The Mind Creative March 2014
Bahadur Shah Zafar’s “Lagtaa Nahin Dil Mera Ujdey Dayaar Mein”
and Mirza Ghalib’s “Yeh Na Thi Hamaari Kismat”; compositions that
are favourites with Ghazal connoisseurs till today.
Saraswati Devi tried to make a comeback after five years, without
much success. She teamed up with other music directors –
Muhammed Ibrahim for the film Bachelor Husband (1950) and with
S.N. Tripathi for the film Inaam (1955). The last film of her career
was Babasa Ki Ladki – a children’s film produced in 1961.
After this she started teaching music while her sister Manek took up
a job as a librarian. Saraswati Devi and her sister never married and
they adopted a Maharashtrian family of six children, educating
them and even finding jobs for a couple of them. She along with her
sister was often seen walking on Mumbai beaches with these
adopted children. In later years she lived alone in an apartment till
she passed away in 1980.
Most fans of yesteryears Bollywood songs might also be interested
in knowing that the very popular song “Koyee Humdum Na Rahaa,
Koyee Saharaa Naa Rahaa” was originally composed by Saraswati
Devi in 1936 (film “Jeevan Naiyaa”) and recorded by Ashok Kumar.
Many years later, his younger brother, Kishore Kumar re-recorded
this composition and the song is considered to be a Bollywood
classic.
While composing this song little did Saraswati Devi know that lyrics
of the song (which translated to “I have no friends, nor any support
left in this world”) would be like her unsung epitaph.
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