Agni Pariksha

Agnipariksha

Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Shikharani Bag


Having seen the Hindi remake at an early age when it was quite new, and not thought of it as much but ridiculous - which was not an exceptional opinion about it, then, at that - it came as a surprise, when, halfway through first watching this one realised that this was the original, and it wasn't ridiculous at all. And subsequent viewings merely made the surprise grow along with the intrigue about why, the theme that had seemed rather simplistic in sixties at best, now seems far from it, but much deeper if anything.

For one, there are of course differences between the original and the remake.

This one is done with all the westernised society atmosphere of a comparatively bygone era of ladies and gentlemen, with decorum and more, in an upper strata of wealthy Bengali society that holidayed in Darjeeling regularly, and looked up to education as much as took wealth for granted, all with a platform of the westernised urban social setting that set them up aloft above the ground realities, of not only those less than wealthy but - perhaps more importantly - of those not quite so westernised.

In comparison the remake was set in the sixties post Junglee, yahoo changes that brought in a very overt pursuit of the very unwilling lady by an almost Tarzan cum ape, with the lady eventually giving in to the overtures in terms of romance - still virtuously, of course! And this change was then harder to reconcile with the story that develops.

Here, the quiet but steady devoted candidate for the hand of the beautiful educated modern young woman, and a self confessed fan of her singing, is a role that reveals itself as much more complex, deeper, only on subsequent viewings - when one knows he is more than he has said.

But the real knot remains firm and soul of the theme - and has been dealt with in at least half a dozen films of last two decades or so from US, although with different storylines. Question is, what if one is already committed in a relationship, and then someone new appears who one cannot help falling inexorably in love with?

Here, the said relationship is a childhood marriage that the girl's mother had revolted against, and declared null and void, bringing the family to town and making the girl forget about it in course of education and normal life. But it dies exist, and once the memory is back, it cannot be denied. Legally she coukd free herself, but she finds an inexplicable bond drawing her, and she is uncertain of her duty, the right choice to make.

And then she turns to the old grandmother who had conducted that marriage. The grandmother asks her, what if you do marry the young man you now met, and then you meet someone who attracts you, and you fall in love with him?

That the film is beautifully made, is a bonus, as is the superlative young pair. And the music.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jSuBte1lZWU

Arogya Niketan

Arogya Niketan

Shubhendu Bandopadhyay, Bikash Roy, Ruma Guha Thakurta


When one first saw this film, it came across to begin with as a typical duel between old and new, tradition and knowledge. Until there was a turn where wisdom appeared, and courtesy, and knowledge that was hard earned with experience and sacrifices of pleasures, all wrapped up in the old tradition! It was a beginning of revelation, then. A subsequent viewing, equally by chance, but more attentive this time, brought out much more.

There was the loneliness deep in the cold lives of each character, with only one who knew who everyone was and hoped to find the bonds that existed, to make a home. This loneliness was long accepted by the old couple with open eyed courage by one, grief of the mother by her, and by the young grandson with his pride holding him up despite the smarting of rejection that in fact was non existent - the old couple simply were unaware of the bonds!

And then, the climactic scene on the train station no longer seems so outrageously sentimental but is in fact all natural, and nor is it the climaxvafter all - that epithet belongs rightfully, when seen with a deeper perception, to the finale where the old man takes leave of his wife, telling her he isnt after all leaving her alone - he's brought her daughter in law, her grandson and his young new wife, to make a home with her. She never was alone, one realises, with all the depth of her husband's understanding of her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0bhz0TNTio

Shilpi

Shilpi

Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Sikharani Bag


Heart rending film. The conflicts are all together here - poor vs rich, rural vs urban, high strata vs mere artist, love of two sensitive artists souls vs class conscious clans that won't allow stepping out, ... and the superlative pairing of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen.

Seeing the two together 35:00 - 40:30, its difficult to realise this was a film being shot, the two were speaking rehearsed lines, were not really in love as completely as they seem to be so obviously! And yet, one is watching a film, not being a disembodied spirit looking at a life!

Sikharani Bag, the younger artist who plays the younger Suchitra, is familiar from Agnipariksha, and is lovelier here with a slightly more extended scope.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LcWoPdNi8GU

Jana Aranya

Jana Aranya

by Satyajit Ray


Having read the work of literature this film is based on, long before seeing it, the surprise was why the renowned director would bring down the level of much more real, subtle work and instead go with a bold, filmy alternative - especially so in the climactic scene, where in the film the director chooses to have a conversation where the protagonist repeatedly tells his friend's sister that she can have the money without going through with having to satisfy his clent, and she refuses the pity and charity.

In the original work, his guilt devastated being is shown at the scene post this, where he sees his sister in law has discovered the gift, a saree, that she was supposed to be surprised with if he was successful getting his client to sign, and he pleads with her to not wear the saree, "it's dirty" he says, and she is stumped looking at it and saying, "no, it's not, why would you say so?"

But then reading Nashtaneed by Ravindranath Tagore and seeing Charulata, the Ray film based on it, one has to say the changes in this film are comparatively far less devastating.to the soul of the original work.

Why being self-labelled a leftist intellectual must make some itch quite so to destroy the beauty inherent and replace it with an ugliness that wasn't there in the first place, is perhaps a far bigger subject of study.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWrXERdiIaE

Charulata

Charulata by Satyajit Ray, Based on Nashtaneed By Ravindranath Tagore,
With Madhabi Mukherjee, Saumitra Chatterjee


If one knew nothing about Ravindranath Tagore and his works, if one weren't enamoured by his writing and didn't care about changes made for the worse by a renowned director just to say he can, then one can sincerely say that this film is quite good.

But the original story is so innocent, so filled with beauty that the changes here not only destroy but do so quite deliberately and viciously, just to go from an unfortunate consequence of circumstances to a conscious decision by a young adult married woman to take steps in a direction she knows she should not, that one cannot possibly say both are equally good. One cannot love a live person and dissect that one's lifeless cadaver just to create a work of art to frame for show.

Why being self-labelled a leftist intellectual must make some itch quite so to destroy the beauty inherent and replace it with an ugliness that wasn't there in the first place, is perhaps a far bigger subject of study. And Ray has done it elsewhere too, but this one is the worst in this regard.

Ray was a celebrity that no one dare speak against without being labelled with most derogatory epithets beginning with a whole basket of whatever is thought of as opposite of intellectual, but in reality he never got the fair impartial criticism his work deserved, for the two reasons related to his first lauded and much awarded film Pather Panchali - West lauded and awarded that one for the same reason they did the more recent Slumdog Millionaire, which in both cases was because India is shown as poor, starving, etcetera.

West would like to wipe out the reality of history, which is that colonial invaders came to loot, not out of charity, and this merciless looting was the reason India was reduced to the starving land replete with what were euphemistically labelled famines, but were thefts by the colonial regime to the tune of allowing over a million deaths in India while the harvest they had was stolen to feed the British soldiers.

That was bad enough, but refusing to allow the aid ships from US sent to India to proceed further than Australia, was the far more deliberate decision, and if that wasn't bad enough, it was accompanied with a comment about it being of no consequence if "natives" starved in millions in India since India had no reason to be saved. This was later repeated, much more explicitly, by a republican president who instructed to the effect that if necessary, let India die, save pakis. Of course, that was the military bases for use against USSR that they needed kept camouflaged as a country.

So Ray was lauded, applauded and awarded for his Pather Panchali in West, and India promptly followed suit in doing so, defying him to the level where he probably was almost embalmed alive. Colonial slave mindset flourished after independence since it was supposedly indicative of how friendly India was post victory in having chased away the British without firing a shot. That none of this was quite true was conveniently kept under the rug, to the level most believed every part of the fabric of lies.

Charulata, meanwhile, was assassinated without any lament, from the original very young teenage and a naive wife of a much older decent man, to a conscious adult aware of her adulterous feelings and one who acts on them as far as she can under the circumstances.

In short, Ray murdered original Nashtaneed by Tagore.  Another copy of the film on yt, where hopefully this comment won't be gotten rid of, below:-

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SVuZLVrPq98


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QO5uSqmxQdA

Pathey Holo Deri

Pathey Holo Deri

Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen


First three quarters of an hour and a few minutes more, the film is sheer beauty and delight. Beautiful setting of Darjeeling that begins with the reverie the doctor goes into, when the nurse asks him how long he will be so caring of just this one patient, and indeed their being completely given to one another is so obvious even as she is a patient of his! Beautiful pair! And they were so well tuned, too, apart from each being superlative artist individually.

The first two songs, Palash Ar Krishna Chura Sajiya Tuli and Tumi Na Hoy Rahite Kaachhe are a slight surprise, since we as this pair's connoisseur audience are used to her natural beauty. But in this film, this song anyway, presumably early in her career, she has more than resemblance with the senior beauty, Kanan Devi,
and here she has been given rather heavy make up, to perhaps accentuate that similarity. This was and perhaps still is a natural tradition, in that new artists often are made to imitate or copy their current top of the rung colleagues, in looks and style, until they come into their own. The thumbnail though is herself, as is she more of in another song Ae Shudhu Gaaner Din.

Thereafter, though, there is the shock of a sudden drop to earth, what with the grandfather discovering the new couple just after he promised her hand to a friend's son, and impressing it on them that they are financially unsuitable to one another. She is of sterner stuff though, and fights back with everything she has as best as she knows how.

Here, in the reaction and behaviour of the grandfather, comes a curious fact to the fore, clear in view for the unblinkered.

Indian caste system has been so abusively maligned, so much false propaganda against it has been spread around without allowing any real unprejudiced view of facts, that few realise that caste is not a word invented for India, much less in or by India, and caste systems exist everywhere in the world. The only difference is, the system itself - everywhere else, it is based on not only birth and is impossible to transcend, but is based on power and wealth, land possession and titles, race and faith, colours of skin and physical features, gender, and last but not the least, profession. What's more, the earthly desirables such as wealth and property and power are usually in hands of the top castes with a pyramid structure, and they share the top positions in any professions including priesthood. And marriages across castes are abhorred, as was any possibility of allowing a low caste genius to be included in high caste society - examples, the Battenberg history of being considered inadmissible to royals due to a morganatic marriage, and the resistance and veto against Michael Faraday being admitted to Royal Society, respectively.

It's only India where the sole basis of the structure is category of work and professions, with power and wealth being relegated to separate castes, neither at the top, while the two top castes were not allowed to charge for services rendered but instead only accept offerings, normally. The words "Brahmin " and "poor" almost always were associated, but even the royalty was only on par with all the warrior caste. And when it came to arranging a match, if the couple managed it themselves that was final, but if arranged, wealth wasn't a consideration, instead the family and it's level of culture were.

This was so until the colonial occupations changed things for the worse, as evidenced in this film. Here the grandfather represents a westernised strata of Bengal that through centuries of Islamic occupation has been used to landholding and property being considered a criteria, and that comes to fore as he lets loose his disdain at first encounter against the brilliant doctor from a poor family who, going by Indian caste system, should have been seen as not only an appropriate candidate for the match but a desirable one.

Elsewhere in India, even at that time, where invaders' cultures were less entrenched in society, his family being that of a poor school teacher would be no criteria whatsoever for an objection, as it was here, and taken so for granted too. Therein the germ of the story, that could only happen in a society that not only experienced occupation by invading cultures but accepted them and changed in parts, albeit not completely, with them.

