Of Love, Ghazal, Our Cinema and Beyond
iView Author: Ram V (Bangalore, India)
Email: shrey[dot]dna[at]gmail[dot]com
Of Love, Ghazal, Our Cinema and Beyond
Chali simt-e-ghaib se ik hawa
Chaman suroor ka jal gaya
Magar ik shaak-e-nihaal-e-gham, jise dil kahte hain, hari rahi
tahaiyyur-e-khabar-e-ishq sun, na junoon raha na pari rahi
Na To tu rah na mein rahi, jo rahi bekhabari rahi
( From the direction of the unknown, a wind blew
The garden of happiness was set ablaze
But a branch of the tree of sorrows, which goes by the name ‘heart’, remained evergreen
Listen to the bewilderment in the news of love, neither did desire exist nor did the angel fairy
You ceased to exist, so did me, what was left was left unknown )
These words by Mir Sauda encapsulate the pain of love, wherein the lover is transported to a plain of consciousness where one is unable to describe the feeling. It is not desire neither is it without greed. It is not blissful, neither is it painful. It is unknown.
Of all the modern poetic forms Ghazals and Nazms of the Urdu language are perhaps the most love-centric. ‘Although the ghazal deals with the whole spectrum of human experience, its central concern is love’ says KC Kanda, in ‘Glimpses of Urdu Poetry’ . Several great poets like Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib, Raghupathi Sahay Firaq, Zafar, ,Faiz, Zauq, Daag Delhvi, Sahir Ludhiyanvi, Qatil Shifai and many eminent others have contributed to this form.
Indian Cinema, which has been active for almost a century now, has dedicated most of its offering towards this feeling. When a prince,Salim fell head over heals in love with a courtesan, Anarkali, Mughal-e-Azam was born. Jehangir, conqueror of the world, as his name goes, was a helpless no gooder under the spell of a dusky Anarkali, pomegranate blossom. The flower bud conquered the sword, and proudly announced ‘ Jab Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya, Pyaar Kiya Koi Chori Nahin Ki, Chupp, Chupp Aahen Bharna Kya’…. (I loved,why fear? I loved, never stole anything, why hide and repent? )
Shakeel Badayuni’s self-imposed 105 time imposition resulted in Lata Mangeshkar crooning ‘Insaan kisee se duniyaan me Yek baar mohabbat kartaa hai, Is dard ko lekar jiitaa hai, Is dard ko lekar marataa hai’ ( Man falls in love once in his life, he lives with this pain and dies with it). The epic adventure ends in doom. But love in its purity prevailed.
Another attempt to capture this emotion during the same era, was ‘Devdas‘, which started its journey on the silver screen as early as 1928, in silent mode. Then P C Barua, who bitten high-time by love-bug, remade Devdas 3 times. After satisfying his appetite for the Sharat Upanyas, Devdas fell in the hands of Nageswara Rao, who exemplified the role, in a Telugu version, and cried ‘ Jagame Maaya…’ ( The World is and Illusion, life is an illusion…) in the sweetest voice of the great Ghantasala. In 1956, Dilip Kumar immortalized ‘Devdas’ in a shattering performance. Again the theme was same as Mughal-E-Azam or any other love story of the time, a high caste boy falling for a sweet ‘Naach Gaane Wali’ girl. When Devdas was forced to leave her, he said
Ham Jaise, Ham Jaise Barbaad Dilon Kaa Jeenaa Kyaa Aur Marnaa Kyaa
Aaj Teri Mahfil Se Uthe Kal Duniyaan Se Uth Jaayenge
( For us heart-broken, what is life or death
Today I leave your entertaining eve, tomorrow I leave this world)
The 2002 version is quite forgettable, which was full gizmo, colors, costumes and no content. In the much better 2009 Anurag Kashyap version Devdas is same lovetorn fool he was, but a bit more realistic in the e-mail era. Abhay Deol’s feeling’s are let out by two bandmaster’s Rangeela and Raseela as they say, do not sing
‘Bol Bol why did you ditch me,
Zindagi bhi lele yaar kill me,
Bol Bol why did you ditch me whore.
Bol Bol why did you ditch me’
Amit Trivedi, unlike his more worthy predecessors, spared me the job of translation, by doing the rites himself.
