Panchhee re panchhee re udaan hum ka dai de
Posted on: October 11, 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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Recently, I came across the film ‘Hari Bhari’ (2000) when I was scrolling through the filmography of Shyam Benegal. After going through the details of the film, I thought that this may be a documentary film because the film was produced by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and National Film Development Corporation (NDFC). The title of the film which in English means ‘fertility’ reinforced my assumption of a documentary film on family planning. The film had Shabana Azmi, Rajit Kapur, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Nandita Das, Surekha Sikri, Seema Bhargav and other actors who have been usually associated with Shyam Benegal films. The duration and the songs in the film created a doubt in me whether it was really a documentary film. So, I decided to watch the film at least for the sake of its songs.
The film’s main credit titles get played on the screen with the background of a song rendered by Shabana Azmi from Shyam Benegal’s film, ‘Mandi’ (1983). A few lines of the song heard in the background are as under:
main kitti baar bolaa na jee ujlaa kapdaa pahno nakko
kaala kapdaa pahno nakko ujlaa kapdaa pahno nakko
tu sadaa savshpari rahe godi hari bhari rahe
chaar din kee chaandnee hai dukh ke tidkaa jhelo nakko
These lines from the song with its dialect set the theme of the film which is the empowerment of women in the Indian society especially among the rural population. The story of the film is narrated through the life of five women of three generations in a lower middle-class Muslim joint family of a rural region. The film also delves upon the issue of women’s struggles in the midst of patriarchal and societal pressures.
The story of the film is as under:
The film narrates the stories of five women of a Muslim joint family of lower middle class staying in a rural area of Uttar Pradesh. The women are Ghazala (Shabana Azmi), her mother, Haseena (Surekha Sikri), Ghazala’s teenage daughter, Salma (Rajeshwari Sachdev), Haseena’s elder-daughter-in-law, Najma (Alka Trivedi) and younger daughter-in-law, Afsana (Nandita Das). Each of these women have been facing patriarchal dominance, health issues arising out of frequent pregnancies, malnutrition and suppression of their aspirations.
Ghazala is the victim of domestic violence and marital rape from her husband (Shrivallabh Vyas) because she is unable to give him a male child as the family’s heir. She goes to a clinic for a checkup during which the doctor tells her to bring her husband for a checkup for a test as the birth of a boy or a girl depends upon the husband. Ghazala is surprised as she reacts to the doctor that she has always been blamed by her husband for not giving birth to a son. The doctor says that so long as women remain illiterate and ignorant, they will always be suppressed. In the evening, Ghazala tells her husband that the doctor has called for his test as well and reveals the reason for that. The husband gets furious. He abuses her as well as the doctor and throws Ghazala out of the house. She along with her daughter Salma take shelter in her mother, Haseena’s house. She starts feeling that it is better to live alone than becoming the slave of another person.
Haseena, the matriarch of the family lives with her two sons and her two daughters-in-law. She is old and is not in good health. She recalls that in her younger days, the girls had no option to select their husbands. As a teenager, she was forced to marry an older and widower-brother-in-law by sacrificing her boyfriend whom she loved. Despite belonging to the old generation, she is moderate in her views. For instance, she says on the issue of Salma’s early marriage by discontinuing her education that even after so many years, things have not changed much. It is to the credit of Haseena that even in a joint family of three generations and with their frank views, there is a loving atmosphere in the family.
Najma, Haseena’s elder daughter-in-law has been suffering from post-partum depression after bearing babies. She equates herself to a buffalo in the backyard of the house whose existence is limited to bearing babies and feeding them. After a new born baby dies during the birth, she decides to get the tubectomy done.
Afsana, the younger daughter-in-law of Haseena is educated and lives in material comforts like colour TV and uses cosmetics. But her mindset is still conservative. She frowns upon her husband using family planning methods and declares him as sinner when she comes to know that he has undergone vasectomy. So, she has come to stay with Haseena while her husband works in Delhi.
Salma, the youngest girl in the family, aspires to get educated and become a teacher to be self-reliant after watching the fate of her mother. But there are pressures from the elder members of the family to stop further education and get her married. They have even selected a widower-bridegroom of 40-year-old for the teenager, Salma. She is very emphatic that she would not marry until she complete her education and starts earning. On this issue there is some tension in the household.
The film ends with the positive change in attitudes of the family when Haseena’s illness is diagnosis as a cervical cancer resulting from multiple pregnancies in short periods. There is also some rethinking based on the illness of Haseena and Najma. Under the circumstances, elders in the family decide to defer Salma’s marriage proposal. Salma is very happy that she will continue her education to achieve her aspirations.
Shyam Benegal has a knack of making the subject matter of a documentary film into feature film in disguise. He had earlier done this experiment while making ‘Manthan’ (1977) which was meant for propagating cooperative milk society movement. He has once again successfully done in ‘Hari Bhari’ (2000) which was produced by Government of India to propagate the importance of family planning. It is the ingenuity of Shyam Benegal (and also of Shama Zaidi, the screenplay writer) that the film covered the wider issues of women – especially in rural areas – not only of the family planning but also about education, health, women’s right versus the patriarchal mind-set, superstition, ignorance and the religious pressure. All these serious issues have been raised in a lighter way without resorting to melodrama. Even the family members have been shown as kind-hearted individuals helping each other despite some occasional differences. The film got the National Film Award for the Best Film on Family Welfare in 2000.
The film had four songs written by Maya Govind which were set to music by Vanraj Bhatia. I present the first song, ‘panchhee re panchhee re udaan hamkaa dai de’ to appear on the Blog. Rajeshwari sings for herself. The film ends with this song as Salma (Rajeshwari) is very happy about the family’s decision to differ her marriage proposal and continue her education. The song displays feelings of her exuberance. The lyrics are symbolic of the all-round freedom for an aspiring village girl.
It appears that the songs of the film were not released on the audio album.
Video Clip:
Song-Panchhee re panchhee re udaan hum ka dai de (Hari Bhari)(2000) Singer-Rajeshwari, Lyrics-Maya Govind, MD-Vanraj Bhatia
Lyrics:
panchhee re panchhee re
udaan hamkaa dai de
panchhee re panchhee re
udaan hamkaa dai de
ham bhee uden
thhoda aasmaan hamkaa dai de
panchhee re panchhee re
udaan hamkaa dai de
panchhee re panchhee re
udaan hamkaa dai de
tan hamaarey hai hiran
mann hamaaree hai pawan
uchalen ham idhar udhar
jaise nadiyaa kee lahar
daal ban ke jhoolen ham
phool ban ke jhoomen ham
ham bhee hansen
phoolon see muskaan hamkaa dai de
panchhee re panchhee re
udaan hamkaa dai de
panchhee re panchhee re
udaan hamkaa dai de
kuhu kuhu gaayenge
ban ke ham koyaliyaa
chhoo ke ham bhee dekenge
sone see machhariyaa
rausshnee mein jaayenge
ban ke kuchh dikhaayenge
bejubaan ham hain abb
jubaan hamka dai de
panchhee re panchhee re
udaan hamkaa dai de
ham bhee uden
thhoda aasmaan hamkaa dai de
panchhee re panchhee re
udaan hamkaa dai de
panchhee re panchhee re
udaan hamkaa dai de
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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