Hawa ne baandhha hai kya rang
Posted on: November 29, 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 the last and final song from the film Prithvi Vallabh-1943, making the film YIPPEED !
It was a film produced and directed by Sohrab Modi, for his own banner Minerva Movietone, Bombay. This was a Historical film, which was the strong point of Sohrab Modi. The film’s music credit was shared by Rafiq Ghaznavi and Saraswati Devi. For her, it was the first film after she left Bombay Talkies, where she spent a glorious beginning and her peak years. The cast of the film included Sohrab modi, Durga Khote, Jahan Ara Kajjan, Meena (Shorey), K.N.Singh, Al Nasir, Navin Yagnik, Alaknanda, Sadiq Ali and many small time artistes.
Initially, when the Talkie films started, most of the actors and actresses of the silent era, who could speak Hindi/Urdu and sing a little got entry into these films. Soon many Anglo-Indian girls and actors like master Vithal, who could not speak Hindi properly, leave aside singing, had to be excluded from Talkie films.(Master Vithal who was selected as the Hero for India’s First Talkie film,”Aalam Ara”-1931, based on his looks, Physique and his silent film credentials-over the capable Mehboob Khan- gave such pathetic performance in his Hindi/Urdu dialogues that he had to be shown as unconscious almost throughout the film to hide his poor diction of Hindi/Urdu dialogues.)
After the playback system stabilised in movies, the need for the actors to sing themselves became unnecessary. Instead, producers looked for handsome, ‘chikane’ faces-even if they did not know A B C of acting- or at least extraordinary Physique. Thus people like Karan Dewan, Bharat Bhushan, Dev Anand, Shaikh Mukhtar, Ajit etc became Heroes. This happened till songs and music ruled the films. Even during this period, there were cases when some owners of studios became heros/actors, mostly in their own productions. Examples are Sohrab Modi of Minerva movietone and V.Shantaram (he even had a squint eye) of Prabhat and Rajkamal etc. These owners usually selected film stories of meaningful contents giving less weightage to romance in their films.
Later on, when stories became dominant, faces did not matter. What was required was actors who could deliver dialogues effectively with voice modulation. Examples are Raaj Kumar and Shatrughna Sinha, Amitabh bachhan etc. The top amongst many kinds of actors was SOHRAB MODI, who became famous and popular for his solid and lengthy dialogue delivery in an equally sound voice. Being a Parsee, he was fair and tall too. He used to produce movies that had scope for his dialogues-which was his strength. Such films naturally were Historical. His Trilogy in Historical films was Pukar-39,Sikandar-41 and Prithvi Vallabh-43.
Sohrab modi brought to light many emerging talented artistes like Meena Shorey, Al Nasir etc. Like a true Parsee, he was strict, very generous and a short tempered person. In his initial struggle in his career, the famous Music Director C.Ramchandra had worked in the Music Department of Minerva. He had learnt a lot under many Music Directors, like B.S.Hoogan and Meer Sahib etc. He never forgot how Modi helped him in those difficult years.
In the course of time he became a very big and ‘in demand ‘ M.D. He had left Minerva in 1936 and after 12 years when Modi called him to give music to his film Mera Munna-1948, he became very emotional. When Sohrab Modi sent a call to him for composing songs for one of his films, CR remembered all this. While in Minerva, he knew Modi as a strict disciplinarian and a kind soul. In the subsequent period, CR was impressed with the extraordinary success of Minerva movies like Pukar-39, Sikander-41 and Prithwi Vallabh-43. Afterall, his and Minerva’s careers had started together only ! Though he was a famous and successful MD now with films like Shehnai, Saajan, Nadiya ke paar and Khidki etc amongst his 30odd films, he went to meet Modi.
