Tag: Rekha

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music, March 2019

Welcome to March 2019 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

A tribute to Shashi Kapoor on his 81st birth anniversary: The many faces of the legendary Shakespeare Wallah

Rekha speaks through her eyes, which made her my choice for Umrao Jaan: Muzaffar Ali -For every art enthusiast, Muzaffar Ali’s home is a treat to the eyes. Speaking with him about his films while laying focus on his best-known work, Umrao Jaan (1981), we got to know a bit more about him and his process of bringing poetry and art to the 70mm screen and more.

Rarely Heard Ghulam Mohammad – on 51st death anniversary – the lyrics formed an important part, then the actual tune.

Remembering Ravi through the songs that he wrote, Lata sings for Ravi and The silent giant-killer and the man of many-splendoured talents: Ravi are rich tributes to a music director who did not get credit befitting his success.

Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se Ajnabi – Gumraah – Strangers Once Again – the situation in life becomes such that you start feeling it is better to be strangers than being lovers. Music composer Ravi takes all the care to handle the delicate situation with utmost care. He uses only the piano (violin and percussion is just an accompaniment) and Mahendra Kapoor’s voice to convey Sahir’s thoughts.

The real mesmeriser Talat Mahmood: His best non-film songs capture some of the most remembered non-film songs of Talat Mahmood.

The Story Of A Sindbad – Shankarrao Biniwale, is narrated to us by Kaushal Inamdar in Marathi here. The post is English translation of that article. Shankarrao Biniwale was an accomplished violinist, who went around the world and explored the origins of violin.

Shailendra Sharma @ Golden Era of Bollywood has posted following memorial tribute posts:

Farooq Sheikh – A Man For All Seasons, who worked with directors like M S Sathyu, Satyajit Ray, Muzaffar Ali, Sai Paranjape, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Yash Chopra, Ketan Mehta, Ayan Mukherjee.

On Kundan Shah, Paigham, and Vyjayanthimala as the comic foil recollects a lighthearted scene in the 1959 Dilip Kumar-Vyjayanthimala-starrer Paigham

Flashback series: human pain and human comedy in Boot Polish (1954) recommends seeing the film because two child actors get top billing in a 1950s Hindi film… and earn it

March, 2019 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up S N Tripathi: Unremembered music director of remembered songs :1957 – 1960. This is the 3rd article in the series on S N Tripathi. First two covered his songs from 1941 to 1950 and from 1951 to 1956 respectively in 2017 and in 2018.

And, now the posts on other subjects:

Barahmasa in film songs = Literally meaning ‘twelve months’, in music it refers to folk or light classical form of north and east India, sung primarily in the rainy season. E.g.

His girl Friday: Sanjeev Kumar and the ‘computer’ in Trishul, an economical, unobtrusive little moment in a larger-than-life film. The scene is where we are introduced to the middle-aged version of the businessman RK Gupta, played by Sanjeev Kumar, and his superbly resourceful secretary Geeta (Raakhee). The office scene in Trishul isn’t subdued or quirky, but it performs a comparable function – telling us something important about a character, a situation and an environment with a few minute brush-strokes.

Songs At The Opening Credits Of The Movie – Title songs carried a gist of that particular film and the songs at the opening credits sort of served as the preamble of that particular film. Though at times both combined as one and solved both purposes. Opening credit songs might not essentially have the title of film in it. Sometimes the film might also have both, opening credits having the title as well as independent title song. We have picked up a few examples form the article:

Dhund,

Umrao Jan

Rang Birangi – serves the purpose of title songs and an opening credit song.

Somewhat Cross-dressed Women ‘Romancing’ Women in Performances: Ten Songs from which I have picked out a few, which are relatively less-known-

Few Marathi songs by prominent Hindi singers has listed Marathi songs sung by Geeta Dut, Sudha Malhotra, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar and Moahammad Rafi, obviously excluding Lata Mageshkar, Asha Bhosle and Suamn Kalyanpuar. The post ends with a note on Lata Mangeshkar’s connection with Marathi cinema – a music director. Sixty-nine years back Lata Mangeshkar debuted as a Music Director in the Marathi movie Ram Ram Pavhana (1950). It is to be noted that in her first movie as a composer she used her own name. And it’s not clear why in the later four Marathi movies she gave music under the pseudonym- Anandghan. Anonymity I guess.  Her music was one of the 8 state awrds that Sadhi Manas got.

How SD Burman became as famous as the singers he worked with despite his thin, nasally voice – In edited excerpts from a reissued biography – Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman –  on SD Burman (known as Dada), H Q Chowdhury reopens the debate: was he a singer-composer or a composer-singer?

Who wrote the classic Hindi film ‘Aandhi’? And was it based on Indira Gandhi? Gulzar clears the air – In edited excerpts from an interview, by Saba Mahmood Bashir, in ‘Aandhi Insights into the Film’, Gulzar reveals how his Suchitra Sen-Sanjeev Kumar starrer got made.

Khilte Hain Gul Yahan – Sharmilee – Of Roses And Romance – One version rendered by Kishore Kumar and the other by Lata Mangeshkar. One is happy, the other is sad. The opening lines of both songs depict the sense of the opposites in the songs.

Songs with a Surprise! Share the opening lines by chance. The post has put up quite demaninding filters for the selection of these songs

    • The words should be from the opening lines of the songs
    • The songs should share at least four words.
    • The songs should not have been inspired from a well known ghazal or a bhajan,
    • The songs should be from two different films

Teri Dhoom Har Kahin – Kala Bazaar – Money Matters is a praise money situation –

Sooraj ke jaisi golaai
Chanda ki thandak bhi paayi
Thanke toh pyare duhai
Lai lai lai lai
Teri dhoom har kahin
Tujh sa yaar koi nahin
Hum ko toh pyare tu sab se pyara

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.

Duniya Ki Haalat Naram Naram, Halwa Chhodo, Poodi Chhodo, Bajhiya Yeh Kha Lo Garam Garam–  Guzara-1(954) – Ghulam Muhammad – Raja Mehdi Ali Khan

Ghoda Peshauri Mera Tanaga Lahori  Mera –  Pyar Ka Bandhan (1963) – Ravi – Sahir Ludhyanavi

Beta Jamure Kah De Duniya Ko Lalakar Ke – Biradari (1966) – With Manna Dey – Chitragupta – Prem Dhawan

Kya Hua Maine Agar Ishq Ka Izahar Kiya – Yeh Dil Kis Ko Doon (1963) – with Asha Bhosle – Iqbal Quereshi – Qamar Jalalabadi

I am also not able resist temptation to recall one of my most favorite song – Ghulam mOhammad creation.

Hai Bas Ke Har Ek Unke Ek Ishare Pe Nishan Aur – Mirza Ghalib (1954)

I earnestly solicit your inputs for further broad-basing our cache for the content for our carnival of blogs on the Golden Era of Hindi film music.

Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.