diiwaanaa aadamii ko banaatii haiN roTiyaaN

Nazeer Akbarabadi (1740-1830) wrote extensively. roTiyaaN is a famous nazm of his:

jab aadamii ke peT me.n aatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
phuulii nahii.n badan me.n samaaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
aa.Nkhe.n parii_ruKho.n se la.Daatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
siine uupar bhii haath chalaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
jitane maze hai.n sab ye dikhaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
roTii se jis kaa naak talak peT hai bharaa
karataa phire hai kyaa vo uchhal kuud jaa ba jaa
diivaar phaa.Nd kar ko_ii koThaa uchhal gayaa
ThaaThTha ha.Nsii sharaab sanam saaqii is sivaa
sau sau tarah kii dhuum machaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
jis jaa pe haa.NDii chuulhaa tavaa aur tanuur hai
Khaaliq kii qudarato.n kaa usii jaa zahuur hai
chuulhe ke aage aa.Nch jo jalatii huzuur hai
jitane hai.n nuur sab me.n yahii Kaas nuur hai
is nuur ke sabab nazar aatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
aave tave tanuur kaa jis jaa zabaa.N pe naam
yaa chakkii chuulhe kaa jahaaN gulzaar ho tamaam
vaaN sar jhukaa ke kiijiye DanDavat aur salaam
is vaaste ke Kaas ye roTii ke hai.n muqaam
pahale inhiiN makaanoN meN aatii haiN roTiyaaN
in roTiyoN ke nuur se sab dil haiN puur puur
aaTaa nahii.n hai chhalanii se chhan chhan gire hai nuur
pe.Daa har ek us kaa hai barfii-o-motii chuur
har_giz kisii tarah na bujhe peT kaa tanuur
is aag ko magar ye bujhaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
puuchhaa kisii ne ye kisii kaamil faqiir se
ye mehr-o-maah haq ne banaaye hai.n kaahe ke
vo sun ke bolaa baabaa Khudaa tujh ko Khair de
ham to na chaa.Nd samajhe na suuraj hai.n jaanate
baabaa hame.n to ye nazar aatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
phir puuchhaa us ne kahiye ye hai dil kaa nuur kyaa
is ke mushaahide me.n hai khulataa zahuur kyaa
vo bolaa sun ke teraa gayaa hai sha_uur kyaa
kashf-ul-quluub aur ye kashf-ul-qubuur kyaa
jitane hai.n kashf sab ye dikhaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
roTii jab aa_ii peT me.n sau qand ghul gaye
gul_zaar phuule aa.Nkho.n me.n aur aish tul gaye
do tar nivaale peT me.n jab aa ke dhul gaye
chaudaa tabaq ke jitane the sab bhed khul gaye
ye kashf ye kamaal dikhaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
roTii na peT me.n ho to phir kuchh jatan na ho
mele kii sair Khvaahish-e-baaG-o-chaman na ho
bhuuke Gariib dil kii Khudaa se lagan na ho
sach hai kahaa kisii ne ke bhuuke bhajan na ho
allaah kii bhii yaad dilaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
ab jin ke aage maal_puye bhar ke thaal hai.n
puurii bhagat unhii.n kii vo saahab ke laal hai.n
aur jin ke aage rauGanii aur shiir_maal hai
aarif vohii hai.n aur vohii saahab kamaal hai.n
pakii pakaa_ii ab jinhe.n aatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
kapa.De kisii ke laal hai.n roTii ke vaaste
lambe kisii ke baal hai.n roTii ke vaaste
baa.Ndhe ko_ii rumaal hai rotii ke vaaste
sab kashf aur kamaal hai.n rotii ke vaaste
jitane hai.n ruup sab ye dikhaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
roTii se naache piyaadaa qavaayad dikhaa dikhaa
asavaar naache gho.De ko kaavaa lagaa lagaa
ghungharuu ko baa.Ndhe paik bhii phirataa hai naachataa
aur is ke sivaa Gaur se dekho to jaa ba jaa
sau sau tarah ke naach dikhaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
duniyaa me.n ab badii na kahii.n aur niko_ii hai
na dushmanii va dostii na tund kho_ii hai
ko_ii kisii kaa aur kisii kaa na ko_ii hai
sab ko_ii hai usii kaa ke jis haath Do_ii hai
naukar nafar Gulaam banaatii hai.n roTiyaa.N
roTii kaa ab azal se hamaaraa to hai Khamiir
ruukhii bhii roTii haq me.n hamaare hai shahad-o-shiir
yaa patalii hove moTii Khamiirii ho yaa katiir
gehuu.N ju_aar baajare kii jaisii ho 'Nazeer'
ham ko sab tarah kii Khush aatii hai.n roTiyaa.N




