Zindagi or Jeevan Songs Series
I started this series on my Facebook group Yaad Kiya Dil Ne on 18 Oct 20. Since then, many other members have put up these songs. Here, I shall be giving you one of my own, per day.
I hope you liked my choice for Song #25 – Tere naam ka deewana in Zindagi or Jeevan Songs series. Let’s start with Song #26.
Song #26
Ae jaate hue lamho zara thehro
Theme-word: Mujhako hai zindagi ki kasam
Waqt Hai Ke rukta Nahin
Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny was one of the earlier navy novels that I read (such books and movies were responsible for my decision to join the Indian Navy) had this beautiful quote: “Wasted hours are just as painful in the beginning as in the end; only, in the end, it is more obvious.”
So, if most of you look back at this year much later, it would become obvious why we want to shut down this group, which, in its concept, is the best of Music/Songs groups on Facebook.
We let the grains of sand pass through our fingers and do nothing except to share shibboleths that the group is important to us.
Border – 1997 Film
Films regarding patriotism and valour of the armed forces makes the makers laugh all the way to the bank. Being a member of the armed forces, seeing some of them, I too get carried away that perhaps they really feel for the brave jawans. Far from it.
JP Dutta was no different. He made this film about the Battle of Longewala in the 1971 Indo-Pak War and had all the lements that Chetan Anand had about the Indo-China War of 1962″ Haqeeqat. This included even songs. For example, if Haqeeqat had a song about (not) getting mail from home, viz, Main ye soch kar uske dar se utha tha, Border followed suit and had its own: Sandeshe aate hain.
Naturally, desh prem theme is so strong that the movie won Best Film and Direction awards for JP Dutta both at the National and Filmfare levels besides various other awards.
Clichés
One of the clichés for war time movies is that on the honeymoon night (the focus of Hindi movies is always love) a telegram is received calling him to border. Somehow, wherever the loving couple is, the men from his unit find him to deliver the telegram (thank God that the Indian Postal authorities have now done away with the telegram and Hindi film makers will have to find some other way of appearing the poor guy consummating his wedding).
This cliché in Border is about Sunil Shetty as Bhairon Singh Shekhawat enjoying his honeymoon with his wife Phool Kanwar (Sharbani Mukherjee) when this wretched telegram is received. He is in a hurry to join duty. However, Jawed Akhtar, Anu Malik and Roop Kumar Rathod think they have enough time to squeeze in an emotional song (people who are watching the films often have to be egged along the right emotions!) And hence, this song.
Nevertheless, since it is the job of the movie makers to make such songs, they become good at it and even this is a fine and memorable song.
Lyrics
ऐ जाते हुए लम्हों ज़रा ठहरो ज़रा ठहरो
मैं भी तो चलता हूँ ज़रा उनसे मिलता हूँ
जो एक बात दिल में है उनसे कहूं
तो चलूं तो चलूं हूं हूं हूं हूं
ऐ जाते हुए लम्हों …
ज़रा ठहरो ज़रा ठहरो
उनके चेहरे की ये नरमियां
उनकी ज़ुल्फ़ों की ये बदलियां
उनकी आँखों के रोशन दिये
उनके होंठों की ये सुर्खियां
सब उनके हैं जलवे मैं चलने से पहले
साँसों में आँखों में ख्वाबों में यादों में
और इस दिल में तुमको छुपा के रखूं
तो चलूं तो चलूं …
मैं कहीं भी रहूं ऐ सनम
मुझको है ज़िंदगी की कसम
फ़ासले आते जाते रहे
प्यार लेकिन नहीं होगा कम
जिन्हें चाहूं जिन्हें पूजूं
उन्हें देखूं उन्हें छू लूं
ज़रा बातें तो कर लूं
ज़रा बाहों में भर लूं
मैं इस चाँद से माथे को चूम लूं
तो चलूं तो चलूं …
My Own Poetry
Chalo Intezaar Karte Hain
तू भी देखना एक ऐसा भी दिन आएगा,
आंसुओं से मेरे तेरा दिल पिघल जाएगा
मेरी ना श से तुझे कोई शिक्वा ना होगा
तेरे दिन तो क्या जहान संवर जाएगा
प्यार और इश्क़ मुझे करना ही ना था
घुट घुट रोज़ मुझे मरना ही ना था
अब सोचता हूँ क्यों चला गया वहां
तेरी राहों से मुझे गुज़रना ही ना था
सोचा था ज़िन्दगी का हमसफ़र मिला है
मेरी तनहा रातों का सहर मिला है
हम जिसे पीते रहे दवा जान के, ऐ दिल,
अब पता चला के ज़हर मिला है
खैर ग़म- ऐ-इश्क़ की कोई तो होगी मंज़िल
यह बेवफा निकली, यह हर वक़्त रही संगदिल
यह ज़िन्दगी तो रो रोके गुज़ार दी हमने
आने वाली ज़िन्दगी शायद ना हो मुश्किल
चलो इंतजार करते है! चलो इंतज़ार करते हैं!
