Posts Tagged ‘Ae Mere Dil’
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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I was intending to write on one of the most popular non-film ghazals, ‘ham to hain pardes mein des mein niklaa hogaa chaand’ composed and rendered by Jagjit Singh. While looking for an appropriate audio clip on a video sharing platform, I came across a video clip of this song which was attributed to a film, ‘Yaadon Kaa Baazaar’ (1988), the name I came to know for the first time. The song is picturised on Dharmendra who is in the prison along with his other colleagues one of which I can identify as Vikram.
As per indiancine.ma, the film, ‘Yaadon Kaa Baazaar’ (1988) was produced and directed by Ram Prasad Sharma. The main cast consisted of Vikram, Neeta Mehta, Nadira, Mac Mohan, Yunus Parvez, Urmila Bhatt and Jaya Kaushalya with special appearance by Dharmendra. Jagjit Singh was the music director. The playback singers were Jagjit Singh, Chitra Singh, Vinod Sehgal and Ghanshyam Vaswani. The film was certified on December 9, 1988. I am not sure whether the film had a theatrical release. The film’s VCD/DVD is not available on any of the video sharing platforms.
The song under discussion has been written in the ghazal format by Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza (‘Raza’ is pronounced as ‘Reza’ in Persian and he has adopted as ‘Reza’). After listening to this song, I got an impression that the poet must be emotionally attached to his roots where he spent his childhood and teenage days. After reading this ghazal, I felt that the literary stature of Dr Rahi Masoom Reza was more than than what was already known to me as a prominent dialogue writers for many popular Hindi films and the TV Serial, Mahabharat. (1988). And I needed to know more about his literary persuits.
Dr Rahi Masoom Reza (01/09/1927 -15/03/1992) was born as Syed Masoom Reza Abidi in a large village of Gangauli located on the banks of River Ganga in Ghazipur district of present-day Uttar Pradesh. His father, Syed Bashir Hussain Abidi was a landlord in Gangauli and a distinguished lawyer in Ghazipur city. Rahi (his pen name) lost his mother, Nafisa Begum in his childhood and was looked after by his grandmother. In his childhood, Rahi suffered from illness including polio which affected his schooling in madrasa. He continued his schooling from home under a Maulvi. To keep him entertained, a retainer called Kallu Kaka was appointed who used to narrate him the folk stories which instilled in him the interest in story writing. Later, he suffered from tuberculosis requiring him to be admitted in a sanatorium in Bhowali (Near Nainital) for recuperation during which he developed interest in reading books.
Rahi passed his delayed matriculation in first class. Unfortunately, he once again suffered from tuberculosis and this time he was sent to Kashmir for recuperation. During this period, he read the Urdu edition of Mahabharat among many books. After his recovery, Rahi joined Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and completed M.A. in Urdu in 1960 and later earned Ph.D in ‘Indian Elements in Tilism-i Hoshruba’ – an Indo-Islamic prose romance and a part of the epic, Dastan-i-Amir Hamza. In AMU, Rahi was known as a shaayar and was active in participating mushaira by reciting his poems. He also got involved in politics and joined the Communist Party. Interestingly, in Ghazipur Municipal Council election, Rahi campaigned for a Communist Party candidate who defeated Rahi’s father.
Rahi began his career as a lecturer in Urdu at AMU. However, he faced the controversy when his romantic liaison with Nayyara Jehan, a divorced woman came to light. She was related to the family of the Nawab of Rampur who strongly opposed their intended marriage. The family had influence over AMU management. Rahi was removed from AMU and his post was filled by recruiting Akhlaq Mohammad Khan, better known as Shahryar, the Urdu poet who wrote lyrics for ‘Umrao Jaan’ (1983) among other films.
With firm in his personal convictions, Rahi married Nayyara Jehan. Deprived of any professional foothold in Aligarh, Rahi relocated to Bombay (now Mumbai). But before that he had completed his first Urdu novel, ‘Aadha Gaon’ (1966) which was written in semi-autobiographical style covering the impact of partition on his village as the main theme. But he was finding it difficult to get Urdu publishers who refused to publish the novel, probably fearing the backlash from the aristocratic families. It was Kamleshwar who suggested Rahi to get it converted into a Hindi novel. He helped Rahi converting in Devnagari script after which he got it published in 1966. This novel still remains as his landmark contribution to Indian literature. With this bitter experience, Rahi decided to write all his subsequent novels in Hindi. In a way, Rahi was next only to Munshi Premchand who shifted writing his novels from Urdu to Hindi.
