My love for old music in its depths was fuelled by "Baiju Bawra" - and Naushad. That happed about two decades ago. Since then, I have spent a fair bit of time swimming around in the ocean that is old film music. My musical leanings have undergone subtle changes. Naushad has remained a favorite through a lot of those two decaudes and he continues to be amongst my favorites. But he no longer holds such a demi-god image as as he did for me such a time ago. I find a lot of his music repetitive and uninspiring. In fact, post-1955, I would struggle to come up with any Naushad soundtrack I treasure with the glorious exception of "Mughal-e-Azam".
But Naushad's soundtracks during the 1951-1955 period are immortal and ensure the continued reverence of the music director. Of course, his golden run started much earlier. The golden run started with "Rattan" in 1946 and continued till "Udan Khatola" in 1955. Between 1946 and 1951, Naushad created such masterpieces as "Anmol ghadi", "Shahjahan", "Dillagi", "Dulaari", "Dard", "Anokhi ada", "Andaaz", "Chaandni raat", "Elaan" and "Baabul". All of these were runaway musical successes elevating Naushad as the numero uno music director of the day. His music almost guaranteed a film's success.
That aura continued unabated and in an elevated fervour for the next 5 years. Lets look at the unforgettable soundtracks during this period:
Deedaar - One of the massive successes of the time, this film firmly established Rafi and Lata as the singers supreme in Naushad's musical world. Remember that "Babul" in 1950 had Talat Mahmood and Shamshad Begum as the lead vocals. Naushad switched again to Rafi and Lata and this time, the swicth was for good. The melodies are unforgattable - "hue ham jinake lie barabaad", "nasiib dar pe tere", "chaman me rahake viiraanaa", "nazar phero naa hamase", "dekh liyaa maine", "merii kahaanii bhuulane vaale" and that great whiff of joy and tears, "bachapan ke din bhulaa naa denaa",
Aan - Mehboob's magnum opus found a suitable ally in Naushad's grand score. While this soundtrack is not one of of my favorites, one cant but sway to the lilts of "aaj mere man me sakhii", "dil me chhupaake pyaar kaa" and "Takaraa gayaa tumase dil hii ti hai".
Baiju Bawra - this legendary soundtrack requires no introduction from me. It is a milestone in the history of Indian musicals and no question that Naushad played a huge role in bigging classical music to prominence in our films. "Semi-classical" songs became a new genre.
Shabaab - Quickly on the heels of "Baiju Bawra", Naushad attempted to further cement his standing in the classical music idion within the realms of film music. His attempt was successful to a great extent. While not soaring to the heights "Baiju Bawra", the music of "Shabaab" is enchanting and there are a number of Naushad-affecionados who rate "Shabaab" over "Baiju Bawra" as Naushad's best. Again, Rafi and Lata dominate soundtrack but Hemant Kumar makes a rare and unforgettable appearence in Naushad's music with "chandan kaa palanaa resham kii Dorii". Other famous songs from "Shabaab" include "maranaa terii galii me", "yahii aramaan lekar aaj", "man kii been matavaarii vaaje", "jogan ban jaauu/Ngii", "mahalo.n me rahane vaale", "mar gaye ham jiite jii" and "aaye naa baalam vaadaa kaake".
Amar - Mehboob's next offering after "Aan" was totally different. The film was in black and white. There was no grandiose about the film. It was a much more ethnic setting and Naushad was in his element in perhaps his best ever Lata scores. While Rafi sang perhaps the most popular song of the film "insaaf kaa ma.ndir hai ye", all - and I mean ALL - the other songs were sung Lata alone or with chours. The songs were a delightful mix of the folk and "filmy". This is definitely one of Naushad's best soundtracks. Listen to Lata's sweetness in "uDii uDii chhaaii ghaTaa", "uma.ngo.n ko sakhii", "naa shiqavaa hai koii", "tere sadaqe balam naa kar koii Gam", "khaamosh hai khevantaar meraa" and "na milataa Gam to barabaadii". Each song a treasure. This soundtrack really captures the true magic of Naushad - that fusion of folk and the classical. He repeated this again in his next film but after that, he fell into living upto his own image of himself as the Classical Guru of Hindi film music and that meant his music lost a lot of its variety and joy that one can behold in abundance in "Amar".
Udan Khatola - Released in 1955, this marks the boundary when assessing Naushad's creative era. It is amazing that in hindsight, the year 1955 had such huge changes for a number of musical giants of the time. C.Ramchandra's downslide started iatekmmediateky after, Talat Mahmood began to slip down his pedestal also almost immediately, Anil Biswas' own personal turmoils and professional dark years started clouding in, Husnlal Bhagatram started fading away, Suraiya's era was drawing to a close and overall, a new era was arriving in Hindi films. The late 40s through 1955 saw softer films, heroes and heroines who suffered in silence than believing in a revolt.. "Udan Khatola"'s music was utterly fabulous and again, amongst Naushad;s very bests. "meraa salaam lejaa" never fails to make me feel lighter and happy - another sheer joy of a song. Then the masterly Rafi melodies "o duur ke musaafir", "mohobbat kii raaho.n me" and "naa tuufaa.N se khelo" and those unforgettable Lata beauties "ghar aayaa mehamaan koii", "more saiyaa.Njii utare.nge paar ho", "haale dil mai.n kyaa karuu.N" and "hamaare dil se naa jaanaa". A true treasure if ever there was one.
What a host of soundtracks those are. I believe a lot of Naushad's standing is based on these soundtracks. It is not that his following musicals were not successful. "Kohinoor", "Mughal-e-Azam" and "Mere mehboob" were all huge hits but (again excepting "Mughal-e-Azam") they dont excite the senses as much as his above soundtracks do. This legendary music director deserves to be celebrated just for providing us with these soundtracks but then he created much more earlier. A true legend!
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