Dil jo na keh saka vohee raz-e dil kehne ki raat aayi This is the night to lay bare the secrets of my heart!
These defiant words are uttered by Pradeep Kumar at Meena Kumari's wedding in the movie Bheegee Raat (1965). She squirms in anguish as her ex belts out this ballad reminding her of their shared past. I call this genre of Bollywood songs: "Wow! I can't believe you didn't marry me, b**ch!" It's fairly common, and this is the basic set-up. The hero and the heroine fall in love early in the movie. The heroine at this point sings a sexy, sensual song for the lusty hero. But there are trials and tribulations and the heroine ends up marrying another man (usually due to circumstances beyond her control). The wronged hero then decides to show up at his erstwhile girlfriend's wedding and torments her with his own self-pitying version of that same sexy song she'd sung for him. The heroine recognizes the song, is reminded of her crimes of passion and her past desires, and is in equal measure terrified and heart-broken at her circumstances. The man who is actually marrying the heroine usually either looks on in triumph at the hero's helplessness, or suddenly begins to connect the dots. This is a fantastic genre of songs for the simple reason that it packs so much drama into those five minutes of plaintive singing.
Meena Kumari seems to be the queen of this genre. Here's another classic example from the film Gazal (1964). In the first version of the song Naaz Ara Begum (played by Meena Kumari) renders an incredibly sensual ghazal: Naghma-o-sher ki saughat kise pesh karoon? Yeh chalakte ue jazbaat kise pesh karoon? (To whom shall I present this gift of song and verse? To whom shall I present these overflowing passions?). Later in the film, her beau Ejaz Ahmed Ejaz (played by Sunil Dutt) renders a heart-wrenching spin on the same ghazal: rang aur noor ki baaraat kise pesh karoon? Yeh muraadon ki haseen raat kise pesh karoon? (To whom shall I present this procession of light and colour? To whom shall I present this beautiful night of desires?)। The sturm und drang is palpable.
Interestingly, the tables are turned in another Meena Kumari movie, Dil Apna aur Preet Parai (1960). Here Karuna (Meena Kumari's character) sings this sweet, seemingly innocent song which leaves the just-married hero (played by Raj Kumar) decidedly uncomfortable.
Tadka Dal
Don't invite your ex-lover to your wedding. Don't have overly-needy possesive ex-lovers. And preferably, don't have ex-lovers at all.
Source
Bollywood, like Disney, believes in love at first sight that results in happily-ever-afters. And any opportunity to mess this equation up is an opportunity for protracted twists in a plot and therefore great drama. Disney gives us poisoned spindles and evil step-mothers; Bollywood gives us tormented jilted lovers with a natural talent for angst.
