Soonee sej sajaa doon
Posted on: April 20, 2026
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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‘Jyoti’ (1981) was produced and directed by Promod Chakravarty. The cast included Jeetendra and Hema Malini in lead roles supported by Ashok Kumar, Vijayendra Ghatge, Shashikala, Padma Khanna, Deven Verma, Sulochana, Dhumal, Tarun Ghosh, Sajjan, Jayshree T, Meena T etc. Aruna Irani, Ajit and Om Shivpuri made the guest appearances, The film was based on a Bengali novel, ‘Swayamsiddha’ (1943) written by Manilal Bannerjee.
The Bengali novel, ‘Swayamsiddha’ seems to be one of the favourite stories for the film makers. The first film based on the novel was a Bengali film by the same name , ’Swayamsiddha’ (1947). This was remade in Hindi with the same name in 1949 in which Shanta Apte and Samar Roy played the lead roles. The Telugu film ‘Ardhangi’ (1955) was adapted from ‘Swayamsiddha’ which was later remade in Tamil as ‘Pennin Perumai’ (1956) and in Hindi as ‘Bahurani’ (1963). Kannada novelist, playwright and journalist, B. Puttaswamayya translated ‘Swayamsiddha’ in Kannada based on which the Kannada film, ‘Mallammana Pavaada’ (1969) was made. Once again the film was remade in Bengali, ‘Swayamsiddha’ (1975). The story of ‘Beta’ (1992) seems to draw some inspirations from the same novel.
The story of ‘Swayamsiddha’ is one more addition to many Bengali novels in which the feudal system versus poor section of the society and empowerment of women in the society have been covered. The core theme of ‘Swayamsiddha’ is empowerment of women to be self-reliant. The film under discussion, has more or less, followed the same sequences of the story as in ‘Bahurani’ (1963). I give below the gist of the story of Jyoti’ (1981) which is as under:
Govind (Jeetendra), the retarded son of Zamindar (Ashok Kumar) has been terrorised by his stepbrother, Niranjan (Vijayendra Ghatge) for trivial reasons by flogging him with his whip. His stepmother, Sunanda (Shashikala) has been feeding Govind during his childhood with drug which had made him retarded. The idea is to make Govind good for nothing so that her son, Niranjan inherits the entire property of his zamindar father.
Niranjan is also harsh on the villagers. But Gauri (Hema Malini), the educated daughter of a Vaid (Om Shivpuri) stands up against Niranjan for the right and the honour of the villagers. She tells the farmers not to pay the land tax to Niranjan. The stories of her defiance against Niranjan comes to the notice of Zamindar who decides to meet her personally to know as to who is this brave girl who can face the tyranny of his son without fear. Gauri wins the heart of Zamindar by her rationale arguments for the rights of the farmers vis-à-vis landowners. He proposes her father that he is prepared to accept Gauri to be his daughter-in-law. Vaid is happy to accept the proposal.
After returning home, Zamindar tells his wife Sunanda about his agreeing to the marriage of Niranjan with Gauri who is not happy with his son getting married to a girl of the lower strata of the society. Instead, she suggests Govind to get married to Gauri. At first, Zamindar is hesitant knowing Govind’s condition but agrees with Sunanda. On the wedding day, while doing the final rituals, Gauri’s father realises that the groom is not Niranjan but Govind, the retarded son of Zamindar. He tries to stop the wedding but Gauri persuades him by telling that she will manage.The marriage ceremony of Govind and Gauri gets completed.
After the marriage, Gauri realises that Niranjan and his mother run the household and mistreats Govind so that he always remains subservient to them. She also gets to know from the maid servant about his stepmother feeding him with unscrupulous drug making him mentally retarded. Gauri decides to set the things right in the household without creating much hostilities. First, she consult a doctor who prescribes drug de-addiction medicines for Govind. Next, she educates him and teaches mannerism to transform into a normal person.
Meanwhile Niranjan falls in the trap of mujra dancer, Mallika (Aruna Irani) who along with Amirchand (Ajit). Few years back, Zamindar had dismissed Amirchand from the service and he has now decided to settle the score with Zamindar. He plans to rob Niranjan of his wealth with the connivance of Mallika. With his father favourably disposed towards Gauri, Niranjan spends most of his time Mallika and in this process, he loses money and precious jewels.
