Dishaa haaraa kemon bokaa mon taa re
Posted on: February 9, 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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I had not much thought about the film ‘Looteraa’ (2013) when it was released. At that time, I was not even aware of the main cast of the film. So, my first impression from the title of the film was that it may be of an upgraded version of ‘B’ grade films of 1950s and 60s type with the use of the latest technological advancements in moviemaking. After more than a decade, the film has come to my attention because of one of its songs, sanwaar loon haay sanwaar loon which I have come across the recent times in short video reels. The full video song made me to watch the film.
The film is technically superb with a delicate and heart-touching love story between an archaeologist and a Zamindar’s only daughter which is set in a village in West Bengal in early 1950s. It was a time when the zamindari system was in the verge of getting abolished. The archaeologist, Varun (Ranveer Singh) is on a visit to the village to excavate a temple ground of Zamindar’s estate. Zamindar’s daughter, Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha). After an accidental encounter with him, Pakhi is impressed by his presence in the village as she has seen for the first time an outside visitor. She also likes his paintings. Varun is impressed by her knowledge on literature. Thus starts a tender loving relationship between the two with an old-time charm. Their relation culminates into marriage with the fixing of marriage date. However, after his uncle’s sermons as well as from his friend, Varun is caught in a bind between her love for Pakhi and his criminal past. Finally, he decides to leave her alone from his past. So, a day before his marriage with her, Varun disappears with the stolen valuables from the Zamindar’s family.
After a heartbreak followed by her struggle to come out of Varun’s betrayal, Pakhi moves on with her life. After the death of her father, Pakhi who is suffering from tuberculosis, moves to a house in Dalhousie with her maid. Over a period of time, she has forgotten Varun. But one day he returns when he has to take the shelter in her house to get away from a team of police which are after him. This time, they meet in extra-ordinary situations. While Pakhi is suffering from tuberculosis on a terminal stage, Varun who has come to Dalhousie with his criminal intent, stays on to take care of Pakhi, once she decides not to report to the police. Varun tends her to recover from her illness by motivating her. Once again, Pakhi develops affinity towards Varun. When he feels that Pakhi has fully recovered from her illness, Varun decides to leave her house. Before that, he ties his realistically painted leaf on the tree. On his return, he is surrounded by the police. Varun gets killed in a police encounter.
The film is inspired from O Henry’s short story, ‘The last Leaf’ (1907) and this has been acknowledged in the credit title. In this story, an artist saves the life of his neighbouring artist from pneumonia by giving her hope and motivating to live. The suffering girl sees a creeper from her window, shedding leaves every day. She thinks that once the last leaf from the creeper falls, she would die. However, the last leaf does not fall for few days. The girl recovers from her illness. Later, she comes to know that her neighbouring painter has realistically painted a leaf and had tied on the creeper when the last real leaf had fallen. The painter himself dies of pneumonia. The metaphor of falling leaves in the autumn and the last leaf remaining on the tree has been used in the film under discussion.
The last scene of the film is heart-wrenching when Varun, in a snowy night goes atop a tree and ties a leaf painted by him. On his return, he sees armed police team. He walks towards them with a smiling face and gets killed by a bullet fired by a policeman. His smiling face indicates that before getting killed, he is happy that has saved Pankhi. When Pankhi sees in the morning the last leaf still there on the tree, she is surprised. She goes near the tree and realises what Varun has done, giving her hope to live before he disappeared. The film ends with Pankhi looking at the painted leaf with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.
Director, Vikramaditya Motwane has superbly brought out the essence of the rural based love story, supported by the excellent performances of Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha, Barun Chandra in the role of Zamindar and Vikrant Massey in the role of Varun’s friend. I will put this film in the category of the ‘middle of the road’ – something between art and mainstream cinemas.
‘Looteraa’ (2013) has six songs written by Amitabh Bhattacharya which have been set to music by Amit Trivedi. One song has been covered on the Blog. I am presenting the 2nd song, ‘dishaa haaraa kemon bokaa montaa re’, a Bengali refrain used in this song in the context of love. The meaning of this refrain is that the how heart (mon) has become stupid (bokaa) and directionless (dishaa haaraa). The song also ends with a couple of lines in Bengali probably to give a Bengali flavour to the song because the story of the film is set in the Bengal of early 1950s.
