Ae jazba e dil gar main chaahoon
Posted on: January 18, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
A few months back, I watched the movie ‘In Custody’ ( Urdu title : ‘Muhafiz’, 1994) on the internet. The film was produced under the banner of Merchant-Ivory Productions and directed by Ismail Merchant. Probably it was a bilingual film – in English and Hindi/Urdu. The star cast included Shashi Kapoor, Shabhana Azmi, Om Puri, Neena Gupta, Sushma Seth, Tinnu Anand, Ajay Sahani etc. The film was based on Anita Desai’s English novel by the same name. A pleasant surprise to me was that the film had 4 ghazals composed jointly by two well known ustads – Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ustaad Sultan Khan in the style reminiscence of the compositions of 50s and 60s. After all, it is a period film. Of the four ghazals, three ghazals are of Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
The story revolves around Deven ( Om Puri), a college lecturer in Hindi who is lured by one of his classmates and the editor of an Urdu journal, Murad (Tinnu Anand) to interview Nur (Shashi Kapoor), a famous but fading Urdu poet for documenting his writings for the sake of posterity. Deven takes it as a god sent opportunity to interview the poet who is his idol. He travels to Bhopal to meet Nur. However, after reaching Nur’s house in Bhopal, he finds that his job was not that easy as he expected it to be. He faces a lot of hurdles. The poet is an alcoholic and his health is deteriorating. Most of the time, Deven finds him surrounded by his drunkard admirers for his poetry reading who are actually more interested in the drinks and biryany the poet used to serve them. The problem is further complicated by Nur’s two wives – Safiya Begum (Sushma Seth) and Imtiaz Begum (Shabana Azmi) for their unpredictable behaviour.
At last, Nur’s first wife is ready to help Deven in arranging her husband’s interview for which she demands a hefty fee for it by saying that after all, the publisher would earn money out of his interview. His second and younger wife who is from a tawaif’s family and a ghazal singer wishes to be known as a poet of repute and sings her husband’s ghazals as her own. So she resists Deven in his attempt to interview her husband and discourages him by insulting him as many times as she finds him in her house. Finally, he succeeds in recording Nur’s interview with the help of his first wife. But to his dismay, the recording is not done properly and all his efforts, time and money go waste. Despite his further efforts , Deven is not successful in getting the interview recorded as the poet dies due to his ill health. But Deven is content with a book of his verses for which he becomes the custodian.
Nur in a fictitious character of an Urdu poet symbolising the neglect of Urdu language and the cultural heritage associated with it after the decline of Moghul empire. Although the film handles a serious issue, there are subtle hints of satires on the systems Deven is a lecturer in Hindi language but is asked to interview an Urdu poet. His aptitude is towards Urdu language but circumstances make him to take a job of lecturer in Hindi. Then he has to arrange finance for purchase of a tape recorder but the college sanctions him the money sufficient for buying only a second hand tape recorder. He is not tech-savvy and the only chance he gets to record interview of Nur goes for a toss as the poet’s voice is not audible in the tape recorder due to some technical problem.
Shashi Kapoor in the role of a frustrated Urdu poet Nur is superb. His Urdu diction, expressions, gestures and mannerism are so natural that for the moment one gets a feeling of watching a real Urdu poet. This role is one of his best as an actor. Om Puri and Shabana Azami have also performed very well as per the expectations from them in parallel cinema films like this one. Considering the limited appeal of the theme to the audience, the film failed miserably at the box office. But films produced under the banner of Merchant-Ivory Productions were always meant for the classes and for the film festivals than for masses.
The film have four ghazals of which two have been sung by Kavita Krishnamurthy – ‘ae jazba-e-dil gar main chaahoon’ and ‘raaz-e-ulfat chhupa ke dekh liyaa’. These two ghazals are picturised in the film one after another. I have chosen the first one for the discussion. There is no mention of names of the lyricist in the film’s title clip. I have checked that of the three couplets used in the ghazal under discussion, the first and third are taken from Behzad Lucknawi’s ghazals while I am not sure about the authorship of the second couplet. The music composition of this ghazal is credited to Zakir Hussain and Ustad Sultan Khan. Kavita Krishnamurthy’s voice suits Shabana Azmi very well. Shashi Kapoor’s expressions and gestures throughout this ghazal are noteworthy. His acting in this film is very restrained one and quite different from his style of acting in his younger days.
This is a 90s film with music composition style belonging to the golden era of Hindi film music.
