Month: February 2023

The Sculptors of Film Songs – 2- Anthony Gonsalves

   Originally in Gujarati, by Piyush M Pandya

Translated by Ashok M Vaishnav

Even a very keen follower of film music would it find it very difficult to list the music arrangers and instrument players beyond a few, more by luck than design, handpicked popular names. When radio was the major source of listening to the film songs, one possible reason that music arrangers and instrument players hardly got any mention when the song was played was that for each song such a list would probably take more time than possibly the actual paying time of song, typically recorded on one side of a 78-RPM shellac record. By the time FM radio listening generation came in, this genre of supporting music was confined to pre-programmed database of ‘digitally generated’ sounds of digital or electronic instruments. So, when the music director himself was becoming more of an assembler, it would be only surprising if any other support sources would have got some mention.

However, the film music in general, and keen followers like us in particular, are indeed very fortunate that at every stage of evolution of the film music, there always were some music lovers who always scraped up bits and pieces of some valuable information regarding many known and even more unknown artists associated with different elements of making of a song.

It is to the credit of such pains of those followers that we have some very interesting, and key, pieces of information of two epochal songs – Aayega aanewala … (Mahal, 1949; Lata Mangeshkar; Lyrics: Nakshab Jarachvi; Music: Khemchand Prakash) and Tere bina aag ye chandani …..Ghar aaya mera pardesi (Aawara, 1951; Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey and Chorus; Lyrics: Shailendra; Music: Shankar Jaikishan).

In order not to digress from our main subject for the day, we will sidestep good deal of information, like these songs started the future trends like haunting melody or a dream sequence or that if one song went on to launch Lata Mangeshkar into higher orbits, the other song laid foundation for many non-traditional styles of song composition or song recording or even the rhythm and orchestrion arrangements.

However, let us put on our headphones and listen to the preludes of both songs –

Aayega Ayega Aanewala – The prelude- or rather intro – running up to 3.42 is basically composed of short opening lines (Saakhi – साखी), interspersed with short pieces of violin,) is supported by soft counter melody accompaniment of piano.

Tere Bina Aag Ye Chandani – Listen to the solo violin pieces at 1.26 to 1.35 and then from 1.36 to 1.39.

Many keen listeners would have noticed these nuances of orchestration of the two songs. However, hardly a few would perhaps know that the piano in Aayega aanewala or the second violin piece of just three seconds in Tere bina ye are played by the same player whom we know as Anthony Gonsalves – one of the pioneering music arrangers of Hind Film Music of Golden Era.

Aside Trivia:

During the first stage rehearsal Raj Kapoor did not appreciate the above solo violin pieces in the prelude of Tere bina aag ye chandani and passed some disparaging remark, The two violin players immediately walked out of the recording room. However Shankar and the music arranger Sonny Catalino knew the true worth of these violinists – Peter Dorado and Anthony Gonsalves. They somehow pacified these two players and managed to bring them back to the recording. And as it is said, the rest is history.

Anthony Gonsalves – born on 12 June 1927, at Majorda in South Goa – had started imbibing the sense of music from the very childhood from his father Jose Gonsalves, who had his own band and was the choir master at the Church, and the other family members who regularly participated as part of the choir at the Church. Anthony Gonsalves’s father also used to teach music to village boys. By the age of six, Anthony had started assisting his father in these music lessons. When Anthony was sixteen, he managed to escape to Bombay, much against his father’s wish.

At Bombay, Anthony Gonsalves got exposure to Indian classical music. He would play violin with leading bands in the day and attend music classes to learn playing raags, sargam, harmony and such elements on traditional instruments of Indian classical music. He also took up learning reading and writing Devnagari script. In the due course, he developed the writing of the Indian classical music in staff notations and harmonize them with western music pieces.

In the ‘30s, during the period of greats like R C Boral or Pankaj Mallik, music directors would explain the tune to all instrumentalists and the instrumentalists would convert these instructions into playing their respective instruments. Then came a period when the strong influence of North Indian and Punjabi music traditions pervaded the film song compositions.  The songs were pleasing to listen to, but beyond a limit, there was not much scope for experimentation in terms of rhythms or tunes or selection of instruments and the orchestration. Young Anthony Gonsalves joined the world of Hindi film music of Bombay.

