#461
 

       Song:   aaj na jaane reh reh kyuun dil ye mera dole
               dil ye mera dole
               zindagi ki naav chali jaaye haule haule re
               dil ye mera dole

       Film:   Raj Tilak (1958)
       Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
       Music:  C Ramchandra
       Lyrics: P L Santoshi
       *ing:   Gemini Ganesan, Vyjayantimala, Padmini

Much like the other Gemini fairy-tales like Chandralekha(1948), Bahut
Din Hue(1954), etc. this cinematographic extravaganza has its normal
share of boisterous chorus numbers, mostly dance sequences of short
duration. Gemini movies are like operas; songs are not a separate
musical entity in their movies but a seamless, logical extension to
regular dialogue. As such, most of their movies are intensely musical
(maybe like a 40/60 song-to-dialogue ratio). And in most cases, their
musical scores have been excellent, especially the ones by E Shankara
Shastry, B S Kalla, etc.

This one however, disappoints a bit in terms of quality. There are some
nice tracks like Asha's 'o jaan-e-jigar dekho idhar', Lata's 'jab se
dekha tujhe', etc. But all the under-par tracks are completely
compensated for by this one glorious Lata solo, picturized on Padmini
in a moonlit boat sequence. Starts off in a breath of violins (similar
to the opening strains of Asha's 'kahiin se shaam hote hi' from
Shatranj), and the trademark CR beat (as in 'tu na aaya aur hone kagi
shaam re' from Aasha, 'kitni jawaan hai raat koi yaad aa gaya' from
Azaad, etc.) sets in. Beautifully composed and sung, especially
the 'dil ye mera dole' - it is used very artfully to tie the antaraas
back to mukhdaa:

  naiyya chali jaaye re, chali jaaye re lehron ke sahaare
  duur kahiin, duur kahiin chhupe sapne hamaare
  kaun hai jo <lovely pause>, kaun hai jo raaz naseebon ke yahaan khole
  dil ye mera dole...