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

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.

Today (5 may 2017) is the 11th death anniversary of Naushad saab. He passed away on the 5th of May 2006.

This is the 9th opportunity for this blog to pay a tribute to Naushad saab on his death anniversary. And yet, though I’ve written tributes for many here, I don’t remember writing one for Naushad saab yet. So here goes.

Naushad saab is not just an absolute legend in the world of HFM, he is somebody whose music I have extremely high regard for.

There are some composers for whom Shakespeare’s words from Julius Caesar “He doth bestride us like a colossus…” would not be inappropriate at all. Naushad saab very comfortably fits in – such was his stature, and such is his contribution, to HFM.

I will not discuss his life or career in great detail here – this is available from other sources. Besides, there are people far more competent than me to discuss this luminary’s life and career. I will, as I usually do, give my own personal take on Naushad saab.

I was a young boy when I first heard of Naushad saab. I used to listen to AIR a lot – and his songs would play very often. Not surprisingly, considering how popular his songs were in their time. And are, to this day.

That was how I first heard of the combination Shakeel Badayuni – Naushad. The announcer would invariably say “geetkaar Shakeel Badayuni” and more often than not, it would be followed by “sangeetkaar – Naushad”.

In those days, mid-70s, I had a totally wrong impression of Naushad saab’s age.

Roughly in my head, I had the following generations:
i) My generation (current) : Rajesh Khanna & co
ii) Previous generation (Gen -1) : Shammi Kapoor, Joy Mukherjee & co
iii) Still earlier generation (Gen -2) : Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar
iv) Still earlier generation (Gen -3) : Naushad, KL Saigal, Pankaj Mallick, Anil Biswas etc

Before that, no generation existed in my mind.

Most of us lived in the current generation or in previous generations upto Gen-2. If anyone in my friends’ circle knew any song of Gen-3, he would be looked at with awe. 🙂

Mind you, this was, say 1975 – and “jab dil hi toot gaya” from Shahjehan (1946) was hardly 30 years earlier.
Yet, in our schoolboy minds, that was ancient!

Today, that would be the equivalent of considering “chandni, meri chandi” as ancient. 🙂
See how things are relative!

Anyway, back to Naushad saab. I think his tagging as Gen-3 came from listening to songs like “Awaaz de kahaan hai” in the voices of Noor Jehan and Surendra. Or “akhiyan milaake” by Zohrabai Ambalewaali. These type of songs would play fairly regularly – and somehow got me to get a wrong impression of Naushad saab’s age.

In fact, to be honest, I thought he was long dead. I did not remember him composing – though he might have composed for the odd film that I was not aware of. Unlike an SD Burman who I remember was active (as much as he could be) till he passed away in 1975. So for us at the time, SD Burman was “current”, Naushad was “ancient”. Now when I check, I find that SD Burman was born in 1906, Naushad in Dec 1919. So, a full thirteen years later. 🙂

What misconceptions the mind comes up with!

It was only when I happened to come across a Naushad interview (sometime probably in the late 70s/early 80s), that I even knew that he was alive. I know it sounds naïve – but those were days when I had very limited awareness of such matters. I didn’t grow up with a lot of aware people around me – almost all my knowledge came from watching movies, listening to songs and the odd article. Naushad saab wasn’t very much in the public eye in the 70s. I think it was deliberate – he had sort of mentally retired too by the end of the 60s.

And yet, his songs would play every single day. With the treasure-house that he composed, that’s only to be expected. Songs from Andaaz, Baiju Bawra, Mughal-e-Azam and Ganga Jamuna were hot favourites on AIR, but also songs from Babul, Amar and the 1960s films like Leader, Saathi and Aadmi. So he was a fixture on AIR.

I always loved his music. I couldn’t then place what exactly made me love it – later I realized it must have been the classical tunes he composed that were so soothing and pleasant to the ear. Not one false tuning, not one jarring note. And mind you, this was all in the time when composers didn’t have all the paraphernalia to correct their work. They had a few instruments – and they usually had to get it right first time, or within very few attempts. Just this itself makes me respect composers of that time so much more.

With this limited support, they delivered such fabulous music. And Naushad saad was at the forefront of it.

I do not know of any Naushad saab song that I find jarring. Or that I do not like. The classical ones (like “aaj gaawat man”) are obviously in a league of their own but even the less classical or non-classical ones are pleasant to listen to. Such was Naushad saab’s sense of music.

Today, when I think of his songs, I feel an enormous sense of gratitude towards him. The songs keep playing in my head – my childhood favourites from Andaaz (oh, how I love ALL the songs of this film!), then the two biggies from Anmol Ghadi (“awaaz de” and “jawaan hai mohabbat”), the songs of Baiju Bawra, Ganga Jamuna, Uran Khatola (“o door ke musafir”)….what can I say!

There was this “natural” sense in Naushad saab’s music which fitted perfectly with the occasion for every song he composed. When Dilip Kumar danced to Rafisaab’s rendition of “nain lad jayee hai”, the song looks just so perfect – but there’s Naushad saab (and of course Shakeel too) very much behind this gem. In fact, all songs of Ganga Jamuna are gems – hard to pick one. How can you ignore songs like “dhoondho dhoondho re saajna” or “do hanson ka joda”?

Many of the films for which Naushad saab composed music went on to become Silver Jubilee hits. How much of this is attributable to his music, cannot be gauged but I won’t be surprised if the music played a big part in the success of these films. For example, Baiju Bawra, without its songs, is hard to imagine.

