Tag: Meena Kumari

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – August, 2018

Welcome to August, 2018 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Our focused topic for the month of August, 2018 is Mena Kumari’s 85th birthday on 1st August, 2018.

Google Doodle celebrates tragedienne Meena Kumari’s 85th birthday – The formidable actress in Indian cinema appeared in more than 90 movies during her career that spanned over three decades.

The Life And Death of Meena Kumari | Tabassum Talkies

The Films of Meena Kumari and Dev Anand did together are: Sanam (1951), Tamasha (1952), Baad Baan (1954) and Kinare Kinare (1963). I have selected on song from each of these films

Bedard Shikari Are Bedard Shikari – Sanam – Suraiya, Lata Mangeshkar – Husnlal Bhagatram – Qamar Jalalabadi

Thi Jinse Pal Bhar Ki Pehchan – Tamasha – Asha Bhosle – Khemchand Prakash / Manna Dey – Bharat Vyas

Dekho Chanchal Hai Mora Jiyara – Baadbaan – Asha Bhosle – Timir Baran, S K Pal – Indeevar

Har Ash Ashqbar Hai Har Saans Beqarar Hai – Kinare Kinare – Lata Mangeshkar – Jiadev – Nyay Sharma

And, now, we take up the tributes in August 2018:

The Great Sawan Songs of Bollywood – The month of Savan, 5th month in Hindu calendar, normally coincides with August. Hindi films have relished Savan in the songs.

Remembering Poet & Lyricist ‘Jan Nisar Akhtar’, whose maiden Hindi film song was Aa Jaane Wafa ( Anarkali, 1953, Geeta Dutt, Basant Prakash), but had first major commercial success was Yasmin (1955, C Ramchandra).

KHEM CHAND PRAKASH – The creator of musical gems, and the mentor of stalwarts like Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Naushad, Manna Dey and Bulo C Rani

Neel gagan ki chhaon mein – Deepa Buty relives the song from Amrapali on Vyjayanthimala’s birthday on 13 August 2018

[N.B. Deepa Buty is the founder of the site SongPedia, which has a tagline “For Music Lovers, By Muisc Lovers’. The site spots tags like Legends , Song Sketch, Collections, Startups, People, Songs, We will commence our detailed visit to this site from our next issue.]

Most Memorable Films of Vyjayantimala – Born on August 13, 1933, she was a natural performer who danced for the pope at the age of four. She started in films under MV Raman’s direction at AVM with Vazhkai/Jeevitham (1949), a bilingual film in Tamil and Telugu. The immensely popular film was later adapted as Bahar (1951).

My Favourites by Shakeel Badayuni  – the only lyricist to have scored a hat trick of Filmfare awards:

1961 – Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho – Chaudhvin Ka Chand
1962 – Husnwale Tera Jawab Nahin – Gharana
1963 – Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil – Bees Saal Baad

Two faces of Haribhai, a.k.a. Sanjeev Kumar is an effort to say some vaguely nice things about SK, by the author who is generally skeptical about the histrionics abilities of Sanjeev Kumar.

Interestingly, but certainly not having any link to the previous article, Dusted Off has chosen Nishan (1965), one of the early, B-grade Sanjeev Kumar films, for a full-fledged review this month.

The Songs of Gulzar shadow over his other roles as (originally assistant director) director and film script and dialogue writer.

in Part II, Monica Kar follows up, Musically Yours, 1963 (Part I) to pay a personal tribute to 12 music directors who created note-worthy compositions in 1963.

The Unforgettable Tunes of JAIDEV – unfortunately many of his best compositions are lost in unfinished films and albums.

The Master of Qawwali Roshan and some hidden qawwalis of Madan Mohan – In a career which had many parallels, as Roshan carved a niche in qawwaalis, Madan Mohan was known to specialize in composing the ghazals. The present post, lists the well-known Roshan qawwalis and some not so-known Madan Mohan qawwaalis.

The Great Yodeling Songs of Kishore kumar on his 89th birthday on 3rd August.

