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

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.

hamaare baad ab mehefil mein afsaane bayaan honge
bahaaren humko dhoondengi na jaane hum kahaan honge

rahen naa rahen ham mehakaa karenge
ban ke kali, ban ke sabaa, baag e wafaa mein

ek din bik jaayega maati ke mol
jag mein reh jaayenge pyaare tere bol
duje ke hothon ko dekar apne geet
koyee nishaanee chhod, phir duniya se dol

These three songs of Majrooh saab and some more are of the eminence that would have been categorised as poems of repute if they were not film songs.

Remembering Majrooh Sultanpuri (01/10/1919 – 24/05/2000) today on his birth centenary. In fact, Majrooh Saab’s birth centenary celebrations commenced on September 30, 2018 with a 2-day National Seminar on his contributions to Hindi films and the Urdu literature which was held at the Kalina campus of Mumbai University. Thereafter, a few more such celebrations were also held elsewhere. For instance, Hindustan Academy celebrated his centenary at Prayagraj on August 19, 2019. Paasbaan-e-Adab also arranged Majrooh Saab’s birth centenary celebrations on December 22, 2018 at Yeshwantrao Chavan Auditorium in Mumbai in which his non-filmy ghazals were show-cased in the form of songs by upcoming singers.  In Delhi, Jashn-e-Rekhta scheduled a special session on Majrooh Saab in its annual conference in December 14, 2018. I am sure many more such celebrations would have taken place all over India.

Like Shailendra, Majrooh Saab had a reluctant entry into the film world as a lyricist. But once he got associated with his first film ‘Shahjahan’ (1946), he ruled the Hindi film industry as a lyricist for nearly 6 decades with over 2000 songs in about 350 films. He wrote lyrics for the first generation hero, KL Saigal under the baton of the first generation music director, Naushad for Shahjahan’ (1946) to the third generation hero, Shah Rukh Khan and the third generation music director,  AR Rahman for ‘1 To Ka 4’ (2001).   This is the testimony of his smooth adaptation of the changing environments in Hindi film music. He achieved this stature on his own terms throughout his filmy career.

Naturally, with his long association with Hindi films, the range of the songs Majrooh Saab wrote varied. Some samples of his  different genres of songs : Gham Kiye Musthakil , C A T Cat, Cat Maane Billi, Bade Bhole Ho Hanste Ho Sun Ke Duhaai,  Dhalki Jaaye Hamaari Chundariyaa Ho Raam, Raahi Manwa Dukh Ki Chinta Kyun Sataati Hai, Aa Ja Aa Ja Main Hoon Pyaar Tera, Papa Kehte Hain Bada Naam Karega etc. He also wrote a few pop songs like Raat Shabnami Bheegi Chaandni. The list is endless.

Much has been said about Majrooh Saab in both the print and electronic medias. I had also written two articles on him for the blog. So, I will skip his biographical part and would confine my discussion mainly with his contributions as a lyricist and a poet.

Some of Majrooh Saab’s contemporary lyricists like Sahir Ludhianvi, Shailendra, Kaifi Azmi, Prem Dhawan were already associated with Progressive Writers Association (PWA), a group of writers with leftist ideology, when they got associated with Hindi film industry. For Majrooh Saab, it was in the reverse order. He joined PWA only after he got associated with Hindi films in 1946. But he was the most fearless among PWA lyricists. In 1949, he was arrested in Mumbai for reciting an inflammatory poem written by him in the gathering of the mill workers in Mumbai (earlier Bombay). He was given an option to apologise or spend two years in prison. He opted for the latter despite the fact that with the box office success of his film ‘Andaz’ (1949) and his songs becoming popular among the public, his filmy career had brightened up. Probably, Majrooh Saab was the only one among PWA lyricists who had gone to jail in India in the post-independent period.

