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

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

We first pay our tributes to the artists who passed away recently:

Irfan Khan passed away on 29th April 2020. Irfan Khan’s Wife Sutapa Sikdar and sons Ayan and Babil released a statement about Irfan Khan’s untimely death.@ Our life was a masterclass in acting, learnt to see harmony in cacophony. Amitava Nag @ Irfan Khan – A Personal Tribute writes a heartfelt tribute. Anuradha Warrier feels the loss @ And Movies Will Never Be The Same.  Irrfan is a tribute from his follower.

Credit: Business As Usual by E P Unny, April 2020

In a tribute to Rishi Kapoor @ Amitabh is ‘destroyed’, Simi mourns her ‘darling’ & Lata holds on to memories of Chintu note Shubhangi Misra and Yimkumla Longkumer. Anuradha Warrier extends the Hyphen In Between the Rishi Kapoor’s tweeter tag line “Son of a famous father, father of a famous son. I’m the hyphen in between.” by stretching it a little further to note that he was also the hyphen between the superstardom of Rajesh Khanna and the juggernaut that was Amitabh Bachchan. Jai Arjun Singh @ Rishi Kapoor, in memoriam notes that looking back on his work during that time, it’s interesting to consider how often he seems to be a silent or passive presence, or how often we see the character he plays in relation to someone else

That passionate voice of music – Radio Ceylon host Gopal Sharma, known as ‘the first RJ of India passed away at the age of 88 on 22nd May. Sharma’s greeting “Awaaz ki duniya ke doston … ” became synonymous with him.

Deepa also has paid a very intimate tribute @ Gopal Sharma – A Boon Companion from the World of Voice

We can listen to his voice in this video clip:

We pick up other tributes and memories:

Should Phalke, 150, Be Forgotten?  – On May 3, 1913, Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra was released commercially. May 3 was finalised as the day the National Film Awards would be given out every year. Ratnottama Sengupta wonders how the Government of the world’s largest filmmaking country had made no plans to mark Phalke’s 150th anniversary this year.

Kaagaz Ke Phool is Guru Dutt’s masterclass in filmmaking and heartbreak – Guru Dutt’s classic, tragic film is brought to life by subtle performances and dialogue, gorgeous camerawork and Kaifi Azmi’s haunting lyrics.

On the B.R. Chopra’s birth anniversary, The Print looks back @ Gumrah, BR Chopra’s tale of a woman’s desire that challenged conventions back in 1963 – Gumrah, said to be inspired by the love story of Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal, was refreshingly bold and managed to stand apart from the many adaptations that followed.

Anokhi Raat – A Unique Look at the Bitter Truths – Asit Sen’s Anokhi Raat, true to its name was a unique film that told the story of an unusual stormy night – the storms being both within and outside. Sundeep Pahwa looks back at this film with some memories, observations and trivia. Monica Kar (in maroon font) ponders on the memorable songs of this film, which was the swan song of music director Roshan.

‘Hansraj Behl – A Forgotten composer’ is a look-back to his songs in Part 1 and Part 2.

Raat Aur Din, directed by Satyen Bose, was the perfect swansong for Nargis – Nargis Dutt’s performance as a woman with an identity disorder in this 1967 film won her the first National Award for Best Actress.

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

In our Manna Dey birth centenary series, after Manna Dey and his contemporary lead actors, and Manna Dey’s Comedy Songs for Mehmood, we are on the first part of the last leg,

SoY too pays tribute to Manna Dey @ Remembering a special singer Manna Dey

May 2020  episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up the less-heard songs of Manna Dey in the series Manna Dey – Chale Ja Rahein Hai…. – 1951 – 1953 . Till now we have his

We will now take up the articles on other subjects:

“Quarantine” or “Lockdown” Dances (in other words, more dances in people’s homes) – As the title suggests, this is a quick compilation of videos posted by the classical-home-performers while fighting the boredom of this lockdown period.

Jetha Ramdhanu Othe Heshe: The Smiling Rainbow of Talat Mahmood (Tapan Kumar’s) Bengali Songs – Among the many tributes and special features on the legendary singer Talat Mahmood, few, if any, talk about his remarkable repertoire of superhit Bengali songs he sang in the early part of his career. Under the name of Tapan Kumar, Talat Mahmood began his Calcutta sojourn with his first record of Bengali songs in 1944. Sounak Gupta chronicles that illustrious journey, remembering the velvet-voiced singer.

Remembering Talat Mahmood for his happy mood songs,

Songs and contra-songs lists songs of opposing truths. E.g. songs on एक/अनेक (one /many)

Howard Roark’s speech in the courtroom in The Fountainhead (1949)

Ek chidiya anek chidiya (animated short film) by Bhimsain

Madhulika Liddle lists  Ten of my favourite ‘multiple version’ songs – male/female solo versions and Ten of my favourite ‘multiple version songs: one voice, two solo versions

Sadma is an achingly beautiful story about a love that defies labels – Balu Mahendra’s Hindi remake of his Tamil classic, Moondram Pirai, was a milestone in his, Sridevi’s and Kamal Haasan’s careers.

SoY initiates Best songs of 1945: And the winners are? , the 10th episode in the annual series Best songs of year. We will take up Micro View of Songs of 1945 from next month.

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:

Tera Jalwa Jisne Dekha Woh  Diwna Ho Gaya – Laila Majnu (1945)  – with S D Batish – Pt. Govindram – Tanveer Naqvi

(Mohammad Rafi has made maiden on-screen appearance @ 1.17in this song.)

Bulbul Mein Hai Naghmme Tere – Laila Majnu (1953) – with Khan Mastana – Ghulam Mohammad – Shakeel Badayuni

Yeh Duniya – Yahudi (1958) – Shankar Jaikishna – Shaiendra

Tum Jahan Jaoge Mujh Ko Wahin Paoge – Chor Darwja (19650 – Roy Frank – Koifi Azmi

Yeh Diwane Ki Jid Hai – Laila Majnu (1976) – Madan Mohan – Sahir Ludhyanavi

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.

Author: ASHOK M VAISHNAV

In July 2011, I opted to retire from my active career as a practicing management professional. In the 38 years that I pursued this career, I had opportunity to work in diverse capacities, in small-to-medium-to-large engineering companies. Whether I was setting up Greenfield projects or Brownfield projects, nurturing the new start-ups or accelerating the stabilized unit to a next phase growth, I had many more occasions to take the paths uncharted. The life then was so challenging! One of the biggest casualty in that phase was my disregards towards my hobbies - Be with The Family, Enjoy Music form Films of 1940s to mid-1970s period, write on whatever I liked to read, pursue amateur photography and indulge in solving the chess problems. So I commenced my Second Innings to focus on this area of my life as the primary occupation. At the end of 12 years now, even as I have evolved a certain pattern for my blog, I need to plan to create certain definitive changes in that pattern over next year or two. Because, The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

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