This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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I had heard the name of Ved Rahi for the first time in one of the Doordarshan’s television serials. It took me some more years to know that his canvas was much bigger than the TV serials. He is a well-known poet and writer in Dogri, Hindi and Urdu, a journalist, editor, translator, screenplay, dialogue writer, producer and director in Hindi films and television serials. He is the recipient of many awards and honours for his contributions to the literature in Dogri, Hindi and Urdu.
Ved Rahi (b. 22/05/1933) was born in Jammu in a well-respected family. His father, Mulkraj Saraf was a freedom fighter and a well-known journalist and publisher of an Urdu newspaper, ‘Ranbeer’. Under the influence of his father, Ved Rahi got interested in journalism and literature. At the age of 12, he started writing in Urdu.
After the completion of his Matriculation, Ved Rahi told his father that he was not interested in further studies. His father was shocked as he was a crusader of literacy in his region. He took his son to an educationist for advice. The man spoke to Ved Rahi at length and in the end suggested to his father that his son should learn Hindi. He was put under the tutelage of an eminent Hindi teacher. He joined Radio Kashmir, Jammu as script writer. In 1958, he became the editor of a monthly magazine, ‘Yojana’ which was published under the Information Division of the Govt of Jammu & Kashmir. Simultaneously, he started writing short stories and novels in Dogri language followed by Hindi and Urdu.
Ved Rahi felt that staying in Jammu will not expand his literary horizon. He was already influenced by writers like Krishna Chandra and Ramanand Sagar who were doing well in Mumbai. Sometime in 1961-62, Ved Rahi left his Government job and moved to Mumbai with his wife and two children with the intention of pursuing his literary pursuit. In Mumbai, he soon realised that income from writing short stories and novels will not be sufficient to sustain his family.
With a recommendation from his father, Ved Rahi approached Ramanand Sagar to start his filmy career as a screenplay and dialogue writer to supplement his income. Since Ramanand Sagar was aware of his calibre as a writer, he took him as his assistant in screenplay, dialogue writing and direction for his films. His name appeared as Assistant Director for the films, ‘Aarzoo’ (1965) and ‘Aankhen’ (1968). He started getting offers from other producers also to write screenplay and dialogues for films such as ‘Ye Raat Phir Na Aayegi’ (1966), “Pavitra Paapi’ (1970), ‘Beimaan’ (1971),’Aap Aaye Bahaar Aaye’ (1971), Kathputli (1971), ‘Paraaya Dhan’ (1971, ‘Beimaan’ (1972) ‘Sanyaasi’ (1975), ’Charas’ (1976), etc which became box office hit films.
Ved Rahi felt that he did not have much freedom as a writer in Hindi films. He decided to turn director with ‘Daraar’ (1972) followed by ‘Prem Parbat’ (1973). But as a director, he had to compromise with producers and distributors. So, he become producer-director with ‘Kali Ghata’ (1980). None of his films performed well at the box office. His last released film as a director was ‘Veer Savarkar’ (2001) which did well in Maharashtra and Goa region. During his association with film industry, he realised that writing for the films is a different art than writing the literary stories and novels where the writer has full freedom to express his thoughts. While he appreciated the point of views of producers and distributors for whom it is a commercial venture, as a writer, Ved Rahi felt restricted in showing his best in the film industry. He turned to TV serials where he felt that he had more freedom than in the film industry. Ved Rahi directed his first TV serial for Doordarshan, ‘Gul-Gulshan-Gulfaam’ (1987) which became a hit with the audience. He also directed ‘Meera Bai’ (1997).
During his film career, Ved Rahi was a member of Censor Board of Film Certification and Film Writers Association.
Even after shifting to Mumbai, he was well connected with the developments in Dogri literature. He continued to write short stories in Dogri and Hindi which were published in magazines. He used to say in his interviews that his main passion was literature and his association with films and television was to enable him to sustain in Mumbai with his family. One can note that he has received honour and awards mainly for his literary works.
Ved Rahi got Sahitya Akademi Award for ‘Aale’ (1982), the collection of his short stories in Dogri in 1983. He also received Maharashtra Gaurav Award (2000) for his contribution to literature, Maha Pandit Rahul Sankritayan Puruskar (2011) for his outstanding works in Hindi and the Best Book Award for his Dogri novel ‘Lal Ded’. He got his second award from the Sahitya Akademy in 2015 for his Urdu translation of the novel ‘Lal Ded’. He received Kusumagraj National Award for literature in 2019.
[Note: Ved Rahi’s profile is mainly based on a TV documentary in Dogri on him, his TV interviews in Dogri and Hindi, and his interview published in ‘Daily Excelsior’, April 24, 2016, apart from some online information available on him].
Sometime in 1960s, Ved Rahi wrote a short story, ‘Daraar’ based on 1965 Indo-Pak war, which was published in one of the reputed Hindi magazines. The story became the talk of the town among the Hindi readers. Encouraged by this, Ved Rahi decided that one day he would make a Hindi film on this story. Sometime in 1971, Shanti Sagar, the elder son of Ramanand Sagar decided to make a film on this short story and the name of the film was kept the same as the title of the story, i.e., ‘Daraar’ (1972). By this time, there was second Indo-Pak war of 1971. Therefore, the context of Indo-Pak war in the film was changed from 1965 to 1971. Since Ved Rahi has been assisting Ramanand Sagar in the direction, Shanti Sagar gave the responsibility of direction of the film to him. The cast included Baldev Khosa and Rohini (probably her only film) in the lead roles supported by Lata Arora, Ashavali, Manju Sharma, Birbal, Meenal Mehta, Radheshyam, Kamalakar Date, Usha Bakshi, Radharani, Satyarani etc. It was a low budget film. Hence most of the actors for minor roles were taken from Jammu who were associated with radio plays and local theatres.
The story of ‘Daraar’ (1972) is based on 1971 Indo-Pak war and the resultant chaos in the family life of those staying in a village close to the border. Unfortunately, the film is neither available for viewing on any of the video sharing platforms nor on OTT. Even I could not get the synopsis of the film online. I am sure that the original short story may be there in Ved Rahi’s one of the published books containing his collection of Hindi short stories. However, none of his old, published books are available online for reading or even for buying. The silver lining in my efforts was that I got my hand an audio clip available online, discussing the broad story of the film interspersed with a few dialogues from the film.
I have attempted to weave the story of the film based on the audio clip and the lyrics of the film’s songs which is as under:
In a village close to Pakistani border, Baldev Khosa and Rohini fall in love. After a brief courtship, their love blossoms into a marriage. They happily live their married life. Rohini gets pregnant and a mood of celebrations starts in the family. When Rohini is in advanced stage of her pregnancy, the Indo-Pak border skirmishes starts which turns into a full-pledged war. The villagers can hear the sound of mortar firings some of which lands in the village. There is an exodus of the villagers to move away to far off places from the border as they hear the sound of tanks coming from Pakistani side.
Rohini starts getting labour pain. Due to exodus, Baldev Khosa is not able to get a Dai to attend to the delivery of Rohini. She cannot withstand her increasing labour pain as the cross-border firings increase. Baldev Khosa is caught between saving his life and Rohini’s life. He tells Rohini that he would leave the village carrying her on his back. But she is in so much pain that she decides to stay in the house and leave her fate to the Almighty. She tells her husband to leave her alone and save his life by leaving the village. But he is still in two minds – to leave Rohini alone in such a situation or not.
The increased mortar shelling and the sound of tanks coming from Pakistani side forces Baldev Khosa to leave the house and run away along with other villagers to a safer place leaving Rohini alone. After few days, when the shelling stops, Baldev Khosa walks back to his village and hears infant’s crying inside his house. Baldev goes inside the house to find Rohini in good shape with the infant. He comes to know that the Indian Army had pushed back the intruding Pakistani army. But the situation in the border is still tense. Baldev Khosa and his wife with the infant, leave the village. But their married life is not as was before. The film ends with a narrator telling that there is a ‘daraar’ (crack) in their relationship.
I find quite an unusual ending in the film as the director who is also the writer of the original story has left to the audience as to what kind of ‘daraar’ has developed in the relationship of Baldev Khosa and Rohini. Going by the theme of most of his short stories in Hindi as well as his TV serial, Gul-Gulshan-Gulfaam’ (1987), Ved Rahi may be hinting at the psychological ‘daraar’ that develops between the close relatives and friends due to the impact of war-like situations in their hitherto peaceful and relaxed life. My own guess is that though Baldev Khosa and Rohini may continue to live in their married life happily, somewhere in the back of her mind, Rohini would occasionally remember that her husband left her alone to fend for herself in her difficult period even though she had also suggested him to do so.
The film has 4 songs written by Kulwant Jani (2) and Mahendra Dehlvi which were set to music by Sudhir Phadke. All the songs are good to listen. I am presenting the third song from the film to appear on the Blog. The song is ‘kyun chamke bol kuchh bol ras ghol goriye’. The song is rendered by Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle on the words of Mahendra Dehlvi. Only the audio clip of the song is available. My guess is that the song was picturised on Baldev Khosa and Rohini who was expecting a baby.
There is an interesting trivia which was revealed by Ved Rahi in one of his interviews. He visited Sudhir Phadke’s house to request him to compose the music for ‘Daraar’ (1972). A surprised Sudhir Phadke asked him ‘Why me’? He had not given music for any Hindi film after 1962. Those days, Sudhir Phadke was busy with Marathi films. Ved Rahi said that he was so mesmerised by his composition, jyoti kalash chalke in ‘Bhaabhi Ki Choodiyaan’ (1961) that he had decided that whenever he makes his first film, he would take Sudhir Phadke as the music director. How can Sudhir Phadke say ‘no’ to his fan? He agreed.
After about 20 years later, Sudhir Phadke who was producing ‘Veer Savarkar (2001) in early 1990s, financed by the public contributions, approached Ved Rahi to write screenplay for one of the segments of the film and direct it. (The film had many directors who directed different segments of the film). Ved Rahi asked the same question. ‘Why me’? He had not directed any Hindi film after 1984. Of course, Ved Rahi agreed.
The song under discussion was very popular on Vividh Bharati in 1970s and I had heard this song many times. After many decades, I heard this song recently which made me to know about the film under discussion.
Audio Clip:
Song-Kyun chamke Bol kuchh bol ras ghol goriye (Daraar)(1972) Singers-Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Lyrics-Mahendra Dehalvi, MD-Sudhir Phadke
Lyrics
kyun chamke
kyun chamke
bol kuchh bol ras ghol goriye
tere maathhe ki bindiya
kyun chamke
kyun chamke
kaise bataaun mere dhol sajna
mere maathhe ki bindiya
mamta ke baadlon ki
thhandi thhandi chhaav mein
kisko bulaaye tu
sapnon ke gaaon mein
tera hi nazaara mujhko rijhaaye
dekhoon jab tujhko
wo jhalak dikhaai
bhed hai ye kaisa
kuchh bol goriye
bol kuchh bol ras ghol goriye
tere maathhe ki bindiya
bol kab aane waali
nanhi si bahaar hai
dekh mere kheton ko bhi
yahi intzaar hai
jaldi hi dekhega
wo nanhi si bahaar tu
dam to le sainyyan aise
ho na bekaraar tu
aayenge wo din anmol sajna
kaise bataaun mere dhol sajna
mere maathhe ki bindiya
chaand hai badariya mein
(haan aan aan)
phir bhi ujaala hai
(aan aan)
tujh mein samaaya kaise
roop ye niraala hai
o… jaise mera pyaar channa
tujh mein samaaya hai
roop tera aise hi to
mujh mein samaaya hai
motiyon se doonga tujhe tol goriye
bol kuch bol ras ghol goriye
tere maathhe ki bindiya