My Favorite Broken-Heart Song of All (from a favorite film from 1948)

Posted by Richard S. on January 14, 2013
Posted in: Uncategorized. 6 Comments

Yes, I decided this is it…  I have posted it before, possibly more than once, but I am even more impressed now…  I think it helped that I have seen it with these subtitles (errors notwithstanding).  I find the lyrics wrenching (though I don’t know anything about the lyricist – Moti?)…  The voice is so beautiful too, but as we’ve said here before, it’s not someone known most for films; it’s Surinder Kaur!  Music by C. Ramchandra – one of his great early works…  And Kamini Kaushal is certainly stunning here.  (Plus, a nice glimpse of Dilip – in the only scene where, for some reason, he is dressed like Nehru.)

Altogether, well, as I said, I think it is the number one broken-heart song!

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P.S. And it doesn’t even have the phrase “dil toda” in it anywhere…  But so many songs do…  I am wondering if I should continue a numbered list of favorite broken-heart songs…  The problem is that I can’t find subtitles for some of the most beautiful songs, so I can’t really always compare lyrics.  And the pool to choose from would be kind of large…

6 comments on “My Favorite Broken-Heart Song of All (from a favorite film from 1948)”

  1. Thank you Richard, it is a beautiful song, and you know I love Surinder Kaur’s voice. You are right that so many of the broken hearted songs do have dil and toda in them. Two immediately sprang to mind, as a reflex action, from two totally different eras:
    K L Saigal, Jab dill hi toot gaya, “If the heart itself is broken, what shall I do by living, and kishore Kumar’s from Amanush “Dil aisa kisi ne mera toda,” Someone broke my heart in such a way, steered me towards destruction in such a way, that a good-hearted simple man, didn’t stop until he became inhuman.”

    I am sure I will now like awake trying to remember my favourites in this category!

  3. Thank you Bawa, and it is good to hear that my post can inspire such an enjoyable kind of insomnia! BTW, I know that K.L. Saigal song – and yes, that is a good one! I am going to have to set aside time soon to give a good watch and listen to the (much later) Kishore Kumar one.

    One of the first songs with “dil…toda” that springs to my mind is from another film made in 1948, Lata’s “Dil Mera Toda” in Majboor. I think I mentioned recently that that song was stuck in my head… (I will come back to this and link it soon – or feel free to search here. :) ) I think this was Lata’s first major Hindi film song(?)… By Ghulam Haider, of course.

    Swarup, thanks for the suggestion of an antidote. I haven’t had a chance to read Memsaab’s entire review of this film (yet), but judging by the YouTube copy that I found, I guess that your description is correct: (Though it doesn’t seem quite powerful enough to me to be a real antidote to the broken heart – a condition to which I am no stranger, of course. )

  4. Thanks Richard, I understand a bit more of the song now. Of course at my age I should rather be singing with Wordsworth
    “Though nothing can bring back the hour
    Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
    We will grieve not, rather find
    Strength in what remains behind;
    In the primal sympathy
    Which having been must ever be;
    In the soothing thoughts that spring
    Out of human suffering;
    In the faith that looks through death,
    In years that bring the philosophic mind.”

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