#433
Song:
le jaa, le jaa le jaa baabu yeh meri nishaani
phoolon ki raani main phoolon ki raani
le jaa, le jaa le jaa baabu yeh meri nishaani
Film:
Darogaji (1949)
Singer: Geeta
Roy
Music: Bulo
C Rani
Lyrics: Manohar
Lal Khanna
*ing:
Nargis, Jairaj
If only all flower vendors employed such a musical sales pitch! :-)
I mentioned "Darogaji" in my last post; this home production
from Nargis is,
like "Jogan", a relentless Geeta Roy sea. Twelve tracks and
all Geeta solos.
This song heralds Nargis' entry into the movie, selling,
need I say, flowers,
wading through a sea of potential buyers in the marketplace.
The musical interludes in this song are lovely, and more importantly,
rather
unusual. The first line ("lejaa lejaa..") is repeated twice.
And in between
the two repetitions, a short piece of music plays, which
is repeated thrice
in quick succession. It's remarkable how this simple technique
of repeating a
simplistic interlude piece imparts a whole different feel
to the song.
There's another amusing song in this movie, which I faintly
remember as a
chorus number : "kotwaal daroga apnaa ke ab dar kaahe ka
mohe", which in
turn, heralds the entry of Jairaj, the "darogaji". Quite
a bleak movie, come
to think of it... tragedy upon tragedy piled upon the poor
heroine. One of
those movies that starts off with a chirpy ebullience and
at a point suddenly
turns around and descends into a Thomas Hardy-esque abyss
of doom. And almost
without exception, a song is involved at or near this turning
point - IIRC,
"apne saajan ke man mein samaayi re" does it for this one.
Ram Daryani's
"Tarana" is another such (which turns around with "beimaan
torey nainwa..").
So do we have enough "phool"-based songs to populate an RJGK?
Maybe a more
generalized theme- merchant songs (songs sung while the actor/tress
is trying
to sell something) - would work :-) Here's another one, again
a Geeta solo,
from Vasant Desai's "Toofaan Aur Diya": "phal ki bahaar hai,
kele anaar hai,
ambuva ke nimbuva ke hum hain vyaapaari" preceded by the
clarion call "aaya re
aaya re aaya re bhaajiwaala". Reminds me of those door-to-door
vegetable
vendors back home, though I wouldn't classify any of their
larynxes as even
remotely musical :-)