The world’s first South Indian Pathan? Why Sridevi’s accent in her Hindi films has never mattered – Edited excerpts from an upcoming biography of the actress, who would have been 55 on 13th August this year, by Lalita Iyer.  Shridevi had turned her language handicap into a quirk. Throughout her Hindi film career, she spoke Hindi with a thick, sing-song Tamil accent, and depending on whether one is a Shridevi fan or not, this could be grating or cute.

Shammi Kapoor – Who Sang his Songs from his Heart, whether they were serious pre-Tumsa Nahn Dekha songs or peppy post-Tumsa Nahin Dekha songs.

August, 2018 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs is dedicated to Shailendra’s songs composed by Roshan.

And, now the posts on other subjects:

The Great Bollywood Songs based on Folk Music – The leading composers of Bollywood films had used the folk songs in successful films and popularized them.

Musical Rhythms of the Running Train – Trains have been integral to the lives of people ever since the first train ran in 1853 in India. In Indian cinema, there are lots of songs which are picturized either on the running train or in the backdrop of the moving locomotive, snaking through the hills and the fields. Kunal Desai observes how composers have created the basic rhythm for songs which were picturized on a train or with the train as the subject. It is the story and the scene sequences, which influence the sound arrangement of any song.

Hindi Songs with ‘Anokhe Bol’ is akin to the songs that Radio Ceylonbroadcasted in it’s the tehn popular program Anokhe Bol

On the World Photography Day, The Hindi Films where Hero plays a photographer.

Ten Songs from ‘One-Song-Wonder’ Films is a list of songs that were the one major hit song in a film otherwise characterized by forgettable songs. E.g. Tum jo aao toh pyaar aa jaaye from Sakhi Robin,

Seen But Not Observed  the instrument Double Bass like Michael Caine, who got his fame “as being seen, but not being observed”. Check out Mera naam Chin Chin Choo from Howrah Bridge, 1958, and also Teen canastar peet-peet kar gala phaad kar chillaana from Love Marriage, 1959). The interesting thing is that while most significant instruments have been played by at least one major Hindi film actor on the screen, the Double Bass has the dubious distinction of never having been played by a significant actor, except for a few seconds by Kishore Kumar in Gaana na aaya.

The Great FRIENDSHIP Songs of Bollywood – Friendships have remained a popular genre in Hindi Film songs.

Live Music While You Eat – Many restaurants offer music to add to the dining experience; ghazals, popular film songs or pop, jazz, country western, etc. A book by Charles Spence of Oxford University, Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating, announces that music can make our food taste better. The posts lists songs where a person was seen singing in a restaurant. Not dancing and singing, because that becomes a story of song and dance. If the patrons themselves dance, that’s ok J

‘Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion’ – While introducing the maiden book – Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion’  –  published by Shri Arunkumar Deshmukh , co-authored by Surjeet Singh, the post has listed a few songs that link up with the subject of the book. Here is one such song:

Hath Chakra Trishul Sadashiv Alakh Jagaate Nagari Mein – Abhram Bhagat (NFS bhajan, 1940)

Book Review: Anil Zankar’s ‘Mughal-e-Azam: Legend as Epic’ (Harper Collins Publishers India, 2013; 200 pages; Rs 250) – The author,among a good many other interesting details,  mentions that of the fifteen songs originally written for the film, only twelve were finally used, he doesn’t mention that one song—Husn ki baaraat chali—was actually shot, though eventually not used in the film.

Behind the Human Curtain – As for our poetry, we put all cloaks under the simplistic umbrellas of ghunghat, parda and naqaab. While by parda we also mean a curtain separating the women from the men, the result being the same. And in this collective simplification can be found several songs from Hindi cinema.

We continue Micro View of Best songs of 1947: And the winners are? with female solo songs, wherein after having covered solo songs of Suraiya and Geeta Roy,  Shamshad Begum. Rajkumari, Amirbai Karnataki (Part I and Part II) Zohrabai Ambalewali (Part I and Part II), we have now covered Khursheed, Noor Jehan & Kanan Devi, Meena Kumar, Naseem Akhtar and Zeenat Begum in ‘other’ female singers.

