June 2020 – The world is too small? or Is it?

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

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

We first pay our tributes to Basu Chatterjee who passed away recently:

Basu Chatterjee (1927-2020): A pictorial tribute to ace filmmaker – Basu Chatterjee made his directorial debut with Sara Akash in 1969. He went on to helm films like Us Paar, Chhoti Si Baat, Chitchor, Rajnigandha, Piya Ka Ghar, Khatta Meetha , Chakravyuha, Baton Baton Mein, Priyatama, Man Pasand, Hamari Bahu Alka, Shaukeen and Chameli Ki Shaadi among more.

The star and the everyman in Basu Chatterjje’s film – Nildeep Paul – ‘Na Jaane Kyun Hota Hai Ye Zindagi ke Saath wonderfully encapsulates the new idiom of stardom that Basu Chatterjee introduced in the Hindi cinema.

In Basu Chatterjee’s films, from Rajnigandha to Swami, female characters were written with agency and choice – Ragini Daliya – They were opinionated, romantically liberated, dreamers, worriers and empowered – all brought to vivid, wondrous life

The Masters: Basu Chatterjee – Basu Chatterjee joined films as Basu Bhattacharya’s assistant on Teesri Kasam. It took another two years and another film as assistant director (Govind Saraiya’s Saraswatichandra) before Chatterjee decided to take the plunge into direction himself.

We also do take note of Sabiha Khanum, the First Lady of Pakistani Cinema, Passes Away – Khanum dominated the screen in the formative years of the country’s industry in the 1950s and ‘60s

We pick up other tributes and memories:

Silhouette Magazine has been running a special series of articles @ Ray@100, to commemorate the birth centenary of Satyajit Ray.

Hemantayan – Part I is the first part of the tribute to Hemant Kumar on his birth centenary, covering the period of 1920 through 1960, quite painstakingly detailed by Shri N Vankatraman. Dusted Off recalls Ten of my favourite Hemant songs – as a composer . The Song Pedia has lined up Hemant Kumar – The Century-Old Musical Legend and Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar – A Contrasting yet Complementary Combo.

Raj Kapoor’s Awara is all the more relevant in the context of India’s migrant crisis – Raj Kapoor was the original showman not only for the style and flair with which he made movies, but because that under that showmanship, he showed us what India really was.

On Raj Kapoor’s 32nd death anniversary, Manoj Kumar talks about working with the showman in Mera Naam Joker – By Roshmila Bhattacharya – Manjoj Muar reminisces of this dialogue

Remembering Sunil Dutt on his 91st birth anniversary

Sunil Dutt poses with the cast of BR Chopra’s Waqt. (Photo Express Archive)

Sunil Dutt’s one-actor movie Yaadein is an oddly apt watch in these isolated times – Yaadein was a movie about a man who returns home from work one day to find that his wife has walked out on him and taken the children with her. The rest of the film is a soliloquy on marriage, parenting, rage, sadness, remorse that even earned a Guinness World Record for fewest actors in a narrative film — one, himself.

The Masters: Yogesh – Unlike contemporaries like Gulzar and writer-lyricists like Javed Akhtar who came after him, Yogesh was relatively low-key. He lived – and died – with dignity. Leaving behind a legacy of verses crafted with great simplicity.

Mehfil Mein Meri has been running a series on Anil Biswas @ Anil Biswas – The maestro – Part 1, Part 2,and Part 3.

‘Jab Jab Bahar Aayee Aur Phool Muskuraye – Usha Timothy – Usha Timothy’s debuted in 1962 in Durgapuja’ wherein she recited a 60-line hymn.

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

We conclude Manna Dey birth centenary series with Manna Dey’s Comedy Songs for Other Actors [2].