In the meanwhile, Zamindar is pleasantly surprised that Govind has turned quite normal. He declares that he has chosen Govind as inheritor of all his wealth. This is not liked by Niranjan and it also shatters the dream of Sunanda and as well as Amirchand who was hoping to get a slice of Zamindar’s wealth through Niranjan. They instigate Niranjan who, with his earlier mode, terrorises Govind by hitting him with his whip. But time has changed. Instead, Niranjan gets whipped by a ferocious Gauri forcing him to run away from the house. With Amirchand’s plan of robing Zamindar’s wealth exposed, better sense prevails on Sunanda and his son, Niranjan, and the family unites with a happy ending.
I had watched ‘Bahurani’ (1963) a few years back and I have recently watched ‘Jyoti’ (1981). As I had mentioned earlier, the source of the story for both the film is, more or less, the same. But the cinematic presentations in both the films differ reflecting the changes in the audiences’ taste in about two decades and the performance styles of the main actors.
In ‘Bahurani’ (1963), Guru Dutt in the role of Raghu (akin to Jeetendra’s role of Govind in ‘Jyoti’ (1981) has given the performance as a simple and innocent child-like husband which can generate sympathy for his character from the audience. Mala Sinha in the role of Padma (akin to Hema Malini’s role of Gauri) has given more emphasis on the emotional aspects of her roles with dignified restraints. Hema Malini, on the other hand, reprises some shades of her role in ‘Seeta Aur Geeta’ (1972). Feroz Khan in the role of Vikram Singh was more subdued villain as a stepbrother than Vijayendra Ghatge in the role of Niranjan in ‘Jyoti’ (1981).These have to be expected as in 1980s, film audience were more attuned to vibrant and action-oriented presentations. Incidentally, both the films performed well on the box office in their respective time zones. In conclusion, I will call ‘Bahurani’ (1963) a film with classic touch while ‘Jyoti’ (1981) has commercial vibes.
The film had five songs written by Anand Bakshi which were set to music by Bappi Lahiri. One song has been covered on the Blog. I present the 2nd song, ‘soonee sej sajaa doon’ rendered by Lata Mangeshkar and picturised on Hema Malini.
The context of the song is that after de-addiction from the drug, Govind (Jeetendra) faces withdrawal symptom and he is not able to sleep. He demands his daily dose of drug to get back the sleep. At that time, Gauri (Hema Malini) manages to make child-like Govind to lie down after which she sings the ‘lullaby’ type song which also reflects her predicaments in the last stanza of the song.
The counterpart of the song under discussion in ‘Bahurani’ (1963) is main jaagoon saari rain sajan tum so jaao. However, the context of this song is the wedding night when Guru Dutt shows the flogging marks on his back. The pain prevents him from getting sleep and he requests Mala Sinha to sing a song.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Soonee sej sajaa doon (Jyoti)(1981) Singer-Lata, Lyricist-Anand Bakshi, MD-Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics:
soonee sej sajaa doon
aa main tujhe sulaa doon
soonee sej sajaa doon
aa main tujhe sulaa doon
apnee nindiyaa ko main tere
nainon mein basaa doon
soonee sej sajaa doon
neend kaa jhonkaa aaya hai
kisne tujhe daraayaa hai
aaj kee raat piyaa tujh pe
meree zulfon kaa saaya hai
neend kaa jhonkaa aaya hai
kisne tujhe daraayaa hai
aaj kee raat piyaa tujh pe
meree zulfon kaa saaya hai
iss saaye mein jo bhee aaye
main usko dhamkaa doon
soonee sej sajaa doon
aa main tujhe sulaa doon
apnee nindiya ko main tere
nainon mein basaa doon
sej sajaa doon
maatee aag pawan paanee
inse ye sansaar banaa
par jaane kis cheez se raaja
ye aurat kaa pyaar banaa
maatee aag pawan paanee
inse ye sansaar banaa
par jaane kis cheez se raaja
ye aurat kaa pyaar banaa
main shabnam hoon
par main chhoo ke
sholaa tujhe banaa doon
soonee sej sajaa doon
aa main tujhe sulaa doon
apnee nindiya ko main tere
nainon mein basaa doon
sej sajaa doon
raah takee in raaton kee
jaane kitnee raaton se
kaash uthhaa dete tum meraa
ghoonghat apne haathhon se
raah takee in raaton kee
jaane kitnee raaton se
kaash uthhaa dete tum meraa
ghoonghat apne haathhon se
jee chaahe jal jaaoon baakee
ban ke deep bujhaa doon
soonee sej sajaa doon
aa main tujhe sulaa doon
apnee nindiyaa ko main tere
nainon mein basaa doon
sej sajaa doon
la la la la la laa
soonee sej sajaa doon
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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