Tu kuja man kuja
Posted on: July 8, 2014
This article is written by Ava Suri, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a 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.
= = = = = = = = = == = = = = =
Atul Song-A-Day 10K Song Milestone Celebrations – 7
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
It is an honor to participate in the celebrations of reaching a great milestone on Atul’s blog. As we know we are close to completing the 10000th post. I am quite sure this concept of posting songs as a collaboration is quite unique to this blog. Unique or not, I like the feeling of being with a family of people who share such similar tastes in music and trivia about music. Congratulations to all of us for this important landmark.
I had the good fortune of watching Imtiaz Ali’s Highway recently. I was so moved by it, that I watched it several times. It is the story of a young rich girl, Veera, who is about to be married. Feeling suffocated by the wedding arrangement going on, she coerces her fiance to take her out on the highway for a spin late in the night. Veera steps out of the car when they stop at a petrol station. She is taken hostage by a gang of thugs in the process of looting the Petrol Station.
I won’t go into the details of the movie here, but will say that this song depicts the mental state of Veera when she finds herself lost in the wilderness of Rajasthan. She does not know where she is and yearns to return to the safe haven of her parents’ house.
Imtiaz Ali said that he wanted only one song in this movie, a lorie that the main kidnapper, Randeep Hooda remembers his mother singing. For just one song, he was hesitant to approach A.R. Rehman. Rehman was unconcerned about it, and said “We will see about that”. As the movie progressed, more songs kept getting added to the movie and they wound up having ten songs. Among other songs are the lovely gujjar lorie “Sooha Saha”, the famous “Pathaka Guddi”, and the soft and dreamy “Kahan hoon main”.
He also picked up songs by local singers as he moved with his unit through Rajasthan and later, Himachal and J&K. The movie is a feast for music lovers and is full of beautiful cinematography as the landscape changes from the outskirts of Delhi to Rajasthan to Punjab to Himachal and J&K.
As for this song, I loved it because of the lovely lyrics. It is a prayer from a soul that is searching for its whereabouts and also praying for mercy. It is like a generic prayer, applicable to all religions, meant for the Divine One. The singer, Shreya Ghosal says that while singing this song, she felt like she was on a different plane altogether. That is easy to agree with.
Audio (Full)
Video (Partial)
Song-Tu kuja man kuja (Highway)(2014) Singer-Sunidhi Chauhan, Lyrics-Irshad Kamil, MD-AR Rahman
Lyrics
Tu kujaa
man kuja
tu kuja
man kuja
tu kahaan
main kahaan
tu kahaan
main kahaan aan aan
kirpa drishti mujh pe bhi ho,
Mahaaraja
anginat chintaaon ne ghera,
Aastha hai jo vyatha hai wo harega tu
sun meri bhi koi na mera
tu kuja
man kuja
tu kuja
man kuja
tu kahaan
main kahaan
tu kahaan
main kahaan aan aan
hai bhay bhayankar path mein kankar, Maharaja,
mujh adham se kyun tune mukh phera
main dharaatal se pukaroon
haath de apna,
sun meri bhi koi na mera aa aa
nirdhanon ka dheer tu hai,
nibalon ka bal,
sun meri bhi koi na mera
O o o
Main jagat mein laapta, Mera tu pata
main kahaan balta
aa aa aa
main ekaaki
de daya ki bheekh, Raaja
hai adhar mein shwaas bhi mera
tu kuja
man kuja
tu kuja
man kuja
tu kahaan
main kahaan
tu kahaan
main kahaan aan
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
main kahaan kahaan,
main kahaan kahaan
ghanghor hain andhiyaare
sab roothe hain ujiyaare
tan toote mann haare
tan toote mann haare
kismet ke doobe taare,
koi kiran dikhla re,
hain soone path saare
hain soone path saare
main ekaaki
de daya ki bheekh, Raaja
kya tujhe aabhaas bhi mera aa
tu kuja
man kuja
tu kuja
man kuja
ho o o
tu kahaan aan
main kahaan
tu kahaan aan aan aaan
21 Responses to "Tu kuja man kuja"
July 8, 2014 at 1:09 pm
Bahut hi sundar gaana hai!
Loved listening to it. And it is nice to see a new song on this blog, although I’m a fan of the oldies and don’t have a ear for the newbies, that is why I tend to miss the good new ones.
Thank you, Ava!
LikeLike
July 8, 2014 at 2:09 pm
Waah! What a lovely song!
Never heard it before because I rarely listen to new songs. But this is proof that there must be many good new songs that I have missed out on.
Thanks a lot, Ava, for introducing me to this song.
LikeLike
July 8, 2014 at 2:20 pm
Thank you. I chose it precisely because it was new. These days fewer and fewer songs are good. But this one falls into the category of great!
LikeLike
July 9, 2014 at 12:11 am
Ava ji,
What a wondarous song. Shreya Ghoshal is sounding power packed like Jaspinder Narula. She must have felt on a different plane, it is transporting the listeners too.
