Dil dhoondhta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
Posted on: July 26, 2008
What makes a song tick and makes it hummable? Here let me talk about just this song. If you have not seen the movie or the visuals of the song, you can still visualise the theme by listening to the lyrics and the tune. One can make out that the two persons are on a hill station and are yearning for those days when they had time and the life went on at a leisurely pace. Listen to the lyrics, and listen to the music, both go hand in hand like the two actors ( Sanjiv Kumar and Sharmila Tagore) enacting the scene, at perfect harmony with each other.
You can visualise spending leisurely holidays in mild winter, summer as well as in snowy weather.Lyrics talk about being on a hill station listening to echoes, and the echo in the music that follows virtually takes you there to the hills, if the lyrics had not taken you there already.
There are four paras in the lyrics. First para is sung entirely by Bhupinder.The second, third and fouth paras is almost entirely sung by Lata before Bhupinder sings towards the end of these paras singing the same lyrics that he sang in the first para. Listen to the first line of the second, third and fouth para, and then the music that follows.Lata’s voice in these lines and the music that is played after that gives me goosebumps, every time I listen to that. And I have been listening to this song for some 33 years ! This is called timeless music.
And what about the lyrics ? One may not understand the lyrics fully, but one is left in no doubt that it is the lyrics that enable the music and the singers to create this magic. Gulzar, the lyricist deserves great kudos for this song.
And what about Madan Mohan ? He created as many as twenty tunes for this song, three of which were used in this movie. Madan Mohan had died before the movie was released. Madan Mohan had left a big collection of unused tunes, and one of the unused 17 tunes for this song that Madan Mohan had left behind, was used for a Veer Zaara song in 2004, nearly three decades after his death. And that tune, even though used in an era with changed musical tastes, sounded as timeless as the tunes used in Mausam.
Even after the song is over, you feel the sweet after effects of the song in your mind. This song is one that gives your mind a mental massage and refreshes you.
PS-This song is a multiple version song. It has a Bhupinder Singh solo version as well. I have now included the male solo version of the song as well. Its lyrics were provided by Prakashchandra.
Audio
Video
(Duet version)
(Solo audio)
Audio
Song: Dil dhoondhta hai phir wahi (Mausam) (1975) Singers-Bhupinder Singh, Lata, Lyrics-Gulzar, MD-Madan Mohan
Lyrics
Dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahi fursat Ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahi fursat Ke raat din
baithhe rahen tasawwur-e-Jaanaa kiye huye
dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahie
Jaadon Ki narm dhoop aur aangan mein let kar
Jaadon Ki narm dhoop aur aangan mein let kar
aankhon pe kheench kar tere aanchal ke saaye Ko
aankhon pe kheench kar tere aanchal ke saaye Ko
aundhe pade rahen kabhi karwat liye huye
dil dhoondhtaa hai,
O dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wohi
yaa garmiyon ki raat jo purwaayiaan chale
yaa garmiyon ki raat jo purwaayiaan chale
thhandi safed chaadaron pe jaagen der tak
thhandi safed chaadaron pe jaagen der tak
taaron ko dekhte rahen chhat par pade huye
dil dhoondhtaa hai,
O dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wohi
barfeeli sardiyon mein kisi bhi pahaad par
barfeeli sardiyon mein kisi bhi pahaad par
waadi mein goonjti huyi, khaamoshiyaan sunen
waadi mein goonjti huyi, khaamoshiyaan sunen
aankhon mein bheege bheege se lamhe liye huye
dil dhoondhtaa hai,
O dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
baithhe rahen tasawwur-e-jaanaa kiye huye
dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wahi
————————————————————–
Translation
————————————————————-
The heart once again yearns for those leisurely days and nights
When we could just sit back leisurely, and let our imagination wander
Relaxing on our back in the backyard,under the mild winter sun,
Coving our head with the shade of your daaman
And sometimes turning over and lying on our tummies
Or,breezes may be blowing on summer nights
We would be keeping awake late into the night lying on cold white sheets,
gazing at the stars lying sprawled on the rooftop
During chilly winter on some hill,
We may be listening to stillness echoing through valleys
living misty moments through the eyes
————————————————————–
Solo version (Lyrics provided by Prakashchandra)
—————————————————————
dil dhoondhtaa hai
phir wahi
fursat ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa hai
phir wahi
fursat ke raat din
baithhe rahen
tasawwur-e-jaanaa kiye huye ae ae
dil dhoondhtaa hai
phir wahi
fursat ke raat din
jaadon ki narm dhoop aur aangan mein let kar
jaadon ki narm dhoop aur aangan mein let kar
aankhon pe kheench kar tere aanchal ke saaye ko
aundhe pade rahen kabhi karwat liye huye ae ae
dil dhoondhtaa hai
phir wahi
fursat ke raat din
yaa garmiyon ki raat jo purwaayiaan chalein aen
yaa garmiyon ki raat jo purwaayiaan chalein
thhandi safed chaadaron pe jaagen der tak
taaron ko dekhte rahen chhat par pade huye
dil dhoondhta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
barfeeli sardiyon mein
kisi bhi pahaad par
barfeeli sardiyon mein
kisi bhi pahaad par
waadi mein goonjti huyi,
khaamoshiyaan sunen
aankhon mein bheege bheege se lamhe liye huye ae ae
dil dhoondhtaa hai
phir wahi
fursat ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa hai
phir wahi
fursat ke raat din
baithhe rahen tasawwur-e-jaanaa kiye huye
dil dhoondhtaa hai
phir wahi
fursat ke raat din
51 Responses to "Dil dhoondhta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din"
July 26, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Raja, how did you guess ?