In our tradition of ending our post with article on Mohammad Rafi or a topical song of his, I have picked up one SoY post, one video clip and a few songs that basically have link with the topics discussed in the present post.

Rafi’s best songs by Madan Mohan – Madan Mohan has composed nearly 168 Mohammad Rafi songs, of which quite a few have everlasting fame. I have also picked up a very rarely heard, but famously enjoyable, song from the list:

Duniya Ke Saare Ghamon Se Begana, Ho Main Hun Mastana – Mastana (1954) – Madan Mohan – Rajendra Krishna

Yeh To Kaho Kaun Ho Tum – Akeli Mat Jaiyo (1963) – with Lata Mangeshkar – Madan Mohan – Majrooh Sultanpuri

Yahan Koi Nahi Tera Mere Siwa – Dil Ek Mandir (1963 – Shanker Jaikishan – Hasrat Jaipuri

Sanjeev Kumar Speaks on Mohammed Rafi

Haye Tabassum Tera – Nishan (1965) – Usha Khanna – Javed Anwar

Chalte Chale Chalo Chalta Hua Saahil Hai Zindagi – Insaan Aur Shaitan (1970) – Usha Khanna – Asad Bhopali

Teen Taal Par Naach Budhape Bachpan Aur Jawani Ka – Ek Bul Bula Paani Ka (1970 – Jaidev – Kaifi Azmi

I earnestly seek your suggestions / inputs / criticisms so as to make our Film Blog Festival more interesting and live.

The Micro View of Best Songs of 1947 : Female Solo Songs – Other Female Singers and Lata Mangeshkar [1]

We have so far covered the solos songs of female singers like, Suraiya, Geeta Roy, Shamshad Begum, Rajkumari, Amirbai Karnataki, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Noor Jehan, Khursheed and Kanan Devi for the year 1947. These are the singers for which we had at least one post-length numbers of solo songs. There still are quite a few more female singers who may not have solos songs in the comparable numbers. We have combined all these female singers in this post that may run into several parts. To the extent possible, we have sub-classified the collection according to a particular singer.

In her maiden year as a playback singer, Lata Mangeshkar also gets a small place in this post. But that remains to be the solitary case. From 1948 onwards, our micro-view analyses had to be run in two streams – one that of solos songs of Lata Mangeshkar and the other that of all other female singers. Lata Mangeshkar dominance was seen spreading its omnipresent shadow over the female playback scenario over each of the passin year.

Meena Kumari

Meena Kumari, like many of the actresses of that period seemed to try a hand at singing her own songs. She was so very young, that probably she did not possibly have a choice of not saying no to playback sing her own songs.

Meena Kumari, as is well-known stepped in the Hindi Films as a child artist, and did sing a few sing in that role. This is said to be the maiden song of hers:

Tore Kajra Lagaoon Mori Rani -Ssister (1941) – Beena, Baby Meena Kumari – Anil Biswas – Safdar ‘Aah’

We had had a couple of songs in the year 1948 too.

We do not have the luxury of debating whther she would have turned out to be another actress-singer of note or would have been swept aside, like Suraiya, in the subsequent Lata-tusnami, since she clearly adopted the role of an actress there after.

1947 is the year when very young Meena Kumari steps into major roles and gets to sing her screen songs.

Maa Dekh Ri Maa, Badali Hui Jawan – Duniya Ek Sarai – Hans Raj Behl – Kedar Sharma

Sawan Beet Gayo Maai Ri, Nahi Likhi Balam Ne Chithhiya – Duniya Ek Sarai – Hans Raj Behl – Kedar Sharma

Akhiyan Taras Rahi Un Bin – Piya Ghar Aaja – Bulo C Rani – Pt. Indra

Ek Baar Phir Kaho Jara Aankhon Ka Noor Ho – Piya Ghar Aaja – Bulo C Rani – Pt. Indra

 

These are the songs for which I have not been able to locate the YT link:

