My Favourites: Holi Songs

It’s the month of Phagun and today is Poornima – the full moon. The stage is set for the festival of colours, colours that celebrate the vitality of spring. Holi must be in full swing in India. I had had great plans for a Holi post, but have not been able to muster up the enthusiasm or the spirit to write one. However, I have been neglecting my blog of late, and so, this is a hastily put-together post, with no real research involved. 


A bit of background: Though it has religious overtones* (for Hindus), Holi is more commonly a festival bidding goodbye to winter and welcoming the coming of spring, based on the old custom of celebrating good harvests and the fertility of the land. Rang Panchami  falls on the fifth day (panchami) of the full moon.

Originally, the colours used for Holi were derived from natural sources such as dried spring blossoms and leaves – Mehendi, Gulmohur, Hibiscus, Marigold, Jacaranda, Flame of the Forest – or from fruits, berries, or bark of woods. Today, the colours are chemically produced, and some, if not all, are toxic at some level or another.  

Bhang, a preparation made of the ground buds and leaves of cannabis, and mixed with milk, ghee (clarified butter) and spices, is popularly associated with Holi, particularly in North India, where the festival is celebrated with a fervour not usually seen in the south of the country. The above-mentioned Bhang base is added to water to make a cheap intoxicant, or to thandai, a milk-based drink prepared with a mixture of almonds, fennel seeds, rose petals, coarsely-ground black pepper, cardamom, sugar, watermelon kernels and seeds of the vetiver – a perennial grass known colloquially as khus, to make an intoxicating thandai. 

Despite its popularity as a festival, and considering the number of Hindi films that are made, there is a perplexing paucity of songs filmed around scenes of Holi. These are a few of my favourite Holi numbers, in no particular order.

1. Arre jaa re hat natkhat  

Navrang (1958) 

Singers: Asha Bhosle, Chitalkar, Mahendra Kapoor

Music: C Ramchandra
Lyrics: Bharat Vyas 

In a musical score that stood out for sheer virtuosity, this is perhaps not the best number; one cannot fault it for its sheer exuberance, however, nor for the ease with which the singers keep pace with a tune that veers between folk and classical. As a set piece, a stage entertainment for the benefit of the royal court, it's a song where everything comes together - lyrics, singing and picturisation, with heroine Sandhya doing double duty as both the man and the woman, front to back. The song climaxes with the coming alive of Ganesha, who, in the form of an elephant (a rather cute one), moves gracefully, and in time with the artiste, thus proving the poet's (Mahipal) boast that his writing can bring a statue to life.

2.  Tan rang lo ji aaj man rang lo

Kohinoor (1960) 

Singers: Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar 

Music: Naushad 
Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni 
Holi is a festival that cuts across barriers of class and economics. And so you see the Prince Dhivendra Pratap of Kailash Nagar, and Princess Chandramukhi of Rajgarh forget themselves in celebrating the spirit of the festival in their respective kingdoms. They are newly affianced to each other, and even though neither have met, they are both tolerably pleased with each other's portraits. Little do they know that the end of the festivities will also see the beginning of their troubles.

3. Holi aayi re kanhai 

Mother India (1957) 

Singer: Shamshad Begum 

Music: Naushad
Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni

It's amazing how many Holi songs portend the beginning of the end. While it's obviously a happy time, and the villagers are celebrating the coming of Spring, it is easy enough to see that the seeds of trouble are being sown right there, during the song. As Kumkum and Chanchal (who bears a marked resemblance to sister Madhubala in this song) dance and sing (Shamshad Begum lends voice to both), and Nargis is lost in memories of her late husband, it is evident that Birju (Sunil Dutt) is up to no good. His brother (Rajendra Kumar) stops him, but for how long? And so the tale plays out, until, in the climax, a mother has to weigh one of the most difficult questions a woman will ever face. 

4. Khelo rang hamare sang  

Aan (1953) 

Singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Shamshad Begum Music: Naushad
Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni

Confession time. I liked this version of 'The Taming of the Shrew' (even though, as a feminist, I usually do not like the trope) particularly for all the swashbuckling and swinging-from-vines that a young and very handsome Dilip Kumar got to do; he looked like he was having so much fun. Definitely not for the faces that Nimmi was pulling - her 'angry' face definitely scared the living daylights out of me, and honestly? It is worse than her usual lachrymose woe-is-me expression. The song also had handsome Premnath, and an imperious Nadira (hard to believe that it was her first film) and surely, the irony of the lyrics Aaj koyi raaja na aaj koyi raani hai was not lost on them? 

5. Piya sang holi kheloon  
Phagun (1973) 
Singer:Lata Mangeshkar 
Music: SD Burman
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri

A couple of decades earlier, a film by the same name starred Madhubala. This film, by Rajinder Singh Bedi, who is also the film's scriptwriter was a better one (in my opinion), because it was a social commentary along with being a very good entertainer. The song, coming as it does in the first half of the movie, is the pivot around which the movie rests. Therefore, the video breaks off abruptly (as does the song) to segue into the next scene which is the turning point in the script. A lovely score by SD Burman, and excellent performances from Waheeda Rehman and Dharmendra lifted an already strong script. Jaya Bhaduri plays a small, but pivotal role, as their daughter.

