The Micro View of Best Songs of 1949 @ SoY – Setting The Stage

By now we eagerly wait for the curtains to go up for a review of songs for the particular year @ Songs of Yore. Having covered songs of 1955, 1953, 1951and 1950 in the previous years, SoY has now released, well-established, most popular, enlightening and engaging subject of opining and choosing the BEST for a given year by way of Best songs of 1949: And the winners are?.

At the very outset, I will very candidly admit that apart from some of the very well-known songs, the songs for 1949 are quite an uncharted area for me. Some of the films that are listed up in this year, we have had occasion to see them in theaters only during our college days during 1966-1971. There were a few of theaters in Ahmedabad in those days – Central or Pratap or Kalpana – that specialized in screening such films only. We would go for these films, more for their songs, and very rarely for the story or any other cinematic aspects. As such, now in the days of easier availability (on DVDs or on net) of these films and songs, the window opened by these posts is a great opportunity to specifically look for the songs and listen to them. Barring those few then and now popular songs, most of the songs I would get to listen for the first time.

The post under consideration – Best songs of 1949: And the winners are?   – has presented quite an  encompassing overview –

Musical landmarks like Shankar Jaikishan debut film Barsat, or Naushad’s Andaz, Chandani Raat, Dillagi, Dulari or Husnlal Bhagatram’s Badi Bahen, Khemchand Prakash’s Mahal or C Ramchandra’s Patanga retain the freshness of their songs even today.

Other important musical compositions are no less noteworthy nor have lost their charm. We will enlist them here –

Khemchand Prakash:

• Kishore Kumar – Jag Mag Jag Mag Karta Nikla Chand Punam Ka Pyara – Rim Zim
• Shamshad Begum – Na tum aye na neend ayi – Rim Zim
• Amirbai Karnataki – Main to gawan chali hun kaahe bole papiha – Sawan Aya Re
• Khan Mastana – Khushi ki aas rahi dil ko aur khushi na mili – Sawan Aya Re

Shyam Sundar:

• Lata Mangehskar – Saajan ki galiyan chhod chale – Bazaar
• Lata Mangeshkar – Baharein phir bhi ayengi – Lahore

Hansraj Bahl :

• Lata Mangeshkar – Haye chanda gaye pardes  – Chakori

Vinod:

• Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, G M Durrani – La ra lappa la ra rappa – Ek Thi Ladki

Gyan Dutt:

• Shamshad Begum – Thandi thandi hawa jo aye– Sunehre Din
• Mukesh – Baharon ne jise chheda hai – Sunehre Din
• Shamshad Begum, Mukesh – Maine dekhi jag ki reet meet sab jhoothe pad gaye – Sunehre Din.

Ghulam Mohammad:

• Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar- Ye duniya hai yahan dil ka lagana kisko ata hai – Shair. 

Debut

Roshan with Kidar Sharma’s Neki Aur Badi , Shanker Jaikishan, Hasrat Jaipuri , Shailendra, Nimmi (a.k.a. Nawab Banu), Ramanand Sagar with RK’s Barsaat , Khayyam, as Sharmaji in Parda, Sudha Malhotra in Chal raha swaraj ka jhagda in Aakhri Paigam (The Last Message) are the noteworthy debut in this year.

Mubarak begum, acted and sang first song Mohe Aane Lagi Angadayii in Aiye

Lyricists Asad Bhopali with Duniya, SH Bihari with Laadli and Anjum Jaipuri with Shaukeen also began their careers in 1949.

Fact file and Trivia have some interesting topics.

List Of Memorable Songs is a fairly representative list of films (out of a total 156 films – Source: HFGK) , music directors and known as well as less-known songs that were released in the year. I have re-compiled this list, under the title Best Songs of 1949, by adding the relevant link to YT file.

For the year under review, Special songs also cover the songs which would not fit in any conventional best list, yet they are unique in many respects, and they need to be specially remembered. In this case too, I have brought these songs on the same page with List of Memorable Songs @ Best Songs of 1949.

The stage is now set to commence our journey into the Songs of 1949. As the List of Memorable Songs and Special Songs have covered most of the well-known songs for the year, we will restrict our micro-view to in-depth listening of not-so-well-known songs. We will then combine our impressions of these songs with that we already have for the well-known ones to present our point of view in so far as

Best male playback singer
Best ‘other’ female playback singer
Best songs of Lata Mangeshkar
Best duets
Best music director

are concerned for the year 1949.

All the posts that will appear on this subject here have been tagged as Songs of 1949 @SoY.