Chhaayee chhaayee re bahaar
Posted by: Atul on: May 7, 2025
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, 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’s song is from an obscure and unknown Mythological film – Ganga Maiya-1955.
The title of the film clearly indicates that it is the story of the River Ganga, which is so respected and revered in India that it is called Ganga Maiya or Mother Ganga.
There are more than 400 rivers in India. These are classified as Big, Medium and small rivers, based on their lengths and the catchment areas.
The 12 Big rivers are Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, Sindhu, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Taapi, Sarswati, Bheema, Tungbhadra and Pranitha. There are 46 medium size rivers and the rest are small rivers. The biggest, ofcourse, is Ganga, which is 2525 Kms. long from Gangotri to Bay of Bengal. It travels through Uttarakhand, U.P., Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Before merging into the Bay of Bengal, it also passes through BanglaDesh. It has a catchment area of more than 20,000 square Kilometers. The smallest river in India is Arvari, in Rajasthan, which runs only 45 kms.
I have a personal relationship with Ganga, as I have lived almost for two years, on its bank in Banaras. This was from February 1948 to the end of 1949, when my father went underground and we lived in Banaras. This was after Gandhi’s murder. My father was a close associate of Sawarkar and he was on the arrest list. We were staying in a small house on the bank of Ganga, very near to the Vishweshwar temple. We used to have Holy dips in Ganga every day. As such Ganga being associated with Lord Shiva, it was very sacred in our family and still it is.
Shiv Maha Puran describes the story how River Ganga-which flowed only in The Heaven, was brought to the Bhu-lok or our world. Like many other topics from our Puranas, even the story of Ganga’s descent on this Earth has been a subject of our films. The first film on the coming of Ganga or “Gangavataran” was made by Madon Theaters in Calcutta in 1922. Miss Patience Cooper had done the role of Ganga in it.
With the same topic and same Title, came the first talkie by Dadasaheb Phalke in 1937. This film “Gangavataran”-37 was made by Kolhapur Cinetone- a company promoted and financed by King Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur. This was the only Talkie film Dadasaheb Phalke ever made in his life. After this film he retired, settled in his hometown Nashik and died there on 16-2-1944.
Incidentally, this was the film in which the famous character artist Leela Mishra made her debut. However, since this film was delayed inordinately in making, her second film “Honhaar”-36 released first. After this film, 3 more films, besides ‘Ganga maiya’-55, came on this subject. Ganga-74, Ganga Sagar-78 and Gangotri Ganga-2007. In the Television serial “Mahabharat” by B.R.Chopra, the story of Ganga was shown. Ganga’s role was done by Kiran Juneja in this serial.
I had seen the film “Ganga Maiyya”-55, in Prabhat Talkies, Hyderabad and as usual, I led a flock of about a dozen senior citizens and women from our joint family to the theatre and back. Most of the audience was seniors and women. Everytime Lord Shankar made an appearance on the screen, there would be an ear shattering chant of “Jai Mahadev” in the theatre. Luckily, Trilok Kapoor, the usual actor for Bhagwan Shankar was only a ‘Guest artiste’ and had very few appearances on the screen limiting the enthusiastic chants !
The cast of the film was Prem Adeeb, Sumitra Devi, Asha Mathur, Jeevan, Sapru, S N Tripathi, Vithaldas Panchotiya etc etc.
The story of the film Ganga Maiya-55 was…..
Once upon a time, long ago, demons and gods were at war. To defeat the gods, the demons made a plan. During the day, they hid in the ocean and at night they attacked the gods. Afraid of being defeated in this way, the gods went to Sage Agastya for help.Agastya solved their problem by drinking the whole ocean. Now as the demons had no place to hide, the gods easily defeated them. The gods then asked Agastya to bring the ocean back. Agastya said that he could not do that because he had already digested the ocean.
