Hindola jhoole Shyaam
Posted by: Atul on: March 3, 2020
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusaist 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 other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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‘Shatranj Ke Khilaadi’ (1977) was Satyajit Ray’s first and only Hindi feature film which was based on a short-story by the same name written by Munshi Premchand. The film was produced by Suresh Jindal under the banner of Devki Chitra. From the low budget black and white Bangla films, Satyajit Ray charted his way into high budget Hindi colour film with multi-star cast with Mumbai and Kolkata based actors and also actors from the West. The actors included Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Farida Jalal, Victor Bannerji, Richard Attenborough, Tom Alter, Barry John, Farooque Shaikh, David Abraham, Veena etc.
After successfully producing his first Hindi film ‘Rajnigandha’ (1974), Producer, Suresh Jindal in a chance meeting with Satyajit Ray sometime in 1974 requested him to direct for him a Hindi film, or an English film. If not, he is prepared to produce a Bengali film for him to direct. Satyajit Ray’s reaction to his request was positive as he said that he himself was thinking of directing a Hindi film. This opened their partnership of making ‘Shatranj Ke Khilaadi’ (1977).
From 1974 to 1976, the time was spent mostly on a detailed research on the subject including meetings with scholars in India and the UK. Both Satyajit Ray and Suresh Jindal visited various places in India and abroad which had connection with the story of the film for checking the authenticity of the historical events and also for the selection of authentic props. The visits included havelis of Lucknow and Jaipur, thakur baris of North Calcutta (Kolkata), museums and libraries of Hyderabad and London etc. The shooting of the film was delayed by few months due to non-availability of Sanjeev Kumar for health reasons. The film’s shooting finally commenced in December 1976 and wound up by June 1977. For details about the making of this film, one can read the book ‘My Adventures with Satyajit Ray : The Making of Shatranj Ke Khiladi’ by Suresh Jindal (Harper Collins, 2017).
I had covered in detail the story of the film while discussing one of the songs from the film, Kaanha main tose haari. Just to recapitulate in short, the story is set in the background of the impending take over of Awadh by the British troops as they feel that the Nawab of Awadh, Wajid Ali Shah is busier with singing, dancing and poetry reciting sessions than governing his kingdom. On the other hand, two of the aristocrats of Nawab are unmindful of what is in store for Awadh and of their families, as they are addicted to playing chess. At the end of film, Satyajit Roy has highlighted situational irony in which while Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, in order to avoid bloodshed, abdicates Awadh to Britishers, the chess playing aristocrats continue to play chess at a far-off place from their houses in order to avoid calls from Nawab to fight the Britisher troops. In the event, a bloody fight ensues between the two on a trivial chess move in which they are prepared to kill each other.
The film had 5 songs of which two songs have been covered in the Blog. Of the remaining 3 songs, 2 songs are partially used in the film although the record versions of them are longer. The remaining one song ‘hindola jhoole shyam’ which I am presenting here was deleted from the film before its the release. The song is rendered by Calcutta Youth Choir (as a chorus) which is set to music by Satyajit Ray. The lyrics are written by Wajid Ali Shah. Incidentally, Calcutta Youth Choir was set in 1958 by Ruma Guha Thakurta along with Salil Chowdhury and Satyajit Ray.
The long prelude and the last interlude music with short taraana would indicate that this song has been written for Kathak dance performance or for a musical play on Krishna. The verses were written by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. The last stanza has some Urdu words. Some of the Urdu poets like Nazeer Akbaradbadi and Hasrat Mohani have written many poems in praise of the beauty of Lord Krishna and on his divine love for Radha in the mixed language of Urdu and Awadhi/Brij.
I was eager to know as to where this deleted song would have appeared in the film. I had read that Nawab Wajid Ali Shah had written plays about Lord Krishna and his raasleela with Radha in which, sometime he himself used to perform as Krishna. With this background, I guess this song would have fitted in the beginning of the film, during which a short Kathak dance is being performed by Wajid Ali Shah (Amjad Khan) as Lord Krishan along with Radha and other dancers.
The song is not only pleasing to ears but also soothing to the mind.
Audio Clip:
Song-Hindola jhoole Shyam (Shatraj Ke Khilaadi)(1977) Lyrics-Wajid Ali Shah, MD-Satyajit Ray
Lyrics
hindola jhoole shyam
hindola jhoole shyam
shyam gane se ghana chalat pawan
shyam gane se ghana chalat pawan
sanan sanan sanana naa aa aa
hindola jhoole shyam
hindola jhoole
sab sakhiyaan mil peng badhaao
deke ??
re ma pa ni sa
tanan tanana tan tanana aa aa aa
hindola jhoole shyam
hindola jhoole
mor mukut kati kehari kingini
paayal baaje ae
jhanan jhanan jhan jhanana aa
hindola jhoole
?? ??
tha de
dhe tha dhe tha
dhe tha re de re tha
jaan-e-aalam rahas mubarak
jaan-e-aalam rahas mubarak
yug yug jiyo sada viraajo
yug yug jiyo sada viraajo
maatar meera sang rahas mubaarak
jaan-e-aalam rahas mubaarak
jaan-e-aalam rahas mubaarak
jaan-e-aalam
jaan-e-aalam
jaan-e-aaaaaa
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