Singer : Lata Mangeshkar & Choir artists. 

Music : Salil Chowdhury 

Lyrics : Shailendra. 

Tell me, have you ever listened the sound of light?

Do you know, how smoke sounds? 

Have you come across the songs of soil, wood, grass, leaves, flowers and/or breeze ever? 

No??! 

Then you have yet to watch a Bimal Roy film ornamented with Salil Da's music and Kamal Bose's frames. Those films where woods are lovely, dark and deep.. and even if I have promises to keep, I cheat, borrow or steal time to be with them after every little while to revivify myself. By just seeing the nature shown on the celluloid, my breaths automatically get more oxygen. Fragrant oxygen. Yes, these movies have their own earthy fragrance that I could feel everytime while being with them. We mortals are made of total 5 elements - earth, water, fire, wind and space. All these elements are in harmony with our prana, our breaths, exhalation. Have you ever tried to feel, how reflective they are? They are responding to each of our breaths, throbs and thoughts. Have you ever clearly listened them echoing one's sentiments? 

I can say, I have! 

It's quite precise and pure. Also surreal and seraphic at the same time! One of the most sublime reflections of nature I have experienced in my lifetime is the choir created by Salil da. You can not define but experience it and the best and most beautiful thing about it is you need not to close your eyes for that! You can see the smoke, the light, the fire, the soil, the sky, the stars... just everything around you singing, echoing, reflecting to whatever they are being witness of through the lence of Bimal Roy.  

We have listened flute, santoor, glockenspiel, guitar, sitar, shehnai etc lending their playback to cool breeze, rain, stream, river, flowers, leaves or the soil itself. But that was Salil da who provided sound to the smoke, light, stars and sky with his celestial choir. 

And for that, he needed a voice that was as pure and pious as nature itself. 

Just that voice. 

Just ... 

No harmony playing behind. 

Sheer surge of the sentiments.. 

..... 

.... 

And there flows Shailendra's poetry.. 

khaak ho jaayen hum pyaar ke naam par..

Pyaar ki raah mein roshni to rahe... 

That sublime voice, just that voice, sings on behalf of the water trying to come out from two forlorn eyes.. and it's echoes in the form of choir-humming feels coming from the light and smoke ! 

A small village in countryside deprived even from basic facilities. An honest but skint postmaster trying to make ends meet so badly in reduced circumstances. An ever ailing mother, an amiable brother and an ethereally beautiful girl Seema.. (Sadhana Shivdasani). A girl who is all grace.. who's simple yet very sweet.. who's carrying every little chores of  household on her delicate shoulders with utmost care and concern.. 

And an ethical and idealist young man, "saath (60) rupalli ka school master" Rajat (Basanta Chowdhury). 

And that one of the most simple, sublime and soulful lovestories our silver screen ever had. Two innocent lovebirds who are very friendly, understanding and comforting to each other. 

And the set of circumstances.. 

Parakh was not just a social/political satire. Salil Choudhary's storyline and Shailendra's screenplay/dialogues (His only film as dialogue writer) have beautifully crafted a parallel lovestory also wherein they have exquisitely cultivated delicate layers of a soft-hearted demsel's mindscape who's surrendering to the turn of events and sacrificing her love at one point. 

Now this is the girl who is completely and deeply immersed in nature, and so is nature! All alone in her hut, poor girl is shedding silent tears and here, nature with its all elements becomes her intimate and sobs her sentiments alongwith. 

Yeah..  

Who else than Salil Da could think so! 

Wait, he not only thought but has composed the situation that way with the help of Shailendra's sublime poetry having unprecedented metaphors, and of course, with his awe-inspiring choir. And with that, 

whatever Bimal Roy has created on screen is far beyond the reach of any vocabulary. 

Western flute comes to give the playback for that earthy house made of woods and soil. And again that voice.. wetting the corners of your eyes .. nothing to show on the face that is off the screen. 

Just flames.. light... fire.. 

and choir.. 

and Shailendra.. 

Aag ke phool aanchal mein daale hue.. 

Kab se jalta hai yeh aasman dekh le.. 

Sky... 

stars... 

merging into the water... held inside those two forlorn eyes.. 

and again that voice .. 

"Mere man ke diye... "

In the entire universe there was/is/will be just one voice that is synonymous to nature itself. That has sheer essence of earth, water, fire, wind and space..

That's Lata ji for us. She's prana.. she's oxygen for our breaths, our exhalation process. 

Salil da knew that the most.

Movie : Mazaaq 

Voices : Asha Bhonsle, Vinod Mehra 

Composer : R. D. Burman 

Lyricist : Yogesh 

And you are the luckiest if that person is the Kishore Kumar!! 

That 12 years old child was indeed very lucky to get the chance to play younger version of Kishore Kumar in film 'Ragini' in 1958. Destiny has planned a far greater reward for him in form of some of the most memorable melodies he was going to get from same Kishore Kumar in future. At the age of 20, he lost an opportunity to win All India Talent Contest organised by United Producers and Filmfare from more than ten thousand contestants in 1965, otherwise, perhaps, he would have gotten Nasir Hussain as his first director and R D Burman as his first composer for film 'Baharon ke sapne.' He was the first runner-up and the winner was Rajesh Khanna with whom he shared the screen later in 'Amar Prem' - the epic made by Shakti Samanta. Playing a little role, Nandu babu's elder version in 'Amar Prem' paid him off in 1973, when the same Shakti Samanta gave him his first hit as hero - 'Anuraag'. Its music came from same Burman Gharana, bade Burman dada this time. And then success followed him - Vinod Mehra - with all musical hits. 