The people of the earth now had no water, as the ocean was empty, The gods were worried and went to Vishnu and requested him to bring water on earth, King Sagara, who had sixty thousand sons, was performing a yagna to conquer the whole world. According to custom, if he had sent out a white horse, the ruler of that kingdom would either have to fight with Sagara or give him his crown. In this way, Sagara was conquering the whole earth and wanted to be the most powerful. Indra took the horse and hid it in sage Kapila’s ashram. Sagara sent his sons to search for the horse. They reached Kapila’s ashram. Sage Kapila was meditating and was disturbed. Greatly annoyed, with one look of his eyes. Kapila burnt all of them to ashes. Sagara was very sad at the death of his sons. He wanted to purify the souls of his sons but only river Ganga could do that by washing their ashes. Ganga had to be brought to earth. So Sagara performed tapasya to please Brahma. But he died before finishing the tapasya. His grandson then continued to perform the tapasya.
The seventh descendent of Sagara, Bhagiratha, was able to please Brahma. Brahma granted him his wish and asked Ganga to flow to earth. But Ganga didn’t want to leave heaven and go to earth. She threatened to destroy all life on earth by the pressure of her flow. Only Shiva’s powerful hair could control the force of Ganga. Bhagiratha requested Shiva to help him. Shiva spread his hair and covered the sky. As soon as Ganga flowed down, he collected her water in his hair in the form of many small streams. She then followed Bhagiratha to the place where the ashes of his ancestors were lying. Being young Ganga flowed carelessly. She flooded the ashram of Sage Jahnu. Jahnu was performing a yagna at that time the water put out all the fires. Angry Jahnu swallowed Ganga. But when he came to know about the long tapasya that had been performed to bring Ganga to earth, he agreed to let her go. He cut open his left thigh and Ganga flowed out of it. Ganga came to be known as Jahnvi, the daughter of Jhanu.
Ganga flowed on and purified the ashes of Bhagiratha’s ancestors. Therefore, Ganga is also called Bhagirathi. Thereafter, Ganga flowed and filled the empty ocean. The ocean came to be known as Sagara after the name of King Sagara. the people of earth now had water to drink.
The film was produced by Chimanlal Trivedi, under his new banner-Kala Kendra, Bombay. Chimanlal Trivedi, was one of the major filmmakers of the 30s and the 40s decade. He was more a Producer businessman than a Director. While he directed hardly 7 films, he produced close to 50 films- all having A grade actors, directors and composers !
Born on 19-3-1909 at a village near Anand in Gujarat, he was from a Brahmin family. He did his schooling in Ahmedabad and technical graduation from Baroda. Being an expert in weaving, he took up a job as a weaving Master in Calcutta. Fond of writing, he started writing Dramas, which were staged in Bengal and Gujarat. He was attracted towards Cinema and tried some work in New Theatres. Knowing that the real playing field is Bombay he reached there. He wrote stories for the film Chevrolet-36 and Danger Signal-37 for Mohan pictures.
He established his own production company CIRCO (Cine Industries Recording COmpany) in 1937. By 1943, he had made 12 films. He preferred not to direct his films, but appointed directors like Mohan Sinha for Laxmi-40, Anuradha-40 and Vanmala-41, Balwant Bhatt for Suhag-40 and Madhusudan-41, A R Kardar for Swami-41 and Nai Duniya-42 and Debki Bose for Apna Ghar-42.
He had the art of getting the most popular stars for his films like, Prithviraj kapoor, Chandramohan, Durga Khote,Mazhar khan, Bibbo,Surendra, Jairaj, Sitara, Jeevan, Yaqub, Shobhana Samarth, Prem Adeeb, Vishnupant Pagnis,Leela Desai, Pahadi Sanyal, Shanta Apte and many others. Even big directors like Debki Bose,Nitin Bose, Kardar,Mohan Sinha, Sarvottam Badami, Nandlal Jaswantlal,Profull Roy, Sudhir Sen, R S Chaudhary, Phani mujumdar, Balwant Bhatt etc. worked for him. From Prabhat he brought Shanta Apte for Rs.1000 pm, and also Chandramohan, Pagnis and Mazhar khan. His friend Chandulal Shah followed his way and brought K L Saigal from New Theatres !
