Daily Times

Even he passed on his successful style to Mehdi Hassan whose own singing style was different. Robin Ghosh avoided the hard beat of the tabla and the dholak in most of his songs unless necessary, for example like the one in Hassan’s melodious song “Pyar Bhare Do Sharmeele Nain” from the movie ‘Chahat’.

Success through the movie ‘Aina’ – In the early 1960s, film director Ehtesham visited the Dhaka Radio Station and offered Ghosh a contract as music composer for his forthcoming films. His debut was for the Bengali film ‘Raj Dhanir Bookay’ in 1961, followed by numerous other Bengali and Urdu films, including ‘Talaash’, ‘Paisa’, ‘Chakori’ and ‘Bhaiya’. All these movies had their base in East Pakistan. After the release of the film ‘Tum Meray Ho’, Ghosh moved to West Pakistan continuing to compose film music till the 1980s in Lahore despite its dismemberment. He composed songs for the film ‘Aaina’, one of the greatest films ever made in the Pakistani film industry. This movie met with extraordinary success and still maintains the record of being the longest running film in Pakistan. The film was a musical success as well. The playback singers used by Ghosh for this movie were Hassan, Mehnaz, Alamgir, Nayyara Noor and Akhlaq Ahmed. The theme song was “Mujhe dil sei na bhulana”. It was a remake of Bollywood movie ‘Aa Gale Lag Jaa’. The movie was directed by Nazarul Islam. All the songs of the movie ‘Aina’ were hit songs like “Kabhi Mein Sochta Hu” by Hassan, “Wada Karo Saajna” by Mehnaz and Alamgir, “Haseen Wadion Se Yeh Pucho” by Ahmed and Noor and “Ruthey ho tum tum ko kaisay manaun piya” by Noor. After the success of these songs, Ghosh paired with Ahmad and Noor frequently in his subsequent movies.

For the interest of music lovers, let me recapitulate the story of this movie. It is a love story. Unfortunately, each hails from different social classes as is so in romantic movies. The girl Rita is the daughter of a business giant. The male character Iqbal played by Nadeem is a self-made individual. On the other hand, Rita is a happy lucky go person spoilt with all the amenities of life made available by her father. Iqbal is just a hotel’s receptionist. As the luck would have it, they fall in love.

It was but natural that the differences between Iqbal and Rita’s father arose right from the beginning. For instance Rita’s father boasts that buying his daughter’s sari costs him Rs 7,500 as compared to Iqbal’s monthly salary of Rs 750; a meagre amount. Rehan leaves no chance in ridiculing Iqbal whenever they come across. Rita takes a stand and threatens her parents that she would commit suicide if they do not agree to her marrying Iqbal. Her parents reluctantly agree afterwards. One day Rita’s mother comes to her daughter’s house, which is located in a middle-class locality and offers Iqbal a job in her husband’s friend’s business firm; an offer naturally declined by him. Not only this, but he explodes with anger on finding out that Rita’s mother has gifted them with a telephone and his wife has accepted it. Bahar also organises a party at Rita’s place with new furniture added in her almost-empty home without informing Iqbal. When Iqbal returns home that evening from the office, he gets angry and asks Rita to leave the house with her mother. She does so in tears. The following day, Iqbal gets an appointment from a larger company for running a hotel in Murree. He is supposed to leave immediately. Before leaving the city he tries to meet Rita, but, at the entrance of her house her father wrongly informs him that Rita has no intentions to meet him. Shocked and disheartened, Iqbal leaves the city.

On the other hand, Rita has been waiting for him in the hope that he would return and take her back. But her father deceives her too by stating that he had visited Iqbal but was insulted instead in front of his friends and said that he intends on giving her a divorce. This shocks Rita to such an extent that she collapses in a state of pregnancy. They move her to a hospital in the same city where Iqbal has gone for his new job. During his journey to Murree, a car driver incidentally injures Iqbal. He is also rushed to the same hospital where Rita has been admitted for child delivery. In the hospital’s lobby, he finds his wife unconscious on the hospital bed. Here, Rita’s father interrupts and says that he is going to give away the child to an orphanage, but Iqbal refuses to allow that and says that he will take care of the child himself. Continued