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Maa. . . Tujhe Dhoondhoon Kahaan

Posted by: skapur01 on: December 10, 2018

In: "Mother" song | Animal Related Song | Background song | Devnagri script lyrics by Avinash Scrapwala | Feelings of heart | Guest posts | Lyrics contributed by readers | mother-child song | Poignant Song | Post by Avinash Scrapwala | Rafi solo | Rafi songs | sad song | Songs of 1970s (1971 to 1980) | Songs of 1976 | Theme song | Title song | Yearwise breakup of songs
3 Comments

This article is written by Avinash Scrapwala, 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.

Blog Day :

3797

Post No. :

14787

Movie Count :

4043

#the Decade of Seventies – 1971 – 1980 #
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# Bhoole-Bisre Geet # 75# Dharmendra- Memories of the Seventies #
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Welcome all to this article of mine which comes after a long gap of more than a month, and though I am late in sending this article, I hope our editors will consider this for post. And that will also help me in getting back into the ‘article writing’ again, because since last two months I am trying to complete and send some of my unfinished articles, but the schedule at work front and very less time after official work is not allowing me time and the concentration to focus on the articles I wish to share.

Well, with this article I hope I get back into writing and share my thoughts taking you down memory lane into the ‘seventies’ again 🙂

***

8^th December 2018 is the 83^rd birth anniversary (08.12.1935) of actor Dharam Singh Deol whom we fondly know as Dharmendra. And, ‘maa kasam …’ 🙂 , he will be there in our fond memories of the movies from almost every decade ever since he began his career in the Hindi movies with ‘Dil Bhi Tera Ham Bhi Tere’ (1960) till the very recently released movie ‘Yamla Pagla Deewaana-Phir Se’ (2018).

For me I have fond memories of watching many of his movies with my uncles, like ‘Shikaar’ (1966), ‘Yakeen’ (1969), ‘Kab? Kyun? Aur Kahaan?’ (1970), ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’ (1971), ‘Resham Ki Dori’ (1974), ‘Raja Jaani’ (1973), and more. Then I also remember some of his movies which I must have watched with my parents like ‘Yaadon Ki Baarat’ (1973), ‘Dost’ (1974), ‘Sholay’ (1975), ‘Maa’ (1976), ‘Charas’ (1976), ‘Dream Girl’ (1977), ‘The Burning Train’ (1980) etc. I still remember watching his ‘Devar’ (1966), during the Ganpati Festivals on the small 16mm screen in open grounds in the seventies.

Then there were movies which I watched with my brothers and cousins during the ‘summer vacations’ like ‘Dharam-Veer’ (1977), ‘Chacha Bhatija’ (1977), ‘Ram Balram’ (1980), ‘Teesri Aaankh’ (1982), ‘Samrat’ (1982), ‘Main Intaqaam Loonga’ (1982). And then movies like ‘Aap Ki Parchhaayiyaan’ (1964), ‘Main Bhi Ladki Hoon’ (1964), ‘Izzat’ (1968), ‘Mere Hamdam Mere Dost’ (1968), ‘Khamoshi’ (1969), ’Sharaafat’ (1970), ‘Samadhi’ (1972), ‘Jheel Ke Us Paar’ (1973), ‘Chaitaali’ (1975), ‘Chupke-Chupke’ (1975), ‘Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka’ (1975), ‘Kinaara’ (1977), ‘Blackmail’ (1978), ‘Dillagi’ (1978) which I watched during the weekly screening of movies in the re-creation club building in our colony where we were staying then.

Then, when I was a grown-up boy 🙂 there was a phase in my life when I was learning in 11 -12^th std but was less on studies and more on cricket and movies. I watched many of his movies like ‘Haqeeqat’ (1964), ‘Pyaar Hi Pyaar’ (1968), ‘Jugnu’ (1973), ‘Patthar Aur Paayal’ (1974), ‘Pratigya’ (1975), and the other movies released during those years (1983-1985) i.e. ‘Naukar Biwi Ka’ (1983), ‘Qayaamat’ (1983), ‘Jeene Nahin Doonga’ (1984), ‘Baazi’ (1984), ‘Dharam Aur Kanoon’ (1984), ‘Jaagir’ (1984), ‘Jhoothha Sach’ (1984), ‘Raj Tilak’ (1984) etc. And then I got to watch some movies like ‘Bandini’ (1963), ‘Neela Aakaash’ (1965), and ‘Satyakaam’ (1969), ‘Phagun’ (1973), on television (‘Doordarshan’) during this period.

The above was when we were still located in the Akola District of Maharashtra (CP & Berar circuit for the movies). And by that time I was already a Rajesh Khanna fan 🙂 . Reading the film magazines then I came to know that it was Dharmendra whose movies were still running good even during the Kaka’s Superstardom days. After that we shifted to Parli Vaijnath – Marathwada region of Maharashtra (and known as in the Nizam Circuit for the movies).

There I had already taken up working in a construction company and during this period till 1988 I watched many of the old and new movies. I remember I watched Dharmendra’s ‘Aaayi Milan Ki Bela’ (1964), ‘Kaajal’ (1965), ‘Aaye Din Bahaar Ke’ (1966), ‘Anupama’ (1966), ‘Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya’ (1966), ‘Phool Aur Patthar’ (1966), ’Aankhen’ (1968), ‘Aaya Saawan Jhoom Ke’ (1969), ‘Rakhwaala’ (1971), ‘Loafer’ (1973), ‘Keemat’ (1973), ‘Baghaawat’ (1982), ‘Hukumat’ (1987), ‘Aag Hi Aag’ (1987) etc.

Then I shifted to Kota (Rajasthan) in Nov 1988 for my professional career and there also watching the movies was the ‘main source of entertainment’. I got to watch many old Hindi movies as well as the new ones. I got to watch Dharmendra’s movies like ‘Batwaara’ (1989), ‘Naakabandi’ (1990), ‘Farishtey’ (1991) and after many years I got to watch ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’ (1971) again in a theater. I watched the film repeatedly on consecutive days and enjoyed it a lot. Later on, based at Kota and traveling around places like Nimach, I watched ‘Tehalka’ (1992). I also remember correctly that I watched his ‘Man Ki Aankhen’ (1970), on VHS cassettes on ‘VCR’ we use to hire to watch movies then during our weekly get-together or holiday. Later I bought VCDs of the films ‘Ganga Ki Lehren’ (1964), ‘Dulhan Ek Raat Ki’ (1967), which has one of my favorite songs “Ek Haseen Shaam Ko. . .“.

And there are other movies like ‘Aadmi Aur Insaan’ (1968), ‘Bahaarein Phir Bhi Aayengi’ (1966), ‘Chunaoti’ (1980), ‘Do Chor’ (1972), ‘Ishq Par Zor Nahin’ (1970), ’Jeevan Mrityu’ (1970), ‘Jwaar Bhaata’ (1973), ‘Kahaani Kismat Ki’ (1973), ‘Mohabbat Zindagi Hai’ (1966), ‘Naya Zamaana’ (1971), ‘Razia Sultan’ (1983), ‘Tum Haseen Main Jawaan’ (1970), which I don’t remember correctly but I think I watched them either in theatre or on TV. As I was going through his filmography for this article, I was thinking that there are still many movies of him (till seventies) which I have not watched and should watch them as and when possible.

The latest movies that I have seen of Dharmendra is ‘Apne’ (2007), which I could not watch in theatre when I was in Kachchh-Gujarat and had later bought its DVD and watched with my parents and family at home.

Watching his movies has always been a different experience and entertaining and enjoyable too. I think me, and many others like me, will always be thankful to him for the joy he has given to us through his movies. His fight scenes with Shetty are always a favorite of mine and those were the main attractions from his movies too, wherever Shetty was co-star in the movies he acted.

Then there are songs from his ‘black and white’ movies and many other ‘musicals’ of the ‘seventies’ which I cannot forget and many of them are ‘songs that brings back memories’ for me. I have watched many of his movies more than once and it is always pleasant to watch him on the screen. I cannot forget his ‘emotional speech’ in the ‘Filmfare awards function’ when he was felicitated with the ‘Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award’.

His movies also have many emotional scenes between a ‘mother and son’ where I always find him very natural and touching. For today’s occasion I am presenting a song from the 1976 movie ‘Maa’. As I had mentioned earlier in one of my articles that there are few Hindi movies where an elephant has been a central character in the movies and few of these movies have been a part of my permanent memory since then. I remember to have watched this movie with my parents but have forgotten it now except Dharmendra, the elephants in the movie and this song that I am presenting today.

Though the song is a background song and not lip-synced by Dharmendra, I want to introduce it with this article. (I had earlier sent this song to Atul ji in Oct 2012). Also, this is the song which brings back memories of those years for me. It is part of that ‘nostalgia’ of Hindi movies and the songs for me over the years.

So, I when decided to share an article for Dharmendra’s birth anniversary (now belated), I searched for other songs from his movies where he also lip-synced the songs, or even from this movie ‘Maa’, but I strongly feel sharing of this song sung by Rafi Saab which is a trip down memory lane for me from the movies of Dharmendra of the seventies.

‘Maa-1976’ is edited and directed by M.A. Thirumugam for ‘Devar Films, Madras’. It is produced by Sandow M.M.A. Chinnappa Devar who had also written the story of this movie. It has Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Nirupa Roy, Ranjeet, Padma Khanna, Devar, Om Prakash, Paintal, Bramhachari, Shashi Kiran, Rajan Haksar, Urmila Bhatt, Umesh Sharma, Raj Baldev, Viju, Kalpana, Gemini Balu, Narayan Mustafa, Anand Kumar and others. Dialogues for this movie were written by Inder Raj Anand and editing was done by M.G. Balurao (assisted by K. Ramu). The movie was passed by Censor Board on 10.09.1976.

The movie has total seven songs in it as per HFGK and all the seven songs are written by Anand Bakshi and composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. HFGK also mentions about two tracks as club dance music and dance music in this movie. Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, and Mohd Rafi had given their voices to the songs in this movie.

I am reproducing below the ‘plot summary’ of this movie as mentioned on IMDB

Vijay lives with his mother in a palatial house deep in the jungles in South India where he makes a living trapping animals for circuses, zoos – both nationally and internationally. He meets with beautiful US-returned Nimmi, both fall in love with each other and want to get married. Vijay’s mother cautions them both against separating new-born animals from their birth mothers, but both refuse to listen. Then the unexpected happens, a mother lioness, angered at Vijay for taking her cubs, attacks him, and leaves him badly wounded. With the help of his mother, and Nimmi, Vijay recovers and despite of what happened, and his mother’s warning, he again goes to trap animals – this time a baby elephant for a circus. He does manage to trap the elephant in a pit, but the angered mother elephant pursues them, even after they transport it in a truck. Her maternal and protective instincts come to fore, she overtakes the truck, dismantles it, but is chased away by Vijay and his employees. She turns to attack Vijay, but his mother intervenes – and is instantly attacked and crushed. Holding his mother in his arms, Vijay swears to hunt them the elephant as well as all other animals and kill them one by one, but his dying mother makes him promise that he will not do so, but instead return all cubs to their parents, as well as the baby elephant. Vijay promises to do so, and his mother passes away. Vijay is devastated, in heart-wrenching sorrow & pain, he calls out to his mother, and carries out her promise. He releases all trapped animals, and returns the cubs to the jungle. But returning the baby elephant, Ganesh, is another issue altogether as it has been transported to the city, and must be brought back. When Vijay goes to bring it back, he finds out that the truck had broken down, the elephant had escaped and is lose in the city. He desperately goes around looking for it. In the meantime, back home, the mother elephant is on a rampage, enraged at being separated from its child, it crushes vegetation, attacks villagers, and tears down their dwellings. And the next target that looms before it is none other than Vijay’s beloved – Nimmi…

Today’s song is sung by Mohd Rafi and composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Lyrics are by Anand Bakshi. The movie ‘Maa’ also makes a debut on the blog today …!!!

