Bhimpalasi | Mr. & Mrs. 55 – Classic Bollywood Revisited!

Sharmila Tagore shines in her restrained portrayal of Uma in Anupama (1966)

Our next translation comes from Hrishikesh Mukherji’s Anupama (1966), a poignantly crafted film that narrates the story of a father who blames his daughter for his wife’s death during childbirth. On the request of one of our readers Himadree, we have provided the lyrics and English translation for the song “kuchh dil ne kahaa” from this film below.

Sharmila Tagore plays the role of Uma, a reticient young woman who has maintained a painful and difficult relationship with her wealthy father (played by Tarun Bose) from a young age. Because Uma’s mother died in childbirth, Uma’s father harbors feelings of resentment that prevent him from fully loving his daughter as she grows up. Uma also assumes culpability for her mother’s death, and her self-repression becomes a coping mechanism to deal with her own guilt and her father’s anger toward her.

When Uma meets the handsome and sensitive writer Ashok (played by Dharmendra), her life seems to to take a turn for the better. Yet, as the two fall in love, it becomes apparent that Uma’s troubles have not vanished completely: her father has already arranged her marriage with another man and will never not approve of a relationship with a man of Ashok’s social status. Hrishikesh Mukherji uses this situation to provide realistic and eloquent commentary on the complex interplay between love and class in Indian society. In this context, Kaifi Azmi’s lyrics in “kuchh dil ne kahaa” truly come alive. The lyrics express the conflict that characterizes Uma’s state of mind as she faces the most challenging decision of her life: should she pursue her romance with Ashok or should she push him away to appease her father? The essence of this dilemma is captured beautifully in many lines of this song. Although her heart has become restless with love for Ashok, Uma contemplates that it may be best to suppress these desires: “letaa hai dil angaDaaiiyaa.n, is dil ko samjhaaye koii.” Moreover, in spite of her outer appearances, Uma’s inner turmoil is a real and painful obstacle in her life (“dil kii tasallii ke liye jhuuThii chamak jhuuThaa nikhaar / jiivan to suunaa hii rahaa, sab samjhe aayii hai bahaar”).

In addition to its unique lyrics, this song is a musical masterpiece that has been cherished by Hindi film lovers over the years (though it didn’t receive its due at the time of the film’s release!). Hemant Kumar crafts a serene melody in Raga Bhimpalasi that accentuates the melancholic beauty found in both the lyrics and the natural landscape where this song is picturized. Lata Mangeshkar, as usual, is par excellence here as she emotes softly with some beautifully restrained vocals. As an interesting tidbit, you may have noticed that Lata sings this melody at a lower pitch than is expected for a Bollywood soprano. When Lata repeats the line “aisii bhii baate.n hotii hai.n” in the mukhda, she hits an A3 (komal ni in the key of B), one of the lower notes of her range recorded during this period. Enjoy our translation of this under-appreciated gem below and continue to send us your requests and other messages–we love to hear from you all!

-Mr. 55

This song was filmed in Mahabaleshwar, a scenic hill station found in the state of Maharashtra. What a stunning landscape!

Kuch Dil Ne Kaha: Lyrics and Translation

kuchh dil ne kahaa, kuchh bhii nahii.n
My heart said something; yet, it was nothing at all.
kuchh dil ne sunaa, kuchh bhii nahii.n
My heart heard something; yet, it was nothing at all.
aisii bhii baate.n hotii hai.n
Such things happen in life.

letaa hai dil angaDaaiiyaa.n, is dil ko samajhaaye koii
My heart has become restless in anticipation of him; may someone please make it stop.
armaan na aa.nkhe.n khol de.n, rusvaa na ho jaaye koii
I hope that my desires do not cause my eyes to open and bring about disgrace,
palko.n kii ThanDii sej par sapno.n ki pariyaa.n sotii hai.n
For the dream-fairies remain asleep on the cool bed of my eyelids.
aisii bhii baate.n hotii hai.n
Such things happen in life.

dil kii tasallii ke liye jhuuThii chamak jhuuThaa nikhaar
For my heart’s satisification, I have adorned myself in this false glitter and shine.
jiivan to suunaa hii rahaa, sab samajhe aayii hai bahaar
Though it remains empty, everyone assumes that spring has arrived in my life.
kaliiyo.n se koii puuchtaa, hastii hai.n yaa ve rotii hai.n
Yet, no one has bothered to ask the flowerbuds whether they are smiling or crying.
aisii bhii baate.n hotii hai.n
Such things happen in life.

kuchh dil ne kahaa, kuchh bhii nahii.n
My heart said something; yet, it was nothing at all.

