Jhukte hain ye duniyaa waale aa kar mere dar ke aage
Posted on: January 22, 2026
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 an obscure social film Gharbaar-1953.
The film was produced by Ratilal Vora and it was directed by Marathi Cinema’s well known personality Dinkar D. Patil. The music was by Vasant Prabhu. The cast of the film was Sulochana Chaterjee, Shakuntala Devi (mother of actress Ameeta- Tumsa Nahin Dekha fame), Surendra, Shammi, Baby Naaz, Manhar Desai, Kuldeep Kaur, Gope and others.
Every single year of the 1950’s decade provided a few films which carved their place in the Hindi film History, along with other films which were full of entertainment and a few passed on important social messages. A common feature in most films of this decade was its lilting and melodious music.
Film Gharbaar-1953 was an ordinary film. Its music was not very popular, though some songs were really very good. The only special feature of this film was that the Music Director, who did his only Hindi film, was one of the most popular and famous composers of Marathi language. In addition, the director too was a prominent director of Marathi films. However, both could not make this film a Hit film or even a remarkable film to remember. We have no access to the film’s story or other features, so we really can not say if that was the film’s weak point. No wonder, such lackluster film could not compete or shine in the popular and entertaining films of 1953.
In the year 1953, 2 films that impressed the audience were by Bimal Roy. One was Parineeta. It was a classic film based on the famous novel by Sharat Chandra Chatterjee. ” Do Bigha Zameen’ , based on a short story by Salil Chaudhari was a hit film nationally and internationally. Bimal, greatly influenced by the ‘ Nehru Socialism’ and the” Italian New Wave Films” , made this film showing the pathetic story of a poor land owner of Bihar, coming to a big city like Calcutta and becoming a Rickshaw Puller, with an unrealistic hope of making enough money to get back his mortgaged piece of land. This touching story won several awards, but one American film critic wrote ” It is very strange that a filmmaker from a newly independent nation of India has such a negative picture of his own country ! How will it motivate people to be successful in life ? ”
On the positive side, there was the musical Anarkali, the biggest Hit of 1953. When the film Mughal e Azam, a film on the same story, was released in 1960, film Anarkali was also re-released and it did a very good business. Raj Kapoor’s Aah was good but the audience did not like Raj Kapoor’s ‘Dilip Kumar style’ acting as well as Pran doing the role of a good gentleman doctor, instead of his usual villain style acting. However, the songs became popular.
Other notable films were Boot polish, Patita, Shikast, Aas, Jeewan Jyoti, Raahi, Foot path, Jhamela, AVM’s Ladki etc. Film Mayur pankh introduced Asha Mathur and some foreign artists. Nehru’s favourite slogan ‘Vividhata mein Ekta’ was used as a theme in the film Teen batti Char Rasta, by V.Shantaram. He also presented the socialist theme of ‘ Rich-poor’ struggle in the film Surang. First Geva colour film Shahenshah was brought by G.P.Sippy.
Guru Dutt and O.P.Nayyar came together for the first time in the film Baaz. The National Film Awards started and the first award went to Marathi film ” Shyamchi Aai “, made by P.K.Atre starring Vanmala. Filmfare awards also started. Prabhat film company closed down. Music Director Ghulam Haider died in Pakistan.
To start with, the HF industry started and thrived essentially in Bombay, so it was natural that HFM was provided and influenced by Marathi Stage songs and Marathi composers.
Great Music Directors like Govindrao Tembe, Keshavrao Bhole, Prof.B.R.Deodhar, Dada Chandekar, Appasaheb Mainkar, Master Krishnarao etc operated in the early times. Later some more Marathi composers were active like Datta Korgaonkar, Datta Davjekar, C.Ramchandra, Vasant Desai, Snehal Bhatkar and Sudhir Phadke etc.
Slowly the number of Marathi composers dwindled as the industry grew rapidly, attracting talents from Punjab, Gujrat, UP, Bengal etc. In the 50s and 60s only few Marathi names were there in the field of Hindi movie music direction. The Marathi film industry also grew fast giving opportunities to them in it.
Still the attraction of working in Hindi films continued and composers like Vasant Pawar and Vasant Prabhu operated here briefly. Today we will know more about VASANT PRABHU, which was a very big and popular name in the Marathi world.
From the beginning of Talkie films, there have been the occasional actors, directors, producers, Lyricists and Music Directors – whose contribution to the Film industry had not been more than just ONE or TWO appearances. There were countless MDs with just one film. Some of the names for your information are, Master Mohan-Pati Bhakti-32, K R Gore-Bhool ka bhog-35, S P Mukherji-Jagran-36, Govindam-Jeevan Jyoti-37, K M Pawar-Paak Daaman-40, Pratap Mukherji- kisi se na kehna-42, Dinkar Rao-Beete din-47, Mukund Masurekar-Didi-48 etc etc. The book ” Dhunon ki yatra” by Pankaj Raag lists hundreds of such names from all decades.
