The Dilbar Chant – Dilbar Dil Se Pyare – Caravan

L’amour est un oiseau rebelle – which means – Love is a rebellious bird!
In Georges Bizet’s opera, Carmen (1857), there’s a scene where townsfolk and soldiers gather at a public square, waiting for the beautiful, nomadic Carme. She responds with the seductive, teasing performance, warning them of love’s unpredictable nature. During the song, she notices a naive soldier named Don Jose, who keeps ignoring her. She flirtatiously tosses a flower at him, setting off opera’s tragic tale of passion, jealousy and a murder.
Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame – is an example of mezzo-soprano piece where the voice has to be restrained, playful and richly textured. She sounds conversational and commanding. She dictates the melody which shows her immense charismatic power over the people around. Her fellow girls just echo her song phrase – L’amour, L’amour. The song famous by the name Habanera, functions with the call-and-response dynamics. It is an interaction where Carmen calls-sings and the rest of them respond with a few initial words from her call. On the whole it feels like a chant.
Pancham used this dynamic of call-and-respond in Dilbar dil se pyare…where almost all the last words of a line are responded, repeated like an echo.
The gypsy wanderer, Nisha (Aruna Irani) flirts openly with Mohan (Jeetendra).
Though she begins with a rhythmic tchu tchu tchu tchu and we have our fingers snapping in rhythm, the prelude gives us the Sholay feel, long before Sholay was released.
We have Majrooh Sultanpuri giving words to those dynamics –

Dilbar dil se pyare, dilbar
Dil ki sunta jaa re, dilbar
Saari duniya haari hampe
Ham tujhpe dil haare….

Our own Carmen, Nisha is a spirited and fiercely independent gypsy woman. She forms the emotional core of the nomadic troupe. In this song, she’s bold, expressive and articulate. She is in love with Mohan. Aruna Irani shines as Nisha. She’s raw and charismatic. In her declaration of love, her charisma as an actor excels. With teasing glances, playful physical proximity, expressive gestures, she boldly pursues Mohan, trying to grab his attention in front of the entire gathering. She’s like a tigress who marks her territory. But beneath her lively tempo, her exuberant dance, she is vulnerable and anxious. Vulnerable because she’s in love with Mohan, anxious because she knows he doesn’t love her back.

Lehri nainon waale, lehri lehri
Lehri nainon waale…

Lata Mangeshkar sings the song with flirtatious cadence. Look how the words flow. Why does Pancham have Lata instead of Asha in this gay abandon? Because somewhere in between the bold declaration of her love, Nisha is also vulnerable. It is her vulnerability which Lata catches and sings spot on.

O tak-tak rahoon chunri hari hari
O dikhlaun baiyyan bhari bhari
O mohe chhoo le sajna, sajna
Gussa kyun hai itna
Jo marr rahi usko kyun maare…

Jo marr rahi usko kyun maare – that last line of the stanza is all vulnerability. The stanza is all about her love, nothing physical. Rest of the song, of course, is all flirting but with restraint in her voice. Because Nisha knows her limits. She can’t go overboard with this tender thread.
Majrooh Sultanpuri has aced this character of Nisha, through his words. He begins the song from the beginning –

Yak yak din ginti rahoon sadaa
O jabse main tujhpe hui fida
O sunta hai re babua
Tu hee mera na hua
Nahin jag mein kya nahin hota re…

Kya nahin hota re – Miracles do happen and Nisha is looking for a miracle here. Majrooh Sultanpuri has kept the lyrics conversational and cheeky because that is how an uninhibited, nomadic dancer would speak. She is quick witted too. There’s also a tiny piece of aggression in those words when she sings –

Nas nas meri sulage aise piya
Jali ban ki lakdi jaise piya
O kyun sulgaaye mujhko
Meri lag jaaye tujhko
Rahe tu bhi jalta bujhta re…

She’s cursing him – May you also suffer in love like I do. And to depict two sides of Nisha – aggression and vulnerability, Pancham has used two tambourines – one African and the other a headless one. The tambourines have always represented the gypsies – it bridges their rhythm and character. It transforms a simple percussion instrument into a symbol of wanderlust.
The song is a feast for percussion lovers. A set of folk instruments, darbuka, duggi and madal. It also has rabab, qanun and guitar, brass gongs and shakers.
There are gaps in between the repetition of words. The repetitive call of Dilbar haan dilbar, dilbar haan dilbar…primal, open air and nomadic. This intoxicating dilbar chant hooks the crowd on screen and listeners alike.