Thandi Hawayein Lehra Ke Aayein – The particular song which gave birth to a series of melodious tunes in Bollywood

It’s only most recent since (while I was working on R. D. Burman tunes), I incidentally listened to ‘Hamein Raston Ki’ from the movie, Naram Garam composed by R. D. Burman. I got very surprised to see its matching tunes with Sagar Kinare of Sagar, and how I missed this melodious track sung by Asha Bhosle till now. Perhaps it may be because I hate the era of 1980s, except a few wonderful tunes of R. D. Burman, Shiv Hari etc. I don’t know how many times I heard this song in the past 2.5 months or so, and to add a surprise to that knot, my brother send me a whatsapp message of a list of songs, which shared the common parent tune. It’s none other than Thandi Hawayein Lehra Ke Aayein from 1951 movie, Nav Jawan sung by Lata Mangeshkar. The song paved way to many great tunes later. Please note, this article is purely based on that message, and not my findings. Hope I can find a few songs to be the added to the list.

S. D. Burman’s Thandi Hawayein Lehra Ke Aayein – The parent of all tunes

Thandi Hawain – The parent of 6 very popular songs of Bollywood

Thandi Hawayein Lehra Ke Aayein belongs to 1951 movie, Nav Jawan. This melodious tune was composed by Sachin Dev Burman and lyrics penned by Sahir Ludhianvi. Burman was inspired from a piano player from some hotel of Juhu to create this tune. The song featuring Nalini Jaswant was sung by Lata Mangeshkar. Premnath – the 1970s villain was also featured in a romantic ada aside Nalini is this classic song. Who knew then, Mukda of this particular song is to inspire many music directors later and contribute some amazing tunes to music lovers, not easily catchy and look original!  

Quite co-incidence all the songs had one popular solo version (Title tracks of Sagar and Agar Tum Na Hote songs had a duet too, apart from solo versions), and all the legends of Bollywood music – Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle got opportunity to lip sync to this particular celebrated tune, though in different decades from 1950s to 1980s. Creating 6 or 7 great tunes from a bit of note, and to earn appreciation similar to its original is not an easy thing. Only legends can do that job and hats off to those composers. Yet, yes, it’s Bollywood, and wonders can happen here too.  

Konjum Purave from 1952 Tamil film, Thai Ullam was the first copy of this iconic tune, which later paved way to the creation of many classic hits in Hindi. Let’s find them all.

Inspirations drawn from Thandi Hawayein Lehra Ke Aayein are quite inspiring

Two years later in 1954, Roshan drew inspiration from Thandi Hawayein to create the classic hit – Tera Dil Kaha Hai for Chandni Chowk, and the song was sung by Asha Bhosle. The inspiration didn’t end here and he recreated the same tune for Lata’s classic hit, Rahe Na Rahe Hum for Mamta in 1966. Mukda of both the songs are similar. The song featuring Suchitra Sen and Ashok Kumar became indeed popular than Tera Dil Kaha Hai version he created almost 12 years before. Majrooh Sultanpuri penned the lyrics and both Lata Mangeshkar & Suman Kalyanpur rendered their voices for different songs in the same album. Roshan passed away one year after film’s release at the age of 50, and its lyrics became apt. What an irony! 

Rahe Na Rahe Hum from Mamta

Before Roshan recreated the tune in the second half of 1960s, the great music director Madan Mohan also experimented with the same tune for the movie, Aap Ki Parchayiyan. The song was Yahi Hai Tamanna featuring Dharmendra and Bengali actress, Supriya Choudhury (she passed away just two days ago – another strange co-incidence) is indeed lovely and sung by Rafi. The song sounds very similar to its parent tunes – Thandi Hawayein Lehra Ke Aayein & Tera Dil Kahan Hai.

The great composer who composed 4 tunes from the same Mukda

Hamein Raston Ki from Naram Garam sung by Asha Bhosle

Sagar Kinare from Sagar and Hamein Raston Ki’ from the movie, Naram Garam both composed by Pancham da look very close to the tune composed by Madan Mohan for Aap Ki Parchayiyan. Similar to Roshan, R. D. Burman got so much fascinated with the tune that he composed four songs, with the same Mukda. Nagama Hamara for Bundal Baaz sung by Rafi and Lata was his first experiment, though the first line only. The song was not a great hit either, the only exception among all these inspirations.

