Saansen meree ab befikar hain
Posted on: May 28, 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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I find Hindi films with a broader genre of road trips (or journey in any mode) quite interesting. In such films, events happen during the journeys which usually culminate into sub-genres such as romance, comedy, social drama, suspense thriller etc. In this broad category, I have watched films like ‘Nau Do Gyaarah’ (1957), ‘Caravan’ (1971), ‘Bombay To Goa’ (1972), ‘Dil Hai Ki Maanta Naheen’ (1991),‘Dil Chaahta Hai’ (2001), ‘Jab We Met’ (2007), ‘Zindagi Na Milengi Dobaara’ (2011), ‘Finding Fanny’ (2014), ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ (2015), ‘Piku’ (2015), ‘Dhanak’ (2015), ‘Qareeb Qareeb Single’ (2017) and many more. ‘Kaarwaan’ (2018) is my recent addition in watching films in the genre of road trips.
‘Kaarwaan’ (2018) was produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Priti Rathi Gupta and was directed by debutant Akarsh Khurana. The cast included Irfan Khan, Dulquer Salman and Mithila Palkar in main roles with the supporting cast of Amla Akkineni, Aakash Khurana, Kriti Kharbanda, Sameer Saxena, Dona Munshi, Beena Bannerjee, Sidharth Menon etc. The film was released in India on August 3, 2018. The film’s director, Akarsh Khurana is the son the actor, Aakash Khurana and is a theatre personality. Before directing this film, he has been associated with the entertainment industry in various capacities such as the dubbing artist, screenplay writer, actor, casting director, web series director, lyricist etc.
The film was conceptualised as early as 2013 when the story writer, Bejoy Nambiar decided to produce this film with Akarsh Khurana debuting as a director. The film was finalised in 2014 with Rajkumar Rao and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the main roles. However, Akarsh Khurana opted out as director presumably due to some creative differences with Producer and Writer, Bejoy Nambiar. He decided to keep the film on hold and concentrated on another film, ‘Wazeer’ (2016). In 2017, Ronnie Screwvala along with Priti Rathi Gupta decided to produce the film with Akarsh Khurana as a director.
The film centres around three main characters of the film who are from different walks of life. All three have faced the problems from the generation gap in their respective families. The first one is an IT professional from Bengaluru who is disillusioned with his career because he wanted to be a professional photographer. The second one is his friend, a garage owner who is practical, witty and philosophical whenever he talks. He has a chequered family past. The third is a lonely teenage girl who is rebellious and is carefree because of which she has problems with her single mother. A coffin mix up brings them together on an adventurous road trip from Bengaluru to Kochi to facilitate exchange of coffins. During the trip, they exchange the experiences of their life with honesty. With these exchanges, each one of them discovers that they are actually running away from the problems instead of facing them. At the end of their journey, they learn the new perspective of life and move forward in their pursuits with a positive mind.
The story of the film in detail is as under:
Avinash (Dulquer Salman) works in an IT company in Bengaluru. He got this job through his father’s efforts to ween him away from his passion in becoming a professional photographer. So, Avinash is not in good terms with his father (Akash Khurana) and they seldom speak with each other. In the office, his boss (Aadhar Khurana) always finds some or the other faults with him. He is in love with an airhostess, but there is no progress. In short, Avinash is frustrated with his career, with his father for not allowing him to follow his passion for photography and with his love life because of his introvert nature.
Avinash’s father has gone to a pilgrimage to Gangotri in a tourist company’s bus in which Tahira’s mother (Beena Banerjee) is also traveling. Avinash gets a call from the tourist company’s office that his father is killed in the bus accident and the company has made arrangements to send his coffin to Bengaluru by flight the next day. Avinash goes to his friend, Shaukat (Irfan Khan) for his van to bring his father’s coffin from Bengaluru airport. Shaukat takes Avinash in his van to the airport and collects the coffin. When it is opened, to their surprise, the dead body is that of an old lady who turns out to be Tahira’s mother. The coffin was meant to be sent to Kochi where Tahira (Amla Akkineni) stays. But Tahira is a single mother and she cannot come from Kochi to Coimbatore (mid point) where the coffins were to be exchanged. Avinash decides to help her by visiting Kochi for the exchange of coffins.
