Nainon mein darpan hai

Nainon mein darpan hai, darpan mein koi
Dekhoon jise subah shaam
Bolo ji bolo ye raaz kholo
Hum bhi sune dil ko thaam
Ya toh dharti, ya hai gagan
Ya toh hai sooraj, ya hai pawan
Umm hmm... Uska toh saajan hai naam
Nainon mein darpan hai, darpan mein koi
Dekhoon jise subah shaam

Hey...
Ooo...
Masti mein gaaye, dil ko lubhaaye
Kaanon men misri si ghole
Bolo ji bolo ye raaz kholo
Mera bhi man aaj dole
Ya toh koyal ki hai raagini
Ya toh paayal hai ya baansuri
Na... Uska toh sajni hai naam
Nainon mein darpan hai, darpan mein koi
Dekhoon jise subah shaam

Mmm...
Aaa...
Behki behki chaal hai uski
Jhoome woh aawara
Bolo ji bolo ye raaz kholo
Kiski taraf hai ishaara
Bolo, kiski taraf hai ishaara
Ya toh jogi hai ya paagal
Ya toh baadal hai ya anchal
Uska toh pritam hai naam
Nainon mein darpan hai, darpan mein koi
Dekhoon jise subah shaam
Lalala...

Movie: Aarop (1974)
Director: Atma Ram
Singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar
Lyricist: Maya Govind
Music Composer: Bhupen Hazarika

This is yet another post where the date of birth or death of the lyricist featured is not this week. This post is on Maya Govind, a Hindi poetess and lyricist, who is arguably the first female lyricist in India.

Maya is a trained Hindi teacher and has a degree in music. She is also a dancer and a theatre artist. She used to participate in mushairas and kavi sammelans at Lucknow, her birthplace.

At one such sammelan, director-producer Atma Ram noticed her and invited her to write songs for his film Aarop. This was also Bhupen Hazarika’s first Hindi film as music composer. The songs of the film were hits. Although Maya wrote songs for many films after that, she was unable to repeat her success for the next fifteen years.

While some loved the songs she wrote for films in the 1990s, such as Dalaal, Takkar, Mein Khiladi Tu Anari, and Najaayaz, others were not so pleased by the rather raunchy lyrics. She managed to deflect the stones directed at her by pointing out that even the great Munshi Premchand’s novels contained such usages.

The song I have chosen today is from Maya’s first film Aarop. Although I had heard the song many times, I had not realized that it was featured on Vinod Khanna and Saira Banu, an odd pairing. It is picturized in a great locale and sung brilliantly. ~ S