  • Na Koi Dilasa Hai, Na Koi Bahana Hai – Piya Ghar Aaja – Bulo C Rani – Pt. Indra
  • Mili Aaj Piya Se Akhiyan – Piya Ghar Aaja – Bulo C Rani – Pt. Indra
  • Mere Sapno Ki Duniya Basanewale– Piya Ghar Aaja – Bulo C Rani – Pt. Indra
  • Desh Paraye Jaanewale Bhul Na Jaan Preet Nibhana – Piya Ghar Aaja – Bulo C Rani – Pt. Indra

Naseem Aktar

To those who have fair knowledge of the history of the vintage era of Hind Films, Naseem Akhtar was not an unknown name. I do not have sufficient knowledge about her career. However, her solo songs for 1947 are worth listening to.

Jaam Utha Le O Peenwale Jaam Utha Le – Aaj Aur Kal – Khursheed Anwar

Kaliyon Ko Masalane Aaye Hai – Aaj Aur Kal – Khursheed Anwar

Hai Jo Khizan Naseeb Mein, Aayegi Phir Bahar Kya – Bhanwar – Khan Mastana –

Bhule Se Kabhi Yad Kar Ae Bhulanewale – Ek Roz – Shyam Sundar – Sarshar Sailani

Our quest for solo songs of other Female Singers and Lata Mangeshkar for the year 1947 will continue in the next episode as well.

The Micro View of the Songs of 1948 @ SoY – Female Solo Songs – Other Female Singers

We have so far covered Suraiya, Geeta Roy, Shamshad Begum, Raajkumari and Surinder Kaur in our Micro-View of Female Solo Songs of 1948. These are the female playback singers who had fairly extended tenure during the (so-called) Golden Era of the HFM – the period from’50s till ’60s (or some cover even mid’70s.).

We have observed that even as these singers had quite a remarkable quantitative share of the songs, the songs which did remain well-known even in the Golden Period were really very few.

With this disclaimer of my personal bias, I decided to curtail songs of other female playback singers into one post. Hence, I have chosen one song of these ‘other’ female singer each. Even the, the list is fairly large. Most of these singers have had three to more than 10 songs in their account of 1948. So collectively they form what statisticians would call a very dominant tail of normal distribution curve.

Ameerbaii Karnataki – Taqdeer Ne Hansa Ke Hamein Phir Ruladiya – Shehnaz – Ameerbai Karnataki – Dukhi Premnagari

Dilshad Begum – Jawani Pukare Jivan Ke Sathi – Birhan – Lachchhi Ram –

Hameeda Bano – Koochch Bhi Na Kaha Ho.. Aur Keh Bhi Gaye – Parai Aag – Ghulam Mohammad – Tanveer Naqvi

Husn Bano – Pee Ansoo Pee, Aahein Bhar Ji – Pardesi Mehman – Hansraj Behl – Pandit Indra

Johrabai Ambalewali – Bus Mein Kar Ke Wo Bas Kar Gaye – Padmini – Ghulam Haider – Tanveer Naqvi

Khursheed – Pacchataynge Jo Hamein Barbad Karenge – Aap Biti – Hari Bhai – Hasrat Lakhanavi

Lalita Deulkar – Jai Bolo Mahatma Gandhi Ki – Khidki – C Ramchandra – P L Santoshi

Meena Kapoor – Boot Polish Karwa Le Babu Boot Ploish Karwa Le – Ghar Ki Izzat – Pt. Govindram – Ishwar Chandra Kapoor

Meena Kumari – Aata Hai Dil Mein Pyar Kyon Chhede Hai Bar Bar Kyon – Bichchade Balam – Bulo C Rani – Narendra Sharma

Munnavar Sultana – Mera Nanha Balam Na Bole – Patjhad – Ghulam Haider – D N Madhok

Parvez Kapadia – Hum To Motor Khareed Ke Le Aayenge – Hum Bhi Insaan Hai – H P Das + Manna Dey – G S Nepali

Sulochana Kadam – Jahan Koi Na Ho Wahan Chalenge Hum – Lal Dupatta – Gyan Dutt – D N Madhok

