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

This article is written by Sudhir, 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.

ASAD 10th Anniversary Celebrations – 20
———————————————————————

And now, continuing the saga of the 10^th anniversary celebrations. 🙂

First off, thanks to Mahesh ji for announcement that “The last batsman is in”. Quite true, and well, almost. One reason (of the many excuses that I am going to converse about today 🙂 ), is that, quite truly, I was waiting for at least one more contribution to land in, before I announce the closure of celebrations. But as the events transpired, I realized that waiting for that article would probably be like waiting for Mr. Godot.

I refer to Ben Kayti, who has promised me that she will be sending in a write up, but then – well, days have just been following one after the other. In an earlier communication she mentioned that she was little down in health, and that she has a doctor’s appointment. And then – silence. One day, two days – messages on WhatsApp, emails, phone calls, voice mail remained unanswered. When no response came, I had no option but to press the panic button. I tried to contact three other people in the family. And finally, her daughter-in-law responded to my SOS. The family is out to a vacation – Glacier National Park in Montana, where no connectivity is available. The vacationers also include the other two members of the family who I was attempting to get in touch. So it was a relief to know that all was well, and also somewhat vexing that there was a communication gap that created some worries. I will return to this and tie up the loose end left here, and continue with the mainstream of celebration.

‘19’ seems to be a lucky number for me. Quite a few significant things in my life are connected with this number. And thus, not surprisingly, I get connected with this blog that celebrates its birthday on 19^th July. And then, more, I was not planning it to be so – my (previous) post comes at 19^th in the series. Ah yes, as Atul ji has mentioned often, there is a hand of providence with what goes on with this blog. And let me add one more very interesting ‘19’ phenomena. As per the statistics that the WordPress maintains, the date which has had the highest number of visitors on this blog (10,630) is also a 19 – 19^th October, 2011.

On 14^th January this year, the visitor’s ticker on our blog home page turned into an 8 digit number for the first time. We clocked in 10 millionth visitor that evening (IST) – and it translates to 1 crore, in domestic terminology. As I write to complete this article, the ticker has already gone past 10 million 6 hundred thousand, clocking in on average ~ 3,000 visitors per day in this year so far. I would like to give it a name today – this presence that ASAD makes on the worldwide web – it is the “ASAD Phenomena“. Nowhere else probably (once again, as far as I am aware) is there any such endeavour that combines the interests and the determination of such a like-minded team with such dedication, to sustain such a significant level of interest in the central theme of this blog. All I can say is – there are music lovers in this world, and then there are ‘music lovers’ in this world.

Looking back at my association, the date was 1^st October 2010 when I clicked on the subscribe button for getting the RSS feed and became a regular reader-member of this blog. And guess, what is the first song feed that arrived into my mailbox next day (on 2^nd October) – “Ham to tere dil ke bangley mein aanaa maangtaa”. Now that I read this song title, I wonder whether it was a message intended for me from Atul ji, or was it supposed to be from me to Atul ji. 😀 😀  Whichever way, I think it just worked out very famously. 🙂

My first step into lyrics contribution was published on 1^st Feb, 2011 and it is the famous Suraiya song from ‘Bilwamangal’ (1954) – “Parwaanon Se Preet Seekh Len”. And then it just went on from there. The first post written by me appeared on 18^th Feb, 2011, a song from the film ‘Gul e Bakaavali’ (1963) “Ye Kehdo Tumhe Hamse Kyaa Chaahiye”. Missed the 19^th by just a day, although there is a post on the 19^th Feb also, my second one. And then it just went on from there.

कुछ लगता नहीं के सात साल गुज़र गए। Seriously, it seems just like last week or last month. In that very year (2011), in the subsequent months, we had a spectacular event on the blog, something of the type that has not yet been repeated. An event that truly marks this blog to be a Phenomena. Starting on 28^th June, 2011, the blog saw an unbroken series of articles on the great KL Saigal Sb, that lasted all the way up to 18^th Sep, 2011. The last song of this unbroken series, posted on 18^th Sep is “Baalam To Pe Sabar Padey” from the film ‘Parwaana’ (1947). I quote a brief paragraph from that write up here,

With this post, I have now published 61 posts on Saigal Saab’s songs. In one of the interim emails, Atul ji wrote to me that every day morning, he eagerly opens his mailbox to look for an email from me. And the eagerness and urgency was no less on my side. Some of the ghazals took anywhere from 3 to 6 hours to complete the write up, with the translations and commentary to my satisfaction. There have been nights when I have sent the write ups to Atul ji at 2 am, 3 am and even past 4 am. There have been occasions that (after having fallen asleep on my laptop) I got to complete the write up later in the morning; you can identify these days by noting the delay in posting the Saigal Saab song for the day.

