Dekho Kaanha naheen maanat batiyaan
Posted by: Atul on: September 19, 2025
- In: Classical composition | Dance song | Duet | Guest posts | Hariharan solo song | Hariharan Song | Lord Krishna related songs | Post by Sadanand Kamath | Semi Classical Dance | Semi Classical song | Songs of 1970s (1971 to 1980) | Songs of 1980 | Sulakshana Pandit Songs | Taraana classical song | Yearwise breakup of songs | Yesudas solo | Yesudas song | Yesudas-Sulakshana Pandit duet
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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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There has been very few Hindi films produced with the main theme of Indian classical dances. As far as I know, the first Hindi film with Indian classical dances as the main theme was Uday Shankar’s ‘Kalpana’ (1948) in which his wife, Amla Shankar was in the lead role of a classical dancer. This was followed by V Shantaram’s ‘Jhanak Jhanak Paayal Baaje’ (1955) in which his then future wife, Sandhya was in the lead role of a classical dancer along the Gopikrishna. Another Hindi film I remember is ‘Naache Mayuri’ (1986) which was more like a biographical film on the classical dancer, Sudha Chandran who lost her leg but continued her dancing career after lot of efforts. In this film, Sudha Chandran acted as herself.
There may be a few more films with the omnibus dance theme. I was aware of the film, ‘Paayal Ki Jhankaar, (1980) but, until recently, I did not know that this film was also made with the main theme of Indian classical dances. Perhaps, my mind about this film may have been prejudiced by another film with the same name released in 1968.
‘Paayal Ki Jhankaar’ (1980) was produced by Tarachand Barjatya under his banner of Rajshree Productions and was directed by Satyen Bose. The cast included Komal Mahuvakar, Master Alankar, Surinder Kaur (Debutant), Aroon Kumar (father of Govinda), Sudha Shivpuri, Bandini, Shail Chaturvedi, C S Dubey, Asha Sharma, Rajrani, Nilofer, Shabnam etc.
This was the first film for Komal Mahuvakar in a lead role who was 15 at the time of shooting of the film. She had worked as child artist (Baby Komal) in ‘Mili’ (1975), ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’ (1977), ‘Des Pardes’ (1978), ‘Khubsoorat’ (1980) etc. She was born in Mumbai on November 4, 1965, Her mother was a doctor while her father was a lawyer. She did her schooling in King George High School (now Raja Shivaji Vidhyalay) where Padmini Kolhapure was her classmate. Komal completed her graduation in science. From the childhood, Komal was interested in dancing but had no interest in becoming an actress. Her parents were keen to make her a classical dancer for which she was put under tutelage of Pandit Lachhu Maharaj and later under Gopikrishna. She became a trained dancer in Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Odissi.
Sometime in 1975, Hrishikesh Mukherjee was looking for a child artist for his film, ‘Mili’ (1975). In a school function, he watched Komal’s dance performance. With the approval of her parents, he signed her as a child artist for the film in which she had a scene with Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bahaduri.
Producer Tarachand Barjatya was planning to make a film ‘Paayal Ki Jhankaar’ (1980) with newcomers in main roles who needed to be teenagers and trained dancers. When he saw Komal rehearsing a dance performance in Gopikrishna’s dance academy, he was impressed with her dance. With some acting experiences as a child artist, Komal was selected for the lead role in the film with Master Alankar. Another newcomer Surinder Kaur and Bandini, both trained dancers were also in the film. However, the film did not click on the box office.
After watching her performance in ‘Paayal Ki Jhankar’ (1980), Producer, Prakash Mehra selected her in his film, ‘Ghungroo’ (1983) pairing with Kunal Goswami. However, this film was a flop on the box office. Thereafter, Komal worked in the supporting roles in about a dozen films which included ‘Aawaara Baap’ (1985), ‘Chameli Ki Shaadi’ (1986), ‘Naache Mayuri’ (1986), ‘Nageena’ (1986) etc. She was disappointed that she could not get lead roles in Hindi films.