All episodes relating Manna Dey’s centenary celebrations series can be read / downloaded by clicking on the respective hyperlink.:

Remembering Manna Dey

Manna Dey and Contemporary Lead Actors

Manna Dey’s Comedy Songs

Manna Dey’s comedy Songs for Mehmood

Manna Dey’s comedy songs for Other Actors

June 2020 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up the songs from Neeli Anken (162) and Jab Se Tumhe Dekha Hai (1963) in Dattaram – Ham Aap Ki Mehfil Mein Bhule Se Chale Aaye. . Till now we have Dattaram’s songs from 1957 to 1959 in June,2018, and Those from 1960 and 1961 in June, 2019.

We will now take up the articles on other subjects:

Mirza Ghalib: The movie was the perfect marriage of the poet’s words with Suraiya’s voice – At a special screening, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru told Suraiya, “Tumne Ghalib ki rooh ko zinda kar diya” (You have brought Ghalib’s soul back to life). He wasn’t exaggerating.

Ten of my favourite Bharat Bhushan songs – Bharat Bhushan had acted against top leading ladies of his time and always got songs that went to become rage.

Salaam Bombay! is a haunting exploration of child labour in India– The proceeds from the movie were used to set up Salaam Baalak Trust, an- NGO that works for the welfare of street children.

Pyarelal interview: ‘Music is collaborative’ with no room for ‘I, me, myself’ – Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s soundtracks had an unbelievable range, spread across many genres, moods, styles and situations.

In ‘Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho!’, a crumbling house, a greedy landlord and vexed tenants -Saeed Mirza’s classic from 1984 is a satire about housing and delays in the judicial system.

Lagaan: The Fairy Tale of a Barren Land! – Lagaan is arguably the best fairly tale made on celluloid without recoursing to mythology, or to the absurd or bizarre as happens in a majority of Hindi films…one will not mind believing that this film is a page of history.

Quarantine Qawwali – Dances on the Footpath explores qawwalis in the times of qurantine

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:

Le Lo Chhori Le Lo Gori – Paapi (1953) – S Mohinder – Hasrat Jaipuri

Teri Mehfil Tera Jalwa Dekhk Li – Sohni Mahiwal (1957) – Naushad – Shakeel Badayuni

Taaz Tere Liye Ek Mazar-e-Ulfat Hi Sahi….. Mere Maheboob Kahi Aur Mila Kar Mujhko – Ghazal (1964) – Madan Mohan – Sahir Ludhyanavi

Meri Jaan Tumse Mohabbat Hai Magar Kaise Kahun – Mera Salaam (1980) – Usha Timothy & Mohammed Rafi – Raj Kamal – Kulwant Jan

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.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – June 2020

Welcome to June 2020 edition of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

For the year 2020, we have chosen the core subject of Revisiting Basic Quality Concepts w.r.t. the sustained success of the organization As of now we have visited

History of Quality in January 2020
The Sustained Success of Organization in February 2020
Organizational Context in March 2020
Understanding Needs and Expectations of the Interested Parties in April 2020
Risk Based Approach in May 2020

We take up Opportunity Based Approach as our next core concept this month–

One key area of recent development in the risk-based thinking is the inclusion of opportunity in the definition of risk, with a resulting broadening of the scope of the risk process to manage the uncertainty in both upside and downside proactively. Encompassing both opportunities and threats within a single definition of risk is a clear statement of intent, recognizing that both are equally important influences over business success, and both need to be managed proactively.[1]

The more complex anVUCA (an acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) environment is, the more unexpected opportunities appear and disappear again just as quickly. Therefore, opportunity management is above all a mindset. A mindset that also derives opportunities from risks. In effect, this would call for moving from the traditional causal model of decision-making logic to non-causal decision-making model, also known as effectuation.

Effectuation knows four principles. These principles stand in contrast to a causal logic that is often applied in classical (management) organizations:

Middle orientation (vs. goal orientation)
Reasonable input or loss (vs. expected return)
Using circumstances and coincidences (vs. avoiding)
Partnerships (vs. competitive thinking)

Effectuation also differs from causal logic in the subject of “posture”. The following is a small presentation of the attitude of the two orientations in comparison:

	Causal Logic	Effectuation
Basic Idea	The future is predictable and plannable	The future is not predictable, but it can be influenced
Basis for Action	goal-oriented	resource-oriented
Risk Orientation	expected return	affordable effort or affordable loss
Attitude towards others	competitive	cooperative
Attitude to Coincidences	avoid	utilize

And as soon as it makes sense to design projects with plans and implement them, this should also happen in practice.[2]

Notes:

The Principle of Effectuation describes in detail how entrepreneurs deal with uncertainty.
Planning subject to reservation describes how organisations can plan meaningfully despite uncertainty; and
How can I avoid uncertainty? contains useful systemic questions to gradually reduce uncertainty.