Song-Ae jazbaa e dil gar main chaahoon (In Custody)(1994) Singer-Kavita Krishnamurthy, Lyrics-Behzad Lucknowi, MD-Zakir Hussain- Ustad Sultan Khan
Lyrics
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
ae jazba-e-dil gar main chaahoon
har cheez muqaabil aa jaaye
ae jazba-e-dil gar main chahoon
har cheez muqaabil aa jaaye
manzil ke liye do gaam chaloon
manzil ke liye do gaam chaloon
aur saamne manzil aa jaaye
ae jazba-e-dil gar main chaahoon
ae shamaa kasam parwaane ki
itnaa to meri khaatir karnaa
ae shamaa kasam parwaane ki
itnaa to meri khaatir karnaa
itnaa to meri khaatir karnaa
uss
uss waqt bhadhak kar gul honaa
jab sahab-e-mehfil aa jaaye
har cheez muqaabil aa jaaye
aur saamne manzil aa jaaye
ae jazba-e-dil gar main chahoon
ae dil ki lagi chal yoon hi sahi
chalta to hoon unki mehfil mein
ae dil ki lagi chal yoon hi sahi
chaltaa to hoon unki mehfil mein
chaltaa to hoon unki mehfil mein
uss waqt mujhe chounkaa denaa
uss waqt mujhe chounkaa denaa
jab rang pe mehfil aa jaaye
har cheez muqaabil aa jaaye
aur saamne manzil aa jaaye
ae jazba-e dil gar main chaahoon
har cheez muqaabil aa jaaye
manzil ke liye do gaam chaloon
manzil ke liye do gaam chaloon
aur saamne manzil aa jaaye
ae jazba-e-dil gar main chahoon
————————————————–
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
————————————————–
हम्म हम्म हम्म हम्म
ऐ जज़्ब-ए-दिल गर मैं चाहूँ
हर चीज़ मुक़ाबिल आ जाये
ऐ जज़्ब-ए-दिल गर मैं चाहूँ
हर चीज़ मुक़ाबिल आ\ जाये
मंज़िल के लिए दो गाम चलूँ
मंज़िल के लिए दो गाम चलूँ
और सामने मंज़िल आ जाये
ऐ जज़्ब-ए-दिल गर मैं चाहूँ
ऐ शमा कसम परवाने की
इतना तो मेरी खातिर करना
ऐ शमा कसम परवाने की
इतना तो मेरी खातिर करना
इतना तो मेरी खातिर करना
उस
उस वक़्त भड़क कर गुल होना
जब साहब-ए-महफिल आ जाये
हर चीज़ मुक़ाबिल आ\ जाये
और सामने मंज़िल आ जाये
ऐ जज़्ब-ए-दिल गर मैं चाहूँ
ऐ दिल की लगी चल यूं ही सही
चलता तो हूँ उनकी महफिल में
ऐ दिल की लगी चल यूं ही सही
चलता तो हूँ उनकी महफिल में
चलता तो हूँ उनकी महफिल में
उस वक़्त मुझे चौंका देना
उस वक़्त मुझे चौंका देना
जब रंग पे महफिल आ जाये
हर चीज़ मुक़ाबिल आ जाये
और सामने मंज़िल आ जाये
ऐ जज़्ब-ए-दिल गर मैं चाहूँ
हर चीज़ मुक़ाबिल आ\ जाये
मंज़िल के लिए दो गाम चलूँ
मंज़िल के लिए दो गाम चलूँ
और सामने मंज़िल आ जाये
ऐ जज़्ब-ए-दिल गर मैं चाहूँ
5 Responses to "Ae jazba e dil gar main chaahoon"
January 19, 2013 at 12:17 am
Sir,
Thanks for the review of this film. I remember parts of this film , we used to get to watch such parallel films on T. V. I dont know the other three ghazals also from this film. If they are by Faiz Ahmed Faiz than you may look for the translation by Kushwant Singh.
In the above ghazal i think the line in last sha’ir is :
uss waqt mujhe chounkaa denaa jab rangat-e-mehfil aa jaaye
Regards.
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January 19, 2013 at 8:43 am
nahm,
I was stuck at ‘rang-e-mehefil’ for long time. I also heard the same ghazal sung by Nayyara Noor and by an unidentified male singer but could not be sure of the word whether it was ‘rang’ or something else. The word ‘rangat’ seems to be an appropriate in the context of a ‘mehfil’.
The other three ghazals in the film accredited to Faiz Ahmed Faiz are ( in order of appearance in the film):
1.aaj ik harf ko phir dhoondtaa phirtaa hai kayaal
2. raaz e ulfat chhupaa ke dekh liyaa
3. aaj baazar mein pa bajolan chalo.
It is said that ‘aaj baazar mein pa bajolan chalo’ was penned by Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the context of his arrest during Zia ul Haq’s regime in Pakistan when he was taken to the police station, walking on the road in front of the public, probably to humiliate him.
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January 20, 2013 at 7:44 pm
In 1994 i had read about this film (or that was an interview with Ismail Merchant) in Sunday Review of an daily and as i like to watch movies based on such subjects specially a poet’s life and a lecturer, but do not get to watch this movie either in theatre or on tv. i remember one my father’s freind Shri.N.I.Khan saab had also shown interest and we discussed that we shall definately watch this movie. but that do not happened. after reading this beautfiul post that wish has been fulfilled now. thanks Kamath Sir for this beautiful post and the beautfiul song.
@thanks Atul ji for the post !!
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
January 18, 2013 at 10:35 pm
Thank you Sadanand jee
For informative post and superb song.
Your selection is excellent.
prakash
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