Life, if lived well – ‘tis said – does not
involve regrets. Because everything happens for a reason. Even if you don’t
really know what that reason is, at that point of time. However, there are very
few people who are that sanguine about their actions. Hindsight being perfect,
we often dissect our past in the hope that we can find answers to that most
frustrating of questions – ‘What if?’ What would our lives have been if we had taken
the other fork in the road – the road not taken? What would our lives had been
if we had chosen to do otherwise? Not having a crystal ball, no one can answer
that question either. That doesn’t stop us, however, from gnawing at
hypothetical scenarios. Just as much as for any other recurring life theme,
Hindi films have a song to fit the occasion. Here are a few of my favourite
songs of regret.
Humein kaash tumse muhobbat na hoti
Humein kaash tumse muhobbat na hoti
Mughal-e-Azam (1960)
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Naushad
Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni
If ever there was an open avowal of regret,
this would be it. Having fallen in love with the heir to the throne, and aware
of the Emperor’s disapproval as well as the consequences of such an affair,
Anarkali is left wondering, ‘if only…’. If only she hadn’t fallen in love with
the prince; if only she hadn’t given her heart to him…
Humein kaash tumse
muhobbat na hoti
Na dil tum ko dete
na majboor hote
Qayamat se pehle
qayamat na hoti
…then perhaps the Day of
Judgement wouldn’t have appeared before doomsday. Couldn’t he [her prince] have
stopped her from forgetting her status in life, from crossing all societal
boundaries for love of him? If only…
Sahib Bibi aur
Ghulam
Singer: Asha Bhosle
Music: Hemant Kumar
Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni
It is said that there are always regrets –
as much for what you did, as for what you didn’t. Here is a song that regrets
not saying something:
Meri baat rahi
mere man mein
Kuch keh na saki
uljhan mein
Mere sapne adhoore
huye nahin poore
Aag lagi mere
jeevan mein…
At a moment when she had hoped for a life
with the man she loves, she’s told that she’s already married (as a child) to a
man she’s never met. Having never spoken of her love before, she’s now forced
to remain silent as events conspire to tear her life apart. A deeply regretful
plaint for missed chances and broken dreams.
Manmauji (1962)
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Madan Mohan
Lyrics: Rajinder Krishan
These are the bitter dregs of a failed
love; unlike Anarkali’s love for her Prince, it is not circumstances or
societal boundaries that cause this young woman’s anguish. It is the bitterness
of knowing that she had given her love to a cheat; it’s the grief of knowing
betrayal; it’s the regret that had she not met him, she may never have had to
grieve.
Na
milti ye bairan ankhiya,
Chain
na jaata dil bhi na rota
Kash
kisi se pyar na hota…
If only she hadn’t
fallen in love…
Anuradha (1961)
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Pt. Ravi Shanker
Lyrics: Shailendra
Here are regrets of a different kind – the longing
for a time that’s shrouded in the mists of the past. Once a renowned artiste,
she has subsumed her identity in the task of making a loving home for her
workaholic husband and little daughter. Even that would be have been rewarding if
only her husband noticed her, not as a well-oiled cog in his well-ordered life
but as a person in her own right. He even introduces her as ‘My wife,
Anuradha’, whereupon his senior doctor reprimands him – Pehle Anuradha, phir dharam patni. She has an identity beyond just
being his wife. Anuradha (Leela Naidu) is finally getting a chance to dust off
her singing skills along with her memories of a brighter past.
Sooni meri beena
sangeet bina
Sapnon ki maala
murjhaaye…
…she sings; perhaps her husband will
realise just how much she’s lost?
Aandhi (1975)
Singers: Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar
Music: RD Burman
Lyrics: Gulzar
What happens when, at life’s crossroads,
you meet your past? What happens when your shared laughter and tears become
shared regrets for the road not taken. He has no complaints of life because
she’s not there, he says; but without her, life is just not worth living. The
feeling is mutual.
