Shri AKji, www.songsofyore.com thought of taking up a massive project of taking up a year wise survey of music of films of 1953-45 in reverse order and placing it for in-depth analysis, comments and suggestions by the readers. The year 1953 was first considered as The Year to commence the reverse countdown because the first Filmfare awards were given in 1954.
Well, let us not mar the beauty of the original post – Best songs of 1955: And the winners are!– by going into the lucid details of music of the films that caught the popular and critical acclaim, presentation of trivia, debuts, special songs, some new version songs and of course, the listing of some the songs that can fill the bill for the audacious SongsOfYore Awards for the year 1955, in the categories:
- Best Male Playback Singer
- Best Female Playback Singer
- Best Duet
- Best Music Direction
The post is so enchantingly written that it was difficult not to take up the studied task of submitting a view, veritably personal and , by no means with any pretence of authority. I have already submitted the views directly on the original blog post as a series of comments.
Presently, I would re-state them so that I have a more easy access to the post, comments by other enlightened participants and to commemorate my tribute to Songs of yore.com
Best Male Playback singer:
At the very bottom of my heart, I am no doubt a stout Rafi fan – particularly when a push comes to that eventual shove. But for that matter, I am [no perjury intended] equally strong follower of Manna Dey and Talat Mahmood. Of course, the Rafi songs in this 1955 list do not appear to be his unanimously Greats Ever, but they are by no means a disparaging competition here.
My Nominations for Best Male Playback Singer:
- Talat Mahmood – Mitwa lagi re ye kaisi anbujh aag – The other solo form this film – Kisko khabar thi kisko yakeen tha – Talat Mahmood – is perhaps having only one mood – deep melancholy, almost a doused aag, whereas this song has, as musical score, succeeded in capturing the mood of pathos blended with a lurking anbujh aag of faint hope of possibility of seeing the beloved one, at least, once more, and that unfulfilled love of the lifetime. There can be no questions for SD to have chosen Talat for these numbers.
- Manna Dey – Tu pyar ka sagar hai – Manna Dey is all sublime befitting the situation of the song – a prayer – and still touches the heights of soft ‘bulandi’ to be able to rouse the sunken human spirit of the targeted mentally unstable Seema. Even if we do allocate the due credits to SJ – for the composition and Shailendra – for so touching poetry, Manna Dey is still left with a huge credit to his own account as singer- the emotional listeners would find a sagar of emotions and the puritans can find gems of technical virtuosity in his measured ascendancy of scale.
- Rafi – O door ke musafir mujhko bhi sath le le – This is best example of the type of songs which were possibly so composed because Rafi was to render it [and he would put in his extra special efforts, too]or the type of songs the composer preferred someone else to sing but had to ultimately invite Rafi, as only Rafi could to justice to his composition in totality. This is one of my personal favourites – among all songs as well as among Rafi songs.
[I have read somewhere that Hemantda originally had thought of singing Hum Laaye Hain Kasti Sambhal ke – Jaagriti himself, but had to ultimately fall back on the width of Rafi’s range of scale to enliven Utho Chhalang maar ke aakash ko chhoo lo.]
- Rafi – Kahan ja raha hai tu ai janewale – If someone calls back me passionately, I would have turned back even before the first line was over and then would have raptly listened to the rest of song and would have simply wept till my heart would have emptied out.
- Talat Mahmood – Teri zulfon se pyar kaun kare – Jaidev has composed this song that shade silkier in tone and a shade more pathetic in mood than the competing Tasweer banata hun tasweer nahi banti from Baradari. And possibly because of that extra, that Tasweer banata hun tasweer nahi banti enabled to be more popular, because one can sing it that little easily.
In order to finally choose one among these FIVE personally equal favourites, I would choose an exotic measure – a stoke of chance cause, by which the singer appears only once in this list today. So let crown be the company to the song Tu pyar ka sagar hai by Manna Dey..