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October 30, 2010 at 12:00 am
I chanced upon your notes and was simply blown away by the feeling that someone loves this duet as much as I do.
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April 26, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Sir,
Great song … really it is close to my heart but this song was not sung by Bhupen Hazarika. his name is Bhupendra different singer. check out the films like Parichay staring Jitendra & Jaya Bhaduri. Gharounda Staring Amol Palekar & Zareena Wahab. or Sitara Staring Mithun Chakravorthy & Zareena Wahab. I am having a full Collection of Bhupendraji, R. D. Burman Sahab, & Gulzar Sahab. so change the singers name after confirming my given refrences. thanks for reading this.
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April 26, 2009 at 2:14 pm
For long, I thought there was only one Bhupendra. I have been informed some time back that there were two of them, one was Bhupendra Hazarika of Assam and another was Bhupinder Singh of Punjab. Thanks for the informmation. I will make the corrections.
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December 30, 2009 at 9:53 am
Really a good information about it and its amazing song. I really love to listen it again and again. Good job – squarecutatul.
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March 23, 2010 at 11:36 am
Hi..
can please anyone tell the exact meaning of
“tasawwur-e-Jaanaa kiye huye”..??
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April 15, 2019 at 12:12 pm
tasawwur-e-Jaanaa is
“contemplation of the beloved”.
दिल ढूँढता है फिर वही फ़ुर्सत के रात दिन; बैठे रहे तसव्वुर-ए-जानाँ किये हुए means,
The heart searches again for those nights and days of leisure
(when I or we) remained seated, contemplating (on our) beloved !
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May 7, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Hi,
This is a nice piece, and a lovely song. Wanted to point out that the singer is Bhupinder Singh, not to be confused with Bhupen Hazarika, who is actually another good musician and singer:)
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June 12, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Dear,
I think, one must break the line in following way
DIL DHOONDHTA HAI PHIR WOHI FURSAT,
KE RAAT DIN BAITHE RAHE TASSAVUR-E-JANA KIYE HUE….
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June 12, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Putting comma after fursat renders both the lines meaningless, , and in addition abruptly stops the flow of the words,IMHO.
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May 24, 2012 at 2:29 pm
I have an mp3 of madan mohan singing this song and he pauses after fursat. But Bhupinder sang it without pause in the final cut. I suppose it ws the result of some discussion amongst them about it.
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November 28, 2010 at 3:58 am
I have two questions about this – as this is the most informative article I came across about this song:
1) Can someone really break down the meaning of the lyrics – I know Hindi fairly well but I think this is an Urdu poem, and so the translation doesn’t make complete sense to me. Dhil Dhoondta Hai [this is clear] phir wohi [once again?] fursat ke…
Wouldn’t you normally say Phir wohi Dhil Dhoondta hai?
And also “tasawwur-e-Jaanaa kiye huye”
I wonder also why lyrics are always transcribed in English, if they were in Hindi it would be clearer in my opinon.
2) Nobody seems to mention the version at the beginning of the movie. Isn’t that one much better?
Thanks
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February 3, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Well if you write a poetry only the way you talk, much of the poetry would be lost!
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April 30, 2011 at 9:03 pm
“Ji dhoondtaa hai phir wahi fursat Ke raat din
baithe rahen tasawwur-e-Jaanaa kiye huye”
is a part of a Ghazal written by Mirza Ghalib. This is 16th shair’ of a 17 shair ghazal. Only first word “ji” has been replaced with “dil” by Gulzar in the mukhda of this song. The rest of the lines are sheer poetry too.
