Pyaar Ka Mausam (1969) was an average film; it had some of the best songs like tum bin jaun kahan sung by Kishr and Mohammed Rafi, Na ja mere humdum, che khush Nazare, ni sultana re.. etc. Tum bin jaoon kahan was sung by both Rafi and Kishore. Rafi sang the same song twice for the protagonist of the movie played by Shashi Kapoor, once with mandolin and once on piano. And Kishore sang for Bharat Bhushan, the protagonist’s father played by  Bharat Bhushan. Composer, R. D. Burman got the best from both Rafi and Kishore. As I recall, Kishore Kumar version picturised on Bharat Bhushan in open area  had become more popular with the public. Yodelling rendered by Kishore as the interlude captivated the audience. Actor Bharat Bhushan proved lucky in bagging a hit song. The initial yodelling of Kishor in high pitch for this song is called falsetto. 

Falsetto is a vocal reach, or a way of singing, that allows singers to reach notes higher than their normal voice, characterized by a light, airy, and often breathy sound. Falsetto comes from the Italian word “falso” meaning “false,” refers to a vocal technique that produces a high-pitched voice, often associated with male singers, but can be used by both genders. Falsetto has a long history in music, particularly in operas, and has been used widely in popular music by various singers. 

Falsetto is often associated with its flexibility and unique tonal qualities, yet its place in Indian classical music remains disputed. Exploring its historical applications, modern adaptations, and the cultural conversations surrounding it can offer valuable insights into this intriguing vocal technique.

Tum bin jaun kahan song became famous for its all four versions sung by Rafi and Kishore – once happy and once sad. Though R.D’s composition was brilliant, the song was recorded at a bit too faster a tempo disallowing much allowance to Rafi to give expressions with his signature glissando which means a continuous slide upwards or downwards between two notes. Initially, when the film was released, Rafi’s versions were more popular than Kishore’s version. Later, Kishor’s version drew more attention from public.

In my opinion, two songs by Lata Mangeshkar in falsetto are very popular: palbhar me ye kya ho gaya from film Swami, aa jane jaan from film Intaquam. Similarly, Asha has sung many songs in falsetto style. Dum maro dum from Hare Krishna Hare Ram and Aayiye meherban from film Howra Bridge. 

Falsetto is good for building excitement that builds up in the audience when singers hit those high notes. Falsetto shows a singer’s ability to hit those tricky high notes with accuracy and control. It’s a display of their skill and mastery over their voice. Falsetto adds a unique emotional quality to a performance. It can convey vulnerability, intensity, or a heightened sense of emotion that’s not easily achieved in other vocal styles.

‘Man re tu kahe na dheer dhare’ is a pensive song which conveys the quintessence of life about letting go of the good and bad. In 2010, Outlook India magazine asked 30 Indian leading composers, lyricists and singers to name their all-time favorite Hindi songs. A list of top 20 songs was published and the top of the chart was ‘Man Re.’ The song is from movie Chitralekha (1964), sung by the great Mohammed Rafi, music by Roshan and lyrics by Sahir Ludhiyanvi. All three Roshan, Rafi and Sahir have created one of the most beautiful and cherished song for ever.

Can you imagine this song failed to top the charts in Binaca geetmala at that time as it was far too classy for the tastes of the masses. Music director Roshan was heartbroken at the lukewarm response from the public. This song was RJ Ameen Sayani’s favorite song as well and he was just as disappointed as Roshan that his Binaca geetmala programme failed to value this song.

The song is based on raga Yaman Kalyan. This raga conveys tranquility; it’s known as shant raga. Yaman’s serenity is close to everyday life. It evokes peace in mind. It sooths and calms the mind. Roshan chose to compose the song which has a blend of shant rasa of Yaman combined well with bhakti rasa (devotional feel). It is an ideal raga for devotional compositions. The orchestra of the song is very simple and comprises of two main instruments sarod and flute.  You will hear sarod more prominently which was played by Mr Arvind Kumar Mathur, a noted Sarod Player of those days.

The song conveys the philosophy of life; we are caught in the whirl of desires which are unending; we run after so many materialistic wants at the cost of sacrificing our morals and principles totally. Our mind is so anguished in the unending needs and wants, that we hardly realize the purpose of our life. While the fact is that we cannot control joys and sorrows of life and we cannot control beauty and youth in life. The link between life and death is dreams and dreams are nothing but illusion. We all have come alone and will die alone when will the mind realize this reality? Therefore the song tells to practice detachment.

I am a big fan of Mohd Rafi. He was par excellence playback singer Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. The uniqueness of Rafi’s voice was softness followed by a very high pitch. Mohammed Rafi lent his voice to some not so famous heroes on the silver screen and because of his marvelous voice those heroes became well-known. I always think that God sang through Rafisab’s voice.

