Aayee re aayee re aayee re ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
Posted on: March 6, 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 a special film Lakharani-1945.
The film was produced by Prabhat film Company, Poona. It was a Costume film, directed by Vishram Bedekar. The film had music by Master Krishna Rao Phulambrikar – an All India famous classical singer of his times. The 6 songs of this film were written by Qamar Jalalabadi aka Omprakash Bhandari. The cast of the film included Durga khote, Monica Desai ( younger sister of actress Leela Desai and wife of director Phani Mujumdar), Azurie, Sapru, Guru Dutt, Ram Singh, Urmila and many others.
For many years, songs of this film were not available on public platforms. I wrote on one song from this film, some 10 years ago, when our Sudhirji uploaded a song for me, from his collection, on my request. Of late I found that some songs from this film are made available on Youtube, by Saregama company.
By 1945, the Prabhat company had started its down slide, especially after V.Shantaram and few others left it to establish Rajkamal Kala Mandir and the demise of another founding member V.G. aka Vishnupant Damle in early 1945. Though this film followed the tradition of Prabhat to make films on the ill effects of bad traditions of Indian society, this film did not fare well at the Box Office. One reason was that this Costume film tackled the issue of those times ” entry of all castes to Hindu temples”, but the background was that of Tribal people. The general public could not identify itself with this segment of population. Secondly, the music of this film was not commensurate with the changing tastes of the audience.
The M.D. was an expert in classical and stage drama songs. His songs could not compete with the musical bouquet offered by various composers in those years, I feel Krishnarao’s songs could not compete. The listeners’ tastes were changing. Look at the film Rattan’s songs. The trend was going somewhere else, but Krishnrao’s music stayed where it was in the beginning, because he knew only that type of music. May be few people,in that time also, liked his songs, but that tribe was diminishing.
If you evaluate a song on its individual strengths, it may sound good in any era. But then, the popularity is always in relation to what is offered by others to the music lovers and their preferences.
Classical music is eternally good,undoubtedly. The film music was trying to come out of its influence. By the end of the 40s decade,one would find that the face of film music had taken a 180 degree turn,if you compare CR,SDB,H-B,S-J and some other MDs’ music.
‘Lakharani’ is important for one reason – Guru Dutt made his acting debut with this film. Guru Dutt (9-7-1925 to 10-10-1964) did the role of Lachman, brother of the heroine Lakharani, in this film. After doing a basic course in dancing from the dance academy of the famous dancer Uday Shanker, in Almora, he joined Prabhat Studios as a choreographer. However, in his first film he was only an actor and an assistant director to Vishram Bedekar. In his second film ‘ Hum Ek Hain’ (1946), he worked as the choreographer and as an assistant to PL Santoshi, the debutant director of the film. Later he was assistant director to Anadinath Bannerjee for the film ‘Mohan’ (1947), to Amiya Chakravarty for the film ‘Girls School’ (1949) and to Gyan Mukherjee for the film ‘Sangram’ (1950). His first stint as an independent director came with the iconic film ‘Baazi’ (1951).
Guru Dutt died very young at 39 years. Personal life took its toll. His wife Geeta Dutt also suffered with the same problem and died at 41 years. Barring a few initial years, their married life was never smooth. They met during the making of Baazi-1951 and got married in 1953. That time Geeta was earning thousands with her singing, while Guru dutt was not yet famous. He had asked Geeta to stop singing for others and sing only in his films. This caused suffocation to Geeta and their relations soured. Both the Legends died unhappy !
As per the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema by Rajadhyaksha, the story synopsis of Lakharani 1945 was thus…..
Bichwa (Durga Khote) is the queen of a devout untouchable community, which is not permitted to enter any temple. Her daughter Lakharani marries the prince from a community of atheists and hence is excommunicated by her own tribe.The devout group has their devotion tested by economic setbacks and a major conflict erupts between them and the atheists’ community. But God materialises on earth, thus solving the problems of belief and its attendant conflicts. Untouchability is abolished and they all can enter temples and worship also.
