Man naaheen laage mitwaa
Posted on: December 9, 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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In Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra and in Goa, there used to be Devdasi (servants of God) customs under which select girls (especially trained singers and dancers) were attached to local temple for temple duties. Since they were regarded as wedded to the deity of the temples, they were expected to live a life of celibacy. They were supported by the patrons of the temple which included royalties. However, with the abolition of royalties, the Devdasi custom as envisaged in the beginning came under financial strain, forcing them to rely on rich patrons, sometime becoming their mistresse. The girls born out of such relationship were initiated into Devdasi customs.
In 1970, Jaywant Dalvi, a Marathi novelist, playwright and journalist, who was from the South Konkan region, published his novel, ‘Mahananda’ highlighting the burning issues in Devdasi customs in the Konkan region of Maharashtra as evolved over a period of time, now almost extinct. The story is about a city-based college lecturer, Babulnath (Babul for short). He while on a visit to his native village, falls in love with Mahananda (Mannu for short), a daughter born out of Devdasi custom. However, her mother opposes their marriage as Mahananda is destined to serve the temple as Devdasi. It is a tragic love story which is doomed from the beginning due to societal pressures and superstitions resulting in the emotional turmoil for the affected lovers. The end result is that Mahananda is betrayed by her own mother due to her superstitions and later by Babul due to his timid nature though he remains unmarried.
‘Mahananda’ as a novel was critically acclaimed. So far 10 editions of the novel have been published, the last being in 2017. Sha. Na. Navre (pen name of Shankar Narayan Navre), himself a novelist, playwright, screenplay writer and a contemporary of Jaywant Dalvi, saw the potential of ‘Mahananda’ as a Marathi play. He wrote the Marathi play, ‘Guntata Hriday He’ (The Entangled Heart) based on the novel which was staged for the first time in 1974 with Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar as Babul and Asha Kale as Mahananda and Ashalata Wabgaonkar as Kalyani. Later, the novel was adapted for a Marathi film, ‘Mahananda’ (1984) with Vikram Gokhale as Babul, Faiyyaz Shaikh as Mahananda and Shashikala as Kalyani (Mahananda’s mother).
About two years after the Marathi film’s release, Mohan Kavia produced and directed the Hindi version, ‘Mahananda’ (1987), adapted from the same novel. The cast included Moushumi Chatterjee as Mahananda, Farooque Shaikh as Babul and Ashalata Wabgaonkar as Kalyani with supporting cast of Dr Shriram Lagoo, Sulabha Deshpande, Kamalakar Date, Asha Sharma, Rakesh Pandey etc. The film was financed by NDFC and was released on Doordarshan as it did not get distributors for theatrical release.
The story of the film is as under:
Babulnath (Farooque Shaikh) works as a college lecturer in Mumbai. After about 20 years, he visits his maternal uncle’s (Dr Shriram Lagoo) house in his village during Diwaali vacation. His aunt (Sulabha Deshpande) enthusiastically welcomes him though he finds her in a subdued mood in other times. One day, he visits his village temple where he meets Kalyani (Ashalata), a temple Devdasi who is known in the entire village. She recognises Babul and has a long chat with him. During his stay with his uncle, Babul comes to know that his uncle is a regular visitor to Kalyani and his aunt knows this because of which she seems to be upset with his uncle. There has been hardly any conversation between his uncle and aunt.
One day, Babul accidentally meets Mahananda, also called Manu (Moushumi Chatterjee) near the temple. Because of her beauty, Babul gets attracted towards her. They meet quite often in her house. He decides that he will get married only to Manu. He indirectly hints to his aunt as to what her opinion is about him getting married to a daughter of Devdasi. She responds by saying that it is better to marry a Devdasi girl than keeping her as a mistress – the latter statement was a sarcastic hint toward her husband.
Babul takes this matter further to Kalyani who opposes the marriage. She points out that under Devdasi custom, Manu is not supposed to get married as she has to be in the service of the temple deity. If he likes Manu, he can keep her as his mistress which is as per the Devdasi customs. It is clear now to Babul that he would not get permission from Kalyani to marry Manu. He takes Manu into confidence and decides to get married to her by eloping with her. But this has to wait because he is required to be back in Mumbai after Diwaali when college reopens. He promises Manu that he will get married to her on his next visit to the village.
After few months, Babul sends a letter to Manu that he will be back in the village on a particular date during which she should keep herself ready to travel back to Mumbai. However, the village postman delivers the letter meant for Manu to Kalyani. After reading the contents of the letter, Kalyani sends Manu to a different village. As planned, Babul visits Manu’s house where Kalyani tells him that Manu is pregnant and as a Devdasi, she has been sent to her patron who takes care of her. Babul is devasted by this development. He is angry with Manu that she has deceived him. He returns to his uncle’s house. His aunt reveals him that she was aware that he was proposing to marry Manu and enquires as to how the matter stands. Babul vehemently denies the news. His uncle informs him that a marriage proposal has come from a girl from Ratnagiri for him. But Babul refrains from responding to his uncle. He returns to Mumbai and lives a life of a disenchanted person.
