Dikhai Diye Yun

Dikhayi Diye Yoon

This outstanding gazal originally penned by Mir Taqi Mir featured in the 1982 film Bazaar sung by Lata Mangeshkar set to the tune of Khayyam. This song was often played on Vividh Bharti during my teens. That’s a good 40 years ago! I never really understood the meaning then, but thanks to an internet friend now now I am able to get the sense of the words.

The film highlights the tragedy of young girls being sold by needy parents to affluent Indians in the Gulf. The song is about love. And every person on the screen is experiencing a form of intense devotion or blinding desire. The song takes on a different meaning for whoever who is listening and watching.

The song is picturised on a very young Shabnam (Supriya Pathak) in a small get together. Sarju (Faroukh Sheikh) is her paramour. They are accompanied by Najma (Smita Patil), her lover Akhtar (Bharat Kapoor). Salim (Naseeruddin Shah) with his unexpressed love to Najma, Nasreen (Nisha Singh) and Akhtar’s lecherous employer Shakir are the attendees at the get together.

Throughout the songs looks are exchanged and imminent disaster is conveyed through silent gazes. In a matter of four minutes, this ballad of love becomes a heartbreaking elegy. It leaves one silent at the choice of words, the apt fitting tune and the casting expressing just through their eyes.

Here is the entire original gazal. The sentences highlighted in bold are the ones in the song

फ़कीराना आए सदा कर चले

मियाँ खुश रहो हम दुआ कर चले

I came like a Fakir, prayed for you

Parting away I say, Blessed be you

जो तुझ बिन न जीने को कहते थे हम

सो इस अहद को अब वफ़ा कर चले

Wouldn’t live without you I used to say

Now this is the pledge that I redeem today

कोई ना-उम्मीदाना करते निगाह

सो तुम हम से मुँह भी छिपा कर चले

An unhopeful glance I wished you cast

But you hid your face walking me past

बहोत आरजू थी गली की तेरी

सो याँ से लहू में नहा कर चले

To know you I deeply yearned

Despaired I go drenched in my blood

(Blood is a metaphor for “life”)

दिखाई दिए यूं कि बेखुद किया

हमें आप से भी जुदा कर चले

A glimpse of you left me so entranced

My soul left me, away and lanced

जबीं सजदा करते ही करते गई

हक-ऐ-बंदगी हम अदा कर चले

Meeting you each and every time

Responsibilities completed were mine

(This is an amazing couplet. जबीं सजदा means greeting the person by touching own fore-head with fingers. The protagonist has met the other person so many times, yet it is apparently just fulfilling ones responsibilities)

परस्तिश की याँ तैं कि ऐ बुत तुझे

नज़र में सबों की खुदा कर चले

Worshipped you so much and made sure

That in eyes of all you became God so pure

गई उम्र दर बंद-ऐ-फिक्र-ऐ-ग़ज़ल

सो इस फ़न को ऐसा बड़ा कर चले

कहें क्या जो पूछे कोई हम से “मीर”

जहाँ में तुम आए थे, क्या कर चले

Hear this amazing song here

https://youtu.be/opUSsIT8Y34