Dekho jee aankhon mein dekho
Posted on: March 27, 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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‘Jwaala’ (1970) was produced and directed by M V Raman under the banner of Raman Productions. The star cast included Madhubala, Sunil Dutt, Pran, Sohrab Modi, Ulhas, Raj Mehra, Jagirdar, Asha Parekh, Kamla Lakshman, Vijaylaxmi, Lalita Pawar, Naaz, Chaman Puri, Shivraj, Mukri, Goga Kapoor, Kammo, Daisy Irani etc. This is the only film of Madhubala which was completely shot in color. Goga Kapoor, theatre actor, made his debut with this film.
The film’s producer-director, M V Raman has directed successful Hindi films like ’Bahaar’ (1951), ‘Ladki’ (1953), ‘Pehli Jhalak’ (1955), ‘Bhai Bhai’ (1957), ‘Aasha’ (1957), ‘Paayal Ki Jhankaar’ (1968) etc. After the success of his film, ‘Aasha’ (1957), M V Raman announced his next Hindi film, ‘Jwaala’ (1970) with Kishore Kumar and Madhubala in the lead role. The film was to be made in ‘black and white’ on a grand scale as a costume drama. The film’s shooting commenced in the late 1950s.
Due to illness of Madhubala, the film’s shooting was held in abeyance. In between, he decided to make this film in colour replacing Kishore Kumar with Sunil Dutt. The screenplay was revised keeping in view the change in the lead actor and the limited availability of Madhubala for shooting due to her health issues. After her death in 1969, the remaining parts of Madhubala’s scenes was shot with actresses doubling for Madhubala. In this process, the film took almost a decade to complete the shootings. The film was released on February 24, 1970, in a limited number of theatres.
The story of the film is as under:
The film opens with the announcement by the Maharaja of Rampur (Raj Mehra) that he has taken over Seema Desh after a bloody fight. He has made his son, Rajkumar (Pran) as the Raja of Seema Desh with Vikram Singh (Ulhas) as his minister. In reality, Vikram Singh runs the Seema Desh while keeping Rajkumar busy with wine and women.
Anup Singh (Sohrab Modi), the erstwhile Raja of Seema Desh, after the defeat, has fled in the forest with injuries. Vanraj (David Abraham), the tribal chief takes care of him. While fleeing in the forest, Anup Singh’s minor son, Ajit gets separated and is given shelter by a tribal woman (Lalita Pawar). With the help of Vanraj, Anup Singh travels from one kingdom to other to seek help from them to regain his Seema Desh but in vain. He also requests Vanraj to find out the whereabout of his son, Ajit.
Ajit (Sunil Dutt) grows up in the forest in the midst of wild animals without knowing his true identity. One day, the Maharaja of Rampur along with his daughter, Jwaala (Madhubala) while travelling through the forest is attacked by a gang of decoit. Ajit, who was walking in the forest in search of his lost elephant, hears the commotion. He rushes to the place of the commotion and saves Maharaja and his daughter from the decoit gang. Maharaja is pleased with Ajit. Maharaja introduces himself who says that he is on his way to Seema Desh. Ajit also says that he is also going to Seema Desh where his elephant has been kidnapped. Both reach Seema Desh separately.
Ajit locates his elephant inside the palace of Seema Desh. He picks his elephant, but Rajkumar and Vikram Singh challenge him. In the meantime, Maharaja of Rampur has also reached. In the fight with Rajkumar and Vikram Singh, Ajit overpowers them. Maharaja of Rampur is pleased with his bravery. He appoints Ajit as the captain of the army that protects the palace. In this way, he also becomes the protector of Rajkumari Jwaala (Madhubala) for which he had to meet Jwaala almost every day. Jwaala and Ajit falls in love with each other and their meetings also happen outside Ajit’s protocol duty.
In the meanwhile, Rajkumar with the instigation from Vikram Singh issues an order to collect hefty tax from wealthy people and two gunny bags of grains from poor people of Seema Desh. Beautiful girls of Seema Desh gets kidnapped quite often for the amusement of Rajkumar. The people of Seema Desh are fed up with the rule of Rajkumar. Anup Singh, on the other hand, creates a gang of decoit with the limited purpose of looting the treasury of Seema Desh which has been filled up with extortions from the people of Seema Desh by Rajkumar’s troops.
The meetings between Jwaala and Ajit take place in the various alibis like accompanying her for hunting etc. This does not remain secret for long. Rajkumar, her brother, reprimands Jwaala for often spending time with Ajit, an ordinary soldier. But Jwaala is forthright in admitting that she is in love with Ajit irrespective of his status. She points out that he is also having a life of pleasure with many girls every day.
Seema Desh is also facing the threat of invasion by a foreign mercenaries led by a tribal Sardar (Jagirdar) whose aim is to loot the treasuries. With a decoit gang led by Anup Singh on the looting sprees, Maharaja of Rampur is worried. He calls for the meeting in which Rajkumar and Vikram Singh joins. They decide to send Ajit to tackle the menace of treasury looting. While accepting the challenge, Ajit is not aware that it would be a fight between the father and the son.
