Excuse me, I am nostalgic!. Review on Guide Songs

This may not be a review per se. I am somehow feeling very nostalgic about the songs in this album. I don't need to recommend this album to anyone. As it would be akin to advertising water to drink or air to breathe. I am writing after a long time. I am fumbling with words, with thoughts, with ideas. So I have decided to go with the emotions. Please excuse my failings...

Piya tose naina laage re, jaane kya ho ab aage re

I don't know what is more hypnotising about this song.

The lyrics? The music? The rendition? The picturisation? Or everything?

It wasn't that I needed a recent diamond ad (shot in Black & White using the mukhda of the song) to be reminded of this evergreen album. But yes, it did play a hand. As somehow, everyone around me seems to be humming the same song.

It was somewhere around 20 years ago (Bees saal pehle!), when I was a small kid and my grandpa had this music system in his newly purchased Maruti Omni. Among the cassettes that lay in the dashboard, there was a combo pack of 'Guide' and 'Jewel Thief'. That was my first tryst with the 'Guide' album. And ever since, it has remained as one of the most favourites.

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Note: The songs in the cassette had dialogues just before the song starts. I am adding them as well as much as I can recall...

Bartender: Kya baat hai sir, aaj aap bahaut pee rahe hain?

Dev Anand(in hi rat-a-tat style): Zindagi bhi ek nasha hai dost. Jab chadhta hai to mat poocho......aur jab utarta hai...

Hmmmmmm...Din dhal jaaye haaai..

Now Rafi wasn't my favourite (it was Kishore Kumar), but when I heard this song, I

replayed it so many times just to listen to that 'haaaai' after din dhal jaaye. If Rafi could create magic with just a word, if he sang the entire song, he would really hypnotise you. And he does exactly that. Just think of it, Rafi sang it without a retake.

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Rosy(Waheeda Rehman): Raju, main bahaut dukhi hoon. Har taraf andhera...

Raju(Dev Anand) holds her close and comforts her. He then conveys his feelings through this song.

Tere mere sapne ab ek hi rang hain. Rafi again. Magic again.

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Dev Anand: Yakeeeen nahin hotaa. Kal tak aap lagti thi ek chaalees saal ki aurat jo zindagi ki har umang, har ...aur aaj lagti hai solah saal ki ladki..bholi, maasoom,bachpan ki sharaat se bharpoor...

Waheeda: Jaante ho kyon?

Kaanton se kheench ke ye aanchal...Recall Waheeda Rehman atop historical buildings, atop a truck...Dev feeling embarrassed as she is singing and dancing freely unaware of the onlookers. Isn't that what happens when you start breaking free, when you want to fly high, when you feel the world is wide and open?

This song is truly marvellous. I must add Vijay Anand's song picturisations enahnced the meanings of the songs.

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Wahan kaun hai tera...

Raju is set free from jail. And he is returning alone. He pauses intermittently on his way back. The song plays in the background. When you don't know where to go because everyone has closed doors and has forgotten you, your steps just lead you hither and tither. You hesitate, you pause,you wonder...

Sachin Dev Burman's vocal chords always echoed in the background as theme be it ''Aradhana'', ''Bandini'' or ''Guide''.

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Kya se kya ho gaya and Saiyaan be-imaan

Mose chhal ke naa jaa, haan re haan dekho, saiyaan be-imaan

Kya se kya ho gaya, tere pyaar mein

Both are stage songs.

Same tunes used for mukhdas as they follow in succession. Reflecting moods of Rosy who considers Raju a fraud. Raju on the other hand is amazed at how blinded he was in love that he commited a 'crime' and experienced the bitter reality of romance. Full points to Vijay Anand again for the amazing story telling while the songs were on.

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Allah megh de paani de chhaya de and Hey Ram humare Ramchandra.

Sung by Kishore Kumar. Used towards the end of the movie when the draught struck village prays for rain. ''Ghanan Ghanan'' from Lagaan anyone?

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Gaata rahe mera dil...

This isn't exactly my favourite. To me, this was the weakest song in this film. Somehow, the hilly surroundings, the picturisation (yes again!) lifted it up. But it was an average song.

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I somehow completed this review(if you can call it). It is my attempt to get back into the groove. Thanks for surviving it!!