Tag: Waheeda Rehman

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

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

A Google Doodle created by Bangalore-based artist Muhammed Sajid on Madhubala’s 86the birthday tribute

MADHU BALA: The Bewitching Beauty of Bollywood – DP Rangan pays a rich tribute.

‘6 Iconic fashion statements we owe to Madhubala!’ looks back to some of the fashion trends that she made popular.

We also have post to remember Valentine’s Day – Ten of my favourite romantic serenades. It’s a list of romantic serenades, of people singing in praise of the person they’re in love with (or, as in the case of a couple of fraudulent characters in this list, pretending to be in love with).

For the Love of a Goddess – The article first takes through the narrative journey of a music documentary, Music for Goddess (by Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy), which explores the sacred music, dance and rituals of devidasis and devidasas, women and men dedicated to the goddess Renuka/Yellamma. It then introduces the instrument, the chaundka—also called chaundke, which the followers of the Goddes use mainly in their dancing and singing. The chaundka sounds similar to the damru. Our cinema has used the chaundka in several songs. The article has listed some of these songs.

Suman Kalyanpur – Sweetness Personified – The name conjures memories of lilting sweet songs, solos and duets that have gained immortality and enriched our music heritage. Peeyush Sharma revisits some of her evergreen melodies, enjoyed and cherished by generations of music lovers. Of the two duets she could get to sing with Mohammad Rafi, Din ho ya raat hum rahein tere saath (Miss Bombay, 1957, Hans Raj Behl / Prem Dhawan)  is perhaps more known than Duniya Ye Kehati Hai.. Meri Kismat Mein Likhi Wo Jo Mere Peechhe Baithi Hai

In a tribute to Bharat Vyas in his centenary birth year, last month we had touched  Bharat Vyas – The Prolific Lyricist – I and Bharat Vyas – The Prolific Lyricist – II . In part III of the series, his songs from ‘70s has been covered.

Here’s to the Birth or Death Anniversaries of Three Classic Hindi Film Artists Who Certainly Should Not Have Died In Poverty – The article refers to Cuckoo, Meena Shorey and Rajkumari. [I have searched a song in which each one is associated in a duet with Mohammad Rafi. The songs are at the end of the present article.]

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

The flashback series has why you should watch Waqt (1965), because it’s a near-perfect summary of the “masala” film before the term was commonly used and why you should watch Mem Didi (1961) for the beautiful chemistry between three elderly character actors.

Waheeda Rehman 2.0 – The Grand Diva Of Hindi Cinema – Staying relevant is one of the most crucial elements of Hindi film industry and Waheeda Rehman is a living legend who has stayed relevant in every era since her debut in 1955 in Telugu and Tamil cinema.

Zameen Kha Gayi Aasman Kaise Kaise – Some Non-picturised Songs Of R D Burman – Part 1 and Part 2 – the songs that either recorded but not filmed at all or filmed, but subsequently removed.

February, 2019 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Talat Mahmood’s duets with Mubarak Begum and Madhubala Jhaveri, in continuation to  the previous articles . Some of the Talat Mahmood Duets receding from the memory and Talat Mahmood’s Duet Combinations with Rare Co-singers.

And, now the posts on other subjects:

Romancing the Pardesi is a varied collection of beautiful Pardesi songs of separation, longing, betrayal and hope.

What Time It Is? is a theme-based list that has songs mentioning the actual time in the opening line.

With Claps As Percussion – Songs With A Difference, which has several over-riding conditions, one of which it is that it should not be an O P Nayyar composition. Here is one song that comes up as result:

 Nacho Jhoom Jhoom Ke – Sarhad (1960) – Chitalkar – C Ramchandra – Majrooh Sultanpuri

By the Sea Shore remembers the songs from the films of 50s-60s and 70s, picturized on a seashore or a beach.

Reluctant Singer? Take a Boat Ride – Transformation happens to many people when they are on a boat that has left the shores some time ago. The songs listed herein are the ones that were sung by such “What, me sing?” folks when on the land. This is a celebration of people who themselves manage to move a sea vessel from one place to another.

Tujhe chaand ke ‘bahaane’ dekhun ki ‘chhat’ par aa ja goriye is a rich collection of songs in which an excuse to go to the terrace is linked up.

‘The Guide’ in English: The story of Dev Anand’s abortive attempt to storm Hollywood – Based on RK Narayan’s novel of the same name, the film was directed by Tad Danielewski. But reviewers thought it was ‘clumsy and artless’.

