#426

         Song:   khoyi khoyi ankhiyaan neend bina
                 dekh rahii hain ek sapanaa
                 khoyi khoyi ankhiyaan neend bina..

         Film:   Chaand (1959)
         Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
         Music:  Hemant Kumar
         Lyrics: Shailendra
         *ing:   Meena Kumari, Balraj Sahni

 There seems to be a Hemantda breeze ruffling the RMIM airspace of late
 (helped in no small measure by Neha's rejuvenation of her much-missed
 Hemantda series), so let me add some more cubic inches to it :-) (BTW, thanks
 for posting "chandaniya nadiya beech..", Neha; and the prelude instrument
 sounds a bit like the bulbul-tarang mebbe? But I mebbe wrong).

 Theme for today's song :
         I'm hearing images, I'm seeing songs
         No poet has ever painted...
                 - ABBA, "I Let The Music Speak" from "The Visitors"

 The music of the golden age is rich with words that paint vivid images  and
 tunes that infuse them with equally vivid colors. Sometimes the image appeals
 to us, sometimes the colors do. But sometimes a song captures this confluence
 with such exquisite precision that listening to it yanks us out of our
 current setting and transports us into the very canvas the song is trying to
 portray. A number of these come to mind : "chaand madham hai aasmaan chup
 hai" from "Railway Platform", "pighla hai sonaa duur gagan par" from "Jaal",
 and so on.

 Today's song is one such. A lot of what follows may sound far-fetched, but
 this is exactly how I reacted to the song when I first heard it, about five
 years ago. As it travels from its faintly melancholy prelude, on to it's
 gentle, reassuring rhythm (one that characterized a lot of Hemantda's tunes,
 including the recently posted "chandaniya nadiya beech...") to the hauntingly
 soft rendition by Lata, the song inexorably draws the listener into the
 serene, nightly, pensive portrait it creates. And to cap it all, it's such an
 unadorned tune - unassumingly simple, sweet-beyond-words and literally
 breathes Hemantda in every note.

 I've always been amazed by how Hemantda always found the perfect rhythm for
 all his compositions; the words just seem to sidle in effortlessly into the
 mould of percussion he constructs for them - I can't describe it any other
 way - it leaves you with a feeling that it could not possibly have been
 composed any other way.

 Enough rambling. The "Chaand" soundtrack is another lovely gift from Hemantda
 to HFM. Not a very high count of songs (I think 5 or 6, including the lovely
 Lata chorus number "ae baadalon..."), but what's there is a treasure.

 Aside on the film: a very early Manoj Kumar features in the movie, playing
 quite a key role opposite Meena Kumari (romantic lead, no less). Very amusing
 to watch him in this young persona, pitted against well-established artistes
 like Meena Kumari and Balraj Sahni.