o priit nibhaanevaalii

A year back on this series I had posted the song 'kitanaa duHkh bhulaayaa tumane pyaarii'- beginning the new millennium with Hemant's first Hindi song. For reasons commercial and chronological, this new year is once again being referred to as the new millennium. So for this "second" new millennium I am posting the flip side of last year's song - 'o priit nibhaanevaalii'.

Hemant's style is very akin to that of Pankaj Mullick, the inspiration for most Bengali singers at that time. Hemant mentions a small incident about Pankaj Mullick's influence on him in his autobiography 'Ananddhara' - "In my early days, small singers like us would wait for hours to get a chance to sing at a local function. At one such function I waited and waited for the entire evening, querying the organizers, "Will I sing now?". The answer always came 'No, after the next one is your turn". Suddenly, Pankaj Mullick, the star of the evening, arrived. People rushed to see him. I ran to the organizers and said 'Now that Pankaj-babu is here shall I sing before he begins?' Pat came the reply, 'Are you crazy? Pankaj Mullick is here. Who wants to listen to his clone now?'

This incident probably happened in the late 30's or early 40's. But Hemant was a true genius and Pankaj Mullick too like most other people of his times was a great human being, able to recognize and admire talent - borne out by the following incident. In 1948, Hemant recorded a Rabindrasangeet 'Ayi bhubana mana mohini' which contains a strain on the word 'maa'. This song was a Pankaj Mullick hit earlier. When Pankaj Mullick heard Hemant's rendition, he commented "I have indeed sung this song, but nobody other than Hemant can say 'maa' like that."

Getting back to the song in this post, Kamal Dasgupta was a prime MD in the early 40's scoring many film hits for New Theaters bilinguals like Jawab. He moved to Bangladesh after partition and his music output reduced since then. But in the early 40's he composed some very lilting melodies, his biggest commercial success being Kananbala's 'Toofan mail' in Jawab. This song begins at a slow pace where the lyricist accuses the beloved of not returning the love. The refrain

'merii ashaa_o.N kii bastii ko miTaa_egii tuu
dil meraa luuT ke ik din challi jaa_egii tuu'

picks up pace with a 3-3 beat. The antaras describing the infidelity of the lover once again return to the slow pace of the song's beginning. Although less popular than its flip-side, this song is a gem from the early Hemant. Hemant sang the Bengali version of this song 'jaani jaani ek din' in 1944. The more popular and readily available Bengali version is the one he re-recorded in 1975.


o priit nibhaanevaalii mujhe Kabar hai.n
tuu bhulegii ek din meraa pyaar
apane gale se mere prem kii
maalaa degii utaar

merii aashaa_o.N kii bastii ko miTaa_egii tuu
dil meraa luuT ke ik din chalii jaa_egii tuu

o dil se khelanevaalii
prem bhare aramaano.n se
hai.n khelanaa teraa kaam
terii nazar me ko_ii chiiz
nahii.n hai.n dil kaa daam

merii aashaa_o.N kii bastii ko miTaa_egii tuu
dil meraa luuT ke ik din chalii jaa_egii tuu

o yauvan mad matavaalii
tere charaNo.n ko aataa hai.n
prem kaa Thuka.Daa denaa
terii aa.Nkhe.n jaanatii hai.n
dil le kar bahakaa denaa

merii aashaa_o.N kii bastii ko miTaa_egii tuu
dil meraa luuT ke ik din chalii jaa_egii tuu

Availabiliy: The Unforgettable Hemant Kumar, His best non-fim songs EMI CS HTC04B 4455-56

Wishing all RMIM-ers a happy new year 2001
-Prithviraj

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