Top Song Picturizations

Feb 23rd is the seventh death anniversary of Vijay Anand. Both a fine actor and an excellent director, he is extremely well known for his song picturizations. As a tribute I decided to make my own list of the top song picturizations from Hindi films across time.

The question arises “what defines great picturization”. Does it have to be grand? Does it need to have a hundred chorus dancers along? Do the actual music/singing have to be extremely memorable? What are the parameters being used to decide this list? To be honest, there are no defined parameters. It’s just a song which one sees and then reacts positively. I realize that that is vague but to be honest, I haven’t used any other parameters. As you read through the list you will see that there probably isn’t anything common in these songs.

The list has been decided without actually looking at the songs themselves. The logic was that if the picturization was so great then it should have left an impression- I realize that it is a debatable piece of logic- so the basic list and the descriptions which follow are largely from memory. I had initially shortlisted a dozen or songs and written about them, but when actually appending the You tube videos I did see them all and pruned it down to 10. In some cases, there might have been minor modifications in the write-ups but nothing major.

As usual, the “another time, another place” caveat applies. So, here’s the list – in chronological order

1. Drum Dance (Chandralekha, 1948)

In 1988, to celebrate 75 years of Indian cinema, DD showed a retrospective of 12 films from 4 film makers over 12 days– Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor , Ritwick Ghatak, and S S Vasan. I wasn’t too interested in seeing the movies of Ghatak and Vasan. But I did stay awake (the movies were being shown at 11 pm – which for 1988 was very very late) to see “Chandralekha” by S S Vasan – primarily because one of the leads Ranjan, was a childhood friend of my maternal grandmother – apparently they used to play together as kids. I don’t remember much of the film but I do remember this scene.

To be fair, this is not really a song but just a dance sequence - but what a dance sequence it is! It is a Trojan horse sort of situation where the drums actually have warriors within them. The dance is followed by, what I believe, is the longest sword fight in film history, once the warriors pour out of the drums.

But that’s going ahead- just see the dance itself – it is amazing choreography and even now- 60 years later- the grandeur of the song is enough to put it in my all time top list.



2. Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam (Kaghaz ke phool, 1959)

It’s difficult to describe in words this song because nothing much happens. Two people are standing and they do not say a word or move much during the song. The song plays completely in background and the camera keeps moving between them. But the song is a director’s vision and a cinematographer’s delight. The use of light and dark and the movements of the camera make this a highly memorable song. Definitely worth a watch.



3. Sheesh Mahal scene -Pyar kiya to darna kya (Mughal-e-azam, 1960)

This is, perhaps the finest song ever picturized in Hindi films. The entire scene is awe inspiring and the movie can be seen just for this song (even if the rest of it happened to be useless- which, by any stretch of imagination, it wasn’t!)

Everything about this song was perfect. The view of the sheesh mahal, when Lata sings “chaaron taraf hai unka nazara” is to be seen to be believed. Also impressive are the facial reactions of everyone during the song. This is probably Madhubala’s finest performance – and her expressions, when she dances in front of Dilp Kumar (unki tamanna dil me rahegi, shamma isi mehfil me rahegi) and then offers the knife to Prithviraj Kapoor (ishq me jeena, ishq me marna, aur hame hai karna kya) are perfect. The reactions of Prithviraj Kapoor, as an emperor whose wishes are being set aside, show his anger and frustration so well. Even Durga Khote as Jodha bai and Nigar Sultana as Bahaar, I thought emote brilliantly, with no words – clearly embarrassed to be there when the emperor is being disregarded and completely unsure of how he would react. The weak point in this song, surprisingly, is Dilip Kumar, who does not leave much of an impression.



But the sheesh mahal scene is more than just this song – there are a few minutes of dialogue after that which are just as compelling. Just consider the dialogue between Akbar and Anarkali in isolation -

“Ye teri bekhauf raqs, ye dilchasp andaz-e-bayan, yakeenan hamare inaam ke mustahaq hain”
“Zah-e-naseeb. Zill-e-ilahi ki faraaq dili se kaneez ko yahi umeed thi”

Just see these 2 lines in complete isolation and even then there is no doubt of the real meaning and emotion behind these 2 lines – the immense irony in both the statements –so well has it has been acted.

