Welcome to October, 2018 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.
Just as the world had seemed to come around to the public announcement of planned demise of RK studios, that we too had focused in September, 2018, Krishna Kapoor, the most charming and respected ‘outsider’ ‘wife’ in the film world, and of course, the axis around which Raj Kapoor created his showman business, passed away on 1st October, 2018.
Krishna Raj Kapoor: the grand matriarch – Madhu Jain – Impeccably turned out in her white, embroidered organdy saris, pearl strings and well-coiffed hair, she was a picture of poise to the outside world, no matter how difficult things might have been at home….Raj Kapoor once famously said that he was happy with his Ambassador car; the Mercedes was for his wife. Just as he equally famously and not very generously said that his wife was the mother of his children and Nargis was the mother of his films.
Krishnaji, very richly, was profusely eulogized in the front-line press and media: Here are just two links: Krishna Raj Kapoor passes away at 87; remembering her unique love story with RK and Krishna Raj Kapoor: A Life In Pictures
And, now, we take up the tributes in October, 2018:
Annapurna Devi – The Pink Star Lost To The World –was born as Roshanara Khan, she was one of the daughters (the other 2 being – Jahanara and Sharija and brother Ustad Ali Akbar Khan) of Ustad Alauddin Khan. She was maestro of classical vocal music, Sitar, and Surbahar. She herself created musicians like Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur, Nikhil Banerjee, Amit Roy, Basant Kabra and many more who were her students. Her music remained hidden to the world.
The Faint Echoes of the October Revolution: A Centenary of the Capricious Philosophy in the Socio-political life! – The (Guest) author, Shalan Lal, has very deftly woven the history of the October (Russian) Revolution with the fall out effect on Hindi Films in the process of commemorating the completion of 101st year of the Revolution.
Dina Pathak – The Multifaceted Doyenne Of Hindi Cinema – was arguably the Doyen of character roles in Indian Cinema, who has performed the most powerful and graceful character roles in Indian Cinema, starting from late 60s to early 2000s. Har Din To Bita Sham Hui (Kitaab, 1977; R D Burman; Gulzar) is probably the only solo song picturized on her, with a soothing voice of Raajkumari
Manto, movie buffs, time machines in Nandita Das’s Manto – which intersperses vignettes from Saadat Hasan Manto’s life with scenes from his short stories.
Zindagi kaisi hai paheli haaye – Vijay Kumar remembering Hrishikesh Mukherjee and his Anand, on his birth anniversary on 2nd October.
Mehfil Celebrates ‘S D Burman’ Month + S D Burman – Early Days + S D Burman – The 50s is a series of posts that travereses S D Burman’s journey of the Hindi Films, in the 112th year of his month of birth.
Relishing The Combination Of S D Burman And Majrooh Sultanpuri is a treat for music lovers.
In Tandem: SD Burman – Majrooh Sultanpuri are the ‘songs picturised on Dev Anand’ and their ‘songs for other actors’ because it so happened that many of the songs on this list were picturised on the actor.
Meet the Kishore Kumar fans behind new film: ‘People are still looking for the quality of his voice’ – Kaushik Ganguly’s Bengali film ‘Kishore Kumar Junior’, starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, is dedicated to the people who have devoted their lives to the singer.
‘Main Dhoondhta Hoon Jinko Raaton Ko Khayalon Mein’ – Shiv Kumar – Hindi cinema has had many actors like Sudesh Kumar, Shailesh Kumar, Rakesh Pandey and Vikram who gained good recognition among the audience in a short time but were lost to oblivion soon after. In the list of such actors, is the name of Shiv Kumar Pathak, known to cinema goers as Shiv Kumar. He made his debut with the movie ‘Poonam Ki Raat’ in 1965 and became a star with the release of the movie Mahua in 1969, and Thokar(1974).
‘Unsung hero, Pope of sound’: A documentary resurrects legendary mixing engineer Mangesh Desai, who worked on more than 300 films over nearly four decades. – Nandini Ramnath – In The Sound Man – Mangesh Desai, Sahoo provides a comprehensive and engrossing examination of Desai’s achievements, his work ethic and his personal side. The 112-minute film is filled with anecdotes related by a huge cast of luminaries.
Shammi Kapoor – The hero who never needed a choreographer – Vijay Anand who directed him in Teesri Manzil once told that Shammi did not regard himself as a dancer, nor had he ever learnt dancing. But you played a song to him and tell him: “Go wild!” He would because he had such a tremendous sense of rhythm.
On the first death anniversary of Vinod Khanna, here is a Quiz: How much do you know about Vinod Khanna’s key roles?
‘Shakespeare Wallah’, original ‘Suspiria’ among restored classics at Mumbai Film Festival Also on the list are ‘Pixote’ and ‘Hyenas’.
The Top Sad Songs of Dev Anand are philosophical songs as well.
October, 2018 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs is dedicated to Shankar- (Jaikishan) and Shailendra’s Songs Fading From the Memory 1949 – 1953.
The Great Composer Duo of the Golden Era of Bollywood commenced working as team from Barsaat (1949) till Jaikishan’s death in 1971. Shankar continued composing films even after that under the banner of Shankar Jaikishan.
