Meree mehandee rang le aayee
Posted on: May 8, 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 85 year old film, Ghar ki Rani-1940.
The film Ghar ki Rani-1940 was made by Huns Pictures of master Vinayak. It was directed by him. This was a Bi-lingual film, made in Marathi as Ardhangi( अर्धांगी ) or Better half and in Hindi. The cast was Leela Chitnis, Vinayak, Meenakshi, Kusum Deshpande, Baburao Pendharkar, Damuanna Malvankar, Dada Salvi etc. The music was by Dada Chandekar.
1940 was a period when the film industry was desperately trying to shed off the burden of classical and Drama Theatre type music into the films. people came to enjoy the Talkie film and songs, but the music made them feel like being in a theatre watching a stage drama. The dull and slow momentum of this type of songs had become boring. It became a hitch in the fast pace of the film stories. Additionally, unusually long preludes or prosaic openings of the songs were irksome.
Most Music Directors came from stage dramas and were trained in classical music. It was difficult for them to change their style. It was Naushad in Bombay, who believed that classical and folk tunes must be combined. Then there was Ghulam Haider in Lahore, who did it actually – by using the Punjabi folk music in the film Khazanchi-1941, which changed the total shape of Film music.
Dada Chandekar, MD for film Ghar ki rani-1940 was one of those unchangeable drama music experts, which actually became a negative point in the films of Huns Pictures of master Vinayak. Shankar Vishnu aka Dada Chandekar was from Kolhapur. He was born on 19-3-1897. His father used to do Keertan in temples and also play Harmonium. Dada also became an expert in playing the harmonium. Due to poverty, Dada joined Kirloskar drama company and used to do female roles. One day, by chance when the regular Harmonium player was absent, Dada got the opportunity to play Harmonium in a drama, which was lauded by all.
Later he joined Deenanath Mangeshkar’s Balwant Natak company where he played Harmonium for 20 years. Now Dada wanted to join the film industry. He assisted Dhamman Khan in the film Kaliya Mardan made by Bhali Pendharkar. When Dhamman Khan was removed due to his irregularity, Dada was appointed MD for the same film. Thus started his career finally. In 1937, he joined Huns Pictures of Master Vinayak and gave background music for the film Jwala-1938. This prompted the film Brahmachari-1938 to be given to him. This film’s music became Hit and created records in Hindi and Marathi versions. He gave music to Huns and Navyug films.
His other films as a MD were Brandy ki Botal-39, Devta-39, Ghar ki Rani-40, Amrit-41, Sangam-41, Ladai ke baad-43, Lieutenant-44, Din Raat-45, Main Tera Hoon-47, Moti-47 and his last Hindi film Phool aur Kaante-48. Meanwhile he was doing Marathi films also. He gave music to 25 Marathi films till 1964. It was he, who gave the First ever opportunity to Lata Mangeshkar to sing in a film. The film was ” Pahili Mangalagaur”-1942. It was a duet with Snehprabha Pradhan.
Dada Chandekar gave music to many Marathi dramas and he also worked for All India Radio, Poona for a few years. Dada Chandekar, one of the early composers of Hindi and Marathi films, died on 27-1-1976 at Poona.
Every person in this world likes to talk about himself. More so, if the person is from the film line and now retired. Some of them write their autobiography and some others get someone to write for them. Autobiographies (AB) are of two types. One in which the author talks about the times he spent in the studios, about the film, people connected with it, anecdotes and generally gives information about those times, in his book. Such ABs are considered the best from the point of view of Film History. Such ABs are less in number.
The other type of AB is, in which the author writes more about his personal life mainly, giving negligible space to other matters like film, people and related matters. Such authors are under the wrong impression that the world is dying to know about him and his life, while the facts remain that they had lives like the majority of people in India working in films.
Overall, the statistics say that women wrote more ABs than the men. Among the many ABs are the ones by Durga Khote, Leela Chitnis, Shanta Apte, Shanta Hublikar, Kanan Devi, Hansa Wadkar (one of the very few in the world, on which a film was made – ‘Bhumika’ (1977), Sulochana Latkar, Jayashree Gadkar, Snehprabha Pradhan etc etc. Among the males, some ABs are those of Bimal Roy, Nabendu Ghosh (I found that most film male personalities in Bangla cinema wrote their ABs), Sachin Burman, Salil Chaudhari, Hemanta Kumar, Vithal Pandya, Ramchandra Thakur and C. Ramchandra. Bangla artists wrote in Bangla only. Some have been translated into English.
Among these ABs, I would rate Durga Khote, Sulochana and Kanan Devi and Vithal Pandya’s books as the best in the first category. The worst AB is that of C Ramchandra from the second category in my personal opinion.
When I write about a film or a song, I try to first read the related part from the AB of the concerned artist, if any, so that my information becomes factual and reliable. In case of today, Leela Chitnis was the heroine of the film ‘Ghar Ki Rani’. Hans Pictures was in financial crisis during this period due to the failure of their ambitious film ‘Jwaala’ (1939), in which Chandramohan had acted in both versions, dubbing his own dialogues in Marathi himself, fluently.
When Master Vinayak had started Hans Pictures, the first film was ‘Chhaaya’ (1936). He had called Leela Chitnis to Kolhapur from Karachi to work in ‘Chhaaya’. Prior to that about a year or so earlier, Leela and Vinayak had been introduced in Poona. That time they had developed an attraction for each other, though Leela was already married and had 2 children. When they met again for the film ‘Ghar Ki Rani’ at Poona, no such feeling had remained. That time Master Vinayak had married Susheela – sister of actress Indira Wadkar, and he too had 2 daughters by then. One of them was Baby Nanda. During the shooting of the film Leela fell from her cycle and had fractures. One month was lost in that.
