RMIM Archive Article "273".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
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# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Lyricist Neeraj
#
# Posted by: Satish Subramanian (subraman@cs.umn.edu)
# Author: Satish Subramanian (subraman@cs.umn.edu)
#
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Neeraj
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"Ghairon ke sheron ko, O sunnewaale!
ho is taraf bhi karam!"
- Neeraj in Gambler.
[ ghair: stranger/foreigner
sheron: couplets/ghazals/peoms
karam: kindness/favor/bounty/clemency
]
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Neeraj
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Lyricist Neeraj started off his career in Hindi films in 1964.
His first movie was "Cha Cha Cha" with music by Iqbal Qureshi.
And the first song was:- "subah na aayi, shaam na aayi".
His second movie was probably Shankar-Jaikishan's "Baadal aur
Bijle". But he wasn't popular until he teamed up with
S.D.Burman.
S.D.Burman was making a movie for Dev, when Neeraj was first
introduced to him. S.D.B was skeptical, but decided to give him
a chance. He explained to him the situation of the song and
asked him to write a lyric that had the words "rang-rangila" or
something similar in it. Also the song had to have reference to
"sharaab" in some way, but not explicitly. SDB was very strict
about these two conditions. Neeraj was almost put on the spot;
he thought for sometime and came up with the line:
"rangila re! tere rang mein, yun rangaa hai, mera man!"
S.D.B was impressed. But still the "sharaab" connotation was
still missing. So Neeraj came up with the second line:
"chalia re! na bujhegi, kisi jal se ye jalan!"
Unless explained it is difficult to get that the word
"jal" can also mean (rather, was supposed to mean) sharaab. Thus
started the Neeraj-S.D.Burman association. The movie was
ofcourse "Prem Pujari", which also had the brilliant song:
"Phoolon ke rang se, dil ki kalam se, tujh ko likhi roz paati,
kaise batayun, kis kis tarah se, pal pal mujhe tu satati,
tere hi sapne, lekar ke soya, tere hi yaadon me jaaga
tere khayaalon me uljha raha yoon, jaise ki maala me dhaaga,
Haan! baadal, bijli, chandan, paani jaisa apna pyaar,
lena hoga, janam hamein, kayee kayee baar.
Haan, itna madhir, itna madhur tera mera pyaar,
lena hoga, janam hamein, kayee kayee baar!"
While the above lyrics with the theme of "sending a letter to
one's beloved" was sung by Kishore, Neeraj had one ready for Rafi
also on the same theme in the movie "Kanyadaan" (Shanker-
Jaikishan) :
"Likhke jo khat tujhe, woh teri yaad me,
hazaaron rang ke, nazaare ban gaye,
saveraa jab hua, to phool ban gaye,
jo raat aaye to, sitaare ban gaye
likhke jo khat tujhe, woh teri yaad me!"
Neeraj had most of his memorable hits with S.D.Burman:-
1. Sharmilee
kaise kahein hum pyar ne hum ko kya kya khel dikhaye (KK)
khilate hain gul yahaaN, khilake bikharane ko (Rafi and Lata)
o meri o meri sharmilee (KK)
2. Prem Pujari
phoolon ke rang se dil ki kalam se (KK)
rangila re tere raang mein yoon ranga hai mere man (Lata)
3. Gambler
dil aaj shayar hai gam aaj nagama hai (KK)
mera man tera pyasaa (Rafi)
4. Tere Mere Sapne
maine kasam li tune kasam li (KK, Lata)
jeevan ki bagiya mehakegi (KK, Lata)
Each one a gem!
To end, here is a song by Neeraj posted earlier on RMIM by PVR, which
has some interesting comments at the end.
--
bye
satish
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Old post:
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Posted by: PVR (pvr@rice.edu)
Film: Sharmilee
Actors: Shashi Kapoor, Raakhee
Singer: Kishore
Music: S.D.Burman
Lyrics: Neeraj
o meri o meri o meri sharmilee
aao na tarsaao na
o meri o meri o meri sharmilee
tera kaajal lekar raat bani raat bani
teri mehandi lekar din ugaa din ugaa
teri boli sunkar sur jage sur jage
teri khushboo lekar phool khilaa phool khilaa
jaan-e-man tu hai kahaan
o meri....
teri raahon se guzrein jab se ham jab se ham
mujhe meri dagar tak yaad nahin yaad nahin
tujhe dekha jab se dilrubaa dilrubaa
mujhe mera ghar tak yaad nahin yaad nahin
jaan-e-man tu hai kahaan
o meri....
o neeraj naynaa aa zaraa aa zaraa
teri laaj ka ghoonghat khol doon khol doon
tere aanchal par koi geet likhoon geet likhoon
tere honthon mein amrit ghol doon ghol doon
jaan-e-man tu hai kahaan
o meri....
Note that the lyricist's name ("Neeraj") comes in the lyrics! This
tradition started by old poets like Kabir, Tulasidas etc was used in a
few songs by our film lyricists as well!
Also, this song belongs to an exclusive set of songs which have a kind
of pronoun inconsistency: look at the second stanza. In the first line
`ham' is used and later `mujhe' and `mera' are used!
PVR
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From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian