Roz akeli aaye roz akeli jaaye
Posted on: August 18, 2012
On independence day, we had the birthday of Rakhi. Three days later, it is the birthday of her husband. Sampooran Singh Kalra, known just as Gulzar, was born on 18 august 1936. Gulzar started his career as a lyricist in Hindi movies in early 1960s. He had written songs for “Shrimaan Satyawaadi” (1960),”Kabuliwaala”(1961),”Bandini”(1963),”Do Dooni Chaar” (1969) etc in his earlier years.
The song Ganga aaye kahaan se Ganga jaaye kahaan re (Kabuliwaala)(1961) was one of his earliest memorable song, to be followed by songs like Mora gora ang lai le mohe shyaam rang dai de (Bandini) , Hamsafar mere hamsafar (Purnima), Wo shaam kuchh azeeb thi(Khamoshi)(1969) etc.
From 1970s, he turned a director too in addition to being a lyricist. This decase saw Gulzar writing songs for “Guddi” (1971), “Parichay”(1972),”Mausam” (1975), “Khushboo” (1975), “Aandhi” (1975), “Kitaab”(1977),”Gharonda” (1977), “Ghar” (1978) etc. This decade also saw his forging a quality partnership with R D Burman which gave usseveral memorable songs for the next two decades. Gulzar in fact is one of the lyricists of the goldeb era who continued to go from strenghth to strength even after the golden era of Hindi movie music was over.
Gulzar has the distinction of winning the Filmfare award for the best lyricist for ten times, which is a record. In addition, he won the best dialoguewriter award four times too.
Gulzar had been given Government of India’s honour of Padmabhushan in 2004. He has also won the Sahitya Academy Award in 2002. He in fact has won some international wards too, viz. Academy award (Oscar) for the best original song in 2008 (for “Jai Ho” in Slumdog Millionaire) as well as Grammy awrad in 2010 for the same song.
On the occasion of his birhday, we in this blog will discuss a few songs penned by him. Here is the first of them.
This song is from “Mere Apne” (1971). The song was a critically acclaimed song, but when one seeks details about this song, it turns out that the video of this song is not available. The song was apparently deleted from the movie by the makers. As for the audio, two versions of this song are available and they differ from each other in one stanza. Links to both the versions have been provided.
This song is sung by Lata. Music is composed by Salil Chaudhary.
Prakashchandra, who sent me the lyrics of this song, guesses that the song is picturised on Amina Karim who played the role of Young Meena kumari in this movie. I request our knowledgeable readers to throw more light on the picturisation of this song.
One version
Another version
Song-Roz akeli aaye roz akeli jaaye (Mere Apne)(1971) Singer-Lata, Lyrics-Gulzar, MD-Salil Chaudhary
Lyrics(Provided by Prakashchandra)
roz akeli aaye,
roz akeli jaaye
roz akeli aaye,
roz akeli jaaye
chaand katoraa liye bhikhaaran raat
roz akeli aaye,
roz bechaari jaaye
motiyon jaise taare
aanchal mein hain saare
motiyon jaise taare
aanchal mein hain saare
haaye re phir kyaa
maange bhikhaaran raat
roz akeli aaye
roz akeli jaaye
chaand katoraa liye bhikhaaran raat
roz akeli aaye
roz bechaari jaaye
jogan jaisi laage
na soye na jaage
jogan jaisi laage
na soye na jaage
gali gali mein
jaaye bhikhaaran raat
roz akeli aaye
roz akeli jaaye
chaand katoraa liye bhikhaaran raat
roz akeli aaye
roz bechaari jaaye
roz lagaaye pheraa
hai koyee nanhaa savera
roz lagaaye pheraa
hai koyee nanhaa savera
god mein bhar do
aayee bhikhaaran raat
roz akeli aaye
roz akeli jaaye
chaand katoraa liye bhikhaaran raat
roz akeli aaye
roz bechaari jaaye
5 Responses to "Roz akeli aaye roz akeli jaaye"
September 1, 2016 at 10:41 am
Yesterday, I heard an interview with Aarti Mukherjee on Vividh Bharati, where she said she had sung this song for the film Mere Apne. She also played her version of it. I was surprised because I had heard only the Lata version on radio. On YouTube, it is mainly the LATA version.
Quite a mystery!
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June 23, 2017 at 8:32 am
The original tune is a composition of Kazi Nazrul Islam, the famous poet musician of Bengal. The song MEGHLA NISHI BHORE, MON JE KEMON KORE (1940) was recorded in the voice of SD Burman. Both Dada Burman and Kazi Nazrul Islam were close friends. You can listen to the original song at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNDy71DYWM8
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August 29, 2019 at 6:02 pm
This song was to be picturised on Meena Kumari but her illness prevented Gulzar saab to start the picturisation. He was very keen to picturise this song on her but she did not recover from her illness. Gulzar saab felt that it is better to exclude the song from the film rather than to use it as a background song in the film.
Source: salilda.com
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 18, 2012 at 1:04 pm
The words “Chand katora liye bhikharan raat’ give me goosebumps. Such phrases were very typical to Gulzaar. “Jinke sir ho ishq ki chaon paon ke neeche jannat hogi” and “ankhon se jo tune chua, halka halka uns hua”
Happy Birthday Gulzar. I love your poetry.
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