Nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte
Posted on: June 10, 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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‘Mrigtrishna’ (1975) was produced by Jagdish Naheta and was directed by Rajendra Nath Shukla. The cast included Yogita Bali, Rakesh Pandey, Manisha, Jalal Agha, Shahi Agha (debutant), Darshan Arora, Tom Alter, Deena Pathak etc. Hema Malini made a guest appearance as a classical dancer in the film and Sona made her special appearance as a tamaasha dancer. The film was certified by Censor Board sometime in 1975 and was premiered in a film festival in the same year. However, the film got limited theatrical release only sometime in 1979.
The film’s story is inspired from Mizoguchi’s Japanese film, ‘Ugetsu Monogatari’ (1953) which translates as the ‘Tales of Moonlight and Rain’. The story was set in the background of the Japanese Civil War of 1868-69. However, the story for the Hindi film is adapted fit in the Rajasthan’s rural life with the background of the mutiny of 1857 against the British army. The theme of the story as mentioned in the credit title is that ‘each one of us lives in some kind of illusion and this story is born out of such illusions’.
I was aware of the film’s excellent classical raag-based songs many years back but at that time, the film was not available online for viewing. Recently, I came across this film on a video sharing platform. I watched the film and felt that the film’s story was a bit complex in which the main character’s real life was mixed with his illusions created by the spirit of other main character which the audience come to know at a much later stage. Till the suspense is out, the film may appear to viewers as ordinary, making them to wonder as to what the film wants to convey. Although film is slow, I found the theme of the film interesting. This film os meant only for the niche audience which means a box office disaster.
‘Mrigtrishna’ literally means the thirst of a deer. The deeper meaning of this Sanskrit word is that like Kasturi Mrig (Musk Deer) who is in search of the fragrance which in reality is emitting from its naval, the human being is in search of something outside, the answer for which lies within him. This, in nutshell, is the main theme of the film’s story. There is another message in the story in that during the war-like or any other abnormal situations, it is the womenfolk who suffers a lot. The story in detail is as under:
The background of the story is 1857 mutiny against British forces in India. In a village in Rajasthan, there is a constant fear from the British soldiers who are patrolling the village and are looking for the revolutionaries who may be hiding in their houses. In the village, Mansa (Rakesh Pandey) lives with his wife, Savitri (Shahi Agha) and a minor daughter. In his neighbour, his brother, Bhima (Jalal Agha) lives with his wife, Jamuna (Manisha). Both the brothers are financially poor and they sustain on making the earthen vessels and selling them in the nearby cities.
With the starting of the mutiny against the British forces, Mansa sees an opportunity for him to earn more money by selling his earthen vessels at a higher prices at the nearby cities. But Savitri says that during the time of uncertainty arising out of mutiny, it is better to be happy with whatever money they have rather than taking risk of going out of the village to cities to sell the earthen vessels at higher prices. Bhima thinks that the mutiny has opened him the opportunity to become a soldier in British forces which is his dream. But Jamuna taunts him that how he would get recruited when he is not able to hold even a wooden stick.
Mansa is getting ready in his bullock cart to visit the city to sell the earthen vessels. Sarpanch cautions him that with British soldiers taking rounds and robbers at large, it is not advisable to leave the village. Nevertheless, Mansa leaves in his bullock cart to a nearby city. After selling the earthen vessels, Mansa returns to the village with some gifts to his wife. She once again tells him that in this period on uncertainty, he should refrain from leaving the village. She will manage the house with whatever money they have.
Mansa in his greed to earn more money says that it is during the period like war, drought and flood that he can sell vessels at a higher prices. This time, he has made some colourful earthen vessels. He persists on visiting the nearby city to sell the earthen vessels. Just to give some comfort to his wife, Mansa decides to travel by boat to go across instead of travelling by road on the bullock cart. He takes Bhima with him. Savitri and Jamuna also join them.
When the boat is in the middle of the river, they find another boat coming from the opposite direction. In that boat, an injured man pleads them not to go ahead as there are pirates who will loot the boat. Mansa turns the boat to village and drops his wife and the daughter. He tell her to remain safe in the house and he will bring lot of money on his return. He once again resumes his boat journey with Bhima and his wife, Jamuna. They reach Rajgarh and starts selling earthen vessels. The sells good number of vessels earning a good amount of money. When Bhima sees the approaching British troops, he runs after them to become a soldier leaving Jamuna alone exposing her to robbers.
Next day, the Princess of Rajgarh, Sandhya Devi (Yogita Bali) with her maid (Deena Pathak) inspect the vessels displayed by Mansa and they buy a few of them. Sandhya Devi asks Mansa to follow her to deliver the vessels at her Lake Palace located in a very secluded place. Mansa is impressed as well surprised with the grandiose of the palace. The maid reveals that in this palace, only she and Sandhya Devi stay as all others as well as the Maharaja of Rajgarh have been killed by British forces. So, they two are hiding in this palace. At this point, the maid suddenly put a proposal to Mansa to get married to princess Sandhya Devi. Mansa is dumb struck as everything here look as if he is dreaming. He loses control of himself and gets married to Sandhya Devi. He spends his time with Sandhya for days completely under her magical spell. With so much of wealth around and soaked with luxuries, Mansa forgets his wife and the daughter.
On the other hand, in the village, Savitri is spending her days and nights worried about the well-being her husband who has not returned to the village for days. She is not in a position to leave the village in search of him due to patrolling of British forces as well as the fear of robbers. On the other hand, Bhima’s dream of becoming a soldier has not yet been fulfilled to prove his worth to his wife, Jamuna.
In the meantime, Bhima with his share of money earned from the sale of vessels buys soldier’s dress complete with spear and other protection gears goes in a nearby forest. He notices that an injured king is being carried by his soldier and the king is telling not to handover him to the British forces. Bhima sees an opportunity to prove his bravery. He kills the soldier with his spear and the injured king dies of shock. Bhima carries the dead king on his horse to the Fort where British forces are stationed. The British Commander (Tom Alter) is very happy with Bhima because he has killed King Jaisingh whom the British forces were searching. As a reward, Bhima is recruited in the British forces with army uniform, a horse and some soldiers. With this, Bhima proceeds to his village to show his proud moment to his wife, Jamuna.
Bhima is not aware that during his absence, his wife Jamuna was raped and now she has become a prostitute. When he is near his village, he sees Jamuna passing in front of him. He calls her. Seeing Bhima in uniform, Jamuna tells him sarcastically that he has made progress in his career so also she has made progress by entertaining every day new men by wearing new jewellery and new dresses. She says that now she is not worthy of his wife. But Bhima accepts her and takes her with him to his village.
In Rajgarh, Mansa has slowly started realising that though he has all the comforts in the palace, he is not getting the same feeling which he gets when he is with his family. On the contrary, he has observed that Sandhya has never come close to him even after the marriage. This gives him an alarm bell and decides to leave the palace. But Sandhya and her maid prevail upon him the necessity of remaining inside the palace from the safety point of view.
By now, Mansa is sure of the bizarreness and the mysterious behaviour of Sandhya and her maid. He is now more eager to get united with his family than before. He escapes from the palace taking a sword from the palace to threaten Sandhya and her maid when they are trying to stop him from going out of the palace. Once out of the palace, Mansa suddenly finds himself lying on the ground. When he opens his eyes, he sees some soldiers have surrounded him. Finding him with the sword from Rajgarh palace, the soldiers think of him as a thief. But Mansa says that he has got the sword from the palace where he was staying for a long time. The soldiers laugh and tell him that no one stays in the palace as everyone in the palace was killed and the palace is in ruin. They pick up the sword leaving him alone since there is not even jail left intact when British forces have destroyed everything.
Mansa gets a realisation that what he had been caught in the web of illusions for many days in the palace. He has now come out of Mrigtrishna (mirage). He is more eager to meet his family as he was very happy in his life making earthen vessels and spending time with his family. When he reaches his village, he finds the entire village has become deserted. At last, he finds his wife, Savitri in a house. She welcomes him as a matter of routine which surprises him. She makes food for him. He reveals her what had happened to him during the days he was out of the village. He reminds her that once she had told him that we should be happy with what we have without any stress. Unfortunately, he was lured by earning more money for which he faced a lot of difficulties.
After dinner, Mansa takes rest along with his daughter when the village Sarpanch visits his house. He is surprised to find Mansa in the house. Mansa calls Savitri. But she does not respond. Sarpanch tells him as to why he is calling Savitri who has been killed by the robbers many days back. Since then, the Sarpanch has been taking care of his daughter. Sarpanch leaves by saying to Mansa that perhaps stress has made him to feel that he has met Savitri and spoken to her.
Mansa is now sure that he has been living in illusions – first with princess Sandhya Devi and her maid and now with Savitri. He hears from his inner voice that Savitri is telling him to stop wandering in illusions. She advises him to stay in the village taking care of his daughter and to continue with the vocation of making the earthen vessels. The film ends with Mansa digging soil for making earthen vessels. Jamuna brings him lunch which he shares with his daughter.
The film had six songs written and set to music by Shambhu Sen. Two songs have been covered on the Blog. I present the 3rd song, ‘nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte’ which is rendered by Lata Mangeshkar as a background song. The tune is melancholic in line with the lyrics. The musical instruments used in the interludes are minimal to retain the feelings of separation embedded in the lyrics. This is song in ‘Virah Ras’ composed in Raag Jhinjhoti.
The background for the song is that Mansa (Rakesh Pandey) has gone to Rajgarh to sell the earthen vessels. The princess Sandhya Devi (Yogita Bali) after purchasing some vessels asks Mansa to make the delivery to her palace. However, after reaching the palace, he falls to the magical spells of the princess and get married to her. He stays in the palace in luxuries which makes him to forget his family in the village. His wife, Savitri (Shahi Agha) is worried about his well-being as many days have passed and he has not returned to the village. This background song reflect her predicament.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte (Mrigtrishna)(1975) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Shambhu Sen, MD-Shambhu Sen
Lyrics:
aa aa aa aa aa aa aa
hmm hmm hmm hmm
nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte
nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte
din beetegaa rain rotey rotey
nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte
aaa aaa aaa aaa
kaase kahoon main pee ke bainaa
kaase kahoon main pee ke bainaa
sun ree sakhee moree pinjre kee mainaa
ye jug ban gaye baarahon maas rotey rotey
nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte
tan ban gayo deepak
mann bhayo baatee
tan ban gayo deepak
mann bhayo baatee
aayo sandesaa
naa aayee saajan kee paatee
aayo sandesaa
naa aayee saajan kee paatee
dheeraj mohe bandhaaye
morey aansoo bahte bahte
nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte
din beetegaa rain rotey rotey
nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte
nain thhake ghadee pal ginte ginte
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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