Emotional Sanjay Leela Bhansali Reminisces About His Father's Last Wish To Play "Hayo Rabba"

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is one filmmaker who has always mesmerised the audience with his grandeur cinema, and the evidence of the same is witnessed again in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. As much as the filmmaker is brilliant at weaving emotions on the screens, he indeed has a moment about his father Navin Bhansali's last wish of listening to the song Hayo Rabba.

When SLB's father, Navin Bhansali, was on his deathbed, he had a peculiar request. He dispatched his son to get a cassette of a tribal singer who, after India was split, had ended up on the other side, where their own family had roots. He wanted to hear the song Hayo Rabba by Reshma—a voice raw and untrained.

By the time young Sanjay returned with the cassette, his father was unconscious. He stood there, watching his dilated eyes—a scene that still plays out in his mind.

"He had gone into a coma," Mr. Bhansali said. "I had no place to play 'Hayo Rabba,' and my mother kept saying, 'Play "Hayo Rabba”!'"

Why that song? The closest he comes to an answer is that in his father’s state of hallucination, he was connecting with his ancestors. "Life is so fascinating,” he said. “Can film ever capture this?"