This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular 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.
After the partition in 1947, prominent music directors like Ghulam Haider, Khwaja Khursheed Anwar, G A Chisti, Feroze Nizami, Rafique Ghaznavi , Innayat Hussain migrated to Pakistan. Most of them were born or brought up in western part of Punjab of undivided India which became a part of Pakistan. So rather than calling the process as migration, they actually returned to their original places.
There were two music directors who had started their filmy career in the 1940s but decided to migrate to Pakistan in early 1960s. They were Nashaad from Delhi and Nisaar Bazmi from Jalgaon, Maharashtra. They did very well in Pakistani film industry. While Nashaad was reportedly persuaded by producer-director-lyricist, Nakhshab Jarchavi to accompany him to Pakistan, Nisaar Bazmi migrated to Pakistan after getting an offer from Producer Fazli to compose songs for his films ‘Aisa Bhi Hota Hai’ (1965).
Syed Nisaar Ahmed a.k.a. Nisaar Bazmi (1/12/1924 – 22/03/2007) was born in Naseerabad in the present day Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. His family did not have any kind of musical background nor did Nisaar Bazmi have any formal training in music in his childhood. In 1936, he came to Bombay and joined as one of the accompanists for the Qawwali singer Yasin Qawwal of Bombay (Mumbai). This association developed his interest in singing.
Nisaar Bazmi came into contact with Ustad Aman Ali Khan of Bhendi Bazar Gharana. He accepted him as his disciple after observing his aptitude for music. He taught him various raagas for about 4 years. During this period (around 1939), he joined All India Radio as an artist.
In 1944, Ammembal Dinkar Rao, (also known as D. Amel, A. Dinkar Rao), the then Programme Executive in-charge of music, All India Radio (AIR) entrusted Nisaar Bazmi to compose songs for a play ‘Nadir Shah Durrani’ which was broadcasted on AIR. All the songs were sung by Rafique Ghaznavi and Ameerbai Karnataki. The songs became very popular. Producer-director, A R Zamindar after listening to his compositions in the play, offered him the opportunity to compose songs for his film ‘Jamna Paar’ (1946).
After getting his first film, Nisaar Bazmi bid good bye to both his permanent job in AIR and also his desire of becoming a singer. He also changed his name from Syed Nisaar Ahmed to Nisaar Bazmi. During his stint in India, he was music directors for around 40 films of which 28 films were released. These included ‘Pickpocket’ (1946), ‘Kaufnaak Aankhen’ (1947), ‘Dagabaaz Dost’ (1947), ‘Roop Lekha’ (1949). ‘Gazab’ (1951), ‘Kyon Ji’ (1952), ‘Khoj’ (1953), ‘Halla Gulla’ (1954), ‘Toofaan Mail’ (1955), ‘Zarina’ (1956), ‘Jungle Queen’ (1956), ‘Kal Kya Hoga’ (1958), ‘Shola Jo Bhadke’ (1961). His last film in India was ‘Mr. Toofaan’ (1963). From the names of the films and their star casts, it can be observed that most of his films belonged to stunt/action genre of ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade.
Probably, Nisaar Bazmi would have continued to get B and C grade films in India. But a chance visit to Lahore, Pakistan sometime in 1962 to meet his relatives and also to bring back to India son of his friend from Jalgaon, changed Nisar Bazmi’s fortunes. In Lahore, he met Fazal Karim Fazli [probably a brother of Fazli Brothers, the film producer who had produced films like ‘Qaidi’ (1940), ‘Maasoom’,(1941), ‘Fashion’ (1943), ‘ Dil’ (1946), Duniya’ (1949) etc] and accepted the offer to compose songs for his film ‘Aisa Bhi Hota Hai’ (1965).
Nisar Bazmi was a fan of Noor Jahan. However, he could not get any opportunity to compose songs for her during pre-partition years. Probably, the chance of his missed opportunity as well as his disappointment with the way his filmy career was shaping in India may have prompted to try his luck in Pakistan. For his very first film in Pakistan, he got opportunity to compose songs for Noor Jahan. The film was a hit. With this, while the son of his friend did return to India, Nisaar Bazmi got permanently settled in Pakistan due to his continuous busy schedule in Pakistani film industry during 1960s and 1970s.