Funny, it is less than half an hour before the end when the no longer quite so poor, now well qualified and more, but still humiliated by the old rich man, doctor meets the love of his life, and even though there is much more to come, it isn't happy circumstance, still, one suddenly feels all shall be well - they had a very ancient tradition approved Gandharva Vivaaha, after all, with the Himaalayan ranges, Abode of Gods, as witness!

And she is far more beautiful without the makeup, as in the last few minutes, meant to be looking deathly sick - which one can believe only due to her performance.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GPYFojb68Cg


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng-8Og-RxGo

Ora Thakey Odhare

Ora Thakey Odhare

Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen

How very young the royal pair of bengali cinema looks in this, and yet how good they are, individually and even more so together! Seeing them together one can understand all too well what she meant when, someone having asked why she stopped working after his demise, said - one can't act opposite a blank wall, after all, can one!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cWtj-7YrLfk

Sagarika

Saagarikaa

Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen 


This is yet another film which was remade in Hindi, with the name Prem Patra, and that remake by the superb filmmaker Bimal Roy had some changes from this original, perhaps to simplify the theme.

To begin with here the setting is a medical college, which in the remake was just a college, and the aspiring bright young man there was a budding scientist instead of the whole lot here that are doctors in making.

Here the question of the young man being attracted is a little more complex, rather than the simple one in remake about a love letter from the young man being considered a grave insult to the dignity of the young woman.

Here, instead, it's a jilted young woman who finds what she thought was hers by right, heart of someone she thought should belong to her, being instead given to another, and even though it's still just a nascent poetic feeling on part of the young man, she actively spreads the story that is likely to hurt both the innocent people.

Wonder how much this young artist 5:09 (Namita Singha), who is a major part of the story until the young doctor leaves to go abroad, and is seen when he is dreaming singing Aamaar Swapne Dekha Raajakanyaa, had her success due to a vivid similarity with Vivien Leigh!

At 34:00 - 40:00 however, the story is different from the remake. Here the young man is engaged to someone from a neighbourhood village who happens to be a first cousin of his colleague the "Princess seen in dreams", the engagement entered into as an arrangement whereby he is sent abroad by the prospective father in law, and the fiancee sent to town to live with her first cousin so she can learn to be an appropriate consort for the educated bridegroom - except another doctor falls in love with her even as her letters to the bridegroom are in fact written on her behalf by the cousin!

The remake is far simpler, if memory serves right.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ5z685irlg

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wU8CdsOyDvg

Jeevan Trishna

Jeevan Trshnaa

Suchitra Sen, Uttam Kumar, Chhaya Devi, Vikas Roy  


Vaguely recall having seen this a while ago, with its complex storyline but satisfying end. Some lovely shots of a bygone era of Calcutta with more empty spaces, more skyline and trees, than could be seen later.

And the ubiquitous train so loved by Bengal filmmakers, except here it's neither in distance nor across fields, nor the attractive symbol of the unknown it's rushing to, or even of modern world intruding on an eternal steady agrarian life, but an intruder spewing fumes of coal smoke - the train is of the era prior to diesel and steam - and darkening horizons, giving one anxiety about the clean white clothes the beautiful woman wears and the wash she hangs out on the terrace.

Generally the theme running through this isn't uncommon to films of that time whether Bengali or those of the less commercially Hindi ones, about the gulf between rich and their no less associates not exactly of slums but still struggling to make ends meet and yet maintaining a life of dignity, of a middle class self respect and respectability, and the clashes of sensibilities that ensue.

Wonder who the beautiful artist dancing 37:00 - 37:59 is. It isn't Dipti Roy, that is the beautiful one playing mother of the small boy. Geeta Pal, Sadhana Raychaudhury?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3I8Z6BXBR3w

Saptapadi

Saptapadi

Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Chhabi Biswas, Chhaya Devi


Superlative performances by the superlative artists, as usual. But the script here gives more opportunity for them to do their best.

Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen the eternal romantic pair. Uttam Kumar playing a padre doctor who goes into a reverie with a shock seeing the woman brought in alcoholic stupor is someone he knows, Suchitra Sen, and recalls their history as he knew it, beginning with a football match where she, Anglo, cheered the opposite team and was furious when he, Bengali Indian, scored a goal. Their feud escalating, her western sophistication vs his traditional Hindu culture, the two in hostel in medical college in Calcutta, turning into a romance when he plays Othello to her Desdemona perfectly. The performance turns their animosity to love.

Her father, very Brit to the core, agrees to accept him as son in law, provided he converts. She, with her roots in India, her mother still wearing old fashioned style saree, disagrees strongly.

The debate at 1:28:00 on between the couple is interesting, in that it's about nature of faith. His willingness to convert is based in his perception of there being no difference between how one worships Divine, which fundamentally belongs to the faith he'sbrought up in! She on the other hand asserts that ones faith is part of one's being, and giving up perforce is changing oneself.

Here it's even evident, without saying so, that brought up as she is in her father's faith, she has nevertheless strong roots that go with her mother's, and she is concerned about his father not accepting their match.

This attraction to the Indian traditional life and culture is a recurring theme in much of bengal literature dealing with the reformed, westernised, Brahmo Samaj social sections. Here it's about the dilemma of an Anglo Indian, about the duality of roots vs bringing up.

The then prevalent left leaning thinking of the time in the region, unfortunately, portrays not only the Indian tradition but the Deities too in a light that can only be described as unfavourable, a point of view of an outsider rather than that of India, accepted as reform by some of the society that was influenced by the logic of conquistadores of power being superior in thought too, and subjects being perforce wrong. This thinking couldn't be more incorrect, lead as it dies to denigration of victims and elevation of brutal to pedestals completely undeserved, as evidenced with holocaust, and with the travails of India, but most of all, with the misogyny that prevails through much of the world, chiefly so in abrahmic faiths.

His father's opposition to their match is stronger, and he reminds her that their marriage will deprive their children along with the couple, of their place in his society. She is brought up in a very English house as a completely English girl, with a lifestyle to match, but is nevertheless is far from unaware of either the realities of the society or of her place in it. She counters with her confidence in her ability to make up for everything with love, but he reminds her that eventually it's likely she will be held responsible for their being outcast.

His pleading with her behind the son's back to let him alone, not deprive him of his son - his only child - in his old age, has effect. She promises she will remove herself from the life of her love. The strange and yet natural interaction at this point, in the twisted, yet natural reaction where the old man, in his relief, showers her with his love and blessings with his hand over her head, just as she had needed and deserved as a daughter, but only because she has promised not to be, is heart breaking. She promises she will leave and no longer be in his son's life, promising him what he wants, everything he asksfor including keeping this reason for breaking up a secret from him, a bit of Camille without the question of character.

Funny part is, neither of the four - the couple and the two father's- have really tried to get at the core of this twisted knot. Her father won't consent to the match unless he converts, his father can only see the devastation brought them by the exile from his society, she can see no point in the marriage if he converts, and he has converted before she could persuade him not to!

He is already converted before she promised his father she'll no longer be in his life, though, and she's shocked to the core. Here one begins to get an inkling that their love went beyond the normal attraction of young, and that deep to their cores they wanted the other with the "other"ness that was a world away across a glass wall they could only see through but not break - a crossing would amount to leaving one's own world forever behind. He was willing to do this, but she wanted a different solution, not where he was deprived of his own.

Secular solution? He is ordained as a priest, after she gave in to his father's plea and gave up on their life together. But here the author's rising above the normal indoctrination of any sort comes through, and realities of the other side are revealed - when she returns to her father with a decision of being a nun, she's informed by him that she has no religion, that the servant quietly always with her is her Hindu Bengali mother, and the father has no intention of ever giving her her rightful place or allowing the daughter to leave - so the mother dies of the shit meant for the daughter within minutes of the revelation. That, in a microcosm, is the Anglo Indian identity personified.

It isn't until the confrontation post his reverie which tells the story as much as he knows, that one realises this is set in WWII - she is in uniform. He is serene despite the pain of having been abandoned by her, and her pains are alive, she is now an atheist in the twist and he is perhaps no longer so. And here again the twist, of his father writing to him about her having risen in his esteem due to her sacrifice, which reaches the son past their second separation in midst of war.

Written by the renowned author Tarashankar Bandopadhyay.

Wonder if the glitches belong to the author? Doubt it.

At 40:45 - 45:45, after she throws a coconut at him, with leaves sprouting, he catches it deftly, takes of the fibrous covering that the raw coconut comes in straight from the tree, cracks it over his head, uses his fists to twist it open, and proceeds to eat it along with his friend - with no sign of the coconut water either dripping anywhere or enjoyed by either of them! This throws a puzzle for most people familiar with a fresh coconut, as to whether they come without coconut water in Bengal.

Who is the beauty in the frame 47:00 - 47:30?

Who plays Amy, the bride of John 1:00:00 - 1:00:51?


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KOG6HFhQK90

Thana Thekey Aschhie

Thana Thekey Aschhie

Madhabi Mukerjee, Uttam Kumar, Anjana Bhowmik



Looking at the thumbnail one would never have a clue how black this film is, between mystery - was it suicide, was it murder, who did it - and the then prevalent leftist diatribe of generally Bengal, specifically Bengal literature, that affected the films of the time, but which seems appropriate here until one questions it. One wouldn't, if one took it for granted that the world lived in this two pole struggle of West and left. But India isn't that simple, and reducing it to such black and white diminishes her wealth of cultural heritage.

For one, the easy treatment given to the rape of the main character by the fiance of the rich girl is based in an ethical assumption rooted in the droit de seigneur, something taken for granted in West and most of the world outside India, but not in cukture of India - not that it couldn't have hapoened, but that it needs moral defense, and the only possible one is him marrying her. This is all the more so since she is obviously from a decent family, albeit poor and in need of work to support herself.

The lover who wants to marry her but is easily waylaid by his father's tricky offer to send him abroad, bares less of responsibility in her descent from life to death, than either his parents or his sister, who are each responsible for a major part, but far less than the fiance. It all comes out into open only when a police inspector arrives, questioning each, and finally leaving them all guilty.

Uttam Kumar playing the mysterious inspector is superb as usual. Mysterious, because the police station he said he was from, denies his existence, and informs them that they have sent someone. The film ends with ringing of a doorbell and a view of the dead young woman in the mortuary. So his identity remains a mystery. One of them says he was their conscience, but then collective conscience couldn't play them quite so well.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7EpVAKSNRkM

Nishipadma

Nishipadma

Sabitri Chatterjee, Uttam Kumar

Quoted from the blurb:-

" .... Nishi Padma is a 1970 Bengali drama film written and directed by Aravinda Mukherjee, .. based on a short story Hinger Kochuri by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, and starring Uttam Kumar and Sabitri Chatterjee as leads. The film had music by Nachiketa Ghosh, and went on to win two awards at the 1970 National Film Awards: Manna Dey won Best Male Playback Singer for "Ja Khushi Ora Bole", while Sandhya Mukherjee won the Best Female Playback Singer for "Ore Sakol Sona Molin Holo"."

This original has much natural and real to it, lending it a beauty and a heartbreaking quality, that changed to glamour and artifice in the Hindi remake, a loss for the general viewers. This original has a soothing quality to the music and singing, the performance of Uttam Kumar, and a reality to the setting, to the being and dressing and performance of Sabitri Chatterji, that's mostly missing from the Hindi remake with its glamourised dress and makeup replacing the real portrayals of the Bengali original.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fedber6VlyA

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QtB3PCJTW3c

Grhadaaha

Grhadaaha

Suchitra Sen, Uttam Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Sabitri Chatterji, Pahari Sanyal

Based on work of Sharatchandra Chattopaadhyaay.


