Rang raliyaan karat sautan ke sang
Posted on: May 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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‘Birbal My Brother’ (1973) was an English language film, produced by Ramesh Gavankar who also wrote the story and the screenplay. The film was directed by Raja Thakur, The cast included Master Sachin in the title role with Lilian, William Solomon, Satish Dubhashi, Rajat Bapat, Gulab Mokashi, Habiba Rehman, Poonam Vaidya etc. Dialogues in the film were jointly written by William Solomon and S N Navre, a well-known Marathi laureate and playwright.
I accidentally came across the VCD of this film on a video sharing platform. What made me want to watch this film was that Master Sachin was doing the title role of an English-speaking guide. Another interesting factor in the film was that it was directed by Raja Thakur who directed mostly Marathi films and a couple of top banner Hindi films before his untimely death in 1975.
The story of the film revolves around a foreign lady tourist who is on a visit to India. On her tour to Agra, she picks up a teenage boy as her guide to show her Fatehpur Sikri. The boy is doing a good job as expected from a professional guide. The foreign tourist is more interested in interacting with persons in India than with monuments. She enquires about the teenage guide’s family background during which he boasts of somewhat high family status and also talks about his loving mother who is not only a good cook but also sings lullabies for him. But when the foreign tourist visits the guide’s house, she comes to know that he stays alone in the house as his mother had run away and his father got killed in the gangster’s raid in the village. His elder brother died in an accident leaving his young wife who will remarry him when he becomes adult as per the family custom. The foreign tourist feels sad about him. She becomes his elder sister. Slowly, the foreign tourist gets involved with his well-being as well as his sister-in-law, disregarding the local social customs and traditions. Her well-intended efforts for his betterment not only affects the teenager guide but also his neighbourhood, bringing his story to a sad end.
The film’s story is told in the beginning to the audience by way of a monologue of the foreign tourist. She is turning the pages of her book titled ‘Birbal My Brother’ which is the account of her inter-action with her teenage guide and the impression of his village, near Fatehpur Sikri. She says that it was strange that she and the teenage guide were nowhere related and there was nothing in common between them. They were separated by thousands of miles. Yet, when they unexpectedly met for the first time in Fatehpur Sikri, their hearts clasped and gripped. Thereafter the film’s story starts as a flashback which is as under:
After completing her trip to Agra, Janin (Lilian) lands in her next tourist destination, Fatehpur Sikri. As soon as she reaches here, a group of guides rush and surround her vying for getting selected as her guide. Lilian is uncomfortable in the situation. Seeing the commotion, Birbal (Master Sachin) with his domesticated black bear appears and the potential guides disperse seeing the black bear. He tells her that he is the ‘most famous guide’ in Fatehpur Sikri. He jokingly tells Janin not to judge him by his age and size. Impressed with his smartness and innocence, Janin selects him to be her guide. He takes her to many monuments inside Fatehpur Sikri and gives the details of each one of them with history and anecdotes.
To break the monotony, Birbal and Janin take a short break and sit on a stair. Another foreign tourist meets Birbal who was his guide earlier on the day. He introduces himself to Janin as Peter Wilson (William Solomon), a tourist from England who is a farmer by profession. Janin introduces herself as a doctor and says that her preference is meeting persons rather than monuments. Peter also joins Janin with Birbal on his guided tour for some time.
Janin and Birbal take a lunch break at the lawn of Fatehpur Sikri during which he tells her that he does not eat outside food as his mother is a good cook. She is a lovely person, and she still sings lullabies for him. His father has 3-4 shops in Agra. To a query about his marriage, Birbal reveals that once he turns adult, as per the family custom, he will be getting married to Kammo (Poonam Vaidya) who is the widow of his elder brother who died young in an accident. Janin is surprised as Birbal is only 14 while Kammo is 18.
After lunch, Birbal is forcibly thrown in a pond by one of his friends for fun. Janin goes to retrieve him at the stairs of the pond during which her cloth get wet. Birbal takes her to his house for change after which he tells her to resume the guided tour of the remaining parts of Fatehpur Sikri. But Janin insists on meeting Birbal’s mother before she resumes the tour. Birbal gives excuses to avoid their meeting. Finally, she tells him to reveal the truth about her mother without which she would not continue her guided tour. At that moment, Birbal breaks down and reveals the truth about his life.
