Remembering Hansraj Behl: haaye jiyaa roye

Hansraj Behl is easily one of the most under-played music directors ever. I would think he was a fairly popular composer during the late 40s-early 50s because his outptu if fairly high in number. But what makes him very special is that a good portion of that output is of a high quality and some of that is very very high on the list of greatest compositions ever. This song being a case in point.

Lata has combined in quite a few special melodies for Hansrajji. Remember that delectable "haaye chandaa gaye parades" from "Chakori"? Or "jab raat nahii kaTatii" from "Changez Khan"? But this amazing song from the 1958 "Milan" is perhaps their best together, and arguable is Hansrajji's best ever composition. The atmosphere is suffused with stark despair, a deep hopelessness and yet, a sense of peace. Lata sounds so amazing here. It is when you hear such renditions that you understand why Lata is Supreme. I dont think anyone else could have rendered this song so beautifully.

Nalini Jaywant has, in my opinion, lip-syncd amongst the finest songs of Hindi films. In fact, if you cover the songs picturized on her and Madhubala, you would cover most of my personal favorites. "Anokhaa pyaar", "Samaadhi", "Naubahaar", "Naujawaan", "Naaz", "Raahi", "Shikast", "Munimji" etc. are all outstanding soundtracks. "Milan" boasts of two evergreen melodies - this one and "saarii duniyaa se puuchhaa milaa naa nishaa/N". She was a fine actress and a pleasure to view on screen when listening to such great songs.

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Songs and scissors

It was one bleak and black day years ago when the Gramaphone Company of India acquired rights to Tamil cine songs. I am flabbergasted at the apparent deafness of ears these people seem to possess. I was listening to the seminal "mayakkamaa kalakkamaa" on a P.B.Srinivas collection and am again feeling totally frustrated at the HUUUGE chops made to the song. The interlude music gets knocked off, and the antataa (stanzas), whose lines were originally sung twice, are rudely scissored to leave only one rendition available. And the cut sounds so horrible that one can only shed silent tears for P.B.Srinivas and Kannadasan and Viswanathan Ramamoorthy. This is a totally nonsensical treatment of music and particularly music which has azquired such an aura over time.

Of course, our dear music company is not partial. It performs such happy scissoring to plenty of other songs. It does not allow us to enjoy the marvellous prelude music to "onDru sernda anbu maarumaa", listenevrs may never get to listen and appreciate the beautiful use of violins in the prelude of "uDalukku uyir kaaval"... the examples are aplenty. I do not understand why these companies have to revert to such editing? It is not as though they are filling up the CD with plenty of songs. I do not mind getting a couple of songs less - but DONT sacrifice the musical beauty of the song.

Oh well.. I guess its easier to just buy the VCD of the movie and get the music from there - with lower quality perhaps, but at least complete.

Youtube- Rafi & Lata - Zindagi Bhar Nahin Bhoolegi - Barsaat Ki Raat [1960]

An awesome song.. I keep going back to listening to this serene melody now and then and keep rediscovering its magic. While the more popular Rafi solo is great indeed, it is this duet version which has always enchanted me more. Lata sounds glorious and Rafi so soothing. Oh.. and of course, there is Madhubala..

Hmm.. digging into Lata-CR

As I walked through the list of CR-Lata soundtracks, I found that their quality was quite inconsistent. Soundtracks like "Teerandaaz", "Shagoofaa" have a whole host of Lata songs - they are pleasing to hear but rarely register. I think when they were good, the songs tend to be totally sublime. To their credit, the duo hit the peaks fairly often during their time together. But the valleys were also not infrequent. Not "terrible" mind, just average music.

In contrast, I think composers like Anilda and Roshan were more consistent. You usually could bet on at least Lata magical melody per soundtrack. These may not always touch the peaks of the Lata-CR peaks but the output is much more consistent.

Just a passing thought as I listen to "mar mar ke do ghaDii ko" from "Teerandaaz:..

