Chhaayaageet #15 - “Tumko Jo Bajana Hai Bajao, Magar Mere Ko Ekdum Gaane Mein Romance Chahiye”
Do whatever you want, but I want romance in the song.
The phone rings, rudely waking him from sleep. He rubs his eyes and looks at the clock. It is 1:30am. Only one person could be calling at this odd hour, his favorite composer.
”What are you doing?”, the caller asks.
”I was sleeping. It is 1:30.”
”Well, since you are awake now, come to my recording room. I just finished a song and I want your opinion.”
”Now?”
”Yes now. Come immediately.”
”Achcha aaschee”, Bengali for “Ok, I am coming”.
He drags himself out of bed. His 14 year old son is fast asleep. It’s just the two of them, since his second wife passed away a few months back leaving him devastated. He wakes the boy up. Son, we gotta go. Dada has called.
They reach the recording room. The mood is somber. The composer is pacing the room. The orchestra looks a bit tired.
Three other people are there - one is the composer’s son who is usually assisting with music, the other is the filmmaker, and the third gentleman, presumably the hero of the film.
“Ah, there you are. Listen to this beautiful folk song I just recorded.”
He looks at the composer, and looks at the three of them. Pall of doom writ large on their faces.
They play the tape. It is a beautiful folk tune indeed, and the composer has sung it himself in his folksy voice.
After the song finishes, our friend who has been summoned out of bed, is speechless. The filmmaker walks up to him and whispers:
“The three of us don’t like it. We think this song needs a Western tune.”
“What do you want me to do?”
”You try telling him. That's why you've been called.”
It is a song of passion depicting intimate moments between the hero and heroine. They have tried in vain to tell the composer that the folk tune just doesn’t arouse the same intense feelings.
The hero has been more vocal because a lot is riding on this movie for him. The other two have voiced their displeasure rather meekly out of respect. Our friend is their last hope.
The composer is irked. What does this new hero know? He’s done only a few movies and even those didn’t do well. And his nerve to comment on the work of a veteran composer! 1
“I want your opinion. This Nepali doesn’t like it. If you also don’t like it, then I’ll reconsider changing it, and it will be a favor to this Nepali. What do you think?”, the composer directs his ire at the hero.
The hero is not really a Nepali, but in the wee hours, everyone is stretched thin. 2
“Dada, I just remembered one old song of yours. I heard it for the first time when I was in school. And I couldn’t get it out of my head. I think it will be perfect here.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If you allow, may I sing it for you?”
Friend sings a few lines of a Bengali song. The composer is ecstatic to be reminded of one of his old tunes.
Yes, yes. It’s perfect. Done!
“No more recording, we got the song. We’ll record in two days”, he announces to everyone’s relief.
“Yeh hero haay. Tum iske liye gayega”, the composer says to the friend in his Bengali-accented Hindi. This is the hero. You will be singing for him.
And with these words, the composer introduces the down-on-luck hero with the down-on-luck singer. They would go on to become one of the most popular actor/singer combinations in film history.
Folksy melody goes away, and instead a melange of jazz and samba bring erotic passion to life. On the day of the recording, the composer explains the setting to his music arranger and saxophonist: 3
A young man and woman, are forced to take shelter from the rain in a small room. They fight the urge to consummate their love. It is a romantic passionate song.
“Tumko jo bajana hai bajao, magar mere ko ekdum romance chahiye gaane mein.” Do whatever you want, I want romance in the song. Full freedom to his musicians. With rehearsals, the song is recorded in 4 hours.
The amazing interplay between the accordion and the sax mirrors the two characters on the screen heightening the passion of the moment.
On the day of the shoot, due to some mix up, the unit learns that the set has been committed to some other film. There is hardly any time.
Shakti Samanta decides to record the entire song as a single shot, with no cuts, an audacious decision for that time.
The set is a bit cramped. A fire is set up to burn in the center. Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore are instructed to just move around it while giving each other smoldering passionate looks. The camera would circle around them. They rehearse their movements to the side while the track is laid out for the camera trolley.
It is recorded in one take. They don’t have any monitors to watch it, they don’t know how it turned out. It’s a rushed shoot. The song becomes a massive hit, as do all other songs of the movie. Aradhana was a blockbuster. 4
Kishore Kumar won his first Filmfare award for this song. Aradhana was Kishore’s comeback and resurgence of sorts. He had mostly sung for Dev Anand before but not quite had his big break. Rafi had reigned supreme as the go to singer for stars like Guru Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Rajendra Kumar, and for composers like SD, OP Nayyar and Shankar Jaikishan. Aradhana made the duo of Rajesh Khanna-Kishore Kumar golden.
1 Rajesh Khanna’s previous movies had not done well. Still, Shakti Samanta cast him in the lead. When trade people came to know, they thought Shakti da was going bankrupt and hence making a low budget movie. At Aradhana’s premiere, no one gave Rajesh Khanna a second look. At the interval, he was mobbed. A star was born. After Aradhana, Rajesh Khanna had 15 consecutive hits.
2 In the song, Mere sapnon ki rani, Rajesh Khanna wears a Nepali cap, also known as the ‘Dhaka topi’. Perhaps that’s why SD referred to him as the Nepali!
3 Kersi Lord was the Burman’s music arranger. Manohari Singh was RD’s long time music assistant who also played the saxophone masterfully. Kersi Lord is credited with bringing the synthesizer to Hindi film music. RD made use of it for the first time in the music of Sholay.
4 The film was first titled Subah Pyar Ki, borrowing a line from the song Raat ke humsafar, from Shakti da’s previous hit movie, An Evening in Paris. SD convinced Shakti da to change the title to Aradhana. Shankar Jaikishan duo were Shakti da’s go to composers. But for this movie, he went to SD. SD wanted Rs. 5,000 more than his usual fee of Rs. 75,000. Shakti da offered him Rs. 1,00,000. SD promised him out of this world music, and boy did he keep up his end of the bargain!
Kishore da singing live on stage with Sharmila Tagore and Tiger Pataudi in the audience.
RD live on stage in Dubai with Amit Kumar performing this song
Music: SD Burman
Singer: Kishore Kumar
*ing: Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore
Musicians: Manohari Singh, Kersi Lord
Director: Shakti Samanta
Film: Aradhana (1969)