Ajit gets the whereabout of the decoit leader (in reality, Anup Singh) because he is well versed with the topography of forest. He finds him in Bhavani Devi temple. Ajit orders Anup Singh to surrender to him so that he can take him to Rajkumar of Seema Desh as a fulfillment of his assurance. But Anup Singh does not surrender. A sword fight takes place between the two during which he sees a tattoo mark on Ajit. Anup Singh recognises him as his son Prince Ajit. But Ajit sees as a ploy to stop the fight. Finally, an aids of Anup Singh arrives in the temple and recognises Prince Ajit. He also brings with him the sword of Maharaja Anup Singh and Kingdom’s seal. Father and son unite but there is a catch. Ajit will not be able to fulfill his promise to Rajkumar that he would bring the decoit in front of Rajkumar.
Ajit goes back to Seema Desh and present himself before Rajkumar. He explains that he has kept the decoit in the Bhavani Devi temple and reveals that he is none other than the former Maharaja of Seema Desh and he himself is his son. Rajkumar arrests Ajit for not fulfilling his assurance of bringing the decoit leader and orders his execution under elephant’s crush. This news goes to Anup Singh who orders his troops of forest dwellers to march to the Rajkumar’s palace.
The news of the execution of Ajit also goes to Jwaala who decides to convince her brother, Rajkumar that he is being manipulated by Vikram Singh with a sole purpose of becoming the Raja of Seema Desh. Later, Rajkumar gets convinced of what Jwaala has said as Vikram Singh had attempted to kill him by putting poison in his drink. With the combined efforts of Anup Singh’s troops, Rajkumar’s loyal army and Sardar’s gang, Vikram Singh gets killed in a furnace which he had planned to use it for killing Anup Singh and Ajit. Prince Ajit is coronated as the Maharaja of Seema Desh under the guidance of his father, Anup Singh.
Madhubala was in the title role of Jwaala. The audience expected that she would have a major presence in the film. Unfortunately, due to her illness, her presence in the film was cut short. Even within her limited exposures, there were few scenes which involved the use of her doubles which looked apparent. Even in the final scene of coronation of Prince Ajit, Madhubala’s presence with Sunil Dutt was shown from a video montage of her song with him.
The story of the film involving the royal conflicts was a familiar one in most of the such genre of Hindi films. There were important scenes in the film without proper context. The film was a box office failure and turned out to be the waterloo for the producer-director, M V Raman ending his career in Hindi films .
The film had eight songs written by Rajendra Krishan (6) and Shailendra (2) which were set to music by Shankar-Jaikishan. Three songs have been covered on the Blog. I am presenting the 4th song, ‘dekho jee aankhon mein dekho’, rendered by Lata Mangeshkar on the words of Rajendra Krishan. The song is picturised on Madhubala and Sunil Dutt.
The context of this song is not clear from the film as the song suddenly appears. In a later part of the scene, Rajkumar (Pran) is shown reprimanding Jwaala (Madhubala) for spending time with Ajit in the pretext of going for the hunting expedition with him in the forest. Probably, song is picturised during their sojourn in the forest for hunting.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Dekho jee aankhon mein dekho (Jwaala)(1970) Singer-Lata Mangeshkar, Lyrics-Rajinder Krishan, MD-Shankar Jaikishan
Lyrics (Based on the Video Clip):
dekho jee
aankhon mein dekho
aankhen hamaaree sapne tumhaare ae ae ae
dekho jee
aankhon mein dekho
aankhen hamaaree sapne tumhaare ae ae ae
bolo jee
bolo
aaye hain kaise
armaan tumhaare dil mein hamaare
ho o o
ho o o
dekho jee
jaane ye kaisee tumne sadaa dee
dil ko lutaa ke bhee hamne duwaa dee
ho o o
jaane ye kaisee tumne sadaa dee
dil ko lutaa ke bhee hamne duwaa dee
haay
hamne duwaa dee
socho jee
ae jee
kyun ban rahe hain
ishaare tumhaare mere sahaare
ho o
ho o
dekho jee
aankhon mein dekho
aankhen hamaaree sapne tumhaare
o o o
dekho jee
tumne jo dekhaa
bas kho gaye ham
tum hee bataa do na
kyaa ho gaye ham
o o o
tumne jo dekhaa
bas kho gaye ham
tum hee bataa do na kyaa ho gaye ham
haay
kyaa ho gaye ham
maano jee aankhon ke dore
tumne nikhaare tumhe sanwaare
ho o
dekho jee
aankhon mein dekho
aankhen hamaaree sapne tumhaare ae ae ae
dekho jee
ik saathh aise do dil doley
nindiyaa mein jaise koi sargam boley
o o
ik saathh aise do dil doley
nindiyaa mein jaise koi sargam boley
haay
sargam bole
dekho jee
apnee khushee se
na tum jeete
na ham haare
o o o
dekho jee
aankhon mein dekho
aankhen hamaaree sapne tumhaare
dekho jee
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 27, 2025 at 8:31 am
Sadanand Ji
Thanks for the post. ‘Jwala ‘ sufferred due delay in filming. Tacky visuals.( I only go by song videos,I have not watched the film)
Gaudy color. Over all poor production values.
Only saving grace was a fair musical score ( which was lost due to the movie being a failure).This song and some other are vintage SJ of the 50’s
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March 27, 2025 at 10:41 am
Satish ji,
Thanks for your observations.
The main reason for the failure of the film at the box office is the haphazard screenplay arising out frequent changes in it due to the limited availability of Madhubala during the picturisation. This has majorly affected the continuity in the film. Also, when Madhubala is in the title role, her long absence in the scenes of the film would have disappointed the audience.
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