#393
        Song:   aaj ronaa padaa to samjhe
                hansne ka mol kya hai
                apnaa sapnaa khonaa padaa to samjhe

        Film:   Girl Friend (1960)
        Singer: Kishore Kumar
        Music:  Hemant Kumar
        Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
        *ing:   Waheeda Rehman, Kishore Kumar

Wonder what on earth a movie with a name like Girl  Friend  would
have  in  it.   And  a  cast  combo  like  KK/Waheeda:  curiosity
multiplied- I don't remember  seeing  this  pair  anywhere  else.
(Actually,  I  had similarly wondered about "Boy Friend" too, but
that name turned out to be the name of  a  stageplay  within  the
movie. Quite plausible.)

Musically, this movie has a little bit more than its  fair  share
of  Kishore's  arbitrary  dementia, with tracks like "main paagal
huun" (that is SO not untrue ! this song is  absolutely  insane),
"boom  booma  boom",  "na  dhela lagtaa hai" (a duet with, of all
people, Daisy Irani), etc.

A couple of soulful melodies,  however,  arrest  this  unfettered
zaniness;  and this is one of them. One of the things I've always
liked in  Sahir's  poetry,  especially  his  sad  verse,  is  his
articulation   of  specifics;  his  precise  enunciation  of  the
emotions that he's going through,  and  his  ability  to  capture
them,  at times, in highly intuitive metaphors. He grieves in the
details, and that makes the listener empathize with his situation
much  more effortlessly. Like in this song :         
        khwaabo.n ki haqeeqat kya thhi
        armaano.n ki keemat kya thhi
        apno.n ki mohabbat kya thhi
        ghair honaa paDaa to samjhe
Simple  as  they  are,  these  lines  are  too  accurately
descriptive to not stem from genuine feelings.

The other precious one is a lovely Kishore/Sudha  Malhotra  duet,
with  nicely  interlaced  vocals  :           
        kashtii ka khaamosh safar hai, shaam bhi hai tanhaai bhi
        duur kinaare par bajtii hai lehro.n ki shehnaii bhi
        aaj mujhe kuchh kehnaa hai, aaj mujhe kuchh kehnaa hai

"lehron ki shehnaii" ?? Only Sahir, I swear. Beautiful.



Guest Author: Hrishi Dixit