The thirty-third song in this series.
Ye kaisi ajab dastaan ho gayi hai….
Today is Singer – Actress Suraiya‘s Birth Anniversary. This is a song that was sung by her for herself as Shehzadi Tehmina in the 1967 Vishram Bedekar movie Rustom Sohrab that starred Prithviraj Kapoor as the epic Persian hero Rustom and Prem Nath as his son Sohrab.
Let me tell you, at the outset itself, as to why this song tugs at our emotions.
To understand that, you have to know the story of Rustom and Sohrab as written by poet Ferdowsi in Shahnameh, a 10th century Persian epic.
In Sistan, Iran (Persia) Rustom was a hero in the army of King Kaykavous. Once he enters the neighbouring kingdom of Samangan, looking for his lost horse. Rustom is treated as the guest of the king of Samangan. Whilst he is there, princess Tahmina, knowing his heroic deeds, falls in love with him. She goes to his room at night (the scene of this song), and asks him to make her the mother of his child. In return, she promises to return his lost horse.
Rustom accepts and she gives birth to a boy who grows to become Sohrab. At this stage, war is about to break out between Persia and Turan. Sohrab has emerged as the best fighter of Turan, in the image of his father Rustom. In the Turan army, no one is ready to fight with Rustom of Persia, knowing his reputation. So Sohrab is sent to wrestle with Rustom. Father and son cannot recognise each other since they never met. They fight like there is no tomorrow.
After exhaustive wrestling, Rustom finally manages to break Sohrab’s back and then kills him by stabbing. Whilst dying Sohrab tells Rustom that his father would avenge his death and then only the identity of Sohrab is revealed to Rustom when Sohrab shows him the neckless Rustom gave to Tahmina to give to their son. As soon as Tahmina hears of her son Sohrab’s death, she burns Rustom’s house. And then she dies.
Hence, the song is actually the most important song in the movie. It enables Rustom and Tahmina’s son to be born, which finally leads to the epic tragedy.
To whom should I give the credit for the keystone song of the movie?
Let me start with Qamar Jalalabadi, the lyricist. He had to pen a song in which a woman expresses herself, with the normal shyness and chastity of a woman, to a man she is in awe of, to give her his child, at their first tryst itself. He does it so well that it leaves you gaping. Taste this: Illahi, ye toofaan hai kis bala ka, ke haathon se chhoota hai daaman heya ka (My God, what kind of typhoon (passion) is this that I have to discard my modesty?)
But then, Qamar (Moon) was a great lyricist indeed. He was born as Om Prakash Bhandari on 09 Mar 1917, in the town of Jalalabad, near Amritsar in Punjab. To become a lyricist in Hindi movies he arrived in Pune in 1940s (he had started writing Urdu poetry at the age of seven). He wrote his first lyrics for the Pancholi Pictures movie Zamindar in which his song Duniya mein gareebon ko araam nahin milta, sung by Shamshad Begum became quite famous. You would recall his 1958 movie Howrah Bridge songs that sky-rocketed his career particularly Aaiye mehrabaan baithiye jaane jaan and Mera naam Chin Chin chu.
Some of my favourite songs of Qamar Jalalabadi are: Chhaliya mera naam chhalna mera kaam, Chhota sa baalma, Dam dam digha digha mausam bigha bigha, Dekh ke teri nazar beqraar ho gaye, Deewano se mat puuchho, Din hai suhaana aaj pehli tareeq hai (That used to be played on Radio Ceylone on first of ewvery month), Ik dil ke tukade hazaar huye, Ik pardesi mera dil le gaya, Jab raat nahin katati, Main bewafa nahin huun tere pyaar ki kasam, Main soya akhiyan meeche, Main to ek khwaab hoon, Mere tuute huye dil se koi to aaj ye puuchhe, O duur jaane waale wada na bhool jaana (Suraiya in Pyaar ki Jeet 1948), Phir aane laga yaad wohi pyaar ka mausam, Phir tumhaari yaad aayi hai sanam, Piya piya na laage mora jiya, Rafta rafta woh hamare dil ke armaan ho gaye, Teri raahon mein khade hain dil thaam ke, Tum ruuthh ke mat jaana, Tumhin mere meet ho tumhin meri preet ho, Tu hai mera prem devta, and Ye kaisi ajab daastan ho gayi hai. I also like him due to his secularism in that he would quote from Bhagwad Geeta and Bible as much as he did from Koran.
