Fading Memories…. Unforgettable Songs : July 2022

Mohammad Rafi’s First Duet Song With The Music Director

Second Five-Year Period: 1949 -1953

Many historians of Hindi Film Music consider the year 1949 as the transition year when HFM can be positively seen to be entering era of Golden Period, with Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi, the two major singers of Golden Era, occupying the undisputed center stage. One indicator which perhaps validates this hypothesis is presence of more and more music directors who remained active during the Golden period in so far as the duets of Mohammad Rafi during the presently under consideration 5-year period of 1949 to 1953.

To commemorate the birth and death anniversaries of Mohamad Rafi, we have commenced a series on Mohammad Rafi’s first duet with a music director.  Our journey began with the 1^st Five-Year Period of 1944 to 1948 in the year 2021. We take up the Male-Male or Triad as well as a regular Male-Female duet in the present series because our main purpose to revisit maximum possible duets of Mohammad Rafi.

Presently we will take up the 2^nd Five-Year Period of 1949 to 1953.

1949

The year has Mohammad Rafi’s duets, almost, in the proportion of 2: 1 as compared the solos. Even with the Mohammad Rafi duets with two music directors for the year 1949 not available for these two music directors, we have been able to cover 14 music directors in 1949!

As such, we will cover the year 1949 in two parts, to be able to relish the songs thoroughly.

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Naushad had composed first two duets for Mohammad Rafi in 1944 for the film Pahele Aap. Both were Male-Male duets. Naushad has since then deployed Mohaamad Rafi for the male-female duet only during 1949.  Even then, in the year 1949, for Andaz, Mohammad Rafi still was not the playback voice for major lead, Dilip Kumar, of the triangle Raj Kapoor and Nargis. However, the film did have two duets wherein Rafi plays back for Raj Kapoor. Of the two Yun To Apas Mein Bigadate Hain Khafa Hote Hain is a light composition, and is retained in the film

Sun To Dil Ka Afsana – Andaz – with Lata Mangeshkar – Naushad – Majarooh Sultanpuri

This song was finally not included in the film

Naushad had two more films in 1949 Chadani Raat and Dulari. Chandani Raat had three Rafi-Shamshad Begum duets – Chhin Ke Dil KyuN Pher Li Aankhein, Kaise Baje Dil Ki Sitar and Khabar Kya Thi Ki Gham Khana Padega whereas Dulari has two Rafi -Lata duets Mil Mil Ke Gayenge Do Dil Yahaan and Raat Rangili Mast Nazare Geet Sunaye Chand Sitare. The first two duets of Chandani Rat and both the Dulari duets had become quite popular.

Husnlal Bhagatram had as many as five duets and five triads for Rafi 1949 over. Of these we have picked up one duet with Suraiya, and one triad with Lata Mangeshkar and Geeta Dutt, so that we get as many duets  / duets+ songs different the co-singers.

Aataa Hai Zindgi Mein Bhala Pyar Kis Tarha – Baalam – with Suraiya – Lyrics: Qamar Jalalabadi

I had not heard this song before, but once I did, I liked it even though it has many strapping of vintage era. Of course, Rafi sounds his normal – what we get to hear in the 50s and Suraiya is, as always, so sweet to listen to.

Husnlal Bhagatram have two more duets with Suraiya, for the film Naach – Ae Ishq Hamein Barbad Na Kar (Lyrics: Sharshar Sailani) and Chhaya Sama Suhana (Lyrics: Kaif Irfani).

‘Jaltarang’ had one duet with Lata Mangeshkar – Zara Tumne Dekha To Pyar Ho Gaya (Lyrics: Kaif Irfani) and one with Shamshad Begum – Musafir Sada Geet Gaye Chala Chal (Lyrics: Sudarshan Faakir)

And now triads:

Lab Pe Fariyad Hai Dil Barbad Hai – Naach – with Lata Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt – Lyrics: Mulk Raj Bhakri

It may not be inaccurate to assume that the dancing singers may be performing a street dance, because in (only) Hindi films these people can so accurately read the thought of the protagonist’s mind and put them in words on his /her behalf. The hero sems to perform the soliloquy of spelling out his mind, perhaps on the push by the force of the line these dancers sing. Even as hero is in pensive mood and the two female actresses sing in a very energetic mood, the song was well received in those days. Rafi goes in hyper-drive tone at the end!

