The original "Dhan Te Nan" (Gubbare) version

In an earlier interview (also posted on this blog before by Abhishek), Vishal had mentioned that "Dhan Te Nan" was reworked from an episode of the same name dfor "Gubbare" (Zee TV, 90s). The episode was one of the early directorial forays by Vishal and by most accounts was quite badly made :-). The video of the opening has surfaced now (Gaurav & Salil pointed to it), and features some bad choreography, a rocking train, and an even more juvenile Sharman Joshi.

Quoting from the interview:

“Dhan te nan was not designed specially for Kaminey. I had first used it in a telefilm called Dhan Te Nan. I had used that catchphrase and the tune in that telefilm.

Dhan te nan is a phrase that belongs to our film and music culture. For us Indians cinema is the biggest cultural entity. We often borrow illustrations and speech patterns from our films. Dhan te nan is used during bedtime stories for dramatic effect.

Whenever I used to tell mey son Aasman stories I’d go ‘Dhan te nan’ to create drama. This phrase remained with me.”

I have always wondered how Vishal's baby steps in film making would have been. Here's an example. Thankfully, he's become much better :-)

Here's the video (sung by Suresh Wadkar & Roop Kumar Rathod, and humming by Rekha Bhardwaj):

The story behind Dhan Te Nan

Dhan Te Nan (roughly translated in Marathi as Wealth is Flatbread) is definitely the best track for me in the album. Have heard all other tracks just once and none of them have really hit home (Marathi - मनात घर करणे).

Vishal provides insight about how the track came to being

“Dhan te nan was not especially designed for Kaminey. I had first used the catch phrase and tune in a telefilm also titled Dhan te nan in 1998. It is a phrase that belongs to our film and music culture. For us Indians, cinema is the biggest cultural entity. We often borrow illustrations and speech patterns from our films. Dhan te nan is used during bedtime stories for dramatic effect. Whenever I used to tell my son, Aasman, stories, I’d go ‘Dhan te nan’ to create drama. The phrase remained with me.”

For a listen, the track is here. (see JR's post for full track listings). ऐका