Belatedly wishing Dharam ji a very happy birthday and a healthy and peaceful life ahead …

[Author’s Note: This also serves one of my purpose of introducing movies having ‘same title’ too. We already have the movie ‘Maa-1952’ and ‘Maa-1960’(UR) on the blog. And fortunately, I had the opportunity to share couple of songs from the ‘1952-Maa’ and one song from the ‘1960-Maa’ on the blog].

Maa Tujhe Dhoondhoon Kahaan

Song – Maa. . . Tujhe Dhoondhoon Kahaan (Maa) (1976) Singer – Mohammed Rafi, Lyrics – Anand Bakshi, MD – Laxmikant Pyaarelal

Lyrics

Part 1

maa aa aa

maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan aa
maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan aa
maine mamta ko pehchaana
main bachchon ke dard ko jaana
tujhko kho kar maa aa aa aa
maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan
maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan
maa aa aa°°°°°°

maa ek jaisi hoti hai
bachche ik jaise hote hai
chot lage to insaanon ki tarah
pashu bhi rotey hai
bichchde huon ko maine milaaya
maine apna karz chukaaya
tujhko kho kar maa aa aa aa
maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan
maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan
maa aa aa

tu sach kehti thi ee
kisi ki bad duaa lag jaati hai
tu sach kahti thi ee
kisi ki bad duaa lag jaati hai
apni hi bandook se goli
khud pe bhi chal jaati hai
maine kaisa khel yeh khela
roun baitha aaj akela
tujhko kho kar man aa aa aa
maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan
maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan

maine mamta ko pehchaana
main bachchon ke dard ko jaana
tujhko kho kar maa aa aa
maa tujhe dhoondoon kahaan
maa tujhe dhoondoon kahaan
maa aa aa

Part 2 (at the end of the movie)

bichchde huon ko maine milaaya
maine apna karz chukaaya
tujhko kho kar maa
maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan
maa tujhe dhoondhoon kahaan
maa aa aa

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Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Avinash Scrapwala)
———————————————————

भाग १

माँ आ आ

माँ तुझे ढूढूं कहाँ आ
माँ तुझे ढूढूं कहाँ आ
मैंने ममता को पहचाना
मैं बच्चों के दर्द को जाना
तुझको खोकर माँ आ आ आ
माँ तुझे ढूढूं कहाँ आ
माँ आ आ °°°°°°

माँ एक जैसी होती है
बच्चे इक जैसे होते है
चोट लगे तो इंसानों कि तरह
पशु भी रोते हैं
बिछड़े हुओं को मैंने मिलाया
मैंने अपना क़र्ज़ चुकाया
तुझको खोकर माँ आ आ आ
माँ तुझे ढूढूं कहाँ आ
माँ आ आ

तू सच कहती थी ई
किसीकी बद्दुआ लग जाती है
तू सच कहती थी ई
किसीकी बद्दुआ लग जाती है
अपनी ही बन्दूक से गोली
खुद पे भी चल जाती है
मैंने कैसा खेल ये खेला
रोऊँ बैठा आज अकेला
तुझको खोकर माँ आ आ आ
माँ तुझे ढूढूं कहाँ आ
माँ तुझे ढूढूं कहाँ आ
मैंने ममता को पहचाना
मैं बच्चों के दर्द को जाना
तुझको खोकर माँ आ आ आ
माँ तुझे ढूढूं कहाँ आ
माँ तुझे ढूढूं कहाँ आ
माँ आ आ°°°

भाग २

बिछड़े हुओं को मैंने मिलाया
मैंने अपना क़र्ज़ चुकाया
तुझको खोकर माँ आ आ आ
माँ तुझे ढूढूं कहाँ आ
माँ आ आ

माँ आ आ

Na satrah se ooper na solah se kam

Posted by: Atul on: November 27, 2018

In: "teasing" song | Rafi solo | Rafi songs | Songs of 1970s (1971 to 1980) | Songs of 1973 | Tapori song | Yearwise breakup of songs
1 Comment

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.

Blog Day :

3784

Post No. :

14767

“Dharma”(1973) was directed by Chaand for Kapoor Films Bombay. This “social” movie had Naaveen Nischol, Rekha, Pran, Bindu, Ajeet, Ramesh Deo, Madan Puri, Faryal, Anjali Kadam, Paro, Asit Sen, Mohan Choti, Jayshree T, Rajan Haksar, Sonia Sahni etc in it.

The lead pair, the lyricist as well as the music directors are same as that of “Saawan Bhaado”(1970), so it appears to me that the makers of this movie had signed them up hoping to replicate the success of “Saawan Bhaado”(1970).

“Dharma”(1973) had four songs in it. Three of these songs have been covered in the past. Here are the details of these three songs from the movie:-

Song Title	Post No.	Post Date
Raaz ki baat kah doon to	1325	21-May-09
Main teri gunahgaar hoon	8339	13-Jul-13
Arre saaqi jo kal ki hai bachi baaqi	14501	18-Jul-18

Here is the fourth and final song from “Dharma”(1973) to appear in the blog. The song is a teasing song along the lines of “Saawan Bhaado”(1970) song Kaan mein jhumka chaal me thumka.

The song is sung by Rafi. Verma Malik is the lyricist. Music is composed by Sonik Omi. Exactly the same musical team as “Saawan Bhaado”(1970). The song is picturised on the same actors as well, viz on Navin Nischol and Rekha.

I have provided the audio as well as video link of the song. There is slight variation in the lyrics of the two versions in the last stanza.

With this song, “Dharma”(1973) joins the list of movies that have all their songs covered in the blog.

Video

Audio

Song-Na satrah se oopar na solah se kam (Dharma)(1973) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Verma Malik, MD-Sonik Omi

Lyrics

sada itni umar teri rahe o sanam
haan aan aan
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam
issi umr mein dhaate jaao sitam
o o o
na satrah se
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam

surhk honthon pe til ye suhaana hai
jaise kaliyon pe shabnam ka daana hai
haaye
surhk honthon pe til ye suhaana hai
jaise kaliyon pe shabnam ka daana hai
ye shabaab hai haaye ya gulaab hai
hisaab koi nahin
ye to behisaab hai
hamesha raho tum
khuda ki kasam
haaye haaye haaye haaye
na satrah se
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam

tum yoon hi apne jalwe lutaate raho
aur kaleje pe chhuriyaan chalaate raho
haaye
tum yoon hi apne jalwe lutaate raho
aur kaleje pe chhuriyaan chalaate raho
o laajawaab ho ya koi khwaab ho
nigaah tik na sake jispe tum wo shabaab ho
mubaarak jawaani ka pehla kadam
oy hoy hoy hoy
na satrah se
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam
sada itni umer teri rahe o sanam
o haay haay haay
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam
na satrah se ooper na solah se kam

Tags: 1973, Dharma, Navin Nischol, Rafi, Rekha, Sonik Omi, Verma Malik

Baap gaaye thumri aur garba gaaye maiyya

Posted by: Atul on: October 28, 2018

In: "Money" song | Asha Bhonsle songs | Duet | Feelings of heart | Guest posts | Post by Arunkumar Deshmukh | Rafi solo | Rafi songs | Rafi-Asha Bhonsle duet | Songs of 1950s (1951 to 1960) | Songs of 1955 | Yearwise breakup of songs
4 Comments

This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, 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 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.

Blog Day :

3754

Post No. :

14719

Today’s song is the 3^rd song from film Oonchi Haveli-55 to be discussed in the Blog. For the last 6-7 months, I have been discussing songs mostly from the decades of the 1930s and the 1940s. The last song from the 1950s that I discussed was on 3-3-2018, which for me was the 5^th song from the decade of 1950s in this year. Looking back, I find that I had discussed a song from 1994 also in this year. Good songs, to whatever year they belong to, are my favourites. The only regret is that such songs have become few and far between. Good and meaningful Lyrics is another thing which has become scarce.

Today’s song is sung by Rafi. I strongly believe that God had given at least 10 different voices to this divine singer ! His special voice and style changed to suit the lip syncer on the screen and the song situation. His voice for Dilip Kumar was never the same as one he used for Johnny Walker.

Rafi came from a poor and humble background and had to struggle very hard to enter, sustain and reach the heights in Hindi Film Music. We all know that he came from a poor family but how his early life was spent is not known to many.

Punjab must be proud that two of its sons ruled Hindi cinema music for the first 50 years of its existence, which also happened to be its golden era. initially it was Saigal from 1933 to 1947 and then Mohd. Rafi-as if the baton was handed over by one statemate to another. Both started with humble beginnings and struggled hard to win their places in the History. Saigal, however, had less competition, but then the industry was also smaller. In case of Rafi, the competition was greater, but then the industry had also grown manifolds.

Born into a lower middle class Muslim family belonging to a non descript village in Punjab in 1924, Rafi did not have much education. It was confined to reading and writing in Urdu in Persian script. A little bit of multiplication, and his education was over. In leisure time, Rafi would take his and friends’ cattles for grazing- singing songs all the day.

Rafi did not have exposure to Radio until the beginning of Lahore Radio station in 1937. Of course wealthy people had their gramophones and he would listen to Indubala and Kamla Jharia songs coming from the Havelis and in the Bazaar area. Rafi sang many folk songs.

His father decided to shift to Lahore- 50 miles away, for better earning. Like most Amritsaris, he too was an expert in cooking. He opened a Dhaba and soon did well. Later on he called Rafi to Lahore in 1941 Rafi got a job in a Hair cutting saloon. Whole day he would do people’s shaving, while singing songs. His customers were happy. One day, Programme Director of Lahore A.I.R. Mr. Jeewan lal Mattoo was passing by and he heard Rafi’s singing. Impressed with his enchanting voice, sweetness,range and tonal quality, he shocked Rafi with his offer. Rafi gave his audition next day and passed with flying colours. From March 1943, Mohd.Rafi became a Radio singer, at 35 rupees per song. ( six months later Surinder kaur also joined Lahore Radio).

After hearing his voice on Radio, Music Director Shyam sunder called him to sing in his Punjabi film ” Gul Baloch”. Before coming to Lahore, Rafi was married to his cousin, but his Father in law had told him that his wife will join him only after he starts earning decently. Even after that single song in a film, Rafi continued his shaving job in the saloon. Meanwhile Mr. Mattoo helped him to learn classical music. Also Master Inayat Hussain gave him training. Another teacher was Budh Singh Taan. Noorjehan, Umrao Zia and Zeenat begum were seniors to Rafi in Lahore, but they knew each others. He took training from Bhai Samund Singh and Bhai Santa Singh of local Gurudwaras. Rafi was a saintly person and a true Namazi, doing 5 times Namaz daily.

