One song at a time - 18. Nuktacheen hai gham-e-dil
Sometimes in the most unexpected of places you hear an unexpected melody. Cruising at around 30,000 feet or more above sea level, I was listening to the Hindi Channel on British Airways flight, as I was returning from an official trip to Japan. I did not expect much from that channel since I though they would be playing some popular songs. They proved me wrong as someone with good taste seems to have been at the helm for choosing songs. After a couple of nice songs, came this song which I had not heard earlier. Or maybe I had heard it earlier but it never registered with me. Now it is completely fixed in my mind.
The song was 'Nuktacheen hai gham-e-dil', a ghazal of Mirza Ghalib for the movie, well, 'Mirza Ghalib'. I still clearly recall the mesmerizing Kalyani tinged notes floating through the ear plugs and providing me immense joy. The joy of discovering a classic. I had heard 'Dil-e-Naadan tuje hua kya hai' from this movie quite a few times since that song is a standard issue on many Talat Mehmood anthologies. Whereas for some reason 'Nuktacheen' had passed me by. So when I bought a Suraiya tape, the first thing I checked out was if this song was listed. It was and I immediately bought the tape.
Ghulam Mohammed was the music director who gave this melody. He has not done many films but two of the films he did will ensure that his name remains permanently embedded in the hearts of all true film music fans. One was this movie, 'Mirza Ghalib' which had some superb gems. I especially like the way he tunes 'Yeh na thi hamari kismat'. Not as a standard slow ghazal but as a vigorous song. The other movie which was such a musical hit that you would have had to be hearing impaired in those days to have missed those songs. The movie was 'Paakezah' and the songs are everlasting. A cliched word that works perfectly for 'Paakezah' songs. I think Ghulam Mohammed died before the movie was released. Unfortunately he couldn't savour its success.
So let's go ahead and listen to this gem of a song, sung by Suraiya. When the words are those of Ghalib, you should just state that fact and leave it alone. For praising Ghalib's lyrics is like "sooryuniki deeparadana chesinatlu" (As if you are performing Deeparadhana to the Sun.)
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In case you want to watch the scene from the movie, click the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-48lGYR_F8
or at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUPc87mIsfc&feature=related
Comments
"Suresh
Great one. I love that song. I have the Mirza Ghalib DVD at home. I mean the original movie starring Bharat Bhushan and Suraiya. That song by Suraiya is a classic.
BTW, Ghulam Mohammed started work on Pakeezah and did the songs. The movie took so long because of the divorce proceedings between Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi. Sunil Dutt and Nargis watched the half done movie and were so impressed by it that Sunil Dutt decided to butt in and work out a compromise between Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari. By that time her health was failing too. Naushad completed a few songs and the BGM and the movie was eventually completed. It opened to a lukewarm response but after Meena Kumari's death it became a classic. "
And it is true that Ghulam Mohammed passed away during the making of Pakeezah and Naushad stepped in with few songs & BGM.Infact Pazkeezah had many unreleased songs,which were released later. They were mostly thumris performed by Vani Jayram, Parveen Sultana etc.And there was one beautiful Lata song "Tanhaayi Sunaaye Karthe hai". They were Naushad's songs.
One Wonderful Post..Galib apart from being a lyricist of "Pre-Bollywood Hindi film era".His individual Poems on the other hand was full of nothing but passion it will reflect in those words.."Diya yeh dil agar usko"-a non filmy ghazal sung by rafi is one among my ever fav..
Infact my long time wish was to learn urdu Just read n understand his lines.. :)..Started learning urdu only last year thou..
"kahaa hai kisne ki ‘Ghalib’ bura nahin lekin
sivaaye iske ki aashuftasar hai kya kahiye"... :)
First kudos to you for learning Urdu. I can understand it a bit but not all of it. It will definitely help you in understanding some top class poetry of poets like Ghalib, Mir, Iqbal and others. A lot of poetry to be discovered. If interested, you should check out 'Urdu Ghazals' book, which is a collection edited by a person called Kanda.
Coming to Ghalib, he was a 19th century personality. His ghazals along with Mir Taqi Mirs, rank as the best you can ever get in this form. A sample, "hazaaron kwahishen aisi ki har kwahish pe dam nikle / Bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle" Superb stuff.