Songs to Remember - III

Sometimes there are nights that are very different from the others.... some nights are more lonelier, some nights more painful.... And for every night that's different, Hindi Cinema has a gem of a song. Today I will speak of a night that's pregnant with frustration and pain and loneliness and a gnawing realization that dares to spill open a heart.

From the film, Ram Aur Shyam (1967), this was one of the few last Naushad gems that would enthral you. Undoubtedly Naushad is a giant among Hindi film composers, in fact he is more than a giant - he's a colossus and some would say a demi-God for his compositions - and indeed he fits the bill but this is one of the songs taken from the fag end of his composing career and you can still feel the magic of Naushad in what is a definitive song on a man's depressed circumstance.

As expected, the gem is in the voice of the great Mohammed Rafi - who else could bring the sublime divine to a collection of words? Only one man - Mohammed Rafi

The song begins with a beautiful incantation - The singer in his inimitable and strong taan extols the virtue of the night that has become kind of different from the others - This may also be so because of the fact that today, the singer himself is going through a very difficult situation in his own life - this is a night that he feared for all his night but finally the night has come and the singer, being the Man he is, has to take stock of the situation.

Ye Raat Jaise Dulhan Ban Gayee Charaagon Se
Karungaa Ujaalaa Main Dil Ke Daagon Se

The singer can feel the joy in the air - that the night that's different has become like a bride by the playful luminosity of the small candles that burn in the wind. As if seized with the emotion in the wind, the lover (only those who can love can sing) and understanding the enormity of the night on his simple heart, he says that today he will also spread light in the environment, even though it may be the cost of his own heart

Aaj Ki Raat Mere Dil Ki Salaami Le Le
Kal Teri Bazm Se Deewaana Chalaa Jaayegaa
Shammaa Rah Jaayegi Parwaana Chalaa Jaayegaa

And then having stated the inevitable, he finally asks the night that has brought so much grief and pain to his heart to 'please' accept his regards - He knows that the night is not happy with him - that his emotional outbursts have hurt the night irreversibly and so he tells the night to bear with him for some time more - and then he puts the pain of his heart in his words - The Candle (the beloved) will burn forever but the moth (The Lover) will finally take a bow

Listen to Rafi as he puts the pain in the last two lines - the way he emphasizes on 'Kal' and then on the way he lets the last line go softly

Teri Mehfil, Tere Jalwe Ho Mubaarak Tujh Ko
Teri Ulfat Se Nahi Aaj Bhi Inkaar Mujhe
Tera Maykhaana Salaamat Rahe Ae Jaana-E-Wafaa
Muskurakar Tu Zara Dekh Le Ek Baar Mujhe
Phir Tere Pyaar Ka Mastaana Chalaa Jaayegaa

Only a lover who has loved truly and deeply knows the pain inherent in the words that have been used. No lover who knows what he's talking can ever say that the beloved has hurt him. Here too, the lover still loves and respects the beloved and wishes that her splendour and beauty may not go undiminished - He knows that the one he loved still is worth all the love that he has for her in his deeply-aching heart. He wants her happiness to remain forever and even as he leaves, there's nothing he would want more than to see her smile at him just that once.

The smile of the beloved has it's own value - what does a lover want more from life than the fact that his beloved is happy and is smiling - What can be greater than that happiness; what can be more sought after then that great moment?

Main Ne Chahaa Ke Bataa Doon Main Haqeeqat Apnee
Tu Ne Lekin Naa Mera Raaz-E-Mohabbat Samajha
Mere Uljhan, Mere Halaat Yahaan Tak Pahunche
Teri Aankhon Ne Mere Pyaar Ko Bhi Nafarat Samajha
Ab Teri Raah Se Beganaa Chalaa Jaayegaa

And now, he slowly delves into his own frustrations - into his own pains, into his own grief - Imagine a lover who is being hated by the beloved for whatever maybe the reasons - Imagine a lover who is unable to explain the sanctity of his love to the one he loves the most - Imagine a lover who has failed in the eyes of the one whom he loved - Worse still imagine a lover who has 'fallen' in the eyes of the one he loves!

Only one who has gone through this torture knows what it feels like - only one who has been through it, knows what it feels like

Imagine being forced to walk out from the paths of the one you love, like a stranger and one will understand the pathos and the pain

Tu Mera Saath Na De Raah-E-Mohabbat Mein Sanam
Chalte Chalte Main Kisee Raah Pe Mud Jaaoongaa
Kahkashaan, Chaand, Sitaaren, Tere Chumenge Kadam
Tere Raste Ki Main Ek Dhool Hoon, Ud Jaaoongaa
Saath Mere Meraa Afsanaa Chalaa Jaayegaa

Strangely, and as is expected, within his heart he still pines for that love but finally coming to the inevitability of the situation, he comforts, more himself than anyone else that he will be able to move on - he knows he cannot still he tries to comfort himself, knowing well within himself that the loss is all his and the beloved, being as lovable as she is, she will easily be better-off without him in his life..... He knows the condition of his broken-heart but he also knows that a broken heart is sometimes better than breaking someone else's heart - especially if that someone happens to be the one you love

These are among songs to die for; these are songs to live by.

I hope everyone learns this fact well that one's own heart is never as important as the one that is the cynosure of one's heart