Sitara (Kanpuri) – Dil Ki Jaban Par Aaye To Kya Karoon – Pugree – Ghulam Mohammad – Shakeel Badayuni

Uma Devi – Kahi Jiya Dole Ho Ho Kaha Nahi Jaaye – Anokhi Ada – Naushad – Shakeel Badayuni

Mrs. Vishnilal – Kisi Tarah Dil Hi Na Jab Chain Paaye – Anjuman – Bulo C Rani – Majrooh Sultanpuri

It may also please be noted that I have not included those female singers who, to the best of my knowledge, did sing some songs in 1948, but that was in the capacity of an actress in the respective film.

In the next episodes(s) we will take up solo songs of Lata Mangeshkar for Micro-View of Songs of 1948

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – August, 2017

Welcome to August, 2017 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

We have three posts for our present episode that befit the season:

Beyond ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’, the film songs that dare to step out of line when things go off-key – Rather than pop patriotism tunes, it’s the songs about dissent and debate that resonate as India turns 70 – Rineeta Naik recalls the anti-nationals in Hindi films who stepped out of line and reminded us of the times when things went off-key… The songs presented here convey a poet’s despair over social and moral decay, the agony of a man unfairly marked as a traitor, and the exuberant cynicism of city-dwellers who discovered that “sone ki chidiya” rhymes nicely with malaria.

Celebrate the monsoon with this performance of raag Mia ki Malhar by Amir Khan – Malhar raags are prescribed for the rainy season. – Aneesh Pradhan – Amir Khan’s presentation of Mia ki Malhar, a raag considered to have been created by the 16th-century vocalist and composer Mia Tansen, has always been considered by musicians and aficionados as one of the most iconic interpretations of the raag. The recording featured here was made for the All India Radio National Programme of Music in 1958, but it continues to haunt listeners to this day.

Rainy Days has captured songs picturised in the rain, let it be for a part of the song or the entire length, from drizzle to showers! The song may not be about the rain itself.

We will first take up the posts on Meena Kumari in our regular anniversaries or eulogies posts:

Meena Kumari: An enigma – DP Rangan pays a very touching and vivid tribute to Meena Kumari on her 85th birth anniversary (1 August 1932 – 31 March 1972).

Gaddeswaroop’s Blog has added two songs in Meena Kumari singing for herself in 1947

Ankhiyan Taras Rahin Un Bin – Piya Ghar Aaja (1947) – Bulo C Rani – Pt. Indra

Sawan Beet Gayo Mai Ri – Duniya Ek Sarai (1947) – Hansraj Behl – Kidar Sharma

We also take a look at the life of Meena Kumari in Meena Kumari Biography by Javed Akhtar. The Enigma Called Tragedy Queen Meena Kumari Part 1 ǁ Part 2 ǁ Part 3; Virasat – Meena Kumari Part 1 of 2 ǁ Part 2 of 2 and the 20 Rare Pictures of Meena Kumarisupplement good deal of interesting aspects on the subject

We have chosen to take a Retrospective look to revisit:

‘No One Quite Like Her –  The Inimitable Meena Kumari’ – “Good looks, great talent and unhappiness. Perhaps no other star combined all three in such a heady brew as Meena Kumari did.” Sathya Saran writes about how the iconic actress carved out an inimitable niche for herself, had held sway over her audiences for two decades and continues to fascinate her fans to this day….. Nothing added as much to the legend of Meena Kumari as her liviing of it. For many it seemed the natural culmination to a life of suffering. To be abandoned and exploited, and left without money after earning  sums that were beyond the reach of lesser stars, and die sick in heart and body is a tale that cannot fail to touch anyone who hears it.

The Legend That Was Meena Kumari in which Antara Nanda Mondal poignantly notes that pain and anguish was part of her life and she brought them to the fore in her performances that became iconic.

At a film premiere – Talat Mahmood with Meena Kumari, Usha Kiran, music director Madan Mohan and other guests

Meena Kumari – Interview (1952). This is an interview when Meena Kumari was on the verge completing two significant and much talked-about films, “Footpath” and “Baiju Bawra”, in which she had played the feminine lead.