ठोकर खा चुके हैं फिर भी प्यार करते हैं
तेरे वादे पे तो तमाम उम्र गुज़र गयी लेकिन
हम अब मौत की वफ़ा का ऐतबार करते हैं|
The Song
Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy: Ae jaate hue lamho zara thehro…
I hope you enjoyed my choice for Song #26 in the series.
Please await Song #27 – O palanhare, nirgun aur nyare.
So strong was the bonding between Shankar Singh Raghuwanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal that they were never addressed singly; they were always known as Shankar Jaikishan. Jaikishan was seven years younger to Shankar and died 16 years earlier and yet the Music Director’s name continued being Shankar Jaikishan.
Raag Shivaranjani is a Raag that belongs to Kafi Thaat. The mood of the raag is Karuna Rasa (pathos) that suited both Shakeel and Ravi very well. However, the MDs who had this as their favourite (both of them as opposed to Bhairavi that was favourite of Jaikishan only) were Shankar Jaikishan. Some of their popular numbers in this Raag are: Awaaz deke hamen tum bulao, Baharon phool barsao, Dil ke jharokhe mein tujhako bithakar, Jaane kahan gaye woh din, and O mere sanam.
The main thing is Karuna ras. It is, as seen by me, the best song of the 1964 Raj Kapoor movie Sangam that portrayed a Love Traingle between Rajendra Kumar, Vyjaynthimala and Raj Kapoor. She used to love Rajendra Kumar and vice versa. However, Raj Kapoor swept her off her feet and so compulsive and obsessive was his love (Bol Radha bol sangam hoga ke nahin? and O mehbooba) that she married him.
Hats off to Raj Kapoor for having made a movie wherein, like Bimal Roy’s Madhumati, Vyjayanthimala is the main protagonist of the movie. Here, in the end, she rues being tossed about between the two bosom pals: Rajendra Kumar and Raj Kapoor.
I could have given this song also in the Beautiful Duets series but that’s not my style. Lata sang for Vyjanthimala and Mukesh has always been the singing voice of Raj Kapoor in his movies.
Santosh Anand started his career as Lyricist with Purab Aur Paschim in the year 1970. That movie was, of course, produced and directed by Manoj Kumar. This song of the 1972 movie Shor, also produced and directed by Manoj Kumar, has been his most popular song. It was composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal and made full use of violin, the first instrument that Pyarelal learnt from his Goan guru Antony Gonsalves (Pyarelal paid him tribute by having a song on him in Amar Akbar Antony). Santosh Anand received two Filmfare Awards since then: the 1974 one for Roti Kapada Aur Makaan song Main na bhoolunga and 1982 one for Prem Rog song Mohabbat hai kya cheez.
Both the songs for which he received Filmfare Awards were composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal.
Door Ka Rahi that he made seven years later, in 1971, was also written, produced and directed by him, starred him and his son Amit (besides his elder brother Ashok Kumar and his daughter in the movie Tanuja). He was also the music director of the movie and composed and sang most of the songs:
They paired together in a record 302 movies. One would thing that quantity was at the expense of quality. Amazingly, they continued having quality and popularity of their songs. They came together for the 1964 movie Mr X In Bombay with that great Kishore Kumar song: Mere mehboob qayamat hogi. Their last movie together was the 1992 movie Aashiq Awara. In these 29 years, Anand Bakshi wrote 1680 songs for them. That makes it nearly 58 songs per year and nearly 5 songs per month!
Mohammad Rafi sang some really beautiful songs for Laxmikant Pyarelal starting with their first movie together: Parasmani (Woh jab yaad aaye bahut yaad aaye) and followed by Dosti (Chahunga main tujhe saanjh savere.
This song is from the 1970 S Sukhdev movie My Love starring Shashi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore. It was penned by Anand Bakshi, composed by Daan Singh, sung by Mukesh and enacted by Shashi and Sharmila.