The Music Director of this film was Krishnaji Ganesh Phulambrikar (1898–1974), popularly known as Master Krishnarao, was a musical genius – an Indian vocalist, classical musician and composer of Hindustani music. He was credited with the creation of three Hindustani ragas and several bandishes. Phulambrikar was a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship.
Krishnarao Phulambrikar was born on 20-1- 1898 at Devachi Alandi, a town in the periphery of Pune, in Maharashtra to the Deshastha Brahmin couple Ganesh Phulambrikar (who was Vedmurti) and Mathura bai. He also ventured into Marathi theatre as a child artist by performing as an actor-singer in Sant Sakhu, a musical drama produced by Natyakalapravartak Mandali. He acted in other musical dramas produced by this drama company. And at this drama company, he first got a chance to learn Indian classical music from Sawai Gandharva who used to act in the musical dramas of this company. Later, he approached the renowned singer, Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale in 1911 who trained the young boy in Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur gharanas of Hindustani music and their guru-shishya relationship lasted till Bakhale’s death in 1922. The tutelage under Bakhale also gave him the opportunity to meet and get associated with Bal Gandharva, who would later go on to become a noted Marathi singer. His first solo concert was when he was 13 years of age (he was awarded the title of Sangeet Kalanidhi in 1930 by Jagadguru Shankaracharya Dr.Kurtkoti), which preceded several concerts in India and abroad, including a trip to China as a Government of India delegate in 1953.
Phulambrikar served as the director of Pune Bharat Gayan Samaj, a music academy founded by his mentor Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale in Pune. Besides his career as a classical vocalist and as a film music composer, he scored music for several plays which included Menaka, Savitri, Asha-Nirasha, Amritasidhhi, Kanhopatra, Nand Kumar and Vidhi Likhit for Gandharva Sangeet Natak Mandali, a drama company founded by Bal Gandharva, during the period 1915–1933 and acted in a few of them. Later, he also composed music for a few plays such as Kulavadhu, Ek Hota Mhatara, Kone Eke Kali and Bhagyoday for Natyaniketan where the lead singer and actress was Jyotsna Bhole. On the academic front, he compiled the compositions taught to him by Bakhale as well as his own compositions and published them as a 7-volume book, Raag Samgraha. Besides his notations are available in print under the titles, Rashtra Sangeet, Shishu Sangeet, Amar Sangeet, Mohan Maal, Natya Geet Notations and Chitra Geet Notations. He also tutored several musicians, film and drama artists. Ram Marathe, Yogini Joglekar, Saraswati Rane, Haribhau Deshpande, Anjanibai Kalgutkar, Madhusudan Kanetkar, Jaymala Shiledar, Dr.Pabalkar, Bapurao Ashtekar, Dattopant Bhope, Pitre buwa, Suhas Datar, Sudhakar Joshi, Ravindra Joshi, Mohan Karve, Rangnath Karkare, Shivram Gadgil, Balwant Dixit and his daughter, Veena Chitko are some of his notable disciples.
Soon after he received the Sangeet Kalanidhi title from Dr. Kurtkoti, the Shankaracharya of Karvir Peeth, he was contracted by Prabhat Film Company owned by V. Shantaram and other partners, to compose music for its forthcoming film, Dharmatma, where he was reunited with his old associate, Bal Gandharva, who played the role of Sant Eknath, the protagonist of the movie. The film which was released in 1935 had sixteen songs, many of them sung by Bal Gandharva. A year later, his next hindi film was released under the name, Amar Jyoti, again a Prabhat Film Company production. The film was reported to have been critically acclaimed and was the first Indian film to be screened at the Venice Film Festival. Wahan, another Prabhat production released in 1937, this time with a new director, K. Narayan Kale, was his next film, followed by the musical Gopal Krishna in 1938 directed by Damle and S Fattelal. He composed music for 15 films which included Padosi, another Shantaram film and the film featured a ten-minute song, Lakh lakh chanderi, reportedly with complex choreography. He played the lead role of Sant Savata Mali in the movie Bhakticha Mala released by Rajkamal Kalamandir. He composed the music for this movie and also sang his own songs in this movie. Many aspiring composers of that period – Vasant Desai, C.Ramchandra, Sudhir Phadke, Purushottam Laxman Deshpande, Snehal Bhatkar, Dinkarrao Amembal (alias D Amel) and Gajananrao Watve got inspired by his school of musical thought.
