Dil Ka Bhanwar Kare Pukaar — A Sizzling Potpourri of Fun and Romance

Love songs are the sparkling wine of film music; the elixir of the youth of this country. Look back and you will find umpteen love songs that occupied primetime in your halcyon days. But barring a few, most have suffered from mediocre, unimaginative picturization, which has been more or less a standard set-piece execution. The lovers running, sometimes alone sometimes together in wild plains, where they can hear each other’s voices, but can’t see each other (love is blind?), and the mandatory running around trees. Sometimes, in their quest for variation and variety, they can stretch things too far such as two lovers singing a soft, melodious duet in an open truck, speeding on the highway – a situation where you can barely hear each other’s voices, let alone sing!

Amid the general running around trees songs, there were a few who stood ‘far from the madding crowd’. Some songs created benchmarks. Roja’s Chinna chinna asai or Dil hai chhotasa that had 65 frames in the song, showed how songs can be visual magnets – with lush visuals, natural vistas, and lingering close-ups of the stars. Directors who thought differently had a vision of their own. They distilled the essence of the song in the camera frames and created visual delights – like Dil ka bhanwar kare pukaar.

Vijay Anand in his song picturizations, has always struck me as a visualizer extraordinaire! He was the rebel without being loud. He remained different but was never an outcast. A breath of fresh air that stirred the stagnant thought process of song picturization, he continued in his own merry ways, putting fun and romance together in a sizzling pot-pourri full of cinematic delight!

Dil ka bhanwar kare pukaar (Tere Ghar Ke Saamne, 1963) SD Burman / Hasrat Jaipuri / Mohd Rafi

And it almost always started with the locations! Here are Dev and Nutan atop the Qutub Minar. He is struggling to find the right words to tell her what is haunting him, that there’s a Bee in his bonnet, and as they begin the descent in the narrow confines of the Qutub, he finds the words, which in the hushed privacy of the innards of those stone walls, become a song. The Bee starts humming aloud.

dil ka bhanwar kare pukar
pyar ka rag suno,
pyar ka rag suno re, o-o-o-o-o

Nutan, of course being Nutan doesn’t yield. She knows he’s on song, and she’ll be damned if she interrupts the felicitous cocoon he is building around her! So she lets him warble. As she descends the first few steps, she stops and with an upturned face, beckons him, and as he begins to descend, she turns to the camera. She has the expression of a cat, who is set to have the milk, the cake, and the pudding!

phool tum gulaab ka, kya jawab aapka
jo adaa hai woh bahaar hai
aaj dil ki bekahi, aa gayi zubaan par
baat yeh hai tumse pyaar hai
dil tumhi ko diya re
pyar ka rag suno re

SHE is not yielding – not yet

As the ditty climbs higher, they keep moving down and at every turn, every step, there is a magical interplay of light and shadow. A veritable chiaroscuro, which reveals more than it hides. The words are finding their mark but SHE is not yielding – not yet!

chaahe tum mitana
par na tum girana
aansoo ki tarah nigaah se

pyaar ki unchaayi
ishq ki gehrayi
poochh lo hamari aah se

aasman chhoo liya re
pyaar kaa rag suno re

Director Vijay Anand in a cameo as a bemused passerby

Throughout the song, Nutan’s reactions are something to savour. Tomes and volumes can be written about her responses through her eyes, her face, even her hands! This song could have been a good one to watch, a great one to hear but Nutan alone makes it a viewer’s delight. She lifts the whole song to a different plane playing a cat and mouse game with Dev who is hopelessly enmeshed in her silky web!

iss haseen paar pe
hum na baithe haar ke
saaya banke saath hum chale
aaj mere sung tu

jhoomein dil ki aarzu
tujhase meri aankh jab mile
jaane kya kar diya re
pyaar ka raag suno re

She rolls her eyes and crosses them wilfully

She plays the wicked woman, when Dev mentions her bewitching beauty; she screws up her nose, rolls her eyes and crosses them wilfully. But Dev carries on unfazed and now you can see her façade of nonchalance start to come apart! The smile that appears shows the cracks in the walls. The lady is finally succumbing to the incessant outpourings of this stricken lover-boy, who brings her down to ground with the last stanza.

By now a wide smile has appeared on Nutan’s mischievous visage and she raises both hands letting herself go, yielding to this persistent wooing. Dev has now wrapped her aanchal around his face and is floating down, riding a cloud with her –

aap ka ye aanchal, pyar ka ye badal
fir humein zameen pe le chalaa
ab to hath thaam lo,

ek nazar ka jaam do
ek naye safar ka vaasta
tum mere sakiya re
pyaar ka raag suno re

The lady is finally succumbing to the incessant outpourings of this stricken lover-boy

On the way up Dev tells Nutan, “Upar dekhta hoon to sochta hoon, upar pahunchenge kaise? Tumko dekhta hoon to sochta hoon, upar pahunchne ki zaroorat kya hai?”

When you are through with this song (actually you are never through with this) like Dev, you too want to ask Vijay Anand – Yeh gaana khatm karne ki  zaroorat kya thhi? Chalte rehte to ho sakta, sadiyon puraani, baadshahon ki banayi huyi yeh  bejaan vasiyat, pyar aur izhaar ke taraano se zinda ho uthti. Khair, yeh to hona na thaa.

The music of this song is something of a masterclass in simplicity. The constraints of Qutub Minar bring out the minimalistic skills of S D Burman. With little scope for any orchestration, he relies on a tune, and a beat, which seem to belong there o-o-o-o-o becomes the buzzing of the bees who occupy those spaces and the sound of the steps, becomes the Taal.

As they say, “Complexity is Impressive, But Simplicity is – Genius.” Hasrat Saab too keeps the lyrics simple and sweet. Mohd Rafi excels, as always, pouring in romance and mischief in perfect measure in his rendition.

Just a lot of persuasion, some spoonful of sugar and an unyielding persistence. The results are there for us to see and hum!

Pyar ka raag suno re …
Yes, I am listening, Dev Saab,
Now and Forever!

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The Mesmerizing Moods of Jaane Kya Tune Kahi (Pyaasa)

The Spontaneity of Nutan That Rose Above ‘Acting’