Song Exposition: 'Aaj Koi Nahi Aapna, Kise Gham Ye Sunayein..'

Aaj Koi Nahi Aapna, Kise Gham Ye Sunayein..

Lata Mangeshkar (Agnipariksha - 1981) 
Yogesh, Salil Chaudhary

This prelude is probably one of the best to have been created in HFM...with that exceptional use of the Flute and the Santoor Salilda manages to created that ripply effect to perfection (even in the picturization there is a small shot with the water body)...the way the Piano base enters soothing the Flute ripples..and then the Santoor...and the Trumpet...back to the Flute...all ably describe the flickery state of mind of the lead character! She tries to soothe them but all that comes back to haunt her (I havent seen the film but this is what I could guess)...and then enter's that lady who has been at her outstanding best under this master!!


The mukhda has those complex jumping notes, which Lata easily sings to perfection. Again in these high jumps, just probably goes to show the instability of the character's mind.
If the prelude was something out-of-the-world, the interludes will blow you off literally from your feet. The Flute (which was Salilda's best and most used instrument, you can see the variety with which he used the Base Flute, the Piccolo Flute in all his songs and yet sounded different every other time), the racing Cello's is the best part IMO, it reaching a pinnacle and they give way to the Trumpets...soothing down our already raced heartbeats (also in the picture you can see by then Parikshit Sahani walks on a road which is quietened and wet 'after' the rains...even the nature comes to normal and soothes itself with this ensemble of instruments)..in all this not to forget the background support of the Guitars...they unknowingly kept the interlude pieces glued to each other!

The antra is BLISS...the emptiness, helplessness in Rameshwari's character is brought to life by Lata!! This has the Salil stamp all over it...top class! The Tabla play is a treat...the small lehra at the cross line is lovely! When Lata stomps on the 'sam' with 'AAJ koi Nahi..', that feeling is inexplicable!!


The second interlude(M2) is again an ensemble of instruments ably weaved! The Sitar (again a Salil favourite), the Cello (again Salil manages to get the restlessness in the character out with the amazing use of these instruments)...the way he fuses the Sitar with the Cello with that small Flute piece is brilliant!

What a song! How do you even find accurate words to elaborate this humdinger of a song...many may say the Lata strained her voice at one point in the song, for me, no one else could have sung this song with this conviction and this perfect amount of emotion she lent to it! Commendable how she creates that atmosphere in mere 5 minutes! Master Salil was at his rocking best...this is changing with times...who said he was a composer of the 50s...this is what he offered to you in the 80s and with a quality that not many can match! True genius! Way way ahead of his time!!

This song also has as a Bengali counterpart which actually came first, 'Aaj Tabey Eituku Thaak..' which has a quintessential Bengali touch to it..its more subtle and softer with a lot of Sitar in it and a different instrumentation entirely! Another treat for sure!
But this tune was originally made for a Malayalam film titles Pratiksha in 1975 where Yesudas sang it as 'Aathira Poovaniyum..' which had a fair amount of Tabla...but IMO the third counterpart stands tall amongst them in terms of orchestration and singing!!



Here is the Bengali version of this masterpiece ! Lata-Salil magic regales !
'Aaj tobe ei tuku thak '



The journey from MalayaLam to Bengali to Hindi really is an ascending excellence.. with Salilda bettering himself with each version.

Aathira poovaniyaan - Pratheeksha (1979)

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