Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Hi Jaaye

Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Jaye is a popular Hindustani classical music song (thumri) in Raag Bhairavi.

History

The song was written by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the 19th-century Nawab of Awadh as a lament when he was exiled from his beloved Lucknow by the British Raj before the failed Rebellion of 1857, where he uses the metaphor of bidaai (bride's farewell) of a bride from her father's (babul) home, and his own banishment from his beloved Lucknow, to far away Calcutta, while he spent the rest of his years.^[1][2][3][4]

It was also popularised by the legendary classical vocalist, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.

Bollywood version

The most remembered version of the song is by actor-singer Kundan Lal Saigal for the Hindi movie Street Singer (1938) directed by Phani Majumdar, live on camera, under the music direction of Rai Chand Boral, just as playback singing was becoming popular.^[5][6]Jagjit and Chitra Singh also sang a version of the song in film Avishkaar (1973), set to music by Kanu Roy ^[7]

Text and translation

बाबुल मोरा, नैहर छूटो ही जाए चार कहार मिल, मोरी डोलिया सजावें (उठायें) मोरा अपना बेगाना छूटो जाए | बाबुल मोरा ... आँगना तो पर्बत भयो और देहरी भयी बिदेश जाए बाबुल घर आपनो मैं चली पीया के देश | बाबुल मोरा ...		O My father! I'm leaving home. The four (coffin) bearers lift my palanquin. I'm leaving those who were my own. Your courtyard is now like a mountain, and the threshold, a foreign country. I leave your house, father, I am going to my beloved's country.

References