Still remember reading this, about '68 or so, and it seems the film was fresh at the time, which one wasn't aware of then. Now, one comprehends various factors, much more, far better, than at that time. Then, one knew some things only in name.

Even then, though, it was obvious the story is about the confusion, of love and ego and more, which led to destruction of a home due to lack of restraint; now, it's clear that the lack of restraint, and more, active step taken of deception and opportunity to literally kidnap the object of passion, lies with one character.

Much still is a surprise, or at least new. For example the treatment meted to Brahmo Samaj people by the old traditionalists, almost on par with foreigners or those of other faiths, is so unlike that one is aware of for example accorded Aryasamaj in Punjab,  or similar other reformists elsewhere, but perhaps thats merely one's lack of awareness. Still, with time those things changed and perhaps literature like this was part of the change, in showing a mirror to society.

This work, like many others around the time, deal with the newly established Brahmo Samaj and it's adherents, with particular focus on the factor that was the most revolutionary - the educated, relatively modern way the daughters were brought up, and the turmoil caused when there was a love and marriage between such a young women and a man brought up in old traditions, particularly if the man happened to live in rural settings.

Here the additional factors are but natural - a wealthy, urban, urbane friend of the guy who falls in love with the woman at first sight, an old fashioned young woman in the village who grew up with the guy but was married not to him but to someone else and, as often in village social,life, is a familiar person in the household taking care of it along with her own. Rest, involving love vs ego and realities vs misunderstandings, is where the great author's skill comes in.

Credit must be given to the author for the choice of character at fault - not the Brahmo Samaj father and daughter, who follow ethics not for sake of tradition but for sake of ethics; not the rural traditional woman, who is goodness personified; not the young rural husband (of the urban Brahmo woman), who is somewhere between saintly aand Godly with his serene, good, giving self; but the wealthy urban friend of the husband, who decides at a critical juncture to take the step that hurls the two out of their safety zones, by literally kidnapping the young wife of his friend.

Some unexpected surprises - such as the huge difference between traditions of one region and another. For example, elsewhere Ekaadashie is a day of fasting, not enforced but of optional choice, and Hindus in most of India have most traditionally at least avoided non vegetarian food partaking this day. Other options vary from eating only once to consuming only fruits and dairy to fasting without water, and of course any of it, or treating it like any other day, are options. Here, the traditional young woman tells the Brahmo Samaj one, that it's Ekaadashie, and she as a married woman shouldn't fast but must go eat a meal of fish and rice, however small or otherwise quantity she can! 

How very appropriate this film's casting, is apparent right from the beginning - and so of course is how well they have each, all, done performing their roles.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p6h1IYfEvHY

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oasmhTVhOGo

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5znmcZhaeOk

Music and Poetry of India, from films, to Love and Cherish

Jyoti kalash chhalke.

.Lata Mangeshkar_Sudhir Phadke_Pt.Narendra Sharma..a tribute

The indescribable quality here so simply shining in this song, the beauty of simplicity, of purity and bliss and light, was later in HAHK, and too in some other films of the b&w era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGgkXgZXJT8
.........................................................................................................................
 
Lata Mangeshkar - Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo (Live Performance)

Quintessential lyrics that captured the time and encapsulated those months for ever, the song that brings the nation together more than any other!

Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon

Lata Mangeshkar

ऐ मेरे वतन के लोगों
तुम खूब लगा लो नारा
ये शुभ दिन है हम सब का
लहरा लो तिरंगा प्यारा

पर मत भूलो सीमा पर
वीरों ने है प्राण गँवाए
कुछ याद उन्हें भी कर लो
कुछ याद उन्हें भी कर लो
जो लौट के घर ना आये
जो लौट के घर ना आये

ऐ मेरे वतन के लोगों
ज़रा आँख में भर लो पानी
जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी
ज़रा याद करो क़ुरबानी

ऐ मेरे वतन के लोगों
ज़रा आँख में भर लो पानी
जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी
ज़रा याद करो क़ुरबानी

तुम भूल ना जाओ उनको
इसलिए सुनो ये कहानी
जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी
ज़रा याद करो क़ुरबानी

जब घायल हुआ हिमालय
खतरे में पड़ी आज़ादी
जब तक थी साँस लड़े वो
जब तक थी साँस लड़े वो
फिर अपनी लाश बिछा दी

संगीन पे धर कर माथा
सो गये अमर बलिदानी
जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी
ज़रा याद करो क़ुरबानी

जब देश में थी दीवाली
वो खेल रहे थे होली
जब हम बैठे थे घरों में
जब हम बैठे थे घरों में
वो झेल रहे थे गोली

थे धन्य जवान वो अपने
थी धन्य वो उनकी जवानी
जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी
ज़रा याद करो क़ुरबानी

कोई सिख कोई जाट मराठा
कोई सिख कोई जाट मराठा
कोई गुरखा कोई मदरासी
कोई गुरखा कोई मदरासी
सरहद पर मरनेवाला
सरहद पर मरनेवाला
हर वीर था भारतवासी

जो खून गिरा पर्वत पर
वो खून था हिंदुस्तानी
जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी
ज़रा याद करो क़ुरबानी

थी खून से लथ-पथ काया
फिर भी बन्दूक उठाके
दस-दस को एक ने मारा
फिर गिर गये होश गँवा के

जब अन्त-समय आया तो
जब अन्त-समय आया तो
कह गए के अब मरते हैं
खुश रहना देश के प्यारों
खुश रहना देश के प्यारों
अब हम तो सफ़र करते हैं
अब हम तो सफ़र करते हैं

क्या लोग थे वो दीवाने
क्या लोग थे वो अभिमानी
जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी
ज़रा याद करो क़ुरबानी

तुम भूल न जाओ उनको
इस लिये कही ये कहानी
जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी
ज़रा याद करो क़ुरबानी

जय हिन्द जय हिन्द
जय हिन्द की सेना
जय हिन्द जय हिन्द
जय हिन्द की सेना

जय हिन्द जय हिन्द जय हिन्द

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyPozsx_6M
.........................................................................................................................

Jeevan Dor Tumhi Sang Bandhi - Sati Savitri - Lata Mangeshkar


Incredibly beautiful song, old classic, old memories!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww6BYhEDlrI
.........................................................................................................................


Sakhi Ri Sun Bole Papihaa Us Paar - Classical song from Miss Mary


Incredibly sweet, beautiful! And justly so. As to comparing and going this one better, no that one, that's as silly as standing at Prayaag and quarreling about Gangaa vs Yamunaa, which fits this celestial pair of singers very well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4pUsBHbZpQ
.........................................................................................................................


SAAJAN BIN NEEND NA AAVE - LATA MANGESHKAR JI (RARE SONG) - MUNIM JI (1955) - SAHIR - S D BURMAN


Lovely song! Funny, one doesn't remember this one at all, didn't play on radio much then. Several classical songs did, so perhaps this was edited out of the film? Few people then had records, so film watching and listening to radio were the source. And latter depended on people writing to ask the song to be played, so -


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNPgEzr8CwI
.........................................................................................................................


KETAKI GULAB JUHI - MANNA DEY -BHIMSEN JOSHI - SHAILENDRA -SHANKER JAIKISHAN ( BASANT BAHAR 1956)

It was probably about this song that Manna Dey spoke, about how he was apprehensive, and Bhimsen Joshi reassured him, and said - dont worry, we'll have you win!

Or was there more than one song with the two great artists?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FseICrhx-W0
................................................................................................................................

O Sajanaa - Lata Mangeshkar

Beauty in it's complete manifestation as understood by India is in this beautiful song, with simplicity at soul, lyrical, musical, and easily understood by heart. Colour and race, makeup and expense are irrelevant, the beauty is of the young woman, in the simplest saree and no other dressing up such as jewellery, hums to herself longing for her mate as rain falls. Love of rains, so natural to India, is at heart of the whole experience of beauty here. And every facet of this is perfectly crafted, too - lyrics, music, picturisation of the simple young woman in the porch of her simple little home!

Anyone dares to claim India has racism, show this and ask, where, exactly? For this much can be a safe bet - anyone understands the total experience of beauty here, has either the capability to rise above racism, or is from India. And when someone has risen above, the vision stays, just as memory of golden sun lighting up the white peaks and ranges of the lofty abode of snow, Himaalaya, sinks deep in psyche forever long past one's return to plains far away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTl3-F24thk
......................................................................................................................... 


Tumse Hi Ghar Ghar Kahlaya.. Mukesh - Narendra Sharma - Sudhir Phadke..


Incredible remake of an incredibly superb original Marathi film, Vahininchya Bangadya".

As great as artist Meena Kumari was, she didnt have a cakewalk in this film. She had said in an interview that when she signed the film, she watched the original, and was quite daunted at the task of having to match up to the artist who performed the character in the Marathi original film.

Even for this song, the poet probably didn't have an easy task trying to match the original "Tu Nasatis Tar".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQrSxRzNvFU
.........................................................................................................................


Zindigi Dene Wale... (Dil-e- Nadan)


Bekhata toune mujhse khushi chheen lee,
Zindaa rakhaa magar zindagi chheen lee,
Kar diya dil ka khoon,
Chup kha tak rahoon,
Saaf kyu na kahoon,
Tou khushi se meri dar gayaa!

True about some humans who demand lifelong slavery in exchange for having contributed a moment to giving life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F7fUys1qRY
.........................................................................................................................


KAISE KOI JIYE ZAHAR HAI ZINDAGI - BAADBAAN  -1954 - BOTH VERSION -GEETA DUTT & HEMANT, TIMIR, S K PAL, INDEEVAR


Nice. Old memories brought back.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SBzvXaEdQWw

Elsewhere, on another YT video of the same song someone has posted,


This video is false, with song from Baadbaan - a very popular one and eduring popularity at that - song imposed on video of another source, and title falsely credits wrong name for the film. Baadbaan starred Ashok Kumar,  Dev Anand,  Meena Kumari, and Usha Kiran,  in the four major roles. This star was no where in the film.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe_YFawnfog
.........................................................................................................................

Ja main tose nahi bolu ..Lata Mangeshkar - Shailendra - Anil Biswas..tribute to the melody queen


That era, even what's now derogatorily termed as "item song" had this superlative quality, of both music and dance performance!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTcXSp2KvNs

......................................................................................................................... 


Rahi Matawaale - Talat Mehmood, Suraiya in Waris

Beautiful song and beautiful Suraiya, and memories - of a trek up mountain and coming down along a waterfall - that have little to do with either.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dS4jGtO0lT4
......................................................................................................................... 


Main Dil Hoon Ek Armaan Bharaa

Song : Main dil hoon ek armaan bharaa... Movie : Anhonee (1952), Singer-Talat Mehmood, Lyricist : Satyendra Athaiyya, Music Director : Roshanlal

Once in a few blue moons might such impossibly fabulous combination of talents happen to produce so incredibly beautiful a song with such a good artist for it's screen performance - lyrics, composition, voice, and the expressive incomparable Raj Kapoor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqpECqkBVzE
......................................................................................................................... 


