Ro ro beeta jeewan saara
Posted on: December 30, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Recently, I came across a non-filmy song on the internet, sung by Talat Mehmood which happened to be his first disc cut in 1941 for HMV. The mukhda of the song was
sab din ek samaan nahin thha
ban jaaunga kyaa se kyaa main
iskaa to kuchh dhyaan nahin thha
How apt was the wordings of Talat Mehmood’s first recorded song. After the release of his non filmy song tasveer teri dil mera behla na sakegi in 1944 which became a super hit with more than one lakh of discs sold within a few days of the release, there was no looking back for him. This song brought him to the notice of Bombay based producers and music directors. Anil Biswas encouraged him to shift to Bombay which he eventually did in 1949. At a private mehfil in Anil Biswas house, his friends from the film industry were thrilled to hear the ghazals sang by Talat Mehmood. That reinforced Anil Biswas’s faith in him and he gave him his first break in the film ‘Aarzoo’ (1950) in which, he gave playback for Dilip Kumar in the song ae dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal . The song became a super hit prompting other producers and music directors to use Talat Mehmood’s voice for lead actors like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand etc. He became the most sought after playback singers for other music directors like C Ramchandra, S D Burman, Sajjad Hussain, Roshan, Shankar Jaikisan, Madan Mohan, Khaiyyam etc.
Noting the popularity of his songs, some of the producers encouraged him to become an actor-singer in early 50s. For Talat Mehmood, it was not a new experience as an actor. In the late 40s, he had acted in three films, produced under the banner of New Theaters –‘Rajlaxmi’ (1945),’Tum Aur Main’ (1947) and ‘Sampati’ (1949). But these films had been box office failures. During 1951 to 1958, he acted in 10 films. Unfortunately, again the luck was not in his favour despite these films having the benefit of his melodious songs and ghazals. ‘Sone Ki Chidiya’ (1958) was his last film as an actor singer after which he decided to give up acting and concentrate on playback singing. However, by this time, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand had opted for Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar respectively while Mukesh had already become the voice of Raj Kapoor. In the 60s,the style of music compositions of Hindi films had undergone major changes with western based pop tunes being the order of the day. In this milieu, the versatility in Mohammed Rafi’s singing put him ahead of all other male playback singers of that time. After about mid 60s, Talat Mehmood virtually retired from the playback singing.
In his Calcutta days in the 40s, he was a fan of K L Saigal. However, Kamal Dasgupta who composed some of his non-filmy songs and ghazals in that period and later Anil Biswas prevailed upon him to sing in his natural style. For nearly two decades, his style of singing become a hallmark of his singing career which matched with the chords of his numerous fans not only in India but across the globe thanks to his regular concert trips abroad. In the 60s and thereafter, he continued to cut his non-filmy discs. Nearly 200 non-filmy Hindi songs have been listed on http://www.talatmehmood.net. There may be many more of his non filmy songs for which records may not be available for listing.
The song which I have chosen for discussion is ‘ro ro beeta jeewan saraa’ (1962). The song was written by Khawar Zaman and set to music by Khaiyyam. This melancholic song goes very well with the voice of Talat Mehmood. No doubt, this non-filmy song was one of his most popular songs which eventually found a place in one of his LP records ( I guess it was in ‘Ghazals to Remember’) which was subsequently released.
Song-Ro ro beeta jeewan saara (Talat Mehmood NFS)(1962) Singer-Talat Mehmood, Lyrics-Khawar Zamaan, MD-Khaiyyam
Lyrics
ro ro beetaa
jeewan saaraa
jeewan saaraa
ro ro beetaa jeewan saaraa
aa aa aaa
ro ro beetaa
aayaa na man kaa meet hamaaraa
aayaa na man kaa meet hamaaraa
ro ro beetaa jeewan saaraa
aa aa aaa
ro ro beetaa
khushiyon ke sab geet churaa kar
ar ar ar
pyaar kaa jaltaa deep bujhaa kar
loot liyaa hai de ke sahaaraa
aa aa aaa
ro ro beetaa
raah kathin hai main hoon ghaayal
kashti tooti door hai saahil
door hai saahil
raah kathin hai main hoon ghaayal
kashti tooti door hai saahil
door hai saahil
main hoon akelaa path andhiyaaraa
aa aa aaa
ro ro beetaa
ro ro beetaa jeewan saaraa
aa aa aaa
ro ro beetaa
3 Responses to "Ro ro beeta jeewan saara"
December 31, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Soulful lyrics, soothing music, and mellifluous voice of one and only Talat Saab, what more do you require?
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January 9, 2013 at 8:17 am
Wow…a trademark succinct write up! Thanks a ton Arun ji! It gives an insight why Talat was slowly outdated or under used as playback singer…..
Warm Regards,
Umesh
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
December 30, 2012 at 6:21 pm
I remember this song and ‘baithi aas lagaye birhan’ from 1964, when I first moved to Bombay as a research student. Both stayed with me since then. I still listen to both often.
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