Iss Nadi Ko Mera Aaina – Chashme Buddoor – Reflections Of Love

Being simple is the most difficult thing. Simplicity is the key to happiness. Staying genuine, humble and simple will bring back all that is ideal in the world. Simple living high thinking – meaning we must live simply but the thinking should be limitless. Non restricted thoughts bring positive changes in one’s life. Keeping check of our wants and desires, it is always good to give emphasis on living a simple life without any show off. For not only is simple beautiful, it is elegant too. Simplicity never fades, it doesn’t have an expiry date. Simple food, simple clothes, simple words, simple ways of expressions, simple living and of course simple cinema. Cinema itself is an art but making one laugh or cry through simple cinema is a difficult art which just looks simple. Very few filmmakers have this art. Simple cinema also doesn’t mean art films. A simple film can also be commercial film. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee, Bimal Roy are some of the stalwarts who gave us commercially hit simple films. Not just simple but clean and fresh too!! Chupke Chupke, Golmaal, Chhoti Si Baat, Rajnigandha, Sujata, Madhumati are some of the easy examples which come under simple cinema. Chashme Buddoor (1981) is another such name which readily comes to our minds when think about simple, clean cinema. Sai Paranjape is the name added to the list who gave simple films seasoned with fresh and clean comedy. Not only was the film simple, its characters, dialogues and even the songs were simple.
Chashme Buddoor is a story about three friends – Siddharth, Jomo and Omi who are bachelors, who apart from sharing a room also share a motorbike, cigarettes and some tongue-in-cheek jokes. Their individual interest is shown through the walls of their room. While Jomo and Omi have semi clad models and girls from magazines pasted on the wall, Siddharth has a Mahatma Gandhi photo on his wall. He prefers studies while the other 2 are obsessed with girls. Ogling them, following them, but not beyond this limit. Enter Neha (Deepti Naval) the girl next door, well literally, she’s their new neighbour who stays with her brother and grandmother (Leela Mishra). Jomo and Omi have the new job of impressing Neha. It is Omi who approaches her first, disguising himself as a poet but is mistaken as a plumber by Neha and the meeting turning into a hilarious disaster. But Omi has a different story to narrate to his friends. The poet in his heart doesn’t want to bring up this disastrous defeat in front of friends. And the poet’s imagination comes to his help in form of a song. The most famous songs of the film being Kahan se aaye badra and Kaali ghodi dwar khadi are loved by all the music lovers, no doubt. But this semiclassical number picturised on Deepti Naval and Rakesh Bedi is a beautiful number. A dream sequence which is picturised in old movie style.Omi’s dream is brimming with romance. He is asking Neha to see his love for her all around. The nature as if is reflecting it in every possible way. But he begins with reciting a couplet for her –
Maine jo tumhe chaha kya isme khata meri
Ye tum ho, ye aaina, insaaf zaraa karna
The song begins with a single sarangi piece followed by santoor, sitar and beautiful sarod. They reflect the love oozing through the unusual but captivating lyrics by Indu Jain.

Iss nadi ko mera aaina maan lo
Ki mohabbat ka behta nasha jaan lo…
The river is reflecting my love for you. Intoxicated with my love as it flows towards you.
Music director Rajkamal has used an unusual combination of Haimanti Shukla and Shailendra Singh for this duet. With beautiful use of mix stringed instruments and tabla with soft ghungroos in the background makes its interludes a delight to listen.

Tarangon mein dhadkan larajta jigar
Raks karte kamal thartharata bhanwar
Ye chhinte kisiki tamanna na ho
Kahin aapke haathon tanha na ho…..
This river will give you the reflections of my love. My heartbeat ripples like the waves, making my heart wobble. Like the dancing lotuses and the fluttering bees. Referring to the droplets on hers cheeks he says – those droplets might be like his desire to stay there and she shouldn’t wipe it off her cheeks.
With so much love rippling she responds with –
Iss ufaq ko mera aaina maan lo
Ankahe raaz ki dastaan jaan lo….
Let this horizon be the reflection of my love. It is like an enigma of some untold stories hidden behind the horizon.

Even in a romantic song like this, Sai Paranjpe has kept the comedy quotient alive. With beautiful rivers, boat, the couple, ducks, birds etc she has also shown buffaloes and goats in the background.
The swarmandal breezes lightly in the 2nd interlude, the sitar, santoor, sarangi and jaltarang give that ripple of love effect when suddenly one starts feeling light in love.
Ude baadalon mein balaa hasratein
Parindon si chhoo aaye behad hadein
Hawaon ko itni ijaazat na do
Ki auron ka bhi sabr tauba karo
Let the desires overcome us like the clouds and bring calamity. Let us touch that limitless sky of yearning and longing but don’t let the breeze rule its way through the longings, let me make a sincere promise to be patient.

Ye kinara mera aaina maan lo
Har lehar se meri aarzoo jaan lo….
The shore of the river is reflection of my love. It’ll tell you about my longings for you through each wave that hits the shore.
The violins and the sitar make the atmosphere mystique but the tabla keeps the romance going.

Tani doriyon par saji zindagi
Ishaaron par chadhti utarti khushi
Dupatte se tinke jhatakti raho
Gul-o-naaz se mera daaman bharo
Iss nadi ko mera aaina maan lo….
Let this happiness be in our hands, just like a kite flying in the sky. Just as the flowers bring grace to the vicinity, let us grace each other’s lives. The nature is all but reflection of my love for you.
Kudos to Sai Paranjpe of thinking about such a song in this movie. An odd actor couple on screen and an odd singer couple off screen. A well made fictitious tale of romantic encounter that really wasn’t. Just like a simple reverie which keeps wandering in your mind!!
(Here’s the audio link of the complete song)

(The video link which is without one stanza)