Rafi’s wife came to him after he became a Radio artiste. He had a large friends circle, who used to gather in his house. There were many Hindi and Punjabi films made in Lahore, but none of the composers thought of Rafi as a singer. Pt. Amarnath and Ghulam Hyder liked his voice and knew his talent. While shifting to Bombay, Ghulam Hyder invited Rafi to join him. Even from Bombay he sent him 2 calls. Finally on his second call, Rafi decided to shift to Bombay, lock stock and barrel, in 1945. In Bombay, till Jugnu-47 happened, Rafi sang few songs in films, but he made his living by singing in private Mehfils of wealthy Punjabis of Bombay.

Story of Rafi after Jugnu-47 is known widely. I just wanted to highlight his less known early days, before coming to Bombay. Some of this information is used from an article by H.S.Aujla in Apnaorg.

May be, because of his humble background and a struggle before he succeeded, he always had a soft corner for struggling composers. Unlike some other famous singers, he was always ready to help such composers, even if the money offered was below par. During his peak period also, poor B and C grade composers could approach Rafi with a request to sing their songs and Rafi rarely disappointed them.

Nissar Baazmi later went to Pakistan and became a big composer. Even Noorjehan and Mehdi Hassan considered it an honour to sing for him in Pakistan. As long as Nissar Baazmi was in India, he somehow remained a C-grade composer. And at the time he did Khoj, he was a nobody.

It was as a nobody in HFM that Baazmi approached Rafi to sing for the rendition of a composition for “Khoj”. He could only afford to pay Rs 50 to Rafi. Rafi charged Baazmi just the token Re 1. The result- Chanda ka dil toot gaya roney lage hain sitaare Just the shot in the arm that a struggling music director, as well as the lyricist (Raja Mehdi ali Khan) could have dreamed of !

Pandit Shivram was a small time composer as well. He too had only Rs 50 to offer Rafi for singing a song. In return, Rafi offered him as well as the music lovers this priceless song Daulat ke jhoothhe nashe mein ho choor (Oonchi Haweli)(1955) .

Rafi left his mark even in movies where Talat Mehmood was the main singer and Rafi got to sing sung one song. Take for instance Ghulam Mohammad composition Hai bas ki har ek unke ishare mein nishaan aur (Mirza Ghalib), S D Burman’s Manzil ki chaah mein (Devdas).

How Rafi could hold his own for a composer where other singers had given their best for him is tellingly illustrated in case of songs composed by Baabul. Manna Dey had sung two superb duets in in Reshmi Roomal, viz. Zulfon ki ghataa lekar saawan ki pari aayi (with Asha Bhonsle) and Aankh mein shokhi lab pe tabassum (with Suman Kalyanpur) . This movie also boasted the Talat Mehmood timeless classic Jab chaaye kabhi saawan ki ghata(Reshmi Roomaal)(1961). Mukesh too added his mite Reshmi Roomal through Gardish mein hon taare na ghabraanaa pyaare (Reshmi Roomaal) .

Next movie that Baabul got was “Naqli Nawaab” where the same hero Majoj Kumar was to lip sync the songs. Despite recording such awesome male playback songs in his previous movie, Babul switched to Rafi in “Naqli Nawaab”. Rafi was paid Rs 200 for this movie. The timeless classics that Rafi came up with were- Tum poochhte ho ishq balaa hai ke nahin hai (Naqli Nawaab) and Chheda jo dil ka fasaanaa( Naqli Nawaab) .

If Rafi’s created gems for Babul did the same for Babul’s erstwhile partner Bipin as well ! For Bipin Datta, Rafi sang Ye Bombay shahar ka badaa naam hai (Kya ye Bombay hai ?)

If music director Dulaal Sen is remembered today, then it is thanks to one “Black Prince”(1960) Rafi solo song viz. Nigaahein na phero chaley jaayenge ham (Black prince) .

C Arjun much later, told that he felt very proud that he had at least created a ghazal that could come somewhere near a Madan Mohan composition. I wanted special attention to this my coveted ghazal from my singer but all good singers available were bigger than the film for which I had composed it! revealed Arjun. It was with great hesitation, therefore, that I approached Rafi Saab to render my ghazal, so feelingly written by Indivar. And Rafi Saab, without bothering about the small payment we were in a position to make, said it was one of the best ghazals that had fallen to his lot and he would give it everything that he had.not ready to sing for a small time music director in a B grade movie. Rafi had no such qualms. He obliged C Arjun and came up with a rendition that ensured that this ghazal even till date in bracketed among the best ghazals of Hindi movies. This ghazal with Madan Mohanesque quality was Paas baitho tabeeyat bahal jaayegi (Punar Milan) .

Lala-Asad-Sattar three instrumentalists turned struggling music directors could get Rafi to sing for them and Rafi did what he always did- provided A grade song in a B grade movie-Main to tere haseen khayaalon mein kho gayaa (Sangram) .

Sapan Jagmohan made their debut as a music director duo with “Begaana”(1962). A good blueprint that the music director duo had created was converted into a memorable masterpiece by Rafi-Phir wo bhooli si yaad aayi hai(Begaana)(1963).

We have had many A grade compositions in B and C grade movies. A good number of such compositions are in Rafi’s voice and they came about because Rafi would put art before commerce and would sing for pittance no matter how “small” a movie or its music directors were. That is how we got Iqbal Quraishi’s composition Subah na aayi shaam na aayi(Cha Cha Cha) and Sonik-Omi offering Dono ne kiya tha pyaar magar(Mahua)(1969).

The Rafi touch could turn any disc into gold! The above information is based partly on an article written by Raju Bharatan for The Illustrated Weekly of India, Aug 93.

The music Director for film Oonchi Haveli-55 was Shivram or Pt. Shivram Krishna. He was one of those composers who could not get very famous, though he composed very well. Pt. Shivram Krishna was born at Jodhpur on March 22, 1927. He started learning music at the age of 8 under the tutelage of his father Master Tulsidas, who worked with Marwar Record Company, Jodhpur from 1934 onwards. He was later employed in the court of the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Umed Singh as a singer/musician. It was the name and fame of Khemchand Prakash that inspired him to try his luck in films. At the age of 16, he went to Lahore where he worked under Pandit Amarnath and Master Ghulam Haider for around three years, only to return to Jodhpur at the time of partition. From the year 1948 till 1950 he worked as a music director with His Masters Voice in Lucknow, and then made his way to Mumbai in 1951.

At Mumbai, Pt. Shivram was given his first break by V. Shantaram, who signed him for two of his films – Teen Batti Chaar Raasta (1953) and Surang (1953). The music of both the films was appreciated and the films became silver jubilee hits. Besides these, V. Shantaram gave him two more films in 1960 – ‘Phool Aur Kaliyan’ and ‘Kaale Gore’, the first winning the National Award for Best Children film, while the second remained unreleased. He used the voices of V. Shantaram’s daughters Charusheela and Madhura in children’s films.

Following the success of his initial films, Pt. Shivram caught the attention of Dhirubhai Desai and Nakhshab Jarchavi, who signed him for their next films, Oonchi Haveli (1955) and Raftaar (1955) respectively. The songs of these two films were also quite successful. Then came Sati Ansuya (1956), another film by Dhirubhai Desai that started the trend and literally sealed his fate as a composer of mythological films. Barring Naya Kadam (1958), a social drama, and Rangeela Raja (1960), a stunt film, and the two children films by V. Shantaram, all the films he got after Sati Ansuya were religious/ mythological films. In all, out of the 23 films he composed for, as many as 14 were religious/ mythological films.

Despite composing some good songs for these films, the success he got with his initial films could not be repeated given the limited popularity of such films and similarity in the genre of songs. Barring a few songs from Shravan Kuman (1960), Kan Kan Mein Bhagwan (1963) and Sati Naari (1965), most of the songs are all but forgotten. ‘Tum Naacho Ras Barse’ by Mahendra Kapoor in Sati Naari fetched Pt. Shivram the Swami Haridas Award in 1966.

The last two Hindi films of Pt. Shivram were Sampoorna Teerth Yatra (1970) and Mahapavan Teerth Yatra (1975), both of which have the unique distinction of featuring what could be the longest Hindi film songs, running 45 and 70 minutes respectively. Both these songs were about the various places of pilgrimage in India and were almost similar in tune and structure. Interestingly, he had also composed two more songs on similar lines in Durga Pooja (1962) and Kan Kan Mein Bhagwan (1963).

Pandit Shivram gave music for various regional languages such as Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Haryanvi, etc. He was the default composer for Rajasthani films all through the 1960s, starting with the first Rajasthani film Babasa Ri Ladli (1961). He also composed for several Marwari and classical music non-film albums. As a proficient Harmonium player, he teamed with table-nawaaz Ustaad Nizamuddin Khan to produce a classical album. Pandit Shivram was as good a vocal artist as he was a harmonium player. He sang in films like Oonchi Haveli, Rangeela Raja, Sati Ansuya, Badrinath Yatra, etc.

The lyricists Pt. Shivram worked with, were more or less decided by the films he worked in. While he worked with the likes of Asad Bhopali, Shevan Rizvi, Pyare Lal Santoshi, Nakhshab Jarchavi, etc. in his non-mythological films, predominantly ‘Hindi’ writers like Bharat Vyas, Kavi Pradeep, Neeraj, Madan Bharti and Pt. Indra wrote for his mythological films. Pt. Indra and Bharat Vyas were his prime contributors for Rajasthani films.

Pandit Shivram died in February 1980 leaving behind a family of musicians. His daughter Jayshree Shivram is a singer. Two of his sons, Jugal Kishore and Tilak Raj jointly composed for a few Hindi films, debuting with Bheegi Palkein (1983). His third son, Naveen Shivram had started his musical career with giving music for the serial Apnapan in 1999 and went to compose for a few small time Hindi films and some Rajasthani film and non-film albums as well. Another son, Mukesh, was also a composer and is no more. ( Information on Shivram, based on urgetofly.com and my notes.)

Now, here is a fun song from this film, sung by Rafi and chorus. Though Asha Bhosle’s name is also credited, I did not find any female voice in the song.
PS-Now Sadanand Kamath Jee has pointed out that this song is a two part song and Asha Bhonsle’s voice does appear in the second part of the song. So this song is a Rafi-Asha Bhonsle duet, after all.

Song- Baap gaaye Thumri aur Garba gaaye Maiyya (Oonchi Haweli)(1955)Singer- Rafi, Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics- Bharat Vyas, MD- Pt Shivram
chorus

Lyrics

baap gaaye thumri aur garba gaaye maiyya
jab aangna mein raas rachaenge ye rupaiya
ye chaandi ka kanhaiya ho chhan chhan chhan rupaiya
bhabhi gaaye bhim palaasi drupad gaaye bhaiya
jab aangana mein raas rachaenge rupaiya
ye chaandi ka kanhaiya ho chhan chhan chhan rupaiya

gol gol ye nagad narayan hove jiske paas
wo saare aalam ka baalam sab jan uske saath
ki duniya naak ragadti
ke duniya kaan pakadti
ki duniya jhuk jhuk kare salaam
baabuji parnaam
saahab ji salaam
seth ji raam raam raam raam raam
dekh ke saari duniya naache ta ta ta ta thhaiya
jab aangana mein raas rachaenge ye rupaiya
ye chaandi ka kanhiya ho chhan chhan chhan rupaiya

naram naram duniya laage jab garam garam ho jeb
rupaiye ki jhankaar mein bhaiya chhup jaate sab aeb
achcha
haha
zara dekh lo
ek hai saabat ek hai gaayab
ek khuli hai ek hoon hoon hoon
jaane saara gaam inko jaane saara gaam
par laxmi ki kirpa se inka kamalnayan hai naam
arre inka kamalnaian hai naam
ghuti hui hai khopadi
ghuti hui hai khopadi
par paas hai inke rokadi
safaachat sab baal uden
ye ganju ji ganjan hain
paisa inki aankh ka anjan
daanton ka manjan hai
par jeb kare jham jham to
inka naam keshranjan hai
ae bhaiyya inka naam keshranjan hai
ye kaaghji jawaan seena taan ke khade hue
ye laxmi ki duniya mein heere moti se jade huye
aa aa aa aa aa
dehradun ke cartoon
ye mahlon mein rahte
unchi haweli mein rahte
isiliye sab basti waale hastimal kahte
arre inko hastimal kahte
ke moorakh kahlaaye gyaani
ke phoohad kahlaaye raani
ki cheeku kahlaaye daani
ki ye sab rupye ki maaya
arey bhai waah waah waah waah waah
hoy besuri lugaayi bhi kahlaati hai suraiya
jab aangna mein raas rachaenge ye rupaiya
ye chaandi ka kanhaiya ho chhan chhan chhan rupaiya

o jee o jee
aji aao jee
main teri nayi naweli naar
tu mera albela bhataar
kiya sab tere liye singaar
aji aa jee
ho ho ho ho
kaho meri kaisi ankhadiyaan
ke jaise gulaab ki pankhadiyaan
daant ki kaisi jyoti hai
seep mein jaise moti hain
seep mein jaise moti hain
aur mere sar ke kaise baal
aji in ne to kiya kamaal
ke jaise saawan ke baadal
ke jaise bhanwron ka ho dal
ke jaise nainon ka kaajal
haay re wai wai wai wai wai
meethe meethhe lagte hon jo panchhi se baraiyya
kab
jab aangna mein raas rachaaye re rupaiyya
ye chaandi ka kanhiya ho chhan chhan chhan rupaiya
baap gaaye thumri aur garba gaaye maiyya
jab aangna mein raas rachaenge ye rupaiya
ye chaandi ka kanhaiya ho chhan chhan chhan rupaiya

aa aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa
maine laakhon ke bol sahe
chaandi ke chanda
haay re baandi ke banda
haaye re phaansi ke phanda
tere liye ae
maine laakhon ke bol sahe

saajan aaya hey sakhi
ee ee ee ee ee
waah waah waah
haan
kai manuhaar karo
thhal bhara gaz motiyaan aan
aur ooper nain dhara aa aa aa aa aa aa
ho chaandi ke chanda
haaye re baandi ke banda
haaye re phaansi ka phanda
tere liye ae
maine laakhon ke bol sahe

ikanni duwanni
chawanni athhanni
ikanni duwanni
chawanni athhanni
chhote mote maap hain
ki chhote mote maap hainhe
ye hain baal bachche iske
rupaiyya inka baap hai
rupaiyya inka baap hai
is kaljug ki duniya mein paar laage tab hi naiyya
jab aangna mein raas rachaenge ye rupaiya
ye chaandi ka kanhaiya ho chhan chhan chhan rupaiya

Tags: 1955, Asha Bhonsle, Bharat Vyas, Oonchi Haweli, Pt Shivramkrishna, Rafi

Jal jal ke shama ki tarah fariyaad na karna

Posted by: Atul on: October 17, 2018

Blog Day :

3743

Post No. :

14700

Those who have followed cricket for as long as I have, old time cricket followers may recall that test cricket centuries used to be quite rare. One test Indian batsman managed to score one test century in one test series then it waas considered a major cricketing achievement. One Indian cricketer scoring more than one test century in a test series was a rarity. It was quite a rarity indeed when Sunil Gavaskar scored as many as four test centuries in one test series, and that too his debut series.

It was three years later that Gavaskar would score his next test century in 1974. After that he did not look back snce and went on to make a record breaking 34 test centuries. Subsequently we have another little master, namely Sachin Tendulkar who rewrote that hrecord by scoring more than 50 test centuries and more than one hundred internationa centuries.

In olden days, we often found batsmen batting quite slowly and taking almost one full day to score a century. Mudassar Nazar of Pakistan took 557 minutes to score a test century in 1977-78 against England. He faced 419 balls to reach his century. In contrast, we had someone like Virender Sehwag who scored a triple century against South Africa in 278 deliveries.

We in this blog also regularly score centuries of posts. We have had 146 such centuries so far. quite a few of these centuries have been Sehwag like when 100 posts were completed in 16 days or even less. Such fast centuries have been described as Sehwag like by our regulars- such as Raja.

On the other end of the scale, sometimes our centuries have been painfully slow, like Chris Tavare or Mudassar Nazar. We “fondly” remember both because they often found it easy to showcase their “talent” against India.

This post is the 14700^th song post for the blog or in other words this post marks the 147^th century for the blog. This century has come at a Mudassar Nazar like rate. It has taken us as many as 53 days to reach this century.

This song is a rare song from “Fariyaadi”(1953).

“Fariyaadi”(1953) was produced and directed by Habib Sarhadi for Habib Productions, Bombay. This “social” movie had Rehman, Shakuntala, Mirza Musharraf, Wazir Mohammad Khan, Ramesh Thakkar, Parvati Devi, H Prakash, Devraj, Sadiq, Krishn, Chaandni, Qamar, Jankidas, Shanta Kunwar, Manju, Minni etc in it.

The movie had eight songs in it. Two songs from the movie has been covered in the past.

This song, the third song from “Fariyaadi”(1953) to appear in the blog is sung by Rafi. Muzaffar Orkazai is the lyricist. Music is composed by B N Bali.

This song is a rare song, that few people may have heard before. And we have chosen this song as the 14700^thsong for a special reason. This song happens to be the 29^th century of Rafi in the blog. In other words, Rafi now has as many as 2900 songs in the blog, just 100 songs short of the magical 3000 songs mark.

Instead of taking more time than what has already been consumed while reching this century, I decided to just get on with this century without much fanfare so that we can concentrate of future posts. So here is this post that combines blog century number 147 with Rafi century number 29.

So here we are, to yet another landmark, without much fanfare. I take this opportunity to thank one and all for their support and encouragement. We have come a long way and we still have lots of songs yet to be covered. This post gives us an opportunity to take fresh guard and get down to the task of covering more songs from the teasure of HFM.

Song-Jal jal ke shama ki tarah fariyaad na karna (Fariyaadi)(1953) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Muzaffar Orkazai, MD-B N Bali

Lyrics

Jal jal ke shama ki tarah fariyaad na karna
main yaad bhi aaun to mujhe yaad na karna

mushqil hai bahut pyaar ki duniya ko basaana
bedard zamaane ka tareeqa hai puraana
do pyaar bhare dil kabhi aabaad na karna
main yaad bhi aaun to mujhe yaad na karna
Jal jal ke shama ki tarah fariyaad na karna
main yaad bhi aaun to mujhe yaad na karna

aakaash ki choti pe mahal hamne banaaya
duniya se bahut door jahaan apna basaaya
kismat ne magar chaaha hamen shaad na karna
main yaad bhi aaun to mujhe yaad na karna
Jal jal ke shama ki tarah fariyaad na karna
main yaad bhi aaun to mujhe yaad na karna

ab apne khayaalon mein mujhe tum na basaana
bhoole se kabhi tum mere sapnon mein na aana
gar dil mein uthhe dard to fariyaad na karna
main yaad bhi aaun to mujhe yaad na karna
Jal jal ke shama ki tarah fariyaad na karna
main yaad bhi aaun to mujhe yaad na karna

Tags: 1953, B N Bali, Fariyaadi, Muzaffar Orkazai, Rafi

Watan ki aabroo khatre mein hai

Posted by: Atul on: August 15, 2018

This article is written by Raja, 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 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.

Blog Day :

3680

Post No. :

14574

The 15th of August, is a special date in the calendar for India.

Every year, there are events across the country celebrating the day. There is flag-hoisting in schools, offices and public places. There are patriotic songs played on radio. There’s a lot more to mark the date and occasion.

All of this is understandable. After all, it was on the 15th of August that many years ago, India became an independent nation, free from British rule.

Today is the 72nd Independence Day for India. I still remember the Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1972 – I was part of my school March Past event. How time flies!

But there is more to this date than just celebration. It is an occasion that at least some of us use to reflect. On India’s journey as an independent nation so far. We take stock of where we are, and where we’d like to see us go from here.

I am sure there must be many articles written on this subject in various media publications this week. On our part, our Avinashji has sent me the lyrics for today’s song and requested me to share my thoughts on this occasion. I am therefore taking the liberty of doing so.

Whenever I think of 15th August, the first thing that comes to my mind is our Freedom Struggle and our Founding Fathers. Today we take our freedom for granted – it is hard to even imagine that we were once a colony of the British Empire.

But if it were not for the struggles and sacrifices of millions of Indians, from every corner of the country, would we have got independence when we did? We are familiar with some of the more prominent names who were part of this struggle. But there were so many more who made sacrifices, who gave up their lives for the cause – and died unsung.

I always think of them on 15th August.

Then the Founding Fathers themselves. Once India became an independent country, Britain left it to fend for itself. Can you imagine the challenges a new-born India would have faced at that time?

India was then a country reeling from the horrors of partition. Although there had been talk of partition for a while, the actual execution of the whole process was done very hastily, without enough attention to detail. Political lines were drawn to create India and Pakistan, but these were still being “negotiated”. Even on independence, many villages did not even know whether they belonged to India or Pakistan. And there were the tricky issues of princely states like Junagadh and Hyderabad. And there was Kashmir.

So things were very fluid on 15th August 1947, though technically India and Pakistan had both become independent nations.
The mass migration of millions across borders, with all the violence and pain that ensued – how can one ever forget that! People lost everything, their families, their possessions. Their entire life got uprooted as they became refugees in their new world.

Then, post independence, the massive task of bringing more than 565 princely states into the fold of one nation. How challenging was that! Some agreed to be part of India. Different tactics were needed to bring the others into the fold.

All this while communal harmony, already severely tested in the tense times leading upto the partition, was just about hanging by a thread. The partition exposed fault lines much more nakedly – there was resentment amongst Hindus in India for Muslims who had not migrated. And the other way round in Pakistan.

As we know, many Muslim artistes in the Hindi film industry even changed their names to Hindu-sounding names to avoid becoming targets of hatred, and to appeal to the largely Hindu audiences.