It would be interesting to see the way the song would have been filmed.

Two other triads in the film were Kyun Karata Maan Jawani Ka (with Lata and Geeta Dutt; Lyrics: Mulk Raj Bhakri) and Namaste Ji Namaste Ji Hamara Tumhara Jeevan Beete Hansate (with Shamshad Begum and Zohrabai Ambalewali; Lyrics: Nazim Panipati).

For the songs of Hamari Manzil, HFGK mentions Geeta Dutt and Mohammad Rafi and chorus as singers for Badla Hua Duniya Mein Ulfat Ka Zamana Hai, Woh Aur Zamana Tha Ye Aur Zamana Hai and Geeta Dutt, Mohammad Rafi and other voice for Andhere Se Na Dar Kaante Banegi KaliyaN, but both these songs have S D Batish as third singer.

Shyam Sundar is widely credited with offering Mohammad Rafi his first ever song, a triad, in the Hindi films, that for Gaon Ki Gori (1945). Presently we have Shyam Sundar composing two duets for Rafi, both with Lata Mangeshkar, a triad – Chhalla De Ja Nishani Teri Meharbani (with Shamshad Begum and Satish Batra: Lyrics Qamar Jalalabadi) for Bazaar.

Ae Mohabbat Unse Milne Ka Bahana Ban Gaya – Bazar – Lyrics: Qamar Jalabadi

This as well as the other duet Apni Nazar Se Door Woh should rank among the finest duets by Rafi and Lata.

Haaye Yeh Bholi Suratwale – Chaar Din – with S D Batish, Iqbal, Rajkumari, Lata Mangeskar, Johrabai Ambalewali – Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni

This hexad is essentially composed in qawwali style.

Hanuman Prasad is also well-known music director vintage era.

Jale Jalaane Wale Humko Jaise Mombatti – Chilman – with Mukesh – Lyrics: P L Santoshi

Two friends merrily laugh away the world’s critical view of their carefree way of living.

What a coincidence! 1949 has one more Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh duet

Snehal Bhatkar is the music director who has composed that Mohammad Rafi – Mukesh duet.

Baat To Kuchh Bhi Nahin Dil Hai Ki Bhar Aaya Hai – Thes – with Mukesh – Lyrics: Kedar Sharma

Mukesh is assigned the pathos part of the song and Rafi with the role of counseling him!

We will take up the rest of 1949’s Mohammad Rafi’s First Duet Song with eight other Music Directors in our December 2022 episode.

We will continue remembering Unforgettable Songs that seem to Fading away from our Memories every second Sunday of the month next year too……..

Disclaimer: All images are sourced from net. All copyrights of the respective image remain with the original owner of the image.

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

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

The month of June is the month of anniversary of one of our most frequently visited blogs – Songs of Yore. SoY has completed 8 years this June.  True to the spirit and now the tradition, the 8^th Anniversary post has presented songs that are not only not heard of but have very interesting stories to go along with.

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

Suraiya: The Last Nightingale of Bollywood – While paying the tribute to her on 89^th birthday (15^th June, 1929), D P Rangan has traced her biography and presented 20 of her less-heard songs.

Shyama- Sun Sun Sun Zalima – An early song where Shyama first made an impact is the second version of the main love duet, ‘Tu Mera Chand Main Teri Chandni’, from A.R. Kardar’s Dillagi (1949) starring Suraiya and Shyam. The original version was filmed on the stars, but this version on Shyama voiced by Geeta Dutt is less known.

Remembering Legendary Composer Vasant Desai, born as Atmaram Desai on 9th June 1912, known popularly by his nickname, Vasant Desai. His compositions in Hindi and Marathi films had their share of popularity. He has composed background scores for very unique films, like Yaadein (1964) and Achanak (1974), over and above many others like Zalzala (1952), Ferry (1954), Kabhi Andhera Kabhi Uajala (1958).

