Aas ka jhhoothha bandhan tootaa
Posted on: June 11, 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.
|
Blog Day : |
6172 | Post No. : | 19053 |
When I started writing the article on the film, ‘Mrigtrishna’ (1975, I found it be very long (3500+words). So, I felt better to convert it into two separate articles. My first article on this film was posted on the Blog on June 10, 2025 in which I have mainly covered the story of the film with some other details. In the second article on the film, I will cover a brief biography of the music director and lyricist, Shambhu Sen along with some additional information on the film.
The film had Yogita Bali, Rakesh Pandey, Manisha, Jalal Agha, Shahi Agha in the main roles. Hema Malini made a guest appearance as a classical dancer and Sona (real name: Shahjehan Begum) making a special appearance as a tamasha dancer. Sona’s face has some resemblance to that of Madhubala. She was married to Haji Mastan Mirza, the underworld don of Mumbai during 1970-80. In my view, while Sona’s dance was like an item number, Hema Malini’s dance, though fitted in the film’s theme in terms of its lyrics, appeared in the film without context. Probably, these songs were incorporated for attracting financiers/distributors for the film which did not have any star cast. Incidentally, Hema Malini’s classical dance was choregraphed by Saroj Khan who had just began her career as a full-fledged choreographer.
This film has many debutants which included the producer, Jagdish Naheta, the screenplay writer and director, Rajendranath Shukla, music director and lyricist, Shambhu Sen and Shahi Agha as an actress who is the daughter of Agha and the sister of Jalal Agha. The other debutant artists in the film were playback singers Mehdi Hasan and Madan Sen (brother of Shambhu Sen). For Tom Alter, it was his first released film as his debut film, ‘Charas’ (1976) was released later.
The highlight of the film was the beautifully crafted raag-based songs written and composed by Shambhu Sen who made his debut with this film as a music director and lyricist. He was one of the four sons of music director, Jamal Sen. Producer-director, Kidar Sharma introduced Jamal Sen as the music director in ‘Shokhiyaan’ (1951). Incidentally, Shambhu Sen had sung a duet with Suraiya in this film.
Shambhu Sen (1934-1998) was born in Sujangarh in Churu district of the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan which has been known for producing hundreds of musicians, singers and dancers which include Pandit Jagannath Prasad, Pandit Hanuman Prasad, Khemchand Prakash and his brother, Basant Prakash, Pandit K Mahavir, Kathak dancers and choreographers Sohanlal and Hiralal, Mubarak Begum, Shankar-Shambhu, Pakistani Ghazal singer, Mehdi Hasan etc.
Shambhu Sen started as an assistant to his father Jamal Sen. He learnt and mastered all the five elements of music – poetry, singing, dancing, instrumental music and the musical composition. Therefore, he was called the ‘Panchamukhi Kalaakaar’ (Five-faced Artist). He also worked independently as choreographer and the music director. He directed, acted and choreographed ballets, prominent among them being ‘Dream of Meera’ with Hema Malini, ‘Meghdoot’ and ‘Maharani Padmini’. He also acted in the role of Adam in ‘Christ’ in the presence of Pope Paul at the Indian Eucharistic Society in 1964.
He turned music director in Hindi films with ‘Mrigtrishna’ (1975) and ‘Banno’ (1987). He also composed songs for five Rajasthani films. The failure of Hindi films on the box office despite excellent music coupled with his tours all over India for presenting his dance ballets may be the reasons for not pursuing the career in Hindi films.
Apart from his ‘panchamukhi’ calibre in music, Shambhu Sen wrote in Hindi a book, ‘Sangeet Veda’, a treatise on Indian music of about 1500 pages for which he devoted about 35 years of his life at the cost of his career, financial stability and marital relation. For this, he travelled extensively all over India. Unfortunately, he could not witness the publication of his book as few days before the event, he passed away on January 3, 1998, due to a brain haemorrhage. [With inputs from an interview of Shambhu Sen taken by R M Vijayakar which appeared on Google Group RMIM].
Shambhu Sen had three sons – Sameer Sen, Sanjeev Sen and Lalit Sen. Sameer Sen along with his uncle, Dilip Sen became the music director duo. While Sanjeev Sen is a musician, Lalit Sen is mostly associated with composing non-film songs and as a music arranger. Shambhu Sen’s grandson (Sameer Sen’s son), Sohail Sen is a music director having so far composed songs for 25 films.
I have already discussed the film’s story in details in my last article referred to in the opening paragraph. The song I am presenting here can be called a theme song which is ‘aas kaa jhoothha bandhan toota’, rendered by Mehdi Hasan. The song is written and composed by Shambhu Sen. This is the 4th song from the film to appear on the Blog out of six songs.
In the soundtrack version, the song is preceded by Mahatma Kabir’s popular doha (couplet):
maatee kahe kumhaar se tu kyaa raunde mohe
ek din aisaa aayegaa main raundoongee tohe
The literal translation of this couplet is that the clay says to the potter that who are you to trample me under your feet. A day will come when I trample you. In a wider connotation, the couplet reminds the potter that a day will come when he is buried after his death, the clay will choke him. In the film, the protagonist is a potter and it is a reminder to him that while he mould the clay to make vessels, one day he would merge with the clay. He is a part of the cycle of life and death.
The couplet is followed by the song which is a kind of sermon to the protagonist. He has just come out of his illusion in which he has married a princess and stayed in a lake palace amidst plenty of wealth and luxuries. This illusion is reflective of the protagonist’s greed for more money to provide comfort to himself and his family. Now, his desire has turned into falsehood when his illusion has been broken. He is left alone without knowing as to what happened to his family in the midst of uncertainty surrounding his village.
The context of the song is that Mansa (Rakesh Pandey) who has come out of the lake palace finds himself fallen on the ground, When he opens his eyes, he finds soldiers have surrounded him. The soldiers think that Mansa is a thief because with him is a sword with the inscription of the Rajgarh Palace. The soldiers snatch his sword and whatever money he had with him. He pleads with the soldiers that he was staying in the Lake Palace with pricess and her maid and he got the sword from the palace. They do not believe him because there is no such palace as it has been damaged by the British forces and all the occupants have been killed.
Now Mansa comes out of his illusion and proceeds towards his village to meet his wife and minor daughter during which the song runs in the background. The third stanza of the song is played towards the end of film when Mansa is back to his work as a potter and his sister-in-law (his brother, Bhima’s wife), Jamuna (Manisha) brings lunch for him and his daughter.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Aas ka jhoothhaa bandhan tootaa (Mrigtrishna)(1975) Singer-Mehdi Hasan, Lyrics-Shambhu Sen, MD-Shambhu Sen
Lyrics (based on Video Clip):
maati kahe kumhaar se
tu kyaa raunde mohey
ek din aisaa aaye….gaa
main raundoongee tohe
aas kaa jhoothhaa bandhan tootaa
aas kaa jhoothhaa bandhan tootaa
jhoothhaa bharam aur jhoothhee trishna
jhoothhaa bharam aur jhoothhee trishna
aas kaa jhoothhaa bandhan tootaa
nain banee ik sundar sapnaa
nain khuley to koi naa apnaa
kaahe ko sajaaye re sapnon se angnaa
milan mrigtrishna
milan mrigtrishna
aas kaa jhoothhaa bandhan tootaa
bhor kaa sooraj kirnon se boley
lobhee manwaa chaahoon dis doley
kaahe ko lubhaaye re
lobh se nainaa
milan mrigtrishna
milan mrigtrishna
aas kaa jhoothhaa bandhan tootaa
aas kaa jhoothhaa bandhan tootaa
jhoothhaa bharam aur jhoothhee trishna
jhoothhaa bharam aur jhoothhee trishna
aas kaa jhoothhaa bandhan tootaa aa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
Leave a comment