Lo phir chaand nikal aaya
Posted January 11, 2013
on:This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
In Hindi film industry, more than the talent in the chosen field, one needs to be saleable in terms of box office success to become a successful artist. In addition, one needs to have a godfather in the Hindi film industry like a producer/director belonging to a big banner film production company. In the sphere of music direction, there were many talented maestros in the 50s and 60s who composed some memorable songs for the Hindi films. But they could not sustain themselves for long thus failing to make it to the big league of music directors of Hindi film industry. They did not have godfathers in the film industry. Some of them did not become saleable despite churning out beautiful songs.
A few names that come to my mind are Sajjad Hussain, Vinod, C Arjun, G S Kohli, Dattaram, Lachhiram, Iqbal Qureshi, Ganesh among many. One can understand about Sajjad Hussain whose extra-ordinary talent in composition of songs was marred by his temperament affecting the inter-personal relationship. All other music directors, to my mind, were docile in nature. At least, I have not heard or read about their negative temperament. Among them, one music director about whom I feel very sad for his abrupt end of his musical journey because of his untimely death was Eric Roberts, known in Hindi and Punjabi film industries as Vinod.
Vinod (28/05/1922 – 25/12/1959) hailed from a Christian family belonging to Lahore. From a band musician in Hindu weddings, he rose to become a music director in Hindi and Punjabi films thanks to the encouragement he received from Pandit Amarnath, a well known music director of Hindi films of the 40s. Vinod learnt the raagas and music compositions from Pandit Amarnath in Lahore. In 1946, he got an opportunity to become music director due to the failing health of his mentor Pandit Amarnath who died in 1947. His contracted films like ‘Khamosh Nigahen’ (1946), ‘Paraye Bas Mein’ (1946) came to Vinod for music direction. Unfortunately, none of these films fared well at the box office. Coupled with this, the partition in 1947 brought about some uncertainties in his career.
After partition, he came to Bombay (Mumbai) along with the team of Roop K Shorey who offered him the music direction for his ‘Ek Thhi Ladki’ (1949), a situational comedy film. The film became a musical hit. Thereafter, he worked with R K Shorey’s films like ‘Mukhda’ (1951), ‘Aag Ka Dariya’ (1953), ‘Ek Do Teen’ (1953), ‘Jalwa’ (1955) but none of them became successful at the box office despite good music. He did not get an opportunity to work in big banner films in the 50s as most of them had their preferred music directors – like Shankar-Jaikishan with R K Films and Amiya Chakraverty, S D Burman with Navketan Films, Naushad with Mehboob Khan. He was still doing a couple of films every year but to his misfortune, these films did not fare well at the box office. He did about 27 Hindi films in his short career of 13 years. Some of his song compositions which are my favourites among many are :
laaraa lappa laaraa lappa laai rakhda – Ek Thhi Ladki (1949)
ye shokh sitaare – Ek Thhi Ladki (1949)
jab kisi ke rukh pe zulfen – Anmol Ratan (1950)
taare wohi hain chaand wohi hain – Anmol Ratan (1950)
nigaahon ko jab aa gaya muskuraana – For Ladies Only (1951)
There are some more of my favourite songs of him which are yet to be discussed in the blog.
Vinod was an innovative and brilliant music director. His compositions had flavour of Punjabi folk music. One can also see the song composition style of his mentor Pandit Amarnath in his films like ‘Ek Thhi Ladki’ and ‘Ek Do Teen’. But in some songs of films like ‘Anmol Ratan (1950) and ‘Aag Ka Dariya’ (1953), he developed his own brand of song compositions which were simple but melodious. Unfortunately, his creative life was cut short by a tetanus infection which led to his death on the Christmas day of 1959 at the age of 37. Even though he is not with us, his songs would keep his name alive so long as there are lovers of old Hindi film songs. Whenever I listen to one of his memorable songs and my favourite ‘yaad aane waale phir yaad aa rahen hai’, a picture of him playing harmonium with his two small daughters sitting on either side of him, comes before my eyes. Fortunately, we can see him live conducting an orchestra in Dilli se aaya bhai tingu .
I have chosen a song ‘lo phir chaand nikal aayaa’ from the film EK DO TEEN (1953) sung by Asha Bhonsle. The song was written by Aziz Kashmiri and set to music by Vinod. The film was produced and directed by Roop K Shorey. He repeated the lead pair of his successful film ‘Ek Thhi Ladki’ (1949) – Motilal and Meena Shorey with his favourite Manju. I have seen VCD of this film and I can say that the story was worthy of making an entertaining film. Unfortunately, the film was not very successful at the box office despite having good songs.
I liked the tune and composition of this song, the style of which in my view resembles that of a Marathi sugam sangeet (light classical music). Asha Bhonsle has rendered the song beautifully keeping with the mood of the song.
Note : Two or three words in the second stanza of the song are missing in both video and audio clips that are available on the internet. They are missing even in the VCD of the film which I have. Probably the audio clips made from 78 RPM record may have these missing words. However, I could not locate such clips on YT.
Audio
Video
Song-Lo phir chaand nikal aaya (Ek Do Teen)(1953) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Aziz Kashmiri, MD-Vinod
Lyrics
lo phir chaand nikal aayaa
lo phir chaand nikal aayaa
tum paas nahin mere
tum paas nahin mere
haaye dil is liye ghabraaya
lo phir chaand nikal aayaa
ye na khabhar thhi jaan pe banegi
ye na khabhar thhi jaan pe banegi
dil ki samajh ?? ?? ??
jisne pyaar kiyaa pachhtaaya
jisne pyaar kiyaa pachhtaaya
chaand nikal aaya
lo phir chaand nikal aayaa
ho gayi kismat hamse khafaa ki
ho gayi kismat hamse khafaa ki
meri khataa ki tum ko sazaa kyun
meri khataa ki tum ko sazaa kyun
kismat ne donon ko mitaayaa
kismat ne donon ko mitaayaa
chaand nikal aayaa
lo phir chaand nikal aayaa
sochaa thha meri duniyaa basegi
sochaa thha meri dunyiaa basegi
roti jawaani pal mein hansengi
roti jawaani pal mein hansengi
kismat ne pag pag pe rulaayaa
kismat ne pag pag pe rulaayaa
chaand nikal aayaa
lo phir chaand nikal aayaa
tum paas nahin mere
tum paas nahin mere
haaye dil is liye ghabraayaa
lo phir chaand nikal aayaa aa aaa
5 Responses to "Lo phir chaand nikal aaya"

I’ve hit your blog accidentally while listening to this song from the film Ek Do Teen.What a treasure! I have found the right place to enrich my knowledge about Hindi film songs and appreciate the efforts put by various artists to create them. Excellent contribution Atul.
LikeLike

January 11, 2013 at 5:30 pm
Kya kahen is gaane ke baare mein? Vinod Saab, you will always remain fresh in my mind.
LikeLike