Album : Aradhana (1969)
Song : Safal Hogi Teri Aradhana (title song)
Music : S.D.Burman (1 October 1906 – 31 October 1975)
Lyrics : Anand Bakshi
Singer : S.D.Burman
Form : Hindi Film background score
Aradhana came at the age of awareness for me. This film was the first step in my long love story with the Hindi film music industry. Both the movie and the music were super hits. It was sung out at every street corner. And I, still a little girl, fell in love with it and spent hours in front of the radio waiting for each song to be played so that I could laboriously copy out the lyrics! My Hindi being quite poor at that time, I wrote it all in English phonetically. I actually thought that ‘Roop tera mastana…..hum sena ho jaye’ meant in some odd way that Rajesh Khanna’s character was going to join the army (Sena 🙂 ). And not being blessed with a Voice, I must have tortured my poor mother as I tried to sing out loud these songs. Yes, I still remember the words 🙂
The album still has great appeal to me, time hasn’t dated the music at all. I have chosen to present the title song here, for I have always loved the gentle hope of the lyrics and the soulful rendering by S.D.Burman. He won the National Film Award (1970) as a singer for this song.
Enjoy the song !
Music To My Ears 
It is said that when SDB was satisfied with his compositions for a film, he chose to sing a song himself! I love this song myself.
And I love the collage at the top of this blog. Tellingly conveys your biases and preferences.
Thank you 🙂 I spent a nice few hours playing with the collage, choosing and discarding images and re-arranging them until I arrived on this! I can still squeeze in a few more people as my tastes change…you may notice that of the current crop of Indian film singers, I give place in my collage for only Shreya Ghoshal 🙂
Suja, you’re right! What a gloriously sung title!
Would you recommend Aradhana as a movie? Sharmila Tagore in the excerpt looks very beautiful.
And in your collage, I too appreciate you have left a “contemporary” space for Shreya Ghoshal…
Hi Yves, I am glad you liked the song. As a connoisseur of Indian cinema, I feel that you should see Aradhana for multiple reasons. For one, it was the launching of Rajesh Khanna, an immensely successful actor who used to be described as a ‘phenomemon’. What is amazing is that he was not particularly good-looking (you know how we Indians like to see Beauty (in capitals) in our films 🙂 and what was worse, he could not dance!!! :)) And yet, he had amazing charisma. The movie started another great career-pair – that of R.D.Burman (music director) and Kishore Kumar. S.D.Burman, the music director, became ill during the recording stage and his son R.D.Burman took over. And he chose Kishore over Rafi. The songs were super hits and the R.D-Kishore pair went to rule from then on. I have not seen the movie since it was released originally so I am not sure what my reaction would be to it now. But yes, I would most definitely recommend it. And the music is unforgettable.. Do see and write a review, I will be curious to see your reaction to it.
S D BURMAN’S SONG IN ARADHANA IS ALWAYS EVER GREEN – SAFAL HOGI TERI ARADHANA IN ARADHANA OF SUPER STAR RAJESH KHANNA
Lyrics :
Banegi asha ek din teri yeh nirasha
Kahe ko roye chahe jo hoye, safal hogi teri aradhana
Kahe ko roye
Aankhen teri kahe nadan, chalak gayi gagar saman
Sama jayey iss me tufan, jiya tera sagar saman
Janey kyo tune yu, asuvan se nain bhigoye
Kahe ko roye
Kahee pe hai sukh kee chhaya, kahee pe hai dukho kaa dhup
Bura bhala jaisa bhi hai, yahi toh hai bagiya kaa rup
Phulo se, kanto se, mali ne har piroye
Kahe ko roye
Diya tute toh hai mati, jale toh yeh jyoti bane
Ansu bahe toh hai pani, ruke toh yeh moti bane
Yeh moti ankho kee, poonji hai yeh naa khoye
Kahe ko roye
Thanks Manohar for posting the lyrics.
Great folk song by sd barman.i love this song very very much.
Indeed it’s a great song! I love SD’s self-sung songs -I have a cd which is a collection from different films. But this is my favourite 🙂