Mamta Ki Chhaon Mein – 1989 : Kishore Kumar’s Swan Song
iView Author: Kaustubh Pingle (Pune, India)
Email: kcpingle [at] gmail [dot] com
Mamta Ki Chhaon Mein – 1989
“Those seeking simplicity and values in life, this film is for you.”
In retrospect to Oz’s posts on the tortures of the 80’s, I was thinking of a few names of good movie of the 80’s. Most of them ( the list of names i.e. ) were already mentioned on PFC. Then suddenly I remembered one film which had to be put forth to the PFCians and everybody in general. I had written most of the stuff in paragraphs/lines format, in many forums ( Internet as well as private ). So trying to compile them and present here.
Mamta Ki Chhaon Mein
I remember this film when I got the VHS on rent from a well known ( those days in the early 90’s ) shop on Tilak Road, Pune. It was the first VHS which I rented from the shop and did not return it back ( Previously I watched many VHS’s but the “keeda” of collecting had not bitten me ) ! Instead I told the owner that I lost it and that they take the full money from me :-). It was one of my prized possessions for many years till it was destroyed by rain/fungus. That day I was simply blown away when I put the VHS in the player and the film started with live snippets of Kishore Kumar stage shows ! What more one could ask for. Apna to paisa udharich vasool !
At the end of 2/3 minutes, Kishoreda says “Agar zindagi rahi to phir milenge” and the next scene they show the Antim sanskar of the legend. And the good (?) part is at the background of the procession, Kishore singing in his own words, unplugged, probably his own poem
“Le chal mujhe bhulaava dekar
Mere naavki dheeri dheere
Jis nirjan mein saagar lehri
Ambar ke kaanon mein gehri
Nishchhal prem katha kehti ho
Taj_kolaahal ki avani re
Le chal mujhe bulaava dekar
Mere naavki dheere dheere
Le chal mujhe bulaava dekar”
Immortal Kishore Kumar’s Last Offering
SPOILER ALERT – story revealed.
The titles start rolling with the madhur ghungroo ki chhanak of the bullock cart. The chorus takes us to far away villages, through the rivers, mountains, valleys and greenery. Amit Kumar is shown sitting in the bullock cart, and Kishoreda starts singing at the background “Ho Teri Jeevan Gaadi Yunhi Chalti Rahe”. And there comes the real Kishore Kumar to the forefront : rains, mountains with clouds, Greenery, grazing of cows, behta-paani, chirping of the birds, slow madhur shaant geet. Music and instruments giving a divine feel. Hasrat Jaipuri’s words were as if coming alive giving a ray of hope. I wonder why his name was not put in the title credits of the film
Story, Screenplay, Music, Lyrics and Direction by Kishore Kumar…….
Amit Kumar , shown as an old man, gets down from the bullock cart and sits on the banks of the river…the pleasant atmosphere taking him into flashback :
His mother Leena is shown pregnant, lying on the bed, crying in pain. She in turn sees the flashback where somebody was molesting her….cut to present…Badhaai ho ladka hua hai…
Leena is always sad and the past never leaves her alone. Her blind chacha tries to console her and says that she is a mother and she has to make her child a very big man..in fact to make a good singer and person, like his mother. Then there are various characters shown like a muslim Khilonewaale chacha ( Anup Kumar ) who is always humming songs and the name of allah ( I am sure written by Kishore ). A bewda ( Jagdeep ) who considers Leena as his sister.
A single mother, Leena takes care of the small child ( Sumeet Kumar ) very well and always sings sweet songs to him. Nice song written by Anjaan :
She faces the typical questions from the child “to bring his father to him”. The flashback comes for a while, showing the struggling Leena from an unknown person. The tension builds within…
Leena and the small kid are grinding grains at home on a round apparatus which makes flour. Cut to a young Amit Kumar is shown grinding the same wheel. Then comes one of my most favourite songs of Amit Kumar : Main Ek Panchhi Matwaala Re. ( Written by Kishore Kumar originally for the film “Door Ka Raahi” and also sung originally in 1967 by Amit Kumar. This song was cut from the movie, released in 1971, because Kishore did not find the right place for the song in the film. Amit Kumar was shown singing this song on a tree. Amit Kumar sounded like his mother in that song at the age of 15 ). But here Amit sings like a raw but a competent singer :
Leena is impressed by his singing and Amit seeks her blessings.
