Main Tere Naal Si

Main tere naal si

Main tere naal si, us vehle jad akhri sah tenu chadiyai,

Dhadkan teri mere kaan teh digi, tere dil di awaz sun aahi.

Main tere naal si, jad rab jameen tek aakhe,

Swarg vich tenu legaya, bahaan che bah paake.

Main tere naal si, jad auh aakhri shabd tere bhullan teh ked di si,

Dard tere shareer nu chad aayi, akhan che baarsi meehi.

Main tere naal si, jad zindagi de anmol pal tere akhan saamne aaye,

Tere parnam lehi lakha farishteh, shabd aasman vich gaaye.

Main tere naal si paave main haath tera faar na sakhi,

Zameen hove yaa aasmaan, hamesha naal assi hona, yeh khayal yaad rakhi.

S S Maan

English translation:

I was with you

I was with you, in that moment when the last breath left you,

Your heartbeat fell upon my ear, I heard the sounds of your heart too.

I was with you, when God came down to earth,

Arm in arm, he took you to another world.

I was with you, when that last word danced on your lips,

Pain left your body, rain fell from our eyes.

I was with you when the priceless moments of life came before your gaze,

To greet you a million angels, chanted prayers in the sky.

I was with you, even though I could not hold your hand,

Earth or sky, we are always with each other, keep that in mind.

Punjabi Poetry

Aaj di Heer kithe guachayi,

Ranjha labke na nigah vich aayi,

Soni dhoob ke phir na jammi,

Mahiwal di udeekan hai bas lambi.

Hon ehi daso kaun reh si baaki,

Jinu ishq di kadar, pyaar di saaki,

Pak jeda rooh, auno mera sar,

Aaj di Laila Majnu tah hoye faraar.

Aaj di Heer nu lagi nashe di aadat,

Ranjhe nu maya di pehgi zahmat,

Soni ne dilan di behziti kiti,

Mahiwal nu hawas di thiai hi piti.

Hon ehi sunao main naa kive jora,

Napaak de naal, Rab to manga vichora,

Lehran vich SoniMahiwali nahi tarde,

Bekadaran di chaki vich au sab hi saarge.

By Sundeep Singh Maan

English translation:

Today's Heer is lost somewhere,

Ranjha I searched for but could not find,

Soni drowned never again to be born,

Mahiwal I seek forever, the wait forlorn.

So tell me now who is left,

Who values love, the merchant of amour,

That soul that is pure, awaits only me,

Today's Laila Majnu deserted for sure.

Today's Heer intoxicated with liquor,

Ranjha mad with greed for money,

Soni shamed many hearts,

Mahiwal consumed by the thirst of lust.

So tell me now how do I join my name

With the immoral, from God I seek distance,

In waves SoniMahiwal no longer swim,

In the grind of unfaithfulness, they all rot.

Aaj assi mil na saake

Aaj assi mil na sake,

Kal da ki barosa,

Par eh yakeen tah jaroor hega,

Ke kithe naa kithe, milna kismat vich tah hoga.

Jad mee da boond bhegayi, main us boond de vich hazir honga,

Tere chaam teh dig ke tere masam vich chupna,

Yah phir vagdi hawa vich, jo tere kes nu uda denda,

Main phoolan di patti banke, tere baalan vich saun jana.

Jado kaaliyan raatan vich, tu mombatti jagana,

Main parwana baanke, usdi loh nu chunnaa .

Yah fir tere jakhm toh jeri lauh dulda,

Aus lauh di vich, main pehl ke baar auna.

Jado pipiyee di pioo ambar vich wajana,

Us chek di vich main rachya hona,

Yah phir jado mitti jal tere bullan nu chumnaa,

Main auhi mithas vich baanke auna.

Jad hath de uthe pehi dunghi mendhi,

Paave kisi aur di hove, aus rang di vich main rachiya hona.

Yah jado tu jag vich nahi zindagi nu jamna,

Main udhe vich peda hoonga.

