Another guest author on ATMJH today, folks.. albeit unknowingly, this time !
 Roopa, you've unwittingly stolen the song for my next post on the pacific
 duets series, so I am left with no alternative than to add your name to the
 august(?) list of ATMJH contributors :-) Thanks for sharing your thoughts on
 what I consider some of Sahir's most sensitively penned verse.

 I had briefly mentioned this splendid duet a while ago on ATMJH when I had
 posted another song from the movie (KK's "aaj rona paDaa to samjhe"), and
 since Roopa's articulation of her thoughts on this song are collinear with
 all I wanted to say about it, I have taken the liberty of including her post,
 verbatim, for today's ATMJH. One rests on the hope that this has not
 involuntarily transgressed any RMIM tenets.

 ..Hrishi

                         "Pacific Duets - II"

 #419

         Song:   kashti ka khamosh safar hai, shaam bhi hai tanhaai bhi
                 duur kinaare par bajti hai lehron ki shehnaai bhi
                 aaj mujhe kuchh kehna hai, aaj mujhe kuchh kehna hai

         Film:   Girl Friend (1960)
         Singer: Kishore Kumar, Sudha Malhotra
         Music:  Hemant Kumar
         Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
         *ing:   Kishore Kumar, Waheeda Rehman
 

  What's remarkable about this song is that it's "quietness" works on two
  levels: it's softly sung, of course, with minimal orchestration, but I think
  the more powerful effect of quietness is achieved by the fact that the very
  subject of the song is quietness, or silence, or, quite literally, the
  inability to speak. Both singers express this inability in their own ways.
  Both voices express thoughts that are tentative, part-hopeful, part-anxious.
  And that's not all; the lyrics are a stunning combination of hesitation and
  confidence, for surely we are meant to realize at some level, that the
  hesitation is part of romantic play, the age-old
  "I-think-I-know-what-you're-thinking-but-let-me-pretend-I-don't-for-a-while"
  syndrome! I suppose this theme could easily become trite in the hands of a
  poet lesser than Sahir. God knows we have more than our share of
  stereotypical romantic situations in Hindi film songs. For reasons I can only
  ascribe to good poetry, this one escapes being inane, coy, corny, mushy,
  utter tripe, or even (!) stereotypical. Hmmm, the wonders of a clever poet.
  And then the wonderful last line, when, in response to Sudha's

             keh bhi chuko... keh bhi chuko jo kehna hai

  Kishore, with the most evocative ironic laugh in his voice, says

             chhodo... ab kyaa kehnaa hai

  To my mind, one of Kishore's best moments, and a great song.