Dekho mauj bahaar
Posted on: June 21, 2025
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, 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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Today’s song is from the film Dr.Kotnis ki amar Kahani-1946.
It was produced by V.Shantaram’s Rajkamal Kalamandir. The name of his company was in memory of his parents – RAJ (Rajaram) KAMAL (Kamalabai). The cast included V.Shantaram, Jayashree, Baburao Pendharkar, Master Vinayak,Dewan Sharar, Ulhas, Keshavrao Datey, Rajashree, Pratima Devi, Dada Salvi, Jankidas and many others.
The Indian film industry has some rare gems of talented directors like Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, Basu Bhattacharya, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, P.L.Deshpande, Vishram Bedekar and few others. V.Shantaram held a high place among these directors. Rising from a lower middle class family of a small town, he rose to fame doing,at times, menial jobs for petty amounts in his early life. His life is an example of the proverb -” Lotus tells us where you come from is not important, but what you become is more important” !
Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre (18 November 1901 – 30 October 1990), referred to as V. Shantaram or Shantaram Bapu, was a filmmaker, film producer, and actor known for his work in Hindi and Marathi films. He is most known for films such as Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946), Amar Bhoopali (1951), Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955), Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957), Navrang (1959), Duniya Na Mane (1937), Pinjara (1972), Chani, Iye Marathiche Nagari and Zunj.
V. Shantaram started his film career doing odd jobs in Maharashtra Film Co. owned by Baburao Painter at Kolhapur. He went on to debut as an actor in the silent film Surekha Haran in 1921.
He directed his first film Netaji Palkar, in 1927. In 1929, he founded the Prabhat Film Company, along with Vishnupant Damle, K.R. Dhaiber, S. Fatelal and S.B. Kulkarni, which made Ayodhyecha Raja, the first Marathi language Talkie film in 1932 under his direction.He left Prabhat co. in 1942 to form “Rajkamal Kalamandir” in Mumbai. In time, “Rajkamal” became one of the most sophisticated studios of the country.
Shantaram introduced his daughter Rajshree (his daughter with Jayashree) and Jeetendra in the 1964 film Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne. That was the debut film for both of them. He also introduced his second wife Sandhya’s niece Ranjana Deshmukh into the Marathi film industry through Chandanachi Choli Ang Ang Jaali, directed by his son Kiran Shantaram in 1975. Ranjana dominated the Marathi silver screen in the 70s and 80s.
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award was conferred on him in 1985. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1992
His autobiography Shantarama was published in Hindi and Marathi. Shantaram was honoured on a 2001 stamp of India The V. Shantaram Award was constituted by the Central Government and Maharashtra State Government.
The V. Shantaram Motion Picture Scientific Research and Cultural Foundation, established in 1993, offers various awards to film-makers. The award is presented annually on 18 November. A postage stamp dedicated to Shantaram was released by India Post on 17 November 2001.
Shantaram was born in 1901 at Kolhapur to a Marathi Jain family. V. Shantaram’s family moved from Kolhapur to Hubbbali also known as Hubli in Karnataka in 1917 facing tough times financially. Shantaram a teenager then joined as a fitter in the railway workshop at Hubli, for a salary of 8 annas (50 paise) per day, impressed by his hard work his salary was raised to 12 annas per day. In the evenings he worked as a door keeper at NEW Deccan Cinema Theatre at Hubli. Though he was not paid for this job, he was allowed to watch all movies for free. There he watched movies of Dadasaheb Phalke, father of Indian Cinema, and developed passion for the movies. He learnt photography and sign board painting in Hubballi. He said later that the first time he touched the camera he instantly connected to it.
In 1921, aged 20, he married 12-year-old Vimalabai in a match arranged by their families. He had four children with Vimalabai, Prabhat Kumar (after whom Shantaram named his movie company) and daughters Saroj, Madhura and Charusheela. Saroj, the eldest daughter, is married to Soli Engineer, a Parsi gentleman, and they run the Valley View Grand Resort at Panhala near Kolhapur, built on Shantaram’s farmhouse, which was inherited by Saroj. Shantaram’s second daughter, Madhura, is the wife of Pandit Jasraj and mother of music director Shaarang Dev Pandit and of TV personality Durga Jasraj.Shantaram’s third daughter, Charusheela, is the mother of Hindi and Marathi actor Sushant Ray a.k.a. Siddharth Ray.