Jado maut aake tenu audhe giraft vich lega,

Teri masan vich main sutha pena.

Yah jado tu swarg vich ghisarna,

Main badal baanke tere pairaan tahle rehna.

Aaj assi mil na sake,

Kal di ki barosa,

Sau baar bicharke par,

Ik baar tah sanu milna hoga.

By Sundeep Singh Maan

English Translation:

Today we could not meet,

Who can trust tomorrow,

But believe we must,

That somewhere, someday fate will bring us together.

When a drop of rain falls, I will be within that droplet,

Falling upon your skin, I will hide within your pore,

Or when the blowing wind runs through your hair,

I will come as a petal, and sleep within your tresses.

When on dark nights, you light a candle,

I will come as a moth and touch its light.

Or when blood seeps from your wounds,

From that blood I shall pour out.

When the bird chirps in the sky,

In its song I will live,

Or when the sweet water touches your lips,

I will live within that nectar and arrive.

When deep mendhi adorns your hands,

Even if it belongs to another, I will be embedded within its colour.

Or when you bring a new life into this world,

I will take birth within it.

When death comes to take you in its hold,

I will be asleep within your ashes,

Or when you glide through heaven,

I will become a cloud and stay under your feet.

Today we could not meet,

Who can trust tomorrow,

We may part one hundred times,

But at least once we will have to come together.

Ik Daali - S.S.Maan

Ik daali teh chiri baithi si,

Main daali nu hilaya, usno daraya,

Chiri chekdi, ve pardesiya,

Main ithe bethi tenu milan li.

Maar udaari, main usno kendha,

Tu begani ithe, tera chirkna fazool,

Chiri rondi, pank nu watt laake,

Main daar chadi aayi tere vaaste,

Main murke jado dali kol langiya,

Chiri mere nigha toh hoi door,

Ambar vich main kholgayi chiri gaundi,

Ithe payi adar, kuli meri rooh

Mur aa chiri main uno kendha,

Phir dali teh bait main tenu daane kilama,

Dharti teh baithi audo tenu kadar nahi si,

Ambar vich sajgi tah aaya tera bulaava.

English translation:

A bird was perched upon a branch,

I shook the branch, to put her to fear

The bird chirped, oh stranger,

I sat here to meet only you

Fly away, I tell her

You don’t belong here, your chirping a waste

The bird cries, creases her wings,

I left my flock only for you

When I pass the branch again,

The bird is no longer in my sight

I am one with the sky, she sings

Here I find respect, my soul open

Come back bird, I call out

Sit on the branch again I will feed you,

On the ground you could not care,

Now I adorn the sky, you call out for me

main gali gali labda phira, pahaaran charke feh bhi na mila,

main mandir, masjid, gurdware nu jaava,

main taarayan di loh vich apni chaaha nu likhava,

main labiya samundro, main takdha reh raaha,

main sochan ke au vasda vich teriya baahan,

main teerat teh jaake, sarovar vich doob jaava,

main bachpan di kehde vich shayad auno paava,

main maa di chaa vich apne aap nu sulava,

main mitran di gaalan vich au dard nu puljaava,

main labiya heere motiya vicho, main chadiya maya di pukh picho,

Par ant vich eh pata tah hoya,

Ke mere andaroo au gaal vasda, haje tak si soya...

S.S.Maan

Translation

I searched every lane, climbed mountains but did not find it,

I visited mandirs, masjids and gurdware

I write my desires under the light of the stars

I searched every ocean, I awaited those paths,

I thought perhaps it lives within your arms,

I go on pilgrimages and drown in holy water,

I search for it in the games of my childhood,

I put myself to rest in the shade of my mother,

I forget my pain in the words of friends,

I look for it in diamonds, I left behind my greed of wealth

But in the end I come to realise,

That it lives within me, yet it is sleeping...

