#417

          Song:   kal jamuna tat par aavoge aavoge, aavoge aavoge
                  murjhaayi kali hamre man ki, hamre man ki
                  tum aakar isey khilaaoge, aavoge aavoge

          Film:   Neel Kamal (1947)
          Singer: Raj Kumari
          Music:  B Vasudev
          Lyrics: Kidar Sharma
          *ing:   Begum Para, Raj Kapoor, Madhubala
 

  This strange offbeat movie from Kidar Sharma marked the debut
  for both Raj Kapoor and Madhubala as romantic leads. Though not
  a commercial success (nor marked with any great performances),
  it was still a movie a specific significance for both, and it
  remained a personal favorite of Madhubala.

  The first time I saw Neel Kamal, it seemed rather ridiculous.
  But watching it over and over, some things started to stand out.
  One was the naive simplicity with which the reluctant romance
  between a village girl and an atheist sculptor was manifested ;
  as Raj Kapoor said of his first 'love scenes' : "...I do not
  think any of us felt we had played love scenes until we saw
  them on screen. There were yards and yards of beautiful dialogue
  that shuttled between the village maiden and the atheist
  sculptor. That was how the love scenes were played. Facial
  expressions and vocal intonations telling of the emotion
  shimmering beneath beautiful words..."

  Couldn't have put it better. And the other facet of the movie
  that bolstered this delicate portrayal is B Vasudev's music and
  Kidar Sharma's poetry- it's very simple and heartfelt. Kidar
  Sharma has always been a favorite poet of mine. Most of his
  romantic verse is laced with an unalloyed, honest affection that
  is able to convey all it wants to without resorting to the
  "flowers of phrase that can easily become a cloak to hide
  poverty of thought". This has been set to some very lush,
  classically-oriented music by B Vasudev. Some lesser known,
  beautiful melodies sung by artistes like Zohra, Raj Kumari,
  Hamida (dunno who that is), Bhatkar (dunno who that is either,
  is it MD Snehal Bhatkar ?) and Mukesh.

  This is the first song in the movie, as Ganga (Madhubala)
  narrates her dream to Madhusudan (Raj Kapoor). Very sweet tune,
  and a rather funny picturization - Raj Kapoor in Krishna's
  garb, doing nothing more than grinning beatifically as she
  serenades to him, bobbing up and down on some sort of a
  makeshift suspension bridge separating them.

  My favorite in the movie would have to be a lovely Mukesh-Hamida
  in the early moments of the movie... "sochta kya hai sudarshan ke
  chalaanewaale".
 

  ..Hrishi