#411

          Song:   duuba taara ummiidon ka sahaara tuut gayaa
                  ke mere haath se daaman tumhaara chhuut gayaa

          Film:   Uran Khatola (1955)
          Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
          Music:  Naushad
          Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni
          *ing:   Dilip Kumar, Nimmi

  Thought I'd stoke the recent Naushad-desert-Salil-oasis-Anil-verdure
  fire a mite by throwing in one of my recent favorites from this
  indefatigable composer, from a movie which, IIRC, was also produced
  by him :-) Uran Khatola, in my books, is Naushad's best
  soundtrack ever. I cannot isolate a single song from it that I did
  not like ; they are all just in varying degrees of greatness. It is
  also one of those soundtracks that sound way better on video than on
  the commercially released audio versions (Anilda's 'Tarana' is another
  one). Despite the ubiquitous problems of sub-standard audio quality
  and frequent cuts, the video versions are much sweeter and richer...
  and also quite different from the audio ones.

  This song, in fact, is missing from most commercially released versions
  of the soundtrack. Strange thing about this song, which is an archetypal
  Naushad tune, is the extent to which it lingers on a single note in the
  mukhDaa, without once sounding monotonous. It starts off with some
  pretty powerful music (as Dilip Kumar is whisked away by the queen on
  her chariot) which subsides almost exponentially to a soft rhythm that
  starts the song off (as Nimmi implores him to come back). A very sweet
  and gentle tune.

  And I cannot close this post without mentioning the first among equals
  in the Lata paradise this movie carries - the magnificent 'sitaaron ki
  mehfil saji tum na aaye, tumhen humne aawaaz di tum na aaye'... it's
  the music of the Gods (with a rather ethereal picturization, too).
 

  ..Hrishi