Kaale kaale gahre saaye
Posted on: May 17, 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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‘Chakra’ (1980) was produced by Manmohan Shetty and Pradeep Uppoor under the banner of Neo Films and was directed by debutant Robin Dharmaraj. The main cast included Smita Patil, Nasiruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Ranjit Chowdhry with the supporting cast of Anjali Paigankar, Savita Bajaj, Suhas Bhalekar, Dilip Dhawan, Rohini Hattangadi, Sudhir Pande, Alka Kubal, Madan Jain, Salim Ghouse, Satish Kaushik, Sumant Mastakar, Arun Bakshi, Ratan Gurung etc. The film was based on a novella by the same name in Marathi written by Jaywant Dalvi, one of the greatest Marathi novelists, short story writers and the playwrights.
The film’s producers Manmohan Shetty is the founder of Adlabs Films Ltd a film processing company. He produced along with Pradeep Uppoor, films such as ‘Ardh Satya’ (1983), ‘Hip Hip Hurray’ (1984), ‘Holi’ (1984), ‘Aaghaat’ (1985) apart from many more films with others. Pradeep Uppoor was also the producer of ‘CID’, one of the longest run TV Serial. The film was Robin Dharmaraj’s only feature film as a director. Just before the release of the film, he passed away at the age of 34. His two Chief/Special Assistant directors in the film were Kundan Shah and Raj Kumar Santoshi who later earned the name for themselves in the field of direction.
Rabindra (Robin) Dharmaraj (19/05/1946 – 11/02/1981) was born in Sivakasi in Tamilnadu. An alumni of St Steven’s College, New Delhi, he started his career as a News Reader in All India Radio. Later, he joined Statesman as a war correspondent in Vietnam. He returned to India and worked in advertising companies as a voice-over artist for advertising films and also for the documentaries of the Film Division. He completed a short course in film making in the USA during which he was an understudy to Francis Ford Coppola, a well-known Hollywood director. On return to India, Rabindra assisted Shyam Benegal before venturing into directing ‘Chakra’ (1981).
‘Chakra’ (1981) depicts the harsh realities of urban poverty in slums of Mumbai. A widow with her husband and a son migrate to Mumbai’s slums from Karnataka when her husband kills a money lender who was trying to molest his wife. While escaping, her husband gets killed in police firing. She works hard to give her son a better life, but in doing so, sometimes she has to cross the moral lines. Then there are local politicians and the those in authority who oppress the poor in the name of promises. After going through a lot of struggle for the survival, she is about to set her life in order with her steady relationship with a truck driver when her slum gets demolished for the reason that she had given shelter to a criminal. Now, she looks for another slum to continue her life of struggle, poverty and the moral dilemma. She represents a majority of urban poor caught in a web of ‘chakra’ (cycle or wheel) who find it difficult to come out of it. The story in detail is as under:
Amma (Smita Patil) lives with her husband (Dilip Dhawan) and their son, Benwa (Ranjit Chowdhry) in a slum in Karnataka. A money lender tries to sexually molest Amma when her husband, in a fit of rage, kills him by hitting with a rock. All the three run away from their slum but Amma’s husband is killed by the police. Amma and Benwa migrate to Mumbai and settle in a slum pocket in Dharavi.
After some years in Dharavi slum, Amma is still struggling with sustenance. She has developed a steady relationship with Anna (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a truck driver who drives the truck out of Mumbai most of the days. Whenever he returns to Dharavi, he gives financial help to Amma. She keeps her hope on Benwa who is now a teenager to do better in his life to overcome poverty. However, the flamboyancy of Lukka (Nasiruddin Shah), a local goon with a criminal background influences Benwa who becomes his sidekick. Amma is also attracted by Lukka’s smartness and develops closeness with him when Anna is out of the city.
One day, Lukka is arrested on some criminal activities and he is externed for 2 years in Kalyan, a town outside Mumbai city limit. He occasionally visits Dharavi slum to meet Amma and Benwa secretly. During one of his secret visits, Amma’s closeness to Lukka turns into illicit relationship. Although Amma proposes marrying him but he says that he is not a one-woman man. Lukka facilitates Benwa to starts a shoe polishing job. But aura of Lukka on him is so much that soon Benwa gets involved with minor criminal activities and gambling under the influence of Lukka to get money in easy manner.
Whenever, Anna is in Dharavi, Benwa ensures that Lukka is kept away from his house. Anna’s closeness to Amma stems from the fact that he has no one in the family as he had left his house when he was a child. Anna stays with Amma whenever he returns from his truck driving duties. Lukka visits her only when he is on a day’s visit from Kalyan and that too when Anna is away. Amma’s illicit relationship with two persons comes out of insecurity about herself and for the betterment of his son, Benwa.
After the end of his externed period, Lukka returns to Dharavi after a long time who looks weary, lean and without his usual flamboyancy. He is suffering from sexually transmitted diseases. He wants to give up his criminal life but because of his health, he has not much choice. He advises Benwa to desist from following his criminal path and find some legitimate work. Lukka arranges Benwa’s marriage with a neighbouring slum girl, Amli (Anjali Paigankar) to make him a responsible person.
