#502

       Song:   gori gori chaandani aur poonam ki raat re
               meethi meethi saajana se hogi man ki baat re

       Film:   Raja Harishchandra (1952)
       Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
       Music:  Husnlal Bhagatram
       Lyrics: Bharat Vyas
       *ing:   Sumitra Devi, Prem Adeeb
 

Been meaning to write this for a while. The new millenium seemed to as
good a place to do so as any.

Neha had posted this song a while ago on Latanjali. The song epitomizes
all that was cherished and wonderful about the Lata-Husnlal Bhagatram
collaboration - the infectious melody, the vibrant cadences and gaits
and goodness-gracious, that voice. The most outstanding part of this
joyous and dainty ditty is the second antaraa:

 thandi thandi pavan saloni man bhaaye re (x2)
 bindiya hamari dekho gir gir jaaye re, gir gir jaaye re (x2)
 rim jhim rim jhim pade barsaat re
 meethi meethi saajana se hogi man ki baat re

The way she navigates through the first line the second time has to be
heard to be believed. You just miss a heartbeat, plain and simple.
Listen to it (below) and hear for yourself.

Which brings me to a new thing I'm planning to start this year on... I'm
going to, as frequently as possible, post short less-than-a-minute-long
clippings of the songs I write about (in RealAudio format) to the ATMJH
archival site, and include the link here. So people don't have to trust
my musical sensibilities too much. So, included below are two links, one
to a mukhada clip and one to the much-eulogized second antara. Hope you
like them.

There's another delectable song in this movie that I know - a Lata/Rafi
duet - "tu chanda main chaandani, teri meri preet hai".

Audio clip (Mukhada):    502.rm
Audio clip (2nd antara): 502-ant2.rm
 

..Hrishi