Lockdown Legends ( Day 4) : The Swansong of a songwriter

After the release of Teesri Kasam ( and its monumental debacle commercially, despite being critically acclaimed), lyricist  Shailendra ,also  the producer of the classic , was shattered emotionally. 

Teesri Kasam boasted  of a creative team par excellence. The actors Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman were also competent and suited for the characters they played.
Phanishwarnath Renu who wrote the original short story Mare Gaye Gulfam in 1954,  also wrote the script. The screenplay was written by Nabendu Ghosh, whose works include Devdas (1955), Sujata (1959) and Bandini (1963). Basu Bhattacharya directed the film with a sense of realism and natural style. He felt it was important for the film that Raj Kapoor should avoid his usual "Chaplinsque" mannerisms.Despite all the efforts in making the film, which drained Shailendra of his resources, the film did not do well at the box office.
The film was received well and took the National Award for the Best Film, but commercially, it was a failure. Shailendra's lines ,

Chitthiya ho to, har koi baanche

Bhaag na baanche koye

were prophetic.

Shailendra was heart-broken and also broke, financially. He went into depression.

His writing sessions just petered away. It was as if the creative force within Shailendra had died. It was at this juncture that director Vijay Anand ( flush with the success of guide, in which Shailendra had written songs)  approached Shailendra to write songs for Jewel Thief. 

But Shailendra had lost his will to write songs after the debacle of his movie Teesri Kasam.On much persuasion by Vijay Anand,he penned this song for Jewel Thief,considered as one of his last songs.The film Teesri Kasam had released in September 1966 and Shailendra died in December 1966.
The song clearly shows melancholic   state of mind in his last days. It was ironically a reflection on his state of mind after his dream shattered. That was the only song Shailendra wrote for Jewel Thief.Rest of the songs in the movie are written by Majrooh Sultanpuri on Shailendra’s recommendation.

Just ponder at the melancholy of the second antara in this song:

कैसी ये ज़िंदगी, कि साँसों से हम, ऊबे
हाय, कि दिल डूबा हम डूबे
एक दुखिया बेचारी,
इस जीवन से हारी
उस पर ये ग़म का अन्धेरा

रुला के गया सपना मेरा
बैठी हूँ कब हो सवेरा

For the record, as a lyricist Shailendra had 11 releases in 1967, including Jewel Thief. His songs were released as late as 1990 ( for the Kishore Kumar's film Mamta ki chhaon mein) , but his last few films ended with Door ka rahi ( 1971).