Loote koi man ka nagar ban ke mera saathhi
Posted on: May 24, 2012
This article is written by nahm, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Asrar-ul-hasan Khan, better known as Majrooh Sultanpuri (1st October 1919 to 24th May 2000), was one of the foremost Urdu poets to have graced the Hindi film industry. His first film as lyricist was “Shahjahan” which immortalised him in the annals of Hindi film music. The film’s music was by Naushad and it starred K. L. Sehgal in the title role.
And in such esteemed company, another legend was born who is “Majrooh” Sultanpuri. In this film Sehgal’s favourite song from “Jab dil hi toot gayaa” was also written by Majrooh. Jigar Moradabadi is said to have been his mentor, according to wikepedia. I would say Majrooh was a ‘shaagird’ of Jigar Moradabadi. He refer to his ustad in a song in film “Dil Aashna Hai”(1992). The song is title song which goes :
Dil aashna hai jigar aashna hai
tum se to hamaari nazar aashna hai
Of course, he refers to ‘Jigar’ in ‘banda parwar thhaam lo jigar” and some more songs too.
Innumerable songs like ‘Shaam-e-gham ki Qasam”, “Jalte hain jis ke liye” , “Kya huaa teraa waada”, the songs of ‘Mamta’, ‘Teesri Manzil’ ‘Pyar ka mausam’, the list is endless, are part of my memory. This list of much liked and loved songs includes the best of S D. Burman, R. D. Burman, O. P. Nayyar, Chitragupt, Salil Chaudhary, Roshan, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Naushad, Madan Mohan , Kalyanji Anandji and Khayyam. Who can forget songs like ‘O mere dil ke chayn ” , “meri bheegi bheegi si palkon pe reh gaye” “tum bin jaaoun kahaan ke duniyaa mein aa ke” or “ik pyaar ka naghma hai” or “rut hai milan ki saathhi mere aa re” “pathhar ke sanam tujhe ham ne”. Searching the net gives a wealth of information to go on and on. In fact I found a very good obituary written on Majrooh Sultanpuri.
He won his only filmfare award for “chaahoonga main tujhe” from “Dosti”. By and large he seems to have kept a low profile in an industry full of larger than life personalities. Without aligning himself with any composer / group or camp, he has left a body of work full of gems, working with various music directors.
To create lyrical beauty like “Rahen na rahen ham” for a film song, itself is enough to assure his status as a legend of the Golden era of hindi film music. This is my opinion, of course. In a way, he was right is saying:
main akela hi chala thhaa jaanib-e-manzil magar
log saathh aate gaye aur karvaan bantaa gayaa
Actually I had a lot of options of my personal favourties songs to choose from for this write up on the occassion of 12th death anniversary of Majrooh Sultanpuri. I had in fact shortlisted a few songs which included the songs of 1990’s. But then i came across songs of ‘Abhimaan’. All songs of ‘Abhimaan’ are written by Majrooh. Music Director is S. D. Burman and this duet song sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Manhar Udhas is picturized on Amitabh and Jaya Bhaduri. Amitabh and Jaya played husband and wife duo of playback singers. Such a duo of playback singers, we havent really seen in the history of Hindi Films. Lata has sung all the songs for Jaya and for Amitabh three singers were used. Kishore Kumar got to sing two songs, one solo and one duet. Rafi and Manhar had a duet each with Lata. There is one maajhi song too sung by S. D. Burman, to complete the score. The musical score of this film is right there on top rung of any lists of S. D. Burman’s career bests. Only one song from this film is posted here, so this is the second song.
It is a mystery, how the career of Manhar Udhas never took off. Maybe the voice similarity with Mukesh was a drawback. In this song it is clear that Lata Mangeshkar is way ahead of the debutant singer. It is possible that different singers were used to give playback for Amitabh Bachhan, to justify the story of the film where wife is declared to be more talented singer than the husband , who is already an established singer. On the other hand it shows the singer to be extraordinarily versatile. Imagine a playback singer who is Rafi and Kishore all rolled into one, with a pinch of Mukesh too to top it up. Too fantastic to believe, isn’t it ? Or was it a quirky sense of humour on part of S. D.Burman, one can only speculate.
The three duets in the film could have been used in each others places in my opinion. Now, why Dada Burman and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the director chose to have them in this particular way is open to on-going debate. This particular duet of Lata-Manhar is not even fully used in the film, though I am not sure. I seem to remember this song as picturized on Amitabh and Jaya, at home, with Amitabh playing the piano. I was not able to find that clip on Youtube. The partial video I found shows them singing this in the recording studio.