Composer Vasant Prabhu was also one such person who got only one film in Hindi to make songs, Not because he was not capable, but because he was busier in Marathi films and he died at a very young age.
During my early times on this Blog, I had run a series titled, “Less known composers”, 14 years ago. I had discussed songs composed by almost unknown Music Directors like Shridhar Parsekar, Pt. Motiram, Bhushan, Kamal Rajasthani etc. In this series, the last name was Vasant Prabhu’s. 14 years ago, not much information was available on him – not even his real name or dates of birth and death. In the last few years, more information and details are available about him. It is always like this. History gets updated with the availability of newer evidence, proofs and documents. So, here is the newly updated information on Vasant Prabhu now….
Vasant Prabhu was born on 19-1-1924. His real name was Vyankatesh Krishnarao Prabhu. His family belonged to Panemangrul, near Mangalore in Karnataka. His father owned many hotels in Bombay. Unfortunately his father lost all 14 hotels and the rich family had to stay in a chawl in Parel.
While still a young boy, he joined the Ganesh melas and used to sing songs on stage. His voice being sweet and the style lovable, he used to get “Once More’ many times. On one such occasion he got 26 times ‘Once More’ and while singing repeatedly his throat was damaged.
While still young,he learnt Kathak dancing and classical music. His elder brother acted in films. He too did child roles. This is when he became Vasant from Vyankatesh. He was a tall,handsome and well built young man.He wanted to become an Actor,so he went to kolhapur, then to Poona and finally landed in Bombay.
Here he did not get any actor’s role,but he joined HMV as a Music composer. Vasant kamerkar who also worked in HMV, helped him to get the job. While here, he started composing Marathi Bhavgeets. Vasant Prabhu, Lata Mangeshkar and Lyricist P.Savalaram ( Savlaram Patil) created many iconic Marathi songs from 1948 to 1965.
His first song was sung by Lata ji,” Ganga yamuna dolyat ubhya kaa…” (गंगा यमुना डोळ्यात उभ्या का) in 1949.This song became so famous overnight that after more than 70 years,even today, it is played on AIR and in almost every Marathi marriage in Maharashtra, by the Band.This is a song of Bidaai, sung so soulfully and the wordings are so meaningful that sensitive women start weeping listening to this song.
While at HMV, Vasant Prabhu also composed some NFS for Lata ji and Geeta Dutt in Hindi. One of Geeta ji’s songs,”Jamuna ke teer kanha aao” is extremely popular with Geeta lovers. ( There is a controversy about Nikhil Ghosh composing this bhajan. The references are divided. It is possible that Vasant Prabhu provided the tune,as he was already in HMV)
Vasant Prabhu’s name is written in Gold for the Marathi Bhavgeets that he composed with Lata and P.Savalaram. The 50’s decade was famous for their songs. In all 110 Bhavgeets were composed by Vasant Prabhu.
Vasant started his film career with Marathi film ‘Ram Ram pavhana’-1950, along with Lata Mangeshkar, choreographing few dances and composing its music too. From 1950 to 1968 he gave music to 22 Marathi films and 5 stage dramas, while doing private albums also.
He was the MD for most Marathi films produced by Lata ji’s ‘Surel Chitra Production company’. In film ” Vaadal” he composed a Thumari in such a wonderful manner that when this film was released in Nagpur the Audience wanted to listen to the Thumari again and again,and threatened to burn the theatre if not done so.Finally that Thumari was shown 5 times that day !
In another film,’Taaraka’, he made actress Sulochana Latkar do an item number in the film.Probably, she danced the Item number first and last time in her life.
Singers like Phiroz Dastoor and Talat Mehmood also sang for his Marathi films.
In 1953 he did his only Hindi film “GHARBAAR”-53. There were 8 songs in the films sung by Rajkumari, Lata, Asha,Talat Mehmood and Surendra.
Vasant Prabhu was very honest,punctual,straight forward,disciplined and hot tempered.He never went to anyone to ask for work. Of course work always came to him.He used to compose his tunes lying down in his balcony.
