TORA MANN DARPAN KEHLAYE

Song 101:


Asha Geeta could get spiritual and how! When they applied their mind and voice to it, they could transform into treasure troves of calmness, peace and wisdom. The words were gems of learning, the mood was ethereal(in a different way this time), the tunes soared and took home right in your heart. 

For there is no love greater than the love of that supreme being who is the ultimate, omnipresent, omnipotent power. Call him God or a manifestation of our own mind. It is true that we can escape any jury in the world, we can escape God too but we can not escape the verdict of our own heart. 

This song for instance places abundant power in the human mind. More than any God or scriptures or rituals, it is our own mind that governs us. The mind is the mirror that shows us the path to right or wrong.Whenever one is in a dilemma about right or wrong, it is best to look into your heart and listen to what it says. It will not lie to you.

It is a bhajan but it rises above mere idol worship. It delves deeper into the psyche and the God within all of us. Written beautifully by none other than Sahir Ludhianvi, put to music by Ravi and sung oh so beautifully by Asha Bhosle. Have a nice day!

AYE KASH KISSI DEEWANE KO

Song 100:

Reached a giddy 100 in this incredible journey, unfathoming so many emotions, moods and situations. From pure romance to fun, frolicky numbers, from sad tomes of dejection and pessimism to bouyant songs of hope, we travelled many ups and downs.   

Asha and Geeta never failed us. Each song opened a new chapter of anticipation and yearning. We communicated unwittingly. We reached each other's deepest core of feelings and fears. At the end of the day love remained a mystery. As long as you don't have love you wait for it anxiously. You dream of rosy pictures. You feel yes, this time I will do it right, I will make it work.

Once you do find love, there start a new set of problems, issues, desperations and frustrations. In this journey of finding different facets of love, one wisened to the fact that it is best to savour and value what you have. Feel fortunate that you met love, lived love and felt love so deeply, it touched everything you did. You embraced the agony with the ecstacy. You wallowed in misery when he was gone but just the thought of him was enough to make you happy. You looked on at novices in a mature, know it all manner, finding amusement in their foolhardy quests for love. You had been there and done that. You were wiser, saner now. You could take love with a pinch of salt or maybe with a shot of vodka.

Would you have it any other way? No. Would you feel the same for anyone else? No. Would you do it all over again? Perhaps yes! I am celebrating this century with this beautiful duet by Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar where they thoroughly thrash out all about longing for love and longing for your loved one!

ZARA HAULE HAULE CHALO

Song 99:

He was a wild one. He liked to explore unchartered territories, throwing caution to the winds. He loved his work and often got so engrossed in it that nothing could stop him when he wanted to go on his adventurous recce.

He could compartmentalise love, career, duties, responsibilities. Work was work and nothing could really distract him away from his goals.

While the singing dancing diva liked this quality about him, she often took it upon herself to remind him of some good things in life. She was following him for one. She was waiting for him. She wanted him to be successful in his endeavours but she also wanted him to know that there was no getting away from her.

The rhythmic trot of his horse became the beat of her wistful song. The beautiful environs gave just the right ambience for a tete a tete. He was silent, yes. Not betraying any emotion, resolute and focussed.

But in her heart she knew he loved her song. For in the endless twilight of mysteries lurking behind every rock and cranny, the only thing steady and constant was her love for him. On cold, bitter nights, her song lit up his body with a glowing warmth. It reminded him that there was a golden morning, not too far away from wherever he was, a light at the end of the tunnel of night's own sordid longing for peril.

O P Nayyar's music, Asha Bhosle's voice and Sharmila's dimples are enough to enjoy this song on this rainy night.

WAQT NE KIYA KYA HASEEN

Song 98:

When it came to melancholy songs of pain and remorse, Geeta Dutt's voice sliced the heart like a sugar-coated sledgehammer. The passage of time, estranged ties, two hearts that once beat as one had found their individual paths. Their conflicting ideologies created a chasm so deep that there was no looking back. Geeta Dutt at such times could temper her seductive lilt with sombre pathos. The mood was reflective, introspective. Could one have avoided this?

Where were the days when they could tide over all differences with good humour and immense love and empathy? Nothing was permanent. Nothing is permanent. People meet, attracted to each other like two charged atoms in the vast universe. They converge for some time, reflecting each other's glory, energising each other, feeding off each other's magnetism and charisma. Sooner or later the magic wears off. People move on. Or rediscover old, familiar patterns. You can shed some tears. Or harden and become cynical. You can only tell yourself-never again.

