छोड़ आकाश को

In Prabhat's 1932 talkie Maya Machhindra, the great musician-scholar Govindrao Tembe composed, wrote and sang 'Chhod Aakash Ko' — performing the role of Machhindranath, the guru himself trapped by maya. The song is a plea from the disciple Gorakh to his master, but in Tembe's interpretation it becomes an act of self-awakening. It remained among the best-known compositions to emerge from early Prabhat talkies.

Tembe's classical training in Kirana and Gwalior gharana infuses the composition; the bhairavi-tinged melody conveys the weight of a soul trapped in illusion.

Stage-Urdu, devotional and folk registers of the period's repertoire; texts survive unevenly.

The song carried over from the 1932 film into Marathi cultural memory; Tembe's rendering of it remained the standard against which later versions were measured.