Getting back, Pakeezah, captured the essence of love, in all its unexpected uncertainity and fatal pain, as Kaifi wrote ‘Chalte Chatle,
Yeh chiraag bujh rahe hain
Mere saath jalte jalte
Yunhi koi mil gaya tha
Sare raah chalte chalte
(These lamps die,
burning out with me,
As I just walk by,
I got to meet someone )
Then romance got lighter, movies like Aradhana, Chaudvin Ki Chaand, Kashmir Ki Kali had their heroes shower praises on their lover with out of the world comparison, literally
Chaudvin ki Chaand Ho
Ya Aaftaab Ho,
Jo Bhi Ho Tum Khuda Ki Kasam
Lajawaab ho
( Are you the full moon,
or are you the sun,
whatever you may be, upon god
you are beyond words)
And Shammi Kapoor, tumbled, rattled and swayed in a petit canoe showering flowers and praises alike in Rafi’s golden voice
Chand sa Roshan Chehra ,Zulfon ka Rang Sunehra,
Ye Jheel si Neeli Aankhen, Kya Raaz Hain Inmein Gehra
Taareef Karoon Kya Uski, Jisne Tumhe Banaaya
(Face as lit as moon, Golden colored hair
Eyes as blue as the lake, what deep secret lies in them
What praise should I bestow upon, the one who created you?) Was it Sharmila Tagore or Ursula Andress ? golden hair and blue eyes.
Even a possible physical angle to love was precariously entertained in Aradhana when Rajesh Khanna gyrated in Kishore Kumar’s lust-filled voice
Roop Tera Mastana,Pyaar Mera Deewana,
Bhool Kabhi Humse Na Ho Jaaye
(Your appearance is intoxicating, my love is insane
We should not end up doing something silly)
When the audience got fed up of middle-aged men singing songs of love and lust with young women. The directors of the mainstream Hindi cinema decided to bring in a major difference. They cast young heroes. Story was the same, songs similar, heroes younger, heroines younger, sexier. Then you had Love Story, Ek Duje Ke Liye, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Bobby .
Young love was innocent, when Bobby sings ‘Hum Tum Ek Kamre Mein Bandh Ho, Aur Chaabi Kho Jaaye’ ( ‘What would happen if both of us get locked up and the key is lost?’ ) , or quick learning ability shown in ‘Main Shayar To Nahin, Magar Ai Hasseen, Jub Se Dekha Tumko, Mujhko Shaayari aa Gayi’ ( I am no poet, but became one the moment I saw you). A fumbly Kamalahaasan (phonetically correct spelling of his name), impresses Rati Agnihotri with a song made up of movie names. Later on sings ‘Tere mere beech mein, Kaisa hain ye bandhan anjaana’ ( What is this bonding between us unknown?). Invariably, all the juvenile, inter-caste, inter-class, inter-religion romances end up in tragedy.
Then, every star kid in Hindi Cinema ( not yet popularly christened Bollywood, HFR Keating and Belinda Collaco notwithstanding), debuted in a lovestory. Sanjay Dutt in Rocky, Sunny Deol in Betaab, Aamir Khan in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Salman Khan in Maine Pyaar Kiya and so on. Love language got softer again, with lovers exploring the unsure future that lay ahead of them, in Beetaab ‘Jab hum Jawaan Honge…’ or QSQT ‘ Akele Hum Akele Tum, To Kya Gham Hai’ ( You and I are alone, why sad?) or MPK ‘ Kabootar Ja, Pehle Pyar ki Pehli Chitti Saajan Ko De Aa’ ( ‘Pigeon go and deliver my first love letter to my first love’)
All this shallow expression of love continued as the next generation of actors or some starlet made a debut or a major breakthrough. The same story, same villian, similiar songs, new actors. As we saw Bobby Deol singing to Twinkle Khanna in the nasal Kumar Sanu tone ‘Nahin Yeh Ho Nahi Sakta Ki Teri Yaad Na Aaaye…Tujhe Bhoolne se Pahle Meri Jaan Chali Jaaye’ ( No it is impossible that I am not reminded of you, ….I wish that I die before I forget you) or Shahrukh Khan sings Aur Raj ne Simran se Kaha.’….’Tujhe Dekha To ye Jaana Sanam…Pyaar Hota Hai Dewaana Sanam’ ( The moment I saw you I realized that love is insane) .
