Tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa to nahin

Tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa to nahin…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVswZlTczEA

On the point of appreciating the Hindi film music, I am almost frozen in time – the songs of fifties, and also of forties, are my reflexive choices. Some songs of sixties too come in. But thereafter….. the numbers have to be exceptional and irresistible.

The duet – tere bina zindagi se… from Aandhi ( 1975 ) is one such exception. It is an impact song from whatever angle we may look at it.
Chance brings together, though for a while, the separated JK and Aarati – played by Sanjeev and Suchitra – rejuvenating their love in limbo. But the compulsion to keep under wraps the fact of their marriage forecloses conciliation. Yet the emotional up-surge is far too over-whelming, heightened further by the acute consciousness that the togetherness will be just for a few fast fleeting moments before the guillotine ! The two artistes, arguably the best of their times, deliver the scene with an intensity and skill very rarely seen in Hindi cinema. The scenic impact cascades as their empathizing communication, mostly in silence, is given voice to, so heartily, so eloquently, by Lata-KK duo on a brilliant RDB lilt.

But the number owes its extraordinariness to the muse of Gulzar. In two short antaras, he intertwines, inalienably, Aaarati’s catharsis and her wistfulness for a togetherness as a destination unto itself :

Kaash aisa ho tere qadmo se, chun ke manzil chale aur kahi door kahi
Tum gar saath ho, manzilo ki kami to nahi
Tere bina zindagi se koyi, shikwa, to nahi

Jee mein aata hai, tere daaman mein, sar jhuka ke ham rote rahe, rote rahe
Teri bhi aankho mein, aansuo ki nami to nahi

And JK also traverses an extra mile of emotion, pleading for a togetherness transcending the ephemerality symbolized by a night in descent :

Tum jo keh do to aaj ki raat
Chaand doobega nahin, raat ko rok lo
Raat ki baat hai, aur zindagi baaqi to nahin
Marvellous Gulzar

Tere bina zindagi se koyi shikwa to nahi,
Tere bina zindagi bhi lekin zindagi to nahi

PS: Article by Mr Vijay Kumar