Mehfil yaaron kee mehfil
Posted on: September 27, 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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‘Pakhandee’ (1983) was produced by Robert D’Souza and was directed by Samir Ganguly. The cast included Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Zeenat Aman, Asha Parekh, Ranjeet, Helen, Jagdeep, Asit Sen, Leela Mishra, Anwar Hussain, Kader Khan, N A Ansari, Dinesh Thakur, Sudhir etc. This was Samir Ganguly’s last film as a director.
Samir Ganguly was born in Lucknow in 1936. His father was working in the railway while his mother was a housewife. He was the youngest of the seven children. After the retirement of his father in 1947, Samir was looked after by his brother-in-law (his sister’s husband) in Jaipur who was financially well-off. After his brother-in-law’s retirement, Samir came to Mumbai in 1953 in search of employment during which he stayed with another brother-in-law, Subodh Mukerji who was the younger brother of Filmistan’s boss, Shashadhar Mukerji.
After remaining unemployed for about a year or so, Subodh Mukerji took him to Filmistan Studio and got him employed as assistant director on a monthly salary of Rs.150/- per month. Samir was surprised as he had no experience in the film making and had never thought of working in the film industry. For his on-site training, Subodh Mukerji put him under Nasir Hussain as his 3rd assistant who was directing Filmistan’s ‘Tumsa Nahi Dekha’ (1957). Off-sight, Subodh Mukerjee kept him busy by asking him to watch films when he was free from work after which he was to write the story of the film he watched and to write as to how he would visualise the alternative scenarios of the film. He was also asked to read novels of well-known authors to understand the art of story-telling which is essential for a film director. (Note: Samir Ganguly’s profile is based on his interviews available on video sharing platforms).
Subodh Mukerji set up his own banner, Subodh Mukerji Productions and took Samir Ganguly his assistant director in ‘Love Marriage (1959), ‘Junglee’ (1961) and ‘April Fool’ (1964). Samit Ganguly got his first independent assignment as director in Subodh Mukerji productions’ ‘Shaagird’ (1967). The film became a super hit. His next film, ‘Sharmilee’ (1971), again a Subodh Mukerji Productions, was also a hit. His last film as a director under Subodh Mukerdji Productions was ‘Deewaangee’ (1976).
Samir Ganguly also directed films under other banners like ‘Jaggu’ (1973), ‘Koi Jeeta Koi Haara’ (1976), ‘Anjaane Mein’ (1978), ‘Phandebaaz’ (1978), ‘Khoon Ka Rishta’ (1979). Shashi Kapoor seems to be his favourite actor having directed him in four films. ‘Pakhandee’ (1984) was his last film as a director and probably his last connection with Hindi films. He directed few episodes of Doordarshan’s serial, ‘Paying Guest’ (1985) produced by Tarachand Barjatya. Later, he was associated with Mumbai Film Academy as one of its directors and a faculty member.
The story of ‘Pakhandee’ (1984) is as under:
Ashok (Sanjeev Kumar) and his younger brother, Kishore (Shashi Kapoor), are orphans who get separated during their childhood. Now grown up, they come across each other without knowing that they are brothers. Both are conmen and are in the profession of cheating the people because of which they are often in prison. During one of Ashok’s jail term, he meets Kishore in the same jail. They get acquainted during a fight in the jail between. Kishore and a jail bully during which Ashok helps Kishore in trashing the bully.
Kishore gets released from the jail after his term is over and is back to his profession of cheating having cheated a homeopathic doctor posing himself as his distant relatives. When he faces uncomfortable questions, Kishore feigns unconscious. The doctor treats him and accommodates in his house the night stay. Next morning, Kishore recovers and leave the house having stayed overnight in comfort with some monetary help.
After few days, Ashok is also released from the jail. Outside the jail, a few members of a gang meet him who are impressed with his con work and wants to hire him for similar job. He evades them by not reacting to their proposal to get him some time to decide. But they insist him to join the gang. A fight ensues between the gang members and Ashok after which he meets Ranjeet (Ranjeet), the son of the boss (N. A. Ansari) of the gang. After the discussion, Ashok decides to know as to what kind of work is expected of him. It turns out that Ashok has to lure Preeti (Zeenat Aman), the only daughter of a wealthy father (Anwar Hussain) and get himself married to her.
