Aahon mein basa hai koi ik baar to aa jaa
Posted on: August 5, 2016
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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.
Whenever I listen to songs rendered by Hafeez Khan Mastana, popularly known as Khan Mastana, I feel very sad and sorry for him. He was the son of Ustad Waheed Khan of Etawah Gharana who was a well-known sitar and surbahar player. The renowned sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan was Khan Mastana’s first cousin.
With such a pedigree of family, Khan Mastana should have become the torch bearer of the Etawah Gharana. In fact, he and his brother Aziz Khan underwent extensive training to learn sitar, surbahar and also the vocal music under the tutelage of their uncle Ustad Inayat Khan, the father of Ustad Vilayat Khan. But both the brothers had other ideas in their mind. While Khan Mastana joined the film industry in the late 1930s as playback singer and also become the music director, his brother Aziz Khan joined him later as music director without the knowledge of their father.
When Ustad Wahid Khan came to know about his both the sons’ association with the film industry, he let his displeasure known to them and advised them to return home to continue the training. While the younger son Aziz Khan took his father’s advice seriously and devoted his time in learning sitar and surbahar, Khan Mastana returned to film industry after a break of a year or two. But as they say, in Hindi film industry, out of sight artists become out of mind. With the rise of new playback singers like Mohammed Rafi, Talat Mehmood and Mukesh, he was no longer in demand. Added to this was his reported nature of lavish spending and addiction to drugs. By mid-1950s, his musical career in Hindi film industry virtually came to an end. He died in March 1972 almost penniless.
There is one more reason why I feel sad about the musical career of Khan Mastana. Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan, son of Aziz Khan and the nephew of Khan Mastana who is internationally known sitarist, is of the view that his uncle would have definitely become one of the leading exponents of Hindustani classical music if he had continued to pursue the Etawah Gharana tradition. The proof is his recordings of sitar and surbahar recitals as well as his classical renditions available with the family’s archive.
During his musical career in Hindi film industry, Khan Mastana sang around 120 songs and was music director in 26 films. However, I doubt whether he would get his century song in the Blog as many of his songs of the 1940s are from obscure movies and his songs from such movies may not be available as of now.
Today, I am presenting one of my favourite songs sung by Khan Mastana from the film DUSHMANI (1950). The song is ‘aahon mein basa hai koi ik baar to aa jaa’ which is the first song from the film to appear in the Blog. The song is written by Kuldeep Talwar and is set to music by V Ramnath (Wadhwa). The song is all about ‘separation from the loved one’.
DUSHMANI (1950) appears to be a B grade film if I go by the star cast which included Bhagwan, Sarla Devi, Usha Shukla, Arvind Kumar, Habib, Shiekh etc. There were six songs in the film, all penned by Kuldeep Talwar.
With this song, DUSHMANI (1950) makes its debut in the Blog.
Song-Aahon mein basa hai koi ik baar to aa jaa (Dushmani)(1950) Singer-Khan Mastana, Lyrics-Kuldeep Talwaar, MD-V Ramnath (Wadhwa)
Lyrics
aahon mein basa hai koi
ik baar to aa jaa
dukh dard mita jaa
mere dukh dard mita jaa aa
aahon mein basa hai koi
ik baar to aa jaa
dukh dard mita jaa
mere dukh dard mita jaa aa
ik yaad teri aag jigar mein hai lagaaye
har aas meri aaj mujhe yaas dikhaaye(?)
ik yaad teri aag jigar mein hai lagaaye
har aas meri aaj mujhe yaas sikhaaye(?) ae
iss gham se bhare dil ko dilshaad banaa jaa
dukh dard mita jaa
mere dukh dard mita jaa aa
phir jaam naye aaj nighaaon kaa pila de
wo pyaar bhara geet mujhe aa ke suna de
phir jaam naye aaj nighaaon kaa pila de
wo pyaar bhara geet mujhe aa ke suna de ae
ye ashq bhari aankhen ik baar sukha jaa
dukh dard mita jaa
mere dukh dard mita jaa aa
haaye jaan meri
aaj hai aahon kaa fasaana
ae chaand mera haal unhen jaa ke sunaana
haaye jaan meri
aaj hai aahon kaa fasaana
ae chaand mera haal unhen jaa ke sunaana
ek aag lagi dil mein phir aake bujha jaa
dukh dard mita jaa
mere dukh dard mita jaa aa
aahon mein basa hai koi
ik baar to aa jaa
dukh dard mita jaa
mere dukh dard mita jaa aa
6 Responses to "Aahon mein basa hai koi ik baar to aa jaa"
August 5, 2016 at 8:43 pm
What a voice. Calm and cool. jigar me sheetal pahunchaaye.
It seems the MD and lyricist first and last effort.
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August 5, 2016 at 8:43 pm
And he also took part in this immortal song under the baton of Ghulam Haider
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August 5, 2016 at 9:13 pm
Sir, many thanks for this post and information about Shri.Khan Mastana ji.
I like this song very much and listen to it many times ( when I shared it to Atul ji almost two and half years back).
I feel myself fortunate to get a chance to listen his songs and share them. (the other one ‘khushi ki aas rahi dil ko’ from ‘Sawan Aaya Re-1949’)
Thanks for this treat !!!
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August 5, 2016 at 11:57 pm
Thanks a lot Kamath Sir for the song and sharing the detailed information about the singer Khan Mastana saheb,
The first song that automatically comes to mind when one hears of Khan Mastana is the one referred to by Shri Partha Chanda above.
While the first version was led by Khan Mastana, the sad version was the one which brought Mohd. Rafi to the limelight.One of my favourites ever since I had seen Shaheed.
Makes one sad that this excellent singer did not enjoy the fame and popularity he richly deserved.
Thanks once again and regards,
Avadh Lal
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 5, 2016 at 7:25 pm
Khan Mastana was and is one of the voices (and style) I am mad about, since my college days. I used to sing his and Durrani’s song then.
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