About his pitch-perfect paean to patriotism ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’, A R Rahman once said to me, “I was not competing with Lataji’s ‘Ae mere watan ke logon’. I am intelligent enough to know that nothing can touch that height. But love for my country is embedded in ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’.”
Songs about the love for one’s country seldom fail to move. You may or may not be a fan of Manoj Kumar or Mahendra Kapoor. But ‘Mere desh ki dharti’ from Upkaar is bound to move you. Speaking on the genesis of this song, Manoj Kumar said, “‘Meri desh ki dharti’ happened when lyricist Gulshan Bawra and I went to a shrine to pay our respects. When we returned from the shrine in the car, Gulshan was singing Mere desh ki dharti sona ugley… jawanon bhar bhar lo jholiyan… khushi se bolo boliyan? I kept quiet as he hummed these lyrics. Two-three years later, when I made Upkar, I went to music composer Kalyanji and narrated the script. I called Gulshan home and told him the situation. I recalled the lyrics. I had heard him hum near the shrine. It had stayed in my mind. I saw it as a great idea that needed to be improvised.”
But Manoj Kumar didn’t like the lines Jawanon bhar lo jholiyan, khushi se bolo boliyan: “I removed it from my Upkaar song. Instead, we had Meri desh ki dharti sona ugley ugle heere-moti. Both Kalyanji and Gulshan were hesitant. They said the ‘mukhda’ of a song couldn’t be of one line. But I was adamant. An hour later, Gulshan, who was sitting in the next room, jumped and said, ‘This is great’. Every filmmaker, while writing a screenplay, comes to a landmark point in the plot where he thinks a scene can be narrated musically. That situation is given to the lyricist and explained. That was how ‘Mere desh ki dharti’ happened. Gulshan Bawra alive in every word of ‘Mere desh ki dharti’. That song is imperishable. When Mahendra Kapoor-ji, who sang ‘Mere desh ki dharti’, expired, our former prime minister Manmohan Singh said he would always be remembered for Mere desh ki dharti. It hurts to know so many people connected with that song, Kalyanji, Mahendra Kapoor, and Gulshan Bawra, are no more,”
While the well-known patriotic songs have blared and embedded themselves into our subconscious, what about the patriotic songs that got left behind? Every Indian knows Lataji’s ‘Ae mere watan ke logon’. How many know the equally beautiful peerless paean to patriotism, ‘Jo samar mein ho gaye amar’ composed by the great and underrated Jaidev?
‘Jo samar mein ho gaye amar’, written by Narendra Sharma, one of the most favourite poet-lyricists of Lataji, is a profoundly moving tribute to our soldiers who give up their lived to keep us safe. Narendra Sharma writes, “Laut kar na aayenge Vijay dilate wale veer/Mere geet Anjali main unke liye nayan neer..” Lataji sings the words with emotions that cannot be gauged in words. In my opinion, this is a superior patriotic number than the rightly celebrated “Ae mere watan ke logon’. Why? Because the words are sharper and more expressive. The tune to this non-film song is exceptionally elegant. And Lataji is at her tonal acme.
Interestingly, this imperishable ode to Bharat Mata has also been sung by Asha Bhosle. That version of ‘Jo samar mein ho gaye amar’ is equally beautiful.
We celebrate A R Rahman’s composition ‘Vande Mataram’. But the truth is, it would have been a far superior piece of art if Hariharan and not Rahman had sung it. Never mind. Rahman did a neglected patriotic song for Hariharan in Roja. Hariharan’s rendition of ‘Bharat humko jaan se pyar hai’ is not overdone. There is no effort in this sober composition to impress us, no desperate attempt to win the Padma Shri by parading his patriotism. A true classic.
The pinnacle of patriotic passion is projected in Rafi Saab’s ‘Kar chale hum fida jaan-o-tan Saathiyo’ in Chetan Anand’s Haqeeqat. Composer Madan Mohan and poet-lyricist Kaifi Azmi imbued that number with immortality. However, there is a hidden gem ‘Meri awaaz suno’, a spark in the dark if you will, in a 1960s’ failed film Naunihal where the same Rafi-Mohan Mohan- Kaif Azmi team unfurled the profound feelings behind the flag. This somber number was created on the death of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It is meant to be Nehruji’s voice addressing the nation after his death.
Produced and directed by Sawan Kumar Tak, Naunihal is about a child obsessed with Nehru Chacha who runs away from boarding school and finds his way to Delhi, only to reach on the day that the funeral procession is in progress. This song played in the finale of the film with shots of Pandit Nehru’s real funeral… permission for which could only be granted by Indira Gandhi, who insisted on hearing the song first. The great composer Madan Mohan accompanied the producer with the tape and played the song personally to her, and she loved it. She also told the composer she loved his songs.
The A R Rahman composed ‘Ek tu hi bharosa ek tu hi sahara’ in Rajkumar Santoshi’s Pukar is a hugely underrated song pleading for world peace. It is a masterclass in mellow musicianship. Lataji’s most celebrated song with A R Rahman is ‘Jiya Jale’ from Dil Se when, in fact, it is this composition in Pukar that cries out for its beloved country and melts your heart like icecream in the sun. Not only is the number special in its evocative images of world peace, it is extra-special because producer Boney Kapoor cajoled Lataji to sing the song on screen. The children’s choir as her chorus is an extra bonus. To my mind, this is Rahman’s best Hindi composition to date.