Glossary

angaDaaiiyaa.n: preparation, anticipation; armaan: hope, desire; rusvaa: disgrace; palko.n: eyelids; sej: bed; pariyaa.n: faires; tasallii: satisfaction, relief; chamak: glitter; nikhaar: glow, shine; bahaar: spring.

Sharmila Tagore rocks the classic beehive hairstyle that would later become her trademark.

The ever-handsome Dharmendra plays the role of a sensitive writer in Anupama (1966)

Meera-bai (c. 1498-1547 A.D) was a mystical poet and devotee of Lord Krishna

When most people think of Bollywood cinema, they usually think of extravagant costumes, seductive dance moves, and lots of melodramatic overacting. While all this extravagance is certainly an integral aspect of the industry, you may be surprised to learn about a saintlier side of Bollywood that I will discuss here today: the use of Meera-bai’s texts in Hindi film music.

Meera-bai was a 16th-century mystic whose devotion to Lord Krishna has been immortalized in Indian culture through her poetry and bhajans (religious songs). Meera, a Rajput princess, was married off to a prince at young age, but this marriage did not satisfy her as she already considered herself the spouse of Lord Krishna. Her husband died in battle soon after their marriage and Meera became a widow at an early age. Meera transformed her grief into spiritual devotion and wrote many poems in praise of Lord Krishna. In her texts, she worships Krishna from the perspective of a lover longing for union: romantic on one level and spiritual on another. Although her undying devotion to Krishna was initially a private matter, public moments of spiritual ecstasy soon outed her to society. Eventually, her brother-in-law became displeased with her excessive devotion for Krishna and made several attempts on Meera’s life. The most well-known story describes how he poisoned Meera’s prasad and made her drink it, but the Lord transformed the poison into amrit (spiritual nectar) to save her life.

Meera-bai’s texts express themes that are highly pertinent to heroines in Hindi cinema from the Golden Era. Interpreting and contextualizing Meera’s love for Lord Krishna can be a challenging task, however, because of its apparently paradoxical relationship to acceptable gender norms for women at the time. On one hand, Meera could be considered the ideal Indian woman for the eternal devotion she displays toward her lover–in this case, Lord Krishna–in spite of all the obstacles placed in her way. The type of selfless devotion and sacrifice Meera-bai displays toward Krishna is the same type of devotion that Indian women in the chauvinistic climate of the ’50s and ’60s were expected to provide their husbands. On the other hand, Meera-bai actually subverts the typical pativrata norms established by Indian society because her devotion is misplaced. Instead of serving her human husband, Meera devotes all of her love to Krishna, which is inconsistent with society’s expectations for the dutiful and virtuous Indian wife. This is further complicated by the fact that Meera, in her mind, actually considered herself to be the wife of Krishna (and supposedly conducted a marriage ceremony with a Krishna idol at a temple).

In any case, it is undeniable that Meera’s texts contain universal themes about love, pain, and devotion that have permeated several mediums of the South Asian cultural sphere. Here, let’s analyze a couple of examples in order to see how Meera’s words have been used in the context of Hindi film songs:

pag ghungruu bandh miiraa nachii re (Meera, 1947): Meera (1947) is a rare treat for lovers of Bollywood films because it is the only Hindi film ever made that features M.S. Subbulakshmi as both an actress and playback singer. M.S. Subbulakshmi, who was the first musician to be awarded the prestigious Bharat Ratna, is one of the most renowned vocalists in the history of the Carnatic musical tradition. Her singing is ethereal and sublime, and many people have praised her by saying she is modern-day personification of Meera-bai herself! Although she retired from films early in her career to pursue classical concert music, her portrayal of Meera in this film is remembered to this day for its natural and pure expression of spiritual divinity. Words don’t do this woman justice, so just click the link and take a listen for yourself. I’ve selected one of about 20 Meera bhajans that are found in the film; in this particular poem, Meera uses the metaphor of dance to describe her love for the Lord. You may have noticed that the first line of this bhajan was used in another (much less saintly) Bollywood classic rendered by Kishore Kumar and composed by Bappi Lahiri from Namak Halaal (1982) decades later.

