Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – December 2015

Welcome to December, 2015 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

We will begin our present issue with a post that could well have been included in our last episode –

Four Aces and A Queen – Geeta Dutt’s songs with 4 ace music directors that may be missed because of the dominance of SD Burman, Hemant Kumar, OP Nayyar in her list of hit songs. On the birth anniversary of Geeta Dutt, the Queen of Bhaav Gayaki, Parag Sankla explores her lesser heard gems from the repertoire of four music directors Hansraj Behl, Chitragupt, Bulo C Rani and Avinash Vyas.

And since we are on that very site, we certainly get more to read on Geeta Dutt:

• The Queen of Bhaav Gayaki – Geeta Dutt
• Moments with ‘Geetu Pishi’ – Remembering Geeta Dutt
• The Language Versatility of Geeta Dutt – A Rare Depth of Feeling
• Eternal Wait: The Story Of The Dark Girl By The Meghna (Geeta Dutt)
• Geeta Dutt – The Skylark Who Sang From The Heart
• Geeta Dutt – The Singer with the Golden Heart

Geeta Dutt’s list of her best songs in 1957 – For some reason, may be because C.H. Atma sang it first (?), she did not include Preetam Aan Milo

Raj Kapoor – Musically – Raj Kapoor with different instrument in each of the song is remembered here. We have picked up the less heard song from the ones presented here.

• Tera dil ka makaan – Do Ustad (1959) – Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi – OP Nayyar

Remembering Raj Kapoor- The Showman And His 7 Iconic Heroines – Nargis, Nimmi, Simi Garewal, Zeenat Aman, Dimple Kapadia, Mandakini, Padmini Kolhapure – on his 91st birthday.

C Ramchandra as Chitalkar – continuing the series on the Year of Naushad (with C Ramchandra in tandem), SoY presents the songs of CR as a singer. C Ramchandra has also sung for other music directors, such as Mir Saheb (Lal Haveli, 1944), Anil Biswas (Jwar Bhata, 1944; Veena, 1948), Husnlal-Bhagatram (Apni Chhaya, 1950), Hemant Kumar (Samrat, 1954; Lagan, 1955), Roshan (Baraati, 1954), Usha Khanna (Faisla, 1965), Laxmikant-Pyarelal (Chhaila, 1967. We have picked up some of the less heard songs:

• Kahte hain pyar kisko panchhi zara bata de – Baarish (1957), lyrics Rajendra Krishna
• Chali bhi aa ke tera intezaar kab se hai – Shatranj (1956), lyrics Rajendra Krishna
• Koi Shyam rang koi gori – Veena (1948), lyrics Narendra Sharma, music Anil Biswas

Naushad’s gems before ‘Rattan’ (1944) – a very fine researched article that brings up the (real) vintage Naushad – Before Rattan, Naushad did over a dozen films, having over 120 songs…. The Internet (YouTube) has brought to us a large number of his early songs….. a large number of his early songs are of outstanding quality. One for one, these songs are no less melodious and enjoyable than Rattan’s.

Upperstall has presented profiles of Saeed Jaffrey by Shoma A Chatterji; Shyam Benegal by Karan Bali and Dharmendra also by Karan Bali.

We also have a couple of more pieces to celebrate Dharmendra’s birthday:

Just be yourself: Dharmendra in Guddi, and other reflections on his 80^th birthday.

[A related piece here: the Amitabh cameos. And an earlier post about Dharmendra is here]

Happy Birthday Dharmendra and Sharmila Tagore! Here are our favourite films featuring the pair – Anupama (1966), Devar (1966), Satyakam (1969), Yakeen (1969), Mere Humdam Mere Dost (1968), Chupke Chupke (1975), Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka (1975), Sunny (1984). Devdas (1976), a Gulzar venture did not go beyond mahurat.

“Thoda Sa Dil Laga Ke Dekh” – Shammi Aunty (nee Nargis Rabadi) passionately looks back on her long career . We see her playing sitar in Ye Hawa Ye Raat Ye Chandani (Talat Mahmood – Sangdil -1952 – Sajjad Hussain). In our December, 2015 episode of Fading Memories….Unforgettable Songs we had listened Thoda sa muskara ke dekh apana bana ke to dekh (Musafirkhana (1955) – with Shamshad Begum – O P Nayyar).

We now move over to other regular posts.

Bengal’s Music and Its Influence in Hindi Film Music – Antara Nanda Mondal and Peeyush Sharma take us on to a journey of discovering and enjoying gold nuggets of Bengal’s music strewn in Hindi film songs – a presentation made at the Romancing the Song Meet in India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, November 14, 2015.

In our last episode we had first time landed upon a couple of posts on the Silhouette, the magazine section of Learning & Creativity. It is time to catch up with some of the several interesting posts:

• The Pathbreaking Non-conformist – The Music of RD Burman – this story lists some songs that went into oblivion because the films didn’t do well.
• Journey Through Lata’s Melodies – mellifluous Lata melodies and the analysis of the parallel with author’s life
• Madan Mohan: The Composer of the Classes – the versatility of Madan Mohan going beyond his ghazals

We have three posts by Arun Kumar Deshmukh on Atul’s Song A Day, which also throw quite an insight into the topic that is intrinsically related to the song under discussion. Even as we will listen to the songs mentioned in these posts in our next issue of Fading Memories.. Unforgettable songs (10^th January, 2016), here is the brief take on each of the posts:

Tu mera copyright main teri copyright – Mohammad Rafi has given playback to Kishore Kumar more number of times than others.