One day amit asks Leena who his father was. He won a medal in a competition and the elders asked whether his father was also a poet/artist…Flashback….Leena cannot answer – She just says that he is a son of a very big and wealthy man. Amit says that he will tell the world that he is his “mothers child”
Amit does well in the exams and passes in 1st division –
The lyrics of this song were by kishore. They resemble to a few more songs composed by Kishore ( the antara of ge ge li zara- Jhumroo and the first bengali non film song of Amit Kumar in 1972/73 “Aei Kota Din Noy” )
Ashok Kumar the headmaster of the village school, gives a recommendation letter to go to a college in a city and meet his friend. He says to Leena that she has taken care of Amit very well and he will make her proud. Amit Kumar takes admission in Swami Vivekanand College ( Kishore used to immensely read about Swami in real life ). There he meets the Principals ( Pradeep Kumar ) daughter ( Deboshri Roy – DR )and they become friends because of their common beliefs in life. Slowly they start liking each other. There is a singing competition in college. Chairman of the college ( Raj Babbar ) is come for the function as a chief guest and judge. Anjaan , who wrote the songs like “Main Tera Tota Tu Meri Maina” in the same year, is really an amazing lyricist. Salaam sir. Amit Kumar is spellbounding.
Pradeep Kumar asks Amit to marry his daughter and says that he wants to meet his mother.
Raj Babbar is puzzled how did the song reach this child and also the public watching the movie, is wondering “aakhir ye raaz kya hai”.
One day When Raj Babbar is talking with Amit Kumar, he asks him that where did he learn to sing (this song). Amit Kumar shows his mother’s photo which he always carries with him. Raj Babbar is shocked. He asks Amit if his father is still alive. Amit Kumar does not know. Then after Amit is gone, Raj calls the principal and tells him that Leena was a “rangeen aurat” of her times and in his jawaani he also slept with Leena. Principal calls Amit and says that he wants to meet his father and not his mother. After Amit says that he does not know anything about his father, Principal says that he does not want to give his daughter’s hand to Amit. The calm and composed Amit Kumar in this scene is just superb. It is my most favourite scene to see this Amit Kumar. It shows how well he is brought up and how well he faces life. When he hears bad things about his mother from the Principal, he is furious and goes to Raj Babbar to question him. After seeing the photo of Raj with Leena in his house, he is shocked and sad. Wonderful acting by Amit here. He starts to go home, he meets DR , where she says that she heard everything and wants to leave her house and go with Amit. In that condition, Amit is composed and tells her that her father’s izzat will be at stake and that they must always have blessings from the elders. He tells her to go back and promises that he will bring his mother and prove to everybody that she is pure.
His mother refuses to come with him. He pleads a lot but still she does not listen. At a spur of the moment Amit is furious shattered and devastated. He pushes her away and walks out of the house. Now he does not know what to do where to go. He sees one funeral where a child is crying in front of his dead mother. Amit is sorry and returns back home. But he finds out that his mother has left the house because of the shock. Ramu chacha tells him the story of his mother. Many years back, Leena was staying in an orphanage and taking care of it. In that orphanage once a Kunwarsaab ( Rajesh Khanna ) comes as a chief guest. And his entry is marked with a beautiful Kishore solo
“Mera Geet Adhoora Hai, Koi Bikhare Taar sajaa de…”
This song is actually written by Shailendra for the unreleased B/W movie, Suhaana Geet, in which Kishore and Madhubala were acting. It was originally sung as a duet by Lata and Kishore. Though Hasrat and Shailendra worked together in so many films with SJ, but this instance is one rare occasion where Shailendra and Hasrat have written a song in that same movie in the decade of 80s and for a non SJ fare. MKCM song’s orchestration reminds us of the many ghodaghaadi beats that OPN and other music directors had brought in film music.
If you are Kishore Kumar fan and you have not heard “Mera geet adhoora hai” as yet, go grab it and hear it as the first thing.. The magical baritone and the trivial aspect could very well define it as “The Swan Song” for Kishore da…
Raj Babbar is a friend of Rajesh Khanna and manages Rajesh’s business. Both of them reach the town. Rajesh meets Leena, who does not know that he is a Kunwarsaab.
