Chhaayaageet #182 - “Why did you play the song in front of your whole family?”
The composer hands a cassette tape to the singer.
“Yeh dhun hai. Acche se sun lena. Yeh gaana tujhe gaana hai.” Here’s the tune. Listen to it properly. You are going to sing this song.
The singer brings the cassette tape home. As he enters the home, he decides why not play the tune for family members.
“Yeh naya gaana hai, jo mein gaane wala hoon.” This is a new song that I will be singing.
He inserts the tape in the cassette player.
It is a scratch version of the song in the composer’s own voice. The mukhada starts off nicely.
The composer has recorded himself singing along with the harmonium, and someone playing the drums.
The antara starts off on a high note. But no sooner the antara starts, the singer’s family members are confused.
“Beta yeh kaisa gaana hai?”, his parents ask. Son, what kind of song is this?
The singer gets up in panic and runs to the cassette player. Where is the STOP button? Damn. Can’t find the button when you need it.
He fumbles through the controls of the cassette player and finally stops it. But the damage has been done.
“Maaf karna babuji. Mujhe nahin pataa yeh kya hai. Maaf kijiye,” the singer hurriedly apologizes before he rushes inside to his room with the tape in hand. Please forgive me father. I don’t know what song this is. Please forgive me.
Once inside his own room, the singer makes a phone call to the composer.
“Yaar yeh kaisa gaana hai?”, he asks with a touch of incredulity in his voice. My friend, what song is this?
“Kyun kya hua?”, the composer replies back, unsure what the problem is. Why what happened?
“Yaar iske antare mein to bahot gaali galoch hai,” the singer explains. My friend, the stanzas have a lot of cursing.
“Haan to? Woh to bas dummy words hain,” the composer explains. So? Those are just dummy words.
“Yaar maine to ghar waalon ko sunaayi cassette,” the singer explains the predicament. My friend, I played the cassette for my family at home.
“Tujhe kya zaroorat thi sab ghar waalon ko gaana sunane ki? Tujhe maalum hai mein dummy words mein gaaliyan deta hoon,” the composer now reprimands the singer. Why did you play the song in front of your whole family? You should know better that I use all curse words as dummy words.
The singer makes a mental note to only let his family hear his recorded songs with the composer.
Shailendra Singh sang the song Hoga tumse pyara kaun in the film Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai (1981), music by RD Burman, lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri. The song is filmed on Rishi Kapoor and Padmini Kolhapure. This was Padmini’s first film as a lead heroine. Earlier she had acted in Insaaf Ka Tarazu as a child artiste.
The film, directed by Nassir Hussain, flopped at the box office, because it did not have much of a story line, but all the songs were extremely popular. The most well known song of the film, Poocho na yaar kya hua, sung by Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle was a big hit.
Rafi saab was to sing all the songs of Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai, but unfortunately he passed away. As a result RD roped in Shailendra Singh to sing two songs, Hoga tumse pyara kaun, and the duet Pari ho aasmani tum with Asha Bhosle.
RD Burman used all the choicest curse words in the Hindi language as dummy words for the antara.
The song is picturized with the lead actors in the studio with the projection of the train on the screen. For the sound of the train, RD employed the trick of rubbing two pieces of sand paper against each other, and bamboo sticks. If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of the rubbing of the sandpaper continuously in the background.
Shailendra singing this song live at Shanmukhanand Hall in Mumbai. The guitarist sitting in the blue shirt in the front is Gorakh Sharma, brother of Pyarelal Sharma, and who played the guitar tune in Karz, the bass guitar in the song Dum maro dum and also the guitar in songs of Silsila, among many others. You can also see one of the drummers in the front rubbing sand paper for the train sound effect.
Music: RD Burman
Singer: Shailendra Singh
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri
*ing: Rishi Kapoor, Padmini Kolhapure
Director: Nassir Hussain
Film: Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai (1981)