"Pacific Duets - I"

#418

         Song:   main soya ankhiyaan miiche, teri zulfon ke niiche
                 duniya ko bhuul diiwaani, ab rahaa zamaana piichhe

         Film:   Phagun (1958)
         Singer: Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi
         Music:  O P Nayyar
         Lyrics: Qamar Jalalabadi
         *ing:   Madhubala, Bharat Bhushan
 

 No, the title is not related to any ocean or time-zone :-) I'd like to
 spend next few posts discussing a certain species of duets which I
 call "pacific" or "tranquil" - their words, orchestration and delivery
 have a very calm, soothing and often therapeutic effect on the listener.
 More often, but not always, these tend to be romantically inclined.
 Some have very minimal orchestration to go with them, and rely on
 prowess of the singing artistes to deliver the effect, while on the other
 hand, some evince a beautiful harmony between the vocal and instrumental
 segments and the song evolves into one homogenous melody. Either way,
 these songs never fail to arrest the attention of even the most casual
 listener, and unlike some other types of songs, the pleasure derived from
 them does not come with any mood pre-requisites ; any time of day and any
 frame of mind is a good one to listen to them.

 I'll use the first one in this series to conclude the Madhubala tribute ;
 this is one of the first duets that spring to mind when words like "soft",
 "gentle", "peaceful". etc. are uttered. It stands out among a marquee
 array of melodies from this absurd movie, that really has nothing more to
 it's credit than Madhubala and OPN's music score ; songs like "ek pardesi
 mera dil le gayaa.." etc. still figure in people's top 10 in-the-shower
 lists.

 "mai.N soya.." is several shades different than most the other songs in
 Phagun. It's slow pace, soft humming interludes, a mellifluous, symmetric
 tune, and an absolutely congruous picturization (moonlight, haystack, diffused
 lighting, zero motion, extended footage of just faces, rather THE face :-)),
 all tie in with such precision in this song that the result is magical enough
 to make even Bharat Bhushan tolerable. This is reminiscent of OPN from his
 early "Aasmaan" era days - undoubtedly my top pick from the movie.

 BTW, speaking of "ek pardesi mera..", compare these :

         ek pardesi mera dil le gayaa
         jaate jaate miiTha miiTha gham de gayaa
                 - Asha, Phagun (1958), MD OPN

         dil le gayaa ji koi dil le gayaa, dil le gayaa
         jaate jaate miiTha miiTha gham de gaya, koi dil le gayaa..
                 - Suraiya, Sanam (1950), MD Husnlal Bhagatram

 I'm sure this has been noticed, and probably even discussed on RMIM before.
 The poet is Qamar in each case; a lyrical analogue to Roshan's
 "tera dil kahaan hai"-"rahein na rahein hum" compositional instance ?  :-)
 

 More serene notes to follow ...