Meethhe meethhe baney pakwaan re
Posted by: Atul on: June 11, 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 religious film Sant Sakhu-1941.
The film was made by Prabhat Film company, Poona. It had 3 Directors – Damle, Fattelal and Raja nene. music was by the resident MD of Prabhat – Keshav Rao Bhole. His assistant was Vasant desai. Songs were written by P.L.Santoshi (8 songs) and Pt. Mukhram Sharma (2 songs). The rest of the 6 songs are not credited to anyone in HFGK.
The film was made by Prabhat Films, which was known to make mythological, religious and social films. It started its talkie era with ‘Ayodhya Ka Raja’ – a bilingual in Hindi and Marathi, in 1932. This is the oldest Indian talkie film available today, based on the story of King Harishchandra and Taramati. As the time went by, Prabhat became famous for its meaningful films. Apart from V. Shantaram, other partners of Prabhat, like Keshavrao Dhaiber, Damle and Fattelal and even the assistant of Shantaram, K. Narayan Kale had directed few films. However only the films directed by Shantaram became hits and were popular, with the exception of Sant Tukaram (1936) a Marathi film, which was not directed by Shantaram.
While forming the company, the partners had chosen their fields of activity, like Damle was expert in sound recording and engineering, Fattelal was very good in art direction, set making etc. and Dhaiber was good at cinematography. Direction was unanimously allotted to V Shantaram. In the following years when only Shantaram’s name became famous, there was envy among the other partners. Shantaram too sensed it and tried to prove that he was a team man and helped others whenever required in their directorial efforts. But the seed of envy soon became a big tree and things were made difficult for Shantaram.
During the making of film ‘Padosi’ (1941) (‘Shejari’ in Marathi), V. Shantaram fell in love with the heroine of the Marathi version, Jaishree (Kamulkar) and married her on 26-10-1941. (He already had one wife, Vimlabai and 4 children). The envious partners got this solid point against Shantaram. The pressure increased on him to quit. Finally, Shantaram left Prabhat films (for mixed reasons) on 13-4-1941. He even left Poona and took up a job in the Government’s Film Division, before establishing his own Rajkamal Kalamandir.
The story of the film was….
Sakhu Bai (Hansa Wadkar), an ardent devotee of Vithal, lives with her husband (Shankar Kulkarni) and a cruel mother-in-law – Mhalsa Kaku (Gauri). The mother thinks that her daughter-in-law will spoil her only son and then he will start neglecting his mother. Her husband also does not say anything to his mother because he thinks that since he is her only son, people will disrespect him and his wife if he takes his wife’s side. So Sakhu has to bear all the ill-treatment silently. She worships Vitthala with all her heart and forgets her daily sufferings.
One day, her husband’s sister, Kalawati (Shanta Mujumdar) returns from her home with her daughter. She tells her mother how she was beaten by her mother-in-law and her husband and how they threw her out of the house. Her mother tells her to live in her home with his brother. She also starts troubling Sakhu, because she envies how his brother loves her. One day, Sakhu’s husband falls ill and Sakhu defies her mother-in-law’s order and comforts her husband rather than doing her prescribed work. Sakhu’s mother-in-law tells her son that he has to choose between his mother and her; he chooses his mother and throws Sakhu out of the house.
A sad Sakhu sees a group of Vitthala devotees doing naam-kirtan (chanting of the Lord’s name). She joins the group and starts doing naam-kirtan. Her husband’s sister finds her and tells her mother about that. The mother-in-law arrives and drags her to her home and ties her to a pole. Sakhu starts crying and worships Vitthala and after some time, things take a different turn. God Vithal appears there and releases her, taking her place as Sakhu. Now Sakhu is free to go to Pandharpur for the darshan of Vithal, along with the Varkaris. The movie ends with two Sakhus coming face to face. People get dumbfounded by seeing two Sakhus and start thinking that she is a ghost. The movie ends by clearing everyone’s doubts.
The main role of Sakhu was done by Hansa Wadkar. Hansa Wadkar was born Ratan Bhalachander Salgaokar, on 24 January 1923 at Dr. Bhalerao Hospital in Bombay, Maharashtra, India. Her father, Bhalchander Salgaokar, was the son and grandson of “kalavantins, courtesans renowned for their musical accomplishments”. Her mother, Saraswati, was the daughter of Devdasi. Wadkar was the third of four children. The oldest sister and youngest brother died, leaving a second child, her brother Mohan and her. In her autobiography Wadkar mentions that her great grandmother, Baybai Salgaokar, called Jiji by the family, was a wealthy courtesan who was the influential figure in the family. Marriage in the courtesan community was a rarity and Wadkar’s grandfather Raghunath Salgaokar (Jiji’s son) was the first person in the family to marry.
