{"id":4624,"date":"2018-12-25T06:44:51","date_gmt":"2018-12-25T01:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=4624"},"modified":"2019-08-03T10:01:44","modified_gmt":"2019-08-03T04:31:44","slug":"shakeel-naushad-classy-confluence-seamless-flow-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/shakeel-naushad-classy-confluence-seamless-flow-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakeel-Naushad: Classy Confluence, Seamless Flow – 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"shakeel<\/p>\n

Shakeel Badayuni is considered to be one of the finest romantic poets of the previous century. Some even put him in the league of Ghalib. In his own words, his poetry that had love and romance for its source was integral to his being. It is for this reason that the words he penned invariably find an empathising connect. Shakeel never appears bookish. In the year 1944, as he approached Naushad for a job, he was asked to sum up his poetical skills, and he famously wrote:<\/p>\n

Hum dard ka afsana duniya ko suna denge, <\/em>
\nHar dil main mohabbat ki ek aag laga dengey<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

But on the strength of little acquaintance that I have with his work, I will rather borrow from Rajinder Krishan to sum up the man: Chhupi huyi meri kaaya mein raakh kisi parwane ki.\u00a0<\/em>He perhaps had an innate understanding of love and its nuances, its hues, its strands. He seemed to have brought forward this understanding from his previous births!\u00a0 In fact, when he turns a kavi<\/em>, from a shayar<\/em>, I get a strange feeling that he is Sayyad Ibrahim\u00a0aka Raskhan reincarnate!\u00a0 Like Raskhan, he seemed to have spiritually imbibed the lore of Krishna. Recall, in particular, the duet from Baiju Bawra<\/em> \u2013 Akeli mat jayiyo Radhe Jaumuna ke teer, Tu Ganga ki mauj main Jamuna ka dhaara,<\/em> the Shamshad number from Mela<\/em> \u2013 Mohan ki muraliya baje<\/em>, \u00a0the Lata number from Mughal-e-Azam<\/em> \u2013 Mohe panghat pe Nandlal chhed gayo re,<\/em> the Holi chorus from Mother India<\/em> \u2013 Holi aayi re kanhai<\/em>, or\u00a0 that Rafi number from Kohinoo<\/em>r \u2013 Madhuban mein Radhika naache re<\/em>.\u00a0 Shakeel also seemed enamoured with the word murli\/bansuri. Recall Aaj mere man mein koi bansuri bajaye <\/em>(Aan<\/em>) or Door koi gaye, dhun ye sunaye, baaje na muraliya re <\/em>(Baiju Bawra<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Shakeel needed just one opportunity to entrench himself in the Industry. That came in the year 1947, in the film Dard<\/em>. With Afsana likh rahi hoon<\/em> (Uma Devi aka Tuntun) turning out to be a super-hit, Shakeel was taken note of as a major talent on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Dard<\/em> also heralded the emergence of the Naushad-Shakeel duo \u2013 an association that almost looks ordained \u2013 an association of the chosen ones to unshackle classical vocal music from a connoisseur driven exclusiveness and to take it to masses through the instrumentality of Hindi cinema.<\/p>\n

Though younger of the duo by a clear three years, Naushad reached Bombay much earlier while still in his teens. In fact, his flight to Bombay, from Lucknow, was in defiance of both his father and the Islamic diktat that prohibited music. Naushad, though a devout Muslim, yet found the call of music stronger than the diktat.\u00a0 To bolt at that age to pursue an intangibility called music will not ordinarily stand to reason unless one assumes that Naushad was born with music in his DNA; music permeated him and was the means and end of his existence.<\/p>\n

Naushad was fiercely proud of his heritage and traditions including music.\u00a0 He was purist too. If he were in politics, he would have crusaded for the khadi<\/em>, such was his love for and commitment to the indigenous, to the home-grown. Fortunately, however, his interest lay elsewhere.\u00a0 Music, rather classical music, beckoned him.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Naushad (Pic: Google Image Search)<\/p><\/div>\n

Naushad\u2019s adaptation of the classical for the films, for the masses, with Shakeel supplying words that were earthy and responsive to popular lingo, met with an unprecedented success as that instantly connected with and entertained the man in the street, who otherwise hardly understood the raga nuances and the orchestral technicalities. Yet Naushad was a classicist to the core and Shakeel a poet with an unflinching commitment to depth, to subtlety, and to quality.\u00a0 With such confluencing of the geniuses, a distinct stream and style of vocal music emerged inevitably, wherein the verse was as important as the sounds of music and the lilt supporting it.<\/p>\n