Such was the fragility of Indian communal harmony in the immediate aftermath of independence.

Talking of fragility, it was not only communal harmony that was fragile. Independent India had inherited unprecedented levels of poverty, exacerbated by partition woes. Its economy was in very bad shape. Poor living conditions meant disease was not uncommon. Added to this was a very high level of illiteracy and social backwardness in general.

Kashmir was still a burning issue, Gandhiji got assassinated.

The overall situation looked so bleak at one time that Life Magazine, in the late 1940s, even ran a story along the lines of “Will India survive?” Clearly the world was skeptical.

Thankfully, our Founding Fathers were not.

Even in the midst of all these seemingly insurmountable challenges, they stayed steadfast on course, buoyed by the exuberance of having a new baby to nurture and nourish. Yes, there were challenges – but, to them, these were teething troubles.

Despite differences amongst themselves (yes, they did have differences!), they were united on one thing – all of them had a dream of a strong, resilient, and free India. Their views on how to get there might have been different – Nehru might have had a socialist mindset, Rajaji a more capitalist mindset – but they shared this common dream.

This dream involved providing, for every Indian, a fair opportunity at life. A life of dignity. India would be a country where justice would be available to one and all. A country which had hitherto been suppressed, but whose peoples would now be able to breathe freely, not be enslaved to any thought. They would be free to pursue a religion of their choice. India would be a country whose people would feel a sense of fraternity towards each other, not be divided by regionalism, casteism, religion and other such divisive elements.

This dream got enshrined in the form of a Constitution for India. When India became a Republic on 26th January 1950, it further underlined the vision of the Founding Fathers – that there would be no monarchy in India, that there would be elected representatives, elected by the people. There’s a lot more in the Constitution – it lays down the terms of reference between organs of the State, separation of powers between the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, it talks about fundamental rights and duties of citizens.

While there is always scope for improvement, and any document should be a living document kept in tune with the times, the Constitution of India does provide a great framework for the country. Without it, there would be utter chaos.

And for this Constitution too, we need to thank our Founding Fathers and their vision.

I know none of this is new to anyone – and I am rambling – but I do think that at least on Independence Day (if not on other days) we need to remind ourselves of how much struggle, sacrifice and effort went into first making India an independent nation, and then ensuring it survived against the greatest of odds.

Unless and until we appreciate the magnitude of the challenges that were faced and overcome at that time, we will not be able to value the freedom we have today.

So I hope you will excuse my rather long history lesson. 🙂 If there are any inaccuracies here, please do let me know. I’m happy to be corrected.

The song “hum laaye hain toofaan se kashti nikaal ke” comes to mind in this regard.

Now to today’s India. Let’s take stock of where we are.

We’ve come a long way from those early fragile years. Sure, we’re still not where we’d like to be, but we’re definitely not looking at an existential crisis.

Economically too we are far better off today. Although we still have millions below the poverty line, and many above it still struggling to make both ends meet, we are better off than the “independence” generation. Many of us will admit that our own fathers and forefathers had a much tougher life than we are having now.

Education levels have also significantly improved. I have doubts about the quality of education as I see many “highly-qualified” Indians unable to comprehend basics, completely lacking in logical or analytical thinking, lacking in life-skills, but that’s for another debate. Let’s just say, we have many millions more “educated” Indians today.

In many other areas, like tackling disease, or improving sanitation or road infrastructure, India is progressing. It’s a 71-year young nation now, one would expect nothing less.

So on the material front, I think India is on the right track. Still a long way to go, still a lot of poverty to eradicate, but I have hope.

My bigger concern is to do with freedom and independence. Not of India, but of Indians.

I happen to think India became free and independent on 15th August 1947 – but only in a political sense.

Indians are FAR from being free or independent, even today, 71 years later.

When Indians attained freedom from colonial rule, they expected to be able to lead their lives as free citizens. No more being slaves to anyone, no more being treated like third-class citizens.

The reality though is that we are still slaves. Not to British masters anymore, but to Indian ones.

The difference is, we didn’t elect those British masters, we now elect our Indian masters. The specific individuals change, but the underlying master-slave relationship doesn’t.

In theory, in a democracy, we, the people, have power. We elect representatives on our behalf to run the affairs of the country. These representatives are therefore “public servants”, supposed to serve the interests of the people. They are supposed to be accountable to the people for the tasks assigned to them. They are also accountable to the people for funds utilized by them because these funds are collected from, and on behalf of, the people. They are supposed to be transparent about their work, so that the public can evaluate progress (or lack of it).

This is the theory.

We all know how things work in practice.

But why don’t they work?

Simply because there is a huge power imbalance between the people and their representatives. These representatives, so-called “public servants”, have steadily increased their power quotient at the cost of the people they are supposed to serve. As it is, they have the power to make laws – so they make or modify laws to strengthen their power position, to legitimize their power grab, thus further skewing the imbalance in their favour. Sel-aggrandizement is the mantra.

This isn’t just the story of one political party – this is with practically every political party.

Which is why the solution isn’t to just replace one party with another.

The solution is to structurally redress this power imbalance.

Make the public more powerful.

How?

There is very little power in the hands of one individual. I can scream from my rooftop but my single voice means nothing.

But there is a lot of power in a large group. The larger, the better.

When a large group chooses to raise its voice, these representatives have no choice but to listen. Otherwise they know they will be on the wrong side of the numbers game.

And in a democracy, it is all about a numbers game.

But for a large group to raise its voice against the powers-that-be, it has to, first of all, be free. It must NOT have a slave mentality.

And that’s a big problem in India.

Maybe due to historical baggage of being ruled by maharajas, many Indians are still subservient to authority. They are still happy to be “ruled”. Feudalism, although less today, still plays its role in perpetuating this master-slave relationship.

This is also why SO many Indians still have this “mai-baap” attitude towards government and other powers-that-be. They fall at the feet of politicians, seeking favours, sometimes even begging for something that is their right, but has been denied to them.

And of course, the politicians then act high-and-mighty, dishing out largesse as if they are royalty. They act generous – it’s easy to be generous with other people’s money. A sizeable share of the public’s hard-earned money is distributed as an act of generosity by the politicians. And they get praise for this. Not to mention votes.

It is THIS mentality that is my biggest issue with Indians. This slave mentality.

Which is why I say India became a free country on 15th August 1947 – but Indians are still slaves.

Just to clarify, I wouldn’t blame the poor or destitute for this. They are barely struggling to survive on a daily basis – they hardly have any choice or agency. But those who DO have a choice, who don’t HAVE to grovel before the powers-that-be but still do so, they are the ones who are undermining the effort to redress the power imbalance. They are often the ones to first stand up in defence for the powers-that-be, against their own fellow citizens.

So on this Independence Day, my request to all Indians is to abolish this slave mindset – and be free. If you don’t want to be treated like a third-class citizen, you first need to stop behaving like one.

Freedom is too precious to let it be taken away from you by anyone. Like Sahir said “zindagi bheekh mein nahin milti, zindagi badh ke chheeni jaati hai…apna haq sangdil zamaane se, chheen pao, to koi baat baney”.

And please stand up for those who try to break these chains of slavery. As I said earlier, this battle cannot be fought by one individual. So when someone is trying to fight against oppression, against slavery, please support his or her effort, instead of undermining it by being loyal to the master.

Even during our Freedom Struggle, there were Indians who undermined the effort of fellow Indians by taking the side of the British. This only made the freedom struggle harder.

I hope we have learnt from that lesson.

There are a lot more thoughts in my head on this Independence Day – there are a lot more improvements I’d like to see in India. Especially with regard to society.

The thing is, if we harbour aspirations to be a truly developed nation, we need to also have progressive thought in society. Mere material progress isn’t enough.

It saddens me to see that even in 2018, some of our thinking is regressive.

Patriarchy is still rampant in Indian society – with all its negative consequences for women, and even men. It is one of the biggest reasons for rapes and other forms of violence against women.

Then, our casteism. Even today, Dalits are discriminated against – let’s not pretend they aren’t.

Indian society is full of prejudices – just look at matrimonial columns to get an idea.

There’s a lot more that bothers me – I could go on and on.

But this post has already become too long – and each of these topics deserves proper discussion and treatment of its own.

So I will stop here on these topics.

Just to clarify, I’m not saying we haven’t come a long way. We have. But we still have a very long way to go – in terms of poverty alleviation/elimination and society upgradation.

The responsibility lies largely with those of us who are relatively privileged and educated. Even the Freedom Struggle counted amongst its leaders many well-educated Indians, of whom many had had the opportunity to study or live abroad and get a different perspective on life and their country.

So those of us who are in a position to make a difference need to do so. But for that, we first need to CARE for our less-privileged fellow citizens. Instead of looking down on them, we need to think of how we can make their lives better. We need to help make them free and independent citizens. Remember, WE are the fortunate ones, to even be able to read this online. I don’t mean this in the slightest patronizing sense – the fact is that we are all privileged. Millions are not.

Also remember, those well-off Indians from the Freedom Struggle could very easily have just enjoyed their privilege instead of throwing themselves into the Struggle. They chose to make sacrifices because the cause they were fighting for, was bigger than their individual selves.

We need a similar cause that we can all rally around today. If that is the prosperity of India, it must mean the prosperity of all Indians, not just a select few. But prosperity, without peace and harmony, is useless. So the cause must encompass all these components.

India is nothing without Indians. It would be just a piece of land. So talking about “making INDIA a great nation” is all just empty rhetoric if we are not working towards making the future of INDIANS great. And again here I mean ALL Indians, not a select few.

For me it is all about the individual first. She or he is the unit-level of existence. If the individual isn’t empowered, if she or he isn’t free, what’s to celebrate about the nation being free? The nation is just a bunch of individuals, right?

You might not agree with my thoughts (and that’s perfectly fine!) – I’m just sharing them here on request of Avinashji. 

A lot more running in my head too – but this post has already become way too long now, so let me get to the song for the occasion.

It is a non-film song. A patriotic song composed by Khayyam, sung by Rafisaab, to Sahir’s lyrics.

I heard this song for the first time only a few days ago – I quite liked it. I hope you like it too.

