What happens when two flawed people with hardscrabble lives fall in love? They feel incredibly lucky.
No song captures this exhilaration as well as Tum jo mil gaye ho from the 1973 film by Chetan Anand, Hanste Zakhm. Madan Mohan’s music, Md Rafi’s singing — with just two lines by Lata Mangeshkar — and Kaifi Azmi’s lyrics capture the madness of love in an otherwise brutally sane world.
The song is one of Bollywood’s best — a piece of high art, perfect and complete in itself. It doesn’t need the film.
That’s Madan Mohan’s genius. Millennials who discovered him through the gossamer-fine songs of Veer-Zaara (2004) only know the tip of the iceberg. Ditto the “retro buffs” who only rave about the classics sung by Lata Mangeshkar, Lag jaa gale (Woh Kaun Thi?, 1964) and Aap ki aankhon ne samjha pyar ke kaabil mujhe (Anpadh, 1962). There’s simply so much more to his music.
Born in Iraq, on June 25, 1924, where his father Rai Bahadur Chunilal Kohli worked, Madan Mohan Kohli came to Jhelum, Undivided Punjab, with his family as a child, but grew up in Mumbai. His influential father joined the film business with Himanshu Rai of Bombay Talkies.
The kid grew into a handsome, strapping Punjabi munda, with a keen ear for music, but success didn’t come on a platter. He joined the army, worked in the All India Radio in Lucknow, tried his luck as a singer and actor, assisted music composers S.D. Burman and Shyam Sunder. Finally, he bagged his first film, Aankhen, in 1950. Legend has it that his father, who had no confidence in his son’s talent, was moved to tears upon hearing the songs.
That the 26-year-old was no ordinary composer was evident in one of Aankhen’s songs, Humse na dil ko lagana musafir, which he sang with Shamshad Begum, where the tempo alternates dramatically between the lively and the melancholy.
This sense of drama in music to plumb profound depths in human nature is perhaps Madan Mohan’s biggest skill. Check out any song of his randomly — Phir wohi sham, wohi gham, wohi tanhai hai (Talat Mahmood) or Ae dil mujhe bata de (Geeta Dutt) or Mere mehboob kahin aur mila kar mujhse (Rafi) or Jhumka gira re (Asha Bhosle) — to see how he uses different voices and orchestration to create a distinct architecture for each song.
And who can forget the songs of Dastak (1970), where Madan Mohan’s score and Lata’s rendition created one of the most haunting, experimental tracks of all time, Mai ri main kaase kahoon.
But to return to the unabashed joys of Tum jo mil gaye ho.
The great Kaifi uses the simplest words with a sledgehammer effect: Tum jo mil gaye ho/ Toh yeh lagta hai/ Ke jahan mil gaya/ Ek bhatke huye raahi ko/ Karvan mil gaya (Now that I’ve found you, it’s as if I’ve found the whole world, A lost wanderer has found a caravan).
Madan Mohan’s mood board here flirts with both Bhimpalasi and the blues, incorporating jazz elements in good measure too. The buildup is slow until it explodes in manic interludes, using percussion, strings and the flute, and the rumbling of thunder.
Rafi’s voice is addictive, embracing the intensity of the words and the music like only he can. Sheer artistry.
Lata’s two luminous lines create a moment of quiet intimacy. No orchestra, only sea waves crashing on the rocks. And then, again, the tempo changes to frenzied ecstasy with Rafi and the violins and the beats.
Trivia buffs would know that Madan Mohan specifically requested singer Bhupinder Singh to play the guitar for this song. (Bhupinder would go on to sing the unforgettable duet, Dil dhoondta hai, with Lata for Madan Mohan’s Mausam in 1975. Incidentally, Madan Mohan would breathe his last that year on July 14, aged only 51.)
Tum jo mil gaye ho was not a fan favourite at first, people thought it was too hatke. Then, suddenly, the song blew up. Since then, the karvan of fans has only kept growing.