Gara is one of the family of Raagas derived from folk melodies and entered classical music in concert with Thumri. It is traditionally sung in second half of morning although Bhatkhande didn’t specify any time of the day for this Raaga. Raag Gara, of course, boasts of some of the best songs in Hindi movies: 1. It is another thing that the second of my Raaga based songs of the day was composed in Raag Gara, Tal Kaherava: Unake khayaal aaye to aate chale gaye (Please see: ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #2’). The raaga that I know least about is Raag Gara though it fascinates me no end. I am merely a beginner in the world of Indian classical music and my interest is limited to its effect on Hindi songs. The saving grace is that Nutan is there to render respectability to the song in the same manner Sadhana was there for Manoj Kumar in Lag jaa gale se phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho. Hindi movies actually excelled in some of the worst guys (in acting) singing some of the best songs (you should listen to the songs lip synced by Manoj Kumar to see this phenomenon). Naturally, she looks as stunned as some of Anil Dhawan’s actresses did. There was another great song in the movie: Tujhe kyaa sunaaun main dilruba tere saamne mere haal hai, which Shekhar actually lip syncs to Nutan.
The song is sung at the betrothal of Shekhar. Of course npone of this works and he finally agrees to marry TunTun for the meagre amount. 5000 to the villain, which Shekhar tries to repay by asking for a loan first, then by gambling and losing it all and then goes on to steal from none other than Nutan’s dad.
They start loving each other but of course there are circumstances and a villain. Aakhri Dao was one of them. The story was about a misunderstanding between the hero (Shekhar as a car mechanic) and the heroine (Nutan all we know is she goes to a dance class) which makes them each think that the other is rich. Regrettably, some of the movies having exceptionally beautiful songs were not just weak movies but had weak plots too.
But, those who have seen the movie and the song would know that he was actually the weak point. Who would the song belong to more than anyone else? I would say the honours are to be divided between the lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri for coming up with remarkably beautiful words that go straight into your heart composer Madan Mohan for coming up with a super slow composition in Raag Gara, Tal Dadra, as if he knew that people need to pause and take in the beautiful lyrics singers Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle who made it look like as if the words don’t come out of the throat but from the heart and finally actress Nutan who came up with better histrionics here than she did in most other similar songs including Anaadi’s Tera jaana. It is picturised on the lead actors of the 1958 Mahesh Kaul movie Aakhri Dao: Shekhar and Nutan.However, the song only brings out their emotions silently they don’t lip-sync it. Yes, this a duet between Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle. Tonight, we repeat one each male and female singer. We also took up songs of eleven female singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur, Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt, Uma Devi (Tun Tun), Suraiya and Zohrabai Ambalewali, Sudha Malhotra, Amirbai Karnataki and Kavita Krishnamurthy. In the last twenty-two days, we have taken up songs of thirteen male singers: Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar, Mahendra Kapoor, SD Burman, KL Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Jagmohan ‘Sursagar’, Hariharan and Yesudas. The twenty-fourth day of songs in this series.