Chaand re o re chaand re
Posted on: May 8, 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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Autism is a neurobehavioural disorder in which the affected people’s brain works differently than those of the normal people. In India, one child out of 68 newly born children is affected by autism. Since autism is not an illness or disease, parents will not come to know whether their child is affected by autism until he grows and they notice a different behaviour pattern than that of a normal child. It is difficult for a autism affected child to properly communicate with others and to understand what other people think about him. It is still unknown as to what causes autism. Nor is there any cure for it.
The awareness about autism is very low in India. A few mainstream Hindi films have attempted to spread the awareness of autism by creating the main character affected by it in the film. The films are ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ (2003), ‘Main Aisa Hi Hoon’ (2005), ‘Taare Zameen Par’ (2007), ‘Yuvraaj’ (2008), ‘My Name Is Khan’ (2010), ‘Barfi’ (2012) etc. In my view, in most of these films, the subject is explored mainly as a part of mental disability/disorder which may be an off shoot of autism. The film, ‘Apna Aasmaan’ (2007) specifically identifies the character as an autistic teenage boy.
‘Apna Aasmaan’ (2007) was directed by Kaushik Roy who jointly produced the film with Umang Pahwa. The main cast included Irfan Khan, Shobana, and Dhruv Panjuani with the supporting cast of Anupam Kher, Rajat Kapoor. Nasser Abdulla, Utkarsha Naik, Barkha Singh etc. Shobana is the niece of Travancore Sisters (Padmini, Ragini and Lalitha) and has predominantly worked in Malayalam films in addition to Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and English films. One of her English films, ‘Dance Like A Man’ (2004) has won the National Film Award for the Best English Language Film. Apart from acting, Shobana is a Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer.
The film’s producer-director, Kaushik Roy is the nephew of the legendary producer-director, Bimal Roy. He made this film when he was working with Reliance Industries as President, Brand Strategy and Marketing Communications wherein he was involved in making advertising films. He took the special leave from Reliance Industry and completed the shooting of the film in 32 days in Mumbai. The film was first released in a few international film festivals sometime in September 2007 where it was critically appreciated. It won the German Star of India at the Stuttgart Film Festival.
The film’s story is based on Kaushik Roy’s own experience as a father in coping with his mildly autistic son, Orko (Roshan) Roy. His journey along with his wife started with their ambitious dream about him. Over a period of time, they came to know that their son was mildly autistic. They observed that despite having difficulties in writing alphabets and holding pencil firmly, he was extremely good in painting and people had started appreciating his paintings. His painting exhibitions were held in Nehru Centre and Jahangir Art Gallery in Mumbai. Today, his son is internationally known artist.
Kaushik Roy thought of sharing his experience in coping with an autistic child by making a mainstream Hindi film. But he did not want to make the film as a biopic. Instead, he wanted to make the film as a family drama. While coping with his son’s autism, Kaushik Roy always felt that in desperation like he was, there would be people in similar circumstances looking for some miracle remedies by way of some wonder drug. So, he included some fantasy in the later part of the film by introducing a character of a doctor with a wonder drug called ‘brain booster’. (Source of the information on the last two paragraphs: Kaushik Roy’s interview published on rediff.com dated September 3, 2007, and Orko Roy’s website).
The story of the film is as under:
Ravi Kumar (Irfan Khan) from Kanpur and Padmini Kumar (Shobana) from Kottayam who have met in Mumbai, are happily married and stay in Mumbai. While Ravi Kumar works in a plastic material company as a sales executive, Padmini is a housewife. They have a teenage son, Buddhiraj (Dhruv Panjuani) who has been diagnosed as autistic affected child. Padmini, a trained Bharatanatyam dancer who wanted to pursue it as a career, has to give up as she has to look after her son. Ravi Kumar and Padmini share a strained relationship because Padmini thinks that Ravi is responsible for the child’s autism due to the accidental drop from his hands during Buddhi’s childhood. However, Dr Sen (Rajat Kapoor) does not agree with Padmini and tells her that autism in child comes along with birth. Due to the strained relations, Ravi Kumar spends much of his time in the office to avoid the friction with his wife.
Padmini wants Buddhiraj to become a mathematician just like her because she was a gold medalist in mathematics. She tries to get admission in reputed schools but fails to get him admission because of Buddhiraj’s inability to write alphabet and other general deficiencies. Due to her obsession with making her son as per her wish which is not happening, she feels helpless because of her shattered dream. On the contrary, she finds Buddhi busy with his pencil sketches which she resents, She starts visiting temples, churches and even to a tantrik baba to overcome her son’s autism but of no avail. A dejected Padmini once again consults Dr. Sen and enquires whether there is any medicine to make her son normal. He advises her that she should reconcile to accept her son’s shortcomings and instead she should encourage him in whatever vocation he is good at it.
Ravi Kumar on the other hand keeps himself busy with his sales targets, meetings and seminars. To his colleagues, he is a jovial person without any stress. But behind the façade of his jovialness, he is worried a lot about his son’s future. He thinks that at least he has his job and meetings which divert his mind without having to cope with the problems of an autistic child on a continuous basis. But he is aware that for Padmini, who is constantly with Buddhi, it is physically exhausting and emotionally draining. So, he understand her frictions with him.