So thank you, Naushad saab, for leaving us with this invaluable treasure for eternity.

Today’s song is from, what I’d like to call, post-retirement Naushad saab. By the end of the 1960s, Naushad saab felt that the changing scene of HFM was not to his liking. Music was becoming loud and too westernized for his taste. Many of his contemporaries were also struggling to deal with this change. So Naushad saab quietly withdrew from the scene. He might have composed for just the odd film (maybe finishing his assignments) but otherwise, he had “retired”.

The 1970s were therefore left to, and dominated by, the likes of RD Burman, L-P and Kalyanji Anandji.

And then, Naushad saab made a comeback in the early 80s with a film called Dharam Kaanta. I remember this was much talked about mainly (possibly only) because of Naushad saab’s comeback.

The film was a multi-starrer – but didn’t quite click. Naushad saab’s music also didn’t quite make the impact it was expected to make – although the song “ye gotedaar lehenga” was quite popular.

All in all, it was probably just a confirmation to Naushad saab that the times had truly changed. That was the disco era – Naushad saab would have felt very out of place. But like Tennyson said “the old order changeth, yielding place to new”. That was the last I remember of Naushad saab’s music, though his bio suggests he did compose a bit more.

The song is picturised on Jeetendra and Rajesh Khanna. The voices are of Rafisaab and Bhupendra. It is quite odd to watch Bhupendra sing for Rajesh – this is the first time I’m seeing this. It left me wondering why Kishore didn’t do the job – but maybe Naushad saab wanted to have Bhupendra there, instead of Kishore. Any story here about Naushad saab & Kishore?

The lyrics for this song were sent to me by Peevisie’s Mom. She has done the write-up for the one other song from this film posted on this blog already – “ye gotedaar lehenga”.

One memory of this film.

I saw this in Kolkata in a film hall in 1982. I happened to be in town with some friends, we went for this late-night (9-12) show. I don’t remember the film too well but when I returned to my hotel room, I discovered the backpocket of my trousers had been slit – I had been pickpocketed. I must have had about Rs 150 or so in it, so not a huge sum – though in those days, this was a respectable sum.

But what made me feel worse was that the trousers were brand new – they were very expensive Vimal suiting material and I was wearing it for the first time. I got it stitched again but it didn’t look good – and I never wore those trousers again.

That was also the last time I kept any money in my backpocket. Lesson learnt.

So that is my memory of Dharam Kaanta (1982).

I’ll leave you with the song – I hope you enjoy it. It is in the cadre of “ye dosti, hum nahin chhodenge”. I will leave it to you to judge whether the music is reminiscent of Naushad’s earlier tunes. I could feel it here and there, though I think Naushad saab tried to make it a bit modern too.

The video doesn’t cover the complete song, so an audio is also provided here (courtesy Peevesie’s Mom).

Video (Partial)

Audio (with complete song) :

Song-Duniya chhoote yaar na chhoote (Dharam Kaanta) (1982) Singers-Mohammad Rafi, Bhupendra, Lyrics-Majrooh Sultanpuri, MD-Naushad
Both
Rafi + Bhupinder + Chorus

Lyrics(Provided by Peevesie’s mom)

Aa ha aa
(whistling)
La la la la la la
(whisting)
La la la la la la la
(whistling)

duniya chhoote
yaar na chhoote
duniya chhoote
yaar na chhoote
jaan se badh kar yaari hai ae
dil ke dharam kaante par dekha
dil ke dharam kaante par dekha
pyaar ka palda bhaari hai ae
duniya chhoote
yaar na chhoote

kismat se tera saath mila
baat hui na haath mila
aaa aaa aaa
aaa aaa aaa aaa
kismat se tera saath mila
baat hui na haath mila
dukh jitne thhe jhel chuke
khel hum apne khel chuke
aaa aaa aaa aaa
aaaa aaa aaa aaa
dukh jitne thhe jhel chuke
khel hum apne khel chuke
aaj milan ki baari hai ae
duniya chhoote
yaar na chhoote
jaan se badhkar yaari hai
dil ke dharam kaante par dekha
pyaar ka palda bhaari hai ae
duniya chhoote
yaar na chhoote

yaari hai dildaaron ki
jodi hai talwaaron ki
yaari hai dildaaron ki
jodi hai talwaaron ki
pyaar mile to pyaar kare
waqt pade to waar kare
pyaar mile to pyaar kare
waqt pade to waar kare
ye talwaar do-dhaari hai ae
duniya chhoote
yaar na chhoote
aaa aaa aaa aaa
aaa aaa aaa aaa
aaa aaa aaa
aaa aaa aaa

pyaare agar mujhmein hai dam
tu bhi nahin hai mujhse kam
aaa aaa aaaa
aaa aaa aaa aaa
pyaare agar mujhmein hai dam
tu bhi nahin hai mujhse kam
main sooraj hoon
dhoop hai tu
mera hi ik roop hai tu
aaa aaa aaa aaa
aaa aaa aaa aaa
main sooraj hoon
dhoop hai tu
mera hi ik roop hai tu
baat ye kitni pyaari hai
duniya chhoote
yaar na chhoote
jaan se badhkar yaari hai
dil ke dharam kaante par dekha
pyaar ka palda bhaari hai ae
duniya chhoote
yaar na chhoote
Aa haa aa
(whistling)
La lala laa lalal
(whisting)
La la la la la la la
(whistling)