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.