This is a background song which is rendered by Swanand Kirkire with Amitabh Bhattacharya singing the repeat lines and the Bengali lines at the end. The song is greatly influenced by Bengal’s Baul form of folk music – a devotional music in praise of the God which lends the song under discussion the spiritual element. The prelude, interludes and end-music is predominantly played on Dotara (two-string musical instrument) and probably, Duggi (a type of percussion) which traditional Baul singers generally play while singing the devotional songs. The quality of the sound produced by Dotara in the song indicates that music director, Amit Trivedi may have used Dotara with four strings which are currently used by professional musicians.
The background of the song is that Pankhi (Sonakshi Sinha) has come to meet Varun (Ranveer Singh) during which they discuss their likings. Suddenly, Varun becomes serious and he decides to drive Pankhi back to her house. During the drive, she gets ill and Varun drops her in the presence of her father. As usual, the next day, she waits for him to come to her house to teach painting to her. But he does not come. The reason is that Varun’s friend has advised that with his criminal background, he has no future in this relationship. Varun is in dilemma whether to go ahead with his relationship or should break the relationship. The song ends as Pankhi is visiting Varun’s camp office asking him as to why he did not turn up to her house. Varun does not reply. The song captures her emotional upheaval as she is in dilemma. Her heart infested with love has become directionless as Varun has suddenly become indifferent to her.
I liked the audio clip using the video montages from the film more than the video clip showing the actual song track because the essence of the lyrics of the song is well reflected in the video montages.
Audio Clip:
Video Clip:
Song-Dishaa haaraa kemon bokaa mon taa re (Looteraa)(2013) Singers-Swanand Kirkire, Amitabha Bhattacharya, Lyrics-Amitabh Bhattacharya, MD-Amit Trivedi
Lyrics (Based on Audio Clip):
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
kaagaz ke do pankh leke
udaa chalaa jaaye re
jahaan naheen jaana thhaa
ye waheen chalaa haaye re
umar kaa ye taanaa baanaa
samajh naa paaye re
zubaan pe jo moh maayaa
namak lagaaye re
ke dekhe naa bhaale naa jaane naa daayre
dishaa haaraa kemon bokaa
mon taa re
kaagaz ke do pankh leke
udaa chalaa jaaye re
jahaan naheen jaanaa thhaa
ye waheen chalaa haaye re
umar kaa ye taanaa baanaa
samajh naa paaye re
zubaan pe jo moh maaya
namak lagaaye re
ke dekhe naa bhaale naa jaane naa daayre
dishaa haaraa kemon bokaa
mon taa re
dhi ta na
dhi ta na
fateh kare kile saare bhed jaaye deewaaren
prem koi sendh laage
sendh laage re laage
agar magar baaree baaree
jiyaa ko yoon uchhaale
jiyaa naheen gend laage
gend laage re laage
maatee ko ye chandan saa
maathe pe sajaaye re
zubaan pe jo moh maaya namak lagaaye re
ke dekhe naa bhaale na jaane na daayre
dishaa haaraa kemon bokaa
mon taa re
pranpaakhee mor
ujraa jaa….ye
khanchaa theke
peereet boro
jwaala re..ae
boro
jwaala re..ae
pranpaakhee mor
ujraa jaa….ye
khanchaa theke
4 Responses to "Dishaa haaraa kemon bokaa mon taa re"
February 15, 2025 at 5:17 pm
good post on a lovely song Kamathji
I have seen only the last part of this film and love the “sanwaar loon” song for its picturisation. Actually, both the actors -Sonakshi & Ranveer were appreciated for their acting. They got awards for this film
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 13, 2025 at 2:55 pm
Nice Post Sir jee. Enjoyed reading it a lot. I have not watched this movie. And became aware of this song only through my daughters and the music reality shows where the participants used to sing it. Thanks for the details about the story of this movie and its presentation on screen.
Regards,
Avinash
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February 13, 2025 at 9:18 pm
Thanks Avinash ji for liking the post.
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