The Unusual Story Of An Evergreen Song

I must have been ten years old when I first heard the song and I don’t know why I was haunted by it. I could not make much sense of the lyrics, but there was something about the song that has lived with me for all of my life. The first line, "Ajeeb daastan hai yeh, kahan shuru, kahan khatam" was a line I could never forget and the song kept growing more and more enchanting for me. I hummed it whenever I could and I soon found out that it was a very popular song loved by many. There was a song-based programme on Radio Ceylon called Binaca Geet Mala anchored by a very powerful voice which belonged to a man called Ameen Sayani. I remember how I and many like me rushed home on Wednesday evenings before eight just to see that we did not miss out on any song in the one hour long programme. "Ajeeb daastan hai yeh, kahan shuru, kahan khatam" topped the chart of the programme for several weeks and I was absolutely carried away by it.

I must have heard thousands of songs ever since, but this one song has always been my favourite and still is. I didn’t know anything about caller tunes or even the ways of using the mobile which I still don’t know. However, a time came when some of my friends said that I should have a caller tune. They made me listen to all kinds of songs and sounds which signified nothing. I was almost giving up, when the next tune I heard made my heart leap up with joy. It was the same song I was in love with for fifty years- "Ajeeb daastan hai yeh, kahan shuru, kahan khatam". I did not want to hear anything else and asked my friends how best and how fast I could get the song as my caller tune. It is the one thing that makes life so very different from what life has been reduced to these days.

I feel very thrilled when people of all ages tell me about the wonderful song I have as my caller tune even before they have to talk about the most important matters about life. My thrill knows no bounds when even young girls tell me how good and soothing my caller tune is. Only last week, Meghna Ghai, daughter of the Showman Subhash Ghai and the Managing Director of Whistling Woods International called me and again like many others she was excited about my caller tune and went ecstatic as she told me how happy she felt when listening to the song. She also said that it was the only song she sang as a lullaby to put her children to sleep. The compliments keep pouring in and I can never imagine how one song could play such an important part in my life. I decided to find out more about the song and could not control myself and called my authority on Hindi film music, Suhas Khandke who was holidaying in Goa. He too heard about the song and sounded as excited as a little boy who had found his lost mouth organ. He as I expected had all the details.

The song was a part of a film called Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai made way back in 1960. It was written by Shailendra even though the credit for the lyrics was shared by Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra. It was, naturally sung by Lata Mangeshkar because who could have sung a song like this one with so much feel and sensitivity? And the song, Suhas was very sure was composed by Shankar even though the film was supposed to have music by Shankar and Jaikishan. The film was actually produced by Kamal Amrohi (Meena Kumari’s husband, writer and filmmaker)  even though his name doesn’t go as the producer, was directed by the actor-director Kishore Sahu best known for his performance as Marco in Dev Anand‘s Guide. The song in the film is picturised on Meena Kumari, the leading lady of the film with the leading man Raaj Kumar and the vamp Nadira all in the same frame.

The film was about a well-known surgeon played by Raaj Kumar who falls in love with the nurse on duty, Meena Kumari. Fate however intervenes and Raaj Kumar has to marry Nadira. Meena is shattered and the song is her expression about what she feels about her losing out to Nadira. The song is a highlight of the film even when the film is seen now and the magic about it is still to be de-mystified and the magic will always haunt lovers of good and great music whenever music is talked about.

Some thirty-five or forty years later there was a remake of Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai and it was called Armaan. It was the debut of Honey Irani (mother of Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar) as the director, and was produced by Lawrence D’souza and Manohar Pandya and presented by Dinesh Gandhi, the young and dynamic diamond dealer who unfortunately died with his wife when the apartment in which his family lived caught fire two years ago. It was a film with Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Preity Zinta and Gracy Singh. Surprisingly, the remake could not come anywhere near the black and white original and needless to say Armaan did not have a single song that could appeal, forget coming anywhere near the phenomenal popularity of "Ajeeb daastan hai yeh, kahan shuru, kahan khatam" or any of the other songs in Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai.

Like everything else in life or life itself, every song also has its own destiny and "Ajeeb daastan hai yeh, kahan shuru, kahan khatam" is a song which had its destiny which has made it live and sound as fresh as the morning to come tomorrow. I have no command over my destiny, but I know that this one song will live with me as long as I live and will continue to live long after I have lived.