Jiji divided the vast property she had and Wadkar’s father was given the house in Sawantwadi. The mother, father, brother and young Wadkar shifted there and she joined a Marathi medium school where she studied till class IV. She also studied vocal music under Bhagwat Buwa but was not interested in singing. The family returned to Bombay and Hansa attended an English medium school for two years at Aryan Education Society School. However, she had to leave school when the family faced financial problems. The father had turned into an alcoholic and there was no money coming in the house. The mother insisted that Mohan being a boy should continue his studies, hence it was left on Hansa to find work.
The influence of films was present from an early time. Wadkar’s father had three sisters, Kesharbai, Indirabai and Sushilabai. Sushila was married to Master Vinayak, a renowned actor-director of the early era of Indian cinema. The elder sister as well as Indira Wadkar were acting in films and Indira was a classical singer as well. Indira acted in several films including Duniya Kya Hai (Resurrection) (1937) and in Vinayak’s production company “Hans Films” like Devata (1939) in Marathi. Indira used the surname Wadkar to avoid using the family name Salgaokar, for fear of reprisal from society against women acting in films. Her older aunt, Kesharbai, was working in a film made by M.G. Rangnekar and she suggested that Wadkar work in films to sustain her family.
In 1936, Hansa acted in her first role as a heroine in Bapubhai Pendharkar’s Vijaychi Lagane. A bilingual, made in Marathi and Hindi (Shadi Ka Maamla), it was directed by Mama Warerkar. The film was produced by Pendharkar’s Lalit Kala Production, its “first and last” film, as Pendharkar died soon after. When her brother objected to the family name being used in films, her name was changed from Ratan to Hansa, and the surname Wadkar was borrowed from her actress aunt, Indira Wadkar. Her salary at that time was Rs. 250 per month. The film was a success at the box-office.
She worked in a few films after this for different companies, which remained incomplete.She then joined Golden Eagle Movietone and learned Hindi from a Hindi scholar appointed for her by the company. She became proficient in the language, working in several Hindi films at the time like Meena, Prem Patra, Zamana, and Raj Kumar with Chetan Anand.
Marrying in 1937, she had to return to films once again due to shortage of money. She acted in two stunt films of Bhagwan Palav, having joined Harishchandrarao’s company. The films were Bahadur Kisan, and Criminal which was released in 1939. In 1938, she was cast in Zamana directed by Ram Daryani, starring Padma Devi who had earlier acted in Indian cinema’s first indigenous colour film, Kisan Kanya. The other co-stars were Dar (Jeevan) Gulab, Ameena and Amirbai Karnataki.
Her next film was Modern Youth-37. Then she did a few B grade films. Hansa changed her name Ratan to Hansa Wadkar,which was her maternal surname. She was not only attractive but also an expert in dancing and singing. She was offered films by Bombay Talkies ,where she did 3 films-Durga, Navjeevan and Azaad. Later Prabhat also called her for Sant Sakhu in 1941. She did 3 films for Shantaram-Sant Sakhu,Ramshastri and Matwala Shayar.
Hansa worked with top banners and opposite Top actors in her heyday. She did 28 Hindi films. From 1949 onwards,she did 25 Marathi films, including Record breaking ‘Sangate Aika-59,Ramshastri-44 etc .
Hansa’s life was in two extremes.On her professional front,she was very successful,but on her personal front,she was very sad. She always sought Love,but she got deception,heartbreaks and torture. Her first husband Bandarkar was a very suspicious character. Due to him she had many abortions,which spoiled her health. She tried many men in search of Love,but she was a disappointed soul throughout.
Hansa Wadkar wrote her autobiography ” Sangte Aika ” in 1970. It was the same title of her most successful film in Marathi.The book created many waves in the industry since she was very candid and open in the book. After retirement,she lived with Rajan Javale,a handsome Marathi film actor ( he did many Hindi films too ). She called him Baba. She was always ready to give Interviews,because she wanted people to know the truth.
Hansa’s Filmography- Shadi ka mamla,Modern youth,Bahadur kissan,Sneh lagna,Zamana,Durga,criminal,Navjeevan,Azaad,Sant sakhu,Apna paraya,Dillagi,mwera gaon,Ramshastri,Meena,Aarti,main kya karoon, begram Khan, Matwala shair,gaurav,Dhanyawaad,Dhanwale,Mere Laal,Sant janabai,Shrikrishna Darshan,Maya machhindra,Shrikrishna Satyabhama and Shri Gurudev dutt. From 49 to 66, she did 25 Marathi films.
