Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Jaane Kya Soch Kar...Nahi Guzra..

The "Kinaara" continues :

"Jaane Kya soch kar nahi Guzra" happens to be one of the best songs of R.D.Burman-Kishore Kumar.When i heard the song for the first time, i felt that it was Dada Burman's composition. The composition as such is very mature and made only for kishore kumar. or i must say he proves that it was only for him.
R.D.Burman uses "Khamaj" -flavour (if i am right!! experts..plz clarify) in this song, which is again difficult to categorize into a particular genre. Is this semi-classical or ballad or what? Gulzar came up with some fantastic lines. and R.D adorned with the best music. i particularily like the way he changes the taala of tabla when the line "ek pal raat bhar nahi guzra". even in the charanams, he changes the taala between two lines.the song starts off with a santoor descent...

jaane kya soch kar nahi guzraa..
ek pal raat bhar..nahi guzraa..

The 1st interlude is beautifully woven..with violins, santoor and a tar-shehnai..

Apni tanhaayi ka auron se na shikwa karna..
the saarangi piece is the logical extension (like an aalaap) of the previous line.

Apni tanhaayi ka auron se na shikwa karna..

(the way kishore uses gamakas for word "auron se"...he should have been called pt.kishore kumar)

Tum akele hi nahi ho sabhi akele hain..(tabla beat changes)
Yeh akelaa safar nahi guzraaa....(and he connnects guzraa with gamakas to jaane kya..wah!R.D..)
jaane kya soch kar nahi guzra..
ek pal raat bhar nahi guzra..

the 2nd interlude is one helluva piece..the guitars change the mood as if it is some energy-filled song..overlapped by santoor ( R.D loves santoor a lot..) and everything end with xylophone..followed by saxophone which gets ack to the mood..the notes of saxophone are peculiar with uthar-chadao (high-low) notes..

Do Ghadi jeene ki mohlath tho mili hain sabko..
again that saarangi..
Do Ghadi jeene ki mohlath tho mili hain sabko..(same gamakas by pt.kishore)
tum bhi miljaao..ghadi-bhar eh kam hotha hain..(table beat changes..)
yeh ghadi kaa safar..nahi guzraaaaaaaa...

jaane kya..(tabla..) soch kar ..nahi guzra...
ek pal raat bhar nahi guzra...

every time i listen to this song..i just wonder at the way R.D gave importance to each and every instrument..like tabla changing beat for a brief duration..for just 1 line..that actually doesnt get noticed much because of the weight of Kishore's voice..and the santoor..saxophone..
today, i cannot just imagine any other singer this song...that heavy reverb of Kishore's voice...that was the time when R.D composed only for kishore...
today so many singers duplicate kishore's voice..i dont see them reaching atleast 1/10th level of what kishore has achieved in a song like this. And there are so many composers...but why not another R.D.

5 comments:

Gandaragolaka said...

Aakarsh,
'the way kishore uses gamakas for word "auron se"...he should have been called pt.kishore kumar'

Too late! Check with Rajan Parrikar... he always calls him Pandit... he is a huge fan of KK.

Listen to this one: http://www.sawf.org/audio/kamod/kishorekumar.ram

Before I try splitting hairs for the sake of song review, I have a request:

If you (or anyone) have the song "Tumhe dekhti hoon to lagtha hai aise" from "Tumhare liye", please please please let me know. Anyways, I will be in Hyderabad from Saturday to Monday.

Anyways, song seems more like a combination of Kedar (and shades of other ragas like Yaman, etc at times) and something that doesnt confirm to raagadari.

the first line: There is teevra madhyam (m2) for the word 'Soch', and then 'nahi guzra' is 'm1-d2-p-d2'-- typical Kedar.

the second line: 'ek pal' has the characteristic 's-m1' of Kedar. And then it moves out of the raga space into RD space...

The first interlude.. I had to listen some 6-7 times to understand whats going on...it has shades of Kalavathi (Valachi) and Hamsadhwani...

the charanams: the first charanam's 'shikwa karna' and the second one's 'hain sabko' again have the very kedarish 'm1-m2-p'. The sarangi after the first line of the first charanam "apni tanhaayi.." is very beautifully conceived...feels like yaman.

Kedar.

Aakarsh said...

Kedar.."Tumhe dekhthe hoon" is that the one sung by Lata? if u r referring to that, then yes, i have it man...thats Madan Mohan's gem.(the very tune has his signature)..

Gandaragolaka said...

yes! thats the one. Can you send it to my rediff account??

drsundeep said...

You rightly said that Jaane kya sochkar..... has shades of Khamaj. As per my knowledge, Khamaj is a very popular raag used in light /semi classical compositions like Thumaris and Dadras. RD himself used this raag in a more traditional way for composing "Aayo kahaan se ghanshyam" sung by the great Manna Dey in Buddha mil gaya. I am a great fan of Manna Dey and a keen collector of his songs based on classical music. I think it was he more than anyone else, who has sung songs based on classical music. As always, your blog is informative. Thanks a lot !

Unknown said...

This same song with lyrics , slightly different in the antaraas, but the same mukhda has also been sung by Sabita Chowdhury, wife of salil Chowdhury who composed it in the 1960s.