Koi jaise mere dil ka dar khatkaaye
Posted on: August 22, 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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‘Yugpurush’ (1998) was produced by Vijay Mehta and was directed by Partho Ghosh. The cast included Nana Patekar, Jackie Shroff, Manisha Koirala, Ashwini Bhave, Mohnish Bahl, Shivaji Satam, Mohan Joshi, Sulabha Deshpande, Ravi Patwardhan (he was my colleague in RBI, who was associated with Inter-bank Hindi and Marathi dramas and Marathi films and theatres), Yashwant Dutt, Jayant Savarkar, Raj Tilak etc. The film’s story was inspired from the novel, ‘The Idiot’ (1868) by Russian author, Fyodor Dostoevasky. Producer, Vijay Mehta is the son of producer Pranlal Mehta who had produced some well known films like ‘Kinaara’ (1977), ‘Kitaab’ (1977), ‘Ham Se Badkar Kaun’ (1981), ‘Bezubaan’ (1982), ‘Dharam Aur Kaanoon’ (1986) among others. Actor Jay Mehta is another son of Pranlal Mehta.
After the box office success of ‘Agni Sakshi’ (1996), director, Partho Ghosh had once again the opportunity to direct Nana Patekar, Jackie Shroff and Manisha Koirala together in the film under discussion. I have watched the film very recently. The film has both the psychological and philosophical elements. Each of the main characters in the film are the replicas of the modern society where the worldly desires, egoism, deception, hypocrisy are the orders of the day. The protagonist who has been confined to a mental asylum for 25 years is set free after the doctor certifies him to be fully fit to mingle with the society. Since he has not been exposed to the social interaction outside the mental asylum for a long period, the outside world is a new ‘planet’ for him. He is trying to get adjusted in his new environment of the modern society where his childlike innocence and caring for others without deceit is taken as akin to an idiot who can be manipulated. The film was a box office failure but critics have, by and large, praised the film.
The story of the film in detail is as under:
A political party in session unanimously select Ranjan (Jackie Shroff), son of the Home Minister Prem Kumar (Ravi Patwardhan) as a candidate for the election of a MLA. But Ranjan rejects the ticket as he does not want a favour from his father. After the death of his mother, Ranjan’s relationship with his father has deteriorated. The ticket is eventually given to Paresh (Shivaji Satam), a senior party functionary. For campaigning purpose, he meets his friend, Mohan (Mohan Joshi), a businessman who points out to him that the opposition party is bound to bring his relationship with his mistress, Sunita (Manisha Koirala) to whom he has so far presented himself as her guardian. Mohan suggests him that this problem can be solved if he gets Sunita married to a person. He also suggests Mohnish (Mohnish Bah) as a possible husband who is the Manager in his company and also greedy about money.
In around the same timeframe, Annirudh (Nana Patekar), after spending 25 years in a mental asylum, is ready to leave the asylum after doctor (Yashwant Dutt) declares him cured and fit to live in the society at the age of 36. Sunita is arriving from an international flight after successfully completing some deals on behalf of Paresh, possibly using her as honey trap. In the airport’s arriving gate, among Paresh’s political workers, Ranjan is also present to welcome her but he does not meet Sunita directly.
Despite grown-up under the shadow of Paresh in luxuries, Sunita dislikes Paresh for using her as a mistress in the guise of her guardian and for his personal work. Paresh has also told her to present a dance on the new year eve during which he invites Mohnish for the celebration with a view to get him ready for marriage with Sunita. After the new year dance of Sunita gets over, Ranjan offers Sunita that he will abduct her from the place she agrees.
Next day, the news of Sunita’s escape with Ranjan becomes headlines creating a political hara-kiri for Paresh as well as for Prem Kishan who directs him to find out their whereabouts to salvage the election campaign. Ranjan and Sunita’s love relation become short-lived as in a gambling den, Ranjan having lost all the money, he put Sunita as a bet. She runs away from him by saying that he is not her worth for a true love and she would still prefer to be with Paresh as a lesser evil. She goes back to Paresh.
In the mental asylum, Anirudh is ready to depart to Mumbai. Doctor assures him that Mohan has been sponsoring his expenses in asylum who will accommodate him in Mumbai. In the train, Paresh, who has brought back with him Sunita from Ranjan, are his fellow travelers. Having heard their conversations, Anirudh, after getting down in Mumbai, meets Sunita and tells her that if she does not like a person she should not work for him and secondly, her eyes tells him that she is sad. Sunita reprimands him for his comments about her for which he is not concerned. But after some time, she ponders over his comments and looks for him who has vanished in the crowd.
After coming out of the railway station, Anirudh gets mixed with a huge protest rally during which he gets arrested while trying to save a child; He lands in the lock-up along with other protestors. After knowing Anirudh’s antecedent, the police inspector drops him at Mohan’s house. Here he gets to know from Mohan’s wife (Sulabha Deshpande) that his mother was a good friend of her and his father was a friend of Mohan’s father. In an earthquake, both his parents perished. From the shock, Anirudh lost his mental balance and Mohan admitted him in the mental hospital. Anirudh meets Deepti (Ashwini Bhave), the daughter of Mohan who is impressed with his innocence.
Mohan makes arrangement for Anirudh’s stay in Mohnish house for some time where he meets Mohnish’s eccentric father (Jayant Swarkar) who cautions him to be careful about Mohan and Paresh as they had cheated in his partnership business making him insolvent. In Paresh’s bungalow, there is another showdown going on as Sunita refuses to marry Mohnish as arranged by Paresh despite his offer of Rs. 10 crores. She leaves his bungalow in a hup by car. At a traffic signal, Sunita sees Anirudh in another car traveling with Deepti. Sunita calls him to join her in the car. She takes him her exclusive bungalow. At that time, Ranjan also visits Sunita’s bungalow and proposes to marry her with his money power. She says that she has an offer of Rs.10 crore from Paresh which she has rejected. Ranjan goes back along with Anirudh who has earlier saved him from ruffians sent by his father to eliminate him. They have become friends.
