This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Forgotten Melodies of the 1940s – 30
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The date was 11th March 1947. The place was Jeevan House, Bombay. The Secretary of the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) was reporting the proceedings of its weekly meeting. Around 50 poets and writers had assembled at the meeting. Among them were Josh Malihabadi, Saghar Nizami, Dr Safdar Aah Sitapuri, Majaz Lucknawi, Ali Sardar Jafri, Vishwamitra Adil, Kaifi Azmi, Sahir Ludhianvi and Majrooh Sultanpuri.
The agenda for discussion – ‘Merits and Demerits of Ghazal’. I will not go into details of the proceedings (probably translated from Urdu). Those interested can read the full proceedings here. The observations made in the meeting by Josh Malihabadi with his anti-ghazal stance are interesting. I was surprised by the way the then young Majrooh Sultanpuri argued against the anti-ghazal stance taken by Josh Malihabadi and Ali Sardar Jafri. Let us read what Josh Malihabadi said in the PWA meeting (I have condensed his observations to make it somewhat short):
Ghazal is defined as conversation with women or engaging women in small talk or saying sweet things to women. As to love, although the beloveds don’t exist, they still are the most faithless lot on earth who would rather have the poet thrashed by the ugly rival than favour him with a smile. Speech without thought or passion is chatter that ghazal poets indulge in endlessly, addressing their unborn beloveds, who don’t exist.
Both thoughts and speech are petty and trivial. Then we must say different things in different couplets. One couplet expresses the tortures of waiting, the next relishes the pleasures of union followed by an altercation with the Sheikh. Once talking to Faani (Badayuni) I said, how terrible! There’s a nail in my shoe. Atta prices have gone up. It is raining out of season. It is so hot. Faani looked at me. “What’s wrong with you”, he said. I said, “I am reciting a ghazal”!
I tell you, ghazal is an unnatural thing. It should be wound up.
I had read the proceedings of PWA meeting of May 1947 about 3 years back and had forgotten it until I came across the matla she’r of a ghazal:
soz-e-gham de ke mujhe us ne ye irshaad kiya
jaa tujhe kashmakash-e-dahr se aazaad kiya
After giving me an intense grief
She gave me a go ahead
Saying that she has relieved me
And I was free from the worldly dilemma
How did I remember the proceedings of PWA? As I found out later, this beautiful couplet was written by none other than Josh Malihabadi who, as has been noted, was highly critical of Ghazal poetry.
The beauty of this couplet is that the poet has given his thought process in few words that are capable of different interpretations by the readers. While I have given the simple translation of the couplet, my own interpretation of the couplet is that the despite his overtures, his beloved did not respond in either way giving him intense grief and putting him in dilemma of whether or not her response would be positive. Now that his beloved says that she has relieved him by making him free from his big dilemma, it is apparent that she has rejected his overtures – the usual tale of unrequited love in traditional ghazal.
I am presenting the same ghazal which was used in the film Shehzadi (1947). This is a film from the stable of Shalimar Pictures for which no other details such as cast and crew, the name of the director etc. are available. Although neither the singer nor the lyricist have been identified, I am pretty sure that the voice is that of Sitarabai Kanpuri. I had no difficulty in identifying the lyricist as three of the four couplets used in the ghazal are from the published work of Josh Malihabadi. Only the second couplet has been written afresh. Since Josh Malihabadi was under the payroll of Shalimar Pictures, I assume that the second couplet may have also been written by Josh Malihabadi. The ghazal is composed by SK Pal.
SK Pal has composed the interlude orchestra in the symphony style which to my mind, has been rarely used in a ghazal rendition that too in the 1940s.
Song – Soz-e-Gham De Ke Mujhe Us Ne Ye Irshaad Kiya (Shehzadi)(1947) Singers – Sitarabai Kanpuri, Lyrics – Josh Malihabadi, MD – SK Pal
Lyrics
aa aaa aaaaaaa
aaaaaaa aaa
aaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaa
soz-e-gham
de ke mujhe
soz-e-gham de ke mujhe
us ne ye irshaad kiya aa aa aa
soz-e-gham de ke mujhe
us ne ye irshaad kiya aa aa aa
jaa tujhe
kashmakash-e-dahr se aazaad kiya
jaa tujhe
kashmakash-e-dahr se aazaad kiya aa aa aa
un tammanaaon ki taqdeer mein barbaadi thhi ee ee ee
un tammanaaon ki taqdeer mein barbaadi thhi ee ee ee
jin tamannahon ne dil ko mere aabaad kiya
jin tamannahon ne dil ko mere aabaad kiya aa aa aa
aaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaa
aaa aaa
soz-e-gham de ke mujhe
us ne ye irshaad kiya aa aa aa
dil ki choton ne kabhi chain se rehne na diya aa
dil ki choton ne kabhi chain se rehne na diya aa
jab chali sard hawa maine tujhe yaad kiya
jab chali sard hawa maine tujhe yaad kiya aa aa aa
soz-e-gham de ke mujhe
us ne ye irshaad kiya aa aa aa
mujh ko to hosh nahin tum ko khabar ho shaayad
mujh ko to hosh nahin tum ko khabar ho shaayad
log kehte hain ki tumne mujhe barbaad kiya
log kehte hain ki tumne mujhe barbaad kiya aa aa aa
soz-e-gham de ke mujhe
us ne ye irshaad kiya aa aa aaa