In Mumbai, Rahi had to struggle for at least five years before he got his first assignment as a dialogue writer for a Hindi film. Since he will not accept financial help, Kamleshwar, Dharmveer Bharti and Krishna Chandra indirectly helped him by giving work for the magazines, ‘Sarika’ and Dharmyug. Krishna Chandra gave him parts of his own assignments of dialogue writings. In addition, Rahi contributed his short stories and poems in some Urdu magazines in the pen name of Shahid Akhtar. Rahi’s article about his early struggling days in Mumbai has an apt title, कर्ज उतर जाता है एहसान नहीं उतरता (Debts can be repaid but not favours). At the same time, Mumbai also became his breeding ground for his literary pursuits. During this period, he wrote 7 novels in Hindi , ‘दिल एक सादा काग़ज़’, ‘ओस की बूँद’, ‘हिम्मत जौनपुरी’, ‘नीम के पेड़’, भारतीयता की पहचान: दस्तान-ए-तिलिस्म होशरुबा’ etc. ‘मैं एक फेरीवाला’ is one among some poetry collections of Rahi Masoom Reza who had initially started his literary career as a poet.
Rahi Masoom Reza got his first assignment as a dialogue writer for the film, ’Mehmaan’ (1971). For the next two decades he was one of the busiest dialogue writers covering around 140 films. In addition, he also wrote lyrics for nine films. Some of his popular films for which he wrote dialogues included ‘Sagina’ (1974), ‘Mili’ (1975), ‘Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki’ (1978), ‘Gol Maal’ (1979), ‘Karz’ (1980), ‘Naram Garam’ (1981), ‘Zameen Aasmaan’ (1984), ‘Dahleez’ (1986), ‘Lamhe’ (1991), ‘Aaina’ (1993). Rahi won three filmfare Awards for the Best Dialogue in “Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki” (1978), ‘Tawaif’ (1986) and ‘Lamhe’ (1991) etc. In TV Serial, ‘Mahabharat’ (1988), he has attempted to bring some of his dialogues to relate them to the contemporary situations. His novel, ‘नीम के पेड़’, was made into a TV Serial which was telecast on Doordarshan in 1991.
Dr Rahi Masoom Reza had three brothers and three sisters. His elder brother, Prof. Moonis Raza was an eminent educationist, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi, Co-founder of Jawaharlal Nehru University along with G Parthasarathy, and the Chairman of Indian Council of Social Science Research among many other posts he held. His immediate younger brother, Professor Mehdi Raza was the Head of the Geography Department in AMU.
Rahi’s lesser-known youngest brother, Ahmed Raza worked in Reserve Bank of India and rose to head the Monetary Policy Department under whom I worked for about two years. At that time, I was not aware that he was the real brother of Dr Rahi Masoom Reza. Sometime in the second half of 1980s, Ahmed Raza was deputed as one of the Executive Directors of International Monetary Fund from where he retired. When Rahi relocated in Mumbai, he and his wife first stayed with Ahmed Raza in his leased flat. Once he got the allotment of a flat in RBI Quarters, he let Rahi and his wife stay in his leased flat.
Dr Rahi Masoom Reza was emotionally attached to his village, Gangauli near Ghazipur and the River Ganga. In his preface to his Hindi novel, ‘Scene-75’ (1977), he has written that ‘he belongs to three mothers, his real mother, Nafisa Begum, Aligarh Muslim University and River Ganga. Nafisa Begum is no more but other two mothers are very much alive and I know them well’. After the death of his mother, he regarded River Ganga as his mother. He used to call himself as ‘Ganga-putra’, which he often used in his dialogues concerning Bhishma in TV Serial, ‘Mahabharat’ (1988).
In his longest Nazm, ‘Waseeyat’, Dr Rahi Masoom Reza wrote that after his death, he be laid to rest in the lap of River Ganga in Ghazipur. The verses in Hindi are as under:
मुझे ले जाके गाजीपुर में गंगा की गोदी में सुला देना
वो मेरी मां है
वो मेरे बदन का जहर पी लेगी
हजारों बार मुझको खो चुकी है वो
मुझे खोकर वो फिर इक बार जी लेगी
वो मेरी मां है
Dr Rahi Masoom Reza passed away on March 15, 1992, due to heart-attack. Despite his wish to be laid in the lap of River Ganga after his death, his family members found it practical to bury him in Juhu Cemetery so that they could visit his grave locally. He was posthumously conferred Sahitya Akademy Fellowship (2000), the Akademi’s highest literary honour for his contributions to literature. Incidentally, his first novel, ‘Aadha Gaon’ (1966) was recommended for Sahitya Akademy Award but was not considered on the technical ground as in the novel, some unparliamentry words were used in keeping with the rural background of the subject. At that time, this was not acceptable.
Coming back to the ghazal under discussion, Jagjit Singh rendered the song for the first time in the ‘Aarohi’ programme of Doordarshan sometime in 1980. The first album incorporating the song was released in 1983 under the title, ‘Live at Royal Albert Hall’. Surprisingly, against this song, it was mentioned in the LP cover that it was from the film, ‘Ae Mere Dil’ (1983) which is listed on myswar.co . My hunch is that this film resurfaced in its new avatar as ‘Yaadon Kaa Baazaar’ (1988) as I find that the producer, director, music director, lyricists and playback singers are the same.
The ghazal reflects the poet’s deep attachment to his ancestral village where he was born and had spent time as a teenager. One can call this as a ‘virah ghazal’ because after he shifted to Mumbai, he had to remain away from his village for a long time due to work pressure. Generally, the metaphor of moon in classical ghazals is used for the beloved. But in this ghazal, Dr Rahi Masoom Reza seems to have used moon to represent his village and the persons associated with him. The poet, living in an unfamiliar environment, feels nostalgic as his heart remains firmly rooted in his village.
In the film, the song is picturised on Dharmendra who may be singing this ghazal feeling nostalgic about his family in his village. But for Vikram in the film, it is a ‘background song’ reminding of his ‘moon’ (Neeta Mehta). The million plus hits for the video clip of the song uploaded by Doordarshan on the video sharing platforms with hundreds of comments are testimony of the nostalgic impact it has on the listeners for over four decades.
I have also attached the video clip of Doordarshan in which a young looking Jagjit Singh is singing this ghazal with his musicians providing the orchestration in ‘Aarohi’ programme which itself will be a nostalgic experience for the listeners.
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Note: I would like to acknowledge (1) Sahitya Akademy’s documentary film, (2) a long article, ‘An Untold Story of Dr Rahi Masoom Reza’ in ‘The Wire’ and (3) many interviews of Dr Rahi Masoom Reza and his well-wishers available on video sharing platforms as the main sources for writing the life profile of Dr Rahi Masoom Reza.
Video Clip(From Doordarshan Archives):
Video Clip (Film):
Song-Ham to hain pardes mein des mein nikla hoga chaand (Ae Mere Dil)(1983) Singer-Jagjit Singh, Lyricist-Rahi Masoom Raza, MD-Jagjit Singh
Lyrics:
ham to hain pardes mein
des mein niklaa hogaa chaand
ham to hain pardes mein
des mein niklaa hogaa chaand
apnee raat kee chhat par kitnaa
tanhaa hogaa chaand ho o
ham to hain pardes mein
des mein niklaa hogaa chaand
jin aankhon mein kaajal ban kar
tairee kaalee raat ho o
jin aankhon mein kaajal ban kar
tairee kaalee raat
un aankhon mein aansoo kaa ik
katraa hogaa chaand ho o
ham to hain pardes mein
des mein niklaa hogaa chaand
raat ne aisaa pench lagaayaa
tootee haathh se dor ho o
raat ne aisaa pench lagaayaa
tootee haathh se dor
aangan waale neem mein jaa kar
atkaa hogaa chaand ho o
ham to hain pardes mein
des mein niklaa hogaa chaand
chaand binaa har din youn beetaa
jaise yug beeten ho o
chaand binaa har din youn beetaa
jaise yug beeten
mere bina kis haal mein hogaa
kaisaa hogaa chaand ho o
ham to hain pardes mein
des mein niklaa hogaa chaand
apnee raat kee chhat par kitnaa
tanhaa hogaa chaand ho o
ham to hain pardes mein
des mein niklaa hogaa chaand
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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