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.
I had no idea about this film KAARWAAN-E-HUSN (1935), a name that I heard for the first time. Even the name of the singer, Miss Noor Jahan was new for me. The film was produced under the banner of Kanwal Movietone and was directed by Choudhary M Raffi. The star cast included S.Nazir, Shahzadi, M. Ansari, S M Hadi, Zohrajaan, Miss Noor Jahan, Agha etc.
The film had 12 songs. As per Kamalakar Pasupuleti’s Blog, discs of 4 songs from the film were available with record collectors of Hyderabad – 3 ghazals and one wedding song, all sung by Miss Noor Jahan of Lucknow. The audio clips of two songs – a ghazal and a wedding song – are available on YT. I drew blank on the internet in my attempts to get some information on Miss Noor Jahan.
I am presenting the first song from the film to appear on the Blog. The song sung in the ghazal format is ‘jigar soziyaan hain dil aazaariyan hain’ from the film KAARWAAN-E-HUSN (1935). The ghazal is rendered by Miss Noor Jahan of Lucknow which is set to music by Vinod B Ganguly. Unfortunately, I am not able to get the name of the lyricist which was very important for me as I liked the way thoughts of a lover towards the beloved are expressed in the ghazal. All I can guess is that the lyricist may be a poet.
It is often said in the context of Urdu she’rs that most of them would have more than one interpretation. Most of Urdu poets, especially the classical Urdu poets would expressed their thoughts in she’rs in a roundabout way giving scope for the readers as well as listeners to interpret them in their own way. I have attempted below my interpretation of the thoughts and feelings expressed by the poet in each of the she’rs of the ghazal:
Jigar soziyaan hai dil aazaariyaan hai
Mubaarak mujhe meri beemaariyaan hain
[My spirit is down and the heart is aching.
Let my illness be a happy occasion].
Soziyaan= burning, passion
Aazaariyaan= pains, sufferings
In Urdu, the word ‘jigar’ is also used as a metaphor for ‘guts’ or ‘spirit’. I could not find the meaning of ‘soziyaan’ in any of Urdu discretionary available on internet. http://www.rekhta.org has given the nearest word as ‘sozaan’ (derived from ‘soz’) which means ‘burning’. Probably, the singer has pronounced ‘soziyaan’ to adjust to the metre and rhythm of the verse.
There is a dry humour in the couplet in that the lover is congratulating himself for his illness inflicted by his beloved – more like self-pity.
taghaful hai ek shaan-e-mehboob lekin
taghaful mein pinhaan kabardaariyaan hain
[The beloved is pretending to be ignorant about my love.
But her ignorance is nothing but her hidden cautiousness about my love.
In other words, the beloved’s pretentious ignorance of love is an excuse for her cautiousness].
Taghaful= ignorance, negligence.
Pinhaan= hidden, concealment.
falaq par jinhen tum samjhate ho taare
meri aah-e-sozaan ki chingaariyaan hain
[You think that whatever shining in the sky is stars.
They are nothing but sparkling from my burning sighs].
Falaq= sky, heaven.
Aah-e-sozaan= burning sighs.
mohabbat asar karti hai chupke chupke
mohabbat ki khaamosh chingaariyaan hain
[The effect of love works silently without letting anyone knows.
But such love is also the noiseless sparkles].
I am thankful to Sudhir ji, who deciphered for me a few words, especially the first verse of the last couplet of the ghazal without which the translation would have lost the meaning.
Enjoy the ghazal sung in 1930s style.
Song-Jigar soziyaan hai dil aazaariyaan hai (Kaarwaan e Husn)(1935) Singer-Miss Noor Jahaan(Sr), MD-Vinod B Ganguly
Lyrics
jigar soziyaan hai dil aazaariyaan hai
jigar soziyaan hai dil aazaariyaan hai
mubaarak mujhe meri beemaariyaan hain
mubaarak mujhe meri beemaariyaan hain
taghaful hai ek shaan-e-mehboob lekin
taghaful hai ek shaan-e-mehboob lekin
taghaful mein pinhaan khabardaariyaan hain
taghaful mein pinhaan khabardaariyaan hain
falaq par jinhen tum samajhte ho taare
falaq par jinhen tum samajhte ho taare
meri aah-e-sozaan ki chingaariyaan hain
meri aah-e-sozaan ki chingaariyaan hain
mohabbat asar karti hai chupke chupke
mohabbat asar karti hai chupke chupke
mohabbat ki khaamosh chingaariyaan hain
mohabbat ki khaamosh chingaariyaan hain
jigar soziyaan hai dil aazaariyan hai
jigar soziyaan hai dil aazaariyan hai
