Last few days, one has seen a plethora of articles
& posts about Emergency, that was imposed in India on 26th June 1975 &
lasted for a period of 19 months.
Amongst some of the casualties that censorship
imposed at that time, was a movie that was released in 1975 & was banned
after a few weeks . It was allowed to be released only after the lifting of
Emergency & subsequent defeat of Congress in 1977. Of course, the movie
went on to become a classic, also getting Best Movie Award in the Critics
category for that year from Filmfare.
This was Aandhi, a political drama which saw
confluence of an amazing array of artistes;
Gulzar, at the helm of the affairs,
who collaborated with Kamleshwar – one of the leading media &
literary persona of the time, Sanjeev Kumar, Suchitra Sen (in her last Hindi
movie) & Om Prakash brought their characters alive on screen. In the background, it was time for
Gulzar to also play the role of a lyricist, and with Pancham, Kishore Kumar
& Lata Mangeshkar, the movie gave some of the most romantic songs of Hindi
cinema.
Though it seems that the key protagonist Aarti Devi
(played by Suchitra Sen – her last Hindi movie) was inspired by Nandini
Satpathy, a leading politician of Orissa, her gate-up, specially the white
streak in her hair led I & B Ministry to believe her to be modelled on
Indira Gandhi. As a result, despite the movie being very sympathetic to the
character, it was banned for a short while. The music of the movie became an instant hit, till even that was
banned in May 1976 – not because of the movie, but due to an unofficial ban on
Kishore Kumar, who had refused to sing in a Congress Rally in Mumbai.
Be as it may be, even after 4 decades, the
compositions of this movie have remained amongst the best of Pancham; often
compared to Amar Prem for the class of rendition & depth of verse.
It is indeed difficult to really favour any one
particular song from this movie, but the one I am showcasing is special for
today – this being Pancham’s birthday.
The song has very little prelude & has all
favourite instruments of Pancham – Guitar, Sax & Madal, with violin that
act as a bridge to carry the tune seamlessly.
However, what is special are the verse that –
despite being penned for a romantic situation, also manage to convey the
feelings that all the fans may have about Pancham & his music.
So here is wishing all his fans, a very special day
with this lovely song:
Tum Aa gaye Ho
Noor Aa Gaya Hai
Nahin To, Chiraagon Se
Lau Ja Rahi ThiJeene Ki Tum Se
Wajah Mil gayi Hai
Badi Bewajah
Zindagi Ja Rahi Thi