Qamar Dehlvi or Dagh Jalalabadi?

Qamar Jalalabadi had a great eye for catchy couplets in the works of the asaateza (ustad-s) of Urdu poetry which could be reused to great effect in dramatic film situations as well as comic ones.  Qamar saahib collaborated with OP Nayyar in a song sung in the film Basant (1960) by Mohammed Rafi, Shiv Dayal Batish and Asha Bhosle where he put this 'poetrickery' :-) to good use.

The situation in the song is one witnessed often in the films of that era: the heroine is being wooed by the loser "villain" in a birthday party to which the hero has not been invited due to his station in life.  The hero, not to be outdone, comes to the party anyway, disguised as a poet, singer or qawwal, accompanied by his best friend and his woman.



The mukhda of the song is taken as-is, without modification, by Qamar Jalalabadi from a Ghazal by Dagh Dehlvi:

hamne unke saamne pahle to Khanjar rakh diyaa
phir kalejaa rakh diyaa, dil rakh diyaa, sar rakh diyaa

qatrah-e-Khoon-e-jigar see ki tawajjoh 'ishq kii
saamne mehmaan ke jo thaa muyassar rakh diyaa

zindagi meiN to kabhi dam bhar na hote the judaa
qabr mein tanhaa mujhe yaaroN kyuuNkar rakh diyaa

dekhiye ab ThokareiN khaati hai kis kis ki nigaah
rozan-e-deewaar meN zaalim ne patthar rakh diyaa

zulf Khaali, haath Khaali, kis jagah DhooNDeiN ise
tum ne dil lekar kahaaN, ai banda.parwar, rakh diyaa?

merii ghaaghrii me.n/mere lahe.nge me.n ghu.nghruu/mere pairo.n me.n ghu,nghruu

merii ghaaghrii me.n ghu.nghru lawaa de written by Prem Dhawan for Sawan (1959)


A year later ghaaghrii becomes lahe.nga and lawa becomes lagaa in the mukhRaa
mere lahe.nge me.n ghu.Ngharuu lagaa de From Basant (1960) written by Qamar Jalalabadi


The last one became the most popular of the three, in Sangharsh (1968) the hero is singing the song, so instead of the lahengaa, the ghu.nghruus are on the feet.Shakeel Badayuni wrote the song.

mere pairo.n me.n ghu.Ngharuu ba.nDhaa de to phir

ham aur tum aur ye samaaN

So, what are the chances that the beginning of a song sung by the same singer and picturised on the same actor would be the same?

In 1959 Usha Khanna debuted as an Music Director for Dil Deke Dekho. The shooting was nearly complete when Shammi Kapoor heard Usha humming a tune. He liked it so much that asked it to be included in the film. The result was "ham aur tum aur ye samaa.n kyaa nashaa nashaa sa hai" by Majrooh.




The next year Shankar Jaikishen looked beyond Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri for the first time and got Rajinder Krishen to write for College Girl. Perhaps Rajinder Krishen too liked the 1959 song as much as Shammi Kapoor, for he added "lovely lovely lovely" to ham aur tum aur ye samaa.n!



Of course both Shailendra and Hasrat were livid with SJ for going to another lyricist. A miffed Shailendra wrote "chhoTii sii ye duniyaa pahchaane raaste hain tum kahee.n to miloge, kabhii to miloge, to puuchhe.nge haal." Which was later tuned by SJ for Rangoli!