jo aadmii apne naseeb ko kostaa rahtaa hai, uskaa naseeb bhii use koste rahte hai.N

Film : Guide
Year of release : 1965
Spoken by : Raju (Dev Anand)
Spoken to : Rosie Marco (Waheeda Rehman)

Rosie takes an overdose of sleeping pills. Meanwhile, her husband Marco (Kishore Sahu) is away in the caves of Udaipur, exploring and excavating. Rosie does not die and as she is recovering, Raju goes and fetches Marco. Marco is very upset about having been called away from his passion - exploration of the caves. He accuses her of acting like this only to frustrate him. He says that if she actually intended to die, she would have taken a couple of more pills. He dares Rosie to commit suicide. Rosie runs out in a fit of anger and tries to jump into a lake. Raju, who is waiting outside, sees her and steps in to stop her from doing so. He also continues to follow her for a while, fearing she would attempt to do so again. Once the tension dies down, they start chatting and being the professional that he is, he starts explaining the view and the locales to her. He points to a small island in the lake which has a mausoleum dedicated to the king's dog. Rosie is surprised at the reference to 'kutte kee mazaar' (dog mausoleum). Raju says it was the king's beloved dog. Rosie sighs and comments that the dog was better off than her. Raju then turns around in what is now well-known as the 'Dev Anand style' and says

"jo aadmii apne naseeb ko kostaa rahtaa hai, uskaa naseeb bhii use koste rahte hai.N"
"जो आदमी अपने नसीब को कोसता रह्ता है, उसका नसीब भी उसे कोसते रहते हैं"

Guide is always referred to as a classic, though I am always reminded of the article titled 'Mis-guide' written by R K Narayan. I am also waiting to see the English version of Guide (which I am told is much shorter), but was never released in India. But then you take out Sachin Dev Burman's music from Guide, then what is left? I wonder!

UTh jaayenge do chaar mulaaqaatoN meN

इसे हिन्दी में पढने के लिए यहाँ क्लिक करें

Film : Waqt
Year of release : 1965
Spoken by : Ravinder Kumar Khanna aka Ravi (Sunil Dutt)
Spoken to : Raja (Raj Kumar)

When Meena (Sadhna) goes to the airport to receive Ravi, Raja also goes there, looking for Meena. The exchange between Ravi and Raja, which clearly underlines their rivalry in love has been briefly covered in one earlier post - goyaa voh alag baandh ke rakkhaa hai.

Ravi appreciates the diamonds on Raja's coat and says they are very good. Raja retorts

बढिया तो हम भी बहुत हैं, मगर ये आपको अभी पता नहीं चलेगा

badhiyaa to ham bhee bahut haiN, magar yeh aapko abhee pataa naheeN chalegaa

इतने पर्दे डाल रक्खे हैं आपने - कोई बात नहीं - उठ जायेंगे दो चार मुलाक़ातों में

Itne parde Daal rakhe hai aapne – koee baat nahee – uTh jaayenge do chaar mulaaqaatoN me

I am reminded of the famous couplet from the Mehdi Hasan ghazal

प्यार जब हद से बढ़ा सारे तक़ल्लुफ़ मिट गये

आप से फिर तुम हुये फिर तू का उनवां हो गये

The formalities between friends disappear after a few interactions.

Yeh bachchoN ke khelne kee cheez naheeN

Film : Waqt
Year of release : 1965
Spoken by : Raja (Raj Kumar)
Spoken to : Balbir (Madan Puri)

This is a very simple line and it means that ‘this is not child’s play’. But it is part of Raj Kumar’s repertoire and hence has a special flavour.

Raja is one of the three brothers in this lost and found story. He grows up under the tutelage of Chenoy Seth (Rehman) as a thief. As he finds himself falling in love with Meena (Sadhna) his desire to mend his ways increases. This results in friction with Chenoy Seth. In one such meeting, Chenoy’s minion Balbir senses the tension between Raja and Chenoy, and whips out his knife. Just as Chenoy chastises Balbir for this puerile act, Raja walks upto him and dispossesses him of his knife. He heaps scorn on him and says

ये बच्चों के खेलने की चीज़ नहीं ...हाथ कट जाये तो ख़ून निकल आता है

So if you are ever way laid by muggers who happen to whip out knives, walk up coolly to them, dispossess them of their knives and say

“Yeh bachchoN ke khelne kee cheez naheeN”

goyaa wo alag baandh ke rakhaa hai jo maal achchhaa hai

This film incidentally won Akhtar-Ul-Iman, the Filmfare award for best dialogue in the year 1966. I don’t have a very high opinion of Filmfare awards in India, given the fact that Shankar Jaikishen were able to win the best music director award for Pehchaan and Beimaan. Listen to the music of these two films and other nominees of those years and you would realize what I mean. I mean to leapfrog over Pakeezah, Shor, Talaash and Do Raaste is unbelievable. I mean for Jai bolo Beimaan kee to win over Chalte chalte and Mausam hai aashiqaanaa. Ridiculous. Anyways, in the case of Waqt – I think that justice was done. One of the earliest lost and found multi starrer dramas in Hindi films. Two brothers – Raja (Raaj Kumar) and Ravi (Sunil Dutt) (no the third brother was not called Varma) – separated due to an earthquake, grow up to be a thief and lawyer respectively. Both desire the same girl – Meena (Sadhna). Meena has gone to the airport to receive Ravi who is coming from Delhi. Raja meanwhile goes to Meena's house and finds that she has gone to the aiport. So he too lands up at the airport with a bouquet of flowers - or as he calls it 'is mausam ke pehle phool'. Then he asks her who has she come to receive. He puts in his inimitable Raaj Kumar style

Aap lene aayee hain to koee Khaas hee aadmee aa rahaa hogaa

And as he goes on further pressing his suit with his dialogues, Ravi lands up. He takes the bouquet from Meena assuming that she had brought it for him. The moment he sees Raja in the backdrop, he seeks to be introduced. Meena says

yeh Mr Raja haiN

Ravi responds with a silly but lovable

to mujhe apnee prajaa samajhiye.

