Gulaab jism ka yoonhi nahin khila hoga
Posted on: March 14, 2014
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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.
Muzaffar Ali is one of the few Hindi filmmakers who spearheaded what was known as parallel cinemas during 70s and 80s. He came into the scene of parallel cinemas when some of the films under this tag such as Mrinal Sen’s ‘Bhuvan Shome’ (1969), Mani Kaul’s ‘Uski Roti’ (1969), Kumar Sahani’s ‘Maya Darpan’ (1972), M S Sathyu’s ‘Garam Hawa’ (1973), Shyam Bengal’s ‘Ankur’ (1974) etc were critically acclaimed. Being low budget films, some of these films fared well at the box office.
Muzaffar Ali’s tryst with Hindi films started with ‘Gaman’ (1978) which he produced and directed. The film dealt with the problems of people migrating from rural arae to metropolital cities to earn a living. His next film was ‘Umrao Jaan’ (1981) which depicted the life of a tawaif in a 19th century Lucknow. This was followed by ‘Aagaman’ (1984) which highlighted the problems of sugarcane growers of UP. But his next ‘Anjuman’ (1986) highlighting the plights of chikan weavers of Lucknow though completed could not be commercially released. His next ambitious film ‘Zooni’ based on the legendry story of Habba Khatoon, the Kashmiri poetess remained incomplete as the rise of militancy prevented shooting of the film in Kashmir.
Being a contemporary personality, I was aware of the multi-facet personality of Muzaffar Ali – from an advertising executive to a film maker, painter, costume designer, poet etc through newspapers articles and his occasional appearances on TV channels. But I did not know his family background and also as to how he got interested in film making. Fortunately I came across a IFFI Bulletin of November 2012 containing his crisp profile from where I got to know his family background and his early career. A couple of TV interviews in the recent years also gave me some insight into his personality.
Syed Muzaffar Ali (b.23/10/1944) was born in Lucknow in a royal rajput family of Kotwara located north east of Lucknow. He was the eldest son of Raja Syed Sajid Hussain Ali and his second wife Rani Kaneez. After completion of his high school in La Martiniere, Lucknow, he joined Aligarh Muslim University in the science stream. During his Aligarh days, he came into contact with some Urdu poets which made him interested in Urdu poetry. He graduated in Science but came out of Aligarh ready to plunge in to the Art. In early 1970s, he joined MacLaren McCane, an advertising firm in Calcutta (Kolkata) where he met Satyajit Ray. He was influenced by the films of Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak which attracted him towards film making.
Sometime in the mud-70s, Muzaffar Ali left his Kolkata job and joined Air India in their Advertising and Publication Department at Bombay (Mumbai). During his stay in Mumbai, he got first hand information on the plights of migrant population struggling to make a living as well as saving money for sending to their families in native places. So the idea of making his maiden film ‘Gaman’ (1978) germinated. The film was critically acclaimed. With this film, he created a good combination of actor Farooq Shaikh and the poet Dr. Akhlaq Mohammed Khan ( known as ‘Shahryar’). Muzaffar Ali had been the colleague of Farooq Shaikh since his Air India days where the latter worked as a Flight Purser. Shahryar was his professor in Aligarh Muslim University. Later this combination worked for his films ‘Umrao Jaan’ (1981) and ‘Anjuman’ (1986, unreleased).
After virtually shelving the film ‘Zooni’, Muzaffar Ali has not made any other feature film since, though occasionally, some news do come out on the newspapers and TV channels about a couple of films which he had planned . But in an era where film making is more of a commercial venture than a means of mass communication to stir the thought process among the audience on the socio-economic issues, I guess it was a difficult proposition for Muzaffar Ali to make feature films after ‘Zooni’. It is not the idols (film stars) but the ideas that are expected to feature prominently in the films produced by film makers like Muzaffar Ali. Such film makers will not have financial muscles and distribution capabilities of the mainstream film makers. Perhaps this may be one of the reasons that today’s film makers like Vishal Bhardwaj follow a middle path of making a film on a realistic subject supplemented by the entertainment values such as item songs to please the distributors as well as the general audience.
In the meanwhile, Muzaffar Ali has been on a ‘constant journey of his life’ as he has said in a TV interview by making documentary films, TV serials, paintings and costume designing for fashion show. He does all this with the sole intention of reliving the composite culture of Awadh that was prevalent in the 19th century. In the recent period, he has been influenced by Sufism which he feels, could be the answer for solution to the problems faced by the world at large. He has been involved with making musical albums ‘Jahan e Khusrau and ‘Paigham e Mohabbat’. He has also directed an Indo-French ballet ‘Le Fakir De Benaras’. It is an amalgam of Indian and western music and dances.
As I said earlier, he produced and directed ‘Anjuman’ (1986) which was based on the plights of chikan weavers of Lucknow. The star cast included Farooque Shaikh, Shabana Azmi, Mustaq Khan, Shaukat Azmi, Rohini Hattangadi etc. By the way, during the making of ‘Anjuman’ (1986), the lead actor Farooque Shaikh became aware of the problems faced by the chikan weavers of Lucknow. He decided to use kurta-pyjama made by the weavers of Lucknow as his daily attire which became his hallmark for the rest of his life. He would buy his outfits directly from the weavers.
