Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

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There are a few dates that every Indian knows by heart. For instance. Independence day (15 august), Republic day (26 january) and Mahatma Gandhi birth anniversary (2 october). India observes official holidays on these days.

There are some more important days in the history of India and most of them have to do with birth / death anniversaries of eminent persons. These dates are mostly associated with Indian freedom struggle followed by birth pangs of Independence.

The newly independent India was a desperately poor, undernourised, illiterate nation, lying in utter disarray and confusion. There were a few famous foreigners who were convnced that India as a nation was going to be shortlived.

The first few decades of independent India were very difficult. Indians had low self esteem and they had little to show for at the world level in any sphere.

Sports was considered a luxury that the poor nation could not afford. It was popularly believed that one who studied moved ahead in life whereas one who devoted time to sports was a slacker who would be a failure in his future life. -“Padhoge likhoge banoge nawaab Kheloge koodoge hoge kharaab”- it was a very popular saying in Hindi. There is even a song in a Hindi movie containing his idiom.

India had very few sporting achievements. Indians celebrated those few and far between sporting achievements quite hard. India was a powerhouse in Hockey and they used to win gold medals in Olympics continuously till 1956 Olympics. After that they began to get challenged, first by newly independent Pakistan (who won the gold in 1960 Olympics defeating India) and then by Europe and the downfall of Indian hockey began. 1964 Olympics gold and 1975 World cup title were exceptions rather than rule. After 1975, India never won any major international Hockey tournament.

India was no good in any other sports.

Cricket was very popular in India though this popularity did not translate into excellence. Cricket was popular among the “middle” class Indians. Majority of Indians considered themselves as “Middle” class those days. The reason why cricket was popular among “middle” class public had to to with its dress. While one needed to wear shorts to play other games which was considered infra dig by “middle” class Indians, cricket was played while wearing full pants, and so one felt like a sahab rather than a lowly individual while playing cricket. It was a “saala main to saahab ban gaya” kind of feeling for Indians who took to cricket.

Till mid 1970s, longer version of cricket, played in white dress, was the only form of cricket. Despite the popularity of cricket in India, Indian cricketers, with some honourable exceptions, were by and large quite mediocre at international level. The top players of England would not even tour India, and that gave India the opportunity to defeat a depleted English team in 1951-52, which was the first test win for India in test cricket. For next two decades, Indian registered some infrequent test wins, mostly against weak and / or new comer teams, viz Pakistan and new Zealand.

1971 to 1973 was a surprising purple patch for India when they managed to win three test series in a row, against West Indies in 1971, against England in 1971, and in home series against England during 1972-73. But this freak run against depleted sides was too good to last and India got soundly thrashed in their next test series against England in England during 1974.

During that disastrous tour, India played two limited overs match against England and lost tamely.

The first Limited overs world cup was played in England in 1975. Indian public as well as cricketers had no clue about the rules of the game. That was demonstrated rather dramatically during the opening match of that world cup. England piled on 334/ 4 in 60 overs. India in reply, crawled to 132/ 3. Gavaskar, opening the innings, scored 36 runs and remained not out ! He was perhaps trying to play out the overs and draw the match ! The fact that playing out overs and not scoring runs did not avoid defeat, unlike in test matches was not known to many.

In that world cup, India lost every match, except one which they played against a rag tag team of expatriates who represented a team called “East Africa”. East Africa was a collection of club level players from various African nations. India was able to record their only victory of the world cup against this team.

India did even worse in the next world cup in 1979. this time they lost all the matches. Their most humiliating defeat was against Sri Lanka, who at that time were an associate team, they were not yet a test team.

When the third world cup was held in England in 1983, then it was being considered yet another cakewalk for West indies, who had won both the world cups and whose team boasted of strong batting line up and a fearsome pace bowling quartet. They were so strong that other teams would write off their chances against West Indies and would concentrate on winning other matches.

Indian public as well as players were sure that it would be yet another forgettable world cup for them. Some cricketers had already planned to go visit USA on a sight seeing tour after the group stage matches.

This world cup had two groups of four teams each. In each group, the teams played each other twice. The top two teams qualified for the semi finals.

The first group match that India played was against West Indies ! Because of rain interruptions, this match was played over two days. India batting first scored a so so total of 262/8. Yashpal Sharma, with 89 runs, held the innings together where the second highest score was only 36 runs by Sandip Patil. West Indies, after a decent start, suddenly had a middle order collapse against the dibbly dobbly military medium bowling attack of Sandhu, Madanlal and Roger Binny who claimed 5 wickets among themselves. At 130/8 , West Indies were in big trouble, but their tail then began to wag valiantly. Just when it appeared like the tail were taking West Indies to a famous fighting win, Ravi Shashtri struck to claim the two vital tailender wickets. West Indies were bowled out for 228 ! It was a major upset. It was the first ever world cup defeat for West Indies, It was the first ever win for India against a test side (only the second win for them in world cup).

