रात की रानी

Raat Ki Rani is one of those 1949 Bombay films whose story material and prints are nearly unobtainable today — its memory survives chiefly in its songs. The title sets its own atmosphere: 'Raat Ki Rani', the night-queen jasmine that releases its scent after dark, a familiar image in Hindi storytelling for the heroine of night, mystery and enchantment. This was the very year Barsaat, Andaz and Mahal arrived on screen together and the musical map of Hindi cinema changed forever — into that crowded, historic season came this film. Its music was in the hands of Hansraj Behl of the Punjabi composer generation rising after Partition, with words by Arzoo Lucknowi, a poet of the older Urdu tradition. From this film, Mukesh's 'Jin Raaton Mein Neend Ud Jaati Hai' became Behl's early calling card and is still heard with respect among collectors, while 'Hai Mouj Mein Apne Begaane' in the young Asha Bhosle's voice documents the first chapter of her career — the years when the empress-to-be was still waiting in line for her turn.

Hansraj Behl and lyricist Arzoo Lucknowi again, a year on from Chunariya — late-1940s Bombay songcraft balancing classical grounding with the lighter film idiom the new decade would perfect.

By 1949 the freelance system was fully in place: composers, lyricists and singers moved picture to picture, and a prolific craftsman like Behl could score several releases in a single year.

Raat Ki Rani matters as a document of Hindi film music in transition. In 1949 — the first great year of the new playback age — it shows how much solid music was being made outside the big banners. Mukesh's 'Jin Raaton Mein Neend Ud Jaati Hai' is an early peak of Hansraj Behl's melodic craft, counted among the most affecting songs of sorrow of that period. On the other side, Behl's faith in the young Asha Bhosle — running from Chunariya (1948) to this film — is a link in the relationship that gave an independent voice ground to grow outside Lata's shadow. And the meeting of an old master like Arzoo Lucknowi's poetry with the tunes of the new playback era makes the film a junction of two generations of music history.

Another of 1949's many releases that time has thinned to its music: the film is scarcely seen, but the recordings persist on 78s and in remastered archives, keeping Behl and Arzoo Lucknowi's collaboration audible.