O ri raina tera chhauna chaand hai chitchor
Posted on: July 7, 2016
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.
The shelf life of a Hindi pop (also called Indipop) song is generally very short. But one that has smitten me seems to be an exception. I have been watching the video clip of the song over a year. The more I listened, more I was curious to know as to why I liked this pop song especially when I have not been a great admirer of such genre of songs.
The song in question is predominantly sung by Kaushiki Chakraborty (b. 24/10/1980), who is a Hindustani classical vocalist belonging to Patiala Gharana. She had never sung a pop song until the one under discussion. She is the daughter of Pandit Ajay Chakraborty, one of the renowned vocalists belonging to Patiala Gharana. Hundreds of her concert videos are available on YT on the basis of which I have become her admirer. Her repertoire include khayal, thumri, dadra, bhajans, folk songs etc. She has also been trained under Balmurli Krishna for Carnatic music. She has been a regular invitees for major national and international concerts. With her good command over aalaaps, taans, murkees with an excellent voice and expression, Kaushiki Chakraborty has already become one of the popular concert vocalists of Hindustani classical music at an young age of 35.
As I understand from the interview, it was with a great persuasion by Shantanu Moitra, the music director which made Kaushiki to agree to sing a pop song. Earlier, he had recorded a pop song ‘ab ke saawan aise barse’ (1999) from Shubha Mudgal, also a well known vocalist of Hindustani classical music. Shantanu Moitra is known for his compositions of fusion songs in Hindi films like ‘Hazaaron Khwaaishein Aisi’ (2002) ‘Parineeta’ (2005), ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ (2006), ‘Khoya Khoya Chaand’ (2007), ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ (2008), ‘3 Idiots’ (2009), ‘Bobby Jaasoos’ (2014) ‘PK’ (2014) etc.
The non-film song that I have in my mind is ‘ o ri raina tera Chhauna chaand hai chitchor’ from the albums ‘Coke Studio-Season 2 (2012) sung by Kaushiki Chakraborty and Swanand Kirkire who also wrote the lyrics. The first verse of the song is rendered by Swanand Kirkire. In this verse, the girl is cautioned not to fall in love with a hermit as he does not have a stable life. She would be miserable if she falls in love with a hermit.
Now Kaushiki takes over and sings the remaining song. The girl is completely under the spell of the hermit and falls in love with him. The hermit is compared with the moon who has no fixed place and changes his face every day. He wanders in the company of stars. The girl complains to ‘raina’ (night) that her child the moon hides all the day. Even in the night, he is visible only partially. The girl tries all the tricks to bind him with her love. But with his ‘matwaala’ (vagabond) nature, she can not convince him to remain close to her.
The highlight of the song is two interludes. The first is the aalaap rendered by Kaushiki which, I guess, is in raag Hamsadhwani. The second interlude is that of the solo performance on electric Sarod by Pratyush Banerjee, one of the leading Sarod players of today. An unusual musical instrument in this type of orchestration is the Khol played by Gopal Burman who has been associated with kirtan songs in Bengal. Khol is an indispensable part of the spiritual music in Bengal, Assam and Tripura. Music directors, especially from from Bengal, have used Khol in a few devotional songs in Hindi films. Shantanu Moitra, the music director, can be seen in the video as one of the guitarists in the orchestra.
Watch and listen to this pop song which has shades of a kirtan song, a love song and a semi-classical song accompanied with fusion of Indian and western orchestration.
Song-O ri raina tera chhauna chaand hai chitchor( Kaushiki Chakraborty NFS)(2012) Singer-Kaushiki Chakraborty, Swanand Kirkire, Lyrics-Swanand Kirkire, MD-Shantanu Moitra
Chorus
Lyrics
o ri sun
baawri baawri chhori
jogi ko jiya mein na basaiyo
jogi ka hai jagat thhikaana
jogi se tu chit na lagaiyo
thhagwa hai
thhag lega
matwaala
nakhraara(?)
o ri raina tera chhauna
chaand hai chitch..or
munh dikhaaye aadha pauna
tarse man ka chako..r
o ri raina tera chhauna
chaand hai chitch..or
munh dikhaaye aa..dha pauna
tarse man ka chak..or
taaron ki dasht(?) mein ye
phirta banjaara
haa…aan aan
kyun mujhe bhaa gaya hai
zulmi aawaara
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
(sargam)
aaa aaa aaa aaaaa
aaa aaaa aaaa aaaaa
aaa aaaa aaaa aaaa
aaa aaaaaaaaa
aa aa aaaaa aaaaa
aa aa aa aa ri
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 aaa aaaaaaaaaaa
aa aaa aaaaaaaaaa…ri
aa aaa aaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaa aari ri re
aaa aaa aaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
shaam pade dikhe muwa
man bhatak jaaye
neenden ude bane dhuaan
tan mahak jaaye
o o o
dekh kar mera band jharokha
ghar nahin jaaye
haan aaan aaan
kyun meri sooni si gali mein
yoon hi mandraaye
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
o ri raina tera chhauna
chaand hai chitch..or
munh dikhaaye aa..dha pauna
tarse man ka chak..or
o o o
taaron ki dasht(?) mein ye
phirta banjaara
haa…aan aan
kyun mujhe bhaa gaya hai
zulmi aawaara
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
(Electric Sarod Solo performance)
jhumke mein jada usse
maala mein pehna
mundriya zada zada
moti na thehra
haa….an
jogi hai
jogi ko manaana
seekh na paaye
haan…aan aan
hai suna har reete man mein
ye to aaye jaaye re
he laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
he laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
o ri raina tera chhauna
chaand hai chitchor
munh dikhaaye aadha pauna
tarse man ka chak..or
taaron ki dasht(?) mein ye
phirta banjaara
haan…aan aan
kyun mujhe bhaa gaya hai
zulmi aawaara
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
hey laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi laagi laagi laagi
laagi re lagan chitchor
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
July 7, 2016 at 9:57 am
What a coincidence, Sadanandji! Kaushiki is performing live at our Chinmaya Mission Center this Sunday. I will be out of town that day. How unfortunate of me!!! 😦
https://chinmayala.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=397
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July 7, 2016 at 10:37 am
Khyatiben,
I am sure you will get the opportunity to watch her performance live the next time as she visits USA almost every year for concerts.
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