While Aman writes, he allows another poet to pass it off as his own work, which results in a young qawwal Chand Khan (Khurshid Bawra) winning a competition against Mubarak Ali and his daughters. Coincidentally, Khan Bahadur and family also go to Lucknow to get her married, before her love story causes trouble. Shekhar traces them there and Shabnam is reluctantly dragged back home.Īman makes his way to Lucknow to stay with his friend (he seems to have a lot of them to stay with!), the very same Aftab. His voice is recognised by Shekhar, so they run off to Jabalpur to the home of another pal (Rashid Khan). Shabnam’s father eventually catches on, threatens to break Aman’s legs, and declares that she will be married to a man of his choice, Aftaab (Haroon).Īman and Shabnam elope to Indore, where he gets a job reciting poetry on the radio, which he does under a pseudonym, Kamal Lakhnavi. Now comes the part where the two have to find a way of meeting under the stern nose of the commissioner, and what better way than him tutoring Shabnam’s little sister, Razia (Baby Shobha). Her friend Shanti (Peace Kanwal) takes her to an event, where Aman looks dreamily in her direction and sings Maine shayad tumhe pehle bhi kahin dekha hai. When she hears him on the radio singing Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi, she realises whom she had bumped into. Shabnam, the daughter of police commissioner Khan Bahadur (KN Singh), is a fan of Aman, without knowing what he looks like. She sees him nervously and runs off, but the poet is smitten-as anyone would be, because the woman is the gorgeous Madhubala. Soon a soaking young woman also ducks in there, and when lightning cracks, cowers against him. Short of inspiration, he wanders around the city, smoking and thinking when it starts pouring all of a sudden and he takes shelter in a deserted spot (turns out to be a blacksmith’s workplace). He goes there to stay with his buddy Shekhar (Chandrashekhar), a cop, and to take part in a radio programme and mushaira. He requests Aman to help him with some qalaam, so that he can save his sinking career, and Aman promises as soon as he returns from Hyderabad. Mubarak Ali has been losing the qawwali muqablas and is in dire straits. (Ratna married Bharat Bhushan and went on to become a familiar face on Doordarshan.) The older sister is in love with Aman, but too shy to let him know, while the younger one chatters and flutters around overacting the cutie part that sets the teeth on edge. Prem) and his daughters Shama (Shyama) and Shabab (Ratna)– the film opens with the two singing the sublime Garjat barsat sawan aayo re over the credits.
Madhubala’s enchanting beauty and the immortal score are probably the highlights of Barsaat Ki RaatĪman Hyderabadi (Bhushan) is a poet, famous but impoverished, who lives as a tenant in the home of a qawwal, Mubarak Ali (S.K. The title song, Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi woh barsaat ki raat, is an unforgettable rain song, but the film’s selling point were the qawwalis (originally composed by Fateh Ali Khan, father of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, some altered and used with his consent). With Roshan’s score and Sahir Ludhianvi’s lyrics, the film turned out to be a major musical hit of the time. PL Santoshi directed and co-wrote the screenplay from Rafi Ajmeri’s story, with his leading man Bharat Bhushan.
Made 60 years ago, this is the kind of film that belongs firmly to another age of Muslim socials, mushairas, qawwali muqablas, simpering women and sherwani-clad men.
No ‘rain song’ playlist is possible without Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi… Deepa Gahlot looks back on the musical hit that is synonymous with monsoon moodsĪs the monsoon hits Mumbai, flashback to Barsaat Ki Raat (1960), in which a storm with rain and lightning ignites a romance.