Abhishek Bachchan’s Twitter account helped remind me that it’s been seven years since the release of the Mani Ratnam film Guru. Hard to believe, especially since it still feels like yesterday when I went to go watch this movie with my parents in a local Alabama theater:
Naam tha nahin, hai, aur hamesha rahega…Gurukant Desai! Can’t believe it’s even 7yrs since Guru released.
— Abhishek Bachchan (@juniorbachchan) January 12, 2014
How time flies… feels like yesterday that we finished shooting for Guru. Well…… onwards and upwards.
— Abhishek Bachchan (@juniorbachchan) January 12, 2014
Guru was loosely based on the story of Dhirubhai Ambani, the Indian industrialist who founded one of the biggest companies in India (Reliance Industries). The film itself was a good watch, and the on-screen pairing of Abhishek and Aishwarya mirrored their real-life engagement, which was also announced in January 2007. But one of the most memorable aspects of this film was its stellar soundtrack, courtesy of musical maestro A.R. Rahman and lyrical mastermind Gulzar. A.R. Rahman’s soundtrack swept up almost every accolade possible (including the Filmfare, IIFA, Star Screen, and Zee Cine awards for best musical direction) — but “Tere Bina” was far and away my favorite. With powerful vocals provided by A.R. Rahman, Chinmayee, Murtuza Khan, and Qadir Khan, “Tere Bina” (literally “without you”) illustrates a tumultuous time during the lead couple’s marriage. The lyrics and visuals of the song take the viewer back to better, happier times in the relationship with interspersed cuts showing the torment of their current separation:
The lyrical translation doesn’t do complete justice to the poetic beauty of the song, but it serves its purpose. Some of my all-time favorite Bollywood lyrics are captured in these lines:
“Tere bina beswaadi beswaadi ratiyaan, oh sajna” — without you the nights are colorless, flavorless
“Tere bina chand ka sona khota re” — without you the moonlight appears fake
“Tere bina sona peetal ” — without you gold is just brass
“Tere sang keethar peepal” — when you’re there everything is wonderful
Interestingly enough, this song’s release coincided with the 10th anniversary of the death of world-renowned Pakistani musician, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and A.R. Rahman dedicated “Tere Bina” to his memory. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was best known for his qawwalis, so it’s no surprise that this song uniquely blends the vocals of qawwali singers Murtaza and Qadir Khan with Gulzar’s lyrical poetry:
“Dum dara dum dara mast mast dara dum dara….o humdum bin tere kya jeena.”
As if all of the above wasn’t enough to include this song as one of the best of Bollywood from the past decade, “Tere Bina” gained even more attention when it was included in the soundtrack for the 2013 Disney-Pixar movie Planes:
A.R. Rahman has been quoted as saying that “it is important to play music that will be accepted by an international audience but which retains an essential Indian quality” — and I can think of few songs that accomplish these goals as well as my favorite track from Guru. From the meaningful storyline that plays out through this song’s visualization in the film to the layers of meaning that unravel with each eloquent refrain to the sheer quality of the vocal and instrumental sounds found in this song, “Tere Bina” packs a powerful punch in a mere five minutes.
Farah Naz Khan is an internal medicine resident at Emory University. After graduating from college in Boston, she returned to her Alabama hometown to attend medical school, and was reunited with the mix of Southern hospitality and South Asian flair that had shaped her childhood. Follow her on Twitter @farah287 or read some of her thoughts at farah287.blogspot.com.
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