Anthony Gonsalves started weaving the harmonic pieces of Western music styles into the traditional Indian music style compositions of music directors like Ghulam Haider, Shyam Sundar, Naushad etc. This dramatically altered the entire character of music composition culture of Indian films. It can be safely stated that this established the practice of music arrangement that was to be followed by the music arrangers for next fifty years.

Anthony Gonsalves also introduced the chord chart system and integrated different instrument pieces in the entire structure of the system. With his knowledge of Indian classic music structure of prelude, mukhda (sthayi), interludes, antaras, cadences, post-ludes or fade-outs that was to shape the solid foundation of Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

While working for different bands in those days, Anthony Gonsalves was noticed by Naushad. Naushad used violin playing expertise of Anthony Gonsalves for the songs that he was composing for his film Sharda (1942). Anthony Gonsalves assisted Naushad and his official assistants Mohamad Ebrahim or Ghulam Mohammad in orchestration of the songs of films like Anmol Ghadi (1946), Dillagi (1949), Dastan (1950), Baiju Bawra (1952), Mother India (1957) etc.

Tara Ri Aara Ri… Ye Saawan Rut Aur Tum Aur Hum – Dastaan (1950) – Mohammad Rafi, Suraiya – Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni – Music: Naushad

In this totally un-Naushadian touch composition, we can clearly feel that it was Anthony Gonsalves was given the full charge of rhythm as well as orchestration, song being set to waltz dance rhythm with violin, guitar, accordion prelude with extensive use of soft counter melody support with a choir style humming as icing on the cake.

The intrinsic insights of knowing western and Indian music and his practice of writing staff notations for all types on instruments soon was to make Anthony Gonsalves gain popularity in the Hindi film music circle.

Soon, Anil Biswas invited Anthony Gonsalves to join his team of music for Bombay Talkies. Anthony Gonsalves actively assisted Anil Biswas for Jwar Bhata (1944) and Pehli Nazar (1945). Here are a few songs of those years wherein Anthony Gonsalves has played the violin –

Sawan Ke BadaloN Unse Jaa Kaho – Rattan (1944) – Zohrabai Ambalewali, Karan Diwan – Lyrics: D N Madhok – Music: Naushad

Dil Mera Toda O Mujhe KahiNkaa Na Chhoda Tere Pyar Ne – Majboor (1948) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Nazim Panipati – Music: Ghulam Haider

In was around the same time that another veteran music director Khemchand Prakash also invited Anthony Gonsalves to assist him in the composition of music for Mahal, released quite belatedly in 1949.

It was with Dholak (1951, Music: Shyam Sundar) that Anthony Gonsalves opened his almost a two-decade illustrious career as independent music arranger of jaw-opening figure of over 1,000 songs.

Mausam Aaya Hai Rangeen, Baji Hai KahiN Surili Bin – Dholak (1951) – Sulochana Kadam, Satish Batra, Chorus – Lyrics: Aziz Kashmiri – Music: Shyam Sundar

The song opens with typical beats of dholak of Punjabi folk songs – a trademark rhythm style adapted by Punjabi Music directors of that period. The introduction of accordion strains @0.21, trumpets @ 0.32 joined further clarinets @ 0.42 transforms the song radically. Anthony Gonsalves also has quite smoothly introduced harmony too from 1.02 to 1.22 in the form of voices of Satish Batra and chorus.

Let us listen to one more smash-hit song from the same film to further appreciate how western style of orchestration of Anthony Gonsalves and Punjabi dholak rhythm are seamlessly integrate –

Hulla Gulla Laaiala .. Ho Kullam Khulla ..  Gaye Jaa – Dholak (1951) – Mohammad Rafi, Satish Batra, Shamshad Begum, Chorus – Lyrics: Aziz Kashmiri – Music: Shyam Sundar

The vast range of instruments that have been in the orchestration of prelude and interludes also visible in the song.

https://youtu.be/8AcM4rfrB6U

Anthony Gonsalves long association with S D Burman, right from early films like Shikaar (1946), has given us many evergreen songs.

