अँखड़ियों का नीर पोंछ ले

An Amirbai Karnataki solo from Amrapali (1945). The title is an instruction to stop weeping, phrased in diminutives and in the intimate second person: ankhdiyan rather than aankhen, neer rather than aansoo, and ponch le rather than the more formal imperative. It is the register in which an older woman speaks to a younger one, or in which a person speaks to herself.

Slow and low-lying. Saraswati Devi's setting for a consolation lyric would not have needed much beyond a sustained accompaniment figure and space for the voice; the shape of the mid-1940s consolation song is a narrow melodic range with the emphasis falling on the imperative verb. Amirbai's unforced middle register is well suited to it.

Neer is the older, more literary word for water and for tears — Braj and Awadhi rather than everyday Hindi — and setting it against the very colloquial ponch le is a deliberate mixing of levels that Kavi Pradeep used often: one archaic word to lift the line, everything else plain enough for anyone. The result is a lyric that sounds traditional without being difficult.

Amrapali (1945) was directed by Nandlal Jaswantlal for Murli Movietone and drew on the legend of Amrapali of Vaishali, the celebrated nagarvadhu of the Licchavi republic who, in the traditional account, renounced her position and gave her mango grove and fortune to the Buddha's order. Sabita Devi, Prem Adib, Jeevan, Arun, Jagdish Sethi, Badri Prasad, Gulab and Sankatha Prasad are the documented cast. Saraswati Devi composed eleven songs for the picture to lyrics by Kavi Pradeep — one of the few soundtracks she wrote after leaving Bombay Talkies.

Documented in the film-song catalogues; not part of any revival programme. It sits with the other five Amirbai Karnataki entries as the verifiable core of a soundtrack whose remaining songs have lost their singer credits.