M.S. Subbulakshmi embodies the spiritual divinity of Meera-bai in the 1947 Hindi remake of the Tamil film Meera.

ghunghaT ke paT khol re, tohe piiyaa mile.nge (Jogan, 1950): I have always thought that one of Geeta Dutt’s strengths as a singer was her rendition of bhajans. She shines here in this Raga Jaunpuri-based devotional composed by Bulo C Rani that has some beautiful words penned by Meera-bai. Literally, the first line translates roughly as “remove your veil so that you can get a glimpse of your beloved.” However, on a deeper level, Meera-bai is using the veil as a metaphor for ignorance–she is asking us to remove our veils of ignorance so that we can be closer to the Lord.

erii mai.n to prem divaanii, meraa dard na jaane koii (Nau Bahar, 1952): Lata Mangeshkar is brilliant in her rendition of this Raga Bhimpalasi-based bhajan composed by Roshan and picturized on Nalini Jaywant in Nau Bahar. Inspired by a Meera-bai poem, the words here describe how Meera’s devotion to the Lord can is best expressed through love, as she is unfamiliar with the traditional rites and rituals of worship.

jo tum toDo piiyaa, mai.n naahii.n toDuu.n (Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, 1955): V. Shantaram’s Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje was one of India’s first technicolor films when it was released in 1955. In this Filmfare award-winning film, when the character played by Sandhya fears that she has destroyed her beloved’s (played by Gopi Krishna) dancing career, she becomes so depressed that she decides to reject all wordly pleasures and become an ascetic like Meera-bai. This Bhairavi-based bhajan composed by Vasant Desai is rendered beautifully once again by Lata, who succeeds in expressing the sentiment of Meera’s words about unconditional devotion to her Lord even if he is not faithful to her.

piyaa ko milan kaise hoye rii, mai.n jaanuu.n naahii.n (Andolan, 1977): Asha Bhonsle tends to employ a lot of over-the-top histrionics in her songs, but music director Jaidev manages to get Asha at her pure, unadulterated best with this soulful composition from Andolan picturized on Neetu Singh.

mere to giriidhhar gopaal, duusro na koii (Meera, 1979): Directed by lyricist Gulzar, this film is yet another Bollywood biopic about Meera-bai, and Hema Malini takes the starring role here. Despite high hopes, this film achieved only moderate success at the box office. However, the film’s soundtrack of compositions by sitar virtuoso Pandit Ravi Shankar has certainly left a memorable legacy. In this particular poem, Meera-bai’s words express her singular devotion to the Lord; there is no one else in the world for her except for her Lord Krishna. While Hema falls a little flat in her portrayal of Meera, Vani Jairam actually does a great job expressing the appropriate emotions needed in this rendition and in the rest of the songs on the soundtrack. However, as you may have suspected, Vani was not Ravi Shankar’s first choice of singer for this film–his first choice was none other than Lata Mangeshkar. Lata, however, turned him down, by using the following reasoning:

“How could I? I had already done Meera bhajans for my brother Hridaynath.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the non-filmi album of Meera bhajans released by Lata and Hridaynath. In fact, Lata’s rendition of a similar text “mhara re giridhhar gopaal, duusra na koii” tuned by Hridaynath for this album is absolutely exquisite. However, her reasoning here doesn’t really make sense to me. Even before her album for Hridaynath, Lata had sung plenty of Meera bhajans for films (see above!) under the baton of other music directors, so I don’t see how this excuse constitutes a legitimate reason to refuse singing in this film. I suspect that her refusal had more to do with some lingering bad blood between her and Ravi Shankar from their prior collaboration on Anuradha (1960): apparently, tensions had flared between the two of them because Lata had failed to show up to a recording session of “saa.nvare saa.nvare” without prior notice.

Hema Malini is way too attractive to pull off being an ascetic in Meera (1979)

jo tum toDo piiyaa, mai.n naahii.n toDuu.n (Silsila, 1981): Although this text is similar to the Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje song listed above, the melody is quite different because music directors Shiv-Hari have tuned this song to the Raga Chandrakauns, an underused raga that is quite rare in the filmi musical sphere. Lata, unfortunately, sounds a bit past her prime here, but this song is still memorable for Meera-bai’s words and their relevance to the contemporary situation at hand in the film. Similar to the real-life rumors that were rampant at this time, Jaya Bacchan’s character suspects that her husband (played by Amitabh Bacchan) is having an extramarital affair with another woman (played by Rekha). Meera-bai’s lyrics express the anguish and torment that Jaya feels in response to her husband’s infidelity, but she resolves to remain faithful to him even though he is not faithful to her. Interestingly, things also turned out this way in real life–Jaya stayed with Amitabh even though it was widely known within the film community that he had cheated on her with Rekha.