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"aaj Ki Raat" - Faiz Or Not Faiz?

, Noor Jehan - private recordings - sans accompaniment!

 
 
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> "aaj Ki Raat" - Faiz Or Not Faiz?, Noor Jehan - private recordings - sans accompaniment!
abhayp
post Dec 22 2008, 11:11 AM
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We often see the lyrics of the gorgeous Noor Jehan song from 'Jugnu' (1947), "aaj kii raat saaz-e-dil-purdard na chhe.D", being attributed to Faiz Ahmed Faiz. In fact, this song is NOT written by Faiz; the lyrics for this song, to the best of my knowledge, are by Asghar Sarhadi. (The other lyricist listed for the movie is M G Adeeb, but I have seen only Roshanara Begum's "desh kii purkaif rangii.n sii fizaa_o.n me.n kahii.n" attributed to him).

So how did Faiz's name enter the picture? Around 1941, Faiz wrote a nazm that started with the words "aaj kii raat saaz-e-dard na chhe.D". Easy to mistake it for the 'Jugnu' song (which came in 1947), right? Noor Jehan compounded the confusion by claiming in an interview (much later) that the "Jugnu" song started life as the Faiz nazm, but that the producers got the original nazm modified as they were worried that Faiz might sue them. She even went on to say that Faiz was such a good man that they needn't have worried - he would never have sued! (She also said in this interview that the tune of the nazm was composed by G A Chishti; he gifted it to her and she in turn asked Firoze Nizami to use the tune in "Jugnu".) This information about the interview was posted on RMIM by a person called Raza Abidi who said he had the recording of the interview.

The only problem with Madam's claim about the film song being a variation on the Faiz nazm is that the two poems have nothing in common beyond the similarity of the first line! Even if the film lyricist did take his inspiration for the opening line from Faiz (hardly an unusual occurrence), the rest of the film song is very different from the Faiz nazm. The theme itself differs: Faiz's poem talks of not giving in to grief and not letting the gloom of the past and the present colour the future; the film song only portrays the pain of the present. Tinkering with a poem for protection from IPR issues doesn't typically result in a parallel, distinctly different composition like this.

Decide for yourself: the lyrics of the Faiz nazm and the film song are given below and then, to make it more enjoyable, we have Noor Jehan rendering *both* the poems!

First, the Faiz nazm:

aaj kii raat saaz-e-dard na chhe.D

dukh se bharapuur din tamaam hu_e
aur kal kii Khabar kise maaluum
dosh-o-fardaa kii miT chukii hai.n huduud
ho na ho ab sahar, kise maaluum

zindagii hech lekin aaj kii raat
ezdiiyat hai mumkin aaj kii raat


(dosh-o-fardaa = last night and tomorrow;
huduud = boundaries;
hech = futile, worthless;
ezdiiyat = godhood, divinity)

aaj kii raat saaz-e-dard na chhe.D

ab na doharaa fasaanaa haaye-alam
apanii qismat pe sogawaar na ho
fiqr-e-fardaa utaar de dil se
umr-e-raftaa pe ashkabaar na ho

ahd-e-Gam kii hikaayate.n mat puuchh
ho chukii.n sab shikaayate.n mat puuchh

aaj kii raat saaz-e-dard na chhe.D



Now, the lyrics of the 'Jugnu' song, written (most probably) by Asghar Sarhadi:

aaj kii raat
aaj kii raat saaz-e-dil-e-purdard na chhe.D
aaj kii raat

qaul ulfat kaa jo ha.Nsate hu_e taaro.n ne sunaa
band kaliyo.n ne sunaa, mast bahaaro.n ne sunaa
sab se chhup kar jise do prem ke maaro.n ne sunaa
Khwaab kii baat samajh is ko haqiiqat na banaa

aaj kii raat saaz-e-dil-e-purdard na chhe.D
aaj kii raat

ab hai aramaano.n pe chhaaye hu_e baadal kaale
phuuT kar risane lage hai.n mere dil ke chhaale
aa.Nkh bhar aa_ii chhalakane ko hai ab ye pyaale
muskuraa_e.Nge mere haal pe duniyaawaale

aaj kii raat saaz-e-dil-e-purdard na chhe.D
aaj kii raat

bebaso.n par ye sitam Khuub zamaane ne kiyaa
khel khelaa thaa muhabbat kaa adhuraa hii rahaa
haay taqadiir ki taqadiir se puuraa na hu_aa
aise aanii thii judaa_ii mujhe maaluum na thaa

aaj kii raat saaz-e-dil-e-purdard na chhe.D
aaj kii raat



What follows is a celebration of Noor Jehan: the original song sung by her in 'Jugnu' and - a treasure obtained thank to HF itself - back-to-back private renditions by NJ herself of both the 'Jugnu' song *and* the Faiz nazm! The private recordings are from a CD that was released in Pakistan and were uploaded on HF by the member "asheik" in January 2007. The CD contains remastered recordings of a private session in the late 1950s between Faiz and Noor Jehan (along with a few friends), where Faiz recites some of his poetry and Noor Jehan sings to Faiz's "farmaa_ish". Her singing here is without any instrumental accompaniment at all: one can experience the purity of her voice in all its glory.

(The CD contained other gems, including a rendition of "mujh se pahalii sii muhabbat" that is completely different from the well-known film version that came in 1962. I will upload some of the other pieces separately.)

Here, then, are three gems:

The original recording of the 'Jugnu' song (3:26 minutes; mp3 @ 112 kbps):



The later 'private' rendition of the 'Jugnu' song (4.31 minutes; wma encoding*)



NJ reciting Faiz's "aaj kii raat saaz-e-dard na chhe.D" in tarannum ( 3:10 minutes; wma encoding*)



*These songs had been uploaded in wma by the original contributor; I am retaining that format because changing them to mp3 will compromise the audio quality. For those (like me) who mainly use a player that don't play wma files and find it annoying to switch to another player for a few songs, the best option is to convert these into wav files (I have done that, but those files are of course too large to upload here). I have been trying hard to find the CD itself; if anyone can help in obtaining it, I shall be deeply grateful!

Warm regards,
Abhay
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vdsachin
post Dec 22 2008, 01:02 PM
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Thank you for the analysis Abhay - it is such a treat to have people like you who think beyond just enjoying a song !!!!! The prspective opens a whole new world of knowledge.

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Faraaj73
post Jan 7 2009, 03:48 PM
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QUOTE(abhayp @ Dec 22 2008, 04:41 PM) *

What follows is a celebration of Noor Jehan: the original song sung by her in 'Jugnu' and - a treasure obtained thank to HF itself - back-to-back private renditions by NJ herself of both the 'Jugnu' song *and* the Faiz nazm! The private recordings are from a CD that was released in Pakistan and were uploaded on HF by the member "asheik" in January 2007. The CD contains remastered recordings of a private session in the late 1950s between Faiz and Noor Jehan (along with a few friends), where Faiz recites some of his poetry and Noor Jehan sings to Faiz's "farmaa_ish". Her singing here is without any instrumental accompaniment at all: one can experience the purity of her voice in all its glory.

(The CD contained other gems, including a rendition of "mujh se pahalii sii muhabbat" that is completely different from the well-known film version that came in 1962. I will upload some of the other pieces separately.)

Here, then, are three gems:

The later 'private' rendition of the 'Jugnu' song (4.31 minutes; wma encoding*)

NJ reciting Faiz's "aaj kii raat saaz-e-dard na chhe.D" in tarannum ( 3:10 minutes; wma encoding*)

Warm regards,
Abhay

Brilliant upload Abhay!

I like her mehfil recording even better than the film version (which I've heard countless times). At the end, like Faiz Sahab, even I was saying wah wah biggrin.gif

Kind Regards
Faraaj

p.s. I have noticed your uploads on the SKS Inspirations thread (which I'll move on to in 1-2 days) and didn't want to send you any message until I thanked you properly there for give the topic such gems!


Kind Regards
Faraaj



Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. - Victor Hugo

There is only one better thing than music - live music. - Jacek Bukowski

I hate music, especially when it's played. - Jimmy Durante

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. - W. H. Auden
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