UDHAR TUM HASEEN HO IDHAR DIL JAWAAN HAI

Song 51:

Love is often all about a continuous guessing game. There is conjecture, there is a lot of imagination, there are sleepless nights and speculation. But often the beating around the bush gets too much. It always helps to come to the point and be clear about your expectations. Communication is key. Otherwise there are misunderstandings galore. Life is stressful enough even otherwise. Last thing you want is your loved one too adding stress to it daily. But then who said love is easy or it's a cake walk.

If men are from Mars and women from Venus, it often takes light years to start speaking the same language. Many misplaced signals, many coded messages, many broken hearts later you realise you were both talking the same thing, but in different languages or different idiom. It's funny the number of people from the communications/media industry I have met who have communication issues in their relationships. Perhaps we spend hours and hours trying to reach out to our audiences, wider readership, more popularity, more numbers, that we often forget to reach out to our closest people in their hours of need. Stooped in front of the computer all day, we miss so many cues that our immediate family gives us or the desperation a loved one might be trying to express. All I have to say to that is love your work by all means but remember at the end of the day these words will remain mere words in the vast sands of time. In this regard love those lines from that Mukesh song written by Sahir - 'Kal aur ayenge nagmon ki khilti kaliyan chunane wale, mujh se behtar kehne wale, tumse behtar sunane wale, kal koi mujh ko yaad kare, kyun koi mujh ko yaad kare, masroof zamana mere liye, kyun waqt apna barbaad kare'......What will matter is the real connections we made, the people we genuinely reached out to and made a difference in their lives.

Mom's visiting these days and it's not been a week and I have already received my first reprimand, " You're just sitting in your room on your laptop all day! Give time to your daughter. Talk to her more!" Phew!! And I thought I freaked out when my MIL said the same thing last time she visited. Just when I had thought it was an in-law thing, seems it's a generational thing. Our parents never got hooked on to technology the way we have. Our kids are thankfully still untouched (at least I have kept my daughter away from computers still). It is us who are messed up. So switch off that laptop and call, speak, connect to a real person. A life lived virtually is a virtual mirage, tantalising, promising but also surreal. Get real.

ANKHON HII ANKHON MEIN ISHAARA HO GAYA

Song 50:


But a duet is ultimately about expressing your love and not fighting and irritating each other. Well most of the times. When it comes to Rafi-Geeta Dutt duets, I am pretty much starting with one of the best, one of my all time favourites. I used to love singing this for the longest time in picnics, sitting on top of trees, in school music class (yeah I was that sort of a kid!) This song also has an inbuilt tempo that does not require much of musical accompaniments. Dev Anand was my favourite actor of the older lot, for obvious reasons! Till he passed away a year and a half ago, he would often tweet at night about his favourite song picturisations, narrating interesting anecdotes connected to each song. Most Dev Anand movies had exceptional music as he always took personal interest in each and every recording. Once I had replied to him about some song and that information was factually incorrect, and he like a gentleman DMed me the correct information immediately rather than letting the whole world know. Such was the genteel style of those actors.  I have saved that DM for good of course!  And I have always liked Shakila a lot. So delicate and dainty and underestimated. Love the styling of her saree and blouse. The costumes of this movie were after all done by Bhanu Athaiya who went on to win an Oscar for her costumes in 'Gandhi'.

So the song is all about lazing langorously next to a pretty lake or some such waterbody. It has an easy, natural choreography, very easy to fall in love with. The choreography is credited to Zohra Sehgal who even in her 90s has such amazing grace, that is quite reflected in this song. O P Nayyar's music and Jan Nisar Akhtar's lyrics. A soft, lemon soufflé of a song, a tantalizing Tiramisu of a song, light, fluffy and weightless. No wonder Tiramisu is called the 'Pick me up' of desserts! Bon Apetit! 