Daan Singh was born five years after Hasrat in Jaipur. He was from a musical family; his father was a Khayal singer. He was trained by no less a musician as Khemchand Prakash. And yet except for this movie songs and a handful of other movies, he never emerged big. This movie was his pinnacle with this song and Woh tere pyar ka gham.
These songs are the genre’ of Mukesh and yet I feel he didn’t give his best in this; it somehow falls short of his usual sterling singing.
This is the main song of the 1961 Ramesh Sehgal movie Shola Aur Shabnam starring Dharmendra, Tarla Mehta and M Rajan as a triangle. Dharmendra and Tarla were childhood lovers. Dharmendra plays Ravi in the movie! Tarla is Sandhya (By herself, absence of Ravi or Sun). They separate.
She died at the age of 35 years only. She had acted in about 70 movies in about ten years of her career as heroine that started with the 1946 (she was 16 years old then) movie Badnaami.
This was one of her best roles and the movie has got the most beautiful song of Sahir Ludhianvi on the composition of SD Burman in Raag Kafi: Ye raat ye chandni phir kahan.
Finally, now with the Best Lyricist: Shakeel Badayuni and that also from Dilip Kumar’s own production Gunga Jumna that set a new standard for the hero. Many have copied this role of Dilip Kumar; one of them being Amitabh Bachchan by his own admission.


SBG, most of you already know, went one step further. It made relationships stand on their head; as per SBG, the only correct relationship is that of Love (since Radha was not even married to Krishna in the worldly sense). Her devotion for Him ensures that Her name is taken even before His; you always call them Radhe Krishan and never Krishan Radhe!
The movie was directed by A Bhimsingh who directed predominantly Tamil movies especially for AVM Productions. This movie was remake of Tamil movie Bhaaga Privinai starring Sivaji Ganesan.
Of course, Ravi composed this song so well that as soon as it was played people wanted to listen to it again and again. Lata’s singing is simply beautiful.
Dev Anand always had beautiful chemistry with his heroines. Here in this movie Bambai Ka Babu he is with Suchitra Sen. He loves her but, since he has accepted to feign as the lost son of a rich man, she happens to be his sister!
SD Burman composed many songs that appeared to be in raaga but came very close to the raagas only.
This was a 1960 movie; three years after Sahir broke up with SD Burman and hence Majrooh was very much in the saddle
However, in this song, Nida Fazli and the gentlest of composers Khayyam, have made it look like that it is sad and soulful.
The other day (22 Nov to be exact) whilst giving you a song: Beqraar karke hamen youn na jayiye (Zindagi ki raahen ajeeb hain) in this series, I had brought out how well Hemant Kumar sang on his compositions. Beqraar karke is one. Jab jaag uthe armaan is another. These are both penned by Shakeel. However, even with Kaifi Azmi, he created similar magic, eg, Ye nayan dare dare.
You have to give it to Kaifi for one unique attribute he had, which is, that he was able to bring out the strongest emotions through minimum words. Take Ye nayan dare dare, for example:
It was a Pinaki Bhushan Mukherjee movie and hence he took Anil Chatterjee as a hero as merchant navy officer Shankar Choudhry. One night whilst returning home from club he brings home an injured man Shekhar (Jagdev) to be seen by his dad, a doctor. He also informs Neela his sister who falls in love with this man. When Shekhar recovers, Shankar notices a change in his sister Neela. And then Shekhar is shot and the story becomes a murder mystery.

The song that I have selected for you is from the 1963 RK Rakhaan movie Meri Surat Teri Aankhen starring Ashok Kumar as Pyare, an ugly son born to Ishwarlal as Raj Kumar and Achla Sachdev as his wife Kamla Kumar. Because he was dark and ugly at birth, Ishwarlal decided to get rid of him to Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi as Rahmat and Paro as his wife. He grows up in seclusion and Rahmat teaches him classical based singing. His voice is as beautiful as physically he is not. In later life he comes in touch with his parents, his brother Pradeep Kumar as Sudhir who is betrothed to Asha Parekh as Kavita, the woman that Pyare feels is in love with him despite his ugliness.
He was the reluctant lyricist. He was the son of a police officer in Sultanpur in UP. He was a poet but instigated into writing lyrics for Hindi films (now bastardadised as Bollywood) songs by Jigar Moradabadi.
From the royal family of Tripura, Sachin Dev Burman not only gave us remarkably beautiful compositions and music but also gave us a son who became as much, if not more, of a genius as he became: Rahul Dev Burman.
People still regard 1973 movie Abhimaan as their best SD Burman got the Filmfare Award for it). Have a look at the songs they created: