In the ‘80s, while stepping into our teens, we often heard two tunes prominently played by the brass band groups in the marriage processions (baraats). They were repeatedly requested both by the young and old while dancing on the roads (a questionable norm followed even today) and were hugely famous in such celebrating events, particularly in the north.
Interestingly, the name of one tune was known to all as Tequilla (casually pronounced with a Punjabi slang), but the other was simply recalled as ‘Wo Doosri Waali Bajao” and the band quickly used to play the other, easily getting the instructions. Honestly, till 1990 we were neither aware of the actual origin of Tequilla nor the “Doosri Wali Dhun” till Cable revolution graced the country and we started watching English music channels and English and World Cinema moving ahead of Jackie Chan, action and other famous genres in India.
In that span of time, we came to know about the original Tequilla by THE CHAMPS and the second tune being the theme music of English romantic comedy COME SEPTEMBER (1961) composed by Bobby Darin.
Post knowing the fact, just a few years later in 1995, the COME SEPTEMBER tune returned as a big hit becoming the talk of the town when Nadeem-Sharvan adapted it for their song “Nazren Mili Dil Dhadka” in the film RAJA directed by Inder Kumar. The song was a major hit along with the film featuring Madhuri Dixit and Sanjay Kapoor in the lead, and the theaters used to burst with loud roars and shouts on the very first beat of both "Nazren Mili" and "Akhiyan Churayun" coming on the screen. Sharing the personal memories, we as a group of friends were known for dancing in the theater (NATRAJ in our locality) and we danced more than once on these particular songs loving them to the core.
However, the present generation would probably find hard to relate with that state of madness of dancing through a complete song in front of the screen and then returning back to the seat completely soaked in sweat, watching the rest of the film.
Anyway, keeping the theater-dance memories for another write-up, later while studying more about our own films of the past and world cinema, I came to know about the huge influence of COME SEPTEMBER on our Hindi Cinema both as a film and musical creation starting right from the Black & White era in the 60s post the original film’s release in the west.
Beginning with its influence as a script/film, the American romantic comedy directed by Robert Mulligan revolved around a millionaire (Rock Hudson), who makes a surprise visit to his personal villa and finds that his manager has turned it into a hotel giving the rooms on rent. Incidentally the guest in the villa, at the time of his visit happens to be a group of young girls (including Gina Lollobrigida) also being chased by a group of boys. To handle the situation, the manager has to invent new lies (like Hudson having lost his memory) to hide his actual identity creating many hilarious sequences. But meanwhile Hudson develops a liking for the girls and tries to safeguard them from the young excited boys. The clashes between the two groups and Hudson in the villa, forms the main crux of the film that is now considered as a cult classic in American Cinema. It reportedly was a success in India too as selected English films regularly used to release in the major cities in those years.
The basic theme of COME SEPTEMBER inspired three Hindi films, two in the ‘60s and then one in the ‘80s. Of course the entire premise was highly indianized to please the viewers and some new sub-plots and characters too were added, for instance a villain and a mystery that had to be there in a Hindi film of that specific era. Amazingly, all the three inspired films also had great original soundtracks (with many iconic songs), but without including any track inspired from the cult theme music of COME SEPTEMBER.
The American romantic comedy was first adapted in KASHMIR KI KALI in 1964 featuring Shammi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore and Pran in the lead roles. Directed by Shakti Samanta, it had Shammi Kapoor as the rich person and Dhumal as his villa’s manager. The film had outstanding soundtrack composed by O. P. Nayyar with lyrics by S. H. Bihari.
The very next year had another film MERE SANAM (1965) following the same theme featuring Biswajeet, Asha Parekh and Pran in the key roles. Directed by Amar Kumar, it had Biswajeet playing the rich owner and Pran his manager looking after the villa along with Dhumal and Rajendranath (as father-son duo) besides an added sub-plot of suspense. Here too we had a truly great soundtrack composed by O. P. Nayyar with lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri.