Nutan- An Actress Par Excellence – 4 June 1936 / 21 February 1991 – Nutan’s mother, and a leading actress of her times, Shobhana Samarth launched her in Hamari Beti (1950), and the rest, as is said, is history. Nutan had a song in her own voice in the film too

Tujhe Kaisa Dulha Bhaye Re Banki Dulhaniya – Hamari Beti (1950) – Snehal Bhatkar – Pt. Phani

Snehal Bhatkar – A Tribute – was born as Vasudev Bhatkar on 17th July 1919, and passed away on 29^th May, 2007 in Mumbai.

[Note: We had also published a ‘Fading Memory..Unforgotten Songs’episode,  Snehal Bhatkar – Hamaari Yaad Aayegi, last year.]

Rajendra Krishan-The Lyricist who gave us many Immortal Songs – born on June 6, 1919 to Parvati and Jagannath Duggal in Jalalpur Jattan of Gujarat district (now in Pakistan), Rajendra Krishna was an equal among the great contemporary stalwarts. He gave lyrics to a wide variety of songs, ranging from Ghazals to Bhajans, Geets to Nazms with great flair. His songs are simple, inventive and full of meaning.

May, 2018 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs is dedicated to Dattaram, wherein we had remembered his songs from Ab Dilli Door Nahi, Paravarish, Qaide No. 911 and Santan.

And, now the posts on other subjects:

What’s the Good Word? – On 31st May 2018, for the 11^th year running, Indian kids dominated the annual championships of the Scripps National Spelling Bee championship. The winner was Karthik Nemmani.  Taking the cue from this event, the post goes on enlist songs to do with words and spellings –

For Dev Anand,flirtation was an innocent pastime – Author has picked up these narratives from Dev Anand’s autobiography Romancing with Life before presenting 10 Romantic Songs of Dev Ananad.

How SD Burman missed out on a Filmfare Award for his greatest soundtrack ‘Guide’ – Anirudha Bhattacharjee  &  Balaji Vittal – Edited excerpts from a new biography, S.D. Burman: The Prince-Musician, of the celebrated music composer reveal the background maneuvering that denied ‘Guide’ its glory.

‘Every Song Has a Story’: In Conversation with Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal with Antara Nanda Mondal on the occasion of S.D. Burman: The Prince-Musician. The writer duo talk about how their adoration for music maestros SD Burman and RD Burman, their love for music and their curiosity behind the making of those evergreen songs led them to write biographies of their idols – their challenges, discoveries, the journey and more.

The Greats: Nargis and The Many Moods of Nargis are the two key posts penned to document the author’s new found adoration of Nargis. Additionally, there are reviews of her films Lajwanti (1958), Raat aur Din (1967) and Barsaat (1949) till now in June, 2018.

Bombay in songs which are unheard and un-posted.

‘Bandits, Indian Style’ recalls the songs from movies that revolved around the Indian style dacoits. Each of the film mentioned herein also has documented the name of the actor who played the role of the dacoit too.

The Popularity Of Bollywood Songs is captured here in one song from each decade, starting with ‘30s.

Romantic, sad, a stage performance, a Mujra, and club Songs of ‘Dil Lagana’ in nearly all sorts of songs that have been presented in this post.

I Compose I Sing – ‘Aaj jaane ki zid na karo amazes not only for its unbeatably high number of people rendering it, but also in the fact that every single person who has sung it has stuck to the same original tune made in 1973.’ On that note of composition of the song, the article goes on to list a few instances of artists who sang for themselves.

Ten of my favourite dream sequence songs is a follow up post to the last month’s Ten of my favourite Khwaab/Sapna songs. And then we have Ten of my favourite ‘dreamt’ songs are the songs that are actually dreamt. People fall asleep and, in their dreams, a song plays out.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words – The idea of charming the snakes is Indian. The modus operandi of this process to charm involves swaying the snake repeatedly to hypnotize the creature. If that works, the phrase “actions speak louder than words” will find endorsement. The instrument used for the job is called been, which is a generic name, the specific one being pungi. Kalyanji (Anandji) Shah decided to play an early French synthesizer called clavioline to simulate the pungi’s sounds, initially in Naag Panchmi (1953, Music: Chitragupt, Lyrics: G S Nepali). The key song here was the Asha Bhosle-rendered “O Naag Kaheen Ja Basiyo Re”.

