Kya hua kya hua kya hua
Posted on: October 17, 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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‘Kathha’ (1982) was produced by Suresh Jindal and was directed by Sai Paranjpe who also wrote screenplay and dialogues. The cast included Farook Shaikh, Naseeruddin Shah, Deepti Naval, Arun Joglekar, Bal Karve, Vasudev Palande, Shirish Limaye, Leela Mishra, Suhasini Deshpande, Jyotsana Karyekar, Yatin Karyekar, Nitin Sethi, Mushtaq Shaikh, Reeta Rani Kaul, Winnie Paranjpe-Joglekar, Arun Varnekar etc. While Mallika Sarabhai made a guest appearance, Jalal Agha, Valerie Agha, Tinu Anand, Sudha Chopra and Sarika made their friendly appearances in the film. Most of the supporting actors of the film belonged to Marathi and Hindi theatres.
The story of the film was inspired from a Marathi play, ‘Sasaa Aani Kaasav’ written by S G Sathye. The Marathi play was the modern interpretation of the folklore of ‘The Hare and The Tortoise’. Sai Paranjpe saw the potential of making a light comedy film based on the Marathi play. She wrote the screenplay and was looking for a producer to finance the film. When Raj Khosla came to know that Sai Paranjpe was in the process of making a Hindi film, he offered to produce the film under his banner. Sai Paranjpe was very happy that her film would be produced under a big banner. Also she found Raj Khosla to be an amiable person to deal with. However, after a few days, Raj Khosla met Sai Paranjpe and introduced a person to her who would produce her film and Raj Khosla would extend all types of support to him. Some interactions with that person gave an impression to her that he was more like a ‘dummy’ producer without much knowledge of film-making. She stopped pursuing Raj Khosla. Fortunately for her, without much loss of time, Suresh Jindal, who had produced ‘middle of the road films’ like ‘Rajnigandha’ (1974) and ‘Shatranj Ke Khilaadi’(1977) came forward to produce ‘Kathha’ ( Source: Autobiography of Sai Paranjpe).
The gist of the story of the film is as under:
In a Mumbai chawl (actually, it is Salunke Chawl situated in Pune), the residents consist of cosmopolitan families. Among them are two bachelors sharing one room whose temperaments are opposite. Rajaram (Naseeruddin Shah), a clerk, is an introvert, sincere, helpful but timid in nature while Basudev (Farooq Shaikh) who likes to be called as ‘Bashu’ is a sweet talker and a manipulator who poses himself as a man of high status. Sandhya (Deepti Naval) in the chawl is friendly with Rajaram who secretly loves her but is shy of expressing it to her. Basudev on the other hand has impressed Sandhya with his smart appearance, sweet talk and show-off image. The parents of Sandhya see him as a prospective bridegroom for her. The engagement of Sandhya with Basudev is fixed. However, on the day of the engagement ceremony, Basudev suddenly disappears leaving Sandhya and her parents in a lurch. At this stage, Rajaram gets courage to express his love for Sandhya and proposes her to marry. Their engagement ceremony takes place as scheduled. Basudev, on the other hand, has found an Arab to con him. He is last seen flying in a flight to one of the Arab emirate countries.
Rajaram and Basudev are presumed to be the tortoise and the hare, respectively. The film has started with Dadi Maa (Leela Mishra) telling her grandson, the story of ‘The Tortoise and The Hare’. So, the film also ends with Dadi Maa concluding the story upon which the grandson happily tells her that after all the tortoise has won the race. However, Dadi Maa seems disappointed and conveys to him that it is not a real win for the tortoise (Rajaram). Probably, she feels that Basudev (as hare) has achieved his objective of coning Sandhya at the expense of Rajaram (tortoise). In a way, the ‘hare’ has been turned into a ‘jackal’ (opportunist). There is also some sarcasm in the society where Rajaram as the honest man finds it difficult to manage his day to day life. People around him take advantage of his helpful nature. But Basudev with his sweet talking nature and his uncanny abilities to make others take him at face value is never short of money and flirts with women. Yet the families from his chawl including Sandhya are more impressed with Basudev and ready to subserve him than Rajaram.
What I liked about the film is that a simple story has been made visually interesting by incorporating minute details which are relatable in the real life of the middle class families living in a chawl. For example, when Rajaram becomes permanent in his service, he fixes his name plate on the door of his room and children of the chawls rejoice at the event. Like Dadi Maa’s ‘confrontations’ with a resident cat for drinking the milk from the pot, the inquisitiveness of the neighbours when Basudev comes to stay with Rajaram, children reflecting the mirror with sun rays to irritate elders. Then, there is a newly wed couple who are seldom seen coming out of their room and mixing with other families.
