I hope you liked the last post in the series: ‘Shailendra Song Of The Week #4 – Ab Ke Baras Bhej Bhaiya Ko Baabul‘. Lets begin with this song of his as the Song of the Week #5 as it appeared on my Facebook group ‘Yaad Kiya Dil Ne‘.
Shailendra Song of the Week (SSOW)
Week #05
Ja ja re ja balamwa
Among ‘My Favourite Five Songs Of Lata Mangeshkar’
Lata Mangeshkar has always been my favourite female playback singer. Despite all the controversy regarding her feeling insecure enough to deter all competition to her Numero Uno position in Hindi films, I adore her. A ‘favourite’ is a matter of love and normally your favourite actor, song, scenery, dish, incident is not subjected to reasoning by you. You have precious memories of your favourites.
On the 28th Sep 2016, when she turned 87 (three years older than my mother), I put my head on the chopper block by selecting and publishing ‘My Favourite Five Songs Of Lata Mangeshkar‘, the only female singer whose thousands of songs were subjected by me to the scrutiny of my heart in order to select just five. I selected Ja ja re ja balamwa at #2.
I am aware there are other lists going around by the cognoscenti; but, frankly, I don’t give a damn. A singer’s singing, in addition to all the audio or vocal qualities that it must have, must be pleasant to the ear. This one is to my ear. Period.
A Courtesan Song As My Favourite?
The song is from the 1956 movie Basant Bahaar and its lyrics are a marvel produced by the great Shailendra and its composition is by my favourite music duo: Shankar Jaikishan. Its raag is Jhinjhoti and tal is Tintal.
Why would a song picturised on a courtesan evoke such strong feelings in me? Well, courtesans were essentially a part of our culture. One of them (Anarkali) nearly married a would be emperor. In Shashi Kapoor’s movie Utsav, he brought out how important a courtesan (Rekha as Vasantsena) was in our society. In the movie Amrapali (based on a true story), the king Ajatashatru wages a war to get her (Vyjayanthimala in the title role) and she finally takes to Buddhism! By the way, Amrapali had some of her best songs including the iconic Tumhen yaad karte karte jaayegi rayn saari (also created for her by the team of Shailendra and Shanakar Jaikishan).
In the 1956 Raja Nawathe movie Basant Bahar too, Kumkum as the dancing girl Radhika is dancing in the presence of the Emperor, played by Chandrashekhar and naturally the emotions she conveys are the emotions of the queen. Hindi films directors of yore, often used the courtesans to express the feelings of the heroines (eg in Chhote Nawab song, the first song of RD Burman with Lata ji (composed in Raag Malgunji): Ghar aaja ghir aaye badraa saanwariya.
The Movie Basant Bahar
I would place the movie as iconic as far as its songs are concerned. Four years before it was made by Raja Nawathe, we had a movie on somewhat similar theme: Vijay Bhatt’s 1952 movie Baiju Bawra with Bharat Bhushan in the title role and on a mission to defeat Tansen in a musical duel to avenge the death of his father. In Basant Bahar too, Bharat Bhushan (as Gopal) is on a mission to defeat Malaya, the son of a royal musician, so that the winner would be chosen as the royal musician.
If Baiju Bawra was iconic in that all its 13 songs were based on raagas by the music director Naushad who first used raaga based songs in Hindi movies, Basant Bahar too had its songs based on raagas:
- Ketaki, Gulab, Juhi Champaka Bana Phule (Raag Basant Bahar, Ektal).
- Ja ja re ja balamwa (Raag Jhinjhoti, Tintal).
- Sur na saje kya gaayun main (Raag Pilu, Tal Kaherava).
- Duniya na bhaye mohe ab to bulale (Raag Todi, Tal Punjabi Theka (Sitarkhani).
- Bhaye Bhanjana…Darasa Tere Mange Main Tera Pujari (Raag Mian Ki Malhar, Jhaptal).
- Badi Der Bhai Kab Loge Khabar (Raag Pilu, Tal Kaherava).
That is six out of nine songs based on raagas as compared to all 13 of Baiju Bawra. There is one difference from Baiju Bawra in that Basant Bahar is based on Kannada novel Hamsageethe by legendary novelist TaRaSu. Hamsa means swan and Geethe means song. “It is believed that before a swan dies, it will sing without opening its mouth. That mutter of melody is believed to be unmatched since any scene of lyricism falls short of its reach.” Clearly, Basant Bahar was intended to showcase the skills of Shankar Jaikishan. However, I feel that Shailendra’s lyrics are simply great and you take away the lyrics the swan dies!
The Actress Kumkum
Shailendra was born in Rawalpindi and brought up in Mathura. But, he had a Bihar connection in that his ancestral place Akhtiyarpur is in Ara district of Bihar.
Kumkum was also born Zaibunnissa in Hussainabad, Sheikhpura Bihar. She was the discovery of Guru Dutt (as was Waheeda Rehman) and the CID song Ye hai Bombay meri jaan was picturised on her.
She was trained in Kathak by the famous Shambhu Maharaj and she danced in 1960 movie Kohinoor on a song lip-synced by Dilip Kumar and sung exceptionally beautifully by Mohammad Rafi in Raag Hamir, Tintal: Madhuban mein Radhika naache re (Shakeel – Naushad – Rafi).
In this song too, she is Radhika and her mudras are simply awesome.
Lyrics
Irrespective of what TaRaSu intended in the novel Hamsageethe on which the movie Basant Bahar is based, the lyrics by Shailendra are simply beautiful.
Jhinjhoti is a raaga named after an apsara and Hindi films songs based on it (my own observation) often bring in feelings of self-pity such as in “Tum mujhe youn bhula na paaoge” and “Mere mehboob tujhe” and of course the Mamta song picturised on Suchitra Sen: “Rehte the kabhi jinake dil mein hum jaan se bhi pyaron ki tarah”. Ghungru ki tarah bajta hi raha hoon is another case in point.
Here too, Shailendra has brought out self-pity of the singer-dancer in comparison to the sauten (the other woman), except that she is emoting for another person (such as in Chhote Nawab song: Ghar aaja ghir aaue badra):
Ja ja re ja, balamwa
Sautan ke sang raat bitayi
Kahe karat ab jhuthi batiya
Ja ja re ja, balamwa
Gair ke ghar kari raat jagayi
Mose kahe tere bina nind na aayi
Kaiso harajayi daiyya
Ja ja re ja, balamwa
Kandhe laga laye bindiya kisi ki
Janu main churayi tune nindiya kisi ki
Laaj naa aayi tohe
Ja re ja, ja re ja, ja re ja balamwa
Please Enjoy the Song I have put up as my second most favourite song of Lata Mangeshkar: Ja ja re ja balamwa…
I hope you liked my choice of song for SSOW #5.
Please await the next song in the series.