Happy Independence Day. And thanks for your patience in tolerating this long post. 🙂

Song-Watan ki aabroo khatre mein hai (Rafi NFS)(1962) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Sahir Ludhianvi, MD-Khayyam
chorus
Rafi+Chorus

Lyrics

Watan ki aabroo khatre mein hai
Aa aa aa aa aa
Watan ki aabroo khatre mein hai
Hoshiyaar ho jaao
Hoshiyaar ho jaao
Hoshiyaar ho jaao o
Hamaare imtihaan ka waqt hai
Taiyyaar ho jaao
Taiyyaar ho jaao
Taiyyaar ho jaao o

Hamaari sarhadon par khoon behta hai
Jawaanon ka
Aa aa
Huaa jaata hai dil chhalni
Himaalaa ki chattaanon ka
Aa aa
Uthho rukh pher do dushman ki
Topon ke dahaanon ka aa
Aa aa
Watan ki sarhadon par aahni
Deewaar ho jaao
Hoshiyaar ho jaao
Watan ki aabroo khatre mein hai

Wo jinko saadgi mein hamne
Aankhon par bithhaaya thha
Aa aa
Wo jinko bhai kehkar
Hamne seene se lagaaya thha
Aa aa
Wo jinki gardanon mein haar
Baahon ka pehnaaya thha
Aa aa aa
Ab unki gardanon ke waaste
Talwaar ho jaao o
Aa aa aa
Ab unki gardanon ke waaste
Talwaar ho jaao o
Hoshiyaar ho jaao
Watan ki aabroo khatre mein hai

Na ham is waqt Hindu hain
Na Muslim hain
Na Isaayi
Hmm hmm hmm
Agar kuchh hain to hain
Is desh is dharti ke shaidaai
Hmm hmm hmm
Isi ko zindagi denge
Ae ae ae
Isi ko zindagi denge
Isi se zindagi paayi
Lahu ke rang se likhaa huaa
Ikraar ho jaao
Watan ki aabroo khatre mein hai
Hoshiyaar ho jaao
Hoshiyaar ho jaao
Hoshiyaar ho jaao o
Watan ki aabroo khatre mein hai

Khabar rakhna koi gaddaar
Saazish kar nahin paaye ae
Aa aa
Nazar rakhna koi zaalim
Tijori bhar nahin paaye ae
Aa aa
Hamaari kaum par ar ar ar
Hamaari kaum par
Taareekh tohmat dhar nahin paaye ae
Aa aa aa
Kafan dushman
Darindon ke liye
Lalkaar ho jaao
Lalkaar ho jaao
Lalkaar ho jaao o
Lalkaar ho jaao o
Lalkaar ho jaao o o

————————————
Devnagri Script lyrics (Provided by Avinash Scrapwala)
—————————–
वतन की आबरू खतरे में है
आ आ आ आ आ
वतन की आबरू खतरे में है
होशियार हो जाओ
होशियार हो जाओ
होशियार हो जाओ ओ
हमारे इम्तिहान का वक़्त है
तैयार हो जाओ
तैयार हो जाओ
तैयार हो जाओ ओ

हमारी सरहदों पर खून बहता है
जवानों का
आ आ
हुआ जाता है दिल छलनी
हिमाला की चट्टानों का
आ आ
उठो रुख फेर दो दुश्मन कि
तोपों के दहानों का आ
आ आ
वतन की सरहदों पर आहनी
दीवार हो जाओ
होशियार हो जाओ
वतन की आबरू खतरे में है

वो जिनको सादगी में हमने
आँखों पर बिठाया था
आ आ
वो जिनको भाई कहकर
हमने सीने से लगाया था
आ आ
वो जिनकी गर्दनों में हार
बाहों का पहनाया था
आ आ आ
अब उनकी गर्दनों के वास्ते
तलवार हो जाओ ओ
आ आ आ
अब उनकी गर्दनों के वास्ते
तलवार हो जाओ ओ
होशियार हो जाओ
वतन की आबरू खतरे में है

ना हम इस वक़्त हिन्दू है
ना मुस्लिम है
न इसाई
हम्म हम्म हम्म
अगर कुछ हैं तो है
इस देश इस धरती के शैदाई
हम्म हम्म हम्म
इसी को ज़िन्दगी देंगे
ए ए ए
इसी को ज़िन्दगी देंगे
इसी से ज़िन्दगी पायी
लहू के रंग से लिखा हुआ
इकरार हो जाओ
वतन की आबरू खतरे में है
होशियार हो जाओ
होशियार हो जाओ
होशियार हो जाओ ओ
वतन की आबरू खतरे में है

खबर रखना कोई गद्दार
साज़िश कर नहीं पाए ए
आ आ
नज़र रखना कोई ज़ालिम
तिजोरी भर नहीं पाए ए
आ आ
हमारी कौम पर र र र
हमारी कौम पर
तारीख तोहमत धर नहीं पाए ए
आ आ आ
कफ़न दुश्मन
दरिंदों के लिए
ललकार हो जाओ
ललकार हो जाओ
ललकार हो जाओ ओ
ललकार हो जाओ ओ
ललकार हो जाओ ओ ओ

Dahaan – दहान -دہان
mouth; orifice

Shaidaa. ii – शैदाई – شیدائی
lover, enamored

Tohmat – तोहमत – تہمت
Allegation, Accuse
false accusation, suspicion of guilt

Tags: 1962, Khayyam, NFS, Rafi, Sahir Ludhianvi

Sher se ladne aayi dekho shahar ki ik billi

Posted by: Atul on: August 14, 2018

In: "teasing" song | Guest posts | Heckling song | Post by Peevesie's mom | Rafi solo | Rafi songs | Shammi Kapoor songs | Shammi Kapoor songs by Rafi | Songs of 1970s (1971 to 1980) | Songs of 1971 | Yearwise breakup of songs
1 Comment

This article is written by Peevesie’s mom, 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 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.

Blog Day :

3679

Post No. :

14573

Hullo Atuldom

I think I should get over this habit of waking up late to dates. I remembered that today (14 august 2018) was Johnny Lever’s birthday and later, yesterday, around seven in the evening I remembered that 14th august is also Shammi Kapoor’s anniversary. He passed away this date in 2011. Its been seven years.

Shammi Kapoor the man with “Neeli aankhen” (bade hai dil ke kale haan yehi neeli si aankhon waale) were his eyes actually blue or were they light? The gora-chitta-banka naujawan. The dancer who, I am sure, made a number of choreographers cry by doing his own stuff to the rhythm of the songs and had audiences lapping it up. And IMHO Helen was one dancer who managed to follow the choreographer when Shammi did his own stuff on his cue during dance numbers – the last part of “ai ai ya karoon main kya suku suku”is the best example for this. He would have continued in this manner but for the death of his beloved wife Geeta Bali, post which he lost interest for a few years, and then when he returned to the screen he began looking older than his age. He played Vinod Khanna’s older brother in 1971 in “Preetam” and father two years later in “Zameer”. Leena Chandavarkar, his heroine in Preetam, looks very tiny in front of him.

His movies all had memorable songs, mostly sung by Mohd. Rafi in the 60s and later in the 70s & 80s Kishore Kumar sang a few songs filmed on Shammi. There is video on YouTube wherein Shammi talks of his friendship with Kishore Kumar which possibly began at the time of “Mem Sahib” (1956/57) but (in Shammi’s words) he got a chance to lip-sync to Kishore only in the late 70s and 80s. when I heard Shammi mention “Mem Sahib” I decided to see it on YouTube. First thing that struck me was all the actors played characters that we later generation audiences are not familiar with. Meena Kumari played a mod-girl, Shammi Kapoor a negative character and Kishore Kumar a brahmachari who is confused about the ways of the world.

Yesterday when I realised the significance of 14th august with regard to Shammi Kapoor I had a chat with our Atulji to find out if there were any Shammi song left, are we at the bottom of the barrel? He gave me a list of post 1970 movies and also mentioned “Preetam”. I remember having seen this movie made by Bhappi Sonie in the times when doordarshan was the sole source of entertainment. I remember Leena Chandavarkar was paired opposite Shammi and Helen was for Vinod Khanna. I remembered the songs were also decently good.
Today’s song is a typical Shammi Kapoor song in the sense it is sung by Mohd. Rafi with music by Shankar Jaikishan. Only odd man out here is the lyricist -Rajinder Krishan.

Remembering Shammi Kapoor with this song from 1971.

Song-Sher se ladne aayi dekho shahar ki ik billi (Preetam)(1971) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Rajinder Krishan, MD-Shankar Jaikishan
Chorus

Lyrics

sher se ladne aayi dekho
shahar ki ik billi
sher se ladne aayi dekho
shahar ki ik billi
chidiya ghar mein bhej den isko
kalkatte ya dilli
dilli thheek rahegi
sher se ladne aayi dekho
sher se ladne aayi dekho
shahar ki ik billi
chidiya ghar mein bhej den isko
kalkatte ya dilli
dilli thheek rahegi
sher se ladne aayi dekho

maasha allaah
aankhen dekho
masha allah aankhen dekho
bilkul makdi jaisi hain
allah allaah
taangen dekho
allaah allaah taangen dekho
sookhi lakdi jaisi hai
daal ke choohe daani mein
daal ke choohe daani mein
phenk aate hain paani mein
nahin nahin
dilli thheek rahegi
sher se ladne aayi dekho shahar ki ik billi
chidiya ghar mein bhej den isko
kalkatte ya dilli
dilli thheek rahegi
sher se ladne aayi dekho

doodh malaai
chori ka ye
doodh malaai chori ka ye
kha kha ke gurraati hai
kad hai poore dedh haath ka
kad hai poore dedh haath ka
meri kamar tak aati hai
bilti iski karwaa den
bilti iski karwaa den
baans bareilli pahuncha den
nahin nahin dilli thheek rahegi
sher se ladne aayi dekho
shahar ki ek billi
chidiya ghar mein bhej den isko
kalkatte ya dilli
yeah
dilli thheek rahegi
sher se ladne aayi dekho

aahaa
naazuk naazuk bhoore bhoore
naazuk naazuk poore bhoore
tan par haath phiraayenge
gale mein iske baandh ke ghanti
gale mein iske baandh ke ghanti
isko dance karaayenge
sabko naach dikhaayegi
sabko naach dikhaayegi
paise chaar kamaayegi
nahin nahin dilli thheek rahegi
sher se ladne aayi dekho
shahar ki ik billi
chidiya ghar mein bhej den isko
kalkatte ya dilli
dilli thheek rahegi
sher se ladne aayi dekho

Tags: 1971, Leena Chandawarkar, Preetam, Rafi, Rajinder Krishan, Shammi Kapoor, Shankar Jaikishan

Barbaad Hiroshima ki tasweer dekh lo

Posted by: Atul on: August 9, 2018

In: Background song | Pathos | Rafi solo | Rafi songs | Song picturised abroad | Song with a message | Songs of 1960s (1961 to 1970) | Songs of 1967 | Yearwise breakup of songs
4 Comments

Blog Day :

3674

Post No. :

14561

6 August is remembered as Hiroshima day. It was on this day that in 1945 that Hiroshima became the first unfortunate city to be subjected to the dropping of Atom Bomb.

Three days later, on 9 august 1945, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Kokura was the primary target, but that was obscured by cloud and smoke, so the secondary target of Nagasaki became the unfortunate victim of this second atom bomb, named ‘Fat Man’. The bomb exploded at 11:02 a.m. at an approximate altitude of 1,800 feet. 35, 000 people, nearly 15 % of the population of the city were killed.

These two bombings finally persuaded Japan to surrender and that signalled the end of second World war.

The destruction that Atom bombs could cause have led to consternation among many people. It also made some countries realise that they too needed to have atom bombs for their own safety (as a deterrence). Some countries developed the capabilities on their own while a few others did so by stealing nuclear technologies from other countries.

There have been calls to ban nuclear bombs. The first five nuclear bomb owning countries have formed their own exclusive club. Their rules are quite discriminatory. They can have their nuclear bombs, but other countries are prohibited to have them. Moreover, some of these nuclear powered countries keep on threatening others about using them. USA have threatened to use they atom bombs many times in the past. North Korea is well known to threaten its neighbours and even USA with its atom bomb. A few former Pakistani politicians used to threaten India with their atom bomb quite regularly.