Saiyaan Dil Mein Aana Re – Bahaar (1951) – Shamshad Begum – Lyrics: Rajendra Krishna – Music; S D Burman

Anthony Gonsalves has played major role in the orchestration of the song. However, the solo piece of violin from 0.34 to 0.40 shows that magical touch that Anthony Gonsalves could infuse by his unique style of playing the violin.

https://youtu.be/9RwGN5V4Oqk

Even as Anthony Gonsalves got closely working with the front-line music directors, he went to collaborate with same dedication with other highly talented but not so appreciated music directors like Pt. Govindram (Aabroo and Sahaara 1943), Gyan Dutt (Dilruba, 1950; Gul-e-Bakawali,1956),  Hansraj Behl (Rat Ki Rani, 1949; Rajdhani, 1956; Sikandar-e-Azam, 1965) or N Dutta (Milap, 1956; Ham Panchhi Ek Daal Ke, 1957; Jaal Saaz, 1959) to name  a few.

Ham Se Bhi Karlo Kahin Kabhi Kabhi Do Meethi Meethi Baatein – Milap (1956) – Geeta Dutt – Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi – Music: N Datta

Here is one more fine illustration of so smooth blending Indian and Western styles.

Here are two songs that we have always associated as the creations of the respective music directors. However, searching for finer details of Anthony Gonsalves has added to the enrichment to the beauty of the song that an arranger / musician creates by his / her contribution.

Sham-e-gam Ki Qasam Aaj Gamgin Hai Ham – Footpath (1953) – Talat Mahmood – Lyrics: Sardar Jafri – Music: Khayyam

How imaginatively Anthony Gonsalves has matched the imagination of of he composer while selecting each instrument so thoughtfully and arranging each one of it so much delicate touch.

Hum Pyar Mein JalanewaloN Ko Chain KahaN Aaram KahaN – Jailor (1958) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Rajendra Krishna – Music: Madan Mohan

Right from the first stroke of piano in the prelude, Anthony Gonsalves has so effectively weaved violins with sound of piano in addition to one of the finest countermelody accompaniments that adds to the pathos of the song!

The list can ultimately land up putting in each of his arrangements, so I stop here with heavy heart, leaving many uncharted waters like Ashok Rane’s 58-minute documentary ‘Anthony Gonsalves – The Music Legend’.

With his practice of providing detailed notations not only musicians were very happy because they exactly knew what was expected of them and with what emphasis when, Anthony Gonsalves also very popular among sound recordists because he made it a point to provide these notations to them as well, enabling thereby to fine tune the recording touches as the final take would take-off.

Anthony Gonsalves’s penchant for blending the Western and Indian systems of music led to creations like Sonatina Indiana, Concerto in Raag Sarang, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in Todi Taat. He also went to establish, and fund, in 1958, a group of around 110 musicians with Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey as soloists, Indian Symphony Orchestra, specifically to perform his creations.

These experiments did not succeed as much as Anthony Gonsalves had expected. The infamous episode of Anthony Gonsalves being refused to arrange music for an animation film for (the then) Films Division, by the then I&B minister B V Keskar,  whoparochially would not entrust such job to a Christian, also did not help Anthony Gonsalves to keep his self-motivation to continue to experiment!

However, Anthony Gonsalves’s efforts in the field of fusion of Western and Indian music did spread his reputation across the seas. Years later, in 1965, when Howard Boatwright, the then dean of the school of music at Syracuse University, was visiting India, he had a chance meeting with Anthony Gonsalves, that followed in an invitation to work at the university. Anthony Gonsalves readily accepted the invitation. He worked for around two years there and then worked in Hollywood for creating the educational films. Even though not much of authentic information is available on his experiences during America, it is generally believed that Anthony Gonsalves so much remained disheartened at the heart that when he chose to come back to India, he remained so much incognito that even his very close friends or associates at Bollywood had any idea the Anthony Gonsalves is back to India. He chose to settle down at his place of birth and continue to teach music to the children of the area.

That passion for teaching the music, perhaps inherited from his father, had not died down even during his busy career at Bollywood. It is said that his apartment at Sushila Sadan at Juhu-Bandra linking road, Mumbai, was always open to the students of music. Two of his the then students were Rahul Dev Burman and Pyarelal Sharma (of Laxmikant-Pyarelal music duo). Pyarelal, who went onto become an ace violinist and accomplished arranger, has paid his tribute to his Guru by convincing Manmohan Desai to change the name of character being played by Amitabh Bachchan for Amar Akbar Anthony from Anthony Fernandes to Anthony Gonsalves, and even coined the opening line of a song My name is Anthony Gonsalves. And perhaps as the fitting touch of the magic of Anthony Gonsalves’s immortal contribution, the song – otherwise not a very exceptional composition – went on become a roaring success!

