I had talked about Salilda a couple of days back. Now, lets get on to his musical creations specifically. I am going to start with his Hindi output and take it soundtrack by soundtrack.
Do Bheegaa zameen : This was Salilda's first film in Bombay - the story was also his. The film went on to win international accolades and established Bimalda as one of the premier directors of the country. Alongside, it also established Salilda on the national scene. His music was immediately different and much removed from the established melody pattern of the day. Not to say that Salilda's music was not melodious - it was. But Salilda's musical outlook was very different from the others.
The title music of the film is itself brilliant. Salilda went on to gain enormous respect just as a creator of background music. He has composed just the background music for many films including one of the first songless film of India, "Kaanoon".
"dhartii kahe pukaar ke" is the first stunner in the film. Its an amazing composition that was daringly different at the time and proved to be a typical Salilda composition. The song, as Salilda himself pointed out, is inspired from a Russion red-army march song. Its inspiration, not plagiarization. The song starts with Mannada sounding on the inevitablity of marching forward in life..
ga.ngaa aur yamunaa kii gaharii hai dhaar
aage yaa piichhe sabako jaanaa hai paar
Then with a gentle rhythmic beat, the song switches to a robust pace. The brilliant innovation here is the switch to a komal note for the "..mausam biitaa jaaye" lines. Thats pure Salilda genius. Lata then joins in more conventional bhairavi for the antaraa "terii raaho.n me galiyo.n me.." . All in all, a brilliant song..
"aajaa rii aa ni.ndiyaa tuu aa" - When someone referred to "dhiire se aajaa rii akhiyan me" as the greatest lullaby of all times to C.Ramchandra, the master composer scoffed and said that it was this creation by Salil that deserved that honour. CR was not being modest. This melody is really representative of all thats magical about lullabies. Its soft, gentle - just capturing the serenity of the sequence. Lata's first solo for Salilda could hardly have been better ! Sheer magic..
"hariyaalaa saavan Dol bajaataa aayaa" - Salilda has few equals in the matter of creating folk songs. IMO, only Anil Biswas himself could match Salilda in this. But while Anilda was focussed on Indian folk, Salilda had a much wider canvas. He loved folk music from all nook and corners of the world. And he had the ability of keeping his compositions melodious even while capturing the exuberance of the song. This is a masterpiece of a song, brilliant orchestrated. And Manna Dey and Lata sound magnificent.
The other song in the film is "ajab torii duniyaa" is the song I least like in the film. Somehow Rafi always sounds terrible in such songs - Mannada sounds so much better. Salilda did not enjoy Rafi too much - and it would be good few years before he used him again in his films.
There you are. "Do bheegaa zameen" is a wonderful sountrack with three masterpiece compositions. Give it a hear if you havent so far. In fact, give the film a watch. Its a great film with Balraj Sahni outstanding. I cant imagine how he was looked over for the best actor award. Thats filmfare awards for you.
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