Khursheed’s presence is in only one film in 1946, but that still provides enough evidence of her versatility. Ram Ganguly’s composition present a mix of typical vitage era styles of orchestarion and singing, which suits Khursheed’s vocal cords.
Ban Mein Kali Koyal Boli Mere Man Ki Duniya Doli – Maharana Pratap – Ram Ganguli – Swami Ramanand
Pagle Man Tu Ro Ro Kise Sunae – Maharana Pratap – Ram Ganguli – Swami Ramanand
Solo Songs of Kanan Devi
Kanan Devi appears in two quite opposite themed films, with Kamal Dasgupta as the common music director. As a result, we get to listen Kana Devi a=in a variety of tones.
Aaj Hui Hai Bhor Suhani Pahali Baar – Arabian Nights – Kamal Dasgupta – Faiyyaz Hashmi
HFGK does not mention singer for this song.
Koi Chale Kanto Pey – Arabian Nights – Kamal Dasgupta – Faiyyaz Hashmi
HFGK does not mention this song.
Kali Kisi Ki Muhabbat Mein Muskarati Hai – Arabian Nights – Kamal Dasgupta – Faiyyaz Hashmi
HFGK does not mention singer for this song.
Mujhe Sapane Se Kaun Jagaye – Arabian Nights – Kamal Dasgupta – Faiyyaz Hashmi
Main Dilwalo Ki Zindagi Hoon – Arabian Nights – Kamal Dasgupta – Faiyyaz Hashmi
HFGK does not mention singer for this song.
Amrut Ke Barsaiya More – Krishna Leela – Kamal Dasgupta –
Chanda Door Gagan Mein Bulaye Aur Chakori Na PahuNch Paaye – Krishna Leela – Kamal Dasgupta
More Janam Janam Ke Saathi Tum Ho Apane – Krishna Leela – Kamal Dasgupta – Faiyyaz Hashmi
Sawan Ki Rani Ayi Zulan Mein Liye Khushiyan – Krishna Leela – Kamal Dasgupta Faiyyaz Hashmi
Tera Ghar Man Mera – Krishna Leela – Kamal Dasgupta
We will take up Micro View of Solo Songs of Naseem Akhtar and Paro Devi for the year 1946 in our next episode.
This is the last possible year when we can have Hindi (Bollywood) solos songs of these three classic vintage era female singer icons in a year, simply because Noor Jehan was to then migrate to Pakistan. Also, it was this year that Lata Mangeshkar has debuted as a playback singers for Hindi films. Lata went on to totally dominate the female playback singing scene by the turn of the decade, and has almost single-handedly scripted the history of Hindi film music. When all these characters have now been consigned to ‘have been’s, we are left with only question to continue to ponder over: What would have been the character of Hindi film songs had Noor Jehan not migrated to Pakistan?
At the cost of making the post a little linger, we have covered solo songs of these singers in one post, thereby according them a very special status.
Khursheed
Main Khoj Khoj Kar Haari, Prabhuji Aai Sharan Tihari – Aage Badho – Sudheer Phadake – Amar Varma
O Jhoom Jhoom Raha Hai Mera Man Dekho Jhoom Raha – Aage Badho – Sudheer Phadake – Amar Varma
Yah Duniya Pyari Pyari Re Wah Nai Nirali Duniya – Aage Badho – Sudheer Phadake – Amar Varma
Rut Basant Ki Aai – Angoorbala – Ram Gopal – Mr. Shyam
Jis Ke Milane Ki Tamanna Thi Wo Pyar Mil Gaya – Manjhdhar – Ghulam Haider – Shams Lakhanavi
Welcome to April, 2017 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.
The first day of April is to make fun. We have picked up a topical post to commence our present episode:
Some unique good good songs is an excellent presentation of songs that repeat words, so typical spoken style of Hindi language, e.g.