There was a tremendous change in the situations when he left Minerva in 1936 and today when Minerva requested him to work for them in 1948. He had become so big that he could have easily refused to work for them, but he was not ungrateful. C Ramchandra has described this meeting to one of his friends, famous author Isak Mujawar thus…
” When I entered the office of Minerva, after 10 years, I realised that while I had grown in my stature, Minerva had lost some of its sheen and its place among the top studios. Whatever I had learned while working here had made my foundation so strong that I could never repay Minerva’s debt fully. As I entered, I saw the same tall,well built Sohrab Modi and by his side Gauhar Mamajiwala sitting next to him. As soon as I crossed the door, both of them stood up. I was embarrassed. I went ahead and touched his feet. He murmured something and hugged me. I did Namaste to Gauhar ji. Modi talked briefly about his film and their expectations about the music. Then with a little hesitation, he asked me my fees. I smiled and said, “Give me just One Rupee, sir. That’s my fee for Minerva”. However, they did not agree and a nominal token fee was fixed. I signed the contract “.
Those were the days when artists acknowledged the help in their early careers !
The story of the film Prithvi Vallabh was…..
King of Malwa, Munj (Sohrab Modi) after defeating the King of Telengna, Tailap (Sankatha Prasad) for the 16th time has taken him into custody and has announced himself as Prithvi Vallabh. After visiting Shiva temple seeking Lord Shiva’s blessing, King Munj comes to his court where King Tailap is to wash his feet as a pre-condition for his release which he does reluctantly. After this ritual, King Tailap is treated as a friend and is honourably released.
After reaching his capital, King Tailap faces his hot-headed sister, Mrinalwati (Durga Khote). She taunts him for his continuous defeats from King Munj and getting humiliated by washing his feet on each occasion of his defeat. Instead of meekly facing humiliation, she orders him to work out a new battle strategy. King Tailap says that he was defeated on each occasion when the battle was fought on the enemy’s territory. Both brother and sister plan a strategy by which King Munj is forced to fight the battle in Telengna to get the home advantage. They take into custody Kaviraj Dhananjay (Sadiq Ali) who is an adviser to King Munj and his young disciple, Rasnidhi (Al Nasir). This forces King Munj to proceed with his troops to Telengna to get them released.
King Munj is defeated in the battle fought in Telengna by King Tailap with the help of troops from King Bhillamraj (K N Singh). King Munj is captured and paraded in the street as King Tailap returns to his capital amidst the welcome celebrations in the street, Later, King Munj is imprisoned in a royal prison. King Tailap suggests to his sister that King Munj should be executed. However, Mrinalwati has other plan to psychologically torture him so that his pride is wounded. A happy King Tailap asks King Bhillamraj to ask any reward for his help. He says that he wishes his daughter Vilaswati (Meena) to get married with King Tailap’s son (Navin Yagnik). The wish is granted. King Tailap says that he can ask one more reward from him to which he asks for the release of Kaviraj and his disciple. This wish is also granted with a condition that both stay under King Bhillamraj’s supervision.
Mrinalwati visits the prison to see how much the pride of King Munj has been hurt. As soon as she sees him in prison sleeping peacefully, a faint smile comes on her face. However, soon she comes to her usual posture of a stern and tough woman. King Munj says that throughout his life, he has enjoyed his younger days with the luxuries of life keeping his head high. Looking at Mrinalwati, he says that she is suppressing her desires by becoming an ascetic. After listening to his philosophical talks, Mrinalwati walks out of the prison in a huff with a confused mind. But she is determined to hurt the pride of King Munj. She orders King Munj to be shifted in a big cage which should be placed in a busy intersection of the street to become an object of people’s insults.
After the consecutive defeats of King Tailap, Mrinalwati has taken a vow of celibacy and has banned singing and dancing in the kingdom. King Munj, now imprisoned in a cage in the street, attracts the attention of a large crowd of onlookers. He takes advantage of the situation by singing a satirical song for which he gets chorus support from the enthusiastic crowd. This is not liked by Mrinalwati. King Munj is put back in the royal prison.
Mrinalwati makes one more visit to the prison. King Munj says that he has expected her visit as he has the power to attract people and woo them. He once again gives her a long discourse on romance and by doing this he touches her. Momentarily, Mrinalwati feels tranquil but her stubbornness wins over her evolving love. She orders to burn his palm that has touched her. King Munj is unperturbed. When he offers his hand to be burned by a hot iron rod, she hesitates to witness the act but does not stop it.