The role of a quality professional needs to be able to facilitate an ongoing dialogue linking organizational context with the needs of interested parties (stake holders) during the business / product life cycle, w.r.t. the strategic direction of the organization and provide methods to facilitate dialogue with stakeholders. With this new role the quality professional will be key to improvements in products, processes and services while identifying new technology opportunities to effectively meet stakeholder expectations in the changing context of the organization.[3]

In order to present these concepts of creating a new mindset, here are a few videos. These should help in clarifying these concepts with the help of some real-life experiences.

Opportunity Based Thinking – Andrew Isham – The basic premise is – We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. (Albert Einstein). In order to that, ne should ask the questions on the validity of the assumptions that are already made.

Uncommon Sense: Moving from a Problem-Focused to Solution-Focused Mindset | Mel Gill | TEDxVarna suggests that better look at the problem as a situation. View that as possibility, if not available outside, then from within. Rembert always, to take the first step, towards action of initiating that possibility into the reality. Do not, ever, accept failure as your destination.

How to Identify a Business Opportunity? | Sanjeev Bikhchandani | TEDxSRCC – is all about finding out what need or expectation of a customer, or for that matter, the relevant interested party, has remained unmet. Think about problems that are unsolved.

See Problems As Opportunities | Mona Patel | TEDxNewBedford –

We all have places in our lives where we say, “I can’t.” Even though this very human, the fact remain that these are excusesTo design your way around the “can’t,” you have to understand what your “can’t” is. Then, start looking at the problem as an opportunity. Funnel down the options to a manageable actionable set.

Additional Reading

Risk and Opportunity Management – Lockheed Martin

[N.B. – Detailed note on Opportunities Based Approach can be read / downloaded by clicking on the hyper link.]

We will now turn to our regular sections:

In the series the Organizational Culture, we have taken up Why Organizational Culture is (that Much !?) Important? –

We now watch ASQ TV, wherein we look at a few relevant videos from the archive:

Risk, Organizational Culture and Small Business – In this video, Denise Robitaille, member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to Technical Committee 176 (TAG 176), discusses how the revised version of ISO 9001 may handle risk as well as the revision’s effect on small organizations.

Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems posting for June 2020 –

Change: Management Must Understand Why Changes Fail – Rick Maurer, in his book “Beyond the Wall of Resistance: Why 70% of All Changes Still Fail – and What You Can Do About It,” listed four big mistakes that change leaders consistently make: assuming that understanding equals support and commitment; understanding the potential power of employee and management engagement; failure to appreciate the power of fear; and failure to acknowledge that even a slight lack of trust and confidence in leaders can kill a good idea.
Keep Going – We need to carefully consider each commitment before making it. After deciding to make the commitment, create a plan and move toward the goal…. The way to keep going is to continually remind yourself why the project was initially started. This will provide a compelling reason to be persistent…. Keep going, and after the journey is complete, enjoy the moment to bask in the glow of accomplishment. But do not become stagnant. Make another commitment to start anew as that is what life is about

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the subjects of Basics of Quality and Organizational Culture and their role in Creating and Maintaining Sustained Success.

Note: The images depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images.

[1] Managing Both Sides of Risk: Threat and Opportunity – Dr David Hillson

[2] Decision making in uncertain circumstances

[3] “Opportunity Based Thinking; Is this a Paradigm Shift for a Quality Professional?” – Angelo Scangas, Quality Support Group, Inc.

Why Organizational Culture?

In our present series on ‘Organizational Culture’, till now we essentially looked at What Is Organizational Culture, by looking at some basic aspects and its relationship with some of the key aspects that have direct relationship with it.

Now we will see Why Organizational Culture is (that Much !?) Important?

In order to appreciate the importance of the organizational culture, we need to understand what it means –

“Culture is how organizations ‘do things.” — Robbie Katanga

“In large part, culture is a product of compensation.” — Alec Haverstick

“Organizational culture defines a jointly shared description of an organization from within.” — Bruce Perron

“Organizational culture is the sum of values and rituals which serve as ‘glue’ to integrate the members of the organization.” — Richard Perrin

“Organizational culture is civilization in the workplace.” — Alan Adler

“Culture is the organization’s immune system.” — Michael Watkins

These are some important observations pushing against the view of culture as something that it is unitary and static, and toward a view that cultures are multiple, overlapping, and dynamic.

“Organizational culture [is shaped by] the main culture of the society we live in, albeit with greater emphasis on particular parts of it.” — Elizabeth Skringar

“It oversimplifies the situation in large organizations to assume there is only one culture… and it’s risky for new leaders to ignore the sub-cultures.” — Rolf Winkler

“An organization [is] a living culture… that can adapt to the reality as fast as possible.” — Abdi Osman Jama

These perspectives provide the kind of holistic, nuanced view of organizational culture that is needed by leaders in order to truly understand their organizations[1]

These reasons can be a good starting point to get you thinking about what your own organization brings to the table.

It defines your company’s internal and external identity
Organizational culture is about living your company’s core values
Your culture can transform employees into advocates (or critics)
A strong organizational culture helps you keep your best people
A well-functioning culture assists with onboarding
Your culture transforms your company into a team
Culture impacts performance and employee wellbeing[2]

Having understood the importance of organization culture as a component of the organizational context, we will now look at a few representative articles to see its role in attaining the sustained success of the organization –

The culture is the formula, the DNA that provides guidelines, boundaries, and expectations for the team and to the customers and is the primary platform to inspiring and motivating the people. It is also the most powerful resource to attract, recruit, hire and retain the highest level of talent to the organization.

A successful organization is a learning organization. People’s quest for continual learning requires that people explore the company values, meaning, community, and culture with the help of lenses of their own beliefs and individual values. A culture of strong communication enables the people to realize their needs and expectations meaningfully within the contextual perspective of expected versus actual performance. [3]

Culture is heralded as one of the most important factors for a business’ long-term success — second to the overall business model, of course.

The first job a company culture has is to establish a clear set of priorities which align with the company’s overall goals. A company with a strong purpose, then, may be able to encourage more individuals to buy into that purpose and complete the feedback loop.

Moreover, a culture can be a great too in encouraging passion – at individual and at the collective levels. An ideal cultural environment is one in which to work is about more than just preventing the people from quitting; it’s about making them feel truly invested in their jobs.

In a way, company culture is a tool that keeps employees happy enough to produce their best work — and that means the company can push new boundaries and tread new ground.

Finally, maintaining a great internal company culture can develop a distinguishing reputation for your brand, in an external context. Unique brands always have an edge over brands that blend in with the competition, so the stronger your culture is, the stronger your brand can perform.[4]

A great organizational culture is one that empowers employees instead of limiting them. Empowering employees requires more than enabling them to exceed customer expectations. That’s just one aspect. A great culture gives employees the freedom and authority to be creative, to initiate innovative projects, and to adapt and respond in real-time with solutions that help their teams, the business, and the customer. Throughout the company, the decision-makers and experts in the company share information, resources, and power so that employees make decisions and solve problems on the spot.[5]

A strong culture can be a sustainable competitive advantage—if not the only sustainable competitive advantage—because it cannot be duplicated, unlike a product, price point, or delivery system. A healthy company culture provides an environment that supports stronger recruiting, retention, increased customer intimacy and loyalty, greater productivity, and an increased sense of employee ownership. A strong culture also directly impacts the bottom line.[6]

Even this brief visit to a very few articles provides us the basic outline of importance of the organizational culture in attaining the sustained success. That culture enables organization to nurture people who share their individual beliefs seamlessly with at of the organization. Once organization has a force of battle-ready people at its core, its business model also becomes robust enough to brace up the challenges of the future such that the organization is able to expand its core competitive advantage(s).

[1] What Is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care? by Michael D. Watkins

[2] 7 reasons why organizational culture is important By Corey Moseley

[3] Why Company Culture is So Important to Business Success. – Peter Ashworth

[4] How Does Company Culture Actually Lead to Success? – Jayson DeMers

[5] The Impact of Organizational Culture on Business Success – Kaplan Leadership and Professional Development

[6] Is Culture Your Sustainable Competitive Advantage? – Aileron

Fading Memories…. Unforgettable Songs: June 2020

Dattaram – Ham Aap Ki Mehfil Mein Bhule Se Chale Aaye

Dattaram (a.k.a. Dattaram Lakshman Wadkar), popular for his ‘dattau’s thekka’ in the Hindi film world circle – B: 1929 | D: 8 June, 2007 – is one of those musicians, like N Dutta, Ghulam Mohammad, Jaidev, G S Kohli etc.- who have played stellar role in making the Hindi film music of 1950s and 1950s as THE Golden Era of Hindi Film Music. Basically, a table / dholak player, he rose to efficiently handle rhythm section for Shankar Jaikishan, later assisted them as Assistant Music director, while he simultaneously also composed music for films on his own. He was also called to play dholak by other music directors as well, for example Dholak in Sari sari raat teri yaad sataye ( For Kalyanji Anandji in Aju Bas Sukriya (9158) or Tabla in Aaja Re Pardesi and Ghadi Ghadi Mera Dil Dhadke and Suhana safar aur ye mausam hansee.(all for Salil Chaudhury in Madhumati)

Dattaram (left) rehearsing with Mohammad Rafi (on right)

However, the focus our series on Dattaram is his work as a music director. We have imitated Dattaram’s songs from 1957 to 1959 in June,2018 and followed up those from 1960 and 1961 in June, 2019. Each of the films that we have covered had several songs that epitomized the capabaility and range of Dattaram’s creative talent as a music director. Therefore, we had been selective in presenting few of the representative songs from each film in these two articles.

For the article today, we have selected all songs form the two films. Each song was so is representative of Dattaram’s creative caliber, that leaving out any song would have been unfair to the basic purpose of the present series.

Neeli Aankhen (1962)

Ajit and Shakila starrer Neeli Aankhen was a film cast in the mystery film genre., with Ajit playing a double role. Unfortunately, shabby script, far from ordinary acting, unimaginative directorial approach resulted in the film to flop on the box office. The spectators who had seen the film in the cinema hall had only the songs of the film to carry home as sweet and likable memories of the film. The songs were popularly heard on radio and records t that time. However, the stigma of failed film left its shadow on the career of Dattaram as an independent music director.

Panchhi Ab Tu Hai Jaal Mein – Suman Kalyanpur – Lyrics: Gulshan Bawra

The song is conceived as a club /dance song on Helen on the screen. The rhythm and orchestration does create that effect but the basic composition has lost the touch of melody .

Nazar Ka Mil Ke jhuk Jaana Mohabbat Ki Nishani Hai- Suman Kalyanpur, – Lyrics: Gulshan Bawra

On the other hand, this song which is also . a fast-paced composition, set in club / party setting has been able to retain melody across the whole song. Dattaram has bended use of piano accordian with sitar very well, as countermelody as well as interlude orchestration.

Dekhiye Na Is Tarah Jhoom Ke – Geeta Dutt – Lyrics: Gulshan Bawra

Dattaram successfully experiments with Geeta Dutt for this club dance song, retaining all the charm of Geeta Dutt’s mellifluous tone, filmed on Helen. Dattaram has very skillfully blended chorus voices with the orchestration.

Teri Nazron Ne Aisa Kaata – Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics-Gulshan Bawra,

This is a mandatory Johnny Walker song. Dattaram has set the tune and the spacing of words to suit Johnny Walker’s signature style of acting out a song on the screen.

