Monday, July 27, 2009

raat bhi neend bhi kahani bhi

Song : Raat Bhi
Lyrics :
Singer: Chitra Singh
Language : Urdu

Resung by : Sindhuja Bhaktavatsalam


This is a ghazal by Chitra Singh. Her beautiful voice makes her ghazals sound even more special. Very sad that she stopped singing after the death of her son.

Here are the lyrics followed by my rendition of the ghazal. As always, feedback is much appreciated, especially here, since I'm not exactly super comfortable singing this genre :) Also, keeping with the spirit of this blog, it would be nice to open a discussion on the interpretation of the lyrics.


रात भी नींद भी कहानी भी
हाय! क्या चीज़ है जवानी भी

दिल को शोलों से करती है सैलाब
ज़िन्दगी आग भी है पानी भी

ख़त क्या क्या मुझे नहीं कहती
कुछ सुनूं मैं तेरी जुबानी भी
पास रहना किसी का रात की रात
महमानी भी मज़बानी भी

Word meanings:- shola: fire/ flame; sailaab: flood; hkhat: letter; zubaani: language; mehmaan: guest; mezbaan: host


A note on first word of the last stanza: Its not exactly clear to me what Chitraji sings. I found various substitutes for that word when I looked up various versions of lyrics for this song on the internet. There was "khat", "harf", "khalq", "khaRk"... Going by the context I think it makes sense that it should mean "letter". I understood the first two lines to mean that the girl says to her man that a letter does not say everything, so she longs to listen to him speak to her- which is why I sang it as "khat".

When I looked up Urdu dictionaries, "harf" was also said to mean "letter", but not as in "writing a letter", but as in "letter of the alphabet". As for "khaRk" and "khalq" I am really unsure. So if someone can throw some light on this, it would be great.

So here goes...
















12 comments:

Srividya Kasturi said...

Very expressive and sweet, Sindhuja..Liked it.

Ramya said...

Sindhu - Very soulful rendition. It was really moving. I want more..

Vidyu said...

very soulful singing sindhu ..loved it! :)

Murali Venkatraman said...

Soulful rendition. Places like 0:55-0:59 highlight your strong points and places like 0:38 and 2:32 show the weak points.

Former shows that with a good breath control, you can sing long winding aalaaps/akaar devoid of sangathis but rich in gamakam soulfully. that mixed with your tone makes it delightful.

Latter shows either an unwillingness to let your voice roll (due to your regimented following of swarams mentally as you sing) or may be there is a genuine limitation.

Whatever it may be, it definitely helps to improve those micro sangathis, and also highlight more of the stronger points.

Saima said...

you did a great job sindhuja coz it's not easy to sing chitra :)

as for the first word. in my opinion "khalq" makes more sense than khut...with 'khut', 'kehti' is not goning...'khut kehtay' right...
on the other hand 'khalq' means public, people...the lover is in so much love with the poet that even people ,khalq, know about it and they go and tell the poet about the stories of his lover...now when the poet meets his lover, he wants to hear from her...so 'khalq' makes sense...pls reply

Saima said...

you did a great job sindhuja coz it's not easy to sing chitra :)

as for the first word. in my opinion "khalq" makes more sense than khut...with 'khut', 'kehti' is not goning...'khut kehtay' right...
on the other hand 'khalq' means public, people...the lover is in so much love with the poet that even people ,khalq, know about it and they go and tell the poet about the stories of his lover...now when the poet meets his lover, he wants to hear from her...so 'khalq' makes sense...pls reply

Sindhuja Bhakthavatsalam said...

Thanks all. Murali: right, pointers noted.
Saima: thanks so much for clearing that up! Didn't realize that the ling could be an easy give away :)
'khalq' makes sense according to the meaning you've given. Thanks once again.

moyeenkhan said...

Extremely beaytifully sung

ZEG Consultants said...

Came here through Murali's blog. Very nice work! While technically you have done superbly, there is a slight more warmth, softness, and depth needed to do justice to ghazals. You seem to be on the right track though!

The first antara should have the word "sairaab" which means "to fill up". The second word is "khalq" as Saima correctly mentioned.

Aatmesh said...

First I will congratulate you for singing the gazal so well. Its one of the toughest to sing like all songs of chitra singh.


I think the right word is khabt which means whims mania etc.

Poet i think is trying to say that his whims are saying what not....

Sindhuja Bhakthavatsalam said...

Azam Khan, thanks very much- totally agree that I need to soften my rendition of ghazals- needs a lot more practice!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful song, sung very well. Congrats! You touched our soul...keep it up.