अंधकार है मेरे चारों ओर

One of the five Amrapali (1945) songs for which the catalogues preserve a title and Saraswati Devi's composer credit but no singer. The title states a condition rather than an event — andhakar hai mere charon ore, 'there is darkness all around me' — the opening move of the tamas-to-light prayer that runs from the Upanishadic formula through the bhakti poets into film song.

No recording is available and the catalogues give only the composer credit, so the musical description here is limited to what the form implies: a lyric of this kind in mid-1940s Bombay was almost invariably set slow, low in the singer's range and sparely accompanied, with the melodic line kept narrow so the words carry. Saraswati Devi's practice across this score is consistent with that.

Andhakar is the Sanskritic word, not the everyday andhera, and choosing it lifts the line out of ordinary complaint into the vocabulary of prayer. Charon ore — on all four sides — makes the darkness total rather than directional, which is what distinguishes a spiritual crisis from a sad mood. Beyond that the documentation does not go, and nothing further is asserted here.

Amrapali (1945) was directed by Nandlal Jaswantlal for Murli Movietone and drew on the legend of Amrapali of Vaishali, the celebrated nagarvadhu of the Licchavi republic who, in the traditional account, renounced her position and gave her mango grove and fortune to the Buddha's order. Sabita Devi, Prem Adib, Jeevan, Arun, Jagdish Sethi, Badri Prasad, Gulab and Sankatha Prasad are the documented cast. Saraswati Devi composed eleven songs for the picture to lyrics by Kavi Pradeep — one of the few soundtracks she wrote after leaving Bombay Talkies.

No reception history is documented for this song and none is claimed. It is listed here to keep Amrapali's soundtrack complete at its documented eleven titles.