Interestingly while writing about such instances (as compiled in another detailed article at BTC), I always wonder that whether Pran and Dhumal (later Rajendranath too) ever discussed or revealed that both these films they were featuring in (releasing in two consecutive years) were actually based on a similar premise.
Next, we again had a film fifteen years later, taking its first half plot from COME SEPTMBER titled EK BAAR KAHO released in 1980. This time Navin Nishchol played the rich businessman and Jagdeep played his villa’s manager along with gatekeeper Rajendra Nath (who was also there in MERE SANAM). Shabana Azmi played the guardian of group of girls and Anil Kapoor was also seen among the young group of boys. However here we had the second half and climax of the film more inspired from another cult classic of the west AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957). Just like the other two films, EK BAAR KAHO too had a fabulous soundtrack composed by Bappi Lahiri and lyrics by Mahendra Dehalvi, Kulwant Jani, Maya Govind and Dev Kohli. The tracks also included a soulful rendition by Jagjit Singh.
Incidentally, other than the above mentioned films, the basic plot of a group of boys and girls staying in a lodge was also there in JUNGLE MEIN MANGAL (1972), though the film was not any version of the English classic.
Apart from Hindi cinema, COME SEPTEMBER was also adapted as a Tamil film ANBE VAA (Come My Love/1966) by director A. C. Thirulokchandar, featuring M.G. Ramachandran and Saroja Devi in the lead roles.
Going back to the original theme music of the English film, there is a long list of its inspired creations in Hindi cinema starting from 1963 (post around two years of the original film’s release both in India and abroad).
It first resulted in a song “Aa Ja, Mere Humzabaan, Main Dhoondhoo Yahan, Tu Hai Kahan” in a Black and White Hindi film ROCKET TARZAN released in 1963. It was directed by B. J. Patel and had music by Robin Bannerjee with lyrics by Yogesh Gaud. The particular song was sung by Suman Kalyanpur, who interestingly also had another kind of association with the same inspired/adapted composition stated ahead.
Post the release of ROCKET TARZAN, the then pioneer music company HMV released a 45 RPM non-film EP record having two songs of Suman Kalyanpur, with the details mentioned in an unheard of unique manner. Cannot say, how the company dealt with it in terms of copyright but both the songs in the record were actually based on two Western compositions that were also clearly mentioned on the record itself.
One side of EP stated the details as “Rim Jhim” – Tune “Come September” – Suman.
And the other side wrote about the song as “Dhak Dhak” – Tune “Berlin Melody” – Suman and Chorus.
The lyricist of both the songs was mentioned as Shailendra, without any name of music director, most probably because the names of original western tunes were already prominently mentioned.
The record No.88405 also stated “Recording First Published 1964”.
So here in the EP, we had another version of a COME SEPTEMBER inspired track as “Rim Jhim” and a version of Billy Vaughn’s BERLIN MELODY as “Dhak Dhak” both sung by Suman Kalyanpur, penned by Shailendra.
However the amazing coincidences do not get over here, because there was another song in the earlier mentioned film ROCKET TARZAN, which was again based on Billy Vaughn’s BERLIN MELDOY with lyrics as “Ya Rabba Rabba Ho” penned by Yogendra Gaud and sung by Suman Kalyanpur.
Hence, as a worth noticing co-incidence, both the above mentioned non-film record and the film ROCKET TARZAN, had their own versions of COME SEPTEMBER theme music and THE BERLIN MELODY - sung by the same singer Suman Kalyanpur written by different lyricist. In the record, the songs were penned by Shailendra but in the film they were written by Yogesh Gaud. However where in the record the original western tunes were duly mentioned, in the film credits the music composer was stated to be Robin Bannerjee.
Moving ahead, the popularity of the theme music was such that it was adapted in various ways by many renowned Hindi film music composers of those years in their reputed projects.
In the same year 1963, the opening titles of KAHIN PYAR NA HO JAYE had the theme music of COME SEPTEMBER being played in the background. And as I can recall it was the original music played and not a recreation for the film quite surprisingly. It was directed by K. Parvez with music by Kalyanji Anandji and lyrics by Qamar Jalalbadi and others.
