Daiyya re daiyya laaj mohe laage
Posted on: March 25, 2012
This article is written by Raja, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
In a recent post (“koi aaya lachak uthi kaaya”), I had talked about seeing the film Dastaan (1972) on a flight.
As it turned out, that was not the only film I saw on that flight. It was a long flight so I managed to see another film that I’d been wanting to see for a long time – Leader (1964), starring Dilip Kumar and Vyjanthimala.
I had very low expectations from Leader as I had already read not-so-good reviews about it on some movie sites. And I must say the film met those low expectations. If I’d had any higher expectations, I’d have been disappointed. 🙂
(Early in my career, one of my bosses gave me a piece of advice “Never set expectations that you don’t think you will be able to meet. Life is all about managing expectations”. I found that a very sensible piece of advice – since then, I’ve always ensured people have very low expectations from me so that I’m always able to meet them and not let anybody down. ;-)). Come to think of it, maybe MS Dhoni should have got this piece of advice too. 😉
Anyway, back to Leader. So, knowing that this wasn’t such a great movie, why did I still want to see it? For a few reasons.
First, I wanted to get a firsthand feel for how bad it was. I have the answer now – it is pretty bad, considering it stars Dilip and Vyjanthimala, of Madhumati, Naya Daur and Ganga Jamuna fame. All these movies had something in them that kept you rooting for them – Leader has nothing of the sort. It seems to be just one disjoint set of scenes strung together to last almost 3 hours, out of which an insufferable amount of time is devoted to silly tiffs between Dilip and Vyjanthi – like two 13-year olds. There is a storyline, yes, but it’s pretty silly and flimsy and stretched over 3 hours, with long sermons towards the end. The story is credited to Dilip Kumar in the credits, by the way. Am sure some people will not agree with me but this is my opinion anyway.
Second, I wanted to see this movie to just tick it off my to-see list. Not all to-see movies are necessarily on a list because they are good. Many are there just because you want to not be among those who have not seen it, if you know what I mean.
Third – and this is the most important – for the songs. OK, this is certainly not one of Naushad’s best tracks (not by far!), but I knew every one of the songs beforehand – and that too almost fully. That is because my sister had once gifted me a combi-cassette of Dilip-Vyjanthi. One side had Madhumati, the other had Leader. I used to listen to this cassette a lot – so every song of Leader also got imprinted in my brain. And it is always fun to watch a movie and see how the songs you know play out in the context of the movie.
Anyway, for all these reasons, I sat through Leader. To be fair to Dilip and Vyjanthi, I think they were trying to build humour into their scenes, trying to make the movie a sort of comedy. Maybe Dilip was trying to do a Kohinoor here. The telephone scene (song) was clearly a lift-off from the Rock Hudson-Doris Day movie, Pillow Talk. But somehow, with all this, I was not impressed. From Shammi Kapoor, I can accept some tomfoolery and a flimsy storyline. From Dilip, I cannot. I expect a proper storyline from a Dilip movie. Oh, did I say “expect”? I think that’s where my problem started. 🙂
Anyway, I’m not going to criticize the movie anymore. Maybe I’ve already been a bit too harsh on it – I’ve seen worse, for sure. And I believe it was a hit – I wonder whether that was because of the star cast or the songs. Certainly couldn’t have been anything else.
Coming to the songs. If you look at the songs of Leader in isolation, they’re actually not bad at all. It is just when you think that this is Naushad, you feel he could have done better. So it is only by his own lofty standards that Naushad seems to come up short in this movie. Maybe somebody told him the storyline upfront – and poor Naushad got demotivated. 😉
Having said that, the songs are all pretty popular. For example “ek shehenshah ne banaa ke haseen Taj Mahal”, “apni azaadi ko hum hargiz mita sakte nahin”, “teri husn ki kya tareef karoon” and the sharaabi’s #1 song “mujhe duniyawaalon, sharaabi na samjho”. Even the telephone song, though very non-Naushad, is fun in its own way “aaj kal shauk-e-deedar hai”. Maybe that’s the measure of Naushad’s music. That even a relatively lesser album from him managed to find its place with the public.
The song I’m posting here is one that I’ve liked for a long time. Even when I would listen to the cassette, I would often look forward to listening to this particular song.
It is Asha Bhosle’s “daiya re daiya, laaj mohe laage”. My knowledge of classical music is unfortunately close to zero and therefore I cannot talk about raaga , sur, taal and all that. But there’s something about this song that endears itself to me. I’ve always been a big fan of Asha – and she has rarely disappointed me.
I’ve watched this song on youtube many times but, not having seen the movie, was not able to understand what sort of context it could fit into. Now that I’ve watched the movie, I’m glad to report that I still don’t understand the context. It was that sort of movie – suddenly Vyjanthimala appears, it seems to be Diwali, she starts dancing and singing this song. Not that I was complaining – by then, I’d have very gladly taken this song and dance over the film, which I had already written off.
I’ve said many times before that in my younger days I was not able to appreciate classical dance. That is one reason why movies of Vyjanthimala and Padmini used to bore me. They would invariably be loaded with dances – there would be at least one dance created purely to showcase their dancing abilities. Leader is no different – maybe that explains the context of this song. Today, being much older and greyer, I am able to appreciate classical dance much more. Not that I understand it much, but let’s just say I wouldn’t necessarily keep looking impatiently at the clock or wistfully at the door. 😉
So here’s Asha with “daiya re daiya”. Not only is Vyjanthi lovely, not only is Asha’s voice lovely, but the effort in creating the sets must be applauded. They really went to great efforts in those days to create sets, especially considering they did not have the technology they have nowadays.
