When Cinema Matched Music Beat by Beat: Nadiya Kinare in Abhimaan

Subir Kumar is startled by the crystal aalap that breaks the morning stillness

A quaint village, a small temple, a little rivulet, soothing greenery dotted by cottages hidden in the distance, the chirping of birds – the strapping city-slick singer is enjoying the serene morning which is as spiritual as it is scenic.

The stillness is broken by an exquisitely melodious and rising aalap (0.03) that floats through the air, merging with the morning freshness. Star singer Subir Kumar (Amitabh Bachchan) who had dropped by the temple just for a nod to the deity on orders of his Mausi is mesmerized.

Excellence in Orchestration

This particular song {one of my personal favorites as far as the orchestration is concerned} is based on Raag Pilu and the Taal is Dadra. SD Burman accentuates the early morning purity through the instruments he employs. The song starts with Lata’s pure aalap with some stroke’s on the xylophone till 0.23 where the Dadra pick up is excellent.

Watch the song on YouTube here

Curious and drawn by the magnetism of the voice, Subir follows it.  As the enchanting Hei-ei.. Nadiya kinare heraaye aayi kangana (0:13) floats through the air Subir turns to spot a sari-clad girl twirling her pot in the rivulet as her long plait almost dips into the water.

Uma is a devout yet impish girl firmly grounded in her sanskaar

The camera zooms in gently to get a closer shot of Uma (Jaya Bhaduri) as she stirs the water a little to clear the surface, fills her pot, singing to herself. Her gold-bordered white sari and single bangle add a touch of purity. She offers the first fill to Lord Shiva and then with a little hop and skip up the stone incline goes her way towards the temple. No prizes for guessing, she is a devout yet impish girl firmly grounded in her sanskaar. Subir Kumar forgets he had a flight to catch. Uma does not even notice him.

Notice a slight offbeat double tak-a-tak on the Chatti just adding the masti to the rhythm. As Subir rushes after her to make sure he does not lose sight, Burman Dada brings in his favourite Bamboo Flute and the Santoor to add to the spell that’s being cast. The violin obbligatos form superb bridges. Particularly, one notices all the tabla beats as one approaches the beginning of the interludes, the pace picks up, a bit racy.

The Challenge to Create a Rustic Classical

The challenge SD Burman and Majrooh Sultanpuri faced was to create a classical song but with a tinge of the rustic countryside

The lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri capture the feel of the village with a fair use of dialect, heraai aai kangana, gori ad jao na maano kehna, kari ho bahana and so on. Subir has not met Uma before but thanks to Durga Mausi (Durga Khote’s) briefing earlier, he is aware that  that the priest at the temple, Sadanand Bhaiyya and his daughter are exponents in classical music.  He had heard her the day before chanting shlokas with her father.

Now here in lies a curious challenge in this song. The composition needed to have a classical base to show Uma’s expertise and ease with its complexities. Yet it had to be rooted in the village soil, which in other words means using a dialect without making it folk. There could not have been a lighter song nor a pure classical. There is sangeet in the entire shrishti, and the music of Nature had to be captured in all its mellifluous hues.

Besides, there was a greater challenge where Burman Dada had to make Lata sing in a manner that reflected that the heroine on screen was a better singer than her to-be-husband. Imagine having to make her sound better than Kishore Kumar and Rafi all through the other songs in this movie without making them compromise on their rendition. Well, SD Burman is no stranger to drawing out the best from his singers and this song is a shining example of that acumen.

The orchestration had a super balance of poetic and commercial superiority. At 2.18 Lata stretches to fit the meter with an excellent murki Ab khadi khadi sochoon. It heightens the dilemma of the bride who has lost her bangle and is wondering what excuse to cook up for her mother-in-law and sister-in-law who would quiz her about it for sure. Oh well, it did prove costly meeting her beau discreetly on the river bank!

Lata rehearsing for Dada Burman
(Pic courtesy: Sachin Dev Burman Fan Club Facebook Group)

Abhimaan – a Team of Super Talents

This was a dream project for director, Hrishikesh Mukherjee. He had apparently discussed about it with S D Burman way back in 1969 after Aashirwad (1968). For various reasons the project kept getting delayed. For Burman, it was also a pet project for after many years he was getting an opportunity to compose for a film that had music as its primary subject. Within himself he had been planning ever since.

Dreamt of and planned for so long by people who were masters in their craft and co-produced by the lead stars themselves, Abhimaan had everything going right for it. Needless to say, the charisma of Amitabh Bachchan and the spontaneous simplicity of Jaya Bhaduri were ideally suited to their roles – of the singer star and the simple, innocent girl. As was characteristic of this super-talented actress, she emoted the song with exact emphasis in the correct places, seamlessly lip-syncing with the murkis too.

Shots are Cut to Match Beats

As students of cinema appreciation we’ve analysed the world classics, dissecting them frame by frame for days on end.

But when it comes to giving an easy-to-grasp glimpse of the craft of cinema to a regular movie viewer, I fall back on Abhimaan. Reason? Every frame in this film is a vital link to the story. One must acknowledge the critical role of the screenplay writers here – the legendary Nabendu Ghosh along with Biresh Chatterjee and Mohini N. Sippy. Drop a frame, you lose a link. Drop a song, you break the flow of the story irrevocably. All the songs of Abhimaan are “Obbligatos” unto themselves! 

And Nadiya kinare is no different. The story flows through the song and with each cut, Hrishida is careful not to intrude into the flow of the music. So when is the cut? Its on the taal or the samm! Check the cuts alternating between Uma and Subir that perfectly match the beats 1:06, 1:07, 1:08, 1:09 with a finish at 1:10. Notice the interplay between the Flute and the Sarangi in the first interlude.

Kaahe panghat upar
Gayi thhi chalke akeli

The camera holds steady as Lata plays with the delightful murkis. And then it cuts to a closeup as she holds her voice at ‘Maare has has’, cutting to a big closeup as Lata stretches on taa-aa-na. Particularly remarkable are the Violin obbligatos just after kaa..he panghat uuu…par [ obbligato]… gayi thhi. This again gets repeated at maaa…re has has taaa…naa [obbligato]…saari sakhiyan saheli…The treatment of the ‘stretch’ of u.u.u.u.par and ta.a.a.a…naa… to fit the meter is SD Burman’s double ice-cream scoop!

The camera cuts to a closeup as Lata holds her voice at ‘Maare has has’, cutting to a big closeup as she stretches on taa-aa-na.

This interplay of shots with the beats continue even in the interludes alternating between closeups of Subir and Uma. Every shot is cut only with a beat or when a line ends.

The masterstroke of zoom comes at 2:16-2:18 – the cameraman, Hrishi Da’s trusted lieutenant Jaywant Pathare, is having fun with the camera! Four Sitar strums match four zooms. But just before that the interplay between a Sarangi and a lovely Flute stretch in the interlude is exemplary. The Flute races as Jaya suddenly sprints away from the viewer. Watch it! It takes an editor-director with a keen sense of music to get this effect. For the viewers, the total effect is so perfectly tuned that it becomes an experience to recall and enjoy forever.

Four zooms with four sitar strums!

I consider this as the most challenging song of SD Burman and Majrooh Combo. Moreover, Lata’s singing makes it even more compelling, making us want to hear it many times over. It’s a song of simple words and rhyme with delightful music and rendition and takes my breath away, always.

SD Burman won the Filmfare award for Abhimaan after a gap of 20 years, post Taxi Driver. And the film became a milestone in Hindi film music, even in terms of every single song being a superhit!

(With inputs from Peeyush Sharma)

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