Bihag belongs to the late night, roughly 9 pm to midnight (more on the musical clock in Why raags have a time of day). Its climb starts low, on Ni just below Sa, and skips Re and Dha on the way up; the way down uses all seven notes. Its most important note, its vadi, is Ga, with Ni close behind.
Re and Dha are barely brushed on the way down, a small touch that one writer on raags calls essential. A sharp (tivra) Ma traditionally slips in only in passing, between Pa and Ga, though the same writer notes it is heard quite often in today's Bihag. He also hears in Bihag the calm after life's ups and downs, and argues that love has many moods and Bihag holds them all, which may be why composers have used it for lullabies, love duets and ghazals alike.
On screen, it has kept company with box-office records and awards. Here are six songs from our Bihag list and the stories around them.
Bihag's relatives
Maru Bihag, a close relative, also skips Re and Dha going up, but its phrases like to rest on Pa; one writer calls Ramlal's ‘Tum To Pyar Ho’ from Sehra (1963) as iconic for Maru Bihag as ‘Tere Sur Aur Mere Geet’ is for Bihag. Bihagda is Bihag with a flat (komal) Ni borrowed from Khamaj.
1949: a record that lasted months
Mehboob Khan's Andaz (1949) is the only film that puts Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor on screen together, in a love triangle with Nargis. On release it was the highest-grossing Indian film ever, until Raj Kapoor's own Barsaat (1949) broke the record that same year.
Naushad's score, with words by Majrooh Sultanpuri, includes the lullaby ‘Meri Ladli Re Meri Ladli’, sung by Lata Mangeshkar for Nargis. He had turned to Bihag before, for K. L. Saigal's ‘Ai Dil Beqarar Kyun’ in Shahjehan (1946): a little sombre in mood, one writer notes, yet the raag fits it beautifully.
Meri Ladli Re Meri Ladli
Raag BihagAndaz (1949)
A lullaby to Majrooh Sultanpuri's words, sung by Lata Mangeshkar for Nargis.
1959: a maestro's only film, a star's first hit
Vijay Bhatt's Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959) tells the story of a shehnai player, and it is the only Hindi film Ustad Bismillah Khan ever played in. His shehnai runs through Vasant Desai's score, which also has a jugalbandi, a duet between two soloists, with the sitar player Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan, and singing by the classical vocalist Ustad Amir Khan.
The film's Bihag song is ‘Tere Sur Aur Mere Geet’, with words by Bharat Vyas, and the shehnai in it is Bismillah Khan's. One writer calls it the iconic film song of the raag, and says its mood is set the moment Lata Mangeshkar begins the alap, the slow, unhurried opening.
Starring Rajendra Kumar, the film was the fifth-highest grosser of the year and his first big hit, and Anita Guha was nominated for Filmfare's Best Supporting Actress award.
Tere Sur Aur Mere Geet
Raag BihagGoonj Uthi Shehnai (1959)
Listen for the opening alap, and for the shehnai answering the voice.
1960: a light role on a doctor's advice
Naushad songs on our Bihag list kept turning up in Dilip Kumar's films, among them Uran Khatola (1955), which Naushad produced himself. After tragic roles such as Devdas (1955), Dilip Kumar went into depression, and his psychiatrist advised lighter parts. S. U. Sunny's Kohinoor (1960) was one of them: full of sword fights, songs and dances, with rare comic scenes from Meena Kumari, the ‘tragedy queen’.
Naushad and Shakeel Badayuni's score includes the Mohammed Rafi–Lata Mangeshkar duet ‘Chalenge Tir Jab Dil Par’, which our list files under Bihag. The film was a blockbuster, the third-highest grosser of 1960, and won Dilip Kumar the Filmfare Best Actor award.
Chalenge Tir Jab Dil Par
Raag BihagKohinoor (1960)
A Mohammed Rafi–Lata Mangeshkar duet to Shakeel Badayuni's words.
1963: the year's top film
H. S. Rawail's Mere Mehboob (1963), with Rajendra Kumar and Sadhana, is set against Aligarh Muslim University and old Lucknow. Naushad and Shakeel Badayuni's score includes Lata Mangeshkar's ‘Tere Pyar Mein Dildar’. The film grossed about ₹6 crore, the top film of 1963.
Tere Pyar Mein Dildar
Raag BihagMere Mehboob (1963)
Lata Mangeshkar sings Shakeel Badayuni's words for Naushad.
1981: a sweep of awards
Khayyam came to Umrao Jaan (1981) with classical training: he had left home to learn from the vocalist and composer Pandit Amarnath in New Delhi.
Near the end of Muzaffar Ali's film, the courtesan Umrao, played by Rekha, recognises her own village, and the moment is carried by Shahryar's ghazal ‘Yeh Kya Jagah Hai Doston’, sung by Asha Bhosle. It is filed under Bihag, though one listener hears Yaman and Maru Bihag in it as well.
At the 29th National Film Awards the film won Best Actress for Rekha, Best Music Direction for Khayyam, Best Female Playback Singer for Asha Bhosle (for ‘Dil Cheez Kya Hai’) and Best Art Direction; Filmfare added Best Director and Best Music Director. Its box-office returns were average, yet it is now counted among Indian cinema's great works.
Yeh Kya Jagah Hai Doston
Raag BihagUmrao Jaan (1981)
Shahryar's ghazal, sung by Asha Bhosle as Umrao finds her village again.
2013: a director's own tune
Sanjay Leela Bhansali composed the songs of Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013) himself, his second time as a composer, after Guzaarish (2010). Its ‘Laal Ishq’, sung by Arijit Singh, is listed among Bihag's film songs, and it won its lyricists, Siddharth–Garima, the Mirchi Music Award for Upcoming Lyricist of the Year.
The film nearly missed its own opening. After objections that its first title, Ramleela, was misleading, a Delhi court stayed the release on 12 November 2013, on a suit filed by six petitioners. Renamed, the film was cleared, opened three days later and grossed about ₹201 crore worldwide.
Back to the night
From a 1949 lullaby to a 2013 hit that a court nearly stopped, Bihag keeps turning up on cinema's big nights, and the raag is unchanged: a climb from low Ni that skips Re and Dha, Ga at its heart, and a sharp Ma gone almost before you hear it.
Raags in this story