Some songs capture you for a period of time, bring you under their spell and after considerable time, leave you alone, having left a mark. You are grateful for their memories and will cherish them. Then there are some other songs that never leave you. Years may have passed between successive hearings, but the next time you hear, the rush of the feeling is as strong and intense as it was when you first heard it. Insaan bano from Baiju Bawra is one such for me.
I like it because...
The first things about the song that I feel in love with are the intensity of feeling in Rafi's voice and the well known color of the raga (something close to Shubhapantuvarali or Mia Ki Todi) that paints a picture of pathos in the most compelling way.
But only upon hearing the lyrics closely, watching the movie for the context - I fully appreciated how much the meaning and the melody combined to such an extent as to create a cathartic reaction almost every time I hear it. For a minute one can believe that music has the capacity to disarm the most basic evil impulses.
What remained with me forever is the fact that the song/the context/ the picturization captured the essence of what makes possible a true change. The message was not one of righteous indignation - but of imploration. It is saying: 'You are better than this' without any of 'I'm better than you'
