Kehtaa hai mera dil
Posted on: March 1, 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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Today (1 March 2025) is the 83rd birthday of Indrani Mukherjee (born on March 01, 1942). I have watched some of her 1960s’ films mostly having pious and graceful roles. She was born in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) in a Bengali Brahmin family. Her father was a doctor and her mother, a housewife. She did her early schooling in Allahabad and completed her high school studies in Kolkata. From her childhood, she was interested in Hindi films.
Sometime in 1959, Indrani Mukherjee saw an advertisement issued by Bimal Roy Productions that they were looking for a fresh actress. She applied and was called for the screen test and the audition in Mumbai. She was selected and was offered a supporting role in ‘Usne Kaha Thhaa’ (1960) with Sunil Dutt and Nanda in the lead roles. During the making of ‘Usne Kaha Thhaa’ (1960), Indrani Mukherjee was a neighbour of Tabassum. They became close friends. Their friendship was observed by Yash Chopra who was finalising the cast for ‘Dharmputra’ (1961). He offered both of them the roles of their reel-life friendship in the film. In this film, Shashi Kapoor became her first lead actor.
Indrani Mukherjee had done a small role in Chetan Anand’s ‘Haqeeqat’ (1964) and her role in the film was appreciated. He offered her the lead role in his next film, ’Aakhri Khat; (1966) with Rajesh Khanna and she became his first lead actress. The film was India’s official entry in Academy Award under foreign language film category.
During the span of her Hindi film career from 1960 to 1984, Indrani Mukherjee worked in 64 films which included, apart from those mentioned above. Mere Laal’ (1966), ‘Naunihaal’ (1967), ‘Aan Milo Sajana’ (1970), ‘Heer Ranjha’ (1970), ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ (1971). ‘Prem Prabat’ (1973), ‘Zameer’ (1974), ‘Sanyaasi’ (1975), ‘Kitaab’ (1977), ‘Des Pardes’ (1977), ‘Tumhaare Liye’ (1978), ‘Mr Natwarlal’ (1979), ‘Aas Paas’ (1980), Rajput’ (1982) etc. ‘Meraa Dost Meraa Dushman’ (1984) was her last film.
After her retirement from the films, Indrani Mukherjee and her family shifted to Nashik in 1992 where they currently stay. Post-retirement, she was one of the directors of Nashik-based Trenton Investment Company Pvt. Ltd which her husband, Krishen Lal Khanna had floated in 1985.
In ‘Kunwaari’ (1966), Indrani Mukherjee was in the lead role with Ravindra Kapoor and in the latter part of the film with Prem Chopra. The film was produced by R N Mandloi under the banner of Ravikala Chitra and was directed by S N Tripathi who also wrote the story and composed the music. The other supporting actors in the film included Tabassum, Ameeta, Om Prakash, Jeevan, Murad, Shammi, Sundar, Tuntun, Mridula, Mumtaz Begum, S N Tripathi, Raj Kishore, Sheela Kashmiri, Helen, etc. This was S N Tripathi’s one of the handful of Hindi films of social genre.
I had seen Ravindra Kapoor doing supporting roles, in some films produced and directed by Nasir Hussain. In other films, mostly, he appeared to have got only small roles. After searching for his profile online, I was surprised to know that he was related to Prithviraj Kapoor being his first cousin and he was the elder brother of Kamal Kapoor. In the 1960s, he had an active career in Punjabi films. Another aspect of his filmy career was that he was the only actor from the close Kapoor family relation who never worked in any film produced by Raj Kapoor. Ravindra Kapoor worked in about 20 Hindi films from 1953 to 1991 and ‘Kunwaari’ (1966) was the only film in which he got the lead role, that too partly because he dies halfway in the film. Probably, this was also the only film in which he got opportunity to lip sync the songs.
