In Monsoonal Melodies, Subhash K Jha shares his selections for the 10 best rain songs, classics that you must listen too.
1. ‘Bheegi bheegi raaton mein meethi meethi baton mein aisi barasataon mein’ (Ajnabee):
The combination of Rajesh Khanna and R D Burman was always special. Throw Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar into this rain-soaked romantic number.And you will be compelled to ask along with the singer…Kaisa lagta hai…huh?
2.’Rimjhim ke geet saawan gaaye bheegi beegi raaton mein’ (Anjaana) :
Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd Rafi get together for the mother of monsoonal melodies. Soaked in seductiveness wrapped in erotica, the singers make the monsoon a witness to their passion. Nature never seemed more participative. It’s another matter that Rajendra Kumar and Babita looked as passionate together as two blocks of chopped wood waiting to be transported to a paper factory.
3. ‘Saawan ke jhoole pade tum chale aao’ (Jurmana):
R D Burman’s mystical compositional and Lata Mangeshkar’s magical singing make this one of the most evocative monsoonal melodies ever. Not too many have heard this gem. Try it. You will love the rains all over again.There are three separate version of this sublime solo, sung with subtle variations by Lataji that only the aficionado can catch . Try it over a cuppa when the clouds are singing down on you.
4. ‘Phir se aiyo badra bidesi’ (Namkeen):
Asha Bhosle weaves her magic around Gulzar’s poetry. The tender rendition moists your eyes and blurs your vision, as though the clouds just burst open in your eyes. Shabana Azmi was shown virtually waltzing across the clouds in this song.
5. ‘Rimjhim ke taraane leke aayi barsaat’ (Kala Bazar):
Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman roaming the green vastness to the sound of Mohd Rafi and Geeta Dutt’s coltish cadences. Just one anomaly. While Dev lip-synced in Rafi song, Waheeda kept quiet when Geeta Dutt sang for her. Geeta Dutt refused to give voice to Waheeda Rehman. Why? Only Guru Dutt knows.
6. ‘Rimjhim gire saawan sulag-sulag jaaye mann’ (Manzil):
Basu Chatterjee was a fine storyteller. But he has no music sense to speak of. Who in his right mind would thrust Lata Mangeshkar-Salil Chowdhary’s classic melodies Rajngandha phool tumhare and Na jaane kyun hota hai yun zindagi ke saath as part of the background score? The rain song in Basuda’s Manzil suffered better. One version of the number by Kishore Kumar was lip-synced by Amitabh Bachchan at a wedding, if you please! But the female version of the tandem by Lataji went into the background as Mr B and Moushumi soaked in Mumbai’s monsoon.
7. ‘Jhir jhir barse saawniya ankhiyan sawariya ghar aa’ (Aashirwad):
Lataji excelled in Gulzar’s gorgeous lyrics about a woman waiting in the rain for her beloved to come home.Composer Vasant Desai has composed another famous monsoonal number Bole re papihara in the same director Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Guddi,based on the same a raga. But Jhir jhir is far superior in every aspect.
8. ‘Oh ghata saawari thodi thodi bawari’ (Abhinetri):
Regarded by Lata bhakts as one of her most accomplished songs ever, the number actually catches every shiver as the singer soaks in the pleasures of the first monsoon. Hema Malini looks divine in the number. The visual quality of the rains has never been done more vividly etched in any other film song.
9. ‘Pani re pani tera rang kaisa’ (Shor):
Rains generally signal romance in film songs. Not this one. This lyric penned by Varma Mallick takes a philosophical view of the rains…Waise toh har rang mein tera jalwa rang dikhaye jab tu phire ummeedon par tera rang smajh na aaye.Wah!
10. ‘Allah megh de paani de’ (Guide):
While most rain songs are about the pleasure of the rains this one evokes the rain gods to come down on earth. A powerful evocation of Nature’s nourishing powers composed and sung by that nomadic bard of the music world Sachin Dev Burman.