Kishore now lives with an elderly laundryman (Asit Sen), again by cheating him to be a distant relative. One day, he rescues Asha (Asha Parekh) from committing suicide and has brought her to stay with the laundryman’s house. Her husband had abandoned her on the wedding night, decamping with her jewellery. As she became pregnant, she did not want to face her parents. So she tried to kill herself. With this background, Kishore assumes that her absconding husband may be one from their fraternity of cheaters. So, he decides to investigate the matter.
With Ashok joining hands with the gang to cheat Preeti and Kishore trying to investigate about Asha’s absconding husband, there is bound to be the conflict of interest between Ashok and Kishore. While Preeti is not so easy to be lured because she is not interested in marriage. Besides, Ashok cannot use force as she is a black belt karate champion. Yet, he pursues Preeti for his ultimate aim.
It so happens that a crowd is running after Kishore for having conned them. Kishore hides in a car’s dicky which belongs to Preeti who is ready to proceed for a picnic with her friends. So, Kishore develops acquittance with Preeti. On the other hand, Ashok in his plan-2 of luring to Preeti buys a statue at an auction which she failed to get at the auction and presents it to her at a party. While she does not accept the statue, she is impressed with all the flowers he has sent and there are signs of her softening towards him.
The plan-3 of Ashok is to impress Preeti’s father with his charitable works. With this, Preeti and her father select Ashok as her prospective husband. Ashok wants Preeti and her father to visit his house to meet his ‘mother’. They visit his house under the close eyes of the gang members and they are impressed with Ashok. Suddenly, Kishore turns up at the house and pretends to be the younger brother of Ashok. For the time being, Ashok goes along with his deception tactics. Some probing questions by Preeti’s father force Kishore to follow his usual trick of falling unconscious. Ashok shifts him to a separate room where the members of gang are present to work out the details of the plan. Kishore, who is pretending to be unconscious, gets to know that Ashok’s target is Preeti whom he likes. Kishore hoodwinks the gang and runs away.
Although Preeti thinks Kishore as an annoying person, her father has taken to be his future son-in-law’s younger brother. So he invites Kishore to stay for the night in his palatial house. The next day, Preeti drives her car in the pretext of visiting Ashok’s house, Once again, Kishore is hiding in her car. Actually, Preeti joins a hippy party dancing along with hippies some of whom are molesters. It is Kishore who saves her from the menacing hippies. Preeti now realises that Kishore is a helpful rather than an annoying person. So, she develops liking for him while Kishore reveals that he is love with her. But it is too late for Preeti as her father has already decided to get her married to Ashok and an engagement ceremony has been fixed.
One day, the laundryman visits Ashok’s house along with Asha’s son to deliver the pressed cloth. The Ashok’s security man beats the son for breaking the photo frame of Ashok because of which the boy gets injured. After treating the boy’s injuries, Ashok drops the boy outside his house. Kishore is surprised to see Ashok when Asha reveals him that Ashok is her husband. So, Kishore who had earlier assumed that Asha’s absconding husband may be one from their fraternity comes true.
The next day, the engagement ceremony of Ashok with Preeti begins in a hotel which is under surveillance of Ranjeet and his henchmen. However, Kishore, being the ‘younger brother’ who was to be the master of ceremony is yet to arrive. So, without any further delay, the family’s lawyer-friend (Kader Khan) takes over as the master of engagement ceremony after which he announces a dance programme. Towards the end of the dance programme, Kishore joins the ceremony accompanied by Asha and her son. Ashok is shocked to see Asha, so is also Ranjeet. With this revelation, now Ranjeet plan to grab the wealth of Preeti’s father is in jeopardy.