The next match for India was against Zimbabwe, an associate team, and India won comfortably.

Then normal world cup service seemed to resume for India. They lost their next two matches tamely, by 162 runs (against Australia) and 66 runs (against West Indies).

After two wins and two losses, India played Zimbabwe again. While batting first, India were in dire straits at 17/5. Overconfidence by the entire batting line up plus good use of swinging and bouncy conditions by Zimbabwean bowlers had brought India on its knees. The entire top order, viz Gavaskar (0) , Srikkanth (0) , Mohinder Amarnath (5), Sandeep Patil (1) and Yashpal Sharma (9) were blown away. Only bowlers and wicktkeeper were left, who were not known for any great batting feats at international level.

Kapildev (the captain) and Roger Binny took the score to 77, when Binny fell for a gritty 22. Next man Shashtri fell for one, and India was 78/ 7 ! Next man in was Madanlal, he scored 17 and fell when the score was 140.

At 140/8, it appeared as if India was going to maintain its past record of losing to an associate team in the world cup. Incidentally, Zimbabwe had already defeated Australia in this world cup in their very first world cup match.

Kirmani, the wicket keeper was definitely the last hope because Sandhu after him was a perfect rabbit with the bat. Kirmani held his end intact and concentrated on protecting his wicket. He faced 56 balls and scored 24 not out.

All this while, Kapildev was going alone sedately. Coming in at 9/4, he saw off the rampaging opening bowers Rawson and Curran, who bowled bulk of their quota of overs in their opening spell.

After initial jitters, Kapildev began to open up. He had already reached into late 70s when the eighth wicket fell for 140. The eight batsmen who fell had contributed just 55 runs among themselves.

After the fall of eighth wicket, Kapildev started to throw his bat around. The boundary was short on one side and longer on the other, but most Kapildev sixes (six of them) were straight sixes over long on boundary where the boundary was long. Kapildev struck six sixes and 16 fours. When Rawson and Curran returned to finish off their balance quota of overs, they were pulverised, being struck at over ten runs per over.

Kapildev did not give any real chances. He chanced his arms and his hits fell on no man’s land. It was Kapildev’s day out on that day of 18 june 1983.

India reached a respectable looking 266/ 8, a total that looked impossible for most parts of the innings.

While chasing, Zimbabwe were off to a decent start. their first wicket fell at 44, but after that, Indian dibbly dobbly trundlers (Sandhu, Madanlal, Binny and Mohinder Amarnath) did all the damage, with Kapildev taking the final wicket. India had won by 31 runs. It was not a case of India getting out of jail, rather it was like India escaping from the gallows !

Suddenly, India, who looked like going home, were in the reckoning for a semi final spot. They were second in the group with 12 points behind West Indies. Final group match of India was with Australia who were third in the group with 8 points and they too had a chance to pip Indians to the post by defeating india by a decent margin and going through on equal points but better run rate.

This India vs Australia match was a virtual quarter final. India batting first scored what looked like a poorish total of 247 all out in 55. 5 overs.

While chasing, Australia lost their first wicket cheaply with the score on 3. It was the prized wicket of Trevor Chappel who was man of the match in their previous encounter in the tournament. But the second wicket began to score runs and started to look threatening. Just when I and my hostel mates began to despair, the second wicket fell at 46, then the third at 48, fourth at 52, fifth at 52, sixth at 67 etc etc. The trundling trio of Sandhu (2 wickets), Madanlal (4 wickets) and Binny (4 wickets) skittled Australia out for 129 and took India to semifinal. It was something that was looking out of question just two days back.

The day when India stormed into the semi final was 20 june 1983. I was in my hostel where it was a tradition that birthday boy of the day would treat entire hostel with Mithai. That day happened to be my birthday, and the mithai celebration turned out to be quite sweet and memorable for all concerned.

The memory of semi final was a blur. Most Indian wins (except one) came when India batted first. But this time India bowled first and restricted England to 213. India concentrated to keeping wickets in hand. India emerged a comfortable winner in the end in a chase that they executed well, though they gave anxious moments to Indian fans, apparently showing no urgency to score quickly in the middle overs.

Three matches in five days, and three wins. India were in the final of the world cup !

Three days later, it was another sunday. The date was 25 june 1983. The day of the final.

Those were the days when only Delhi and perhaps Bombay had TV. Most part of India only had Radio. Listening to cricket match commentary in a hostel with lots of like minded hostelmates was quite an experience. Everyone had radios, but majority of people would throng together to listen to the commentary on one single radio. If I recall correctly, that used to be the radio of a person who was a cricket enthusiast and claimed to be related to Sharmila Tagore based on the resemblance of his teeth with that of Sharmila Tagore. 🙂

We listened to the commentary of Indian batting, but there was not much to cheer about. India kept losing wickets at regular intervals and India was bowled out for a paltry 183. Chasing 183 was no big deal for West Indies. They were set a similar target in the semifinal against Pakistan and they had romped home with ease, winning by eight wickets with 11.2 overs to spare.