Best Female Playback Singer:
It seems that by 1955, Lata Mangeshkar was enshrined as THE [female] singer of the Hind Cinema, as I screen though the list of songs listed out in this post.SDB is no doubt one my preferred music directors, but that has no bearing on number of his Lata-songs dominating the appearance in this list today. Trust me, each of the song is here on its own merit. So, I hereby present my top 5 female songs, which, in effect, translates into only 2 playback singers:
- Lata Mangeshkar – Jise tu qabool kar le – Well, I am no way suited to comment why a composer has chosen the way the composition is composed, SD’s choice of somewhat faster pace of this song may have caused its own predicaments for the Director for creating the RIGHT situation and the heroine to express emotions while performing such a dance. But, every aspect of the song is just RIGHT. Another noteworthy feature of [both] Lata songs in the film is that they stand up to two of the great solos of Talat in the movie, in a movie which has essentially a male-character dominant theme.
- Lata Mangeshkar – Jogiya se preet kiye dukh hoye – Even if the music director Amarnath would have composed many more songs, this one would have retained its unique charm – that of subdued wailing of deep hurt of a lady feeling betrayed by that love which fails to penetrate the ascetic veneer of her counterpart. Lata’s voice quality and her standard throw of words suit like a T to the mood of the song. In fact, this quality was soon to become her indelible signature over Hindi Film Music.
I have since downloaded other Lata songs from the film. Surprisingly, none of the other song has the calibre of the song chosen here.
- Lata Mangeshkar – Phaili hui hai sapnon ki baahen OR Ghayal hiraniyan main ban ban dolun – Almost a formula song! The movies with a very light plot, hero and heroine sing a romantic solo each before declaration of mutual love, then at least one romantic duet; villain would spoil the game leading to a sad solo each from hero and heroine. SD and Lata easily paired up a long list of such sad solos during the rest of 50s and 60s.
- 4. Geeta Dutt – Preetam aan milo – OP, literally, conjures up C H Atma’s natural masculine pathos in Geeta’s ethereal voice. The original post has so well presented the nuances of this song.
- Lata Mangeshkar – Manmohna bade jhoothe – Perhaps one of the quite underrated, whether in terms of technical virtuosity or in terms of bringing out the best of Lata’s vocal cords, this song is in a way much unlike that of SJ. There are noy many of SJ’s compositions where the duo have successfully resisted fairly large orchestra to support an otherwise an excellent tune.
Since I have exhausted the limit of 5 choices for the consideration, I will have to rest contended by listing Ab to ji hone laga kisi ki surat ka samna by Shamshad Begum and Wo na ayenge palat ke by Mubarak Begum as “Best Also Run’. Use of Mubarak Beguam by SDB is simply captivating. The original post has done full justice to the song, hence I may only add that Salil Chaudhary must also have been inspired from this one (!) to come up with an equally stunning ‘hum haal e dil sunaye ge – Mubarak Begum – film Madhumati 1958 :
I would unhesitatingly propose rendering of Jogiya se preet kiye dukh hoye by Lata Mangeshkar to be the song that would crown her the Best Female playback singer for the year 1955 for SongsofYore awards.
[We would continue with this post in a Second Part, where we will look at Best Duets and Best Music Direcor nominations.]
The world is too small? or Is it? 
phaili hui hain sapnon ki rahein is one of her career’s best…so i think!
Oh .yes, such were thier standards in those days that eventhier formula products were also classics.
That is why many a times see watching the movie may turn out to be a very different expereince as compared to enjoying the songs of that particular movie.
I am so pleased to have this opportunity to learn of the music of yore from a different culture, a different part of the world. Thank you!
The period of mid50s to 60s was considered Golden Period of Hind Film Music, becuase the Music Directors drew inspirations from Indain and Western Claasicals, Indian, MidWest,Western and African Folk too, both in terms of compostions as well as orchestration, while maintaining the distict India identity. This was the major departure from the songs of 1940s. Since, 60s, the crop of music directors who entered the profession gravitated to more on commercail successes, obviously at the cost of melody and quality of music.
This is why the songs of this period are being fondly remembered by the generations who came up in 70s and 80s wheras generations post 90s do give crdit to this music, albeit somewhat grudgingly.But , one has to accomodate such differences after 3rd generation.