Chhaayaageet #53 - "Arre jara do Mandwa paan le aao."
The filmmaker, music composer and lyricist are in a sitting in the composer's music room. They discuss the scene. The hero comes home to his newlywed wife. He enters the room and is struck speechless by her breathtaking beauty. That's the setting.
The filmmaker needs to leave soon. He instructs the lyricist, "I want the title of the film in the mukhda of the song." Before anyone could say anything further, the filmmaker is already out the door.
The composer and lyricist look at each other. It's not a one-word title. How do you fit a long title into the song? Well, since they know what the film is going to be called, the composer immediately plays the tune for the first line on his harmonium. The lyricist immediately follows up with the second line. The composer subsequently sings both lines in tune. So far so good.
Now what?
No words forthcoming further. The lyricist is stuck. He is proficient in Urdu, Farsi, Arabic and Hindi. But as deep as he might dig into his repertoire, nothing seems to fit. Cups of tea are ordered and consumed one after another. An hour passes by.
The composer knows that the lyricist is fond of paan, beetle leaves.
He asks the lyricist, "Aap ki paan ki dibiya kahan hai?" Where is your little paan box?
"Shayad saath laane bhool gaya", the lyricist responds as he looks around him for his paan box. Looks like I forgot it today.
"Arre jara do Mandwa paan le aao", the composer instructs his servant to fetch two Mandwa paan from the paanwala on the street corner.
The servant runs off and does as instructed by his master. As the paan arrives, the composer himself feeds one into the lyricist's mouth.
The lyricist closes his eyes and enjoys the taste of Mandwa paan in his mouth. As the juice and leaves descend his throat, he gets up.
As he hugs the composer, he exclaims, "Jo bhi ho tum khuda ki kasam, lajawab ho." Within the next 4 hours, the rest of the song is written and composed.
When the song was completed, Ravi met with Gurudutt and sang the song for him. Gurudutt was not happy and asked him to come back with other tunes. Ravi was dejected because he felt they had a winner on their hands. So he composed some more tunes, but requested Gurudutt's friend, Abrar Alvi, to attend the music session and help influence the outcome. Abrar Alvi wrote the screenplay for Kaagaz Ke Phool and was well regarded by Gurudutt. When Ravi played a few alternative tunes, Gurudutt listened with a poker face. Ravi looked at Abrar as if pleading him to say something. Abrar asked, "Is there anything else?" This was the cue Ravi needed, and he played the original tune. Abrar said, "This is much better. I am sure this will work." Gurudutt looked at Abrar and said, "Let's go with this for now. Let's picturize it and see how it shapes up." Ravi heaved a huge sigh of relief.
Gurudutt needed a hit after the debacle of Kaagaz Ke Phool. SD Burman had warned him not to make that film, but when Gurudutt did not listen, SD Burman said that it would be his last film with the filmmaker. When Gurudutt decided to make Chaudhvin Ka Chand, people recommended the name of Ravi. This was the only Gurudutt film that Ravi composed music for.
Ravi believed in keeping the song simple, and giving more importance to the lyrics and the singer's voice. The song had only 17 musicians, with 10 on the violin, and others on guitar, flute and mandolin.
During the recording of the song, at one place, while singing "...jo bhi ho tum khuda ki kasam...", Rafi Saab introduced a touch of intoxication into his singing. Ravi was not happy with this. He wanted the song to be done in a straight manner. However, Rafi Saab got busy with other commitments, and the director did not have much time as Waheeda Rehman had limited dates. So Ravi went ahead with the original song.
The film and the song became a super hit. After the film's silver jubilee, Gurudutt re-released the film with two songs in color. He re-shot the title song entirely. Apparently, the censor board found the technicolor version a bit too sensual for their liking.
Ravi's full name was Ravi Shankar Sharma. However, Pandit Ravi Shankar advised him to shorten his name to just Ravi to avoid confusion. He was a trained electrician, and fixed toasters, irons, geysers, motors and electric switches. Even though he had no formal training in music, he learnt instruments on his own. His passion for music brought him to Mumbai. He would sleep on the Malad railway station and found a tin shed to live in appalling conditions. He got a break as a chorus singer for Hemant Kumar, and then continued working as his assistant. One day Hemant Kumar suggested he should try going independent, and Ravi was worried of going back to his struggling days. Gurudutt signed him for Chaudhvin Ka Chand and Ravi never looked back from there.
Shakeel Badayuni was influenced by poetry and started making a name for himself in mushairas nationwide even while he was in college. He moved to Bombay to write songs in films. Badayuni scored a hat-trick of Filmfare awards for Best Lyricist, starting with Chaudhvin ka chand title song (1960), Husnawale tera jawab nahin for Gharana (1961), and Kahin deep jale kahin dil for Bees Saal Baad (1962). The Indian government honored him with the title Geetkar-e-Azam. Badayuni wrote songs for Baiju Bawra, Mughal-e-Azam, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, and many films, many of which became very popular.
Mohammad Rafi won the Filmfare award for Best Singer for the song Chaudhvin ka chand. However, unfortunately, Ravi did not get the Filmfare for Best Music.
Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni
Music: Ravi
Singer: Mohammad Rafi
*ing: Waheeda Rehman, Gurudutt
Director: M Sadiq
Film: Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960)