Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – January 2020

Welcome to January 2020 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

The first post is about the end of the year –

Oh, what a world – As we get close to the end of the 2010s, it’s difficult to think about the state of the world. The post ends 2019 with four songs of 1940s/50s period of Indian Cinema. About different times, of course (with one even being about ancient times – supposedly), but also – needless to say – very relevant to our own.

• • Ajab Tori Duniya – Do Beegha Zameen (1953) Mohammad Rafi and chorus – Salil Chowdhury – Shailendra
  • Yeh Duniya Mil Bhi Jaaye To Kya Hai – Pyasa (1957) – Mohammad Rafi – S D burman – Sahir Ludhyanavi
  • Ye Duniya Ye Duniya – Yahudi (1958) – Mohammad Rafi – Shankar Jaikishan – Shailendra
  • Dekh Tere Sansar Ki Haalat Kya Ho Gayi Bhagwan – Nastik (1954) – Pradeep – C Ramchandra – Pradeep

Songs of Yore opened the New Year with some nostalgia of Americana @ Romancing the Route 66.

And, now the major event of January 2020 –

January 14, 2020 marked the 101st birth anniversary of poet and social activist Kaifi Azmi. Google Doodles has paid tribute to the legend who was one of the pioneers to bring Urdu poetry to mainstream Hindi films.

Google Doodle pays tribute to famous poet and songwriter Kaifi Azmi on 101st birthday

Google Doodle celebrates Kaifi Azmi’s 101st birth anniversary: Here are some of his best Bollywood songs

दिल को गहराई तक छूने वाले हैं कैफी आजमी के ये शेर

Remembering Kaifi Azmi’s dialogue in verse for the classic Hindi film ‘Heer Raanjha’ – The Progressive writer and film lyricist left his distinctive stamp on the 1970 adaptation of the Punjabi romance. – Chetan Anand’s Heer Raanjha was set in a rugged landscape and revolves around hearty village folk. Kaifi Azmi not only wrote the dialogues of lead charchters but also those of rest of ensemble cast as well.

We pick up other tributes and memories:

Mehfil celebrates ‘C Ramchandra’ Month! with the opening post on his songs that he himself sung, in the name of Chitalkar. This is followed up by –  C Ramchandra – The 1940s ,  C Ramchandra – The 50s (Part I) and C Ramchandra – The 50s (Part II).

Utpal Dutt Today: How would the thespian have fared in the age of Netflix and Chill? – Gautam Chintamani – It’s 26 years since Utpal Dutt passed on. Would he have achieved the same glory today with online platforms, where ‘content’ and ‘actor’ surpass the ‘star’, but have a much shorter screen life?

Flawed Genius – Sahir Ludhianvi was many things all at once – a failed romantic, a bitter cynic, a master egotist, a generous mentor, a firm friend. Above all, he was a stellar poet and master lyricist. This, then, is the man on whom the book – Akshay Manwani’s Sahir Ludhianvi: The People’s Poet (Harper Collins Publishers India; ISBN: 978-93-5029-733-9; Rs.399; 320 pages) – shines a spotlight.

The World of Javed Akhtar: 124 Rare Exhibits to Celebrate the Legend’s 75th Year  –  Silhouette Magazine goes backstage to speak to the curators, Pradeep Chandra and S M M Ausaja, and bring an exclusive preview.

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

• Shakti Samanta – A Filmmaker who gave us many Grea…
• Milap (1955) – Not a Typical Dev Anand Film
• Mahendra Kapoor – The Vibrant Voice of India
• Nadia- India’s original stunt queen
• 60 Years of Kala Bazar
• R D Burman- The RDX of Music
• Chetan Anand – The man behind Neecha Nagar
• Patita (1953) – A Heroine Orined Film

• The First Film of Prita Rajvansh was to be with,De…
• Ghalib Shayari in Hindi Films

In our Manna Dey birth centenary series, after Manna Dey and his contemporary lead actors, we took up Manna Dey’s Comedy Songs, starting with Manna Dey’s songs for Mehmood. The January 2020 episode explores Manna Dey- Mehmood bond from the beginning of Mehmood’s acting career, till blossoming into comedy songs in 1964 with Ziddi songs.

