अनमोल रतन (Precious Jewels) - 2

Friends,

This is the second song in the series from the film 'Bewafa' (1952).

Song #2: दिल मतवाला लाख संभाला … 

Film       : Bewafa (1952)

Director : M. L. Anand

Cast       : Raj Kapoor, Nargis and Ashok Kumar

Lyrics          : Sarashar Sailani

Composer    : Alla Rakha Quereshi

Solo Singers : Lata Mangeshkar and Talat Mahmood

Alla Rakha Quereshi

The stylistic music of Bewafa was worthy of kudos. The simple reason being that it was composed by the world famous Tabla maestro Ustad Alla Rakha. 

Alla Rakha Quereshi was born on April 29, 1919, at Phagwal village of Jammu, 80 kms from Lahore. Khan was fascinated with the sound of tabla since the age of 12. The determined young lad ran away from the house and became a disciple of Mian Qader Baksh of the Punjab Gharana, who initiated him into the world of music.

 

He started his musical career as an accompanist in Lahore and then as an AlI India Radio staffer in Mumbai in 1940. Soon after he would compose music for a couple of Hindi films from 1943-48. He composed music for around 40 films in his film music career. Some of the well known films where Alla Rakha was music composer are Maa Baap (1944), Sabak (1950), Bewafa (1952), Khandaan (1955) and Parveen (1957).

In the film 4 songs were in Talat Mahmood's voice. 'Tum Ko Fursat Ho Meri Jaan..', 'Tu Aaye Na Aaye Ae Teri Khushi....', 'Dil Matwala...' and 'Kaam Haathon Ka Hai...'.

Lata sang 3 songs. 'Badnasibi Ka Gila Ae Dil-e-Nashaad Na Kar..', 'Isi Ka Naam Duniya Hai...' and 'Dil Matwala Laakh Sambhala...'. The song 'Aa Jao Mere Dilruba..' was sung by Geeta Dutt and 'O Tana Der Na Tana Na Na..' was sung by Shamshad Begum. 

USP of the song: 

a) Music composed by Tabla Maestro - late Alla Rakha

b) Same song, different composition sung solo by male (Talat) and female singer (Lata)

It has been a strange coincidence that whenever the same song has been sung by a male singer and a female singer in the same film, the male version has got more popular among the audience. I wonder what could be the reason of the fascination for the male voice. 

Some examples that come to my mind are as follows; I am sure there are many more...

1) Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi barasaat ki raat... - Rafi and Lata - Gateway of India

2) Jeevan ke safar mein raahi... - Kishore and Lata - Munimji

3) Zindagi ek safar hai suhana... - Kishore and Asha Bhosale - Andaz

4) Dil hoom hoom karein ghabaraye - Lata and Bhupen Hazarika - Rudali

5) Kuch na kaho kuch bhi na kaho... - Lata and Kumar Shanu - 1942, A love story

कहानी behind the song: 

The film depicts the story of a poor girl Roopa (Nargis) who is forced by her alcoholic uncle to work. When she can't meet her uncle's demand to earn money she is thrown out of the house by her uncle when her neighbour Raj (Raj Kapoor) comes to her aid and loans her some money but despite it she finds it difficult to make ends meet and she meets Ashok - a famous painter - for whom she starts acting as a model for his paintings. Roopa's portraits as painted by Ashok become a big hit. Later Roopa marries Ashok but soon Raj reenters her life. Roopa is extremely happy seeing her childhood friend Raj again after a long time and introduces him to Ashok. Both of them urge Raj to sing a song. Raj then sings 'Dil matawala...' for Roopa. The song continues to linger on Roopa's mind and next day morning she sings the same song. The story then follows the love triangle between Roopa, Raj and Ashok. 

Lata's version below has a beautiful musical prelude to it which is equally enjoyable to the actual song.

Lata's version

Talat's version is extremely soft and soothing to ears; don't miss the facial expressions of all the 3 actors, particularly just before the line 'Kar gaye baatein do matawale...'. 

In a strand, till today the bewitching effect of Talat's velvety voice in 'Bewafa' lingers on.

Talat's version

Lyrics: (courtesy: http://www.hindigeetmala.net)

अनमोल रतन (Precious Jewels)

Friends,

Life has been so hectic for most of you - long work hours, tiring and boring travels, numerous meetings and conference calls, traveling through the city in extreme rains, hot sun or chilly winter, and so on. We all wait for week ends in the hope that we would get at least some time to do things that we like, but alas, week ends fly so quickly and then list of pending things once again dawn upon us on Monday morning! :-( 

Well, that's today's life unfortunately; so how do we refresh ourselves and make it little more enjoyable? While everyone has their own way, I guess, music plays a huge role in preparing us to face new challenges everyday. As the great Sachin Tendulkar said recently, music is our true companion. And it has no bounds, thankfully.

So I thought why not use this blog to share what I like in music (and perhaps you also like) and hopefully give you a refreshing experience. I have chosen about 10-15 songs from the golden era of Hindi films which I would be covering one at a time. I will be sharing information about the song, film, music composer, singers etc. which has been compiled from different sources available on the internet today. Each of these songs will be unique in some way and hence I call it  अनमोल रतन. 

I am completely aware that this is only a compilation of information that is already available on various forums like books, internet, etc. There are also many facebook and google groups dedicated to Hindi film songs who keep publishing lots of unknown but interesting information about the songs. I thoroughly acknowledge the contribution of respective owners of these sources and thank them wholeheartedly. 

