Rajesh Khanna..some favorite songs

A phenomenon called Rajesh Khanna passed into history the day before. He was a short-lived phenomenon- an euphoria that lasted less than five years from1969. But he managed to sway the generation to such an extent that some small ripples of those times exist even today. I am not a great fan of Rajesh Khanna but on one aspect, I do admire him immensely. Even at the height of his popularity, he appeared to be willing to take on off-beat themes, non-romantic roles, roles that were more second fiddle to the leading lady.. he did not stay away from them. While he obviously had a huge star image, he managed to have a solid body of work that are worth being remembered as fine pieces of cinema. Anand, Ittefaaq, Amar prem, Aavishkaar and Baawarchi are a few such films.

Not too long ago, we lost two of the other greatest stars of Indian cinema- Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor. A common chain that runs through all three is that almost all coverage and reiminisces of the stars revolved around the music and songs of their films. There was more S.D.Burman and Jaidev than Dev Anand, more O.P.Nayyar and Shankar Jaikishan than Shammi Kapoor  - and more R.D.Burman and Kishore Kumar than Rajesh Khanna. Thats how Indian cinema is. There are but few perhaps who would eventually be remembered as actors.

In that spirit, I am thinking of the songs I love best that had Rajesh Khanna singing them on screen. Here they are..

1. aur kuchh der Thahar (Aakhri Khat / Mohd Rafi / Khayyam) : A sheer charmer of a song rendered so beautifully by Rafi. The compositionally is typically Khayyam. Filled with romance, there is that tinge of melonchaloy there.. beautiful !!

2. vo shaam kuchh ajiib thii (Khaamoshi / Kishore Kumar / Hemant Kumar) :  Aradhana was sweeping across the country when this simple, poignant film came out. Kishore is at his best here in this masterly Hemantda composition. The choral effects are spell-binding.

 

3. zi.ndagii kaisii hai pahelii (Anand / Manna Dey / Salil Chowdhury)
4. kahii.n duur jab din Dhal jaaye (Anand / Mukesh / Salil Chowdhury)
Anand is a landmark of Hindi cinema, and remains the one film that I think that will remain Rajesh Khanna's claim to fame as an actor. A tragic subject was handled brilliantly by Hrishikesh Mukherji and Rajesh Khanna gave a terrific performance in the title role. Salilda's music matched the spirit. The melancholic mood of Anand is superlatively captured in the words and composition of kahii.n duur ab din while the philosophic elan of zi.ndagii kaisii hai pahelii is captured to perfection by Mannada.

 

5. ye kyaa huaa kaise huaa (Amar prem / Kishore Kumar / R.D.Burman) : Another fine film of Raesh Khanna's career. I enjoyed his performance in this film as well immensely. But the film is more a Sharmila Tagore film and it is to Rajesh Khanna's credit that he played a second fiddle and non-romantic role at the height of his popularity. The songs of the film are well remembered and this is my pick from this track. A well nuanced rendition from Kishore.

6. o mere dil ke chain (Mere jeevan saathi / Kishore Kumar / R.D.Burman)
7. diivaanaa leke aayaa hai (Mere jeevan saathi / Kishore Kumar / R.D.Burman)
Mere jeevan saathi is to my mind the vevery best of R.D.Burman-Kishore Kumar-Rajesh Khanna combination. One brilliant composition follows another in this film. I have to pick two from this track !

8. jiivan se bharii terii aa.Nkhe.n (Safar / Kishore Kumar/ Kalyanji Anandji): This was another tragedy affair but while the film enjoyed huge success, it is nowhere in the leagure of Anand. But again, the film had a bunch of fine songs. This is a persona favorite.

9. zi.ndagii ke safar me guzar jaate hai.n (Aap ki qasam / Kishore Kumar / R.D.Burman): Another memorable creation from the R.D.Burman music room. Kishore Kumar ke kyaa kehne.. beautiful rendition. A mood song..

10. hazaar raahe.n mud ke dekhii.n (Thodi si bewafaai / Kishore Kumar & Lata Mangeshkar / Khayyam): The list started with a Khayyam song and ends with another masterpiece from the same composer. How is that for symmetry?! Rajesh Khanna's halycon days were past when this film came out but Khayyam, some three decades after his entry to Bombay, was starting out on a glorious second inings that wouldinclude his best remembdered creations in Umraao Jaan and Kabhi kabhi. I also am surprised to note that this is the first duet in the list. Just shows thatat his prime, it was all Rajesh Khanna.

A great site for Lata devotees - and Phadke

I recently landed on a site hosting rare Lata songs sorted by composers. Its a great great site for thouse looking to enjoy Lata songs during her peak hears (1948-1960). To repeat, the site is: http://rarelatasongs.in. I found the site had an excellent collection particularly for melodies in the 48-51 phase (which is what I was looking for). Categorization by composers shows that the site owner is a real kindred soul !