What a heady time it was. That endeavour was really worth it. We enjoyed it immensely, and it came to a monumental conclusion of documenting and posting each and every one of the available Hindi / Urdu recordings made by the great singer. And truly, nothing comparable to that has again been attempted on the blog so far.

One more reason that I quote this above paragraph from the earlier write up. Something of this relates to the song in this post. I will return to it again, shortly. But yes, I am talking about the relentless tempo with which this blog continues to progress. The support and participative contributions from the entire team are without doubt the bulwark that provides the strength to the arms and shoulders of what this blog is. But then the definitive power of this entire effort is the unflagging dedication and persistence of the leadership from Atul ji, which is truly the backbone of this effort.  It is an accomplishment sans pareil anywhere in the annals of the history of blogging on the internet related to Hindi Film Music.

So, beyond September of 2011, although now done with all the available songs of Saigal Saab, the journey and the saga still continued. Century milestones came with their regularity, then the 5,000^th song – “Hamen To Loot Liyaa Mil Ke Husn Waalon Ne” (dated 13^th Nov, 2011), more centuries of artists and other interesting statistical achievements. Then on to the 10,000^th song – “Phul Rahin Belariyaan Dolen” (dated 20^th July,2014), an extraordinary song published first time anywhere on the net, a song of 1931 vintage posted; and the unprecedented organized effort wherein all regular members of the group contributed a post that contains an introduction of another member. And a memorable long afternoon spent by almost the entire group connected on email, as we all waited for the post to appear on the blog.

On and on, tirelessly, doggedly – getting to honky-tonk posts at the nos. 11111, 12345, 12357 . . .

Then we came to the post no. 13182 – “Aag Lagi Shola Uttha Shamma Pe Parwaana Gira”, on 22^nd April last year. It was the mostest of the most momentous celebrations, the 10,000^th post by dear Atul ji. It was a surprise for Atul ji; he was under the impression that his 10,000^th milestone was already past. But that was not the case. The entire group got together and gave him a standing ovation that verily resounded across the internet.

The next big whopper for our blog came on 14^th Jan earlier this year, and its celebration was covered in post no. 13921 “Bhalaai Duniya Ki Jo Subh O Shaam Karte Hain” – the visitor ticker on the blog had turned from nine million, nine hundred ninety nine thousand, nine hundred ninety nine to ten million, sometimes in the late evening of 14^th Jan (IST). In desi parlance, we would say  निन्यावे लाख, निन्यावे हज़ार, नौ सौ निन्यावे से हम एक करोड़ पर पहुंचे। Once again, this was a major, major occasion for the blog, and the echoes reverberated once again around the globe – literally. 🙂

And now, greetings (balated) for the date of completing 10 years since this blog’s creation by Atul ji. The date is 19^th July (and I am late, of course, as usual – I have a reputation to protect and uphold, you know 😀 ). As per the Wikipedia articles, celebrations calendars and other related details available online, the tenth anniversary is represented by tin or aluminum. The color of this anniversary is blue and / or silver. And the gift of this 10^th celebration is diamonds. Whooo. . .

Note that 10 is another interesting number on our blog recently – 10,000^th post on blog, 10,000^th post by Atul ji, 10 millionth visitor on the blog, and now the 10^th anniversary of the blog itself; the last three events listed happening within the period of past 16 months. You simply just cannot cease to keep celebrating on this blog. And the wonder of wonders is that we also continue to trace and share absolutely wonderful celebration songs to go along with the event. The patterns that we conjured up for the post nos. 11111, 12345 and 12357 are quite an interesting phenomena in as of themselves, with the ”hand of providence” playing its fair share in making them happen. 🙂 For those who may not be familiar with these stories, I suggest they should view these posts – they are really very interesting tales of happenstance and coincidence. 🙂  Just click on the post numbers in the sentence above.

So, connecting back to where we started off. Finally last night (IST), the much awaited call from Ben Kayti and Jagdish Bhai materialized. It was a great relief to hear their voices, and to be assured that all is well. The planned vacation had gone on very well, and quite “frigidly”, given that the vacation spot chosen was the Glacier National Park in Montana (USA). After returning from there earlier this week, they also had some guests visiting and so Khyati Ben was completely busy with family affairs. She has once again promised that she will write a post this coming week now. I decided not to wait any further and put up the 20^th post in this series today. If and when her post comes along, it will be now at an auspicious ‘पायदान’ of 21. 🙂

Amongst others in the list of my ‘reasons’ (excuses) is of course that I was also in travel during some of this intervening period. In fact most of the early posts in the 10^th anniversary series were actually posted while I was on the move. Getting back home, I almost immediately got busy with celebrations for Guru Purnima at my Guru ji’s place. There, the celebrations last for 5 / 6 days, starting from the Guru Purnima day and continuing till the ‘पंचमी’ in the month of ‘सावन’. So that occupied me for almost a whole week within which I was not able to accomplish much as far as the blog activities are concerned.

Another thing was the song selection. Till almost the last hours of posting my previous article – “Dil Chaahta Hai” – I had no idea what would be the songs I am going to write about. The first song I finally zeroed in was this one. Going by a set of very good celebration songs posted by other friends in the group, I was thinking – most of these songs are of recent origin. How about searching for a similar celebration cum group dance song from the earlier decades? After sifting through many possibilities, I picked up this song from the film ‘Tarang’ of 1952. First of, this song has four singers – Rafi Sb, Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum and Chitragupt himself. Secondly, the song (no video available) gives a feeling of a gypsy camp by the banks of a river, where a group dance cum song is being performed.

So actually, this song was originally planned to be the earlier post. But then, in random process, I bumped into the “Dil Chaahta Hai” song, and with some contemplative considerations, my planned post got converted into two posts. And good that it did. If I would have combined both these posts with one song – well. . . 🙂

So here is a fabulous celebration song which promises that the proceedings are going to last all night, and that all are invited. And the best part, this song starts with mentioning the word ‘सावन’.

So let me now take just a couple of more minutes to link in ‘सावन’ (saawan) with this celebration. You are going to love this. After having posted all the posts received from the group, and with Atul ji’s post also in place, I started to get individual messages from members of this group, asking me about the delay as to why my post was not coming in. And me, I was without an answer; what to tell – that I have not yet identified the song even? Well, as part of this set of messages, I get this fond message from Atul ji himself on 26^th or maybe 27^th July, wherein he prodded me to publish my post on the 28^th. Reason, he explained, was that 28^th July this year is the start of the month of ‘सावन’. And back, in 2008, when this blog got initiated, the date 19^th July was also the start of of the month of ‘सावन’. I was really wonderstruck. I had never made this wonderful connect before. Wow, this blog is born in the month of ‘सावन’ – ‘सावन – मन भावन’, and not just the month, on the first of the month. Now this is really auspicious. I can go on now connecting many more things, along with this connect. . .  but maybe not. Goodness, there are hundreds of songs in Hindi films that have the word ‘सावन’ in the mukhda. So I will move on by saying that this blog is blessed – for it is born in this auspicious month, showering sprinkles of delightful music in drizzles of melodious songs, one after the other. Oh sure, yes, this blog is a ‘सावन’ born. 🙂 Without any doubts. I am glad Atul ji highlighted this point to me, and that now we know what songs to post in the future, when the blog’s birthday comes along. 🙂

Coming back to this film and this song. I got the set of songs of this film from my collector friend. This film has some very wondrous songs, ten in all, eight of which are penned by IC Kapoor, and one each by DN Madhok and Ram Murti. This song is written by Ram Murti. The music composition is by Chitragupt, who has also lent his voice to two of the songs in this film, including this one. The blog already carries 5 songs from this film, and I promise you, the best of the songs are still to come. Just like this song today. It is such a joie de vivre expression of gaiety and celebration. The tempo is so sweet and so infective, that you will be swaying with the beat. When I heard this song for the first time, well, quite a while back now, I was simply bowled over by it. And even now, having heard it so often, whenever I play it again, I simply am not able to get over it.

नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ॰ ॰ ॰

Just listen to this song, and I assure you that at the end of the play, you will feel so un-satiated that you will be playing it again and again.

In some ways, this song also expresses my connect with the blog. Earlier in this article, I had mentioned a quote from the earlier posted last article in the KL Saigal series. So that is the connect here. Practically all my work for this blog happens in the dead of the night and in the wee hours of the morning. This is also mentioned in the quoted paragraph above. Even beyond the Saigal Sb series, my mode of working on the tasks related to this blog has not changed. All the posts that you see getting on to the blog at 7 am and 9 am – all these posts have been worked on and completed the previous night at times like 2 am and 3 am. 🙂

A very happy 10th birthday to ASAD; a ton of congratulations to Atul ji, and all the dear friends and co-passengers on this musical bandwagon. The saga continues. . .

नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ॰ ॰ ॰

Song – Nadiya Kinaare Mora Dera, Mashaal Jaley Saari Ratiyaan (Tarang) (1952) Singer – Mohammed Rafi, Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum, Chitragupt, Lyrics – Ram Murti, MD – Chitragupt
Chorus

Lyrics

saawan barse
kaari re badariya
phaagun rang ki phuhaar
ho oo
nainan mein mora
baanka re saanwariya
mann mein saanwariya ka pyaar. . .

. . . mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan
hoye nadiya kinaare mora dera
ho oo
nadiya kinaare mora dera
mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan
saari ratiyaan ho saari ratiyaan
saari ratiyaan
hoye nadiya kinaare mora dera
nadiya kinaare mora dera
mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan
ho oo main bhi karunga kabhi phera
main bhi karunga kabhi phera
mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan
hoye
nadiya kinaare mora dera
haa. . .
nadiya kinaare mora dera
mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan

jaise ganga mein lehre lehariya
waise lehre gori tori chunariya
ae ji dekho kahin neha lagaa ke
bhool jaiyo na mori dagariya
oo oo dil mein hai tera basera
dil mein hai tera basera
mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan
hoye
nadiya kinaare mora dera
haa hhaaa
nadiya kinaare mora dera
mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan

chanda se mil mil ke
khele ratiyaan
ho khele ratiyaan
chanda se mil mil ke
khele ratiyaan
bagiya mein khele bahaar
daar galey bainyaan
sajan sang khelun
balam sang khelun
daar galey bainyaan
sajan sang khelun
main albeli naar
ho oo kabhun na hovey savera
kabhun na hovey savera
mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan
hoye
nadiya kinaare mora dera
arre waah waah
nadiya kinaare mora dera
mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan
oye
nadiya kinaare mora dera
ha..an
nadiya kinaare mora dera
mashaal jaley saari ratiyaan

———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————

सावन बरसे
कारी रे बदरिया
फागुन रस की फुहार
हो ओ
नैनन में मोरा
बांका रे साँवरिया
मन में साँवरिया का प्यार॰ ॰ ॰

॰ ॰ ॰ मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ
होय नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
हो ओ
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ
सारी रतियाँ हो सारी रतियाँ
सारी रतियाँ
होय नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ
हो ओ मैं भी करूंगा कभी फेरा
मैं भी करूंगा कभी फेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ
होय
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
हा॰ ॰ ॰
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ

जैसे गंगा में लहरे लहरिया
वैसे लहरे गोरी तोरी चुनरिया
ए जी देखो कहीं नेहा लगा के
भूल जइयो ना मोरी डगरिया
ओ ओ दिल में है तेरा बसेरा
दिल में है तेरा बसेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
हा ह्हा
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ

चंदा से मिलके
खेले रतियाँ
हो खेले रतियाँ
चंदा से मिलके
खेले रतियाँ
बगिया में खेले बहार
डार गले बइन्या
सजन संग खेलूँ
बलम संग खेलूँ
डार गले बइन्या
सजन संग खेलूँ
मैं अलबेली नार
हो ओ कबहूँ ना होवे सवेरा
कबहूँ ना होवे सवेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ
होय
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
अरे वाह वाह
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ
ओय
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
हाँ॰ ॰ ॰
नदिया किनारे मोरा डेरा
मशाल जले सारी रतियाँ