Mose Chhal Kiye Jaaye – Kya Se Kya Ho Gaya – Guide – The Twofold Stunner -The Writer / Director, Vijay Anand, wants his songs to take his story forward. He opts for two different songs…back to back and Burman da composes those two songs. Both songs have the same notes!!!! Whereas Lata Mangeshkar song is an accusation of the feeling of cheating, Mohammad Rafi’s song is a romantic plea for the sake of his love.

Songs of दास्तान- ए – हाल – ए -दिल weave anguish or agitation, and some time happiness, or sheer romance, when a person comes up to tell his / her heart-felt feelings.

We are bit late in documenting ‘Songs in the Snow: Ten of my favourites’. The songs should feature some amount of snow; it need not necessarily be all against a backdrop of snow. And the snow, even if it’s not real should at least not look patently fake.

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.

Akhiyan Mail Ke Jara Baat Karo Ji – Pardes (1950) – with Lata Mangeshkar – Ghulam Mohammad – ShakeelBadayuni

Aao Chale Manwa More Door Chale Kahin Re – Amar Prem (1948) – with Rajkumari – Dutt Thakur – Mohan Mishra

Tumhein Chupke Se Dil Mein Liya – Ek Do teen (1953) – with Asha Bhosle – Vinod – Aziz Kashmiri

Chowpati Par Kal Jo Tujhse – Afsana (1951) – with Shmashad Begum – Husnlal Bhagatram – Chander Oberoi

Kehdo Kehdo Jahan Se Kehdo Ishq Par Jor Nahin – April Fool (1964) – with Suman Kalyanpur – Shanker Jaikishan – Hasrat Jaipuri

Auraton Ke Dibbe Mein Mard Aa Gaya – Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh (1962) – With Suman Kalyanpur – Hansraj Behl – Prem Dhawan

Tere Peechhe Phirte Phirte Ho Gaya Pura Sal – Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh (1962) – With Suman Kalyanpur – Hansraj Behl – Prem Dhawan

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.

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

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

This is the month when the world celebrated Valentine Day. We have picked up these  topical posts to commence our present episode:

Bachapan Ki Yaad Dheere Dheere Pyaar Ban Gayi – Shaheed (1948) – Lalita Deulkar – Ghulam Haider – Qamar Jalalabadi

We will now take up the posts on the anniversaries or eulogies:

The three distinct phases of OP Nayyar’s career –  Ravindra Kelkar pans three distinct musical styles, each corresponding to three time periods of O P Nayyar’s career.  Here are three illustrations, each for a respective phase:

Taare Chandani – Baaz (1953) – Geeta Roy (Dutt) – Majrooh Sultanpuri

Man More Ga Jhoom Ke – Mangu (1954) – Asha Bhosle – Majrooh Sultanpuri

Humdum Mere Khel Na Jano – Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963) – Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle – Majrooh Sultanpuri

Remembering Madhubala, Bollywood’s Very Own Marilyn Monroe – Khalid Mohamed- republished to mark Madhubala’s birth anniversary – Madhubala’s end-years were spent in deflecting an illness which had a deadline. At one point, doctors had declared that Madhubala wouldn’t last beyond a period of two years. ..Despite that, she attempted to complete the last shooting spell required for Chalak co-featuring Raj Kapoor. Lore has it that since filmmakers had stopped approaching her to act, she threw caution to the wind, and steered towards film direction. Neither this project titled Farz Aur Ishq, nor Chalak, could get to the finishing line.

Cuckoo Did Get A Mention Here On Her Birthday This Year… – Even as there is no specific post on Cuckoo,  a new comment to the old post Discussion, Info and Great Pics Related to the Earliest Appearances of Cuckoo makes up for the loss.

We have two posts on Waheeda Raheman’s birthday –

  • Waheeda Rehman – The Woman of Substance On-Screen – In Pyaasa, Mujhe Jeene Do, The Guide, Teesri Kasam and Kaagaz Ke Phool – Waheeda’s best four movies to the author’s mind – Waheeda played the women who traded their charms for sustenance.” Vijay Kumar revisits these films from the perspective of the towering women characters in them played by Waheeda Rehman.
  • In Praise of Waheeda Rehman who had quite a few songs that are songs that are paeans to her beauty, praising her charm and her loveliness, while some of the others are sheer romance, in verse.

Hua jab se dil mein tera guzar, Mujhe chain hai na qaraar hai (Zara sun haseena-e-nazneen – Kaun Apna Kaun Paraya (1963) – Mohammed Rafi – Ravi – Shakeel Badayuni

Remembering Faiz Ahmed Faiz Through His Aching Words – Almas Khateeb – here’s looking at some of this subtle and sophisticated poet’s works, that’ll stay with us for years to come: Faiz Ahmed Faiz and His Beguiling Poetry.

The February 2017 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs was dedicated to ‘Some of the Talat Mahmood Duets receding from the memory’.

Here are posts on other subjects as well:

the-corsican-brothersram-aur-shyam

Films that are 50: A Dilip Kumar double treat in ‘Ram Aur Shyam’  – Nirupama Kotru – The thespian proves that comedy is as easy as tragedy in the 1967 hit comedy, which was a remake of  the popular Telugu film Ramudu Bheemudu, which in turn was loosely based on Alexander Dumas’s The Corsican Brothers.

Los Angeles, 1975. Lata Mangeshkar takes the stage. Deafening applause – Mohan DeoraRachana Shah – On Stage With Lata is a different kind of memoir: it is a short history of Mangeshkhar’s concerts in the United States of America, Canada, the Caribbean and the Fiji Islands between 1975 and 1998.

Audio master: ‘Kismet’ laid the foundation of the Hindi film song as we know it – Rudradeep Bhattacharjee – In the 1943 blockbuster, the essential elements and conventions of the movie tune were codified, including the mukhda-antara form. Musicologist Jayson Beaster-Jones notes, “Both the film and the music of ‘Kismet’ exemplify a point just before a critical moment of transition for Indian filmmaking.”

Hope for Mumbai’s single screen cinemas after New Excelsior gets a shiny makeover – Subhash Ghai’s cinema chain has renovated and relaunched the iconic Mumbai theatre with new amenities and fewer seats.

Flowers bloom in Bollywood – D P Rangan has presented a colorful spread of Hindi film songs on flowers.

My favourites: Ten answers to the ‘Kaun Aaya’ question is in response to songs on Kaun Aaya, such as:

Chaakuwaala chhuriwaala… aaya main mastaana (Al-Hilal, 1957)

Mehfil mein jo aaye tum (Vallah Kya Baat Hai, 1962)

Ghoomke aaya hoon main… Baajewaala Patialewaala (Basant, 1960)

The Adivasi Chain Dances (Santali and Dhimsa) – Circle dance, or chain dance, is a style of dance done in a circle or semicircle to musical accompaniment, such as rhythm instruments and singing. Circle dancing is probably the oldest known dance formation and was part of community life from when people first started to dance.

We end today’s episode with a prayer composed also by Mohammad Rafi

Hazrat Adam Ka Wakeya

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 – February, 2016

Welcome to February, 2016 edition of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

We take up the tributes first.

Suraiya - A personally autographed pictureSuraiya: The Last Singing Star of Indian Cinema – a tribute to her on her death anniversary on 31st January – By Parag Sankla – “Almost eighty five years ago, God must have said “Today I am sending three great artists to this world. A natural actress, a beautiful lady and a melodious singer! Acting, beauty and singing. These are not three different persons, this is one girl! And here I present you Suraiya.”… Along with Kanan Devi and Noor Jehan, she was one of the most prominent female singing stars of the golden era of Hindi films….Her first two songs as a singer (“Aao aao hil mil kar khushiyan manayein” and “Rana ji ki jai jai se”) came for a film titled Taj Mahal (1941) composed by Madhavlal Damodar. This golden period of Suraiya’s career (1941 – 1946) is often ignored in many of the articles on her……I love the song “Suno more raja, nazariya milaaike” for composer Neenu Majmudar from “Main kya karoon” (1945).”…..From among other songs that have find mention in the article, we pick up Jab badal ghir ghir aayenge, kaho jee kit jaayenge – Daak Bangla. 1947 – Naresh Bhattacharya as a song that is we get to hear less.

Waheeda Rehman and Soumitra Chatterjee in Abhijan (1962)Waheeda Rehman: Quintessential Beauty with Intense Acting Prowess – By Antara Nanda Mondal – Impressed by her enigmatic screen persona and acting panache, Satyajit Ray picked her for the role of Gulabi in his celebrated Bengali film Abhijan (1962).

More about Waheeda Rehman :

Indurani, a star of the 1930s is a rich tribute on death anniversary of Ishrat Jehan Imamuddin aka Indurani on 18th February by film historian Arunkumar Deshmukh, enriched by photographs and posters by Harsh Raghuvanshi.

