Saavdhaan Saavdhaan Saavdhaan
Posted on: November 22, 2025
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, 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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Today’s song is from a Mythological film- Ram Bhakta Bibhishan-1958. It was directed by Samar Chatterjee. The film was produced by S.J.Rajdev for the banner Rajni Films, Bombay. Ajit Merchant was the Music Director. The lyricist was Saraswati Kumar ‘Deepak’, who wrote 9 songs for this film.
One who has read Ramayan, knows Bibhishan (older Sanskrit name Vibhishan. Both are correct). He was the brother of Shiv Bhakta Ravan, who did Seeta Haran, forcing Raja Ram to attack his Lanka to get back Seeta. Ramayan and Mahabharat are two of our great epics and sacred books in India. Whether they are Historical records, Mythological yarns or mixture of both, is a point discussed by scholars for hundreds of years. But there are locations existing in the world which are mentioned in these two books and they may be a testimony to its being part Historical.
The meaning of RAMAYANA is, Ram + Ayan = The going of Rama or simply Rama’s journey. It is written by sage Valmiki. It has 24000 verses in 7 Kaands (Chapters). It is classified as ” Smriti” and a ”Itihasa” work.
Ramayan is not just a story of Rama, but it tells us about an ideal son, ideal father, ideal servant, ideal brother, ideal wife and an ideal King. It explores human values and concepts of Dharma.
One, however, must not forget that it is a history written by Victor. So it is likely to be biased in favour of the winner, though every character-even the Rakshasas-are portrayed meticulously and impartially in Ramayana. There are many versions of Ramayan, not only in India but also in various parts of the world.
The Tamil version is ‘Ramavataram’, Buddhist version is ‘Dashrath Jatak’, Jain adaptations as well as versions are found in Cambodian, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai,Lao, Burmese and Malaysian languages. No wonder that there are several Sinhalese versions of Ramayana too. Most Sri Lankan versions, understandably,are from the angle of the ‘ Loser’. Actually they do not show Ravan as a loser at all.
Even in India, Ramayana is Retold in local languages like, ‘Kamban’ Ramayana in Tamil, Madhav Kandli in Assamese, Ram Panchali in Bangla, Bhavartha Ramayan by Eknath in Marathi, Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi by Tulsidas ji and Kilipattu Ramayan in Malayalam. There are Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Nepali versions also.
Initially the Ramayan story was not a part of Sri Lankan Mythology, but from the end of 20th century , the Government of Sri Lanka started taking some interest in it and today we have Tourist companies in India and Sri Lanka arranging ”Ramayan Sites Tours” in Sri Lanka !
Lots of research was done on Ramayana. According to some scholars (with proof), present day Sri lanka is NOT the Lanka mentioned in Ramayana. It was called Sinhal Dweep in that era. They claim that Lanka was an island located somewhere near Ujjain in M.P. or near the Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh.
Whatever the scholars say, the common man believes in Valmiki Ramayan and its local versions. As per this, Ravana’s brother Vibhishan was a great Rambhakta and helped lord Rama in the Ram-Ravan war by providing vital military location information of Lanka to make Rama’s victory easier.
Vibhishan was also one of the 7 CHIRANJEEVIs, mentioned in our Mythology. Chiranjeevis lived through Satya, Treta and Dwapar Yug and will live through the present Kaliyug also,till the new Satyug arrives again.
The 7 Chiranjeevis are –
1. Ashwathama- son of Dronacharya
2. Raja Bali (destroyed by Vaman Avtar)
3. Hanuman
4. Kripacharya-Military Guru of Mahabharat princes
5. Parshuram- 6th Avtar
6. Bibhishan and
7. Maharshi Vyas-who wrote Mahabharat.
According to Vishnu puran,besides the 7 Chiranjeevis,the following were also given a boon of Immortality-
Markandeya,Jambavan,Devapi,maru ,the Saptarshis and Bhushunda (crow).
The following shloka confirms that the original 7 Chiranjeevis were as mentioned here….
अश्वत्थामाबलिर्व्यासोहनुमांश्च विभीषण:कृपश्चपरशुरामश्च सप्तैतेचिरंजीविन:।
Ashwathaama Balir Vyasaha Hanumantha vibeeshanaha
Kripa Parasuramas cha
Saptaitey Chiranjeevinaha.
Vibhishan was the youngest son of sage Vishrava and mata Kaikesi. he was the step brother of Ravana and Kumbhakarna. Though he was born in the Asur Clan, he was a pious person with a satvik (pure) mind and heart. He meditated so much that lord Brahma gave him a boon that he will forever be at the feet of lord Visnhu. Bibhishan strongly objected to Ravana’s act of abducting Seeta and advised Ravana to return Seeta,with honour to Rama and mend the mistake. Ravana was so angry at him that he threw him out. Vibhishan’s mother Kaikesi advised him to go and join Rama. He ,however,left his son Tarni to fight for Ravana as a symbol of duty and religion. His knowledge of Lanka was invaluable to Rama to defeat Ravana.( For this he was even called a Traitor, but he had sided with the right party.)
After Ravana’s death and before leaving with Seeta for Ayodhya, Rama crowned Vibhishan as the King of Lanka. He and his wife Queen Sarama helped Lanka people to follow the right path of Dharma.
Being Chirnjeevi, Vibhishan is mentioned even in Mahabharat. After defeating Kauravas,the Pandavas were crowned. They decided to do RAJSUYA YAGYA to proclaim their sovereignty all over India. They sent Sahdev, with army , to southern states to conquer. When Sahdev reached India’s last shores,the news reached Vibhishan. He came over,accepted their sovereignty and sent gifts for Dharmaraj Yudhishthir.
