RMIM Archive Article "280".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
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# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Madan Mohan's Jahan Ara
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# Posted by: Ashok Dhareswar (adhareswar@worldbank.org)
# Author: Ashok Dhareswar
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Madan Mohan's Jahan Ara
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Jahan Ara perhaps falls in the second echelon (next to great) of films
with music by Madan Mohan films and also in the pantheon of films with
lyrics by Rajinder Krishan. It came out in 1964, by which time
twilight had already descended on the golden era of Hindi film music
and the songs were not as successful commercially as they would have
been in the earlier era.
It is perhaps the most Talat-intensive of Madan Mohan films,
followed by Chhote Babu and Ashiyana. Talat is featured in three
solos and one duet. Two of the solos were included in Sami's RJGK-
23 and you should read his comments:
phir wohi shaam, wohi gham, wohi tanahaai hai
dil ko samajhane teri yaad chali aai hai
and
mai.n teri nazar ka suroor hu.n, tujhe yaad ho ke na yaad ho
The first solo and the duet below were perhaps the most popular
songs from the film. The third solo is also equally good, but less
well-known:
teri aankh ke ansoo pi jaau.n, aisi meri taqdeer kaha.n
tere gham me.n tujh ko behalaau.n, aise meri taqdeer kaha.n
The Talat-Lata duet was also quite popular. The orchestration is
interesting and quite pleasing, but somewhat on the rich side:
ae sanam aaj ye qasam khaae.n (2)
faasalaa pyar ke miTa Daale
aur duniya se door ho jaae.n
The ending of the song ('ishq kyo.n paidaa kiya') pushes Talat's
frail voice almost to the limit, but not quite. It does remind me
of the ending of the Lala Rukh song ('aanaa hi paDega') where
Khayyam perhaps pushed it a bit beyond the limit. (You can find
the lyrics for the latter song in a recent posting by Neeraj.)
There were two Lata solos in the film. Both are upto the high
standards one has to come expect in Madan Mohan-Lata songs. You'll
find the better-known one ('Wo chup rahe') in Ajay's posting, with
full lyrics. I found the other one also quite appealing:
haal-e-dil yu.n unse sunaayaa gayaa
aankh hi ko jubaa.n banaayaa gayaa
The song received hardly any radio play and is virtually unknown.
I wonder whether the reason was competition from a similar song
that was released at about the same time: 'Haal-e-dil unko suaanaa
tha, sunaayaa na gayaa' by Suman Kalyanpur in Fariyad (MD: Snehal
Bhatkar). This one became quite popular, but I am not sure of the
relative timing.
My personal favorite from the film is, in fact, none of the above.
It is the very long, slow-paced Rafi-Suman duet:
baad muddat ke ye ghaDi aayi
aap aaye to zindagi aayi
ishq marmal (?) ke kaamyaab hua
aaj ek zarra aaftaab hua
It's lovely. It brings to mind a similar (in style and mood
evoked) duet by the same singers from Shama: 'Yaas ke dar pe jhukaa
jaataa hai sar, aaj ki raat' (MD: Gulam Mohammed).
Then, there is a standard Rafi solo:
kisi ki yaad me.n duniyaa ko hai bhulaae hue
zamaanaa gujaraa hai apna khayaal aae hue.
It's quite similar to a few other Madan Mohan-Rafi songs of the
period, e.g. 'mai.n nigaahe.n tere chehare se haTaau.n kaise'
(Aap ki Parchhaaia.n?)
Musically the least appealing song is perhaps the next (and the last)
one: a typical court-dance song by Lata and Asha:
jab jab tumhe bhulaayaa, tum aur yaad aae.
It does have an interesting feature: Before the dance part gets going,
there is a long prelude where Lata sings in tarnnum substantial parts
of the second Talat song, 'main teri nazar ka.' (Does this feature
make the two songs ham-radeef?!)
Hope the above gives you a feel for the music of Jahan Ara. In order
to inform you about Madan Mohan's music in general, it would have to
be a different medium (a book, at least) and a different auteur
(someone far more competent than I).
Ashok
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From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian