The legacy of Hindi film songs has witnessed generations following them since last century. Such is the loving relationship of these musical creations with our lives that almost every film and music lover has his own personal story to share related with some particular songs fondly remembered till date and to be cherished forever.
However there is one common factor as well a basic difference in how thousands of these songs are remembered by a big majority of Hindi film music lovers.
If truth be told then a large section of listeners actually always recall the entire Sthayi – the opening verse of the song quickly in seconds without making any effort as those lines are kind of embedded in our personal memories. So the moment a famous song from the last century begins, most of us start singing along as we don’t have to recall the lyrics of its first few lines and they come by their own proving the magic of their melodious notes and lyrics.
But post the sthayi ends, the case is not any similar. As the song comes to the antras, where a smaller section does recall all the lyrics including the interludes (music in between), a big majority either doesn’t remember the lines or remembers the words in parts, singing along the song, picking it up at intervals as it keeps progressing.
That is exactly the reason, why many a times we as listeners are not able to catch any technical mistake or minor issues in the rendition of a song in its 2-3 antras coming post the famous opening verse. To be fair, as the song surpasses its highly popular beginning, the hearing more or less becomes mechanical for the general audience missing the same attention. And thus, these mistakes coming later in the track remain unnoticed till someone from the team admits and reveals after years of the film’s release in his or her frank interview talking about the rare glitch.
This happened when after decades Asha Bhosle revealed her mistake in the song “Piya Piya Piya Mora Jiya Pukaarey” from BAAP RE BAAP released in 1955 with music by O. P. Nayyar and lyrics by Jan Nisar Akhtar. While it was being recorded, she started singing out of turn and the take was kept as it is because Kishore Kumar assured that he will take care of it while shooting being the hero of the film. Kishore cleverly tackled it while enacting the song on screen putting hand on the mouth of his co-performer Chand Usmani, making it look natural. But no doubt, till the story was revealed by Asha Bhosle herself, it all appeared to be a Kishore Kumar’s funny act in the picturisation of the song and not any mistake.
A similar case was experienced again when Kavita Krishnamurthy revealed how she wrongly rendered a word “Jaanu” as “Jeenu” in the cult track “Hawa Hawai” from film MR. INDIA in an interview years after the release of the film in 1987. The composers Laxmikant-Pyarelal decided to keep the take as it is even after knowing the mistake since the rendition was just flawless that might not get repeated by the young Kavita. But yet again the fault was not noticed by even the dedicated music lovers for years till the singer herself revealed it after a long gap.
Moving ahead, the above two instances had an honest mention made by their respective artists, but there must be quite a few instances that have not been revealed by the makers and we as listeners have also not spotted them even after decades of their release.
Interestingly, one of these lesser-discussed or unrevealed instances was discovered in our music classes many years back, when the students were asked to write the notations of a song from KRANTI.
It was one of the film’s most famous songs “Zindagi Ki Na Toote Ladi” composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal, penned by Santosh Anand and sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Nitin Mukesh as a love-duet. Being a personal favourite I had played it uncountable times in the tape-recorder era before 2000, but still had not spotted the glitch in it before that one music-class years later, while listening to it on a repeat mode. More surprisingly, I had not noticed the mistake even when it comes just towards the end of the Sthayi (opening verse) itself and not any antras later.
Revealing the find, as you hear the complete song from the soundtrack, the glitch appears in the beginning itself, just when the key lines are being repeated around 1.30 minutes. It is here when Lata Mangeshkar misses singing the word ‘Ki’ after “Zindagi” and mistakenly sings “Zindagi Na” which is quickly rectified by catching up with the next words without making it sound abrupt.
Most probably here too the composers Laxmikant Pyarelal decided to keep ‘the same take with the glitch’ as the song had been sung with great feel and emotions by the respective singers. More so, because it was extremely difficult to repeat a similar rendition (in that particular pre-digital era) when a track used to be recorded live at one go along with the one or more singers and hundreds of musicians.
The writer-producer-director Manoj Kumar also used the song as it is in the film without making any deliberate effort to rectify it visibly on screen. And honestly we could never catch the glitch while watching the film too, even in the countless repeated viewings in the theaters during the later years post its release in 1981.
So if you had also not noticed the mistake in this famous song till date, then do listen and watch it again at Youtube and amaze yourself.
Sharing a similar instance about another Lata Mangeshkar song “Yeh Jab Se Hui Jiya Ki Chori” from film US PAAR (1974) composed by S. D. Burman and penned by Yogesh, I wrote about it long back at the site after the revelation made by the veteran Shishir Krishna Sharma. The detailed article can be read by clicking at the link given below at Bobbytalkscinema.com.
Cheers!
Bobby Sing
17th Feb. 2021 - BobbyTalksCinema.com
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.
----------
For more such interesting articles on lesser known facts on Hindi Cinema, do try DID YOU KNOW Series by
Bobby Sing available in both
Book and
E-book form
.
Also available
at Notionpress and Flipkart stores (in India)
And at Amazon-com and Amazon-co-uk abroad.
