Zauq e barbaadi hai mujhko
Posted on: November 28, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Connoisseurs of vintage Hindi film songs while listening to songs like jaao jaao ae mere sadhjo raho guru ke sang and baba man ki aankhen khol, would identify these songs with K C Dey without blinking their eye lids. The name K C Dey and kirtan songs (devotional and philosophical songs) are inseparable. Since he was blind, this genre of songs suited him best when he was also acting and singing in the films. Whenever I listened to his filmy songs, I felt that his voice quality suited well for thumri and ghazals. Little did I know at that time that he was also an accomplished Hindustani classical and bhajan singer with more than one hundred NFS in Hindi, Urdu and Bengali to his credit. I also find from his discography that he had recorded at least four Gujarati devotional songs in 1942.
K C Dey was instrumental in shaping the singing career of his nephew Manna Dey against the wishes of his chartered accountant father who wanted him to pursue a career in law to become a barrister after he completed his graduation. He also gave initial training in Hindustani classical music to S D Burman when he shifted to Calcutta (Kolkatta) after his graduation.
Krishna Chand Dey, better known as K C Dey (??/08/1893 – 28/11/1962) was born in Calcutta on Krishna Janmashtmi day in August 1893. Hence, he was given the name Krishna. From his childhood days, K C Dey had passion for music and singing. At the age of 13, he suffered from a severe head pain and despite medical treatments, he lost his eye sight. At this stage, he decided to pursue music as his career. He was trained under the guidance of Ustad Karamulla Khan, Ustad Badal Khan and some eminent Bengali classical music teachers like Shashi Bhushan Chatterjee and Amarnath Battacharya. He cut his first song disc in 1917 for HMV.
For the next five years, there was some lull in his musical activities probably utilising this period in shaping his voice to attain maturity for khayal and dhrupad singing. In 1923, he started his career in Bengali theatres as singer-actor. For the next 10 years, he was associated with Bengali theatres as an actor, singer and the song composer. With the success of his stage performances, he set up his own theatre company called Rangmahal. His theatre songs became famous and soon he was roped in by HMV for recording his Hindustani classical music including ghazals, bhajans and naats which also became very popular all over India. During this period, he recorded over 100 non-filmy songs in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati. He composed music for almost all of his NFSs. I learnt only now that a devotional NFS ‘Sriram bhajo sukh mein dukh mein’ which I had heard many times from my mother was in fact sung by K C Dey.
Although K C Dey’s association with Bengali theatres continued for long, with the advent of talkies’, he was attracted towards the film industry which had a wider reach to showcase his acting and musical talents. His first film was ‘Chandidas’ (Bengali version, 1932) where he was an actor-singer. He acted and sang songs mainly for films made under the banner of New Theatres. In 1942, he shifted to Bombay (Mumbai) where apart from acting and singing, he composed for music for his films. But by this time, his music had become out of tune with the song compositions of the new breed of music directors in Bombay. He returned to Calcutta in 1946 and worked in some Bengali films. He also started his film production company and produced a Bengali film ‘Purabi’. In 1957, he gave his last performance in a Bengali film as a guest artist. He died on November 28, 1962 in Calcutta.
During his active filmy career spanning over 14 years (1932-46), he acted in 27 Hindi films and composed music for about 15 Hindi films. Some of his well known Hindi films in which he acted and sang are ‘Pooran Bhagat’ (1933), ‘Devdas’ (1935), ‘Dhoop Chhaon’ (1935), ‘Vidyapati’ (1937), ‘Dhartimata’ (1938), ‘Meenakshi’ (1942), ‘Tamanna’ (1942) etc.
I had read and also heard from my friends that K C Dey died as a bachelor. For the first time I came to know from an article on http://www.krishnachandradey.com quoting a Bengali magazine that he was married to Tarakbala, the Bengali stage actor-singer, according to Hindu rites and renamed her as Roma Dey after the marriage. The couple had a son who died young. It is said that on his last few days before the death, he gifted a house to Tarakbala and requested his relatives to take care of her after his death.
Note : I have relied mostly on the information provided in http://www.krishnachandradey.com on K C Dey’s profile particularly for his musical and filmy career. In this website, there is also a list of songs ( both film and NFS) sung by K C Dey. However, it appears that the list is periodically updated.
On the occasion of the death anniversary of K C Dey, I have chosen a lesser known but a beautiful ghazal ‘zauq e barbaadi hai mujhko’ (1933) sung by him in thumri style giving the flavour of a naat. As stated earlier, almost all of his NFSs were composed by himself. So I take it for the time being that he composed the music for this ghazal. I could not find out as to who wrote this beautiful ghazal. Incidentally, the first verse of the ‘makta’ of the ghazal has a word ‘aarzoo’. Could it be Arzoo Lucknowi ? I request the connoisseurs of Urdu poetry in identifying the writer of this ghazal.
I have also listened to a couple of other ghazals and naats and they are as appealing to me as his devotional and philosophical songs in the films.
Song-Zauk e barbaadi hai mujhko (K C Dey NFS)(1933) Singer-K C Dey, MD-K C Dey
Lyrics
aaa aaa aaa
aaa aa aa
aa aa aaa
zauq e barbaadi hai mujhko
ghair kyun barbaad hon o o o
zauq e barbaadi hai mujhko
ghair kyun bar
wo museebat ?? jab tareeqaa
jaaye tab ijaad ho o o o
zuaq e barbaadi hai mujhko
ghair kyun bar
dekh tere bismilon ko o o o
ponch kitnaa hai fidaa aa aa ??
dekh tere bismilon ko o o o
ponch kitnaa hai fidaa aa aa ??
kehte hain yaarab kaa ruswaa
hijr mein jallad ho o o o
zuaq e barbaadi hai mujhko
ghair kyun bar
tum salaamat ho to kyaa hai ae ae
tum salaamat ho to kyaa hai
sarfaroshon ki kami ee ee eee
tum salaamat ho to kyaa hai ae
sarfaroshon ki kami ee ee eee
kyun naseeb e dushmanaa
mere liye naashaad ho o o o
zauq e barbaadi hai mujhko
ghair kyun bar
jab tujhe mutlaq nahin
aashiq nawaazi kaa khayaal
ae taghaaful kaish kyun
ruswaa meri fariyaad ho o o o
zauq e barbaadi hai mujhko
ghair kyun bar
kar chuke baag e jahaan ki
khair ab hai aarzoo u u
tumse tanhaayi udaasi
aur khud ki yaad ho o o o
zauq e barbaadi hai mujhko
ghair kyun bar
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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