“musafir hoon yaaron”

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There were two distinct kinds of songs that Jeetendra is remembered for. One is the peppy and upbeat songs from movies like Tohfa.. Mawaali.. Himmatwala .. most of which were remakes of hit South Indian flicks. These were the songs that won him the title of the “Jumping Jack”. While on one side the Jumping Jack was seen dancing and frolicking with his ladies, there is another genre of songs that he featured in.. The ones in which he portrays a subtle subdued side of his acting in songs like “Oh Maajhi Re” or “Naam Gum Jaayega” or the song I chose for my blog .. “Musaafir Hoon Yaaron”.

Written by Gulzaar, the music for this amazingly soothing song comes from the maestro – R. D. Burman – or just simply ‘Pancham’ and with the restful comforting voice of Kishorda – who sings it so effortlessly that one feels immediately connected to it. The magic of Kishorda’s voice makes every song seem so simple, but only when you try to sing it yourself do you realize how demanding it is!

This is one of those songs that are composed keeping in mind how they are to be shot. The rhythm of the songs is very close to the clippity-clop sound that the horse makes. Owing to this specialty of the song, I thought of opening the song with the sound of a traditional taanga. (I picked up the piece of taanga sound from some instrumental track whose original composer I am not aware of, so sadly I cannot mention that person here to give due credit.)

I like to think of my version of song to be a dedication to all the great talented artists associated with this song.. Pancham, Kishorda, Gulzar and yes .. the versatile Jeetendra.

When I began with the song, I built a fast trance-like beat. Although it sounded good, I felt the song demanded a slower moving rhythm. Finally I found a place for both the rhythms: used the fast rhythm just for the stanzas – to give the song an intermittent momentum – and the slow rhythm for the rest of the song.

So.. let’s hit the play button and immerse ourselves in the sweet melody .. and try and understand the perspective that the song presents .. we are all just travelers who are expected to keep walking the walk of life!