Geeton per pahre hain honthhon pe taale hain
Posted on: June 2, 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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‘Gudiyaa’ (1997) was produced by Mahesh Bhatt and Amit Khanna under the banner of Plus Films and was directed by cinematographer and screenplay writer, Gautam Ghose. The cast included Mithun Chakraborty, the debutant Nandana Sen, Pran, Mohan Agashe, Subhendu Chatterjee, Tiku Talsania, Masood Akhtar etc with special appearances by Avtar Gill, Sunil Mukherjee, Anjaan Shrivastav and Anusha Majumdar. This was Gautam Ghose’s first Hindi feature film which was shot at New Theatres Studio, Kolkata. The outdoor shooting was mainly done in Goa and Mumbai. The film was a ‘disaster’ at the box office front.
The film was based on a Bangla short story, ‘Johnny O Urbashi’ (1976) by Jnanpith award winner novelist and writer, Padma Vibhushan Mahasweta Devi (1926 -2016). The short story is about a ventriloquist, Johnny, who entertains the people with his talking doll, Uravashi and has become popular with the masses. The ventriloquist suffers from throat cancer thus effectively making him and his talking doll mute to whom he is emotionally attached. In his film, Gautam Ghose has added a sub-plot of a politician who is trying to use the ventriloquist to his advantage by asking him to stage the shows in his constituency based on his promises to his voters. Since Johnny does not subscribe to politician’s thoughts, his goons damage the talking doll. In disgust, he throws it in the sea. Now, he cannot express his views without his talking doll thus effectively curtailing his freedom of expression. At the end, his beloved Rosemary takes the place of the talking doll and Johnny resumes to entertain the people with popular songs and his commentaries on the current social and political situations.
The story of the film in detail is as under:
The film begins with a scene in which Hameed (Pran), a ventriloquist is rehearsing with Johnny (Mithun Chakraborty) some Hindustani semi-classical songs somewhere in Goa. During the show, it is perceived to be rendered by a life-sized talking doll, which he has named Urvashi. Hameed has been with his talking doll for many years and now he has become old but his talking doll has remain forever young (hence the name, Urvashi, the celestial dancer). Hameed has emotional attachment with his talking doll so much that during the partition, he avoided migrating to Pakistan mainly to remain with his talking doll. Johnny is an orphan who has been adopted by Hameed when he had shifted to Goa for his shows.
In one of his shows, Hameed temporarily loses his voice. Doctor diagnoses it as throat cancer. Now, he cannot make his doll to talk in the show. Before his death, Hameed hands over his talking doll to Johnny whom he has already trained to be a ventriloquist. Johnny continues his show with ‘Urvashi’, making some changes in the format of the shows such as introducing sarcastic commentaries on the current socio-economic situations, Hindi film songs, Goan music, rock and jazz music etc. Because of these changes, he becomes very popular. With his popularity spreading in the neighbouring states, Johnny with his team and talking doll shift to Mumbai where he meets Rosemary Braganza ( Nandana Sen), his childhood friend from Goa who has shifted to Mumbai along with her divorced father Braganza (Mohan Agashe), a garage owner for repairing car. He gives Johnny a separate room in the garage for his team.
In Mumbai also, his shows become popular with Rosemary joining his team as a guitarist. She is in love with Johnny but for him, she is a teenager and treats her like a child. Even her father indirectly hints to Johnny that he is ready to formalise his daughter’s relationship with him with marriage. But like Hameed, Johnny has got so much emotionally attached to ‘Urvashi’ that he has ignored time and again the advances made by Rosemary though his outlook towards her has remained the same as was during her childhood. She occasionally starts feeling that ‘Urvashi’ has become an obstacle in the path of her union with Johnny.
With Johnny’s popularity spreading in the city with his shows where people get entertained, a politician (Avtar Gill) who is contesting an election sees his shows an opportunity to convey his promises to voters. His agent Munnabhai (Masood Akhtar) approaches Johnny with a good remuneration which he refuses to accept by telling him that he is neutral in his political idealogy. But his shows continue to draw large people who are swayed by his honest commentaries on socio-economic issues which are in variance with the politician’s promises to the voters. He evens gets newspaper coverage to the dislike of the politician. His goons threaten Rosemary’s father to reign in Johnny by not talking anything in his shows which goes against the politician or still better to keep quiet until the election is over. Otherwise, they would see that his garage is closed.
Rosemary tries to convince Johnny that there are many non-controversial subjects which he can choose in his shows to avoid the conflict with the politician and save her father’s garage. With great reluctance, Johnny accepts the show for the politician’s campaign. During the show when the politician is present along with his agents, ‘Urvashi’, talks something against the politician who is bent upon constructing a five-star hotel with a golf course by demolishing the houses of the crowd who are present in his show, which in reality is Johnny’s conscience which speaks. In anger, the politician’s goons assault Johnny and break the talking doll. Beaten by the goons, Johnny, in the fits of anger, throws the broken pieces of his talking doll into the sea.