Btw, I heard it for the first time today. Thanks for a new and different song.
LikeLike
July 9, 2014 at 11:13 am
Avaji, thanks for introducing the song. Lovely one. Just like Rajaji says, not in the habit of listening to new songs.
BTW, what does kuja mean?
LikeLike
July 9, 2014 at 8:28 pm
Kuja means kahan, Where. Where are you, Where am I. It is truly a wonderful song that speaks directly to the divine, I felt.
LikeLike
July 11, 2014 at 1:00 pm
Thanks for the meaning Avaji. Hope you continue to introduce good new songs to us.
LikeLike
July 13, 2014 at 10:10 am
I will try to write more songs from Imtiaz films. 🙂 I am so heartened by the response to this song.
LikeLike
July 9, 2014 at 11:45 am
Like all the other Atulites i also heard this song for the first tym yesterday.
i will admit that i am not averse to new songs as i know there are a lot of gems out there post the advent of the like of Shankar- Ehsaan- Loy, AR R, Pritam, Swanand Kirkire etc. the basic problem these days are the FM channels and the various music channels which overplay these numbers for a few months and then these vanish to make way for new ones.after that hearing a song from say even 2009 feels like ” Arey yeh gaana sunke kitne saal ho gaye”. also to the credit of the FM channels go the non introduction syndrome… they don’t give us the lyricist or the playback singer or the music director’s names. am i thankfull for the existence of Peevesie in my life…. she enlightens me 🙂
lovely song Avaji
LikeLike
July 9, 2014 at 8:27 pm
Yes, P’s Mom. My nephew is an RJ and I used hear so many lovely new songs when he was living with us. Now I barely get to hear any good songs.
This I picked up because I happened to see the movie.
Just a couple of days I was watching Ham Dil De Chuke Sanam and loved listening to ‘Albela sajan aayo ree’ from that movie.
Thank you jee.
July 9, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Ava ji
Thank you for introducing this new song and the informative post.
What is the meaning of “KUJA”.(any idea??)
I love all of Imtiaz Ali`s directed movies(Socha Na tha, Jab we met,Love aaj kal,Rockstar). Also he has done a very good job as a screenpay writer of Ahista Ahista(2005) & Cocktail.
I watch all of them repeatedly. In my personal opinion, he is one of the best directors among the present crop.
LikeLike
July 9, 2014 at 8:34 pm
Prakashji, Kuja means kahan. I liked all Imtiaz Ali movies as well. He has a lovely ear for music too. I loved the songs of his movies. I have already written a post about ‘katiya karoon’ from Rockstar. The songs of Jab We Met were simply great. I just love that classical based “Aaoge Jab tum Sajna”.
Like Raj Kapoor, he really knows how to use music. He also themes his movies around travel. He probably understands how much traveling changes us.
As far as I know, his movies have an original story as well. He does not poach stories from foreign films.
LikeLike
July 10, 2014 at 11:59 am
Ava ji
Thank you for the meaning of the word “kuja”.
Yes, You have echoed mine feelings about my favourite Imtiaz Ali.
“Aaoge jab tum o sajnaa” and “Ye ishq haaye jannat dikhaaye” ->Both “Jab we met” songs are my mummy`s all time favourites.
As far as me,I like everything about Imtiaz Ali movies.
Thank you again for writing to me.
Regards
Prakash
LikeLike
July 10, 2014 at 8:48 pm
Prakashji,
I am glad to be sharing these views with you all here. 🙂
LikeLike
July 20, 2014 at 9:16 am
Ava Suri Ji, very different and nice new song (a rarity). Thanks for the lovely write up. I heard the song a few times, and I have a feeling the singer is Sunidhi Chauhan and not Shreya Ghoshal. I might be wrong though.
LikeLike
July 12, 2019 at 9:14 am
Video covering the partial song:
Ava ji,
I do not know how I missed this article and the song which is one of my favourites from Hindi films of the new millennium.
One of the features of this prayer song is that except for the first line which seems to be in Persian, rest of the songs have been written in pure Hindi.
It is said that the original Naat was written by Persian poet Jallal ud din Rumi (1207-1273). The Naat was made popular by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who sang as a qawwali. Later, a new version of the Naat was written by poet Muzzafar Warsi (1933-2011) which was rendered by Shiraz Uppal and Rafaqat Ali Khan for Coke Studio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPp3fudw69w
Atul ji/Sudhir ji,
The singer is Sunidhi Chauhan. Please correct the tag.
LikeLike
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
July 8, 2014 at 8:46 am
Congratulations to all…!
Congratulations to Ava ji and thanks for this beautiful prayer song and the post.
i think two typos ‘nirbalon ka bal’ and ‘main kahaan batla’ to be corrected.
thanks!
LikeLike
July 8, 2014 at 2:18 pm
Thank you Avinash. 🙂 Thanks for noticing the errors. Very important to correct them.
LikeLike