Around 1987, Komal was signed for AVM’s Tamil film, ‘Manithan’ (1987) with Rajnikanth in lead role. With the success of this film, she shifted her base to Chennai to work in Tamil films. She adopted a new screen name, ‘Roopini’ for South’s films. She worked in about 50 Tamil/Kannada/Malayalam/Telugu films between 1987-95 mainly in lead roles with star actors like Rajnikanth, Kamal Hasan, Vijayakanth, Vishnuvardhan, Mammootty, Suresh Gopi, Venkatesh etc. (Note: Komal’s profile is mainly sourced from the Indian Express Weekend, August 20, 1988).
In 1995, Komal got married to Mohan Kumar and quit films after which she shifted back to Mumbai. She briefly returned in a Hindi TV serial, ‘Wo Rahnewaali Mahalon Ki’ (2005). After about another 20 years, she appeared in a Tamil soap opera, ‘Chithi 2’ (2020).
The story of the film is as under:
Shyama (Komal Mahuvakar) is an orphan teenager who lives with her Aunt (Sudha Shivpuri), Uncle (C S Dubey) and her cousins. Shayma’s passion is dancing which naturally comes to her. But her aunt and uncle are against her dances. One day she, along with a young man named Gopal (Master Alankar) visit to see the dance by Veena (Surinder Kaur), a well-known dancer of repute. They ask Veena and her mentor, Dinanath (Shail Chaturvedi), for dance training but they are thrown out. A disappointed Shyama returns home very late in the night forcing her to sleep outside the house in the verandah.
The next day, Shyama’s aunt finds out about watching the night prograame of dance. Uncle and Aunt beat her very badly. At first, Shayma decides to give up her dream of becoming a dancer. But Gopal motivates her by saying that she should not give up her dream but to find a way out. He has found out from his father that there is a well-known dance Guru, Kishanchand Sharma (Aroon Kumar). To meet him, Shyama decides to run away with Gopal in search of Kishanchand. They meet him but he rejects them on the ground that they want to learn dancing to earn fame and money while he accepts as disciples only those who are devoted to the classical dances for their preservations without any expectations of fame and money. Later on, the audience comes to know that the Guru has taken this stand because one of his bright disciples, Veena (Surinder Kaur) has left him after she has accepted the sponsorship of her dance performances in Paris. Now she is a well-known classical dancer in the international circuits.
Shyama and Gopal start giving street performances as a means of sustenance. Shyama is afraid that now she has to go back to her aunt and uncle and she will get once again the beatings. However, Gopal motivates her that they will get some way out of the problem. Soon, an elderly lady hears their conversation about Guru Kishanchand and enquires about them. Gopal tells her that Guru Kishanchand has refused to accept Shyama as his disciple. The elderly lady is the aunt of Guru Kishanchand. She takes Shyama to her house to work as a maid so that over a period of time, she would get exposures from watching the dance rehearsals of his disciples. The elderly lady convinces Guru Kishanchand that she has employed Shyama to help her in the household work.
One day, Shyama witnesses from the window, a dance rehearsal of Naini (Bandini), one of the senior disciples of Guru. In the midnight when everyone is asleep in the house, Shyama goes to the dance rehearsal room and starts dancing that she has witnessed in the morning. Guru wakes up from his sleep when he hears the sound of anklets. He comes out and watches Shyama performing the same dance which he had given a rehearsal to Naini. He is so mesmerised by watching her dance that he joins in singing the dance song on which Shyama performs to the perfection. Guru gives her blessings and the next day, he formally takes Shyama as his disciple under the condition that she would not leave his tutelage until she is fully trained as a dancer.
On the occasion of the silver jubilee year of a dance academy in Delhi, the trustees visit Guru Kishanchand with a request to attend the function during which a dance competition has been planned. They also request him to let one of his disciples to participate in the dance competition. Guru Kishanchand selects Shyama to be the participant in the dance competition which Naini the senior most disciple resents and becomes jealous of her. However, with her kind and helping nature, Naini sheds her jealousy toward Shyama and cooperates with her.
