August 30, 2020 – The world is too small? or Is it?

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

We first pay our tributes to Kukum –

Actor Kumkum passes away at the age of 86, on 26 July, 2020. Kumkum featured in some of the most successful songs in the Hindi films of the 1950s and 1960s.

Here are some articles in a tribute to Kumkum –

And…. Kumkum

Actor Kumkum (1934-2020): The face of ‘Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar’ dies at 86

Yesteryear Actress Kumkum No More

Ten of my favourite Kumkum songs

Seven Favorite Dances Starring or Co-Starring Kumkum

We pick up other tributes and memories:

Remembering Ajit Merchant is a tribute to one of the not-so-favourably treated music directors, who is credited with giving break to Jagjit Singh for playback singing in films vide Laagi Ram Bhajan Ni Lagani Laagi (Bahuroopi, 1969- Lyrics: Venibhai Purohit

Vijeta is the war film with a difference that deserves a rewatch this Independence Day – Govind Nihalani’s gentle coming-of-age movie stars Shashi Kapoor, Kunal Kapoor, Rekha and some great footage of MiGs in the sky.

Eleven Songs That Force Us to Think About the True Meaning of Azadi – Siddharth Varadarajan – This article was originally published on August 15, 2015 and is being republished with the addition of an eleventh song on August 15, 2020- Humne Suna Tha Ek Hai Bharat – Didi (1959) – Asha Bhosle, Sudha Malhotra, Mohammad Rafi – N Dutta – Sahir Ludhyanavi

Remembering Mubarak Begum – Part 1 focuses on solo songs of Mubarak Begum whereas Part 2 focuses on her duets and triads.

In continuation of the Hemant Kumar Centenary celebrations, Hemant Kumar’s Female Playback Singers goes off the popular songs track to explore less familiar songs

Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi — the hit musical comedy that Kishore Kumar had hoped would flop – Even after more than 60 years, the movie is immensely watchable, thanks to easy-breezy comedy, great chemistry, Kishore Kumar’s energy and S.D. Burman’s tunes.

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

Chitragupta’s duets for Rafi: Melody Personified continues with the series of well-known music directors, known for his greatest songs: Naushad, SJ, OP Nayyar, SD Burman, Roshan, Madan Mohan and Ravi.

Kishore Kumar and Chitragupt – The Euphonious but Underrated Pair .Kishore Mukar’s songs with Chitragupt may be less in numbers, but was quite profuse in terms of calibre.

Pakeezah is that rare film whose making is as much of a story as the actual plot – Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeezah took a decade-and-a-half to be made, but is now synonymous with its star, Meena Kumari, who died just after it finally released.

Music and lyrics: ‘Thodi Si Bewafaii’ and the magic of one-off collaborations between Khayyam and Gulzar

August 2020 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Shailendra with S N Tripathi, Anil Biswas and C Ramchandra in the Shailendra’s songs with Other Music Directors series. Till now we have covered

2017 – Shailendra and “Other” Music Directors

2018 – Shailendra and Roshan

2019 – Shailendra with Hemant Kumar, Ravi and Kalayanji (Anandji)

We will now take up the articles on other subjects:

Dil Tera Deewana may have starred Shammi Kapoor, but the real hero was Mahmood – Mahmood’s performance in a double role in this 1962 comedy is what holds the film together, even though Shammi Kapoor got all the songs.

Paisa Paisa Paisa – Part 1 presents both side of value of money and Part 2 lists songs that actually mentions currency

Gol Maal, with Amol Palekar & Utpal Dutt, was the perfect foil to the Angry Young Man – Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Gol Maal is a crazy romp that turns the classic trope of twin-themed movies on its head, and features a delightful cameo by Amitabh Bachchan.

Ten of my favourite ‘This is what I sell’ songs lists product sale, in a follow-up to service sale in Ten of my favourite ‘This is my work’ songs.

In the Micro View of Songs of 1945 we have taken up Male solo songs of Golden Era Male Singers..

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. Presently, we remember a few Mohammad Rafi songs which have Kum Kum on the screen.

Lehron Mein Jhool Ke – Do Gunde (1959) – with Asha Bhosle – Ghulam Mohammad – Majrooh Sultanpuri

Beet Gayi Hai Aadhi Raat – Nache Nagin Baaje Bin (1960) – With Lata Mangeshkar – Chitragupt – Majrooh Sultanpuri

Kahiye Kaisa Mizaj Hai Aapka – Salaam Memsaab (1962) – with Asha Bhosle – Ravi – Asad Bhopali

Ham Tujhse Juda Ho Ke – Ek Sapera Ek Lutera (1965) – Usha Khanna – Asad Bhopali

Khuli Wadiyo Ka Ye Safar Hai – Ayega Aanewala (1967) – Sapan Jagmohan – Naqsh Lyalpuri

We end today’s post with

Awaz Do Hum Ek Hai – NFS – Khayyam – Jan NIshar Aktar

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.