An artist who was ‘far ahead of his times’, Anthony Gonsalves breathed his last on 18th January 2012, away from the fame and dazzle of the world of music he loved so intimately and passionately!

Credits and Disclaimers:

    1. The song links have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of music lovers. This blog claims no copyright over these songs, which vests with the respective copyright holders.
    2. The photographs are taken from the internet, duly recognising the full copyrights for the same to the either original creator or the site where they were originally displayed.

Additional References:

https://www.incrediblegoa.org/cover-story/name-anthony-gonsalves-story-legendary-musician-goa/

https://www.cinemaazi.com/people/anthony-gonsalves

https://www.swaraalap.com/flashback/anthony-gonsalves-my-name-is-anthony-gonsalves/

https://scroll.in/reel/826815/from-hindi-film-music-to-raga-based-symphonies-the-remarkable-journey-of-anthony-gonsalves

https://themusicroom.in/anthony-gonsalves-the-maestro/

The article is originally published on Songs of Yore as The Sculptors Film Songs (2): Anthony Gonsalves.

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – Volume XI – February 2023 Edition

Welcome to February 2023 edition of XIth Volume of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Presently we move on to our section on tributes and celebrations for the month –

Remembering Madhubala – Today and Forever – Anuradha Warrier – Madhubala’s porcelain prettiness, dazzling smile and trademark giggle masked a gifted actor with so much more to offer.

Nimmi – ‘The Unkissed Girl of India’ – D P Ranagn pays tribute to Nimmi on her 90th birth anniversary (b. 18 Feb 1933 – d. 25 March 2020).

The Masters: Jan Nisar Akhtar – Of Romance and Hope – Anuradha Warrier – For a poet who was part of the Progressive Writers’ Movement, Jan Nisar Akhtar’s lyrics for Hindi film songs were delicately shaded with the disparate colours of romance.

Continuing the series, the year-wise review of Lata Mangeshkar’s career, on Lata Mangeshkar, Mehfil Mein Teri revisits Lata Mangeshkar’s songs with lesser known or forgotten male singers.

Lata Mangeshkar: Ten Solos, Ten Composers – Part 4 is the last post in the series of Lata Mangeshkar obituary series, beginning with My Favourite Solos with Ten Composers, followed by the songs the other great music directors for whom Lata sang some exceptional songs and Ten Solos, Ten Composers

Gujara Hua Zamana – 21 Gaan Salute to Lataji!! – a tribute on her first death anniversary.

“The Sculptors of Film Music’ series presents Anthony Gonsalves, one of the pioneering music arrangers of Hind Film Music of Golden Era.

February 2023 episode of VIIIth volume of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Talat Mahmood – Duets with Asha Bhosle – 1951| 1952 | 1953. Till now, we have explored –

In 2017, an overview of Talat Mahmood’s duets receding from the memory.

In 2018, Talat Mahmood’s duets with rare co-singers,

In 2019, Talat Mahmood’s duets with Mubarak Begum and with Madhubala Jhaveri,

In 2020, Talat Mahmood’s duets with Geeta Dutt, essentially from 1950 to 1952,

In 2021, Talat Mahmood: Duets with Geeta Dutt, from  1954 to 1957, with one duet even in 1972, and

In 2022, Talat Mahmood: Dets with Shamshad Begum.

Shailendra Sharma @ Golden Era of Bollywood has not posted the memorial tribute posts for the month till the writing for the present post.:

We now move on to posts on other subjects –

Yeh Un Dinoñ Ki Baat Hai – In Conversation with Yasir Abbasi – Yeh Un Dinoñ Ki Baat Hai: Urdu Memoirs of Cinema Legends, selected and translated by Yasir Abbasi and published by Bloomsbury India, brings together an eclectic collection of memoirs written by renowned writers and cine artists and published in Urdu magazines of yore, many of which are now defunct.