Ae Meri Jaan-e-Wafaa Maine Dekha Hai Ye Kyaa – Mukesh – Gulshan Bawra

The song opens on the screen with movement of the clouds in the sky around what is supposed to be moon (n the broad dayligt!), which is supported by a brief orchestration. Then we see drops of water falling on the surface of the river, which is supported by matching strokes of a string instrument. The scene moves to a group of fisherfolk humming their folk tune, which is supported by a string instrument in the counter melody. Then the main song commences. Each interlude music is also composed mainly with the humming sound of the chorus.. The tone is set to match the tonal quality of Mukesh.

Ye Nasheeli Hawaa Chhaa Rahaa Hai Nashaa – Manna Dey, Suman Kalyanpur – Lyrics: : Gulshan Baawra

This is a duet that people so easily remember, but that memory may not have captured the fact that its creator was Dattaram! The song opens with a pleasing prelude that sets the mood of the song. The way Manna Dey moves up and down the first word Yeh or extends a gap @ Nash….aaa is the ample proof of Dattaram’s creativity so effectively used in the final delivery of a song. Similarly, the variations built every time both singers begin their sentences in each interlude adds to the charm of the song. The song ends with the song gradually tapering off. This can be termed as strong influence of Shankar Jaikishan style song composition, who would use this tapering effect with the scene gradually going into a long shot on the screen. In this particular instance, the protagonists merge into the silhouette background. in a long shot.

Jab Se Tumhe Dekha Hai (1963)

The film was an easy-paced social-thriller drama where events happen as expected, with even obstacles cropping at regular intervals. This was an immensely popular narrative style in those days. Pradeep Kuamr, and ever adorable and lively Geeta Bali were in the lead roles. Dattaram’s music also must have made people feel worth their money spent on the tickets. Such films may not make very roaring business, but di make satisfactory score on the box office.

Tumhe Husn De Ke Khuda Ne Sitamgar Banaya Banaya – Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle, Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics: Anand Baxi

The sufi prayer form, Qawaali, had become a very standard item song in Hindi films after roaring success of qawaali n Mughal-e-Azam (1959) and Barsat Kir Raat (1960). The film Jab Se Tumhen Dekha Hai (1963) is no exception to the norm. The qawwali set here – even by filmi qawwali standards – extremely pleasant to listen to. It has all the mandatory elements of a qawwali – a competition between parties, lovely music with the trademark harmonium and table, all the participants in traditional muslim dress code, . And of course, the synchronized clapping. A bonus of dance performance is also added.

The masala stuffing does not end at only this point. We have Shammi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Kumkum, Shyama, Om Prakash and Bhagwan together in a qawwali scene – in a rarest of rare cameo roles – to add to the falvou. This songs can perhaps should take the honor of being crowbn=ned as “mother of all item numbers” !

Ye Din Din Hai Khushi Ke Aaja Re Aaja Saahei Meri Zindagi Ke – Manna Dey, Suman Kalyanpur – Lyrics: Shailendra

It seems Dattaram has mastered the knack of composing beauties in the form of Manna Dey – Suman Kalyanpur duets. Manna Dey’s alaap, soft intro of flute and fast beat rhythm instruments make an interesting prelude. He has used that ‘alaap’ taan in the orchestration of interludes as well. Suman Kalyanpur joins in that taan in the third interlude. The song end with a tapering off alaap in the voice of Suman Kalyanpur.

Aside Trivia: The young boy playing flute on the screen in the first stanza is Aditya, son of Geeta Bali and Shammi Kapoor.

Mohammed Shah Rangile Gaawat Aaj Prem Rog – Manna Dey – Shailendra

This song is not available in the digital form.

