Baat niklegee to door talak jaayegee
Posted on: November 6, 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.
|
Blog Day : |
6320 | Post No. : | 19572 |
Today, November 6th is the 40th Remembrance Day of Sanjeev Kaumar, (09/07/1938 – 06/11/1985), one of the most versatile actors of Hindi films and the two-time National Award winner. He was popularly known as Haribhai among his close friends which was derived from his real name, Harihar Jariwala. He was the first one from his family to step into the films on the basis of his talents, eventually becoming an icon of Hindi cinema. I have watched his performances in films for the first time in ‘Shikaar’ (1968) in the role of a calm and calculated police inspector followed by ‘Jyoti’ (1969) in a lead role. I was impressed with his performances in these two films which appeared different from his other contemporary actors.
Sanjeev Kumar’s family hailed from Surat. In 1935, his father, who was in Zari business, shifted his base in Mumbai’s Bhuleshwar area which was the main centre for Zari business. The family had a house in Santacruz in the suburbs where Sanjeev Kumar was born. When he was of 11 years, his father suddenly passed away with no one to take care of his business. At that time, Sanjeev Kumar was studying in Sacred Heart Boys High School, Khar. Due to sudden change in their financial status, the family shifted to Bhuleshwar and Sanjeev Kumar was admitted in Nanavaty Vidyalaya, a Gujarati medium school. In this school, he developed his interest in theatres though he always preferred roles in Hindi plays.
Sanjeev Kumar started his acting career with Gujarati and Hindi theatres. He was also associated with IPTA plays directed by A K Hangal, Prem Dhawan, Saghar Sarhadi etc. After watching some Hindi films along with his IPTA colleagues, he was attracted to work in the films. Sanjeev Kumar enrolled himself in the Filmalaya Acting School from where he was picked up for a minor role of a sub-inspector with no dialogue in ‘Hum Hindustani’ (1960). In his next film, ‘Aao Pyaar Karen’ (1964), he appeared with a new name ‘Sanjay’ in the role of one of the friends of Joy Mukherjee. Coincidentally, his character’s name in the film was Hari from his real name, ‘Harihar’. When he was taken as a lead actor in ‘Nishaan’ (1964) and ‘Baadal’ (1966), director, Aspi Irani asked him to change his name from Sanjay to some other name since Sanjay Khan had already become a well-known actor after the success of his film, ‘Dosti’ (1964). So, he changed his name to Sanjeev Kumar to sound close to Sanjay
Sanjeev Kumar faced hardship in pursuing his film career which started in the early 1960s, mostly in ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade films. Some of the films which he signed were shelved. By the close of 1960s, he was labelled as the actor of ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade films. He had tried to erase that image by getting into good banner films. But he was not selected for the second lead actor in ‘Aarti’ (1962) which went to Pradeep Kumar, for the leading role in V Shantaram’s ‘Geet Gaaya Pathharon Ne’ (1964) which eventually went to Jeetendra and in B R Chopra’s ‘Aadmi Aur Insaan’ (1969) which went to Feroz Khan. The reason was that he went for the interviews wearing his usual ‘kurta and pajama’ dress with his uncombed hairs which did not impressed them. A time had come in his life to take a major decision – to give up the film career and start a business. It was Sudhir Dalvi, his IPTA colleague and later Marathi and Hindi film actor who advised him to hang on for some more time. [Note: Sanjeev Kumar’s early life profile is based on his biography, ‘An Actor’s Actor’ – The Authorised Biography of Sanjeev Kumar’ (2021) by Hanif Zaveri and Sumant Batra].
Sanjeev Kumar did get strong supporting roles under big banners films like, ‘Sanghursh’ (1968), ‘Aasheerwaad’ (1968) and ‘Satyakaam’ (1969) in which he impressed with his performances. However, it was the box office success of ‘Khilauna’ (1970) which changed his filmy career from ‘B’/‘C’ grade actor to top banners’ actor. In this film, Sanjeev Kumar played the role of a mentally disturbed maniac displaying his mastery over intense acting.