More recently, Hrithk Roshan hogged the lime light with immense biceps and calf muscles only to sing to an equally well built Amisha Patel …’Kaho Naa Pyaar Hain…Kaho Naa Pyaar Hain’ ( Tell me that you love….Tell me that you love) or Harman Baweja singing some unmemborable babble from Love Story 2050. If we have to judge the passion of the filmmaker by the kind of songs that are churned out in our love stories, then we have fallen down, too deep to climb up now.
Some filmmakers have started to look beyond love stories as the staple content of Hindi Cinema. Let us hope these attempts would bring out the same magic as it happened when Faiz looked beyond love in a Nazm of his
‘Mujhse Pehli Si Mohabbat Mere Mehboob Na Maang
Main Ne Samjha Tha Ke Tu Hai Tau Darakshan Hai Hayat,
……….
Ja Baja Bikte Hue Koocha-o-bazaar Mein Jism
Khak Mein Lithre Hue, Khoon Mein Nahlaae Hue,
……….
Ab Bhi Dilkash Hai Tera Husn, Magar Kya Kijiye?
Aur Bhi Dukh hai Zamane Mein Mohabbat Ke Siwa,
Raahaten Aur Bhi Hai, Vasl Ki Raahat Ke Siwa’
( Dont expect me to love you as before, my love
I assumed that with you around life would be dazzling bright.
……….
Human bodies are for sale in ever street, every shop
Bathed in blood, splashed in the dirt
………
Agreed that you are as beautiful as ever, but what to do?
There is more pain in this world than love
There are more satisfying moments in this world, than moment of union in love)
The camera lenses that make Hindi Cinema, and most mainstream Indian Cinema, have to expose themselves to the pain that Faiz talks about, and explore the solutions that are more satisfying than celebrating victory of love over and over again.
Tags: Daag Dehelvi, devdas, Mir Sauda, Mir Taqi Mir, Mirza Ghalib, Pakeezah, Poetry in films, Sahir Ludhianvi, Shakeel Badayuni
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Some breezy ride! Though I think you didn’t include a single ghazal in your entire post!! Ghazal is a technical term with a formal definition. Let’s respect that.
Agree with Aarti, except the title, I didn’t find ‘Ghazal’ anywhere in the post
But, then, this post was not about the “Ghazal” anyway.
@Aarti @Aditya Pant
Most of them in these are Nazm’s,or just poor Hindi film songs, though the first one by Mir Sauda can be considered as a bin-radif, bematla form of ghazal(which is accepted, out of the ordinary and unique in its own sense)…the sources of all these great hindi songs can be traced back to a Ghazal or two from the early master’s, hence, this name
@Aditya Pant
Yes its not about Ghazal, it’s about the fixation that Ghazal, and Hindi Cinema have with the emotion of love. I took the chance to explore some poetry in cinema during the excercise and point out how far they stand from traditional Urdu poetic form and content.
Correction. Siraj Aurangabadi was the one who infact wrote ‘Chali Simt-e-Ghaib….’, my memory said it was Sauda…its one of the greatest Ghazals on love…
http://gopichandnarang.com/articles_1.htm
Subhan Allah! Bahut khub likha hai.
@thec…thanks man…
aate haiN Ghaib se ye mazaameen Khayaal Mein
‘Ghalib’, Sareer-e-Khaama Nawa-e-Sarosh Hai.
(From where do these thoughts come I donot know, Ghalib, the scratching of the pen sounds like an angels song)
Ram, I must’ve read the opening verses many times, and something appeared amiss to me. Then I realized that it didn’t seem to be in behr because a few words had been missed out!
And you’re absolutely right, it is really a “ghair muraddaf” ghazal.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this piece.
beautiful….
@Aditya Pant. Thanks and you are spot on…It is out of behr….I picked it up from Qurratulain Hyder’s ‘Aag Ka Darya’ a Masterpiece in Urdu Literary Fiction…She rearranged it perhaps to prove a contextual element in her text.
@judgegag …thank you.
Amazing, really enjoyed the article.
A piece for my fav. genre of music. Kudos to RAM!
Excellent article…Ram V!!! too good.