Zara zara bahakta hai mahakta hai
Posted on: February 17, 2024
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 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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‘Rahnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein’ (2001) was produced by Vashu Bagnani and was directed by Gautham Menon. The cast included Madhavan, Saif Ali Khan, Diya Mirza (debutant), Anupam Kher. Tanaaz Currim, Vrijesh Hirji, Kabir Sadanand, Naveen Nischol, Maya Alagh, Smita Jayakar, Hemant Pandey, Daisy Shah etc. The film is a remake of Tamil film, ‘Minnale’ (2001).
The gist of the story of the film is as under:
The film is a romantic drama in which Madhavan, who is not interested in love and relationship, falls in love with Dia Mirza on her very first glimpse. He meets her again during which he gets to know that she is engaged to USA-based Saif Ali Khan. Madhavan impersonates Saif and often meets Dia to spend time with her when their love blossom. Saif arrives in India to marry Dia who turns out to be Madhavan’s college mate. He was at loggerhead with him during the college days.
With Saif’s arrival, Madhavan’s fraud comes to light. Dia breaks up with him and tells her parents to go ahead with her marriage with Saif. Madhavan is devasted. He tries to convince Dia that his intention was not to lose her. Dia refuses to buy his plea and goes ahead with her proposed marriage with Saif. Having lost her, Madhavan evens tries to threaten Saif but realises the futility of his attempt. He decides to go to USA when he gets offer from his employer, just to forget Dia and to start a new life.
In the meanwhile, Saif gets a doubt whether Dia loves him or Madhavan. Dia, on the other hand, has started feeling that in reality, she loves Madhavan despite his deceptive act. Realising this, Saif takes Dia to the airport to test her inclination where Madhavan is taking his flight to the USA. As soon as Dia and Madhavan meet, they confess their love for each other. Saif, though disappointed, wishes best to both of them and jokingly tells Madhvan that like in college days, they can never be friends.
The Tamil version of the film was a superhit at the box office but the Hindi version as per the Box Office India report was a flop. The film’s director, Gautham Menon, in an interview appeared in OUTLOOK magazine dated January 24, 2023, stated that the success of Tamil version of the film was mainly due to its simplicity and the contribution of its crew members. However, for Hindi version, producer, Vasu Bagnani did not agree for retaining the original crew members. In addition, he deleted a few scenes and added additional scenes which he opposed. But having agreed to direct the film, he did not want to leave the film half-way.
Surprisingly, after some time, when this film was shown on television, it became popular among the youth mainly because of Dia Mirza’s innocent look and Madhavan’s rebellious character. Today, the film has achieved almost a cult status.
The film had 11 songs out of which 7 songs were included in the film’s soundtrack and 4 songs were composed only for audio release. All songs were written by Sameer. The songs which appeared in the film were set to music by Harris Jayaraj. I am presenting the first song from the film, ‘zaraa zaraa bahekataa hai mahekataa hai’ which is rendered by renown Carnatic classical vocalist, Bombay Jayashri. This was her first playback singing for a Hindi film.
I have been listening to Bombay Jayashri’s classical renditions and devotional songs over a decade, but I never knew that she has given playback singing in Hindi films. I was also surprised as to why she was called ‘Bombay Jayashri’ when she is based in Chennai for the last 37 years. Last year, she herself explained in an interview that it was the tradition in South India that the village’s name was prefixed to a classical artiste. Since she and her family were staying in Bombay (Mumbai) from her childhood until 1985, she got prefixed ‘Bombay’ to her name even though she now stays in Chennai. She also had said that during her formative years, Bombay city has played a big role in shaping her personality. Also, Mumbai has taught her to look beyond music to the wide world. So, she did not mind the prefix to her name when she was addressed as such after her shifting to Chennai.
Bombay Jayashri (real name: Jayashri Ramnath nee Subramaniam) was born in Calcutta (Kolkata) in a Tamil musicians’ family. Her father, N N Subramaniam was a music teacher, while her mother Seetha was a homemaker. When she was 3 years, her family shifted to Mumbai and stayed in Chembur. At the age of 7, She lost her father. It was her mother who took the responsibility of taking care of her family.
Jayashri completed her schooling from St. Anthony’s Convent School, Chembur and B. Com from R A Poddar College, Matunga. She received an early push to pursue singing as a career from her mother. She was put under the tutelage of T R Balamani for Carnatic music, Pandit K Mahavir Jaipurwaale and later under Pandit Ajay Pohankar of Kirana Gharana for Hindustani music. She also learnt Bharatnataym dance from a dance school in Chembur. She did her diploma in music from Gandharv Mahavidhyalaya. During her college days, she participated in dramas and got familiarised with Hindustani, Western, Pop, Rap and Metal music. She also sang jingles in Hindi and English for advertising commercials of some multinational companies.
In 1985, Jayashri along with her family shifted to Chennai to get trained in Carnatic classical music under Lalgudi Jayaraman whom she addresses in her talk as Guru. It was at the instance of her Guru, she learnt playing Veena from G N Dandapani. It was during her training under her Guru that she realised the aesthetic of Carnatic classical music.