Chand Tale Jhum Jhum Thirak Rahi Hai Ghungharwaliya – Subir Sen, Suman Kalyanpur- Shilendra

Dattaram has very deftly composed a folk-based fast dance tune here. He has used his famous thekkto a special effect by way of chorus clapping. Dattaram’s moves like using voice of Subir Sen here probably went on to strengthen the impression that Dattaram could never come out from the shadows of Shankar Jaikishan school of music

SJ had used Subir Sen earlier in Kathputli – 1957- (Manzil Wahi Hai Pyar Ki ); Chhoti Bahen – 1959 – (Main Rangila Pyar Ka Rahi), Aas Ka Panchhi – 1961) (Dil Mera Ek Aas Ka Panchhi), Roop Ki Raani Choron Ka Raaja -1962 (Aaja Re Aaja Aaja Prem Duware), and later on in Apne Hue Paraye -1964 (Gagan Ke Chanda Na Puchh Ham Se)

Are Re Dil Kho Gaya Dhundu Kaha, Dhundu Kaha Ae Dilruba – Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle – Lyrics: Shailendra

For this ‘masala’-formula song for a comedian, Dattaram has blended western and eastern rhthm instruments alternately in preude-interludes orchestration and actual singing .

Ham Aapki Mahafil Mein Bhule Se Chale Aaye…. Ho Maaf Khata Apani, Gardish Ke Hai Bahakaye – Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics: Shailendra

Delivering a song, full of litany of complaints for the beloved one, in full-fledged celebration party, mostly at the drop of a request, was a popular genre in Hindi film songs. As listeners of such songs, we were normally not disappointed by the overall quality of the song. So, for a music director, it would be always a challenge to come up with a song that would stand the competition. Dattaram passes the test with honors.

With the benefit of hindsight of having knowledge of how Dattaram’s career moved hereafter, the opening line of this song rings so prophetic. Dattaram too could never be accepted as A grade music director, even he had delivered a slew of successful songs, with varied moods, styles and playback singers.

We will have to wait for next episode to see what the future had in store for Dattaram.

We will continue remembering Unforgettable Songs that seem to Fading away from our Memories every second Sunday of the month……..

Disclaimer: All images are sourced from net. All copyrights of the respective image remain with the original owner of the image.

Manna Dey’s Comedy Songs for Other Actors [2]

Manna Dey’s was the bridge who made passage of classical based songs to move to the comedy form. This happened during a period when the prevalent practice was required that the best songs can be created on a note of pathos only. The next slot was assigned to the songs of pure romance. Comedy songs were simply ‘filler’ songs. No one noticed the serious efforts that went into making of comedy songs. The music director had weave a tune which is very easy to sing, the lyricist had to use the ‘light’ lyrics, the actors had to try not be ‘loud’ and the playback singer had to improvise on multiple styles in one song. Above all, it had to be so created in the film that the audience remains seated during the song sequence.

Obviously, all the experiments were not very successful in integrating all these differing elements in to a song that would stand competition with a tragic or a romantic songs. But some songs which did measure up to that competition, one of the most frequently seen common element was Manna Dey’s very distinct style of sinning the comedy songs.

While commemorating the birth centenary of Manna Dey, we have specially focused on Manna Dey’s comedy songs – first with Mehmood and then, in the last episode with ‘other comedy actors. Presently, we take up the last episode of our Manna Dey centenary commemorative series, wherein we have recalled Manna Dey’s comedy songs for Agha and I S Johar.

Manna Dey – Agha

Agha(jan Baig) gained recognition as comedy actor very early in his career. Once the practice of allocating a song to a comedy actor became an established part of the Hindi Film formula, Agha also got to sing songs on the screen. He did not have a specific playback singer as his THE voice. As such, association of Manna Dey and Agha can be traced to an ‘Insaaniyat’ (1955) song.

Main Ravan Lanka Naresh – Insaniyat (1955) – with Mohammad Rafi – C Ramchandra – Rajendra Krishna

In this song Mannaa Dey sings for a charchter playing Ravana in the stage play. Agha seems to be absconding from the police, and gets a reprieve as he takes on the make-up of Hanuman, to save his skin. Mohammad Rafi sings for Agra-turned-Hanuman on the screen.

Bum Bholanath Bum Bholanath – Rajtilak (1958) – C Ramchandra – P L Santoshi

Here is a tailor-made situation for a comedy song, with an element of comedy blended with the altruistic motives.