One day, Ravi Kumar accidentally meets Dr Satya (Anupam Kher) who has been in the news for discovering a wonder drug, ‘brain booster’, which he has successfully experimented on monkeys. However, he needs human volunteers to experiment the drug on them to see the improvement in their brain power. Ravi Kumar volunteers his son, Buddhiraj to be experimented with his ‘brain booster’. However, Dr Satya reveals that the side effect of the drug is that the person on whom it is administered will suffer from amnesia. Ravi Kumar does not mind about the side effect as in any case, Buddhiraj’s memory is very short. So, one night, Ravi Kumar injects the ‘brain booster’ on Buddhiraj without the knowledge of Padmini. After some initial traumatic experience, the effect of the drug makes Buddhiraj a new personality who shows smartness and the streak of intelligence. Soon he becomes a good mathematician drawing media attention. Soon, he becomes busy with his Mathematic shows which earns him good money. Ravi Kumar and Padmini are very happy. However, he does not recognise them s his parents and he has no emotional attachment with them. Ravi Kumar and Padmini have no issue on it as Buddhiraj is now a normal and genius teenage boy.
One day, Ravi Kumar watches a TV news about Dr Satya who has been implicated for an underground drug business in Mexico. He has absconded from a seminar and the police are in search of him. The news is followed by Dr. Satya’s brother’s statement that his brother’s cosmic allopathy is all rubbish and his medicine is poison. With this new information, Ravi Kumar is worried about his genius son, Buddhi as to whether ‘brain booster’ had affected his personality from a genial to selfish person. They consult Dr Sen who confirms that his one part of the brain creates wild animal like behaviour of selfishness, violent reactions, emotionless etc. Even this can lead him to kill anyone he dislikes.
Buddhi’s continuous misbehaviour with his parents as well as his grandmother shocks Ravi Kumar and Padmini. This was not expected as even as an autistic child, he has never misbehaved with his parents. He kills his neighbour’s dog for the reason that the dog who used to bark at him. When things go out of control, Ravi Kumar searches for the whereabout of Dr. Satya to get the antidote for his ‘brain booster’. Eventually, with the help of Dr Sen, he finds him in a mental asylum where he has taken the shelter to evade police arrest. After a lot of pleading, Dr Satya gives him the antidote which he forcibly injects on Buddhi. He comes back to his formal self as a autistic teenager. After many months, Ravi Kumar and Padmini are very happy with their autistic son because he had recognised them as his parent. Ravi Kumar and Padmini gladly accept him with his shortcomings and encourage him to become a sketch artist, his favourite vocation.
The film ends with Buddhiraj’s paintings and sketches displayed in an exhibition hall and visitors appreciating his works. Ravi Kumar and Padmini are the happiest parent of Buddhiraj overcoming their strained relations.
The message from the film is that parents will have to accept that their child born with autism was an act of God. They will also have to accept the shortcomings in autistic child. There is no need to be obsessed with parents’ own dream about their child. The autistic children should be encouraged for what they are good. In this world, no one is disable but are ‘differently abled’.
All the main actors have given excellent performances. Shobana has herself delivered her dialogues in Hindi in her natural way probably to give the authenticity to her character of the girl from Kottayam. But among all the main characters, Dhruv Panjuani has given a staller performance – first as an autistic teenage boy and later as a genius mathematician with a stubborn attitude. There are few dialogues mainly given to Irfan Khan which are witty and sarcastic to lighten the serious subject of the film. I also like the film’s sleek editing which make watching enjoyable despite the sombre mood of the film.
The film has five songs – all background songs written by Mehboob Kotwal which have been set to music by Leslie Lewis. I present the first song from the film, ‘chaand re o re chaand re’ to appear on the Blog. The song is rendered by Shreya Ghoshal as a background song which is reflective of the feelings of Padmini (Shobana) who is watching from the balcony, her autistic teenage son, Buddhiraj (Dhruv Panjuani) wanting to celebrate Holi festival with his fellow residents. But he is mostly ignored by the revelers. It is that moment, his father, Ravi Kumar (Irfan Khan), observing him to be left alone, comes to him and allows him to apply colour to his cheeks which makes him immensely happy. This is the most poignant scene in the midst of the Holi Revelry.
The song in the film has only one antara whereas the audio clip of the song has two antaras.
Audio Clip:
Video
Song-Chaand re o re chaand re(Apna Aasmaan)(2007) Singer-Shreya Ghoshal, Lyrics-Mehboob Kotwal, MD-Leslie Lewis
Lyrics (Based on Audio Clip):
chaand re
o re chaand re
o o o
chaand re
o o o re chaand re
iss chaand mein hai ye daag kyun
shabnam mein hai ek aag kyun
teree raushnee kyun hai maand re
chaand re
o re chaand re
o o
chaand re
o re chaand re
iss chaand mein hai ye daag kyun
shabnam mein hai ek aag kyun
teree raushnee kyun hai maand re
chaand re
o re chaand re
o o
chaand re
o re chaand re
phool to hai murjhaayaa saa
phir kyaa hai ghar
gulshan hai kyaa
phool to hai murjhaayaa saa
phir kyaa hai ghar
gulshan hai kyaa
dhool mein milaa
kyun ye phool hai
ae khuda teree kyaa ye bhool hai
itne hain gham
itne sitam
nanhee see hai ye jaan re..ae
chaand re
o re chaand re
ho o
chaand re
o re chaand re
kaisee milee hai ye bebasee
sab hoke bhee hai jaise kuchh naheen
kaisee milee hai ye bebasee
sab hoke bhee hai jaise kuchh naheen
rooh kaa meree yahee ang hai
ae khuda isey bhee tu rang de
zaraa de khushee
zaraa de hansee
toone hee to dee hai ye jaan re..ae
chaand re
o re chaand re
ho o
chaand re
o re chaand re
iss chaand mein hai ye daag kyun
shabnam mein hai ek aag kyun
teree raushnee kyun hai maand re
chaand re
o re chaand re
ho o
chaand re
o re chaand re
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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