Roshan had a penchant for sensitive poetry. He used to care a lot of the lyrics. While some music directors have a passion for instruments, others for the perfect pitch, yet others for rhythm. Just a few, like Roshan, also had their focus on the words that their music would carry to the ears of the listeners. He had a heart of poet.

Sahir Ludhiyanvi wasn’t merely a revolutionary poet he was a poet sensitive to the human conditions. He was genius and his poetries attracted people close to him. It is believed that Sahir was a non believer in God, but while listening to this song, you feel the poet connecting with God through the incredible lyrics written by him. One can say Sahir understood the philosophy of life much better than any other lyricist.

The soul of movie “Chitralekha” is Bhagwati Charan Verma’s story, finely tuned by the extraordinary poetry of Sahir Ludhianvi in the company of Roshan’s heart-rending music. Verma’s novel by the same name outlined the long standing dilemma between good and bad, moral and immoral in this world and was adapted for the screen by Kidar Sharma who believed in entertainment with a reason. The film is about the love story between Chitralekha (Meena Kumari) and Prince Beejgupt (Pradeep Kumar) and how she renounces the world when she realizes that her love is hindering Beejgupt from his administrative duties. On screen this beautiful song is sung by Pradeep Kumar who could perhaps lift the song with more emotions.

Rafi poured his heart into the song to expound the futility of life and love and made the song Man Re Tu Kahe Na Dheer Dhare eternal.

Music is universal without any boundary; it influences people emotionally and physically in various ways. It helps the cognitive development of infants and children, it helps provide self-expression. Musical education has been shown to help improve intellectual development and ability. Numerous studies have been conducted to show that individual personality can have an effect on musical preference. These studies are concluded mostly using meta-analytics (the statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies) they have shown that personality in itself explains little discrepancy in music preferences. These studies are not limited to Western or American culture, as they have been conducted with significant results in countries all over the world, including Japan, Germany, and Spain. We play a song, listen it, start over, listen and repeat: there are some songs you can listen to over and over again. Why? There are no perfect answers, but we all know that some musical pieces make us feel explicit, there are gushing feelings coming up which take us to a higher plane, it elicits certain memories that transport us back in time, it gushes back some nostalgia. And sometimes, a song is just plain catchy. Some songs remain immortal because of their catchy tunes or catchy lyrics. Some songs have remained immortal despite their age. The fact is that certain songs are part of our identity. I never feel satisfied listening to few songs; one of them is this song ‘Mera man tera pyasa….’ I can’t listen to it just once; I play this song again and again. This is a magical number to me; the lyrics are amazingly penned by Neeraj, melody is awesome and Mohammed Rafi touches the heart. I listen to it whenever I feel low.

Certain songs resonate with us; Kenneth Aigen, an associate professor in music therapy at New York University says that “Music is the way that we create our personal identity, its part of our identity construction. Some people say you are what you eat. In a lot of ways, you are what you play or you are what you listen to.” Aigen explained that a song’s lyrics, its orchestra, beats and other characteristics can personify different feelings and attitudes that develop our sense of identity. He further said that each time we re-experience our favorite music, we’re sort of reinforcing our sense of who we are, where we belong, what we value. This is a profound truth.

Certain songs can connect us to a time in our past because they carry a certain sentiment; for example, let’s say you liked a song at your age of twelve for it gave you adrenalin boost to study and score highest marks, and you achieved it, whenever you listen to a song, that feeling of that period in your life comes back intact. The sound is abstract enough to go directly to the part of your brain that governs the feeling.

My favorite genre in music is romantic classical music, because the singers express their feelings. The songs consist of rich lyrics. I hold Mohammed Rafisab in high esteem, for me, he is not less than ‘God’ when it comes to Hindi film songs. I love Mohammed Rafi’s few songs, because they are so classy, and I feel very nostalgic listening to them. In my opinion, in certain movies for songs when he lent his voice, even ordinary lyricists came across as poets because of his divine voice. He gave an identity to their work. He boosted the image of average actors. Rafi’s singing added to the success of many films.  I give here below some very classy songs of Rafisab:

Baar baar dekho, Movie Chaina Town (1962)
Singer: Mohammed Rafi, Lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri, Music Director: Ravi

Pukarata chala hoon mein, Movie: Mere Sanam (1965)
Singer: Mohammed Rafi, Lyricist: Mahrooh Sultanpuri, Music Director: O.P.Nayyar

Ek haseen sham ko dil mera
Movie: Dulhan ek raat ki (1966) Singer: Mohammed Rafi
Lyricist: Raja Mehadi Ali Khan, Music Director: Madan Mohan

Chale the saath milkar
Movie: Haseena maan jayegi (1968) Singer: Mohammed Rafi
Lyricist:  Akhtar Romani, Music Director: Kalyanji-Ananadji

Mera man tera pyasa, Movie: Gambler (1971)
Singer: Mohammed Rafi, Lyricist: Neeraj, Music Director: S.D.Burman

Don’t all of us experience occurrence of lull in our lives; for some or the other reasons, our life seems to come to a standstill for a span of time. We put off things that need to be done: may be a car registration, want to see a doctor for checking eye sight, have to return a friend’s books, and need to visit dentist, having to apply for a job which is attractive, something or the else. Suddenly, we lose things, we lose track of things and can’t always remember what day it is. We get stuck in sort of desolation. The question is how to beat the blues?