Hindi songs with Sapera (Been) Dhun – The first Sapera based Hindi films was ‘Sapera’ in 1939. We have not been able to get a song from it with the Been dhun.

The dancing girl, the king and the nation begins with a narrative review of Amrapali (1966) and Vyjayantimala’s enactment of eponymous heroine who is a performer, dancing for the pleasure of others as well as for self-expression. The post then goes on to introduce Ruth Vanita’s book Dancing with Nation.  The book examines the cultural importance of the Hindi-film courtesan (a word used to cover such designations as nartaki, devdasi and tawaif – all terms with subtle differences in meaning, which have experienced semantic shifts over time).

We have commenced Micro View of Best songs of 1947: And the winners are? with male solo songs of Other Male Singers and concluded micro review of male solo songs with MY Top Male Solo Songs. We have then continued with micro view of female solo songs, wherein till now we have covered solo songs of Suraiya and Geeta Roy.

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

Tune Teri Nazar Ne Kafir Bana Diya – Fariyad (1964) – With Mubarak Begum – Snehal Bhatkar – Kedar Sharma

Gori Kar Le Tu Aaj Singar – Inasaniyat (1955) – C Ramchandra – Rajinder Krishna

Dilbar Dilbar Hayya Habi O Dilbar – Aao Pyar Karein (1964)  – Usha Khanna – Rajender Krishna

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

Fading Memories…. Unforgettable Songs: May, 2017

Snehal Bhatkar – Hamaari Yaad Aayegi

Most of the Hindi Film songs fans should not find it difficult to remember that composer of one of Mubarak Begum’s iconic Song Kabhi Tanhaiyon Mein…. Hamari Yaad Aayegi is Snehal Bhatkar.

Snehal Bhatkar (original name Vasudev Gangaram Bhatkar, a.k.a. Vasudev, B. Vasudev, Snehal and V G Bhatkar) – 17^th July, 1919 / 29^th May, 2007 has composed songs for 27 Hindi films and 12 Marathi films. His contribution in Marathi NFS is also highly respected.

Snehal Bhatkar’s maiden film as a music director was Rukamani Swayamvar, in 1946, jointly with Sudhir (Phadke). In the credits of the film, his name appears as Vasudev.

Mera Sandesha Le Jaa – Rukimani Swayamvar (1946) – Lalita Deulkar

His first film as a solo music director was Neel Kamal (1947) where his name appears as B Vasudev in the titles. This is also the debut film of Raj Kapoor and Madhubala.

Jaiyo Na Bides Mora Jiya Bhar Aayega – Neel Kamal (1947) – Rajkumari, B Vasudev – Lyrics : Kedar Sharma

All songs lip-synched by Raj Kapoor in this film have B Vasudev’s playback voice. Songs of Mukesh are rendered by other characters on the screen in the film.

Snehal Bhatkar continued to use B Vaudev for his next two films – Suhag Raat (1948) and Thes (1949)

Ye Bura Kiya Jo Saaf Saaf Keh Diya Ke Mere Sanware Piya, Tose Door Rah Ke Chain Paye Na Jiya – Suhag Raat (1948) – Rajkumari, Mukesh – Lyrics: Kedar Sharma

This the debut film of Bharat Bhushan and Geeta Bali.

In order to listen to Geeta Dutt under Snehal Bhatkar’s baton, we will take up one more song from this film.

Mere Dil Ki Ho Mere Sine Ki Mere Dhadkano Me Sakhi Kaun Aa Samaya – Suhag Raat (1948) – Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum – Lyrics: Kedar Sharma

In 1950, Shobhna Samarth took up her first production and directorial venture, Hamari Ladki. Probably, that prompted Snehal Bhatkar to switch his identity too. He now adopted Snehal Bhatkar as his new pseudonym. ‘Snehal’ in this name was prompted by the name of her new born daughter, Snehlata.

