A unique promise

I would feel this song , already a famous one , would have been even more popular one if it had fallen in the hands of a more famous moviemaker, or a better movie, it would have achieved even greater fame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnXxYufgktg

Just goes to show the recurrent unique aspect of Bollywood music, some songs just seem to endure for eons despite the movie bombing or being forgotten long long ago.

For the record, the movie is “Ustaadon Ke Ustad” and was made by Brij Sadanah with music by Ravi.

The movie had a very mixed up plot and stars clearly very senescent Pradeep Kumar and Shakila in the lead. Both honestly look too old to be the romantic pair. Shaikh Mukhtar turns up as the baddie, Johnny Walker, Helen and Anwar Hussain try to salvage the project. The only role I liked was by Ashok Kumar who shows his amazing range of acting in the movie which is otherwise pretty much lost cause. For such an atrocious movie, I am surprised it actually was remade in three other languages: Tamizh, Telugu and Kannada! Maybe they found more convincing pairs to act as romantic leads. Maybe they wanted to inflict the torture on others as well!! I mean why should only the Hindi Film going crowd suffer in silence?

My only take home from the movie is the amazing composition by Ravi and the other worldly vocals by the one and only Rafisaab. Asad Bhopali wrote the lyrics and Rafisaab for long periods has hardly any musical instruments backing/ accompanying him. Pure vocal magic!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYdKuNtndrk

सौ बार जनम लेंगे
सौ बार फ़ना होंगे
ऐ जाने वफा फिर भी
हम तुम ना जुदा होंगे
सौ बार जनम लेंगे
सौ बार फ़ना होंगे

किस्मत हमें मिलाने से
रोकेगी भला कब तक
इन् प्यार की राहों में
भटकेगी वफ़ा कब तक
कदमो के निशा खुद ही
मंजिल का पता होंगे
सौ बार जनम लेंगे
सौ बार फ़ना होगे

ये कैसी उदासी है
जो हुस्न पे छाई है
हम दूर नहीं तुमसे
कहने को जुदाई है
अरमान भरे दो दिल
फिर एक जगह होंगे

सौ बार जनम लेंगे
सौ बार फ़ना होंगे
ऐ जाने वफा फिर भी
हम तुम ना जुदा होंगे
सौ बार जनम लेंगे
सौ बार फ़ना होंगे.

Stay safe, stay healthy and happy. Stay away from the Chinese Virus, which is very much lurking, as my friend’s father and brother sadly succumbing to it within a span of 10 days shows. Stay blessed