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Do not go and leave me yet,
For my heart is not yet filled...
This song is the very first thing we hear when the story opens. It is in the singing of this song that Zoya is introduced to us, and it is in listening to this song that Aditya and Zoya first meet. This song is something they associate with their spouses (Zoya chides herself for not being able to remember the lyrics without Yash, Aditya recalls singing it with Pooja at the gift shop). But why this song, and what significance does it have in the story?
For that, I think we need to examine what the song is about, and who the song is connected to in Bepannaah.
Abhi Naa Jao... is a romantic ballad from the movie Hum Dono, starring Dev Anand and Sadhana. The premise is pretty simple: the lovers meet, the woman needs to return home, the man pleads with her not to leave, insisting that his heart needs more of her. She is worried that if he stops her now, they will never be able to let go, and he fears that if she leaves him now, whatever they have together will be left incomplete.
What does it tell us about the story, that ALL FOUR of our main characters connect so intensely to this song??
Don't Go
Abhi abhi to aayi ho
bahaar ban ke chaayi ho
Hawa zara mahek to le
nazar zara bahek to le
Yeh shaam dhal to le zara
yeh dil sambhal to le zara
main thodi der jee to loon
nashe ke ghoont pi to loon
abhi to kuch kaha nahi
abhi to kuch suna nahi
bahaar ban ke chaayi ho
Hawa zara mahek to le
nazar zara bahek to le
Yeh shaam dhal to le zara
yeh dil sambhal to le zara
main thodi der jee to loon
nashe ke ghoont pi to loon
abhi to kuch kaha nahi
abhi to kuch suna nahi
The bitter irony of this song is that we - the viewers - get to hear it at the very end of Aditya and Zoya's relationships with their spouses. We're shown through flashbacks and fond memories that Yash and Pooja sang this song along with them, we're told Zoya remembers the song only when Yash is around. But it never plays in their present day scenes with their spouses, never plays in the present when Yash/Zoya and Aditya/Pooja are together. So when do we see it actually played around two people in the timeline of the story? When Aditya and Zoya are together!
The first stanza, especially, is about what the woman represents to the male singer. She is the Spring, making all things new with her mere presence. She is the fragrant breeze, the reason his heart beats faster, the wine that intoxicates him, the elusive lover. The soap starts out using this song to signify how incomplete Aditya and Zoya feel without their spouses, and later uses it to bind the two together even before tragedy strikes.
Zoya and Aditya relate the song to happier times, to Yash and Pooja, to marriages that they have given themselves to - mind, heart, body and soul. The gramophone that both want so badly for their loved ones is what brings Zoya and Aditya together, and if you notice it is an item that comes in parts, parts that require fixing. Very much like their relationships that needed to be built from scratch in the beginning.
Both spend half of their time squabbling over their ownership of the gift, before Aditya finally snatches it and takes it for his own. However, what I find most striking is what happens after that - Aditya gets the gramophone, and is about to assemble it when the phone call arrives. In his shock, Aditya stands...forgetting the gramophone on his lap. It falls, broken before it ever had a hope of being put together.
It is clear from the first episode itself that both Aditya and Zoya seem to be more invested their relationships than the other partner - whether or not cheating has taken place. It is clear that they're holding on to two people who don't want to stay, whose words of love ring hollow, whose relationship with them is already broken beyond repair - just that the cracks are showing now.
Light
Sitaare jhilmila uthe
chirag jagmaga uthe
bas ab na mujhko tokna
na badhke raah rokna
Agar main ruk gayi abhi
to jaa na paungi kabhi
chirag jagmaga uthe
bas ab na mujhko tokna
na badhke raah rokna
Agar main ruk gayi abhi
to jaa na paungi kabhi
The second stanza is by the female singer, who wants to stay but feels compelled to leave. She points to the stars and the lights as an indication that the day is over, and it is night now - way past the time she is supposed to spend with him.
The way the song speaks of light is particularly interesting to me, because it reminds me so strongly of the church scene in this serial. Here, Aditya argues with God, insisting he has lost his ability to trust and believe in anything, and anyone. That he doesn't even expect anything from God anymore. That there is as much darkness in his world as there is light. Yet, immediately after, Zoya lights up the entire church, affirms her faith in God and disappears, leaving Aditya flooded in light.
When Aditya wakes up in the church, the first thing that comes to mind is Pooja opening the curtains to let the sun in. Interestingly, his story connects light to both women in the story - Pooja through sunlight, Zoya through the light of prayer candles. To me, this 'light' represents stages in Aditya's own life, and his ability to trust.
Pooja represents Aditya's childhood, the youthful daytime, letting sunlight peek in through the windows. He trusted her implicitly before her death, which is why all she needed to do for light was open the curtains, and he believed she was faithful to him even though she never truly let him in. Zoya, on the other hand, is bound by fate to Aditya in the darkest hour of his life, sheds light where none can be seen. Unlike Pooja, Zoya has to toil tirelessly to fill the whole church with light from the candles. Aditya may be the only person (besides her own family) to believe in her innocence, but it will take a while before he can fully trust her judgement.
Zoya isn't the only one who sheds light on a symbolic level. Aditya also sheds light on what is happening in front of her, insisting time and time again she stand up and face the truth. On the fact that her relationship wasn't as perfect as she made it out to be, that her in-laws weren't justified in disrespecting her. Cheated on or not, he alerts her to the fact that she's losing her self respect, and allowing everyone - her husband, her in-laws, a random married woman - to trample over her.
I feel like this song applies not only to Zoya and Aditya's relationship with their spouses, but will also apply to their relationship in the future, especially if eventually they are meant to part. Aditya and Zoya will not want to let go once they fall IN love with each other, but might possibly have to due to their circumstances. Already, on a subconscious level, they have accepted that fate has bound them together, and that the only person who can truly understand their pain is the cheating partner's spouse.
Adhura..
Adhoori aas chhod ke
adhuri pyaas chhod ke
jo roz yuhi jaaogi
to kis tarah nibhaaogi
adhuri pyaas chhod ke
jo roz yuhi jaaogi
to kis tarah nibhaaogi
Aditya and Zoya start out widowed, start out asking questions about relationships left incomplete. The last thing both of them ask of their partners is to stay (Aditya even quotes KKHH: "Tussi jaa rahe ho? Tussi naa jao")
Zoya and Aditya start out disliking each other, fighting each other over who is right and who is wrong, whose belief is greater and whose truth holds more weight.
It will take a while before they actually fall in love, and before they cam form a relationship of their own. Is it possible that their chance at a relationship will be taken away from them before they can confess their feelings? Will their own relationship be left incomplete? Will the words "abhi naa jao chodkar, ke dil abhi bharaa nahin" eventually apply to them, and their love?
I guess only time will tell.
In short, I think "Abhi Naa Jao..." starts out as a song that defines AdiYa's relationships with their loved ones, but it ends up applying more to their love story.
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