Over a period of time, complicated relationships develop. Paresh wants his mistress, Sunit to marry Mohnish for which he is prepared to give her Rs.10 crore so that his election campaign goes smoothly without any blemish. Ranjan is in love with Sunita and he thinks that money can buy him her love. On the day of the engagement ceremony of Sunita with Mohnish, Ranjan barges in and offers Rs.15 crore to Sunita to marry her. She accepts his offer and walks away with him in his bungalow. In the night, Sunita has started thinking of Anirudh who had told her on the engagement day that he has no money but he could give her love and respect. She has fallen in love with his childlike innocence. Sunita runs away from Ranjan’s house and visits Mohnish house to meet Anirudh where she is told by Mohnish’s father that Anirudh has already left for his native village for signing his property papers and to permanently settle there.
Next day, Ranjan not finding Sunita also gets to know Anirudh’s whereabouts from Mohnish’s father where Sunita has gone. Ranjan visits Anirudh’s native village and catch hold of Anirudh. Without asking anything, Ranjan starts strangulating him with an intention to kill, out of jealously assuming that Sunita is in love with him. But feeling pity on him because of his innocence, he leaves him alone and goes back in his car. Sunita has seen all the happenings. She tends Anirudh who is surprised as to why Ranjan wants to kill him when he is his friend.
Ranjan feels jealous and his ego is hurt that despite his money, he is not able to get the love from Sunita. Instead, she frequently visits to meet Anirudh from whom she finds solace. In the fits of obsession, Ranjan kills Sunita by strangulation. Anirudh has a premonition that there is danger to the life of Sunita from Ranjan. He visits Ranjan’s house to find the dead body of Sunita. He carries her dead body for cremation which brings back in him the same ceremony he had performed in his childhood for his parents. Anirudh goes into relapse of his madness. Mohan calls the doctor from his mental asylum who rues that his entire 25 years of efforts to bring him normal has gone waste within few months. Now he needs to be taken back to asylum. Deepti pleads to Doctor not to take Anirudh to Asylum. Instead, she would take care of him in her house. The doctor reiterates that it was his mistake that he sent Anirudh in a world which was not fit for him and he does not want to commit the same mistake. The film ends with doctor admitting Anirudh in the same mental asylum from where he was declare fit to move in the society.
Nana Patekar dominates in the film in the role of Anirudh as ‘Yugpurush’. Although he has been known for giving excellent performances in all of his previous films, I personally rate his best performance in ‘Yugpurush’ (1998) for his unusual, subdued role. Jackie Shroff, Mohan Joshi, Shivaji Satam and Ashwini Bhave have also given good performances as per their characters. For Manisha Koirala, it was a challenging role in the backdrop of her internal gloom. She was caught between the practical aspect of her so-called marriage with Jackie Shroff and her emotional attachment to Nana Patekar. As a woman caught between money and love, Manisha Koirala has given a superb performance.
The film had six songs film written by Majrooh Sultanpuri and set to music by Rajesh Roshan. The audio release of the songs contained seven songs of which one song was not the part of the film as it was added as a bonus. The film makes its debut on the Blog with its first song, ‘koi jaisa mere dil ka dar khatkaaye’ rendered by Asha Bhosle for Ashwini Bhave. The film’s tune is based on Rabindra Sangeet rendered by Pankaj Mullick in 1938 as a non-film song Tumi kemon kore gaan karo hey guni. S D Burman also seems to have been inspired from the same Rabindra Sangeet when he composed laayi khushi ki duniyaa in ‘Vidya’ (1948).
The context of the song is that after released from the mental asylum, Anirudh (Nana Patekar) arrives in Mohan’s (Mohan Joshi) house who is to make his arrangements for his stay in Mumbai. While he is waiting for Mohan to call him, he hears Deepti (Ashwini Bhave) singing a song which attracts him to move towards her and listens with appreciation. When she is about to end her singing, Anirudh sings sargam of the same song.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Koi jaise mere dil ka dar khatkaaye (Yugpurush)(1998) Singers-Asha Bhosle, Ravindra Sathe, Lyricist-Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD-Rajesh RoshanLyrics:
koi jaise mere dil kaa dar khatkaayekoi jaise mere dil kaa dar khatkaaye
ye hawa kee
dastak hai
yaa kya hai
koi jaise mere dil kaa dar khatkaaye
ye hawa kee
dastak hai
yaa kya hai
koi jaise mere dil kaa dar khatkaaye
hmm hm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
sur mein bheegee see aawaaz koi ee ee
sur mein bheegee see aawaaz koi
chhede hai dhadkan kaa saaz koi
main hoke hairaan nihaaroon
aise kaun pukaare
koi jaise mere dil kaa dar khatkaaye
ye hawa kee
dastak hai
yaa kya hai
koi jaise mere dil kaa dar khatkaaye
na mil ke bhee wo youn aan miley
na mil ke bhee wo youn aan miley
dil se uskee har ik taan miley
youn lagta hai
koi yaheen per
hai nazdeek hamaare
koi jaise mere dil kaa dar khatkaaye
koi jaise mere dil kaa dar khatkaaye
ye hawa kee
dastak hai
yaa kya hai
ga ga ga ma pa ma ga re ga re
sa ni dha ni ni sa
sa ni sa re
sa ni sa ga ne sa pa
ga ga ga ma pa ma ga re ga re
sa ni dha ni ni sa
ga ga ga ma pa ma ga re ga re
sa ni dha ni ni sa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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