And, now the posts on other subjects:
Women in Proper Noun Roles – In a study conducted in 2017 that scanned roughly the last 50 years and found that in Bollywood, women-centric films have risen from just 7% during 1970-1975 to a still-small 12% today.. It’s easiest for the male ego if it’s a woman-centric film but the title itself is a neutral concept. Examples are Adalat (1958), Sadhana (1958), Inteqaam (1969), Aandhi (1975) and Bazaar (1982). One step more difficult is eponymous titles of the common noun kind, like Anpadh (1962), Ardhangini (1959), and Badi Bahu (1951). In such films, the titles are named after women, but that accent remains somewhat weak. It is at the really upper end, where the title of the film is a proper noun, named after the female protagonist, which makes it hardest for the male actor. Examples of these would be films like Anuradha (1960), Purnima (1965), and Razia Sultan (1982). The post goes on list the songs, all performed by actresses in ‘Proper Noun Country’, their names finding a mention after the movie titles:
The Male Advantage – Most weather-people are men, so till recently they named hurricanes after women! With an increasingly-just society, this unkind naming has had to be given up, so that now hurricanes are named alternately, in a man-woman-man-woman way. We turn our attention to the powerful world of our cinema, where too it’s the men who have always been in the driver’s seat. However, some actors like Ashok Kumar, Balraj Sahani , Dharmendra have manfully played roles in woman-centric films. The post is about films who bear the name of a male character and the songs that the male actor who sang on the screen is named in brackets.
Introducing Food and Food Movie Month on Dustedoff is a celebration of a different type, on the occasion of World Food Day on 16th October. As part of preparing herself for this celebration, Madhulika Liddle, the author of the blog, watched as many movies she could watch on food, wrote mini reviews of films she watched, made notes on the food she cooked based on these films. So we will have four post-length courses of this fare from her…. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 discuss the dishes or meals she cooked, and the films that triggered those meals. ‘Ten of my favourite food songs’ is the very interesting list of songs not only in praise of food (and drink), but which just mention food, in some context or the other. The songs are of pre’70s period and mention food (drink) in the first two lines and / or in refrain. And of course, the drink should not be liquor, because there has been posted a daaru songs list. I have listed these songs here once again:
- Ek roz hamaari bhi daal galegi (Bandi, 1957)
- Suraj zara paas aa (Ujala, 1959)
- Tu mera jo nahin (Bheegi Raat, 1965): (With Pee cola pee cola being the refrain)
- Mera naam Abdul Rehman pistawallah main hoon Pathan (Bhai-Bhai, 1956)
- Paan khaaye saiyyaan hamaaro (Teesri Kasam, 1966)
- Chana jor garam main laaya (Naya Andaaz, 1956
- Maine kaha thha aana Sunday ko (Ustaadon ke Ustaad, 1963
- Ichak daana bichak daana (Shree 420, 1955)
- Chanda mama door ke pooye pakaayein boor ke (Vachan, 1955)
- Jaiyo jaiyo sipahiya bazaar daal meri chulhe chadhi (Nishaan, 1949)
The discussion on the post has added many more food songs.
The Audio Pole Star – The tanpura (tambura in Carnatic classical music) is a 4-string music instrument whose job it is to lend a continuous, low-humming sound to a vocalist, Modern technology is trying to dismiss it off the stage. The post lists songs that featured Taanpura on the screen.
My own taste got developed by listening to radio in 60s. However, later in the seventies, other media took over that space. So I relish Radio – My Constant Song Companion with the fond memories.
Knifing the Body – Depiction of Maiming in Cinema – Filmmakers have often relied on gore as a mode to make the audience uncomfortable with our very own physiology. Amitava Nag and Shiladitya Sarkar dig deeper into this genre.
Chehre pe khushi chha jaati hai – Lata Jagtiani – The three sides of a love triangle around a grand piano – beautiful and charming Sadhana, dapper-looking Sunil Dutt and inimitable Rajkumar – forming the backdrop of Sahir Ludhyanavi’s words, Ravi’s composition and Asha’s effusive rendition makes it really difficult to find who is the real scene-stealer here!
Iss Nadi Ko Mera Aaina – Chashme Buddoor – Reflections Of Love – Simple food, simple clothes, simple words, simple ways of expressions, simple living and of course simple cinema never fade. Even in a romantic song (singers: Haimanti Shukla, Shailendra Singh / Music – Raj Kamal / Lyics: Indi Jain) like this, Sai Paranjpe has kept the comedy quotient alive.
Story Behind The Making Of Jao Re Jogi Tum Jao Re – Amrapali in the words of film’s director, Lekh Tandon.
Naked invisible men I have known: Mr India and his forebears elaborates how old Hindi cinema dealt with the invisibility theme in its own special way.
We continue Micro View of Best songs of 1947: And the winners are? with female solo songs, wherein moved to Duets of 1947. After having covered the duets of Mukesh with other female playback singers, we have also covered duets of Mohammad Rafi, those of G M Durrani and those of ‘other male singers’ in Part I, Part II and Part III. While we continue with our micro view, SoY has published its concluding piece on duets of 1947 – Best songs of 1947: Wrap Up 3 and adjudged Humko tumhara hi aasra (Saajan, C Ramchandra) and Yahan badla wafa ka bewafai ke siwa kya hai (Jugnu, Firoz Nizami), jointly as the Best Duets for 1947.
In our tradition of ending our post with article on Mohammad Rafi or a topical song of his, I have picked up a few songs, each one of which basically has a link with the topics discussed in the present post.
Saathi Na Koi Manzil, Diya Hai Na Koi Mahefil – Bombai KA Babu (1960 ) – S D Burman – Majrooh Sultanpuri
Solah Singar Kar Ke Jo Aayi Suhag Raat .. Jalwe Tumhare Laayi Suhag Raat – Gaban (1967) – Shankar Jaikishan – Hasrat Japuri
Raahi Mil Gaye Raaho Mein, Baate Hui Nigaho Mein – Dil Deke Dekho (1959) – Usha Khanna – Majrooh Sultanpuri
Sadque Heer Tujhe Pe Hum Faqueer Sadqe – Mera Naam Joker (1970) – Shankar Jaikishan – Prem Dhawan
I earnestly seek your suggestions / inputs / criticisms so as to make our Film Blog Festival more interesting and live.
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