I started this series on my Facebook group Yaad Kiya Dil Ne on 18 Aug 20. Since then, many other members have put up these songs. Here, I shall be giving you one of my own, per day.
This is the Song #14 in the series. I hope you liked Song #13 – Aaja sanam madhur chandni mein.
Song #14
Bhool sakta hai bhala kaun tumhaari aankhen
Beautiful Description of Eyes
There are many songs describing her and sometimes his eyes. One of the most beautiful was created by Majrooh Sultanpuri and Madan Mohan in the movie Chirag. The mukhada was used after Raj Khosla (the director) took permission to use this line from Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s famous nazm: Mujhase pehle si mohabbat mere mehboob na maang (made famous after Noorjehan sang it as a ghazal).
This song in Raag Jhinjhoti, Tal Dadra was covered by me as Song #96 in Raaga Based Songs of the Day.
Now lets come to the description of eyes that Shashi Kapoor had to express for Indrani Mukherjee’s eyes. Sahir Ludhianvi wrote it for him (Shashi Kapoor as Dilip Rai writes in the indigenous Indian language Urdu but is, in the movie, a Hindu fundamentalist who hates Muslims. This theme was a favourite theme with Yash Chopra who made his directorial debut with 1959 movie Dhool Ka Phool in which a Muslim (played by Manmohan Krishna) brings up an illegitimate Hindu child and sings to it: Na tu Hindu banega na Musalmaan banega, Insaan ki hai aulad tu insaan banega). Even that song was penned by Sahir and composed by N Dutta just as this one was.
Have a look at the excellent lyrics and see how Sahir related Raat and Chandni to her eyes:
भूल सकता है भला कौन ये प्यारी आँखें
रंग में डूबी हुई नींद से भारी आँखें
भूल सकता है भला कौन …
मेरी हर सोस ने हर सोच ने चाहा है तुम्हें
जब से देखा है तुम्हें तब से सराहा है तुम्हें
बस गई हैं मेरी आँखों में तुम्हारी आँखें
रंग में डूबी हुई नींद से भारी आँखें
भूल सकता है भला कौन …
तुम जो नज़रों को उठाओ तो सितारे झुक जायें
तुम जो पल्कों को झुकाओ तो ज़माने रुक जायें
क्यूँ न बन जायें इन आँखोन की पुजारी आँखेन
रंग में डूबी हुई नींद से भारी आँखें
भूल सकता है भला कौन …
जागती रातों को सपनों का खज़ाना मिल जाये
तुम जो मिल जाओ तो जीने क बहाना मिल जाये
अपनी क़िस्मत पे करे नाज़ हमारी आँखेन
भूल सकता है भला कौन ये प्यारी आँखें
रंग में डूबी हुई नींद से भारी आँखें
भूल सकता है भला कौन …
Mahendra Kapoor Singing for Shashi Kapoor
This movie, the 1961 movie Dharmaputra (based on the novel of the same name by Acharya Chatursen), was the debut movie of Shashi Kapoor as adult actor: he plays Dilip Rai. He sings this song to Indrani Mukherjee as Meena but is finally called upon to make peace with Mala Sinha as Husn Bano.
Shashi Kapoor often had Mohammad Rafi sing such nazms/ghazals for him (He was very cute in his black achkan singing Meri zindagi mein aate to kuchh aur baat hoti in the movie Kanyadan) but here he had Mahendra Kapoor sing for him. I would like to think that his velvety voice suited him in this song.
My Own Poetry
I like to write about eyes; these I consider as the windows to the world of Love and Imagination. Here is one of my own picked up at random:
Meri Zindagi Aapki Aankhon Tale
आपकी आँखों में मुझे वह झलक मिल जाती है,
ज़िन्दगी दफ़अतन और हसीन हो जाती है I
लोग देखते हैं प्यार दिलरुबा की आँखों में,
मुझे तो सारी कायनात नज़र आ जाती है I
ये आँखें नहीं हैं मेरी ज़िन्दगी की रहनुमा हैं,
ज़िन्दगी के मायने यकीनी मुझे समझाती हैं I
कई बार सोचता हूँ कह दूँ इनसे मैं दिल की बात,
क्या कहूं हया मेरी आंखों में छलक जाती है I
सबेरे का सूरज इनकी पलकें खुलने का इशारा है,
रात का अँधेरा पलक झुकने पे ले आती हैं I
ज़िन्दगी में लाखों ग़म इधर उधर बिखरे हों तो क्या,
ज़िन्दगी के सारे ग़म इनकी लौ भुलाती हैं I
मुझे अब इनके सिवा कुछ और न चाहिए, रवि,
जन्नत – ऐ – खुदा खुद बा खुद मिल जाती है I
Please enjoy: Bhool sakta hai bhala kaun tumhaari aankhen…
I hope you liked my choice of Song #14 in Raat or Din series.