Quickly after switching off the lights, Ranjeet abducts Asha and her son and confines them in a room. His henchmen starts beating Kishore when Ashok comes and takes over to beat Kishore. While beating him, he sees a tattoo on his hand, identifying him to be his lost brother. Cleverly, while fighting with him, Ashok pushes Kishore into a room and reveals his identity. The lost brothers hug each other and Ranjeet gets to know of their relationship. With Asha, her son and Kishore in his custody, Ranjeet forces Ashok to continue the marriage ceremony with Preeti. However, Kishore escapes from the custody and organises his men to fight Ranjeet and his henchmen and gets Ashok, Asha and her son released from the captivity. Ashok is united with Asha and their son which means Preeti is free to marry Kishore.
The film had four songs written by Majrooh Sultanpuri which are set to music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. One song has been covered on the Blog. I present the 2nd song, ‘mehfil yaaron kee mehfil’ rendered by Asha Bhosle and Suresh Wadkar. The song is picturised on Helen and Shashi Kapoor. An important feature of this song is the presence of many actors – Sanjeev Kumar, Asha Parekh, Ranjeet, Kader Khan, Dinesh Thakur, Sudhir, Shammi, Jagdeep etc.
The context of this song is the engagement ceremony of Sanjeev Kumar with Zeenat Aman in which Shashi Kapoor was to be the master of ceremony. Since he does not turn up, Kader Khan becomes the master of ceremony. After the ceremony, there is a dance by Helen for the entertainment of the guests. Towards end of the dance programme, Shashi Kapoor appears with a lady in pardah who turns out to be Asha Parekh, wife of Sanjeev Kumar who had deserted her after he decamped with her jewellery on the wedding night. He gets a shock. Shashi Kapoor had come to know Asha Parekh as Sanjeev Kumar’s wife only a day before the engagement ceremony with Zeenat Aman. So, he remains absent at the start of the engagement ceremony. For his love for Zeenat Aman, it is necessary to expose Sanjeev Kumar’s marriage with Asha Parekh. But this exposure jeopardises Ranjeet’s plan to grab the wealth of Zeenat Aman’s father.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Mehfil yaaron kee mehfil (Paakahndi)(1983) Singers-Asha Bhosle, Suresh Wadkar, Lyrics-Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD-Laxmikant Pyarelal
Both
Lyrics:
mehfil
yaaron kee mehfil
uspe suhaanee zulfon kee shaam
aao pyaalaa uthhaao
aaj kisee ke dilbar ke naam
yaaron kee mehfil
zulfon kee shaam
pyaalaa uthaao
dilbar ke naam
mehfil
yaaron kee mehfil
uspe suhaanee zulfon kee shaam
aao pyaalaa uthhaao
aaj kisee ke dilbar ke naam
ye to sadaa kee hai reet hamaaree
hotee hai aakhir ko jeet hamaaree
ye to sadaa kee hai reet hamaaree
hotee hai aakhir ko jeet hamaaree
aaj rahe na koi pyaasaa
khaalee rahe na koi jaam aam
mehfil
yaaron kee mehfil
uspe suhaanee zulfon kee shaam
aao
pyaalaa uthhaao
aaj kisee ke dilbar ke naam
raat hai baakee
baat hai baakee
keh lo abhee jo chaaho
raat hai baakee
baat hai baakee
keh lo abhee jo chaaho
par kismat ka khel ajab hai
pal mein na jaane kyaa ho
dekho jee itnaa
dekho na sapnaa
sapne kaa ultaa anjaam aam
mehfil
yaaron kee mehfil
uspe suhaanee zulfon kee shaam
aao
pyaalaa uthhaao
aaj kisee ke dilbar ke naam
jaao wahaan jahaan koi bulaaye
aap kahaan se yahaan chale aaye
main kisee kaabil naheen chalo maanaa
dekh to lo ye meraa nazraanaa
dekh to lo ye meraa nazraanaa
wo jo mujhse bade hain
unko bhee meraa salaam aam
mehfil
yaaron kee mehfil
uspe suhaanee zulfon kee shaam
aao pyaalaa uthhaao
aaj kisee ke dilbar ke naam
mehfil
yaaron kee mehfil
uspe suhaanee zulfon kee shaam
aao
pyaalaa uthhaao
aaj kisee ke dilbar ke naam
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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