Deliberate Doings – Meri Duniya Lut Rahi Thi – Mr & Mrs 55

Love is to be felt not seen or spelt!!! More so in case of Guru Dutt’s films. His films are pathos driven most of the time but they also make their way to the top 10 of most romantic films. Potent romance. You feel those vibes from the screen to you. And all this when not a single romantic line is uttered between the people in love. No flowers exchanged, no running around the trees, no sweet nothings whispered. But yes, there certainly is a cupid present. His songs!! That cupid certainly says, love is in the air and you got to feel the love. Songs are his way of expressing the repressed feelings. Those songs often are about the unfulfilled love. What better way to show it on screen than someone else singing and revealing those feelings onto the audience!
This is where our rhythm panjandrum comes into scene (Read panjandrum = OPN). He induces a street qawwali lip synced by some lesser known actor in the voice of a vocal magician Rafi. Marvy Majrooh glides in with –

Meri duniya meri duniya lut rahi thi
Aur main khamosh tha
Tukde tukde dil ke chunta kisko itna hosh tha
Meri duniya lut rahi thi aur mai khamosh tha

My world was being robbed and all I could do was to remain quiet. I wasn’t conscious enough to gather the broken pieces of my heart.
Aankh mein aansoo na the
Aur jal raha tha dil jigar
Ro rahi thin hasratein
Chup-chaap tha main bekhabar
Arre
Kaise aataa
haay
Kaise aataa hosh mein
Jo pehle hi behosh thaa

And the panjandrum needs only a dholak and a harmonium to make it achingly romantic.
Making us inebriate with Rafi’s voice going Kaise aata hosh mein jo pehle hi behosh tha
The feelings are so suppressed and concealed, there’s not a drop of tear falling though within me I’m smouldering. All my desires forlorn. Ignorant and speechless since I’m not in my senses.
Ye haqeeqat hai
Isse samjhe na afsana koi
Jab luta kooche mein isse
Jaake dilwaalaa koi
Aji ye zameen
Ye zameen chup-chaap thi
Aur aasmaan khaamosh thaa

My story though looks like a fiction, is a fact. But when my heart was being robbed, there was an eerie silence all around.

The beats of the dholak and the claps – just that and it makes the song so scrumptious. With the lyrics echoing Guru Dutt’s muted feelings, for he has just agreed to divorce his beautiful wife (just on papers) Madhubala, when he’s head over heels in love with her. Wantonly ruining his love life.

Karvan dil ka luta baitha hoon
Manzil ke qareeb
Main ne khud kashti dubo di
Jaake sahil ke qareeb
Kya main karta
Kya main karta
Main sharab-e-ishq se madhosh tha…..how deliberate!!

Guru Dutt standing by the lamp post, a cigarette in his mouth, sometimes coming out of the shadows, sometimes merging with them. Feel the emotions on his face. Those emotions are also playing hide and seek with him and us at the same time, where shadows are longer than your own self. Ditto with the lyrics and music. Hide and seek of those dominant lyrics in the light forming longer shadows of delectable music on us, sometimes out of it, sometimes merging with it.