THE BEST SONGS OF SAHIR LUDHIANVI – THE ‘MAGICIAN’ LYRICIST AND POET – PART II

In ‘The Best Songs Of Sahir Ludhianvi – Part I’, I gave you two dozen songs. Initially, I started with a favourite of mine: Aurat ne janam diya mardon ko, mardon ne use bazaar diya, from the 1958 BR Chopra movie Sadhana. I soon settled with giving you his songs chronologically from Thandi hawayen, lehrake aayen (from 1951 movie Naujawaan) to Ab woh karam karen yaa sitam main nashen main hoon (from 1955 movie Marine Drive).

Let me reiterate that I am a lyrical man; words of the songs are often the most important part of the songs for me. Indeed, on the Facebook I have a page titled ‘Lyrical’ to honour and pay tribute to various lyricists. I have several (almost a dozen) posts on  my blog on my favourite lyricist and poet Shakeel Badayuni. The following posts about Sahir Ludhianvi have been reconstructed from the same page. Sahir was given the moniker of being the People’s Poet. As we go along, you would know why.

Lets proceed further into the world of Sahir Ludhianvi’s songs.

Song #25
Ye baharon ka sama, chand taaron ka sama…

I had told you earlier that Sahir was a versatile poet and in 1955 he penned lyrics for as many as nine movies. When we broke off six days ago, we had reached the halfway mark for the year 1955 and had taken up a song of the movie Marine Drive.

His next movie was Milaap that starred Dev Anand, Geeta Bali, KN Singh and Johnny Walker. Here is from the review of the movie in The Hindu dated 09 Dec 2011:

“The better part of the movie is his self-dapper (Dev Anand) and romancing. But the initial phase of the movie has Dev Anand playing a dreamy-eyed villager, dressed in shirt-pyjama, unthinkable and unacceptable, not the Dev Anand known to the world. But that is what he is in a movie as he shares screen space with his co-stars; so different from the Dev Anand, who loved to dominate the screen, occupying almost every frame. Made 56 years ago “Milap” was not the best offering from Raj Khosla, the director with an eye for detail; Sahir Ludhianvi, the soulful lyricist; N. Dutta, an unsung composer. Yet, it was a movie that had something magical about it – it had Dev Anand. It also had the beautiful Geeta Bali. The cast was perfect with Johnny Walker providing the comical relief and K.N. Singh lending his trademark villainy to raise the quality of some scenes.

Dev Anand’s transformation from a naïve character to a sophisticated urban is expectedly breezy. He slips into the two roles comfortably. Here, he is Raju, a young man who has inherited fortunes from a wealthy Rai Bahadur. This Raju is not a patch on the Raju guide that Dev Anand was to play a decade later in that iconic movie made under the Navketan banner. Comparisons would be out of place for this movie — it did not have a strong plot even though it had the right ingredients in terms of cast.

Dev Anand is Rajendra Sayal, introduced to an affluent world he comes to abhor. With Johnny Walker as his friend (Kalu), he battles hard to become Raju the millionaire. The scheming lawyer, Karamchand, played impeccably by K. N. Singh, plots to grab the property. He hires Asha (Geeta Bali) to charm her way into the heart of Raju. The movie ends in the courtroom where the lawyer stands exposed for his evil deeds. Raju and Asha unite and all ends happily.

The movie was released in a year that saw Dev Anand in great form. “Insaniyat” featured him with Dilip Kumar and he enjoyed hits like “House No 44”, “Munimji” and “CID”. A year earlier, “Taxi Driver” had showcased his acting talents but this movie saw Dev Anand quite subdued. Music was a weak point in the film. Geeta Dutt, still a Roy in the credit lines, has a couple of hummable numbers like “Jaate Ho To Jao Par Jaoge Kahaan”, but the rest are forgettable. Dev Anand does not get to sing at all! Hard to comprehend how Raj Khosla could pass a script where the hero does not sing a song. Dev Anand had hits like “Ziddi”, “Baazi” and “Jaal” before “Milap” graced the screen and this was his sixth movie with the hugely talented Geeta Bali.

He was to do one more, and last movie, “Pocketmaar”, with her next year. “Milap” was more about Geeta Bali’s acting than Dev Anand but he made his presence felt as only he could.”

Well, as you read, it was one of Dev Anand movies in which instead of SD Burman, N Dutta composed the songs. These were the songs:

1. Ye baharon ka sama, chand taaron ka sama – Hemant Kumar.
2. Ye baharon ka sama, chand taaron ka sama – Lata Mangeshkar.
3. Bachna zara ye zamaana hai bura – Geeta Dutt, Mohammad Rafi.
4. Jaate ho to jao par jaoge kahan – Geeta Dutt.
5. Piya khul ke na nain milaye re – Asha Bhosle.
6. Chahe bhi jo dil jana na wahan – Geeta Dutt.
7. Hamse bhi karlo kabhi meethi meethi do baaten – Geeta Dutt.
8. Dard ka saaz bhi hai dil ki awaaz bhi hai – Lata Mangeshkar.

The Hindu article above says music was a weak point of the movie. Nevertheless, the first song by Hemant Kumar was composed well. As I mentioned Sahir was very good at writing raat and chand songs and quite a few of these have been sung by Hemant Kumar.

Please enjoy: Ye baharon ka sama, chand taaron ka sama…

ye baharo ka sama, chand taro ka sama
kho na jaye aa bhi ja, ye baharo ka sama

zindgani dard ban jaye kahi aisa na ho
zindgani dard ban jaye kahi aisa na ho
saans aahe sard ban jaye kahi aisa na ho
dil tadap kar na gaha, so na jaye aa bhi ja
ye baharo ka sama, chand taro ka sama
kho na jaye aa bhi ja, ye baharo ka sama

kya hua kyu is tarah tune nigahe pher li
kya hua kyu is tarah tune nigahe pher li
meri raaho ki taraf se apni raahe pher li
zindagi ka karwa kho na jaye aa bhi ja
ye baharo ka sama, chand taro ka sama
kho na jaye aa bhi ja, ye baharo ka sama

Song #26
Dil ki umange hain jawan….

In the next movie of 1955: Munimji, Sahir was back with SD Burman. The movie was produced by Sashadhar Mukherjee and directed by Subodh Mukherjee and yet didn’t start Joy Mukherjee, the son and nephew to them respectively; and the reason was that Joy was only 16 at that time. It starred Dev Anand, Nalini Jaywant, Pran, Ameeta and Nazir Hussain.