Please await Song #15 – Dil ka haal sune dilwala.
We all want newness and hence, after having enjoyed Lata – Rafi duets during our entire life, we want to sound novel by liking other singers. However, we know that some of the best duets in Hindi movies were sung by them. Somewhere, in the layers of our memory these are lying dormant until someone like me re-evokes them. I had given you, on 07 Sep, for example, their Teri duniya se door chale hoke majboor and most of you agreed that that was a classic.
Vijay Bhatt did it once for the 1952 movie Baiju Bawra whose songs are still fondly remembered. He did it again in this movie that had the Bharat Ratna Bismillah Khan playing the Shehnai all throughout in the movie. The 1962 movie Himalaya Ki God Mein and 1965 movie Hariyali Aur Raasta are some other popular movies of his.
Goonj Uthi Shehnai’s story revolved around Rajendra Kumar as Kishan having learnt Shehnai on his own until Ulhas as Raghunath Maharaj hones his talent by taking him as a disciple when he was a boy. Raghunath’s daughter Ramkali (played by Anita Guha) adores him and dreams of becoming his wife. However, Kishan is so deeply in love with his childhood friend Gopi (played by Ameeta) that Rami (Ramkali) soon takes up the role of Kishan’s mother/sister to facilitate their love. Postman IS Johar as Kanhaiya is the fly in their ointment and gradually succeeds in separating the couple. In the end they die and only their souls meet.
This duo of Lyricist – Music Director have given us some memorable songs; eg, Aye malik tere bande hum in V Shantaram’s classic Do Aankhen Barha Haath. Certainly, some of those cherished songs are in this movie:
The melodious resolve by the lovers to live, love and die together has been brought out beautifully in the lyrics of Bharat Vyas and extraordinarily beautiful composition by Vasant Desai.
If Shailendra did magic in the Awaara song that I had put up on 16th: Dam bhar jo udhar moonh phere, Hasrat Jaipuri wrote this stunningly beautiful song for Chori Chori. Here is the natural succession: Raat leads to Chand, Chand leads to Love and Longing and Love and Longing lead to Hasrat Jaipuri.
The other day when I was attending a programme by Shankar Jaikishan Foundation, Ahmedabad, a dear friend remarked that my comments were about the singing prowess of the two female singers and nothing about Shankar Jaikishan. I was shocked. I promptly wrote: Sab kuchh unhin ka to hai!
They sang for Nargis and Raj Kapoor respectively and became part of the enchantment; the tune is easy and catchy and doesn’t require changing scales or pitches as you would find in, for example, Aji rooth kar ab kahan jayiyega.
She was nominated only once for the Filmfare Best Actress Award, ie, for her role in 18 years of her acting (not counting as child artiste) in Hindi movies, from 1947 Neel Kamal (also the debut movie of Raj Kapoor) until the 1964 Sharabi. However, she was so popular that even when she acted with Dilip Kumar (who she wanted to marry but for her father standing in their way), after the shots, people waited in queues just to get a glimpse of her. A complete movie industry depended upon her charms.
Bharat Bhushan, on the other hand, won the second Filmfare Best Actor Award in 1955 for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, having wrested it from Dilip Kumar who won the first one for 1954 Daag. However, Dilip Kumar wrested it right back next year for Azaad and denied the same to Bharat Bhushan for Mirza Ghalib.
Phagun was a Bhibhuti Mitra production and directed movie that also starred Jeevan, Kammo, Nishi, Cuckoo and Mehmood.