On the internet, some of the articles including Wikipedia confuse Ravindra Kapoor with another Ravinder Kapoor who is better known as Goga Kapoor in Hindi films. I suspect that Ravindra Kapoor’s dates of birth and the death mentioned in many articles pertain to Goga Kapoor.
As of now, ‘Kunwaari’ (1966) is not available for viewing on video sharing platforms. However, the video clips of its songs are available. I got the synopsis of the story on the description box of the video clip of the song which appears to have been reproduced from the film’s press booklet. I have paraphrased the story with some help from the videos of the songs which is as under:
Retired Colonel Dubey (Om Prakash) stays in London with his daughters Chhaaya (Indrani Mukherjee) and Chandni (Ameeta) who have been brought up and educated in England. So, both the daughters are only familiar with the English way of life and culture. Colonel Dubey had to return in India with his daughters to look after their large landed property personally. Prakash (Ravindra Kapoor) a post-graduate is employed by Colonel Dubey as a tutor of Indian culture, history and traditions for his two daughters. Prakash and Chhaaya falls in love. Chandni is happy about their romantic relationship.
However, Colonel Dubery arranges for the engagement of Chhaaya with someone else. Chhaaya did not wish to proceed with the engagement. She runs away with Prakash and gets married. Unfortunately, on the wedding night, Prakash dies of a snake bite. Before his death, Prakash tells Chhaaya that he is leaving her forever not as his widow but as a ‘kunwaari’ (unmarried, virgin). Thereafter, Chhaya lives in a village house and starts working for village upliftment. But the villagers are not happy with her image of a foreign-returned mem sahib. All her efforts to explain her efforts fails. Finally, she is declared by the villagers as a woman of bad character and is forced to leave the village.
Chhaaya moves to Banaras and starts serving in a women’s old-age home as a Sarvodaya worker. She also joins a college to continue her higher education. In college, she meets Timir (Prem Chopra) who gradually finds himself falling in love with Chhaaya, But Timir’s mother wants him to marry Chhaaya’s younger sister, Chandni. When Chhaaya learns about this, she runs away to facilitate Timir and Chandni to get married. Will Chhaaya remain ‘kunwaari’ throughout her life or something will get worked out to settle the issue?
The film had nine songs with one song in two solo versions, written by Shailendra (7) and B D Mishra (2) which were set to music by S N Tripathi. Four songs have been covered on the Blog. I am presenting the 5th song, ‘kahtaa hai meraa dil’, written by Shailendra and rendered by Mukesh and Asha Bhosle. The song is picturised on Ravindra Kapoor and Indrani Mukherjee.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Kehtaa hai mera dil (Kunwaari)(1966) Singers-Mukesh, Asha Bhosle, Lyrics-Shailendra, MD-S N Tripathi
Both
Lyrics:
kehtaa hai meraa dil ke sanam
tum bhee kahoge
tum mere thhe
tum mere ho
tum mere rahoge
maaloom thhaa mujhko ke balam
tum bhee kahoge
tum mere thhe
tum mere ho
tum mere rahoge
kehtaa hai meraa dil
aa aa aaa
aa aa aa aa aa aaa
jhalkee ek dekh tumhen jaan gayee thhee
tum mere kaun ho
pehchaan gayee thhee
mann kee bansee par ye taan nayee thhee
tum mere thhe
tum mere ho
tum mere rahoge
kehtaa hai meraa dil ke sanam
tum bhee kahoge
tum mere thhe
tum mere ho
tum mere rahoge
kehtaa hai meraa dil
ham tum sapnon kee dagar ke hain musaafir
do deepak ek apne pyaar kaa mandir
chhaayaa kaayaa dono mil gaye aakhir
tum mere thhe
tum mere ho
tum mere rahoge
kehtaa hai meraa dil
kehtaa hai meraa dil ke sanam
tum bhee kahoge
tum mere thhe
tum mere ho
tum mere rahoge
kehtaa hai meraa dil
aaa aa aaa
aa aa aaa aa aaa
haa aa aaa
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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