Laage na mori ankhiyaan
Posted on: January 19, 2014
This article is written by Bharat Upadhyay, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
After quite a long time, I am concluding the series ‘Songs from the album Varsha Ritu’ with a piloo thmri by Padmabhushan Begum Akhtar. I am not going to post Mahendra Kapur’s song from that alum due to my personal prejudice. (At my age of 82 years, I have full rights to have some prejudices. !!!)
I am a die-hard fan and follower of Begum Saahiba since a long time. I can boast of having almost all the songs she ever sang. I personally attended her last two live programs, the first in Surat and the last in the next week at Amdawad on October 29th, 1974.
She had inspired many music stalwarts right from her days of being known as ‘Akhtaribai Faizabadi. My Bade Guruji Sangeetmartand Jasraj-ji has discribed how he was influenced by her singing during his school days and almost deserted schooling listening daily to her gramophone records being played at a hotel. !!
Following is her life sketch borrowed from Wikipedia:
“Akhtari Bai Faizabadi or Begum Akhtar (October 7, 1914 – October 30, 1974) was a well known Indian singer of Ghazal, Dadra, and Thumri.
She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for vocal music, and was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan (posthumously) by Govt. of India. She was popularly known as Mallika-e-Ghazal (Queen of Ghazals).
Begum Akhtar was born in Bada Darwaza, Town Bhadarsa, Bharatkund, Faizabad District, Uttar Pradesh. Her father, Asghar Hussain, a young lawyer who fell in love with her mother Mushtari and made her his second wife, subsequently disowned her and his twin daughters Zohra and Bibbi (Akhtar).
Akhtar was barely seven when she was captivated by the music of Chandra Bai, an artist attached to a touring theatre group. However at her uncle’s insistence she was sent to train under Ustad Imdad Khan, the great sarangi exponent from Patna, and later under Ata Mohammed Khan of Patiala. Later, she travelled to Calcutta with her mother and learnt music from classical stalwarts like Mohammad Khan, Abdul Waheed Khan of Lahore, and finally she became the disciple of Ustad Jhande Khan.Her first public performance was at the age of fifteen. The famous poetess, Sarojini Naidu, appreciated her singing during a concert which was organised in the aid of victims of a Bihar earthquake of 1934. This encouraged her to continue singing ghazals with more enthusiasm. She cut her first disc for the Megaphone Record Company, at that time. A number of gramophone records were released carrying her ghazals, dadras, thumris, etc.
Begum Akhtar’s good looks and sensitive voice made her an ideal candidate for a film career in her early years. But soon, when she heard great musicians like Gauhar Jan and Malaka Jan, she decided to forsake the glamour of the film world for a career in Indian classical music. Her supreme artistry in light classical music had its moorings in the tradition of pure classicism. She chose her repertoire in primarily classical modes: a variety of raags, ranging from simple to complex. After the advent of talkie era in India, Beghum Akhtar acted in a few Hindi movies in thirties. East India Film Company of Calcutta approached her to act in “King for a Day” (alias Ek Din Ka Badshah) and Nal Damayanti in 1933.
Like others of that era, she sang her songs herself in all her films. She continued acting in the following years. Subsequently Begum Akhtar moved back to Lucknow where she was approached by the famous producer-director Mehboob Khan, as a result of which she acted in “Roti” which was released in 1942 and whose music was composed by maestro Anil Biswas. “Roti” contained six of her ghazals but unfortunately due to some trouble between producer and director, Mehboob Khan subsequently deleted three or four ghazals from the film. All the ghazals are available on Megaphone gramophone records. Beghum Akhtar, meanwhile, left Bombay and returned to Lucknow.
In 1945, Akhtaribai married a barrister, Ishtiaq Ahmed Abbasi, and became known as Begum Akhtar. However, after marriage, due to her husband’s restrictions, she could not sing for almost five years and subsequently, she fell ill, that is when her return to music was prescribed as a befitting remedy, and in 1949 she returned to the recording studios. She sang three ghazals and a dadra at Lucknow Radio Station. She wept afterwards and returned to singing in concerts, a practice that lasted until her death.
Her voice matured with time, adding richness and depth. She sang ghazals and other light classical pieces, singing them in her inimitable style. She has nearly four hundred songs to her credit. She was a regular performer on All India Radio. She usually composed her own ghazals and most of her compositions were raag based.
During her last concert in Ahmedabad she raised the pitch of her voice as she felt that her singing had not been as good as she had wanted it to be and she felt unwell. The additional demand and stress that she put herself under, resulted in her falling ill and was rushed to the hospital.
She died next day early morning on October 30, 1974 in the arms of Nilam Gamadia, her friend, who invited her to Ahmedabad, which has become her final performance.”
Here is this song which is sung and composed by Begam Akhtar. The lyrics are traditional and the lyricist is not known.
Song-Laage naa mori ankhiyan (Begam Akhtar NFS)(1969) Singer- Begum Akhtar, Lyrics- Traditional, MD-Begum Akhtar
Lyrics
haaaan
haaaan
ye barsan laagin saawan boondiyaan
pyare bin laage naa mori ankhiyaan
laage naa mori ankhiyaan
ye barsan laagin saawan boondiyaan
pyaare bin laage naa mori ankhiyaan aan
laage naa mori ankhiyaan
chaar maheene barkhaa ke aaye
chaar maheene
barkhaa aa ke aaye
abhoon na aaye hamaare sainyaan aan
pyaare bin laage naa mori ankhiyaan
laage naa mori ankhiyaan
laage naa
ye barsan laagin een saawan boondiyaan aan
pyaare bin laage naa mori ankhiyaan aan
laage naa mori ankhiyaan
saajan ko o
patiyaan likhoon oon
aur likhoon parnaam
saajan ko o o
patiyaan likhoon oon
aur likhoon parnaam
tum jab se bichhde saajan
mori ho gayi neend haraam
laage naa mori ankhiyaan aan
lage na
laage naa mori ankhiyaan
laage naa mori ankhiyaan
haaan barsan laagi saawan boondiyaan aan
pyaare bin laage naa mori ankhiyaan
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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