Zindagi or Jeevan Songs Series
I started this series on my Facebook group Yaad Kiya Dil Ne on 18 Oct 20. Since then, many other members have put up these songs. Here, I shall be giving you one of my own, per day.
I hope you liked my choice for Song #50 – Chah barbaad karegi hamen in Zindagi or Jeevan Songs series. Let’s start with Song #51.
Song #51
Woh tum na the woh hum na the
Theme-word: Bina tumhare zindagi shama hai ek mazaar ki
Songs of Regret, Repentance and Ruefulness
Today I have already given you a Zindagi song. However, in order to have 150 songs when the group is buried on 08 Mar 2021, I have decided to give you another 17. Similarly, I shall be giving you additional five and seven songs respectively in the Beautiful Duets and Raat or Din series so as to have 200 each there too. This is not counted in RRR Songs since I already have 50 there. However, the lyrics of this penned by Neeraj make it a beautiful RRR Song:
वो हम न थे, वो तुम न थे
वो हम न थे, वो तुम न थे
वो रहगुज़र थी प्यार की
लूटी जहाँ पे बेवजह पालकी बहार की
ये खेल था नसीब का, न हँस सके न रो सके
न तूर पर पहुँच सके, न दार पर ही सो सके
कहानी किससे ये कहें, चढ़ाव की उतार की
लूटी जहाँ पे बेवजह पालकी बाहर की
तुम ही थे मेरे रहनुमा, तुम ही थे मेरे हमसफ़र
तुम ही थे मेरी रोशनी, तुम ही ने मुझको दी नज़र
बिना तुम्हारे ज़िंदगी शमा है एक मज़ार की
लूटी जहाँ पे बेवजह पालकी बाहर की
ये कौन सा मुक़ाम है, फलक नहीं ज़मी नहीं
के शब नहीं सहर नहीं, के ग़म नहीं खुशी नहीं
कहाँ ये लेके आ गई हवा तेरे दयार की
लूटी जहाँ पे बेवजह पालकी बाहर की
गुज़र रही है तुमपे क्या बनाके हमको दर-ब-दर
ये सोचकर उदास हूँ, ये सोचकर है चश्मतर
ना चोट है ये फूल की, ना है ख़लिश ये ख़ार की
लूटी जहाँ पे बेवजह पालकी बाहर की
Normally, we have songs with anything more than two stanzas and these get on our nerves. However, here, even after four, you want more. Such is the excellence of Neeraj’s lyrics.
Cha Cha Cha – 1964 Movie
It was scripted and directed by Chandrashekhar who also acted as the hero of the movie and of this song. He acted opposite Helen. The songs penned by Neeraj and composed by Iqbal Qureshi became very popular:
- Subah na aayi sham na aayi – Also sung by Mohammad Rafi as this song.
- Ik chameli ke mandve tale – penned by Maqdoom Mohiuddin the poet who wrote Aapki yad aati rahi raat bhar.
- Tumse mano na mano mujhe tumse pyar hai.
- Ek lali ghar se chali.
- This song.
My Poetry
WOH TUM NA THI
तुम वह नहीं हो जिस से मैं प्यार करता था,
आँखों में आँखें डाल के इज़हार करता था.
मेरी जुबां – ऐ – नब्ज़ पे था तेरी वफ़ा का नाम,
शौक – ऐ – ज़िन्दगी को सलाम सौ – बार करता था.
क्या आलम था वह अब भी दिल को खबर है,
सेहर से ही शब – ऐ – हुस्न का इंतज़ार करता था.
नाज़ुक लबों पे गर्मी – ऐ – जज़्बात थरथराते थे,
तेरी मासूमियत – ओ – नज़ाकत से न मैं इंकार करता था.
सुबह को जब तुम शाम कह के सुनाती थी,
तेरे सजदे में झुक के मैं इकरार करता था.
उल्फत -ऐ -ज़िन्दगी में वो मक़ाम भी आये,
जब तुम थी नहीं फिर भी तेरा दीदार करता था.
काश मैं समझ सकता तेरी दगा – बाज़ी का हुनर,
तुम वह कभी थी ही नहीं जिस से मैं प्यार करता था.
This Song
Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy: Woh hum na the woh tum na the…
I hope you enjoyed my choice for Song #51 in the series.
Please await Song #52 – Mere dushman tu meri dosti ko.
Madan Mohan
Satinder PS Narang, next, had decided to send a link to his singing Ek akela is shahr mein, a Bhupinder song from the 1977 movie Gharonda starring Amol Palekar and Zarina Wahab.
And the last one to sing in this part of KLF was Surinder Grewal. He too decided to send us a link to his song on Starmaker.
If they made 1680 songs of 302 movie together, chances are that you know quite a few of their beautiful duets. I can think of at least a hundred starting with their first duet in 1964 movie Mr X In Bombay: Khoobsurat haseena, jaanejaan jaaneman.
I have taken the song from the 1971 HS Rawail (He is incidentally the director of the movie of my all time favourite song: Mere Mehboob, Sunghursh and Laila Majnu) movie Mehboob Ki Mehndi starring Rajesh Khanna and Leena Chandavarkar. Laxmikant Pyarelal composed some really delightful songs in the movie on the lyrics of Anand Bakshi.
He was only 42 years old when he died on this day in 1947; couldn’t wait for his 43rd birthday on 11 April or for the Independence of India on 15 Aug.