Remembering singer Parul Ghosh, one of Hindi cinema’s quietest trailblazers – Wife of an illustrious husband, sister of a famous brother, Parul Ghosh made indelible contributions to music. Rudradeep Bhattacharjee pays tribute on her fortieth death anniversary.

All these years later, nobody exudes flamboyance like Shammi Kapoor – On the Hindi film star’s death anniversary, a reminder of his irresistible exuberance. Akshay Manwani states that In his book on dancing star and rebel hero, Shammi Kapoor: The Game Changer, journalist and film critic Rauf Ahmed gives readers a view of Kapoor’s ascent into stardom.

70mm Man: C Mohan, who designed the logo for ‘Sholay’ and other classics – Ramesh Sippy’s landmark film was released this week 42 years ago. Its designer was one of the leading exponents of Bollywoood Expressionism.

And Happy Birthday to Another Big Reason I Got Drawn Into Hindi Films, that of Vyjayanthimala, who just happens to be celebrating her birthday as this post was in the writing. There is one more post on Vaijayantimala’s birthday – Seven Dances for Vyjayanthimala’s Birthday  – posted seven years ago. This post has video clips of some of her lesser known dance songs,

Of the Ten of my favourite Mumtaz songs, presented in celebration of the 70th birthday on 31sy July, I have picked up O matwaare saajna chhalak gaya mera pyaar (Faulad, 1963) as my own offering to the celebration.

The August 2017 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs was dedicated to Shailendra and “Other” Music Directors

Here are posts on other subjects as well:

‘The first duo Husnlal-Bhagatram (2): Their songs for ‘other’ singers’ is a follow up post to The first duo Husnlal-Bhagatram (1): Their songs for Suraiya, Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi, SoY recounts the memorable meeting with 90-year-old Nirmala Devi, wife of Pt. Husnlal.

Gulzar’s 1988 movie ‘Libaas’ to be finally released later this year -Zee Classic and Amul Mohan, the son of the producer Vikas Mohan, will release the film.

Subodh Agrwal has taken up a very difficult subject of Asymmetric Duets. He has further tightened the rules by taking up the duets in which the rhythm and the tune do diverge and yet complement each other too. SoY readers have chipped in a very large number of such interesting songs.

In our series Micro View of Best Songs 1948 @SoY of Best songs of 1948: And the winners are?, we have conclude the sub-series of Male Solo Songs with My Top Male Solo Songs and commenced the series of posts on Female Solo Songs with 21-solo-songs of Suraiya, following up with the first part and second part  of the solo songs of Geeta Dutt.

We will end the present post with a chance Mohammad Rafi song that an e-mail from my friend Samir Dholakia presented me.

De De Mori Mundari – Sat Saaliyaan (Punjabi) 1964 – S.Madan- Naqsh Lyallpuri – Mohd.Rafi

Note: In the song @4.28 a reference to other well-known songs – Akhiyan Sakhi Akhiyan Lagi and Ek Chatur Naar- is made as a parody

The song merited some more searches that led to a full-fledged parody song as well from the same film:

Bahut Shukriya Badi Meharbaani

Not to be satisfied now, I search more, and get two beautiful duets with Suman Kalyanpur:

Sohniye Tu Na Modi Munh

Kehdi Gallon Russiyan Ne

and a signature Rafi song

Sat Saaliyaan – Oye Sohna Jeha Mukhda

BTW, the music director S Madan is known to us for his far more famous and melodious duet with Asha Bhosle:

Ye Raat Ye Fizaain Phir Aain Naa Aaye – Batwara –Majrooh Sultanpuri

Batwara too had one signature Rafi song:

Yeh Kaisi Deewar Hai Duniya 

I trust you will always feel free to proffer your suggestions for making this series of posts more lively and informative….

