Phir Le Aaya… Of Pain, Poetry & More…

I had vowed not to talk of Bollywood for at least some time on this blog, after my post on Shafqat’s Bollywood songs … but Phir le Aaya…yes the song from the recently released film, Barfi, brought me back to talk some more about Bollywood again. A beautiful song, that has been playing on the loop on my IPod, and if not that, then in my mind endlessly ever since I first heard it- clutter breaking, simple, yet profound; that stirs something deep inside of you.

I decided to ponder, and probe for a plausible explanation into what makes this song so near perfect!

P is for Poetry

Written by Saeed Qadri, a lyricist who has written extensively for the Bhatt camp, the song has beautiful words in a beautiful language, that is Urdu, and talks of love, regret, desire and more.

If you look at a long list of songs that Qadri has written till date, you realize that his words have contributed a lot to their success.  Doorie, Woh lamhe, Kaho na kaho, Tum mile, Tu hi mera… the list goes on. One of my all-time favorites – In dino dil mera from Life in a Metro comes from the same director, music director & writer team- Anurag Basu, Pritam and Saeed Qadri- and with Phir le aaya the trio has created magic, again. 

Phir le aaya dil, Majboor kya kije

Raas na aaya, Rehna door kya kije

Dil keh raha,Usse maqammal kar bhi aao

Wo jo adhuri si, Baat baaki hai

Wo jo adhuri si, Yaad baaki hai

Karte hain hum, Aaj qabool kya kije

Ho gaye thi jo, Humse bhool kya kije

Dil keh raha, Usse mayassar, Kar bhi aao

Wo jo dabi si, Aas baaki hai

Wo jo dabi si, Aanch baaki hai

Kismat ko hai ye, Manzoor kya kije ye..

Milte rahe hum,Badastoor kya kije

Dil keh raha hai,Usse musalsal, Kar bhi aao,

Wo jo ruki si, Raah baaki hai

Wo jo ruki si, Chaah baaki hai

Translation (that isn’t half as good):

I return- my heart compelled, there was nothing I could do

For it didn’t quite agree with me, the staying away from you!

My heart tells me, that I should go

And find that incomplete, half lost memory

Of very long ago

I confess today, it cannot be undone

I admit to all mistakes, each and every one

The heart stirs again to a lost desire

Wants to stoke again, the embers

Of a dying fire

That’s the way fate would have it, there was nothing we could do

Our paths kept crossing, but in a way the world would want them to

My heart cannot still bid adieu

To that unfinished, stifled, yearning

For being with you…

  

P is for Pain

Love and pain go hand in hand. Pain caused by love has been the pet peeve of Hindi film songs for as long as they have existed. And then there are different brands of pain as well- the pain of rejection, the pain of separation, the pain of remorse, the pain of longing and so on.

The pain experienced when one is young, is usually the most hard hitting, takes you by surprise & then alters the way you think and live life after the experience. It is often the inspiration for the creative types and is known to have produced many a poet and artist.  And that’s the reprise version of the song for you…

“A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets”- The famous quote from the movie Titanic, is what sums up the Rekha Bhardwaj version for me.  For they say that a woman’s heart never forgets love or hurt for as long as she lives, and if she chooses not to tell anyone about it, no one will ever know…

And as you mature and grow wiser the way you handle pain changes, too. You take a more philosophical approach to it ,learn from it, handle it better and live with it… and that’s the Redux version- my favorite of course, as it has been sung by none other than The Shafqat Amanat Ali!

So, like I mentioned in a previous blog, if there is a song that deserved to be sung thrice over, this is the one.

Arijit Singh : Reprise

Rekha Bhardwaj

Shafqat Amanat Ali : Redux

P is for Playback

Anyone who saw Fame Gurukul, a reality music show on TV few years ago will remember this massively talented, youngster, Arijit Singh. He had shown a lot of promise back then but not many would’ve imagined that he would come of age with a song like this. A very expressive voice that feels the lyrics as it sings them.

Rekha Bhardwaj has given us so many delightful songs in recent times and with this one she again proves why she is one of the best female playback voices of our current times. Soft, smooth, silky, subdued… her vocals for this one.

And then there is the version sung by my favorite. He sings it and how!… making it sound so easy and effortless and unconstrained, which is no mean achievement! He hasn’t sung this genre in Bollywood before but it is his home turf because Ghazal singing runs in his great musical family – his father being one of the most accomplished Ghazal singers that the subcontinent has ever seen. Sounding so very different from his recent songs for Jannat 2 and Raaz 3, Shafqat once again reminds you of his versatility and ability to sing different kinds of songs with equal proficiency.

P is for Pronunciation

Diction is what gives Shafqat’s version that extra edge over the other two. The way he says the words is starkly different from the other two singers. In a recent interview he mentions how he always pays special care not to mispronounce any words in any language that he sings in; and tries his best to render them in the way they should be. The way he says baaki or musalsal, or muqammal would make Javed Akhtar, who was famous for his nit picking on the talafuzz on the TV show, Indian Idol, stand up and say- "This is it!" J

P is also for ….

Pritam… Kudos to him for giving this beautiful, very un-Pritam like number, which stands out in this very exceptional album

And Pity… that the number was not fully utilized on the screen… and just one version…. Would have loved to see all 3, and especially my favorite one, on celluloid…