“Ye Sama Ye Khushi Kuchh Bolo Ji Bolo Ji” – Azra – now known as “Farhana”, for the most part, acted in second heroine and character roles in around two dozen movies viz. ‘Junglee’, ‘Ganga Jamuna’, ‘Ganga Ki Lehrein’, ‘Ishara’, ‘Baharon Ke Sapne’, ‘Bandish’, ‘Wapas’, ‘Raja Saheb’, ‘Mahal’, ‘My Love’ and ‘Ilzam’ and finally bid adieu to Filmdom after she got married. In ‘Ganga Jamuna’, she was the second lead opposite Nasir Khan. Movies ‘Shaan-e-Khuda’ (1971) and ‘Pocketmar’ (1974) released after her marriage. ‘Shaan-e-Khuda’ was directed by her father Nanubhai Vakil.

Happy Brithday, Cuckoo! – Some readers of the blog Dances on the Footpath know about the incredible Cuckoo news and trivia post that have developed there. It started with so many comments to the 2011 Cuckoo birthday post (linked to below). And here are a couple of the Cuckoo birthday posts, both of which include a bunch of really good song clips. …. This blog contains a whole lot of Cuckoo…. 2011 Cuckoo Birthday Post ǁ   2014 Cuckoo Birthday Post

The Unlucky Genius Ghulam Mohammad’s best songs for Talat Mahmood – If you associate Anil Biswas, C Ramchandra, Madan Mohan and SD Burman for the best of Talat Mahmood, Ghulam Mohammad would rank at the equal footing with them.

The article is a tribute to the Unlucky Genius with his best songs for Talat Mahmood as a tribute to the singer, too, with velvet voice on his 92nd birth anniversary.

Here are some of the less heard songs:

Meri Yaad Mein Tum Na Aansoo Bahana: Remembering Talat Mahmood – Talat Mahmood was grand-uncle, naani’s (maternal grandmother’s) brother of Sahar Zaman. She reminisces her association with Talat Mahmood over the years in this article.

Talat Mahmood, the photogenic ghazal superstar – Manish Gaekwad notes that Talat Mahmood sang over 700 songs in his career, including a rare solo “Kadale Neelakadale” in the Malayalam film Dweepu for composer MS Baburaj. His last recording was “Mere Shareek-e-Safar”, a duet with Hemlata, for the film Vali-E-Azam (music by Chitragupta). Lyricist Ahmed Wasi writes, “Mere shareek-e-safar, ab tera Khuda hafiz” (My companion in this journey, I take your leave now). It turned out to be Mahmood’s swan song. He died on May 9, 1998, at the age of 74.

“मण्टो का बम्बई” narrates the 21 minute docudrama directed by Dharmendra Nath Oza, which was first aired on TV on Sahara Samay on 3rd April, 2005. The documentary can be seen on Dharmendra Nath Oza’s YouTube Channel in six clips.

Nalini Jaywant – Down Memory Lane – is based on interview was conducted in 1960.

Remembering Nadira: The Diva Who Didn’t Want to be Rescued – Ranjib Mazumder – Remembers Nadira on her death anniversary – Two Jewish women stood out in the race among many prolific names starting from the early days of cinema. In the silent era, Ruby Myers was the most successful star known in film history as Sulochana, and in the post-independent Hindi cinema, Florence Ezekiel, better known as Nadira shone the brightest…..She was the anomaly in a society where women didn’t dare. The viewing public limited her career in a swift stroke of judgment in Shree 420, and in real life, men couldn’t gather the courage to handle an informed mind…..She craved companionship without having to be rescued, but we didn’t have enough imagination to understand that.

The Real and Reel Life of Pran, Bollywood’s Villain Extraordinaire – Ranjib Mazumder looks at some of the interesting aspects of the real and reel life of the villain extraordinaire who would have been 96….Here is one example …. “Pran was very close to Dilp Kumar and Raj Kapoor owing to their long association in the film industry……. When Dilip was getting married, Pran was shooting in Kashmir. Despite heavy rain, he managed to reach Bombay to attend his friend’s wedding. The entire gang including Raj Kapoor got drunk, banged on Dilip’s nuptial-night bedroom door relentlessly till he opened up to say hello to them.”

We now move over to the blog spots on other subjects.

Multiple Versions Songs (24): Songs having versions across different films – similar initial lyrics in mukhada – is a presentation of interesting variety of songs which have multiple versions across different films. In some cases these may be a traditional bandish, where you may find some versions outside films.