6. Holi ke din dil khil jaate hai   

Sholay (1975) 

Singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar 

Music: RD Burman
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Sholay was not known for its music exactly. In the curry-western potboiler, the songs were only added to Indianise its very western plot origins. And so, despite a score that included the foot-tapping Mehbooba mehbooba, and the ode-to-undying-friendship Aye dosti hum nahin todenge, the film is remembered more for its truly remarkable dialogues, and dry one-liners.

However, the Holi song, coming as it does at a decisive moment in the script pulled the narrative forward. Gabbar's men have been routed by the two toughs hired by the Thakur, and Gabbar does not forgive, or forget. Holi kab hai? he asks, and the scene shifts to the villagers who are getting ready for the festival of colours - everyone, including the usually taciturn Jai, until he sees Radha. The contrast between her widow's white and the colours of the festival stings, and so he withdraws, leaving Veeru and Basanti to celebrate their blossoming love. 

When the song ends, Gabbar is ready for his first faceoff with the two men who had the temerity to step into the lion's lair.

7.  Tere sang sang sang piya mein  

Insaniyat (1955) 

Singer: Lata Mangeshkar 

Music: C Ramchandra
Lyrics: Rajinder Krishan

The only film in which Dev Anand shared screen space with his contemporary Dilip Kumar (yes, that moustachioed chap behind Bina Rai is indeed Devsaab), Insaaniyat was also perhaps the only film in which Dev moved away from comfort zone of his usual urban characters; he has confessed that he was totally uncomfortable with the moustache and costumes that he had to don as first the sipah salar of a the ruler of a petty kingdom, and later as the rebel who leads the villagers in their fight for justice. The song is an unusual Holi number - the colours and pichkaris only make their appearance towards the end.

Produced and directed by SS Vasan, Insaniyat was the remake of a Telugu film Palletoori Pilla, and as was his wont, he ensured that some of the dances were huge spectacles. Throw in a (very talented) chimpanzee into the mix and you have a passable entertainer (the film fell short of its exceptional casting). Dev is woefully miscast, though he does try valiantly.

8. Rang barse bheege chunariya 

Silsila (1981) 

Singer: Amitabh Bachchan 

Music: Shiv-Hari
Lyrics: Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan

Probably the Holi song to beat all Holi songs, this raunchy UP folk song became a bigger hit than the film, which did not fare too well at the box-office, with people seeing it as reel imitating real. Silsila saw the debut of classical musicians, santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma and flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia as music directors. Amitabh, who was closely associated with the music of this film, sang two numbers, while also lending voice for the poetry that was an integral part of the third. Rang barse  was written by Dr Harivanshrai Bachchan, who went back to his UP roots, and used the earthy village idiom for its lyrics.

Few know that one of the songs in Silsila  was jointly composed by Amitabh and Shammi Kapoor in an impromptu jamming session during the shooting of Zameer. In Shammi Kapoor Unplugged,  the veteran remembered Amitabh calling him up to ask his permission to use 'their' tune in his new film; Shammi, who had completely forgotten the episode graciously gave his permission, and the tune became Neela aasman so gaya.

9. Bhagi re bhagi re bhagi Brij baala  

Rajput (1982) 

Singers: Mahendra Kapoor, Manhar Udhas, Asha Bhosle, Dilraj Kaur 

Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

I know the eighties were not a decade known for good music, but this is a pleasant tune, for all that. It makes the list more for its picturisation than anything else, coupled with the fact that there is serious eye-candy on display - Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, and Ranjeeta Kaur. A multi-starrer that also included Rajesh Khanna and Tina Munim, this potboiler, directed by Vijay Anand harked back to the days of feudal kingdoms and princely states, and contained most of the tropes associated with such films.

10. Aao re aao khel holi  

Balika Badhu (1976) 

Singer: Sapan Chakraborty 

Music: RD Burman
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Based on a Bengali novel by the same name, and dealing with child marriage, director Tarun Majumdar made the film in Bengali in 1967; it saw the debut of a young actress who would soon be familiar to Hindi audiences - Moushumi Chatterjee. The remake by the same director, nine years later, starred a young Rajni Sharma as the child bride opposite Sachin.  

Married off while studying for his matriculation to a girl three years his junior, Amal (Sachin) finds himself more annoyed by his new bride than in love with her. It is only when she leaves for her maternal abode, as was the norm, that he realises how much he misses her; so much so, he has no interest whatsoever in taking part in the Spring festival, though he is shocked to see that his sister (Kajri) and brother-in-law (Asrani) have no qualms in flirting under the guise of the festivities.

What are your favourite Holi songs?

*Holi is the celebration of the triumph of good over evil; one myth is that of the burning of the demoness Holika, when she tries to kill her nephew Prahlad. Yet another myth deals with the death of Kamadeva, the god of love. In accordance with the wishes of the gods that Shiva marry Parvati, Kamadeva disrupts Shiva's meditation. Enraged, Shiva opens his third eye and burns Kamadeva to ashes. Once married to Parvati, Shiva gives in to Rati's (Kamadeva's wife) pleas and brings the god of love back to life. Holi celebrates this event.