Some of Gulzar’s immortal songs worth revisiting on his birthday

1. Humne dekhi hai unn aankhon ki mehakti khushboo haath se chuke isse rishton ko ilzaam na do (Khamoshi): Pyar ko pyar hi rehne do koi naam na do. While many of Gulzar Saab’s lyrics suffer from over-esotericism, this one is poetic and yet practical in its thought process…it stands out on every level including Lataji’s singing. Sadly the song’s impact was substantially diminished in the film by being picturised on an unknown starlet while the beautiful Waheeda Rehman just stared. Imagine if the same had been done to Aaj phir jeene ki tamannah hai!

2. Musafir ho yaaron na ghar hai na thikana (Parichay): Gulzar Saab’s closest friend in the entertainment industry was composer Rahul Dev Burman. One night way past midnight Pancham showed up at Boskiana, Gulzar Saab’s bungalow, excited as hell. He dragged Gulzar Saab into a car for a drive and played the tune he had composed for Musafir hoon yaaron. Burman always complained how difficult it was to give music to Gulzar Saab’s lyrics. “Next you will bring me the newspaper headline and tell me to tune it,” RD scoffed. Not this one. Not this time. Musafir a song about the journey of life makes complete sense even today.

3. Tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa toh nahin (Aandhi): I have to admit this is not one of my favourite Gulzar –RD songs except when Lataji lifts the lyrics to a luminously layered level. When she sings Jee main aata hai teri daaman mein sarr chupa ke hum rote rahen, time stops still. I rate this among Gulzar’s best for these lines alone. Interesting RD had first composed this number as a Bengali song for Durga Puja.

4. Koi hota jissko apna hum apna keh lete yaaron (Mere Apne): Gulzar Saab’s contribution to the Lonely Hearts Club, composer Salil Choudhary gets optimum vocal pain out of Kishore Kumar, making this one of the singer’s most heartbreaking numbers. Kishoreda who had also sung the Bengali version of the same song, confessed to someone very close to him that this was the song of his life.

5. Mera kuch saamaan tumhare paas pada hai (Ijaazat): No rhyming metre, just random thoughts about a broken relationship put together like shards of glass on the floor piercing the soul .This is Gulzar Saab at his rawest. Apparently he wrote this number as a hark back to his own broken marriage. The wounds that that never heal are the hurt that we need to preserve in our hearts hoping they never would heal.