The lyrics were penned by Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1) and Shahryar (4) which were set to music by Khayyam. Though the film was completed, it was not commercially released. I could not find any plausible reason for the same. I have seen some pictures of guests at the special screening of this film at Ketnav on May 2011 which means that the film was completed. The songs of the films were released in audio cassettes sometime in 1986. Many may not be aware of the songs from the film as the cassettes of the songs were not available for a long time. Saregama once again released the songs from ‘Anjuman’ combining with songs of ‘Gaman’ and ‘Umrao Jaan’ under the title ‘The Master Craftsman Muzaffar Ali’ in 2009.
Two main features of the songs of ‘Anjuman’ are that out of 5 songs, four songs have been sung by Shabana Azmi while the remaining song has been sung by Khayyam and Jagjit Kaur as a duet. All the five songs are beautiful works of poets and the music director. I have chosen one of the five songs ‘gulaab jism ka yuhin nahi khila hoga’, a ghazal written by Shahryar and rendered by Bhupinder Singh and Shabana Azmi. Surprisingly, the video clip of this song (as well as one or two more songs from the film) is available though the video quality is not up to the mark. So I have given the audio clip of the song as well.
This is a beautiful ghazal with refreshing romantic thoughts. Shabana Azmi rendered the song well.
Video
Audio
Song-Gulaab jism ka yoonhi nahin khila hoga(Anjuman)(1986)(UR) Singers-Bhupinder Singh, Shabana Azmi, Lyrics-Shaharyaar, MD-Khayyam
Both
Lyrics
gulaab jism ka aa
gulaab jism ka yoonhin nahin khila hoga aa
gulaab jism ka yuhni nahi khila hoga aa
hawa ne pahle tujhe
hawa ne pahle tujhe phir mujhe chhuaa hoga aa
hawa ne pahle tujhe phir mujhe chhuaa hoga aa
hawa ne pahle tujhe
shareer shokh kiran mujhko choom leti hai ae
shareer shokh kiran mujhko choom leti hai ae
zaroor ismein
zaroor ismein ishaara tera chhupa hoga aa
zaroor ismein ishaara tera chhupa hoga aa
zaroor ismein
meri pasand pe tujhko bhi rashk aayega
meri pasand pe tujhko bhi rashk aayega
ke aayine se
ke aayine se jahaan tera saamna hoga aa
ke aayine se jahaan tera saamna hoga aa
ke aayine se
ye aur baat ke main khud na paas aa paayi
ye aur baat ke main khud na paas aa paayi
hamera saaya to
hamera saaya to har shab tujhe mila hoga
hamera saaya to har shab tujhe mila hoga
hamera saaya to
ye soch soch ke kat’ti nahin hai raat meri ee
ye soch soch ke kat’ti nahin hai raat meri ee
ke tujhko sote huye
ke tujhko sote huye chaand dekhta hoga aa
ke tujhko sote huye chaand dekhta hoga aa
ke tujhko sote huye
main tere saath rahoongi wafa ki raahon mein aen
main tere saath rahoongi wafa ki raahon mein
ye ahad hai
ye ahad hai
na mere dil se tu juda hoga aa
ye ahad hai
na mere dil se tu juda hoga aa
gulaab jism ka yoonhin nahin khila hoga
hawa ne pahle tujhe phir mujhe chua hoga
(hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm)
gulaab jism ka yuhni nahi khila hoga
(hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm)
hawa ne pahle tujhe pir mujhe chhua hoga
(hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm )
hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
7 Responses to "Gulaab jism ka yoonhi nahin khila hoga"
March 14, 2014 at 1:23 pm
Full movie is available on web.
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March 14, 2014 at 1:58 pm
Can you give a link of the web from where I can view /buy the full movie?
Before writing this article, I had tried some websites like webmall, induna etc but this movie is either not listed or shown out of stock..
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March 15, 2014 at 12:27 am
I think movie is not available on VCD/DVD yet, hence not available for sale.
Only old VHS copies are making rounds on web. It used to be on YouTube also at one point, but dont see it anymore.
Only current option is to get it thru torrents:
http://kickass.to/anjuman-1986-hindi-aka-congregation-muzaffar-ali-rare-clas-t5432607.html
Somebody is still seeding the movie, so u shall be able to download it.
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March 14, 2014 at 4:40 pm
Thanks for such an informative article on Muzaffar Ali.
It was a nice experience to hear Shabana Azmi singing.
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March 14, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Songs from this film deserved post of this calibre !!
@ Kamath Sir – thank you very much for this detailed post and lovely post.
This song was included by HMV in ‘karoge yaad to’ compilation of songs sung by Bhupinder Singh.
(I too have shared this song and another one ‘ kab yaad mein tera saath nahin ‘…. sung by Khaiyyam Saab to Atul ji. I had read about this movie in those years and thus I was aware about this)
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
March 14, 2014 at 1:14 pm
Thank you Sadanand ji for the detailed information about Muzaffar Ali and the rare song
Prakash
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