Dil ki duniya mein naye deep jalane aayeeYe khayalon mein bhi khwabon mein bhi tadpati hai
Muskurati huyee ye keh ke chali aati hai
Main tujhe ishq ke sholon se bachane aayee
Phir teri yaad naye geet sunane aayeeYaad-e mehboob idhar aa main tujhe pyar karoon
Tu agar jaan bhi mange to na inkar karoon
Ek diwane se kyun pyar jatane aayee?
Phir teri yaad naye geet sunane aayee(Once again your memory has come with a new song,
She has come to light new lamps in the world of my heart.
She makes me miserable in my thoughts, in my dreams,
Smilingly, she approaches me with these words:
“I have come to protect you from cinders of love”
My beloved’s Memory, come, I shall make love to you,
If you ask me for my life, I shall not flinch to say ‘No’
Why have you come to express Love to a Crazy-in-Love?)
Is this my best choice? As always, the best actually is Mere Mehboob by Shakeel, my favourite lyricist (Read The Best Of Old Hindi Songs – Rafi, Shakeel, Naushad And Dilip Kumar Together) I can’t, however, put it up being too sacred a song to be put up on this blog:
Yaad hai mujhako meri umr ki pehli vo ghadi
Teri aankhon se koi jaam piya tha maine
Meri rag rag mein koi barq si lehraayi thi
Jab tere marmari haathon ko chhuya tha maine
(One only has to imagine the scene:
I remember that first time of my life
I drank from the wine-glass of your eyes
In every sinew I had an electric feeling
When I held the marble of your hands)
However, here is Mohammad Rafi’s rendition of Phir Teri Yaad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SF3p6BETxo
Hemant Kumar Mukhopadhyay has been my favourite singer. He was born in Varanasi but shifted to Calcutta, His was a life given to music having recorded his first song for All India Radio in 1933. His first album in Bengali was released in 1937 and since then there was no looking back. All his songs transport you instantly into the world of the song. Here is my favourite Yaad song for the 1960 movie Manzil. The lyrics are by Majrooh Sultanpuri and music by SD Burman. No one knew how to act like a Sharabi (drunkard) better than Dev Anand (he acted in the movie by this name):
Rajinder Krishan was born in a Punjabi Duggal family in Jalalpur Jattan in Gujarat and then shifted to my hometown Shimla. His interest in poetry made him participate in many poetry competitions in Shimla and then, in mid 1940s, he shifted to Bombay to become a screenwriter. His first screenplay was for the 1947 movie Janta. He won a jackpot of Rupees 46 Lakhs in horse racing and became very rich. However, richer than all his riches was his poetry. He wrote this Yaad song for the 1961 movie Sanjog for which Madan Mohan gave music and Mukesh sang. The song is “Bhooli hui yaadon mujhe itna na satayo; ab chan se rehne do mere paas na aayo”.
Daman mein liye baitha hoon toote hue taare,
Kab tak main jiyunga inhi khvaabon ke sahare,
Diwaana hoon ab aur naa diwaana banao
Ab chan se rehne do….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vslBZB58SGI
Suraiya Jamaal Sheikh was popularly known as Suraiya and sang many beautiful songs for the Hindi films in 1940s and 50s. She was born in Gujeranwala, Punjab (now in Pakistan). She sang Rajinder Krishan’s song ‘Yaad aa raha hai dil ko bhoola hua zamaana’ for the 1949 movie Amar Kahani that starred her. Please read the superb lyrics:
Yaad aa rahaa hai dil ko
Bhoola huaa zamaanaa
Har shay pe zindagi thi har cheez par jawaani
Aaankhon mein ik kahaani honthon pe ik taraanaa
Yaad aa rahaa hai dil ko….
Unaki adaayen dil ko ab yaad aa rahi hain
Chupake se unakaa aanaa aur mujhako choom jaanaa
Yaad aa rahaa hai dil ko..