Kaash aisa ho tere
kadmon se
Chhoo ke manzil chale
Chhoo ke manzil chale
Aur kahi door kahi
Tum gar saath ho, manzilon ki kami to nahi
Tum gar saath ho, manzilon ki kami to nahi
If only her path would cross his, even if
their destinations are different; for if he is with her, there can be no dearth
of destinations… if only…
Ek Saal (1957)
Singer: Talat Mahmood
Music: Ravi
Lyrics: Prem Dhawan
It is not often that one gets a chance to
make reparations. However, before that comes sincere regrets for his own
behaviour, and the doubt that there may not be time to make amends. For she has
very little time left.
Hum badnaseeb
pyaar ki ruswaayi ban gaye
Khud hi lagaake
aag tamaashaayi ban gaye,
Daaman se ab ye
shole bujhaaye to kya kiya
Din mein agar
charaag jalaaye to kya kiya
His actions have caused her grievous harm,
and his conscience has awakened. However, he’s not sure if his repentance will make a difference – to her. To him. To
them.
Chhoti si Baat (1975)
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Salil Choudhury
Lyrics: Yogesh
Sometimes, the regrets are not borne of
serious consequences. Not as serious as life and death in the previous
situation, but still important enough to make her question herself. She’d had
an admirer, a gentle, nervous admirer who couldn’t bring himself to tell her he
loved her. She knew, but she laughed and threw her hat at a colleague just to
make him jealous. Now he’s left and she doesn’t know where he’s gone, or when
he’ll come back. She’s not bereft, but she’s certainly missing his gentle
presence, and there are mild regrets – why is it that absence makes the heart
grow fonder? Why does she remember the littlest of things about him? Why do his
memories fill her waking nights? Where have those evenings gone that were once
so intoxicating?
Wohi hai dagar
Wohi hai safar hai
nahin
Saath mere magar
ab mera humsafar
Idhar udhar
doondhe nazar wohi hai dagar
Kahan gayi
shaamein, madbhari, woh mere mere woh din gaye kidhar….
Na jaane kyun….
Babul (1950)
Singer: Shamshad Begum
Music: Naushad
Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni
Na socha tha yeh
dil lagaane se pehle ke tootega dil muskuraane se pehle – it appears that the most regrets
come from loving not too wisely, but too well. If only she had known that tears
follow laughter as sure as night follows day, would she have loved at all? In
what was one of those contrived tragedies that Hindi films so used to love, the
heroine (one of them) seems not to know that love is dependent on trust.
Believing – on only the flimsy evidence of another’s words that her lover has
been double-timing her, Usha (Munawar Sultana) makes the ultimate sacrifice –
and pays the ultimate price.
Having
made that decision, she regrets not the consequences (not yet), but having
stepped on another’s turf – if she hadn’t, would she have cause to grieve at
all?
Nadaan (1951)
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Chic Chocolate
Lyrics: PL Santoshi
On the face of it, a deep anguish at what
seems like betrayal, the grief spills out in the form of bitterness – if he had
no intention of keeping faith, why did he have to cross her path at all? If he
had to flood her life with tears, why fill it with laughter in the first place?
Chhod ke agar saath jaana tha ik din
Toh ulfat ka rasta mujhko dikhaaya na hota
Toh ulfat ka rasta mujhko dikhaaya na hota
Tu aaya na hota…
That
anguish is filled with regret, a regret born out of the realisation that it
might, after all, have been better not to have loved at all… Achcha hota jo dil mein tu aaya na hota...
Sanjog (1961)
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Music: Madan Mohan
Lyrics: Rajinder Krishan
What happens when a twist of fate takes
away from you all that you hold precious? When you’re left holding the baby
(literally), and there’s nothing to look forward to? When life throws questions
at you that you cannot answer?
Bade rangeen
zamaane the, taraane hii taraane the
Magar ab poochta
hai di woh din the ya fasaane the
Faqat ek yaad hai
baaki, bas ek fariyaad hai baaki
Woh khushiyaan lut
gayi lekin, dil-e-barbaad hai baaki
Kahaan thi zindagi
meri, kahaan par aa gayi…
Like Haay re woh din kyun na aaye, there is a lingering yearning for a brighter past, a feeling of regret for the path that life
has chosen for her through no fault of hers. Her lover’s actions have had
far-reaching consequences – only, she’s bearing its brunt. If only she could go
back to happier times; if only…
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