new contribution to the song of the fortnight {previous post in thread}

A new article of mine has surfaced on the Panchammagic Song of the Fortnight page:

o ha.nsinii / film: Zehreela Insaan (1974) / lyrics: Majrooh
Zehreela Insaan was S R Puttanna Kanagal's remake of his Kannada hit Naagara Haavu based on a Talukina Ramaswami Subba Rao novel of the same name. That film made a star out of Vishnuvardhan but the Hindi remake directed by Kanagal himself didn't fare as well, making things a bit difficult for Rishi Kapoor. The most cherished artifact of the film, however, has been this Kishore gem, which, as rumour would have it, was originally meant to be a Shailendra Singh song.

This is a rather short song (a 2-line mukha.Daa and two 2-line a.ntaraas, minus all the repetitions for musical effect) and Majrooh employs simple Hindi and a handful of metaphors for a lover's call to his beloved. Pancham chooses to give the song a melody in a minor scale, a scale usually associated with sadness (although there are exceptions). The seed for the melody in the mukha.Daa seems to be Michelle Legrand's theme for the 1971 film Summer of '42. While Anu Malik used the same source to a greater extent in his prelude to tere dar par sanam in Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Ayee, Pancham limits his quote to "o ha.nsinii."
... [more]

[PS: The article gets a more permanent archive URL once a new post goes up; I'll update this post when that happens] may 02, 2006: URL updated.