Page 59 - Seniors Today June2020

Once Upon A Time| Films

Singing

in the rain

No “rain song” playlist is possible without Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi…
Deepa Gahlot looks back on the musical hit that is synonymous with
monsoon moods

As the monsoon hits Mumbai, flashback Garjat barsat sawan aayo re over the credits.
to Barsaat Ki Raat (1960), in which a storm The older sister is in love with Aman, but too
with rain and lightning ignites a romance. shy to let him know, while the younger one
Made 60 years ago, this is the kind of film chatters and flutters around overacting the
that belongs firmly to another age of Muslim cutie part that sets the teeth on edge. (Ratna
socials, mushairas, qawwali muqablas, married Bharat Bhushan and went on to
simpering women and sherwani-clad men. become a familiar face on Doordarshan.)
PL Santoshi directed and co-wrote the Mubarak Ali has been losing the qawwali
screenplay from Rafi Ajmeri’s story, with muqablas and is in dire straits. He requests
his leading man Bharat Bhushan. With Aman to help him with some qalaam, so
Roshan’s score and Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics, that he can save his sinking career, and
the film turned out to be a major musical Aman promises as soon as he returns from
hit of the time. The title song, Zindagi bhar
nahin bhoolegi woh barsaat ki raat, is
an unforgettable rain song, but the film’s
selling point were the qawwalis (originally
composed by Fateh Ali Khan, father of
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, some altered and
used with his consent).
Aman Hyderabadi (Bhushan) is a poet,
famous but impoverished, who lives as a
tenant in the home of a qawwal, Mubarak
Ali (S.K. Prem) and his daughters Shama
(Shyama) and Shabab (Ratna)-- the film Madhubala_s enchanting beauty and the immortal score
opens with the two singing the sublime are probably the highlights of Barsaat Ki Raat

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #12 | JUNE 2020 59