Fifteen years have passed. One day, he receives a letter informing him that his uncle has passed away. He visits his village to meet his aunt. While sitting in the village temple, a teenage girl comes to him and tells him that her mother, Manu has called him to meet her. Babul reluctantly meets Manu in her house where she reveals that her mother has betrayed her by falsifying the fact about him by telling her that Babul will never come to take her to Mumbai. The fact was that she was pregnant with his child and she has never told her that he had come to meet her. It was only when her mother was on her death bed, she revealed her all the truth. Babul decides to take both Manu and their daughter to Mumbai as he does not want her to become a Devdasi. He will admit her in a college for higher studies and get her married as a wife. However, Manu refuses to accompany him to Mumbai by saying that she does not want her daughter to get the stigma of having born to a Devdasi mother.
The film ends with Babul and his daughter taking a boat to cross the backwater and catch a bus to Mumbai.
Generally, the legal marriage is regarded as an institution for real companionship, happiness and the romantic fulfillment. In Devdasi system, the girls are ‘wedded’ to the temple deity and does not recognise marriage as an institution for them. So, any relationship outside the marriage (like as a mistress) is not likely to result in the domestic bliss. But Jaywant Dalvi, in his novel, has brought out the contrasting situational irony in that Babul’s aunt has spent a loveless married life with lack of companionship. There is a scene in the film in which Babul’s uncle has bought a saree for his wife on the occasion of Diwaali but asks Babul to give it to his aunt. When Babul goes to give the saree to her, she says in disgust to keep it on a table. Kalyani, on the other hand has been living a happy and blissful life as a Devdasi in her own superstitions and traditions, as a mistress of Babul’s maternal uncle.
The character of Babul in the novel (also in the film) has been shown as a meek one. The novel has been written more than five decade back. In today’s scenario, when Kalyani misled Babul about Mahananda, he would have cross-checked with Mahananda whether what her mother said was true. Instead, he meekly accepts her version which created misunderstanding and the resultant turmoil in the life of Babul and Mahananda in which there was no scope left to set it right.
It is unfortunate that such a beautifully crafted film with the scenic photography of the rural Konkan and outstanding performances of the main actors failed to get a theatrical release.
The film had five songs written by Nida Fazli (2) and one each by Kapil Kumar, Yogesh and Inderjit Hasanpuri which were set to music by Manas Mukherjee. One song has been covered on the Blog. I present the 2nd song, ‘mann naahee laage mitwa’, rendered by Manas Mukherjee on the words of Nida Fazli. It is a philosophical song which gets played in the background.
The song appears in the film in two parts, the first part is played at the beginning of the film as Babul (Farooque Shaikh) is walking on a deserted beach contemplating his life following his perceived betrayal by Mahananda (Moushumi Chatterjee) after having agreed to marry him by eloping with him. The second part is played at the end of the film when Babul is taking with him his daughter born to Mahananda to Mumbai as he does not want her to fall prey to the Devdasi system. The audio clip cover the full song.
Audio Clip:
Video Clip (Both parts combined):
Song-Mann naaheen laage mitwaa (Mahananda)(1987) Singer-Manas Mukherjee, Lyricist-Nida Fazli, MD-Manas Mukherjee
Lyrics (Based on Audio Clip):
o mitwaa aa aa
mann naaheen laage
mann naaheen laage
mitwaa aa aa
mann naaheen laage
bairee jeewan resham resham
bairee jeewan resham resham
uljhe saare dhaage
ho o o
mann naaheen laage
mitwaa aa aa aa
mann naaheen laage
ho ho ho
veena ke taaron mein sargam
sargam ke ghere mein geet
geeton kee seema mein sapne
sapnon mein manchaaha meet
ho o o
neel gagan mein sooraj bhatke
neel gagan mein sooraj bhatke
chanda har pal jaage
ho o o
mann naaheen laage
o mitwaa aa aa aa
mann naaheen laage
utre bhootal ?? mein sooraj
lehron mein lehraaye aag
chhup chhup
kinaaron ke pathhar
nadiyaan ke honthon pe jhaag
mann kaa panchhee gumsum baithhe
mann kaa panchhee gumsum baithhe
tan parwat par bhaage
ho o
mann naaheen laage
ho mitwaa aa aa aa
mann naaheen laage
bairee jeewan resham resham
bairee jeewan resham resham
uljhe saare dhaage
ho o o
mann naaheen laage
o mitwaa aa aa aa
mann naaheen laage
mitwaa aa aa aa aa
mann naaheen laage
naaheen laage ae
mann naaheen laage
mitwaa aa aa aa
mann naaheen laage
naaheen laage re
mann naaheen laage
naaheen laage re ae
mann naahee laage
mitwaa aa aa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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