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – April 2015

Welcome to April, 2015 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Come 1st April and rest assured that SoY will come up with something brilliant. For the present, Some thoughts on taxonomic-mathematical analysis of Hindi films and songs has a fairly lashing tongue in the cheek, but that would not take away the merits of three core ideas – viz. Duet Balance Index (DBI) – ‘Duets that are really solos’, Popularity-Quality Index (PQI) – Popularity versus quality and Mathematical Analysis of Bollywood Triangles and Other Films presented therein.

We turn our sails to our regular fair –

Shamshad Begum songs by Naushad – SoY’s tribute to Shamshad Begum on her 96th birth anniversary (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013). Shamshad Begum’s entry is credited to Ghulam Haider. Nonetheless she sang with same élan with most of the music directors of the vintage era. When Naushad used her voice first time in Shahjehan (1946) , Shamshad Begum was already at her peak. As she went on to sing a wide range of moods and scales in around 60 songs with Naushad, her portfolio was concurrently getting richer with other music directors like C Ramchandra, S D Burman, Ghulam Mohammad and others. She blazed a scorching trail with O P Nayyar. It remains a very typical irony of the vagaries of Hindi Film Music that she was quite easily replaced with Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle by Naushad and O P Nayyar respectively in course of 50s.

SoY has picked up Shamshad Begum songs of C Ramchandra in Shamshad Begum songs by C Ramchandra as a tribute on the 2nd death anniversary of the legendary singer.” During a brief period in the late 1940s, before Lata Mangeshkar happened in a big way to C Ramchandra, Shamshad Begum was his most important singer, and he was at his creative best. The combination gave some everlasting songs, which are an important part of our musical legacy.”

We recall our April 2013 episode of our blog carnival, wherein we carried a few more articles and a downpour of obituaries on her passing away. We add a few more here:

Naushad on Shamshad Begum in an interview on BBC, shared by Raza Ali Abidi on his youtube channel.

Shamshad Begum Interview, Part 1 of 2 and 2 of 2

By selecting a range of songs form films of different time scale, Asha Parekh-A charming and talented actress provides a fan’s insight to Asha Parekh’s career graph. To this we supplement Unknown Facts About Asha Parekh.

Words by Anna Morcom on Pakeezah (with accompanying videos from Tommydan) – looks back at (main) songs as interestingly seen in the book, Illicit Worlds of Indian Dance on 43rd anniversary of Meena Kumari’s death.

We pick up two songs from My favourite Meena Kumari songs:

Uff Ye Beqaraar Dil Kahan Luta Na Poochhiye is a tribute to (Smt.) Bela Bose Sengupta on her 74th birthday on 18th April, 2015. We pick up a few of the songs listed out at the end of the article:

The Lost Films of Helen – This video slideshow shines a light on some Helen films that haven’t been seen since they were originally released many years ago. They are presumed to be lost forever.

Tune, Composer, Language – It’s All the Same attempts at highlighting some examples where a wide arrange of music directors have re-use their tunes within the same language, within the same period of 1940s -1950s.

Double delight with Fusion – Fusion in this post is to mean something totally different from a mere fusion of instrumental music – a mix of two different singing styles in the vocals in the same song. 12 of these ‘Fusion’ songs (from 1950s to 2010) are placed in the player.

Now we move over to Samir Dholakia ‘s choice for the month –

Naresh Mankad has remembered Budhdham Sharanam Gachchami – Angulimaal (1960) – Anil Biswas – Manna Dey, Meena Kapoor, and Chorus. This is indeed a more known song. But it has a very different version (predecessor, in terms of timeline) in Anjali (1957), sung by Mohammad Rafi, and composed by Jaidev.

In the end we take up (our customary) very special songs / articles on Mohammad Rafi –

We will end April month’s episode with a very typical Shanker-Jaikishan – Mohammad Rafi songs of 1960s – from (of course) the film ‘April Fool’ – a song which has one of the longest prelude, studded with a huge ensemble of violins, wherein Rafi has taken flights to all the scales –

Aa Gale Lag Jaa, Mere Sapane, Mere Apne, Mere Paas Aa…….

We continue our pursuit of the golden period of Hindi Film Music …….