The innings break coincided with our dinner break in the hostel. After dinner, people would traditionally go on an after dinner walk towards the golf course located in front of the hostel some half a km away. West Indies innings had started by then. India claimed an early wicket, but that only brought Viv Richards to the crease. He was going hammer and tongs at the Indian bowling. All of us were reconciled to the fact that it was going to be a one sided match, with west indies winning comfortably.

Then, against the run of play, we gathered that a wicket had fallen, and it was the wicket of Richards ! A big sigh of relief. But West Indies was not a one batsman team. they has a long and strong batting line up. Even their wicket keeper and tailenders could score runs. Moreover he target was not much. A few hefty blows from some batsman, and the match would be decided.

While listening to the commentary, more in hope than real expectation, we found the fourth and fifth wickets falling at the same score, and the wickets were that of Larry Gomes and Clive Lloyd. At 76/6 , Bacchus, another thorn in Indian flesh was gone. Both of them had scored big double centuries against india in India.

Dujon and Marshal gave anxious moments to Indian bowlers. Then Dujon fell to Mohinder Amarnath . 119 for 7 ! Then 8 for 124. Marshal gone, he too to Mohinder Amarnath.

Finally, West Indies resistance came to an end at 140. A 43 run victory for India. So the world had a new champion, an out rightly unexpected champion. If West Indies was to be dethroned, one would expect any team other than India to achieve it. But it turns out that it was the Indian David that slayed the West Indian Goliath.

West Indies had won the earlier two world cups. Their title wins did nothing much for world cricket. But this unexpected fluke win of India against all odds changed the game of cricket ! Indian interest in the game suddenly moved on to the next higher gear. So much so that Indians began to invest far more in cricket. The Indian industry, far smaller and modest then than what it is now, began to take much more interest in cricket. So much so that the world cup which was always held in England and always sponsored by Prudential Bank of England,, was held the next time in Indian subcontinent. This time it was sponsored by an up and coming Indian business house called Reliance ! In 1983, India was considered an also ran, but by 1987, India was a strong title contender ! It is another matter than India lost in the semifinal itself.

1983 win was a fluke no doubt. But he future results showed that Indian cricket had arrived at world stage after this fluke world cup win. Two years later, there was a World Championship of cricket in Australia. India, because of its defeat at home to England in 1984-85 was being considered as a no hoper. Kapildev, the world cup winner in 1983, had lost his captaincy and Gavaskar was made the captain for this WCC. Once again, defying all predictions, India won all their matches, remained undefeated and lifted the WCC title. So it was like Fluke title won 1983 was followed by its sequel, fluke title win II ! Later there would be some ODI tournament wins for India. India began to be counted among favourites in all subsequent world cups.

That is not all. Indians began to take interest in running the administration of ICC (international cricket council) which was till then a preserve of British stiff upper lip Lords who were running it in a manner that was hardly helping popularise the game. Indian businessman, such as Jagmohan Dalmia, took over the running of ICC, and improved the financial condition of ICC beyond all recognition. Today ICC is one of the richest sporting body. It is richer than most sporting bodies where Indians do not take interest. For instance, Rugby is a sport in which cricket playing nations like England, Australia and New Zealand take interest, but India does not. Result ! International body of Rugby earns far less than ICC.

Much of ICC riches (around 70 % of it) today comes from India. That is how much money Indian market contributes to world cricket. It is this Indian market that has made BCCI one of the richest sporting body of a country, richer than ICC in fact. Seeds of all these giant Oak trees were sown on this day 37 years ago, thanks to that miraculous fluke title win on 25 june 1983 !

25 june 1983 gave Indians immense self confidence that they too can do it. And as mentioned above, they used this win to advance their cricket. Cricket academies sprung up all over India, and some of them were by private companies. For instance, a pace academy came up in Madras, called MRF pace academy. Fans of other countries mocked it, but if today Indian pace attack is considered one of the best pace attacks, then remember, it is the result of three decades of investment on training of pace bowlers in different academies spread all over India. And that started only after this great fluke event that took place on 25 june 1983.

This win inspired not just India, but its neighbours too, who may not admit it openly but they look up to India and get inspired. Interest in cricket picked up in these nations too. Pakistan won the world cup in 1992 and Sri Lanka announced its arrival in cricket scene by unexpectedly winning the world cup in 1996. Three world cup title wins out of four between 1983 and 1996 ! All this was made possible because of that first title win in 1983 ! Even Bangladesh became a cricket crazy nation and started to play international cricket from 2000.

