Dil aakhir dil hai
Posted on: August 21, 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 : |
6243 | Post No. : | 19309 |
‘Dil Aakhir Dil Hai’ (1982) was produced by M S Gulati and was directed by Esmayeel Shroff. The cast included Rakhee, Nasiruddin Shah, Parveen Babi, Jalal Agha, Rehman, A K Hangal, Deena Pathak, Dinesh Hingoo, Ramesh Tiwari, Murad, Leela Mishra etc.
In an interview with The Times of India, which was published on October 27, 2022, Nasiruddin Shah has revealed that he was cast in the film only because Rishi Kapoor had backed out from the film. Film’s director, Esmayeel Shroff propped him up by saying that he can do any type of roles. But as the film progressed, he and the director realised that he was a misfit in the film. Probably, this was one of the reasons that film failed at the box office.
In another article which appeared on Indian Express, July 20, 2025, Naseeruddin Shah said that he was shooting for Shekhar Kapur’s relationship drama, ‘Masoom’ (1983) almost simultaneously with Esmayeel Shroff’s romantic relationship drama, ‘Dil Aakhir Dil Hai’ (1982). One can notice the difference in the quality of his performance. He said that he looked like an absolute novice in ‘Dil Akhir Dil Hai,’ (1982). Today, most people do not even remember this film.
The film has an interesting theme of a complex relationship of a married couple. A man is forced to marry a woman who is 4-5 years older to him and he immensely respect her as an elder person. Additionally, she is his capable senior in the office. The husband does not see her as his wife but see her like his elder sister. In the film, Nasiruddin Shah is in such a relationship who is pressurised to get married to Rakhee. But their married life is not like that of a husband-wife. He has so much respect for her that even after their marriage, he does not consummate the marriage. He cannot talk to her with an open mind. After the marriage, he meets Parveen Babi in whom he sees as his ideal wife. He is mesmerised by her presence which leads to an extra-marital relationship. He gets divorce from Rakhee and marries Parveen Babi. Again, it a complex relationship in his second marriage as Nasiruddin Shah is conservative by nature while Parveen Babi is a girl with liberal and independent outlook. So, there is a compatibility issues on which she gets divorce from him. In the end, Nasiruddin Shah is a lonely person and Rakhee comes to his rescue.
The story in some detail is as under:
Arvind Desai (Rehman), his wife, Shobha Desai (Deena Pathak) stay with their 30-year old daughter, Kusum (Rakhee) who is yet to get married. Arvind has a family friend, Ashok Mehta whose son, Vimal Mehta works in his company where Rakhee also works who is a senior to him both in the age and the company’s hierarchy. Arvind is worried about the delay in Kusum’s marriage. Ashok helps him by convincing his friend in fixing his son’s marriage with Kusum. However, on the marriage day, the bridegroom travels to Japan to avoid the marriage. Ashok feels let down by his friend and instead emotionally pressurises his 25 year old son, Vimal (Nasiruddin Shah) to marry Kusum. He marries Kusum very reluctantly.
While Kusum becomes a devoted wife to Vimal, he is not able to get a feel of her as his wife due to his immense respect for her as an elder. While Vimal continues to respect her, he is short of his duties as a husband. Because of Kusum’s encouragement, Vimal, after passing LLB, takes up the profession of a lawyer. While Kusum is yearning for his love as a wife, Vimal neglects her as his wife though his respect for her continues. He resents her when she does his work as a wife. He does not like her to undertake fasting rituals for the betterment of him as a husband. This create some tension in their relationship.
One day, a client, Sapna (Parveen Babi) comes to Vimal’s office in connection with her company’s legal case. He is mesmerised by her presence and imagines her to be an ideal wife. She also reciprocates to his advances. He dreams of her day and night. Vimal starts regularly meeting Sapna on the beach, in the restaurant and in the park while at home, he works late avoiding Kusum. They stay together yet they are far away from each other. Kusum and her mother take the services of a counsellor (Shammi) who feels that Vimal’s respect for Kusum as an elder person and also a senior in the office has created an inferiority complex in him. For him, respecting her has become a worship. And sensual desire and worship do not go together. The counsellor suggests that both of them go out of the city and spend few days together where both of them start feeling the need of each other. But this does not work as Vimal is completely engrossed in Sapna who is constantly in his image. One day, he even tacitly indicates Sapna to be his wife. When she is on the official trip outside, Vimal visits her in the guise of his client’s meeting.
Kusum comes to know about Vimal’ relationship with Sapna when she had seen them together. Vimal reveals that he likes Sapna from his heart while he has married her due to pressure from his father to whom he cannot displease. While they are going through the turmoil in the married life, Vimal’s father, Arvind dies in a plane accident while travelling to Kolkata. Vimal gives up his lawyer’s profession to run his father’s business. With his father’s death, the restrains in the artificial married life for both Vimal and Kusum no longer exist. For the happiness of Vimal, Kusum decides to give him divorce.
Vimal consults his friend, Fazal (Jalal Agha) who was his classmate in the college and also now lawyer. More than his legal advice, Fazal tries to convince Vimal that Kusum is his ideal wife who is prepared to sacrifice her marital life for the happiness of her husband. But Vimal is mesmerised by Sapna to such an extent that he decides to take his own decision regarding the divorce rather than relying on his friend’s advice. Fazal warns Vimal that he will not allow the divorce to take place and fights the divorce case. However, in the court, Kusum makes divorce for Vimal easy by presenting herself as an ascetic who has renounced the world. Court grants divorce to Vimal. Kusum shifts to Pune with her mother. Vimal marries Sapna.