Majrooh Sultanpuri reworked this as diwaanaa aadamii ko banaatii hain roTiyaan for Kali Topi Lal Rumal (1959)

dekhaa na haay re sochaa na

ab to ghabraa ke ye kahte haiN k mar jaa_eNge
mar k bhii chain na paayaa to kidhar jaa_eNge

Wrote the Poet Laureate of the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar - Ibrahim Zauq

Now hear an antara of "dekhaa na haay re sochaa na" in Bombay To Goa (1972), written by Rajinder Krishan:

"miT jaa_eNge mar jaayeNge, kaam koii kar jaa_eNge
mar ke bhii chain na mile, to jaa_eNge yaaro kahaaN"

raahii manvaa dukh kii chintaa

Listen to Fani Badayuni's Ghazal:

goyaa nahii.n taGHaaful-o-tamkii.n me.n ko_ii farq
itnii bhii aadmii ko umiid-e-karam na ho

GHam bhii guzashtanii hai KHushii bhii guzashtanii
kar GHam ko iKHtiyaar ke guzre to GHam na ho.

manzuur har navishta-e-taqdiir hai mujhe
lekin vo jis me.n harf-e-tamanna raqam na ho

har lamha-e-hayaat hai begaana-e-hayaat
faanii hayaat se hii ibaarat adam na ho.

Majrooh expressed the same thought as the second she'r at the beginning of raahii manvaa dukh kii chintaa kyuu.n sataatii hai in Dosti (1964)

yeh 'ishq naheeN aasaaN, faTaak!

Gulzar has never made a secret of the high esteem in which he holds Ghalib. Time and again he has chosen to use entire verses of Ghalib's, with and without modification, in his film as well as non-film poetry. But this time he's spun a yarn around a couplet by one of Urdu poetry's other famous masters: Jigar Moradabadi.

yeh 'ishq nahii.n aasaa.N, bas itnaa samajh leeje
ik aag kaa daryaa hai, aur Doob ke jaanaa hai

Here's what Gulzar has done with (or should we say "done to"?) this couplet in Kaminey (2009) --

yeh 'ishq nahii.n aasaa.N, ajii AIDS kaa Khatraa hai
patwaar pahan jaanaa, yeh aag kaa daryaa hai

Of course, Gulzar is not pretending to do serious poetry here. Rather, he has set out to write "nonsense verse" using the highly popular Jigar couplet as basis, and I must say he has passed with flying colours! ;-) The 'lateral thinking' reference to AIDS is funny enough, but don't ignore the use of patwaar (rudder) to convey ... ruBBer (nirodh)! The tune by Vishal Bhardwaj, and the very apt vocals by Sukhwinder Singh and Kailash Kher are no less successful.

chaahe lag jaayen hathkadiyaan

I was listening to the rollicking Rafi-Asha duet 'nazroN ke teer maare kas-kas-kas' from the film Do Ustaad (1959) recently, when I noticed the following lyrics by Qamar Jalalabadi (listen to Rafi's second stanza, starting about 3:00 into the clip):

jaan-e-jahaa.N! bolo chalii ho kahaa.N leke naino.n me.n ye phuljha.Diyaa.N
tum pe maroo.Nga gorii, pyaar mai.n karoo.Nga gorii, chaahe lage.n hathka.Diyaa.N



Whattasong, na'eeN? Rafi and Asha sound like they're having the time of their life singing this song -- as much fun, if not more, than Madhubala and Raj Kapoor are portaying on screen! Those were the days *sigh*!