As i recollect, the use of Ghalib’s shair has been acknowledged in the movie credits also.
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June 17, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Beautiful song about the four seasons, I’ve come to love both versions equally. But when I watched this as a child, the picturization with flashbacks left me so confused. Just reciting the opening lines makes one start sniffling and sighing.
Isn’t Bhupen Hazarika the haunting voice of Dil hoom hoom kare?
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July 13, 2011 at 5:22 am
“tasawwur” means Khayal (to think of someone).
Heart is missing those free times when it used to spend time just thinking of loved one.
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July 13, 2011 at 5:27 am
Btw, original sher by Ghalib was:
jee dhoondhtaa hai phir wohee fursat, ke raat din
baithe rahein tasawwur-e-jaanaa kiye huye
And, Gulzar used following version in the song
dil dhoondhtaa, hai phir wohee, fursat ke raat din
baithe rahein, tasawwur-e-, jaanaa kiye huye
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July 19, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Atul ji,
In my opinion,a comma after the word ‘ fursat ‘ is most appopriate.In that case the meaning is more apt,like
(roughly) I am looking for the same free time
when,day and night I can get lost in the thoughts of my beloved.
-AD
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July 23, 2011 at 3:16 am
@ATUL JI/ARUN KUMAAR JI/NAHM JI
I will try to make all this clear
1. the verse that Mirza Ghalib wrote was like this :
Ji dhoondhta hai phir wohi fursat,ki raat din
Baithe rahe tasawwur e jaana kiye huye
2. Inspired from the above verse Gulzar wrote the mukhda of this song as :
Dil dhoondta hai phir wohi fursat ke raat din
Baithe rahe tasawwur e jaana kiye huye .
(here point to be noted is that: IN Mirza ghalib’s verse there is a comma after the word Fursat and its “ki” not “ke raat din” )
The meaning of Ghalibs verse is same as Arun kumaar ji pointed out :
I am looking for the same free time when,day and night :
I can get lost in the thoughts of my beloved.
(here Ghalib has created one “suspense” in the first misra,as generally done by poets of mushaira :Ending the first misra in such a way that listners of the mushaira become curious about the “answer” to that suspense.And after repeating the first misra few times ,Shayar himself solve/answer that “suspense ” in the second misra (line) of that She’r .
Hence listeners will just wonder after listening to first misra that: what is the thing/act that he used to do “day and night ” in his free time (which means the time when he was in love), and they will get the answer in the second misra that the “thing/act ” was :”getting lost in thoughts of beloved” !!)
Gulzars version is more simple with each line is complete and there is no “suspense” in this She’r,and it simply means:
I am looking for day and nights of Leisure.
I want to just get lost in thoughts of my beloved .
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July 23, 2011 at 3:30 am
Regarding the meaning of Gulzar’s version ,its like this actually(correction from my above comment):
I am looking again for the past day and nights of Leisure.
I use to/want to just get lost in thoughts of my beloved .
July 23, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Atiullah97 ji,
I am very happy to read your comment.After a long time,someone has used the right words like ‘ misra ‘ and ‘ she’r ‘ ( most people use the word shair,which is neither here nor there ).
The responsibility of a translater lies on making the sentiment or the hidden or implied meaning pronounced in the other language and NOT meanings of each word separately (unless required by the contingency of the matter).
It is a matter of regret that there are very few connoisseurs of pure Urdu to be seen nowadays.Such is the case with almost all languages,I am afraid !
-AD
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September 30, 2011 at 11:32 am
what one could say about a song of this sort ? A great combination of words, music, and represetation 🙂
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October 2, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Atul: I wholeheartedly agree with your comment: “Listen to the first line of the second, third and fouth para, and then the music that follows.Lata’s voice in these lines and the music that is played after that gives me goosebumps, every time I listen to that. And I have been listening to this song for some 33 years ! This is called timeless music.”
By the way, the link you have for the video says it is private; I uploaded a high-resoultion version of this song at Youtube:
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October 3, 2011 at 11:59 pm
Atul: Here is the embedding link to the public version of Dil Dhoodhta Hai that I uploaded on YouTube:
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January 15, 2012 at 3:01 pm
hi…your link is broken (video removed). Please use this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWDiJTWJskE
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August 7, 2012 at 5:10 am
Thanks a lot for all the details. So nice of you
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August 15, 2012 at 10:02 pm
this is a video on the original (ghalib’s) version:
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September 28, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Please correct “aankhon pe kheench kar tere daaman ke saaye Ko”.
insted of “Daaman” there is word “aanchal”
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October 17, 2012 at 2:40 pm
This is why I keep going to this place. I can not believe how many
entries I missed since my last visit!