In the meanwhile, Amma gets pregnant. It is not clear as to who is the father of the child in her womb – Lukka or Anna. But she chooses Anna by letting him know that he is the father of the child. Probably, Amma thinks that Anna has a better prospect for her to take care of her and the family than Lukka. Anna assures her that he would arrange to construct a hut for Benwa and his wife.
With no way to sustain, Lukka restarts his illicit liquor business. A police raid destroys his liquor den beside injuring him badly. The health of Lukka is deteriorating as days pass. Amma tends him but to no avail. So, in a spur of the moment, Lukka goes to a chemist’s shop to get the required medicines for which he has no money to pay. When chemist (Kundan Shah) refuses to give him any medicine without payment, Lukka attacks him with his knife and runs away after stealing the medicines. He hides in Amma’s hut. However, policemen raid Amma’s house and arrest Lukka after a scuffle in which Amma gets injured resulting in her miscarriage.
Soon a local politician comes with a bulldozer and starts demolishing the slums by pointing out that he gave them place to stay peacefully and not for criminal activities. The film ends with the exodus of slum dwellers who have lost their huts and moving with their belongings to look for another slum pocket to start their life afresh and thus continuing their ‘chakra’ of their struggle for survival.
I have watched the film for the first time only recently. I have passed through Dharavi slums umpteen times over five decades – both by road and the suburban railway. Things have changed very much now. What I admire in the film is the stark realities the director has shown in the film about day-to-day life in the slums of Dharavi in the 1980s without exaggerating much. I was so much moved by watching this film in that I had to spread over 3-4 days to watch it in full. All I can say about this film is that it is meant for the niche audience only.
‘Chakra’ (1981) bagged the Golden Leopard award at the Lucerne International Film Festival in 1981. Smita Patil won the National Award for Best Actor (Female).
The film had three songs (including one with two-version) written by Madhosh Bilgrami which were set to music by Hridaynath Mangeshkar. All the song are played in the film as background songs. I present the first song, ‘kaale kaale gahre saaye’ to appear on the Blog which is rendered by Lata Mangeshkar. In the film, this song is played in the background in two parts with one antara each in different scenes. Audio clip of the song contains the full song. The video clip contains only the mukhda and the first antara.
The song is played in the background after Amma (Smita Patil) reveals to Anna (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) that she is pregnant with his child. Thereafter, it is Amma’s imagination as to how she would bring up her child with the help of Anna. The second antara of the song is played in the film when Anna helps with material for constructing a separate hut for Benwa (Ranjit Chowdhry) and his would-be wife, Amli (Anjali Paignakar).
Audio Clip:
Video Clip:
Song-Kaale kaale gahre saaye (Chakra)(1980)Singer-Lata Mangeshkar, Lyrics-Madhosh Bilgrami, MD-Hridaynath Mangeshkar
Lyrics (Based on Audio Clip):
aa aa aaa
aa aa aaa
aa aa aa aa aa aaa
aa aaa
kaale kaale gahre saaye
kaale kaale gahre saaye
ho jaaye door din wo aaye
soonee soonee baahon mein phir
jhoolegaa munnaa
chandaa saa pyaaraa dulaaraa
aa ra ru ru ru
aa ra ru ru ru
aa ra ru ru ru
aa ra ru ru ru u u
kaale kaale gahre saaye
mere ghar ke bhee chhat pe
haree bharee bel chadhhe
mere ghar ke bhee chat pe
haree bharee bel chadhhe
haathhon mein mere bhee to choodee khanke ae
koi najariyaa lag naa jaaye
koi najariyaa lag naa jaaye
saiyaan mere yaad rahe
loongee main ek din
haan haan re
janam dobaaraa
aa ra ru ru ru
aa ra ru ru ru
aa ra ru ru ru
aa ra ru ru ru u u
kaale kaale gahre saaye
mere apne hain jitne
mere sadaa saathh rahen
mere apne hain jitne
mere sadaa saathh rahen
raaton ko aankhon se naa aansoo bahen aen
julam koi ab na dhhaaye
julam koi ab na dhhaaye
dartaa hai jee haaye kaheen
chhoote naa phir se
haan phir se
teraa sahaara aa
aa ra ru ru ru u
aa ra ru ru ru u
aa ra ru ru ru u
aa ra ru ru ru u u
kaale kaale gahre saaye
kaale kaale gahre saaye
kaale kaale gahre saaye
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
May 17, 2025 at 7:46 am
Finally the much awaited (for me) film debut is on the blog. Many thanks for this presentation and the detailed story of the movie. Yes, it is very difficult movie to watch, and that is why, though I had started and watched half part of the movie, later it remained as it is. I was suppose to present the song sung by Bhupinder Singh, which is also a background song. As you said the film depicts the stark reality, but then that is how life is around us, may be it is more stark (and a ‘normal’ filthy too) than that. I have vague memories about reading about this movie and discussions about its poster then, when it was released in 1980. It was not for us to watch this movie then. But, later also in all these years I never got to watch this movie. Hat’s of to the director Rabindra Dharmaraj who made such a movie. He passed too early. I have also not read the novella by Jaywant Dalvi yet.
Thanks a lot again !!!
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May 17, 2025 at 7:34 pm
Avinash ji,
I am happy that your wish of making this film’s debut on the Blog is fulfilled. I was surprised as to how this award winning film remained unrepresented on the Blog for such a long period.
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