Day: September 24, 2017

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music : September, 2017

Welcome to September, 2017 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Actress Shakila, who is known for the song Babuji Dheere Chalna, passed away in Mumbai on 20th September, 2017.

Actress Shakila dies of heart attack: 5 songs that will remind you of ‘the fairy queen of Indian fantasies’  – Ankita Mehta – Shakila was one of the top actresses in the 50s and 60s. She acted with Guru Dutt in Aar Paar (1954), Dev Anand in C.I.D (1956), Raj Kapoor in Shriman Satyawadi (1960), Shammi Kapoor in China Town (1962) and Sunil Dutt in Post Box 999.

Shakila, the star of ‘Aar Paar’ and ‘CID’ dies at the age of 82 – She made her debut as a child actor in 1950 and made her breakthrough in Guru Dutt’s ‘Aar Paar’. Born as Badshah Begum on January 1, 1935, Shakila was introduced to cinema by her aunt, who went on to manage the acting careers of Shakila and her sisters Noor, and Nasreen. Shakila’s early appearances include Dastaan (1950), Sindbad the Sailor (1952), Rajrani Damyanti (1952), Aagosh (1953), Shahenshah (1953), Raj Mahal (1953) and Armaan (1953).

Most of the newspapers, like Indian Express, Times Of India, National Herald, Hindustan Times , Free Press Journal, The Quint, News18.com, The Hindu Business Line , Mumbai Mirror etc. also have paid rich tributes.

We will also take a retrospective look and read Shakila (Shakeela) – Interview – by Nalini Uchil in 1984. the interviewer notes that she had great fun while she worked in films. ……Now, Shakila has no use for awards or trophies. …..And nothing will make her come back into films.).

We will now take up tribute posts:

M.S. Subbulakshmi: The woman who built bridges with her music : Madurai Shanmugavadivu Subbulakshmi, who was born on 16 September 1916 and died on 11 December 2004, remains an unsurpassed phenomenon in Carnatic music

Seven Contemporary Covers of Songs Once Famously Sung By Noor Jehan… on her birthday.

Forgotten Composers Unforgettable Melodies: S Mohinder is combined tribute post to S Mohinder on his 92 birthday and Asha Bhosle on her 84th birthday on 8th September:

Kaun kahe unse ja ke ae huzoor by Asha Bhosle from Paapi (1953), lyrics Sarshar Sailani

The September 2017 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs was dedicated to (Shankar-) Jaikishan and Hasrat Jaipuri’s Songs Fading From the Memory.

Here are posts on other subjects as well:

Ten of my favourite ‘imprisoned singer’ songs – Hindi cinema has its fair share of people who are in prison, at times in really dire straits but still being able to summon up the energy to sing.

National film archive adds 162 films to its stash – According to a press release, 125 of the newly acquired films are in their original negative format. These include Mani Kaul’s Uski Roti (1969), SU Sunny’s Kohinoor (1960) starring Dilip Kumar, and Jayant Desai’s Amber (1952) starring Nargis and Raj Kapoor.

OP Nayyar’s influence on other Music Directors – Ravindra Kelkar maps representative songs for the three scenarios of the songs composed by other MDs which sound like OP:

1) Those songs which were composed in OP style willingly
2) Those songs composed in OP style due to pressure from producer/distributor
3) Those songs composed in OP style with the intention of cutting OP out

We have reviews of three books at Conversations over Chai:

  • To Her, With Love – that of ‘The Classic Biography of Meena Kumari’
  • No Holds Barred – that of Rishi Kapoor’s autobiography; Khullam Khulla
  • To the Movies Born – that of Asha Parekh’s autobiography. ‘The Hit Girl’, co-authored by Khalid Mohammed

Hindi Songs With Whistling – a list of hindi film songs, where whistling forms a significant part of the song or at times, identity of the song. Not included are the songs having whistling only for a few seconds, may be at the end or the beginning. (e.g. ‘Tum Pukar Lo’ from Khamoshi)

In photos: A Jitendra Arya exhibition captures a budding film industry and a changing nation – Damini Kulkarni – acclaimed photographer Jitendra Arya’s camera was as intrepid and bohemian as its owner, capturing Indian personalities like MF Hussain, Ravi Shankar, and Dilip Kumar, as well as powerful international figures like British Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell, Clement Atlee, and Grace Kelly. Arya’s skill as a portraitist has been compared to the versatility of Yousuf Karsh, who has been widely regarded as one of the best photographers of the 20th Century.

Teesri Kasam – A Story of Love That Meandered to its Dead End – Teesri Kasam – the name given to Maare Gaye Gulfam for its cinematic version – was hailed a classic and collected reasonably well at the box-office though a little too late for its producer – the great poet Shailendra. Vijay Kumar explores the similarities and deviations between Teesri Kasam and Maare Gaye Gulfam, both written by the renowned Hindi literatteur Phanishwar Nath Renu. In this exhaustive critique, he peels the layers off five songs of Teesri Kasam, revealing the deep and profound message they express about the anguish of women in the rural hinterland.

Duet Songs with ‘Two Moods’ lists songs having two different moods, mainly Happy and Sad, in broad terms.

In our series Micro View of Best Songs 1948 @SoY of Best songs of 1948: And the winners are?, SoY has presented Best songs of 1948 songs: Wrap Up 1 wherein Mukesh is adjudged the Best Singer for the song Gaaye ja geet milan ke or Kabhi dil dil se takarata to hoga.  In continuation of the series on this blog, we continued with the  posts on Female Solo Songs with following up the first part with the second part  of the solo songs of Geeta Dutt with .

We will end the present post with two very well-known Mohammad Rafi songs featurin Shakeela on the screen.

Jitni Haseen Ho Tum Utani Hi Bewafa Ho – Mangu Dada (1970) – C Arjun – Akhtar Romani

Chheda Jo Dil Ka Fasana Hasa Jor Se Kyon Jamana Alla Jaane Walla Jaane –  Nakli Nawab (1962) – Babul – Raja Mehandi Ali Khan

We also have a Book Review: Sujata Dev’s ‘Mohammed Rafi: Golden Voice of the Silver Screen

I trust you will always feel free to proffer your suggestions for making this series of posts more lively and informative….