Book Review: “चल उड़ जा रे पंछी (संगीतकार चित्रगुप्त: व्यक्ति एवं कृति)” – By: Dr. Narendra Nath Pandey | Kautilya Books, New Delhi: 2022 | ISBN: 978-93-90885-68-8

Book Review: Jerry Pinto’s ‘Helen: The Making of a Bollywood H-Bomb’

A hospitality professional recounts her encounters with film stars and directors – L Aruna Dhir –

Zeenat Aman recalls the time she was ‘earnest’ for her new job at 16: ‘We shot around the Taj in a quest for the perfect image’ – Zeenat Aman quipped that her advertisement, however, was eclipsed by tabla maestro Zakir Hussain’s memorable campaign for the brand.

My Favourites: Women and Chores’ Songs – Some of these songs are absolutely wonderful, and some of the sequences make absolute sense in the context of the film.

Melodies with partly sung mukhda are the songs wherein mukhada precedes humming, or even an anatara.

The Bicycle Saga, commenced last year with Part !, peddles on with Part 2 (A couple on the bicycle) and Part 3 (Solo bicycle songs).

Ten ‘Anti-Love’ Songs – These are not ‘Don’t love me’ songs but are the songs which wonder why people fall in love.

The Gaali Songs are quite light-hearted fun songs even as the lyrics do contain cuss words like Badtameez, Bluffmaster, Junglee, Jaanwar, Loafer and so on

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

We have concluded Micro View of Duets for 1943, with MY Top Music Directors.

In continuation to our tradition of ending the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, for the year, it is planned to recall the first duet Mohammad Rafi and Geeta Dutt had with a music director.

Shamma Jalti Hai To Parwane Chale Aate Hain – Bawra (1950) – Ghafil Haranalvi – Krishna Dayal

Chupke Chupke Dil Mein Aane Wale – Haramra Ghar (1950) – Rammurthy Chaturvedi – Chitragupta

Jise Dundte Phirti Hai Meri Nazar – Sheesh Mahal (1950) – Nazim Panipati – Vasant Desai

Panghat Pe Dekho Aayi Milan Ki Bela – Naujawan (1951) – Sahir Ludhianvi – S D Burman

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.

The Micro View of Songs of 1943 – MY Top Music Director(s)

As has been repeatedly noted in My Best Solo Male Singers, or Female Singers or Duets, my own choices are basically too inadequate to enable help form any basis for selecting My Top Music Director for the year 1943.

The beacon image @ the Overview post, shows four films – Kismet (Music: Anil Biswas), Tansen (Khemchand Prakash), Ram Rajya (Shankar Rao Vyas) and Wapas (Music: R C Boral).  The point table of Best Songs of music directors @ @ Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 4 also reflects this image.

Of these four, songs of Wapas has all the flair of vintage songs. In all possibilities, these songs must have immediately been lapped up by the then fans of music of that era. However, being too closely molded on the style of vintage era, the songs have not been able to transcend its footprint the subsequent Golden Era.

So is the case with Ram Rajya.

Tansen has five solo songs by the evergreen K L Saigal as well as one duet with Khursheed. Khursheed also has three solo songs. That itself gives Tansen a head start. The film itself may not appeal a typical Golden Era films follower like me, but the orchestration of the songs by Khemchand Prakash ensures that the songs remain equally appealing as the songs of later years of 1940s- the transition years from vintage to golden era.

Even if we discount the fervent following that Ab Himalay Ki Choti Se can bring up now, other songs have undeniable impact on the Golden Era followers even if the singers are prominently vintage era singers. Undoubtedly, the credit should vest Anil Biswas fro his path breaking music composition style.

So even as SoY adjudges Khemchand Prakash as The Music Director for the year 1943, on the basis of four to two advantage in the point table of Best Songs of music directors @ @ Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 4, I would rather choose to remain neutral between Khemchand Prakash and Anil Biswas as My Top Music Directors for the year 1943.

P.S.

All the episodes of Micro View of Best Songs for 1943 @SoY can be read / downloaded from one file, by clicking on the hyper link.

Similarly, the respective episodes of Micro View of Male Solo Songs for 1943 @SoY as well as those of Female Solo Songs and Duet Songs can be read / downloaded by clicking on the respective hyper link.

Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs – Volume XI – February 2023 Edition

Welcome to February 2023 edition of the XIth volume of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

The theme for the XIth volume of our Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs is The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Our first topic for a detailed look at the theme is Future Competitiveness.

