Choree choree aiyyo Raadhe
Posted by: Atul on: November 15, 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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‘Safed Jhoothh’ (1977) was produced by Ashim Kumar and was directed by Basu Chatterjee. The cast included Ashok Kumar, Vinod Mehra, Mithu Mukherjee, Deven Verma, Manik Dutt, Aroop Kumar, Vidya Sinha, Geeta Kak etc. Pradeep Kumar and Amol Palekar made their guest appearances in the film. The film is a remake of Bengali film, ‘Chhutir Phandey’ (1975) with Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen and Utpal Dutt as main actors.
This film is one of the lesser known among the films directed by Basu Chatterjee who have directed many ‘middle of the road’ films. The Ajmer born and Mathura bred Basu Chatterjee (10/01/1927 – 04/06/2020) migrated to Mumbai in 1948 and worked as a cartoonist in ‘Current’ and ‘Blitz’ for about 18 years before venturing into Hindi films as Assistant Director under Basu Bhattacharya for ‘Teesri Kasam’ (1966) and under Govind Saraiya for ‘Saraswatichandra (1968). ‘Saara Aakaash’ (1969) was his first independently directed film which got him his first Filmfare Award for the Best Screenplay. The films which brought him accolades were ‘Rajanigandha’ (1974) followed by ‘Chhoti Si Baat’ (1975), ‘Chitchor’ (1976). Thereafter, he directed many films, most of which belonged to ‘middle of the road cinema’. In all, he directed 42 films and 8 TV serials during his career of four decades.
The music director of the film was Shyamal Mitra and today, November 15th is his 38th Remembrance Day. He was a singer and music director who predominantly worked in Bengali films and composed many Bengali non-film songs. He came into contact with music director, Salil Chaudhary through IPTA when they were involved in composing songs for IPTA street plays. In 1953 when Bimal Roy decided to produce and direct ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ (1953), he called Salil Chaudhury to Mumbai as the story of the film was written by him. He also entrusted him with the music direction of the film. Shyamal Mitra accompanied him to Mumbai. He was to sing the iconic song, ‘apni kahaani chhod jaa ..mausam beeta jaayi’. However, on the day of recording the song, Shyamal Mitra got infected with chickenpox. So, in his place, Manna Dey recorded the song.
During his Mumbai stay, he assisted Salil Chaudhury and rendered three songs under his music direction for the film, ‘Biraj Bahu’ (1954), ‘Naukari’ (1954) and ‘Musaafir’ (1957). However, he did not get many opportunities as a playback singer. He went back to Kolkata and continued with Bengali films both as a singer and the music director. He also composed and sang many Bengali non-film songs. In 1963, Shyamal Mitra turned the film producer with about half-a-dozen Bengali films to his credit, a few of which were box office hits.
In 1974, he started his second stint in Mumbai, this time more as a music director than the playback singer when Shakti Samanta called him to take up the music direction of ‘Amanush’ (1975) and ‘Anand Ashram’ (1976). This was followed by F C Mehra’s ‘Bandie’ (1977), Phani Majumdar’s ‘Mamta’ (1977) and the film under discussion. Unfortunately, none of the films for which he was the music director fared well on the box office. He returned to Kolkata and remained active in Bengali films as music director and playback singer until his journey to the heavenly abode on November 15, 1987, at the age of 59.
The story of the film is as under:
A newly married couple, Vinod Thakur (Vinod Mehra) and his wife Anita Prakash (Mithu Mukherjee) plan for their honeymoon in Kashmir. His boss, Baldev Gulati (Ashok Kumar), MD of a TV manufacturing company, promotes him as CEO. The boss also informs him that he would be on tour and in his absence he remains in the office. He gives him the new responsibility of the advertising campaign for the marketing of their new Television. Because of the urgency of the campaign, he has cancelled leaves of all staff for the next two months. Vinod is in a dilemma as on the one hand, he has got promotion and on the other side, Anita will be very much disappointed as he has promised her to take leave for their honeymoon In Kashmir on the very next day of their marriage.
Vinod gets an idea from his secretary and decides to take sick leave for a week with a doctor’s certificate at least to go for the honeymoon in Panchgani. Next day, Vinod and Anita leave for their honeymoon by car for Panchgani. Since all the hotels are fully booked, they take shelter in Government Circuit House where the Caretaker, Suleman (Deven Verma) tells them that only one room is available for a night. In the evening, Suleman brings the register to enter the details of the guests when Vinod gets a shock to read that the room in which he is staying is booked for Gulati, his boss for the next day. Suleman assures him that he will shift them in the adjoining room for the next day’s stay.
Next day, Vinod shifts to the adjoining room which has a smaller bathroom than the one they had occupied earlier. Suleman has informed that there is some uncertainty about Gulati’s visit and he has not yet turned up. Anita decides to take a bath in their earlier room which has a much bigger attached bathroom, by entering that room through a common door between the two rooms. Vinod has gone out to do some shopping while Anita takes bath. When she has just completed her bath covering herself with a towel, Gulati enters the room with his baggage. Anita is caught in a piquant situation as she cannot come out of the bathroom and go to her room to change the dress.
Suleman meets Vinod as he arrives from the market and informs him that Gulati has arrived and his job is at stake if he comes to know about his mismanagement of the room’s unauthorised allotment. Vinod assures him that he would manage the situation. He talks to Anita through the bathroom window and tells her to go to her room, passing through the room in which Gulati is sitting. Since he has not seen her, he will not come to know about his presence. If asked by Gulati, explain to him that she used his bathroom as there was no hot water in the bathroom of her adjoining room.
