Raat jaa rahi hai
Posted on: May 28, 2011
This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie songs and a regular contributor of this blog
Late 1940s, and especially the year 1949, is considered to be a watershed year in the annals of Hindi film music. considered by many to be the dawn of the Golden Age of Hindi film music,
This year boasts of some fantastic hit movies, whose music made it to the top and continues to stay there even till today. What a year it would have been to live through. Consider the movies released that year – Andaaz by Naushad Saab, Badi Bahen by Husnlal Bhagatram, Barsaat by Shanker Jaikishan, Dulaari and Dillagi, again by Naushad Saab, Bazaar by Shyam Sunder, Jeet by Anil Biswas, Mahal by Kehmchand Prakash, Lahore again by Shyam Sunder, Patanga, Duniya and Namoona by C Ramchandra, Shaayar by Ghulam Mohammed, Ek Thi Ladki by Vinod, and many many more. Just reading the list of songs from these movies is enough to make shiver run through the spine. Lata’s career took a flying take off this year. In the previous 4, 5 years she had recorded about 66 songs. In 1949, she recorded a whopping 161 songs.
In a year of such brilliant outpouring of music, many other great creations tend to get termed as obscure. However, in their times they were not obscure, only that in hindsight after a few decades, when film historians and common folk look back to capture the luster of that period, they would pick some, simply for the lack of bandwidth.
The 1949 movie Uddhaar (salvation) was not an obscure movie in its time. It had a top line star cast, and was one of the early multi starrers of its time. The credits include Dev Anand, Munawwar Sultana, Bharat Bhushan, Nirupa Roy, Protima Devi, Narmada Shankar etc. Eight years prior, the maestro Vasant Desai had made an unobtrusive entry into the Hindi cinema as a composer with the film Shobha (1942). In his 8th year, this was his 14th movie of a career that was to last for another 3 decades. The lyrics of all songs are written by Pt Narendra Sharma.
This song is a lori – a mother cooing to her son, cajoling him to go to sleep. I heard it for the first time today, and instantly fell in love with it. As the genre of loris goes, this one is a pure gem, in terms of its simplicity and sheer poetry. And the accompanying music is minimal – a few strings of guitar and maybe violin and some strains from the hand held beat maker. No taal, no percussion. And yet, the composer and the singer team up for this treat, and one realizes well into the song, that the singer’s voice is carrying it all by itself.
And of course, the words and the poetry is sheer delight – “chandra kiran khel rahi os boond se”. Just click and listen to this wonderfully soft rendition’ close your eyes and enjoy.
Song-Raat jaa rahi hai (Uddhaar) (1949) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Pt Narendra Sharma, MD-Vasant Desai
Lyrics
raat jaa rahi hai
raat jaa rahi hai
neend aa rahi hai
raat jaa rahi hai
palak pankhadi kyoon
palak pankhadi kyoon
moondi jaa rahi hai
raat jaa rahi hai
so gayee hai champakali
nayan moond ke
chandra kiran khel rahi
os boond se
sapnon ki chanderi ghataa
chhaa rahi hai
raat jaa rahi hai
raat jaa rahi hai
so jaa mere laal
so jaaaaaa
jaagte hain sitaare
jaagte hain sitaare
pehruay hamaare
gagan gang kinaare
samay dhaar dheere
behati jaa rahi hai
raat jaa rahi hai
neend aa rahi hai
raat jaa rahi hai
maa ki mamta soye nahin
khoye nahin bhaag
so shaam putaliyon mein
madhur preet rahi jaag
dukh ki raat sukh ki bhor
laa rahi hai
sukh ki bhor laa rahi hai
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 27, 2021 at 10:48 pm
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