Raj Babbar is bored in the town becasue of no shabaab and so gets himself duboed into sharaab. Rajesh Khanna is besotted by Leena and her simplicity. He marries her soon. After marriage Raj Babbar gives some excuse of not developing the photos of the marriage. Then in he gets himself clicked with Leena. That solves the photo mystery ! He tries to put dore on Leena and tells ulta-seedha about Rajesh to her. Rajesh is furious with Raj and tells him to return his power of attorney back.
Rajesh is thrilled to know that Leena is pregnant with his child. On the other hand Raj Babbar is agitated and wants to do something to prevent the power of attorney getting cancelled. He kills Leena’s pet rabbit in anger. Rajesh goes and slaps Raj. Raj says that he will take revenge.He catches Leena alone once and tries to molest her. Rajesh reaches her and by mistake shoots the naukrani. Rajesh goes to jail. Here Raj Babbar troubles Leena and she decides to leave the house and go to the present village.
Flashback over…Amit Kumar hears the story and goes to search for his mother. He reaches the orphanage and learns that his father (Rajesh ) is not alive. After Amit leaves, Leena also reaches the orphanage and learns that her husband has died 15 years back. She cries and tells the photo that she kept the promise of not telling her son, that his father was a murderer. One day Raj Babbar comes to the town and says that he wants to demolish the ashram and make a fertilizer company. After listening to this, Leena reaches Raj’s house one night and confronts him and kills him with a sharp object.
After this heart wrenching song by Amit Kumar ( lyrics by Kishore ) mother meets son. Gile shikwe door ho jaate hain ( all is sorted ) but fate has a different route. Leena dies in the arms of Amit.
Main Flashback over. Old Amit Kumar on the river bank….
A film by Kishore Kumar – A masterpiece according to me.
This film is not for those who are restless kind of soul. Who are only used to the masala kind of movies. One needs a patient and relaxed mood to see it. It is so sensitively made. Simple houses, village air, chirping of birds, various pet animals, background music with good dose of sitar, Santoor, etc pleasant instruments – thats Kishore Kumar for all.
The biggest draw from this film is the talent of Amit Kumar as an actor. I think it is one of the finest that Hindi Cinema has ever seen. I wonder if this movie had a smooth release , he would have been also cast by some of the film makers. Amit’s talking style resembles to that of the olden Kishore Kumar days – simple. The full movie was full of mother-son love emotions wonderfully captured by Kishore – Amit was simply fantastic. Next comes Raj Babbar. He was also outstanding. Rajesh Khanna was lucky to get the cameo role, once rejected by Amittabh Bachchan.
Music was something to cherish for life. Nowhere close to the shor sharaaba of the 80’s. Simply magical.
Kishore Kumar could not see the release and it got released only after two years of his death, that too with great difficulty and lots of efforts by Amit Kumar. Today, one can catch the film on VCDs released on TIME VIDEO.
Tags: Kishore Kumar Rajesh Khanna Unreleased Amit Kumar, leena shailendra, swan song“In sansoo ki sargam puchh thakee saubaar
Paas bhi ho, door bhi ho, kaun ho tum us paar
Tum jo milo to geet ho poora, mil jaye mann ke taar
Mera geet adhoora Hai, Koi bikhare taar sajaa de”
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
@Kcp,
Thanks for showing so many good songs of last film directed by KK. Had only listened few songs but never watched the film and so never could see the songs.
With “Mera Geet Adhoora Hai——” KK enters almost into the known territory of OP Nayyar.
Song showing Leena Ganguli and Sumit Ganguli is an interesting watch as its quite difficult for a mother to present her emotions towards her little son as the parts of her acting. Perhaps an actress can do it but interesting thing is to see whether that actress is keeping the fact in her mind all the time that she is acting before a camera and hence emotions have to be bit filmy.
It was nice to see Anup Kumar, Jagdeep also.
Will try some time to watch KK’s last directorial effort.
Thaks KCP for remembering a film that might not hold a great “filmi” value, but certainely a special one for all Kishore Kumar fans… I am sure not many of the readers of the article were aware of this film and tht it was produced and directed by their favourite Kishore Kumar..