Qamar Jalalabadi penned this song. He also penned songs for Raj Kapoor starrer Chhalia including the popular Dam dam diga diga. His song Din hai suhaana aaj pehli tareek hai used to be broadcast from Radio Ceylone for a number of years on the first of every month. My dad used to hum a popular song of his: Jab raat nahin katati zindagi kaise kategi. He also penned the super hit: Jab tumhaari yaad aayegi sanam. My favourite of his is, however, from Shammi Kapoor’s 1966 movie Preet Na Jaane Reet: Main bewafa nahin hoon tere pyaar ki kasam. Indeed, I titled one of my poems: Main Bewafa Nahin Hoon.
His songs in Phagun were composed by OP Nayyar, the music director who has the record of having most hit/super-hit songs in his movies. Take Phagun’s songs for example:
This song is from the 1960 RK Rakhan movie Kalpana starring Padmini in the title role. Her sister’s name is the title of the movie and her other sister Ragini (Travancore Sisters) also acts in the movie.
Lyrics are by Kaifi Azmi who mastered the art of conveying complex emotions in the most laconic way. Take this stanza itself. He talks about beautiful night, beautiful moon and then adds that she is more beautiful than all these.
If one knows the story of Biswajeet being married initially to his licentious wife and then marrying Waheeda Rehman after the first wife disappears; and Waheeda Rehman staying in the shadow and fear of the first wife, the lyrics would obtain even greater meaning. One wonders how Kaifi Azmi packed such tremendous meaning into those few words.
His voice is the voice of God, as seen by some. His voice is the means of transportation, the quickest way, of us into the world of the song. This happens to be one of his best on his own composition. You don’t even have to see the movie; merely by listening to him you can imagine the complete scene.
It was a Rajshri Production (such as Hum Aapke Hain Kaun), produced by Tarachand Barjatya and directed by Phani Majumdar. The movie starred Pradeep Kumar, Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari and Shashikala, the complete cast that was repeated in Bheegi Raat with another great song: Dil jo na keh saka wohi raaz-e-dil kehne ki raat aayi.
All very good songs. Kidar Sharma is the one who gave a break to Roshan in the 1949 movie Neki Aur Badi. After the next movie, the 1950 movie Bawre Nain, there was no looking back for Roshan.
Laxmikant Pyarelal started off with 1963 movie Parasmani and they made such popular songs for their very first movie that these are fondly remembered even today:
Asad Bhopali, the lyricist of this song was born as Asadullah Khan on 10 Jul 1921 in Bhopal.
Here is what Wordsworth had to write about it in ‘Three Years She Grew By’:
She was born on this day in 1973. She was crowned Miss World 1994 in a pageant that crowned Sushmita Sen as Miss Universe.
It was produced and directed by Subhash Ghai and starred , in addition to her, Anil Kapoor, Akshay Khnaa, Amrish Puri and Alok Nath.
Five years ago, I wrote an essay about the treatment of women in Bengal based movies: ‘
The Sitar maestro (unquestionably, the best in the world) composed five songs for this movie; the first mainstream Hindi movie for which he was the Music Director. Each one is a classic (and suitable for the Raat or Din theme):
It has become fashionable for people to bring out that such and such female singer is better than Lata. I maintain that she always delivered to the expectations of her music directors, however difficult a composition may have been. I maintain that she is the best. If a singer has stayed with you for over six decades, naturally you may have some song or the other that proves your point!
The next was on 28th Sep when a movie on young love titled Bobby was released. It changed many things. It actually changed the way we looked at movies. For once, the lead actors really looked of college going age rather than what we had to make do with so far, eg, Rajendra Kumar being a college boy in Dhool Ka Phool in his thirties (the duet being Tere pyar ka aasra chahta hoon). Of course, Mala Sinha was seven years younger but she always had that quality of not looking like a girl.
Both Anand Bakshi and Laxmikant Pyarelal pioneered this movement.
In the same 1966 Raj Khosla movie Mera Saaya, a song he wrote in Raag Bhimpalasi was adored by the singer Lata Mahgeshkar as one of the best in raaga songs composed by her “Madan bhaiya”.