Realising that she has been caught in a bind between her evolving love for King Munj and her vow of austere life to achieve the goal of the kingdom, Mrinalwati orders King Tailap to call King Munj in his court and asks him to wash his feet in front of distinguished people of the kingdom, failing which he should be executed. But instead of washing King Tailap’s feet, King Munj throws away the water pot and tells King Tailap that he would rather die than wash his feet. The King orders his guards to kill King Munj. However, Mrinalwati intervenes and suggests to her brother that it is better to postpone his execution to a future date. This action gives a subtle hint to King Munj that Mrinalwati has fallen in love with him. Later, Mrinalwati visits the prison and spends a night with him. She assures that she would visit him the next day.
Meanwhile, Rasnidhi and Vilaswati have fallen in love while the former was teaching her poem writing. He and Kaviraj have planned an escape route for King Munj with the assistance from King Bhillamraj. So, Rasnidhi will have to separate from Vilaswati. However, she says that wherever he goes she will accompany him. Both Rasnidhi and Kaviraj reach the prison via an underground tunnel. King Munj is surprised to see Rasnidhi to whom he addresses as Bhoj. Actually, Bhoj is the son of King Munj who has assumed the name of Rasnidhi to conceal his identity while he is in Telengna. Both of them request the King to accompany them at once through the escape route. However, King Munj reveals that he cannot escape now because he will now be accompanied by Mrinalwati who will elope with him. So, they plan the escape the next day.
As is her nature, Mrinalwati once again falls into a dilemma. She weighs the pros and cons of her eloping with King Munj. She decides that it is better for her to keep King Munj in the royal prison in which she continues to have the power in the kingdom and at the same time the company of King Munj. In other words, she does not want King Munj to escape from the prison. So, she reveals the plan of escape to King Tailap. The escape plan gets aborted. However, Kaviraj, Prince Bhoj/Rasnidhi with Vilaswati escapes to Malwa kingdom along with the King Bhillamraj who deserts King Tailap. King Munj is sentenced to death under an elephant’s foot. Mrinalwati is sad but does not interfere with the decision as she herself is under question mark.
On the day of the execution of the death sentence, King Munj delivers a long monologue to the people of Telengna which creates a favourable impression of him and the hatred for King Tailap. As King Munj is about to come under the foot of the elephant, Mrinalwati runs from her seat and covers King Munj with herself. Both are killed. Later, the troops led by Prince Bhoj/Rasnidhi storms the capital of Telengna and captures King Tailap.
The film ends with Prince Bhoj’s coronation as the King of Malwa with Vilaswati as his queen. (Thanks to Sadanand Kamath ji for this adaptation).
One of the cast members was Navin Yagnik. He was a well known stunt film actor who did social films also with the same ease. Navin was born in Calcutta on 3-10- 1912. His father was from U.P. and mother from Bengal. During school days, he was more interested in sports,dramas and oratory. He did not complete his Matriculation, but ran away to Bombay, to become an actor-against the wishes of his family.
He joined Sagar Films in 1930, as an Extra, without salary. After a few months he got Rs.35 pm, but no credited roles. After an year or so, he left Sagar and joined Mohan Bhavnani’s Ajanta Film company. He first worked in the film ‘ The Mill ‘-34. Unfortunately, this film was banned for 2 years. The film was based on a story by Premchand and depicted the poor conditions of mill workers in Bombay. The Mill Owners’ Association brought pressure on the Government and got the film banned. After 2 years, the film was released as ” Ghareeb Parivar”-36 aka ‘Daya ki Devi’. Two more films and Navin became Hero in the film ” Pyar ki maar”-35.
In her autobiography, actress Hansa Wadkar says,” My Hero in this film was one Navin Yagnik, a handsome boy from U.P. He was very shy and after the shootings, he would quietly sit in one corner reading something. He never joined our drink parties,nor did he participate in any other group activity. I was attracted towards him but he gave no response. He sent me an invitation card for his marriage, when it was fixed.”
