jaane kahaaN meraa jigar gayaa jii
About this song
- Singers
- Mohammed Rafi, Geeta Dutt
- Lyrics
- Majrooh Sultanpuri
- Music
- O.P. Nayyar
- On screen
- Johnny Walker
- Film
- Mr. and Mrs. '55 (1955)
jaane kahaaN meraa jigar gayaa jii (Hindi: जाने कहाँ मेरा जिगर गया जी, Urdu: جانے کہاں میرا جِگر گیا جی) "Who Knows Where My Courage is Gone" is a song from the 1955 Hindi film "Mr. and Mrs. '55".
The song is played when one of the movie's secondary characters, Johnny, who works as a photographer for a newspaper, declares his love to Julie, a co-worker who had been rejecting his advances up to that point.
Johnny (interpreted by the Indian comedic actor Johnny Walker) takes advantage of a lunch break when most employees have left the office, and approaches Julie claiming that he has "lost his courage" (his courage to openly tell her about his feelings, it is implied).
Then he starts a pretend search across the office's drawers, under the tables, et cetera, looking for that lost courage. In the meantime, Julie (played by the unfortunately not very active Indian actress Vinita Bhatt a.k.a. "Yasmin"), mocks his lack of directness, but at the same time, gradually showing that she is pleased by his interest.
It is a beautiful scene, arguably the best in the movie.
The sub-plot of Johnny and Julie's love story has a lighter tone which balances the more dramatic relationship between the main characters.
The word that Johnny uses for courage is jigar.
"Jigar" literally means "liver" in Hindustani, but it also means by extension "the innards, the vital organs"; figuratively, it can mean "the innermost things" or in an abstract way "one's courage (guts) or stamina".
Jigar can sometimes be interpreted as "heart" especially in a romantic context. That said, in this song the protagonist is clearly looking for his lost courage rather than his lost heart (unless "heart" is also understood in the sense of "courage, enthusiasm, presence of mind" or the other meanings discussed above).
The song ends when the rest of the office clerks come back from their lunch break; they see Johnny and Julie in their mock search under a table, and laugh at them.
The lyrics of this song were written by the Urdu poet Majrooh Sultanpuri, and the music was composed by O.P. Nayyar. This duo also created all the other songs of the film "Mr. and Mrs. '55".
The singers are Mohammed Rafi for the male parts and Geeta Dutt for the female parts, both very prominent Bollywood playback singers at the time.