Chanda Ka Dil: Of Broken Hearts and Dreams
© mohdrafi.com
One can’t really put a finger on what it is about songs that talk of heart break. When you hear it normally, you think “oh, what a sad song“. But then when you go through heart break, you start actually listening to the song and understanding the deeper meaning in it. It’s like there is another level to the song, one which you never realized existed and now that you have found it, you know how true every word is.
Khoj is a very old film that was released in 1953. It is a Durga Films production and it was made by Balwant Bhatt. It is a murder mystery that revolves around a whole bunch of characters. Needles to say, there is love, betrayal and accusations too abound liberally. It was quite a run of the mill movie starring Shammi Kapoor, Habib, Kesari, Lalita Kumari and Mahipal. Most of these names won’t even ring a bell with today’s audience, let alone the film, which did not do that well.
Where the film failed, the songs did not. One song in particular-”Chanda ka dil toot gaya hai rone lage hai sitare…” is a heart squeezing song that speaks the language of a scorned lover. Cheated of his love, he is devastated and vents out his frustrations through this song.
The music director for the film is Nisar Bazmi and when in India , he was literally unacknowledged for his mastery. This film too did not do justice to his talent and it is a shame that India lost him to Pakistan, where he went on to become one of the most famous music directors. From his short career in Hindi films, he still remembers the song in question as it is one his favorites. The music for the song is beautifully done, it communicates the anguish and anger of the hero with the right amount of emotion and it compliments to situation really well. Conventional, with a few trademark touches every now and then, it is a good composition.
The lyrics have been created by Raja Mehdi and they are completely fabulous. It is true that only a broken heart can understand the true meaning of these words. Not only does he put the hurt man’s anger in words, but he taps into something a lot more subtle-his hurt at being so betrayed and his obvious love that still lingers in the hurt. Through the reproaches in the song, Mehdi gives a voice to a sad soul with nothing left within it. Beautifully written, it really is one of his best works.
The song is taken to another dimension by Mohd. Rafi, the voice behind this creation. Legend has it that the music director had approached Rafi Saab with a meager amount of Rs. 50 for this song and that the magnanimous singer did it for a token of one rupee. He lent his talent to a struggling composer and you can feel the pain, such is the mastery in Rafi’s voice. A truly amazing singer - he has done what comes naturally to him.
When you feel the need to tell your feelings to someone, but simply can’t find the words to bare your broken heart, this song will help you break out and cry - it sure helps to open up when you hear those words, makes you feel comforted.
Download: Chanda Ka Dil
Film: Khoj [1953]
Lyrics: Raja Mehdi
Music: Nisar Bazmi.
February 10th, 2008 at 2:18 am
His genius not withstanding, Sajjad Husain was an arrogant composer who prefaced discussions of his compositions along with those of Naushad Ali, by saying with rancour, “yeh Naushad Saheb ki bandish nahin hai….” To him he himself was the only great compser in films. Even Naushad Saheb was ‘kachra’. No wonder he was a frustrated and broken man for the last 35 years of his life. My heart skips a beat even at this age, when I listen to songs from his repertoire of 13 odd films, but then I think of his arrogance and I pity him. He had no respect for his contemporaries: Lata and Noorjehan were all that mattered to him. A sad commentary indeed on a misguided genius.
June 12th, 2007 at 11:01 am
dear haldar
can u give me u email adress?
June 12th, 2007 at 8:42 am
nice article, thanks rafi.com
June 12th, 2007 at 8:41 am
thanks to rafi.com
June 10th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
dear mr. jangvi,
I don’t have the clip for “chanda ka dil toot gaya”. I’m sure someone else on this forum would be able to provide you with the clip. By the way, I found Sajjad’s comment on Talat interesting. I was listening to that gem of a song Talat delivered for Sajjad in Sangdil, “yeh hawa yeh raat yeh chandni”, and was wondering what “galti” he could have done. Sajjad was definitely not amused when Madan Mohan used that tune in Rafi’s “Tujhe kya sunawoon main dilruba”.