Do naina tumhare pyare pyare – Shrimatiji (1952)- Hemant Kumar and Geeta Dutt – S Mohinder – Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
We will now take up the posts on the anniversaries or eulogies:
Then and now: How a ’40s movie star dealt with a bad marriage and prying eyes -Kanan Devi broke off her short-lived marriage to Ashok Maitra after he objected to her career, thereby proving herself to be a truly independent spirit. – an excerpt with permission from Kanan Devi The First Superstar of Indian Cinema, Mekhala Sengupta, HarperCollins India.
Shamshad Begum with 3G, i.e. music directors Ghulam Haider, Ghulam Mohammad and Pt. Govind Ram,is a tribute to her on her 98th birth anniversary. The previous articles on Shamshad Begum @ SoY are available @ the tag Shamshad Begum.
The bit about Parveen Babi that you won’t find in the UG Krishnamurti biography – An outtake from the graphic novel by Nicolas C Grey and James Farley imagines the actress’s encounters with the philosopher. – Depicted here are the panels, which were not used in the final publication, the authors imagine the moment when Babi became a Krishnamurti follower – Reproduced with permission from This Dog Barking: The Strange Story of UG Krishnamurti, Nicolas C Grey and James Farley, HarperCollins India.
PK Nair was a collector, a cinephile, a historian, an archivist, an evangelist, a teacher and a student of cinema
archivist and ‘Celluloid Man’ PK Nair’s last wish was that his personal collection of books, journals and diaries be handed over the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) to preserve after he passes on. Yesterday’s Films for Tomorrow was released recently in Mumbai to commemorate P K Nair’s 84th birthday.
Antara Nanda Mondalnotes that this book is a remembrance of a person who was obsessed with not just the stories that cinema told, but with all its facets — the form, function and the ephemera of the moving image.
After a successful career in the Indian Foreign Service and the United Nations, Pran Nevile turned to writing specializing in the study of Indian art and culture. His other books include Lahore – A sentimental Journey; The Raj Revisited; Love Stories from the Raj; Rare Glimpses of the Raj; Stories from the Raj – Sahibs, Memsahibs and Others; Beyond the Veil – Indian Women in the Raj and Marvels of Indian Painting: Rise and Demise of Company School.
In a conversation with Sundeep Pahwa in his Gurgaon home, Pran Nevile responds to a series of questions on K L Saigal drawn up by Peeyush Sharma and Sundeep Pahwa.
The April 2017 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs was dedicated to Hasrat Jaipuri, recalling his songs for music directors other than Shanker Jaikishan. This post has covered songs from the beginning of his career till 1953.
Here are posts on other subjects as well:
Ten of my favourite ‘not-quite-duet’ songs are ‘technically duets’: not songs in which both singers play an equal part in making the song what it is, but in which the ratio is somewhat skewed or in which one singer only hummed, while the other did the singing. E.g. Phir aane lagaa yaad wohi (Yeh Dil Kisko Doon, 1963): Interestingly, Yeh Dil Kisko Doon featured not one, but two, songs that were sung primarily by a man but had a woman pitching in occasionally to add another dimension to the song. In Kitni haseen ho tum, Asha Bhonsle sings half a line here, half a line there while Rafi sings the rest of the song. In Phir aane lagaa yaad wohi, however, the female singer (in this case, Usha Khanna) has even less to sing: all she sings is three words, repeated at intervals through the song: Pyaar ka aalam, while Rafi sings the rest of the song. It works very well in this dreamy dream sequence.
Here is a belated posting: Enchanting Salil Chowdhary – Listen to 18 songs from Salil Chowdhary by clicking the link below. These songs are from the 1950s to early 70s and many of them feature brisk movements among notes and wonderful arrangements to create an enchanting experience: LINK TO PLAYLIST OF SALIL CHOWDHARY SONGS
Meethe Bol Bole, Bole Paayaliya – A Sparkling Jugalbandi of Music and Dance – Meethe bol bole in Kinara is a beautiful sangam of classical excellence brought together by three maestros – the music of RD Burman, the lyrics and direction of Gulzar and the Kathak Nritya choreography of Gopi Krishna. Anand Desai and Antara Nanda Mondal explore the layers of musical delights and dance pieces hidden within this sparkling gem from Kinara, sung by Bhupinder Singh and Lata Mangeshkar.
We end our present episode with Dual Versions of the Same Song by Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar – Sharada Iyer has presented 21 such songs with a small note for each song. I have picked up Mohammad Rafi’s version of Agar Bewafaa Tujhko Pehchaan Jaate…from an unheard film, Raat Ke Andere Mein (1969). The song is written and composed by Prem Dhawan
I trust you will always feel free to proffer your suggestions for making this series of posts more lively and informative….
Welcome to April, 2016 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.
We will commence our present episode with My Favorites: Songs of Spring. The only restrictions placed in the selection of the songs were that the lyrics should actually mention the word ‘Spring’ in any of its synonyms – Bahaar. Basant. Vasant- and that the picturisation should show some signs of the season, even if it only means that the song is picturised outside. This is why Aaya basant hai aaya from Subhadraharan (1964) or Dekho mausam kya bahaar hai from Opera House (1961) do not make it to the list. It’s also why Ketki gulaab juhi (Basant Bahar / 1956) is missing from this list, even though the lyrics describe the season so well. Here are some of the less heard songs from this list –
Before she met with a freak accident in 1942, Lalita Pawar- born Amba Laxman Rao Sagun on 18 April 1916 – used to play the lead roles.
We have one song from a 1938 film. The clip does not have the original soundtrack with video, but the video uploader, Shalin Bhatt has filled in the gap with some rare images of Lalita Pawar
The Swar Kokila Kanan Devi – A tribute to Kanan Devi (22 April 1916 to 17 July 1992) on her birth centenary – Here is pip into her well-known and not-so-well-known songs –
Shamshad Begum’s songs by OP Nayyar is a tribute to Shamshad Begum (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013) on her 97th birth anniversary. The back-to-back posts on Shamshad Begum’s songs by Naushad and C Ramchandra last year there was inevitably a reference to OP Nayyar as he is the third member of the trinity which made the greatest contribution to her. To this list we can expect Hansraj Behl in the future who has77 Hindi songs (solos and duets), and 50 songs from Punjabi films. Shamshad Begum’s songs by SD Burman had been presented under the title East meets West. Here are some of the less heard ones –
‘Jo Bhi Ho Tum Khuda Ki Kasam, Lajawab Ho’: Remembering Shakeel Badayuni By Peeyush Sharma – One rare feat (for those times) that gets associated with Shakeel is his hat-trick of Filmfare Best Lyricist Awards in the years 1961, 1962 and 1963. Forty six years ago, on 20th April, lyricist, poet, shayar, Shakeel Badayuni breathed his last owing to diabetes related complexes. He was just 53 years old
Two of his great ghazals, rendered by Begum Akhtar
Simple melodies of Ravi would normally have dominance of santoor and flute in their orchestration. In most of the cases, the lyrics came first and the tune later. Please enjoy 24 of his lovely songs from LINK TO SIMPLE MELODIES OF RAVI.
Ten of my favourite funny songs is a list of ten songs that are actually funny, funny because of the lyrics, the rendition, the picturization—whatever (in some stellar instances, all of the above). These may not be songs that make one laugh out loud, but they are songs that always make you smile rather more widely than usual.
‘In Aradhana, Sachin Karta Gave Me My Life’s Biggest Hit’: In Conversation with Shakti Samanta By Peeyush Sharma -In this never-published-before interview, Shakti Samanta recalls the superlative and everlasting music that became the hallmark of his films.. Shakti Samanta made four films each with O P Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishen and S D Burman. With R D Burman, he did the maximum number of films – 11 in Hindi plus four more in Bengali. Three of his films were with the famous Bengali singer-composer Shyamal Mitra and two each with Ravi and Ravindra Jain.
The post has several very-well songs. I have located one which is not much heard.
