Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – May 2016

Welcome to May 2016 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

We begin with our regular Anniversaries section.

Forgotten Composers Unforgettable Melodies: Iqbal Qureshi –  Once you get to listen to the songs, one would simply wonder how come such a talented music director did not succeed commercially after having composed such songs. Even some of his less heard songs too are a treat to listen to, even today:

• Aaj mausam ki masti mein gaaye pawan – Banarasi Thug (1962) – Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar  – Hasrat Romani

Interestingly, the same tune when used for Ek chameli ke madwe tale, do badan pyar ki aag mein jal gaye – Cha Cha Cha (1964) got huge success.

• Husnwale husn ka anjaam dekh – Qawwali Ki Raat (1964), – Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle – Shewan Rizvi

Manna Dey’s songs by Shankar-Jaikishan is a tribute to Manna Dey on his 97th birth anniversary with his songs by Shankar-Jaikishan as a part of the celebrations of SJ Year on SoY. As one would expect, the post and the discussion thereon yields a veritable treasure of SJ-Manna Dey combo.

We now take a look at posts on other subjects –

My Favourites: ‘Don’t Go’ Songs – All the songs in this list have that one thing in common – they are all songs that entreat someone not to leave. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the first phrase in the mukhda, but the entreaty has to appear in the mukhda itself. Here are a couple less heard ones –

• Tarsaake na ja tadpaake na ja  – Dilruba (1950) – Geeta Dutt – Gyan Dutt – SH Bihari
• Shama gul kar ke na ja – Arab Ka Sitare (1961) – Mubarak Begum – Saadat – Ehsaan Rizvi

Ten of my favourite cynical songs – Ten songs that speak of the singer’s cynicism, his or her belief that the world is not a nice place. At times the bitterness boils forth in a fierce and/or despairing rejection of the entire world; at other times, it is cloaked with satire or a sort of bitter humour. Perhaps even smiles. But the cynicism is there, if you only pay attention to the lyrics. Here is the one as an example:

• Yeh duniya shaitaanon ki basti hai – Yahudi, 1958 – Mohammed Rafi – Shanker Jaikishan – Shailendra

Moon and Mumbai (Bollywood) – Guest Article by D P Rangan –  Film makers in Mumbai and Chennai, the first two centers of film studios, had also fallen under the influence  of Chand, the Moon and used it as scene creator ab initio, and music directors had risen to the occasion and composed immortal musical pieces for the heroes and heroines to cavort about in joyful abandon. The post and the discussion thereon presents Chand in its all shades:

• Chakori ka chanda se pyar -Daman (1951) – Lata Mangeshkar – K Dutta – Raja Mehindi Ali Khan
• Bata ae chand ab kaise kahein hum daastan apni – Meharbani (1950) – Talat Mahmood and Lata Mangeshkar – Hafeez Khan – Anjum Dehlvi,
• Chanda chamke neelgagan mein – Bahut Din Huye (1954) – Lata Mangeshkar – E. Shankar Sastry – Pt. Indra
• Main to chanda ki nagari se aayi re – Bansari Bala (1957) – Sudha Malhotra and chorus – Kamal Mitra – Saraswati Kumar ‘Deepak’

Madhubala in Greece – Did you know that Madhubala was so popular in Greece in early 1960s that a song was written in Greek for her and sung by perhaps the best singer ever of the “Laika” genre Stelios Kazantidis. Here is the song with English Translation

Suraiya on the sets of Goonj (1952) – Singing star Suraiya makes friends with a horse on the sets of Kwatra Art Productions’ “Goonj”; co-workers look on interestedly.

Beauty and the beast and a host of lookers on

Kamini Kaushal, S.D. Burman, Lata, Kishore on the sets of Chalis Baba Ek Chor (1954)

Producer Kamini Kaushal (center) has first of the eight songs in “Chalis Baba Ek Chor,” her own production recorded. With her, from left, are Director P.L. Santoshi, playbacks Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar, with music-director S.D. Burman completing the group

 

A music link – Working with a grant sanctioned in 2008, Suresh Chandvankar steered the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP)190 project that has successfully digitized gramophone records, advertisements and publicity material as well as catalogues of the Young India record label that operated in Mumbai from 1935-55. A staggering 1,427 items populate this extraordinary collection which one can now access for free (http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Young-India-record-label-collection). [Once you visit this site, you will also find 103 item collection @Music From India.]

For the present, I did not find a fresh post @ that can be taken up here. That gives a good opportunity to go back a little in time and listen to a select Geeta Dutt songs, composed by Madan Mohan @ Madan Mohan: The Composer of the Classes By Gajendra Nand Khanna.  These are the songs that have western tunes, fairly heavy orchestration and a very lively Geeta Dutt. These songs amply show that Madan Mohan was capable of doing heavily instrumented songs as well when he did such songs.:

• Duniya Ke Saath Chal Pyaare – Pocketmaar, (1956)  – Rajendra Krishna
• Yeh Raah Badi Mushqil Hai -Gateway of India  (1957)
• Aankh Milaane Ke Liye – Chandan  (1958)
• Tumse Nazar Mili -Jagir (1957)
• Kahan Phir Hum – Night Club (1958)
• Dil Ko Lagaye Bhi Gawara Nahi –Samundar (1957)

We have commenced Micro View of the Best Songs of 1949 @SoY, by now a well-settled, annual review feature of visiting the songs of particular year under the subject of Best songs of year. This year we have Best songs of 1949 for the Base. We have first taken up Male Solo Songs, and have covered G M Durrani, Talat Mahmood, Surendra and ‘Other’ Male Playback Singers till now.

We end our present episode with a posts/ articles that cover Mohammed Rafi, from a wide-ranging point of views –

Bhoole Bisre by Prakash Gowda – A zero budget short film with a million dollar message, by Prakash Gowda, that narrates the story of an old man who yearns for a hearing machine, just so that he can enjoy the songs of Mohammad Rafi.

Mohammed Rafi also always used to sing a song in the native language whenever he would visit different countries. Not many people know that Mohammed Rafi visited Kabul, Afghanistan in 1975 and recorded few farsi songs in Radio Kabul. Here is such rare non-filmi farsi song of Mohammed Rafi, with Afghan female singer Zhilla. This song is composed by Hafizullah ‘Khyal’ and recorded in Radio Kabul in 1975 with Afghan musicians.
Aye Taaza Gul Tu Zeenat-e-Gulzaar-e-Keesti
(Oh fresh flower, you are beauty of which garden?)

Similarly when he visited the capital city of Suriname, Paramaribo, he sang Baharon Ful Barsao in Suriname language. Here is that clip where we can listen to his live performance in Suriname.

I look forward to receive your inputs for further enriching the contents of the posts…..