After this incident, a depressed Johnny does not come out of his house for many days. ‘Urvashi had become a part of his daily life and without her he cannot think of starting his shows. Rosemary’s father tries to convince Johnny that in the life we have to compromise because we cannot face the might of the politician who have money, power, police etc. Johnny says that he has public with him. In the meantime, Rosemary presents Johnny with a gift of a new guitar which is a symbolic way of her telling him to resume his shows.
The film ends with Johnny commencing his shows after a long gap with Rosemary substituting for ‘Urvashi’ with a song which represents his thoughts on socio-economic and political climate and Rosemary dances on the song.
Mahasweta Devi wrote this short story in Bengali ‘Johnny O Urbashi’ (1976) during emergency. So, there are symbolisms used in her story without inviting the wreath of the authorities. For instance, when the ventriloquist develops throat cancer which prevents him from speaking, he cannot make his doll, Uravashi to speak. This is a symbolic of the freedom of expressions which was severely curtailed during the period of emergency. Another instance of symbolism is that when Johnny gives his honest opinion about the social and political situations through his talking doll, the politician present during the show is uncomfortable while the other people clap for Johnny. The politician’s goons breaks his talking doll, Urvashi symbolising throttling his freedom of expression.
For Mithun Chakraborty, this film is an antithesis of his popular image of an action and dancing star which he displayed during 1980s and early 90s in most of his films. His role in the film required subtlety which he has effortlessly performed. The debutant Nandana Sen (she is the daughter of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen) has also given a good performance as per the expectations from her role as a Goan teenage girl having a crush on the middle-aged Mithun Chakraborty. Rest of the actors like Pran, Mohan Agashe, Avtar Gill, Subhendu Chatterjee etc have fitted well in their respective roles.
The film had nine songs written by Nida Fazli (6), Gautam Ghose (2) and one traditional song. All the songs were set to music by Guatam Ghose-Arthur Gracias. It is somewhat unusual to have a large number of songs in a parallel film. However, most of the songs appear in the film in their shorter versions. I present the first song from the film, ‘geeton par pahre hain hothhon pe taale hain’ which is rendered by Amit Kumar on Nida Fazli’s words. The song is picturised on Mithun Chakraborty with Nandana Sen replacing his talking doll.
This is the last song which appears just before the end of the film. The context to the song is that when Johnny, the ventriloquist shows his discomfort in toying the line of the politician despite a good remuneration, his goons break the talking doll. Johnny is depressed as he was emotionally attached to his talking doll. In an indirect way, the politician has attacked his freedom of expression which he used to convey through his talking doll. It is his beloved Rosemary who offers herself to be his live doll thus making him to resume his shows with a dancing ‘doll’. Withi this, Johnny’s freedom of expression is restored through this song filled with sarcasm and his determination to overcome the consequences with the support of the people.
It is interesting to note that the prelude music of the song is replicated from the tune of the song, ‘cholee ke peechhe kyaa hai’ from the film, ‘Khalnaayak’ (1993). The audio clip of the song has longer prelude and postlude music than the video clip. The lyrics in both the clips remain the same.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Geeton par pahren hain (Gudiyaa)(1997) Singer-Amit Kumar, Lyrics-Nida Fazli, MD-Gautam Ghosh-Arthur Gracias
Lyrics:
geeton par pahre hain
hothhon pe taale hain
yahaan to jeene ke
chalan niraale hain
sach yahaan bolo naheen
raaz-e-dil kholo naheen
jahan se socho naheen
aankhon se dekho naheen
hai ye jhoothon kaa jahaan
har zubaan hai bezubaan
phir bhee jeenaa hai yahaan
jaayen to kahaan
chaahe jaisee uljhan ho
laakh zamaanaa dushman ho
jab tak mere saathh ho tum
geet hoon main aawaaz ho tum
yooheen main gaaoongaa
paison kee duniyaa mein
har shay kee keemat hai
apnee tarah se to
jeenaa museebat hai
saathhiyon haathh mein
haathh do saathh do
tum hee meree chaahat ho
tum hee taakat ho
sapnon kaa geeton se
geeton kaa jeewan se
jeewan kaa chaahat se
rishtaa puraanaa hai
chaahe jaisee uljhan ho
laakh zamaanaa dushman ho
jab tak mere saathh ho tum
geet hoon main aawaaz ho tum
yoonheen main gaaoongaa
geeton par pahre hain
hothhon pe taale hain
yahaan to jeene ke ae ae
chalan niraale hain
ek se aansoo hain
ek see aankhen hain
ek se raahee
ek see raahen hain
yoon to gino to kayee aadmee hain
magar ek hee aadmee
main hee saaree jantaa hoon
sadiyon se zindaa hoon
chaahe jaisee uljhan ho
laakh zamaanaa dushman ho
jab tak mere saathh ho tum
geet hoon main aawaaz ho tum
yoonhee main gaaoongaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
June 3, 2025 at 11:01 am
Thank you for introducing this song and movie on the blog.
Rather unusual tune and sound cannot be recognised as Amit Kumar. Wow!
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June 3, 2025 at 6:13 pm
Amit Kumar seems to have moulded his voice to suit the mood of the lyrics and to sound like a message to the audience.
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