Competitive advantage is the favourable position an organization seeks in order to be more profitable than its rivals, in the short as well as long run. To gain and maintain a competitive advantage, an organization must be able to demonstrate a greater comparative or differential value than its competitors and convey that information to its desired target market.[1]

“If a man…make a better mousetrap than his neighbour, tho’ he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” Attributed to one of Emerson’s lectures in the nineteenth century, these words seem to have anticipated the exhortations of the twentieth: manage for uniqueness, develop a distinctive competence, create competitive advantage.[2]

Tweaking a management system based on old rules will no longer be effective. It is time to act now to start building an organization in accordance with the new principles.[3]

The three main types of competitive advantages are differentiation, cost advantages, and focus advantages.[4]

McKinsey outlines how companies can reimagine themselves for the future by asking: Who we are? How do we operate? How do we grow?[5]

Further reading: Future of work

We will continue in our next episodes with more detailed insight into the subject of competitive advantage.

We will now turn to our regular section -.

We now watch ASQ TV episode on –

    • Effective 21st Century Quality Leadership – Mike Turner, Managing Partner, Oakland Consulting, discusses the business challenges of the 21st century, and how quality professionals should respond in order to meet them.

Till writing of the present episode, new additions to Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems and From the Editor’ (of Quality Magazine) – by Darryl Sealand have yet to come up. So, we take up

    • The Multi-dimensionality of Quality – Speaking of Quality | Duke Okes – People outside the qualify profession see it as a potentially negative, narrow focus on just trying to find things wrong. Meanwhile, those who have made it a profession are more likely to see it as one with endless opportunities to learn and contribute to the success of the organization and its employees, customers and suppliers. … Quality is not a single field, but in fact the integration of knowledge from many fields of science, technology and management. … At its foundation, quality is about managing organizational processes that will meet stakeholder needs and expectations. … This is complicated by the fact that each customer or player who encounters the product during its life cycle may have different definitions of quality.  .. This multi-dimensionality then allows each quality professional to find a niche that suits their level of interest in technology and/or management roles, enabling them to have satisfying work that will yield a more productive environment. …Evolution of industry will require adaptation of known quality principles and technologies to new products …Technology will help improve many aspects of quality management. …Like many other support functions, quality personnel not only manage several critical processes such as calibration and corrective action, but they play a technology transfer role that embeds quality philosophies and methods into core functions. …Whether one wants to be a technologist, facilitator or leader, the opportunities for contribution and growth are immense.

I look forward to your views / comments / inputs to further enrich the theme of The Defining Trends of Quality Management – An Analytical Survey.

Note: The images or video clips depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images /videos.

[1] competitive advantage – Nicole Laskowski, Rachel Lebeaux

[2] Sustainable Advantage – Pankaj Ghemawat

[3] Organizing for the Future: Why now? – Elizabeth Mygatt, Richard Steele, Mitya Voloshchuk

[4] 3 Main Types of Sustainable Competitive Advantages

[5] Organizing for the future: Nine keys to becoming a future-ready company

 

Fading Memories…. Unforgettable Songs : Volume VIII : February 2023 Edition

Talat Mahmood – Duets with Asha Bhosle – 1951| 1952 | 1953

Talat Mahmood (24 February 1924 – 9 May 1998) as a singer, and actor, shone to his brightest during ‘50s, even as his career in Hindi (film) songs spanned 1945 to 1981. ‘50s was also happened to be the decade of Elvis Presley in America and Cliff Richard in UK. All these three singing stars were not only handsome, good-looking, always dressed in utmost care but their voice had very distinct magnetic charm.

Of over 750 Hindi songs of Talat Mahmood, his duets with all major female singers of his times presents Talat Mahmood in many different shades. Therefore, we have undertaken a series of his (rare) duets to commemorate the memory of Talat Mahmood in the month of his birth. Till now, we have explored –

In 2017, an overview of Talat Mahmood’s duets receding from the memory.

In 2018, Talat Mahmood’s duets with rare co-singers,

In 2019, Talat Mahmood’s duets with Mubarak Begum and with Madhubala Jhaveri,

In 2020, Talat Mahmood’s duets with Geeta Dutt, essentially from 1950 to 1952,

In 2021, Talat Mahmood: Duets with Geeta Dutt, from  1954 to 1957, with one duet even in 1972, and

In 2022, Talat Mahmood: Dets with Shamshad Begum.

We now turn to Talat Mahmood’s duets with Asha Bhosle.

