YAI HAI BOMBAY MERI JAAN

YE -  HAI        BOMBAY       MERI            JAAN

       

          I n     the    fifties     when   Guru  Dutt   made  C I D  , the famous   Bombay  song  ‘Aye  dil   hai   mushkil    jina  yahan,   ye hai Bombay , yai hai Bombay, yai hai Bombay   meri  -jaan’ written    by   Majrooh Sultanpuri  and  composed by O P  Nayyar caught the imagination of the viewers and has since remained embedded in our collective consciousness. It was sung by Rafi and Gita Dutt and played on Johny Walker and Kum Kum on screen whilst they move on the Victoria on marine drive. The song  represents the difficulties, agony and ecstasy of being in Bombay.

      Since then many songs reflecting the spirit of Bombay have been enacted on Screen. Amitabh Bachhan   enacted  the  famous ‘ Ei   hai bambai  nagaria  tu   dekh  babuwa.........’  in ‘Don’ sung in typical   Avadhi/Allahabadi  dialect it narrated the woes of the eastern migrants. The rap song sung by Javed Jafferi in ‘Bombay Boys’  also made news with its typical Bambai dialect. Bhupender sung ‘ek akela is shehar  mein  raat   mein  ya  dopahar  mein...’ depicting the forlorn and lonely state of Amol Palekar in ‘Gharonda’ also haunts us specially the lines of Gulzar   ‘ Jine ki  jagaha  to koyi  nahi  marne ka  bahana  dhoond  ta  hai  dhoond  ta  hai...’    This was the photograph i took on 18 July at about 0900 near cooperage crossing. The labourers are are loaded in a bulging truck on their way to docks to deliver goods, they seem satisfied with the world- 'yai  hai Bombay  meri  jaan....'