Wednesday 4 August 2010

mai.n terii nazar kaa suroor hoo.N / woh jo ham me.n tum me.n qaraar thaa

The Ghazal bearing the following opening couplet can be said to be The Best Known Ghazal from Momin Khan Momin's deewaan:

woh jo ham me.n tum me.n qaraar thaa, tumhe.n yaad ho ke na yaad ho
wahii yaa'ni waa'da nibaah kaa, tumhe.n yaad ho ke na yaad ho

In fact, the rhyme-anchor (a.k.a radeef) 'tumhe.n yaad ho ke na yaad ho' is arguably one of the two Most Famous radeef in the entire history of Urdu poetry, the other being 'aahista aahista'.

In the film Jahan Ara (1964), lyricist Rajinder Krishan used a radeef that is almost identical to Momin's:

mai.n terii nazar kaa suroor hoo.N, tujhe yaad ho ke na yaad ho
tere paas rahake bhii door hoo.N, tujhe yaad ho ke na yaad ho

The song was beautifully composed by Madan Mohan and sung by Talat Mahmood



There is also a lesser known tandem version of the same lyric with a different tune sung by Lata Mangeshkar, which appears at the beginning of the song "jab jab tumhe.n bhulaayaa, tum aur yaad aaye" (Lata + Asha duet):



If you were able to endure that entire mujra song, allow us to reward you with a fantastic rendition of Momin's Ghazal by the Pakistani singer Nayyara Noor; it's a pure joy to behold: