Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #28

I am back after a long break caused by my blog having been hacked. It is absolutely alright now and back with you.

The twenty-eighth day of songs in this series.

In the last twenty-seven days, we have taken up songs of thirteen male singers: Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar, Mahendra Kapoor, SD Burman, KL Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Jagmohan ‘Sursagar’, Hariharan and Yesudas. We also took up songs of eleven female singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur, Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt, Uma Devi (Tun Tun), Suraiya and Zohrabai Ambalewali, Sudha Malhotra, Amirbai Karnataki and Kavita Krishnamurthy. We took up a duet between Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle in the last post. And lastly we took up a Talat Mehmood song: Phir wohi shaam wohi gham wohi tanhaayi hai. After that, on the twenty-sixth day we took up a Kishore Kumar song for Piya Ka Ghar: Ye jeevan hai. The twenty-seventh post was devoted to Shankar Jaikishan Foundation’s Mumbai Meet with the Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey song from Raat Aur Din: Dil ki girah khol do.

Today, I am back with Mohammad Rafi with one of the best of Laxmikant Pyarelal from the 1964 Satyen Bose movie Dosti, a movie whose songs made L-P one of the most loved music duos in India and a movie whose songs are still fondly remembered even today. Majrooh Sultanpuri penned the lyrics and L-P composed it in the raaga of my place: Pahadi.

Lets start with the movie. Bombay based Rajshri was founded by Tarachand Barjatya in the year 1947. However, Rajshri Productions Pvt Ltd engaged in films production came about in the year 1962. Its first film Arti, in 1962 was highly acclaimed. However, the grand success of its second production Dosti in 1964 included winning the National Award for Best Feature Film and as many as six Filmfare Awards: Best Film, Best Music Director (the debut Filmfare Award for L-P), Best Story: Ban Bhatt, Best Dialogue: Govind Moonis, Best Playback Singer: Mohammad Rafi for the song I am giving you today, and finally Best Lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri for the same song.

Dosti was directed by Satyen Bose. It was Sanjay Khan’s debut film and had Sudhir Kumar Sawant, and Sushil Kumar Somaya in lead roles. The film focuses on the friendship between two boys, one blind and the other a cripple.

Laxmikant Pyarelal started off with 1963 movie Parasmani and they made such popular songs for their very first movie that these are fondly remembered even today:

1.	“Hansta Hua Noorani Chehra”	Asad Bhopali	Lata Mangeshkar, Kamal Barot	3:40
2.	“Mere Dil Mein Halki Si”	Asad Bhopali	Lata Mangeshkar	4:56
3.	“Ooi Maa Ooi Maa Yeh Kya Ho Gaya”	Asad Bhopali	Lata Mangeshkar	3:24
4.	“Salamat Raho Salamat Raho”	Indeevar	Mohammad Rafi	5:57
5.	“Woh Jab Yaad Aaye”	Asad Bhopali	Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar	4:43
6.	“Chori Chori Jo Tumse Mili”	Faruk Kaiser	Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar	4:01

The duet Woh jab yaad aaye was picturised on small time actors Mahipal and Geetanjali. However, even after 55 years, its popularity continues being as strong as it was when the film was released:

The duo that started off so outstandingly well in their very first movie had indeed great future ahead for them. Dosti was only their sixth movie (they did a total of 635 movies between 1963 to 1998) after Parasmani (1963), Harishchandra Taramati (1963), Sati Savitri (1964), Sant Gyaneshwar (1964) and Mr X in Bombay (1964). All these movies too had excellent and memorable songs; eg, Main ek nanha sa main ek chhota sa bachcha hoon and Suraj re jalte rehna from Harishchandra Taramati; Tum gagan ke chandrama ho main dhara ki dhool hoon, Jeevan dor tumhi sang bandhi, Sakhi ri pi ka naam naam na poochho, and Itni jaldi kya hai gori saajan ke sang jaane ki from Sati Savitri; Jaago re prabhat aaya, Jyot se jyot jalaate chalo, and Ek do teen chaar bhaiya bano hoshiyar from Sant Gyaneshwar; Mere mehboob qyaamat hogi, Khoobsurat haseena jaan-e-jaan jaan-e-mann, Chali re chali re gori paniya bharan ko, and Julmi hamaare saanwariya ho Raam from Mr X In Bombay.

The 1964 movie Dosti was a landmark for Laxmikant Pyarelal as the movie’s songs enabled them to receive their first Filmfare Award for Best Music Director. Out of the six songs of the movie, Mohammad Rafi sang six and Lata Mangeshkar sang one. These two playback singers, the best in their fields, stayed with Laxmikant Pyarelal till the end and even sang for them in low budget movies.

Here are the iconic songs that Majrooh Sultanpuri, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar made together for Dosti:

1.	“Chahoonga Main Tujhe Saanj Savere”	Mohammad Rafi	04:55
2.	“Meri Dosti Mera Pyar”	Mohammad Rafi	04:23
3.	“Rahi Manwa Dukh Ki Chinta”	Mohammad Rafi	04:07
4.	“Mera To Jo Bhi Kadam”	Mohammad Rafi	04:03
5.	“Gudiya Humse Roothi Rahogi Kab Tak Na Hasogi”	Lata Mangeshkar	03:31
6.	“Jaanewalo Zara”	Mohammad Rafi	04:06

Lastly, before we take up the song, lets for a minute talk about the lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Presently, on my Facebook page Lyrical, I am engaged in covering Lyricist #5: Majrooh Sultanpuri under my Remembering Great Lyricists series. I have kept my favourite Shakeel Badayuni out of this series since I already have a number of articles and tributes on him.

