We have covered solo songs of two of the five principal male playback singers – G M Durrani + Talat Mahmood – for the year 1949.
Today we will listen to solo songs of Surendra as well those by ‘the other’ male playback singers, before we take two really significant players for the year – Mukesh and Mohammed Rafi.
Solo Songs of Surendra
Not so predominantly as Suraiya does on the female singer side, Surendra continues to hold the flag of singing star high enough on the male side for the current year.
Main To Hun Udaas – Kamal – S D Burman – Prem Dhawan
By now we eagerly wait for the curtains to go up for a review of songs for the particular year @ Songs of Yore. Having covered songs of 1955, 1953, 1951and 1950 in the previous years, SoY has now released, well-established, most popular, enlightening and engaging subject of opining and choosing the BEST for a given year by way of Best songs of 1949: And the winners are?.
At the very outset, I will very candidly admit that apart from some of the very well-known songs, the songs for 1949 are quite an uncharted area for me. Some of the films that are listed up in this year, we have had occasion to see them in theaters only during our college days during 1966-1971. There were a few of theaters in Ahmedabad in those days – Central or Pratap or Kalpana – that specialized in screening such films only. We would go for these films, more for their songs, and very rarely for the story or any other cinematic aspects. As such, now in the days of easier availability (on DVDs or on net) of these films and songs, the window opened by these posts is a great opportunity to specifically look for the songs and listen to them. Barring those few then and now popular songs, most of the songs I would get to listen for the first time.
Musical landmarks like Shankar Jaikishan debut film Barsat, or Naushad’s Andaz, Chandani Raat, Dillagi, Dulari or Husnlal Bhagatram’s Badi Bahen, Khemchand Prakash’s Mahal or C Ramchandra’s Patanga retain the freshness of their songs even today.
Other important musical compositions are no less noteworthy nor have lost their charm. We will enlist them here –
Roshan with Kidar Sharma’s Neki Aur Badi , Shanker Jaikishan, Hasrat Jaipuri , Shailendra, Nimmi (a.k.a. Nawab Banu), Ramanand Sagar with RK’s Barsaat , Khayyam, as Sharmaji in Parda, Sudha Malhotra in Chal raha swaraj ka jhagda in Aakhri Paigam (The Last Message) are the noteworthy debut in this year.
Mubarak begum, acted and sang first song Mohe Aane Lagi Angadayii in Aiye
Lyricists Asad Bhopali with Duniya, SH Bihari with Laadli and Anjum Jaipuri with Shaukeen also began their careers in 1949.
Fact file and Trivia have some interesting topics.
List Of Memorable Songs is a fairly representative list of films (out of a total 156 films – Source: HFGK) , music directors and known as well as less-known songs that were released in the year. I have re-compiled this list, under the title Best Songs of 1949, by adding the relevant link to YT file.
For the year under review, Special songs also cover the songs which would not fit in any conventional best list, yet they are unique in many respects, and they need to be specially remembered. In this case too, I have brought these songs on the same page with List of Memorable Songs @ Best Songs of 1949.
The stage is now set to commence our journey into the Songs of 1949. As the List of Memorable Songs and Special Songs have covered most of the well-known songs for the year, we will restrict our micro-view to in-depth listening of not-so-well-known songs. We will then combine our impressions of these songs with that we already have for the well-known ones to present our point of view in so far as
Best male playback singer Best ‘other’ female playback singer Best songs of Lata Mangeshkar Best duets Best music director
are concerned for the year 1949.
All the posts that will appear on this subject here have been tagged as Songs of 1949 @SoY.
Welcome to January, 2016 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.
We will begin our present issue with a tributes that were originally published in December, 2015. However, ours being a curative post, we will need to take such topical posts into our stride as a natural hazard for such curative exercises.
Week starting on 20th December is A Very Significant Week for Birth and Death Anniversaries. This post, though, has decided to include numbers that are less likely to appear on people’s greatest hits list – Nalini Jaywant (20 December), Vasant Desai (22 December), Noor Jehan (23 December), Mohammad Rafi (24 December), Naushad (25 December).
Naushad’s Priceless Moment: ‘Anmol Ghadi’ (1946) – Anmol Ghadi is the only link that connects up three greats. Naushad, Rafi and Noorjehan are also linked in an incredibly eerie way –Noorjehan’s death anniversary falls on December 23 (2000), Rafi was born on 24 December (1924) and Naushad’s birth anniversary falls on December 25 (1919).
Bimal Roy: The Eastern Mystic Who Made Films – Vijay Kumar explores the deeper existential layers of thoughts, views, emotions and relationships in Bimal Roy’s iconic films.. At the point of his death, he was working on two projects: Mahabharat and Maha Kumbh. In his death, the country missed out, on celluloid, what would have been the most authentic deconstruction and interpretation of the greatest epic, namely Mahabharat, and an understanding and exposition of the largest human congregation on the face of Earth, namely Maha Kumbh..
Bimal Roy’s Madhumati – Untold Stories from Behind the Scenes By Sathya Saran – Rinki Roy Bhattachaya, Bimal Roy’s daughter has written this book as almost an offering to her father’s memory. Not party to any more of the actual work on Madhumati, Rinki’s book is an account of her search for stories about the film to know how it was made and the elements that went into making it one of the masterpieces of Indian cinema.
Last Month, Sadhana drew curtains to her life. She was well remembered in the offerings of rich obituaries. One of the most telling obit came in from (I think that was from) Sanjay Leela Bhanshali – she was queen of mellow drama and not the melodrama.
Going back in time with Sadhana – “I want my fans to remember me as the Sadhana of Love In Simla, Mere Mehboob, Woh Kaun Thi and Arzoo.” – first published on Rediff.com in December 2012.
Abhi Na Jao Chhodkar… notes that it ought to be most appropriate to remember ‘one of my favourite actresses’ is to remember her ‘- frozen on screen, in all her beauty and grace, for all time’. We have picked up one of the less heard song –Ab aur na kuch bhi yaad raha – Prem Patra (1962) – Lata Mangeshkar – Salil Choudhary – Rajinder Krishan
My contribution to such songs is Aaye Re Din Sawan Ke – Gaban (1966) – Lata Mangeshakar – Shanker Jaikishan.
Peeyush Sharma in his tribute – Adieu Sadhana – recollects some of the most enchanting, lilting, melodious, memorable songs that are associated intrinsically with the gorgeous style icon Sadhana.
Subir Sen passed away in Kolkata on December 29(,2015) at a private hospital. In one of the very fitting tributes, Aah Dil Mein Hai Nayan Mein Neer Hai, skapur01 recollects that ‘in all, he sang for less than 25 (plus one unreleased) Hindi films, and the number of songs is less than 30. He also composed music for a Hindi film that apparently was released only in England, in 1970 or thereabout. The film had songs sung by Mohammed Rafi, Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhosle, besides himself. Presently, the post has presented a very rare solo song, composed by S N Tripathi, from an unreleased film, ‘Rani Chandrawati’ from the 1960s’ – Aah Dil Mein Hai Nayan Mein Neer Hai .
We have picked up a couple of less heard songs from, Best songs of the most unloved singer Mahendra Kapoor, a tribute to Mahendra Kapoor on his what would have been 82nd birth anniversary (9 January 1934 – 27 December 2008)
The interview in Beete Hue Din contains some interesting information about the Metro-Murphy Competition and Mahendra Kapoor’s career.
In Ye duniya rahe na rahe kyaa pataa, Sadanand Kamath fondly recollects some of the events in the life of O P Nayyar on his 90th birthday on 16th January, 2016. ….. One of his box office hit films – ‘Phagun’ (1958) had 11 songs. When Ustad Ameer Khan asked him as to why he had composed almost all the songs in Raag Piloo, O P Nayyar told him that he did not have the knowledge of classical raagas. It was just a coincidence that his compositions matched with Raag Piloo. In the later years, Ustad Ameer Khan told him that in “akeli hoon main piyaa aa” from ‘Sambandh’ (1969), he had used about 16 different raagas…….The blogpost also further recounts a few examples of songs where he had nicely blended the playing of the musical instruments with that of the mood of the songs.
“Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon” – Joy Mukerjee – As a hero, Joy Mukerjee appeared only in 32 films. In his last two outings – “Kahaani Phoolwati ki” and “Insaf Main Karoonga”, Joy took up the role of the villain.
