Bekas pe karam keejiye sarkaar e madinaa
Posted on: April 25, 2012
This article is written by nahm, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
This song is from the epic called “Mughal-e-Azam”. Seeing this film on the big screen is an experience to behold, which our children are having no opportunity to do. I have seen it at ‘Maratha Mandir’ in Bombay Central, where this film premiered in 1960. No, I was not there for the premier but saw it when it was showing, must be in the mid 80’s. All of us are familiar with the music of this film. As far as I can see only two songs from this film remain to be discussed, one is “bekas pe karam keejiye sarkaar-e-madina” and the other is “prem jogan banke”. The later is sung by Bade Gulam Ali Khan, reputedly the only time he was persuaded to sing a film song. My personal favourite song in the film is “aye ishq yeh sab duniya waale, bekaar ki baaten karte hain” which is already posted. Mean while, Deshmukh Sir is doing a painstaking job of listing films with only one or two songs remaining to be posted. I expect he will reach ‘M’ too soon.
The song under discussion is a solo by Lata Mangeshkar, composed by Naushad, and written by Shakeel Badayuni. This is picturized on Madhu Bala(Anarkali), who is put in dungeons by the king Akbar, for defying him. Anarkali is calling out to the Almighty for help. It is a superb rendition by Lata. The total songs are
actually one too many, but the team consists of only Naushad, Shakeel Badayuni, Lata, Shamshad Begum, Rafi and Bade Gulam Ali Khan. The last three are having one song each to sing.
The film is superb in terms of actual content too which has been overshadowed by the grandeur and glamour of the sets and the larger than life characterization of Akbar, Salim, Anarkali and others. What I mean by actual content is the script, screenplay and dialogues.
For e.g. the scene where Madhu Bala is granted the title of “Anarkali”. When Prince Salim is about the unveil the statue made by the recluse artist, Bahaar(kaneez of the queen), who knows that the artist has not completed the statue and made Madhu Bala continue to pose as the Statue, brings a “teer and kamaan”. As she explains, she says that
“afsaanon mein aaya hai ke mujassamon ki naqaab kushaayi teeron se bhi huaa karti thhi”.
Prince Salim accepts the challenge and accurately unveils the statue with a shot of teer. Everyone is stunned on seeing the statue first, at the sheer beauty of it, and than the so called statue steps down from the pedestal to bow and gives Salams to those present with her hand. The king, asks her that why is she there instead of statue, and who made her do this, she states,
” aap hi ki sultanat ka ek magroor mussavvir jo gumnaami ke andheron se baahar aana nahin chahta”.
King again bellows
“Lekin teer chalte waqt to cheekhi kyun nahin”
To which she replies
” Kaneez dekhna chaahti thhi ke afsaane haqeeqat mein kis tarah badalte hain”.
“Tujhe teer se dar nahin lagaa”,
asks the king. Madhu Bala replies
“Kaneez ko Saahib-e-alam ke nishaane par poora yaqeen thha”.
King Akbar is obviously impressed by her bravado and spirit, tells the queen to include Madhubala (nargis) in
her staff of kaneezes and states
” aur ham tumhen…. “
the prince quips before the king completes the sentence
” ….Anarkali ka khitaab dete hain “.
The King Akbar is overjoyed and says beeming at his son
” Shekhu ! tum ne mere munh ki baat chheen lee “.
And the rest as they say is history.
And History is made by dialogues such as :
Anar kali to King Akbar – ” Kaneez to zill-e-ilaahi ke insaaf se yehi ummeed thhi “
King Akbar to Anarkali – ” Salim tumhen marne nahin degaa aur ham Anarkali, tumhen jeene nahin denge “
Kaneez Bahaar to Prince Salim – ” Kaneez ko khanjar ki nafarmaani par hairat hai “
Prince Salim to King Akbar – ” to meraa dil bhi koyi aap ka hindustaan nahin jis par ke aap hukumat karen “
King Akbar to Prince Salim – ” hamaari duaa hai ke khudawand-e-akram maidan-e-jung tumhen mein jalaal-e-
akbari se mehfooz rakkhe “
And many more such moments.
Audio
Video
Song-Bekas pe karam keejiye sarkaar-e-madinaa (Mughal-e-Aazam)(1960) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Shakeel Badayuni, MD-Naushad
Lyrics
ae mere mushkil kushaan
fariyaad hai
fariyaad hai ae ae
aap ke hote huye
duniyaa meri barbaad hai
ae ae ae ae
bekas pe karam keejiye
sarkaar-e-madinaa
bekas pe karam keejiye
gardish mein hai taqdeer
bhanwar mein hai safeena
gardish mein hai taqdeer
bhanwar mein hai safeena
bekas pe karam keejiye
sarkaar-e-madinaa
bekas pe karam keejiye
hai waqt-e-madad aayiye
bigdi ko banaane
bigdi ko banaane
posheeda nahin aap se
kuch dil ke fasaane
zakhmon se bharaa hai
kisi majboor ka seena
bekas pe karam keejiye
chhaayi hai museebat ki ghataa
gesuonwaale
gesuonwaale
lillaah meri doobti kashti ko
bachaa le
toofaan ke aasaar hain
dushwaar hai jeena
bekas pe karam keejiye
gardish mein hai taqdeer
bhanwar mein hai safeena
bekas pe karam keejiye
sarkaar-e-madinaa
bekas pe karam keejiye
6 Responses to "Bekas pe karam keejiye sarkaar e madinaa"
April 25, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Nice to hear some of those immortal dialogues from the film again. Almost all the frames of the movie are my favorites, it is an epic, a legacy for all of us. A movie of this calibre will never come again. Sure, we have made films that are better than Mughal-e-Azam, but in its own genre, it is unsurpassed.
Thanks Nahm for this lovely write up and this lovely song.
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December 6, 2013 at 4:54 pm
All songs of this GRAND epic are marvellous and immortalized by Naushad, but my favourite is bekas pe karam keejiye…which leaves a very calm and soothing effect whenever I listen it. Lataji’s rendition of this is simply superb.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
April 25, 2012 at 11:07 am
My fav song from this film. Thanks Nahmji for posting.
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