When he was young, Birbal’s mother had run away from the house and his father has joined a gangster group. Birbal now lives alone in the house. He has often felt that he should have a mother and a sister. He takes out a Raakhi from the box and tells her that this was to be tied to his wrist by his sister, but he has no one. He always imagines big things in his life, but what he has told Janin about his mother and father earlier are all lies. The truth is that he works as a guide and sometimes as a labourer to earn his bread. Janin feels sorry for Birbal and assures him that from now onwards, she will be his elder sister and ties the Raakhi on his wrist. He is very happy. At this moment, Birbal’s father returns with a frightened face. He is chased by a gangster who kills him in his house. A few people from his neighbourhood rush to Birbal’s house and advise Janin that it is better for her not to get involved in the matter and she should go back to her Hotel in Agra.
Back in her hotel, Janin spends an uneasy night as she feels that she should not have left Birbal alone in the circumstances. Next day, she returns to his house to see it locked. On the way, she meets Kammo, the widow of Birbal’s elder brother who tells her that Birbal has been driven out of the village the Panchayat out of fear from the gangster. She takes her to the outskirts where Birbal is resting in a ruined house. Meanwhile, Peter also gets the news about Birbal, and he also visits the ruined house where all three get united. They take Birbal back to his house in the village. But there is some resistance from the villagers mainly due to the fear of the gangster. Peter and Janin convince the villagers that they cannot stop Birbal from living in his own house. With this, Peter and Janin live in Birbal’s house for a couple of days just to give him company.
With their frequent meetings, Janin and Peter become close to each other. Birbal has also developed attraction towards Kammo. Birbal decides to invite Janin and Peter to celebrate Christmas in his house with Kammo taking care of the preparation of food. While Janin and Peter get into the western dance, Birbal plays Dafli (Tambourine) while Kammo performs a folk dance. While dancing, Kammo falls and is unconscious. Janin, being a doctor, diagnoses her being suffering from hysteria and she needs to be married to a mature man to stop her hysterical attack. With the initiative of Janin and Peter, the villagers get a suitable man to get married to Kammo. It is not liked by Birbal as he has started liking her and was dreaming of marrying her as per the family’s custom.
Kammo’s marriage takes place and Birbal feels let down. He decides to leave the village and join the gangster. Janin convinces him the reasons as to why Kammo was required to get married early to stop her hysterical attack. She takes Birbal to his house, but he is still angry with Janin. He goes into his room and locks the door from inside. Janin tries her best to bring him out of the room but in vain. She feels bad that she has unnecessarily meddled in the marriage of Kammo. She is in tears and Birbal can hear her crying. At that moment, Peter enters the house and finds Janin in a sad mood. Peter makes her laugh, which is heard by Birbal. He comes out of the room because he thinks that Janin has also got a hysterical attack in which she cries and also laughs. He feels that Janin needs to be married early as per her diagnosis in the case of Kammo.
Next day, Birbal goes to Fatehpur Sikri and brings with him three foreign tourists to his house. Janin is surprised when Birbal says that she has to choose one of them to be her husband. Soon, Peter comes running to inform them that there is a gang of dacoits who have entered the village to loot. Three foreign tourists hurriedly leave the house, Peter pulls Janin and Birbal and runs out of the house away from the dacoit. However, Birbal insists that he would challenge the dacoit and kill him. He runs away from the clutches of Peter. Birbal stops one of the dacoits on his way when the dacoit shoots him. Birbal is badly injured. Both Peter and Janin try to revive him. Just before his death, Birbal reveals to Janin that he wanted to choose Peter as her husband but could not consider him as he is a farmer by profession (Janin is a doctor by profession reflecting the class status in Birbal’s mind). He tells Kammo that he still loves her.
The film ends with Janin closing the book, ‘Birbal My Brother’ and praying to God to shower on her brother Birbal what he did not have when he was alive. Yet he gave happiness to everyone.
Master Sachin as a guide has a major presence in the film followed by Lilian as a foreign tourist. They are supported by William Solomon and Poonam Vaidya. It is 14-year-old Master Sachin who excelled in his performance by showing smartness as an English-speaking guide and at the same time depicting innocence as a village boy.
