Over the decades, Hindi cinema lyricists have used specific words or constructs frequently and in disparate situations to some extraordinary effect.
One such word is “mode” (pronounced quite similar to road) which means a turn or a crossroads or even a fork in road. It is safe to say that you would hundreds of songs, if not thousands, which have used ‘mode’.
In my estimation, no lyricist has used it as brilliantly as the two giants of Hindi cinema songwriting-- Majrooh Sultanpuri and Sahir Ludhianvi.
Interestingly, both songs were written in the 1960s—in 1963 by Sahir and in 1965 by Majrooh.
First let’s look at what Sahir wrote for the 1963 movie ‘Gumrah’. The song is a classic that begins with this lofty exhortation by the movie’s protagonist Sunil Dutt to his girlfriend Mala Sinha:
चलो एक बार फिर से अजनबी बन जाएँ हम दोनों
Chalo ekbaar phir se ajnabi ban jayen hum dono”
Let us become strangers again
In that song composed by Ravi and sung by Mahendra Kapoor, there is a lovely second interlude where Sahir writes:
वो अफसाना जिसे अंजाम तक लाना न हो मुमकिन
उसे एक खूबसूरत मोड देकर छोड़ना अच्छा
Woh afsana jise anjam tak lana na ho mumkin
Use ek khoobsurat mode dekar chhodna achchha
That saga which cannot be brought to a denouement
It is better to give it a lovely turn and leave it
The construct ‘Let us become stranger again’ is brilliant and could have come only from Sahir, who was known to give poetry some extraordinary turns as it were.
While Sahir’s use of ‘mode’ is somewhat cynical and even laced with a sense of resignation, Sultanpuri makes it sound almost magical. He wrote the song for the 1965 movie ‘Teen Deviyan’. It was:
ख़्वाब हो तुम या कोई हक़ीक़त, कौन हो तुम बतलाओ
Khwab ho tum ya koi haqeeqat, Kaun ho tum batlao
Are you a dream or real, do tell
In that lovely song, sung by Kishore Kumar and composed by Sachin Dev Burman, Sultapuri has these lines:
मिल ही जाती हो तुम
मुझ को हर मोड पे
चल देती हो कितने
अफ़साने छोड़ के
Mil hi jaati ho tum mujhko har mode pe
Chal deti ho kitne afsane chhod ke
You show up at every turn
Leaving so many stories in your wake
It is interesting that both Ludhianvi and Sultanpuri use another frequently used term—Afsana or saga or story. In Sahir’s song, ‘Afsana’ seems to remain incomplete, while in Majrooh’s it is more upbeat and numerous.