Posts Tagged ‘Sherdil-The Pilibhit Saga’
Jungle maange dhoop paanee dhoop paanee rahne de
Posted by: Atul on: June 5, 2023
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.
|
Blog Day : |
5435 | Post No. : | 17822 | Movie Count : |
4763 |
Today, June 05, 2023, is the 50th anniversary of World Environment Day led by United Nations Environment Programme since 1973.
The main components of environment are atmosphere (air), lithosphere (rocks and soil), hydrosphere (water) and biosphere (living things). We have been told as to how the degradation of each of these components of environment have taken place during the last 5 decades. Some of the environmentalists have personally undertaken the studies of degradation over a period of time and their results are eye opener.
How does the degradation of environment take place? Aitareya Upanishad says that this world is made up of five elements – earth, water, sun, air, and sky. A proper balance has to be maintained between these elements and the living creatures. Any major imbalances between these elements vis-à-vis living creatures can cause environmental degradation, putting the human life in danger. One can visualise how a rising population on earth can create a disequilibrium in all the five elements leading to degradation of environment.
The conservation of environment has been one of the important topics in India’s culture and traditions since the Vedic period. In Yajurveda, there are verses highlighting the importance of protecting environment. It says that destruction of forests is dangerous for human life and for the nation. The pollution of natural environment causes destruction of vegetation which can damage the human life. Apart from Vedas, the conservation of environment is also discussed in Upanishads, Puranas, Bhagwat Geeta, Kautilya’s Arthashastra etc.
A verse in Matsya Purana has beautifully described the importance of a tree:
दश कूप समावापी, दस वापी समो हदः।
दशहदसमः पुत्रः, दस पुत्र समोद्रुमः।
A pond is equivalent to 10 wells, 10 ponds are equivalent to one reservoir, 10 reservoirs is equivalent to one son and 10 sons are equivalent to one tree.
Guru Jambheshwar, the founder of the Bishnoi sect in the early 15th century had given 29 commandments to his followers. One of these commandments is to protect animals, birds, and trees. Bishnoi sect meticulously follows these commandments. I had visited four Bishnoi villages in December 2013 which are in the radius of 25-30 kms from Jodhpur. It was a pleasant surprise for me to watch Blackbuck Deers (in the list of endangered wildlife species), Gazelles, peacocks. wild fowls etc, roaming freely around villages without any fear of human beings because Bishnoi villagers would not harm them.
Khejarli was one of the four Bishnoi villages I visited, the name of the village being derived from khejari trees which are abundant in the village. Khejari trees effectively stop the spread of sand dunes thus controlling the expansion of desert. In the early 18th century, Khejarli village was probably the first to start the ‘Chipko’ like movement in India. It was also the first bloodiest environmental protection movement in the history of any country. Amrita Devi Bishnoi of Khejarli village and her three young daughters laid down their lives to protect the Khejari trees which the Maharaja of Jodhpur had ordered to be cut for building his new palace. The motto of the villagers, who belonged to Bishnoi sect, was that it was cheap to sacrifice a head then cut a tree. In this ‘Chipko’ movement, 363 villagers sacrificed their lives to protect Khejari trees. Soon Maharaja realised his mistake and ordered stoppage of felling Khejari trees. There is a memorial made in red sand stones in honour of the martyrs of Khejarli village.
Probably, the sacrifices of Bishnoi of Khejarli village may have inspired the Chipko Movement started by Sunderlal Bahuguna, Gaura Devi and others in Uttarakhand in 1970. It was a non-violent movement in which women participated in large numbers by embracing the trees in forest which were given on contract for cutting. Most of the time, contractors’ men had to go back without cutting the trees. Finally, Government of India issued a notification in 1980 for a complete ban on felling the trees in Uttarakhand for the next 15 years or until the green cover is fully restored.
A study by Hannah Ritchie shows that from the beginning of the 20th century till 2018, the world has lost the forest coverage by 10 per cent. And it is not due to urbanization alone. The fact is that the loss in forest coverage was overwhelmingly due to increase in agricultural and grazing land. Urbanisation accounted for just 1 percent of the habitable land. This means that the increased population needs more to eat than places to live. Of course, this may not be entirely true in the Indian context. Being a developing country, now with a largest population in the world, urbanisation may be one of the key reasons for the deforestation in India. The authorities may claim that planted trees compensate for forests lost, but that does not mean complex flora and fauna destroyed along with cutting of trees have been restored. The reason is when trees in the forest are cut, the plants and shrubs underneath the trees also get destroyed. The new trees planted in the place of the trees already cut may not provide flora (plants and shrubs) which is essential for the survival of the fauna (animal, birds and insects).
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of World Environment Day, I have selected the film ‘Sherdil – The Pilibhit Saga’ (2022) for exploration. The film is jointly produced by T-Series and Reliance Entertainment and is directed by Srijit Mukherji. Pankaj Tripathi, Sayani Gupta, and Niraj Kabi have played the pivotal roles in the film. The film got theatrical release on June 24, 2022 and later released on OTT platforms on August 20, 2022. I have watched the film on OTT platform mainly because Pankaj Tripathi was in the lead role and I admire his acting prowess.
The film is a satirical drama which is based on a real-life reported incidence in 2017 in a poverty-stricken village at the edge of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve where farmers indulged in a practice of sending one of their elderly persons to the forest to be mauled by tigers to claim the compensation of Rs.10 lakhs from the Government. They had to do this as villagers had lost their crops either damaged by wild animals or by flood/draught for the consecutive years. The bureaucratic red tape prevented the villagers from getting the financial compensation from the Government.
