Movie: This song appeared in 1967 romantic saga Choti Si Mulaqat (A small meeting) directed by Alo Sarkar and produced by late Uttam Kumar under the banner of Our Movies. The movie starred Uttam Kumar, Vaijayantimala, late Tarun Bose, Pratima Devi, Veena, late Rajinder Nath, etc. The plot of the movie is based on the novel Agni Pariksha by Ashapurna Devi.
Shankar Chowdhury’s (Tarun Bose) mother (Pratima Devi) marries off Shankar’s teenage daughter (Yogita Bali) to a youth. The children are minors and do not know or understand that they have been married. Shankar’s wife (Veena) finds out and she gets livid. She also refuses to let her child be committed to the marriage. Many years later, Shankar has expired. But, his mother is still alive. His daughter has grown up to be a beautiful young lady Roopa (Vaijayantimala). Roopa has many suitors including Ashok (Uttam Kumar). Ashok chases her everywhere. One day, she goes to his home to return his overcoat that he had given her to keep warm. He sings this song so convincingly that she also falls in love with him.
Song: The music of this song was composed by Shankar-Jaikishan and the lyrics were penned by Hasrat Jaipuri.
The man says, “I saw you. I fell in love with you. I began to worship you. This is my only fault. What other mistake did I commit?” The girl also falls in love with him.
Video: Cinematography is by Kanai Dey.
The video opens with Uttam Kumar moving away from Vaijayantimala. Uttam Kumar begins the song. Vaijayantimala is left looking back at him. Uttam Kumar is standing near the fireplace. Vaijayantimala begins the alaap. She runs toward him and hugs his back. He brings her forward to face him and they embrace each other.
It is snowing outside. The natural habitat shown is very beautiful. Snow makes it more beautiful. They are outside now. Uttam Kumar runs toward Vaijayantimala. Vaijayantimala is standing near skis that have been fixed on the snow. She approaches him, singing and then tries to move away from him again. But, he brings her closer to him.
She runs away to tease him by sticking out her tongue at him. He follows her smiling. She covers his eyes with her gloved hand and runs away to write something on the snow. The video ends when Uttam Kumar approaches the place.
Artists: The playback of this song was sung by Mohammad Rafi and Suman Kalyanpur. The onscreen performances are by Uttam Kumar and Vaijayantimala.
Cultural Influence: The first thing that strikes me is the story of the movie. The movie glorifies child-marriages. And another thing that strikes me is that though teenagers the heroine does not remember having been married as a child. I am not sure that the hero and the heroine meet again after too many years. This is because Bollywood is obsessed with youth. Even if in her 20s, she is bound to remember something that happened in her teenage years. The song is good and so are the artists. The video is watchable for the same.