Today would have been his 78th birthday! Let's celebrate Vinod Mehra with one of his lesser discussed lilt composed by R D Burman. There is a special reason to choose this song instead of taking some hugely popular melodies picturised on him. This song from film 'Mazaaq' was the only song wherein Vinod Mehra joined Ashaji in recording studios too!! 

'Mazaaq' was not fortunate enough to leave its mark as a great movie but it was profusely fortunate to get one more best rain song composed by Rahul Dev Burman and penned by Yogesh ji. Vinod Mehra was one more lucky guy besides Randheer Kapur who has received some speldid eternal classic songs from R D Burman which boosted up his movies. Here also, in this movie, he was given an utterly beautiful song to become a part of! And he tried his level best to justify the job he was asked to do. Now We shouldn't compare him with Big B and Gulzar for their dialogues​ in Silsila and Raincoat songs considering their height and depth respectively. Their ohh-so-mesmerising base too. Still, VM sounds pretty good in this song. 

Prelude starts with charming guitar notes, enchanting flute, mellow sound of glockenspiel and entriguing violins notes and ends at a moment when a sudden strum depicts an endearing 'takkar' on screen which makes this entire saga flow......

Ashaji breezes in with such a sweet and sensuous voice which is undoubtedly best while expressing an allure outblooming. Mausami Chatterjee one more time gets an extremely beautiful drizzling lilt by Pancham besides Manzil.  

टकरा गये दो बादल अम्बर पे

तो बरसने लगी बून्दें बिखर के..

A thrilling encounter breaks all the barriers and makes the emotions glide.

'Baadal' comes three times in mukhda and each of times it sounds naughtier and more playful than the previous one.

"To barsne lagi boonden bikhar ke.." 

This outpouring too gets bolder with each of repetation. Ashaji's singing lifts the romance up to its peak bit by bit. 

First interlude starts with gushing violins. Delighting sound of glockenspiel makes everything fresh and vibrant just like lovely little raindrops. Soothing flute comes as if to soften the fervour she is feeling. Guitar is at its grandeour throughout pairing itself with glockenspiel. Violins again sway in to give break to Vinod Mehra. He goes in quite a smooth and natural way and just as he stops, that "aahh" by Ashaji works as a sudden, naughty yet so likable pinch on your senses. 

छोड़ो जाओ, बड़े वो हो तुम

नाम मेरा जोड़ दिया, मौसम से सनम..

मौसम फिर भी, मौसम है सनम

नाम मेरा जोड़ा ना बता ख़ुद से क्योंं बलम..

मुझसे मिलाओ ये नैन तो

ऐसे न जलाओ मेरे मन को..

This "woh" was quite a fascinating thing in vintage movie songs containing an X factor which was accessible only to the heroine and which sounded so cute and lovable. Here again Ashaji's exquisite rendition finely beats the beauty of lovely lush of beautiful rainwashed flowers, trees and also the pretty face lypsanching on screen. Specially that variation at the end of "mausam phir bhi mausam hai sanam.." amazing..

So tweely she complains about "naam mera joda na bataa khood se kyon balam..." Her immense desire of merging her identity into her man's name sounds so innocent and adorable.  

When she repeates the mukhda, the scene is shot damn beautifully. A heart overflowen with love and affection gets its way out through the eyes. What an ecstasy!

Reso reso gives quite an unconventional start to second interlude. Soft swirl on vibraphone and again crisp sound of reso followed by violins and guitar strums. How brilliantly all the sounds direct onscreen activities!

Whenever Vinod Mehra speaks, guitar and glockenspiel played in the background depict the mindset of his amused listener. So delicate, feathery yet vibrated.

And again Ashaji breaks in to blow you away..

जाने आई कैसी ये उमर..

बन के कली खिलने लगी सूनी राह पर..

तन में मन में, उठी ये लहर 

तुझसे सजन टकराए मन, जाऊँ मैं बिखर..

आग लगे रे सावन को, छू गया मेरे दामन को.

Visuals perfectly portrays the essence of each word of lyrics. 

"Jaane aai kaisi ye umar" and there shown those fragrant Rose buds. 

"Ban ke kali khilne lagi sooni raah par..." makes bud-like Mausami walk barefooted on wet soil in between the green grass on both her sides. 

"Tan mein man mein uthi yeh leher.." plucks her from there and puts at her dremscape and 

"tujhse sajan takaraye man jaun main bikhar" fetches her back to present!

"Aag lage re saawan ko chhu gaya mere daaman ko" sings her stimulated ardour so subtly. 

This movie - Mazaaq never saw any considerable success. It came and went in no time. But this song undoubtedly​ is being acclaimed for its ultimate charm. It doesn't resemble just a heavenly drizzle, it holds entire monsoon in itself.