In the dance competition, Shyama is pitted against the internationally well-known classical dancer, Veena who was once the disciple of Guru Kishanchand. Shyama wins the dance competition and gets the medal which she wants to hand over to her Guru. However, Guru Kishanchand announces that the medal be handed over to Gopal, the real Guru of Shayma in whose inspirations and motivations, Shyama has won the dance competition.
This film is a ‘must watch’ for those who are interested in Hindustani classical music and dances. Kudos to Pandit Badri Prasad for his authentic choreography and for the music director, Rajkamal for composing songs in the genre of Hindustani classical and semi-classical music. Incidentally, Aroon Kumar (Govinda’s father) has got a major role of Guru Kishanchand Sharma which he had performed well.
The film had eleven songs including one song in three parts which were written by Maya Govind and set to music by Rajkamal. Three songs have been covered on the Blog. I present the 4th song, ‘dekho kaanha naheen maanat batiyaan’ which is prominently based on Raag Yaman. The song is in three parts. Part-1 is rendered by Hariharan, Part-2 is rendered by Sulakshana Pandit and Yesudas while Part-3 is rendered by Yesudas. However, in the audio clip, only Sulakshana Pandit and Yesudas sing. It is a Krishna-Leela/Bhajan song. The theme of the first two parts of the song depicts what may be called as ‘sweet complaints’ against Krishna while Part-3 is a virah geet (song of separation). While Hariharan sings for Aroon Kumar in Part-1, Yesudas sings for Aroon Kumar in Part-2 and 3 of the song.
All the three parts of the song appears in the film one after another with short gaps. The first two parts of the song displays dances starting from Kathak, then probably shifts to Kuchipudi (my guess) and ending with Odissi dancing styles.
The context of the song is that Shyama (Komal Mahuvakar) has joined as a maid in the dance gurukul of Guru Kishanchand Sharma (Aroon Kumar, father of Govinda). In Part-1 of the song, Guru is taking the rehearsal of a classical dance with one of his senior disciples, Naini (Bandini). Shyama hears the sound of the anklets from the kitchen. She is drawn towards the sound and watches from a distance the dance performance of Naini on the song rendered by the Guru. In Part-2 of the song, at midnight, Shyama is rehearsing herself the same dance which she has witnessed earlier. With the sound of anklets disturbing Guru’s sleep, he gets up to see as to who is dancing. He watches Shyama dancing. After a while, he is so mesmerised with her dance performance that he joins her by singing the song along with rhythmic syllables like ‘deem taa re naa dir dere na…’.
By the time Shyama’s dance gets over, it is dawn time when the Guru sings a song, probably in Raag Bhairavi which is the Part-3 of the song. In this part when Guru invokes in the song ‘Gopal’ three times, Shyama remembers her erstwhile companion, Gopal Bhat (Master Alankar) and imagines him to be Lord Krishna. At the end of the song, Guru gives his blessing to Shyama signifying that he is ready to accept her as a disciple.
As mentioned earlier, the dances in this film were choregraphed by Pandit Badri Prasad. Most of the readers of the Blog know him to be a character actor. But they may not be aware that before Kishore Kumar, Pandit Badri Prasad was the first multi-talented artist in Hindi film industry – as an actor, singer, music director, lyricist, choreographer, producer and director.
This song has to be regarded as one of the best renditions of Yesudas who displays his mastery in rendering the two Hindustani classical raags along with rhythmic syllables. Sulakshana Pandit has also shown her mastery over rendering this raag-based song.
My crisp comment on the dance songs is – mind-blowing classical dance performances with fantastic renditions.