As Meena leaves to collect Ravi's luggage. Ravi says to Raja

BaDee khushee huyee aap se milkar

Raja responds with an acerbic

Khushee to hogee par abhee mulaaqaat huyee kahaaN
अभी मुलाक़ात हुयी कहां
Ravi rejoinds with a very interesting line

goyaa wo alag baandh ke rakhaa hai jo maal achchhaa hai
गोया वो अलग बान्ध के रखा है जो माल अच्छा है
I liked the line more for the way it was said and fineness of the language – नफ़ासत as they call it.

A great line to use at vegetable stores. I wonder why they always hide the good 'bhinDees' under the counter. Give them only to the beautiful girls who they have a secret crush on. Of course you can use this line elsewhere too.

Jinke apne ghar sheeshe ke hoN woh doosron pe patthar naheeN phenkaa karte

The sixties makes a debut on this blog!

One of my earlier posts had prompted a comment from one of the readers - he had indicated that this line was his favourite. Thought it was time to include it. This is from the 1965 movie Waqt (directed by Yash Chopra - the man who dominates most awards functions these days). Waqt was one of the original multi-starrers and lost and found story. This genre reached its zenith in the 70s and 80s. The movie is about a rich man - Lala Kedarnath (Balraj Sahni) who is destituted and devastated by an earthquake. His three sons are separated and end up in three different vocations. The eldest son Raja (Raj Kumar) becomes a thief, the middle son Ravi (Sunil Dutt) becomes a lawyer. Will leave out the other details - you might want to see the film yourself. Raja's 'boss' is Chenoy Seth (Rehman), who is quite upset with Raja's desire to mend his ways and walk the straight path. So the scene begins when Chenoy tells Raja

"to raaja main jitnee muhabbat kartaa hoon utnee nafrat bhee kar saktaa hoon"

Raja disdainfully and in characteristic style retorts with

"muhabbat aur nafrat...

chinaai seth jinke apne ghar sheeshe ke hon woh doosron par pathar nahee phenkaa karte"

and then he cracks the wine glass that he has been toying with all this while on the table. Chenoy's sidekick whips out a knife which prompts another classic line (but that I will feature later).

The line is pretty much a straightforward translation of the famous English proverb

"Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others"

But the charm here is the way Raj Kumar chews and spits out every word. It is said that Raj Kumar was asthmatic and hence had to devise that style to effectively deliver his lines. Reminds that the other great deliverer of dialogues the Big B is also asthmatic.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, it is not a precondition to be asthmatic to say this line. You can say this whenever a person seemingly vulnerable, tries to attack another person. Oblivious to the fact that if he is attacked he would be hurt badly. So if a person himself speaks in borderline English and pokes fun at somebody else's English, you could say

"Chinaai seth, jinke apne ghar sheeshe ke hoN ...woh doosron pe patthar naheeN phenkaa karte"

Sirf main hoon

Guide is is one of my favourite movies not because of any other reason but the music. I think SD Burman did a great job. I must have listened to the Guide - Jewel Thief cassette at least three hundred times during my teenage years, but I never realised that Kya se kyaa ho gayaa and Mose Chhal kiye jaaye are the same tune in two different voices. But then Lata and Rafi were great artistes and Shailendra was a great lyricist too. Enough raving about the music, come to the line featured here. This comes during the climax scene when Raju Guide (Dev Anand) is dying and he has a vision of his spirit (aatma) which goes into a Gitaesque gyaan session about how the spirit cannot be killed and is forever. But I really like the lines and I am going to repeat them verbatim

"maut ek Khayaal hai, jaise zindagi ek Khayaal hai. na sukh hai na dukh hai. na deen hai na duniya. na insaan na bhagwaan. sirf main . main hoon. main. main. sirf main"

"मौत एक ख़याल है जैसे ज़िन्दगी एक ख़याल है. न सुख है ना दुख है, न दीन है न दुनिया, न इंसान न भगवान. सिर्फ़ मैं. मैं हूं. मैं. मैं. सिर्फ़ मैं"

Now this is not a line that can be used unless you are dying and you have had a vision of your spirit. But the lines are powerful and can be used in a different way. We all live in a selfish world, where most of our actions are oriented towards pleasing one's own self. But at times you feel guilty about it. Selfishness is not a much appreciated quality - though we are all selfish. There has been no Gordon Gecko who has come and said something like 'Selfishness is good'. So whenever you need to 'justify' a seemingly selfish action. Use this line. For good measure use the entire dialogue. It works for me. Self is the only true god - worthy of worshipping.

"सिर्फ़ मैं हूं"