Gulzar's 'Mera Kuch Samaan' Beautifully Captures The Pain Of A Broken Heart

In the age of remixes and bad rappers, there are some songs from my childhood that have suddenly started making sense. One such song is Mera Kuch Saamaan from Ijaazat which released in 1987 and is somehow still relevant. The song is a heartbreaking love letter from Maya (Anuradha Patel) to Mahender (Naseeruddin Shah) whom she lived with for two years before he married someone else. Their intimate memories, shared experiences and her heartbreak reflect through every sentence of this beautiful melody.

In the film, this song begins when Sudha (Rekha) finds some of her husband, Mahender’s belongings. And amidst other things she finds letters and photographs that belong to his ex-girlfriend, Maya and returns them to her.

Maya then sends Mahender a letter, asking him for everything else – tangible and intangible, that she left behind. From the 116 moonlit nights they spent together to the feeling of getting wet in the rain. From their shared secrets to the fake tantrums, could he ever return those to her?

This film on love and loss is based on the Bengali story Jatugriha by Subodh Ghosh. But for me, it was the song that truly captured the pain of losing someone you love. You leave so much behind, and not everything can be returned to you. Aadhe sookhe aadhe geele, sukha to main le aaye thee, Geela man shayad bistar ke paas pada ho, are lines that make you think of those rainy days with a familiar stranger.

The ache to hold on to those lost things, knowing that you have no choice but to let go, because that person isn’t yours anymore is what makes this song my guilty pleasure. The movie doesn’t paint her as a bad person, as Bollywood often does, for missing a now married man, she doesn’t crave him but instead the way she felt when she was with him. Her letter written after reappearing into his life is a yearning for something she lost when she abandoned him years ago.

A lyrical masterpiece that will tug at your heartstrings, Mera Kuch Saamaan is the perfect love letter to a painful goodbye. Especially the last two lines – Ek ijaazat de do bas, jab isako dafanaaungee, Main bhi vaheen so jaungee where she requests him to send the memories back so she can bury them and rest there forever. Asking him for his permission, because he is no longer hers.

Composed by R.D. Burman, sung by Asha Bhosle and written by Gulzar, she won the national award as a playback singer for this song, and Gulzar for his lyrics. It’s obvious that it held a special place in their hearts. It’s said that when Gulzar gave the lyrics to Burman, he sarcastically responded saying they might as well be newspaper headlines because they had no rhyming scheme. But look where it got them.