Sanjeev Kumar did not have the romantic hero image of Rajesh Khanna, the yahoo image of Shammi Kapoor and He-Man image of Dharmendra. Hence, in his filmy career of nearly three decades, he never chased for the stardom with an eye on leading roles. Instead, he ‘chased’ for the good roles in the films through which he outshined the leading actors through his natural acting, sometime in the roles of old man’s characters. The testimonies of his versatility as an actor can be judged from his performances in ‘Khilauna’, (1970), ‘Dastak’ (1970), ‘Anubhav’ (1971), ‘Koshish’ (1972), ‘Naya Din Nai Raat’ (1974). ‘Mausam, (1975), ‘Aandhi’ (1975), ‘Sholay’ (1975), ‘Shatranj Ke Khilaadi’ (1977), ‘Grih Pravesh’ (1979), ‘Angoor’ (1982) and many more. In his career of about 25 years, Sanjeev Kumar acted in 155 Hindi films giving on an average of six films per annum. In addition, he has also acted in about dozen regional films.
It appears that Sanjeev Kumar had a premotion that like his father and grandfather who had passed away before attaining 50, he would also not live beyond 50. His youngest brother, Nikul Jariwala had passed away in September 1984 due to cardiac arrest. True to his premotion, Sanjeev Kumar breath his last on November 6, 1985, due to heart attack. He was 47, the same age at which his father had passed away. He did many roles in the characters of old man. But in his real life, he passed away before becoming old. After about six months, his younger brother, Kishore Jariwala also passed away.
On the occasion of the 40th Remembrance Day of Sanjeev Kumar, I have picked up a song from Basu Bhattacharya’s film, ‘Grih Pravesh’ (1979) in which Sanjeev Kumar had given a fine example of what is known as ‘minimalism’ in acting. In this film, Sanjeev Kumar and Sharmila Tagore in the role of his wife are busy in their own worlds (Office work and household work) having little time to spend together. Both are of mild nature. So, there is no hard feelings between them except that they spend their time in loneliness. Most of their reactions have to be restrained one as none of them want to hurt feelings of each other.
While Sharmila Tagore mostly spend her free time alone in the house, Sanjeev Kumar, being an office-goer, has at least his colleagues to inter-act during which he develops extra marital relationship with one of his office colleagues, Sarika. Sanjeev Kumar is put in a piquant situation in which he has inclination to marry her and at the same time, he does not want to hurt Sharmila Tagore. It is in these situations that Sanjeev Kumar has given a fine performance in terms of the dialogue delivery in a subtle tone, restrained facial and eye expressions and his body language to convey his emotional upheaval to the audience.
The song in the film, ‘baat niklegee to phir door talak jaayegee’ fits well in the situation. The song is rendered and set to music by Jagjit Singh on the words of Kafeel Aazar. This song is already covered on the Blog under Non-Film category. However, in the film, the song gets played on the radio when Sanjeev Kumar is contemplating as to how to start a conversation with Sharmila Tagore about his intention to divorce her to marry Sarika while she is busy in her kitchen. Just to attract her attention for conversation, Sanjeev Kumar reduces the volume of sound on the radio. But Sharmila Tagore increases the volume of the sound to the usual level without even questioning his action. Her response also signifies that her preference is for the time being is listening the ghazal than the conversation with Sanjeev Kumar. Finally, when he comes to the kitchen to reveal his intention, he develops cold feet. Instead, he enquires with her as to who has broken the electric switch.
The non-film song is addressed by a lover to his beloved not to make their love affairs public lest it should become an issue. However, in the film, the song is a metaphor for a minor marital discord which, if it is not sorted out amicably, has the potential to become a serious issue. The words ‘door talak’ are used in the song not in the literal sense but to mean that once the conversation on marital discord starts, it can have a far-reaching consequences.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip (NFS, 1977):
Song-Baat niklegee to door talak jaayegee (Grih Pravesh)(1979) Singer-Jagjit Singh,Lyrics-Kafeel Azar, MD-Jagjit Singh
Lyrics:
baat niklegee to phir
door talak jaayegee
log bewajah
udaasee kaa sabab poochhenge
ye bhee poochhenge
ke tum itne pareshaan kyun ho
ungliyaan uthhengee
sookhe huye baalon kee taraf
ik nazar dekhenge
guzre huye saalon kee taraf
choodiyon par bhee kayee tanz kiye jaayenge
kaanpte haathhon pe bhee fikre kase jaayenge
log zaalim hain har ek baat kaa taana denge
baaton baaton mein meraa zikr bhee le aayenge
baaton baaton mein meraa zikr bhee le aayenge
unkee baaton kaa zara saa bhee asar mat lenaa
warnaa chehre ke taassur se samajh jaayenge
chaahe kuchh bhee ho
sawaalaat na karna unse
chhahe kuchh bhee ho
sawaalaat na karna unse
mere baare mein koi baat na karna unse
baat niklegee to phir door talak jaayegee
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
Leave a comment