While Shaukat and Avinash were on a coffee break at Mysuru, Avinash sees a message from Tahira about her daughter, Tanya (Mithila Palkar) who has run away from her college’s hostel in Ooty. She requests Avinash to visit her college in Ooty on the way to Kochi to enquired her whereabouts. Shaukat gets irritated with all the additional responsibilities Avinash is taking and tells him that his van runs on diesel and not on his good deeds. However, Shaukat, being a close friend, supports Avinash and Tanya is picked up from her college who has actually not run away from the hostel but was missing from her room for a long time. All three now travel in the van for Kochi.
During the journey, Tanya finds a box in the coffin addressed to one Latha Nambiar who stays near Kochi. Again, being a gentleman, Avinash decides to visit her place to handover the box to Latha Nambiar despite the protest from Shaukat. Unfortunately, the entire Nambiar family has gone to Kumrakom for a marriage in the family. This time, Shaukat does not protest because he is sure to get a good lunch at the wedding. They reach at the wedding venue but the marriage has now been postponed after they come to know about the death of Lata Nambiar’s aunt who is Tahira’s mother. Lata Nambiar is happy to receive a box sent by her aunt.
In Kumrakom, Shaukat gets assaulted by two goons for not paying the money he had borrowed from them. In the shuffle, Shaukat and the Miyan, an old man who was playing Shehnai at the wedding, get injured requiring their hospitalisation. Goons confiscate Shaukat’s van and drive away. In the hospital, Dr. Raghu (Sameer Saxena) recognises Avinash who is his wife, Rumana’s (Kriti Kharbanda) best friend in the college. He invites them to his house for a breakfast. During the breakfast, Avinash and Rumana recalls their college friendship. She reveals that she had fallen in love with him during the last year in the college but at the end of the college, he vanished without any trace. Rumana gives Avinash a food for thought that when the son starts recognizing that the father’s was right, by then his son starts thinking that his father is wrong. She says that she is more happier to meet him today than losing him during the end of their college days.
During his stay in the hospital. Shaukat sees a young girl, Tasneem (Donna Munshi ) who comes to meet Miyan to take care of him. Shaukat is attracted to her and she also reciprocates his advances in a subtle way. On the day of discharge from the hospital, Shaukat meets Miyan, the old man with the intention of seeking his approval to marry Tasneem assuming that she is his daughter. Before that the old man introduces Tasneem to him as his third wife. Shaukat’s aspiration is shattered.
Avinash, Shaukat and Tanya reaches Kochi by arranging another car. Tahira is happy to receive them especially to see Tanya. The coffins are exchanged. Tahira gives Avinash the personal effects of Avinash’s father which was found in his coffin. He opens it and finds a diary written by his father. In the last page of the diary, he has written to his friend to take care of Avinash when he is away. Since Avinash is not in talking terms with his father, he has requested his friend to suggest Avinash that he should take early retirement from his IT company and pursue his passion as a professional photographer. After reading the diary, Avinash becomes very emotional and in the prayer meeting, he gives a very touching speech about his father. In the evening, the dead bodies are cremated. Avinash and Shaukat stay at Tahira’s house. Tanya presents Avinash a camera as a gift symbolising his passion for the photography.
Next day, Avinash and Shaukat take leave of Tahira and Tanya and reach the police station to collect their van which has been retrieved by the police. At that time, Tasneem has come to the police station to lodge a complaint against her husband (Miyan) for frequent beating by her husband. Shaukat sees Tasneem and asks her to accompany him to Bengaluru by giving Talaq to her husband after which he would marry her. After some hesitation, Tasneem agrees and they reach Bengaluru.
The film ends with Avinash resigning his job in the IT company and concentrating in his career as a professional photographer. Tahira has received an invitation to attend Avinash’s photographic exhibition. She attends the exhibition with her daughter, Tanya. Avinash has come with an airhostess, his love interest. Shaukat has come with his wife Tasneem. Everyone is in a happy mood as end credit titles are displayed.
I find the characters of Avinash and Tanya and their conversations during the journey quite interesting. At the outset, it would appear that by the time they reach Kochi, both will fall in love with each other. But it becomes clear when discussing with his college friend, Rumana (Kriti Kharbanda) that Avinash has no such feeling toward Tanya. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Avinash assumes himself as Tanya’s guardian. He cautions her for some of her rash activities like smoking, drinking and even buying anti-pregnancy pills at a medical store. She on her part also give a light hearted sermon to Avinash to follow ‘take it easy’ life. At the end of the journey, Avinash realises that his father was not entirely wrong when he was deciding his career as a guardian. Tanya also becomes a bit soft on her definition of freedom to its moderation and feels that her mother was not entirely wrong when she tried to put some curb on her freedom. I think, this turn in the story of the film was a master stroke of the story writer.
The film is a perfect blend of light humour and pathos. Almost all dialogues with light humour go in the kitty of Irfan Khan with his one-liner repartee effortlessly. Dulquer Salman and Mithila Palkar have also given excellent performances.
The film had six songs written by four lyricists which were set to music by four music directors. I present the first song from the film, ‘saansen meree ab befikar hai’ to appear on the Blog. The song is written, rendered and set to music by Prateek Kuhad. In this song, I find the lyrics, music and singing by Prateek Kuhad out of box when compared with the current trend in Hindi film music. The lyrics of the song have unusual imaginaries and sum up the lives of three main character of the film who have overcome their problems. The orchestration, mainly of the acoustic guitar is soft which gels well with Prateek’s anglicised voice. The drum beats have been kept in low sound which enable the listener to hear the lyrics clearly. Prateek Kuhad comes from Jaipur who has many non-film albums – both in Hindi and English, released in India and abroad.
The song is played in the background when Avinash (Dulquer Salman) leaves his office after resigning from his job. After that, the end credit titles are being displayed on the screen which merge with the end scenes of the film showing Avinash’s exhibition of his photographs which is being held in an open lawn. The guests include Tahira (Amla Akkineni), Tanya (Mithila Palkar). Shaukat (Irfan Khan), Tasneem (Donna Munshi) and Avinash’s love interest, airhostess (Abir Abrar). They are seen chitchatting in a happy mood.
Audio Clip:
Video
Song-Saansen meree ab befikar hain (Kaarwaan)(2018) Singer-Prateek Kuhad, Lyrics-Prateek Kuhad, Md-Prateek Kuhad
Lyrics:
saansen meree ab befikar hain
dil mein base kaise ye pal hain
baaten sambhal jaa rahee hain
palkon mein youn hee hansee hai
mann mein chhupee kaisee ye dhun hai
har khwaahishen uljhee kidhar hain
pairon se zakhmee zameen hai
nazren bhee thahree huyee hain
hai rukee har ghadee
ham hain chalen
raahen yaheen
ye manzilen hamse khafaa thheen
in parchhaayion see bewaafaa thheen
baahon mein ab khoyee hain raatein
haathhon mein khulee hain ye shaamen
ye subah hai nayee
ham hain chalen
raahen yaheen
main apne hee mann kaa hauslaa hoon
hai soyaa jahaan par main jagaa hoon
main peelee sahar kaa nashaa hoon
main madhosh thhaa
ab main yahaan hoon
saansen meree ab befikar hain
dil mein base kaise ye pal hain
naghmen khile hain ab saare
pairon tale hai mashaalen
thham gayee hai zameen
ham hain chale
raahen yaheen
main apne hee mann kaa hauslaa hoon
hai soyaa jahaan par main jagaa hoon
main apne hee mann kaa hauslaa hoon
hai soyaa jahaan par main jagaa hoon
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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