Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – August 2021

Welcome to August 2021 edition of IX^th Volume of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

August is the month of India’s Independence, which is remembered by different articles form different angles –

Play It As It Was – Shubhra Gupta makes a movie map of 75 films across seven decades – that celebrates the journey of the world’s largest democracy.

Upkar — film born of churn in newly-Independent India gave Bollywood a hit formula – Unnati Sharma – Upkar, released in 1967, represents the issues India faced at the time. It celebrates rural India and depicts the temptations that may trigger greed.

In Shyam Benegal’s ‘Mammo’, the lingering effects of Partition come vividly alive – Nandini Ramnath – The highly opinionated and often brutally frank Mahmooda Begum (a.k.a. Mammo) might have had something to say about the Union government’s plan to mark August 14 as “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day”.

Hindi Cinema lost Jagjit Kaur too on 15 August, 20201.

Veteran singer and wife of composer Khayyam, Jagjit Kaur, dies at 93 on 15^th August – Veteran singer Jagjit Kaur started her career in the early 50s, singing songs in films like Posti (a Punjabi film), Gumasta (1951), Khoj (1953) and Dil-e-Nadan (1953) – starring Talat Mehmood and Shyama – which gave her fame as playback singer. She got married to Khayyam in 1954.

The blogging community also joins to mourn the loss –

‘Tum Apna Ranj o Gham – Remembering Jagjit Kaur’ presents the journey of Jagjit Kaur’s career path.

We will recall her two solos and a triad from Dil-e- Naadan (1953)

Khamosh Zindagi Ko Ek Bahaana Mil Gaya – Dil-e-Naadan (1953) – Shakeel Badayuni- Ghulam Mohammad

Chanda Gaaye Raagni Chham Chham Barse Chandani – Dil-e-Naadan (1953) – Shakeel Badayuni- Ghulam Mohammad

Muhabbat Ki Dhun BeqararoN Se Puchho – Dil-e-Naadan (1953) – with Talat Mahmood, Sudha Malhotra – Shakeel Badayuni- Ghulam Mohammad

We now move on to other tributes and memories:

5 songs to remember Shakeel Badayuni, Hindi cinema’s romantic poet – Unnati Sharma – Ahead of Shakeel Badayuni’s 105th birth anniversary on 3 August, we look back on his remarkable career and his unabashedly romantic soul.

Mukesh’s Non-film Hindi Geets and Ghazals is a bouquet of geets and ghazals, selected form 78 NFSes that Mukesh has rendered in his active career, as a tribute on his 45^th remembrance day.

The Legendary Leena Daru: Dressing up Indian Cinema’s Divas – Alpana Chowdhury – She was part of the reigning troika of costume designers for actors of her time, the other two being the formidable Bhanu Athaiya and Mani J .Rabadi (elder sister of Shammi, a.k.a. Nargis Rabadi)

Revisiting Chandni that established Sridevi’s mystery and myth – Revisiting Chandni: On Sridevi’s 58th birth anniversary, here’s revisiting the film that changed the way Bollywood saw its women, and the impact of that can still be seen in Hindi films to this day.

Kumkum: The Danseuse Butterfly of Bollywood – DP Rangan pays tribute to Kumkum (22 April 1934 – 28 July 2020) on her first death anniversary.

Death is everywhere in Bollywood, but why is grief so rare? – Bijal Vachharajani – When it comes to the matter of being grief-stricken because of death, Bollywood falls upon tried and tested tropes.

5 songs and 5 moods to remember Khayyam, Bollywood’s versatile music composer – Unnati Sharma – The musical maestro did merely 57 films but his output was stellar and versatile.

Forgotten Composers Unforgettable Melodies: Bipin-Babul/Babul – In spite of the some of the most remembered songs, the duo, or Babul , as the sole music director, remain more unknown than the music directors in the series Forgotten Composers: Unforgettable Melodies.

Lata Mangeshkar chooses her own favourite songs on her 90th birthday, talking to Subhash Jha about why she loves those songs.

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

Poet-composer Padma Sachdev, ‘mother of modern Dogri’, passes away at 81 in Mumbai – Unnati Sharma – Padma Sachdev had good command over Hindi and Sanskrit as well. She had composed lyrics for Prem Paravat (1973, Ye Neer Kahan Se Barse Hai,,, Ye Badri Kahan Se Aayi Hai – Lata Mangeshkar – Music Jaidev) – and Aankahin Dekhi (1978, Sona re, tujhe kaise miloo” – Mohammad Rafi and Sulakshana Pandit Music: J P Kaushik)

(Note: Incidentally, this blog had occasion to recall these songs in the article Jaidev: Brilliant, But Underrated, Composer: 1972-1973)

Rafi sings with Geeta Dutt is on Mohammad Rafi’s death anniversary/

Remembering Jagdish Raaj: The quintessential policeman of Bollywood – Ajay Mankotia @ajaymankotia – On his death anniversary we recall Jagdish Raaj — an actor who epitomised the role of police inspector in Bollywood.