Jayashri gave her first public concert in 1982. She has performed at all the major music festivals in India including Rashtrapati Bhavan. She has participated in jugalbandis with Hindustani classical vocalists such as Ustad Rashid Khan, Shubha Mudgal and flautist, Ronu Majumdar. She has also given performances overseas music festivals in 35 countries. She has also composed music for ballet and dance performances.
Jayashri has received numerous awards for her contributions to Carnatic classical music, including Filmfare (South) Awards for the best playback singing on two occasions. Last year, she received the Sangeetha Kalanidhi title given by Madras Music Academy (2023).
During her four decades of musical journey, Bombay Jayashri passed through many music genres – from Carnatic, Hindustani, Sufi and Arabic music to Western symphony, devotional music and to playback singing. And her musical journey continues. [Bombay Jayashri’s profile is mainly based on her interview/talks which appeared in Harmony India January 3, 2018, and Manorama, March 29, 2023].
Coming back to today’s song under discussion, the tune of the Hindi song is the same as that was used in the original song, ‘vaseegara’ in Tamil film, ‘Minnale’ (2001) which was picturised on Madhavan and Reema Sen. In the Hindi film, it was picturised on Madhavan and Dia Mirza. The picturisation of the song in Hindi version is different from its Tamil counterpart version in terms of the location as well as in depicting the female sensuality. There was no role for choregraphy in the Hindi version of the song whereas in Tamil version, there are some dance steps in the song.
The film’s director, Gautham Menon has mentioned that Since Dia came from a conservative family from Hyderabad, she was uncomfortable in performing bold scenes for the song. She even felt that the song’s mukhda was bawdy and wanted it to be changed. However, a wiser counsel prevailed on her. The director gave her some freedom to enact the scenes as per her comfort level. Eventually, she gave a good performance on this song.(Source: Outlook Hindi, January 14, 2023).
Bombay Jayashri revealed that she was reluctant to give playback for the original Tamil song, ‘vaseegara’ (counterpart of ‘zaraa zaraa bahekataa hai’) as she had not till then rendered any filmy genre of songs. She gave an excuse to music director, Harris Jayaraj that she sings in a very low pitch voice. He said that he had heard her Carnatic classical renditions, and he wanted her to sing this song in a low pitch voice. Later, she also sang the Hindi version of the song. Bombay Jayashri has acknowledged that the popularity of these two songs has expanded her fan base from the elites of Carnatic/Hindustani classical music to a wider audience world wide.
I have also given below the link of the video clip of the Tamil version song for comparative purpose.
Original Tamil Version
Video Clip:
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Zara zara bahakta hai (Rehna hai tere dil mein)(2001) Singer-Bombay Jayshree, Lyrics-Sameer, MD-Harris Jayraj
Female voice
Lyrics (based on audio clip):
zaraa zaraa bahaktaa hai
mahaktaa hai
aaj to meraa tan badan
main pyaasi hoon
mujhe bhar le apni baahon mein
zaraa zaraa bahaktaa hai
mahektaa hai
aaj to mera tan badan
main pyaasi hoon
mujhe bhar le apni baahon mein
hai meri kasam
tujhko sanam
door kahin naa jaa
ye doori kehti hai
paas mere aajaa re
youn hi baras baras kaali ghataa barse
hum yaar bheeg jaayen
iss chaahat ki baarish mein
meri khuli khuli laton ko suljhaaye
tu apni ungliyon se
main to hoon isi khwaaish mein
sardi ki raaton mein
hum soye rahen ik chaadar mein
hum donon tanhaa hon
naa koi bhi rahe iss ghar mein
zaraa zaraa bahektaa hai
mahektaa hai
aaj to mera tan badan
main pyaasi hoon
mujhe bhar le apni baahon mein
aajaa re
aa re…
hi yaa hi yaa hi yaa hi yaa
hi yaa hi yaa hi yaa hi yaa
tadpaaye mujhe teri sabhi baaten
ik baar ae deewaane
jhoothhaa hi sahi pyaar to kar
main bhooli nahin haseen mulaaqaaten
bechain kar ke mujhko
mujhse youn naa pher nazar
roothhegaa naa mujhse
mere saathhiyaa ye waadaa kar
tere binaa mushkil hai jeenaa meraa
mere dilbar
zaraa zaraa bahekataa hai
mahekta hai
aaj to meraa tan badan
main pyaasi hoon
mujhe bhar le apni baahon mein
hai meri kasam
tujhko sanam
door kahin naa jaa
ye doori kehti hai
paas mere aajaa re
aajaa re….
aajaa re
aajaa re…….ae ae
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
February 17, 2024 at 3:02 pm
hello sir Atulji,
you are doing exceptionally excellent service to the music lovers of Hindi Cinema.
Please keep it up.👍
warm regards,
deepak
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February 17, 2024 at 7:46 pm
Thanks for your appreciation. It is encouragements like this that keep us motivated to keep this musical bandwagon moving.
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