Aa jaa re aa jaa
Posted on: August 13, 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.
In February 1958, an Italian song – Nel blu Dipirito di blu (English: In the sky painted blue), popularly known worldwide as ‘Volare Song’ become very popular. The song was written and sung by Domenico Modungno. This song was chosen as Italian entry to the European Song Contest, 1958 where it got 3rd place. The song received two awards at the First Grammy Award, 1959 – (i) Record of the Year and (ii) Song of the Year. Due to its popularity, the song was recorded in many languages such as English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Finnish, Portuguese etc. The song was sung by more than 50 performers all over the world which included some of the greatest names like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Cliff Richard, Gypsy Kings etc. In 1958, Dean Martin included the half version of the song in English for his LP ‘This is Dean Martin’. The combined sales of all versions of the song exceeded 22 million copies worldwide making it one of the all time popular songs. (Source: Wikipedia). The Video link of the original Italian ‘Volare Song’ is here. I also like the English-Italian version of the song sung by Dean Martin which is here.
With so much popularity of ‘Volare Song’, how the Indian film industry could have remained insulated from it. So within two years from the release of the ‘Volare Song’, C Ramchandra used the tune in the composing one of the songs of ‘SARHAD’ (1960). The song is ‘aa jaa re aa jaa laage na mora jiyaa’ sung by Asha Bhonsle. Majrooh Sultanpuri wrote the lyrics.
‘Sarhad’ (1960) was produced under the banner of Alankar Chitra and was directed by Shankar Mukherjee. The star cast included Dev Anand, Suchitra Sen, Ragini, Sajjan, Lalita Pawar, Moni Chatterjee, Dhumal, Leela Mishra etc. The film was a flop on the box office. Probably, audience did not expect a flamboyant Dev Anand to don the role of a tribal chief in the film. The resultant irony was that while the original as well as version ‘Volare Songs’ all over the world became very popular, the Hindi version was soon forgotten except perhaps by the admirers of C Ramchandra’s compositions.
C Ramchandra, during his interview At BBC Studio sometime in 1981 had acknowledged that he was inspired by some popular western songs which he customised by making few changes in notes to suit the requirements in Indian setting. However, in case of ‘Volare Song’, he could not improve anything to the original notes. While he may have retained the melody in ‘Volare Song’ intact in his composition of the Hindi song under discussion, I think, the last antara of the song has a different tune than that from ‘Volare Song’. Also, there is some more value addition to the Hindi song by way of adding his trade mark rhythm to it which sounds better for the Indian ears. For most of us, melody without rhythm is unthinkable. Therefore, I like the Hindi version of ‘Volare Song’ pleasing to my ears, especially the audio version.
I faced some problems in deciphering the lyrics as a major portion of song in the Video Clip are missing/deleted probably due to damage to the original VHS tapes. Fortunately, I could fill those gaps in lyrics to almost full extent due to the availability of those missing lyrics in a partial audio clip of the song. I have provided both Video and Audio links.
The video clip also suffers from a distracting feature – that is, a long interlude of orchestration between mukhda and antara which, in my view, is not in harmony with the melody of the song but is in keeping with the requirement of picturisation. However, in the partial audio clip, the long interlude of orchestration has been avoided. So I find it pleasant to listen to the song on audio clip than the video clip. The video version is good for watching the beautiful dance performance of Ragini.
So, here is the Indian version of ‘Volare Song’.
Video
Audio (Partial)
Song-Aa jaa re aa jaa (Sarhad)(1960) Singer-Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD-C Ramchandra
Chorus
Lyrics (Based on Video Clip supplemented by lyrics from audio clip)
aa jaa re
aa jaa
laage na
mora jiyaa
saajan
tere siwaa
soona lage jahaan
chod akeli mohe tu kahaan chal diyaa
haay ab na sataa re piyaa
aa jaa re
aa jaa
laage naa mora jiyaa
aaa aaa aaa
aa aa aa aa
aaa aaa aaa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
O o
tere geet pawan halke halke gaaye
tere geet pawan halke halke gaaye
teri yaad liye chaandaniyaan leharaaye
teri yaad liye chaandaniyaan leharaaye
aao
aao
aao ji nainon ke deepak jalaaye
aao ji nainon ke deepak jalaaye
aisa na ho ye bhi raat guzar jaaye
aisa na ho ye bhi raat guzar jaaye
sun jaa
o saajnaa
birhan ki daastaan
chhod akeli mohe
tu kahaan chal diyaa
haaye ab na sataa re piyaa
aa jaa re
aa jaa
laage naa mora jiyaa
main aas liye swarg se paataal mein aayi
sun lo meri fariyaad
suno meri duhaai
dar lagta hai mujko
na tako aisi nazar se
tan kaanp gaya
aur mera dard e jigar se
seene pe mere saanp koi lot raha hai
beraham saa ik haath gala ghont raha hai
beraham saa ik haath gala ghont raha hai
beraham sa ik haath gala ghont raha hai……ae
6 Responses to "Aa jaa re aa jaa"
August 13, 2014 at 3:56 pm
Thank you very much, sir, for the lovely post and, above all, introducing me to the immortal ‘Volare song’ .
I had no exposure to Western music during my formative years and even later never made any conscious attempt to follow or appreciate the same mainly because I was fascinated by HFM or light north indian music(i.e., not karnatak music). No doubt, I am much poorer for it. All my loss, but no regrets.
I also liked Dean Martin’s version a great deal but the original version of Domenico Mondugno is indeed mindblowing. The availability of lyrics and subtitling was helpful but one could just feel the magic of the creation even without that. Mark of a true genius.
I have liked “Aa jaa re … aa jaa” ever since I had first listened to it but now I am also aware of the history behind its composition.
C. Ramchandra was one of the very best. What to say of that golden era when melody was really the king!
Once again, thanks & regards,
Avadh Lal
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August 14, 2014 at 11:07 am
Sadanandji,
Is it really Asha Bhosle’s? It sounds very indistinguishable from Lata. It is surprising because by this time Asha Bhosle had developed her distinct style.
AK
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August 14, 2014 at 1:47 pm
Yes, it is Asha Bhosle. I agree that in this song, her voice has some similarities with Lata’s voice.
Some time I feel that Asha Bhosle does some sort of voice modulation in line with the requirements of different music directors like S D Burman, O P Nayyar, R D Burman etc, Probably after the break up with Lata, C Ramchandra may have tried his best to make Asha’s voice close to Lata. One can notice his attempts on a couple of songs in ‘Navrang’ (1959) for example ‘tum mere main teri’.
By the way, HMV’s 78 RPM record label of this song has accredited Asha Bhonsle as a singer.
http://ngh.co.in/sarhad-n-53387.html
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 13, 2014 at 12:27 pm
Lovely. However I feel after separation from Lata his music steadily went downhill. She was the real inspiration while the association lasted.
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