HAALAT KA MAARA, BEBAS INSAN AUR USKE BIKHARE HUYE SAPNE
HALAAT KA MARA, BEBAS INSAAN AUR USKE BIKHARE HUYE SAPNE
article by A.S. Murty - rafimurty@gmail.com/asmurty2@rediffmail.com
One of the finest compositions and perhaps one of the most difficult ones – this piece of a song is a story of plight. Desperation pouring out from the bottom of the heart, the composition takes the listener on a different plane. Helplessness, loneliness and pathos all keep flowing from the start. The song is MAIN TOOTI HUI IK NAYYA HOON from the film AADMI. I have listened to the song several times again in recent times and am totally baffled by the sheer uniqueness of rendition. How can anyone sing it to such perfection? Each line, each paragraph and almost every word comes out from different angles and directions. No tune is repeated in the paragraphs and there is no knowing on what note the paragraph will end, until it actually does. How did Naushad compose such a difficult tune? Did he actually visualize the result that finally came out in the form of the voice of Mohammed Rafi? Did he leave it to the genius of Mohd. Rafi to present it in the form that the song was finally rendered? Several questions crop up my mind when I listen to the song again and again and frankly I have no answers. Alas! Both Naushad Sahab and Mohd. Rafi Sahab are no more with us. It continues to bewilder and baffle me repeatedly and each time with much more impact than the previous one. I can only visualize Mohd. Rafi Sahab, instead of Naushad Sahab directing the orchestra that was used while singing. There are several songs of Mohd. Rafi that many good singers can sing. They will however never come anywhere near him. That has been an acknowledged fact and may be an understatement by itself. But there are some songs which even established exponents of Hindi film music or the best of singers can never even attempt. This song is one such rare and unique blend of music that has Mohd. Rafi’s name written all over it. At the beginning of the song itself, the sadness of the song is evidently exposed by this great singer who has rendered it from his heart. I once came upon a small Urdu phrase – NAGMA WAHI HAI NAGMA KE JISE, ROOH SUNE AUR ROOH SUNAYE. Mohd. Rafi, like in thousands of other songs, has given such a soulful rendition. One can feel the heaviness in his throat and the flow of tears from his eyes. Maybe sad songs can best be forgotten and they do not appeal to the masses. But true connoisseurs of music will spot a good composition and rendition. I am not listing the several thousands of songs that Mohd. Rafi sahab has recorded with equal aplomb and which are unmatched. The other songs of the same film – AADMI – were more acclaimed. This song did not play on the radio too often and may not be a prized collection of many of the Rafi fans. But it is to be listened again and again to know the depth to understand it. The composition is different from the usual run-of-the-mill songs and the smooth flow of music from the voice of Mohd. Rafi Sahab unfolds newer dimensions as one immerses oneself into the song. I have on several occasions wondered if any other singer of that era – 1960s – male or female – can sing this song. Manna De, Mahender Kapoor, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle and several other good but small time singers who had pitched in every now and then. The song is not gender-specific. I tried to visualize the song in the voice of the above singers. The song has no set pattern which would have been helpful to any of them. But more than this, I found that the song could not have been sung in a better form had it been composed in a set pattern, and certainly not by any other singer. Every bit of bitterness, sadness and helplessness would have vanished. “JEE CHAAHE DUBODO MOUJON MEIN YA SAHIL PAR LE JAO” depicts the total dependence of one human being on another and tells the untold story of the dark phases in a destitute life. In the second paragraph Mohd. Rafi says – BEETE HUYE DIN MIL JAYE JAHAN MUJHE AISI DAGAR LE JAYO . There can be no more pathos than a young man, a prince only a short time ago, is reduced to pleading. The entire gamut of hollowness in his life is beautifully narrated in the four lines in this paragraph. And there is neither any semblance of strain nor extra effort that Mohd. Rafi Sahab seems to putting into it. He has sung it with such ease to look a very simple composition. On the contrary, it is one of the difficult songs that cannot easily be learnt by most singers. Mohd. Rafi Sahab seems to have entered the soul of the character while rendering the song. Songs of this genre will be enshrined the list of the golden compositions for all time to come. I feel proud to be part of a generation that could create music of the tallest order and this song, like many more from Mohd. Rafi Sahab’s stable is a piece of art crafted to perfection by the singer and the composer Naushad Sahab.
Let songs of this kind be the yardstick in various talent hunt shows doing the rounds these days. If the song is forgotten by most RAFIANS, then they will yearn to listen to it once again and those who do, will find the depth that the song presents and rediscover the genius of a great saint and singer – a phenomenon called MOHAMMED RAFI. In recent times, Lata Mangeshkar has remarked that these so-called talent hunt shows are not the medium to discover the real singers as they are SMS based. Paradoxically and inexplicably, she was silent when the first ever such talent hunt produced a young man from Mumbai as the undisputed true singer, who was also chosen on similar lines. But then, she should have elaborated more and given examples of many songs sung by her and other peers like Mohammed Rafi Sahab and should have dared the singers and the organizers to make these gems of songs as the benchmark for determination and elimination.
Coming back to this song’s composition, the opening music is itself haunting and prods one to listen to the song in full and in total reverence. One would realize that the song is here to make a bold statement. If the song is not appealing to the masses for the sadness it depicts, then I am compelled to repeat the last lines in song and console myself - TOOTE NA TUMHARA NAZUK DIL, YEH DARD MUJHI TAK RAHNE DO. AB CHHOD DO MUJHKO RAHON MEIN YA DOOR NAGAR LE JAO.
Come on RAFIANS, there is a lot of bliss even in the saddest of songs and this one could give the pep that is badly required by all of us in this otherwise make-belief world of noisy stuff churned by movies after movies and by MDs of all ilk labeling them as music. Enough is enough, Let us revive and propagate the real music.
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