Beautiful Duet Series
I started this series on my Facebook group Yaad Kiya Dil Ne on 23 Aug 20. Since then, many other members have put up these songs. Here, I shall be giving you one of my own, per day.
Last time, I gave you Beautiful Duet #18 – Kajra mohabbat wala. So here, then, is the next one:
Song #19
O raat ke musaffir chanda zara bata de
Remembering Rajinder Krishan on His Death Anniversary 23 Sep
I have already given you a Raat song penned by this great lyricist. This one is a Raat, Chanda song as well as a beautiful duet. Please appreciate the lyrics penned by him:
ओ रात के मुसाफ़िर चन्दा ज़रा बता दे मेरा क़ुसूर क्या है, तू फ़ैसला सुना दे है भूल कोई दिल की आँखों की या ख़ता है कुछ भी नहीं तो फिर क्यों मुझसे कोई खफ़ा है मंज़ूर है वो मुझको जो कुछ भी तू सज़ा दे मेरा क़ुसूर क्या है ... दिल पे किसी को अपने क़ाबू नहीं रहा है ये राज़ मेरे दिल से आँखों ने ही कहा है आँखों ने जो है देखा दिल किस तरह भुला दे मेरा क़ुसूर क्या है ... ओ चाँद आसमां के, दम भर ज़मीं पे आजा भूला हुआ है राही, तू रास्ता दिखा जा भटकी हुई है नैया साहिल इसे दिखा दे मेरा क़ुसूर क्या है ...
This is the third beautiful Raat and Chand song as a Beautiful Duet, put up by me after Dum bhar jo udhar moonh phere from Awaara and Aaja sanam madhur chandni mein hum tum from 1956 movie Chori Chori.
One can safely conclude that Raat and Chand feature quite frequently in beautiful duets sung by lovers; sooner or later we shall also have Ye raatein ye mausam nadi ka kinara ye chanchal hawa.
Rajinder Krishan and Hemant Kumar
They made a very popular pair of Lyricist and Music Director. Their 1954 movie Nagin is their most talked about association; each song is still talked about as if it was yesterday.
In 1957 LV Prasad movie and AVM Production: Miss Mary, they made some really memorable songs, eg,
- Brindavan ka Krishna Kanhaiya.
- Ye mard bade dilsard.
- Sakhi ri sun bole papiha us paar.
Incidentally, their song from another 1957 movie together: Champakali: Chhup gaya koi re door se pukaar ke is a favourite of mine. It was picturised on Suchitra Sen.
This one is picturised on Gemini Ganesan and Meena Kumari. They have a working relationship since the family who wants to hire their services as teachers prefer a married couple and they accept the situation since they were out of job anyway. Little did they know that they would finally be in love too as you can see from this song. Meena Kumari, known as tragedy queen, was in a rare comic role in this movie.
Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar Again
As I have said any number of times, some of the finest duets in the Hindi movies were sung by them. This duet has the standard format: He sings one stanza, she sings the next one and then they sing one together. Dil ki nazar se is in this format but sung by Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar.
Please enjoy: O raat ke mussafir chanda zara bata de…
I hope you liked my choice of Beautiful Duet #19.
Please await Beautiful Duet #20- Ye khamoshiyan ye tanhayiyan.
It happened in this song and the movie Aadmi. Yesterday, on Chitragupta’s Birth Anniversary, I gave you a song in Beautiful Duet Series: Chand jaane kahan kho gaya. It was, I mentioned, for the 1962 A Bhimsingh movie Main Chup Rahungi. I had given you a list of movies directed by A Bhimsingh and mentioned that Aadmi of the year 1968 was one of them.
So fond he was of his guru Mohammad Rafi that one day, as related by Annu Kapoor on Mastii channel in a late night show, he was being felicitated on stage for his singing skills. He noticed the son of Mohammad Rafi, his guru, sitting in the audience. He called him on stage, touched his feet, garlanded him and said, “How can I be felicitated in a function that has the presence of the son of my guru?”
Everyone knows the legend of Sohni Mehiwal, a tragic romance of Punjab and I am not going to repeat it. On this night when Mahendra Kapoor sang this iconic song, she was to take the journey across the river on her clay pitcher that she used every night to meet Mehiwal, her lover. Sohni’s sister-in-law had already discovered the place where Sohni kept the pitcher and replaced it with a kuchcha one so that the love affair would be over once and for all. Sohni undertook the journey and drowned. Mehiwal saw her drowning and jumped into the river himself to save her. The river was in spate and he drowned too and united with her in death.
This particular incident is so popular in folk-lore that Shobha Singh of Andretta made his famous painting Sohni Mehiwal (now in Chandigarh Art Museuam). I have a copy of it in Whispering Winds, Kandaghat.
Shakeel Badayuni wrote about Love only (others were all part of Progressive Writers Movement and had Communist leanings) and he seems to have put in his best in this. His mentor Naushad has composed it so well. It was to be high pitch throughout and Naushad must have felt that Mahendra Kapoor’s voice was better suited for it. And indeed it was. Here are the lyrics:
Some of the Hindi movies’ best duets and other songs were composed by him. His songs always ensured the success of movies such as Kashmir Ki Kali and Phir Wohi Dil Laaya Hoon and Phagun.
So, lets take the case of Shahjehan who erected Taj Mahal for Mumtaz. In 1607 he was engaged to Anjuman Banu Begum who was later to become Mumtaz Mahal (Chosen one of the Palace). They were only 14 years old when they got engaged and waited five years to get married. So, during this wait Shahjehan married Khandari Begum and got his first daughter through her. Before Mumtaz died, Shajehan married another eight women. So, it was nowhere near single minded devotion depicted poetically.
The song is from the 1965 Kalidas movie Bheegi Raat (Imagine having the theme-word in the title itself), which was a remake of the Hollywood movie An Affair To Remember.
Majrooh was the reluctant lyricist (he never wanted to become one until Jigar Moradabadi coaxed him to). However, in his very first movie Shahenshah, in which AR Kardar and Naushad gave him a break, he came up with such memorable songs that the hero KL Saigal wanted one of these to be sung on his funeral (Jab dil hi toot gaya). No wonder that he became the first lyricist to be conferred with the highest award: Dadasaheb Phalke Award. He became a natural lyricist.
Here he is with RD Burman, the genius music director who gave us some memorable songs in various genre’s including Qawwali in Raag Kalawati in Hum Kisise Kam Nahin, serious songs in Aandhi, and pop songs that he mastered. This duet owes to him to come up with a tune that is still on everyone’s lips nearly five decades after the movie.
This was overwhelmingly voted as the Best Children’s Song in a poll in 2015. To imagine that the song occurred in the 1961 movie Gunga Jumna! Fifty four years later, it was still voted as the best! That says a lot about this song.
On one hand, Rajhath was all about Shams Lucknowi’s interesting story. On the other hand, in order to carry the story forward, Shankar Jaikishan composed some really memorable songs. The two songs that I mentioned are the best of the movie.
Here, Mukesh and Lata both have sung it well and have proved that they were great duet singers. Chand as a witness was a common theme for lovers and they confided in Chand whilst talking about their Love.
What is it about Shankar Jaikishan that doesn’t let a day go by when we don’t think of their remarkably beautiful music? The fact is that we can go on and on and still not do full justice to their mastery.
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.