Two years of absence from the Hindi film industry is a long enough for anyone to be forgotten. Majrooh Saab is perhaps the only lyricist who made a successful comeback in the Hindi film industry after two years of his hibernation in jail. But it was not a smooth sailing for his comeback. Naushad for whom he wrote successful songs in ‘Shahjahan’ (1946) and ‘Andaz’ (1949) refuse to work with Majrooh Saab saying that he would not work with non-believers. (Generally, followers of leftist’s ideology were regarded as atheist).  Of course, later they made up, and worked together in ‘Saathi’ (1968), and still later became ‘sambandhi’ (relatives by marriage of their kins).

While Majrooh Saab got opportunities to write one or two songs for some films of 1951-52, it was in 1953, he got for the first time after ‘Andaz’ (1949) to exclusively write songs for ‘Baaghi’ (1953) working with Madan Mohan, ‘Fareb’ (1953) with Anul Biswas and ‘Baaz’ (1953) with OP Nayyar. Unfortunately, despite having good songs, these films failed miserably at the box office. However, the versatility of Majrooh Saab as a lyricist became evident from these films which had different genres of songs. In a way, one can say that Majrooh Saab’s writing of light-hearted songs began with ‘Baaz’ (1953).

It was ‘Aar Paar’ (1954) which once more brought together the Guru Dutt-OP Nayyar-Majrooh Saab combination. And this time, they became a winning combination. The fortunes of this combo changed for the better and they repeated their feat with ‘Mr and Mrs 1955’ (1955) and ‘CID’ (1956). Generally, we talk about the catchy tune. But in these films, for the first time, Hindi film industry got the taste of ‘catchy lyrics’ of Majrooh Saab who until then, had been identified with melancholic songs of ‘Shahjahan’ (1946), and ‘Andaz’ (1949).

Majrooh saab is known as a master craftsman in writing lyrics for a pre-set tune. His choice of appropriate words which not only fit best in the metre of the line but also  suited to the ‘meend’ (ascending or descending notes in the metre) and ‘murki’ (short taan in the metre) for pre-set tunes. As a result, listeners would believe that he wrote the lyrics first and the music director set the tune later. There are hundreds of such examples of his songs written on pre-set tunes. I will just discuss a couple of his songs which have been written on a pre-set tunes:

chhupaa lo yoon dil mein pyaar meraa
ke jaise mandir mein lau diye ki

hide away (protect) my love in your heart
like the flame of a lamp in a temple

This is a song from ‘Mamta’ (1966) set to tune based on raag Yaman by Roshan. This song has been written in pure Hindi. The second line of the mukhda has an unusual imagery which gets repeated in each of the antaraas. But at each place, the meaning of the imagery changes based on the previous lines. It is a wonder as to how Majrooh Saab could imagine and conceive the right emotion with right words. I feel that literary quality of this song makes it fit enough to be included in the curriculum of Hindi poems in the high school.

Now see the contrast in the second example of the song of a different genre written in Hindi-Urdu mix:

He: hum ne to dil ko aap ke qadmon pe rakh diyaa
      iss dil ka kya karenge yeh ab aap sochiye

She: hum aap ki wafaa ki qasam khaa rahen hain aaj
       kaise wafaa karenge yeh ab aap sochiye

He: i have kept my heart at your feet
now it is up to you to think what to do with it

She: i swear by your faithfulness today
now you decide how to sustain this faith

This is a deleted song from the film ‘Mere Sanam’ (1965) set to music by OP Nayyar. Again, these lines show the mastery of Majrooh Saab in using appropriate words on a pre-set tune without disturbing the metre of the song. On top of it, as a bonus to the listeners, he has written the song in a ‘shaayaraana andaz’ – ghazal style (but it is not a ghazal). The song belongs to the genre of romance but it is also a soft ‘nok jhonk’ (quick repartee) song.

How one can forget the contributions of Majrooh Saab in reviving the interest in duet songs which had seen a declining trend in the early 1950s. Majrooh Saab held the view that it was not the fault of producers-directors but of lyricists and music directors who did not pay much attention to the duet songs. As a result, directors reduced the duet song situations in their films.