In the 1951 to 1960 decade, there were plenty of religious films. On one count, 124 religious films were made, which works out to 1 religious film every month for 10 consecutive years. Truly, this decade can also be called ” Religious films’ decade”.The 3 major actors- Nirupa Roy, Shahu Modak and Prem Adib were the most important actors seen in Religious films during this period.
The year 1958 was truly an year of entertaining films, catering to fans of almost every Genre. The prominent films of 1958 were Madhumati,Chalti ka naam gaadi,Yahudi,Phir subha hogi,Sadhna,Fagun,Parvarish,kala Pani,Howrah Bridge,Dilli ka thug,Al Hilal,Aji bas shukriya,Jailor,Lala Rukh,Light House,Mausi,Mujrim, Panchayat, Post box 999,Ragini, Samrat Chandragupta,Sitaron se aagey,Sone ki Chididya,Suvarna Sundari and Zimbo.
All Major actors Raj Kapoor,Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Kishore Kumar etc had their jubilee films in this year. Some notable films were Sadhana-which had taken inspiration from Shantaram’s film Aadmi-1939,Al Hilal- a C grade film which became immortal due to one qawali”Hamen to loot liya”, Jailor-Sohrab Modi’s remake of his own Jailor of 1938 and Yahudi- based on the Parsee costume drama of Agha Hashr Kashmiri,which was filmed in 1933 earlier. Like this one, Bimal Rai had also remade New Theatre’s ‘Devdas’-35 also in 1955. Usually remakes are not successful,but Bimal Roy’s these two films became popular,just like Mehboobs remake of ‘Aurat’-42 in ‘Mother India’-57.
Bimal Roy’s film on Rebirth or Reincarnation,’Madhumati’ Was yet another Blockbuster. Incidentally,in both films, Dilip Kumar was the lead actor. The Neo- Socialists,some with IPTA background,came with a bang with ‘Phir subah hogi”. It was based on the Russian novel Crime and Punishment By Dostoyevsky. The combination of Khayyam, Sahir, Mukesh and Raj Kapoor provided excellent meaningful lyrics and songs. Raj Khosla established himself with Dev Anand’s ‘Kala Pani’. The team of Dev, S D Burman, Rafi and Majrooh was a perfect match in music for ‘Phir subah hogi’.
Entertainers like Parvarish, Ghar sansar, Dilli ka Thug and Howrah Bridge along with the all time hilarious hit ‘Chalti ka naam gaadi’ made the year almost a carry forward to 1957 with equal vigour and variety. 1958 also marked the death of old timer Yakub. Shashi kapoor and Jeniffer got married on 2nd july this year.
Among all the stalwarts and their films, there was one MD, who quietly performed his acts and disappeared . His name was Ajit Merchant.
He is one of those who were successful in Gujarati films more than Hindi films. He did give some melodious songs, however, he was not successful. He was the son of Ratansy Jetha, a criminal Lawyer in Bombay. Born on 15-8-1922, he was the only child in the family.Instead of school education, he was more interested in learning Music. he was encouraged by his father and learned from Ustad Amaan Ali Khan of Bhendi Bazar and Shiv kumar Shukla ( Principal of Music college, Baroda). He also learnt western music from Amy Markerus.
He started as an assistant to Ashok Ghosh and Anil Biswas. His first independent work as MD was the film Refugee-48. Then came film Raaj kumari-55 (a remake of Tamil film Van sundari), Indraleela-56, Chandi Pooja-57, Ram Bhakt Bibhishan-58, Sapera-61, Challenge-64 and his last film Lady killer-68.
He was a Music producer in A.I.R. from 1957 to 1967. He gave music to 32 Gujarati films and only 8 Hindi films. In Gujarati, he is best remembered for Dilip Dholakiya’s song “Tari aankh no afini” from the film Diwa Dandi-50. ( Mera joota hai Japani is inspired by this song). He also gave music to more than 200 Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi stage dramas. He left behind wife Nilamben , 4 daughters and 2 sons, when he died on 18-3-2011 at Bombay.
Here is a song by Asha Bhosale, from this film. Enjoy….
Song- Saavdhan Saavdhan Saavdhan (Ram Bhakt Vibhishan)(1958) Singer- Asha Bhosale, Lyricist- Saraswati Kumar Deepak, MD- Ajit Merchant
Lyrics
Saavdhaan Saavdhaan Saavdhaan
hey Surya Saavdhaan
hey Agni Saavdhaan
kyun jagaane aa rahe soye huye toofaan
Saavdhaan
Surya Dev Kulvadhu ko kyun sata rahe
kyun Agni Dev paap ke ghulam ban rahe
khoya gyaan khoya maan
kya kahega ye jahaaan
Saavdhaan Saavdhaan Saavdhaan
Hey Vaayu Saavdhaan
Hey Dhartee Saavdhaan
Aakaash Saavdhaan
kyun mitaane aa rahe ho punya ke nishaan
Saavdhaan
ghata ghumad ke aa rahee
andhera ho raha
kaanptee zameen aasmaan ro raha
chaaron oar kaisa shor
band ho rahee zabaan
Saavdhaan Saavdhaan Saavdhaan
Vaayu Agni Bhoomi Gagan
chhod do dagar
Devtaaon
paapiyon ka chhod do nagar
is Satee kee shakti kee tumhen naheen khabar
aag waheen lag gayee jahaan padee nazar
tum naheen mitaa sakoge is satee kee aan
tum naheen mitaa sakoge is satee kee aan
Saavdhaan Saavdhaan Saavdhaan
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 1, 2025 at 4:19 pm
Good Evening,
A very challenging song.
There are some more songs on the same base.
Thanks for sharing.
Blessings
Uma🙏
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