Director, Sai Paranjpe has cleverly given the role of a conman to Farooq Shaikh which is contrary to his images in other films. Even her naming the two main characters in the film is with the purpose of reflecting their nature. For instance, Rajaram (the name for Lord Ram) is an idealist, moralist and ethical. The character of Farooq Shaikh has been named as Basudev. Sai Paranjpe, in her autobiography in Marathi has revealed that she deliberately picked the name, ‘Basudev’ because of her bad experience in working with Basu Bhattacharya while making ‘Sparsh’ (1980) for which he was the producer. Because of the sensitive subject of the film, many philanthropists had given donations for making ‘Sparsh’ (1980). Despite this, Basu Bhattacharya was very stingy in releasing money which resulted in the delay in completion of the film by about 4 years. She also felt that Basu Bhattacharya had diverted the donations received for making ‘Sparsh’ (1980) to finance his own film, ‘Griha Pravesh’ (1979). In short, for Sai Paranjpe, Basu Bhattacharya was like the character of Farooq Shaikh in ‘Kathha’ (1983), a sweet talker and a manipulator.
The film was submitted for National Film Awards to the local juries of Mumbai before the film can be sent to Delhi for the final selection for the awards. The juries in Mumbai consisted of Basu Bhattacharya as chairman with two other juries. But the film was seen and reviewed by the chairman and one more jury as another jury was out of India. The film was rejected at the local jury level itself. The underlying reason was obvious – Basu Bhattacharya seems to have been upset for giving his name to the character of Farooq Shaikh in the film. Sai Paranjpe sought the review of the decision by the full jury which was upheld and two out of three juries recommended the film to be sent to Delhi for the final round of selection. ‘Kathha’ (1983) got the National Film Award for the Best Film in Hindi for the year 1982.
I had watched the film many years back – probably on Doordarshan. I watched the film once again last week and enjoyed it. I feel that this is one among those Hindi films which will remain enjoyable to watch at multiple times.
The film had four songs written by Indu Jain which were set to music by Rajkamal. One song has been covered on the Blog. I present the second song, ‘kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa’ rendered by Sushma Shreshta, Hariharan and Priti Chawla. The song is majorly picturised on Arun Joglekar (ex-husband of Sai Paranjpe) and Suhasini Deshpande along with many supporting actors as the members of the family residing in the chawl.
The occasion for the song is the announcement of the engagement of Sandhya (Deepti Naval) with Basudev (Farooq Shaikh) upon which the family members of the chawl rejoice. In the interludes of the song, the scenes of Sandhya and Basudev going together for an outing after which they spend some time in a hotel in privacy. For Basudev, with his manipulative nature, it is a fun time with Sandhya as his intention is clear when he has said earlier to Rajaram that there is a difference between ‘agreeing to marry’ and ‘actually marrying’.
Editor’s note-HFGK mentions as many as nine singers for this song, namely Hariharan, Sushma Shreshtra,Penaz Masani, Ghanshyam Vaswani, Priti Chawla, Viraj Upadhyay, Narendra Bhansali, Badrinath Pawar, Usha Rege. It could mean that the last seven singers have constituted the chorus of the song.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Kya hua kya hua kya hua (Katha)(1982) Singers-Hariharan, Sushma Shreshtha, Lyrics-Indu Jain, MD-Rajkamal
All Chorus,
Male Chorus,
Female Chorus
Lyrics:
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa
apne hee anganaa mein….ae ae ae ae
apne hee anganaa mein
chhootee phuljhadiyaan
chhootee phuljhadiyaan aa aa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa
shehnaai baajegee…..ee ee ee ee ee
shehnaai baajegee
sajegee dulhaniyaa
sajegee dulhaniyaa….aa aa aa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa aa aa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa
dhoondho ek kholi bhaiyaa thhahree sagaai
dhoondho ek kholi bhaiyaa thhahree sagaai
ghar kee hee kanyaa hai
ghar kaa jamaai
ghar kee hee kanyaa hai
ghar kaa jamaai
ghar kee hee kanyaa ha….i
ghar kaa jamaai
ghar kaa jamaai
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa aa aa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa
uparwaale ne bhee kyaa phurti dikaayee
uparwaale ne bhee kyaa phurti dikaayee
totaa aur mainaa kee grahasthhee basaayee
totaa aur mainaa kee grahasthhee basaayee
aa aa aa aa aa
saa ni saa ni dha
dha ga dha ga ma re saa
aa haa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa aa aa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa aa aa
kyaa huaa kyaa huaa kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa aa
kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa aa
kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa aa
kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa aa
kyaa huaa
kyaa huaa aa
kyaaa huaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
October 17, 2025 at 12:05 pm
Sadanand Ji
Thanks for the post. Your write up makes me wanting to see it again. I saw it , in a thetre,when it was released. I remember the theme and always thought it was gem of a movie. I dont remember any songs from the movie and havent heard them beyond my watching the movie in the theatre.
You write up made me enjoy the song and I think it it is a lovely song,endearingly picturised.
It reminded me of song ‘Jaane kaise sapanon me kho gayee akhiyaan .. ‘, From film ‘Anuradha ((certainly at some lines of the song)
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October 17, 2025 at 12:37 pm
Satish ji,
‘Kathha’ (1982) is one of those films which I can watch umpteen times and still enjoy.
You are right in pointing out that the song under discussion takes your back to the song from ‘Anuradha’ (1960) which is based on Raag Tilak Kamod. So, songs based on the same raag can sound similar to some extent, especially when the music directors have the classical background.
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