YE LO MAIN HAARI PIYA

Now starting with some Geeta Dutt and Rafi duets.But first one Geeta solo to kinda recapitulate her magic. I know there are loads and loads of Asha Rafi duets still left but as I said earlier in the case of Geeta Dutt it is not the quantity or numbers that matter but the richness she imbued each song of hers with. Most of her few Hindi songs are still very entertaining and fresh. I am sure her repertoire of Bengali songs must be incredible but that is something I have not explored.

So this is a typical tiff and make up song. What's life without a minor altercation here and there? These little differences of opinion help bring to the fore what's bothering you, what's often bottled up inside so that you can be your true self. Once you have vented and expressed yourself, it is much easier to understand each other. There is no saccharine sweetness and no false pretences. Makes things a lot easier if you know what annoys your significant other than to keep guessing it. Once you have addressed the issue and remedied it, you come a lot closer. So fake breaking up and making up is a part of life. Except for when you've had your sixth or seventh break up before even anything has started!

Anyway, the song is a delight. A grumpy Guru Dutt and a pleading Shyama, who did overact a bit but that was kind of normal for those times. I find her very wickedly attractive. She had a sparkling screen presence that somehow the Sati Savitris of that era such as Meena Kumari and Co lacked. Given the spice in her persona I can almost see her in the mould of a Bipasha or Priyanka today. Her real name was Khurshid Akhtar and she was born in Lahore in 1935. As was the trend those days most Muslim actors took on Hindu screen names to gel with a larger audience. Meena Kumari was Mahjabeen Bano, Madhubala was Mumtaz Jahan Dehlavi, Dilip Kumar was Yusuf Khan.

There were many actors who even took new names for the silver screen that were just more easy to pronounce, or had a certain star quality and they proved to be lucky for them. The ultimate superstar of Tamil films Rajnikanth was Shivajirao Gaikwad originally, Rajesh Khanna was Jatin Khanna, Sanjeev Kumar was Haribhai Jariwala, even Guru Dutt for that matter was Vasanthakumar Shiva Shankar Padukone! Wonder how much their savvy screen names contributed to their ultimate success. :-)

O CHAND JAHAN WO JAYEIN

Asha did not have to travel far and wide to face competition. She was literally born in a family that had oodles of musical talent, the most formidable being her own sis, Lata. I am sure Asha's voice was honed just emulating her elder sister. Their father was a composer, as is their brother. Their other two sisters have also sung for movies. I am sure Asha began simply reflecting the glory of elder sis Lata. There are tales of a steaming rivalry between the two once upon a time. Yet it must've been quite a task for Asha to move out of Lata's shadow and develop a distinct style of her own. Their voices though both high pitched have their own beauty.

Talent is not static. It is fluid and ever changing. It takes on new shapes and forms. Much like the moon, that startles us in so many shapes and sizes. Women too are often compared to the moon, for their beauty, their aura, their feminine appeal as opposed to the masculine, sun.  The moon may shine with the sun's reflected glory, but it has an intrigue all it's own. Who knows maybe the moon wants to shine with it's own light after all the light years of being but a reflection of the mighty sun. Women too, like the moon, ebb and wane, they have their phases and cycles. They may be moody and mysterious. They are ever changing, fickle even, one night wanting to mesmerise with a luminiscence that is full throttle and complete. At others they may want to just be a thin sliver of silver, alone and lonely, reflecting, collecting their energies, regaining reserves of strength for yet another full moon night when they are expected to show all that they are made of. But one thing is for sure, that when on an ink blue night, you're feeling lost and rudderless, the moon represents direction, hope, optimism and faith. The sun maybe the centre of the solar system, but the moon in it's myriad forms has enthralled us for ages, making poets and artists go loony in it's praise.

This song by Rajendra Krishan and C Ramachandra, a lesser known duet of Lata and Asha dazzles with it's moonlit beauty, two truly talented singers who happened to be born in the same family exhibit two distinct forms of the moon both brilliant and bright, and two ravishing actresses enacting it-Meena Kumari and Shyama. And one hell of a lucky dude Raj Kapoor for whom not one but two moon maidens shower melodies and good wishes! 