To say that killing by atom bombs is bad but killing by normal bombs is not bad is hypocritical. If one looks at people killed during “normal” bombing, then more people were killed by “normal” bombing of Tokyo on 10 march 1945 than were killed by either of the two atom bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Likewise more people have been killed by AK 47 rifles than by Atom bombs. So ultimately the call should be to end violence by banning all kinds of weapons. It is not that atom bombs should be banned but “normal” weapons should be used with impunity. In fact, defence industry is a thriving industry where suppliers often sell the same weapons to two warring nations. There are some countries that spend more money on their military than for the development of their people.

“Aman”(1967) is a movie that deals with the subject of atom bomb and its effects on the victims. “Rajendra Kumar is a doctor who volunteers to go to Japan to help survivors of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki atomic blasts. The film deals with his experiences in Japan, the physical and mental effects of the atomic explosions on the survivors, and so on.”- This is what Raja wrote about this movie while covering a song from the movie.

Though the movie covers a serious and sobering topic, a Hindi movie cannot help having its share of songs. “Aman”(1967) had seven songs in it. Six songs have been covered in the past. Here are their details:-

Song Title	Post No.	Post Date
Aajki raat ye kaisi raat	706	8-Feb-09
Apne piyaa ki prem pujaaran	3373	18-Dec-10
Suraahidaar gardan koyal si hai aawaaz (Aman)	7752	25-Mar-13
Ae husn pari chehra	7756	26-Mar-13
Ai suru ai suru mera watan Japan	8579	23-Aug-13
Aman ka farishta kahaan jaa raha hai	13423	12-Jul-17

The song, the seventh and final song from the movie is sung by Rafi. Prem Dhawan is the lyricist. Music is composed by Shankar Jaikishan. The song speaks about the barbaadi of Hiroshima. Today is 9 august 2018, and atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on 9 august 1945, exactly 73 years ago.

With this sobering song, “Aman”(1967) joins the list of movies that have all their songs covered in the blog.

Song-Barbaad hiroshima ki tasweer dekh lo (Aman)(1967) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Prem Dhawan, MD-Shankar Jaikishan

Lyrics

barbaad hiroshima ki tasweer dekh lo
aa aa aa
aa aa
insaan ki sabse badi takseer dekh lo
aa aa aa
is atomi bala ka hai pahla shikaar hum
rang e bahaar thhe kabhi
ab hain gubaar hum
aa aa aa
insaan ke is gunaah se aakash jhuk gaya
thha waqt jis jagah pe
bas wahin pe ruk gaya

ye haath kate paanv kate jhoolte dhaanche
aa aa aa
in dhaancho mein hum jaise hi insaan dhale thhe
aa aa aa
maao ki muskuraati god khaali ho gayi
poonam ki raat bhi suna hai kaali ho gayi
aa aa aa
kehti hai hiroshima ki basti pukaar ke
gujro na tum main gujri hoon jis rahgujaar se

aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa

Tags: 1967, Aman, Prem Dhawan, Rafi, Shankar Jaikishan

Bishan chaacha kuchh gaao

Posted by: Atul on: July 31, 2018

In: Boat song | Guest posts | Post by Peevesie's mom | Rafi solo | Rafi songs | Songs of 1980s (1981 to 1990) | Songs of 1981 | Yearwise breakup of songs
5 Comments

Blog Day :

3665

Post No. :

14537

“Yaarana” was a movie that was released in 1981. It was produced by H A Nadiadwala and directed by Rakesh Kumar. It had Amitabh Bachchan and Amjad Khan playing friends whose friendship was rooted in childhood. The story showed the love and affection between the two who were from different financial backgrounds. They would go to any extent to make each other’s lives comfortable.

Todays’ song comes at a point where the rich friend Bishan (Amjad) has just discovered that he has been swindled by his uncle (mama) Jeevan and he has had to mortgage his favourite cruise liner “Kishan” so that he can put up his friend’s debut stage show. And further to make ends-meet he has begun working on the liner as a captain.

The song is when a group of school kids under the guidance of Farida Jalal request him for a song. As the song progresses the mama and his son (Jeevan and Ranjeet) slowly take over the running of the liner and at the end of the song take the children as hostage too and demand a ransom from the parents of the kids. This and other tortures that Jeevan and Ranjeet subject him to causes Bishan to lose his mental balance. Then the movie proceeds towards the climax where Kishan (Amitabh Bachchan) comes to rescue Bishan and all the kids.

The movie released was about a year or so after Mohd. Rafi’s death in 1980 (release date October 23rd. 1981). It had music by Rajesh Roshan and lyrics by Anjaan. Amidst all the popular songs that were sung by Kishore Kumar for Amitabh was this song which was Rafi for Amjad Khan. Isn’t that a rarity?

It is not a coincidence that I chose a song featuring Amjad Khan- it was his 26^th death anniversary three days back. An actor who sent shivers down our spine as Gabbar Singh but also did a lot of positive characters. He was an all-rounder- in a career spanning 19 years he made us experience the full range of emotions. He went very early.

Thinking of the smooth voiced singer Mohd. Rafi on his 38th death anniversary. Thinking of all the gems he has left behind for us, gems that we are still discovering.

“dil ka soona saaz taraana dhoondega
Teer-e-nigaah-e-naaz nishaana dhoondega
Mujhko mere baad zamaana dhoondega”
This song was posted by Atulji on this date exactly 10 years ago. It is true about both Rafisaab and Amjad Khan. We are still missing them and will always remember them fondly.

Song-Bishan chaacha kuchh gaao (Yaaraana)(1981) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Anjaan, MD-Rajesh Roshan
Chorus

Lyrics

Bishan chacha kuchh gaao
are re re
aisa taraana jhoom ke gaoon
sang sang duniya jhoome
Bishan chacha

yeh umar nayi
dagar naya
safar hai pyaare
door
abhi hai door
kahin jaane kahaan kinaare
ye umar nayi
dagar naya
safar hai pyaare
door
abhi hai door
kahin jaane kahaan kinaare
tu ruk nahin jaana
tu dar nahin jaana
tu thak nahin jaana mere pyaare
Bishan chaacha
kuchh gaao
are re re aisa taraana jhoom ke gaoon
sang sang duniya jhoome
Bishan chaacha

zindagi jo hai mili hansi khushi guzaaro
tum jiyo to yoon
jiyo ke saara jahaan sanwaaro
zindagi jo hai mili hansi khushi guzaaro
tum jiyo to yoon
jiyo ke saara jahaan sanwaaro
pyaar lutaayen
auron ke kaam aayen
yahi to zindagi hai mere pyaare
Bishan chaacha
kuchh gaao
are re re aisa taraana jhoom ke gaoon
sang sang duniya jhoome
Bishan chaacha

Tags: 1981, Amjad Khan, Anjaan, Rafi, Rajesh Roshan, Yaaraana

Ye sitaare hain motiye ke phool

Posted by: Atul on: July 31, 2018

In: Guest posts | Multiple version song | Post by nahm | Rafi solo | Rafi songs | Rare song | Song excluded from movie | Songs of 1940s (1941 to 1950) | Songs of 1949 | Yearwise breakup of songs
19 Comments

This article is written by nahm, 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 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.

Blog Day :

3665

Post No. :

14536

do hi lafzon ka thha ye afsaana
jo sunaa kar khaamosh ho baitthaa aa

And thus he sang in 1949, with no conception that his voice and words are going to resonate around the globe into the 21st century or the next millennia. If he had known how famous and well known one day he was destined to be, I wonder how much more conscious and eager to reach the heights a performer of his class would have been. Or if he could have excelled himself in what way. As it is, he was in a class of his own. The thing about this whole saga called Mohammed Rafi ‘s songs, is that there is/was simply no competition.

Here was me, literally stumbling in front of the street where he lived the last part of his life. It happened this saturday, I was visiting a fashion house on Turner Road, Bandra(W), and right there on the intersection there was this blue coloured sign board indicating the direction of Mohammed Rafi Marg.

Normally western suburbs are not my choice of places to visit. Having lived all my life in Mumbai, I have also had my fair share of queries like ” Have you seen Shah Rukh Khan’s house ?” or some such things mainly from those who have never visited Mumbai. Long ago some Bollywood savvy driver had driven us around the Bandra area showing us the Bunglows and houses of Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari etc. with some visiting relatives while we all were on a sight seeing trip.

This time I was with my sister, mother and cousins doing some sort of research in current trends and fashions. Others call this same activity as window shopping 🙂 . I was gobsmacked to unexpectedly find that I can see Rafi Mansion. I told the elderly chacha from who driving the car, who is actually a Kishore and Rajesh Khanna fan, to just go and see if he can find Rafi Sahab’s home in the street, by the time we could finish the job in hand. Afterwards I asked chacha if he found the house. He replied that he couldnt find it. Having seen the road sign I was not about to give up. I said “Chalo dekhte hain kasie nahin milta” .

I knew this has to be a small street and Rafi Mansion shouldnt be so difficult to find. And Lo and Behold, there it was the gate marked “Rafi Mansion” on one side and “Bait-ur-Rafi” on the other side. The whole area, I realised must have changed over the decades. Of course the house that Rafi Sahab lived is no longer there and in its place is a building containing flats. A passerby told us, that Rafi Sahab’s daughter stays in the building but currently she is abroad.

Fortunately, I wasnt too overwhelmed and remembered that I can take photos of the place as a memory of the moment. I did take the photos of the gate and the Memorial Plaque marking the street “Padmashree Mohammed Rafi Marg”.

I have photographs to prove it, that I did visit the place and not making this story up just to write something in this post 🙂 🙂 . Photos are attached to accompany the post. Someone sure is taking care of both the plaque’s (On both corners of the road) and the gate with its silver paint and glaze.

As we came away from there, we all were discussing inane things. I could’nt even ponder over what all info I have imbibed in all these years about Rafi Sahab’s house. I only realised today that, this was a momentous occassion and could be recorded here on this blog honouring the great nourishing and enriching value addition i.e. Rafi Sahab’s legacy, is to Hindi film music.

The moment here is the 38th death anniversary, to be commemorated. A beautiful solo song that I found on youtube some months ago, with two versions, is worthy of the event. Its so touchingly rendered in the typical Rafi tones of the 40’s, that I longed to do this post. When I saw a post of a song from Shohrat (1949) a while back, I thought this song also will be posted soon. But than luckily it has been left alone, may be due to the fact that it deos not appear in the Geet Kosh.

Whether this song was recorded for the film “Shohrat”(1949) or otherwise, the fact remains that this is a authentic Rafi rendition. Both the versions have the word”Tanvir” featuring in a sher, as a poets takhallus maybe. As per the information given with the link on youtube, it is from Shohrat(1949) composed by Aziz Hindi. The poet, as per the uploader is Tanvir Naqvi.

