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[myawan]

Welcome to Madan's world, music director for whom sky was the limit, this world has not seen such creative people much. Music was in his blood and brought forward the most melodious shades of this music before us.

[unni]

From: "FILMFARE":

Gulzar : Dil ki Dastaan
(by ANURADHA CHOUDHARY)


Gulzar on how this haunting song was written, composed and visualised:

The lyrics were inspired by one of Ghalib’s couplets, Jee dhoondta hai phir wohi fursat ke raat din. In the couplet, Ghalib dreams about his beloved and longs for days of leisure. I tried to recreate that feel and explore the concept of leisure I imagined he was talking about. I took that one line and developed the idea. And I ended up defining leisure as it meant to me.

I was extremely lucky to have worked with a stalwart like Madan Mohan on this tune. Madan Mohan belonged to an era when maestros were treated like maestros. Such was his reputation that every singer, be it Lataji or Ashaji, would go to his music room for rehearsals much before the scheduled recordings.

I’ve heard Lataji say his notes would keep changing with every rehearsal; it was, of course, said with a lot of respect. He would work so creatively on a single tune that he would exhaust all variations and permutations of notes.

He worked out four tunes for Dil dhoondta hai and finally chose one. The decision was entirely his own. Yeh nahin ki the director or singer said they liked it, so he chose it. He would play you any number of tunes, but he’d decide which was the best. Incidentally, Sanjeev Kohli, his son, has recently released a CD, which contains all the four tunes of Dil dhoondta hai.

Lyrics of Dil Dhoondta Hai :

Dil dhoondta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din - (2)
baithe rahe tasavvur-e-jaanaan kiye hue
Dil dhoondta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din...
Jaadon ki narm dhoop aur aangan mein letkar - (2)
aankhon pe khinchkar tere aanchal ke saaye ko
aundhe pade rahe kabhi karwat liye hue
Dil dhoondta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din...
Ya garmiyon ki raat jo purvaiyaan chalein - (2)
thandi safed chaadaron pe jaageen der tak
taaron ko dekhte rahen chhat par pade hue
Dil dhoondta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din...
Barfili sardiyon mein kisi bhi pahaad par - (2)
vaadi mein gunjati hui khamoshiyaan sune
aankhon mein bhige bhige se lamhe liye hue
Dil dhoondta hai phir wahi fursat ke raat din...

If you’re wondering how Jee dhoondta hai became Dil dhoondta hai that, again, was Madanji’s work. When he composed the tune, he changed the word. I was horrified, how dare anyone take such liberties with Ghalib? But then Madanji showed me a publication where the couplet had appeared as Dil dhoondta hai. It wasn’t as if he changed the word on his whim. Madan Mohan knew what he was talking about. Most music directors those days knew a lot of poetry by heart. So Dil dhoondta hai it remained.

The song had two versions: one was a duet and the other, a solo. The duet was a happy tune while the solo, in Bhupinder’s voice, was sad and nostalgic. The solo remains my favourite. Yet, the duet has been appreciated by a number of connoisseurs. They say it’s a difficult number to sing, that it has a difficult taal. I’m sure they know better, but me, I love the solo.

The duet was picturised on Sanjeev Kumar and Sharmila Tagore, and I decided to do so with an overlap of the past and present. So, as Sanjeev revisits his familiar haunts, his memories of precious moments with Sharmila play alongside. Each scene had to be filmed twice because we had to shoot the young and old Sanjeev. So with every shot, we had to do a make-over on him. We used the masking technique to picturise the song on screen. It was quite innovative, I thought, and it was the first time this technique was used. It went on to become the highlight of the song.
The other memory I have of shooting that song is that of Bosky. She was just knee-high then and was with me in Pehelgam, Kashmir while we shot the song. It was fun having her around.

Sometimes when I look back, I really wish we could work with similar kind of leisure on our songs now. Jee dhoondta hai phir wohi fursat ke raat din. Kash phir wohi Kashmir ho gaana banane ke liye, gaana likhne ke liye.