Radha Ka Sangam (1992)

What does one say about a film that turned out to be a colossal let down when it released at the box office back in 1992? A film that boasted of a stupendous soundtrack full of melody by Anu Malik, starred two of the 90’s most prominent actors, Govinda (who had just hit gold with Swarg) and Juhi Chawla (who was riding high from the hit Raju Ban Gaya Gentlemen) and a film that promised a high octane love story but yet ended up to be such a disaster, that it was removed from most cinemas within it’s first day of showing!

Kirti Kumar’s pastoral love story of reincarnation and enkindling romanticism is a film that I believe was badly bested by audiences when in actual fact there were many other films at the time which were ignominiously patched together yet raked in the moolah. At the time of it’s release I was a mere five years old and failed to understand the complexities of the tale but there was something about Radha Ka Sangam that stayed with me…be it the unorthodox climax or the lilting music that made me search high and low for this saga and re-visit it some fifteen years later.

A desolate mountain top reverberating with squalling winds brings Kamal (Govinda) to its peak who openly declares his love to a dubious Rupa (Juhi Chawla). Kamal, who without even a thought prepares to jump to his death from the scaling heights after Rupa informs him that if he can’t live without her, he can surely die within her presence. Yet time had another lesson to teach the two of them, when just before he hurtles off the cliff top, a mysterious Baba stops him, proclaiming that Kamal should not make the same mistake again.

A mistake that lies embedded in the folds of time and through flashback, Radha (Juhi Chawla) appears jolting through flower laden meadows and aquamarine streams in a small village of sublime nature where she meets and falls in love with her Shyam (Govinda) much to the angst of the village thakur and dacoits who deem Shyam as a thief to their desire.

After declarations between the two lovelorn youths of “prem hai janmo ka sangam” they eventually wed, only for Radha to face the wrath of her lecherous brother-in-law Chander (Kirti Kumar) who had once been promised to Radha. Before Radha and Shyam can fulfill the union of their bodies along with their souls, Shyam is sentenced to prison for a crime he has not committed, leaving his newly wed Radha pining with her mother-in-law (Mala Sinha) for the day when her Shyam will return to their abode.

Poverty stricken and tainted as being unlucky for her husband Radha becomes smothered with a veil of depression, a veil that only lifts when she learns that Shyam has been found innocent and will be returning home and at last the symbiosis of Radha-Shyam will take place.

The powerful tide of time overpowers everything, kingdoms fall, evil dies, relationships change, seasons wither, and the new sun rises and it is in that one moment of time that Radha gives up her life before she meets her Shyam…uttering under her last breath that the two will surely meet in another life.

When Shyam arrives home to find his Radha lifeless yet still in his enceinte, he too passes through to another world, where the two are reborn as Kamal and Rupa…and thus the sangam of Radha takes place.

So just why do I hold Radha Ka Sangam in high regard? To most it sounds like a routine love saga with a reincarnation theme but for me, I can not help but see the Raj
Kapoor-esque mould of cinema through the camera lens, which is in actual fact highly akin to Ram Teri Ganga Maili, where the female protagonist awaits her beau and faces the turbulence of society in her pining.

Kirti Kumar symbolist style of direction speaks more than any dialogues throughout the film and the subtly of certain scenes makes for thought provoking viewing. Take for instance, the scene when Radha sits gazing into space after Shyam has been taken away and a scorpion stings her, yet she remains unflinching although she is a corpse. The sting from the scorpion represents the physical pain of a human being yet she lessens this in comparison to the mental pain of her longing for her love.

Whilst in Ram Teri Ganga Maili, the water becomes a symbol of the physical journey of the lead character, Radha Ka Sangam shows the journey of how the internal growth of a persons longing reaches its pinnacle similarly through nature. The director has mirrored this thought aptly through a tree which grows just like the relationship of Radha and Shyam yet then dies once uprooted, only to be planted again and nurtured in another environment, mimicking the concept of reincarnation and the union of the same souls in another era.

