September 26, 2020 – The world is too small? or Is it?

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

We first pay our tributes to S Mohinder and Ashalata Wabgaonkar

S Mohinder: Indian music loses composer of catchy melodies – A popular music composer of the 50s and the 60s, S Mohinder passed away at the age of 94, leaving behind a repertoire of classical music-based songs.

Naushad and S Mohinder. (Photo: S Mohinder’s family)

Last of the doyens: S. Mohinder – Sharad Dutt – Destined for greatness, S Mohinder’s (a.k.a. Mohinder Singh Saran) journey took him from the depths of obscurity to the centre of a booming film industry where his unique compositions cemented his storied legacy

Marathi actor Ashalata Wabgaonklar, who has also worked in popular Hindi films including Shaukeena and Namak Halal, passed way on 22-9-2020

We pick up other tributes and memories:

Asha Sings for Salil Chowdhury is commemoration of Asha Bhosle’s 87th birthday and Salil Choudhary’s 25th death anniversary (5th September 2020)

N Datta: The Third Musketeer for Asha Bhosle – After O P Nayyar and Ravi, N Dutta is the third music directors to use Asha Bhosle’s voice as the main stay of his compositions.

Ijaazat is a strangely poetic take on divorce that was rare in 1980s Hindi films – Naseeruddin Shah and Rekha’s portrayal of a divorced couple in this Gulzar film is more loving and honest than many marriages that do last.

The Many Faces of 9/11 – The multilingual, multicultural film ‘11’09’’01 – September 11’ is a collage of 11 different visualisations, each 11 minutes, 9 seconds and 1 frame long, of what September 11, 2001 meant in different contexts.

Teachers and Students: Ten of my favourite songs commemorates the classroom, the bond between taught and teacher, and education itself on the Teachers’ Day. We pick up one rare song as our tribute- Dali Pe Baithi Das Chidiya – Deep Jalta Rahe (1959) – .Roshan – Shailendra

Music and lyrics: How Shailendra gift-wrapped cosmic truths through his songs – Ganesh Vancheeswaran – Once, Raj Kapoor took him along to meet the story-writer KA Abbas, another of Kapoor’s close collaborators. Abbas is said to have narrated a new story over a couple of hours, all the while ignoring Shailendra. At the end of the narration, Kapoor asked Shailendra what he made of it. The poet replied, “Gardish mein tha, aasman ka taara tha. Awaara tha.” Here is one of Shailendra’s title song –

Chalti Jaye Duniya Ki Dagar – Door Ka Rahi (1971) – Hemnt Kumar – Kishore Kumar – Shailendra

Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Majhli Didi is a family drama driven by strong women – Based on legendary Bengali author Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Mejdidi, the movie stars Meena Kumari and Lalita Pawar in a progressive take on adoption.

Bawarchi — the Hrishikesh Mukherjee classic that humanised Bollywood’s first superstar – Rajesh Khanna, who delivered 17 hits in a row & had a fan following which included women who married his photos, was akin to a deity. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Bawarchi made him more relatable.

In continuation of the Hemant Kumar Centenary celebrations, Hemant Kumar’s male playback singers has chosen to stick to basic tenet that a music director knows which voice would do justice to his composition, while selecting the song for the list. Henatayan 2 further explores Hemant Kumar’s career , from 1960s onwards.

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.

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

Khel Khel Mein had Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh at their fresh-faced, adorable best – Ravi Tandon’s 1975 movie was part college romance, part murder mystery. And it had great songs by RD Burman.

September 2020 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up (Shankar-) Jaikishan and Hasrat Jaipuri’s Songs Fading From the Memory 1960 – 1961

Till now we have covered

1949 -1954 in 2017
1955 – 1957 in 2018
1958 – 1959 in 2019.

We will now take up the articles on other subjects:

Female Dance Duets – Part 1 presents dances in royal court and Part 2 lists dances presented as mujra songs.

Two Dances by Ruby Keeler Influencing Two Dances by Helen (and a little about something that both dancers may have had in common) viz. Ruby Keeler dancing on a giant typewriter n Ready, Willing and Able (1937) vis-à-vis Helen’s “Typewriter Tip Tip Tip” dance in the Merchant Ivory film Bombay Talkie (1970) and Footlight Parade (1933) vis-à-vis Mera Naam Chin Chi Chu – Howra Bridge (1958) Asha Bhosle – O P Nayyar – Qamar Jalalbadi

On a different wavelength: Why Vanraj Bhatia is the foremost composer of Hindi New Wave cinema – Shwetant Kumar– Bhatia’s work across these films is a testament to both his versatility and his technique.

In the Micro View of Songs of 1945 we have taken up solo song of Vitage Era Male Singers – Part [1] and Part [2] and those of KL Saigal

In continuation to out tradition of ending 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 composed by S Mohinder.

Mil Kar Jayen Hum Preet Ke Diwane – Jeevan Sathi – with Shmashad Begum – S Mohinder – Hameed Khummar

Suno Suni Ek Nayee Kahani – Naata (1955) – S Mohinder – Tanveer Naqvi

Maa Na Mare Kisi Ki Bachpan Mein – Zameen Ke Taare (1960) – S Mohinder – Indra Chandra

Mohammad Rafi solo version –

Duet version with Asha Bhosle –

Itni Si Baat Fasan Na Banao – Ek Ladkee Saat Ladke (1961) – with Asha Bhosle – S Mohinder – 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.