An year later the music was heard in the interlude of one of the songs of ZIDDI (1964), in “Pyar Ki Aag Mein Tan Badan Jal Gaya” picturized on Mehmood. As a notable feature, the song had the tune played by a brass band group on the screen, indicating that perhaps it was popular in the baraats and brass band groups long back right from the mid-60s. ZIDDI was directed by Pramod Chakravorty with music by S. D. Burman and lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri.
Apart from the songs, the particular theme music was reportedly heard playing in the background in quite a few films of that era, one of them being the cult HUMRAAZ released in 1967. It can be heard post 135 minutes into the film, after Raj Kumar returns back into the storyline. Directed by B. R. Chopra it had music by Ravi and lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi.
The same year viewers in South witnessed the song adapted in Tamil film NAAN (Me/1967) as “Vandhal Ennodu” picturised on the actor-turned-politician Jayalalitha. Directed by T. R. Ramanna, the film had music by T. K. Ramamoorthy. The same film was later remade in Hindi as WARIS (1969).
After almost two decades, the theme music again resurfaced in two Hindi films together releasing at a gap of couple of months in 1995. It came in BAAZI as “Dole Dole Dil Dole” picturised on Aamir Khan dressed as a woman and then in RAJA as “Nazrein Mili Dil Dhadka” becoming a much bigger hit as mentioned in the beginning of the article. BAAZI directed by Ashutosh Gowariker had music by Anu Malik with lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri and Anwar Sagar, whereas RAJA directed by Inder Kumar had music by Nadeem Shravan and lyrics by Sameer.
The two songs and their controversy was all over the media in 1995 and it was an exactly similar scenario to the one happened in 1990 between Tamma Tamma (Bappi Lahiri) and Jumma Chumma (Laxmikant Pyarelal), both again adapted from a foreign source (Mory Kante-1987).
But this is not all, as there is an enlightening twist to this adaptation story bringing in two new elements, rarely mentioned in the articles written on this particular subject.
Revealing the first, COME SEPTEMBER theme music was actually adapted by a Pakistani film music composer first, much before than Indian music directors thought of doing it in their films or non-film music albums. In 1962, composer Muslihuddin came up with a song “Samajh Na Aaye, Dil Ko Kahan Le Jaun Sanam” in film DAAL MEIN KAALA. Though the film directed by Iqbal Yusuf is not available, it was supposed to be inspired from English film SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) which was also adapted in Hindi cinema as RAFOO CHAKKAR (1975). In reality even the English classic was also based on FANFARE OF LOVE (1935).
Secondly, it would be nothing less than a shock if you are made to hear a song with its ‘Mukhda’ (opening verse) sounding somewhat similar to the opening of the famous theme music, composed for a Hindi film almost a decade before it came in COME SEPTEMBER. Though the similarities just end in the couple of opening bars and it certainly is a case of similar notes composed together sounding close to each other. But a mention surely deserves to be made here talking about adaptations. The song is “Sunte Thhey Naam Hum Jinka Bahaar Se” from film AAH (1953) directed by Raja Nawathe with music by Shankar Jaikishan and lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri. No doubt that is going to be a proud musical coincidence for all Shankar Jaikishan fans in India and abroad.
Summing Up, though many sites and articles just mention a couple of songs inspired from COME SEPTEMBER, it actually has got a long history of inspirations as stated above and I am sure you must have enjoyed reading about them all.
(Note : As there got to be quite a few more Hindi films using the theme music in their Background score, please do mention if you recall any in the comments)
Bobby Sing (Harpreet)
27th September 2020
Copyright – Bobby Talks Cinema.com
Thanks a lot to dear friend VIVEK KUMAR for his valuable inputs.
(Note : The write-up is a chapter shared from my upcoming book releasing soon. So any additions, rectifications suggested by friends are welcome to make it better.)
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