Video (All parts combined)
Audio
Song-Dekho Kaanha Naheen Maanat Batiyaan (Paayal Ki Jhankaar)(1980) Singers-Hariharan, Sulakashana Pandit, Yesudas, Lyrics-Maya Govind, MD-Rajkamal
Lyrics (Based on Video Clip):
—————————
Part-1: Hariharan
————————–
dekho
Kaanha naheen maanat batiyaan
chhaliyaa
chhede baansuriyaa aa
dekho
Kaanha naheen maanat batiyaan
chhaliyaa
chhede baansuriyaa aa
dekho
Kaanha nahee maanat batiyaan
bansee bajaa ke
kare barjoree
bansee bajaa ke
kare barjoree
bintee karoon pari maane nahee moree
aaa aaa aaa aaa
aaa aa aa
dekho
dekho roke hamree dagariyaa
chhaliyaa
chhede baansuriyaa aa
dekho
Kaanha nahee maanat batiyaan
————————————-
Part-2: Sulakshana Pandit, Yesudas, Both
————————————–
maanat batiyaan
chhaliyaa
chhede baansuriyaa aa
dekho
Kaanha naheen maanat batiyaan
chhaliyaa
chhede baansuriyaa aa
dekho
Kaanha naheen maanat batiyaan
bansee bajaa ke kare barjoree
bansee bajaa ke kare barjoree
binatee karoon par maane naheen moree
aaaaa aaa aaa
aaa aa aa
dekho
dekho roke hamree dagariyaa
chhaliyaa
chhede baansuriyaa aa
dekho
Kaanha naheen maanat batiyaan
Jamuna pe aayee bharan gagariyaa
gagariyaa aa aa
gagariyaa…..aa
Jamuna pe aayee bharan ga……..
[dialogues
ruko naheen betee
naacho
naacho]
neer bharat Jamuna tat par
jab bhar bhar neer uthaaye gagar
tab dagar chalat mohe chhedat langar
hat jaao jee kunwar
phootee jaat gagar
mohe chhod chhod
Madhav
Madhav
Madhav
mohe chhod chhod
Madhav
Madhav
Madhav
mohe chhod chhod
Madhav
Madhav
Madhav
Jamuna pe aayee bharan gagariyaa
main to bholee shyama gujariyaa
aaaaa aaa aaa
aaa aa aa aa
bharee gagaree pe maaree kankadiyaa
chhaliyaa
chhede baansuriyaa aa
dekho
Kaanha naheen maanat batiyaan
chhaliyaa chhede baansuriyaa aa
dekho
Kaanha naheen maanat batiyaan
deem taa re naa dir deena dere naa
deem taa re naa dir deena dere naa
deem taa deem taa deem naa dir deena dere naa
deem taa deem taa deem naa dir deena dere naa
taa naadir deem taa deem taa deem dere naa
taa naadir deem taa deem taa deem dere naa
dere naa
deem taa deem taa deem taa deem taa dere naa
o dir taanee dir dir taanee deem taanee deem dere naa
o dir dir taanee deem taanee deem dere naa
taa deem taa deem taa deem taa deem dere naa
taa deem taa deem taa deem dere naa
dhaa gar kit tak dhum kit tak dhi taa dhi taa dhi taa
deem taa re naa dir deena dere naa
dere naa
dere naa
dere naa…aa aa aa
———————
Part-3: Yesudas
——————–
Gopaa….l
Gopaa…. aa aa aal
Gopal aa aa aal
bin Gopal
bhayo Brij soono
bin Gopal bhayo Brij soono
kahaan ho Gopaaa…….l
kahaan ho Gopaaa…….l
kahaan ho Gopaaa…….l
Gopa aa aa aal
bin Gopal bhayo Brij soono
madhuban soono
Yamuna soonee
madhuban soono
Yamuna soonee
aaj kadamb kee chhainyaan soonee
aaj kadamb kee chhainyaan soonee
Yashoda ko ghar aangan soono
Nandbaaba kee ankhiyaan soonee
soonee soonee dadhee kee matakiyaan
Radharanee ko mann soono
kahaan ho Gopaaa…..l
kahaan ho Gopaaa…..l
kahaan ho Gopaaa……..l
Gopaaa………..l
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 19, 2025 at 7:03 pm
Sadanand ji,
It is always a treat to read your posts. Wish I had this skill.
This is a very interesting and informative article, enhancing my knowledge.
Excellent, overall.
Thanks.
-AD
LikeLiked by 1 person
September 19, 2025 at 9:24 pm
Arun ji,
Thanks for your appreciative words about my articles which motivate me to do better in my endeavours.
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