In 1941, Shantaram married the actress Jayashree (née Kamulkar), with whom he had worked together in several films, including Shakuntala (1942). He had three children with Jayashree: a son, the Marathi film director and producer Kiran Shantaram, and two daughters, the actress Rajshree and Tejashree.
In 1956, just before the law was changed to prohibit polygamy for Hindus (but not for Muslims), Shantaram married another of his leading ladies, the actress Sandhya (née Vijaya Deshmukh), who had already starred in his films Amar Bhoopali and Parchaiyan and would go on to star in many of his future films like Do Aankhen Barah Haath, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Navrang, Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli and Sehra. They did not have any children together, but Sandhya bonded strongly with Vimalabai and her children, and she lives with them as a respected mother.
Shantaram died on 30 October 1990 in Mumbai. He was survived by his three wives and his seven children. Vimalabai died in 1996 after being bedridden for four years. Jayashree died peacefully in her sleep in 2003. Shantaram used to live at Panhala near Kolhapur in Maharashtra state. His daughter Saroj has maintained his house and has converted the rest of the property into a hotel named Valley View Grand.
After completing the film ‘Shakuntala’-1943, Shantaram read the book “And one did not come back”, on the life of a doctor from Solapur, who went to China to look after the wounded war soldiers, stayed there for 4 years, married a Chinese nurse and died in China, doing his work. Impressed with the life story of Dr. Dwarakanath Kotnis, he decided to make a film on him. Spending 2 years and about 20-22 Lakhs of rupees, he completed the film. One of the doctors- Dr.B.K.Basu- who was with Kotnis in China helped Shantaram to make the film realistic and authentic.
The film was directed by Shantaram himself. Music was by Vasant Desai – who used 2 Chinese song tunes for 2 of his songs in the film for giving a chinese touch. Screenplay and dialogues were by K.A.Abbas and V.P.Sathe-the well known film publicist in later years. Lyricist was Dewan Sharar. The film was released on 16-3-1946 at Bombay in Swastik Cinema hall. There was also an English version called ” The eternal story of Dr. Kotnis’, which was released in London and New York. Music for this English version was also done by Vasant desai. Some Hollywood producers were so impressed that he was entrusted with the background music for a Hollywood film “Monsoon”-1952.
Though Lata Mangeshkar doesn’t acknowledge any of Desai’s creations in her top 20 personal favourites nor praises his vast repertoire, it is a fact that some of her finest renditions were under Desai. Allegedly, Lata had a grudge against him for promoting other singers, especially Vani Jairam, and hence ignores his contribution in her career even when most of her songs under Desai’s baton have been unsurpassed till this day. Go down the memory lane and you can’t ignore sublime creations like “Jo Tum Todo Piya” (“Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje”), “Tere Sur aur Mere Geet” (“Goonj Uthi Shehnai”), “Main Gaoon Tu Chup Hoja” (“Do Aankhen Barah Haath”), “Piya Te Kahan” (“Toofan aur Diya”) or “Ik Tha Bachpan” (“Aashirwad”). Even though Desai made her “Ae Malik Tere Bande Hum” (“Do Aankhen Barah Haath”) into a memorable secular prayer, Lata hardly ever commends the composition. Maybe she is unhappy that Desai created an equally powerful bhajan “Humko Man Ki Shakti Dena” into a nationwide school prayer through Vani’s vocals.
His proficiency was the reason why he was greatly admired by maestros like Bismillah Khan (who made the shehnai famous with his recitals in “Goonj Uthi Shehnai”, Amir Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, and M. S. Subbulakshmi even got a song composed from Desai for her recital at the UNO headquarters. It was Desai’s virtuosity that made Dada Muni (Ashok Kumar) render an all-time favourite children’s song “Rail Gaadi” (“Aashirwad”) with minimal instrumentals. Nowadays when the Cannes Film Festival is a place of photo opportunity rather than exploration of artistry, it is overwhelming to know that decades ago Desai’s versatility made “Amar Bhoopali ” the only Indian film to win a Grand Prix award for original musical score at Cannes! Obviously, lyricist Gulzar isn’t wrong to hail Desai as a “music composer extraordinaire” especially when he catapulted his “Bole Re Papihara” to Himalayan heights of popularity.
