Chhaayaageet #201 - "You can change my words but not Ghalib’s. We can’t take that liberty with Ghalib."
The lyricist sits in his dimly lit study. He has Mirza Ghalib's poetry spread before him like a sacred text. Every word, every line is divine to him. As he peruses the delicate lines of an old couplet, he pauses. He has a slight smile on his face as inspiration strikes. These lines could be a good fit for the situation in the film. He uses that as the mukhda and completes the song. He sends the lyrics to the composer for his review.
A rehearsal is arranged. The lyricist, singers, and composer are all there along with others from the film crew. The composer looks giddy and ready to go with the tune. He looks at the lyricist, “I got your lines. I would like to play the tune along with your lines before we begin rehearsal.”
The composer is big into rehearsals. His reputation is such that singers look forward to his rehearsals as much as they do for recordings. Each rehearsal is not just a practice but a ritual where he pours his soul into the music, striving to capture all variations in notes. The singers don't mind it and want to be part of that journey.
The composer grabs his harmonium and starts to sing the lines based on the tune. The lyricist closes his eyes and is trying to absorb the moment. The composer begins with the mukhda. The lyricist opens his eyes. He appears a bit shocked. “Hold on, the mukhda is not correct. The first word is Jee and not Dil. The composer knows this was coming. “No, I think Dil makes more sense here. I have read about it somewhere.” The lyricist is not ready to take no for an answer. How dare he modify this sacred text. “You can change my words but not Ghalib’s. We can’t take that liberty with Ghalib.” The composer doesn’t say anything and continues with the rehearsal.
The next day the composer returns to the studio for the next round of rehearsals. This time he is carrying a book along with him. He spots the lyricist and starts walking towards him.
“Yesterday I kept quiet because I wanted to check something. Look at this.” The composer opens the book and shows it to the lyricist. The lyricist still seems a bit upset from yesterday. “What is this? What are you showing me?” The composer explains calmly, “This is Diwan-e-Ghalib. Look, it says clearly here that the first word is Dil.” The lyricist can’t believe his eyes. Not point arguing further. “The publication that I have, calls it out as Jee. I can understand the confusion now. I am fine to change it to Dil.” The composer is not done convincing. “There is one more thing I want you to understand. The ‘L’ sound at the end of the word Dil nicely matches with the dhaa sound on the tabla.” The lyricist knows now why this composer is so well-regarded by everyone.
It wouldn’t be typical of this composer if there wasn't yet another day of rehearsal scheduled. Now since there is a settlement on the lyrics, the focus is on the singers. The male and female singers are ready to rehearse based on the tunes provided to them.
The composer wants to set the stage. “Let me play the tune and then I would like to rehearse this with both of you.” The composer again grabs his harmonium and starts to sing the lines.
The female singer has a confused look and so does the male singer. “Bhaiya, where did this tune come from? Yesterday we rehearsed on a completely different tune.” She calls him Bhaiya as a mark of respect. Just like an elder brother that she never had. The composer smiles, “There are two versions of this song. One is a duet and the other is a solo. So there are at least two different tunes. So I will have multiple tunes for each one to see what makes most sense.” The singers breathe a sigh of relief that they may have 4 tunes to deal with. By the time the duet and the solo songs are recorded, the composer comes up with a total of 8 tunes.
Madan Mohan composed the music for the song Dil Dhoondta Hai and the rest of the songs in the film Mausam. The song lyrics and film direction were done by Gulzar. There is a solo sad version of the song that was sung by Bhupinder Singh and the more cheerful duet version was sung by Bhupinder Singh and Lata Mangeshkar. The songs were picturized on Sanjeev Kumar and Sharmila Tagore.
Gulzar's deep admiration for Mirza Ghalib has profoundly influenced his work as a poet and lyricist. He often drew inspiration from Ghalib's verses, adapting and expanding upon them to create his own memorable compositions. For this song, he decided to borrow a couplet from Ghalib’s Jee Dhoondta Hai and use that in the mukhda. Madan Mohan who also was a great connoisseur of Urdu poetry took the mukhda from Gulzar and decided to change the first word to Dil instead of Jee. He claimed and later proved that his publication had the word Dil and also that rhymed much better with the beats.
Madan Mohan was renowned for his meticulous approach to composing and his relentless pursuit of perfection. He often created multiple tunes for a single song, carefully crafting each version to capture the essence of the lyrics and the emotion of the scene. For Dil Dhoondta Hai, he composed several tunes and constantly checked with Gulzar and the singers to see which melody they preferred. This dedication to exploring various musical variations allowed him to select the most fitting composition for each situation.
There was a solo and a cheerful version of the song in the film. To do proper justice in the true Madan Mohan fashion, he ended up creating 8 different tunes. Two of those tunes were used in the film and the rest were archived. Shortly after his death, some unreleased tunes were compiled in a limited circulation album called "A Treasure Revealed”.
In 2004, nearly 30 years after his passing, Yash Chopra used some of Madan Mohan's unused compositions for the soundtrack of Veer-Zaara including the one that he had created for Mausam. This project was overseen by Madan Mohan's son, Sanjeev Kohli, who recreated 11 of his father's unused tunes.
Bhupinder sang the solo version as well as in the duet. He had previously worked with Gulzar in the film Parichay and delivered the hit song Beeti Na Beetai Raina. Gulzar brought him over to sing the songs in Mausam. His deep, resonant voice brought a melancholic depth to all the songs.
Madan Mohan passed away before the film’s release, so Salil Chowdhury was brought in to compose the background music.
Mausam was nominated in pretty much every musical and acting category but won only the Best Film and the Best Director award. Gulzar did not win the Best Lyricist award which ended up going to Sahir Ludhianvi for Kabhi Kabhie Mere Dil Mein. One of the reasons cited is due to the borrowing of Ghalib's couplet, the song was not considered completely original.
Singers (Duet): Lata Mangeshkar, Bhupinder Singh
Singer (Solo): Bhupinder Singh
Lyrics: Gulzar
Music: Madan Mohan
*ing: Sanjeev Kumar, Sharmila Tagore
Director: Gulzar
Film: Mausam (1975)