The duo etched a major narrative in Hindi film music for a good part of ’40s and the whole of ’50s.\u00a0 Their output spurred quality competition amongst MDs, each equally talented and each with a style of his own. The HFM\u2019s golden period \u2013 fifties \u2013 appears centric to musicians and their respective styles.\u00a0 Yet the truth of the matter is that their music thrived on the deep, meaningful, often philosophical, poetry created by equally talented lyricists. This will be evident from the fact that Naushad was on a down slope after the demise of Shakeel in 1970. \u00a0SJ too were down after the passing away of Shailendra in 1966.<\/p>\n

However, there was an unmatched seamlessness in Shakeel-Naushad collaboration, owing much to they being from the same region, from the same socio-cultural milieu \u2013 Naushad was from Lucknow and Shakeel from the neighbouring Badayun.\u00a0 They shared the tehzeeb<\/em> and that had deep impact on their joint creativity. Tu Ganga ki mauj, main Jamuna ki dhara<\/em> (Baiju Bawra<\/em>) was symbolic both of the richness of their effort as also to its seamlessness. Every time I hear it. I end up with a half question: why Shakeel-Naushad creation sounds so sublime even though it is a love song like many others? Why it reminds me that peerless bhajan Chalo man Ganga Jamuna tee<\/em>r lent voice by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi?<\/p>\n

\"BAIJU

Meena Kumari, Bharat Bhushan & Surendra in Baiju Bawra<\/em>, 1952, Original Collage and Watercolours on cardboard (Pic: Osian’s Group)<\/p><\/div>\n

Music heals. Shakeel-Naushad music healed better. Add to them a certain Mohammed Rafi. Their music in Baiju Bawra<\/em> was Muslim input to a Hindu end, and sublime at that. The intensity of their effort must have brought down, \u00a0howsoever little, the mistrust between the two communities that were left ravaged and ruined by the partition. For instance Man tadpat Hari darshan ko aaj<\/em> with Rafi singing it as he would have recited verses from the Koran, must have been so soothing to the collective Hindu psyche. The Shakeel-Naushad creativity promoted social cohesion and communal harmony even if by inadvertence.<\/p>\n

The Naushad-Shakeel duo together created songs for over 30 films. Some of these songs have the claim to be the best or near best in their respective genres. I have listed a few here with a brief deconstruction of the lyrics of each. These are the scores I like but in no way suggest that they are to be deemed their best.<\/p>\n

Dilwale Dilwale<\/em><\/strong> (Natak)<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

While Dard<\/em> \u2013 the first film of Shakeel \u2013 is remembered more for the Uma Devi solo Afsana likh rahi hoon<\/em>, I find the other one by her Dilwale dilwale<\/em> (Natak)<\/em> equally engaging not only for its singing but also for its words that seem to envision a time yet not on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Dilwale dilwale <\/em>
\njal jal kar hi mar jana<\/em>
\ntum preet na kar pachhtana<\/em>
\ndilwale dilwale<\/em><\/p>\n

Preet ki dil se aag uthe<\/em>
\naur dono taraf lag jaye<\/em>
\ntan ko jalaye man ko jalaye<\/em>
\nphir bhi na nikle haye<\/em>
\nek shama ho ek parwana<\/em>
\ntum preet na kar pachhtana<\/em>
\ndilwale dilwale<\/em><\/p>\n

Rang rangili duniya mein hai<\/em>
\nrang rang ke dhokhe<\/em>
\ndo din ki jeevan maya<\/em>
\nisko na bitana ro ke<\/em>
\nhans hans kar preet nibhana<\/em>
\ntum preet na kar pachhtana<\/em>
\ndilwale dilwale<\/em>
\njal jal kar <\/em><\/p>\n

I have no idea as to the cinematic background of this song.\u00a0 But it is a fervent appeal not to fall in love even if one has a heart raring to go (dilwale) <\/em>\u2013 for love stokes consuming fire reducing the players to fire and fire-fly (ek shama ho ek parwana<\/em>)!<\/p>\n

In the succeeding stanza, Shakeel plunges deeper \u2013 rang rangili duniya mein hai, rang rang ke dhokhe<\/em> \u2013 this\u00a0 enchanting, alluring world has\u00a0 myriad deceptions too;\u00a0 but do not succumb and come to grief, for the life itself is a short fleeting illusion not\u00a0 to be wasted crying: the refrain therefore \u2013 tum preet na kar pachtana!<\/em>\u00a0 But I love Shakeel\u2019s final advice: do not fall in love but go through the motion of it happy-faced! I wonder if the young girls reclining against the young male bodies for poise, in moving metros, oblivious to the jostling fellow passengers around, are actually in love or just following Shakeel\u2019s dictum: hans hans ke preet nibhana (par) preet na kar pachtana!<\/em><\/p>\n

Dilwale dilwale<\/strong><\/em> (Natak<\/em>, 1947) Naushad \/ Shakeel Badayuni \/ Uma Devi<\/span><\/p>\n