O jaane waale dil mein teri yaad reh gayee
Posted on: October 10, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Guru Dutt is one of the few Hindi film personalities on whom one can find tonnes of information by way of articles, books and film documentaries. Within a short span of 13 years as a producer, director and actor, he left us with his rich legacy in about a dozen films. Under his own banner, Guru Dutt Films, he covered almost all the main genre of films – crime thriller, comedy, romance, social, melodrama and period. As an actor, his eyes spoke more than the dialogues. As a director, he was known for taking shots with unusual camera angles. The songs in his films narrated the story of the films on the continuum. His films were artistic within the ambit of what is called as popular commercial cinema. Even 48 years after his death, I guess, he has more fan followings than when he was alive. His films are the subject matter of intellectual discussions and they are a part of some film institutes’ curriculum.
Since all his films were released during my childhood, I had no occasion to watch any of his films in the theatre. I had heard about his films a lot from my friends and I was waiting for an opportunity to watch his films as and when they were re-released. That opportunity came sometime in the second half of 60s when there was a week long Guru Dutt Films retrospect probably on the eve of his birth or death anniversary in Bombay (Mumbai). After missing the first day’s film, I watched one film a day during the remaining days of that week which included ‘Aar Paar’(1954), ‘Mr and Mrs 55’ (1955), ‘Pyaasa’(1957), ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’(1959), ‘Chaudanvi Ka Chaand’(1960) and ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’(1962).
The first two in the list above were light comedy films and songs penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri were also light and teasing ones. I had 78 RPM gramophone records of some songs from these two films which did not have the conventional prelude music. I thought that the prelude music may have been cut to accommodate the songs within the given space in the 78 RPM record. I however noticed that even in the films, some songs like ‘mohabbat karlo ya ji bhar lo’ started without the prelude music. Later Majrooh Sultanpuri in his interview in Nasreen Muni Kabir’s documentary film on Guru Dutt revealed that Guru Dutt wanted such type of songs to carry forward the story without interruption. There are some more instances of such type of songs in his films.
Guru Dutt’s next two films ‘Pyaasa’ and ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ belonged to a different genre than his earlier ones. Both films dealt with serious subjects concerning inter-personal and societal relationships with a lot of melodrama. These two films made me for the first time to veer me more towards the meaningful lyrics in the songs then the melody. For example, three Rafi songs –jinhe naaz hai hind par wo kahaan hai, ye duniyaa agar mil bhi jaaye to kyaa hai and dekhi zamaane ki yaari bichhde sabhi baari baari had no great melody and not much interlude of orchestration but these three songs have become the immortal mainly due to their lyrical contents supplemented by Mohammad Rafi’s renditions. ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ made me so depressing that the melancholic effect on mind lingered on for few days. The next film “Chaudanvi Ka Chaand’ was a light muslim social which gave me some respite from the depressing mood of the previous day. I have the DVDs of all Guru Dutt Films which I have seen them multiple times except ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’. I have read that ‘Kagaaz Ke Phool’ failed miserably at the box office when it was released in 1959. Many years after the death of Guru Dutt in October 1964, this film was hailed as one of the greatest masterpieces of Hindi films.
Before I got exposed to Guru Dutt’s films, I was watching the new Hindi films almost every week-end perhaps to make good the lost opportunity during my childhood days. All these films were mostly in colours. After watching those six Guru Dutt’s films, my outlook about the then new Hindi films changed a lot. For me, Guru Dutt’s black and white movies had more ‘colour’ than some of the real colour films. I stopped my week-end visits to theaters and instead waited for the opportunities to watch some of the old classic black and white Hindi films which used to be screened in a few theatres in the morning shows. It was during this period I watched some of the classic Hindi films like ‘Aawaara’ (1951), ‘Shri 420’ (1955), ‘Seema’ (1955), ‘Jaagte Raho’ (1956), ‘Madhumati’ (1958).
Guru Dutt died on October 10, 1964 alone in his flat perhaps reminding him of a song ‘dekho ye zamaane ki yaari bichhade sabhi baari baari’ written by Kaifi Azmi for his film ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ (1959). Guru Dutt’s death was summed up by Kaifi Azmi in a Ghazal which he wrote soon after his death as a tribute to him.
On the occasions of the death anniversary of Guru Dutt, I have departed from the usual practice of discussing a song from his films as a producer/director/actor. Instead I have chosen a song sung by his wife, Geeta Dutt from the film STAGE (1951). The song is ‘o jaanewaale dil mein teri yaad rah gayi’ penned by Sarshar Sailani. The lyrics of this soul touching song give an impression as if Geeta Dutt was singing for Guru Dutt. Incidentally, the film ‘Stage’ was released in the same year as ‘Baazi’ which was Guru Dutt’s debut film as the director. During the song recording of this film, Guru Dutt met Geeta Dutt for the first time which over a period of time culminated into their marriage in 1953. .
The film was produced under the banner of Jeevan Pictures and directed by Vijay Mhatre. The star cast included Dev Anand, Ramola Devi, Mubarak, Kuldeep Kaur, Cuckoo, Raj Mehra, Sundar etc. There were two music directors for the film – Husnlal-Bhagatram (HB) and Sardar Malik. One of the comments on YT and earthmusic.com has accredited this song to Husnlal-Bhagatram. Myswar.com has given credit to Sardar Malik as the composer of this song. In my view, this song does not bear the music composition and orchestration style of HB. So it is more likely to be the song composed by Sardar Malik. As per the comments on YT, this song was deleted from the film. I request the knowledgeable readers to apprise us of the correct position about the composer of this song and its deletion from the film.
Song-O jaanewaale dil mein teri yaad reh gayee (Stage)(1951) Singer-Geeta Dutt, Lyrics-Sarshar Sailani, MD-Sardar Malik
Lyrics
dum tod diyaa umeedon ne
armaanon ki jhankaar gayi
bedard zamaana jeet gayaa aa
maasoom mohabbat haar gayi
o jaanewaale dil mein teri yaad reh gayi
o teri yaad reh gayi
aankhon mein ashq honthon pe fariyaad reh gayi
fariyaad reh gayi
o jaanewaale dil mein teri yaad reh gayi
o teri yaad reh gayi
bichde huye kisi ko zamaana guzar gayaa
zamaana guzar gayaa
koyi hamen mitaa ke na jaane kidhar gayaa
na jaane kidhar gayaa
o jaanewaale
o jaanewaale
o jaanewaale
o jaanewaale
o jaanewaale dil mein teri yaad reh gayi
o teri yaad reh gayi
aankhon mein ashq honthon pe fariyaad reh gayi
fariyaad reh gayi
o jaanewaale dil mein teri yaad reh gayi
o teri yaad reh gayi
gham bhool jaayen
gham bhool jaayen
gham bhool jaayen saare agar unko dekh len
haay unko dekh len
marne se pehle ek nazar unko dekh len
haay
unko dekh len
hasrat yehi
hasrat yehi
hasrat yehi
hasrat yehi
hasrat yehi bas ae dil-e-barbaad reh gayi
hasrat yehi bas ae dil-e-barbaad reh gayi
barbaad reh gayi
o jaanewaale dil mein teri yaad reh gayi
o teri yaad reh gayi
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
October 10, 2012 at 12:11 pm
I remember I saw Pysaa and Kaghaz ke Phool back to back on re-release; which made me mixed up both hopelessly. As both were black & white and again where light and shade technique used profusely. Only when saw it again on Hathway’s B&W channel couple of times it cleared the air. These movies serve as text book for those who enter the film line.
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