The Mysterious Girl – Awara Aye Mere Dil – Raat Aur Din

Awara Aye Mere Dil

Raat Aur Din (1968), is the story of a mysterious woman with split personality, who, in the day time, feels that she is Karuna where as in the night, she feels that, she is Peggy. In many films we see two versions of the same song fast & slow or happy & sad.

My observation is, in most of the cases, happy or fast version becomes more popular. But, in this particular case, my choice is the slow version. In the fast version, being a party song, big orchestra, drums, etc. are used where as in the slow version the rhythm is reduced to Bongo only.
The song starts with the camera fixed in front of a church. It is a dark night. On the background of awesome violin prelude, we see only shadows of people gathering into the church. As the chorus begins, the camera starts moving towards the right and finally rests on a lamp post. Then the chorus stops and Lata ji starts singing – Awara Aye Mere Dil ….. Then we see, from behind the lamp post, Nargis slowly coming forward with gloomy expressions in her eyes. The song speeds up with bongo rhythm as Nargis starts wondering on the empty streets. Every line sung by Lata followed by an accordion piece, effective use of chorus, the shadows, the statues on the street, etc. all contribute in making a complete eerie atmosphere.

Raat Aur Din Ke Ye Do Chehare
Kab Taq Pehnu Kuch To Keh Re
Kaun Main Kya Hoon, Sach Hoon Ke Saya Hoon …..
Awara Aye Mere Dil
Jane Kahan Hai Teri Manzil …..

Each and every word by Kaviraj, perfectly describes the mysterious nature of the character. Hats off to the great team work by – Lata, Shailendra, SJ, Nargis and last but not the least, director of the film – Satyen Bose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EdEt6g_u-0