Every monsoon, a handful of old Hindi film songs seem to return uninvited to people's playlists, and one that never misses that seasonal comeback is Tune O Rangeele Kaisa Jadu Kiya from the film Kudrat, picturised on Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini. More than four decades after it first played in cinemas, the song is hummed with the same intensity every time the rains arrive as it was back when it released. Between cups of tea and the sound of rain outside, this track still finds its way onto someone's playlist even today.
The trio behind the magic
The song is part of Kudrat, which reached theatres in 1981. It was sung by veteran playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, while the music was composed by R.D. Burman, who happened to be her brother-in-law. The lyrics came from the pen of noted poet Majrooh Sultanpuri. Together, this voice, this composition and these words created a track that still feels fresh decades later, one that is remembered less as a film song and more as a piece of that era's musical heritage.
A love story wrapped inside a reincarnation thriller
Kudrat's plot revolved around reincarnation. The film showed a woman who, in her previous life, is raped and then murdered. She returns in her next birth to settle scores with the same culprits. Amid this suspense stretched across two lifetimes, the on-screen romance between Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini added a gentler, tender moment to an otherwise dark storyline. When it released, audience opinion on the film itself was divided, some praised its unusual treatment of the theme while others gave it a lukewarm response. Even so, this particular romantic number carved out its own identity and, over time, became more famous than the film that housed it.
Lyrics that still tug at the heart
The song's opening lines go
Tune o rangeele kaisa jadu kiya, piya piya bole matwala jiya
In the lines that follow, the woman asks her lover what magic he has worked to make her heart race and why holding her close feels the way it does. That tenderness is powerful enough that this song from the 1980s continues to sit on the favourites list of lovers and wives alike even today. The chemistry Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini shared on screen gave the track its lasting charm, and that is exactly why it is hummed just as often during the monsoon now as it was four decades ago. Cinema has changed a great deal since, but the sweetness of this one Kudrat song has stayed exactly the same.
