Romancing The Song pre-release orders for the Diwali Season (till November 15, 2012).
MRP: Rs. 1250
Promotional offer: Rs. 900.
Couriering free within India.
Pages: 654
Format: Hardbound
ISBN 978-81-924931-0-7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A preview...three random sample pages from the book: here goes...
Sample Page No. 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We consider the word sanam here, appearing for the first time in this section.163 It is a cross-generation word, used so freely in our songs, and these days it has come to mean sweetheart, even if the original meaning of this Urdu word of Arabic ancestry is statue. There are plenty of references to sanam and its plural asnaam in the Quran sharif too. It did find its original usage, even if rarely, as in the Majrooh written Patthar ke sanam, tujhe humne muhabbat ka Khuda jaana, meaning here a stonehearted
(unfeeling) person. But what do you say when Majrooh himself writes this?:
Hain to sanam, lekin patthar ke sanam yahaan…in the song Koi sone ke dilwaala, from Maya (1961). You want to ask, Aur kis qism ke sanam hote hain?!
Shakeel too used it, as in this song:
Yehi armaan lekar aaj apne ghar se hum nikle…
Sitaaro jagmagao tum bahaaro muskurao tum
Meri ujdi muhabbat ki hasi milkar udao tum
Jinhen sajde kiye humne wo patthar ke sanam nikle
(Rafi/Naushad/Shabab, 1954).
Oh but Majrooh loved the word a lot; here are a couple of examples:
Laakhon hain nigaah mein, zindagi ki raah mein, sanam-haseen-jawaan
(Rafi/OP Nayyar/Majrooh/Phir Wohi Dil Laaya Hoon, 1963).
And also using the title in a song from Mere Sanam (1965):
Humdum mere maan bhi jao kehna mere pyaar ka
Are halka-halka surkh labon pe rang to hai ikraar ka
It's to be found here:
Pyaar-muhabbat ki hawa pehle chalti hai, phir ik lat inkaar ki rukh pe dhalti hai
Ye such hai kam se kam, to ai mere sanam, laten chehre se sarkao
Tamanna aankhen malti hai!
(Tamanna aankhen malti hai=after so long, even my sleeping desires are awakening!)
(Rafi/OP Nayyar/Majrooh).164
And so, from statue, going on to mean stone-hearted, to now meaning sweetheart, in baby steps has the word sanam undergone a change in meaning.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes
163 In films the word of course appeared before the current song showed up here, and it was especially projected in the 1951 film titled Sanam, with its title track going on Dev Anand and Suraiya: O sanam, o sanam…Main tujhe pukaaroon sanam sanam (Rafi, Suraiya/Husnlal-Bhagatram/Qamar Jalalabadi).
164 Majrooh's daughter Sabah is married to Naushad's son Raju. Maestro Naushad himself was a gifted writer too, besides being a class composer. It seems he preferred using the original meaning in his own poetry. Here's an example of what he wrote in his deewaan called Aatthwaan Sur: “Na mandir mein sanam hote, na masjid mein Khuda hota, Humhi se ye tamaasha hai, na hum hote to kya hota?”
