When a friend told me about this song, I nearly reprimanded him: This can’t be a Lata Mangeshkar number, certainly not with these lyrics! But voila, what a surpise when I heard it! Most certainly, it was LM, and at her exuberant best!
This dance-with-me-rhythm is from an obscure film called Gehri Chaal, music by Laxmikant Pyarelal. After SJ, the duo have a distinction for providing the diva with some most challenging numbers – challenging with respect to her ‘known forte’ of songs viz the sad and love ones. If you recall, Hindi film’s finest cabaret is not by Asha Bhonsle (the undisputed queen of such songs) but by Lata Mangeshkar swinging her voice to a melodious tree painstakingly nurtured by LP in Inteqaam. Whether Helen does a concert, or any other star pays a tribute, or whether LM does her show, invariably ‘Aa jaane jaan’ gets a prime feature. But more on this bumper hit number later.
As New Year dawned (literally too, as I was up till 4 am), I drowned myself in an ecstatic concoction that only LM could have created – naughtiness and purity, stirred and shaken with just a dash of coquettishness, to add to the zing! What a heady cocktail it was, that even surpassed the intoxication of Tuborg beers which I had consumed that night! The song begins with an exotic saxophone dominated low-pitch note quickly stepping into a rhythmic strut. Soon, Lata Mangeshkar comes in with the word, ‘Sunn’ (listen) and one is forced to pay attention there and then. After a miniscule rhythm break, she begins ‘De taali bade zor se bade shor se o baby’. Now, ‘O Baby’ can be sung/said in any manner, from lecherous to loving – Lata Mangeshkar places it somewhere in between, letting the latter part of the word (‘by’) just to flow out, like an impish lady throwing a covert come-hither look. Do you recall either Marilyn Monroe or Madhubala look? The one that invites yet holds back – well, Lata creates ‘that look’ with her voice! In fact, this exciting, complicated and double layered feel of erotic and divine sets the mood for the entire song as well! But the surprise stock doesn’t end here. The mukhda does a repeat tune with different words, ‘Le taali gayi raat ki usi baat ki o bab..baba’ and that’s where my heart did a double somersault. Yet, LM with a magician like finesse didn’t end there; she had one more trick up her sleeve. Immediately, she turns erotically and exquisitely low pitch with the final mukhda lines, ‘mai jaanoo tu jaane aur koi na jaane’. And just when I thought, this is it, she swings around her voice and laughs out two words, ‘De Taali’ again. Whoa, that was akin to watching a satisfying Hitchcock movie or reading a Christie murder mystery, where the twists and turns just keep coming leaving the viewer/reader breathless and at wit’s edge. The full song has more curves than Bipasha Basu/Shilpa Shetty can ever hope to have! LM’s voice transcends fast and slow, high and low, mischevious and well-behaved with a smooth-as-silk feel. There are so many points to cover I feel hopelessly limited by English vocabulary. But before signing off, do notice her ‘uff’ in second antara. Uff, this makes my dil go hmmmm, which none of the modern singer songs (even with these exact words) can ever do! This is sensuosness at its zenith. Don’t miss the number ever!