Geeta Dutt sailed through this expressive song written by Kaifi Azmi and composed by S D burman, that defined an epoch of winning and losing. There were no victory laps if your loved one was not there to share it with you. No matter how much you had wanted that milestone, when the one who mattered the most did not share your joy, the victory was incomplete, those bouquets were but paper flowers, kaghaz ke phool......

AE CHAND ZARA CHHUP JA

Song 97:


Sometimes full moon appeared not after 28 days but an eternity. Too much time had elapsed in dark despondency. Those were dark days. With stark choreographies and grim screenplays. There had been no hope anywhere in the near future. The diva had almost turned into a Dresden doll, ashen, lifeless. She had torn herself from her dreams and lived propped on a shelf like a trophy of some sort. The weather outside had no effect on her, nor did any elements of nature. And just when the world seemed to have closed its doors to any semblance of wondrous magic, the moon shone one day in all it's glory. It's beauty was so aching, that a tear appeared on the doll's eyelids and trickled down her cheeks. Her painted visage seemed smudged but those kohl filled eyes looked real now, not measured to fine perfection to please anyone.. These eyes had lustre and glimmer, dreams and desires.

She urged the moon to go hide somewhere for a while, for its maddening effect was rendering her speechless. And Boy did she have a lot to say! She had so much to share, so much to unburden, to uncover and express. She wanted him all ears, listening, consoling, cajoling, coaxing out all her secrets. Those tales that lay buried deep in her heart could fill many nights. Once she had told him all, only then would she be in a position to admire the moon again. Only then would her poems flow like rivers, her words would dance uninhibited. On his manly shoulders, she could rest her head and forget all worries. She knew he would make her feel at home anywhere. Then every night would be full moon night. Every night would be something to look forward to. Just for tonight she wanted the blinding moon to go hide somewhere.....

JAANE KAHAN MERA JIGAR

Song 96:

Its election season in full swing and the rhetoric has reached a strange cat-and-mouse fight levels. Someone's losing his jigar, someone's losing her mind, someone's losing his temper and someone's losing any rational thinking while the chaotic country is losing any semblance of order.

Some people are losing their memory selectively, others are losing allies. People are hunting through each other's past offices and associates to hunt out some piece of information they could use against them somehow or the other. There's a lot of political wooing going on. Some are making a quick buck doing in-your-face propaganda, making complete asses of themselves, some are losing track of what they said last night on national television and rolling back their statements. Not a day goes by without a new explosive video being leaked (yup of the eyeball-grabbing kind) or a hilarious photo-op gone awry being propelled into Twitterverse with punitive condescension.

In this election jamboree new definitions are being coined, of age-old words such as 'secular' and 'communal'. Meanings are being distorted and twisted to suit one's narratives, Principals of colleges are giving political advisories en-masse to students via email, religious gurus are holding fort in their holier than thou garb, betis and bahus in hibernation have ironed their cotton handloom sarees and pulled out their Kolhapuri chappals and hit the campaign trail.

In all of this, a much needed fun song that might help you unwind and take it easy. Geeta Dutt and Rafi are funny and jovial in this song that sounds almost like light hearted office watercooler banter. Johny Walker was perhaps the first comedian for whom songs were conceptualised and sung by A-list singers such as Rafi. His co-star who is probably someone called Yasmin is rather cute and easy on the eye, albeit a one-song wonder.

The song is from Mr and Mrs 55 in which the lead actor Guru Dutt played a cartoonist. All the cartoons depicted in the movie were actually done by the stalwart of the art in India, R K Laxman whose 'common man' is perhaps the most recognisable cartoon character in India. Well let's hope these elections don't yet again make a cartoon of the common man of India. In a strange twisted manner the song  and the mannerisms of the actors are symptomatic of the political scenario today, very little sense but entertaining nevertheless. 

SACH HUE SAPNE TERE

Song 95:

One thing you could not take away from the singing dancing diva was her ability to find many reasons to smile and rejoice about. She could be thrilled to see waves crashing on a sea shore, she could go into raptures over a glorious sunrise, she could giggle away cooking biryani for loved ones.

She was a grateful soul who appreciated the good things in life. Nothing was worth fretting over forever. He was by her side, in spirit always. His one smile, one word of encouragement, one little gesture sparked a wild dance of joy and abandon in her soul.

Yes, he was given to sullenness, he could be pretty pessimistic at times. She too could be a bundle of nerves and low-energy on some days. But together they almost always managed to complement each other. They filled each other's gaps. They finished each other's sentences. They caught a mood, a hint, a nuance miles away.

They did not have to agree on every philosophy in the world. But they came home to the same warmth. After fighting their individual battles all day, they could share a cup of tea watching a pink sunset, tie and renew their bond and melt into each other's horizons. The dawn next day was always memorable....