Jab Tum Hi Nahin Apne, with Nayan Deewaane - and the original Shey din dujoney

Lovely hearing original after the adaptation, thanks to this video which doesn't feature the original footage due to unavoidable reasons. The latter version, along with

Jab Tum Hi Nahin Apne

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bE5BRpd0Uck

is so quintessentially Suraiya! And yet the original here, Ravindra Sangeet, even the same melody, has very different effect. Some to do with lyrics, some with tempo, but the singer's are both supreme and done justice to lyrics.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JbUprp2Ki3s



Song : nain deewane,nain deewane ek nahi maane..Sheydin Dujoney 

Movie :Afsar ,1950,
Singer : Suraiya ,
Lyricists : Pandit Narendra Sharma
Music Director : Sachin Dev Burman
Director : Chetan Anand
Cast : Dev Anand, Suraiya, Kanhaiya Lal, Ruma Devi, Rashid Khan, Zohra Sehgal, Krishan Dhawan, Manmohan Krishan, Anand Pal, Mohan Sehgal,
Production Co: Navketan,

Lyrics :-
nain deewane,nain deewane ek nahi maane
kare man mani, maane naa nain deewane
huye hai paraye, man haar aaye
man ka maram jane naa, maane naa, maane na
nain deewane kare man maani, maane na nain deewane

jana naa jana, man hi naa jana
chitavan saawan, banata nishana
kaisa nishana, kaisa nishana
man hi pahechane naa, mane naa, mane na
nain deewane ek nahin mane
kare man mani, maane naa nain deewane

jeevan beli, kare athakheli
jeevan beli, kare athakheli
maheke man ke bakul
preet phul phule, jhulaa jhule
chaheke man bul-bul, maheke man ke bakul
man kya jaane, kya hoga kal
dhaar samay ki baheti pal pal
jeevan chanchal, jeevan chanchal
din jaake phir aane na, maane na, maane na
nain deewane ek nahi maane
kare man mani, mane naa nain deewane...

Original:-

Sedin dujone dulechhinu bone..
Rabindra Sangeet
Singer : Hemant Kumar (Hemanta Mukhopadhyay)

Original Lyrics:-

সেদিন দুজনে দুলেছিনু বনে, ফুলডোরে বাঁধা ঝুলনা ।
সেই স্মৃতিটুকু কভু খনে খনে যেন জাগে মনে ভুলোনা ।
সেদিন বাতাসে ছিল তুমি জান- আমারি মনের প্রলাপ জড়ানো,
আকাশে আকাশে আছিল ছড়ানো তোমার হাসির তুলনা ।।
যেতে যেতে পথে পূর্ণিমারাতে চাঁদ উঠেছিল গগনে ।
দেখা হয়েছিল তোমাতে আমাতে কি জানি কি মহালগনে ।
এখন আমার বেলা নাহি আর, বহিব একাকী বিরহের ভার-
বাঁধিনু যে রাখী পরানে তোমার সে রাখী খুলো না, খুলো না।


Transcripted Lyrics :-

Sedin dujone dulechinu bone, phulodore baadha jhulona
sei sriti tuku kobhu khone khone, jeno jage mone, bhulo na.
se din batase chhilo tumi jano, amari moner prolap jorano
akashe akashe achhilo chhorano tomar hasir tulona
jete jete pothe purnima rate chand uthechhilo gagane
dekha hoyechhilo tomate amate ki jani ki mohalogone
ekhon amar bela nahi aar, bohibo ekaki biroher bhar
bandhinu je rakhi porane tomar, se rakhi khulo na, khulo na.


Translation

In the woods we swayed together on a flowered swing
The memory perpetually returns
never forget!
That day, the wind was laden by my chatter
Your silver laughter rang the skies.
On our way, the full moon became radiant
A great moment it was, when we met.
No more it is my time
I bear the pain alone.
(But) the rakhi I tied to your heart
don't ever remove -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbUprp2Ki3s&app=desktop

Responding to a comment below another video of the song:-

You never know if someone could find strength enough in future to break a word sworn and meanwhile the young guy had a life and couldn't be allowed by an elder brother to waste away in heartbreak. It wasn't Chetan Anand in the wrong! Yes, it would have been lovely if only they could have married, if only the others who disapproved hadn't informed the granny, if only the parents were stronger! Would have been good to see a beautiful couple so in love happy and have children beautiful like them. But even as it is, the love story remains unforgettable.

youtube.com - Nain Diwane Ek Nahin Mane-Afsar - Suraiya
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Bekaraar Hai Koi - Shammi Kapoor & Suraiya - Shama Parwana

Wonder who the beautiful companion is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSakjIe3e4o
......................................................................................................................... 


Aapse Pyaar Hua Jaataa Hai - Suraiya.
Film - Shama

Perfectly described in lyrics and expressed in music the state of being on verge of love and waves that irresistibly draw one deeper, with perfect performance by Suraiya vocally and visually !

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sC19dfAtZAA
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Ae Dil Na Mujhse - Badal 1951 Song - Madhubala - Prem Nath - Mukesh - Lata Mangeshkar

Lovely.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=saIVAVuIocs
.........................................................................................................................


Exquisite Beauty


Sakhi Ri Sun Bold Papihaa Us Paar

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e4pUsBHbZpQ


Shyaamsundara Roop Nayan - Lata Mangeshkar - Malkauns

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3IVJQXOhGSQ


Tu Hai Meraa Prem Devataa

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ET1BPuO_aG8


Preetam Daras Dikhao..Manna Dey - Lata - Rajendra Krishna - Madan Mohan..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=koCcAQKaKzU W

Main Sitaaron Kaa Taranaa | Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi Songs | Kishore Kumar | Madhubala

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob56hsABMts
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Mazandaraa, Mazandaraa - Talat Mahmood,  
RUSTOM SOHRAB - Prithviraj Kapoor, Suraiya

For years, decades, this song's refrain was at back of mind, with no clue that it was from this film seen about half a century ago or so, and it was only recently that much was understood better due to such internet benefits!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qVsC_n_xG2Y
......................................................................................................................... 


Dharti Kahe Pukaar Ke (HD) - Do Bigha Zamin Songs - Balraj Sahni - Meena Kumari - Manna Dey

Incredible film, incredibly superior performances. Balraj Sahni above all. He was so real, during break when he gave a Rs. 100 currency note to a paan vendor, the vendor was certain this rickshaw puller had stolen it. He called the policeman who was around.

At 1:45 spot Chitra, major star in Marathi films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD-AWCj9Chc
.........................................................................................................................

Dum Bhar Jo Udhar - Raj Kapoor - Nargis - Awaara - Mukesh - Lata Mangeshkar - Evergreen Hindi Songs


Funny, when one comprehend RK work, its a steep dose of quinine, which he has people ingesting knowing fully well it is so, because it's so heavily and yet attractively overcoated with honey and spice - which is completely in accord with Naatyashaastra!

Here in the perhaps his best work, and arguably best production only matched by Jaagte Raho, perhaps one of the best films ever, at that, this song and romance is what most people of course remember, and in fact repeatedly watch the film for; and yet, this song, the romance, are just the overstating of honey with spices. The real soul is the story of the mother and son - she abandoned for no fault of hers and striving to bring up a child all by herself in poverty and on brink of starvation, he forever anguished with the realisation he has to look after her and handicapped by first his young age, then his lack of education and being caught in a bad trap. The young woman who is draped in romance angle is in fact the only relief and hope, only support and aspiration for the tortured soul. In this respect her role is not that different from that in Jaagte Raho, only there it is more obvious.

And while there is no denying the romance angle of this song, a much more complex song with matching complex filming is the much less often remembered one before her birthday - the line "Ab Raat Guzaranewaalie Hai", with its overlaying of several completely different meanings, all just as much of anguish to the two characters as the obvious one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0J4IE7DkuQ

.........................................................................................................................


(Jaal) Yeh raat yeh chandni phir kahan - .S. D. Burman, Hemant Kumar


Eternal dilemma, between path and the blossoms lining it, distant peaks lit and gardens close, self and pangs of suffering desert. Superb film.

Several ways it's so very different from the then norm, the faultlessly beautiful hero plays an out and out villain who not only cheats the law but women as he goes along - credit to Dev Anand for playing this role without excuses added - and has every intention of cheating the heroine until he realises he's in love, the heroine who isn't shy but a working woman in primitive seafaring fishing and quite rambunctious but innocent until she is caught in the snare of this guy and makes a choice, and the beautiful music of course is cherry on top!

Funny, there seems a dearth of information about production, so it's probably not Navketan, and one name given of producer on internet is T. R. Fatechand, which sounds Gujarati, which makes the crew as pan India as can be.

Hero Dev Anand was from Punjab, as was the heroine Geeta Bali, although the story and location shooting was of southwestern coast, closer to the home region of director and script writer Gurudutt whose family was from Karnataka but his own early years having been in Bengal he was heavily influenced by the culture of Bengal. The music director of the film was S. D. Burman, from as much eastern edge of Bengal as it can get - his own family name being probably about ancestral roots from Burma, although his family was royal family of Tripura - and finally, the singer here is Hemant Kumar.

Hence the inclusion of this in the Bengal series here.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBw_JSiNF9c


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4GfUK9Urb6I

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dBw_JSiNF9c
................................................................................................................................

kabhi na kabhi kahin na kahin.. - Rajinder Krishan - Madan Mohan..


Long time since one heard this - those days it was often enough on radio, heard throughout neighbourhoods like fragrance of flowers and incense wafting out on breeze.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T4iOgKMV7HE
.........................................................................................................................


LATPAT LATPAT TUJHA CHAALAN GA … SINGER, LATA MANGESHKAR … FILM, AMAR BHUPALI (1951)

Did nobody else realise how this original gem was copied by the famous film maker in Hindi, with nonsensical lyrics and a few Marathi words thrown about, like sprinkling coconut and kothimbir on a rajma hamburger and calling it Marathi!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L72j6tHdwMk
.........................................................................................................................


Aasman Wale Teri Duniya Se Jee Ghabaraa Gaya..

Lata_Talat_Laila Majnu1953..a tribute

Lyricist: Shakeel Badayuni,
Music Director: Ghulam Mohammad,
Director: K Amar Nath,
Producer: P N Arora,
Cast: Shammi Kapoor, Nutan, Ulhas, Begum Para, Ratan Kumar, Kammo, Vasti,
Production : All india pictures,
Lyrics :-

aasman wale teri duniya se ji ghabra gaya
aasman wale teri duniya se ji ghabra gaya
char din ki chandani me gam ka baadal chha gaya
aasman vaale teri duniya se ji ghabra gaya

aasman vaale teri duniya se ji ghabra gaya
aasman vaale teri duniya se ji ghabra gaya
jal gaya dil soz-e-gam se, jab koi yad aa gaya
aasman vaale teri duniya se ji ghabra gaya

aag me phulo ki duniya ne mera tan rakh diya
aag me phulo ki duniya ne mera tan rakh diya
ek murde ko sajaakar naam dulhan rakh diya
bol maalik ye tamaasha tujhse kyun dekha gaya
aasman vaale teri duniya se ji ghabra gaya

kis qadar naashad hu barbaad hu viran hu
kis qadar naashad hu barbaad hu viran hu
raham kar mujh par khudaya
raham kar mujh par khudaya, mai bhi ek insaan hu
maut hi de de ke ab, shikva zuba par aa gaya
aasman vaale teri duniya se ji ghabra gaya
char din ki chandani me gam ka baadal chha gaya
aasman vaale teri duniya se ji ghabra gaya..


