Kasam Khuda ki jo kuchh kahoongaa
Posted on: April 19, 2012
This article is written by Raja, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Recently I wrote up a 1970s song here and today I’m presenting another 1970s song.
I know that by the standards of this blog, the 1970s is a fairly recent decade. Most of the songs here are from an earlier period – and I love this because it gives me an opportunity to listen to, and learn about, so many forgotten gems of an earlier era. I will never forget the thrill I got when I heard “halla gulla lai la (Dholak – 1951)” for the first time – it has since become one of my FAVOURITE songs! Actually I’d always been interested in old songs but thanks to the internet and this blog, my interest has not only been encouraged, it has also been sharpened in the last few years.
Now it is one thing to listen to, and enjoy, a song. It is quite another to write about it. I find writing up a pre-1970s song (especially if I haven’t seen the film) not particularly easy to do. Sure I can write up, and have written up, such songs too but I’m sure I haven’t been able to do justice to them. My knowledge of the era is of course second-hand, my knowledge of the characters involved is also secondhand. That is why I enjoy it when somebody else does the write-up and we see comments from those who’ve been part of the era, like Arunji or Sudhirji or Kamathji. Am actually quite amazed that Atul has managed so many lovely write-ups of songs of earlier eras.
For me, writing up a 1970s song is much easier. I have a sense of the times, I lived through it. I can comment more authoritatively about whether a movie or song or actor was popular or not. Most of the times, I don’t need film magazines to tell me that. So my write-up is more first-hand than second-hand opinion.
That is probably one reason I tend to write up 1970s songs.
But that is only one reason. The far bigger reason is nostalgia – I discover every now and then a song from my schooldays that I remember listening to or singing then, but have completely forgotten since. Now, thanks to the net, I come across it again – and my memories are revived.
These are often not-very-famous songs from not-very-famous movies. These are the types I like the most. They’re often not picturised on the big guns like Amitabh or Hema. Otherwise they would have been in the public eye even now. In fact, it is quite possible that if I had not lived in that era, I would never have heard the song at all. I do not even claim that these are gems – some of them may well not be. But I still feel nostalgic towards them. So when I hear a song like this after so many years, I immediately want it to be part of Atul’s blog.
I can request Atul to post it soon – but then he has a backlog anyway. Plus, I would like to help him post more instead of adding to his backlog. Plus, since it is a period I am comfortable with, I feel I could write up the song myself and get it published sooner (if Atul is kind enough of course to post it).
All these considerations play in my mind and often result in my writing up a 1970s song. Nothing to do with liking songs of that period more (certainly not!) – I readily acknowledge that the golden period was 1940s/50s and, to some extent, 60s.
Ok, so now that I’ve got the explanation (and my defence) out of the way, let me get down to the song itself.
This is a song I remember from my schooldays. Again, as with many other songs, I had no clue which movie it was from or who the actors were. I came across it a few days ago – and a bulb lit up in my head.
The song is “kasam khuda ki” from Nirmaan (1974). I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this movie but I cannot, for the life of me, remember what it was about. So I’ll have to leave it to somebody (maybe Arunji) to talk more about the storyline.
The song is picturised on Navin Nischol and Anupama. Now Navin Nischol is a well-known name and has a few hits to his name but Anupama, sadly, faded away without making a mark. I don’t know much about her – maybe somebody can tell us more. Actresses, especially those who’ve only done a handful of films, often get married and quietly leave the scene. I don’t know whether this happened with Anupama or whether it was something else. I don’t want to speculate – I’ll wait for somebody to tell us more.
Now, Navin Nischol. I think he had good looks. He wasn’t a particularly bad actor either, in my opinion. And he had a fair share of hits – I remember Sawan Bhadon, Parwana, Victoria No.203, Buddha Mil Gaya, Dharma, Dhund, Hanste Zakhm all in a 3-4 year period. Most of these did quite well, all of these have songs that are popular to this day. So what happened? Why did he not make it to the next league? Why was his success limited to just those 3-4 years?
My theory is that in that period, you needed to have one of the following qualities. Either you should have had very strong acting skills (like Sanjeev, Amitabh and Shatrughan had), or you should have had history (like Dharam, Jeetu and Shashi had), or you should have had charisma (like Rajesh had – at that time at least). Or maybe had a mai-baap (like Rishi had ;-)).