C L Trivedi was an expert in gathering funds for his films. After CIRCO at Parel, he started Laxmi Productions at Andheri, in 1942. He made mera Gaon,Sharafat,Bhagya Laxmi,Kadambari,Tamanna,Inkaar,Mohabbat,Miss Devi etc. In 1951, it was Supreme Pictures, Trivedi Productions was in 1952, Kala Kendra in 1953 and with Chitra Bharati in 1954, he made 13 films upto 1961. Top Composers like Timir Baran,Ashok Ghosh,Rafiq Gaznavi,K C Dey,Saraswati Devi,Husnlal-Bhagatram and Naushad gave music to his films.
In the end, he turned to Stage and started Abhinay Bharati. He staged many dramas in Bombay and Gujarat. Chimanlal always went for big names. He had close relations with Nehru, Menon, Morarji Desai, and other National leaders. His wife Kantaben was a Leader herself. Chimanlal Trivedi died on 25-11-1973. His wife, 3 sons and a daughter settled in the USA.
It may be a coincidence, but Gujarati businessmen like Chimanlal Trivedi, Chimanlal Desai,Chimanlal Luhar, Chaturbhuj Doshi, Chimankant Desai, Chunibhai Desai and Chandulal Shah made sizable contribution to Hindi cinema in the first 20 years of the Talkie era. All names started with CH ! (Thanks to Harish Raghuwanshi ji for his book ” बॉलिवूडमा गुजरातीयो ” in Gujarati for some information and my notes.)
There is one name ‘Shakuntala Devi’ in the cast. She was the mother of actress Ameeta. She had married Riaz Ahmed and they were living and working in films in Calcutta. After the death of Riaz Ahmed, she shifted to Bombay, with young Ameeta. Trilok Kapoor was the guest Artiste in this film. His role came only at the end of the film, when lord Shiva takes Ganga on his head to subdue her force, before she flows on earth. That scene was so impressive that the whole theatre rang with shouts of “Har Har Mahadev” !
Here is a 70 year old song sung by a 36 year old Shamshad Begum, with a chorus….
Song-Chhaayee chhaayee re bahaar (Ganga Maiyya)(1955) Singer- Shamshad Begum, Lyricist- Ramesh Chandra Pandey, MD- Shankar Rao Vyas
Chorus
Lyrics
dekho jee dekho jee dekho jee
dekho jee dekho jee dekho jee
ho o
chhaayee chhaayee re bahaar
liye man mein pyaar
aayee aayee re salonee naar
dekho jee aayee aayee re salonee naar
chhaayee chhaayee re bahaar
liye man mein pyaar
aayee aayee re salonee naar
dekho jee aayee aayee re salonee naar
raaja sagar ke raaj dulaare
kaandhe liye hain teer kamaan
jaise gagan mein baadal garje
garje hai ran mein waise jawaan
dekhke ek bade balwaan
niraalee jag mein inkee shaan
dekhne inka ye darbaar
aayee aayee re salonee naar
chhaayee chhaayee re bahaar
liye man mein pyaar
aayee aayee re salonee naar
dekho jee
aayee aayee re salonee naar
motee kee chamak heere kee damak
sone ka mukut kapdon kee bhadak
motee kee chamak heere kee damak
sone ka mukut kapdon kee bhadak
ajee inpe gaya mora jiya atak
haaye dhadkan kare pukaar
aayee aayee re salonee naar
chhaayee chhaayee re bahaar
liye man mein pyaar
aayee aayee re salonee naar
dekho jee
aayee aayee re salonee naar
nainon kee maar
teekhee kataar
hai kaun veer jo jhele waar
nainon kee maar teekhee kataar
hai kaun veer jo jhele waar
arre dekh idhar o kalgeedaar
o kalgeedaar ko sau sau baar
bana ke aaj solah singaar
aayee aayee re salonee naar
chhaayee chhaayee re bahaar
liye man mein pyaar
aayee aayee re salonee naar
dekho jee
aayee aayee re salonee naar
chhaayee chhaayee re bahaar
liye man mein pyaar
aayee aayee re salonee naar
dekho jee
aayee aayee re salonee naar
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