Vasant Krishnaji Desai ( 9-6-1912 to 22-12-1975 ) was born in a small village Sonavde in the Konkan area of Western coastal Maharashtra. After passing his 4th standard, he left school and developed his musical skill.He used to act in local dramas, play Harmonium and sing songs. For better prospects, he reached Kolhapur and joined the newly started Prabhat Film Company. Here he learnt to play various instruments while doing whatever work was given to him. He worked in films, sang songs and assisted great musicians like Govindrao Tembe, Keshavrao Bhole and Master Krishnarao Phulambrikar. He became an expert in playing many instruments and also learnt tuning the songs. From childhood he was fond of bodybuilding which he continued till last in his life.
When V.Shantaram and others left Prabhat and established Rajkamal, he too left and joined Shantaram. By now, he had already given music to Shobha-42, Aankh ki sharm-43 and Mauj-43. He became Rajkamal’s Music Director with his first film Shakuntala-43. Though he did some films outside Rajkamal, his popularity was limited to Shantaram’s films. With this limitation, his music was getting suffocated.
When Minerva’s Sheesh Mahal-50 came to him, in true sense he felt Free and relieved. In Rajkamal, another composer S.Purushottam was also operating along with him. However Purushottam could never achieve as much success as Vasant Desai. During that period Pushpa Hans approached Rajkamal for a Playback opportunity. It was Vasant Desai who took her audition. Impressed with her voice and style, he strongly recommended her to Shantaram. Based on his words, Shantaram made Pushpa Hans the Singing Heroine of the film Apna Desh-1949.
In Minerva too, Vasant Desai recommended her name to Sohrab Modi and she got the third Heroine’s role in the film Sheesh Mahal-50( the other two Heroines were Naseem Bano and Nigar Sultana ). Out of 9 songs of the film Vasant Desai gave 5 songs to her. 4 solos and 1 song with Rafi and Geeta ( today’s song). All her songs as well as 2 songs of Shamshad Begum became quite popular and this established Vasant Desai as a successful composer.
Scoring music for a majority of Shantaram’s films, Vasant’s career suffered a major blow when their relations soured in the late 1950s. Yet it is to his credit that even though they split after recording of “Aadha Hai Chandrama” (later re-done by C. Ramchandra), he never ever spoke ill about “Anna” till his dying day.
In his initial stage of career, he had acted in 4 films like, Dharmatma-35, Amar Jyoti-36, Wahan-37 and Sant Dnyaneshwar-40. He even sang 12 songs in films like Amrit Manthan-34, Dharmatma-35, Amar Jyoti-36, Wahan-37, Sant Dnyaneshwar-40, Sant Sakhu-41, Shakuntala-43 and Parbat pe apna dera-44. In all, Vasant Desai gave music to 50 films, composing 382 songs. His first film was Shobha-42 and Last released film was Shaque-76.
Now listen to this almost 80 year old video song by Jayashree and chorus….
Song- Dekho mauj bahaar (Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahaani)(1946) Singer- Jayashree, Lyricist- Dewan Sharar, MD- Vasant Desai
Lyrics
aha hahahahahahaha
aha hahahahahahaha
dekho mauj bahaar
dekho mauj bahaar
aa haa hahaha
jag mein rut matwaalee aai
aa haa hahaha
baago ki khushaalee aai
aa ahha
phoolon par kya laalee aai
aa aahaha
phoolo par kya laalee aai
phale phoole gulzaar
aa haha
phale phoole gulzaar
aa ha haha
aa hahahahaha
dekho mauj bahaar
aa aa hahaha
pawan pakheru jhoom raha hai
aa ha hahaha
kaliyon ka munh choom raha hai
aa aaa haha
bhanwra lobhee ghoom raha hai
aa aa haha
bhanwra lobhee ghoom raha hai
bhool gaya ghar-baar
aa hahahaha
bhool gaya ghar-baar
aahahaha
dekho mauj bahaar
dekho mauj bahaar
khushbu ne hai angiya kholee
ha ha aahaha
khushbu ne hai angiya kholee
kaliyon ne kee geelee cholee
kaliyon ne ki geelee cholee
haaa aahaha
bhanwre ne bhar daalee cholee
aa aa
bhanwre ne bhar daalee cholee
phool gaya shirshaad(?)
phul gaya shirshaad(?)
dekho mauj bahaar
hahahaha
hahahahahaha
ahahahaha
ahahaha
ahahaha
ahahaha
ahahahahaha
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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