Tum saamne baithhe raho
Posted on: August 9, 2012
Experienced music lovers can often identify the music director by listening to the music of a song. Most music directors have their “signature” tunes that differentiate them from others. So most of the time one can identify a tune as being a tune of Naushad, O P Nayyar, Madan Mohan, S D Burman, Roshan, Shankar Jaikishan, Laxmikant Pyarelal etc.
But that is not the case all the time. Sometimes one music director may ape the music style of other music director for some reason or the other. In this blog I have discussed quite a few such cases. For instance, there have been cases when Madan Mohan and Roshan have copied the music style of O P Nayyar. And then there are quite a few Kalyanji Anandji compositions of early 1960s that sound like Shankar Jaikishan compositions. In one movie, Laxmikant Pyarelal composed music in Madan Mohan style at the urging of Lata.
Recently I came across a comment elsewhere where Pamir Harvey, a regular visitor of this blog exclaimed that Bappi Lahiri could compose a song that sounded like a Madan Mohan composition !
These days, Bappi Lahiri is known as the music director who was largely responsible for the introduction of the “disco” music as well as for the sad demise of the golden era of the Golden era of Hindi movie music.
But that is not how Bappi Lahiri had started his career. In his early days, he was inspired by R D Burman and his tunes actually sounded like R D Burman’s compositions. For quite some time I was under the impression that the music of “Zakhmee” (1975) and “Chalte Chalte” were composed by R D Burman !
Subsequntly Bappi Lahiri composed some other fine songs in late 1970s but most of them were in losing causes where the movies failed at the box office. Some of the memorable Bappi Lahiri compositions during late 1970s were Pyaar maanga hai tumhi se(College girl)(1978), Maana ho tum behad haseen (Toote Khilone) , Nanha sa panchhi re tu bahut badaa pinjra teraa (Toote Khilone) , Haan pahli baar ik ladki mera haath pakadkar (Aur Kaun) and Tumhaaraa pyaar chaahiye mujhe jeene ke liye (Manokaamna) etc.
All these songs were stunning songs, but the movies containing these songs failed at the box office and they did not help further the career of Bappi Lahiri. Soon thereafter, Bappi Lahiri discovered Disco music. The quality of these music compositions was nothing to write home about, but these compositions made Bappi Lahiri the most sought after music director of 1980s. So much so that several senior music directors had to ape Bappi Lahiri style of music to survive, which was a sad sight for many music lovers.
It has to be said in Bappi Lahiri’s favour that he had the pedigree to be as good a music director as the music directors of the golden era but he decided that he wanted instant success rather than bother about quality of his music. He succeeded spectacularly in 1980s with his “Disco” music and he had followers of his kind of music.
But even during his disco music days, Bappi Lahiri could come up with stunning music when situation so demanded. For example, the song Kisi nazar ko tera intezaar aaj bhi hai(Aitbaar) is as good a ghazal as any and it is a Bappi Lahiri composition of 1985 !
Bappi Lahiri made his decision and he succeeded in his aim in life. On the other hand some one like Madan Mohan, despite composing great music throughout his career was starved of hit movies and as a result Madan Mohan could never have the kind of commercial and financial success that he so richly deserved. After Madan Mohan’s demise, the quality of his music is now being appreciated. In fact his unused tunes were used in “Veer Zaara” (2004) and they turned out to be popular with music lovers of a generation who were not born during Madan Mohan’s time. These days, it has become fashionable for budding artists to state that Madan Mohan is their favourite music composer. It is very pleasing to know that Madan Mohan is being appreciated now, but it would have been that much better if his worth was realised during his life time.
There have been quite a few music directors of the golden era who deserved to be much better known, but they were starved of opportunities and as a result they failed to reap the rewards that they deserved. The regulars of this blog are familiar with many such music composers- Sajjad Hussain, Jaidev, G S Kohli, Ganesh, Dattaram etc etc.
I am happy that Bappi Lahiri made a decision and made sure that he succeeded in life. So what if his music may never be regarded as highly as that of Madan Mohan.
As noted above, Bappi Lahiri had the talent and the calibre to be as good as the best among the music directors of the golden era. I have already mentioned a few songs of Bappi Lahiri above which were great sungs but they were forgotten because the movies containing these songs flopped ( siomilar to the fate of most Madan Mohan movies), so Bappi Lahiri decided that he was going to compose the music that succeeded and he was succeessful in creating that kind of music.
We in this blog may not like to cover all the Bappi Lahiri songs unlike the songs of the golden era music directors, but I have no aversion to covering Bappi Lahiri songs which belong here.
And the song under discussion firmly belongs here.
Here is this wonderful song from “Ikraar” (1979). The song is sung by Lata and it is lip synced by Rameshwari. The song is pictuised as a get together song where Rameshwari, Rakesh Roshan etc have assembled and Rameshwari is seated at the grand piano.
Kulwant Jani is the lyricist.