The scene between Akbar and Salim post Anarkali’s arrest is equally brilliant with the conflict between the father and the emperor so well shown. After Akbar asks for isolation, Salim stays back for this dialogue to ensue

“tumhari maujodgi nafarmani ki daleel hai”
“Anarkali ko bandi bana diya gaya…aur main dekhta raha”
“aur tum kar bhi kya sakte the” (only an emperor can say that, not a father)



Enough said - watch Mughal-e-azam!!! That’s all that’s left to say.

4. Tere Ghar ke saamne (Tere Ghar ke saamne, 1962)

The title song of Tere ghar ke saamne is one of the cutest songs I have seen. The dream sequence was not a new device (Raj Kapoor having introduced it in Awara in 1951) but this made very good use it. The idea of Nutan inside the wine glass and Dev Anand outside it, singing to each other is terrific. And when you consider the fact that they must have shot independently for the song, their reactions are near perfect. Note the shot where Dev Anand hits the glass with his finger and Nutan reacts as if her nose has been hit.

But the “coolest” bit of the song is when the ice cube is put into the drink and Nutan’s reaction to that. A piece of cinematic beauty! Top Song and Top picturization.



5. Daiya ye main kahan aa phansi (Caravan, 1971)

As song situations go this is one of the stock Hindi film ones- indeed, very trite. The hero and the heroine are running away from the bad guys and suddenly stumble onto the stage of some performance. And as is to be expected they have to sing and dance on stage.

However, unlike all such situations, they do not turn out to be great dancers and flawless singers (though, to be fair, by the end of it, you realize that Asha Bhosle’s voice is very good). In fact, they turn out to be bumbling nincompoops, which is what makes this song special.

This song is perhaps the original precursor to the Jeetendra PT dances of the 80’s but the context makes it perfect. To honour the cabaret, the song also has a mini strip tease (but very proper, to fit to Hindi film standards) which again fits in very well (remember this is the film which also had Piya tu ab to aaja, one of the all time great cabarets in Indian cinema). Overall, the song does amuse and, to my mind, has high recall value.

Incidentally, Asha Parekh is on record that this song was the toughest she ever shot. Her point was that for a highly trained dancer like her to knowingly get all her steps wrong and generally mess up while making it look normal was very difficult. But I think she did a terrific job and looks very natural.



6. Ek haseena thi (Karz, 1980)

A stage song, which I feel was very well choreographed. The way the story moves is very well handled and the way the camera moves from stage to Simi’s face and back is also managed well . Rishi Kapoor’s look towards the end of the song when Tina Munim twirls from arm to arm (and Simi keeps seeing Raj Kiran and Rishi Kapoor alternately) is also perfect. I find it difficult to pin point one thing in the song but the overall effect is quite excellent.



7. Dil hai chota sa (Roja, 1992)

Again, I find it difficult to pinpoint one specific thing in the song but the overall effect is very nice. The beauty of carefree youth is very well shown and the cinematography is top class.

There are other songs similar to this but this one stays in my mind- so it makes my list.



8. Hamma (Bombay, 1994)

This was a song which was the rage of its time. People had already heard it innumerable times on the radio by the time the film released but I don’t actually remember seeing a visual trailer of the song till actually seeing the film. I am not sure if that was a conscious decision by the film makers or just me not watching enough TV at that time.

But it is a lovely song- the contrasting shots between the dance floor with Sonali Bendre and the bedroom with Manisha Koirala and Arvind Swamy surprisingly gel extremely well. I don’t remember the details well enough to point out specifics but the antics (can’t think of another word) of Manisha Koirala and her embarrassment at being able to perform such antics are lovely.



9. Chainya chainya (Dil se, 1999)

When I described pyar kiya to darna kya as “perhaps the finest song ever picturized in Hindi films”, the only reason for the use of the word “perhaps” is this song. It’s a complete tour –de-force of a picturization. The setting, the entourage, the synchronization – everything is near perfect.

The choreography is mind boggling- the sheer energy of everyone in the dance is almost infectious. Malaika Arora looks gorgeous but even she is overshadowed by the entire setting. And even Shahrukh Khan dances quite well!

And to round it off, how much better can you get than a line which says –ho jiski zuban urdu ki tarah. Poetry – both visually and aurally.



10. Wo Ladki hai kahan (Dil chahta hai, 2003)

I think it’s the mix of various things in the song which I like so much – the sepia tinted film shots, the old style car shots, the bird flapping, the spoof on hindi film dance sequences. They all combine together so perfectly to make a highly memorable song.




So, that’s my list. A lot of Mani Ratnam and surprising (to me) that there’s no song of Helen. Maybe that calls for a separate post another time!