Donon jahaan teri muhabbat mein haar ke
Posted on: August 12, 2014
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, 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.
Ever since the talkies came into being, Shakespeare’s plays have been one of the most favourites literary sources that have been used in Hindi films after suitably adapting them. The first talkie film adapted from Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet’ is stated to be ‘Khoon Ka Khoon’ (1935) directed by Sohrab Modi. Shakespeare’s plays which have been the favourite with Hindi film industry beside ‘Hamlet’ are ‘Macbeth’, ‘Othello’ and ‘Romeo & Juliet’.
Agha Hashar Kashmiri, Urdu poet, playwright and dramatist was probably the first playwright who adapted most of Shakespeare’s plays in Urdu mainly for Parsi theatres during 1900-1930s His adapted version would mostly have a happy ending so that audience, after watching the plays, will go home in a happy frame of mind.
‘Romeo and Juliet’ seems to be the most favourite among the Shakespeare’s plays for Hindi film industry. Many Hindi films especially of the 70s and 80s, can be said to be ‘inspired’ from this play. These films would generally follow the usual Bollywood love story line. A rich boy falls in love with a poor girl or vice-versa. Families of both the boy and the girl resent their love affairs. Some times they are two feuding families, at war with each other for years. Obstacles are created and there are criminal intentions. But unlike in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ which has a tragic ending, most of these Hindi films would have a happy ending. Some of the Hindi films of the 70s and 80s which can be tagged as inspired from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ are ‘Bobby’ (1973), ‘Love Story’ (1981), ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye’ (1981), ‘Qayaamat Se Qayaamat Tak’ (1988) etc. Some of the recent films like ‘Ishaqzaade’ (2012), ‘Galiyon Ki Rasleela : Ram Leela’ (2013) and ‘Issaq’ (2013) have been overtly described as Indian adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
There was, however, one Hindi film made in 1947 which was not an adaptation or inspired one but it was actually based on ‘Romeo and Juliet’. This Hindi film not only kept the original title of the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1947), it also retained the original names of the characters. William Shakespeare was duly credited for the story. The film was produced under the banner of Nargis Art Concern ( Nargis’s home production) and was directed by Akhtar Hussain, step brother of Nargis. The star cast included D K Sapru, Nargis, Nazir Kashmiri, Anwar Hussain, John Cawas, Sunalini Devi etc. It is said that the film was modelled on the MGM’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1936).
There were 8 songs in the film written by 4 Urdu poets – one each by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Jigar Moradabadi, Akhtar Shirani, Majrooh Sultanpuri and 3 songs by lyricist Manohar Khanna. The remaining one song is not credited to any one. I have selected a ghazal ‘donon jahaan teri muhabbat mein haar ke’ written by Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The ghazal is sung by Khayyam and Zohrabai Ambalewali and composed by Husnlal-Bhagatram.
Since Khayyam’s first film as a music director was ‘Heer-Ranjha’ (1948), technically, one can say that he started his musical career as a playback singer. Khayyam, in his interview on Rajyasabha TV gave the background as to how he got this singing assignment. After assisting music director Baba Chishti in Lahore for about six months, he came back to New Delhi in January 1947 and met his music Gurus for 5 years, Pandit Amarnath, Husnlal and Bhagatram. At that time, Husnlal-Bhagatram was recording the songs for ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1947). So Khayyam got a chance to sing his first song as a playback singer with musical duo along with Zohrabai Ambalewali. Jaddanbai, mother of Nargis was so impressed by his voice that she called Khayyam to meet her. This meeting paved the way for him to gethis first assignment as a music director paired with Rehman Verma as Sharmaji-Varmaji for the film ‘Heer-Ranjha’ (1948). Aziz Hindi was the other music director for this film.
Only the audio clip of this song is available. But I guess that song was picturised on D K Sapru and Nargis.
With this ghazal, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1947) makes its debut in the Blog.
Song-Donon jahaan teri muhabbat mein haar ke (Romeo and Juliet)(1947) Singers-Khayyam, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Lyrics-Faiz Ahmad Faiz, MD-Husnlal Bhagatram
Lyrics
donon jahaan teri muhabbat mein haar ke
donon jahaan teri muhabbat mein haar ke
wo jaa rahaa hai koi shab-e-gham guzaar ke
wo jaa rahaa hai koi shab-e-gham guzaar ke
veeraan hai maikada
khum-o-saaghar udaas hai ae ae
veeraan hai maikada
khum-o-saaghar udaas hai ae ae
tum kyaa gaye ke rooth gaye din bahaar ke ae
tum kyaa gaye ke rooth gaye din bahaar ke ae
ik fursat-e-nigaah mili ee ee
wo bhi chaar din
aan aan aan
dekhe hain hamne hausle parwardigaar ke
dekhe hain hamne hausle parwardigaar ke
7 Responses to "Donon jahaan teri muhabbat mein haar ke"
August 17, 2014 at 8:33 pm
Enjoyed listening to the song. Thanks Sadanand ji.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 12, 2014 at 8:56 am
Kamathji,
Other singer was GM Durrani who sang tumhe sitaro ne beakhtiyar dekha hai written by Akhtar Shirani in the same movie.
Khayyam also sang in:
Parda-1949>ye qarwan e zindagi na ae khuda ruke kabhi
Anjuman-1986>kab yaad me tera saath nahi with Jagjeet Kaur his wife again by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
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August 12, 2014 at 9:19 am
Do you mean to say that other singer (in this song) was G M Durrani?
I am aware of a duet by Khayyam and Jagjeet Kaur from ‘Anjuman’ (1986).
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August 12, 2014 at 9:27 am
HFGK is silent about the singers of this song.
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August 12, 2014 at 9:49 am
http://www.myswar.com shows Khayyam as the singer. This was confirmed by Khayyam himself in the TV interview I referred to in my write-up. Here the link of that interview:
The part of interview where Khayyam says that he sang the duet with ZA is between 14:45 -15:50.
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August 12, 2014 at 10:18 am
I said in the same movie
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August 12, 2014 at 11:27 am
Ok.
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