Rangreze Mere...
Tanu Weds Manu. This film is close to my heart. I do not get tired of seeing this movie.
Reason 1, I like both the lead actors. R Madhavan aka Maddy aka Balaji was my co-passenger in that evening flight from Mumbai to Madras (he is visiting for an audition by Madras Talkies). I knew him as an actor in Banegi Apni Baat and when i mentioned this to him, he was surprised that someone in Madras is watching a Zee TV serial. However, he did not mention that he is coming for an audition. Second, nice movie, nothing vulgar, no hip gyrations, good songs, fast moving and hardly 120 minutes length.
Most important is, the core message. “Customisation (or not attempting to do it)”. Problem starts arising only when partners try to customise each other. This is applicable to lovers, parents & kids, family members, friends, employees. A simple message conveyed so effectively. Although all the songs are good in this movie, “Yun Hi..” and “Rangrez” are class apart. The concept of the movie is well described in the song Rangrez and Wadaali brothers have sung it well.
Most of the times, whenever a song is sung, certain words/ phrases are often ignored, or do not get as much attention as they deserve. Whenever I listen to this song, I sink into this. Indeed, a prayer song where a devotee is complaining God and at the end surrenders oneself to the God (the Sharanagati principle, we Vaishnavaites adapt and follow), this song is well adapted in the movie in a situation to be sung between lovers.
The Protagonist singing this for his lover who is seemingly getting away (as she is about to marry someone else). He is asking his lover to blend him in her colours, make him just the way she is. One can co-relate this to customisation or lack of it here. She is everything for him in the world. He denotes her lover as RANGREZ, which means DYER or the one who colours the clothes.
I recall the Doha of Sant Kabir:
लाली मेरे लाल की, जित देखूँ तित लाल | लाली देखन मैं गई, मैं भी हो गई लाल ||
whose meaning goes thus: Such is the light of my Lord’s, Red, everywhere; When I went looking for it, I got coloured too! (As you keep looking for Him without realising He is omnipresent and within you, you get merged with Him – total surrender). Enjoy and sink in the colours of love!
ऐ रंगरेज़ मेरे,ऐ रंगरेज़ मेरे - ये बात बता..रंगरेज़ मेरे
(ये कौन से पानी में तूने कौन सा रंग घोला है)-२ - कि दिल बन गया सौदाई..मेरा बसंती चोला है-२
Oh Dyer of mine, Dear Dyer of mine, Tell me a fact that which shade have you created by blending of your colours and water! My heart is all blue in love so profound, and my cape is soaked in saffron… (Saudai refers to blue and Basanti refers to saffron)
अब तुमसे क्या मैं शिकवा करूँ - मैनें ही कहा था ज़िद्द करके
रंग दे चुनरी पीके रंगमें - गर मुए कपास पे रंग न रुके
रंग इतना गहरा तेरा कि - जान-ओ-जिगर तक भी रंगदे - जिगर रंग दे..
What should I complain to you? I was adamant asking you to colour my veil in my lover’s colour. Oh! Your colours dyed my fabric insanely so deep within my heart & soul that everything is dyed of your colour, penetrating my skin and up to my heart.
'Chunri' and 'chola' are names of attire worn by Indian women, veil and blouse respectively. Here, in this song, the protagonist, by asking his 'chunri' (how can a man wear chunri -veil) to be dyed what it means is to make him completely one with Him the God, as a form of devotional expression, he wants to be completely immersed in the ecstasy and devotion that love characterizes. The words are used to bring a poetic and aesthetic quality to the song.
Kapas' literally means cotton, indicating his fabrics. The colours mentioned here have a symbolic meaning, just like in english 'blue' may also mean sad. 'Basanti' literally means saffron, indicating a colour of celebration, joy, union and sacrifice; while 'saudai' literally mean crazy or mad, here it means madly in love.