In Pakistan, Nisaar Bazmi did around 65 films during 1965-1985. It is really a remarkable feat for Nisaar Bazmi, a new comer in Pakistan film industry, to create a niche for himself in the midst of some of the well-known music directors like Khwaja Khursheed Anwar, Rashid Attre, G A Chisti, Feroze Nizami, Inayat Hussain etc. It is said that once Nisar Bazmi got his foothold in Pakistani film industry, he would accept the music direction assignments only after he has read the film story and also as to who would be directing the film. He did not like interference from the directors in compositions and orchestrations. He was one of the few music directors in the Indian sub-continent who would not only composed the tune but also arrange the orchestra for the songs.
Nisar Bazmi spent the last 20 years of his life in Karachi teaching music to students and lived a contended life of a Sufi. He left for the heavenly abode on March 22, 2007.
[With resources from a write-up on Google Groups based on the meeting with Nisaar Bazmi in January 2000, articles in DAWN, March 28, 2007 and IN STEP News, April 1, 2007].
Nisaar Bazmi is known for his iconic song chanda kaa dil toot gayaa hai from ‘Khoj’ (1953) among his songs from Indian films. Like-wise, among the hit songs from the Pakistani films, he is known for his song ranjish hi sahi dil hi dukhaane ke liye aa, a ghazal by Ahmed Faraaz and rendered by Mehdi Hasan in film ‘Mohabbat’ (1968).
Today, I am presenting a rare song composed by Nisaar Bazmi for the film KHOJ (1953) which I recently heard for the first time on one of the Radio Ceylon programmes. The song is ‘aaye thhe thhodi der ko betaab kar gaye’, sung by Ashima Bannerji. The song is written by Hasrat Jaipuri.
KHOJ (1953) was produced by C R Dogra and was directed by Balwant Bhatt. The star cast included Mahipal, Shammi, Lalita Kumari, Satish, Kesari, Habib, Nagpal, Kishore Dogra, Helen etc. The film had 7 songs of which 1 song has been covered in the Blog. Songs were written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan (4), Hasrat Jaipuri (2) and Anjum Jaipuri (1).
I wonder how this beautifully rendered song remained unknown on the internet for so long while the other song from the film ‘chanda kaa dil toot gaya hai’ had been popular for a long time.
Song-Aaye thhe thhodi der ko (Khoj)(1953) Singer-Ashima Bannerji, Lyrics-Hasrat Jaipuri, MD-Nisar Bazmi
Lyrics
aaye thhe thhodi der ko
betaab kar gaye
aankhon mein rang de ke wo
aansoo bhi bhar gaye ae
aaye thhe thhodi der ko
un se mili thhi aaj nazar
mil ke reh gayi
dil ki kali khili thhi magar
khil ke reh gayi
jhonke hawa e shauk ke
aa kar guzar gaye ae
betaab kar gaye ae
aaye thhe thhodi der ko
dekha thha ek khwaab sa
jo toot kar raha
daaman khushi ka haathon se
ab chhoot kar raha
meri hadeekasi se wo
sautan ke ghar gaye ae
betaab kar gaye ae
aaye thhe thhodi der ko
dil dhoondhta thha yaad ki
duniya liye huye
armaan bhatak rahe hain
tamanna liye huye
paimaane zindagi ke ab
aansoo se bhar gaye ae
betaab kar gaye ae
aaye thhe thhodi der ko
betaab kar gaye
aankhon mein rang de ke wo
aansoo bhi jhar gaye ae ae
aaye thhe thhodi der ko
———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
आए थे थोड़ी देर को
बेताब कर गये
आँखों में रंग दे के वो
आँसू भी भर गए
आए थे थोड़ी देर को
उन से मिली थी आज नज़र
मिल के रेह गई
दिल की एक काली खिली थी मगर
खिल के रेह गई
झोंके हवा ए शौक के
आ कर गुज़र गए
बेताब कर गये
आए थे थोड़ी देर को
देखा था एक ख्वाब सा
जो टूट कर रहा
दामन खुशी का हाथों से
अब छूट कर रहा
मेरी हदीकसी से वो
सौतन के घर गए
बेताब कर गये
आए थे थोड़ी देर को
दिल ढूँढता था याद की
दुनिया लिए हुये
अरमान भटक रहे हैं
तमन्ना लिए हुये
पैमाने ज़िंदगी के अब
आँसू से भर गए
बेताब कर गये
आए थे थोड़ी देर को
बेताब कर गये
आँखों में रंग दे के वो
आँसू भी भर गए
आए थे थोड़ी देर को