I have seen the film’s Marathi version, ‘Ardhangi’. The story of film ‘Ghar Ki Rani’ was-
Satyavan (Vinayak) is a University professor. Though he is highly educated, his wife Savitri (Meenakshi Shirodkar) is a simple housewife devoted to husband and his family. One day Satyavan’s colleague introduces his wife to Satyawan. Arundhati (Leela Chitnis) is a modern, educated, English speaking and cigarette smoking beautiful woman. Satyawan gets mad after her and takes every opportunity to meet and flatter her. In his mind he starts comparing Arundhati with his wife Savitri and feels ashamed of his wife. He feels Savitri is an absolutely illiterate, old styled useless woman and avoids taking her with him anywhere.
He appoints a tutor to teach Savitri European manners and English speaking etc. It is difficult for Savitri, but for husband she does them and soon picks up, being an intelligent woman. When Satyawan tries to impress Arundhati, she gives him freedom. Soon he comes very close to her to have an affair. However Arundhati humiliates him and makes him do all her domestic work. Then one day, she abandons Satyawan for the rich Zamindar Marotirao (Baburao Pendharkar).
Satyawan realises that he has been a fool to run after such a woman and returns happily to his wife Savitri, little knowing that it was Savitri who instigated Marotirao to go for Arundhati, to save her husband going away from her. Thus the Mahabharata story of Savitri who wins back her husband from Yama, comes to a close in Kalyug !
Dada Salvi, one of the cast members of this film, had worked in India’s first Talkie film ‘Alam Ara’-1931. Dinkar Shivram Salvi (04 December 1904 – 29 October 1980) better known as screen name “Dada Salvi”, was an actor of the silent & talkie era of Indian Cinema. He was a part of the first Indian talkie film “Alam Ara” (1931). He acted in 20 silent movies. He worked in Hindi & Marathi movies.
Dinkar Shivram Salvi aka Dada Salvi was born on 04 December 1904 in a village Phansob in Ratnagiri, Bombay Presidency undivided India, now in Maharashtra. After completing his education, he joined the Police Department. During service period, he was taking part in plays. Shri Tipnis, a well known play master saw Salvi and advised to come to Bombay. Acting in plays became a part of his life, so he decided to leave the job and come to Bombay.
In Bombay, Tipnis introduced Salvi to K. B. Athawale, working as manager, actor, director in Excelsior Film Company owned by Seth Wazeer Aziz. The company was searching for talented actors and Athwale offered Salvi to join Excelsior Film Company on a monthly salary of ₹. 25. Salvi accepted the job & joined Excelsior Film Company.
Salvi’s first silent film was “Khoon-e-Nahaq” (1928) and became very popular. Looking to his potential in acting, The Imperial Film Company offered Dalvi work with higher monthly pay. After joining Imperial Film Company, Salvi acted in 20 silent films like Madanmanjri, Indira BA, Bhola Shikar, Cinema Girl, Hamara Hindustan, Raat Ki Baat, Khuda Ki Shan and many more. It is said, while working with Imperial Film Company, Salvi fell in love with his co-actress Sakhubai & later they married. Probably it was the first love Marriage of the first Maharashtrian acting couple of Hindi Films.
Salvi has worked with Jayant Desai in the film Poladi Pahelwan – Iron Man (1931) for Paramount Films. He also acted in Marathi films like Aut Ghatkecha Raja, Bhakta Prahlad, Chatrapati Sambhaji, Thaksen Rajputra under Dadasaheb Torne of Saraswati Cinetone. Salvi’s role in “Chatrapati Sambhaji” as Sambhaji’s evil advisor ‘Kalusha Kabji’ won him great acclaim. Impressed with the acting of Salvi as “Kalusha Kabji”, Huns Pictures, Kolhapur, invited him to join them on a three figure salary. Salvi left Imperial and joined Huns.
“Premveer” (1937) was Salvi’s first film with Huns Pictures. This was a turning point in his career where he came to be associated with Master Vinayak & Marathi Films. Their team led to many wonderful performances. He was then seen mostly in Marathi Films with an occasional Hindi film. In Brahmchari, Salvi played the role of a father of the heroine. Salvi acted in Marathi films like Savangadi, Brandi Chi Batli, Devta and many more. Later Huns Pictures changed to Navyug Chitrapat and made Amrut (1941). Salvi then worked in many Hindi and Marathi films with Master Vinayak, V. Shantaram. After 1947, Dada Salvi mainly worked in Marathi films. Dada Salvi died on 29 October 1980 in Poona-Maharashtra.
So, here is an 85 year old duet by Meenakshi and Vasant Eric. Enjoy….
Song- Meree mehandee rang le aayee (Ghar Ki Rani)(1940) Singers- Meenakshi, Master Vasant Eric, Lyricist- Pt. Indra Chandra, MD- Dada Chandekar
Lyrics
Meree mehandi rang le aayee
meree mehandi rang le aayee
???
meree mehandi rang le aayee
???
??
chunariya sarak
??
chunariya sarak
sarak
sarak
mere kangna ??
jhoom jhoom kar chamki
kangnaa
jhoom jhoom kar chamki
mere kangna
jhoom jhoom kar chamki
bindiya ?? yee
bindiya ?? yee
meree mehandee rang le aayee
rang le aayee
rang le aayee
rang le aayee
lalalalalaaa
lalalala
??
???
??
dil ko mere ?? batlaaye
?? aangan hee aayaa
?? aangan hee aayaa
??????
????//
mere ghar mein chaandnee aayee
mere ghar mein chaandnee aayee
aa aa aa
?? aayee
mere chaand
rang le aayee
meri mehandi rang le aayee
rang le aayee
rang le aayee
rang le aayee
meri mehandi rang le aayeee
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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