Hansraj Behel's Memorable Melodies Have Haunting Appeal
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Hansraj Behel’s memorable melodies have haunting appeal Written by ACTIVE INDIA BUREAU Monday, 25 May 2015 14:55 ‘Jahan daal daal par sone ki cidiyan karti hain basera, vo Bharat desh hai mers’. You must have heard this song from film ‘Sikandar-e-Azam’ many times without knowing who the music director was. The music director was Hansraj Behel who landed from Punjab and made Mumbai his home.There is something special I have to say about this song. It was first released on Radio in 1965 during the September war with Pakistan. One almost felt as if the song has been specifically written to enthuse the jawans and all Indians. The name of the film was announced later. But this Rafi number was played repeatedly, as if to tease the Pakistani listeners. And would you believe it? In his very first film ‘Pujari’, he made heroine Madhubala sing a song in her own voice. He repeated this feat when he made Meena Kumari sing in her own voice too in film, ‘Duniya ek sarai’. I was attracted to his music by the songs he composed in Punjabi film ‘Lachchi’. Lata sang a haunting number, ‘Naale lambi te naale kali ha eve channa raat judaiyan wali’ . It had a breezy Lata number too: ‘A harra ve channa yaad san uteri aye’. But more about Lachchi’s songs later. I cannot resist recalling the song ,’Dil mera tera diwana, bas itna mera afsana ‘ by Talat Mahmood and Madhubal Jhaveri. Madhubala Jhaveri’s voice was so sweet that one wondered whether it was Lata singing. The song continues to thrill us even today when Radio Ceylon plays it. You certainly couldn’t have forgotten Rafi’s ‘Muhabbat zinda rehti hai muhabat mar nahin sakti (Chingez Khan) as also the thriller from ‘Miss Bombay’—‘Zindagi bhar gham judai ka 1 / 4 Hansraj Behel’s memorable melodies have haunting appeal Written by ACTIVE INDIA BUREAU Monday, 25 May 2015 14:55 hamen tarpae ga’. Hansraj Behel was born on Indira Gandhi’s birthday on November 19 but in 1916 and died in the year that Indira Gandhi was assassinated – 1984. That fateful day was May 20—just a day before the martyrdom of Rajiv Gandhi, years later of course.. MADHUBALA JHAVERI:Hansraj Behel was the one who utilized Madhubala Jhaveri in several films, notably in ‘Jaggu’ – ‘Main teri hoon tu mera hai. ’ in Khyber her duets with Mukesh, are unforgettable ‘Sab shikve mite dil ke apas mein gale mil ke’ and ‘Main teri tamanna karta hoon taqdeer se lekin darta hoon’. Duet with Rafi in Miss Bombay, ‘Din ho ya raat’ was a hit and so too the ‘Andhkar’ (renamed Mano na Mano) duet with Rafi, ‘Ai meri mehboob maang le jo tujh ko manzoor’.In ‘Moti Mahal’ it was, ‘Jaye ga jab yahan se kuchch bhi na saath ho ga do gaz kafan ka tukra tera libas hoga’ He used her in ‘Sati Anjani; to sing, ‘Mere janam maran ke saathi’ though the Mukesh number, ‘Gori peehar chorr ‘ was fantastic. In ‘Shaan’ he made Suraiya sing that memorable song, ‘Tarap ai dil tarapne se zara aaram aata hai’.. In ‘Rajput’ she sang for him, ‘Raste pe hum khare hain’. Hansraj Behl extracted gold from the voices of Asha and Talat in ‘Mast Qalandar’. The song was: ‘Dil-e-nadan zamane mein muhabbat ik dhokha hai’ He engaged Talat Mahmood to sing with Geeta Dutt that delightful duet:’Keh rahi hain dharkane pukar kar’ in Lal Pari.. RAAT KI RANI:His music in ‘Raat ki Rani’ was superb too: ‘Jin raton mein need urr jaati hai’ was recited in Shairana andaz so to speak. But Lata’s solo, ;Dil todne wale aa’ and her two duets with Rafi, ‘Sun to lo mera afsana’ and ‘Us chand se pyare chand ho tum’ became very popular too. A duet by Lata and Rafi in ‘Zevarat’ was a big hit, specially on Radio Pakistan: ‘Sajan ki ot le ke hathon mein haath leke koi hamen na dekhe koi hame na jaane…’ CHUNARIA :In ‘Chunaria’ he gave a break to Asha Bhosle though my favorite was the Lata number, ‘Dile nashaad ko jeene ki hasrat ho gai tum se..’ But the biggest hit number of Chunaria was a sweet, pathos-loaded duet by Rafi and Geeta Dutt: ‘Sab kuch lutaya hum ne aa kar teri gali mein’. In ‘Beqasoor’, although the main music director was Anil Biswas, Hansraj tuned two Lata-Rafi duets: ‘Akhiyan gulabi jaise mad ki hain pyaliyan’ and ‘Has ke na teer chalana’. Both were very 2 / 4 Hansraj Behel’s memorable melodies have haunting appeal Written by ACTIVE INDIA BUREAU Monday, 25 May 2015 14:55 popular.He re-used the tune from Punjabi film Lachchi’s Rafi song, ‘Jag wala mela yaro thorri der da’ in Hindi film ‘Dost’. The song was, ‘Aye bhi akela, jaye bhi akela’ sung by Talat. Madhubala Jhaveri sang, ‘Dil de ke bahut pachchtae ke sara jag bairi ho gaya’ in the same film which was a remake of the hit Shamshad number from ‘Lachchi’ – ‘Meri lagdi kise na vekhi te tutdi nu jag jaanda’. Hansraj Behl madeShamshad Begum sing that sad number, ‘Jis ne jalaya ashiana’ in film ‘Cheen le azadi’ which was one of his earlier films in which a Shamshad-Mukesh duet was also a hit, ‘Moti chugne chali re hansi mansarovar peer’. But the haunting melody rendered by Hamida Bano is also ringing in my ears: ‘Champakali hai udas, bhanwara na aye paas’. cannot forget a song by Rafi, Geeta and Lata he tuned in film ‘Nakhre’. ‘Hum ne bhi pyar kiya pyar kiya pyar kiya’; It has a very haunting tune.In ‘Sawan’ he experiments with Mukesh singing in slow tune, ‘Nain dwar se man mein jho aye’ followed by jazzy portion by Lata, ‘Hae re rasiya chhal kiye jaae’. This film had a Rafi-Shamshad duet as well: ‘Bheega bheega pyar ka sama batade mujhe jaana hai kahan balliye…’ This film had another melodious number—by Rafi: ‘Dekho bin saawan baras rahi badli’. In film ‘Mud mud ken a dekh’ his jazzy nu mber sung by Mukesh had a refreshing lilt: ‘Haseen ho khuda to nahin ho, ruko ruko hawa to nahin ho’. A haunting song was composed by Hansraj Behl for film Durbar which was sung by Talat Mahmood:”Kisi garib ka dil badshah ne loot liya, karoon mai kis se gila, jab khuda ne loot liya’ This was probably one of the favourite songs of Radio Ceylon’s then announcer Vijay Kishore Dubey, who would play it quite often. On his death anniversary this year (2015), Radio Ceylon played a Surinder Kaur- Rafi duet from film ‘Khamaosh Sipahi’ which was rendered in the rhythm-less tune of the haunting ‘Heer melody.’ Before ending I cannot help recalling two of my favorite Lata compositions by Hansraj Behel . One was from film ‘Chakori’ – ‘Hae chanda gae pardes, chakori yahan ro ro mare’ and the other is one of my favorite songs of Lata, easily one of her best songs. It was from film Milan (not the Sunil Dutt-Nutan one) – ‘Hae jiya roe, piya nahin aye…’ Today, while paying him tribute I cannot help saying ‘Hae jiya roe’ is indeed one of the saddest compositions which Lata has sung—immortalizing it for all time to come. 3 / 4 Hansraj Behel’s memorable melodies have haunting appeal Written by ACTIVE INDIA BUREAU Monday, 25 May 2015 14:55 4 / 4.