Dheere dheere shaam aa rahee hai
Posted on: September 23, 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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In my last article, I have covered the details of the film ‘Jumbish’ (1986) which was produced and directed by Salahuddin Pervez who also wrote the fictional story, screenplay, dialogues and the lyrics. Surprisingly, he was not connected with film industry in any capacity before he ventured into making the film under discussion. Since Jaidev, the music director of the film was one of my favourites, I heard all the seven songs in the film which were all melodious as expected from him. The songs, especially the ghazal and nazm written by Salahuddin Parvez were poetic with unusual metaphors. With his poetic lyrics, the unusual story of the film and the symbolic dialogues he used, I became curious to know about his background. Checking on him on the internet led me to a PDF of his biography on Sahitya Akademy website following his winning the Sahitya Akademy Award in 1991. I found his biography interesting, a gist of which is given below:
Mohommed Salahuddin Pervez (1952-2011) was born in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) from where he completed his graduation. He got his postgraduate degree in English literature from Aligarh Muslim University. From his early teenage, Pervez started writing Urdu poems and by the time he completed his postgraduation, he had already published three books of his poetry collections. He started his career as a Data Processing Analyst at Sysorex International in the USA where he rose to become the Vice President. In 1984, he returned to India and got into making Hindi films. He produced and directed ‘Jumbish’ (1986) and ‘Yaadon Kaa Mausam’ (1991) and jointly directed ‘Mohabbat Kaa Safar’ (1995) which was his last connection with Hindi films. Thereafter, he concentrated mainly on his literary works having published 13 books of his poetry collections and 5 novels. His full biography is here.
In 1991, Salahuddin Pervez got Sahitya Akademy Award for his Urdu novel, ‘Identity Card’. He was the editor of an Urdu literary journal, ‘Isteara’ (Metaphor) which he edited until he passed away in October 2011. I have gone through some of his nazms on Rekhta website which are mostly written in a mix of Hindi and Urdu, some of them in free verses. Some contemporary Urdu poets regard Salahuddin Pervez as a modernist Urdu poet with his unique style of writing. He is proud of the Indian culture and calls himself as an ‘Indianist’ poet.
As I have mentioned earlier, the story of the film has already been covered in my last article. The gist of the story is that since time immemorial, there has always been tug of war between divines and devils in the world, the former wanting the peace and prosperity on an enduring basis and which latter worked to sabotage the same. This tug of war will go on in future also. But on every occasion it is the peace-loving people who will be the ultimate winner.
I present the 2nd song, ‘dheere dheere shaam aa rahee hai’ from the film, ‘Jumbish’ (1986) to appear on the Blog which is a duet song rendered by Penaz Masani and Shaila Gulwadi. The song is written by Pervez Salahuddin which is set to music by Jaidev. The name of two dancers are not known but they appear to be the trained dancers.
The background of the song is that Gaadiwaan (Yeshwant Dutt) and his wife, Chandrakanta (Shehla Khan) who was separated from him soon after the birth of their daughter, Dharti (Padmini Kolhapure) as she is abducted by Shaitan (Shafi Inamdar). Her husband has been searching for her for the last 20 years but has failed. He has now died and Sagar (Akbar Khan) is completing his funeral rituals in the evening when Chandrakanta suddenly appears to witness the funeral of her husband. After the funeral, Sagar enquires about her as to who she is. She introduces herself and reveals that after her abduction, she has spent her life as a courtesan. In the background of a setting sun, she turns philosophical and tells him that an evening (shaam) is like two beautiful girls. It is the beginning of the life (for courtesans) as well as the end of the waiting (for housewife). And this dance song gets played in the film as a ballad, reflecting her thoughts as well as the activities during dusk.
The lyrics are in free verses with unusual metaphors. Playback singers, Penaz Masani and Shaila Gulwadi are both ghazal singers who were mentored by Jaidev with their many popular non-filmy ghazals. They have beautifully rendered the dance song under discussion even though it is not their usual genre of song. Both the dancers have given the delicate performances choreographed by Pandit Badri Prasad using the silhouette of evening activities in the background.
Audio Clip:
Video Clip:
Song-Dheere dheere shaam aa rahee hai (Jumbish)(1986) Singers-Penaz Masani, Shaila Gulwadi, Lyrics-Salahuddin Pervez, MD-Jaidev
Both
Lyrics (Based on Audio Clip):
dheere dheere
dheere dheere shaam
aa rahee hai
dheere dheere
dheere dheere shaam
aa rahee hai
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
shaam kee kitaabon mein
patjhadon kee saanson mein
dhundhlee dhundhlee aankhon mein
shaam badhtee aa rahee hai
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
shaam aa rahee hai
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
neend ek gaaon hai
neend kee talaash mein
aawaazen aa rahee hain
aawaazen aa rahee hain
neend ek gaon hai
neend kee talaash mein
aawaazen aa rahee hain
paanvon khada pahne
sat sat gaa rahe hain
saakwaale rang liye
moron ke pankhon se
sabhyataa ko likh rahe hain
peepal ke paat harey
dheere dheere gir rahe hain
maatee ke dibre mein
khoye khoye jal rahe hain
peepal ke paat harey
dheere dheere gir rahe hain
dheere dheere gir rahe hain
dheere dheere shaa…m aa rahee hai
mittee baras leke shankh cheekhne lage hain
mittee baras leke shankh cheekhne lage hain
mard sab riwaaz se bandhe huye
saral sapaat ungaliyon se
apne apne ghar kee sayebaan mein
apne apne ghar kee sayebaan mein
apne apne devtaaon kee sabeehe likh rahe hain
auraten hathheliyon se chaand bun rahee hain
auraten hathheliyon se chaand bun rahee hain
doodh kee katoriyon se
surajon kee aatmaayen mathh rahee hain
dheere dheere jal rahee hain
dheere dheere bujh rahee hain
dheere dheere raat aa gayee hai
dheere dheere
dheere dheere raat aa gayee hai
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
dheere dheere
5 Responses to "Dheere dheere shaam aa rahee hai"
September 23, 2025 at 3:20 pm
what a lovely song! Heard it for the 1st time today! Thank you Sadanandji
Recall seeing Penaz Masani on DD’s Aarohi programs whenever Jaidev used to be featured. Amazing Hindi diction for a Parsi of that period
The minute I read the title “Jumbish” I recalled that it was an Akbar Khan film thanks to you I know it’s synopsis now
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September 23, 2025 at 4:12 pm
Peevesie’s Mom,
Thank you.
When I heard this song for the first tiime, I remembered the late Bharatbhai. I was surprised as to how this song went out of his radar when he was covering on our Blog most of the left over songs of Jaidev and Penaz Masani was one of his favourite ghazal singers.
September 24, 2025 at 12:16 pm
oh yes Penaz Masani & Jaidev were Bharatbhai’s favorites but second to Lata Mangeshkar
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
September 23, 2025 at 11:31 am
Sadanand ji
Thanks for the post. An appealing song which, but for your post, I would not have come to know or hear.
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September 23, 2025 at 3:59 pm
Satish ji,
Thank you. I also heard this song for the first time despite being an admirer of Jaidev.
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