Tujhe Kaisa Dulha Bhaye Ri,Banki Dulhaniya – Hamari Beti (1950) – Nutan – Lyrics: Pt. Phani

Shobhna Samarth not only launched her older daughter Nutan with this film, she also introduced her younger daughter Tanuja as a ‘baby’ in the film. Nutan herself sings her first song on both sides of the screen.

An Aside:

It is so very well known that Nutan did sing for herself again in Chhabili (1960). This was also produced and directed by Shobhna Samarth and had Tanuja in side main role along with Nutan in the lead. Her songs Aye Mere Humsafar and Laheron Pe Lahar (with Hemant Kumar), Yaaron Kisi Na Kehna  (with Geeta Dutt) or Mila Le Haath (with Sudha Malhotra) are remembered even today.

Nutan also gave voice to her own songs in a 1983 film Mayuri, for which she also penned the lyrics as well. Kanu Roy had composed these songs.

Nainan Me Barsaat Man Me Kaajal Kaali Raat, Andhkar Hi Andhkar Hai Diwas Rain Ban Jaat – Nand Kishore 1951 – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Pt. Narendra Sharma

The film has had set up Lata Mangeshkar’s strong connection with Snehal Bhatkar.

Rut Basant Ki Mad Bhari Phulo Ka Saringa, Aaja Mere Bhawara Kaliyan Kare pukar, Chaloge Kya Chaloge Kya Sang Mere Saath – Bhola Shankar (1951) – Rajkumari – Lyrics: Bharat VyasThe film has two each of Lata Mangeshkar’ s and Rajkumari’s solo songs. I have picked up one of Rajkumari’s playful solo song. Snehal Bhatkar has also sang a duet and two triplets in the film. However, soft links of these songs do not seem to be available.

Snehal Bhatkar did have one film – Gunaah – in 1953. Of the songs composed by Snehal Bhtakar, the songs available on YT are of Lata Mangeshkar. So, in order to get as many more singers to listen to under Snehal Bhatkar’s baton, we will take up his three films in 1955 and one in 1956.

Pyar Ki Nazro Se Unko Dekhta Jata Hai Dil, Baat Unke Samne Kahne Se Ghabrata Hai Dil – Aaj Ki Baat (1955) – Talat Mahmood – Lyrics: Raj Baldev Raj

This is Leela Chitnis’s maiden production – direction venture. The song is a rare Talat Mahmood song, which has been covered up in the dusts of oblivions.

Mera Resham Ka Rumaal Kare Jadu Ka Kamaal, Mai Aayi Hu Aasman Se Suno Jami Pe Rahne Walo, Aasman Par Bade Maje Hai, Aasman Ka Tiket Katalo Tiket Katalo – Daku 1955 – Anwar Husain, Asha Bhosle – Lyrics: Kaif Irani

Anwar Hussain is the son of second marriage of Jaddanbai – with Irshaad Meer Khan, and thus step brother of Nargis, who was the offspring of Jaddanbai’s third marriage – this time with Mohan Babu. In the present song, Asha Bhosale plays back for Azuri – a celebrated dancer of her time – and Anwar Hussain sings the song for himself more as a side kick.

Chupke Chupke Koi Mere Sapno Me Aane Laga….Dhire Dhire Koi Mere Dil Ko Tadpane Laga – Bindiya (1955) – Madhubala Zaveri – Lyrics: S H Bihari

When a music director has not succeeded on the box office, he gets more of B or C grade films. These films do not have budgets that neither can support famous singers nor can make room for these songs in their packed schedules. As a result, the music director has to up his creative talent and try out relatively not so successful singers. However, in the retrospect now, we as listeners are gainers.