Dekho Dekho Jee Balam – Bahu (1955) – Geeta Dutt, Talat Mahmood – Hemant Kumar – S H Bihari
Kite (Patang) Songs is a result of several factors that happened in the background. To us what matters is the outcome –
Meri Pyari Patang – Dillagi (1949) – Shamshad Begum, Uma Devi – Naushad
Hindi film songs in Swahili – Manish Gaekwad – Taarab, a fusion of Indian, Arabic, and African sounds popular on the Swahili coast of Southeast Africa, has a special place for Hindi film music. Traditionally sung in the Swahili language at weddings and social gatherings, Taarab songs weave several themes into the lyrics, including romance and politics…… There are over two dozen of these songs on YouTube – yet another instance of the phenomenal popularity impact of Hindi film music beyond its traditional markets.
Costumed as Laila, the youthful Nutan signs autographs for fans who visited the “Laila Majnu” set
Madhubala Goes Chinese (January, 1957) – Members of the Chinese Women’s Delegation dropped in on the sets of Om Prakash’s – whom most of us know as a veteran comedian and character actor – “Gateway of India” the day they arrived in Bombay. Madhubala welcomed them cordially and is seen chatting with two of the members.
Om Prakash entertained the Delegation to the screening of a special Chinese song-and-dance number filmed for “Gateway of India”. – Chal Mere Dil Ke Udan Khatole Udata Ja Tu Hole Hole – Mohammad Rafi – Madan Mohan- Here Madhubala, Bhagwan and a party of Chinese children dance together.
Madhubala – The Biggest Star in the World – by David Cort for Theatre Arts – August, 1952 – The actress, born Mumtaz Ataullah in Delhi in 1933, with the greatest following, in numbers and devotion, is not to be found in Hollywood, but on the opposite side of the planet — in Bombay, India.
Poster of 1951 film ‘Badal’, based on Robin Hood theme
‘Badal’ was quite successful. Most of the songs of the film also had done well. We will take up one of those for the records
We end our present episode with a posts/ articles that cover Mohammed Rafi, from a wide-ranging point of views –
When Dev Anand lent his voice to a Mohammad Rafi song –This is an article that was published on 4-12-2011 – ‘Hurray Hurray’ @0.08in the songPyar Mohabbat Ke Siwa Ye Zindagi Kya Zindagi,(Pyar Mohabbat –1966 – Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle – Shanker Jaikishan)is recorded in Dev Anand’s voice. According to some reports, Dev Anand had also lent his voice to another Rafi song from Kala Bazar (1960) – Sooraj Ki Jaise Golayi– S D Burman – by adding ‘Om dhan hai namah’ and ‘Hari dhan hari dhan’ @4.52.
An Open Letter to Rafi Demeanors – J.K. Bhagchandani – The post is a point-to-point rejoinder to the contention that Mohammed Rafi did not have natural pain in his voice for sad songs and he has to bring in sobbing effect to infuse the right impact. The author of the post strongly states that it is not only sad songs that he has provided us with different shades/ sub-genres but almost all genres of songs sung by him have that diversity factor
I look forward to receive your inputs for further enriching the contents of the posts…..
Welcome to July 2013 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.
Incidentally, we have several pairs of articles on each of the subject in this edition.
“Luck very rarely smiled on Madan Mohan in terms of hit films. He always composed great music for “B” type movies which did not do well at the box-office. The music was always heavenly. Three such examples are Anpadh (1962), Jahanara (1964) and Sharabi (1965). A great composer who deserved lot more than the single National Award he won for the composition of Dastak’s song. 14th of July was the anniversary of Madan Mohan.”# Shri Shrikant Guatam, in his regular weekly column in Janmabhoomi Pravasi’s “Madhuvan” supplement, has presented “successful songs of Madan Mohan in unsuccessful films”. Among the films he has chosen for this article, we pick up “Dulhan Ek Raat Ki”, which has been reviewed by Shri Ashok Dave @ his blog-post. (Both articles are in Gujarati.)
The outstanding Madan Mohan “Dulhan Ek Raat Ki” (1966) gems which went on to become (and are) popular with critics and fans are:
“…And Pran” (Kishan Sikand), The Villain of Hindi Screen, and an equally transformed ‘character actor’ in his second innings, agreed to call “The End”. “Dusted Off” vividly narrates Pran Saheb’s multi-faceted commanding presence on the screen in Pran: In Memoriam . We choose to remember his Dil KI Umange Hai Jawan from Munimji. In a pairing tribute, “Filmi Geek”’s Thank you, Pran saheb, and value-adding discussion thereat, also present Pran Saheb’s songs, one of which narrates a “song from “’Rahu Ketu’ (1978) , picturized on PremNath and Pran. They are singing to each other, and it is a qawwali. –Main hoon tera Prem and Main hoon tera Pran, probably one of a kind song in the Indian Film history, wherein two characters sing using their own professional a.k.a. real name.”
An now we move on to a pair of articles on [or is it “in”?] 1953 – Songs of Yore, continuing the trend initiated last year – with the songs of the year 1955, has mesmerizingly thrown the gauntlet to pick up Best songs of 1953: And the winners are?. The post has generated one of the highest numbers of discussion “comments”, wherein SoY readers have expressed views on quite a wide horizon of their choices. To which Dances on The Footpath presents us an intertwined comparison of films ‘New Delhi (1956) with ‘Dupatta’ (A 1952 Pakistani film) with reference to the character enacted by Sandhya in V. Shantaram’s film Teen Batti Char Rasta (1953), in a 2009 post. The song that epitomizes the discussion is: Akhiyan hai yeh roop ki pyasi – Lata Mangeshkar, music direction by Shivram Krishna.
Teen Batti Char Rasta has a very unique multilingual song, rendered by different singers to the music composed by different music directors. Among the languages represented therein, we would, obviously, choose, the Gujarati piece @ – 4.00, rendered by Asha Bhosle for which Avinash Vyas composed the music. Here is the ‘original’ song Chaanu Re Chhapanu Kain Thay Nahin ( You can to do dream secretly) – also rendered by Asha Bhosle on Avinash Vyas’s composition.
We have two quite unique posts, emanating from Dusted Off’s post mentioned here above – Bollywood Food Club’s Johnnie Walker in Bollywood and Apni East India Company’s Bolly Chandeliers. The former presents Johnnie Walker bottle and the latter one presents Chandeliers in our Hindi Films.
We have some excellent posts on Mohammad Rafi this month.
Ashok Dave, in his review (in Gujarati) of Baiju Bawra (1952) presents raagmala, in which Mohammad Rafi is in his elements, which has following classical music pieces:
(1) Raag Lalit: Piyu Piyu Re Karat Hai Papiha, Ab Kaho Kaise Raakhun Jiya….
(2) Raag Gaud Malhar: RoomZoom Badariya Barase, Un bin Mora Jiya Tarase
(3) Raag Puriya Dhanashri: Ajab Tori Prabhu Aan Baan Dekhi, Baag Men Ban Me Neelgagan Men, Dekhat Hun Teri Shan.
(4) Raag Bageshri: Hay Ri Ai Kaise Main Ghar Aaun Mitwa, Tumre Jiyara Baat Chalat Mose Roke Daro Thagawa
Rajiv Nair presents Relationship between Mohammed Rafi saab and Mahendra Kapoor. The post has refrences to – Mahendra Kapoor’s award – winning song @ the Metro Murphy All-India singing competition (1957): Ilaihi koi tamanna nahin, “composed by Rafi saab for the competition” and the song Mohammad Rafi called up to share with Mahendra Kapoor :“Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho (Hanste Zakhm, 1973) by composer Madan Mohan. Dad cried and so did Rafi saab, such was the melody and the mood.”
I am quite sure listening to each of the songs that present edition of this Blog Carnival is as much sheer joy, as it was to me in listening and compiling here!
Did I miss any major blog post or an article here? Do let me know, so as to widen the reach of this Blog Carnival.
the sets of Om Prakash’s – whom most of us know as a veteran comedian and character actor – “Gateway of India” the day they arrived in Bombay. Madhubala welcomed them cordially and is seen chatting with two of the members.
The world is too small? or Is it? 