kajraa re
About this song
- Singers
- Javed Ali, Alisha Chinai
- Lyrics
- Gulzar
- Music
- S-E-L, Shankar Mahadevan
- On screen
- Aishwarya Rai, Abishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan
kajraa re (Hindi: कजरा रे, Urdu: کجرا رے) "Kohl", is a song from the Hindi 2005 comedy film "Bunty Aur Babli".
The song refers to a woman trying to attract the attention of a man, after having been struck by his gaze. Later, a male singer reminisces about their love experiences in Old Delhi.
The song mentions 2 traditional streets in Old Delhi's commercial neighborhood of Chadni Chowk: Ballimaran Road and Dariba Kalan, which date back to at least the Mughal Era. In particular, the celebrated Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib lived in Ballimaran, and nowadays his "haveli" or residence has been turned into a museum.
The phrase "kali kamli-wale" means "black, lotus-like", and it is also the title of a folk religious Hindu song praising Lord Krishna's eyes.
In the video clip, 3 actors join the singing and dancing happening at a dance bar:
Aishwarya Rai playing a bar dancer Abhishek Bachchan playing Rakesh or "Bunty", a con artist sought by the police Amitabh Bachchan, playing the police Inspector Dashrath Singh, who is investigating Rakesh's cons
In the movie, the song starts playing after Inspector Singh was telling Abhishek about his own Old Delhi's love stories, in order to gain his confidence. The bar dancer starts wooing Inspector Singh and she is in turn courted by Abhishek, and they all join the singing and dancing.
In real life, Abhishek Bachchan is Amitabh's son, and in 2007 he became Aishwarya's husband.
This was an "item song" because Aishwarya Rai has no further relevance in the movies plot. It was hailed as "the best item song of the decade" and won numerous awards.
The song's music was composed by the trio SEL (Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa) and it was written by the Indo-Pakistani poet and lyricist Gulzar (Sampooran Singh Kalra).
The singers were Alisha Chinai for the female parts, and again Shankar Mahadevan with Javed Ali for the masculine parts.