Hamein Raston Ki was his second experiment with the tune for 1981 movie, Naram Garam, and he used exactly the same Mukda for Sagar Kinare song (title track of Saagar) which became more popular than Asha Bhosle version featuring Amol Palekar and Swaroop Sampat. Same tune with slight variation in tempo and orchestra gave birth to the title track of Agar Tum Na Hote. The song featuring Rajesh Khanna, Raj Babbar and Rekha in different versions used the voices of Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar to record the solo and duet versions, and the heart touching melody is still loved by music fans of R. D. Though all the opening tunes/Mukda of this songs are the same or inspired, they are all great songs.  

Title track of Agar Hum Na Hote

I watched one video online, which stats ‘There were 10 songs or more which were actually inspired from a single tune’, and it includes one Tamil song also. Ponchum Purave from Thai Ullam (1952) sung by Vasanthakumari, was that version. Dono Ke Dil Hai Majboor Pyar Se from unreleased film, Nargis sung by Jagjit Singh and Lata Mangeshkar and composed by Basu Chatterjee is yet another version. Kaha Tha Jo Tumne from Pyar Ka Tarana (1993) is also heavily inspired from Thandi Hawayein. Music was composed by Ram Laxman. There is one Malayalam song sung by Raja in the 1950s, said to be inspired from the original tune, but not available online.

When we hear a particular tune for the first time, it’s easy to catch its similarity with other tunes. Yet as time passes by, we get used to the new version as well, and we forget its ‘true inspirations’. It’s because new inspirations have some signature elements of the composer. I strongly feel that many more songs are inspired from S. D. Burman’s master tune for Nav Jawan, and hope I can find a few and add it here. Keep watching this space. 

And the big surprise is…….

S. D. Burman’s musical bit which inspired 10 songs or more spanning to 5 decades, is not a purely original tune. He was actually inspired from a musical bit belonging to 1938 film Algeria sung by Charles Boyce. Thandi Hawayein was inspired from a very short part of this song. Another version is, Burman was inspired from a piano player from some hotel of Juhu. Whatever the truth is, only true legends can create a whole composition from a small musical piece they listened from somewhere, and create some masterpiece, which truly belong to theirs, and the tune’s popularity never fade over time. As it can be called only an inspiration, hats off to the legendary composer who gave an entirely different tune for Hindi music fans, after doing a lot of hard work and efforts.

Conclusion

It’s true many of the melodious tunes touch our souls and reside in brain, and stay there for a longer period. When music directors create tunes for their assigned works, such tunes deeply rooted in mind and soul may interrupt their work and play a few tricks as well. They get inspired and create new tunes taking inspirations from older tunes. While most of such works are true inspirations and give birth to new wonderful tunes with a fingerprint of the creator and the magic touch of the new music director, some of them are true lifts. But sadly, in most cases, the music directors never give credit to the parent tune or its creator, and music lovers will definitely catch the sin today or tomorrow. Then why can’t they admit today itself?

Our legendary music composers used to give due respect to the original creators, but it’s not the case of present generation. Hope this situation will change someday. I never feel that it’s bad to get inspired from some finest tunes. By such inspirations, we music lovers get opportunity to hear some magical wonders other than Bollywood. If a nice tune made in some regional language or foreign sounds great, what’s wrong if it gets more exposure through Bollywood – one of the biggest and popular film industries of the world listened by millions? But wait…. I have not completed my words yet….. Most important is… lift any song and make it Indian, or draw inspirations from any form of music. But please give its credit to the creator who actually deserves it!!! That’s the only word I want to say before I conclude this topic discussion.  

Rahe Na Rahe Hum….. Such a wonderful tune and amazing lyrics. The great creators behind those wonderful tunes have gone. Yet similar to its wordings, their presence through their amazing works are here to stay for long and felt always… No doubt.

Read the stories of a few more inspirations and copies of Bollywood. Here is the page link. Click on the images to read.