He is a forgotten legend, not known even to many of those who have liked his songs over many decades but very dear to those who know what a genius he was. His Hindi output is not much. He composed music for the film ‘Gharbaar’, his non-film Hindi bhajans by Lata are fairly well-known. He was very prolific in Marathi space. Lyricist P. Savlaram has mentioned how Prabhu’s very first Marathi song for Lata became a rage : ‘Ganga Jamuna Dolyat Ubhya Kaa…’, sung by a mother bidding farewell to her daughter as the latter leaves her village with her in-laws after marriage. This was the first song for which Prabhu, Savlaram and Lata worked together. Lata was 19 at that time & Prabhu was 25. Savlaram went on to write many songs for Prabhu. A vast majority of Prabhu’s songs were sung by Mangeshkar sisters. Contribution by Sudhir Phadke and Hridaynath to Asha’s sterling Marathi career is often recalled. As he was in life, Prabhu is forgotten in death. Asha herself rarely/never mentions him . As great as the Prabhu – Asha combo was, the Prabhu Lata pair was in a class by itself.
Vasant Prabhu acted in a few films under National Studios banner around 1939 as a child artiste, under the name Master Vasant. In the film Comrades (1939), he was one of the voices in the chorus and on the screen for the song ‘Wo chamak chamak kar taare…’ under the music direction of Anil Biswas.
Vasant Prabhu was a trained dancer having learned Kathak in his childhood. Along with dance, he also had basic knowledge of music and beats. He tried his luck in grabbing a role as an actor in Marathi films which were then produced in Poona (Pune) and Kolhapur. He finally got a break when HMV signed him for the Marathi film “Ram Ram Pavhana” where he composed a few songs and also choreographed them. He also composed music for the film Vaadal which was produced under the banner “Surel Chitra” by Lata Mangeshkar. Lata herself sang several songs in the film. Prabhu choreographed actress Sulochana Latkar for the film “Taaraka” directed by Dinkar D. Patil.
For the film “Bhairavi” by Dinkar Patil, Prabhu’s songs were sung by Pandit Firoz Dastur and Dashrath Pujari. For the film “Putra Vhava Aisa”, Talat Mahmood sang two songs for the first time in Marathi. Talat Mahmood was popular for his ghazals in Hindi cinema. Vasant Prabhu composed music for one Hindi film named Gharbaar in 1953.
Nerurkar’s book on Lata Mangeshkar carries an announcement about a book on Prabhu. The book was supposed to come out in 1990 but later the project was abandoned. After 1960, the assignments to Prabhu became less frequent and he started drinking heavily. His depression was darkened by the death of his daughter. He was very fond of her but one day when she requested to skip school due to ill-health, Prabhu in his drunken state beat her and ordered her to attend the school. She left home reluctantly only for her dead body to be returned home when her health deteriorated rapidly after leaving home. The tragedy cast a dark pall over the remaining years of Prabhu’s life. Unfortunately, he got addicted to alcohol at a young age and died on 13-10-1967. He was just 43 years old at that time. (Thanks to Madhu Potdar’s biography of Vasant Prabhu-“Manasicha chitrakar” ( मानसीचा चित्रकार ), the Marathi chitrapat Sangeetkar kosh and an article by Sulabha Ternikar. )
Here is a song from this film, sung by Asha Bhosle. Enjoy….
Song- Jhukte hain ye duniyawaale aa kar mere dar ke aage (Ghar Baar)(1953) Singer- Asha Bhosle, Lyricist- Indivar, MD- Vasant Prabhu
Lyrics
jhukte hain ye duniya waale aakar mere dar ke aage
jhukte hain ye duniya waale aakar mere dar ke aage
hui ek baat kya jo tujhse mere naina laage
hui ek baat kya jo tujhse mere naina laage
jhukte hain ye duniya waale aakar mere dar ke aage
meree galee aate hain chhod ke
ajee ghar baar chhod ke ae ae ae ae ae
pyaar jataate hain kayi mujhse nazar jod ke
ajee duniya ke bandhan tod ke
ajee duniya ke bandhan tod ke
ban ke chhaaya meree mere peechhe zamaana bhaage
ban ke chhaaya meree mere peechhe zamaana bhaage
hui ek baat kya jo tujhse mere naina laage
hui ek baat kya jo tujhse mere naina laage
jhukte hain ye duniya waale aakar mere dar ke aage
teree mast adaaon ne mujhko apna bana ke chhoda aa aa aa aa aa
meree khushiyon ka maano rasiya ?? roop ne toda
tera mera huaa ab jodaa
tera mera huaa ab jodaa
tere milte hee mil gayee duniya bhaag mere jaage
tere milte hi mil gayee duniya bhaag mere jaage
hui ek baat kya jo tujhse mere naina laage
hui ek baat kya jo tujhse mere naina laage
jhukte hain ye duniya waale aakar mere dar ke aage
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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