Jhilmil Sitaron Ka Aangan Hoga

Jeevan Mrityu (1970), directed by Satyen Bose, is the story of Ashok (Dharmendra) who is falsely implicated for stealing money from a bank. He is sentenced to prison for a few years. After his release from prison, he learns that his own colleagues were the ones who conspired against him to send him to jail. Before his implication, Ashok was supposed to marry Deepa (Rakhee). He finds out that even Deepa left him and married someone else. He gets a new identity with the help of a good Samaritan and seeks revenge for the injustice done to him. The film's story is inspired by Alexander Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo and is the remake of a Bengali film with the same title. One of the film's songs Jhilmil Sitaron Ka Aangan Hoga became quite popular. It is sung beautifully by Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. In addition, the song is wonderfully choreographed.

Jhilmil Sitaron Ka Aangan Hoga is a dream sequence which appears when Deepa asks Ashok about how he sees their future as a couple. The song opens with Ashok making a small house with sand near the sea. His sand house is surrounded by a garden with a rivulet flowing by that has a boat as well. Deepa walks with a watering can and puts some water on Ashok. He, then, keeps small figurines of a man and a woman representing the two of them inside his sand house. This is their dream house in which both of them will live together as a married couple. We then move forward and see them in this dream home. Ashok is sleeping and Deepa brings tea from him. In a lovely moment, she goes near the mirror and tries to clean the smudge of her red bindi. This moment is pointing to sexual intercourse between them as the smudging of bindi has often been used to depict the same in films. They are a married couple and it is natural that sex is part of their marital bliss. They are happy together and enjoying every bit of it. Jhilmil sitaron ka aangan hoga, rimjhim barasta sawan hoga, aisa sunder sapna apna jevan hoga. There will be shining stars over a courtyard; there will be the season of rain; their life will be like a beautiful dream. 

They are, then, in a garden like the one that their sand house also had. The garden has the same umbrellas that were there when they were near the sea side, just that they are larger. Prem ki gali mein ek chhota sa ghar banayenge, kaliyaan na mile na sahi kaaton se sajayenge, bagiya se sunder woh ban hoga. They will make a small house in the street of love. If they don't get flower buds, it doesn't matter; they will adorn it with thorns and make it more beautiful. If they don't find happiness, they will still be together in difficulties (thorns) and make the most of their time. 

Then, the song goes back to the dream house. Ashok is going to work and Deepa gives him a lunchbox. He says goodbye to her and runs into a cow. In an earlier moment in the film, Deepa had mentioned to him that she wants to have her own school. If he goes to the office, she also wants to do something. She will teach school kids. We, actually, see in the song that she is also doing what she wanted. She is teaching a bunch of school children. In this dream world of theirs, her work also finds a place. Her dreams are as important as his.

What is also noteworthy about the song is that it tries to maintain continuity when there is a change of a scene. This happens almost in all scene changes in the song. For instance, early in one scene in the song, Ashok starts kissing Deepa in the bedroom, and when there is a change of scene from their bedroom to the garden, Ashok and Deepa are still kissing as if continuing the same act from before. This happens, again, when Deepa is running behind Ashok as a school teacher, and when the next scene appears in the garden, she is still running after him just like in the scene before. It becomes clearer when one actually sees the song. 

Phir to mast hawaon ke hum jhonke ban jayenge, naina sunder sapnon ke jharonkhe ban jayenge. Man aashaon ka darpan hoga. They say that they will become the gust of wind; they will become the eyes of a beautiful dream; the heart will become the mirror of desires. Perhaps, these lines are hinting at their eventual death. As we saw that there was a boat near the sand house in earlier scenes, a real boat comes up. Deepa and Ashok sit in the boat. Again, it is not only Ashok who rows the boat but Deepa, too. This boat is a symbol of the life itself, where they both are traveling together, each playing his/her part to move it forward. It is a symbol for their marital journey where they are the two travelers. As the film's title says, Jeevan Mrityu, they will be together in this boat of life till they reach the sunset. But as it happens, this is only a dream made of sand castles. Reality had different plans for Deepa and Ashok. 

Song: Jhilmil Sitaron Ka Aangan Hoga 

Movie: Jeevan Mrityu (1970) 

Singers: Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar 

Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal 

Lyrics: Anand Bakshi 

Cast: Dharmendra, Raakhee 

Director: Satyen Bose

Dialogue of the Day:

"Phir to mast hawaon ke hum jhonke ban jayenge, naina sunder sapnon ke jharonkhe ban jayenge. Man aashaon ka darpan hoga."

―Ashok and Deepa, Jeevan Mrityu