The film had three songs two of which were the traditional Bandish and one ghazal written by Momin Khan Momin. Sham Prabhakar set the music for these three songs. I present the first song, a traditional Bandish in Chhota Khayal, ‘rang raliyaan karat sautan ke sang’ which is rendered by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Pandit Jasraj as jugalbandi. I am not able to identify for whom the two stalwart vocalists of Hindustani classical music are singing. Whoever they are, they have admirably enacted the performances as the real-looking Hindustani classical vocalists on the screen.
The original Bandish with English translation in bracket is as under:
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke sang
na leenee hamree nek khabar
ham sé aawat baad anant bilam rahe
nit baalam ke yahee dhang
(He is having a playful time with his mistress and does not enquire about my well-being. He tells me that he is coming but stays on elsewhere for long. This is always my lover’s deceptive ways.)
I have often found in the Khayal style of singing that the singers have been giving more importance to their rendition of raagas in aalaaps and other ornamentations than on the ‘bol’ (word). Hence, often they twist few words to suit their style of renditions. For example, in this Chhota Khayal, the words, ‘nek khabar’ have been pronounced differently which I am not able to decipher. Also, they have pronounced the word, ‘aawat’ somewhat differently. These are parts of ornamentation of the Hindustani classical raag and adjusting their singing to the laya (लय).
The context of the song in the film is that Birbal (Master Sachin) as a guide, takes Janin and Peter inside Fatehpur Sikri and apprises them of the various monuments inside it in detail. While taking them to a large courtyard opposite a pyramid-shaped Panch Mahal, Birbal takes them into the imagination of a bygone era when the courtyard used to be the venue of songs, dances and music as a part of celebrations. As a part of imagining sequences, the scenes in the film shift, first to a classical dance, followed by a rendition of a ghazal and lastly, the rendition of a Bandish in Chhota Khayal which is under discussion.
I have watched the song in the film’s VCD. The VCD of the film is available here in which the song under discussion can be watched between 17:16 and 20:35.
Enjoy the bliss of jugalbandi in Chhota Khayal in Raag Malkauns by two of the greatest Hindustani Classical vocalists – Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Padma Vibhushan Pandit Jasraj.
Audio Clip:
Video clip:
Song-Rang raliyaan karat sautan ke sang (Birbal My Brother)(English)(1973) Singers-Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Lyrics-Traditional, MD-Sham Prabhakar
Both
Lyrics (Based on Audio Clip):
aa aa aaaaaa aa
di re naaaaaaa
ae ae ae ae
ae te nuuuuu….u
di reeeeeeee
ae ae ae ae ae ae ae
na aa aa aaaaa aa
aaa aaa
ae ae ae ae ae ae
ae ae ae ae ae ae
ae ae ae ae ae ae
huuuuuuuuuuuun
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
(huuuuuuun)
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
sang rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
sang na leenee hamaaree
nek khabar??
nek khabar??
nek khabar??
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke sang
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
ham sé aawat bad anant bilam re
ham sé aawat bad
anant bilam re
ham sé aawat bad
aeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
aaaaaaaa
aeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
aeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hamse aawat bad
(aa aa aa aa)
aa aa aa aa aa aa aaa
aa aa aa aa
ham…..se
hamse aawat bad anant bilam re
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hamse aawat bad
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hamse aawat bad anant bilam re
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hamse aawaat bad anant bilam re
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hamse aawat bad
anant bilam re
hamse aawat bad
ham……se….ae
ham……se….ae
hamse aawat bad anant bilam re
(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
hamse aawat bad
anant bilam re
hamse aawat bad
anant bilam re
nit baalam kee yahee dhang
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke sang
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
hu hu hu huuuuuuuuuuuu
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
(rang raliyaan karat sautan ke)
ae ae ae
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
rang raliyaan karat sautan ke
rang raliyaan karat sau…..tan ke
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 30, 2025 at 7:23 pm
Sham Prabhakar, the music director of the the Hindustni classical jungalbandi under discussion were actually duo music director, Shamrao Kamble and Prabhakar Jog.
Shamrao Kamble was a well-known and revered hormonium player and the music arranger with a classical touch. He mostly worked with almost all the music directors of Hindi and Marathi films. Prabhkar Jog was a well-known violnist, who has played viloin for almost all top music directors of Hindi and Marathi films. He was also the music director in some Marathi films.
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