रंगरेज़ तूने अफ़ीम क्या है खा ली - जो मुझसे तू ये पूछे कि कौन सा रंग
रंगों का कारोबार है तेरा - ये तू ही तो जाने कौन सा रंग
मेरा बालम रंग,मेरा साजन रंग - मेरा कातिक रंग,मेरा अगहन रंग
मोरा फ़ागुन रंग,मेरा सावन रंग - पल पल रंगते रंगते
मेरे आठों पहर मन भावन रंग; एक बूँद इश्कियाँ डाल कोई तू; मेरे सातों समन्दर जाएँ रंग
O Dyer, are you intoxicated on drugs that you are asking me what shade to give? It is your business (of colours); You know it better what shade you are colouring… My beloved’s colour, my soul mate’s shade; Colour my spring, my autumn - Dye every moment of my life with your colour; Add a single drop of your love and colour up my seven seas.
मेरी हद भी रंग, सरहद भी रंग दे - बेहद रंग दे, अनहद भी रंग दे
मंदिर मस्जिद मैकद रंग - रंगरेज़ मेरे दो घर क्यूँ रहे
एक ही रंग में दोनों घर रंग दे - पल-पल रंगते रंगते रंगते रंगते
नैहर-पीहर का आँगन रंग - पल-पल रंगते रंगते रंगते
मेरे आठों पहर मन भावन रंग - नींदें रंग दे, करवट भी रंग
ख़्वाबों पे पड़े सलवट भी रंग…
Colour me limitless, Colour my boundaries, Colour me extreme, colour me infinite, colour everything - temple, mosque, my entire world indeed! Oh! dyer, why we are separated by two different houses (worlds)? Here he mentions bodies as houses or worlds (Merger is the key – let there be one body one soul). Give a single shade to both houses - (you can do) with your embrace of love. Colour every moment of my life. My corridor, my maternal house, and my marital house – colour a single shade all over – Shade my sleep, my peace, and the folds of my dreams too….
तू ही है हैरत रंग दे - आ दिल में समा हसरत रंग दे
मेरे आजा और वसलत रंग दे - जो आ ना सके तो फ़ुरक़त रंग दे
दर्द-ए-हिज्रा लिए दिल में - मैं ज़िंदा रहूँ ज़ुर्रत रंग दे
You are the one – only one; you are the base of every colour; colour my amazement of you,
Enter my heart and paint my desires, my union – if you cannot (or do not want our union), then shade our separation – so that I live on despite the pain of separation and pain of rejection. Let the colour give me the courage to move on…
रंगरेज़ मेरे रंगरेज़ मेरे -तेरा क्या है असल रंग
अब तो ये दिखला दे -मेरा पिया भी तू मेरी सेज भी तू
मेरा रंग भी तू रंगरेज़ भी तू - मेरी नैया भी तू मझदार भी
तुझमें उबरूँ तुझमें डूबूँ - तेरी हर इक बात सर आँखों पे
O my dyer, what is your original colour? Let me see – show it now, you are my lover and my shelter, you are the colour, and you are the dyer too, you are my boat, and you are my sea; Let me float and let me sink (in you) – your every word is my command…
मेरा मालिक तू मेरा साहिब तू - मेरी जाँ मेरी जाँ तेरे हाथों में
मेरा कातिल तू मेरा मुंसिब तू - तेरे बिना कुछ सूझे ना
मेरी राह भी तू, मेरा रहबर तू - मेरा अकबर तू, सर्वर भी तू
मेरा मगरिब तू, मेरा मशरिक़ तू - साहिब भी मेरा, मुर्शिद भी तू
अब तेरे बिना मैं जाऊँ कहाँ - तेरे बिना मैं जाऊँ कहाँ..
ऐ रंगरेज़ मेरे ऐ रंगरेज़ मेरे...
You are my master, and you hold my life in your hands – you are my saviour, you are my killer, and you are the Supreme judge. Without you, I am clueless. You are my direction, my voyage, my co-traveller, my light, my sight. You are my teacher and my disciple too! Where would I go without you? Where could I ever go?
O my Dyer, tell me which shade have coloured me with blend you made? My heart is all blue in love so profound, and my cape is soaked in saffron…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCkigXa1tc
Hope you too enjoyed it. It is all Him. He colours us and we fight that our colour is better without knowing that the base of the colours is one. Let us all merge in one! Let us sink in all the colours and have fun!