I hope you like this song! And don’t mind my rant about the movie. I wouldn’t mind seeing it again actually (*said with clenched teeth*). 😉
P.S: I have just checked IMDB for this movie and I find it’s got a 7.2 rating (53 users). And the 3 people who’ve written user reviews, rave about it. I’m clearly in a minority then. 😉 Heck, wouldn’t be the first time! 🙂 Let’s just concentrate on the song, shall we? 🙂
Audio
Video
Song-Daiyya re daiyya laaj mohe laage (Leader)(1964) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Rafi,Lyrics-Shakeel Badayuni, MD-Naushad
Chorus
Lyrics
deewaali aayee re aayee
ghar ghar deepak jale
deewaali aayee re aayee
ghar ghar deepak jale
o maajhi aaj re maajhi aajaa
o maajhi aaj re aaja re maajhi aajaa
o o o o
o o o o
maajhi re maajhi
o o o
o maajhi re maajhi
o o o
o maajhi re maajhi
o o o
o maajhi re maajhi
o o o
o o o o
o o o o
daiyya re daiyya
laaj mohe laage
daiyya re daiyya
laaj mohe laage
paayal moree baaje
saans moree jaage
daiyya re daiyya
laaj mohe laage
aa aa aaa
aa aa
aa aa aa
haay
aaun main kaise
dagar tori mitwaa
chhup-chhup dekhen hain
ghar ke logwaa
pag thahre to man moraa bhaage
ae
pag thahre to man moraa bhaage
daiyyaa re daiyyaa
laaj mohe laage
paayal moree baaje
saans moree jaage
daiyya re daiyya
laaj mohe laage
aa aa aa
aa aa
aa aa aa
choodiyaan khanke to dar-dar jaaun
jhaanjhar jhanke to mar-mar jaaun
bandhe pag mein sharam ke dhaage
ae
bandhe pag mein sharam ke dhaage
daiyyaa re daiyyaa
laaj mohe laage
paayal moree baaje
saans moree jaage
daiyya re daiyya
laaj mohe laage
aa aa aa
aa aa
aa aa aa aa
nanadi rokey
dewar moraa tokey
chale naa bahaane
chale naa koi dhokhe
badi mushqil hai aaj more aage
ae
badi mushqil hai aaj more aage
daiyyaa re daiyyaa
laaj mohe laage
paayal moree baaje
saans moree jaage
daiyya re daiyya
laaj mohe laage
aa aa aa
aa aa
aa aa aa
3 Responses to "Daiyya re daiyya laaj mohe laage"
March 25, 2012 at 3:31 pm
Ha ha, “saas mori jaage” – that’s a good one! Even my twisted mind had not thought of that one! 😉 And you know how twisted my mind is, when it comes to song parodies. 🙂
I feel the main problem with Leader is the flimsy storyline (attributed to Dilip). It starts off as a political cry (usual election conspiracies) but then meanders into an abduction plot (which is silly because it is of college students). What follows is a silly quarrel between Dilip and Vyjanthi (which goes on for far too long). And then, just when Vyjanthi falls in love with him, he gets implicated for murder. After that he’s running from the police and his political villains who want to kill him – all obviously ends well. I guess it’s just about OK (like I said, I’ve seen worse) – but you’d expect a more gripping story from a Dilip movie. Both actors also looked like they were faking their love for each other. Maybe that is why they quarreled for so long – that was probably easier to direct. 😉
The sets are pretty good though – so people interested just in these aspects of the movie may not be disappointed. Just don’t expect to sit on the edge of your seat.
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March 26, 2012 at 6:35 pm
What a beautiful song, a folk of course. Lovely sets, graceful dance sequence, Vyjantimala as a folk dancer and then a dream sequence where she is seen as a mermaid. Beautiful costumes and still she comes across so graceful, and unlike today’s dancer absolutely non-vulgar.
Coming to “praying to Shivji in Diwali,”
50 years back, unlike today therewas no concept of changing the dieties according to the festivals, today we pray to lord Ganesh, Ram, Hanuman, Shivji, Ma Durga, Ma Laxmi, Saibaba Saraswati…etc. People worshipped the deity of the clan/caste they belonged to. So here in this song she is from the clan where they worship shivji (she is wering a naga mukut), besides all the classical and semi classical songs were dedicated to Natraj (Shivji)…
Vyjantimala has been the finest dancer actress that film world has come across as yet…
Any song / film if evaluated/judged in the context and era that it was made in, one will find cute little things that would/could bring in a wow…
maya
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 25, 2012 at 3:05 pm
I always thought it was ‘SAAS mori jaage’ as in my mother-in-law wakes up .. hehe.
Hmmm.. I have heard towards the end of his career Dilip Kumar used to interfere a lot with filmmaking. Maybe this was why this movie was so botchy. I left a similar remark on the song from Dil Diya Dard Liya which was rumoured to have been ruined by constant interference by DK.
I would not think one prays to Shivji on Diwali, but yet, why quarrel, it is a lovely song and is really well laid out. DK can’t resist popping in, even if it is just to sing aaaa.
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