Anyway ... the phrase "chaahe lage.n hathka.Diyaa.N" sounded way too familiar, like I had heard it somewhere else, but I just couldn't place it. I coincidentally happened to be chatting online with Asad at the same time, so I asked him if he could recall any song with that phrase in it. He immediately replied, "yes, 'ab chaahe maaN rooThe yaa baabaa'", written by Sahir Ludhiyanvi for the film Daag (1973). Sure enough, at the end of the first stanza, these words appear:

ab chaahe kaa.NTe mile.n yaa kaliyaa.N, yaaraa mai.nne to haa.N kar lii
ab chaahe lag jaaye.n hath-ka.Diyaa.N, mai.nne terii baa.Nh paka.D lii
mai.nne tujh pe neeyat dhar lii, maine ha.Nskar haamii bhar lii
ho yaarii chhooTe naa, TooTe naa, haa.N kar lii so kar lii
ab chaahe maa.N rooThe yaa baabaa ...

"What a terrible way to reinterpret Qamar's phrase," I thought, "Sahir has really hit the dumps here!"


But that wasn't it, I felt; this wasn't the song I was thinking of. I could visualize "my" song having nok-jho.nk (playful teasing amongst lovers)-type lyrics, with the girl saying, "meraa peechha chho.Do" and the guy teasing her with "no way! (chaahe lag jaaye.n hath-ka.Diyaa.N)" ...

And then I remembered it! Sahir himself had used this phrase previously, in Naya Daur (1957), coincidentally a duet again, composed by OP Nayyar again, with one of the singers being Asha again: reshmi salwar kurta jaali kaa has these words at the beginning of the first stanza:

jab jab tujh ko dekhuu.N, mere dil me.n chhuTe.n phul-jha.Diyaa.N
karuu.Ngaa teraa piichhaa chaahe lag jaaye.n hath-ka.Diyaa.N

Now look again at Qamar's lyrics from Do Ustad, and the similarity is unmistakable. The phrase is repeated almost in its entirety, right down to the rhyming words!

And then compare Sahir to himself and see what a crappy job he did of reusing his own words in 1973. What a difference 15 years can make! *sigh*

'ishq par zor nahii.n, satrangi re!

It should come as no surprise that in our blog's unscientific ranking, Mirza Ghalib is the poet who has "inspired" the most number of film lyricists.

We recently posted about a film song that was inspired by the Ghalib Ghazal:

nukta.cheeN hai, Gham-e-dil us ko sunaaye na bane
kyaa bane baat jahaaN baat banaaye na bane

The same Ghazal also contains this famous couplet:

'ishq par zor naheeN, hai yeh woh aatish 'Ghalib'
ke lagaaye na lage aur bujhaaye na bane

Fans and fanatics of A R Rahman's music, Gulzar's lyrics and Sonu Nigam's singing will recognize this couplet as having been used as-is in the film Dil Se (1998):



We have also previously noted that the lyrics of another song also refer to the same couplet.

phir tumhaarii yaad aa_ii, ai sanam

Hakim Momin Khan 'Momin' has created a timeless classic of a Ghazal which goes like this:

asar usko zara naheeN hotaa
ranj raahat.fazaa naheeN hotaa
... ... ...
... ... ...
haal-e-dil yaar ko likhooN kyoN.kar
haath dil se judaa naheeN hotaa

kyoN.kar means 'how', 'in what manner', etc. In other words, kaise. Qamar Jalalabadi, writing what I consider to be The Finest multi-singer song ever composed for a Hindi film, used this sh'er almost as-is, but for the trivial changing of kyoN.kar to kaise. Look for the couplet in this superlative Sajjad Hussain song from Rustom Sohrab (1963) sung by Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey aur saathi --



Note that this 'Momin' Ghazal is the same one which contains the following incredibly beautiful couplet which 'Ghalib' reportedly said he would be willing to exchange his entire deewaan for.

tum mere paas hote ho goya
jab koi doosra naheeN hotaa

Regular readers of this blog will recall that we have covered this song previously in another post.