S No.	Movie	Song	Co-singer	Music Director
1.	Miss Mala (1954)	Chori chori aana naa*	Asha Bhosle	Chitragupta
2.	Bhagam Bhag (1956)	Chale ho kahan	Asha Bhosle	O P Nayyar
3.	Bhaagam Bhaag (1956)	Hamen koi gham hai	Asha Bhosle	O P Nayyar
4.	Raagini (1958)	Man mora Bawra		O P Nayyar
5.	Shararat (1959)	Ajab hai dastan teri aye zindagi (happy and sad versions )		Shanker Jaikishan
6.	Sharaarat (1959)	Tu mera copyright	Lata Mangeshkar	Shanker Jaikishan
7.	Baaghi Shahzada (1964)	Main is masoom chehre ko	Suman Kalyanpur	Babul
8.	Pyar Diwana (1972)	Apni aadat hai		Lala Asar Sattar

Incidentally, the other singers who gave playback to Kishore Kumar are Manna Dey ( 3 times), S D Batish (1), Amanat Ali (1) and Asha Bhosle (once in film Baap Re Baap-1955).

[*The video clip shows some other actor singing this song.]

Samaa ye pyaar ka bahaar ke ye mele traces the most creative period – years 1955-60 – of SJ. The author attributes the loss melody in the din of popularity in post-1960 period to the growing differences between the partners.

Aa jaa aa jaa aa jaa nadiyaa kinaare – Author Ganesh Anantharaman, in his book “Bollywood melodies” says, “Perhaps success came too early to them from the very first film, depriving them to develop a bond which comes after struggling together for success.” Over and above the support of RK, quality lyricists and singers, the strong arrangers like Sebastian D’Souza played a major role in SJ’s great success. The post has quite succinctly presented a full range of ranking arrangers of that time.

Incidentally, I have been also able to locate a very interesting clip, on the subject of ‘Conviction and Leadership: Insights from the World of Bollywood Music’, in which Ganesh Anantharaman presents his ‘evolving thoughts on what can be learnt from the world of Bollywood music about conviction and leadership.

Three versions of a song – Man Mor Machaye Shor – Ladki (1953) – Lata Mangeshkar and Geeta Dutt . The Hindi version sounds a bit different from the Tamil (by T.S. Bhagavati and M.S. Rajeshwari) and Telugu (by T.S.Bhagawati and P.Suseela) versions.

Scroll.in continues to provide a variety of posts:

Bollywood raags: Hindustani classical vocalists who made film music – Featuring Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan, DV Paluskar and other legends – Aneesh Pradhan :

• Begum Akhtar : Six songs from Roti 
• Saraswati Rane : Bina Madhur Madhur Kachu Bol
• Amir Khan and DV Paluskar : Aaj Gaawat Man Mero Jhoom Ke
• Bade Ghulam Ali Khan : Prem Jogan Ban Ke Sundari

Incidentally, I watched Ankahee (1985) a few days back. The film has a Tulsidas bhajan, composed by Jaidev, rendered by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi – Raghuvir Tumko Meri Laaj

HMV studios: In Kolkata, the home of India’s melodious past struggles for relevance

Some say it was Satyajit Ray’s favourite place. Now, the dappled HMV studio complex wears a mostly deserted look. – Chandrima Pal  · Fading tune – Next year, Mumbai will lose a significant piece of its musical history when Rhythm House at Kala Ghoda shuts down for good. Some 1,652 km or more away, in the dusty neighborhood of Dum Dum north of Kolkata, another icon of the country’s musical legacy awaits the inevitable. [I was a regular visitor to Mumbai’s Rhythm House from 1974 till 1979. I had also occasion to visit Rhythm House sometime in 2009, when I was in that area in a case relating to a customs case. I had purchased a couple of film CDs then.]

Music and the monument: Songs inspired by the Taj Mahal – The seventh wonder of the world has always fired up the imagination – Nate Rabe  · sunday sounds :

• Umie Aida : Salam Taj Mahal
• Sam Roberts : Taj Mahal
• Mighty Mo Rodgers : They Bombed the Taj Mahal!
• Taj Mahal, Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt and N Ravikiran : Johnny Too Bad
• Django Reinhardt : Taj Mahal

The Carnatic vocalist who sings Urdu blues – Hariharan has invented a whole new genre in ghazal singing – Manish Gaekwad – Hariharan’s singing career began with a ghazal. Jaidev signed him to sing for the movie Gaman (1978). Hariharan sang Ajeeb Sanehaa Mujh Par Guzar Gaya Yaro, written by poet Shahryar. Hariharan later came to create a new genre within the ghazal called Urdu Blues. He incorporated elements of jazz and blues music in the song Yeh Aaine Se (Kaash, 2000). Guitars and drums play on a slow beat alongside the sitar and sarangi moving into a noir space.

We would conclude our Blog Carnival 2015 with a post that was originally published on 31^st July, 2015, but I landed up only this month. So welcome an opportune coincidence!

Mohammed Rafi: For The Record By Gajendra Nand Khanna – During my of vinyl records purchasing years in mid 70s, I had collected a fairly large collection of Mohammad Rafi’s LP records. At least so I believed till I came across this post. This collector’s collection documented here is simply mind-blowing. In one of the responses to the article, Antara very aptly comments that this article has become a reference point for many. (What) an eclectic collection of Rafi’s versatility!!!

As we continue our pursuit of the golden period of Hindi Film Music …….

Wishing you all a most fruitfully joyous and happy 2016….