Other sports too benefited in India. Indian Sportsmen in other sports too began to have more self belief. One great example is that of Indian chess. Just like India was supposedly considered incapable to producing fast bowlers till 1970s, India was also considerd incapable of producing Chess grandmasters. Those days, India had just two international masters, that was all. AICF (All India Chess Federation) began to invest more in organising chess tournaments inviting strong chess players from abroad. India saw its first Grand master in 1987 in the form of Vishwanathan Anand in 1987. Later on, he became World Champon as well. He inspired whole lot of Indians to take up Chess. Today India has some 60 off Chess Grandmasters and based on average ELO raking of the top ten chess players in the world, India is among top four strongest chess playing nation in the world !

Likewise one can add the example of Indian Badminton too.

To mark this major major achievement of Indian sport in general and Indian cricket inparticular, here is a cricket song from “Ferrari Ki Sawaari”(2012). This film was produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and directed by Rajesh Mapuskar for ‘Vinod Chopra films’. This movie had Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani, Ritvik Sahore, Seema Pahwa, Aakash Dabhade, Deepak Shirke, Paresh Rawal, Satyadeep Mishra, Achyut Potdar, Bhalchandra Kadam, Vijay Nikam, Nilesh Diwekar and others, with a special appearance by Vidhya Balan.

Lyrics of this song were sent to me by Avinash Scrapwala. He not only discovered this cricket song, he sent its lyrics to me specially to mark the occasion of Indian world cup win on 25 june 1983 ! He certainly keeps an eagle eye on important days in the annals of Indian history !

The song is sung by Sonu Nigam, Aishwarya Nigam, Rana Mujumdar and Ashish. Satyanshu Singh is the lyricist. Music is composed by Preetam. Video is partial. One needs to listen to the audio to savour the full song.

Here it is ! Let us once again savour the great moment in the history of India that took place this day 37 years ago.

Video (Partial)

Audio (Full)

Song-Maara re sixer maara re four (Ferrari Ki Sawaari)(2012) Singers-Sonu Nigam, Aishwarya Nigam, Rana Mujumdar, Ashish, Lyrics – Satyanshu Singh, Music– Pritam

Lyrics(Provided by Avinash Scrapwala)(audio version)

hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
o maaaraa
hey maaraa

hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa aa

aa haa
o ho
ae ae ae ae …
aa haa
o ho

maaraa re sixer
maaraa re four
dekho to dekho to
apnaa ye score
maaraa re sixer
maaraa re four
dekho to dekho to
apnaa ye score
arey public to public hai
run maange more
more
more
more
more
more ……
ye maaraa
hey maaraa
o maaraa
hey maaraa aa
aa haa
o ho
hey ae ae ae
aa haa
o ho
hey ae ae ae
umpire ke haath thhakne lage hain
fielder bhi saare tapakne lage hain
hook maar aisaa tu oo
hook maar aisaa tu
rocket ke jaisaa tu
bouncer pahunchaa de Laahore
o…… r…e

more
more
more
more ….
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
o maaraa
hey maaraa aa

maaraa re sixer
maaraa re four
dekho to dekho to
apnaa ye score
public to public hai
run maange more
more
more
more
more
more …..

aa haa
o ho
hey ae ae ae
aa haa
o ho
hey ae ae ae

ham sab ki aankhen tujhpe lagi hain
har dil mein phir se ummeeden jagi hai
public hai sang tere ae
oye oye oye oye ae
public hai sang tere ae
barsaa de rang tere
dikhlaa de balle ka zor
more
more
more
more ……

hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
o maaaraa
hey maaraa

maaraa re sixer
maaraa re four
are dekho dekho
dekho to dekho to
apnaa ye score

maaraa maara re sixer
maaraa maara re four
are dekho to dekho to
apnaa ye score
maaraa maaraa maaraa sixer
maaraa maaraa maaraa four
dekho to dekho to
apnaa ye score
aa haa
o ho
hey ae ae ae
aa haa
o ho
hey ae ae ae
——————————-
Lyrics(Provided by Avinash Scrapwala)(video short version)
——————————-
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
o maaaraa
hey maaraa

hey maaraa
hey maaraa aa

aa haa
o ho
hey ae ae ae

maaraa re sixer
maaraa re four
dekho to dekho to
apnaa ye score
public to public hai
run maange more
more
more
more
more
more …..
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
o maaaraa
hey maaraa aa

aa haa
o ho
hey ae ae ae

ham sab ki aankhen tujhpe lagi hain
har dil mein phir se ummeeden jagi hai
public hai sang tere ae
oye oye oye oye ae
public hai sang tere ae
barsaa de rang tere
dikhlaa de balle ka zor
more
more
more
more ……

hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
hey maaraa
o maaaraa
hey maaraa aa