I have access to Noorjehan’s songs and I listened to a couple of them composed by Firoze Nizami in the 50s. I think it’s better not to get into the Lata vs Noorjehan comparison because it is not appropriate for this forum and also because it is going to be an unfair comparison. Who knows what would have happened if Sahir and O. P. Nayyar stayed back in Lahore, Ghulam Haider and Noorjehan stayed back in Bombay, Geeta Roy (Dutt) stayed back in dhaka, and Mehdi hassan stayed back in Rajasthan? We can keep speculating but it will take us nowhere.
But we rafians are eternally grateful to our beloved singer for announcing “yeh hai bambai meri jaan” and enthralling his fans for the last 60 years. Will there be anyone like him?
June 9th, 2007 at 10:53 am
dear haldar
sajjad was father of music.he has very deep knowledge of classical music.no one can match him.unfortunately, he was very moody person.once he said kishore is shoor kumar and talat as ghalat mahmood.
he also said after lata no purpose for asha in music.
he told naushad that suhani raat dhal chuki can come to my compositions.
June 9th, 2007 at 10:46 am
dear haldar
thanks.can u send me song ‘chanda ka dil toot giya’
bazam22@yahoo.com
also give me u email adress?i will send u noor jehan songs.
June 9th, 2007 at 3:37 am
A little background on “Chanda ka dil”:
Raju Bharatan in the Illustrated Weekly of India writes:
Could you believe that end-July signalled full 13 luckless years
without the charismatic voice of Mohd. Rafi? I, for one, couldn’t
believe it, if only because I discerned that it was during these
very 13 tuneless years that Rafi had grown more dominant in our
vocal imaginations. Whether it be TV or radio, his vocals have
been even more vibrant in the years he has been away from us.
Shabbir KUmar, Anwar, Mohd. Aziz, their performing stature dimin-
ishes with every year that passes without Rafi.
So unique is Rafi’s vocal mystique that he is always throwing up
new areas, for example, not one anniversary article on Rafi
touched on how this big-hearted tenor *made* small-time com-
posers. It is this lacuna we now seek to fill in a resonant reply
of some Rafi’s all-time hits for the lesser-known music direc-
tors. The idea is to spotlight Rafi’s role in keeping the
small-time composer professionally alive.
Remember an obscure 1953 C-grade film called “Khoj” for which
music was scored by Nissar Baazmi, the man who later went to Pak-
istan and became such a big composer there that even Noorjehan
and Mehdi Hassan considered it an honour to sing for him. Yet so
long as Nissar Baazmi was in India, he somehow remained a C-grade
composer. And at the time he did “Khoj”, he was literally a no-
body.
This was when Baazmi approached Rafi to sing for the maximum Rs
50 that his producer could afford for the rendition of a composi-
tion on which he prided himself. And Rafi charged Baazmi just the
token Re 1 to produce for him, in Khoj, the memorable Radio
Ceylon hit, “Chanda ka dil toot gaya roney lage hain sitaare”.
This Raja Mehdi Ali Khan lyric began with the cry: “Mohabbat aur
wafaa kis tarah tauheen ki tu ne”. What a compelling sense of
expression Rafi brought to this tune of a struggling composer!
June 9th, 2007 at 3:04 am
In the “dil toot gaya” category, I would add SD’s “Kya se kya ho gaya” (Guide), Salil’s “Toote huwe khwabo ne” (Madhumati), Sapan Jagmohan’s “Phir woh bhuli si yaad” (Begaana), and OP’s “Tukde hain mere dilke” (Mere Sanam).
June 9th, 2007 at 2:26 am
I just found out that Adnan Sami was born and raised in Britain, not Pakistan. Sorry about the faux pas. Shows how much I know about the current generation of singers. Let’s get back to our topic: the one and only RAFI !!!
June 9th, 2007 at 2:02 am
Mr. Hussein Sheikh:
I haven’t heard Adnan Sami’s songs but he seems to be very popular (I read somewhere that he performs with Asha Bhosle). Is he that bad?
June 9th, 2007 at 1:57 am
A short but nice article, the song “Chanda Ka Dil….” is a must for every rafians. So nicely sung by the legend. rafi-fan@hotmail.com