ham dekhnewaaloN kii nazar dekh rahe haiN

Ustad Dagh Dehlvi was as prolific as his verse was captivating. He had this great ability to compose couplets that were easy to understand (at least for the average Urdu/Hindi speaker of his day), and capture very simple, yet alluring images in those couplets. That's very much the same goal that film lyricists have: they want the songs they write to be memorable, and a song that's easy to understand is easy to memorize, hai na?. Little wonder, therefore, that a number of his works have been adapted into film songs time and again. In this post, we visit the matla of a Ghazal by Dagh that has been used not once but twice by different lyric writers in different films. The couplet is simply too good! -- sab log jidhar woh hain udhar dekh rahe hain ham dekhnewaalon ki nazar dekh rahe hain The first recorded use of this verse we know of is in the film Gyarah Hazaar Ladkiyan (1962) by none other than Majrooh Sultanpuri. The song is set as a cabaret song in a restaurant, with Helen on the screen lipsynching Asha's vocals for music director N. Dutta. Gyarah Hazaar Ladkiyan is a movie that was ostensibly based on the life of the emerging new woman of India -- the 11,000 working women in various jobs in the roaring metropolis of Mumbai (then, Bombay). Here's the song. Doesn't Helen look cute? As we can see, Majrooh used Dagh's words verbatim, with no modification or alteration. About a decade later, in the film Sabak (1973), Saawan Kumar (credited as "Sawan") reused the same couplet, with a very small modification; he writes: woh jidhar dekh rahe hain, sab udhar dekh rahe hain ham to bas dekhnewaalon ki nazar dekh rahe hain Such a minor change that it is 100% obvious where the couplet is copied from, right? This time it's Suman Kalyanpur singing under Usha Khanna's baton. The "singer" on the screen is Poonam, Shatrughan Sinha's wife! Not sure Dagh could have ever imagined that his verse would figure in cabarets and party songs!

aur bhi dukh hain zamaane mein muhabbat ke siwaa: Sahir inspired TWICE?

In a previous post Asad saahib discussed how Majrooh Sultanpuri took a line from this very famous nazm by Faiz Ahmed 'Faiz' and wove another wonderful poem around it. The line was:

teri aaNkhoN ke siwaa duniyaa meN rakkhaa kyaa hai

The original Faiz nazm is a striking critique of people who lose themselves in the dreamy world of love and ignore the many real issues that plague the real world. Here's how Faiz puts this:

anginat sadiyoN ke taareek baheemaana tilism
resham-o-atlas-o-kimKhwaab meN bunvaaye hue

jaa ba jaa bikte hue koocha-o-baazaar meN jism
Khaak meN lithRe hue, Khoon meN nahlaaye hue

jism nikle hue amraaz ke tannooroN se
peep behti hui galte hue naasooroN se

lauT jaati hai udhar ko bhi nazar kyaa keeje
ab bhi dilkash hai teraa husn, magar kyaa keeje

aur bhi dukh haiN zamaane meN muhabbat ke siwaa!
raahateN aur bhi haiN wasl ki raahat ke siwaa

The Faiz nazm dates, I think, to sometime in the late 1930s to early 1940s. The inimitable Madam Noorjehan had sung this nazm, set to tune by the peerless Pakistani composer Rashid Attre, for the film Qaidi (1962). The song has become a timeless classic. Let us take a few minutes, oh, I don't know, maybe 3 and a quarter minutes(?), to listen to this beauty:

Noorjehan's rendition is excellent, indeed, but take a look at this recitation of Faiz's poem by none other than the Grande Olde Dame of Hindi filmdom, Zohra Sehgal. She is 99 years old(!) in this video when she recited this. Just look at her memory -- the ability to recall the words! Look at that power of recitation! The poem literally comes to life:

In 1959, a song written by Sahir Ludhianvi for the film Didi was composed by Sudha Malhotra (who, at the time, the rumor goes, was hopelessly in love with Sahir) and recorded in the voices of Sudha herself and Mukesh. The lyrics of the last stanza of the song bear an uncanny resemblance to Faiz's nazm, begging the question, "was there a flow of inspiration from Faiz to Sahir?" See for yourself, the words of the stanza sung by Mukesh in the film:

zindagi sirf muhabbat naheeN, kuchh aur bhi hai
zulf-o-ruKhsaar ki jannat naheeN, kuchh aur bhi hai
bhook aur pyaas ki maari hui is duniyaa meN
ishq hi ek haqeeqat naheeN, kuchh aur bhi hai

tum agar aaNkh churaao to yeh haq hai tumko
maiNne tumse hi naheeN, sabse muhabbat ki hai

Compare Sahir's lines "zindagi sirf muhabbat naheeN, kuchh aur bhi hai" and "ishq hi ek haqeeqat naheeN, kuchh aur bhi hai" with Faiz's "aur bhi dukh haiN zamaane meN muhabbat ke siwaa" and you'll catch my drift.