One can come across widely differing versions on the circumstances that led to the actual performance of Aye Mere Vatan Ke Logo. Subhash K Jha presents one more – India’s most patriotic song: How Lata Mangeshkar almost turned down ‘Ae mere watan ke logon’ .

Shankar-Jaikishan’s dance songs for Lata Mangeshkar – SoY now picks up one music director around him one set of posts remain anchored during the year. 2014 was the year of Anil Biswas, 2015 was that of Naushad with C Ramachndra in tandem with. S D Burman was organically covered concurrently. Now, 2016 has been dedicated to Shanker Jaikishan, with a limit of the year 1959 for the selection of the songs.

My Favourites: ‘Me Tarzan, You Jane’ Songs creates a list with ‘I am…, you are…’ motif.

Here are a few songs that typically represent the theme while not being heard often enough.

Ten of my favourite romantic duets – of pure, outright romance…Nothing to adulterate the headiness of being in love, of being confident, too, that one’s love is returned.

Ten of my favourite ‘Jaa’ songs – begin with ‘jaa’ (and being strict about this; no variations, like jaaiye or jaao). What or who is being sent away differs, but the crux of the matter remains: go. Go away. This post sprang out of an earlier post on ‘Aaja’ songs….Some interesting coincidences…Jaa tose nahin boloon Kanhaiyya (Parivaar, 1956) has, interestingly, another song in another film begins with exactly the same words: in Samrat Chandragupta, a song picturized on Nirupa Roy and Bharat Bhushan begins Jaa tose nahin boloon…..Jaa Jaa re chanda jaa re from Private Secretary (1964), is created by music director, Dilip Dholakia He has another jaa song from the same film, fabulously rendered by Manna Dey – Ja Re Beiman Tujhe Dekh Liya Jaa.. Another song, nearly decade earlier, which is similar to that of the Lata song from Private Secretary is Ja jaa re chanda teri chandani jalaye from Albeli (1955) – music director – Ravi.

Sadanand Kamath also recites similar interesting coincidence in Kaliyon mein Raam mera kiranon mein Raam hai –-It was a surprise to know just a few days back that Amirbai Karnataki, the Kannada Kokila as she was known in Karnataka, had faced a situation when she was required to lip sync in Sudha Malhotra’s voice for the song ‘Kahaan nahi Ram hai’ from the film PAWAN PUTRA HANUMAN (1957). The song is written by Saraswati Kumar Deepak and is set to music by Chitragupta. Apart from Amirbai Karnataki, the other actor in the role of Hanuman is S N Tripathi. Incidentally, Chitragupta assisted S N Tripathi before he got independent assignment as music director in 1946. Here is the song that provides the title to the post: Kaliyon mein Raam mera kiranon mein Raam hai – Pawan Putra Hanuman – Geeta Dutt .

‘Gata Rahe Mera Dil was Patchwork’: In Conversation With Vijay Anand – never-before-published interview of Vijay Anand – in conversation with Peeyush Sharma we have some interesting aspects of S D Burman’s music. “No one could dictate Burman Dada about which song must be sung by which singer. He had his own style of testing and selecting the voice. Once he would conceptualize a song and decide on the singer for the particular song, no one could influence that decision. He would go to the final limit of even scrapping the song altogether. He would then create a new song but he would not change his decision on the singer. He had the courage of his conviction. He knew which song would best suit a singer. And that decision would be the best decision and the song of course, would be a hit….There was no singer of his calibre in the entire film industry. The kind of highly complex ‘murkiyan’ (tonal embellishments) or ‘gayaki’ (rendering style) he would come up with was simply out of this world. But when he would sing the same tune for Lata or Rafi or Kishore or Asha, he would make it simpler than before.

More to read :

We end our present episode with some (interesting) posts on Mohammad Rafi

I look forward to receive your inputs for further enriching the contents of the posts…..

Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – February, 2015 edition

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

As has become a set pattern, we begin with articles form or regular blogs, commemorating anniversaries:

Kavi Pradeep: The singer of Message Songs  – As tribute on the centenary of Kavi Pradeep (6 February 1915 – 11 December 1998) –  the article goes on to present some songs sung by him, because he is in the class of singers who could not sing anything which was less than captivating.

