The desire of every heartbeat….

Bollywood has frequently used the mechanism in its plots of a ménage à trois, stopping short of the physical aspect of the three cornered situation. With about equal frequency it may be “ek phool do fool” or vice versa. A similar tool was used in an early 60s movie, Shama. It had Vijay Dutt (who reminds me of a Marathi actor pair, Chandrakant and Suryakant Mandhare, the former was an accomplished painter as well) , Nimmi and the last of the big singing actresses , And arguably the best of the genre, Suraiyya. Noorjahan was in my honest and personal opinion neither as good an actress nor as versatile a singer as Suraiyya. The Malika-e-Tarannum part was just indulgence in hyperbole as the corrupt nuke-bearing country of habitual beggars is obsessed with. How else could they glorify and justify the dalliance of an alcoholic general with testosterone on his brain (but not anywhere else) with a corpulent lady caked with tons of make up and a bouffant that was clearly a hairpiece. The two did whatever they could together while his rapacious army cannibalised a more populous part of his own country, raping and butchering millions, and plundering it, leading to a secession and bloody birth of a nation.

The central theme of the movie is the eponymous Shama (Nimmi) being forced by circumstances to arrange the marriage of the man she loves. Suraiyya and Vijay Dutt complete the other two sides of the triangle. The movie directed by Lekhraj Bahri, had dialogues and lyrics by Kaifi Azmi and sublime music by Ghulam Mohammad. Just listen to the wonderful ode to love, filmed on both the beauties while the man in question dozes off. https://youtu.be/nKWniIwhqYA

Kaifi saab’s verse is fabulous.

धड़कते दिल की तमन्ना हो मेरा प्यार हो तुम
मुझे क़रार नहीं, जब से बेक़रार हो तुम

धड़कते दिल की तमन्ना हो मेरा प्यार हो तुम

खिलाओ फूल किसी के किसी चमन मे रहो
जो दिल की राह से गुज़री है वो बहार हो तुम

धड़कते दिल की तमन्ना हो मेरा प्यार हो तुम

ज़ह-ए-नसीब अता की जो दर्द की सौग़ात
वो ग़म हसीन है जिस ग़म के ज़िम्मेदार हो तुम

धड़कते दिल की तमन्ना हो मेरा प्यार हो तुम

चढाऊँ फूल या आँसू तुम्हारे क़दमों में
मेरी वफ़ाओं के उल्फ़त की यादगार हो तुम

धड़कते दिल की तमन्ना हो मेरा प्यार हो तुम
मुझे क़रार नहीं, जब से बेक़रार हो तुम

धड़कते दिल की तमन्ना हो मेरा प्यार हो तुम

Using the same voice for two actresses is not unusual in Bollywood, although more often you’ll expect to hear this kind of a song in two voices.

Suraiyya being an accomplished actress brings in a plethora of emotions into her voice as well. All the great singers would do this. Rafisaab carried an extra edge of pain knowing fully well the chiselled blocks of stone who would mouth his lines were incapable of depicting any emotion. https://youtu.be/-P8YaI1BoGw

An amazing melody that will resonate inside my head all day today.

Stay blessed, stay safe, folks. Have a wonderful weekend

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