If you were decent-looking, if you had OK acting skills – and no godfather, it was just not good enough. You would be tossed aside rudely. The currents sweeping the industry then, led by Amitabh, left no room for “ok” guys like Anil Dhawan and Vijay Arora. Even a looker like Kabir Bedi came a cropper. And the likes of Vinod Mehra and Rakesh Roshan survived partly because they either co-starred with other heroes or acted opposite leading ladies of the time, like Hema and Raakhee.
Navin Nischol, with his chocolate good looks, did get to act opposite Rekha a few times but she was also not really established then. And though he acted opposite Saira in Victoria No.203, it was the fag end of her career. And in Dhund, Zeenat was still just starting her career. Otherwise Navin Nischol was acting opposite the likes of Archana and Anupama. The exception is Nadaan (1971) where he acted opposite Asha Parekh – I don’t know whether that film did well.
So overall, Navin Nischol fell short. His acting was just about ok, nothing spectacular in my opinion. Anyway, he had a few good years (before he moved on to character roles) – and a fair number of good songs.
Today’s song “kasam khuda ki” reminds me of “bhali bhali si ek soorat” from Buddha Mil Gaya (1971). Now that song was a superhit – and as happens often, once a song becomes a hit, it has imitators. Ok, in BMG it was Archana, here it is Anupama but the teasing style of both are quite similar.
It is a pleasant enough song to listen to. I was a bit surprised to learn that the music was composed by L-P. I would have guessed it as RD – it has that RD feel to it. Maybe it was L-P trying to channel RD? 😉
Anyway I quite liked listening to this song – it brought back memories. Hope you like it too. Kishore and Asha are almost always a delight to listen to anyway. And this is no exception, I think.
Audio
Video
Song-Kasam khuda ki jo kuchh kahoonga (Nirmaan)(1974) Singers-Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhonsle, Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD-Laxmikant Pyarelal
Kishore Kumar + Asha Bhonsle
Lyrics
Kasam khuda ki
jo kuchh kahoonga
sach sach kahoonga
sach ke siwa
aur kuchh na kahoonga
ki tumse hai
ki tumse hai
mujhe pyaar
kasam khuda ki
jo kuchh kahoonga
sach sach kahoonga
sach ke siwa
aur kuchh na kahoonga
ki tumse hai
ki tumse hai
mujhe pyaar
to bolo pehle kaise aankh ladi
haseena humse thhi kuchh door khadi
tumhaare paas aayi phir kya baat hui
nazar mil gayi din se raat hui
kavita chhodo baat kaho
seedha bolo saaf kaho
matlab ye jab nain ladey
ho gaye donon khadey khadey
jhooth hai
sach hai
galat
dil hai
jhootha nahin main
jhootha nahin main sarkaar
kasam khuda ki
ko kuchh kahoonga
sach sach kahoonga
sach ke siwa
aur kuchh na kahoonga
ki tumse hai
ki tumse hai
mujhe pyaar
achha to donon phir kis raat miley
ye poochho phir hum kab na saath miley
ye kaho hadd mein thhey kanoon ke tum
bataayen kaise jab thhey hosh bhi gum
yaane pataa din raat nahin
kyun ji hai na baat yehi
Mujh ko hi ilzaam na do
Kuchh to apne naam bhi lo
Jhoot hai
Sach hai
???
dil hai
kuchh to kaho na
kuchh to kaho na dildaar
kasam khuda ki
jo kuchh kahoongi
sach sach kahoongi
Sach ke siwa
aur kuchh na kahoongi
ki tumse hai
ki tumse hai
mujhe pyaar
achha o ladki ab tu bol zaraa
haan sajan ghoonghatwa mera khol zaraa
tu ne bhi us ladke ko pyar kiya?
haan haan
haan maine khul ke aaj iqraar kiya
ye hai dafaa nau do gyaarah
tu bhi hai mujrim wo maara
Lekar phoolon ki ladiyaan
La pehna de hathkadiyaan
kaise
Aise
Aaja
Aaja
Ho aaja milke
Milke karen iqraar
kasam khuda ki
jo kuchh kahenge
sach sach kahenge
sach ke siwa
aur kuchh na kahenge
ki tumse hai
ki tumse hai
humen pyaar
ki tumse hai
humen pyaar
ki tumse hai
humen pyaar
10 Responses to "Kasam Khuda ki jo kuchh kahoongaa"
April 19, 2012 at 11:24 am
I liked Navin Nischol, theek thak tha. Rishi did not survive merely on his Kapoor surname, if that had been the case Randhir would have been a winner too. Rishi was a good actor and with his boyish good looks (conventi?) he suited the roles he played at the time. Now he is getting roles commensurate to his talents.