I spent some time there yesterday trying to see if there was anything mussing in my collection that the site could help fill. Happily, I as able to locate a few compositions of Sudhir Phadke that I was missing from films like "Gokul kaa chor" and "Ratnaghar". Sudhir Phadke unfortunately received limited success in Hindi films. His compositions, those with Lata in particular, only serve to show that this was Hindi cinema's loss. He of course remained a major figure in the world of Marathi music.

Bhabhi ki choodiyaan is perhaps his best-known film. I think it is one of the few times when a popular favorite also happens to be my favorite. The reason why I consider this to be Phadkeji's best is the greater variety in the melodies in this film and each kind is a composition to treasure. Lata again leads the track of course with such unforgettables as jyoti kalash chhalake and lau lagaatii. But what an impact Asha and Mukesh leave with such beauties as chaa.Nd tuu yahaa.N hai and tum se hii ghar ghar kahalaayaa. It is an outstanding mix of songs and it is almost impossible to not full a tug at the heart when you hear these songs.

A Noorjehan classic

From across the Indian border comes this suprlative composition that has endured as one of my very favorite Noorjehan songs, if not The favotire. Everything about this song is superb, the orchestration and the supreme rendition by the Mallika-e-Tarannum. It is that effortlessness in her rendition that elevates this composition. Supreme!!

Khayyam's "Mohobbat is ko kehte hain"

 

More than a decade ago when I was still pursung rare music in HMV's audio casstettes, I bought one which had songs from two films- Mohobbat isko kehte hain and Shagoon. Both had music by Khayyam. I had of course known Khayyam saab for his music in Sholaa aur shabnam, Umrao Jaan and other 70s ventures but even more so for his superlative non-film ghazals and geets with Talat and Mukesh. Both these films were disasters as far as box-office collections go and to be honest, I think they deserved their fate. At least, the former did. I saw it on Doordarshan some years back and it was a pain to sit through the film. But the songs are in a different league.

Lets start with Mohobbat isko kehte hain. The soundtrack is sheer megic with a combination of Rafi, Mukesh and Suman Kalyanpur doing the magic. My favorite songs from the film in descending order:

5. merii niGaah ne kyaa kaam laajavaab kiyaa (Mohd Rafi) : This film was released at a time when the Shammi Kappor-Shankar Jaikishan-Mohd Rafi brand of music was rooling the roost. But Rafi demonstrates his versatility by rendering this song in such a beautifully soft and romantic way.

 

4. itanaa husn pe guruur naa huzuur kiijiye (Mukesh) : A sheer delight of a song that was picturized on the comedian of the film. Mukesh is in fine form (as he usually was with Khayyam). I find it remarkable that even in such happy songs, Khayyam introduces a whiff, just a whiff, of melancholy with his orchestration. I lik it immensely.

3. ham se hotii mohobbat tumako (Suman Kalyanpur & Mukesh): Mukesh has rarely sounded as romantic as he does here. The song is a sheer delight with a brisk pace and Khayyam's seemilgly simplistic style that however digs deep, deep into your heart. Sheer magic !!

2. Thahariye hosh me aa luu.N (Mohd Rafi & Suman Kalyanpur) : Oh my !! What a melody this is.. Rafi and only Rafi could have rendered this with such gentleness, romance and that masculanity. Suman does her best to match up but Rafi is on another stratosphere. No wonder it endures as one of Rafi's most memorable renditions. And Khayyam saab- how is it that even in this oh-so-romantic song, you still make me fight to hold back tears?

1. jo ham pe guzaratii hai (Suman Kalyanpur): A surprise for some perhaps. Its a close thing between this song and the earlier duet but Suman's solo in this film captures everything I love about Khayyamsaab's music. Its simplicity of pesentation, focus on sheer melody, depth of emotions and a composition that immediately wrings your heart. Its Suman's best in my books. She is no Lata-clone here but distinctly Suman.

 

My Shagoon favorites follow in the next post.. but hope you enoyed these melodies.

Melodies from Kerala

It is heart breaking to see the current state of cinema in Kerala, not too different from the state of West Indian cricket today. I think of the likes of Viv Richards and Clice Lloyd and Micheal Holding and Malcolm Marshall and all thouse giants who dwarfed the rest of the world not very long ago, and then I look at their team today. Its sad.

Tme same is equally true of Malayalam films. Not very long ago – perhaps about 10-15 years ago, I was hooked on Malayalam films. Despite being a Tamilian having very limited knowledge of the Malayalam language, I enjoyed the tremendous variety and quality of films that came in. Mohanlal was my favorite and I savoured his films be it the comic fare (the films with Srinivasan, Priyadarshan) or his more dramatic fare- Bharatham, Pavithram, Dasaratham and the like. Apart from the quality of the films themselves, the music of the films was also most memorable and the picturizations of songs just superb. You usually had very few songs in a film – maybe 3 or 4- and they were usually back-ground songs.

I was just enjoying such a song today – and it really fills me with longing for an age that has rushed by..