Musically, Radha Ka Sangam is a soundtrack that is often ignored just like the film. Anu Malik had composed a few noteworthy soundtracks at this particular juncture of his career namely Sohni Mahiwal, Mard and Ganga Jamuna Saraswati but Radha Ka Sangam is a pure paragon of his ability to infuse melody and soul into a soundtrack. “O Radha Tere Bina” is beautifully rendered by Lata Mangeshker and Shabbir Kumar (a talent that has been criminally underused) and Kirti Kumar also shared the microphone in a decent attempt with “Do Bole Kekhe Hum To Haare Hain” alongside Lataji. Whilst at the time of the release of the soundtrack, there was controversy over the fallout between Lata and T-series who allegedly attempted to dub the songs she had recorded for the film with the voice of Anuradha Paudwal (who sung the title track “Prem Hai Janmo Ka Sangam”) it is only by God’s grace that the scintillating “Bichwua” song was saved from such blasphemy as Lata reaches amazing heights through her vocals in this particular gem.

Govinda had often tried his hand at more than just comedy in the early days of his career with films like Swarg, Bhabi, Aawargi and Karz Chukana Hai but alas the junta was only ready to accept him with his buffoonery antics of the David Dhawan ilk. Kudos to Kirti Kumar for bringing out the romantic element of Chichi in Radha Ka Sangam as he delivers an earnest performance and one wonders from watching him perform in such a role, why he did not go on to become more of a romantic hero in his primetime.

Juhi Chawla is my all time favorite actress…and whatever praise I have for her is always inadequate. The village belle was a role that Juhi took to with uttermost precision and went on to master in films like Bol Radha Bol, The Gentleman and Ghar Ki Izzat yet in Radha Ka Sangam she perhaps looks her most radiant and charming. Again, an actress who became more renowned for her chirpy giggle, Radha Ka Sangam offers a chance to see Juhi in a more serious avatar and she certainly shines. Late Divya Bharti was initially offered this role but later dropped by the director but I can not envisage anyone else other than Juhi who bought her vulnerability so effortlessly to the character of Radha.

Visually, Radha Ka Sangam is allowed to be incriminated for being so nectarous, each and every frame captures the agrarian ambience adding a simpleton feel to its charming screenplay.

To most people, Radha Ka Sangam is a film that evokes no memories…because it is a film that most deem worthy of forgetting. I am not stating that it is a masterpiece of a film by any means…I however view it as a film that has resisted staling like many of the films from the early 90s…there is no forced comedy, no cringe worthy dance routines and holds a theme that still remains open for a lot of debate. I still can’t fathom as to why it was received so coldly, maybe the reincarnation theme was too hard to digest for audiences, maybe it didn’t offer the ingredients of a Masala hungry viewers…but whatever it was, Kirti Kumar must have sold out to what he thought audiences wanted after this disaster as his remaining filmography leaves a lot to be desired.

“The entire world continues coming and going in reincarnation” (Sri Guru Granth Sahib) …much like cinema, some of it leaving its mark unexplainably, like Radha Ka Sangam did for me but for few others.

"Originally published on PassionForCinema.com> http://passionforcinema.com/jodhaa-akbar-review/ "

Jodhaa Akbar (2008)

It’s been a long time since I have walked out of the cinema hall with a feeling of equanimity and the asseveration of having just witnessed a film that will go down in history as a classic. The last time I was overcome by such a feeling was with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s poetic Saawariya, a film that many people rejected for its folklore style.

Jodhaa Akbar rekindled my faith in why Hindi cinema is the greatest entertainer in the glimmering world of movie lights, for it could only be the Hindi film industry that could conceive such a monopolizing oeuvre.

Set in the 16th century, Jodha Akbar is a sumptuous saga of romance which blossoms under the schismatic setting of political astriction during the Mughal era.

Rajput King Bharmal of Amer (Khulbhushan Khabarnda) arranges a marriage of alliance between his daughter Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai) and the Mughal Emperor Jalaudin Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) thus sewing the seed of tranquility between both communities.

