Pyar Kiya to Darna kya

Music Director Naushad Ali felt his love for music in an era when a profession in music was not considered a honorable one. Upon hearing of his interest in music, his father said to him, "This is not a profession for honest people. No respectable person would give his daughter's hand in marriage to you. Why don't you learn to become a wrestler instead?"

Composer Naushad Ali Dec. 25, 1919 to May 2006
dedicated his life to give us joy with his music

Given an ultimatum by his father, Naushad chose to leave home at the age of 13. At 17, at the advice of his Ustad ji, he left Lucknow and proceeded to Bombay to seek his career in music. His passion was heightened by learning Hindustani classical music. At the time, the music in the movies was based on folk tunes and traditions originating in Bengal and Punjab. Naushad was familiar with the rich repertoire of folk music from Uttar Pradesh. With the instinct of an expert marketer, he knew that his chances of making an impact would be much better if he could make a brand of himself. For this, he must do something different, walk the road less traveled, so to speak. He decided to infuse the flavor of U.P. folk tunes into his compositions and bring the listeners a fresh experience.

He was also a staunch believer that classical music can bring great pleasure to the people, but it was not represented much in film music at the time. When Vijay Bhatt gave him the opportunity to compose the music for Baiju Bawra, he saw it as his chance to something for classical music.

He once said, 

अभी साज़-ए-दिल में तराने बहुत हैं

अभी ज़िंदगी के बहाने बहुत हैं

दर-ए-ग़ैर पर भीख माँगो न फ़न की

जब अपने ही घर में ख़ज़ाने बहुत हैं

There remain many more tunes in the lutes of our hearts

There are yet many ways to live your life

Beg not at the doors of strangers for a gift of art,

When there are many treasures in your own house.

Eloquently put, indeed. His conviction was so strong on this point, that he dared to go on and pioneer the introduction of classical music into Baiju Bawra. As a shrewd salesman, he meted it out in light doses in the songs from the beginning of the movie. The story was about a singer whose talent went unappreciated in the shadow of the fame of Tansen, the virtuoso in Akbar's court, who himself had made his name by bringing classical music to life in the 16th century with his own improvisations and exposition. Drawing freely from the U.P. store of thumri  and  dadra  styles, he introduced many songs based on ragas into the film. In his own words, 'I did not want to give the people a heavy dose of classical right away. That would have turned them off. I took the ragas, and introduced a playfulness into the tunes which lightened them so the people would take to them more readily. For the climax I hit them with the heavy dose in the contest between Baiju and Tansen.'

Well, it worked. Who can forget the Malkauns in 'Man tadapat Hari darshan ko aaj', or 'O Duniya ke rakhwale' in Darbari? The climax in raga Malhar was the icing on the cake, and other composers used the popularity of classical music for the next few decades and made many hits based on classical ragas.

In Mughal-e-Azam, there was Tansen, again. When Asif asked Naushad's  advice on how to present Tansen in the movie, the latter immediately suggested the name of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, the living Tansen of the last century. But Khan never sang in movies. Asif said, 'let us go and meet him anyway'. Upon hearing the reason for their visit, Khan Sahib took umbrage and refused. Asif insisted, and declared, 'You will sing in my movie'. Out of respect for his friend Naushad, Khan Sahib stopped short of throwing them out of his house, but asked Naushad to step out of the room for a private chat. Naushad said to him, 'Khan Sahib, when you sing on stage, a few hundred people can hear you, but being on the screen, you could bring joy to millions every night. However, it is your call, I can understand if you refuse.' The Ustad decided to find a way to turn them away without making Naushad lose face. 'I will ask such a high price that Asif has to walk away'. They went back inside, and Khan named a price of Rs. 25,000 per song. At the time, the top singers in cinema were never paid more than Rs. 1,000 per song.

Asif immediately reached into his bag and gave him Rs. 10,000 in cash for an advance, saying, 'Ustad ji, your music is priceless. I have no hesitation.' The rest is history. When asked to record 'Prem jogan ban ke'  for the scene of the memorable tryst between Salim and Anarkali, Ustad ji proposed that he will sing it while watching the actual scene which had already been shot. His music flows with the scene and conveys the emotions of the lovers so much better than the camera could have done.

Song by Bade Ghulam Ali Khan - Prem Jogan ban ke
secret tryst between
Salim (Dilip Kumar) and Anarkali (Madhubala)

Naushad used Darbari again in composing the songs for this movie. In what can be called the central theme song of the movie, Anarkali dances in the Sheesh Mahal palace in front of the emperor Akbar. The walls and ceiling of the court chamber were studded with thousands of mirrors, and the best photography skills and innovations were called into play for the dance. As magnificent and commercially successful the film was, it only earned three Filmfare awards in 1961. Aside from the Best Picture and the predictable Dialogue award, the third one was for cinematography.

The choice of the right lyrics for this song was a laborious process. Shakeel Badayuni sat all night with Naushad ji to find the right words, and they tried several lines before Naushad remembered an old Rajasthani folk song, 'Prem kara hai, chori to nahin kari hai'. The remaining lines followed with more ease from Shakeel's masterful pen.  

As the dance begins, the voice of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan takes us through a rendition of  taan in raga Darbari. Naushad rightly decided to shift the raga after the intro, and based the rest of the song on Kaafi. (Someone please verify, some sources say Durga, but others say Kaafi.) The effect of the combination moved the song, in the words of the immortal Amin Sayani on Binaca Geetmala,  to 'teesri pa-e-dan' (third place) the first week after the song was released, then to 'pahli pa-e-dan' (first place) in the week after, a feat that has not been matched by any other song since then.

