The Making of “Tum Paas Aa Rahe Ho” (VEER-ZAARA 2004)
4 February 2012

Among Madanji's unused tunes, was a very haunting tune with dummy words Aaja Aa Bhi Jaa with a cross line and antras which were very soulful. There was no place in VEER-ZAARA for another sad song, as the two ballads, Tere Liye and Do Pal had already been recorded.

In fact the melody of this song was used for the alaap in the first interlude of Tere Liye.

On Sanjeev Kohli's request, Yash Chopraji readily agreed to record this song as a bonus track, which was never meant to be part of the film, but would be included in the CD of the film soundtrack.

The music track was recorded as a soulful track with the same dummy words, Aaja Aaa Bhi Jaa, as Madanji had conceived it.

For the two instrumental interludes, we used two additional unused compositions of Madanji, which can also be heard in his voice. These were played respectively on the sitar and flute in the final track.

However, when Javed Akhtar wrote the lyrics, he preferred to make it a romantic duet, as there was no binding of a film situation and he felt there were less romantic songs in the album... thus the lyrics became Dheere Dheere, Chupke Chupke... Tum Paas Aa Rahe Ho.

It was decided to have it sung by Jagjit Singhji to bring a different flavour to the song... Jagjitji, an admirer of Madanji, had never recorded his original composition before and this became a first time... The female part was obviously to be sung by Lataji for whom Madanji had composed the tune almost 50 years ago. The song thus became a rare duet by Lataji and Jagjitji and this was many years after their triumphant ghazal album "Sajda", and thus much appreciated by their fans.

Jagjitji, whose death in October 2011, is still mourned by us all, was very excited about singing this song, and was keen to use Madanji's harmonium in the recording. He was humility personified during the recording, and kept asking, "Am I doing justice to Madanji?"

Later, the haunting melody also formed part of the background score of the film in some very intense scenes.

Of course, the song remained less heard as it was only featured on the Veer-Zaara CD, not on the cassettes, and did not feature in the film.

Later, a revised, faster version of the song was recorded for a special compilation of Love Songs album titled, Tum Paas Aa Rahe Ho to make it more appealing and accessible to younger audiences who enjoyed romantic duets.

       

View the Video of the Making of "Tum Paas Aa Rahe Ho" (VEER-ZAARA)

Also Check:

  • The Making of the Music of VEER-ZAARA (2004)
  • "A Dream Fulfilled..." – Son Sanjeev Kohli on VEER-ZAARA's Music