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December 6, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Very nice song with excellent lyrics. Solo by Bhupinder and Latha Mangeshkar, both cannot be evaluated better to other! simply good in their own way of singing.
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December 1, 2013 at 1:02 am
barfilee sardiyo me kisee bhee pahad par
wadee me gunjatee hui, khamoshiya sune
aankho me bhige bhige se lamhe liye huye…….gulzar ki poetry kahin bdi pechida hoti hai to kahin kitni khoobsurati ke sath ve seedhe sade shbdon se ek drishy shbdon se ‘paint’ kr dete hain. aisa hi yh gana hai aur iski drishyaatmakataa ke karan ye alg lgta hai. aur brson se mera fav hai
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October 24, 2014 at 5:26 pm
Atul ji, the song has 2 versions, the duet as posted above, and a solo by Bhupinder (much better rendition in my opinion).
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October 24, 2014 at 7:04 pm
Sorry, Haven`t noticed the fact that Solo version lyrics are not posted:
Lyrics of Bhupinder Sing Solo Version of “Dil Dhoondtha hai”
(Lyrics of audio solo version)
audio link:
dil dhoondhtaa hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
baithhe rahen tasawwur-e-jaanaa kiye huye ae
dil dhoondhtaa hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
jhaadon ki narm dhoop aur aangan mein let kar
jhaadon ki narm dhoop aur aangan mein let kar
aankhon pe kheench kar tere aanchal ke saaye ko
aundhe pade rahen kabhi karwat liye huye ae
dil dhoondhtaa hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
yaa garmiyon ki raat jo purwaayiaan chalein
yaa garmiyon ki raat jo purwaayiaan chalein
thhandi safed chaadaron pe jaagen der tak
taaron ko dekhte rahen chhat par pade huye
dil dhoondhta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
barfeeli sardiyon mein kisi bhi pahaad par
barfeeli sardiyon mein kisi bhi pahaad par
waadi mein goonjti huyi, khaamoshiyaan sunen
aankhon mein bheege bheege se lamhe liye huye
dil dhoondhtaa hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
dil dhoondhtaa hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
baithhe rahen tasawwur-e-jaanaa kiye huye
dil dhoondhtaa hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din
video link(contains only 1st and 2nd stanza and also shorter than the audio solo version regarding repetition of some lines->incorporated as title card sequences)
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October 24, 2014 at 10:42 pm
Here is oriiginally posted video of Lata-Bhupendra duet song , which seems to have disappeared from the page :
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October 24, 2014 at 10:59 pm
Somewhat better quality audio link of the duet version
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October 25, 2014 at 7:51 am
Thank you Atul ji for including the solo version of the song. Thank you Prakash ji for the lyrics of the solo song.
And now it is time for… YIPPEEEE! :). Mausam (1975) now officially joins the ranks of movies where all songs from the movie have been covered on the blog. Congratulations and thank you Atul ji :).
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October 25, 2014 at 9:55 am
Some of the tunes created by Madan Mohan for this song in his own voice.
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October 25, 2014 at 10:16 am
Thank you Sadanand ji. That was really nice to hear!
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October 30, 2014 at 11:20 pm
Such a mesmerising song.I have heard that it has an extra stanza on the rains which was not used in the film. Have been searching for that since long but I havent found it anywhere.Dil dhoondta hai…truly 🙂 I am hoping one of the readers of your blog might know about it!
I love reading your blog!
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September 26, 2016 at 7:39 pm
Very nice discussion forum and all great comments. Thank you, Atul. Roopa, the extra stanza(s) are not by Gulzar but attempted by Kanupriya (Google Gulazr 101). It reads…Galiyon mein… baarishon mein, bach kar chalo jo tum,
Hans dein hum, dhaani chunri pe… chheente uchhaal kar
Dekha karein…aankhein teri ….shikwe liye hue
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October 17, 2016 at 5:02 pm
Thank you, Nitinji. Although not written by Gulzar, it was nice reading these lines 🙂
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
July 26, 2008 at 4:44 pm
This is truly a great song.
In every sense.
Awesome lyrics…soft music…very well rendered by Bhupinder and Lata.
Gulzar has always been a very good song-writer but here he excels himself (as he does in Aandhi but I suspect that may also be coming sometime 😉 ).
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