C.I.D. — when Bollywood musical met noir in signature Dev Anand style – Samira Sood -The 1956 classic also introduced one of Hindi cinema’s most loved actors – Waheeda Rehman. Ask anyone born after 1980 and they’ll tell you — if at all they’ve heard of C.I.D. — that the one thing about the movie that has immediate recall is the song Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan.

RD Didn’t Get His Due, But He’ll Never Be Forgotten: Asha Bhosle – Khalid Mohamed – RD Burman passed away at the age of 54, on 4^th January, 1994. And it was only posthumously – or should we say belatedly? – that he has been acknowledged as a music wizard.

January 2020  episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Jaidev: Brilliant, But Underrated, Composer:  1971, in continuation of the series on Jaidev. The first two articles related to Jaidev’s songs from  1955 to 1963 and from 1964 to 1970 .

Dr. Pradeep Sheety adds: Lata’s NFL Jayate Jayate Jayate … was originally a Kannada film song by Manna Dey, Amber Kumar and Krishna Kalle from the movie KALPAVRIKSHA,1969, with Jaidev’s music. Lyrics by Ku Ra Seetaram Shastri. A lovely song. Unlike the patriotic Hindi version, it is about the role of truthfulness and honesty in life.

We will now take up the articles on other subjects:

Smita Patil’s portrayal of a flawed, messy actor in Bhumika is fascinating and powerful – Samira Sood – Based on memoir of Marathi actor Hansa Wadkar, Smita Patil’s Bhumika, a film by Shyam Benegal, is a brutal & unflinching look at the life of a female movie star in Bombay. Not only Patil’s performance, but also the sensitive writing (Shyam Benegal and Girish Karnad, with Satyadev Dubey for dialogue) shine through.

Amol Palekar interview: ‘The challenge is always to try something else’ – Nandini Ramnath -One of Indian cinema’s best-loved actors is back with a new play after 25 years. What will it take to make him return to the movies?

Surrogate Songs – The purpose of such songs was really to focus on the lead actors who were quietly enjoying the song and dance, wishing in their hearts they could do it themselves. We will draw upon one song to understand the theme –

Bichhade huye milenge phir kismet ne gar mila diya – Post Box 999 (1958) – – Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle – Kalyanji-Virji Shah – PL Santoshi

To which I have added my own submission –

Jaane Kahan Gayi – Dil Apana Aur Preet Parayai (1960) – Mohammad Rafi – Shankar Jaikishan – Shailendar

Night Songs By Shailendra, by Swapneel Sathe, is a night tour enjoying various flavors of emotions depicted from some selected night songs from the pen Shailendra.

Shabana Azmi is what Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay thought of when he wrote Swami – Madhavi Pothukuchi – The 1977 film is an excellent tribute to Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s book, which put the woman and her desires and angst in the forefront.

“Essayed Sisyphean roles with effortless ease” is a short review – for India Today – of a new book about Dilip Kumar – Dilip Kumar: Peerless Icon Inspiring Generations (by Trinetra Bajpai and Anshula Bajpai).

Chashme Buddoor, aka Saeed Jaffrey, and the art of making a small role fill the screen – Samira Sood – The 1981 rom com and buddy film starring Saeed Jaffrey shows you don’t have to be centre stage or mainstream to have an impact.

Actor Saeed Jaffrey on the sets of Chashme Buddoor with Deepti Naval and Sai Paranjape | Twitter: @FilmHistoryPic

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:

Apni Chhaya Mein Bhagwan Bitha Le Tu Mujhe – Insaniyat (1955) – C Ramchandra – Rajinder Krishna

Tum Jahan Jaaoge – Chor Darwaza (1965) – Roy Frank –  Kaifi Azmi

Kitana Rangeen Hai Ye Sama – Picnic (1966) – With Asha Bhosle – N Dutta – Sahir Ludhyanavi

Tere Kooche Mein Tera Deewana  – Heer Raanjha (1970) –  Madan Mohan – Kaifi Azmi

Chanpa Khili Daar – Faisla (1974 /1988) – with Asha Bhosle – R D Burman – Majrooh Sultanpuri

I look forward to your inputs to enrich the contents of Carnival of Blogs on 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.