Interestingly, Talat Mahmood and Asha Bhosle’s career followed different trajectories even when seemingly running concurrently. For Talat Mahmood, the decade of 50s was his golden period but for Asha Bhosle it was the period of her struggle to establish her own independent existence when Lata Mangeshkar’s stars were in full ascendence. The case of decade of 60s then saw swing of fortunes, with Asha Bhosle having come out of shadow of Lata Mangeshkar, it was Talat Mahmood who was losing the momentum rapidly.. Then technically, Talat Mahmood’s career , in terms of Hindi film songs, during ‘70s was already on the gasping stage of the last run.

In spite of these odds, Talat Mahmood and Asha Bhosle duets stand second to Talat-Lata duets in numbers, with period of 1951 to 1959 recording around 59 duets! However, during this period, the then first -row music directors who preferred Talat Mahmood used to prefer to work with Lata Mangeshkar. As a result, barring a few exceptions, the Talat Mahmood – Asha Bhosle duets are scored by the music directors who worked, so called, fringe of the HFM spectrum of that period. An interesting fall out of this situation is that we get to listen to a very wide range of voices of both the singers.

Presently, we will take up Talat Mahmood – Asha Bhosle duets for the years 1951 (2 duets), 1952 (1 duet) and 1953 (6 duets).

Mera Man Jhoom Jhoom Laharaye – Titli (a.k.a. For Ladies Only) (1951) –Manohar Singh Saharai – Vinod

There could not have been a more opportune opening of the account of Talat- Asha duets than this duet, composed by one of the bright but most unfortunate composer, Vinod.

Music director and bot the singers quite successfully enliven the playful mood of the song

Tum Bade Wo Ho Mohabbat Ka Maza Kya Jano – Imaan (1951) (Unreleased) – Hasrat Jaipuri – Motiram

The lyrics of the song easily convey the mood of ecstasy of being together. Talat Mahmood seems to sound a little less playful than Asha Bhosle, but overall the song, remains very pleasing to listen to.

Pyar Bhi Aata Hai Gussa Bhi Aata Hai, Tum Hi Kaho Aise Koi Chood Ke Kisi Ko Jaata Hai – Goonj (1952) – D N Madhok – Sardul Kwatra

Sardul Kwatra was another music director who had very distinct knack of blending folk tunes into his compositions, and yet his success with Hind songs remained on a rather limited scale.

Talat Mahmood is also quite playful in the delivery of the song, but, unfortunately, the duet is said to have not been released.

Kisi Ne Nazar Jab Se Mila D, Meri Zingadi … Jhoom Ke Muskara Di – Humsafar (1953) – Sahir Ludhianvi – Ali Akbar Khan

The song very effectively succeeds in conveying the mesmerized state of being together.

Talat Mahmood, interestingly, sounds to be so near to his NFS singing scale.

It would be opportune to note here that all other male songs of the film are by Kishore Kumar and female songs by either Lata Mangeshkar or Geeta Dutt.

Even though S D Burman had some excellent scores with Talat Mahmood in his own initial phase, he tended to prefer Mohammad Rafi, or Kishore Kumar, by the time his own career was on the rise. Similarly, he tended to prefer Lata Mangeshkar, except during the period when relations between S DB and Lata Remained strained. As a result, we have only one duet of Talat Mahmood- Asha Bhosle from S D Burman.

Chahe Kitana Mujhe Tum Buloege Nahin Bolungi … Bol Na Bol Aye Jaanewale Sun To Le Aye Diwano Ki – Armaan (1953) – Sahir Ludhianvi – S D Burman

‘Baabla’ and ‘Aramaan’ (1953) form the base of 18-films-at-a-strecth successful partnership of Sahir Ludhianvi and SD Burman.

The present duet epitomizes the deep pain of separation of two love birds. Asha Bhosle also so naturally matches Talat Mahmood in creating the mood of pathos.

The song has a solo version by Talat Mahmood, too.

Teri Marzi Hai JahaN Mujhe Le Chal Tu WahaN – Ghar Baar (1953) – Indeevar – Vasant Prabhu

A very well well-known exponent of Marathi Bhav Geet genre, Vasant Prabhu, has just one hind film to his credit!

The song opens with Asha Bhosle singing to a dance tune, but Talat Mahmood remaining in the pensive mood. However, as the song moves ahead, it is all the way dance-like mood.

