Kis tarah bhoolega dil unka khayaal aaya huaa
Posted on: May 6, 2013
this article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
In the last few days, I have been looking for songs composed by Shyam Sundar, the forgotten music director of 40s and early 50s. Whenever I think of him, the name of another forgotten music director Sajjad Hussain creeps in my mind. If Shyam Sundar was called a genius music director, Sajjad Hussain was called an original music director by none other than Anil Biswas, the ‘Bheeshm Pitaamah’ of Hindi film music. Despite these superlatives against their names, Shyam Sundar and Sajjad Hussain composed music for only 20 and 17 Hindi films respectively in their careers. This works out to on an average 2 films per year for Shyam Sunder (1943 to 1953) and less than 1 film per year for Sajjad Hussain ( 1944 to 1977). One common reason attributed for their musical output not being commensurate with their talents was that both were short tempered and perfectionist to the extent that they were uncompromising which was not to the liking of producers/directors of the films.
In case of Shyam Sundar, he was said to be always under the influence of alcohol. I do not know whether his alcohol problem was adevelopment of the later part of his career but it is said that Lata Mangeshkar had a problem with him during the song recording of the film ‘Lahore’ (1949) and again during ‘Dholak’ (1951), mainly due to his outbursts under the influence of alcohol. It is said that Lata Mangeshkar walked out of ‘Dholak’ (1951) after recording two songs. Rest of the songs were sung by Sulochana Kadam and Shamshad Begum for Meena Shorey, the lead actress of the film. Thereafter Lata Mangeshkar did not sing under his music direction until ‘Alif Laila’ (1953), his last film. During the making of this film, Lata Mangeshkar received a message fom Shyam Sundar that he had composed a tune especially for her. The song was tujhko bhulaanaa mere bas mein nahin which became her last song sung for him as he died during the making of ‘Alif Laila’. Madan Mohan completed the music for this film without taking any credit for his work. Notwithstanding her problems with Shyam Sundar, Lata Mangeshkar considered him to be one of the finest music directors she worked with. His song composition had a Punjabi flavour but with a distinct style of melody and liveliness in the songs.
During the golden jubilee celebrations of Indian films in 1982, a show was organised in Shanmukhanand Hall in Bombay (Mumbai) in which Noor Jahan rendered one of her immortal songs aawaaz de kahaan hai duniya meri jawaan hai from ‘Anmol Ghadi’ (1946) composed by Naushad to the thunderous applause of the audience. When Lata Mangeshkar’s turn came for singing, she chose to sing one of Shyam Sundar’s composition saajan ki galiyaan chhod chaley from the film ‘Baazar’ (1949) to an equally thunderous applause. When Noor Jahan’s next turn came from singing, she chose baithhi hoon teri yaad ka lekar ke sahaara from the film ‘Village Girl’ (1945) also composed by Shyam Sundar. Probably, they may have decided to sing these two songs as their tribute to a genius music director Shyam Sundar on the occasion. That these two songs also got tremendous appreciation from the audience nearly 4 decades after they were composed speaks volumes about the timelessness of Shyam Sundar’s compositions.
I have chosen for discussion an equally melodious song ‘kis tarah bhoolegaa dil unka khayak aaya huaa’ from the film VIILAGE GIRL (1945), which is sung by Noor Jahan. The song was penned by Wali Sahab and set to music by Shyam Sundar. The synopsis of the film was given in a post while discussing another song ajee dil ho qaaboo mein to from this film. In the film, Noor Jahan sings this song in the context of her beloved (Nazir) having not yet returned after joining the army as promised by him and her marriage is being fixed with the villain (Rama Shukul).
Since the video clip of the song is not of good quality and a few words from the lyrics are missing in it, I have given a link of the audio clip of the song where the audio quality is better.
I also found an audio clip of the same song sung by Zohrabai Ambalawali. But this one is not from the film. Since there is some difference in the musical composition of Zohrabai’s song, I presume that this is her private recorded song issued after the release of the film. I have given the link to this audio clip just to facilitate a comparison in the rendition of both the singers.
Audio
Video
Song-Kis tarah bhoolega dil unka khayaal aaya huaa (Village Girl) (1945) Singer-Noorjahaan, Lyrics-Wali Sahab, MD-Shyam Sundar
Lyrics (on the basis of Audio clip)
kis tarah bhoolega dil
unka khayaal aaya huaa
jaa nahi sakta abhi
sheeshe mein baal(??) aaya huaa
o ghata
kaali ghata
abke baras tu na baras
o ghata
kaali ghata
abke baras tu na baras
mere preetam ko abhi
pardes hai bhaaya huaa
mere preetam ko abhi
pardes hai bhaaya huaa
kis tarah bhoolega dil
aaj chaman se ae
ae ae ae
aaj chaman se door bulbul
jaake roye
roye saath saath
tera dil bhi chot hai
meri tarah khaaya huaa
tera dil bhi chot hai
meri tarah khaaya huaa
kis tarah bhoolega dil
khush rahe duniya mein wo
jisne hai toda dil meraa
khush rahe duniya mein wo
jisne hai toda dil meraa
de raha hai ye duaa
aankhon mein ashq aaya huaa
de raha hai ye duaa
aankhon mein ashq aaya huaa
kis tarah bhoolega dil
unka khayaal aaya huaa
6 Responses to "Kis tarah bhoolega dil unka khayaal aaya huaa"
May 6, 2013 at 2:14 pm
Sadanandji,
Thanks for this excellent write up on Shyam Sunder and his work.
You will kindly agree that no discussion on him can possibly be complete without a mention of Lataji’s ‘Baharen phir bhi aayengi magar hum-tum juda honge’, his composition for the Nargis-Karan Dewan starrer Lahore (1949) which the Sur Saraswati selected as on of her original Top Ten Favourites in 1967, her Silver Jubilee Year as a playback singer.
Best regards,
Shekhar Gupta
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May 6, 2013 at 2:15 pm
‘Baharen phir bhi aayengi magar hum-tum juda honge’ is posted on this Blog at https://atulsongaday.me/2009/04/20/bahaaren-phir-bhi-aayengin/.
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May 6, 2013 at 5:28 pm
Excellent writeup. As far as the two composers creeping in the mind simultaneously, I remember HMV coming out with a pack of 2 cassettes featuring the songs of both, one in each cassette. Don’t know if it was because they did not enough songs or what. I still have the covers and what a collection of songs it was .
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May 6, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Sadanandji, having heard Noorjehan’s number several times, Zohrabai’s version was a “cool” revelation. In fact I started liking this version more than the original!! Many thanks.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
May 6, 2013 at 2:10 pm
Its ALL TIME HIT song,will remain,for ever till hindi music is listened by its fans.This song has one more point ,CHARM of O GHATA KAALI GHATA AB KE BARAS TU NA BARAS…its aalap.Two meanings of BARAS….THIS SONG HAS NO ALTERNATE.
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