He also worked in Minerva Movietone, Prakash pictures, Filmistan and other good banners. Some of his well known films were, Zambo-The ape Man-37, Meri Bhool-37, Divorce-38, Vaasanti-38, Son of Zambo-39, Main Haari-40, Jhoothi Sharm-40, Vasantsena-42, Raja Rani-42, School Master-43, Prithvi Vallabh-43, Chal chal re Naujawan-44 etc. His last recorded film was Bhagwat Mahima-55. In all, he worked in 30 films. Navin Yagnik died on 28-10-1977.
You will find one more name in the cast-Alaknanda. In Hindi films, there were many sister-pairs who worked as actresses, but in the history of Hindi films-both Silent as well as Talkie- there have been only 3 sets of 3 sisters who worked as actresses in the same periods. The first set was of Zubeida, Sultana and Shehzadi in the early 30s. Then in the 40s came the second set of Alaknanda, Tara and Sitara Devi. In the 50s, the last Trio of Padmini, Ragini and Lalitha worked in the same period. After this, to my knowledge, no such Trio of actresses came on the screen. If you count step-sisters also, then Mehtab was the step-sister of the Zubeida, Sultana and Shehzadi trio. This made the only Quartet of Sister Actresses in Hindi Film History ever ! Even their mother Fatima acted, directed and Produced films, to boot !! Only their father did not join films !!!
Alaknanda was born in or around 1910 in a Banares situated Mishra family. Her clan had a tradition of singing in temples for the last 5 centuries. The family had close relations with Nepal and its Royal family. Her Grandfather was a court singer. Her grandmother and mother were from Nepal, so Alaknanda called herself as ‘ half Nepalese ‘.
When her father wanted to train her and her younger sister Tara, in Dancing and music, there was opposition from their society. Therefore the family moved to another corner of Banares and he started a Music school and trained children of Royal families from Bengal. In one of their visits to Calcutta, Sitara Devi was born in Calcutta. Alaknanda’s first Talkie film was Suryakumari-33. She worked in 37 films till late 40s. All three sisters worked together in the film Haiwaan-40. She has sung 15 songs in 7 films. She got Cancer and died sometime in or around 1947. Not much information is available about her or her sister Tara/Tara Devi/Tarabai. Vithal Pandya, in his book mentions that in her last days, Tara stayed in Bombay slums and worked as extra in films in her old age.( Famous dancer Gopi krishna was her son) Sitara Devi, on the contrary,lived a famous,rich and majestic life, with several marriages. That’s life, anyway.
Here is the last and final song from this film, sung by Amirbai. Enjoy….
Song-Hawa ne baandha hai kya rang (Prithvi Vallabh)(1943) Singer- Amirbai Karnataki, Lyricist-Pt. Sudarshan, MD- Rafiq Ghaznavi
Lyrics
hawa ne baandha hai kya rang
hawa ne baandha hai kya rang
dekho iskee chaal niraalee
dekho iske dhang
haan dekho iske dhang
dekho iskee chaal niraalee
dekho iske dhang
haan dekho iske dhang
hawa ne baandha hai kya rang
hawa ne baandha hai kya rang
barchhey bhaaley chaley jagat mein
chaley teer talwaar
barchhey bhaaley chaley jagat mein
chaley teer talwaar
chhin chhin mein narsingha baaje
chhin chhin mein narsingha baaje
kaanp uthhe sansaar
kaanp uthhe sansaar
hawa ne baandha hai kya rang
hawa ne baandha hai kya rang
ek desh mein ladte thhe ek tinka ek toofaan
ek desh mein ladte thhe ek tinka ek toofaan
tinka jeeta toofaan haara
ye ishwar kee shaan
tinka jeeta toofaan haara
ye ishwar kee shaan
hawa ne baandha hai kya rang
hawa ne baandha hai kya rang
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 29, 2025 at 11:04 pm
Good Evening,
Excellent song.
Old songs are always a pleasure to watch and listen.
Thanks for sharing.
Blessings
Uma🙏
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November 30, 2025 at 7:05 am
Thanks.
-AD
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