Song – Lakdi ki kaathi..
Movie – Masoom.
Singers – Vanita Mishra, Gauri Bapat, Gurpreet kaur.
Composer – R. D. Burman.
Lyricist – Gulzar.

When Gulzar writes and R. D. Burman composes, whatever or whoever may be on screen, you would hardly resist yourself but spend 3/3.30 fine hours of your life just to get 4 to 5 finest treasuresome melodies of absolute class. They together have come along mostly for some brilliant onscreen works only to put them on quite an another level by their ethereal inputs and steal the show completely from the director(if not Gulzar himself) and the star cast…
And there comes The Shekhar Kapur with his directorial debut who has taken the finest from everyone to make this timeless classic. Besides Lord and Gulzar, from little Mini to Said Jafri, each one has done quite a refined job.

Trespassing of a third person in a couple’s life has been a much cultivated subject for Hindi movies, but here it brings quite different and supreme layers of emotions.! Unlike most of movies with similar subject, here is a happy go lucky kinda family. Hero is a ‘good’ person. An educated, responsible, dedicated family man who belongs to an elite society. Wife too is a very caring and cultured, balanced and beautiful lady who is a loving mother of two very sweet and lovable daughters. And one fine day the man comes to know that he is also a father of one ‘masoom’ boy whose almost forgotten mother has left the world without uttering even a single word to him about this boy’s existence. And now that little boy has no person and relation left on the earth except him only.
What feels genuine is, the man here doesn’t try to hide or cover up his fall which he could do easily. He confesses everything to his wife before bringing the boy at his home risking just everything he has.
Shabana has done her job so incredibly that no other can! She is shocked, stunned and so deeply pained. What went wrong which made her man deceive her – specially at that time when she was going to fill their lives with the most blissful gift a wife can ever give to her husband! She sobs in grief, suffers a pulsatile pang constantly and still this wounded wife doesn’t leave her husband and home for the sake of her two masoom daughters. So disturbing presence of that little boy all the time keeps reminding her about her husband’s betrayal. She quite restlessly swings between a subtle coldness and irresistibly arising feel towards that awfully innocent, extremely lovable and apprehensively hesitant boy whose eyes express more than his words.

Passing through so much heart stirring moments penned by Gulzar sahab, this dilemma ends with a sublime conclusion which he has put in Tanuja’s mouth. ” Jab maa ki bhaavna jaagti hai, uske saamne aurat nahin khadi rahe sakati.”

Between all these chaos and dialogues(only when needed!) depicting dark despair, Gulzar’s pen splashes some heavenly drizzle of lilts which wets the deepest core of your being with help of none other than Lord.!!! Here R. D. Burman has created all absolutely matchless melodies.!!
Pancham, Gulzar and Mini bring here some most cherishable moments for masoom Rahul who is just unable to understand why he is not welcomed by ‘auntie’ unlike these two angelic friends and their father whose love is now blaming his pained lonesome heart. In this song he lives the best moments of his entire stay at this home. Pancham has composed a honey-dropping melody with 3 voices of Vanita Mishra, Gauri Bapat and Gurpreet kaur. This pretty, peppy, lovely song is quite a pleasant treat to both ears and eyes. One of the best ever children songs of Hindi film music.

लकड़ी की काठी
काठी पे घोड़ा
घोडे की दुम पे जो मारा हथौड़ा
दौड़ा दौड़ा दौड़ा घोड़ा दुम उठा के दौड़ा.

How delightfully the song starts with lyrics at once! You can’t expect a naughty child to wait until prelude completes its role. Right?
“tung”.. A strum on bass and then group of all enchanting instruments like accordian, mouthorgan, mandolin, guitar and violins are thrilled to join the play!
Very similar to the memories of those childhood days when you watch 1or 2 from your gang frolicking out and you can’t resist yourself to join them but galloping there at your highest form. I had been beaten for the same quite often. Haha..here, b(ea)its are coming from subtle bongo. But as soon as the lyrics starts flowing again, both tabla and dholak join these perky kids quite jauntily!

First interlude starts with gleeful notes on mandolin and just follow accordion and violins with bouncy notes. Mandolin gives a clue with a strum and Gulzar takes you again to that twee times of your memory land.

घोड़ा पहुंचा चौक में
चौक में था नाई
घोड़े जी की नाई ने हजामत जो बनाई..

R. D. Burman takes care enough not to disturb you much there so he has kept the percussions silent first and rhythm floats on guitar only. But soon some cute activities on screen by these frisky kids captivates your attention and Pancham again invites dholak and tabla to join vocals.
But what sounds the bestest is that
टग-बग, टग-बग
टग-बग, टग-बग..
A naughty yet cutie kid throbbing deep inside Gulzar’s persona always jumps out and sits quite upon the tip of his pen when he starts writing a children song. He is unbeatable in that particular zone in my humble opinion.

Second interlude starts with Harmonica. Pancham must have recalled his own childhood memories. But when vocals join, harmonica steps back – “sing children, gone our days..” and later winds itself up. Here enter violins again. And then Gulzar..

घोड़ा था घमंडी
पहुंचा सब्जी मंडी
सब्जी मंडी बरफ पड़ी थी, बरफ में लग गई ठंडी
टग-बग, टग-बग
टग-बग, टग-बग..

You can’t help but love love lo…ve these children performing each of activities so charmingly and also Shekhar Kapoor for choosing and directing them in such a way!!
Third interlude. Someone from the unit must have been sent to visit funfair nearby on the previous day with his kids. I don’t feel these sounds can come out of a synth. Real whistle it is along with rapturous notes of mouthorgan and accordion.

घोड़ा अपना तगड़ा है देखो कितनी चरबी है
चलता है महरौली में पर घोड़ा अपना अरबी है
बांह छूड़ा के दौड़ा घोड़ा दुम उठा के दौड़ा..

Postlude is of hamonica and chorus. Lovelier than lovely. What could be more adorable than this! Feeling bad as that cuteness, sweetness from our onscreen kids are lost somewhere. They are becoming more stylish and smart! To feel such ethereal innocence, you need to visit again and again such “Masoom” works by Pancham/Gulzar and of course, Shekhar Kapur. Isn’t it?