Phul Gendwa Na Maaro – Dooj Ka Chand (1964) – Roshan – Sahir Ludhyanvi

This is one of the landmark classical raag based comedy song. Even as the song is a parody of a classical Bhairavi thumri rendition, Roshan, Sahir and Manna Dey have ensured that song maintains the basic charm of the original composition style.

Ho Gori Ter Banki Banki Chitawan Mein – Aadhi Raat Ke Baad (1965) – Chitragupt – Prem Dhawan

Chitragupt was quite adept in fusing the indigenous and western styles of song composition over a variety of moods. Presently, Chitragupt has set the opening of the song on a classical singing style, but then easily switches to western style, possibly to create the sense of comedy in the composition itself. Manna Dey is his very usual natural self at every twist and turn of the composition.

Manna Dey – I S Johar

I(nder) S(en) Johar, though may be known more as a comedian in Hindi Films, was a versatile film personality. He was producer, director and the story writer as well. For some time, he administered a column of witty exchange of questions and answers in a well-known film magazine, Filmfare. The first film in which he acted was Ek Thi Ladki (1949) and the first film he wrote and directed was Shrimatiji (1952).. He also has several roles to his credits in major Hollywood films.

Are HaaN Dildaar Kamado Wale Ka Har Teer Nissane Par – Bewqoof (1960) – with Shamshad begum – S D Burman – Majrooh Sultanpuri

Here is the song that should suffice to vouch for the sense of comedy that I S Johar had. He sings, from the back of a radio, to pose that song comes out from the radio!

Manna Dey had two more songs in Bewqoof – which I S Johar had produced and directed as well -that had I S Johar on the screen. In Delkh Idhar Tera Dhyan Kidhar Hai, I S Johar masquerades as a girl (played back by Asha Bhosle) to entice two “gentleman” (played back by Manna Dey). Manna Dey also got to sing a line in Dhadka Dil Dhak Se., which is filmed as dance song on Helen (playedback by Asha Bhosle).

Yeh Do Diwane Dil Ke – Johar Mahemood in Goa (1965) – with Mohammad Rafi – Kalyanji Anandji – Qamar Jalalabadi

Johar Mehmood In Goa was the first in the subsequent series of films that I S Johar di with his own name in the title of the film. Though the films had huge leaning on comedy, the background of each film was the contemporary historical perspective of the locale – which was also included in the film title. It was very unfortunate that such a talented personality churned out slapstick comedy films.

Pyaar Kiya To Marna Kya – Raaz (1966) – Kalyanji Anandji – Shamim Jaipuri

This is also a direct, and complete parody of Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya (Mughal-e-Azam, 1960)

The songs that we have now are not worth to listen in detail. Whether in terms of the quality of the music or from the quality of I S Johar’s screen roles. However, these songs do provide us Manna Dey’s comedy songs by the music directors, lyricists or playback singers not covered hitherto, or give us the types of films that I S Johar perceived (e.g. Nasbandhi, (1978). Moreover, we have satisfaction that we have done fair justice to the in completing the documentation

Bachpan KI Hasin Manzil Pe Jab Husn Guzar Ke Aaye – Johar in Bombay (1967) – with Usha Mangeshkar – Usha Khanna – Asad Bhopali

Besharmi Se Sharm Na Kar, Hera Feri Se Mat Dar – Teen Chor (1973) – with Mohammad Rafi , Mukesh – Sonic Omi – Rajendra Krishna

Ham Sab Ka Hai Subhchintak – Khalifa (1976) – with Kishore Kumar – R D Burman – Gulshan Bawra

Kya Mil Gaya Sarkar Tumhe Emergency Laga Ke – Nasbandi (1978) – with Mahendra Kapoor -Kalayanji Anandji – Hullar Muradabadi

We conclude our Manna Dey centenary celebration series here.

There could still be some comedy songs that may not have been covered in this series. We would take up these stray songs in our parallel, annual series, Manna Dey – Chale Jaa Rahen Hai .