For me “Mera Geet Adhoora Hai” itself can carry the film for years and ages… What a wonderful song and Kishore da was exceptional… Jeevan gaadi is another favorite with typical bangla folk flavor.. Some how I feel Amit Kumar’s performance was not exceptional.. He is much better behind the screens.. but thanks to him that the film could see the light and reach us all..
Pavan
kcp: thanks for reminding me of Mera Geet Adhoora Hai. Great song
KCP
I have not seen the film, but have seen snippets in the 80s and early 90s. This was Kishores dream project, something which he could not complete (Pyar Ajnabi Hai was one of those films which was more in an effort to court Leena ji) . The story is similar to many Bengali films of the 70s and 80s. I had expected Kishore to be more inspired by his favorite Westerns. The songs are good, but the timber which I normally associate with Kishores voice is missing; in effect, this is more on the heavy side, too much of bass and less of treble and melody. In admiring Kishore’s bass, we often miss the tenor in Kishore. His voice had amazing sharpness, and the effect can be seen even in the 80s , when his voice was somewhat lacking in punch, in the inflections used in songs like Mere Liye soona soona / Mausam pyar ka / Ishq mera bandagi hai , etc
Coming to the film, I would certainly like to see it. Shall check with some shops in Kolkata. Else, is there a site from where it can be bought?
Nice to see you Ani da on PFC. Yes indeed. It was his dream project. Kishore’s love for his mother was evident from his childhood. He could not bear with her separation and brought his parents to his house in the 50’s. But he did manage to complete the film before his death. It was just that it was lying in the cans with AK. The song “Jeevan Gaadi” was apt for the picturization. It required a very heavy voice. Mera Geet Adhura was quite melodious IMHO.
BTW you did not comment on the 4 AK songs/voice ? ;) especially the classical number.
I am very sure that it will be available in the big video/music shops like planetm, etc. While in Los Angeles (Little India) , I could see on the racks of a couple of stores too ( us time mein kaafi saare music stores bhi dekh daale ;) ) !
Thanks KCp ji for uploading these songs video but moserbear cutted the songs scene from film ” the line” When amitda going to city for his carrier in background kishoreda’s voice Har dil ki duayen tere saathchalegi” it was there in film mamta ki chaon mein it was released in the TIME companies Cd but not in moser bear’s CD..excellent upload KCp ji
Hello Debopriyo, this is not upload. This is embedding the video’s that are already on youtube ( facility provided by google/youtube )
I have uploaded only one song on youtube which is “embedded” above ( Toad ke bandhan saare )
Thanks for uploading these beautiful songs video. The movie is also good. If possible can upload movie clippings on this review please.
• Super Star Rajesh Khanna – The original phenomenon of Indian cinema
He is an unique mix of style and substance. Super Star Rajesh Khanna rewrote cinematic performance’s syntax, yet will be remembered as a peerless romantic hero forever. He has established himself as a most successful Superstar-Actor-both as a romantic hero and a most versatile serious actor, who can perform emotions and inner feelings with depth effortlessly. He ruled Bollywood like no one else before as well as after him. His class movies like Anand, Aradhna, Dushman, Haathi Mere Saathi, Amar Prem, Avataar, Prem Nagar, Amar Deep, Dard, Babu, Amrit, etc., etc., etc. got him a place of honour in Indian cinema’s hall of fame in such a manner that nobody can be matched with him in terms of balancing artistic and commercial aspects simultaneously.
Kishore Da & Amit Kumar starrer bollywood family drama “Mamta Ki Chhaon Mein” was released under the production of Kishore kumar in the year of 1990 while the movie is directed by Kishore Kumar and Amit Kumar themselves. The important characterization was done by the actors Super Star Rajesh Khanna, Amit Kumar, Leena Chandavarkar, Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar. The melodious music of the movie is and directed by great Kishore Kumar himself while the songs are sung by Amit Kumar, Jolly Mukherjee, Pankaj Udhas, Kishore Kumar, Bhushan Mehta, Sunil Indori and Leena. Super Star Rajesh Khanna as a cameo in this movie and it was a super hit movie of 1990.