A song with great lyrics, a fantastic composition and fabulous soul stirring vocals with awesome on-screen histrionics is the guaranteed formula for immortality. That is what happened in the making of this amazing melody. I love everything about this song, and pretty much a lot about the movie. Adalat was a movie made by Kalidas, who also wrote the story. The germ was used nearly a decade later in the making of another classic movie Mamta (with Ashok Kumar and Suchitra Sen) by Asit Sen, the director.
A story of a woman (Nirmala- Nargis) who is in love with a wannabe lawyer Pradeep Kumar but a vile aunt who is inexplicably jealous of this seeks to get her married off to an uneducated villager. As a result Nargis runs away from home, enters a dancing school (sadly a euphemism for a brothel) which gets raided, she is arrested, found innocent in the trial and is freed. On returning home, she finds the taint makes her unwelcome and she is turned away again. The shock kills her mother. She is out on the streets, a potential victim to the predatory Pran (yet another unforgettable role that evokes revulsion and anger, it is amazing how a very gentle human being who was really very kind could don such a loathsome persona at will as Pran saheb did movie after movie after movie for decades), but meets Pradeep Kumar who marries her (in secret- I thought that was a big flaw in the storyline, they might have as well made it official), impregnates her and vamooses for his higher education. The poor lady despite being pregnant and helpless, is now expectedly turned away by his parents and finds herself on the street once again. She hands over her son to a kind lady, a Doctor, Achala Sachdev (in one of many such roles the lady enacted in her long career she was cut out for the part of the kind middle aged woman- motherly and saintly; just as Nirupa Roy was, cannot imagine either in a role displaying negative/ gray shades), and goes into the oldest profession. As luck would have it (and as Bollywood unfailingly conjures up) she gets involved in a murder, and who else but her son (who doesn’t at the time know her of course) to turn up as a Public Prosecutor to try her , that too in the very first case he gets after taking up the job…
Nargis looks a tad too old for the part as the younger version but is in her elements as the older lady.
The strongest suit in the pack fo cards that Adalat is undoubtedly the musical score. Songs that rise far above the ordinary and the mundane, and get etched permanently into our collective memory. This exquisite ghazal sums up the everlasting magic of the musical score, this song in particular speaks volumes more than simple words could ever do.
The ghazal is actually introduced early in the movie as an entry in a college Mushaira where Pradeep Kumar is the chief guest and the young Nargis is a participant. She recites, in her voice, Unko yeh shikayat hai ke hum kuchh nahi kehte (just the mukhada and the first two verses).
Needless to say, the ghazal and the lady leave an impact on Pradeep Kumar.
Years go by with the lovers being separated by circumstance. Age has caught up with both for signs of age are now visible in the lines on the faces and greying hair. Thus, many years later when Pran, the villainous pimp, who initially calls himself Pandit Kedarnath and later goes by the name Sharif Ahmed, brings the now aged, famous barrister Pradeep Kumar to this mehfil he is surprised to hear the same nazm being sung as he alights from his car. His surprise shows on his face and Pran’s expressions are amazing. No other human with such a kind heart (as I knew him personally to have been) could ever have have mastered the despicable villainy so successfully as Pran saheb.
The huge chandelier overhead rocks slowly as if on cue as Lata’s voice sharply raises the pitch with “Kuchh Kehne pe tufaan utha leti hai duniya”. The storm isn’t outside – it is raging within. The picturization of this line is beautifully done with Pradeep Kumar getting to see Nargis’s face for the first time and realising his own crime and neglect of the lady who he has professed his love for and married in secret. The facial expressions of both Pradeep Kumar as well as Nargis and the clear lechery on Pran’s face (as well his fake invocation of God for having his prey getting impressed by the bait on offer) are only too well captured. A gut wrenching sequence that does total justice to the emotional maelstrom going on in both protagonist’s minds.
Madan Mohan uses the raag Malgunji to create sublime magic. Malgunji itself is an interesting raag from Khamaj thaat, it is a very melodious raag similar to Raag Bageshree but it employs Shuddha Gandhar in Aaroh which makes it different from Bageshree. Malgunji also has some elements of Raag Khamaj. This Raag employs Shuddha Gandhar in Aaroh and Komal Gandhar in Avroha. Generally performed in the morning hours before noon, it has been used in the past by Rahul Dev Burman , in his very first (Bollywood debut) song that he recorded with Lata Mangeshkar for Chhote Nawab, Ghar Aa Jaa Ghir Aaye Badra Saanwariya….
Rajinder Krishan‘s ghazal is good enough to be a wonderful poem by itself. What can I say about Latadidi‘s singing for Madan Mohan that has not been said already by zillions of people before , even more eloquently. Individually the two were great enough, with guaranteed places in the pantheon of Bollywood, add Rajinder Krishan or a Raja Mehdi Ali Khan to the mix and you get pure magic. The two together have given us so many indescribably beautiful pieces of eternal quality, it would take someone a year to do justice to the quality. Madan Mohan picked a rarely used Raag Malgunji to bring this ghazal written by close friend and famed lyricist Rajinder Krishan to life full of poignancy. As was his wont, only he could show, as ever so much respect and restraint in the musical arrangement to allow the beauty of the words and the vocals to shine through.
उनको ये शिकायत है के हम कुछ नहीं कहते
अपनी तो ये आदत है के हम कुछ नहीं कहते
मजबूर बहुत करता है ये दिल तो ज़ुबां को
कुछ ऐसी ही हालत है के हम कुछ नहीं कहते
उनको ये शिकायत है…
कहने को बहुत कुछ था अगर कहने पे आते
दुनिया की इनायत है के हम कुछ नहीं कहते
उनको ये शिकायत है…
कुछ कहने पे तूफान उठा लेती है दुनिया
अब इसपे कयामत है के हम कुछ नहीं कहते
उनको ये शिकायत है…
Have a safe day and a wonderful weekend folks, stay away from the Wuhan Virus.
Aniruddha Chandorkar 