Naturally, considerable credit goes to Suraiya for singing the song and then enacting it. For both, she has done very well.
Suraiya died on 31 Jan 2004, at the age of nearly 75 years, a spinster. And it is not that she didn’t want to get married. Her love affair with actor Dev Anand started with working together for the 1948 movie Vidya. Their love affair, one of the most intense love-affairs in the history of Hindi films, lasted for three years. In those three years, she willingly let go of singing many a song in her movies to Lata Mangeshkar so that she could spend more time with Dev Anand. The two of them were paired in seven films together; Vidya (1948), Jeet (1949), Shair (1949), Afsar (1950), Nili (1950), Do Sitare (1951) and Sanam (1951), all of which were successful at the box office. In all these movies’ credits, her name was shown before Dev Anand’s since she was a bigger star than him. The movie Vidya had a popular song: Kinaare kinaare chale jayenge. During the shooting of the song in the river, her boat capsized. And who do you think rescued her? Well, Dev Anand did and it was a story in the making in real life as well as in reel life. By the time they came to their fourth movie Afsar, they were so much in love that Dev Anand proposed to her with a diamond ring that cost all of Rupees 3000, a huge sum during those days. Her maternal grandmother, who didn’t like the alliance, threw the ring into the sea.
During the shooting of Rana Pratap’s film Jeet, both Dev Anand and Suraiya, with the help of the film cast and crew, namely Durga Khote (actress), Dwarka Divecha (cinematographer) and others, had made plans for marriage in a temple, and elopement, but at the last-minute, an assistant director, jealous of their marriage, informed Suraiya’s grandmother, who dragged her home from the scene. Speaking to journalist Sheila Vesuna, Suraiya said: “Eventually, my grandmother succeeded in separating us. Dev was deeply hurt and offended by my lack of courage. But I was afraid for him. In retrospect, I don’t think anything would have happened if I’d been bold enough. But I was terrified of my grandmother. And was heartbroken. But time is the greatest healer.”
Some of my favourite songs of Singing – Star Suraiya are: Aap se pyaar hua jaata hai and Mast aankhon mein sharaarat kabhi aise to na thi (Shama 1961), Chahat ka bhulana mushkil hai (Khiladi 1950), Chale din ki duniya barbaad karke and Dil dhadake aankh mori phadke (Dard 1947, Shakeel Badayuni’s debut film), Dil-e-naadan tujhe hua kyaa hai, Rahiye ab aisi jagah, Aaah ko chahiye, Nuktacheen hai gham-e-dil, and Ye naa thi hamari kismat (Mirza Ghalib 1954), Hamen tum bhuul baithe ho and Kyaa cheez hai mohabbat koi mere dil se puuchhe (Shair 1949, another Shakeel Badayuni song), Ho ho ho chandini raat hai (Dak Bangla 1947), Holi khele Nandlala Birj mein (Maashooqa 1953), Il bewafa ki yaad ne tadapa ke maar daala (Char Din, 1949, Shakeel), Ik teri nazar ik meri nazar and Khushiyon ka zamaana beet gaya (Amar Kahani 1949), Jab se chale gaye hain wo zindagi zindagi nahin (Natak 1947), Jab tum hi nahin apne duniya hi begaani hai (Parwana 1947), Kaagaz ki meri naav aur duur kinaara hai (Do Dil 1947), Kinaare kinaare chale jaayenge (Vidya 1948), Man more hua matwaala and Nain deewane ik nahin maane (Afsar 1950), Mohabbat badha kar judaa ho gaye (Dastan 1950), Mujhe tumase mohabbat hai (Do Sitaare 1951), Nigaahen kyun milaayi thi agar youn chhod jaana tha (Lal Kunwar 1952), O duur jaanewaale (Pyaar Ki Jeet, 1948), Rahi matwaale tu chhed ik baar (Waris 1954), Raaton ki neend chheen li aankhon ke intezaar ne (Shokhiyan 1951), Tera khayal dil se bhuallaya na jaayega and Tuu mera chaand main teri chandini (Dillagi 1949, Shekeel), Tum man ki peedha kya samajho (Jeet 1949), Ye kaisi ajab dastaan ho gayi hai (Rustom Sohrab 1963), and Zara thehro main haal-e-dil suna luun (Inaam 1955).
