Mangala's Potpourri: Sansar Se Bhaage Phirte Ho

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A historic song from an equally historical, philosophical period film (set during golden Mauryan rule) with Sahir’s brilliant Hindi shayari making its first foray into Bollywood. Sahir was hitherto known for his prolific poetry in Urdu.

Widowed courtesan Chitralekha (played by Meena Kumari) bestowed with her beauty, charms Aryaputra Samant Bijgupt (played by Pradeep Kumar) who is so lost in lust with her that he fails to fulfill royal duties. Add to this, he is not keen on marrying his fiancée Princess Yashodhara (played by Shobana). Yashodhara’s father therefore sends Yogi Kumargiri (played by Ashok Kumar) to convince Chitralekha to give up on Bijgupt. Kumargiri commands Chitralekha to give up her “sinful” style of living so as to attain nirvana.

Kumargiri’s sermon only earns him back a deeply meaningful philosophical soulful song lyricized in conversational style and sung solo by Lata tracking the sound of Chitralekha wherein she daringly debates about sin vs virtue, living life to the fullest vs living in vain, finding God in real world as against fleeing from society. She cynically poses questions to him about spiritual hypocrisy. Questions that are pertinent to the fundamental philosophical conundrum faced by humans even today. Summing up her moral in a verse right in the middle of the song, she states “apaman rachetaa kaa hogaa, rachnaa ko agar Thukraaoge.” meaning “It will be an insult to the Creator himself, if you reject the act of creation”

Sahir, The King of Romance and a winner of PadmaShri for his soulful poetry, with this delightfully melodious song set amidst grandiose décor, wherein poetry plays king and melody tunes itself as queen, gifts viewers a spectacle that can easily be called “Nothing short of Royal”!

Movie Masala:

It was Sahir who fought with AIR for the right of lyricists to be credited for a song along with singers and composers.

Despite deft directorial skills of Kidar Sharma, his wrong choice of cast led to a colossal loss, for, the film flopped fanning out as a mere street side potboiler.

Sansar se bhaage phirte ho…. is 1/7 songs from

Film: Chitralekha

Lyrics: Sahir Ludhyanvi

Music Director: Roshan

Film Director: Kidar Sharma

Starring: Meena Kumari, Ashok Kumar, Pradeep Kumar

Singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Few other songs reviewed in this blog:
Deewana Hua Badal
Mora Gora Ang Laile
Tum ko piya dil diya Sambhal Ye Dil
Mang ke saath tumhaara
Tu Pyar Ka Saagar Hai

Tere Mere Milan Ki Yeh Raina

Churaliya Hum Tum Ne Jo Dil Ko
Aao Huzoor Tum Ko
Aayega Aane Waala
Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh

NOSTALGIA at Dignity Foundation, Bangalore - 19th May 2017

As Team "Nostalgia" marched forward this month at Dignity Foundation to its 62^nd episode musing back to Melodies of the Past, Rekha’s melodious singing as well as her duet along with Sheshadri Sir truly touched the audience doing full justice to Shesh Sir’s compact cherrypicked playlist. Picked from this playlist for my song review is this popular philosophical number “Sansaar se bhaage phirte ho” from the film Chitralekha starring Meena Kumari, Ashok Kumar and Pradeep Kumar.

Sheshadri Sir, the sole Master of the whole Ceremonies, stole the show with a sort of shorter playlist this time, for he touched the souls of the audience with his short n sweet narration of Sweet n Sour short tales of The Titans of Bollywood way back then. Audience had a whale of a time listening to them.

Yesss name anyone… Madan Mohan or Meera Kumari, Salil Chowdhary or Sahir Ludhyanvi, Raj Kapoor or a Rajinder, be it a Burman, a Basant or a Bimal he has files of stories piled up to share with all of us about any of them. Oh did I hear you ask for Hrishikesh Mukherjee? Ahem…Hold. How much time can you spare…micro minutes or mega hours…pick your time. He’s perfectly fine going On n On n Onnnnnn any time infinite times! Voice goes minimal. Ever smiling Shesh Sir gets emotional. While his heart in general houses the golden era of Hindi Cinema, his soul in particular shelters “Hrishidaa - The Director of the Common Man”

Just watch his eyes while you listen. I did. And I looked around…. anyone chopping onions…nah. Eyes are wet. Yet they glisten!

Just . That. Name… Hrishidaa. And his heart goes agog gaga. Browse through his emotional dictionary. Sad n Sweet Surprise awaits you when a series of synonyms stare at you. Just a few, I shall put it across just for you…. “Tales that I know about you HMjee how I wish the world listens to me tailless Ji” “Aha Hrishidaa, my Rishi my Dada, my heart bleeds to bid you Alvida !!“

Sing we all shall for you Sir “Take a bow for all that you share of so much that you know” as much as we cheer the Creators of Memorable Melodies “Take a bow for the world sings what you did sow”

Also read Song Review of "Sansar se bhaage phirte ho"