In the Hindi film arena, he gave music to 10 Hindi films (Dharmatma-35, Amar jyoti-36, Wahan-37, Gopal krishna-38, Aadmi-39, Padosi-41, Vasantsena-42, Mali-44, Lakharani-45 and keechak Vadh-59). In these 10 films he composed 104 Hindi songs. He sang 11 songs in 2 Hindi films – Mali-44, Meri Amanat-47 and Pooja-54. He acted as the main lead in Hindi film Mali-1944.
Master Krishnarao Phulambrikar received the Vishnudas Bhave Gold Medal of the Government of Maharashtra in 1969 and the Government of India awarded him the civilian honor of the Padma Bhushan in 1971. He was the first recipient of the Balgandharva Gold Medal. The Sangeet Natak Akademi honored him with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Ratna Puraskar in 1972. In 1961, he suffered a facial paralysis which forced him to abandon his career as a singer in 1969. On his 60th birth anniversary, a 9-day long music conference was staged in Pune in which many notable musicians from all over India took part. He did not survive much longer and the death came on 20 October 1974, when he was 76 years of age. The story of his life has been documented in his biography, Bola Amrit Bola (बोला अमृत बोला ) which was published posthumously in 1985. Every two years an award in his memory is presented to a music critic or author of a music book by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad, Pune. Since his family originated from Phulambri in Marathwada, a drama theatre has been named “Master Krishnarao Phulambrikar Natyagruha” in Jalna, Marathwada in his honour. Every year Pune Bharat Gayan Samaj celebrates his birth anniversary and death anniversary. His daughter, Veena Chitko, who died in September 2015, was a notable light classical musician.
Here is today’s song, but we do not know the name of the singer. HFGK does not mention it and even Saregama has no information. However, enjoy this song….
song-Aayee re aayee re aayee re ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re (Lakharani)(1945) Singer-Unknown female voice, Lyricist- Qamar Jalalabadi, MD- Master Krishnarao Phulambrikar
Lyrics
Aayee re aayee re aayee re
aayee re aayee re aayee re
ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
hari hari dhaniya nadiya kinaare
hari hari dhaniya nadiya kinaare
nadiya kinaare ho
jamuna kinaare
nadiya kinaare ho
jamuna kinaare
ho ho ho
ho ho ho
raaja kaahe ko der lagaaye re
raaja kaahe ko der lagaaye re
aayee re aayee re aayee re
aayee re aayee re aayee re
ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
gorey gorey haathhon mein chaandee ke baaley
hey ae ae
gorey gorey haathhon mein chaandee ke baaley
inka banaa le haaar
inka banaa le haar
pahna de jaa ke mere balam ko
pahna de jaa ke mere balam ko
le ja mere man ka pyaar (?)
le ja mere man ka pyaar (?)
?? kahaanee sunaayenge
aayee re aayee re aayee re
aayee re aayee re aayee re
ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
kahna ye jaa ke mere baalam ke paas re
saawan ke raaja bina raanee udaas re
saawan ke raaja bina raanee udaas re
dil mein bahaar hai
aankhon mein pyaar hai
dil mein bahaar hai
aankhon mein pyaar hai
?? aar hai
ho ho ho
??aar hai
ho ho ho
tera intzaar hai
ho ho ho
tera intzaar hai
ho ho ho o
ho ho ho
dil ke nagar mein
pyaar ke ghar mein
teree pyaaree yaad aayee re
ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
aayee re aayee re aayee re ae
aayee re aayee re aayee re ae
ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
ghata saawan kee ghir kar aayee re
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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