Hindi films had the best duet songs during 1955-70 mainly from Majrooh Saab in combination with Burman Da and OP Nayyar which were mostly in the genre of romantic comedy. The films which had a few popular duets were ‘Aar Paar’ (1954), ‘Mr and Mrs 1955’ (1955), ‘Nau Do Gyaarah’ (1957), Paying Guest (1957), ‘Tumsa Nahin Dekha’ (1957), ‘Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi’ (1958), ‘Dil Deke Dekho’ (1959), ‘Phir Wohi Dil Laaya Hoon’ (1963), ‘Teen Deviyan’ (1965), ‘Mere Sanam’ (1965), ‘Mohabbat Isko Kehte Hain’(1965), ‘Teesri Manzil’(1966) and many more.

From the mid-1960s onward, Majrooh Saab started working with the second generation of music directors also. Laxmikant-Pyarelal (LP) and RD Burman were two promising music directors amongst them. But both were struggling to get themselves firmly established in Hindi film industry since early 1960s. One may call it a sheer co-incidence that when Majrooh Saab worked with them for the first time in ‘Dosti’ (1964) and ‘Teesri Manzil’ (1966) respectively, the films and their songs became super hit. Although LP’s ‘Parasmani’ (1963) was a box office success with its songs becoming very popular, it was only after the extra-ordinary success of ‘Dosti’ (1964) that LP started getting big banner films. Same was true for R D Burman after the success of ‘Teesri Manzil’ (1966). From these two films onward, both LP and RD Burman got a tremendous boost to their filmy career. Majrooh Saab worked with RD Burman in as many as 75 films churning out around 350 songs. With LP, he worked in 42 films with around 200 songs.

Next in the line of the second generation of the music directors with whom Majrooh Saab worked are, Rajesh Roshan, Anand-Milind and Jatin-Lalit, among others. Again, whether it was a co-incidence or the magical lyrics of Majrooh Saab, his first association with them also turned out to be their first successful film at the box office. The films were ‘Kunwaara Baap’ (1974), ‘Qayaamat Se Qayaamat Tak’ (1988) and ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Siknadar’ (1992) respectively.

There is another side of Majrooh Saab’s personality and that is as an Urdu poet of repute. And he kept this side of his personality distinct from that of a lyricist of Hindi film songs making it sure that his ideological views do not seep into his film lyrics. Though Majrooh Saab had written many meaningful lyrics, he never considered them to be part of his poems. So, if one wishes to know the real personality of Majrooh Saab, one has to read his ‘taraqqi-pasand’ (progressive) ghazals. I have  gone through the ghazals that are available online. His hardcore revolutionary call was evident in most of his ghazals which he wrote in the 1940s.  An example:

jalaa ke mashaal-e-jaan hum junoon-sifaat chale
jo ghar ko aag lagaaye wo hamaare saath chale

Majrooh Saab is regarded as a pioneer in writing modern progressive ghazals, breaking away from the conventional style of ghazals of the classical poets. He gave a different interpretation of some of the common metaphors used in the conventional ghazals, in his progressive ghazals. For instance, the word ‘manzil’ is often used in the conventional ghazal to reach out to the beloved. But Majrooh Saab has used ‘manzil’ in plural form in the ‘matla’ she’r of one of his popular  progressive ghazals  to mean that the attainment of objectives (manzilen) becomes easy when someone joins hands with him (comradeship):

mujhe sahal ho gayi manzilen, wo hawaa ke rukh bhi badal gaye
teraa haath haath mein aa gayaa, ke charaag raah mein jal gaye

Most of Majrooh Saab’s ghazals written in 1940s are filled with heavy doses of Arabic and Persian words. But it is not surprising, as he had studied Arabic and Persian in school. Once he got associated with Hindi films, probably, Majrooh Saab could not devote much time to Urdu literature. Hence his output in terms of published works is limited. ‘Kulliyat-e-Majrooh Sultanpuri’  seems to be the only published works of his ghazals.

Majrooh Saab’s journey of six decades of prolific song writer of Hindi films ended on the planet of earth on May 24, 2000 but not before he was conferred with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1993 – the first Hindi film lyricist to get this award. He left around 2000 of his Hindi film songs for us to cherish his memory for eternity.

