I started this series on my Facebook group Yaad Kiya Dil Ne on 23 Aug 20. Since then, many other members have put up these songs. Here, I shall be giving you one of my own, per day.
Last time, I gave you Beautiful Duet #42 – Phool ahista phenko. So here, then, is the next one:
Song #43
Ichak dana bichak dana
Masterly Children’s Songs by Hasrat Jaipuri
Kishwar Jaipuri, my behna’s dad, wrote a beautiful children’s song for the 1971 movie Andaz, the movie in which his song fetched him the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award (Zindagi ek safar hai suhana). The children’s song was: Hai na bolo bolo.
However, the song in an open air school in a village (the kind that Hemant Kumar sang for Abhi Bhattacharya in 1961 movie Gunga Jumna: Insaaf ki dagar pe) was penned by Hasrat Jaipuri for the 1955 Raj Kapoor movie Shree 420.
Raj Kapoor, in order to get over his indigence, becomes a con man (420) at the behest of Nadira. This of course, is not to the liking of Nargis who had earlier sung a romantic duet with him under an umbrella in rain: Pyar hua ikraar hua. She, therefore, leaves Bombay and goes back to her village and starts teaching children. Meanwhile, Raj Kapoor belatedly discovers that the only person he had been conning was he himself. So he follows her there.
And now for Hasrat Jaipuri’s master stroke:
In this song (Nargis’s way of teaching the kids) she goes about asking riddles from the children and makes it easier for them to answer and learn. The only person who is non-plussed is Raj Kapoor! This is his best imitation of Charlie Chaplin in any movie; a guy who has always been a child!
In the end, he has a riddle to ask. Predictably, the answer is known by all: the children and both Nargis and Raj Kapoor. Love wins over everything! What a masterly stroke from Hasrat Jaipuri.
Raj Kapoor too learns at the end of the movie that he can, at best be 420 (conman) but the respectable high level people in the society are the real conmen and they should be respectfully addressed as Shree 420!
The song
It was, as I said, penned by Hasrat Jaipuri and composed by Shankar Jaikishan. As a duet, it was sung mostly by Lata Mangeshkar for the teacher Nargis and in the end Mukesh singing for Raj Kapoor.
Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy: Ichak dana bichak dana..
लत : ईचक दाना बीचक दाना दाने ऊपर दाना, ईचक दाना
छज्जे ऊपर लड़की नाचे, लड़का है दीवाना, ईचक दाना
लत : एक जानवर ऐसा जिसके दुम पर पैसा
सर पे भी ताज है बादशाह के जैसा
ओ~
बादल देखे छम-छम नाचे अल्बेला मसताना, ईचक दान
बोलो क्या?
बच्चे : मोर
ईचक दाना, बीचक दाना …
लत : हरी थी मन भरी थी, लाख मोती जड़ी थी
राजा जी के बाग़ में दुशाला ओढ़े खड़ी थी
ओ~
कच्चे-पक्के बाल हैं उसके मुखड़ा है सुहाना, ईचक दाना
बोलो क्या?
राज : बुड्ढी
बच्चे : भुट्टा
लत : छोटी सी छोकरी लाल्बाई नाम है
पहने वो घाघरा एक पैसा दाम है
ओ~
मुँह में सबके आग लगाये आता है रुलाना, ईचक दाना
बोलो क्या? बोलो न
बच्चे : मिचर्ई
मुकेश : ईचक दाना बीचक दाना दाने ऊपर दाना, ईचक दाना
छज्जे ऊपर लड़की नाचे, लड़का है दीवाना, ईचक दाना
चालें वो चलकर दिल में समाया
आ ही गया वो, किया है सफ़ाया
तुम भी देखो बचकर रहना चक्कर में न आना, ईचक दाना
लत : ग़म?
राज : धत! हम!
I hope you liked my choice of Beautiful Duet #43.
Please await Beautiful Duet #44- Chand jaane kahan kho gaya.