I am grateful to few of my friends who themselves are ardent music lovers and possess great knowledge about Hindi film songs - Adwait Dharmadhikari, Dhananjay Naniwadekar, Sunil Dandekar and Gurcharan Singh Sandhu from UK. 

All of them have been of huge help to me to grow my interest in Hindi film songs. I respect their passion and devotion and would like to dedicate this series to all of them.
Thank you, Adwait, Nani, Sunil and Sandhu ji.

I hope you will like and enjoy this series; please do post your comments. 

P.S.:- Please feel free to share any other interesting piece of information about the song, film, composer, lyricist, etc. You are also welcome to suggest / share your choice of songs - only one condition though - it should have a USP. Let's make this series more participative and thus interesting. Thanks.

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Song #1: ये कौन आया करके ये सोला सिंगार....

Film: Ziddi (1948)

Director: Shahid Lateef

Cast: Chanda, Dev Anand, Kamini Kaushal, Nawab, Kuldeep, Pran

Prem Dhawan

Lyrics: Prem Dhawan

Music Composer: Khemchand Prakash

Singers: Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar

USP of the song: 

This is the first-ever duet of Lata and Kishore.

कहानी behind the song: 

Lataji, in those days, used to travel from Dadar to Bandra studio by train to record her songs. On one fine day, while Lataji was en-route to the studio, a young boy got onto the same train and same bogie in which Lataji was travelling. Initially she did not pay much attention to him. When Lataji got off the train at Bandra, she saw this boy getting off as well. She started walking towards the studio, and after some time realized that the boy is also following her. She was afraid and started running and reached the studio somehow. As soon as she entered the studio, she called the composer Khemchandji, "Dada...". She informed Dada that one boy has been following her for quite some time. Just then the same boy arrived at the studio. And when Dada saw him, he burst into laughter. Later Dada introduced the boy - Kishore Kumar - to Lataji saying he is the one who will accompany her to sing the duet. All had a good laugh in the end. And thus, a sweet song was recorded.

Lyrics: (courtesy: http://smriti.com/hindi-songs/)

किशोर कुमार:

ये कौन आया
ये कौन आया रे~ए~ए
करके ये सोला सिंगार, कौन आया

आंखों में रंगीं बहारें लिये
होठों पे अम्रित की धारें लिये
लूट लिया~आ
लूट लिया किसने ये दिल का क़रार
मेरे दिल का क़रार
तन मन में छाया है प्यार
ओ~ओ कौन आया

लता:
ओ~~ओ~~~ओ मोरे राजा ओ~ओ~ओ~ओ
ओ~ओ~ओ ओ मोरे राजा
झूटा न हो तेरा प्यार, राजा
झूटा न हो तेरा प्यार
सोने की गंगा में बहते हो तुम
सितारों की दुनिया में रहते हो तुम
वहां कैसे पहुंचेगी मेरी पुकार
राजा मेरी पुकार
ओ~ओ~ओ ...

किशोर:
ओ~ओ~ओ ...
मैं इन ऊंचे महलों को ठुकराऊंगा
लता:
ओ~ओ~ओ
किशोर:
जहां भी पुकारो चला आऊंगा
तुम दिल की दौलत हो सुख की बहार
मेरे सुख की बहार
ओ~ओ~ओ

लता:
ओ~ओ~ओ
न रह जाऊं माला पिरोती कहीं
न लुट जाये आशा के मोती कहीं
न टूटे कहीं
न टूटे कहीं मन की बीना के तार
मेरी बीना के तार
ओ~ओ~ओ

किशोर:
ओ~ओ~ओ
जो रूठेगी दुनिया मना लूंगा मैं
जो गिरने लगोगी सम्भालूंगा मैं
मानेंगे न हम ज़माने से हार रे
ज़माने से हार

किशोर और लता:
मानेंगे न हम ज़माने से हार रे
ज़माने से हार
ओ~ओ~ओ ओ~ओ~ओ ओ~ओ~ओ 

Angry Birds

Friends, looking at the title, you might wonder if I am going to tell you something that you already know. Well, perhaps yes but mostly no.

I am not going to talk about an Android game or toys that you get in the market. However I am going to share my thoughts about Humans who always look to be angry. In technical terms it is called 'Resting Bitchface Syndrome', or RBS, in short.

I was watching a political debate on one of the Marathi news channels few days back. One of the party spokespersons on that program looked to me to be angry even when questions were not thrown at him.

That reminded me of few people that I have come across who suffer from RBS. I always wondered why are they angry but never dared to ask them :-)

You go to bank, post office or your own work place, you would have come across such people, won't you? Your immediate reaction would have been "have I done anything wrong?".

If you are unfortunate enough, you would have had to deal with a boss suffering from RBS. How difficult was it to handle his/her mood then? 

And if your BF/GF happens to be an RBS person then you perhaps need to re-think on continuing your friendship.....just kidding.

You would always wonder that it could be because - a) other person may have a personal or professional problem, b) other person may not be in good mood to talk, c) other person may genuinely be angry or d) other person always looks angry so ignore him/her.

Then I googled and found out that there is so much information about RBS. So thought of sharing with you. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2340989/Do-suffer-Bitchy-Resting-Face-Hilarious-parody-PSA-explains-women-look-sad-angry-reason.html

http://www.succeedsocially.com/lookangry

http://thoughtcatalog.com/brandon-gorrell/2012/07/the-overthinkers-guide-to-resting-bitchface-syndrome/

So, next time you see in the mirror and look to be angry, tell yourself    दिल पे मत ले, यार

and sing this beautiful poem by Mangesh Padgaokar:  सांगा कसं जगायचं, कण्हत कण्हत की गाणं म्हणत?