The drama in the dance sequence is electrifying. The defiance of the great emperor by Anarkali proclaimed the power of true love. The look of rage in Akbar's face, as she brings the dagger to face Akbar and offers it to him with both hands as if to say, 'go ahead and kill me if you like, it won't make any difference', is priceless.

That priceless expression  of Akbar
from the peerless actor Prithviraj Kapoor 

The dance involved very intricate Kathak moves. Madhubala had not been trained in this dance form. Moreover, she was suffering from a heart condition during the filming of the movie, and it probably would have been a major strain on her health to try to master the physically demanding Kathak moves in a short time. A mural designer on the movie set came to the rescue. Mr. Khedkar handcrafted a mask of Madhubala's face, and the Dance Director of the movie, Lachhu Maharaj, who was an accomplished Kathak dancer in his own right, performed this dance wearing the mask. 

Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya - Madhubala
(or could it be....?)

When there was a moment to show Anarkali's facial expressions during the take, the camera zoomed in on Madhubala while she performed briefly. Such was the mastery of the photography and the skill of Lacchu Maharaj, that you cannot discover this fact in spite of seeing the video again and again, even today. This substitution of Lachhu Maharaj for this dance, and also for the Janmashtami dance 'Mohe panghat pe Nandalal ched gayo re', were kept secret for a long time after the movie was released. The Filmfare judges gave it the award for Cinematography without knowing about this trick.

During the dance, the camera zooms into the mirrors in the ceiling to pick up the multiple images of Madhubala (or probably Lachhu Maharaj). After the shooting, when viewing the rushes, Asif asked Naushad ji to make the music follow the effect of this scene in the sound track. Naushad was not fazed by this request for a moment. He immediately called Lata Mangeshkar to the studio and asked her to re-record some lines in the song over and over again, moving the microphone to different distances from her each time. 

Four of these recordings were super-imposed on the original recording in the editing studio, a feat that was very difficult before today's digital technology. It speaks highly of the skills of the sound editors that you get the distinct impression of many voices singing the lines each time the camera was showing the multiple images of the dancer during the song. In fact, the only voice was that of Lata ji, but the chorus effect for those brief moments heightened the drama of the whole sequence.   

The song was originally recorded in Black and White, but re-recorded in color before the release of the movie. Watch the video by clicking the icon here.

Lyrics in Hindi:

इनसान किसी से दुनिया में, एक बार मुहब्बत करता है,

इस दर्द को लेकर जीता है, इस दर्द को लेकर मरता है,

प्यार किया तो डरना क्या, जब प्यार किया तो डरना क्या

प्यार किया कोई चोरी नहीं की, छुप छुप आहें भरना क्या

आज कहेंगे दिल का फ़साना, जान भी ले लें चाहे ज़माना

मौत वही जो दुनिया देखे, घुट घुट के यूँ मरना क्या

उन की तमन्ना दिल में रहेगी, शम्मा इसी महफ़िल में रहेगी,

इश्क़ में जीना, इश्क़ में मरना, और हमें अब करना क्या

छुप ना सकेगा इश्क़ हमारा, चारों तरफ़ है उनका नज़ारा

परदा नहीं जब कोई ख़ुदा से, बंदों से परदा करना क्या

In English Script:

Insaan kisi se duniya men, ek baar muhabbat karta hai

Is dard ko le kar jeeta hai, is dard ko le kar marta hai

Pyar kiya to darna kya, jab pyar kiya to darna kya

Pyar kiya koi chori nahin ki, chhup chhup aahen bharnaa kya

Aaj kahenge dil ka fasaana, jaan bhi le len chaahe zamaana

maut wohi jo duniya dekhe, ghut ghut ke yoon marna kya

Un ki tamanna dil men rahegi, shamma isi mahafil men rahegi

ishq men jeena, ishq men marna, aur hamen ab karna kya

chhup na sakega ishq hamaara, chaaron taraf hai un ka nazaara

parda nahin jab koi Khuda se, bandon se parda karna kya

Translation:

A person only loves once in this world,

He lives with this ache, and dies with this ache

When you are in love, what is to fear?

It is only love, I have stolen nothing

Today I will tell the tale from my heart,

If society wants to take my life for it, let it

Death is that which the world sees,

But why die a thousand times (by keeping it secret)?

My desire for him will be in my heart forever,

This flame will continue to burn here in this court

To live in love, and to die in love, what else is left to do?

My love cannot remain silent, I see him every where I turn

When I cannot hide it from God, why should I hide it from His followers?

(Folks, this is poetry. Today is a different age, and English is a different language. It is impossible to do justice to the poet's thoughts in this translation. The scene was a time when the righteousness of society was very different. The power of the emperor, indeed, the power of any figures in society, was supreme. It was a sin, nay a crime, to fall in love with someone above your station in life, and it was commonly punished with death by many kings in history when it did not suit them. The words spoken by Anarkali in this song would have been not mere impudence, but high treason. To declare in open court that the emperor has no power over this affair of the heart was blasphemous. But there it was.)

I hope you enjoy the song and the background and tidbits I have written. Please do not forget to share, and do give me your comments and suggestions. I want to make this journey more pleasurable for you, and all your feedback is valuable.

Thank you again for your support.

Venkat

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Disclaimer: I was not there to observe and report on all the events and details in my blog above. The miscellaneous facts come from various sources on the internet. Most of them are mentioned in more than one or two websites, and it would be impossible for me to discover the original owners of the bits. All of the narrative is in my own words. If you have an exclusive copyright to any of the facts or fiction that I have paraphrased here, you can send me a request to remove them if you like.
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