Shankar Jaikishan's Yahudi

by N Sridhar


This Bimal Roy directed film was edited by Hrishikesh Mukherji and also had song which was the one that won a Filmfare award for Shailendra. Since we have had the death of Hrishida as well as the birth anniversary of Shailendra this month, this is a fitting tribute to Hrishida and Shailendra to discuss this movie at this point. This is also another movie coming after Chori Chori, Shri 420, Seema, Basant Bahar, Patrani, Halaku which once again showcases the ability of SJ to score music for another genre of historic film set in the Roman period. This also one more album with most of the songs being quite popular

I have watched this movie on DVD a couple of years back. I remember the credits showing only Dattaram's name as Assistants to the MD. Anybody having information on the reason for Sebastian not being part of the team

The producer Savak B Vacha expired during the making of the film and the film titles carries a homage to the producer. This film has some excellent performance by the hero Dilip Kumar who is quite comfortable in portraying the tragic hero who makes a sacrifice. It also has an excellent performance by the anothe legend Sohrab Modi and some of the dialogue which I still remember from this movie when Sohrab Modi asks the emperor - 'Tumhara khoon khoon aur hamara khoon pani?', Insaaf, nadaan ladki, zulm ke kharkane se insaaf ki umeed, 'zehreele saanp zeher ke siva kuch nahin ugla sakte hain'Meena Kumari looks very beautiful and ravishing in this movie.).

The story of the movie is set in Rome and is a story of the love of a Prince Marcus (in the guise of a common trader) with a Jewish girl Hannah, the daughter of a diamond trader. Sohrab Modi plays the role of the father of the girl. In reality the girl is the daughter of Brutus who has been kidnapped by the Jewish in retaliation against the death sentence meted out to Sohrab Modi's son.

The first song in the movie is the song - 'Yeh duniya' of Rafi which is a song lamenting the situation in the country against the oppressive rule of the roman emperors against the Jews after the kidnapping of the daughter of Brutus. It is a poignant song rendered by a passing by beggar. Even though the song is filmed in studio, the images used in the song are very touching. The use of chorus in the song is also very good.

This movie also has an excellent dance sequence during the celebration of the birthday of the Princess of Rome, who is the fiancee of the Prince Marcus. This music has some traces of Persian/Arabic music. This is an excellent orchestration of dance music. The song 'Bechain Dil khoyi si nazar' is filmed on a a very young Helen and another dancer (was this Cuckoo??). This is another dance based song. It is a beautiful duet of Lata and Geeta Dutt. This must be probably be one the earliest films of Helen. A pity that Geeta Dutt's vocals were not used extensively by SJ.

Meri jaan meri jaan is the pick of this album for me. It is very nicely rendered by Lata with the chorus enhancing the mood of the song. The way Lata songs 'Wai Wai Wai' is really excellent. It is a song celebrating the falling in love by Meena Kumar with some ched chad by her friends. The song starts in a base pitch in the mukhda and moves on to quite high pitch in the antara. Somehow this song appeals to more that Yeh Diwanapan hai and in a toss up, I would pick up this song.

Yeh mera diwanapan hai is sung by Dilip Kumar on the screen after the truth about him not being a Jewish trader is realised by Meena Kumari and she spurns his love. Of course this song is legendary with its own lores and went on to win the Filmfare award for Shailendra. Members would by now have read many times the story of how Dilip Kumar wanted Talat for the song and Shankar stuck to his guns of using Mukesh. Shankar requested Dilip Kumar to listen to Mukesh rendering the song first and then decide on the final singer. Shankar rehearsed extensively with Mukesh for the song and even Dilip was happy with the result of this song. Of course the popularity of this song later on reinforces this decision of using Mukesh for this song.

Aansoo ki yaad leke is rendered by Meena Kumar after learning that the man she had loved is a Roman and that their love is not destined to succeed. It is again one of the sad songs, which SJ excelled at. The dialogue between Sohrab Modi and his daughter wherein he is distraught at seeing his daughter being so sad and crying for love is one of the highlights of this movie. Of course Sohrab Modi later on excels in the climax scenes also.

Dil mein pyar ka toofan is another dance based song rendered by Cuckoo (I am not sure about the artiste, some other learned members may please comment.
This song is rendered at a fast tempo and has some excellent rhythmic beats. The refrain of the song especially 'zalim ghoor ghoor ke dekhe door door se' is one of the main attractions of this song. This refrain is again a unique touch given to the song like the Wai wai refrain in the other song.

The DVD that I have did not have the song - 'aate jaate pehlu main aaya koi' which I presument should be another song similar to Meri meri jaan rendered by Meena Kumari and her friends.


Note : these Blogs are not full articles but part of a discusion, so cant be said used for referance . This is only for referance of Sj yahoo grp members. any one having problem with content may contact SJfiles@gmail.com