Bhaun Bhaun Bhaun Bhaun….Chhota Sa Pappu Hun Jaau Kaha…. – Jaldeep (1956)

We now have a totally different, very light and apparently frivolous song, wherein we see Snehal Bhatkar in quite a new light. The playback singer for the songs is  identified. As can be seen in the notes to video clip, on  screen, we see three children. The elder male child is Ashok Sharma (son of Kidar Sharma). The female child is Preetibala, who later came into mainstream Hindi films as Zeb Rehman. The younger male child is Dubey.

Before we conclude today’s episode, we will take up the maiden solo song of Mahendra Kapoor.

Tere Dar Ki Bhik Mangi Hai O Daata Duiya -Diwali Ki Raat-1956 – Mahendra Kapoor – Lyrics: Madhukar Rajasthani

It is matter of well-settled records that Mahendra Kapoor’s maiden song in Hindi Films was Kisi Ke Zulm Ki Tasveer, a duet composed by V Balsara for Madmast (1953). D. Indorewala accopanied Mahendra Kapoor in that song. The present song goes in the records as a maiden solo song of Mahendra Kapoor.

Continuing with our tradition of ending every episode with a Mohammad Rafi song, we will end our present episode with the probably the first duet of Mukesh with Mohammad Rafi :

Baat To Kuchch Bhi Nahi, Dil Hai Ke Bhar Aaya Hai – Thes (1949) – Lyrics: Kedar Sharma

We will continue our search for Unforgettable Songs that seem to Fading away from our Memories every second Sunday of the month……..

Disclaimer: All images are sourced from net. All copyrights of the respective image remain with the original owner of the image.

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – September 2013

Welcome to September 2013 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

As usual, we commence our blog festival with posts on Anniversaries.

Asha Bhosle turns 80 this year. Dusted Off presented 10 different moods of Asha Bhosle in Asha in Ten Moods.

Songs of Yore continues with the series of S D Burman’s association with different playback singer in Asha Bhosle’s best songs by SD Burman.

And here are some of the other articles on Asha Bhosle, which I ‘searched’ while looking for some more of the celebration articles.

Zee News presents an interesting slideshow – Asha Bhosle`s songs through the decades,  taking you on a journey with her through her decades in Bollywood and more.

Madhu in her tripod.com bog posts has A Musical Journey With Madhu – Asha Bhonsle Songs – S. D. Burman music

Bollywoodlyrics.com articles gives an overview – Asha Bhosle: Working with great music directors

And HarveyPam’s Mohan Ki Asha, and very rich comments thereto, is a great post on Madan Mohan’s Asha Bhosle songs.

Songs of Yore has paid a very unique tribute to Mukesh, on his anniversary on 27^th August, through quite an impartial discussion on “why did SD Burman use him so sparingly” in Mukesh’s best songs by SD Burman . Shri Arunkumar Deshmuks reveals, in Comment #1, that Mukesh- S D Burman combination output was (just) 12 songs (only). Shri N Venkatraman, in Comment#19, fills up the two remaining songs.

Conversations Over Chai comes back to active role on the scene, through  My Favourites: Songs of Praise – “songs that did liken a woman to more than a poultry dish?”. It is also a celebration (though a bit belated) of the Second Anniversary of the blog

Vithalbhai Patel, who contributed several earthy songs in late 1970s, also passed away on 7^th September. Here is list of his Hindi Films songs, as a token of our tribute to the departed soul. Biren Kothari, Pallete,  has paid an objectively passionate tribute to Vithalbhai Patel in the article (in Gujarati) ગીતકાર વિઠ્ઠલભાઈ પટેલની વિદાય: પ્યાર મેં સૌદા નહીં.

We have an unfortunate situation, where we are to pay homage to Madhubala Zaveri, on her taking up that long, fateful journey on 11-09-2013. Biren Kothari has penned  મધુબાલા ઝવેરીનો સ્વરવિલય and placed video clips of some of her songs.