On the occasion of birth centenary of Majrooh Saab, I have chosen an apt song written by him from the film ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa’ (1994) which was directed by one of my favourite directors, Kundan Shah. The song is ‘Wo To Hai Albela Hazaaron Mein Akela’ a duet sung by Devaki Pandit and Kumar Sanu. The song is set to music by Jatin-Lalit.

One of the interesting features of the picturization of the song is that both Devaki Pandit and Kumar Sanu lip sync for multiple actors. Devaki Pandit lip syncs for Shashi Sahay, Sadia Siddiqui, Reeta Bhaduri and Kumar Sanu lip syncs for Nasiruddin Shah, Tiku Talsania, Satish Shah and Anjaan Srivastav. On the sound track, both the singers sing a few lines together but, in the film, their voices are for the entire group of actors and actresses.

A reading of Majrooh Saab’s lyrics of this song reminds me to say that his style of song writing remained, more or less, the same throughout his filmy career. I do not think that other Hindi song lyricists would have used the words like ‘aib’ (vice) and ‘hunar’ (virtue) in their songs in the  1990s.

Audio

Video

Song – Wo To Hai Albela, Hazaaron Mein Akela  (Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa) (1994) Singer – Devaki Pandit, Kumar Sanu, Lyrics – Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD – Jatin-Lalit
Devaki Pandit + Kumar Sanu

Lyrics

wo to hai albela
hazaaron mein akela
wo to hai albela aa
hazaaron mein akela
sadaa tum ne aib dekha
hunar ko na dekha
wo to hai albela
hazaaron mein akela
sadaa tum ne aib dekha
hunar ko na dekha
wo to hai albela aa
 
fursat mili na tumhen apne jahaan se
us ke bhi dil ki kabhi samjhte kahaan se
fursat mili na tumhen apne jahaan se
us ke bhi dil ki kabhi samjhte kahaan se
jaana hai jise patthar
heera hai wo to heera
sadaa tum ne aib dekha
hunar ko na dekha
wo to hai albela aa
hazaaron mein akela
wo to hai albela aa
 
bansi ko lakdi sadaa samjha kiye tum
par us ke naghmon ki dhun kahaan sun sakey tum
bansi ko lakdi sadaa samjha kiye tum
par us ke naghmon ki dhun kahaan sun sakey tum
diye ki maati dekhi
dekhi na us ki jyoti
sadaa tum ne aib dekha
hunar ko na dekha
wo to hai albela
hazaaron mein akela
wo to hai albela aa
hazaaron mein akela
sadaa tum ne aib dekha
hunar ko na dekha
wo to hai albela
hazaaron mein akela
wo to hai… albela aa

———————————-
Devnagari script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————–

वो तो है अलबेला
हजारों में अकेला
वो तो है अलबेला
हजारों में अकेला
सदा तुमने एब देखा
हुनर को ना देखा
वो तो है अलबेला
हजारों में अकेला
वो तो है अलबेला
हजारों में अकेला
सदा तुमने एब देखा
हुनर को ना देखा

फुर्सत मिली ना तुम्हें अपने जहां से
उसके भी दिल की समझते कहाँ से
फुर्सत मिली ना तुम्हें अपने जहां से
उसके भी दिल की समझते कहाँ से
जाना है जिसे पत्थर
हीरा है वो तो हीरा
सदा तुमने एब देखा
हुनर को ना देखा
वो तो है अलबेला॰॰आ
हजारों में अकेला
वो तो है अलबेला॰॰आ

बंसी को लड़की सदा समझा किए तुम
पर उसके नग़मों की धुन कहाँ सुन सके तुम
बंसी को लड़की सदा समझा किए तुम
पर उसके नग़मों की धुन कहाँ सुन सके तुम
दिये की माटी देखी
देखी ना उसकी ज्योती
सदा तुमने एब देखा
हुनर को ना देखा
वो तो है अलबेला
हजारों में अकेला
वो तो है अलबेला
हजारों में अकेला
सदा तुमने एब देखा
हुनर को ना देखा
वो तो है अलबेला
हजारों में अकेला
वो तो है॰ ॰ ॰ अलबेला॰॰आ