Jashn-E-Bahara

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I’m sure at least a million people have written about this beauty of a song so far. But the music manic in me says my life would be incomplete if I don’t write about this Ode to Love by our own Mozart.

Once in a while Rahman comes up with a song which has “Love” written all over it, whose lyrics contain oodles of romance , sweet somethings/nothings and metaphors which make sense to those in love, and last but definitely not the least whose tune is so haunting that it literally tugs your heart if you don’t have that special someone to sing that song to.

Munbe Va from Jillunu Oru Kadhal and Tu Bin Bataaye from Rang De Basanti are such songs. This Valentines its Jashn E Bahara from Jodhaa Akbar.

With romance dripping from every single word of the beautiful lyrics penned down by Javed Akthar and sung so sublimely by Javed Ali, if by the end of the song you don’t curse yourself for not being in love if you are single and if you have a special someone in your life and you don’t so much as go down on you knees and exclaim that he/she is the best thing that ever happened to you, it can mean only two things. Either you aren’t romantic at all which means that you’ve given up all earthly pleasures and attained Nirvana or you seriously need therapy.

The lyrics is in Urdu. So first up it would make little or no sense at all. But the more you hear, the more sense it makes and by the time you listen to it for the fifth or sixth time you are so raptured that you’re elevated to a ideal world of your own where there’s just you, your beloved and Love all around. In that world there’s no place for reality or anyone else. In short, you are in such a bliss that you lose focus of the present.

For those who say they can’t follow the lyrics, I found the translation from an Orkut community. Here goes the translation:

Kehne ko jashn e bahara hain
(To say its like a celebration of Spring)
Ishq yeh dekh ke hairaan hai
(Love is amazed to see this all)

Phool se khushboo khafa khafa hain gulshan mein
(The fragrance is annoyed with the flower in the garden…)
Chupa hain koi ranjh fiza ki chilman mein
(There is an underlying/unseen greif in the veil of surroundings)
Saare sehmay nazaare hain soye soye waqt ke dhaare hain
(The scene around is filled with silence, Time drifts into a slumber/sleep)
Aur dil mein khoyi khoyi si baatein hain
(Some lost thoughts remain in the heart)

Kehne ko …..

Verse 1
Kaise kahein kya hain sitam
(How would one say whats the pain)
Sochte hain ab yeh hum Koi kaise kahe who hain ya nahi humare?
(I keep thinking about it now, that how would I know If she belongs to me or not?)
Karte to hai saath safar faasle hain fir bhi magar
(Though we journey together, yet there are some distances in between us)
Jaise milte nahi kisi dariya ke do kinare
(Just like how two banks of the river never meet)
Paas hai phir bhi paas nahi, Humko yeh ghum raas nahi
(We are so close yet so far, I cannot accept this despair at all)
Sheeshe ki ek deewar hai jaise darmiyaan
(Its like a wall of glass that divides us in between)

Saare sehmay…

Verse 2
Humne jo tha nagma suna, dil ne tha usko chuna
(The song that I had heard was chosen straight from the heart)
Yeh daastan hume waqt ne kaisi sunayee
(But time hummed a different tale for us)
Hum jo agar hai ghumgeen, who bhi udhar khush to nahi
(If I am sad in here, she is not at all happy there)
Mulaqato mein hai jaisi ghul si gayee tanhayee
(Loneliness has filled up our meeting)
Milke bhi hum milte nahi, Khilke bhi gul khilte nahi
(We meet but we don’t unite, The flowers bloom but they don’t blossom)
Aankho me hain bahaarey, dil mein Khiza.
(My eyes envision Spring, but my heart senses the Autumn)

Saare sehmay nazaare hain ….

I really don’t have to say anything more about it. If you enjoy poetry then you’d definitely appreciate the word play and the tenderness of emotions in the lyrics . When Javed Ali sings ” Saare sehmay nazaare hai.. ” the brain’s wires are in a tizzy. Like they say in tamil.. ” Ennamo pannudhu”. Right through the song he’s at his best.

I can never say enough about this masterpiece and no matter how much said, no words can describe the ecstasy one goes through while listening.

Oh! and did I say that there’s and equally divine instrumental version of the song rendered so elegantly.

Overall, Rehman does it again.

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Filed under Songs I love

Tags: Kaadhal, Kavithai, Love, Poetry, Rehman, Romance