Laga pehli nazar ka teer
Posted on: November 2, 2012
This article is written by Sudhir, a feloow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
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Voice of Mukesh #5
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Ah, so now we arrive at the turning point of Mukesh’s fledgling career that made him capture the attention of all concerned, and be launched on to the sky of Hindi films, never to look back. The year is 1945, the film is ‘Pehli Nazar’, and the singer Mukesh – well, it almost did not happen.
The anecdote around the recording of the iconic song “Dil Jalta Hai . . .” is almost a legend now, having been retold many times. Interestingly, when I participated in the program on Mukesh (on Doordarshan), Shikha Vohra ji, the daughter of Anil Biswas, added more to this anecdote that I was not aware of earlier. The entire episode now goes as follows.
After being in Bombay for four years, Mukesh had as yet not attracted any singular attention. He continued to be one of the also-rans, and almost on the verge of packing his stuff and heading back home to Delhi. At this point, Motilal introduced him to Anil Biswas. Motilal and Anil Biswas were great friends. The introduction was as casual as it could be, with Motilal
telling Anil Da – this is Mukesh, he sings, just listen to him a bit. Very casually ! Well, Anil Da heard Mukesh, was impressed. And then the two friends decided to have Mukesh sing in the upcoming production starring Motilal. They together went to the producer Mazhar Khan, who refused to even listen to the proposal. He said he will not have his film jeopardized
with the singing voice of a struggling failure. First round, and Mukesh is out. Between friends, then Motilal suggested he would sing the songs himself. Anil Da, not very confident of Motilal’s tenor, tried to dissuade him from getting behind the microphone, saying that he might sing himself. This conversation found its way to Mukesh, and he commented that if the
music directors sang their own songs, then what shall become of the aspiring singers. This comment made its way back to Anil Da, who then decided that he will have Mukesh sing for the film. The two friends visited the producer in his office once again, with Motilal threatening to pull out of the film.
Mazhar Khan grudgingly gave in, with the comment that if his film flopped, the blame will be on Motilal and Anil Da. And so, came about the break, that Mukesh needed so badly. Not that people knew what would happen after the release of the song and of the film. The important things was the opportunity to work with Anil Da, the leading composer of that era.
But then, there is still more. The later part of the episode has been discussed earlier, and I will repeat it in brief here.
Mukesh was very low on confidence, and was actually afraid to even rehease with Anil Biswas. Comes the day of the recording, and Mukesh lost his nerve completely. At the recording studios in Malad area, Anil Biswas and the complete orchestra is prepared and waiting for this novice singer, who is late and is nowhere to be found. Mukesh, a devoted fan of Saigal Saab, reasoned with himself to put down one or two drinks, before going to recording, to build his self confidence. He belived if Saigal Saab could drink and sing, then so could he. So instead of going to Malad, he headed to Juhu Chowpatty, and made way to the Venus bar, and started to drink. But of course he did not stop at two drinks but continued to drink.
At the studio, Anil Da was losing his patience. After some threatenings and display of anger, he was able to extract the information as to where Mukesh was. In a fit of continued anger, he immediately called a taxi and drove to Venus bar. The bar was on the first floor of the hotel. He stormed up the stairs. When Mukesh saw him coming, he was terrified. He tried to get up from the chair, but was completely out of balance. Anil Da caught him by his collar, and literally dragged him down the stairs to the waiting taxi.
Mukesh was drunk and incoherent with his apologies, and Anil Da was fuming. When they reached the studio, Anil Da, still holding Mukesh by his collar, dragged him to the bathroom, opened the tap full and shoved Mukesh’s head under the stream of water – and held him there for many minutes till Mukesh became more coherent. Then he let go of Mukesh, and ordered him to report for recording in five minutes.
The fear and the cold water made Mukesh sober up very quickly. And the remarkable thing is that the recording, when it happened, was approved on the first take itself. What a way to create a timeless hit song.
The situation now is such that the public memory mostly retains this iconic song, the visual of Motilal serenading Munawwar Sultana with this song, the fact that the music composition is by Anil Da – and further, rather erroneously, credits this to be the debut song for Mukesh. Everything else about the film is obscure, and has faded from the public memory.
However, in fact there is much more to this film and the singing voice of Mukesh. As per documented information, Mukesh has sung three more songs in this film. Living under the shadow of their illustrious and famous ‘big brother’, the other songs are missing from public memory, rather they are obscure enough to be at the level of being unavailable. (Unavailable on the internet, that is. Otherwise, these songs do live in private collections.)