I am sure it has happened to you some time – when you feel blank, drained – nothing seems to be happening. Yes, such times come to all of us. Why does it bother us? Going through a break in life does not necessarily mean life is come to an end. Even though it’s a bit scary when there is a pause in your otherwise hectic schedule of life. In this quiet period, you lose interest in things which otherwise you enjoy doing, you don’t want to meet up with your friends; you just want to be left alone.

 We feel dull and empty for various reasons; for some, because they feel that more could be done in job, profession, marriage, upbringing of children, in a relationship, have more money in bank, could buy a house/farm etc, etc, the list is unending. The fact is feeling full never happens to those who enjoy striving to get the best in life. Let me tell you, sometimes this lull period is good, because you know you can accomplish more or try harder. That’s what I feel anyways. I can’t always pinpoint exactly what’s missing, but I figure if I fight and try harder or put more effort into something I’ll figure it out, and every time I have bounced back.

Feeling a lull in life at some junctures is a good sign. It means change is on its way. When we see the trees are still, it’s the calm before the storm. This syndrome happens to all. I am not alone, you are not alone, he or she is not alone – it’s common. It has happened to Amitabh Bachchan, “Struggles and uncertainties, successes and disappointments, accusations and controversies, ill health and months in hospital, all such a vivid kaleidoscope of moments, events, images simply unbelievable and unimaginable” he writes on his blog. It happened to Rajesh Khanna, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Raja Vkramditya, every one. So no matter how humiliated or pitiable you feel about your own situation, know that there are others out there experiencing the same emotion not necessarily at the same time, but some time before or after you. When your situation changes and you talk about it to someone, you will find everybody can relate to you. Perhaps you can’t immediately talk to them, but they are out there, and that’s all you need to know.

Another view point is – sometimes you need to be alone, not to be lonely, but to enjoy a little free time just being yourself and being just with yourself. In other words, the moments you feel lonely are the moments you may most need to be by yourself.  Yes, it’s beautiful, just being all by yourself. We need to respect this solitude, because when we’re alone we’re disconnected from commitments, we don’t need to put on a show, and we can hear our own thoughts and feel what our intuition is telling us.  And the truth is, throughout our life there will be times when the world gets real quiet and the only thing left is the beat of our own heart.

I think, such feelings and situations in life which put us down break our illusions, and hurt us allow us to begin to find the best path.  The realization of being lost is the first step to living the life you want.  The next step is, making the necessary changes, making strategies and implementing them which are not easy, which not so simple, which scared us sometimes, but these breaks help us make those (unimaginable) changes.  Stop regretting. Look at so many illustrious people’s lives – some of them have lost their positions, their money, their organizations, their loved ones, they have been cheated, so on and so forth. But, the best part of all is they have struggled and found all that they had lost. So remember that everyone suffers in life at some point.  Everyone feels lost sometimes.  And, the best part is we realize this in our lean period. Later, at some point in time, when you come out of the situation, grown after this bad experience; you realize that you have moved forward not backward.  You become stronger and wiser.  It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.

Can we run away from life? We will never find peace by avoiding realities in life; so instead of avoiding it, take every change and experience as a challenge for growth. It will give you what you want or it will teach you what the next step is.  The result of your struggle might be in different shape, size, or design. In sense you will not always receive what you imagined. Don’t run away from the situation, take it head on, and fight it out. You are the master, choose the attitude. Smile at those people who are spreading rumors about you, who are ridiculing your name. Trust me, when you are back in the form, the same people will want to associate with you – then you can make the choice.

Life is too short; it brings the good, the bad and the ugly in course of time. The biggest disillusionments in our lives are often the result of our misplaced expectations.  Letting go of needless expectations is your first step to happiness.  Be at peace with yourself, and you can deal with almost anything and grow beautifully!!!

I want to share this song with you all – it’s sung by Kishore Kumar, lyrics by Anand Bakshi, the words go like this: ‘Kal tak main akela tha, aaj zamaana saath hai, waqt waqt ki baat hai, waqt waqt ki baat hai’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJB4ERHE6M