Posted by: Atul on: February 7, 2009
R D Burman was an assistant to his father S D Burman for several years before he caught the eye of Mahmood who decided to give him his first break as an independent music director.
As can be expected, Pancham ( as R D Burman was known) was very enthusiastic about this opportunity. He wanted to have his first song recorded by Lata. But S D Burman had a strained relationship with Lata, and he was not using her voice (like O P Nayyar) for his movies for several years.
In order that he may be able to use Lata’s voice for his debut song, Pancham brokered a peace deal between Lata and S D Burman. After that S D Burman began to use Lata’s voice in his music again.
And just what was the song for which all this peace process was initiated ? This song was “ghar aaja ghir aaye badra” which marked R D Burman’s arrival as a music director.
The lyricist for this movie was Shailendra.
This song is a quiz master’s delight. For instance, what is the raag this song is based on ? For most songs, reply like Malkauns, Darbari, Bhairavi etc would do the trick. But not this song. It is not one of the usual raags that most Bollywood songs are based on. This song is based on a lesser known Raag called Raag Malgunji.
I thought that this song was picturised on a lady willing her husband to come back home. But it turns out that the song is picturised on a courtesan who sings this song to her clients viz Mahmood while his wife waits for him in their home.
Honestly, I think this song should have been picturised on the housewife (played by Ameeta) instead of the courtesan (played by Shiela Vaz).
Well, nothing can detract from the quality of this landmark song. Le us all remember this as the song that gave us R D Burman, the music director.
Song-ghar aaja ghir aaye badra (Chhote Nawab) (1963) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Shailendra, MD-R D Burman
Lyrics
ghar aaja ghir aaye badra saanwariya
ghar aaja ghir aaye badra saanwariya
mora jiya dhak dhak re chamke bijuriya
ghar aaja ghir aaye
soona soona ghar mohe dasne ko aaye re
soona soona ghar mohe dasne ko aaye re
khidki pe baithe baithe padi rain jaaye re
thak tik sunat main to bhayi re baawariya
ghar aaja ghir aaye
kas mas jiyara kasak mori dooni re
kas mas jiyara kasak mori dooni re
pyaasi pyaasi ankhiyon ki galiyaan hain sooni re
jaane mohe laagi kis bairan ki nazariya
ghar aaja ghir aaye badra saanwariya
mora jiya dhak dhak re chamke bijuriya
ghar aaja ghir aaye
wonderful song
This is a wondeful song well written by Shailendraji,soulfully sung by Lataji with a melodious tune by Panchamda. With this song Panchamda proved that he is worthy son of great Sachin Dev Burman
Very true, though some people believe that it was father who helped his son.
[...] of his, R D Burman came up with some lovely compositions. I have already posted two such songs, viz Ghar aaja ghir aaye badra saanwariya and Matwaali aankhon [...]
There is a story behind this song. Impressed by R D Burman’s work in assisting S D Burman in PYASAA (1957), Guru Dutt signed the 19-year old Rahul Dev Burman to composed music for his new film titled RAAZ. R D Burman composed few tunes of which one of them was recorded in the voice of Hemant Kumar-Geeta Dutt ( I will not discuss about this song as it is irrelevant here). However, the film was shelved as Guru Dutt lost interest probably after the debacle of KAGAZ KE PHOOL. One of the other tunes composed for RAAZ was later used in CHHOTE NAWAB as ‘Ghar aaja ghir aaye’.
[Source : R D Burman - The Man, The Music by Anirudha Bhattacharjee & Balaji Vittal]
Exceptional composition!!!
September 13, 2009 at 1:48 am
First is always the best despite thousands following the first one. For Shankar Jaikishan, it was “Jiya beqarar hai” that remained their best. For RDB, it’s this one.