Joy Mukherjee, in second lead, and Helen, in a rare break away from her ‘cabaret dancer’ roles, in Hum Hindustani (1960)
In a tribute to Raj Kapoor, we have picked up a rare photograph of the sons with the father, from Rediff archives:
26 Rare Photos of Madhubala to Remind You Why She Was Such a Goddess– Vandita Kapoor has presented photos from a 1951 shoot for Life magazine by photographer James Burke may just help her keep this title forever. By turns sultry and sweet, serious and childlike, enigmatic and completely accessible — in these photos Madhubala is thoroughly magnificent.
Helen Remixed 3 presents a nice mix of rare Helen videos and upgrades in 1080p High Definition.
Music in the house: Can you hear Noor Jehan? – by Devyani Onial – On the crowded shelves of this small room at the New Gramophone House in Chandni Chowk, perhaps the only vinyl record shop in Delhi, fading record sleeves hold gems from the past. Anuj Rajpal has an enviable stock of around 2,00,000 EP and LP vinyls and 78-RPM shellac recods.
Matinee idols – Between 2003 and 2005 – photographer Shahid Datawala received a grant from Sarai for a project on cinema and cinema-going culture in Delhi. Thus began his journey to several of the city’s decrepit single-screen theatres. –
Before the silence: Rhythm House a haven for music lovers – by Paroma Mukherjee – In the fast-changing lives of Mumbaikars, Rhythm House stood as a haven for music lovers looking to discover new genres and seek out some solitude. With its closure, the city will lose not just an institution, but also a way of life.
In our, by now a ritual, closure we revisit the recent tributes to Mohammad Rafi:
The songs that we have for the present episode, incidentally, presents quite an interesting mix – both in terms of music directors or playback singers or even the year in which these songs were first released.
Bhagwan Thavrani has remembered a wide range of the songs, with equally interesting commentary:
Mere Laadlo Tum to Fulofalo – Sant Gyanenshwar (1964) – Lata Mangeshkar – Laxmikant Pyarelal
This is a wonderful lori with wonderful words and usual Lata magic, still it’s almost forgotten…
There is a second version of this song.. in Mohammad Rafi’s voice
O Mrignayani Chnadramukhi – Rang Birangi (1983) – R D Burman
It’s a classical song by Pt. Vasantrao Deshpande with (perhaps) Arti Mukherjee…but I like the picturisation of the song and wonderful rendering by the Maestro Om Prakash and Chhaya Deviboth actors enact their “seen it all ” feelings in a deft manner and their love for each other shows…and how ! साथ जियेंगे साथ मरेंगे गाते गाते गाना.. ..lyrics is by Yogesh ( or is it Maya Govind ! )..
Saari Duniya Se Poochha – Milan (1958) – Lata Mangeshkar – Hansraj Behl
We all remember this 1958 film MILAN for that divine Lata number हाए जिया रोए, but listen to this one…it is a wonderful tune which all of you might have heard often …just trying to take it out from the shadows of more famous one….!
Jahanwale Tune Ye Kya Jindagi Di Jo Aaj Tak Hua Na – Gule Bakawali (1963) – Mohammad Rafi – Hansraj Behl – Gulshan Bawra
Immortal Rafi … Raag Darbari tune by Hansraj Behl . same Raag as in . हाए जिया रोए
Alvida Jaan-e-wafa – Benazir (1964) – Lata Mangeshkar – S D Burman
This gem is from Bimal Roy’s BENAZIR, a flop and forgotten film of the 60’s. It was directed by an unknown director Khaled. It was a Muslim social featuring Ashok Kumar, Meena Kumara, Shashi Kapoor and Tanuja among others. Music had the unique combination of Sachin Dev Burman and Shakeel Badayuni. The film had famous Rafi solo ‘ Dil Me ek Jaan-e-Tamanna Ne Jagah Pai hai ‘ and a couple of other Lata solos which are excellent yet not very popular. To me, this Lata song takes the cake. It was deleted from the film, hence only audio of the song is available. The lyric is so meaningful and a bit tragic.
Beeta Hua Ek Sawan – Shokhiyan (1951) – Lata Mangeshkar – Jamal Sen, as remembered by Mahesh Joshi of Rajkot
One of his melodious but lesser known song…… This song was originally created for film “Shokhiyan “of Kedar Sharma, who introduced him in film. But somehow this beautiful song was not included in that film. After the death of Jamal Sen in 1979 , Kedar Sharma utilized the same in tele film named “Pahela kadam” in 1980.
Samaa Ye Pyaar Ka Bahaar Ke Ye Mele – Baaghi Sipaahi – (1958) – Manna Dey, Asha Bhonsle – Shankar Jaikishan –
This is the 2nd of Manna Dey – Asha Bhosale duets. First one – Raat Gayi Phir Din Aata Hai – was in 1953 film – Boot Polish. Boot Polish also had triad – Thahar Jara O Jaanewale (Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle, Madhubala Zaveri). They went on to record 168 duets till 2005. As against this, Manna Dey – Lata Mangeshkar pair have recorded 106 duets.
In Four Aces and A Queen, Parag Sankla has presented less remembered songs of Geeta Dutt, by Hansraj Behl, Chitragupt, Bulo C Rani and Avinash Vyas. We have picked up one representative song of each of the music directors mentioned in the article but for which the video links were not provided
Do Roz Ka Jalwaa Hain, Dikhane Ke Liye Hain – Rajput (1951) – Geeta Dutt, Hameeda Bano and Chorus – Hansraj Behl –
An all-female quawaali, indeed a rare one in so far as Geeta Dutt is concerned.
Nadiyaa Kinaare Mora Dera, Mashal Jale Saari Ratiya – Tarang (1952) –
a quartet with Mohammad Rafi, Shamshad Begum, Geeta and composer Chitragupt himself singing a few lines! Between the year 1958 and 1963, this wonderful singer and Chitragupt created as many as fifty plus songs….
Jawaniya Nigodi Sataaye, Ghoonghat Mora Khul Khul Jaaye – Darogaji (1949) – Bulo C Rani – Geeta’s voice could turn so youthful and natkhat…..
Gun Gun Gunjan Karata Bhanwara – Har Har Mahadev (1950) – Avinash Vyas – Gun Gun so creatively succeeds in recreating the humming of the wasp…
K S Bhatia and other readers have been in enriching the post My favourite ‘special’ Asha Bhosle songs by way of quite interesting add-on comments. In fact the avalanche of such songs by all the readers would call for several separate posts to do the justice. We have picked up one song here:
Aap Ki Baaten Aap Ki Kasmen Sab Jhoote – Kala Samunder (1962) – N. Dutta
Welcome to December, 2015 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.
We will begin our present issue with a post that could well have been included in our last episode –
Four Aces and A Queen – Geeta Dutt’s songs with 4 ace music directors that may be missed because of the dominance of SD Burman, Hemant Kumar, OP Nayyar in her list of hit songs. On the birth anniversary of Geeta Dutt, the Queen of Bhaav Gayaki, Parag Sankla explores her lesser heard gems from the repertoire of four music directors Hansraj Behl, Chitragupt, Bulo C Rani and Avinash Vyas.
And since we are on that very site, we certainly get more to read on Geeta Dutt:
Raj Kapoor – Musically – Raj Kapoor with different instrument in each of the song is remembered here. We have picked up the less heard song from the ones presented here.
Tera dil ka makaan– Do Ustad (1959) – Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi – OP Nayyar
C Ramchandra as Chitalkar – continuing the series on the Year of Naushad (with C Ramchandra in tandem), SoY presents the songs of CR as a singer. C Ramchandra has also sung for other music directors, such as Mir Saheb (Lal Haveli, 1944), Anil Biswas (Jwar Bhata, 1944; Veena, 1948), Husnlal-Bhagatram (Apni Chhaya, 1950), Hemant Kumar (Samrat, 1954; Lagan, 1955), Roshan (Baraati, 1954), Usha Khanna (Faisla, 1965), Laxmikant-Pyarelal (Chhaila, 1967. We have picked up some of the less heard songs:
Naushad’s gems before ‘Rattan’ (1944) – a very fine researched article that brings up the (real) vintage Naushad – Before Rattan, Naushad did over a dozen films, having over 120 songs…. The Internet (YouTube) has brought to us a large number of his early songs….. a large number of his early songs are of outstanding quality. One for one, these songs are no less melodious and enjoyable than Rattan’s.
In our last episode we had first time landed upon a couple of posts on the Silhouette, the magazine section of Learning & Creativity. It is time to catch up with some of the several interesting posts:
We have three posts by Arun Kumar Deshmukh on Atul’s Song A Day, which also throw quite an insight into the topic that is intrinsically related to the song under discussion. Even as we will listen to the songs mentioned in these posts in our next issue of Fading Memories.. Unforgettable songs (10th January, 2016), here is the brief take on each of the posts:
Incidentally, the other singers who gave playback to Kishore Kumar are Manna Dey ( 3 times), S D Batish (1), Amanat Ali (1) and Asha Bhosle (once in film Baap Re Baap-1955).
[*The video clip shows some other actor singing this song.]
Samaa ye pyaar ka bahaar ke ye mele traces the most creative period – years 1955-60 – of SJ. The author attributes the loss melody in the din of popularity in post-1960 period to the growing differences between the partners.
Aa jaa aa jaa aa jaa nadiyaa kinaare– Author Ganesh Anantharaman, in his book “Bollywood melodies” says, “Perhaps success came too early to them from the very first film, depriving them to develop a bond which comes after struggling together for success.” Over and above the support of RK, quality lyricists and singers, the strong arrangers like Sebastian D’Souza played a major role in SJ’s great success. The post has quite succinctly presented a full range of ranking arrangers of that time.
Incidentally, I have been also able to locate a very interesting clip, on the subject of ‘Conviction and Leadership: Insights from the World of Bollywood Music’, in which Ganesh Anantharaman presents his ‘evolving thoughts on what can be learnt from the world of Bollywood music about conviction and leadership.
Three versions of a song – Man Mor Machaye Shor – Ladki (1953) – Lata Mangeshkar and Geeta Dutt . The Hindi version sounds a bit different from the Tamil (by T.S. Bhagavati and M.S. Rajeshwari) and Telugu (by T.S.Bhagawati and P.Suseela) versions.
Scroll.in continues to provide a variety of posts:
Incidentally, I watched Ankahee (1985) a few days back. The film has a Tulsidas bhajan, composed by Jaidev, rendered by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi – Raghuvir Tumko Meri Laaj
Some say it was Satyajit Ray’s favourite place. Now, the dappled HMV studio complex wears a mostly deserted look. – Chandrima Pal · Fading tune – Next year, Mumbai will lose a significant piece of its musical history when Rhythm House at Kala Ghoda shuts down for good. Some 1,652 km or more away, in the dusty neighborhood of Dum Dum north of Kolkata, another icon of the country’s musical legacy awaits the inevitable. [I was a regular visitor to Mumbai’s Rhythm House from 1974 till 1979. I had also occasion to visit Rhythm House sometime in 2009, when I was in that area in a case relating to a customs case. I had purchased a couple of film CDs then.]
The Carnatic vocalist who sings Urdu blues – Hariharan has invented a whole new genre in ghazal singing – Manish Gaekwad – Hariharan’s singing career began with a ghazal. Jaidev signed him to sing for the movie Gaman (1978). Hariharan sang Ajeeb Sanehaa Mujh Par Guzar Gaya Yaro, written by poet Shahryar. Hariharan later came to create a new genre within the ghazal called Urdu Blues. He incorporated elements of jazz and blues music in the song Yeh Aaine Se (Kaash, 2000). Guitars and drums play on a slow beat alongside the sitar and sarangi moving into a noir space.
We would conclude our Blog Carnival 2015 with a post that was originally published on 31st July, 2015, but I landed up only this month. So welcome an opportune coincidence!
Mohammed Rafi: For The Record By Gajendra Nand Khanna – During my of vinyl records purchasing years in mid 70s, I had collected a fairly large collection of Mohammad Rafi’s LP records. At least so I believed till I came across this post. This collector’s collection documented here is simply mind-blowing. In one of the responses to the article, Antara very aptly comments that this article has become a reference point for many. (What) an eclectic collection of Rafi’s versatility!!!
As we continue our pursuit of the golden period of Hindi Film Music …….
Wishing you all a most fruitfully joyous and happy 2016….
We had been covering separately those unforgettable songs of the golden period of Hindi Cinema,which has receded back deep into our memories in our monthly edition of the Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music. I had been toying with idea of culling out these songs into a full-fledged post from 2016. But, I had a video clip of Mohammad Rafi’s songs on 78 RPM records that need to be documented by listing each of the songs in that anthology clip. That would have made the November, 2015 issue quite a lengthy one. Hence, this decision, to advance the launch of a separate monthly post which is dedicated exclusively to such songs.
We will publish post in this series every second Sunday of the month.
When we were being tuned in to listen to the film music, during 1960s and the very early ‘70s, radio was the most universally accessible medium where one would get to listen to the gems of songs that the lady (commercial) luck seemed to ignore. So, one would not get to listen to those songs very frequently. As a result, those Unforgettable songs easily faded from the memory.
With the rise of internet, the access to these songs has become handy enough. Our friends have been very kindly forwarding us such songs. We propose to document these unforgettable songs that have been relegated in the deep crevices of the memory. We will also add the results of our own surfing finds of such songs.
We take this opportunity to acknowledge the invaluable role of the great army of uploaders of the videos on YouTube-like-sites in making the songs easily accessible.
Ye Din Din Hai Khushi Ke, Aaja Re Aaja Saathi mere Zindagi Ke – Jab Se Tumhen Dekha Ha (1963) – Manna Dey, Suman Kalyanpur – Dattaram –
Thavrani states : A small musical piece that plays immediately in the interlude after mukhda @t 2.12 seconds and again after second Antara in the interlude @ 4.28 seconds is quite fascination one.
It’s a very small piece of may be just 10 seconds where group violins play a very small piece, which is repeated by flute and again repeated by mandolin which is immediately followed by Manna day in the first part and Suman in the last part. Please do note it carefully since it just passes within no time ! Group violins play a small note ; move away ; flute play ; move away ; mandolin play ; move away immediately ( as if respectfully ) making way for the singers ! It reminds one the drama of life where everyone has to play his small but MUST withdraw immediately (despite temptation to go on and on …) to make way for others to play their parts…
And we again have a very fascinating clip from Dattaram – Mubarak Begum combo-
Mere Aansooe Pe Na Muskara – Mere Man Mitwa (1965) – Mubarak Begum – Dattaram
That Mubarak begum song reminds of another voice…Kamal Barot.
Even in films, she sang very few solos. Most of her songs (and there are not many) are duets and dance- mujra songs with other singers.
Here are great favourites…for her metallic voice and the pain in the poetry.
Ye Haseen Taare Teri Yaad Dilaa Detey Hain – Kamal Barot – non – film song
Hum Tumhen To Kabhi Na Bhoolenge
On the birthday of Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Naresh Mankad has remembered a moving prayer, full of feelings
Tum Asha Vishwas Hamare – Subah (1982) – Lata Mangeshkar
To those who love good classical dance that does not look like artless aerobics He also reminds light-footed smooth dance, performed on screen by the ever graceful classical dancer, Waheeda Rehman with a romantic song of Mukesh sung by Raj Kapoor.
Suno Ji Suno Hamari Bhi Suno – Ek Dil Sau Afsane (1963) – Shanker Jaikishan
The bonus is Raj Kapoor displaying some really good, graceful dance actions.
Samir Dholakia remembers songs from equally forgotten music directors
Jal Ke Dil Khak Hua Ankho Se Roya Na Gaya – Parichay (1954) – Lata Mangeshkar – Shailesh and Vedpal
Sapnon ke Gaaon Mein Taaron Ki Chhaaon Mein – Raj Pratigya (1958) – Lata Mangeshkar -Sanmukh Babu Upadhyay – Lyrics-Bharat Vyas
We shall end each of our monthly episodes with songs of Mohammad Rafi.
For the present, we have
Samir Dholakia’s recommendation: Kismat Ka Likha Na Tale – Parichay (1954) –
Naresh Mankad’s recommendation: Nigahen Na Phero Chal Jaayenge Hum – Black Prince (1960)- N Dutta
Twin versions of Mohammad Rafi and Suman Kalyanpur have been combined up in this one clip.
Rare 78s of Mohammad Rafi
Since this an anthology clip, we have placed here each song separately too:
We will meet again on 2nd Sunday of the next month with more unforgettable songs that have stated slipping out of our memory….If you have such songs to share, you are most welcome…..
Welcome to October, 2015 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.
We have a fairly long list of anniversaries of the playback singers this month. But before we take them up, there is one a very unique tribute that must take the precedence over all those. So, we open our account of anniversaries for the current episode of blog carnival with –
Interestingly, we have several posts that were in fact sent in by our friends, primarily to remember a song of the particular singer or the music director, but each of the post inherently is also a commemoration of the anniversary. We will take up the underlying song separately along with other songs forwarded by our friends.
Tera Mera Pyaar Koi Aaj Kal Ki To Baat Nahin – by Mahesh Mamadapur on Usha Khanna’s 74th birthday – For some reason, Usha Khanna never received the recognition and fame that she so rightfully deserves. She is not the first, but definitely is the most successful and talented of a handful of female composers in the Hindi film industry, having composed something like about 973 songs in total.
Lo Mil Gayi Degree Pyaar Ki by skapur01 while tastefully narrating the circumstances how Mukesh got associated with this song, the post goes onto list 36 songs that Roshan composed for Mukesh.
In Phir Mohabbat Ke Pyaam Aane Lagey, skapur01 remembers Hemant Kumar on the anniversary of his passing away – 26th September – by delving way back to ‘Iraada’ (1944) – the first Hindi film for which Hemant Kumar sang playback.
October 17 would have been 60th birthday of Smita Patil, who would certainly be ranked in the history as one of the most talented artist of the (what we know as) new, post-1970s cinema. We take note of some of the posts on this occasion to pay our tribute:
If there has to be one song that can sum up the essence of Smita Patil’s acting talents, Tumhare Bine Jee Na Lage Ghar Men (Bhumika – 1977, Preeti Sagar- Vanraj Bhatia) can easily be the one.
Shammi Kapoor – In Perpetual Motion – It is not just that Shammi Kapoor didn’t know how to stand still; it is that he seemed to have an inordinate number of songs that were picturised in/on some mode of transport or the other. Last year, on this same date, the author had done a post on Shammi Kapoor and various musical instruments. Now it is time to chronicle his trysts with travel, whether in vehicles or on animals. In any case, whether they moved or not, Shammi definitely did.
We now move over to other posts from our regular blogs –
Arre kahaan chali – Arun Kumar Deshmukh – Film Jaalsaaz-59 was the first of three films with the same title. The second movie by this title came in 1969 and the third in 2000. Similarly even film Jaal was made 3 times- in 52, 67 and 86.
Unvoiced Emotions, Expressed Feelings has ten songs that fitted this category. Each song listed here has the lead characters’ ‘feel’ what they feel, and those emotions are ‘spelled’ out by others’ voices, even if the underlying mood is not similar (and in fact, is quite the opposite) in some cases. No, these are not ‘background songs’, but songs that are actually sung on screen by other characters.
Ten of my favourite ‘credits songs’ – are not necessarily ‘background songs’ as well: some of them are ‘sung’ by people onscreen. They run the gamut from songs that introduce the film’s ethos or primary theme, to—well, just another song to add to a list of romantic to philosophical to patriotic songs the film already boasts of..
All USTADJIs, who made us happy and will continue to make happy in all our coming generations.
After the overview post on the Best songs of 1950, Wrap Up 1 on the best male solos, and Wrap Up 2 on the best female solos by ‘other’ singers have been the stage wise review of the readers’ views as well as SoY’s own analysis. . Continuing the series, here is the third Wrap Up on the best songs of Lata Mangeshkar – Best songs of 1950: Wrap Up 3
We take of note of the review of Mem Didi (1961) for Salil Chaudhary’s songs –
Bhoola Do Zindagi Ke Gham – Lata Mangeshkar – typical illustration of Salil Chaudhary’s choral orchestration
Beta Wah Wah – Lata Mangeshkar – A dog joining in a virtual duet
Ajab hai yeh duniya – Naya Aadmi (1956) – Lata Mangeshkar – Madan Mohan. Naya Aadmi, Hindi version of Santosham (1955), had 10 songs. 6 of them were composed by Madan Mohan and the rest by South Indian duo of Vishwanathan / Ramamurthy . Hemant Kumar – Lata Mangeshkar duet – laut gaya gham ka zamana – was the creation of the duo. They also created Lata solo – dile betaab thahar – while Madan Mohan created Rafi solo – gharibo ka paseena bah raha hai . The film had NT Rama Rao (NTR) had in the lead.
We will devote our present episode to exploring this technique in details. As can be expected, subject has a vast array of reference materials in the form of articles, papers, books and other multimedia contents. Even a brief glance through these would quite a heavy task, so we will refer to the hyperlinks of the referred contents in order to remain light on this episode.
We will first take up a few of the articles that provide the introduction to the subject:
Here are some more articles that discuss the concept from different perspectives:
Uniform Maker Sews Up Success With Scorecard (PDF, 160 KB) Clothing manufacturer institutes a balanced scorecard to cut out inefficiencies and iron out problems at its facilities.
The more we search, more will find resources – books, papers, software. What we have listed is at best a few samples on the subject. Measurement of the continual improvement will find as many variants as required by the as differing needs of differing circumstances, performed by the people with as many differing backgrounds. Obviously, we cannot cover all such variants in a single episode of our blog carnival. The ultimate message is that measurement and improvement both have to be integral part of the operations as well strategy.
We would continue our onward journey of the process of improvement for one more month, and then conclude the series.
The current month episodes of ASQ TV mainly relate to the revision in ISO 9001: 2015. We plan to take up this subject for an in-depth study in our December, 2015 episode. Therefore, we have gone back a little more and chosen Thinking Creatively and the related QP story for current month’s view.
Dr. Suresh Gettala is a regional director at ASQ India. He holds a doctorate in quality management from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, and is also a recipient of the renowned post-doctoral fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. He is a seasoned quality expert with a unique blend of academic/research as well as industry experience spanning several years in various aspects of quality management across multiple industries. He has published many research articles in reputed, peer-reviewed international journals. Suresh blogs on LinkedIn.
I look forward to your active participation in enriching the blog carnival as we pursue our Improvement journey …………
It is time to sum up the series, by way ofMYchoice of theTOP 10 songs in each category.
My Favorite Female Solos for the Year 1950
In so far as Female playback singers are concerned, songs by Lata Mangeshkar almost equal other playback singers put together, within this universe of 152 “memorable songs”. So, in terms of numbers, one may conclude that Lata’s single-handed share of around 50% has established he dominance in the field. I would take this conclusion with a pinch of salt. Some of the music directors who were to take her on completely in the later years, Madan Mohan, Roshan, S D Burman, Naushad have none to a few songs with Lata in this year. In fact only C Ramchandra, Husnlal Bhagatram and Ghulam Mohammad seem to have accepted her in totality. Anil Bisaws, too, continues to repose his faith in her. So her acceptance is not as universal as it happened during the later years.
Also, apart from the numbers, when one looks at the list of memorable songs, there are many songs by other female singers which stand out on popularity, then and in later years, as well as the merits of the composition in comparison to the songs that stand out from Lata’s stable.
Asha Bhosle’s presence is seen during the year, but there does not appear to be any song that can measure up to Memorable category.
As a matter of fact, even as Lata Mangeshkar corners a fairly significant score in this list, I still would not pick up any one of the songs from these as The Best Female Solo Song of 1950 or any singer as the Best Female Playback Singer of 1950 !! .
In my view, the tie truly represents the real scenario in so far as 1950 is concerned.
And now, My Favorite Male Solos for the Year 1950, (in no particular order) :
aya, Bim
al Roy’s daughter has written this book as almost an offering to her father’s memory. Not party to any more of the actual work on Madhumati, Rinki’s book is an account of her search for stories about the film to know how it was made and the elements that went into making it one of the masterpieces of Indian cinema.
obituaries. One of the most telling obit came in from (I think that was from) Sanjay Leela Bhanshali – she was queen of mellow drama and not the melodrama.
says, “Perhaps success came too early to them from the very first film, depriving them to develop a bond which comes after struggling together for success.” Over and above the support of RK, quality lyricists and singers, the strong arrangers like Sebastian D’Souza played a major role in SJ’s great success. The post has quite succinctly presented a full range of ranking arrangers of that time.
The world is too small? or Is it? 