Ye hawaa ye hawaa ye hawaa
Posted on: March 8, 2011
This article is written by Raja, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor of write ups to this blog.
While posting the song “in hawaon mein” from Gumraah (1963) recently, I discussed at length my fascination for BR Chopra films. I will not repeat myself here but I will just say that most of his films had fabulous songs too.
Take Gumraah for example. In my opinion, every single song of Gumraah is a gem. They are all soulful, beautifully woven songs of poetry and you feel as if the lyricist has poured his heart into the song. When you hear that the songs have been written by Sahir Ludhianvi, it does not surprise you one bit. Whether you are looking for romance or yearning or cynicism (his forte), Sahir could produce the most magical of poetry for every occasion. I like a lot of song-writers but Sahir is easily right up there for me, with the very best.
The songs of Gumraah were composed by Ravi. Now Ravi was a music director who delivered countless number of hit songs during his career but never quite got the recognition that many others managed to get. I have heard comments about him that his tracks were not “original”, that there was too much “sameness” in his music and that “if you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all”.
I think he deserves more credit than this. Many of the most iconic songs of Hindi cinema have been composed by Ravi. These comprise a wide variety of genres, from the iconic fun birthday song “hum bhi agar bache hote” to the ultimate bidaai song “babul ki duayen leti ja”. From one of the softest, greatest romantic odes ever “chaudvin ka chand ho” to one of the most popular and lilting rock and roll songs “baar baar dekho”.
Yes, there are several Ravi songs that sound similar to each other, I will not deny that. But then I can say the same for Shankar Jaikishen too. Or for that matter, SD Burman. Or even RD Burman. I do not, for one moment, mean this as a criticism of these great composers. I wouldn’t do that. But then why single out Ravi and talk about “sameness” and “lack of originality”.
My own opinion is that Ravi probably did not “brand” himself very well, he did not align with the big brand name actors. Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor had S-J as “preferred” music partners, Dilip Kumar had Naushad, Guru Dutt and Dev Anand had SD Burman. Nothing wrong with this as such. And these are all great partnerships. But maybe this is one reason why Ravi, not being associated with the biggest-name actors, also never got considered a mega music composer. Just one possible explanation.
Fortunately for Ravi, BR Chopra, never one to follow a herd, recognized his ability and invested a lot of faith in him. And Ravi repaid this faith in full. And how! Each film of the BR Chopra-Ravi combo turned out to be a treasure-trove of classic songs. Even in the 1980s, when Ravi was virtually out of the industry, he came back and managed to do full justice to BR Chopra with his beautiful compositions for Nikaah (1982). It was one of the runaway musical successes of the year.
A mention of BR Chopra and Ravi will be incomplete without a reference to a third aspect of their music. BR Chopra had used Mohammad Rafi’s voice successfully in a few films but once Ravi managed to get Mahendra Kapoor to sing some soulful songs for him exactly the way he wanted, BR Chopra was very happy to have Mahendra Kapoor as his male voice for Ravi’s music. Asha Bhosle was often the female voice, thus completing the team.
Now, coming to the song of this post. It is “ye hawa, ye fizaa”. one of my favourite songs from Gumraah. Well, for a movie that has songs like “chalo ek baar phir se”, it is difficult to pick ONE song, hence my use of the term “one of my favourite songs”. 🙂
This song encompasses everything we’ve talked about. There is the poetry of Sahir, there is the softness of Ravi’s music and there is the absolutely wonderful rendition of this song by Mahendra Kapoor. The hero is singing this song, calling out to his beloved, beseeching her to come to him even as nightfall approaches. (Memories of another great song in the same mood and mould – Rafi saab’s “suhaani raat dhal chuki”?)
Anyway, the heroine, Mala Sinha, has her constraints and is unable to join him.
The song lingers on in your mind long after it has finished playing. You keep playing “aa bhi ja, aa bhi ja” in your head. And the “o ho ho, o ho ho” at the start of the song and in between is just amazingly done by Mahendra Kapoor. I guess Ravi deserves some credit for that too. Oh, they worked SO well together!
Here is “ye hawa, ye hawa, ye hawa” from Gumraah. A wonderful, wonderful song! I just love it and I am sure you will too.
Audio
Video
Song-Ye hawaa ye hawaa (Gumraah) (1963) Singer-Mahendra Kapoor, Lyrics-Sahir Ludhianvi, MD-Ravi
Lyrics
O ho ho
O ho ho
O ho
O ho
O ho ho ho
O ho ho ho ho ho ho
O ho ho ho ho
O ho ho
ye hawa ye hawa ye hawa
ye fizaa ye fizaa ye fizaa
hai udaas jaise mera dil
mera dil
mera dil
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa ke ab to chaandni bhi zard ho chali
ho chali
ho chali
dhadkanon ki narm saans sard ho chali
ho chali
ho chali
dhal chali hai raat,
aa ke mil
aa ke mil
aa ke mil
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
raah mein bichhi huyi hai meri har nazar
har nazar
har nazar
main tadap raha hoon aur tu hai bekhabar
bekhabar
bekhabar
ruk rahi hai saans aa ke mil
aa ke mil
aa ke mil
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
aa bhi jaa
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 8, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Nice song! I hadn’t heard it before but I sure will add it to my Sunil Dutt collection. Now I haven’t seen the movie but I don’t think the tempo and mood match Sunil Dutt’s expressions. Either the singer/MD or the actor are a little off–maybe both. But as a standalone song over the radio it’s great.
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