In the series of articles on Sahir’s Songs of Romance, commemorating Sahir Ludhianvi’s birth centenary, Sahir Ludhianvi’s Two film associations with Usha Khanna, Rashid Are, Chitragupt, Kalyanji Anandji and Sapan Chakravarty are taken up..

Pyar Kiye Jaa, classic comedy that got Mehmood his first Filmfare as comedian – Unnati Sharma – In this ensemble 1966 romantic comedy, a remake of Tamil film Kadhalikka Neramillai, Mehmood is hilarious as a wannabe filmmaker.

August 2021 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Shailendra’s Songs with Sardul Kwatra and Mukul Roy. Beginning the series in 2017 with Shailendra’s songs with “other” music directors, till now we have covered

In 2018, songs with Roshan

In 2019, songs with Hemant Kumar, Ravi and KalyanjiAnandji

In 2020, songs with SN Tripathi, Anil BIswas and C Ramchandra

We now move on to posts on other subjects –

Dilip-Dev-Raj or Salman-Aamir-SRK? – Monojit Lahiri – Each generation brings its own challenges and opportunities, so comparisons, while forever tempting to engage in – is bound to be unfair, inaccurate and irrelevant

Madhubala: Ageless Beauty, Timeless Icon – SMM Ausaja – In a short-lived career, Madhubala rose to the status of a superstar on the dint of her talent and magnetic screen presence. Humble beginnings, a meteoric rise to fame, dangerous liaisons, unrequited love, and dying young made the enchantingly beautiful Madhubala a legend of Hindi cinema history.

Of Waheeda Rehman’s luminous beauty, and film that changed Guru Dutt’s fortunes: Revisiting Chaudhvin Ka Chand – Sampada Sharma – Starring Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Rehman and Johnny Walker, M Sadiq’s 1960 film Chaudhvin Ka Chand is the story of a romance where women get the short end of the stick.

Writing cinema: Shama Zaidi on a major problem with Hindi films and the importance of theatre – Anubha Yadav – In edited excerpts from a book of conversations with female screenwriters, Scripting Bollywood – Candid Conversations with Women Who Write Hindi Cinema, Anubha Yadav, Women Unlimited. – Zaidi talks about ‘Garm Hava’ and ‘Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda’.

Dance Songs in Old Hindi Cinema – by (guest writer) Arjun who has always been interested in dance and music even as a wee tot.

My Favourites: Flirtatious Songs that the “Never accept a ‘no’ until she says a ‘yes’ ” hero manages to turn the until-then independent minded heroine into a simpering mess merely by irritating the hell out of her.

Boat Songs – Part I focuses on the songs that has only the couple on the boat.

The Gravitas of Sitar in Songs either in a classical raga-based song, or in a song full of pathos.

Songs of the Sun very vividly enlist 10 songs on that refere to the sun, at least in the mukhada. As such, songs songs where the sun is referred to indirectly or obliquely or songs which refer to both the sun and the moon at least in the mukhda are not included here.

Ten of my favourite ‘Impossible Duets’ sung perfectly in tandem—the tune the same, one verse completely responding to the previous one, even the voices sometimes blending together? —when the two people supposedly singing the song are nowhere close to each other?

From Bollywood Rewind – Sampada Sharma – Indian Express’s weekly column:

Boot Polish: Of childhood that’s drenched in poverty – Starring Rattan Kumar, Baby Naaz and David, Prakash Arora’s 1954 film Boot Polish examines the condition of children who are born into poverty.
When Hrishikesh Mukherjee taught ‘Jeena isi ka naam hai’: Anari – Starring Raj Kapoor, Nutan, Motilal and Lalita Pawar, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1959 film Anari talks about the moral conundrum of choosing the right path.
Mother India: Where being a woman is equated with sacrifices – Starring Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar and Raaj Kumar, Mehboob Khan’s 1957 film Mother India is still celebrated as one of the most influential films of Indian cinema.
Mughal-e-Azam: K Asif film achieved on-screen perfection despite off-screen drama – Starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala, K Asif’s 1960 film Mughal-e-Azam is equated with perfection on screen in Indian cinema.

Micro View of Best Songs of 1944 @SoY took up Female Solo Songs with 2^ndt part of solo songs Amirbai Karnataki, and those of Zohraibai Ambalewali, Hamida Bano, Zeenat Begum, Rajkumari, Sushila Rani and Khursheed.

In continuation to our 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.

Suno Suno Ae Duniyawalo Bapu Ki Amar Kahani – Rajinder Krishna – Husnlal Bhagatram

Awaz Do Hum Ek Hai – Jan Nissar Akhtar – Khayyam

Watan Ki Aabroo Khatare Mein Hai Taiyar Ho Jaao – Sahir Ludhiyanvi – Khayyam

Is Waste Pandrah August Hai Hamein Pyara – Lyrics: Ramesh Gupta

Pandrah August Se Hamien Kyon Itani Preet Hai

Bharatwalo Bhul Na Jana, Amar Shaheedo Ka Afasana – Rajinder Krishna

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 four years, I am now quite a regular blogger. I have been able to build a few very strong pen-relationships. I maintain contact with 38-years of my First Innings as freelance trainer and process facilitator. And yet, 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. View all posts by ASHOK M VAISHNAV