BaharoN Ki Duniya Pukare Aa Ja …. Tere Minzir Hai Sitare Aa Ja – Laila Majnu (1953) – Shakeel Badayuni – Saradar Malik

The timeless melody belongs to the period when Shammi Kapoor was following the beaten track of serious roles with Talat Mahmood as his playback.

Dekh Li Ae Teri Maherbani Dekh Li – Laila Majnu (1953) – Shakeel Badayuni – Saradar Malik

Asha Bhosle once again comes up with a wonderful rendering of the total pathos mood of the song

Raat Chandani Saath Tumahara Rang Muhabbat Layi, Kabhi Najhar Me Tum Laharayein Kabhi Najgar Laharayi – Pehli Shaadi (1953) – Kaif Irfani – Robin Banerjee

Being together in the soft glow of moonlight is always an occasion that two young love birds to keenly keep desiring!

While searching for the Talat Mahmood – Asha Bhosle duets, I accidently landed up on a Punjabi duet of theirs. The song is composed by Dhaniram, of whom we will talk in more details when we take up Dhaniram’s another Talat – Asha duet for Dak Babu (1954). For the present recalling just one song – Main HuN Bahart Ki Ek Naar Ladane Marane Ko Jo Taiyar (Ladki, 1953) – should suffice to introduce Dhaniram’s contribution to Hindi Film Songs.

Mere Dil Di Sej Diye Raniye Ni – Laar Lappa (1953) – Punjabi – M S Sehrai – Dhaniram

Dhaniram was a classically trained music director who also very easily could blend folk tune of Uttar Pardesh and Punjab into his compositions.

The present song is just one fitting illustration of that side of his music caliber.

We will continue with Talat Mahmood – Asha Bhosle duets in our episode next year as well.

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 and videos from You Tube. All copyrights of the respective image/ video clip remain with the original owner of the image.

1966 to 1971 – Those Anecdotal Five Years …. – The Practical(s) : Civil Engineering – Practical rigours practically upturned into joyous occasions (!) – (II)

The Theodolite Survey at ‘Craters of River Chandra Bhaga’ – A Windfall of Secret Treasure

We had had another field practical in the form of a theodolite survey. The field site selected was ‘the craters of river Chandra Bhaga’ opposite the Sabarmati Ashram The reason to place ‘the craters…’Bhaga’ with italics emphasis is that it is one of those  ground realities of recent geographical past of ‘50s and ‘60s that the viral development of real estate properties in around Ahmedabad have obliterated many geographical realities from the map of Ahmedabad.

This is the present-day satellite map of area opposite of Sabarmati Ashram. What was barren tracts of craters of river Chandra Bhaga, across the then Ashram Road, is now full of all kinds of buildings. Though the satellite map shows some traces of river Chandra Bhaga basin, what is really left out of the ‘river; is just a sewer ‘rivulet’. That meeting point of Chandra Bhaga with Sabarmati could be crossed via the Dandi Bridge (a.k.a. Parikshitlal Majumadar Bridge) then exists almost at the point of being vanished now.

Well, let us come back to our present subject.

We were supposed to go over to the craters of the river to map the geographical contours of around 1000 sq. yards area there. The field trip being more picnic outing for us, we would have perhaps loved more to map the craters of some other types.

However, the area, literally and really, shorn of any ‘greenery’ save a few bushed here and there. But lady luck had perhaps thought of not disappointing us and had stored below the barren surface, again literally and really,  a ‘secret treasure’. It was supposed to be secret from the prying ‘self-righteous’ morally correct’ prying eyes of the ‘honourable’ society.  And since it was done clandestinely, it did mean a ‘treasure’ for those who treated it as a business.

These were the cottage-scale ‘distilleries’ of ‘desi’ liquor.

When our supervisors saw us what we had ‘uncovered’, we were strictly warned to keep away from these ‘objects and mind what was our business then. However, some adventurous ones from us withheld themselves from breaking a couple of the pots.

The smell that erupted out was so pungent and obnoxious that no one of us then dared to go within yards of these pots during our stay that day.

I do not think it may any more be necessary that other than these adventure our practical had met the same fate as the previous one of chain link survey had met.

We will take up sweet sour memories of Engineering Drawing practicals in the next episode.