With this song, now we have yet another contributor of lyrics joining the musical bandwagon. The lyrics of this song were sent to me by Pamir Harvey.
This song reminds me of the song Aaj sochaa to aansoo bhar aaye (Hanste Zakhm) , whereas the song may remind others of another Madan Mohan composition viz. Mai ri main kaase kahoon peer apne jiya ki(Dastak)
Audio
Video
Song-Tum saamne baithe raho (Ikraar)(1979) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Kulwant Jani, MD-Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics(Provided by Pamir Harvey)
tum saamne
baithe raho
palken meri
jam jaayen
tum saamne
baithe raho
palken meri
jam jaayen
hasrat hain ye ghadiyaan
jab aayen to tham jaayen
tum saamne
baithe raho
palke meri jam jaayen
tumse hi muhabbat hai
tum par hi aqeedat hai
ae jaan-e-tamannaayi
yeh baat haqeeqat hai
ab chhote se is dil mein
ye chhoti si hasrat hai
tum saamne
baithe raho
palken meri jam jaayen
hasrat hain ye ghadiyaan
jab aayen to tham jaayen
tum saamne baithe raho
aaye na kabhi doori
koi na ho majboori
tohfa hai yahi mera
rahe maang ye sindoori
aaye na kabhi doori
koi na ho majboori
tohfa hai yahi mera
rahe maang ye sindoori
mere dil ki dua hai ke
ho aas meri poori
tum saamne
baithe raho
palken meri jam jaayen
hasrat hain ye ghadiyaan
jab aaye to tham jaaye
tum saamne
baithe raho
11 Responses to "Tum saamne baithhe raho"
August 9, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Harvey ji,
Welcome to the team of lyric contributors to this blog.I did not know that you are an expert in this too.
-AD
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August 9, 2012 at 8:01 pm
Thank you Arunji!
Expert?
Aap kahe to expert hai, nahin to raaste ka patthar! 🙂
Thank you for your appreciation.
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August 9, 2012 at 12:55 pm
A sunning composition.. Ashaji added chaar chand. Thanks
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August 9, 2012 at 1:36 pm
Oops Please read as :stunning composition.
Recently I cam across an article in TOI dt 30.7.12 under CITILIGHTS:
A slew of concerts to commemorate music director Madan Mohan’s 88th birth anniv recently helped revive memories of Hindi filmdom’s golden era when music drew connoisseurs to cinema halls. In his brief career he popularized ghazals, the classical form in Persian and Urdu poetry. The brevity of ghazal meshed well with Hindi cinema, say experts. MM and his lyricist friends such as Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Rajendra Krishan and Kaifi Azmi amongst others distilled the life’s agony and ectasy to regain the audience. Many of his ghazals have withstood the rigours of time. Veteran Naushad Ali, or so goes the story was deeply moved and impressed with ‘hai isi mein pyar ki aabroo…a masterpiece rendered sensitively by Lataji. “This single ghazal of MM outweighs my entire life’s work” Naushad Ali is believed to have remarked.
Sanjeev Kohli the maestro’s son has an endearing tale to recount. “Papa would often take us for a long drive- I, my brother Sameer and our friends from the building. He would ask us to sing our favourite songs and we would end up belting our popular SJ numbers such as ‘Titli udi’ or Bhahaaro phul barsao ‘. Papa would look at me and say. ‘You too. Brutus?’ Commercial failure had turn him into a bitter man. I realized his pain years later,” said Kohli who went on to make an evocative documentary on his father
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August 9, 2012 at 8:00 pm
I remember reading this anecdote as well. But one can’t really blame his children, they just sang what came naturally to them.
aaj socha to aansu bhar aaye or naino me badra chahye or hain is me pyar ki aabro are not songs to be pelted out while going on long drives by children, are they?
But on the other hand I can understand Madan Mohan as well and his feeling of being betrayed. Maybe exactly this is the sadness, which he could pour in his compositions, which we love so much!
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August 9, 2012 at 8:02 pm
Thank you Atul for the lovely introduction to this song. It made good reading!
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August 10, 2012 at 2:23 am
One of my favourite ‘new’ songs.
Welcome to the contributors’ club, Harvey.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 9, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Atul ji,
This is the 4th song of Lyricist KULWANT JAANI,in this blog.This name is not known to many and that is a sad part.Jani has written about 170 songs in more than 60 films from 1972 to 1994.
he was born in punjab on 14-7- 1940 and his first song was in DARAAR-72.like many lyricists of good quality songs,he too got only small budget and B grade films.
Some of his films were Hamrahi,Paapi,Ek baar kaho,Dharmayudha,Gola Barood,Suryavanshi,Ek hi raasta,Do qaidi,Superman etc etc.
he wrote stories,dialogues and s/plays of few films too.
He died on 30-9-2004 in Mumbai.
-AD
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August 9, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Thanks for this information. Indeed his tally of just 160 songs in a two decades long career is quite meagre.
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