Lesser known gems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb51L-ZXxqA
.........................................................................................................................

HAIN SABSE MADHUR WO GEET -TALAT MEHMOOD -SHAILENDRA-SHANKER JAIKISHAN (PATITA1953)


Her beauty was rarely appreciated as much as deserved, while his has only been as unappreciated officially as his work, by critics.

The verses of course are direct translation of the famous English poem

Our sweetest songs are those
That tell of saddest thoughts
We look before and after
And pine for what is not.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AMJ3yQ54dtE

.........................................................................................................................


Hum Kitna Roye... (Shin Shinaki Bubla Boo)

Mixed Visuals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqYGk-V9jrE
.........................................................................................................................


Ab Kahan Jaye Hum - Manna Dey - Ujala - Shammi Kapoor - Shankar Jaikishan


Makes one curious about this film, which was hardly ever talked or written about - as do most songs of this film.


Responding to a comment below the original YT video by

R.U.A KATTU?:-

"ये हमारा ख़्याल ही रहता है कि "पहले" का ज़माना  "आज"  के ज़मान से बेहतर था ।  महाभारत काल में भी (५००० साल पहले) भाई भाई का भरोसा नहीं कर सकते थे (कौरव-पांडव / कर्ण-अर्जुन / विभीषण-रावण), बच्चे ताया, मामा और चाचा का भरोसा नहीं कर सकते थे (धृतराष्ट्र-पांडव, मामा शकुनि..) , शिष्य गुरु का भरोसा नहीं कर सकता था (एकलव्य-द्रोणाचार्य) । केकैयी जैसी माँ और कंस जैसे मामा भी थे ।
चार में से दो बच्चों का मर जाना आम बात थी, टी.बी. के मरीज़ों को दूर ले जा कर मरने के लिये सैनिटोरियम में छोड़ दिया जाता था, दिव्यांग सिर्फ़ भीख ही माँग सकते थे, मानसिक रोगीियों को पागल घोषित कर के सड़क पर छोड़ दिया जाता था, अकाल आम बात थी .........   आदि आदि ।
आज  ज़माना    कुछ    बेहतर  ही  हुआ  है     बदतर   नहीं  : औरतें उठ खड़ी हुई हैं, लड़कियाँ दबंग हुई हैं, समाज कल्याण की संस्थायें कुछ काम करती हैं ..... आदि आदि ।"


Jaynt Sanjay:-

"kuch bhi ,kuch bhi likh dete ho? pehle☺☺
Ek baar Ramayan or mahabharat padh lo baad me likho.
Ramayan me ravan ke liye uske saare bhai apni jaan de dete hai. or Ram ke bhaiyo ka to aap jaante ho.
mahabharat me duryodhan ke bhai uske liye jaan dete hai or paanch pandav ka pyar aap ko pata hoga."


What is recalled, and written in epics, are legendary conflicts amongst good and bad, civilising process and primal resistance. So past does look golden, when looking at Mahaabhaarata, but not so much post Prithviraj Chauhan until resurgence if India against invaders from time to time, in spirit and more. And yes, evolution is working to bring about better lives for all via greater consciousness, but it's not necessarily aligned with left. Finally, it's not always about brothers loving each other and parents while wives obey spouses regardless of all conscience. So women being wronged isn't to be tolerated silently, is the least one should derive from the great epics of India, before going pontificating about brothers being bad then or on the contrary exemplary.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FwRT_MfsPUY
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Jan-e-bahar husn tera..Shakeel Badayuni - Ravi..

Wonder which Raaga, or is it a mix? 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6dVti1YVwM 

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MANMOHANA ! BADE JHHOTHE -LATA -SHAILENDRA (SEEMA 1955)-SHANKER JAIKISHAN


Lovely song,  beautiful film.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7S_8HlKV40
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sajan sang kahe neha lagaye..Lata_Shailendra_S J..a tribute


Beautiful song! Old favourite, didn't know it was from this film.

Also, there is that sense of deja Vocus again, which one felt like one was having for another song of this film, Nazar Nazar Se. There it was the song. Different words, different tune, bar or restaurant instead of private party, but an attempted copy of Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh, all the same. Here, it's the general situation, the triangle of the simple Indian woman pining for the guy who's dancing and drinking in a bar with the westernized crowd with a woman that belongs in that crowd.

Wish someone would upload the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6YDWUduzQo
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Sakhiri Sun Bole Papiha Us Paar - Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale

Incredibly sweet, beautiful! And justly so. As to comparing and going "this one better, no that one", that's as silly as standing at Prayaag and quarreling about Gangaa vs Yamunaa, which fits this celestial pair of singers very well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4pUsBHbZpQ
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Saanwre Saanwre..Anuradha1960- Lata - Shailendra- Pt Ravishankar..a tribute

Wonder why is the beautiful second stanza

Gopi Gwaale, Dekhanewaale
Bin Vichaare Kahenge Saare
Pakadi Raadhaa ki chori

missing, was the record malfunctioning?

Responding to a comment below the original yt video about the eternal struggle of her to find her identity:-

It's far more complex than that - she was brought up lovingly in a wealthy home, and married for love, with her old life given up happily enough. It's only that she is far too lonely in the remote country home while her husband is busy treating patients and doing research in his lab at home, and has little time. If thus were in town or elsewhere where she had other things to occupy her, she might be less lonely, but chiefly she misses his attention. As he entreats her after she's decided to leave, he is aware he didn't have time for her, but had even less for himself, being busy keeping people alive! And she changes her mind about leaving, precisely because fame isn't important to her, love and home and family are. As for music, she can continue, only, it's still a lone country home surrounded by villages where he is needed. It's her decision to stay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=364vdw96Su4


This link above has ceased to exist for copyright reasons, however, there are others, given here.


Saanwre Saanwre..Anuradha1960- Lata - Shailendra- Pt Ravishankar..a tribute

ANURADHA (1960)
BALRAJ SAHNI, LEELA NAIDU, BABY BANO, MUKRI, NAZIR HUSSAIN, ASIT SEN, RASHID KHAN
Produced By: LB.FILMS
Directed By: HRISHIKESH MUKHERJEE
Music By: RAVI SHANKER


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VitQASqOC5E


 Film: Anuradha-- Saanware Saanware --Lata Mangeshkar (1960)
Film: Anuradha-- Saanware Saanware --
Lata Mangeshkar (1960)
Lyrics-Shailendra
Music Composition--Pt Ravishankar


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMJN6VXRou8
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Tere Bin Soone Nain Humare - Lata Mangeshkar - Meri Surat Teri Aankhen

Beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJnDIEKSPkk
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Woh Bhoolie Daastaan Lo Phir Yaad Aa Gayie

वो भूली दास्ताँ लो फिर याद आ गई


Beautiful song and beautiful Anita Guha.


वो भूली दास्ताँ लो फिर याद आ गई
नज़र के सामने घटा सी छा गयी वो भूली दास्ताँ...
कहाँ से फिर चले आये, ये कुछ भटके हुए साये
ये कुछ भूले हुए नग़मे, जो मेरे प्यार ने गाये
ये कुछ बिछड़ी हुई यादें, ये कुछ टूटे हुए सपने
पराये हो गये तो क्या, कभी ये भी तो थे अपने
न जाने इनसे क्यों मिलकर, नज़र शर्मा गयी
वो भूली दास्ताँ...

उम्मीदों के हँसी मेले, तमन्नाओं के वो रेले
निगाहों ने निगाहों से, अजब कुछ खेल से खेले
हवा में ज़ुल्फ़ लहराई, नज़र पे बेखुदी छाई
खुले थे दिल के दरवाज़े, मुहब्बत भी चली आई
तमन्नाओं की दुनिया पर, जवानी छा गयी
वो भूली दास्ताँ...

बड़े रंगीं ज़माने थे, तराने ही तराने थे
मगर अब पूछता है दिल, वो दिन थे या फ़साने थे
फ़क़त इक याद है बाकी, बस इक फ़रियाद है बाकी
वो खुशियाँ लुट गयी लेकिन, दिल-ए-बरबाद है बाकी
कहाँ थी ज़िन्दगी मेरी, कहाँ पर आ गयी
वो भूली दास्ताँ...


wo bhooli daastaan lo phir yaad aa gayi
nazar ke saamne ghataa si chhaa gayi
nazar ke saamne ghataa si chhaa gayi
wo bhooli daastaan lo phir yaad aa gayi

kahaan se phir chale aaye, ye kuchh bhatke huye saaye
ye kuchh bhoole huye naghme, jo mere pyaar ne gaaye
ye kuchh bichhdi huyi yaadein, ye kuchh toote huye sapne
paraaye ho gaye to kyaa, kabhi ye bhi to the apne
na jaane inse kyon milkar, nazar sharmaa gayi
wo bhooli daastaan lo phir yaad aa gayi

ummeedon ke haseen mele, tamannaaon ke wo rele
nigaahon ne nigaahon se, ajab kuchh khel se khele
hawaa mein zulf lahraayi, nazar pe bekhudi chhaayi
khule the dil ke darwaaze, muhabbat bhi chali aayi
tamannaaon ki duniyaa par, jawaani chhaa gayi
wo bhooli daastaan lo phir yaad aa gayi

bade rangeen zamaane the, taraane hi taraane the
magar ab poochhtaa hai dil, wo din the yaa fasaane the
faqat ik yaad hai baaki, bas ik fariyaad hai baaki
wo khushiyaan lut gayin lekin, dil-e-barbaad hai baaki
kahaan thi zindagi meri, kahaan par aa gayi
wo bhooli daastaan lo phir yaad aa gayi
nazar ke saamne ghataa si chhaa gayi
nazar ke saamne ghataa si chhaa gayi
wo bhooli daastaan lo phir yaad aa gayi
wo bhooli daastaan lo phir yaad aa gayi


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vwVqOiR193o
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Tower House (1962) - Aya Mere Dile Nadan Tu Gamse Na Gabharana -
Lata Mangeshkar (Full Song)

Once so familiar, heard now after decades!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui0fPCpl7g0
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Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai - Raj Kapoor - Mukesh,Manna Dey, Lata - Indian Patriotic Songs


This song is, in spirit, continuation of Dil Kaa Haal from Shri 420, but much wider in its grasp.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S2klnDakoRw
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Lag Ja Gale - Lata Mangeshkar

Eternal Dilemma of Human, trapped as ever in inexorable flow of Time, facing a moment of time fleeting by, never to return - unable to hold on, unable to stop it, indecisive about throwing oneself with it into flow of life, of Time!

https://thesongpedia.com/lag-jaa-gale-woh-kaun-thi/
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MAIN YE SOCH KER USKE DAR SE - RAFI - KAIFI AZMI - MADAN MOHAN ( HAQEEQAT 1964 )


Exquisite poetry, simple and subtle, pain of a lifetime of heartbreak in one word deceptively simple and hiding in the simple description of events leading to the devastating separation  - set to such beautifully simple, elegant melody, and filmed on a backdrop of lofty Himaalayan ranges with a desert at those heights in the forefront that matches the loneliness of life of the soldiers, alone together in guarding the borders of nation while their hearts are just as much of a desert on the backdrop of the lofty role they play in protection of their nation.

Who else but this team, Chetan Anand, Roshan and Kaifi Azmi!

