For the country, 1964 was marked with the passing away of our first Prime Minister , Jawaharlal Nehru. The nation was gripped by shock and sadness. For 17 years, he was India’s longest serving Prime Minister since independence. His time in office as Prime Minister plus his leading role in India’s freedom struggle had brought stability and direction for a young nation which had established itself as Asia’s new centre, leading in the space of research in science, medicine and technology. There was a scientific temper and secular ideology that Nehru brought to institutions in that era.
Suddenly, the country felt rudderless without him. Spontaneous shutdowns were reported across different cities. Such was the personal loss that people felt on the streets that shopkeepers voluntarily downed their shutters, buses stopped plying and roads became deserted. People chose to sit at home and mark this as a loss to their own family. Millions stood for hours to get a chance to pay their last respects at his home and cremation ground. Pangs of sorrow engulfed the entire country and each person seemed to have a personal memory of the leader to cherish.
The film industry also paid a tribute to his leadership. A landmark war-film Haqeeqat (1964) was dedicated to the emotive subject of the Sino-India war of 1962. The film’s plot highlights the bravery of Major Shaitan Singh who led the Charlie Company of 120 soldiers from the Kumaon Regiment’s 13th Battalion. They were up against a thousand Chinese soldiers who suffered India a loss of 114 soldiers from the Charlie Company.
The film is a fictionalized version of what the soldiers went through, trapped at an altitude of over 18,000 feet, fighting the enemy and braving the harsh weather of minus 24 degrees Celsius in Ladakh. For the first time, a war film touched upon the human suffering of soldiers. It built an emotional character sketch of the soldiers and what they felt in their heart and minds while they were mid battle. Filmmaker Chetan Anand dedicated the film to Nehru and the real soldiers and martyrs of Charlie Company.
This new perspective in the film brought in a new style of patriotic songs as well. It was not just about the soldier holding a gun to the enemy, marching to the fronts, glorifying aggression at the battlefield and braving martyrdom. This time, it was also about the unspeakable emotional challenge of being away from home. Away from family. Away from your wife. Or away from your lover. This scenario gave birth to the heartbreaking song ‘Hokey majboor mujhe’ which stared into the abysmal possibility of dying in the cold at the hands of the enemy. It dealt with a deep-hearted concern of how your lover back home would deal with the devastating news of death.
Once again, music composer Madan Mohan strikes gold with this song written by the brilliant poet Kaifi Azmi. It was for the first time ever, and perhaps the last time too, that all four singing greats – Talat Mahmood, Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey and debutant Bhupinder Singh – all came together to record this seven minutes. The emotional and personal touch from the soldiers’ life became a popular trend for war-songs in the coming decades, including from the film Border (1997) with its superhit song ‘Sandese aatey hain’. But ‘Hoke majboor’ is the OG in this genre!
All singers: Hoke majboor mujhe usne bhulaaya hogaa
Zahar chupke se dawaa jaan ke khaaya hogaa
Hoke majboor mujhe……..
(Her helplessness must’ve urged her to forget me
Silently taking poison in the hope that it’s a cure
Her helplessness….)
Talat: Chhed ki baat pe armaan machal aaye honge
Gham dikhaawe ki hansee me ubal aaye honge
Naam par mere jab aansoo nikal aaye honge
Sar naa kaandhe se saheli ke uthaaya hogaa
(The thought of our love must have stirred up her desires
She must have laughed while suppressing her sorrow
Teared up at the mention of my name
Not have lifted her head from a friend’s shoulder)
All singers: ‘Hoke majboor mujhe usne bhulaaya hogaa’
(Her helplessness must’ve urged her to forget me)
Talat was very dedicated to giving his time for entertaining troops of the Indian army. The mid ‘60s provided him with one such opportunity in Sikkim. There were some skirmishes between the Indian and Chinese armies in 1965. Army veteran Col V N Thapar who was the Company Commander for 17 Marathas at that time, recalls how he and his men were successful in pushing back the Chinese at the Nathu La pass when they were attacked.
“I was on cloud nine! The newspapers described me glowingly as the young, short and robust officer who walked around Nathu La with the pugnacity of a Bantam Cock. I was eventually awarded the Chief of Army Staff Commendation Card for gallantry. I remember returning to Sikkim from the front as a hero who had just fought the Chinese army. A group of film stars were performing in Sikkim to entertain the troops.”
With this state of mind full of adulation and celebrations, Col Thapar was sitting in the front row with a gentleman flashing a pleasant smile. “I presumed he knew who I was. After sometime I asked him his name to which he either replied Talat or just Mahmood. I did not register who he was at all. So I asked him what he did in films. He told me that he is a singer.” Talat politely expressed, “Aap ne iss nacheez ka koi to gana suna hoga?” (You must have heard some song by an insignificant artist like me?)
“Oh my god, that soft voice and his charm. To not recognize him there hit me like a ton of bricks”, said Col Thapar , while narrating this incident to me in his animated style. “There has never been a greater embarrassing moment in my life since I was sitting next to one of my favourite voices but for some reason I had blanked out”, adds Col Thapar. That day, Talat sang his latest hit for the troops apart from a few other popular melodies. Top of the list which got the loudest cheers was, of course, ‘Hokey majboor’ from the war film Haqeeqat (1964).
Copyright Sahar Zaman. This excerpt from Talat Mahmood: The Definitive Biography has been published with permission from the author, Sahar Zaman.