Within few days, the differences between liberal and independent-minded Sapna and the conservative Vimal surface. Initially, Vimal takes it as temporary hiccups which, he assumes will get adjusted over a period of time. But both of them realises that they are not compatible. One day, Vimal accidentally meets Kusum in a restaurant who has come to Mumbai on some official meetings. Vimal pours his problems with Sapna. to Rakhee who tries to bring rapprochement between them. But this does not work as Sapna sees the trait of male chauvinist in Vimal who does not like her dancing with other male friends and also organising the get-together of her friends in the house and her partying with them at the cost of neglecting him. Fed up with his everyday tantrum, Sapna seeks divorce from him and he agrees for the divorce in the court.
After the divorce, Vimal goes to his lawyer friend, Fazal’s house and requests him to draft a document in which he transfers all his assets in the name of Kusum to financially assist the needy divorced women. He visits Pune to hand over the document to Kusum. She is surprised on his sudden visit. He reveals her that Sapna has divorced him and post-divorce, he has decided to transfer his all assets to her to take care of the divorced women in need of the financial help. He tells her that his life is like a story written on a paper which has gotten wet which cannot be read and on which one cannot re-write a new story. He hands over the property document to Kusum and tells her that he has decided to go for a long pilgrimage. Kusum is speechless because of the sudden developments. As Vimal is leaving her house, Kusum follows him and takes him in her arms who reciprocates by hugging her for the first time. She says to him that it is better late than never to realise their true relationship.
In the first half of the film, Nasiruddin Shah has an interesting and complex relationship with Rakhee. In the second half of the film, Nasiruddin’s extra-marital relationship with Parvin Babi followed by his marriage with her is also a complex relationship. While Parveen Babi is a liberal woman with an independent mind, Nasiruddin Shah is conservative in his attitude. With two complex relationships of Nasiruddin Shah, the film’s story has the potential to turn it into the genre of the ‘middle of the road’ film. However, it appears that the director under the pressures from financiers/distributors followed the usual mainstream Hindi film formula of three romantic songs picturised on Rakhee-Nasiruddin and Parveen Babi-Nasiruddin which appear redundant. Also, the film gets an expected ending when Nasiruddin Shah gets united with Rakhee. Generally, when a person is uable to adjust his temperament during his two marriages, it is difficult to assume that he has changed. In my view, the natural ending of the story should have been that after Nasiruddin Shah hands over his property documents to Rakhee, he decides to stay alone as the redemption of his wrongdoing to Rakhee and develops a friendly relationship with her.
The film had five songs (including one dual version song) written by Naqsh Lyallpuri (3), Nida Fazli (1) and Indeewar (1) which were set to music by Khayyam. Two songs have been covered on the Blog. I present the third song, ‘dil aakhir dil hai’ written by Naqsh Lyallpuri. The song has two solo versions – one rendered Bhupinder Singh and other by Lata Mangeshkar.
The context of Bhupinder Singh version of the song is that after his forced marriage with Rakhee, Nasiruddin Shah returns to his room where Rakhee is waiting for him after the marriage. Rakhee is not only elder to him by 5 years, but she also works in his father’s office in a senior position. Nasiruddin Shah has a high respect for her. He cannot imagine her to be his wife. The song plays in the background when Nasiruddin Shah is in a dilemma on consummating the marriage. The last two antaras of the song get played in the background when Nasiruddin Shah has tussle with Parveen Babi after his second marriage on their first wedding anniversary.
Lata Mangeshkar version of the song in the film is an abridged version and is picturised on Rakhee after Nasiruddin Shah shows his unability to be at home during her breaking her fast, a ritual for the betterment of her husband in the pretext of attending an important meeting. But he actually meets Praveen Babi at the beach with whom he has fallen in love.
Bhupinder Singh Version
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Lata Mangeshkar Version
Video Clip (shorter)
Audio Clip (Full):
Song-Dil aakhir dil hai (Dil Aakhir Dil Hai)(1982) Singer-Bhupinder Singh/ Lata Mangeshkar, Lyrics-Naqsh Llayalpuri, MD-Khayyam
Lyrics:
Bhupinder Singh version
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
naazuk to thhaa ye aainaa
sochaa na thhaa lekin kabhee
kuchh iss tarah todegee dil
bas ik nazar kee berukhee
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
patthar kaho
sheeshaa kaho
chaahe koi bhee naam do
ye pyaar ke kaabil naheen
dil ko na ye ilzaam do
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
gul bhee khile
gulshan khilaa
harsoo huyee rangeen fizaa
ae kaash ye poochhe koi
veeraan kyun hai dil meraa
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
Lata Mangeshkar Version (Lyrics based on Audio Clip)
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
shikwaa to hai haalaat kaa
unse koi shikwaa naheen
tootaa hai dil ummeed kaa
rishtaa abhee tootaa naheen
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
maanaa ke hai hanstaa huaa
chehraa zamaane ke liye
kaise kahen
hai zakhmee dil
kisko dikhaane ke liye
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
kashtee agar jazbaat kee
toofaan se takraayegee
koi lahar ehsaas kee
dil ko bahaa le jaayegee
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
kisko sunaayen haal-e-dil
haal-e-dil
dil aakhir dil hai
dil aakhir dil hai
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
Leave a comment