November 24, 2019 – The world is too small? or Is it?

Welcome to November 2019 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Theatre and film actor Shaukat Kaifi passes away at the age of 91. Shaukat Kaifi is best known for her work in Umrao Jaan (1981), Baazaar (1982) and Garm Hava (1973). She was last seen in Saathiya (2002).

We pick up other tributes and memories:

In our last episode we had featured Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of Lata with Lesser Known Composers. It’s time now for the fourth part of the series, based on Lata Mangeshkar’s association with lesser known composers.

We also continue with tribute articles on S D Burman-

- Sachin Karta’s Last Visit to Agartala recalls S D Burman’s visit to pay respects to Prafulla Kumar Dev Burman, his elder brother.
- The Masters: SD Burman – an ode to the great man himself.

When India’s first international film festival was suspected to be a ‘communist shenanigan’ – When Frank Capra arrived at India’s first international film festival to foil a ‘Soviet conspiracy’ – According to film historian Amrit Gangar, both the superpowers had an eye on newly independent India and IFFI 1952 provided a useful platform to somehow influence the India’s global-political stance.

Seeing Red: Frank Capra with Nargis, Suraiya and others in Bombay. (Photos: Films Division)

The Golden Thread of Bengali Cinema: A Journey Through 100 Years – Coinciding with the Kolkata International Film Festival 2019, the National Museum in collaboration with Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) and author, film historian and archivist SMM Ausaja unveiled a grand exhibition to celebrate the glorious history of Bengali cinema through rare film memorabilia. The exhibition opened on 8 November, 2019 and will be on display for a month.

“I Was Born Free,” Raakhee Gulzar Speaks Her Heart Out – Rakhee inaugurated the Festival.

Finally, a film about Annapurna Devi that unpacks the legend behind the Hindustani musician – Nirmal Chander Dandriyal’s ‘Guru Maa’ was screened in Mumbai on October 13 and 14, 2019.

Millennial Review: Pati Patni Aur Woh Is About a Pathological Liar– Pati Patni Aur Woh is loaded with normalised patriarchal themes. Sanjeev Kumar’s character, despite its faults, is a subtle reaffirmation of the ‘boys will be boys’ sentiment. The film is still enjoyable because of Sanjeev Kumar’s acting.

The Charismatic Ashok Kumar Upstaged Raj Kapoor At His Own Wedding – This story is from The Quint’s archives and was first published on 10 December 2015 to mark Ashok Kumar’s death anniversary. It is now being republished to mark Dadamoni’s 108th birth anniversary.

Remembering V Shantaram: 76 Years On, a Look at His Iconic Studio – Mumbai’s Rajkamal Kalamandir studio – which has spawned over 2,000 films – still lives on amidst the twisty lanes of the once exclusive industrial belt of the city.

The entrance to the studio. – Photo: Khalid Mohammed

Shailendra Sharma @ Golden Era of Bollywood has posted following memorial tribute posts:

Documentary ‘Starring Sharmila Tagore’ is an incomplete portrait of a life less ordinary – When Sharmila Tagore was cast in Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar in 1957, she was just 13. She went on to star in some of Ray’s greatest movies, including Devi, Nayak and Aranyer Din Ratri.

In our series Manna Dey and his contemporary lead actors, the November, 2019 episode remembers his songs with Dharmendra, Shahsi Kapoor, Manoj Kumar, Pran and Joy Mukherjee. We have covered Manna Dey’s songs with main stream lead actors Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Ashok Kumar, Balraj Sahni, David Abraham, Bharat Bhushan and Kishore Kumar, Shammi Kapoor and Guru Dutt, Raaj Kumar and Rajendra Kumar, Prem Nath, Pradeep Kumar and Sunil Dutt till now.

Ravi: Booster rocket for Mahendra Kapoor – Mahendra Kapoor’s career dated back to 1953 as a singer in Madmast (1953), composed by V Balsara, in a duet with Ghan Indorewala, Kisi ke zulm ki tasveer hai majdoor ki basti. The biggest boost for him came from Ravi who became a regular for BR Chopra Films, after their initial collaboration with various other music directors

November, 2019 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Salil Chowdhury and Shailendra’s Songs Fading From the Memory – 1956 in continuation to their songs for the years 1953 to 1955 and those of film Awaz last year...

And, now commence the posts on other subjects.

I Never Questioned My Father Kishore Kumar About His 4 Marriages: Amit Kumar – Amit Kumar reminisces about his father.

By the Sea Shore – 2 is a follow though article of pre-1970 song list picturised on a seashore. The present list presents songs of the 1980s and the 1990s.

Ten of my favourite Songs of Nature are the songs that celebrate nature, songs that appreciate the beauty of nature, e.g. Pighla hai sona door gagan pe (Jaal, 1952)

How Vijay Anand’s classic film ‘Guide’ tackles the delicate subject of adultery, but two years earlier, in the 1963 film, Yeh Rastey Hain Pyar Ke, the married woman’s lover was demonised and killed.

Journey of a Song from Karbala to Guide, immortalised by Dada Burman is a collection of various versions of the original song adopted by Burman Da from a Bengali folk singer Abbasuddin Ahmed’s song.

It’s Lakshmibai Mania! – After the 1953 film, there was not another movie made about Lakshmibai for a long, long time. But now that situation has completely changed. By the end of the present year, 2019, we will have had two highly visible and much-anticipated films about the Queen of Jhansi released on the international market. On top of that, we find two substantial novels on the subject that came out within the past dozen years, and one can also notice that on YouTube a Lakshmibai serial and Lakshmibai cartoons and all kinds of documentary works. The post is a review of the scenario…

In the second concluding article, Best songs of 1946: Wrap Up 2, of the on-going series of Best songs of 1946: And the winners are?, Noor Jehan is adjudged Jawan Hai Muhabbat Hasen Hai Jamana. In the meanwhile we have concluded The Micro View of Duets with My Top Duets and that of music directors with My Top Music Directors. All the episodes of The Micro View of Best Songs of 1946 can be read / downloaded from one file, by clicking on the hyper link.

We end the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, each one of which basically has a link with the topics discussed in the present post, we have picked up:.

Gajab Hua Ram Sitam Hua Ram – Agra Road (1957) – with Geeta Dutt – Roshan – Prem Dhawan

Ja Ja Tujhe Ham Jaan Gaye – Sehra (1963) – with Lata Mangeshkar – Ramlal – Hasrat Jaipuri

Kaisi Haseen Aaj Baharon Ki Raat Hai – Aadmi (1968) – with Mahendra Kapoor – Naushad – Shakeel Badayuni

Mera Man Tera Pyasa – Gambler (1971) – S D Burman – Neeraj

I earnestly solicit your inputs for further broad-basing our cache for the content for our carnival of blogs on the Golden Era of Hindi film music.

Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.