Dil ko khabar nahin thi ban jaayegaa kisi din
Do dil kaa muskuraana rone kaa ek bahaanaa
Yaad aa rahaa hai dil ko…
Unfortunately I couldn’t find the song video by itself. However, here is the audio of the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUGjgk29cp4
Alright, now it is time to get back to Mere Mehboob; though not really the title song. I have written enough about Shakeel, Naushad and Rafi and hence I don’t have to do it again. And what can you write abaout Lata Mangeshkar, the most versatile female singer in the Hindi movies industry, who has sung more than 50,000 songs in various languages and has received every conceivable award including Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Bharat Ratna and Dadasaheb Phalke Award. Indeed, from 1980s she has opted out of receiving any Filmfare annual award so as to give encouragement to young emerging singers. The song Yaad mein teri jaag jaag ke ham raat bhar karvatein badalte hain is a beautiful number:
As the name suggests Majrooh Sultanpuri was born in Sultanpur in UP in 1919. Between 1946 and 2000 (when he died) he earned a name for himself as the finest avant-garde poet of Urdu language. Some of his songs are: Babuji dheere chalna, Achha ji main haari, Ai dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal, Dekho mausam kya bahaar hai, and Humein tumase pyaar kitna. Roshan, the music director, was born on 14 Jul 1917 in Gujeranwala, Punjab (now in Pakistan) and was the father of actor, director Rakesh Roshan and music director Rajesh Roshan, and grandfather of actor Hritik Roshan. He came to Hindi movies in 1948 and composed some delectable music until he died in Nov 1967. The song Aapne yaad dilaya to mujhe yaad aaya is a duet between Rafi and Lata and is in the 1962 movie Aarti. Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF52Y3CQmXQ
Shailendra paired with Shankar Jai-Kishan to write some very soulful numbers for Dil Ek Mandir starring Rajendra Kumar, Meena Kumari and Raj Kumar. This one is an all time favouite of mine:
Yaad na jaae, beete dinon ki
Jaake na aaye jo din, dil kyun bhulaaye, unhen
Dil kyun bhulaaye
Yaad na jaaye …
Din jo pakheruu hote, pinjare mein main rakh detaa
Paalataa unako jatan se
Moti ke daane detaa
Seene se rahataa lagaaye
Yaad na jaaye …
Tasveer unaki chhupaake, rakh duun jahaan ji chaahe
Man mein basi ye suurat
Lekin mite na mitaaye
Kehane ko hain vo paraaye
Yaad na jaae …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2On9ix8wy9w
Indeed, that’s the theme of this article: Yaad doesn’t ever leave you.
As we come to the end of the article, you must be wondering how many really good Yaad song I have left out. Well, I can’t go on and on and it is pretty late in the night. Here is the song from the 1959 movie Satta Bazaar and you can’t help keep singing it whenever you hear it. Gulshan Bawra wrote the lyrics and Kalyanji Anandji provided the music. My favourite singer Hemant da paired with Lata ji to sing one of the best Yaad songs that leaves you with a lump in your throat. The song is ‘Tumhein yaad hoga kabhi hum milenge‘; it is picturised on Suresh and Vijaya Choudhury:
Yaad never dies. Yaad takes us back to those times that were. As JM Barrie wrote, “God gave us memories so that we might have roses in December.” The lyricists, music directors and most singers of that era are no more but the roses are still here, as fresh as ever.
These classics bring back the memories of the Golden times of Indian Cinemas.Beautiful thoughts in action here !
Liked reading your blog.
Thank you
Each word you’ve written about the geniuses shows how much you love n respect them! So wonderful to read this!!
You seem to have missed two of my favourite ‘yaad’ songs.. (So just for the record) Woh jab yaad aaye.. from Parasmani and woh bhuli dastan lo phir yaad aagayi… from Sanjog. These are in all time fav. playlist always…
Not sure if this blog is still active but could not help myself from posting a comment… 🙂 great job..
Thank you so much Ayilya. Of course the post is active. Will try to accommodate your favourites in Part II. Both are lovely numbers. The post is of those early days when I was not so organised in my blogging.