We will also bring some more sites / posts on Madhubala Zaveri on this page:

YT Channel – MADHUBALA ZAVERI/JHAVERI

Madhu’s Tripod.com page – Talat Mehmood & Madhubala Zaveri Duets

Cineplot.com’s Madhubala Zaveri

And of course one son that always bring memories of Madhubala Zaveri, even if shae ay have a small portion in it is Boot Polish’s Thaher Jara O Janne Wale

We now change our tack – to Mohammad Rafi.com

Vijay Bavdekar digs the equation of S D Burman and Mohammad Rafi deeper in  Maestro SDBurman, Evergreen Dev Anand & All Time Great Rafi Sahab & Hidden Truths. Here are the high points – the lips movement and expressions given on face by Dev Anand, perfectly matches the Rafi’s throw of words / look back to the Golden Era of Hindi film music, you will find that other music directors kept Kishore away & preferred Rafi for Dev Anand / One interesting thing is that Rafi was Burmanda’s first choice for other Heros  / Look at the ”Trend setter-Singer ” equations,”Dilip-Rafi, Dev-Kishore and Raj-Mukesh”. Rafi sang most of the songs for Dilip Kumar, Rafi has an almost equal share with Kishore for Dev Anand and off course Mukesh sang major number of songs for Raj Kapoor, but Rafi also gave playback to Raj Kapoor for 31 songs.

‘Dances on the Footpath’ has presented A Song Performed By Carmen Miranda and Vasunthara Devi aka Vyjayanthimala’s Mother. The two songs, one Vasunthara performs is “ayyayyo-vasuntharadevi-mangammasabatham 1941” and the one by from which the song is inspired is “That Night In Rio (1941) – Carmen Miranda – “I, Yi, Yi, Yi, Yi (I Like You Very Much)“.

“Dances On The  Footpath” also has designed a very rich YT channel  LifeIsaTrain‘s which has Classical Indian dancing feet / Noor Jehan / Kumari Kamala Lakshman and Recent uploads sub-chapters awaiting to be explored.

The discussions on S D Burman and Vyjayantimala , in this edition as well as in the last edition of Blog Festival spurred me to visit “100 Years Of Bollywood” – an excellent channel on YT an return with S.D Burman- The King Of Melody  and Vyjayanthimala – The First Female Superstar Of Bollywood  respectively.

I would also like to document the finds, Music Maestros Part-1 and Music Maestros Part-2.

My friend Samir Dholakia had forwarded a message form his friend about another YT channel: Portrait of Director –  This is a series directed by veteran film-maker Ramesh Sharma for Doordarshan and it captures the various aspects of film-making of master directors like Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Manmohan Desai, Shyam Benegal, Raj Kapoor and Bimal Roy.

We would, now onwards, share at least one of the clips from both these channels to bring them on same page here.

Now, we pay our first visit to Indian film posters from 1930[silent] to1970 [color]. We will take up DIL DE KAR DARD LIYA HAI MAINE SUNG BY JAGMOHAN… (Jagmohan Sursagar NFS)(1940)  and film “Fariyaad” (1942). The first one may be a repeat to many, but it is a treat worth repeating, every time. We take to full listening of Fariyaad (1942)’s these songs:

Aye Dil-e-Bequarar Bol – Shamim Kamal Pasha

Kahoji Ji Na Lage Bin Tere  – Ishwarlal , Shamim Kamal Pasha

I chose to pick up Fariyad (1942) here, because that immediately reminded me of Fariyad (1964) which had memorable Snehal Bhatkar songs:

Aap Ne Huzoor Mujse – Suman Kalyanpur , Mohammad Rafi –

Teri Nazar Ne To  Kafir Bana Diya – Mubarak Begum, Mohammad Rafi

Wo Dekho Dekh Raha Papiha –  Suman Kalyanpur, Mahendra Kapoor

Songs of Yore has presented Best songs of 1953: Wrap Up 2. Undoubtedly a very difficult job of doing a putting in ‘other’ female singers in the most relevant and respectful consideration in an otherwise Lata Mangeshkar dominated category. As we had decided last time, we will take a look at all the ‘wrap-up’s together, in more details – may be as a full-fledged separate post.

It is heartening to note that we are able to expand our catchment sources for information to be shared. However, there must be much more that remains to be explored and shared…….

I, indeed, await your valued suggestions and inputs.. …