Majrooh is the fifth of our lyricists who was a contemporary of Shakeel Badayuni. Out of all these six (*including Shakeel), three have been from Uttar Pradesh, which says something about that region producing some great poets and lyricists.

Majrooh Sultanpuri was born on 01 Oct 1919 as Asrar ul Hassan Khan in a Tarin Pashtun family, in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His father was an officer in the police department, but, preferred to send his son for traditional madrasa (Urdu school) rather than provide him with English schooling.

He tried his hand at being a quack until he was noticed in a mushaira in Sultanpur.

He was a disciple of the great Urdu poet Jigar Moradabadi. When he visited Bombay in 1945 to participate in a mushaira, the director Abdul Rashid Kardar noticed him and invited him to write for the movies. Majrooh turned it down as he looked down upon movies! He was persuaded through his mentor Jigar Moradabadi and then there was no turning back.

Many traditionalists of the Urdu literature, however, felt that Majrooh sold his soul to the Hindi films and that he could have emerged a great poet in the likeness of Ghalib and Jigar.

The takhalus Majrooh means “injured” or “wounded”.

Majrooh was awarded, in 1993, the highest award – Dadasaheb Phalke award – for his lifetime contribution towards lyrics and poetry. He was the first lyricist ever to be given that award. For the film Dosti, that made Laxmikant Pyarelal famous, he was awarded the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award for the song: Chahunga main tujhe saanjh savere.

For someone who didn’t want to join Hindi movies, Majrooh emerged as a natural lyricist, very popular, very romantic and enchanting.

Laxmikant Pyarelal and Majrooh Sultanpuri paired in a number of movies to make songs: Dosti (1964), Mere Lal (1966), Dillagi (1966), Shagird (1967), Patthar Ke Sanam (1967), Duniya Nachegi (1967), Mere Hamdam Mere Dost (1968), Wapas (1969), Pyasi Sham (1969), Meri Bhabhi (1969), Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke (1969), Abhinetri (1970), Jal Bin Machli Nritya Bin Bijli (1971), Bikhre Moti (1971), Ek Nazar (1972), Anokhi Ada (1973), Imtihaan (1974), Mere Sajana (1975), Anari (1975), Aaj Ka Mahatma (1976), Dus Numbri (1976), Master Dada (1977), Kali Raat (1977), Parvarish (1977), Swan Ke Geet (1978), Naach Utha Sansar (1978), Phaansi (1978), Prayaschit (1979), Ladies Tailor (1981), Ek Aur Ek Gyarah (1981), Watan Ke Rakhwale (1987), Janam Janam (1988), Humshakal (1992), Badi Bahen (1993), West is West (2011) and Soundtrack (2011).

These movies that Majrooh and LP did together produced some really enchanting songs such as Bade miyan deewane, Dil wil pyar wyar, Kanha kanha aan padhi, Woh hain zara khafa khafa, Ruk ja aye hawa, and Duniya pagal hai ya main deewana (all from 1967 movie Shagird); Koi nahin hai phir bhi hai mujhako, Tauba ye matwali chaal, Mehboob mere, and Patthar ke sanam (all from 1967 movie Patthar Ke Sanam); Chhalkaye jaam, Chalo sajna jahan taq, Na jaa kahin ab na jaa, Allah ye ada kaisi, Hui shaam unka khyaal aa gaya, Hamen to ho gaya hai pyaar, and Tum jao kahin (all from 1968 movie Mere Hamdam Mere Dost); and Ye kaisa gham sajna and Yaaro mera saath nibhao (both from 1969 movie Pyasi Sham).

Before we take up the song, let me tell you briefly as to how it came about in the movie. Ramu (Sushil Kumar) is a cripple and good at playing harmonica. Thrown out of his home, crippled and penniless, he roams around the streets of Mumbai. Here he comes across Mohan (Sudhir Kumar), a boy who is blind and has a similar tale of woe. Mohan is a singer. Both meet on the streets of Bombay and form a good pair. One day, Ramu gets into trouble for no fault of his own and is bailed out on the condition that he would keep no contact with Mohan. That’s how this song came about.

Please enjoy Mohammad Rafi sing a composition of Laxmikant Pyarelal on the lyrics of Majrooh Sultanpuri, a song from the 1964 Satyen Bose movie Dosti: Chahunga main tujhe saanjh savere….

चाहूँगा मैं तुझे साँझ सवेरे
फिर भी कभी अब नाम को तेरे
आवाज़ मैं न दूँगा, आवाज़ मैं न दूँगा

देख मुझे सब है पता
सुनता है तू मन की सदा (२)
मितवा …
मेरे यार तुझको बार बार
आवाज़ मैं न दूँगा, आवाज़ मैं न दूँगा
चाहूँगा मैं तुझे साँझ सवेरे

दर्द भी तू चैन भी तू
दरस भी तू नैन भी तू
मितवा …
मेरे यार तुझको बार बार
आवाज़ मैं न दूँगा, आवाज़ मैं न दूँगा

I have been giving you Songs that Tug at your Emotions, off and on, since 04 Oct 2017. However, I don’t think other songs would tug at your emotions as much as songs of the 1964 movie Dosti that made Laxmikant Pyaralal very famous indeed. It was, first of all, the unlikeliest of the stories to succeed: a cripple and a blind boy; hardly any entertainment there. However, Majrooh, Laxmikant Pyarelal, and Mohammad Rafi created songs that went deep and touched your heart like nothing had ever done before.

Another song from the movie: Jaanewalo zara mudh ke dekho mujhe main bhi insaan hoon was a pointer towards how we treat cripples on our streets.

Chahunga main tujhe not just tugged at our emotions but rightly won so many awards for all three who made it possible.

I know I can never forget it.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await the next song in the series.