'Dil Hi Toh Hai' and PL Santoshi’s Musicals!

A common perception about Hindi cinema is that characters often burst into song and dance without any rationale or logic. This is a somewhat harsh view taken by critics because even in the American musicals, film-makers such as Vincente Minnelli licenced their characters to sing merely because they felt like doing so. There were no preconditions for characters to foray into music.

Even then, Hindi cinema from the 1950s, right upto the mid-1970s, allowed for music to be integrated into the script in a far more organic way than is popularly thought. Film-makers often placed a musician character - a poet, a singer – at the heart of their narratives to rationalise song and dance in their films. Other directors placed their protagonists in the theatre space (Albela - 1951, Shrimatiji - 1952, Aasha – 1957) to allow for song sequences or had their protagonists perform songs on birthdays, marriages, parties or other occasions of celebration that called for music.

One such film-maker, who possibly best integrated music into his films was PL Santoshi, the director Raj Kumar Santoshi’s father. Sanotshi, who co-directed Dil Hi Toh Hai (1963) with CL Rawal, always based his storylines around a musician figure/s. Dil Hi Toh Hai’s hero was the poet/singer Chand (Raj Kapoor). With this background, the character is licensed to sing at any point in the film. Consequently, some of the film’s best songs such as ‘Tum agar mujhko na chaaho’ or the film’s title track are picturized on Chand. Even when he is in disguise, Chand is able to sing ‘Laaga chunari mein daag’, a song with profound philosophical connotations because of his character’s connection with poetry. Speaking on the song in the latest episode of The Golden Years: 1950-1975, A Musical Journey, Javed Akhtar opined, “The very first line of the song’s mukhda is not Sahir’s [the film’s lyricist]. It is a traditional line, handed down over the ages. The line [‘Laga chunari mein daag’] is from Kabir’s era.”

This was Santoshi’s strength. Right from the time of his early works such as Shehnai (1947) and Sargam (1950) or a later film like Barsaat Ki Raat (1960), Santoshi’s films always followed this pattern. If Shehnai was about four girls who work in their father’s nautanki troupe, Sargam was about the struggles of a group of sisters, who have been trained in classical music. Barsaat Ki Raat had the hero Bharat Bhushan play a poet. And most of these films by Santoshi are remembered for their music.

Another film from the same year as Dil Hi Toh Hai, which had the hero play a poet figure was the Muslim social, Mere Mehboob (1963). The film had terrific songs, which included the title track ‘Mere mehboob’. This song was a fairly longish one, with about eight antaras in it. Javed Akhtar made an insightful observation in this context, ‘Because the song was being sung by a poet character, each antara could not have a different arrangement. Neither did it have a sudden change in beat or the random appearance of an alaap. This wasn’t the case.

There can be no doubt that it was a fairly good composition but Naushad sa’ab’s composition was more poetic than it was musical. It is Shakeel’s [Badayuni] poetry which holds the song. Each antara was so beautiful. It is a very, very well-written song.’ BR Chopra’s Gumraah, which released in the same year as Dil Hi Toh Hai and Mere Mehboob, also presented Sunil Dutt’s character in the film as an artist-singer. In his earlier film Sadhana (1958), Chopra had presented Vyjayanthimala’s character as a courtesan and so music was integral to the film.

In Gumraah, music is essential to Dutt’s romance and extra-marital affair with Mala Sinha’s character as is evident in the songs, ‘Inn hawaaon mein, in fizaaon mein’, ‘Aap aaye toh khayal-e- dil-e nashaad aaya’ and ‘Chalo ik baar phir se ajnabi bann jaaye hum dono’. The songs of the film were written by Sahir Ludhianvi. Legend has it that ‘Chalo ik baar’, which was a poem Khubsoorat Modh that had been written by Sahir many years earlier, was based on a romantic liaison unfolding in the poet-lyricist’s life. However, as Javed Akhtar concluded, the name of the lady for whom Sahir had written the poem cannot be mentioned on television and so we must let bygones be bygones. 

To watch the next episode of The Golden Years: 1950-1975, A Musical Journey with Javed Akhtar, tune in to Zee Classic on Sunday at 8 p.m.!