It wasn't until much, much later that we realised this film wasn't hyperbole, however much well deserved, but plain and simple real story of the defence of Rezang La pass by a handful of Indian soldiers who defended it against a Chinese onslaught of a couple of thousand, or was it three, killing most of them and dying to the last man themselves - the tough conditions and the then not readiness of equipment of military of india, chiefly due to naively blinkered political philosophy of a gandhian aversion to military, had trapped this company into this circumstance,  and they had come through with such daunting valour!


गाना / Title: .....................मैं ये सोचकर उसके दर से उठा था -
चित्रपट / Film: Haqeeqat
संगीतकार / Music Director: मदन मोहन-(Madan Mohan)
गीतकार / Lyricist: Kaifi Azmi
गायक / Singer(s): मोहम्मद रफ़ी-(Mohammad Rafi)

मैं ये सोचकर उसके दर से उठा था
के वो रोक लेगी मना लेगी मुझको

हवाओं में लहराता आता था दामन
के दामन पकड़कर बिठा लेगी मुझको

कदम ऐसे अंदाज़ से उठ रहे थे
के आवाज़ देकर बुला लेगी मुझको

मगर उसने रोका
न उसने मनाया
न दामन ही पकड़ा
न मुझको बिठाया
न आवाज़ ही दी
न वापस बुलाया

मैं आहिस्ता आहिस्ता बढ़ता ही आया
यहाँ तक के उससे जुदा हो गया मैं ...


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLYEZ2uIrM
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AURAT NE JANAM DIYA MARDON KO - LATA - SAHIR - N DUTTA (SADHANA 1958)


Sahir excels here  -

aurat ne janam diyaa mardo.n ko
 mardo.n ne usse bazaar diyaa
 jab jii chaaha maslaa kuchlaa
 jab jii chaaha dhutkaar diyaa
 aurat ne janam diyaa mardo.n ko

tulatii hai kahii.n diinaro.n mei.n
 biktii hai kahii.n baazaaro.n mei.n
 nangii nachvaaii jaati hai
 aiyyasho.n ke darbaaro.n mei.n
 ye vo beizzat chiiz hai jo
 banT jaatii hai izzatdaaro.n mei.n
 aurat ne janam diyaa mardo.n ko

mardo.n ke liye har zulm ravaa.n
 aurat ke liye ronaa bhii khataa
 mardo.n ke liye laakho.n seje.n
 aurat ke liye bas ek chitaa
 mardo.n ke liye har aish ka haq
 aurat ke liye jiina bhii sazaa
 aurat ne janam diyaa mardo.n ko

jin hoTho.n ne unko pyaar kiyaa
 un hoTho.n ka byopaar kiyaa
 jis kokh mei.n inkaa jism Dhalaa
 us kokh kaa kaarobaar kiyaa
 jis tan se uge ko.npal ban kar
 us tan ko zalil-o-khaar kiyaa
 aurat ne janam diyaa mardo.n ko

mardo.n ne banaayi jo rasmein
 unko haq kaa farmaan kahaa
 aurat ke zindaa jalne ko
 qurbaani aur balidaan kahaa
 ismat ke badle roTi dii
 aur us ko bhii ehsaan kahaa
 aurat ne janam diyaa mardo.n ko

sansaar kii har ek besharmii
 gurbat kii god mei.n paltii hai
 chaklo.n hii mei.n aa kar ruktii hai
 phaako.n se jo raah nikalti hai
 mardo.n ki havas hai jo aksar
 aurat ke paap mei.n Dhalti hai
 aurat ne janam diyaa mardo.n ko

aurat sansaar kii qismat hai
 phir bhii taqdiir kii heThii hai
 avtaar payambar jantii hai
 phir bhii shaitaan kii beTii hai
 ye wo bad-qismat maa.n hai jo
 beTo.n kii sej pe leTi hai

aurat ne janam diyaa mardo.n ko
 mardo.n ne usse baazaar diyaa
 jab jii chaaha maslaa kuchlaa
 jab jii chaaha dhutkaar diyaa
 aurat ne janam diyaa mardo.n ko

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RSAjnqg7OeE
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Cryptic title - "This song was supposed to be impossible for human voice"

- and my comment is simply "Beautiful!"!!

Now, "the video is unavailable", so one has to guess!

"Kahin Deep Jale, Kahin Dil"?

https://youtu.be/SBenttZUT7A
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Hoon Abhi Main Jawan - Shakeela, Guru Dutt, Geeta Dutt, Aar Paar Song

Such an underappreciated gem, the song and the beautiful performer artist, both!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoESiBRIvok
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Zindigi Dene Wale Sun... Talat Mahmood (Dil-e- Nadan)

Bekhata toune mujhse khushi chheen lee,
Zindaa rakhaa magar zindagi chheen lee,
Kar diya dil ka khoon,
Chup kahaan tak rahoon,
Saaf kyu na kahoon,
Tou khushi se meri dar gayaa!

True about some humans who demand lifelong slavery in exchange for having contributed a moment to giving life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F7fUys1qRY
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Ritu Aaye Sakhi Re -
Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey -
HAMDARD - Nimmi,Shekhar,Smriti Biswas

Patajhada jaisaa Jeevana Beeta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIjGhDPMqSM
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Aa chal ke tujhe.. Kishor Kumar- Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein- Kishore da..


"Door Gagan kee Chhav Mein (1964),
Singer -Music Director, Lyricist ,Actor , Producer and Direction: The Great Kishore Kumar"

Says most of it; then hear the album, and the sheer superlative genius composer shines through!

There weren't many other multifaceted geniuses, even in that era of art over cash, that could match RK,  except this one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bNULRlWh1k

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Jin raaton ki bhor nahin hai..Kishore Kumar_Shailendra..Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein


What an immense genius this artist that composed the music here apart from singing, wish he'd composed more than just the few - three? four? - films that he produced!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC9pjy8jSOk

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Koi Lauta De Mere Beete Huye Din- Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein


What a composer! Here, the melody conveys both at once - the sense of loss and missing at present, of the joy of the old in the skipping, lilting of yore!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS9wKERopvE

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RAHI TU MAT RUK JAANA -ALL 3 PARTS-DOORGAGAN KI CHHAON MEIN -HEMANT KMR-SHAILENDRA-KISHORE KUMAR

Beautiful.

This song, this series of compositions by Kishore Kumar, for a series of films he wrote, produced, directed, performed on screen and sang for, deeply connects the Bengal sensibilities to the Hindi films, far more so perhaps than most other examples of works by Bengali artists - except when Bimal Roy and S. D. Burman worked together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZdEb29_TU4
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PANTHI HOON MAIN US PATH KA- DOOR KA RAHI - (1971) -KISHORE KUMAR -A IRSHAD

Beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdP3_1lU91s
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KHOYA KHOYA CHANDA - ASHA - SHAILENDRA - KISHORE (DOOR GAGAN KI CHHAON MEIN 1964)


Not only Asha Bhosale never sounded this sweet, before or after, but Supriya Chowdhury never looked so beautiful, so sweet.

Kishore Kumar was genius at music composition, as evident in all music he composed (which is three or four films, less than half a dozen certainly), especially in this one,  but his creative genius must be far more, like that of RK and Dev Anand, in every artist giving their best, or looking their best, or - as in case of the Venus of Indian film industry, Madhubala who was his beautiful second wife - looking her happiest and making it clear she was most beautiful when laughing, which was in films with him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAadoY6X6Ds
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PATH BHOOLA IK AAYA MUSAFIR - ASHA - SHAILENDRA - KISHORE (DOOR GAGAN KI CHHAON MEIN 1964)

Not only Asha Bhosale never sounded this sweet, before or after, as in this film, but Supriya Chowdhury never looked so beautiful, so sweet.

Kishore Kumar was genius at music composition, as evident in all music he composed (which is three or four films, less than half a dozen certainly), especially in this one,  but his creative genius must be far more, like that of RK and Dev Anand, in every artist giving their best, or looking their best, or - as in case of the Venus of Indian film industry, Madhubala who was his beautiful second wife - looking her happiest and making it clear she was most beautiful when laughing, which was in films with him.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMCvDdWD1a8

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Dil Ki Raahen 1973


रस्म-ए-उल्फ़त को निभाएं तो निभाएं कैसे
हर तरफ़ आग है दामन को बचाएं कैसे
रस्म-ए-उल्फ़त को निभाएं...
दिल की राहों में उठते हैं जो दुनिया वाले     -२
कोई कह दे के वोह दीवार गिराएं कैसे         -२
रस्म-ए-उल्फ़त को निभाएं...
दर्द में डूबे हुए नग़मे हज़ारों हैं मगर -२
साज़-ए-दिल टूट गया हो तो सुनाए कैसे      -२
रस्म-ए-उल्फ़त को निभाएं...
बोझ होता जो ग़मों का तो उठा भी लेते      -२
ज़िंदगी बोझ बनी हो तो उठाएं कैसे  -२
रस्म-ए-उल्फ़त को निभाएं...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PTXd3PWYKOA

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Ma Go Pother Klanti Bhule - Morutirtho Hinglaj - Hemanta Mukherjee


This is not the first time one is hearing this song, but often significance escape one until need arises.

If this doesn't wake up those blinkered and lulled by lies claiming India was never one, that Baluchistan is not part of india or never was, that Baloch are nit indian - nothing will, for they are not blinkered or lulled or asleep, merely pretending!

For a Bengali film to be titled Maruthirtha Hinglaj is as much indicative of those pronouncements against India's unity, as the fact related by Tarek Fateh about the Baloch defending the temple of Hinglaj Maataa, the reigning Goddess that is deity thereof ,from the assaults of jihadists and pakis.

This song, sung in the true Bhakti spirit of Baul and of Mother Goddess worship, features a small caravan on feet and some on camels, in pilgrimage to the Hinglaj Maataa temple, across the desert - presumably not a group of pilgrims that belong to the nearby region, since they are crossing a desert, and the song and scene are about pains thereof. This can only be the desert that spans much of Rajasthan and beyond, perhaps including the Gujarat border.

And whether the story, the scene, are about the people featured here being from Bengal or not, the film and the song and the verses are certainly Bengali. At least one character, an old woman, does seem Bengali,  and that makes the contention about unity of India far stronger - for thepilgrimage all the way from a green, water rich Bengal to a temple across not only a thousand miles but across also a severe desert with its horrendous heat, for an old woman to suffer to visit a temple, not certain of life in the process much less comfort, is only possible with an underlying unity of the culture, the soul.

When a song in a film with verses, music,  and artists performing the scene, the director and writer et al are all from Bengal,  and it's all about a group of Indian devotees on a painstaking pilgrimage across deserts of India, to reach Hinglaj Maataa temple,  questioning unity of India is merely the ex colonial conspiracy to divide and destroy.



পথের ক্লান্তি ভুলে স্নেহ ভরা কোলে তব
মাগো, বলো কবে শীতল হবো |
কত দূর আর কত দূর বল মা?

আঁধারের ভ্রুকুটিতে ভয় নাই,
মাগো তোমার চরণে জানি পাবো ঠাঁই,
আর আঁধারের ভ্রুকুটিতে ভয় নাই,
মাগো তোমার চরণে জানি পাবো ঠাঁই,
যদি এ পথ চলিতে কাঁটা বেঁধে পায়
হাসিমুখে সে বেদনা সবো।
কত দূর আর কত দূর বল মা?

চিরদিনই মাগো তব করুণায়
ঘর ছাড়া প্রেম দিশা খুঁজে পায়
ঐ আকাশে যদি মা কভু ওঠে ঝড়
সে আঘাত বুকে পেতে লবো।
কত দূর আর কত দূর বল মা?

যতই দুঃখ তুমি দেবে দাও
তবু জানি কোলে শেষে তুমি টেনে নাও,
মাগো যতই দুঃখ তুমি দেবে দাও
তবু জানি কোলে শেষে তুমি টেনে নাও,
মাগো তুমি ছাড়া এ আঁধারে গতি নাই
তোমায় কেমনে ভুলে রবো
কত দূর আর কত দূর বল মা?

পথের ক্লান্তি ভুলে স্নেহ ভরা কোলে তব
মাগো, বলো কবে শীতল হবো |
কত দূর আর কত দূর বল মা?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQWvaxRiykE

.........................................................................................................................

Aye Mere Pyare Watan - Bimal Roy - Salil Chowdhury - Kabuliwala Songs - Balraj Sahni, Usha Kiran - Manna Dey


Heart breaking portrayal of the loneliness of migrants, so subtly portrayed by the author, Tagore, in the short story Kabuliwaalaa, that was made into a Bengali film, and then this Hindi film produced and directed by the incomparable Bimal Roy, with music by Salil Chowdhury. And thus the deep bond here of this Hindi song, from a Hindi film, about an Afghan selling dry fruits in a city completely across the country from anywhere remotely close to his homeland.

The superbly expressive face of Balraj Sahni as the fellow Pathan sings about their homeland - and who played that other pathans, remains a mystery - compares in contrast with his attentive demeanour as he hears a Baul singing paens to Ganga on the banks of the river.

Who but Balraj Sahni, when expressing a character's travails, innermost turmoil, was the need, without bombastic dialogues in ex colonial vocabulary! His silences, his ordinary dialogues say far more than the so labelled thespian.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oAdeqOrfzPA
.........................................................................................................................


Koi Matwala Aaya Mere Dware - Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Parekh, Love In Tokyo Dance Song


Funny how even in media and critics, let alone industry and public, so rare was the perception that this artist was practically a twin of the then top southern beauty in films, in both looks and dance - not that their performances of characters were at so different a level, either - and the only difference really was perhaps of this artist being not quite as haughty as the slightly more senior one. This one, one recalls, was known for having travelled across the country with her dance troupe, performing in theatres, chiefly her favourite Choladevi. Still, she's counted more amongst the ones that took on roles of  naughty young characters of the day.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3BOEAmC1pY

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Chhoti Si Mulaqat Pyar Ban Gayi -

Party Song - Chhoti Si Mulaqat -

Uttam Kumar, Vyjayanthimala


The original Agnipariksha where the golden couple of Bengali films had perhaps their first superhit, was a far quieter, deeper flow; since Uttam Kumar himself produced this remake, he probably had a good reason to change it so much. Judging from this dance, perhaps he did it to fit in with the then upcoming trend, or perhaps he needed to ascertain his own multifaceted capabilities. But the story suited the quieter and deeper original far more, and that was probably the reason this one didn't do well.


One recalls the then trend of this variation of draping saree, which was also seen in Sangam. Here, though, she seems to wish to compete with the original of this role, there is a hint of Suchitra Sen in the way she holds herself at times, which was never before or after. They had been together in Devdas by Bimal Roy, before this, and later Suchitra Sen did Aandhi after Vyjayantimala had refused. 


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4iaCga94so
.........................................................................................................................

Bade Bhole Ho - Best of Lata Mangeshkar - Majrooh Sultanpuri Song - Ardhangini

The music, artist and singer, all equally superlative!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=daPHd2EqQR8

.........................................................................................................................

YE RANG BHARE BAADAL - ASHA -RAFI ASAD BHOPALI -RAVI -TU NAHIN AUR SAHI (1960)

Long time since one heard this - those days it was often enough on radio, heard throughout neighbourhoods like fragrance of flowers and incense wafting out on breeze.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_SdLpQ5Xo8A
.........................................................................................................................


Ni Baliye Rut Hai Bahar Ki (HD) - Kanhaiya - Raj Kapoor - Nutan - Lata Mangeshkar

Surprisingly, good film. One goes to see it due to its songs and artists, and ends up marvelling at the well executed finesse by the director and screenplay writer!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4H_u4EQboVc
.........................................................................................................................

SAAWAN KE MAHEENEIN MEIN - SERIOUS VERSION - RAFI - RAJENDRA KRISHNA - MADAN MOHAN (SHARABI 1964)


Daisy Irani?


Responding to a comment below the original YT video by Kartikeya Pandya:-

"I wonder why Devsaab dropped Rafisaab for Kishore Kumar later on though Rafisaab gave all time immortal hits with him.Any explanation?"

Dev Anand used various singers, it was up to the composer to make a selection based on the needs of the music. There were half a dozen singers at the top amongst male voices, none particularly deserving exclusive rights to any maker. And it was never a crime to use Kishore Kumar. But rafi gave up music because he was told it was against his faith.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IbE4U2vLNHE
.........................................................................................................................


Kaarvaan guzar gaya....Nai Umar Ki Nai Fasal


How revered this song was then, way above others with few for same level of reverence! Now, it seems hard to believe it was written for the situation, about young idealists losing an election, however real and painful the disenchantment. Perhaps the poet had written it about the pain at partition, about a million lives lost and ten times that many displaced?

Lyrics transcription here thanks to

Seema Suri


स्वप्न झरे फूल से,
मीत चुभे शूल से,
लुट गए सिंगार सभी बाग के बबूल से,
और हम खड़े-खड़े बहार देखते रहे।
कारवाँ गुज़र गया, गुबार देखते रहे!

नींद भी खुली न थी कि हाय धूप ढल गई,
पाँव जब तलक उठें कि ज़िन्दगी फिसल गई,
पात-पात झर गए कि शाख़-शाख़ जल गई,
चाह तो निकल सकी न, पर उमर निकल गई,
गीत अश्क बन गए,
छंद हो दफन गए,
साथ के सभी दिए धुआँ-धुआँ पहन गए,
और हम झुके-झुके,
मोड़ पर रुके-रुके,
उम्र के चढ़ाव का उतार देखते रहे।
कारवाँ गुज़र गया, गुबार देखते रहे।

क्या शाबाब था कि फूल-फूल प्यार कर उठा,
क्या सुरूप था कि देख आइना सिहर उठा,
इस तरफ़ ज़मीन और आसमाँ उधर उठा
थाम कर जिगर उठा कि जो मिला नज़र उठा,
एक दिन मगर यहाँ,
ऐसी कुछ हवा चली,
लुट गई कली-कली कि घुट गई गली-गली,
और हम लुटे-लुटे,
वक़्त से पिटे-पिटे,
साँस की शराब का खुमार देखते रहे।
कारवाँ गुजर गया, गुबार देखते रहे।

हाथ थे मिले कि जुल्फ चाँद की सँवार दूँ,
होंठ थे खुले कि हर बहार को पुकार दूँ,
दर्द था दिया गया कि हर दुखी को प्यार दूँ,
और साँस यों कि स्वर्ग भूमि पर उतार दूँ,
हो सका न कुछ मगर,
शाम बन गई सहर,
वह उठी लहर कि दह गए किले बिखर-बिखर,
और हम डरे-डरे,
नीर नयन में भरे,
ओढ़कर कफ़न, पड़े मज़ार देखते रहे।
कारवाँ गुज़र गया, गुबार देखते रहे!

माँग भर चली कि एक, जब नई-नई किरन,
ढोलकें धुमुक उठीं, ठुमुक उठे चरन-चरन,
शोर मच गया कि लो चली दुल्हन, चली दुल्हन,
गाँव सब उमड़ पड़ा, बहक उठे नयन-नयन,
पर तभी ज़हर भरी,
गाज एक वह गिरी,
पोंछ गया सिंदूर तार-तार हुईं चूनरी,
और हम अजान-से,
दूर के मकान से,
पालकी लिए हुए कहार देखते रहे।

sapne jhare phool se
meet chubhe shool se

lut gaye singaar sabhi  baag ke babool se

aur hum khade khade 
bahaar dekhte rahe

karvaan guzar gaya
gubar dekhte rahe.

neend bhi khuli na thi ki haye dhoop dhal gayi
paon jab talak uthe ke zindagi pesal gayi
paat paat jhar gaye ke shaakh shaakh jal gayi
chah to nikal saki na par umar nikal gayi
par umar nikal gayi

geet ashk ban gaye
Swapn ho dafan gaye
saath ke sabhi diye 
dhuan pehen pehen gaye
aur hum jhuke jhuke
mode par ruke ruke
umar ke chadhaav ka
utaar dekhte rahe

karvan guzar gaya ghubar dekhte rahe.

kya shabaab tha ke phool phool pyar kar utha
kya kamaal tha ke dekh aainaa sihar utha
Iss taraf zameen aur asmaan udhar utha
thaam kar jigar utha ke  jo mila nazar utha
ke jo mila nazar utha

ek din magar yahaan
aisee kuchh hawa chali
lut gayi kali kali ke ghut gayi gali gali
aur hum lute lute
waqt se pite pite
saanjh ki sharaab ka
khumaar dekhte rahe

karvaan guzar gaya  ghubar dekhte rahe.

haath the mile ke zulf chaand ki sanwaar doon
hounth the khule ke har bahaar ko pukaar doon

dard tha diyaa gayaa ke har dukhi ko pyaar doon
aur saans yoon ki swarg bhoom par utaar doon
 bhoom par uthaar doon

ho saka na kuchh magar
shaam ban gayi saher
woh uthi lehar ke dheh gaye kile bikhar bikhar

aur ham dare dare
neer nayan mein bhare
odh-kar kafan pade mazaar dekhte rahe

karvan guzar gaya  gubar dekhte rahe.

maang bhar chali ke ek jab nayi nayi kiran
dholken dhunuk uthi  thumuk uthe charan charan

shor mach gaya ki lo chali dulhan  chali  dulhan
gaaon sab umad padaa behek uthe nayan nayan
 behek uthe nayan nayan

par tabhi zehar bhari
gaaz ek wah-giri
punchh gaya sindoor 
taar taar huvi choonri

aur ham ajaan se
door ke makaan se
palki liye huwe  kahar dekhte rahe

       karvaan guzar gaya
               ghubaar dekhte rahe

sapne jhare phool se
meet chubhe shool
lut gaye singaar sabhi
baagh ke babool se
aur  ham karhe karhe
bahaar dekhte rahe

karvaan guzar gayaa
ghubaar dekhte rahe


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljH6BJchuMo

.........................................................................................................................

Kasme Waade Pyar Wafa - Manna Dey Upkar

Describes generalities pretty well.

Movie/Album: उपकार (1967)
Music By: कल्याणजी आनंदजी
Lyrics By: कमर जलालाबादी
Performed By: मन्ना डे

कसमे वादे प्यार वफ़ा सब
बातें हैं बातों का क्या
कोई किसी का नहीं ये झूठे
नाते हैं नातों का क्या
कसमे वादे प्यार वफ़ा...

होगा मसीहा सामने तेरे
फिर भी न तू बच पायेगा
तेर अपना खून ही आखिर
तुझको आग लगायेगा
आसमान में उड़ने वाले
मिट्टी में मिल जायेगा
कसमे वादे प्यार वफ़ा...

सुख में तेरे साथ चलेंगे
दुख में सब मुख मोड़ेंगे
दुनिया वाले तेरे बनकर
तेरा ही दिल तोड़ेंगे
देते हैं भगवान को धोखा
इन्सां को क्या छोड़ेंगे
कसमे वादे प्यार वफ़ा...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oIiHAKDfksk
......................................................................................................................... 

Ek Tha Bachpan - Sumita Sanyal - Akshok Kumar - Aashirwad -  Lata Mangeshkar


Exquisite.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rqGZDkAO_8M

......................................................................................................................... 

BEQARAAR DIL TU GAAYE JA - SULAKSHNA PT. - KISHORE KMR - A IRSHAD (DOOR KA RAHI 1971)

Tremendous multifaceted talent of Kishore Kumar, matched perhaps only by RK. 

And Pandit family talent flows in generations! 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bz4Wk5Ydgso

......................................................................................................................... 

Ja khushi ora bole boluk; Singer - Manna De; Movie - Nishipadma

This original has a soothing quality to the music and singing, the performance of Uttam Kumar,  and a reality to the setting, to the being and dressing and performance of Sabitri Chatterji, that's mostly missing from the Hindi remake with its glamourised dress and makeup replacing the real portrayals of the Bengali original.  

Ja khushi ora bole boluk 

Oder kathaay ki eshe jaay 

Orrai raater bhramar hoye 

Nishipadmer madhu je khaay 

Ora diner belaay jaader dekhe 

Shudhui ghrinaa jetaay 

Aabaar raater taader badhu kare 

Asurkhide metaay 

Oder aimon jaadu, bole saadhu 

Namaguni ora pare jegaay 

Orrai raater bhramar hoye 

Nishipadmer madhu je khaay 

Tumraa panthashaalaar saathi sheje 

Jahader paanpeyaalaa bharo  

Tahader kaachhe thipeele taar 

Hisaab keno karo 

Ora je ganno maanno deshvarrenno 

Dasher pranam oder paay 

Orrai raater bhramar hoye 

Nishipadmer madhu je khaay

Ja khushi ora bole boluk 

Oder kathaay ki eshe jaay 

Orrai raater bhramar hoye 

Nishipadmer madhu je khaay 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LNCiwQIs-0k

......................................................................................................................... 

Mausam Hai Aashiqana - Pakeeza

Such perfect confluence of beauty - the artist, the singer, the lyrics and the music, setting amongst evergreen trees on lonely banks of a body of water in wilderness, and starry skies after days of solitude!  

मौसम है आशिकाना

ऐ दिल कहीं से उनको ऐसे में ढूंढ लाना

कहना के रुत जवां है, और हम तरस रहे हैं

काली घटा के साये, बिरहन को डस रहे हैं

डर है न मार डाले, सावन का क्या ठिकाना

मौसम है आशिकाना

सूरज कहीं भी जाये, तुम पर ना धूप आये

तुमको पुकारते हैं, इन गेसूओं के साये

आ जाओ मैं बना दूँ, पलकों का शामियाना

मौसम है आशिकाना

फिरते हैं हम अकेले, बाहों में कोई ले ले

आखिर कोई कहाँ तक तनहाईयों से खेले

दिन हो गये हैं ज़ालिम, राते हैं कातिलाना 

मौसम है आशिकाना

ये रात ये खामोशी, ये ख्व़ाब से नज़ारें 

जुगनू हैं या जमीं पर उतरे हुए हैं तारें 

बेख़ाब मेरी आँखे, मदहोश है ज़माना

मौसम है आशिकाना...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ugpRuam-zz0 

.........................................................................................................................

Megha Chhaye Aadhi Raat


Beautiful Rakhee in beautiful song, but they did ignore the words while shooting! The first line evokes someone unable to sleep way past midnight, looking at dark clouds, alone, and they had her out on lawn mid day with clouds overhead - which in Indian heat provide welcome relief!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2aQDjbwc-v8 

......................................................................................................................... 

Rasme Ulfat Ko Nibhaye -- Lata Mangeshkar -  Madan Mohan

This was familiar and yet one wasn't conscious, not quite, of this song - and seeing the year of the film, it's obvious why. That was the year of struggling to stay on alive despite starvation and routine beatings that were accelerated to weekly or more, with the education and with holding up one's strength, one's peace, determination, and not just give up! Then one was thrown out after a particularly vicious assault when one was repeatedly thrown, head first, at walls and doors, before it got worse. This beautiful song was lost somewhere between the starving, the assaults, and the consciousness narrowed to staying alive, like when one is almost fainting and the music one still hears is lost in detail. 

Lyrics:- 

Rasm-e-ulfat ko nibhaayen to nibhaayen kaise 

Har taraf aag hai daaman ko bachaayen kaise 

Dil ki raahon mein uthate hain jo duniyawale 

Koi kehde ke woh deewar giraayen kaise 

Dard mein doobe hue naghmein hazaron hain magar 

Saaz-e-dil toot gaya ho to sunaayen kaise 

Bojh hota jo ghamon ka to utha bhi lete 

Zindagi bojh bani ho to uthaayen kaise 

Rasm-e-ulfat ko nibhaayen to nibhaayen kaise 

Rasm-e-ulfat ko nibhaayen 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y3829c-d7qE

Another video on YT of the song:- 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y3829c-d7qE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gIf3Gr9yo14

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Hajar takar jharbati (stree)

Fourfold pleasure what with the two top singers and two top artist heroes! 

Lyrics in Bengali:- 

হাজার টাকার ঝাড়বাতিটা রাতটা কে যে দিন করেছে

তারি নীচে বাইজি নাচে ঠুমরী গানের টুকরো ছুঁয়ে

হাজার টাকার ঝাড়বাতিটা

তবলচিটা দিচ্ছে ঠেকা সারেঙ্গিটা সুর ধরেছে

পিচকিরি টা ঢালছে আতর ধূপের ধোঁয়া যাচ্ছে উড়ে

হাজার টাকার ঝাড়বাতিটা

পরোয়া তো নেই দু দশ লাখ হয় যদি হয় দেনা

একটি রাতের মেজাজটা হোক অনেক টাকায় কেনা

আঙুর ফলের রঙ্গিন রসে পান পেয়ালা ঐ ধরেছি

স্বপ্নে দুচোখ জড়িয়ে আসুক সুরভি আর সুরায় সুরে

হাজার টাকার ঝাড়বাতিটা

ধরনা ধরনা সীতাপতি

রাজা

যে টাকাটা মারছো ছুঁড়ে শোভানাল্লা দিয়ে

সেই টাকাটাই পড়ত যদি একটু দূরে গিয়ে

বেঁচে যেত আজকে কারো কঠোর জঠর জ্বালা

খুলে যেত বন্ধদ্বারের অন্ধকারের তালা

অনাহারের শীতে কেঁপে যে গাছেরি ডাল মরেছে

হয়তো বাঁচার আশা জাগত শিকড় ফুঁড়ে

শিকড় ফুঁড়ে গাছের মতো (বুঝলে সীতাপতি)

শেকড় ফুঁড়ে গাছের মতো আগাছাও তো হয়

মেজাজটা তো আসল রাজা আমি রাজা নয়

তোমরা কেন এত বোকা সেই কথাটাই ভাবি

আমার হীরের আংটি না পেলে ওর জ্বলত নাকি নাকছাবি

হাজার টাকার ঝাড়বাতিটা 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmwr6FnO14

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Ae Ri Main Toh Prem Deewani - Vani Jayaram

Meera - Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna

As good a poet and filmmaker as that of this film was, ego works to bring down the quality of the works by its imposing wilful changes to reality under name of intellectual freedom of the artist - and while India tolerates such mistakes, so no one ever pointed it out, fact is the director imposed an inquisition borrowed from abrahmic faiths onto a history that was of deeply Indian culture, and changed his film from mere freedom of expression of the artist to play, to falsification of facts. Which was a huge blot on the beautiful film, however successfully hidden in the pattern of the narrative of the script.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzKQmyZklGA
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Prem Rog - All Songs - Rishi Kapoor - Padmini Kolhapure - Nanda - Lata Mangeshkar - Suresh Wadkar

Superlative, especially from 12:00 on.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=67u-7Z9Ed90
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Ek Radha Ek Meera | Mujra | Mandakini|Rajiv Kapoor | Ram Teri Ganga Maili | Bollywood Love Songs HD

Beautiful song, beautifully written too.

This is one of the scores of examples that are clear evidence to the contrary about various morons claiming India is racist, in their eagerness to paste a guilt from elsewhere on India fraudulently.

If India were racist, this beautiful woman would have reigned unquestionably supreme for last few decades in Indian films. Instead, she had her chance and was indeed well showcased here, but was looked down upon by the film fraternity and media that were far more into aping a caste system not indian but copied from that of everywhere else, especially western,  and misnamed class so as to identify the very word caste with India. Fact is, cast or caste is an Anglo Saxon word, and means box in German.

And outside india, castes are founded on wealth, power and landed property bases (unlike in India where its classification of professions, and top castes not allowed to charge for services performed as duty, but only to accept what's offered), with a pyramid topped by royalty and cascading down via aristocracy.

This beautiful girl was not a descendant of wealth and titles, but had a root in poor family with lowly occupation, and a large family to support, so she lacked the attitude based on lack of need too, and hence got pushed aside despite her obvious credentials for any viewer who might happen to be racist.

India never was.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tcuWwBKWy0U

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Tum se mujhe pyar kyon ho gaya - Na Tum Jaano Na Hum

Lovely song, lovely film, lovely young pair!  

This pair should have had more films. This lovely girl should have had more capable filmmakers, like the Hrishikesh Mukherjee and co of yore, to do justice to her sensitive artistry, very like that of Abhishek Bachchan. They too were wonderful together in LOC. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1IWaqRg7mfI

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Goonji Si Hai, Aao Na, Aishwarya, Viveik Oberoi, Udit, Sadhna Kyun Ho Gaya Na HQ2

Lovely. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x725hY_EHRs

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Dheere Dheere - Full Song - Kyun Ho Gaya Na - Vivek Oberoi & Aishwarya Rai

Beautiful, especially 2:50 - 3:20! Beautiful song, beautiful pair, beautiful film. If only it had got it's due, not been victimised due to underworld brohood! 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4MUaN2Qo3s

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Sajde - Full Song | Kill Dil | Ranveer Singh | Parineeti Chopra | Arijit Singh | Gulzar


Responding to a post "The amount of energy put into the song by the artists is not expressed by the actors, such a shame":-

The lyrics represent inner turmoil of someone finding true love unexpectedly, after being raised an orphan by a mercenary in his work, so the scenes and actors show the love as it proceeds in a gentle rhythm while the singing matches the couldn't turbulence of inner turmoil of the orphan mercenary.
A similar turmoil of being is in an older song, Betaab Dil Ki Tamanna Yehi Hai, from Hanste Zakhm, that one being from a woman in a similar situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4fzOSVy6-o
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Channa Mereya -
Full Song Video
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Ranbir, Anushka,| Aishwarya Rai
Pritam| Arijit
 Music- Pritam
Lyrics- Amitabh Bhattacharya
Singer- Arijit Singh
Dharma Productions and Fox Star Studios
Audio on Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd(C) 2017

As beautiful as the song is, as lovely as the performance of RKjr, it was catapulted to another level doing when little bundle of joy Jayas Kumar auditioned with it - and went on to be the heart's bliss for hundreds of millions!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=284Ov7ysmfA
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