. He reaches Vikraman and forces him into the same prison, thus the same iron mask is put on Vikraman’s face this time. Parthiban then puts on Vikraman’s clothes and acts as the King, without prison guards’ knowledge. Vikraman (dressed as Parthiban) is trapped in the prison. Days have passed, Vikraman with his personal sign makes it known to one of the prison guards that he is King Vikraman who gets him released. Vikraman and Parthiban and their respective forces have long sword fights during which Naganathan gets killed. When defeat becomes certain, Vikraman escapes on his horse chariot towards the forest. Parthiban follows him on his horse mainly with a view to make him surrender. But one of the wheels on his chariot gets loosened, losing his control. His chariot falls into a deep valley and he dies. Parthiban is crowned the new King of Malarpuri with new Queen Amutha.
One of the highlights of the film is the dual role of Sivaji Ganesan – Vikraman, the bad son and Parthiban, the good son. Sivaji Ganesan probably knew that his role of Parthiban would be drawing sympathy from the audience. So, it was challenging for him to make his role of Vikraman likeable in the minds of the audience. And he has succeeded at least in my mind. In fact, I liked his performance in the role of Vikraman more than Parthiban.
‘Sitamgar’ (1958) had nine songs written by Sajjan Bihari (8) and Qamar Jalalabadi (1). The tunes of all the songs and orchestration thereof which were used in the Tamil version have been retained in the songs for its Hindi version. The music director for the Tamil version was G Ramanath. Music director. B N Bali just got them recorded with Hindi film playback singers for the Hindi version. Hence, the music director for the Hindi version has been accredited to G Ramnath-B N Bali. Four songs have been covered on the Blog.
I am presenting the 5th song, ‘taakat raah kamalnayan kab se’ which is rendered by Asha Bhosle using the words of Sajjan Bihari. The Tamil version of this song was rendered by P Leela. It is a Radha-Krishna song and Asha Bhosle has rendered the raagmala song in Carnatic classical music style. This dance song is picturised on Padmini and Ragini. Sivaji Ganesan as Vikraman, M N Nambiar, Kannamba among others are present in the song picturisation.
The context of the song in the film’s story is that ever since Vikraman (Sivaji Ganesan) has seen Amutha (Padmini), he wants to marry her. Naganathan puts a word with the Queen to seek consent of Amutha’s mother for the marriage. During their visit, a dance programme of Amutha with her sister (Ragini) as Krishna in the house is arranged for Vikraman, Queen and Naganathan. The song is symbolic of Radha-Krishna theme in which Amutha’s Krishna is Parthiban who is waiting for her in the forest.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Taakat raah kamalnainan (Sitamgar)(1958) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Sajan Bihari, MD-G Ramnathan-B N Bali
Lyrics (Based on Video Clip):
taakat raah kamalnainan
kab se
taakat raah kamalnainan
kab se
taakat raah kamalnainan
chhalak chhalak dhoondhey chhanik chhanik
mohe piyaa
taakat raah kamalnainan
chhalak chhalak dhoondhey chhanik chhanik
mohe piyaa
taakat raah kamalnainan
baat johey nadee pe abhee bhor bhaye se
baat johey nadee pe abhee bhor bhaye se
?? adhar khole
phool samaan van mein Raadhe
nirkhe Kaanha
taakat raah kamalnainan
kokil gunjan sunaa mann
kokil gunjan sunaa mann
ae ae ae
muralee kee ab dhun tu
chhede kaahe kis kaaran
kokil gunjan sunaa mann
ae ae ae
muralee kee ab dhun tu
chhede kaahe kis kaaran
kokil gunjan sunaa mann
jaaye mere praaaa…..n
aa aa aa aa aaaa aaa
aa aa aa aa aaaa aa aa aa
jaaye mere praan
jaaye mere praan
jaaye mere praan
de de gaagar tore paavn padoon
maan
jaaye mere praan
de de gaagar tore paavn padoon
maan
khoye gayo sudhi raadhe
chhavi banaaye ang ang
taakat raah kamalnainan
chhedan aa gayo
haay
karen kya hum
chhedan aa gayo
haay
karen kya hum
veena kee lay pe sun ke
preet ?? mere mann
veena kee lay pe sun ke
preet ?? mere mann
chhedan aa gayo
haay
karen kya hum
maare baaaan
hriday komal kare singaar
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
maare baan
hriday komal kare singaar
kahe mohan maare baan
hriday komal
kare singaar
kahe mohan
naajuk main
dekh ??
daabe pag morey
nritya naaheen kar band
taakat raah kamalnainan
chhalak chhalak dhoondhey chhanik chhanik
mohe piyaa
taakat raah kamalanainan
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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