Chanda aur Bijli is one of those films I’ve known about for a long time—because of a family anecdote that is centred around a song from this film. My sister, a toddler when Chanda aur Bijli was released, quickly fell in love with Bijli hoon main toh bijli. Her version of it, though, was somewhat different (and suggests a mind that dwelt rather heavily on food):
Bijli hoon main toh bijli
Bun khaake jab bhi nikli
Logon ke dil mein machhli
(And here she’d add a little line completely off her own bat: ‘Wohi machhli jo Baby ne khaayi thhi!’)
For those who don’t understand Hindi, that means:
Lightning; I am lightning,
When I went out after eating a bun,
There was a fish in people’s hearts
That same fish that Baby ate!
The original, of course, is a rather more predictable Hindi film song:
Bijli hoon main toh bijli
Bal khaake jab bhi nikli
Logon ke dil mein machli
(Lightning; I am lightning,
Every time I went out, tripping along,
I made people’s hearts trip)
Dustedoff 