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April 19, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Ha ha, I said that about Rishi just to wind you up. 😉 I too thought Rishi was a good actor. In fact – and I know I’m in a very small minority here – I didn’t mind even Randhir. A couple of things went wrong for him, I think. First, his figure didn’t work in his favour. Second, he tried to copy his father’s style at a time when that style was out of fashion. With that figure and style, when the country was either in romance mood (Rajesh) or angry young man mood (Amitabh), Randhir had no slot to be in.
Rishi had that “conventi” (I love that term! :-)) look and pulled off romantic roles quite easily.
Btw, you claim to be a Rishi fan and you haven’t seen Rafoo Chakkar? You need to see it rightaway.
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April 19, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Oh I know! I even bought a dvd specially. I will amend it this weekend pucca. Though I was never really a Rishi fan or Amitabh fan, the 70s was SO dominated by these two men, that they were a part of my growing up years. Of course, I do realise they are both good actors, but I was never a ‘fangirl’ in the sense I never set out to see Rishi movies specially or sighed over their pictures in magazines. I did that for Dev Anand and Imran Khan, more for Imi, my cupboard was pasted over with his pics, much to my brother’s disgust.
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April 19, 2012 at 8:40 pm
This is a nice song, brings back some 70’s memories. I agree with you about 70’s writing, I too am much more sure since I have lived through it.
There is not much more I can contribute about Navin Nischol, you have comprehensively summed it up. “Paise Ki Gudiya” was another movie he co-starred with Saira Banu. Anupama draws a lot of blanks, but she does look good. Same with Archana of BMG.
As you have pointed out, it did require something extra to survive Rajesh & Amitabh; and towards the end of decade, very few did. I suppose that is true of almost all decades (each had their superstars), but would the 70’s rank high in terms of just how many people got a shot ?
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April 20, 2012 at 12:32 am
Thanks for commenting, Samir.
Indeed, the number of new aspirants in the early 70s was quite something! I don’t think other decades had quite so many. There seemed to be a flood of FTII graduates coming in too.
There were also guys like Rakesh Pandey and Romesh Sharma in addition to the better-known Anil Dhawan, Parikshat Sahni, Vijay Arora, Vikram, Kabir Bedi, Rakesh Roshan, Vinod Mehra, Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna and Navin Nischol. And I’m sure I’ve missed out a few names. That’s already a big list! 🙂
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April 20, 2012 at 1:04 am
This begs the real question — What changed in later decades ?.
Why don’t we have a flood of FTII graduates anytime since the early 70’s ? We do get a steady stream of female beauty contest winners, but we had that even in the 70’s (Zeenat Aman). What really changed ? Any opinions ?
Is their a correlation between the declining quality of music & the lesser number of entrants 🙂
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April 20, 2012 at 1:32 pm
As far as my info goes,the course on Acting in FTII had been closed long long back.
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April 20, 2012 at 7:30 pm
contd….
The latest info is, 2 years’ PG Diploma in acting has again started from 2005 onwards.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 19, 2012 at 10:33 am
Actually, Asha Parekh was also towards the end of her career during Nadaan (1971). Caravan and Mera Gaon Mera Desh were other big releases of her during 1971, last major career year for her.
I believe Navin Nischol was a gold medalist from the film institute, and if u watch an average suspense thriller Woh Main Nahin (1974, with Rekha), where he portrays 4 different characters, u would see his acting range. But I guess he wasnt really serious about his career and was more interested in affairs with B-grade actresses, such as Padmini Kapila, for example. He did pass on the roles in Roti Kapada Aur Makaan and Deewar which ultimately went to Shashi Kapoor.
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April 19, 2012 at 2:01 pm
I’ve seen Woh Main Nahin. Was an ok movie, not bad. You may be right that Navin Nischol may not have been very serious about his career. That is a big reason for many not to quite make it – not only in films but in any field. You need not just skills, you need drive too. Maybe that was lacking in his case.
Whatever it was, at least he had those 3-4 years of success. And good songs that will be remembered for a long time.
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