Ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe rona aaya

Posted by: Atul on: February 18, 2013

In: Begam Akhtar NFS | Ghazal | Guest posts | NFS | Post by Sadanand Kamath | Songs of 1940s (1941 to 1950) | Songs of 1950 | Yearwise breakup of songs
4 Comments

This article is writtten by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.

The ghazal ‘ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe ronaa aayaa’ and Begum Akhtar are inseparable. If ‘deewaana banaana hai to deewaana banaa de’ (1925) heralded the arrival of Begum Akhtar as a ghazal singer, ‘ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe ronaa aayaa’ (early 1950s) consolidated her position in ghazal singing paving the way for her to be bestowed upon the title of ‘mallika-e-ghazal’ later. I came to know about Begum Akhtar in my younger days only because of this ghazal which was regularly played on the radio. The simple words in this ghazal with the captivating style of Begum Akhtar’s rendition attracted not only the connoisseurs of ghazals but also the commoners. No wonder, the sales of gramophone records of this ghazal attained the stature of a platinum disc.

It is said that this ghazal was so much in demand in all her concerts that Begum Akhtar had to sing this ghazal multiple times on the persistent requests from the audience. In one of her public concerts, she sang this ghazal five times, each time giving a different treatment in her renditions, making the audience spellbound. With this ghazal, Shakeel Badayuni became a celebrity probably facilitating him to consolidate his position in the Hindi film industry as a lyricist. If this ghazal was to remain within the four walls of mushairas, Shakeel Badayuni would have to be contended with only ‘waah waah’ from the audience and the underlying anguish embedded in the ghazal would have been lost. It is to the credit of Begum Akhtar who translated this simple ghazal through her rendition in raga bhairavi to convey the right amount of pathos to the audience many of whom would have identified themselves in similar situation. The way she sang the words ‘ronaa aayaa’ in the audio clip really made my eyes moist. I would not be surprised if in her live concerts, many audience might have shed tears when she would have rendered the same words’ ronaa aaya’ in different ways.

Personally, I regard this ghazal cutting a platinum disc a more creditable effort by Begum Akhtar than her first one, viz. ‘deewaana banaana hai to deewaana banaa de’ (1925) . She sang this ghazal at a time when Urdu language was on a declining trajectory. With fewer and fewer people having adequate knowledge of Urdu language in the post-independent period, the admirers of ghazals had been slowly dwindling. The commoners had already switched over their allegiance to Hindi film songs which were becoming popular. It is to the credit of Shakeel Badayuni that he wrote this ghazal in simple words keeping with the changing times. And it is much more to the credit of Begum Akhtar who sang and composed this ghazal so effectively that those who did not fully understand the meaning of the lyrics got the meaning through her rendition.

Listening to this ghazal is like reliving an old era of ghazal gayaki when sound of lyrics dominated the sound of music.

Song-Ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe rona aaya (Begam Akhtar NFS)(1950) Singer-Begam Akhtar, Lyrics-Shakeel Badayuni, MD-Begam Akhtar

Lyrics

aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aaa
ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe ronaa aayaa aa aa
ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe ronaa aayaa aa aa
ae mohabbat tere
jaane kyun aaj tere naam pe ronaa aayaa
jaane kyun aaj tere naam

yoon to har
yoon to har shaam
umeedon mein guzar jaati thhi ee ee
ee ee ee
aaj kuchh baat hai jo shaam pe ronaa aayaa aa aa
aaj kuchh baat hai jo shaam pe

kabhi ee ee
ee ee ee ee
kabhi taqdeer kaa maatam
kabhi duniyaa kaa gilaa
aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
manzil-e-ishq mein har gaam pe ronaa aayaa aa
manzil-e- ishq mein

jab huaa aa aa aa
zikr zamaane mein
mohabbat kaa ’Shakeeeeel’
mujh ko apne dil-e-naakaam pe ronaa aayaa aa aa
ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe ronaa aayaa aa aa
ae mohabbat