"Pacific Duets - IX"

 #430

         Song:   sochta kya hai sudarshan ke chalaanewaale
                 uthke ab bigdi banaa bigdi banaanewaale

         Film:   Neel Kamal (1947)
         Singer: Mukesh, Hamida
         Music:  B Vasudev (Snehal Bhatkar)
         Lyrics: Kidar Sharma
         *ing:   Raj Kapoor, Begum Para, Mumtaz (Madhubala)
 

 Today's post is dedicated to the memory of veteran filmmaker Kidar Sharma who
 passed away recently, severing yet another link to our golden past.

 By virtue of it's content and message, this duet, like the previous post
 probably does not qualify as a pacific duet. But again, it's music and
 rendition do satisfy the norms of pacifism. The sweetness in Mukesh's early
 voice is undeniable, and this soundtrack has a conservative share of gems in
 his voice, mostly duets with Zohra ("patthar se tum duudh bahaavo" and the
 highly amusing "pyaar se humko kaleje se janno tum na lagaao to kaun
 lagaaye"). This duet with Hamida is my favorite song from the movie, one that
 I briefly mentioned when I posted the Rajkumari song from this movie a while
 ago.

 In addition to the music and voices, I'm quite taken in by the lyrics of this
 duet. I'm amused by songs that adopt a confrontational attitude towards God,
 for whatever reasons. Lines such as "bhagwaan tumhaara naam hamaare hi dum se
 hai" from Lata's "qismat banaanewaale zara saamne to aa" (Pardes, 1950), or
 "...warna main yeh samjhuungi tuu bhagwaan nahiin hai" from Asha's
 "bhagwaan teri duniya mein insaan nahiin hai (Rail Ka Dibba, 1953) sound oddly
 appealing. This song is one such; in fact it marks the incipience of atheistic
 sentiments in the mind of the movie's protagonist, the atheist sculptor, with
 straight-from-the-heart lines like :

 sar pe jab tuut padey ranj-o-museebat ke pahaad
 laaj rakhte hain govardhan ke uthaanewaale

 or

 des ka naash ho phir raas rachaana kaisa
 ab to talwaar pakad bansi bajaanewaale

 Now, though the words don't overtly sound atheistic, the situation and
 picturization convey it quite effectively, with the father-son pair
 consistently pointing these accusing fingers at the deities. It's a
 beautifully composed song, sung entirely in unison by the two artistes.

 I don't know if the movie was a hit, musically or otherwise, but it still
 remains a landmark on the map of Hindi cinema, marking the debut of both Raj
 Kapoor and Madhubala as lead artistes.