One song at a time - 27. Zindagi Mere Ghar Aana / Allah Tero Naam

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(Jaidev)
I write this blog on New Year day and what better song to start the year than the one which asks life to come to the doorsteps. The song of today will be "zindagi mere ghar aana" sung by Bhupinder and Anuradha Paudwal for the film "Dooriyan".

This also lets us pray tribute to one of the most underrated music director in Hindi films, Jaidev. It is paradoxical that while he received the National Award for being the best music director three times, he was not well known to the lay audience!!! In our films, success depends, as in life, on a lot of factors other than just the skill you possess. While that is true, we should also take to heart on this New Year day that talent and skill will finally out. What is indisputable now is that Jaidev is regarded highly by connoisseurs of music and his songs have a good following among them.  Anyone with a good ear for music can immediately make out a highly original and talented mind at work when he hears the songs of Jaidev. Infact I had recent befriended a youngster who said he heard just one song of Jaidev and immediately went looking for Jaidev's complete works. This friend is from the heartland of Tamilnadu and I guess he has no idea about Hindi. Yet his musical sense drew him to Jaidev immediately!!! 

Jaidev had this ability to create lot of complex melodies. While Jaidev was working with S D Burman, it is said that Dada Burman used to admonish him and tell him not to create such complex melodies. We should consider ourselves lucky that Jaidev did not heed that advice and went on to create his own brand of magic, which was highly original. He has composed for films whose music still lives fresh and will continue living for a long time. When you hear these songs you can but feel sad that such a person never got more opportunities while people like Bappi Lahiri ruled the roost!!! 

As I had mentioned earlier, the song for today is "zindagi mere ghar aana". What a melody!! I love the way Jaidev develops the melody. You can hear how wonderfully Kalyani develops in the charanam, reaching its apogee at "badi dhoop hai jo" and then sliding down delicately to rejoin the pallavi. A very different take on Kalyani and Jaidev brings a freshness to the raga with his interpretation. Added to it, hear how he develops the charanam. It is almost like an extended monologue, with the tune twisting and turning along the way. Deliciously original construction, not your standard one. The wonderful words of the song were written by Sudharshan Fakir. 



Now that you have heard this song, let me give you another Jaidev song as the New Year gift. Again a song which would be relevant all the time, not just for this year. "Allah Tero Naam Ishwar Tero Naam" from 'Hum Dono', one of the big hits of Jaidev. By the way, I have read that when Jaidev had composed this song Lata Mangeshkar was not in good terms with Jaidev and so Jaidev was thinking about calling some other singer to record this song. When Lata heard that Jaidev had composed such a superb bhajan, she is supposed to have called up Jaidev, made up with him and went on to record the song. Such was the power of the tune. Listen to the song and if you were in Lata's place you would have done the same!!!

Comments

Aakarsh said…
Two fantastic songs! While the first one is relatively lesser heard by most, the 2nd is quite famous.

Jaidev assisted S.D.Burman for long time and yet, when he composed music, he did not have any traces of S.D.Burman style in his compositions. Thats quite a great thing (applies to Madan Mohan too, for he too assisted S.D.Burman in the early part of his career). Jaidev composed some outstanding songs for films like Mujhe Jeene Do,Reshma aur Shera, Kinare Kinare etc. Infact, not many know that singer Hariharan was introduced by Jaidev in 1979, through the song "Ajeeb Saneha" (Gaman), which is almost a re-hash of his classic for Rafi "Kabhi Khud pe" (Humdono).

And I think we would need separate blogposts, for each and every song in Humdono. The song "Allah Tero Naam" is a monument anyway. For me, no other devotional song or bhajan ever composed in any of the Hindi, telugu, tamil film moves me more than this one song.I would place this one even higher than "Ae Malik Tere Bandhe hum", personally. Thats the song I would definitely listen to,when I am on my death-bed.
January 2, 2011 at 10:25 PM
Suresh S said…
Thanks for the comments Kamal. Infact I plan to introduce many more songs of Jaidev which are not heard often enough. And what you say about Jaidev not having Dada Burma's influence is spot on. His style was very unique.

I guess everyone has their favourite Jaidev movie but all will agree on 'Hum Dono'. Yes, every song in that deserves a separate post. My friend was asking me why I didn't post the Suresh Wadkar song in 'Gaman'. That is another movie which has superb songs and yes, that is the movie which introduced Hariharan.

Wow. I couldn't have described the impact of that bhajan better. Truly an all time classic.
January 2, 2011 at 10:35 PM
rmdeva said…
Suresh thanks a lot man, you are bring different music directors into my notice which I never heard before.

zindagi ghar aana is nice melody. I liked the charanam very much.

In Hindi, I know SD, MM, RD, LP, Salil choudri..thats it

Aakarsh, thanks for you too....Its news for me that Hariharan was introduced by jai dev.
January 8, 2011 at 9:19 PM
Suresh S said…
Thanks Deva for you comments. Glad that you are liking this discovery. I also love it since I too get to discover and also re-hear lot of gems.

BTW, here is a very young Hariharan, singing for Doordarshan. Music is by Jaidev. Check out this song.
January 8, 2011 at 9:25 PM
Suresh S said…
Oops. Forgot to give the link. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZoXEBVaryA

I must thank my friend Sanjay for giving me this link.
January 8, 2011 at 9:25 PM
Unknown said…
I heard that Jaidev was initially signed for the movie "Umrao Jaan" and he also recorded five ghazals for the movie. Where can one listen to those ghazals?
July 27, 2022 at 4:10 AM
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