Lets now talk about Sajjad Hussain, the composer of this song.
Sajjad Hussain is the one who gave us the popular Talat Mehmood number Ye hawa ye raat ye chandinio for the 1952 movie Sangdil starring Dilip Kumar and Madhubala. It was such a beautiful composition that the maestro Madan Mohan shamelessly copied it in his Tujhe kya sunayun main dilruba in Aakhri Dao.
Sajjad Hussain was born in 1917 in the Sitamau, a village in Madhya Pradesh. His education in music started with his father when he was taught sitar as a child. Later, he learnt veena, violin, flute and piano. He also became an accomplished mandolin player. At the age of 20 years, he moved to Bombay to try to become a music director.
His first job was at Sohrab Modi’s Minerva Movietone at Rs. 30 a month. He later moved to the Wadia Movietone, working at Rs. 60 a month. During the next few years, he worked as an assistant to music composer Meer Saheb and Rafiq Ghaznavi, and as a contract player for Shaukat Hussain Rizvi.
Some of my favourite songs of Sajjad Hussain are: Phir tumhaari yaad aayi ai sanam, Ye hawa ye raat ye chandini, Vo raat din vo shaam ki guzari hui kahaniyan, Tujhe kya sunaayun main dilruba and Badnaam mohabbat kaun kare.
Before I give you the song, I want to, once again, bring out how our movie makers made movies on foreign themes in just independent India. We made movies, for example, on the plight of Jews, on Iraqis (particularly Baghdad), and on themes driven by Egypt, China, Burma and Japan.
Many a times, our music directors assimilated notes from these foreign locales. For example, the song that I have selected for you is based on a folk-tune of Afghanistan.
We were the best in portraying themes of humanism, international cross cultures and search for mutated identities of people affected by large-scale migration.
Please enjoy Suraiya sing for herself as Shehzadi Tahmina, a song penned by Qamar Jalalabadi and composed by Sajjad Hussain for the 1967 Vishram Bedekar movie Rustom Sohrab: Ye kaisi ajab dastaan ho gayi hai…….
(ये कैसी अजब दास्ताँ हो गई है
छुपाते छुपाते बयाँ हो गई है) – २
ये कैसी…
ये दिल का धड़कना, ये नज़रों का झुकना
जिगर में जलन सी ये साँसों का रुकना
ख़ुदा जाने क्या दास्ताँ हो गई है
छुपाते छुपाते बयाँ हो गई है
ये कैसी….
बुझा दो बुझा दो, बुझा दो सितारों की शम्में बुझा दो
छुपा दो छुपा दो, छुपा दो हसीं चाँद को भी छुपा दो
यहाँ रौशनी महमाँ हो गई है
आअ~
ये कैसी….
इलाही ये तूफ़ान है किस बला का
कि हाथों से छुटा है दामन हया का
(ख़ुदा की क़सम आज दिल कह रहा है) – २
कि लुट जाऊँ मैं नाम लेकर वफ़ा का
तमन्ना तड़प कर जवाँ हो गई है
आआ~
ये कैसी….
छुपाते छुपाते…..
I am primarily a lyrical man. Lyrics, for me, are the starting point of the emotional outlet of actors in old Hindi movies. This one has superb lyrics. I didn’t see the movie when I was a teenager but it still filled me with very strong emotions to hear this song. Suraiya’s singing and histrionics are remarkable to bring out the depth of emotions.
I am sure, for years to come, it would continue being a song that tugs at my emotions.
I hope you liked it too.
Please await the next song in the series.
