अफ़साना लिख रही हूँ

In Dard (1947), Naushad gave the unknown Uma Devi a song of considerable classical ambition — set close to Raag Yaman, with a slow, unfolding architecture. 'Afsana Likh Rahi Hoon' became an instant radio favourite and demonstrated that Uma Devi possessed one of the purest voices in Indian cinema at the time. The tragedy — from a musical standpoint — is that she moved to comedy roles as Tun Tun and effectively retired from singing within a few years.

Naushad's setting is in his most classical mode — minimal percussion, sarangi prominent, the melody structured around the characteristic intervals of Yaman. The arrangement gives Uma Devi's voice room to breathe and ornament without competition. The result is one of the most purely musical recordings in the entire 1947 Hindi film catalogue.

Shakeel Badayuni's lyric works with the image of writing a story — the heart's story being composed in real time, eyes filling with the colours of spring. The self-consciousness of the act ('I am writing') gives the song an unusual reflective quality.

The song is placed in Dard as a moment of private anguish — the heroine's interior monologue externalised in music. Naushad uses the Yaman setting to suggest evening, longing, the particular quality of light at dusk.

Uma Devi sang too briefly. 'Afsana Likh Rahi Hoon' is the monument to what might have been — a singer of classical depth who chose comedy and was loved for that too, but left Hindi film music poorer for the trade. The song is periodically revived by younger listeners discovering the breadth of the 1947 catalogue.