Tere dar par sanam chale aaye – Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi (1993)

Film: Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi (1993)
Music: Anu Malik
Lyrics: Qateel Shifai
Singer: Sadhna Sargam

As soon as haunting opening merges silently into the piano riff and the violin starts ‘singing,’ you know there’s something special coming your way! Sadhana Sargam induces a lot of feel into the ‘chale aaye’ so much so that you feel the beloved’s homecoming. Anu Malik sprinkles some real magic here with the tabla accompanying the soothing vocals within the mukhada, single/primary instrument pieces with others as support, the guitar and the saxophone in the appealing interludes. All these lead to a beautiful antara that has Qateel Shifai’s expression via my favourite lines – ‘Dil ko dhadkaa lagaa tha pal pal ka, shor sun le na koi paayal ka, phir bhi teri qasam chale aaye’. This one touches (and can pierce!) the heart, is extremely hummable and I get goosebumps every time I listen

This Mahesh Bhatt telefilm had the nation humming Anu Malik’s beautiful melodies like there was no tomorrow. With real melody apparently going away in the 80s and some part of 90s, some crude/double-meaning and downright dirty words in a few popular numbers making way into the movies, this album was God-sent. I had friends who had the 2 versions of Tere dar par sanam recorded at the end of one side and the beginning of the other …so they could listen to both the Sadhana Sargam and Kumar Sanu versions one after the other! It was very very tough to choose a number from this one that also had the Kumar Sanu/male version of Tere dar par sanam (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dWbn_qER3s), the romantic Dil mein sanam ki soorat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOIgVf8A3KE), the hummable Baadalon mein chhup raha hai chaand kyon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzN4PKgPg-4), the appealing Aane waala kal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD5bugWnUWs) and the philosophical Shaairaana si hai zindagi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wypwaWYS2p8)