Honey soaked romance….

We saw this movie on a Black and white movie channel from our Cable TV provider recently, rather than wasting time on the richest ( and fixed) cricket T20 league in the world which has clearly taken inspiration from the WWE “fights”. So when the powers that be decide that The Undertaker ( or some such muscle bound bod with an equally exotic and outlandish name ) must win a bout ( or a so called tournament called disingenuously Summer Slam or something equally blasé) he will after some utterly puerile show of aggression that only kids of all ages with the intelligence of a Starfish believe to be true), he does.

Although we had seen the movie before, (I first saw it in the college MLT on a Saturday afternoon), it was always worth a revisit , if not for anything else, the sublime music.

This movie, Chori Chori, was made by L B Lachhman, and released by AVM Productions. Raj Kapoor and Nargis in their last appearance together as the leads, and despite being an Indianized version of the Hollywood hit It happened one night (with some ideas from Roman Holiday) – we will only say it was a happy coincidence that the two storylines coincided ( or at the most accept grudgingly it was creatively inspired) – but the undoubted differentiator and to me at least , THE REASON why the movie remains enjoyable : is the sublime musical score. One of Shankar-Jaikishan’s all time best.

Just one look at this very famous song will prove the point: https://youtu.be/f1DZxkiMjRo

The ultimate romantic duet. Manna Dey is well and truly on song (pun intended) with Lata didi at her best. Tough to determine ( impossible, really) to say who is more impressive. Shailendra, the master craftsman, strings together an absolutely beautiful verse. This was the time Raj Kapoor used Manna Dey’s voice for himself as Mukesh had somehow managed to get himself trapped in a contract that effectively enslaved him. After losing precious years ( and all the money he had made over the years ) he finally saw the light of the day, managed to free himself and returned to the Raj Kapoor camp, with an immediate (almost completely effective ) exit for poor Manna Dey.

ये रात भीगी भीगी, ये मस्त फिजायें
उठा धीरे धीरे, वो चाँद प्यारा प्यारा
क्यों आग सी लगा के गुमसुम है चाँदनी
सोने भी नहीं देता, मौसम का ये इशारा
.
.
इठलाती हवा, नीलम सा गगन
कलियों पे ये बेहोशी की नमी
ऐसे में भी क्यों बेचैन है दिल
जीवन में न जाने क्या है कमी
.
.
जो दिन के उजाले में न मिला
दिल ढूँढें ऐसे सपने को
इस रात की जगमग में डूबी
मैं ढूँढ रही हूँ अपने को

ऐसे में कहीं क्या कोई नहीं
भूले से जो हमको याद करे
एक हल्की सी मुस्कान से जो
सपनों का जहाँ आबाद करे

I just love the way that Manna Dey’s voice soars effortlessly. Like the Andean Condor in flight, there is a certain majesty to it, no other male singer had that touch of grandeur. The song with it’s near symphonic movement is based on the fabulous raag Kirwani, one of my very favourite raags.

Stay safe, folks, stay healthy and happy. I will go into the mountains to soak myself with 360 degrees of happiness