 

CHAL DIYE BANDANAWAAZ

Song 47:

Sometimes she just got fed up of the double entendres and subtle hints he kept on throwing at her. It all seemed like a precarious house of cards at the end of the day. She could not live in a world of riddles, straight talking diva as she was. She had never feared anything or anybody. When she liked someone she had the guts to tell it like it is. But when he continued playing games and tested her patience everyday, she let him have it. Not for her solving a super cryptic crossword and a hairsplitting sudoku in the name of love everyday. She'd rather have none of it. She was loony, she was moony and she could live in her imaginary world with George Clooney! Or anyone she pleased, in her dreams. What she was not ready for was to be tested and judged everyday by someone who himself took craftiness to another level.

Starting with Rafi-Geeta Dutt duets today. Somehow Rafi Geeta Dutt songs though fewer, had more of a clash of sensibilities, battle of the sexes. They displayed pretty well the different world views they came from. Sometimes the friction just lent itself to too much drama. The diva for all her tantrums, was a peace loving uncomplicated soul. She could live on love and fresh air and some good wholesome, natural, nutritious food, a steady diet of delectable books, rom-coms by the dozen and trysts of her eclectic wardrobe. All this was any day better than the khayali Pulaos he liked to feed her! 

KYA DEKHTE HO

Song: 46


Sometimes when it really got warm, club crooner liked to wear the bare minimum. She was so good au naturale that her attire was just a formality. Like a bronze statue chiselled out of precision and passion by Pygmalion himself, she stood tall and proud. Yet when people couldn't help staring, she could ask innocently, " What you looking at?" much to the hero's chagrin. Gulp, he went...."Errm at your face, I swear!"

Zeenat was afterall the perfect 10 when it came to gorgeous women who graced Indi screen. Even as women, many of us have ogled at her. I remember how when Satyam Shivam Sundaram had got released, we were still kids and our parents had left us home when they went for it. Many years later, in college a bunch of my female friends and I had gone to a seedy hall in Patel Nagar in Delhi and watched the movie with a bunch of rikshawalahs and such like, whistling and staring. She was just too good to behold in that. The story though farfetched, justified her attire through a deep and heavy spiritual and social message which is not entirely untrue.

But it was Feroz Khan who to quite an extent succeeded in portraying women who did not have to be sati savitri or dress like one to be considered virtuous. His heroines were a fine blend of the sexy and sweet, bold yet bashful. The lines between the hot and happening vamp who was only the toast of the smokey casinos and the heroine one could take home to mom, blurred because of directors like Feroz. Here were women who revelled in their sensuality, looked like a million bucks but had not lost their ability to love and be loved in the purest sense of the word. Also how these songs never seem jarring is because the lyrics always maitained some decorum. So whoever justifies cheap songs today by saying that 'situation hii aisee dete hain', need to know that the power of words can not be understimated.

And why this song is remarkable too is that it is one of Rafi's last songs, that he sang at the fag end of his career at age 56/57, the other one being the beautiful 'Maine Poochha Chaand Se' from Abdullah. He soon died after this, leaving a rich legacy of songs that brought so many moments of cinematic brilliance.


 

O HASEENA ZULFON WALI

Song 45:


But it was not before long that the traveller had to get back to the urbane charms of the metropolis. The club crooner had been waiting anxiously for him all this while. Only he could match her vitality, her verve. She was after all textured from the darkest hour of the night, vileful and enchanting. She was a restless spirit, searching, probing, seeking that paramour par excellence. Someone who could match steps with her zest for life. Someone who could kindle the fire in her. She was not bothered if she got burnt in the flame. She was a firebrand too.

A lesser woman would have kept away and tamed herself, but not the club crooner. She courted danger every night. She walked the tight rope with elan. Her passion was her propellant. She could burn the floor with her moves, her meandering curves leading him into a maze of mysteries, till he was wrapped around her little finger. When the two of them got together, any Ms. Goody two shoes was reduced to watching gobsmacked, frozen to her seat. Club crooner may not have been the lead woman, but steal the show she could! Yes, with great finesse and flourish, right from under Ms. Goody Two shoes' hoity toity little nose!