She worked in films made by Bombay Talkies, Prabhat, National studios and other banners. In all she worked in 28 films. She sang 10 songs in 3 films also.
Jagannath Bandarkar was one of the sons of the neighbour at Sawantwadi. His family was deemed of a “lower caste” than the Wadkars. Being ten years older than Wadkar, her brother and other family members did not approve of her closeness to him. However, her mother would ask her to call him over for lunch or odd jobs. When the Wadkar’s shifted to Bombay, Bandarkar followed. Having failed at setting up a printing press, he started a theatre company called Dominic Union and got Wadkar to join it. When her mother accused her of having an affair with Bandarkar, it made her do what she thought was an unfair accusation. She writes of assuming this defiant and oppositional attitude later on too, when wrongly accused. Soon she was three months pregnant at age fifteen and Bandarkar and Wadkar were married on 6 September 1937, at Kittebhandari Marriage Hall in Bombay. Though she had “dreamed of a family life”, she had to resume work as Bandarkar’s company was financially unstable. She also had a miscarriage at this time.
Rekha, their daughter, was born following the completion of Wadkar’s film Mera Gaon(1942). Over time when her husband physically abused her over some imagined wrong-doing, she would go out and do it. She started drinking and describes one drinking session in her autobiography where she was unconscious of what took place. She found herself in a village where Joshi, one of the men she had been drinking with brought her as his third wife. She stayed virtually imprisoned there for three years, till she was able to smuggle a letter out to her husband. He arrived with the police, and took her to the magistrate’s office in the neighbouring town, where she had to testify. The magistrate sent Bandarkar to get a signature on a paper and then proceeded to rape Wadkar. Since she did not speak out about the incident, no action was taken.
She went on to perform several plays, where she met Rajan Jawale, an actor, with whom she formed a bond that lasted till her death. She maintained a good relationship with all the female workers. Some of them became good friends like Lalita Devulkar.
Hansa Wadkar died on 23 Aug 1971 in Bombay Maharashtra, India.
Have you seen the film ” Bhumika”-77 ? Smita Patil had acted in this film. The film had earned the patronage of both the Critics and the general public. The film received many awards and accolades. This film was based on the Autobiography of Hansa Wadkar.
Since the days Talkie films started till today,only 2 films were made on the real lives of actresses. One was ” Bhumika’-77 and the other was ” Zubeida-2000″ based on the actual life of actress Zubeida ( jr. ).
Shyam Benegal made a film on her autobiography (Sangte Aika) -Bhumika-1977. Hansa’s role was done by Smita Patil and Bandarkar was Amol palekar The film was very successful and won many awards.
Today’s song is sung by Manju, Vinodini Dikshit and Vasant Desai……Enjoy….
Song-Meethhe meethe bane pakwaan re (Sant Sakhu)(1941) Singers- Manju, Vinodini Desai,Vasant Desai, Lyricist-P L Santoshi, MD-Keshavrao Bhole
Lyrics
Meethhe meethhe bane pakwaan remeethhe meethhe bane pakwaan re
aise lagen jaise kisan kalewa
aise lagen jaise kisan kalewa
bin maakhan misree bin mewa
bin maakhan misree bin mewa
mohe apnee bahu pe gumaan re
mohe apnee bahu pe gumaan re
meethhe meethhe bane pakwaan re
kaun kanhaain haathh na aayee
kaun kanhaain haathh na aayee
man bhaayee jo cheez banaayee
man bhaayee jo cheez banaayee
kya kya karoon main bakhaan re
kya kya karoon main bakhaan re
meethhe meethhe bane pakwaan re
chaturaayee naheen in haathhan kee
chaturaayee naheen in haathhan kee
sab bharan bhaavna hai man kee
sab bharan bhaavna hai man kee
sab maaya hai shree Bhagwan kee
sab maaya hai shree Bhagwan kee
meethhee lagen sab cheezen unko
meethhee lagen sab cheezen unko
jinkee meethhee jabaan re
jinkee meethhee jabaan re
meethhe meethhe bane pakwaan re
meethhe meethhe
haan haan
meethhe meethhe
kaise meethhe meethhe
meethhe meethhe bane pakwaan re
meethhe meethhe bane pakwaan re
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