Happy Birthday, Waheeda ji, from where we have picked up these two songs:

Jaane kya tune kahi (Pyaasa, 1957, Geeta Dutt, S DBurman) so as to bring up its original Bengali version Mono Dilo Na Bandhu sung and composed by S D Burman

Haaye gazab kahin taara toota (Teesri Kasam, 1966. Asha Bhosle, Shankar-Jaikishen). We will add Mubarak Begum’s piece – Hai Muhobbat Bahut – to this list. Just as a bonus, here is her dance number (Yaeru pooti poovaye from Kaalam Maari Poochu (remade into Telugu as Rojulu Marayi). This tune was adapted to in Hindi for the film Bambai Ka Babu, as Dekhane Mein Bhola Hai, some years down the line.

My Favourite Geeta Bali songs – January 21, 2015  was the 50th anniversary. Our pick of the songs is : Yeh Din Hai Khushi Ke – Jab Se Tumhen Dekha Hai (1963) – Manna Dey and Suman Kalyanpur

My favourite songs of Madhubala , from which we have picked up – Aye bhola bhala man (Jhumroo, 1961, Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar, Kishore Kumar)

The Masters: Khayyam spans the career that spanned more than six decades, with long stretches in between where Khayyam did not compose for films at all. In all, he composed for 54 films (and 17 other unreleased ones) and totalled up 626 songs (including those for TV serials and other non-film albums including those for Begum Akhtar and Mohammed Rafi).

And now onto some of the other – regular- offerings:

UttarMegh and Dekh Kabira Roya is also the inspired by the Meghadutam, which has been a source of inspiration of many an artist.  ‘While PurvaMegh describes the scenic beauty that the cloud messenger would pass by on his way to Alaka nagari, as narrated by a certain Yaksha who is separated from his wife on account of negligence of duty and hence cursed by Kubera to be exiled for a year, UttarMegh is full of virah-bhava. ..The great painter Nana Joshi has created nine visualisations of the verses of UttarMegh…. That UttarMegh was a possible inspiration for the great lyricist Rajinder Krishan when he penned the lyrics for Dekh Kabira Roya – Meri Veena Tum Bin Roye  and  Ashqon se teri hamne [It is also interesting to note that the two songs are back to back in the movie] as well as Bairan Ho Gyai Raina –  or even Amiya Chakraborty, the director of the movie, is what this post sets out to explore.

Some Favorite (Relatively) Contemporary Versions of Classic Hindi Film Songs is the result of the urge to throw together some of my favorite contemporary versions of old Hindi film songs. The songs included here – Hai Apna Dil To Awara, Chin Chin Choo, Piya Tu Ab To Aaja– also come from a slightly wider range than the area that the blog usually focuses on these days, stretching in one case all the way into the early 1970s. But all of these songs were composed by music directors who produced many classics during the Golden Age, and all of them were originally sung by artists who became prominent during the Golden Age or the Vintage Era.

Different versions of ‘Tum Bhulaye Na Gaye’ by  Feroza Begam… This is one of the loveliest songs that one cannot get tired of listening it again and again. There is something special about it. Firoza Begum in her unique and beautiful voice has infused agony and angst into this engrossing composition of Kamal Dasgupta…. original version , subsequent version   and the one when she was almost 70 .

A few random musings:

Salil Chaudhury – A narrative documentary movie on Salil Chowdhury directed by Jagadish Banerjee and produced by Films Division…..

Cinema Cinema – Director Shah Krishna compiled this compelling documentary of Indian cinema after spending two years searching through film archives from all over the world. Included are films from the turn of the 20th century through the 1970s to illustrate various schools of filmmaking and the historical progression of the art form.

Our friends Samir Dholakia and Bhgawan Thavrani have remembered

Naresh Mankad also chips in with

Whilst on Pankaj Mullik, we also recall that Samir Dholakia has sent

 Tu Dhundhata hai jisako – Yatrik by Anulekha Gupta Mullick, the daughter of Pankaj Mullik. Here is the original song.

And now over to exclusive articles on Mohammad Rafi…

Mohammad Rafi Timeline showcases his endless collections.

Mohammed Rafi: An Antique voice of showman Raj Kapoor – An Accolade to Raj Kapoor and Mohammed Rafi on their 90th Birthday Raj Kapoor - Google DoodleBy Biman Baruah – Mohammad Rafi has sung second highest songs for Raj Kapoor, after Mukesh, in films like Barsaat (1949), Andaz (1949), Dastan (1950), Sargam (1950), Amber (1952), Paapi (1953), Do Ustad (1959), Chhalia (1960), Nazrana (1961), Ek Dil Sau Afsane (1963) and Mera Naam Joker (1970).

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