Yesudas was obviously the Voice Premiere of Malayalam cinema – and has been so for a long long time now. Many of his songs are now landmarks of Indian cinema.

souparnikaamrutha from Kizhakunarum pakshi cast a spell over me. I had to keep listening to it again and again.  Very tastefully picturized too..

I think Kerala also benefitted from the compositions of many of the legendary music composers of Indian cinema. Salil Chowdhury was of course a household name there but Naushad also tried his hand there and I thought the result was great – much superior to his later output in Hindi films. Consider this melody..

But I think it is fair to say that Raveendran was the heart of the great Malayalam music of the time. He has created some of the finest songs but this song from His Highness Abdullah will perhaps be his definitive creation.. a milestone of Malayalam cine music

To round off, two of my most favorite songs from the same film Pavithram which also highlight the point I made earlier about the picturization of songs in Malayalam films in that period.. background with the story developing through the song. Both are brilliant compositions and I consider them to be amongst the most beautifully picturized songs ever

Reliving Salil magic

Two posts in one evening - a record of sortatcs for me. Just catching up on old favorites on Youtube..

One of this is one of my great favorites of Bengali music- jodi kichuu amaar shudaai rendered by Shyamal Mitra for Salil Chowdhury.. this is one of those songs that make you feel helpless. You feel lost.. its very unsettling. There is something deep within you tat resonates to the composition.. the rendition. This is the magic of great music. The ultimate experience. A great composition meets a great voice and magic is created.

The fact that it is not just about the composition is underscored when you hear the same composition transposed to Poonam ki raat - dil taDape taDapaaye. After listening to the Bengali version, it is almost insulting to having hear the Hindi version. Rafi is a great singer but Salil compositions have never been his strong points and I always get the feeling that Salilda seemed to make Rafi sing to mock his singing abilities. Hearing Rafi sing this song is a real pain..

But there is a remedy. Just dont listen to this song. Give a repeat hear to Shyamal Mitra's magical rendition and cleanse your ears

Kishore's masterpiece - panthii huuN main

I believe I have talked about Kishore Kumar's skills as a composer earlier and if I have, then I would unfailingly have expressed my deep, deep admiration of a masterpiece from Door kaa raahi, pa.nthii huu.N mai.n us path kaa. This post is only about that song because it is playing on my upgraded Mac OS X (Lion) system right now and I feel tears welling up again as I hear the melody play out.

Songs such as this capture the deep sensitivity of Kishore Kumar, a factor that he appeared to conceal by performing diametrically opposite characters in films. This glorious song is perhaps the brightest gem of the literal treasure of melodies that Kishore created in this off-beat film that ffew cared to watch. Its the store of a man in search of himself.. it stays away from adding any glitter-glamour of the typical Bombay film world. Its a throwback to the simplistic mode of films perfected by Bimal Roy and leter Hrishikesh Mukherjee albeit without any major leading heroes and heroines of the time barring Tanuja to an extent.

panthii huuN mai.n is beautiful poetry written in pure Hindi by A.Irshad. Kishore has brought to life the words through a brilliant composition that relies almost entirely on a simple, minimal Indian orchestra -mostly sitar, violin and the tabla. The prominence is on the emotional depth of the rendition,Kishore does what you would typically expect only a Lata or Talat or Mukesh to do - just pull the tears to your eyes. It is a depth of rendition that Kishore rarely got the oppurtunity to render during his prime. It is a sad loss.. because you listen even to his lighter romantic songs like vo dekhen to unakii inaayat (Fantoosh) and tum jahaaN jahaaN (Apna haath jagannaath), you realize the potential of the man. You wonder how things would have been if he had gotten to sing more for the likes of Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash.. those masters. But even as a composer of this one song alone, he deserves posterity..

Sheer magic  !!

Chitalkar sings live

Youtube hs ben the source of many many pleasant surprises for me. How many many songs whose picturizations I never imagined I would see appeared there. Sometime back, I had shared my utter delight in seeing a clip of an old televiosion music show where C.Ramchandra sang his sholaa jo bhaDake. You can now imagine my state when I saw some very kind soul sharing BBC recordings of the same legend rendering unforgettable melodies in his own voice.Listening to it, we cant but feel huge regret that the man did not sing more in films. His voice has the dard that makes for happy listening. Of course, the compositions are all the ones we know well and made famous by other singers. But Chitalkarsaab gives the songs his own touch - you dont feel the songs lack anything when he sings them.

Anaarkali's mohobbat aesii dhaDan hai is one of Lata's most beautiful songs but see how CR deals with the song:

Very very nice indeed. Then he takes on aadhaa hai chandramaa from Navrang - and in my view, you cant listen to Mahendra Kapoor again after hearing Chitalkar's rendition:

CR of course was a fairly prolific singer in his own way. Albelaa was one soundtrack that he literally owner But apart from this magnificnt track, there was plenty for us CR fans to delight in. His fun songs in particular had an intoxicating quality about them. One of my favorites is this delight from Baarish.

A true legend !!