The gist of the story of the film is as under:
Gangaram (Pankaj Tripathi), the Sarpanch of the village takes the onus of becoming a ‘tiger martyr’ so that the amount of compensation can take care of the poverty-stricken village. He convinces his wife and the mother by lying that he has cancer which is in 4th stage, and he has only 3 months to live. So why not he gets killed by a tiger and get compensation. His family is not convinced but nonetheless, he leaves for the Tiger Reserve forest against the wishes of his family. He spends nearly a week in the Tiger Reserve forest without sighting any tigers.
One day, Gangaram meets Jim (Niraj Nabi), a poacher-hunter who offers Gangaram to locate the tiger who would kill him. Jim does locate the tiger. However, when Gangaram goes near him, tiger walks away from him because he had just completed his meal from his hunting. In this failed plan, Jim and Gangaram are surrounded by the forest officials who have been after Jim for many years to nab him. In the encounter, Jim gets killed and Gangaram is arrested. In the court, he tells his real reason as to why he was in Tiger Reserve forest. A journalist covering the court proceedings flashes the news which creates a pan-India outrage over the reason which forced Gangaram to take the extreme step. Considering the circumstances which made Gangaram to take unusual step, the court pardons him and he is released.
Overnight, he becomes a celebrity. He starts getting advertisements and brand endorsements. His forest journey is documented by a writer as a book. Naturally, his village after becoming a national spotlight, gets all reliefs from Government agencies. The film ends with Gangaram travelling with the officials of tourism departments in a vehicle in the Tiger Reserve to locate the spots where he spent nights which can be developed as tourist spots for Tiger Safari. Gangaram gets down from the vehicle to relieve himself when a tiger pounces upon him and he gets killed.
‘Sherdil – The Pilibhit Saga’ (2022) has 7 songs. All the songs are played in the film in the background during Gangaram’s forest journey. 3 songs are traditional while remaining 4 songs have been penned by Vinod Dubey (2) , Gulzar (1) and Rahgir (1). I am presenting the first song, ‘ jungle maange dhoop paani, dhoop paani bahne de’ from the film to appear on the Blog. The song is rendered by KK which is set to music by Shantanu Moitra. The song is about conservation of forest which is written by Gulzar using some colloquial words in the beginning of the song. In the film, the song is played in the background as the credit titles get rolled on the screen. However, the promo video of the song was released incorporating the various stages of forest journey by Gangaram.
The song under discussion is about saving the environment. Gulzar Saab has beautifully and metaphorically written the songs conveying the importance of saving forests, rivers, animals, birds etc. It is said that KK was very much pleased with the way the song has been written and composed. He had said that he would sing this song in his concerts to spread among the youth, the message for the conversation of environment. I feel that this song is worthy of inclusion in the school curriculum of Hindi poems to inculcate among the students, the respect for the environment from the very beginning of their schooling.
There is an interesting coincidence about the song under discussion. In ‘Maachis’ (1996), KK sang his first Hindi film song, chhod aaye ham wo galiyaan which was written by Gulzar. The song under discussion which was also written by Gulzar, became KK’s last recorded Hindi film song before his untimely death on May 31, 2022.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Jungle maange dhoop paani Dhoop paani rahne de (Sherdil – The Pilibhit Saga)(2022) Singer-KK, Rituraj, Lyrics-Gulzar, MD-Shantanu Moitra
Chorus
Lyrics
arre mutthi mutthi boyee de
mutthi mutthi boyee de
arre mutthi mutthi boide beejaa
arre maati maange boota
boyee de re bhaiya
arre boota boota
boyee de
ugaaide re bhaiya
boota boota ugne de re
boota boota ugne de
bhoomi apni maange re ae
maange uske gehne re
patta patta boota boota
jungle jungle rehne de
jungle maange dhoop paani
dhoop paani rahne de
in hare
pedon ki
daaliyaan aan kat gayin
kuchh puja mein
kuchh shaadiyon mein jal gayin
oh oh oh
kat gayi
chhaaon bhi
dhoop bhi
pedon ki ee
jo bachi
daaliyaan
wo sati ee ee ee ho gayin
jo god mein lekar chita mein jal gayin
ho o o
mar gaye
mor sab
udd gaye ae panchhi tere ae
mujhe aawaaz deti hai hawaayein junglon ki re
mujhe dariyaaon ka rona sunaayi de raha hai re..ae ae ae ae
kat gayin
chhaaon bhi
dhoop bhi ee ee pedon ki
na re raa aa
aa re raa aa
na re re ae raa aa
aa re raa aa
na re re ae
na re raa aa
aa re re ae
ra re re ae ae ae ae
ra re ra aa aa aa aa
ra re re ae ae ae ae
ra re ra aa aa aa aa
na re raa aa
aa re raa aa ae….ae
khushk hone lag gayi hai ye zameen
chal hare pedon ki chhaaon boyenge
odh ke ye thhanda thhanda aasmaan
ped ke patte bichaa kar soyenge
phir mujhe bhoomi ki boli sun’ne de
ugne de phir boota boota ugne de
de de re bhoomi ke gehne de de re ae
ugne de phir boota boota ugne de ae ae
de de re bhoomi ke gehne de de re ae
de de re bhoomi ke gehne de de re ae
mujhe aawaz deti hai hawaayein junglon ki re
mujhe dariyaaon ka rona sunaayi de raha hai re..ae ae ae ae
kat gayi
chhaaon bhi
dhoop bhi ee
pedon ki
oh oh kat gayi
chhaaon bhi
dhoop bhi ee
pedon ki
boota boota ugne de re
boota boota ugne de
bhoomi apni maange re
(ra ra ra aa aa ae)
maange uske gehne re
(re re re ae ae)
patta patta boota boota
(ra ra ra aa aa ae)
jungle jungle rehne de
(re re re ae ae)
jungle maange dhoop paani
dhoop paani rahne de
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
Recent comments