Santosh Anand
“Ek Pyar ka Nagma Hai” is a famous Bollywood blockbuster song. It is a well known song, recognised by it’s lyrics, it’s music composer Laxmi Pyarilal and playback singer, the legendary Lata Mangeshkar.
Without knowing the man, who penned “Ek Pyar ka Nagma Hai, Tere Meri Kahani”, the song has been a blockbuster in Indian classical and Bollywood’s film industry for the last 50 years of India cinema.
The song, apart from being hugely popular, was brought alive two years ago. Renu Mondal, a street beggar, has been earning her livelihood singing the same lyrics at the Ranaghat railway platform in West Bengal for years. A video clip of her singing “Ek Pyar ka Nagma Hai” went viral on social media overnight after Atindra Chakraborty from the same state recorded her singing and put this recording on his Facebook timeline in 2019.
Renu Mondal became a sensation over night, famous all over the world. The renowned music producer Himesh Reshammiya picked her for a song for his upcoming film.
The song then is much talked about, sung by hundreds of renowned singers over decades, bringing with renditions awards and recognition. Nowhere however have credits gone where also actually due, to the man, who penned the song.
Indian Idol, in its 12th signing competition telecasted on Sony TV recently, surprised the nation by bringing in an 84-year-old man on a wheelchair on the stage. It was none other than the man who penned 109 songs for 29 Indian films including “Ek Pyar ka Nagma Hai” for the film, Shor in 1972 – Santosh Anand.
He is very old, but remembered his close friend Laxmi Pyarilal, a special guest of the show, who was seated on the front row. Waving both of his hands, hardly able to hold them together, passing his greetings on to the renowned composer, both hands folded.
Neha Kakkar, one of the judges of the competition, sang for Santosh Anand, and reminded the crowd, competitors and the nation that it was Santosh who wrote the song.
The audience, including the judges and participants of the competition were shocked to see the legend.
The story did not end there. What overwhelmed and shocked viewers more was his beleaguered
physical condition. Santosh ji has been living with the sole support of his grand daughter.
The tragedy of Santosh began after his son and daughter-in-law committed suicide in 2014. Since then, he has been confined to a wheelchair.
The richness and melody of a song, comes alive on the big screen only with the flashy, richness of music composers combined with the melody provided by a singer. The soul of the song, the heart and poetry as it were come from the lyrics. The pain in the poetry behind the blockbuster.
In tribute, that day on a popular TV show, Neha Kakkar sang the song in tribute to Santosh Anand.
Santosh Anand hails from Uttar Pradesh, did his schooling from Aligarh. He has written 109 songs for 29 films. He received the Filmfare Award and the Best Lyrics Award in 1975 and the Yash Bharati Award in 2016.