Ae andleeb e zaar jaane ko hai bahaar
Posted on: August 1, 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.
In 1980, I was in Delhi, fresh out of college, working for a firm that manufactured car parts. I stayed with my Aunt in Delhi, the rest of my family being elsewhere. My cousins were BIG music afficionados. They could sing beautifully and had an excellent taste in music.
I already loved the film music of 50s and 60s, so I was also well grounded in my musical tastes. My cousins helped me break out of my Lata/Asha/Rafi/Kishore mould and develop a taste for singers like Talat, Manna Dey, Begam Akhtar, Kumar Gandharva, Bhimsen Joshi and of course, Jagmohan.
Music Cassettes were just getting popular and I would love to browse in music shops for them. It was a low paying job (Sigh – Story of my Life) and I could not afford to buy a stack of cassettes. But even buying one or two gave me great happiness. I would bring home the cassette and my cousins and I would listen to the tape after dinner, in the silence of the night. There was no television in my Aunt’s house then, hence no distraction.
I had a couple of Talat tapes with me, one was called In a Blue Mood, and the other was called Ghazals to Remember . I was totally under the spell of his silken voice and nothing soothed me as much as an evening spent listening to Talat songs. This Cassette had a song ‘Ae andalib-e-zar’ which I liked particularly.
Andaleeb means Nightingale and Zaar means a Garden and also tears. The poet is asking the Nightingale of the Garden (or Tears) why she is restless. Is it because the Spring is on the wane?
As is the case with all of us music lovers, life overtakes us. I got married and got busy minding my children. For a long long long time, I had no time for anything but my job, my home and my children. I forgot to read, to listen to music, to watch movies. Now that the children are grown up and I am no longer constrained by the ghar-griahasti, being single again, I have time to pursue my interests.
I hunted out this song when its memory hit me all of a sudden one day. YouTube is useful for people of all tastes, and yes, some good souls had uploaded this song as well. I found the song as magical as ever.
During the Anniversary celebrations of this blog, when all the members were being so delightfully introduced (or re-introduced), I read about Khyatiben’s husband being very fond of Talat NFS. This song sprang immediately to my mind and I decided it was time to write it up.
Here is the song. Sung by Talat Mahmood, Music is by Girin Chakrabarty and the lyrics by Raj Meerti. The lyrics are really beautiful, the tune is simple and soulful, Talat spreads the silken web of his voice all over the song.
Song-Ae andleeb e zaar jaane ko hai bahaar (Talat Mehmood NFS)(1950) Singer-Talat Mehmood, Lyrics-Raj Meerty, MD-Girin Chakraborty
Lyrics
Ae andleeb-e-zaar
jaane ko hai bahaar
ae andaleeb-e-zaar
jaane ko hai bahaar
tu kyun hai bekaraar
bata kyun hai bekaraar
tu kyun hai bekaraar
bata kyun hai bekaraar
ae andleeb-e-zaar
is gulsitaan ko dekh
us baaghbaan ko dekh
is gulsitaan ko dekh
tu mujh ko dekh
aur gham-e-do-jahaan ko dekh
tu mujh ko dekh
aur gham-e-do-jahaan ko dekh
main bhi hoon ashqbaar
jo tu hai jigar figaar
jaane ko hai bahaar
ye teri aarzoo
ye teri aarzoo
kitni hai khoobroo
ye teri aarzoo
khwaabon mein bhi jise
hai usi gul ki justajoo
khwaabon mein bhi jise
hai usi gul ki justajoo
aankhon mein jiski baad-e-ulfat ka ho khumaar
jaane ko hai bahaar
ae andaleeb-e-zaar
jaane ko hai bahaar
13 Responses to "Ae andleeb e zaar jaane ko hai bahaar"
August 1, 2014 at 6:39 pm
Talat’s NFS have a quality unparalleled. Here is one example
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August 2, 2014 at 12:46 pm
Ava ji,
Thanks for posting this fabulous song. I had this LP containing 12 songs of Talat.
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August 2, 2014 at 10:26 pm
What an awesome collection it was. I used to listen to it so often.
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August 3, 2014 at 9:10 pm
Ava ji – Nice Post !! and thanks for this one from Talat Saab.
(I too have mentioned my memories of ‘buying cassettes’ In one of my posts already shared to Atul ji. 🙂 may be coming soon… )
Like this very much. thanks !
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July 19, 2016 at 10:16 pm
The poet name is Raj Meeruti (from Meerut)
It was one of my more favorite ghazal by Talat . I say ‘more ‘ because every song of Talat is my favorite.
SSKHOSLA
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February 13, 2023 at 10:30 pm
Atul, what does the last stanza mean?
..khwaabon mein bhi jise
hai usi gul ki justajoo
khwaabon mein bhi jise
hai usi gul ki justajoo
aankhon mein jiski baad-e-ulfat ka ho khumaar…
I understand the individual words, but i dont understand ki baat kya banii??
Yes, i too have grown up with this song even though i am probably younger to you by a decade. My father was very fond of Talat and so are we- my younger sibling and I.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 1, 2014 at 3:32 pm
Many thanks for a nice post about a beautiful Talat song. Like many of mine and earlier generation, he was my favourite singer those days. This velvet smooth voice gives you a gentle ride on the waves of melody throughout. The voice, tune and rendition gel effortlessly —
My understanding of the poem is that the word ‘zaar’, means weak or sad, and the nightingale is sad because the spring is getting over. The poet is consoling it by telling that it is not alone in facing this loss.
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August 2, 2014 at 10:24 pm
Thanks Pratapji,
I looked up the word ‘zaar’ on google, and it gave me two meaning, tears and garden. I thought they were both apt. Sad also fits.
It is such a lovely little song.
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August 3, 2014 at 12:34 am
paas aayiye ke ham nahin aayenge baar-baar
baahen gale mein daal ke ham ro len ‘ zaar-zaar ‘
aankhon se phir ye pyaar ki barsaat ho na ho
The word is here in the song https://atulsongaday.me/2009/04/26/lag-jaa-gale-ke-phir-ye-haseen-raat-ho-na-ho/
As translated by Raja ji, the word in repetition means ‘ plenty ‘.
I am yet to hear the song. I have a lot to catch up on the blog.
But the word ‘zaar’ does mean ‘Garden’ or ‘gulshan’ in this song . ‘Andaleeb’ is persian for ‘bulbul’. The other day I was reminded of this word ‘andaleeb’ and that I had not seen it for sometime, and the song is here.
So andaleeb-e-zaar means the ‘ nightingale of the garden’ .
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August 3, 2014 at 9:00 pm
Many thanks Avaji and Nahmji for your kind comments. Rekhta.org site’s dictionary gives the meaning as ‘afflicted, lamenting, humble, fertile land’; so both meanings seem to be correct. Both of you are optimists so you found garden appropriate and I got stuck at afflictions!
Speaking of the word ‘andaleeb’, I am unable to resist the temptation of quoting a beautiful couplet of Ghalib,
Aagosh-e-gul kushooda baraay- vidaay hai,
ae andaleeb! chal ki chale din bahaar ke
आग़ोश-ए-गुल कुशूदा बराए-विदाअ है,
ए अंदलीब ! चल कि चले दिन बहार के
My translation:
The embrace of the flower has blossomed (opened), but only to bid farewell,
O Bulbul ! Let us take leave now that the days of Spring are over.
The beauty of ‘chal ki chale din’, however gets lost in translation.
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August 3, 2014 at 10:00 pm
Good thinking Pratapji. 🙂
That is a lovely couplet by Ghalib.
Like Shakespeare, Ghalib was also adept at using alliteration.
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