The song itself can be heard here. What an exquisite beauty!

But that's not what we're here to discuss today. What we're here to discuss is the fact that the "aur bhi dukh haiN zamaane meN muhabbat ke siwaa" concept seems to have grabbed Sahir quite strongly. So strongly, in fact, that he used the same idea again a few years later in another film song. This time too, the song was a duet, this one composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, for the film Izzat (1968), and sung by Rafi and Lata. The words in question appear in the stanza sung by Rafi, and the inspiration from Faiz's poem is quite unmistakably stark. He sings:

muhabbat kar to leN lekin muhabbat raas aaye bhi
diloN ko bojh lagte haiN kabhi zulfoN ke saaye bhi
hazaaroN Gham haiN is duniyaa meN, apne bhi paraaye bhi
muhabbat hi kaa Gham tanhaa naheeN, ham kyaa kareiN

Don't you agree that the inspiration is very obvious? Please do leave us a comment!

koii hamdam na rahaa koii sahaaraa na rahaa.

The original written by J S Kashyap for Jeevan Naiya (1936)

kishore used the same song with the same tune and the mukhRa for Jhumroo (1961), Majrooh changed the words of the antaras

Here's the original



and the more popular version

mujhako yaaro maaf karnaa maiN nashe meN huuN

In Main Nashe Mein Hoon (1959) Shailendra borrowed

yaaro mujhe mu'aaf rakho maiN nashe meN huun


From Meer Taqi Meer's famous GHazal, mujhko yaaro mu'aaf rakho maiN nashe meN hooN, ab do to jaam KHaalee hee do, maiN nashe meN hooN'

Four years earlier Sahir Ludhiyanvi had used the line maiN nashe meN huuN as part of the antara in the song "ab vo karam kareN ki sitam" from the film "Marine Drive" (1955)

kal kya hoga kisko pata

hamko miTaa sake ye zamaane meN dam naheeN,
hamse zamaanaa KHud hai, zamaane se ham naheeN
goes the famous maqta by Jigar Muradabadi
Sung here by Mohd. Rafi




In 1978 for the film Kasme Vaade Gulshan Bawra borrowed the same concept.
he ham jahaaN halla gulaa hoga vahiiN
hamse hai duniya duniya se ham naheeN

terii suurat se nahiiN miltii

terii suurat se kisii kii nahiiN miltii suurat
ham jahaaN meN terii tasviir liye phirte haiN
(Imam Bakhsh 'Nasikh')


Hasrat Jaipuri used Nasikh's couplet as the mukhRa for the Ziddi (1964)

milti hai zindagi meiN mohabbat kabhi kabhi

In Aankhen (1968) Sahir Ludhianvi had written a beautiful GHazal "milti hai zindagii meN mohabbat kabhii kabhii"

This was inspired from a GHazal of Nasir Kazmi:

hotii hai tere naam se wahshat kabhii kabhii

barham hu_ii hai yuuN bhii tabiiyat kabhii kabhii

ae dil kise nasiib ye taufiiq e iztaraab

miltii hai zindagii meN ye raahat kabhii kabhii

tere karam se ae alam e husn e aafriiN

dil ban gayaa hai dost kii KHilwat kabhii kabhii

josh e junuuN meN dard kii tuGHyaaniyoN ke saath

ashkoN meN Dhal ga_ii terii suurat kabhii

tere qariib rah ke bhii dil mutma_in na thaa

guzrii hai mujh pe ye bhii qayaamat kabhii kabhii

kuchh apnaa hosh thaa na tumhaaraa KHayaal thaa

yuuN bhii guzar ga_ii shab e furqat kabhii kabhii

ae dost ham ne tark e mohabbat ke baavajood

mahsuus kii hai terii zaruurat kabhii kabhii

-Nasir Kazmi