#494

       Song:    jalke dil khaak hua, aankhon se roya na gaya
                zakhm ye aise jale, phoolon pe soya na gaya

       Film:    Parichay (1954)
       Singer:  Lata Mangeshkar
       Music:   Sailesh
       Lyrics:  Keshav
       *ing:    ?

While we are on songs with minimal orchestration...

I have no words to describe this song; it is a spiritual experience to listen to
it. But I'll try. The words, the tune, the voice, the heart-wrenching emotions
lacing every word she breathes, slow and deliberate, are, in every sense of the
word, magical. There is a haunting universe of melancholy wrapped in this
fragile melody that slowly paints itself over the ambience as the words unwind
gently, almost hesitantly in the delicate, precise notes. Emotions cannot
possibly get any more melodious.

And there is virtually no instrumentation throughout this song, just a faint
wafting of violins over soft, subdued cadences, and her voice weaving slowly
across them. The song shares its prelude with K L Saigal's "andhe ki laathi tu
hi hai..." :

        dil ke phaphole jal uthe seene ke daag se
        is ghar ko aag lag gayii ghar ke chiraag se

It is tragic that Hindi film music saw so little of this remarkable composer
(anyone care to post a filmography? All I know from him are PARICHAY and SAVERA,
each a veritable goldmine of music). The other beauty in PARICHAY is the Lata's
"duet with the tabla" that Satish-ji mentioned recently - "aansuon ki chhaanv
men hans le o dilvaale". Neha had posted both of these songs on Latanjali about
a year ago... check out http://members.rediff.com/latanjali if you are
interested in the lyrics on either, especially "jalke dil..."

        ham khatavaar hain ya humko banaanevaala
        chaand ke mukhde pe bhi daag hai kaala kaala
        kitni barsaaten huin, phir bhi vo dhoya na gaya
        jalke dil khaak hua aankhon se roya na gaya...
 

..Hrishi