Drunken songs in our films

An interesting genre of music in Indian films has been the drunken songs, songs picturized on inebriated actors. The list of such songs is pretty long because this genre has been in vogue almost from the beginning of film music. It usually demonstrated either the hero going through bad times and hence resorting to alchohol as a means of escape, or the nasty man or woman who is going to play the bad person. Bad persons and drinking go together obviously :)

One of the earliest example of such a song is piye jaa aur piye jaa rendered by K.L.Saigal for the film Pujaarin. Its a beautiful melody that aptly captures the state. Saigal's Devdaas is still considered by many to be the greatest version of Sarat Chandra's novel on screen. When you hear Saigal emoting dukh ke ab din biitat naahi, you cant help but agree with that.

Anaarkali's mohobbat me aese qadam Dagamagaaye was the song that brought this genre into prominence and remains one of the finest songs in this genre. Lata's depiction of the inebriated lover is unforgettable. Not far after this came the near-definitive drunken song. Talat's ae mere dil kahii.n aur chal immediately brings to mind a "high" Dilip Kumar walking through the village streets at night with a foolish grin on his face. This song perhaps endures as one the finest drunken songs ever. Interestingly, Talat never resorts to the drunken gimmicks in his singing. During his Jaimala presentation on Vividh Bharati, Talat mentions that while he has sung a lot of drunken songs, it is upto the actor to enact the song on screen. The singer is responsible for delivering the melody. But then, he did make an exception to some extent when singing kisako khabar thii kisako yakii.n thaa from Devdaas going on the same Dilip Kumar. And he rendered the song to perfection.

An obviously drunk Motilal with a garland around his neck wandering across the dark streets of Calcutta singing zi.ndagii khvaab hai is another abiding image of a drunken song in our films. But all these great singers - Lata, Talat or Mukesh - did not sing the song as a drunkard. Occassional edges here or there,, that was all. It was Mohd Rafi who really brought into fashion a playback singer singing as a drunkard, this despite the fact that he was a tee-totaller. The string of songs he did for comedian Johnny Walker - like ham tum se kahataa hai shaadii or dekhataa chalaa gayaa - were huge hits of their time.

The 1960s were much more liberal times than the 50s and Rafi ruled the roost during that decade. mujhe duniyaavaalo.n sharaabii na samajho, saavan ke mahiine me, mai.n ne pii sharaab, chhalakaaye jaam etc. were some Rafi popular songs during this time. One of the most unforgettable depictions of a drunkard on screen was by Meena Kumari in Saabib biwi aur gulaam - and Geeta Dutt's na jaao saiyaa.N chhuDaake baiyaa.N remains one of her enduring melodies. Asha's ham hai.n nashe me is one of my favorite nashaa songs - I am not sure if this is a "drunken" song or just a "nashaa" song. In any case, its a truly beautiful melody.

Subsequent decades have continued to keep this genre in vogue, though the quality keep in sync with the overall musical quality of the times. Today however, this genre is almost obsolete primarily because drinking has lost its age-old implications. Drinking wine is no longer looked on as a "bad" habit. Its notmal to drink now. So cinematically, it conveys nothing. The era of drunken songs is indeed behind us now.

The genre in Tamil films in my next post...