Full audio
Partial video
Song-Loote koi man ka nagar ban ke mera saathi (Abhimaan)(1973) Singers- Lata, Mahhar Udhas, Lyrics-Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD-S D Burman
Lata + Manhar Udhas
Lyrics
aaa aaa
aa haa
oh ho
o ho
oh ho
aa haaa
loote koyi man ka nagar
ban ke meraa saathhi
loote koyi man ka nagar
ban ke meraa saathhi
kaun hai woh
apnon mein kabhi
aisa kahin hotaa hai
yeh to bada dhokha hai
ae ae
loote koyi man ka nagar
ban ke meraa saathhi
yahin pe kahin hai
mere man ka chor
nazar padey to
bahiyaan doon marod
yahin pe kahin hai
mere man ka chor
nazar padey to
bahiyaan doon marod
jaane do
jaise tum pyaare ho
woh bhi mujhe pyaara hai
jeene ka sahaara hai
ae
dekho ji tumhaari yehi batiyaan
mujh ko hain tadpaati
loote koyi man ka nagar
ho ho ho ho ho
loote koyi man ka nagar
ban ke mera saathhi
rog mere jee ka
mere dil ka chain
sanwlaa sa mukhdaa
aa
uss pe kaare nain
rog mere jee ka
mere dil ka chain
sanwlaa sa mukhdaa
uss pe kaare nayn
aise ko
roke ab kaun bhala
dil se jo pyaari hai
sajni hamaari hai
ae
kaah karoon main bin uss ke
reh bhi nahin paati
loote koyi man ka nagar
hmm hmm hmm hmmm
loote koyi man ka nagar
ban ke meraa saathhi
loote koyi man ka nagar
ban ke meraa saathhi
saathhi
saathhi
15 Responses to "Loote koi man ka nagar ban ke mera saathhi"
May 24, 2012 at 11:08 pm
Young Nithin Mukesh(with Specs)and the cinematographer
Jayawant .R.Pathare(man wearing dotted shirt-Hrishikesh Mukherjee favourite alongwith Asrani were visible in the video clilp of the song.
Nahm ji, If my memory serves me right,the song Amithabh sings in front of piano,is “Tere mere milan ki ye raina”(a few lines of that song without music)
video link:
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May 25, 2012 at 2:51 am
Thanks, nahmji for a fitting tribute to Majrooh saab.
Majrooh saab has many popular songs to his name. He struck several fruitful partnerships – very famously with SD Burman and RD Burman. He seems to have been the favourite lyricist for the Navketan banner. And was certainly the favourite lyricist for Nasir Hussan’s films. The Majrooh-RD Burman combination for Nasir Hussain’s films delivered hit after amazing hit.
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May 25, 2012 at 2:11 pm
This is a beautiful song with lovely lyrics. Nahm, you have written it up so well.
This song is the first time Jaya consents to doing ‘playback’ on the say so of her husband, Amit, in the movie. Jaya is supposed to be a superior singer to her husband, which is to cause a rift between them later on. I always thought that is the reason a ‘lesser’ singer like Manhar Udhas was taken for this.
The first song that Amit sings in the movie – Meet na mila re man ka, is less complicated than the one Jaya sings first, casually on the village path – Nadiya kinare.
I don’t know if it was the movie that made me think so, but I felt that the portions Lata sings in this movie were better than her co-singers.
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November 2, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Lovely write up and a beautiful song. It is surprising that many more good songs from this movie are yet to be featured on the blog :).
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December 3, 2012 at 5:50 pm
The songs of Abhimaan are special, so we are posting them sparingly and we dont want them to get over :-0 . I have so far prevented myself from writing a post on ‘ Teri bindiya re….. ” because i think Raja ji would prefer to write that particular post. Now how long we(I) can wait is anybody’s guess.
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December 3, 2012 at 6:29 pm
I have requested Raja ji and he has agreed to give that writeup.
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December 3, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Hi Atul
the kishore kumar song is lying with you for quite some months now. god knows how many of us would have sent it to you
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December 3, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Please have patience for some more time. 🙂
As mentioned earlier, it will appear soon.
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December 4, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Aah Nahm Ji, that explains it :). I am not active for a couple of days and so much has happened in the meanwhile. I see that Raja Ji has posted Teri Bindiya Re from Abhimaan now, will read it in a while. Lots to catch up :). Thank you.
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May 24, 2012 at 8:31 pm
Atul ji, if what you’ve written is true, Majrooh was a child prodigy! He was born on 1st October, 1990 died on 24th May 2000! Koi baath nahi, we all make mistakes.
“Nadiya kinare…” by Lata is my favourite song from ‘Abhimaan’….
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