Part-1

Part II

Song-Ye sitaare hain motiye ke phool (Shohrat)(1949) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Tanveer Naqvi, MD-Aziz Hindi

Lyrics

————————————–
PART – I
———————————–
ye sitaare hain
motiye ke phoo ool
kis ki maala toot gayi ee ee ee
chaand teeka hai
kis ke maathhe ka
raat kis ka suhaag loot gayee

shaamil-e-bazm hain kayee ehbaab
ye na samjho koyi akelaa hai ae ae
lab pe naatik hai muskuraahat kaa
aankh mein aansuon ka melaa hai

wo jo bikhri hai
tere honthon par rr rr rr
surkhiyaan hain mere
fasaane ki ee
teri aankhen haseen raaten hain
mere guzre huye zamaane ki ee

jis ko tum hi salaab(?) kehte ho
ik warq hai mere fasaane kaa aa aa
main to khud hi badal gayaa tanveer
rang badla nahin zamaane ka

—————————————
PART – II
—————————————-
tera paighaam le ke seene mein ae ae ae
koyi ruswaa huaa sar-e-bazaar
koi vastu mein ban gayaa gautam
koi gukul mein saanwala avtaar

aag mein ? ? nahi hote ae
sholay utthhte nahin hain paani se ae
raakh mein phool khil nahin sakte
kuchh na paaoge iss jawaani se

kis ne bargad ki chhaaon mein tanveer eer
door se bansuri bajaayi hai ea
aag si lag rahi hai seene mein
saanwle krishn ki duhaayi hai

do hi lafzon ka thha ye afsaana aa
jo sunaa kar khaamosh ho baitthaa aa aa
ibtedaa ye ke tum ko paayaa thha
intehaa ye ke khud ko kho baitthaa

Tags: 1949, Aziz Hindi, Rafi, Shohrat, Tanveer Naqvi

Duniya mein sada rahne ko aata nahin koi

Posted by: Atul on: July 31, 2018

Blog Day :

3665

Post No. :

14535

Here is that day again.

Yes, it is the 31st of July (2018) today – which for HFM lovers, wherever they are in the world, signifies just one thing.

The death anniversary of Mohammad Rafi – respectfully referred to as Rafisaab, by one and all.

I am sure there will be events around the country to solemnly mark the occasion. Why just in the country, probably even across the world, considering how distributed India’s diaspora around the world is.

Millions of people will be remembering today as Rafisaab’s Remembrance Day – a term we also often use on this blog.

Truth is, at least for me (and I’m sure it’s true for many), every single day of the year is Rafisaab’s Remembrance Day. For there isn’t a single day in the year that I do not remember Rafisaab in some way or the other. It is usually in the form of a song I’m listening to – or sometimes singing (thankfully only to myself). 🙂

Of course, the 31st of July adds a huge extra layer of remembrance because it brings with it a sense of loss. Although it is 38 years now, this sense of loss remains. And for me, it will remain all my life.

As I sit to write this post, I’m not sure what I should write about Rafisaab that I haven’t already written here.

The thing is, I’ve written a lot about Rafisaab here. My posts here might be relatively infrequent now but I make it a point to always write a post on Rafisaab’s birth and death anniversaries. These are two dates I never miss. It is just my very small way of paying tribute to Rafisaab, and thanking him for enriching my life in a way, and to an extent, that I just cannot describe.

And I’d like to think, he is up there, smiling as always, reading these tributes.

There isn’t much I can think of writing now that I haven’t already written before. And although I don’t mind repeating myself, I don’t want to bore the readers. Having said that, I never tire of repeatedly watching the same tributes to Rafisaab on youtube. I’ve listened to Jeetendra’s story of Deedaar-e-Yaar multiple times, SP Balasubramaniam’s story about “deewaana hua baadal” multiple times. 🙂 And each time, it feels good to listen to it.

But that’s different from my repeating stories, that too in text, not video. Besides, they speak about their personal experiences involving interaction with Rafisaab – mine are just my personal thoughts.

So I will refrain from repeating myself.

One thing I will say – I’ve often felt lucky that Rafisaab’s era was before mine. Imagine somebody living in the 1920s/30s and passing away before 1947. He or she would never have had the opportunity of listening to Rafisaab. Of course there were greats even then – like Saigal saab and Pankaj Mallick, but we now have the good fortune of being able to listen to them AND to Rafisaab, Talat Mahmood, Lataji and others.

Future generations will have even more music available to them, in addition to what is available today.

That’s the greatness of a legacy. Every individual has to die sometime – nobody can do anything about that. Yes, one can delay the inevitable – but it is still inevitable. No one has yet invented the elixir of immortality – and that might not be such a bad thing.

Coming to Rafisaab, I’ve spent hours and hours listening to him. I’ve spent all night listening to his songs. It starts with one song, then I think “ok, one more”, then “one more” and so it goes on. On youtube, you keep getting prompted anyway – so it’s just one click after another. You start with “chaudvin ka chand ho”, then, as if on cue, you’re prompted “abhi na jao chhod kar”, which then takes you to “deewana hua baadal”, which takes you to “pukaarta chala hoon main” and so on. You know the drill – you’re hooked. This has happened to me many times.

Not that I’m complaining. It has always been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I often don’t even watch the video – I just close my eyes and let Rafisaab’s voice take over. And suddenly everything seems to either fall in place, or become inconsequential. For that period at least. When SPB says that at the end of a long day in the recording studios he would come home and listen to Rafisaab to relax, I think I can understand where he’s coming from. Rafisaab’s voice can be extremely relaxing, if you listen to the right songs. I don’t know how often I’ve listened to “ab kya misaal doon” (Aarti-1962) or “maine shaayad tumhe pehle bhi kahin dekha hai” (Barsaat Ki Raat – 1960). And think of songs like “husnwaale tera jawaab nahin” (Gharana–1961) or “ek haseen shaam ko” (Dulhan Ek Raat Ki – 1967) or “mujhe dekh kar aapka muskuraana” (Ek Musafir Ek Haseena – 1962). And if you’re looking for duets, how about “theheriye hosh mein aa loon” with Suman Kalyanpur (Mohabbat Isko Kehte Hain – 1965) or “dil pukaare” with Lata (Jewel Thief – 1967) or “phir miloge kabhi is baat ka vaada kar lo” with Asha (Ye Raat Phir Na Aayegi – 1966). And of course, one of my all-time favourites – which is why I keep coming back to it – “abhi na jao chhod kar” with Asha (Hum Dono – 1961). 🙂

And so many more. I just realized that all the songs I’ve mentioned above, which came randomly to my mind, are all 1960s songs – but this is purely a coincidence. One can find a treasure of songs from the 1950s or even 1970s. Yes, even the 1970s, when Rafisaab was supposed to be going through a lean patch for the first half of the decade. The half in which he still gave us songs like “tum jo mil gaye ho” (Hanste Zakhm – 1973) and “aaj mausam bada beimaan hai” (Loafer – 1973). And my favourite Rafisaab duet song of the 1970s – “teri bindiya re” (Abhimaan – 1973) with Lata, which I have listened to a zillion times, and can never have enough of.

Rafisaab sang practically every genre, from qawwali and devotional songs to rock-n-roll and romantic songs, adjusting his singing style and voice for every actor, depending on the needs of the situation. He was always conscious that he was the playback voice – and that the actor on screen was bringing that song to the audience in “his” (the actor’s) voice. This elevated not just the song, but often even the film, for the viewers, because very often the songs of the film carried the film. 🙂

And, to add to all this, as if his divine voice wasn’t enough, he was also one of the most gentle souls the industry has ever seen. In an industry where ego clashes and tempers were not uncommon, he was ever-smiling, ever accommodating of others, never throwing his weight around – which he could very easily have done. He had a very big heart, ever generous and helpful to those in need. And he did a lot of it without publicity. It was only after he died, that a number of his charitable actions came to light.

So SUCH is the person Rafisaab was. Will we ever see another like him in the industry? Hard enough to imagine another singer like him – add to that his nature, and I think it’s safe to rule out the chance of another Rafisaab. No, Rafisaab was one of a very special kind – like SPB says, we were just very lucky he came in our midst before he was called back.

Indeed, he was 100% right when he sang “mujh ko mere baad zamaana dhoondhega”.

I will now move on to today’s song.

As it is the 31st of July, I have selected a song, sung by Rafisaab of course, about the inevitability of passing away. It is a very short song from the film Amardeep (1979) – but it suits the occasion perfectly. Lyrics have been provided to me, as usual, by Avinashji.

The song’s lyrics, written by Anand Bakshi, talk about how death is inevitable. And yet how sudden and shocking an unexpected death can be. “Tum aise gaye, aise bhi jaata nahin koi”. Everyone knows how sudden Rafisaab’s death was. That was just no way to go. Everyone was in shock – and he was just 55.

The song also refers to having a smile on one’s face even while dead. “Kyon mar ke bhi honthon pe hansi khel rahi hai”- this could also be said of Rafisaab. He was ever-smiling, reportedly even in death.

This song brought a lump to my throat.

Also, listening to his voice only further made me realize how wonderful his voice was even just a year before he passed away. It left me with a loss of what might have been. I felt he had so much more singing in him.

Anyway, one cannot control these things. One can only be thankful for what one has got. And we have got a LOT from Rafisaab. A price can never be put on his legacy – it is just priceless. He will be in our hearts for ever, and remembered for ever.

Rafisaab is truly “amar” in this sense – and lighting amardeep in all our hearts.

Thank you, Rafisaab.

Thank you for everything.

bahut shukriya, badi meherbaani,
hum sab ki zindagi mein huzoor aap aaye

Audio

Video

Song-Duniya mein sada rehne ko aata nahin koi (Amardeep)(1979) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Anand Bakshi, MD-Laxmikant Pyarelal

Lyrics

Duniya mein sadaa rehne ko
Aata nahin koyi
Tum jaise gaye aise bhi
Jaata nahin koyi

Kyun mar ke bhi honthhon pe hansi
Khel rahi hai ae
Sab jaante hain aur
Bataata nahin koyi ee

Dil pehle hi dartaa thaa
Ke jal jaayega daaman
Daaman se amardeep
Bujhaataa nahin koyi
Bujhaataa nahin koyi ee
Bujhaataa nahin koyi
—————————————–
(Devnagri Script lyrics) Provided by Avinash Scrapwala)
—————————————–
दुनिया में सदा रहने को
आता नहीं कोई
तुम जैसे गए ऐसे भी
जाता आ नहीं कोई

क्यूँ मर के भी होंठों पे हंसी
खेल रही है ए
सब जानते हैं और
बताता नहीं कोई ई

दिल पहले ही डरता था
के जल जाएगा दामन
दामन से अमरदीप
बुझाता नहीं कोई
बुझाता नहीं कोई ई
बुझाता नहीं कोई

Tags: 1979, Amardeep, Anand Bakshi, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Rafi

Older Entries

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

Archive for the ‘Rafi solo’ Category

Na satrah se ooper na solah se kam

Baap gaaye thumri aur garba gaaye maiyya

Jal jal ke shama ki tarah fariyaad na karna

Watan ki aabroo khatre mein hai

Sher se ladne aayi dekho shahar ki ik billi

Barbaad Hiroshima ki tasweer dekh lo

Bishan chaacha kuchh gaao

Ye sitaare hain motiye ke phool

Duniya mein sada rahne ko aata nahin koi

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