However, Akbar is unaware that Jodha resents the consanguinity in which she has been used as seal against the polemics of politics, presenting him with a battle far greater than those he has enacted on the warfield…to conquer the love of his queen.

Armed with his heart as his weapon, Akbar’s language of love is as confident as each swing of his sword and by the time he has managed to encapsulate Jodhaa, the soil of the Mughal dynasty is marred yet again with the threat of annexation in which Akbar’s love for his kingdom becomes parallel to the love of his Jodhaa.

Asutosh Gowariker has to be congratulated for making a film with such conviction and executing his story on such a grand platform. Whilst the general consensus of many is that historical films dabble more in the complexities of the past through stolid like factual presentation, Gowariker is able to use his finesse of mixing drama with authenticity – the result being an exhilarating lesson in history which also carries a strong heart. The nail biting battle scenes have all been captured with sharp camera movements, transporting the viewer to the battlefield, the tense palaver between Ila Arun and Aishwarya demanded pin drop silence from everyone in the cinema hall…exemplary of the maestro director’s ability to capture the audience and throw them into a bygone era.

Hrithik Roshan as the Great Emperor Akbar is awe-inspiring. His performance is of dizzying heights, meticulously delivered without any room for criticism. Roshan epitomizes perfection, both physically and creatively resulting in the finest screen presence to be witnessed since Amitabh Bachchan. His Akbar is powerful and unflinching yet in a split second can transform to a smirking lover of loyalty towards his queen presenting a humane depiction of a figure who was obviously more than just a temerarious ruler. Roshan proves yet again just why he is the finest male lead to grace the screen since the millennium.

Aishwarya Rai is always at her best when she is regal and in Jodhaa Akbar she is dignity personified. The character of Jodhaa demanded a fiery yet graceful streak of personality and Rai achieves this balance with uttermost ease. The scene where she exchanges heated words with Akbar upon his accusation of her deceit is tremendous as she conveys vulnerability with angst, using her eyes to emote a thousand words. A character that does not demand huge amounts of dialogues but more so relies on the ability for Rai to emote with her expressions resulting in a play of wholehearted curtailment. Jodhaa Akbar is sure to go down as one of Rai’s finest examples of talent.

A R Rahman’s music may not be of chartbusting quality but it moulds itself into the story in such a way that without becoming officious to the narrative, it still acts as a conclusive transition, especially the Sufi style “Khwaja Mere Khwaja” which oozes a spiritualistic aroma of melody. “Azeem O Shah Shahensha” is robust in its presentation and only electrifies the magnitude of the character that Akbar was.

One can not speak about Jodhaa Akbar without mentioning the cinematography and costumes. There is a danger that when films are seeped in such grandeur, they shimmer more for their ability to satisfy the visual palette rather than offer satiating content but Jodhaa Akbar does not suffer from this ailment. The need for the ostentatious presentation is fully justified and equally rewarding to the eye, be it the intricate halls of the palace or the deliciously crafted jewels, all have their place and thankfully due to a taut screenplay, do not serve as mere ornaments by which viewers can pass their time admiring their beauty. Rather, one spends the duration of the film engulfed in the proceedings of the story which are only taken to a higher level with the alluring ambience of the Mughal era.

Period dramas carry with them the promise of acting as tools for society, where in today’s times many people are recalcitrant to pick up a book and read history; cinema offers them the opportunity of visually engaging with the quondam and interpreting facts in a more appealing manner. Jodhaa Akbar allows its audience all of this in a manner which is simplistic in relaying chronologic events yet also embarks on a simultaneous journey of love and acceptance, mixing the two to create an evocative experience.

History with a heart, Jodhaa Akbar ravages the screen with its royal fest of nobility and catalytic performances , crowning it’s viewers with cinematic glory.

"Originally published on PassionForCinema.com> http://passionforcinema.com/jodhaa-akbar-review/ "