The film was produced and directed by Mazhar Khan, under the banner of Mazhar Art Productions. The star cast of the film boasts of many famous names of that era – Motilal, Veena , Munawwar Sultana, B Pendarkar, Nemo, Bibbo, Balakram, Bhudo Advani, Cuckoo, Nafees Begum, Sultan Aalam, Parveen, Bimla, Mughal, Leela Pawar, Lalita, Subhashini etc. The songs have been
penned by Dr. Safdar ‘Aah’ and the music composer – of course, Anil Biswas.
The following brief is adapted from an earlier comment posted by Sami ji, for the song “Unka Ishaara Jaan Se Pyaara”.
“Pehli Nazar” is a tragic love story involving Munawwar Sultan, Veena and Motilal. The story is a Muslim social involving two Pathan families. There are two brothers living as neighbors and their daughters, Munawwar Sultana and Veena are so fond of each other that they feel more of sisters than cousins. An engagement is arranged between Motilal and Veena. However, when Motilal comes to see Veena, by chance he sees Munawwar Sultana in the house. He falls for her, and changes his mind. He insists on breaking off the engagement to Veena and proposes for Munawwar Sultan instead, thereby creating a big rift between the two close families.”
The film has 10 songs, of which the singing voice has not been attributed to five of them. (In case you wonder why the names are not attributed – that was the time when the record label did not carry information about the singer. Rather, they carried information about the character (not the actor !) on screen who performs the specific song.) The voices of Mukesh and Naseem Akhtar , share the singing of the five songs. The situation provides some hope – there may be more Mukesh songs amongst the five unattributed songs. 🙂
NOTE: our dear Arun ji has provided a brief introduction to the singer Naseem Akhtar. Please refer to the comments to the song “Unka Ishaara Jaan Se Pyaara”.
Living under the shadow of “Dil Jalta Hai . . .”, the other songs lead a very obscure existence. However, these songs also have a wonderful quality of their own, as listening to them will show. In this post, I present the song that can be considered as the title song of this film. It is a duet sung by Mukesh and Naseem Akhtar. The words talk about being smitten by
love for the first time, being struck by the arrows of the glances meeting for the first time – “Laaga pehli nazar ka teer re. . .”. Naseem Akhtar sings the first about two thirds of the song by herself, followed by Mukesh singing remainder of the song. From the brief synopsis of the film by Sami ji, it is fair to guess that this song is performed on screen by Motilal and Munawwar Sultana.
Listen to this wonderful duet, and enjoy another lovely and obscure song from this film.
Song-Laga pehli nazar ka teer (Pehli Nazar)(1945) Singer-Naseem Akhtar, Mukesh, Lyrics-Safdar Aah Sitapuri, MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics
pehli nazar ka teer re
lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
hooo lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
allaah lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
dil thhaa naazuk
toot gayaa wo
dil thhaa naazuk
toot gayaa wo
un ki kyaa taqdeer
ho lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
allaah lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
ho lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
hooo. . . oooo oooooo
laakh sambhaala
meinee jee ko
aankhon ne chhupke-chhupke chhupke
dekha kisi ko
dekha kisi ko
laakh sambhaala
meine jee ko
aankhon ne chhupke-chhupke chhupke
dekha kisi ko
dekha kisi ko
dil mein bani tasveer
dil mein bani tasveer
ho lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
dil thhaa naazuk
toot gayaa wo
dil thhaa naazuk
toot gayaa wo
un ki kyaa taqdeer
ho lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
allaah lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
ho lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
ishq ki mannat par aaney do
ganga jamuna mil jaaney do
mil jaaney do
ishq ki mannat par aaney do
ganga jamuna mil jaaney do
jaag utthe taqdeer
jaag utthe taqdeer
ho lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
re lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
ho lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
allaah lagaa pehli nazar ka teer
2 Responses to "Laga pehli nazar ka teer"
November 3, 2012 at 7:56 pm
When Saigal saab, heard the song for the first time, it is said that he commented saying “BUT I DONT REMEMBER SINGING THIS SONG”. This I feel was one of the biggest compliment ever received by Mukesh in his career. I have never come across a snap featuring Mukesh and his idol KL Saigal. Is there any ?
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
November 3, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Sudhirji,
Thanks for the info which was news to us.
NITIN SHAH
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