My blogging glands (yes we are the glandy biologist-types) suddenly become active only when I am in a time crunch and should be doing something else! Well, that is the story of every procrastinator that ever lived.
Having recently watched Woody Allen's Annie Hall, I was reminded of two lines of one of my favorite Hindi movie songs.
A side thought: Indian film music doesn't give much emphasis to lyrics. Given that the dominant style in Indian music is the vocal style, this is a rather surprising state of affairs but as it is and has been, Indian music specially film music sorely lacks aesthetics in terms of lyrical quality often falling into predictable traps of the "dil-vil-pyar-vyar" variety.
Anyway, the song in questions is, a love song that has intrigued me for as long as I can remember , from this movie Aandhi, with lyrics by Gulzar. Directed by Gulzar incidentally, a rather boring movie with a i-get-paid-for-looking-like-a-moron Suchitra Sen. To me the only draw to the movie was Sanjeev Kumar. Having chosen career over family and blah, Suchitra Sen , a politician , runs into hotel manager husband Sanjeev Kumar after ages. Old feelings emerge and blah and they sing this song:
Tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa nahin,
Tere bina zindagi bhi lekin zindagi nahin.
(shikva= regret/ misgiving/ complain , zindagi= life)
While the rest of the song is typical Gulzar and IMHO nothing spectacular, I love how these two lines capture the relationship of the lead pair so concisely.
Loosely translated these lines would go:
Life would be perfect without you in it ,
Life would, however, not be life without you in it.
(G (not Gulzar) is going to disagree with this translation. We have argued over this for as long as we have known each other but oh well, my blog so .....:) )
Notice how there are times when the fact that ten million people care fades in front of the seeming nonchalance of one person. Times when say on a birthday, the fact that that one wish did not come irks more than the hundred others that did come. Times when every achievement seems a little less happy because the everyone who is happy for you does not include that one person. Times when you are left wondering if it is all in fact a trade off for an otherwise full life.
But melancholy and over-dramatization is, of course, the essence of life! Everybody needs a "shikva" character in their lives and till the real shikva character does show up, we shift this burden from one relationship to another looking for the perfect shikva. For, how else are you supposed to know that you have found "true love" , unless shikva obligingly acts as the yard stick?
:)
Having recently watched Woody Allen's Annie Hall, I was reminded of two lines of one of my favorite Hindi movie songs.
A side thought: Indian film music doesn't give much emphasis to lyrics. Given that the dominant style in Indian music is the vocal style, this is a rather surprising state of affairs but as it is and has been, Indian music specially film music sorely lacks aesthetics in terms of lyrical quality often falling into predictable traps of the "dil-vil-pyar-vyar" variety.
Anyway, the song in questions is, a love song that has intrigued me for as long as I can remember , from this movie Aandhi, with lyrics by Gulzar. Directed by Gulzar incidentally, a rather boring movie with a i-get-paid-for-looking-like-a-moron Suchitra Sen. To me the only draw to the movie was Sanjeev Kumar. Having chosen career over family and blah, Suchitra Sen , a politician , runs into hotel manager husband Sanjeev Kumar after ages. Old feelings emerge and blah and they sing this song:
Tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa nahin,
Tere bina zindagi bhi lekin zindagi nahin.
(shikva= regret/ misgiving/ complain , zindagi= life)
While the rest of the song is typical Gulzar and IMHO nothing spectacular, I love how these two lines capture the relationship of the lead pair so concisely.
Loosely translated these lines would go:
Life would be perfect without you in it ,
Life would, however, not be life without you in it.
(G (not Gulzar) is going to disagree with this translation. We have argued over this for as long as we have known each other but oh well, my blog so .....:) )
Notice how there are times when the fact that ten million people care fades in front of the seeming nonchalance of one person. Times when say on a birthday, the fact that that one wish did not come irks more than the hundred others that did come. Times when every achievement seems a little less happy because the everyone who is happy for you does not include that one person. Times when you are left wondering if it is all in fact a trade off for an otherwise full life.
But melancholy and over-dramatization is, of course, the essence of life! Everybody needs a "shikva" character in their lives and till the real shikva character does show up, we shift this burden from one relationship to another looking for the perfect shikva. For, how else are you supposed to know that you have found "true love" , unless shikva obligingly acts as the yard stick?
:)
11 comments:
Wonderful post. However I wouldn't go to the extent of proclaiming that our music doesn't stress on lyrics. We've had great hits that rode on lyrics alone. And one of our greatest achievements has been striking the correct balance between lyrics and music.
Here's a site that offers song on all categories:
http://www.hummaa.com/index.php
Tere bina zindagi bhi lekin, zindagi to nahin,
zindagi nahin, zindagi nahin, zindagi nahin.
I certainly second your opinion about the loneliness and beauty of those two lines. I came across your blog while blog-browsing. It sure is an interesting world.
Beautifully said.
Shikva is the perfect yardstick of true love.
well said...!
Ran into your blog when i was looking for meaning of a song and found more. You should blog more often
Interesting blog, nice to see a variety of topics covered. It also seems you are well versed in hindi and tamil. Any other languages?
Good job!
Oh, and in case you want to know, I came to your blog through a mutual friend's (arpita) orkut buddy list.
Hey Misha, fantastic post! back here after a very long time since I almost thought you gave up writing...:D
anyways, aren't those lines sort of paradoxical?
the first line says - life is alright (maybe not-so-special) without you.
second line - life is not life without you..
unfortunately, IMO, the word 'Zindagi' has got more profundity to it than the mere, 'Life', making the translation a bit lame.. :)
cheers!
-arun
Hm.
Not that I know anything, but I think it's supposed to mean:
I have no complaint with life but you.
Then again, life isn't life without you.
... "you-hurt-me-but-i-still-love-you" sentiment...
Interesting thoughts from all..
I would say
There is no complaint in life.. without you
But life is not just life without you in it
Alt..
Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!
Well this blog is years old - Anyway...
I have neither seen this movie nor even seen the video of the song, I only had heard this song many times but only admiring the music. Yesterday when I was singing along, I did feel something strange in the lyrics - that it isn't a love song in its entirety.
What struck me was that the later lines do say that I feel like crying in your lap but your there isn't even moisture in your eyes! That seemed strange and then the first line became clear.
"Tere bina zindagi se koi shikva to nahi"
roughly/accurately (I don't know roughly or accurately) means "Zindagi mein koi shikva nahi, Sirf tum hi shikva ho"
There are no complaints/greviances in life - except for only you !
So lemme say - Don't sing it for your loved one unless you are sure of what it means ! ;)
Post a Comment