Rote hue..

Some songs become "special" to us for many reasons, but the 1 or 2 that stand out, like this one for me, is blogworthy.

"Rote hue aate hai sab, hasta hua jo jaayega"

This is a song from "Mukkadar ka sikandar", starring Amitab and Rekha. The song picturized on Amitabh as an introductory scene, is on his bike happily singing, with vim and vigor!

I was probably 6 or 7 when I saw this one and became an instant fan of this legend - not that I understood acting at that age, but probably hearing my dad praise him, made me watch him too and in the process probably got into humming a few of his songs. There is a small anecdote to this that, I was once humming this song , on my rocking horse & was so enthusiastically rocking, as if it was my bike ( as in the song) that I rocked myself down to the floor. I remember the fall. This is quite a snippet of my childhood which comes up at family dinners, whenever I talk about Bachchan.

Although the entire song is intensely written with superb choice of words, the couplet I would like to recall and always cherish is:

"Zindagi to bewafa hai, ek din tukhraayegi
Mauth mehabooba hai apna, saath lekar jayegi
Mar ke jeene ki ada ko duniya ko sikhlayega"

The translation goes like this:

Life is deceitful - faithless - since one day, it is bound to leave you, but it is Death that will take you along and is hence your lover ..and it is that Death, that will teach the world how one lives on, even after dying

I bow to Kalyanji and Anandji, who coined these verses and how lucky to be able to hear it through none other than - Kishor Kumar!

Its a no brainer that I still continue to adore this yesteryear Bachchan.( I'll reserve my comments about him continuing to act) This song rings in my ears with increasing melody every time I play it! Its funny that this is such a casual song but is so philosophically deep in its meaning (and what it means to me)

On a sad note, Prakash Mehra the director of this movie has passed away y'day. Probably one of the reasons, what made me recall all this.

Song of the day : Should I ?