atul's bollywood song a day- with full lyrics

This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.

Among the present generation of music directors of Hindi films, I like the songs composed by A R Rahman the most. If the songs composed by him are written by poets like Javed Akhtar, Prasoon Joshi or Gulzar, they are like icing on the cake. I must confess that the initial listening of his songs does not give me an extra-ordinary feeling. But after the release of the films and exposure of the songs to my ears multiple times, most of his songs begin to sound great. It takes time at least for me to develop a taste for his brand of music – from ‘Roja’ (1992) to ‘Gajini’ (2008), the last of his film I watched so far. Obviously, songs of ‘Rang De Basanti (2006) composed by A R Rehman gave me the same experience. I used to feel not so great about songs like the title song ‘rang de basanti’, ‘masti ki paathshala’ and ‘roobaroo’. It was only after watching the actual picturisation of these songs with contexts that I developed the taste to appreciate them. The film of course won many awards for its music and songs.

A few months back, I had occasion to watch RANG DE BASANTI (2006) part by part on the internet. It was then that I came across a song from this film which I did not remember to have heard earlier. The song is ‘lukaa chhuppi bahut huyi’. When I watched the video clip of the song, the first thought that came to my mind was how I had forgotten about this song. The soul touching lyrics, the composition, the rendition and the picturisation of the song created an emotional upheaval in me. I have yet to come across such type of a song in Hindi films depicting mother-son dialogues particularly the son who is no more, is ‘talking’ to her mother from the outer world. Since it was an unique song, I thought of writing an article on it for the blog. But before that I was curious to know as to how the idea about having in the film this ‘out of fashion’ song came to the minds of those who were associated with this film.

After days of searching and browsing in the internet, I could locate an interview of A R Rehman which he gave on the eve of the release of the film on 26th January 2006. The interview is posted here. The idea of this song was put forward by A R Rehman and both the director Rakeysh Mehra and lyricist Prasoon Joshi liked it. But there were many associated with this film who had reservation about such a song. The other question was who would sing this song. But A R Rehman had already made up his mind that this song has to be sung by Lata Mangeshkar in so far as the female voice in the song was concerned. The male part was sung by A R Rehman.

On the recording date for this song, Lata Mangeshkar got ill and the date of recording was postponed by a month. On the second recording date, Lata Mangeshkar indicated her inability to come to Chennai for recording the song as she was to attend an important function organised by Yash Chopra on the recording day. When Rehman conveyed to her that in that case he would have to forget about recording the song in her voice as he was going abroad for a few days that Lata Mangeshkar cancelled her visit to Yash Chopra’s function and recorded the song. According to A R Rehman, as per the original plan, Lata Mangeshkar was to sing only a few lines of the song. However, she sang those few lines so beautifully that later her portion of singing was expanded.

Since this song was not initially planned, it was incorporated in the film as a background song depicting the feeling of a mother as she watches her son’s pre-funeral ceremony with full military honour. The mother (played by Waheeda Rehman) recalls her son’s childhood days when they would play the ‘hide and seek’ game. And now it is a sad reality that her son is hidden from her forever. The newness in this song is the imagery of her dead son comforting his mother in saying that he is a free bird in an open sky like a kite without the fear of its thread being cut-off from the middle. He is in a simple and beautiful world just like the one she used to tell him through her bedtime stories in his childhood. But in the last, he tells ‘o mother there is everything here but I feel alone without you’.

The musical prelude sets the mood of the song. Note the prominence given to percussion beats when Lata Mangeshkar sings the third stanza. What a beautiful flute interlude as she sings ‘aajaa saanjh huyi mujhe teri fikar……’ in each stanza to get a feel of the dusk. The highlight of the song is a somewhat longish and fast saragam sung individually as well as jointly. A R Rehman is known for his Indo-western fusion music. In this song, while he keeps the music prominently Indian for Lata’s part of the song, the music turns predominantly western when A R Rehman sings. I guess, it is A R Rehman’s way of showing the preference of music between mother and a son. My salutation to Lata Mangeshkar for beautifully rendering this emotion filled song at the age of 75+ years.

The audio clip gives uninterrupted song. The video clip of the song though interrupted by some dialogues in between, is visually good to watch.

yahaan sab kuchh hai maan
phir bhi laage bin tere mujhko akelaa

Audio(Full song)

Video(Partial)

Song-Lukkaa chuppi bahut huyi saamne aajaa naa (Rang De Basanti) (2006)Singers-Lata Mangeshkar, A R Rehman, Lyrics-Prasoon Joshi, MD-A R Rehman
Lata+Rehman

Lyrics

lukkaa chuppi bahut huyi
saamne aajaa naa
kahaan kahaan dhoondhaa tujhe
thhak gayi hai ab teri maan
aajaa saanjh huyi
mujhe teri fikar
dhundhlaa gayi dekh meri nazar
aajaa naa
aajaa saanjh huyi
mujhe teri fikar
dhundhlaa gayi dekh meri nazar
aajaa naa

kyaa bataaun maan
kahaan hoon main ae ae ae
yahaan udne ko mere ae
khulaa aasmaan hai
tere qisson jaisaa bholaa aa
salonaa jahaan hai yahaan sapnon waalaa
meri patang
ho befikar ud rahi hai maan
dor koi loote nahin
beech se kaate naa
aajaa saanjh huyi mujhe teri fikar
dhundhlaa gayi dekh meri nazar
aajaa naa aa

teri raah taken ankhiyaan
jaane kaisaa kaisaa hoye jiyaa
teri raah taken ankhiyaan
jaane kaisaa kaisaa hoye jiyaa aa
dheere dheere aakar utre andheraa
meraa deep kahaan
dhal ke sooraj kare ishaaraa
chandaa tu hai kahaan
mere chandaa tu hai kahaan aa
lukka chuppi bahut huyi
saamne aajaa naa
kahaan kahaan dhoondhaa tujhe
thak gayi hai ab teri maan
aajaa saanjh huyi
mujhe teri fikar
dhundhlaa gayi dekh meri nazar
aajaa naa
aajaa saanjh huyi
mujhe teri fikar
dhundhlaa gayi dekh meri nazar
aajaa naa

kaise tujhko dikhaaun yahaan hai kyaa aaaaaaa
maine jharne se paani maan
tod ke piyaa hai
guchchhaa guchchhaa kayi khwaabon kaa
uchhal ke chhuaa hai ae
chhaayaa liye bhali dhoop yahaan hai
nayaa nayaa saa hai roop yahaan
yahaan sab kuchh hai maan
phir bhi laage bin tere mujhko akelaa aaaaaaa
o o o o o o o
o o o o o

re ga re ga sa sa re
sa re re re ga re ga
sa re dha pa ma ga ma dha re
re ga re ga sa sa
sa re dha pa ma ga ma dha re
sa sa re sa re pa dha pa ga ma pa dha ni sa
ni sa ni dha pa ma ga re
re ga re ga sa sa re
sa sa re dha pa ma ga ma dha re
re ga re ga re ga re ga
sa re ma pa dha ma pa ma ga re
aa aa aa aa

aajaa saanjh huyi
mujhe teri fikar
dhundhlaa gayi dekh meri nazar
aajaa naa
aajaa saanjh huyi
mujhe teri fikar
dhundhlaa gayi dekh meri nazar
aajaa naa
aajaa saanjh huyi
mujhe teri fikar
dhundhlaa gayi dekh meri nazar
aajaa naa aaaaaa