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.
Question-Answer (Sawaal-Jawaab) songs and its variant, teasing (Ched-Chaad) songs have a special place in Hindi films. These songs are generally duets of male and female voices and are my favourites in the genre of light songs. These songs are sometimes also composed in qawaali style. One can enjoy these songs doubly when the video clips of such songs are available and directors like Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand etc were involved in the picturisation of these songs.
I have not done much research on this genre of songs. So I am not sure as to when these types of songs were introduced. But one can safely conclude that with the advent of social and romantic films in the late 30s and early 40s, scope for such duet songs did exist. From late 40s/early 50s, these songs got included in the genre of social films with romantic situations in some films. These genres of songs continued to be in vogue in the 60s, 70s and 80s and I guess, even thereafter.
Apart from the requirement of a good director for making ‘sawaal-jawaab’ and ‘ched-chaad’ songs interesting to watch, the lyricists of these songs have an important role to play in weaving words skilfully in the lyrics so that they become interesting for listeners. Whenever I listen to these type of songs, I find that a majority of such songs turns out to be from the pen of Majrooh Sultanpuri whom I regard as a Master of ‘sawaal-jawaab’ and ‘ched-chaad’ songs. Of many such songs of his, I have given below, as a teaser, a few songs:
Dekho qasam se kahte hain tum se(Tumsa nahin dekha)(1957)
O o aajaa panchhi akela hai (Nau Do Gyaarah)(1957)
Accha jee main haari chalo maan jaao naa(Kaala Paani)(1958)
Hamse hoti muhabbat jo tumko (Mohabbat Isho Kahte Hain) (1965)
Other lyricists like Sahir Ludhianvi, Jaan Nisar Akhtar, Anand Bakhsi etc have also written ‘sawaal-jawaab’ and ‘ched-chaad’ songs but their output may not compare with that of Majrooh Sultanpuri in this genre who, I guess, must have written close to a century or even more. Among other lyricists, off hand, I recall a couple of songs written by Sahir Ludhianvi:
Ham aapki aankhon mein is dil ko basaa den to (Pyaasa)(1957)
Phir na keeje meri gustaakh nigaahi ka gilaa (Phir Subah Hogi)(1958)
With these examples of songs, an interesting comparison may be made about the style of writing this genre of songs by Majrooh Sultanpuri and Sahir Ludhianvi. While the former’s lyrics are out and out naughty, the latter has a subtle hint of teasing. Just note four lines of the first song of Sahir Ludhianvi:
Rafi : ham aapko khwaabon mein, laa laa ke sataayenge
Geeta : ham aap ki aankhon se, neenden hi udaa den to
Rafi : ham aapke kadmon par, gir jaayenge gash khaa kar
Geeta : is par bhi na ham apne, aanchal ki hawaa den to
I will call these four lines as ‘intelligent teasing’.
In case of the second song of Sahir Ludhianvi, the subtle hint of teasing has been confined only to the lyrics assigned to Mukesh while lyrics for Asha Bhonsle have no hint of counter teasing but only the expression of love. This is great poetry indeed.
This subject came to my mind because I came across a similar genre of a rare song from the film IZZAT (1952). After knowing the name of the film, my first reaction was that it must be ‘Apni Izzat’ (1952) which was a known film for me. But after checking on the internet, I came to know that the film ‘Izzat’ (1952) was indeed released in 1952. The film was produced under the banner of Taimur Art Productions and was directed by Taimur Behram Shah. The cast included Nirupa Roy, Amarnath, Agha, Jeevan, Manorama, Rajni, Veera, Pesi Patel, Nazira, Baby Kalpana etc.
There were 8 songs in the film written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan (7) and Buta Ram Sharma (1) which were set to music by Bulo C Rani. I am presenting first song ‘tera jhoomta shabaab jaise baaghon mein gulaab’ to appear on the Blog. The song is sung by G M Durrani and Sandhya Mukherjee. This song is written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan.
As I mentioned in my last post, this song is one more example of the knack G M Durrani had of making his duet songs pleasing to the ears. The voice of Sandhya Mukherjee adds charm to this duet. After all, she has been trained in Hindustani classical music by none other than Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and later his son, Ustad Munnawar Ali Khan.
Incidentally, as far as I know, this was the only duet G M Durrani sang with Sandhya Mukherjee.
Atul’s note- This movie “Izzat”(1952) becomes the 3400th movie that finds representation in the blog. So it is yet another far fetched century for the blog.
Song-Tera jhoomta shabaab jaise baaghon mein gulaab (Izzat)(1952) Singers-G M Durrani, Sandhya Mukherjee, Lyrics-Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, MD-Bulo C Rani
Both
Lyrics
tera jhoomta shabaab
jaise baaghon mein gulaab
tera jhoomta shabaab
jaise baaghon mein gulaab
teri ankhiyaan to ras ki hain pyaaliyaan
teri ankhiyaan to ras ki hain pyaaliyaan
teri ankhiyaan to ras ki hain pyaaliyaan
aisi baaton ka jawaab
nahin doongi main janaab
aisi baaton ka jawaab
nahin doongi main janaab
mere gaalon pe
mere gaalon pe sharam ki hain laaliyaan aan
mere gaalon pe sharam ki hain laaliyaan aan
aisi baaton ka jawaab
nahin doongi main janaab
bholi bhaali ankhiyon mein shokhiyaan hain jhoomti ee ee ee
shokiyaan hain jhoomti
bholi bhaali ankhiyon mein shokhiyaan hain jhoomti ee ee ee
shokiyaan hain jhoomti
yoon teri gustaakhiyaan hain aankhon ko hain choomti
yoon teri gustaakhiyaan aankhon se hain aankhon ko hain choomti
aayi aayi hai bahaar
dil bada bekaraar
aayi aayi hai bahaar
dil bada bekaraar
dekho phoolon se bhari huyi hain daaliyaan aan
dekho phoolon se bhari huyi hain daaliyaan aan
teri ankhiyaan to ras ki hain pyaaliyaan
aisi baaton ka jawaab
nahin doongi main janaab
zindagi mein ek baar
baat meri maan lo
maan lo ji maan lo ji
maan lo ji maan lo ji
zindagi mein ek baar
baat meri maan lo
maan lo ji maan lo ji
maan lo ji maan lo ji
pyaar ka nateeja bhi to achhi tarah jaan lo
pyaar ka nateeja bhi to achhi tarah jaan lo o
meri ankhiyon se door
kahin jaana na huzoor
meri ankhiyon se door
kahin jaana na huzoor
raat birha ki badi hain dukhwaaliyaan
raat birha ki badi hai dukhwaaliyaan
teri ankhiyaan to ras ki hain pyaaliyaan
tera jhoomta shabaab
jaise baaghon mein gulaab