With no alternative, Anita presents herself in front of Gulati who is shocked by her presence in his room. She explains as tutored by Vinod. But Gulati’s many counter-questions put her in discomfort. She introduces herself as Vinodini Gulati and is unmarried. She has come from Mumbai to Panchgani alone. However, a glance through her room gives him a suspicion that she has come with someone else, probably her boyfriend and without the knowledge of her parents. He puts her in his surveillance until he leaves for Mumbai during which he will drop her to her Mumbai residence.
Vinod is now homeless. Suleman has temporarily given him his kitchen to stay. Anita is almost as good as under house arrest. During daytime, Vinod roams in his car when he accidentally meets his friend, Amol (Amol Palekar) who is going with his troop in a bus for staging a drama in the night. He requests him to act as a cousin of Anita and visit the Circuit House in the pretext of taking Vinodini back to his house in Panchgani. He also keeps Suleman informed so as to avoid confusion.
In the Circuit House, Gulati and Vinodini (earlier Anita) exchange their backgrounds. Vinodini is a graduate and she was under training for Hindustani classical singing. Gulati is happy because he is also a trained Hindustani classical singer as a hobby. He tells her that he has a meeting in the afternoon and he wants her to accompany him for the meeting to help him in writing the minutes of the meeting. He also asks her to carry with her tanpura so that after the meeting, they can indulge in some classical singing near the lake. Vinod and Amol follow Gulati while going to their meetings.
Next day, Amol gatecrashes Gulati’s room when he is having tea with Vinodini and introduces himself as Amol known by his pet name, Ramu. He has come to take Vinodini to his house in Panchgani. As usual, Gulati asks many counter questions and goes out to check the veracity of his claims. Amol feels uncomfortable and runs away before Gulati returns to his room. With this, Gulati’s suspicion about Vinodini is confirmed. Having failed in his attempt, Amol introduces Vinod to a local goon (Manik Dutt) who with his henchmen will get Anita released from the clutches of Gulati by threatening him. However, this plan also fails as his henchmen find both Gulati and Anita gone out for a stroll.
During their stroll, Gulati reveals to Vinodini as to why he is so protective about her. Her face reminds him of his younger sister, Kamla (Vidya Sinha) to whom he was not only an elder brother, but tended her also as mother and father as his had passed away when Kamla was a child. He remained unmarried to take care of Kamla. When she grew up, she ran away with a boyfriend to get married to him. After a few days, she was killed by her boyfriend as he did not want to marry her.
With the failed mission of the goon, Vinod does not want to go ahead with goon’s plan to harm Gulati to free Anita/Vinodini. But the goon is adamant as, for him, Anita is like Seeta who needs to be freed from the clutches of Ravan. They go ahead with their plan but this time, in the night. Anita gets an opportunity to run away from her room and is united with Vinod. They stay in a different hotel. The goon’s henchmen knock at Gulati’s door who opens the door with a revolver in his hand. Seeing his revolver, the henchmen run away. Gulati also finds that Anita is missing from her room. He suspects the handiwork of Amol and lodges a FIR with the police station about Amol’s men who may have abducted Vinodini. He also publishes the photograph of Vinodini in the newspapers.
Next morning, police pick up Anita/Vinodini and Vinod from their hotel room and take them to the police station to record their statement assuming them to be Vinodini and Amol. While Vinod is freed as he has his driving license to prove that he is not Amol, Anita is held up in the police station assuming her to be Vinodini.
Gulati returns to Mumbai and attends his office. After some time, Vinod also resumes office. Anita’s father (Pradeep Kumar) after seeing his daughter’s photograph in the newspaper visits Gulati’s office. Vinod meets Gulati and handover his resignation letter for misleading him. At that time, Anita’s father (Pradeep Kumar) enters Gulati’s cabin. The police also present Anita before Gulati. With all present in the cabin, things get cleared as Anita’s father introduces Anita and his son-in-law Vinod who were planning for the honeymoon. With misunderstanding cleared, Gulati tears off Vinod’s resignation letter and grants them a week’s leave for their honeymoon.
‘Safed Jhoothh’ (1979) had four songs written by Yogesh. Two songs have been covered on the Blog. I present the 3rd song, ‘choree choree aaiyo raadhe jamuna kinaare’ rendered by Asha Bhosle and Shaymal Mitra singing for Mithu Mukherjee and Ashok Kumar, respectively.
The context of the song is that after the end of Ashok Kumar’s official meeting, he takes Mithu Mukherjee to the lake shore where they can have ‘riyaaz’ of singing in a peaceful environment. Vinod Mehra and Amol Palekar keep tab on them as Vinod suspects that Ashok Kumar is wooing his wife, Mithu Mukherjee who has declared herself to him as unmarried to conceal her identity.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Choree choree aiyo Raadhe (Safed Jhooth)(1977) Singers-Asha Bhonsle, Shyamal Mitra, Lyricist-Yogesh, MD-Shyamal Mitra
Lyrics:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaa
choree choree aaiyo Raadhe
jamuna kinaare
baansuree pukaare
choree choree aaiyo Raadhe
jamuna kinaare
baansuree pukaare ae ae
choree chore aaiyo Raadhe
[Dialogues]
jag ke sab lok laaj
maana taj dogee aaj
jag ke sab lok laaj
maana taj dogee aaj
phir bhee bairee samaaj
phir bhee bairee samaaj
taane na maaare
choree choree aaiyo Raadhe
kaahe ghunghta uthhaaye
milne Kaanha se jaaye
kaahe ghunghata uthaaye
aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaa
aaa aaa aaa
kaahe ghunghta uthhaaye
milne Kaanha se jaaye
brij mein badnaam hoye
briz mein badnaam hoye
chal denge saare ae ae
choree choree aaiyo Raadhe
jamuna kinaare
baansuree pukaare..ae ae
choree choree aaiyo Raadhe
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