Of course, KL Saigal’s singing and acting are superb and so is Naushad’s composition. However, I am primarily a Lyrical man. I maintain that the best of Majrooh was in his very first movie:
This combination gave us some of the songs that still make us feel that we should get back that era. An era of romance, an era of Western tunes, an era of dance, an unforgettable era. Whether it was Howrah Bridge (Aayiye mehrbaan baithiye jaane jaan), Aar Paar (Sun sun sun sun zaalima and Babuji dheere chalna), CID (Yeh hai Bombay meri jaan and Aankhon hi aankhon mein ishaara ho gaya) or 12 O’ Clock (Tum jo huye mere hamsafar and Kaisa jaadu balam tune daara), you had no choice but be carrried away by the Fiza of the songs. You listen to any concert on old Hindi songs being enacted, sooner or later you would have Majrooh and OP Nayyar’s magic.
Have a look at some of his movies: This one, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, Kashmir Ki Kali, Sawan Ki Ghata, Kalpana, C.I.D., Mr and Mrs 55, Aar Paar, Naya Daur, Phagun, Howrah Bridge, Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Humsaya, Mere Sanam and Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi. It would be easy to conclude that the success of the movies owed a lot to the songs that he composed. Indeed, in all these movies, such was his magic that each one of them had the maximum number of hit and super-hit songs. He was a perfectionist and highly disciplined music director. There were occasions when some of his musicians reached late and he started the recording with those who had arrived and even those songs became super hits.
Joy Mukherjee carries it on his shoulder in this song and never strums it. It probably doesn’t even belong to him. OP Nayyar however composed it as a beautiful guitar based song. But then, Nasir Hussain reckoned that OPN had to worry about it and not his hero.
The commercial failure of the only production of Shailendra (Lyricist): Teesri Kasam (mainly due to the delay in its release by two years due to Raj Kapoor’s priority of releasing his Sangam first) led to Shailendra taking to drinks heavily, which led to his death on 14 Dec 1966, the year of release of Teesri Kasam.
She died this year on 3rd Jul at the height of COVID 19 Lockdowns and hence only twenty people could attend her funeral. What she did to about 3000 songs in Hindi movies would have actually had millions appearing for her death at sudden cardiac arrest.
Indra Kumar’s 1992 movie starred Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in the lead roles and star in this beautiful duet too. The song won Saroj Khan the Filmfare Best Choreography Award and helped quicken the heartbeats of many of us. I trace my own insomnia back to this song!
In the TOI of the day after his death (all national dailies did features on him basically because of the success) I read that he was so confident of the quality of his lyrics that he didn’t even fix up his remuneration for Roja songs. However, after Roja he frequently paired with AR Rahman.
I have already brought out that their pairing was the second most pairing used (the first one being Anand Bakshi and Laxmikant Pyarelal) and some of the most memorable songs in Hindi movies have been created by this pair (Recall Aandhi songs).
Whatever you do and think, there is no way you can ever find Kishore Kumar anything but adorable. I like some of the serious songs that he has sung including this one. As far as Raaga based songs are concerned, this is what Bharat Ratna Bhimsen Joshi had to say about it, “We are fortunate that Kishore Kumar wasn’t trained in classical music. Else, most of us would have been out of business.”
On 27th Aug, we had the death anniversary of this great singer. He died on this day in 1976 in Detroit, Michigan, USA, where he had gone to perform. He didn’t get to perform since he died in the morning, immediately after a shower, due to heart attack.
I like this song from Anita because Mukesh has used excellent modulation in it (something, that was somewhat lacking in Zikr hota hai jab qayamat ka). Also, the movie was partly shot in my home station: Shimla hills, which is where I am now. This was penned by Arzoo Lacknavi. Another super song from the movie was shot here and that was penned by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan: Tum bin jeevan kaise beeta.
Today happens to be the Birth Anniversary of this favourite singer of mine. Salil Chowdhury had once said about his singing, “If God were to sing to us, He would sing us in the voice of Hemant Kumar.”
He sang only 17 songs for Dev Anand, which included 13 solos such as Ye raat ye chandni phir kahan and Hai apna dil to awaara. But they all became very popular.
Lyrics are by Kaifi Azmi who mastered the art of conveying complex emotions in the most laconic way. Take this stanza itself. He talks about beautiful night, beautiful moon and then adds that she is more beautiful than all these.
If one knows the story of Biswajeet being married initially to his licentious wife and then marrying Waheeda Rehman after the first wife disappears; and Waheeda Rehman staying in the shadow and fear of the first wife, the lyrics would obtain even greater meaning. One wonders how Kaifi Azmi packed such tremendous meaning into those few words.
It was penned by Gulzar and sung by Hemant Kumar on his own composition. I rate his rendition here as one of his finest. The song echoes in my mind all the way from my teenager days of having my soul taking nocturnal journeys.
It was directed by Nandlal Jaswantlal and starred Pradeep Kumar as Salim and Bina Rai as Anarkali.
This Asit Sen movie starred Rajesh Khanna as the man who has lost his noodles after being cheated in Love. Waheeda Rehman is a nurse at a mental asylum. Whereas, other nurses have found it beyond them to handle such cases, Waheeda Rehman has been the nurse of choice because of her empathy and sensitive handling.
