Na dir dim taana
Posted on: February 7, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
PARDESI (1957) was an Indo-Soviet co-production film in Hindi and Russian languages . The Hindiversion of the film was directed by K A Abbas and the star cast included Balraj Sahani, Nargis, Oleg Strizhenov, Prithviraj Kapoor, Jairaj, David, Padmini. The film did not create a stir at the box office but was nominated for Cannes Film Festival (1958.) M R Acharekar got the Filmfare award for the best art direction (1958) for this film.
Three songs from this film have already been discussed in this blog. In my view, the best song in terms of audio-video presentation is a classical raaga based song “naa dir dim taa naa dere naa” sung by Lata Mangeshkar. It is a dance song picturised on Padmini. The main feature of this song is that Anil Biswas, the music director, has composed the song based on classical raaga while the orchestration is a fusion between Hindustani and Carnatic music. In the interlude, a mix of sitar and mridangdam have been beautifully played, probably by experts in these instruments. The song and the dance starts with a tarana and ends with a somewhat longer orchestration.
The background to this song is that while on a country wide trip, Afnasi ( played by Russian actor Oleg Strizhenov) meets the courtesan Lakshmi (Padmini) who is fascinated by this handsome man. She is prepared to sacrifice everything for him. Lakshmi tries to tell her mind about him through the dance but before the end of her dance, he leaves herby saying to himself (in Russian) that Lakshmi was promising me love and happiness. When she sang ‘ “when you leave me, my eyes will die for you; don’tleave me”, I was hearing some one’s voice meaning Champa (Nargis), the simple village girl whose family gave him the shelter during the monsoon months.
As per 78 RPM record ( N. 52441) with me, the song is jointly written by Prem Dhawan and Ali Sardar Jaferi. The meaning of the song is well expressed in the form of a beautiful dance recital by Padmini through her expressions and mudras ( mostly hand gestures). It must have become handy for the Afnasi to understand the state of mind of Lakshmi better through her mudras than the songi tself. 🙂
Video clips of both Russian and Hindi versions are available but I have preferred a Russian version of video clip because apart from it being in colour, it is of HD quality and all the words of the song are intact. Judging from Padmini’s lip sync, this song must have been retained in the Russian version without dubbing.
This song is an audio-visual treat.
Audio
Video
Song-Na dir dim taana (Pardesi)(1957) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Ali Sardar Jafri/Prem Dhawan, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics
sajan sakaare jaayenge
nain marenge ro
o vidhnaa aisi rain karo,
ke bhor kabahuna ho
ho
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
naa jaa naa jaa balam
balam mere naa
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
teri aag lagaa li tan mein piyaa
teri sej sajaa li maine man mein piyaa
teri aag lagaa li tan mein piyaa
teri sej sajaa li maine man mein piyaa
tere nain base nainan mein piyaa
tere nain base nainan mein piyaa
kahin tu hi mujhe nayan phere naa
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
teekhi kajre ki dhaar piyaa tere liye
mere solaa singaar piyaa tere liye
teekhi kajre ki dhaar piyaa tere liye
mere solaa singaar piyaa tere liye
baaje man kaa sitaar
baaje man kaa sitaar piyaa tere liye
huye phir bhi to ham balam tere naa
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
naa jaa naa jaa balam
balam mere naa
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
naa dir dim taa naa dere naa
May 31, 2012 at 11:07 pm
Greetings from Lahore! I had been trying to find the complete lyrics to this song for ages & my search led me to this amazing blog! Kudos to you & your team of contributors for a remarkable job, it is invaluable for all admirers of Hindi film music :))
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