Lata Surveykshan

Vinay Jain has kept on his efforts in setting up polls towards identifying the most popular soundtracks and songs of legendary musical personalities. It was all-composers so far. Now, it is the turn of Lata. The series began with a selection from her solos till 1953. These years being the peak years of maestros like Anil Biswas, C.Ramchandra, Naushad, Husnlal Bhagatram etc., the selection was going to be one helluva job. The selection of thirty songs was almost impossibly tough and I had to tearfully exclude some great favorites from the list.

Vinay announced the results today - and the winning songs were not surprises. "ye zi.ndagii usii kii hai" and "aayegaa aane vaalaa" are at the top. Its pleasing to see three C.Ramchandra songs in the top 10 but very disappointing to see no Anilda there.

My selection of 30 songs are below:

ye zi.ndagii usii kii hai jo kisii kaa ho gayaa
ye shaam kii tanhaaiyaa.N aise me.n teraa Gam
tum kyaa jaano tumhaarii yaad me.n
wo to chale gaye ai dil yaad se unakii pyaar kar
bahaare.n phir bhii aaye.ngii
man me.n kisii kii priit basaale
kaTate hai.n dukh me.n ye din
cha.ndaa re jaa re jaa re
tumhaare bulaane ko jii chaahataa hai
baa.Ndh priiti phuul Dor
miTTii se khelate ho baar\-baar kis liye
sapanaa ban saajan aaye
priit ye kaisii bol rii duniyaa
kaalii kaalii raat re dil ba.Daa sataaye
vo din kahaa.N gaye bataa
mere piyaa se ko_ii jaake kah de
haay cha.ndaa ga_e parades
dil dha.Dake nazar sharamaaye to samajho
hai kahii.n par shaadamaanii
bahaar aa_ii khilii kaliyaa.N
mujh se mat puuchh mere ishq me.n kyaa rakhaa hai 
mere liye vo Gam-e-i.ntazaar chho.D gaye
kaagaa re jaa re jaa re
mil mil ke bichha.D gaye nain 
vo paas nahii.n majabuur hai dil 
kis nazar kaa mast ishaaraa hai zi.ndagii
zindagii bebas hu_ii hai ... o aasamaan waale
duur jaaye re raah merii aaj terii raah se
ai chaa.Nd pyaar meraa tujhase ye kah rahaa hai
naa_ummiid ho ke bhii duniyaa me.n jiye jaate hai.n

But the exercise was good fun. It made me to re-listen to a whole lot of songs that I had not heard in a long while. So, thank you Vinay !

Talat Mahmood - Raat Ne Kya Kya Khwab Dikhaye - Ek Gaon Ki Kahani [1957]

This evergreen magical song has been haunting me for the past week as I try to recover daya from my crashed hard drive. The pace of the song, the lyrics and orchestration are all superb. But ultimately, it is Talat's wonderful singing that makes this song so magical. There is such an apparent ease with which he delivers. A song meant for Talat and Talat only. Magic forever...

Singers tuning themselves

Listening to Mukesh's "kise yaad rakhuu.N", I was wondering how many of our top-league playback singers have tried their hand at composing songs. Mukesh's afore mentioned perennial beauty from "Anuraag" indicates his abilities in this regard. Add to this the other gem from this track "pal bhar kii hii pehachaan"..

Manna Dey was perhaps the most prolific of the lot - he assisted his famed uncle K.C.Dey and Khemchand Prakash in a number of films. He then scored independently for films like "Chamkee", "Tamaashaa", "Sukh rambhaa" among others. "raat mohe miiThaa miiThaa" and "mere chhoThe se dil ko" are two amazing melodies from "Tamaashaa".

To my knowledge, Talat has not composed in films. He is credited with composing at least two of his geets - "Khudaa vo vaqt na laae" and "dil kii duniyaa basaa gayaa hai kaun". The latter is one of his best geets.

Kishore turned in unforgettable music in "Door gagan kii chhaaon me", "Jhumroo" and "Door kaa raahi". All had fantastic Kishore songs and unforgettables from other singers too. Asha's "path bhuulaa ek aayaa musaafir" is a case in point. Kishore's own "panthii huu.N mai.n" is my all-time favorite Kishore solo.

Rafi, Lata, Asha, Geeta - I do not know if they composed anything. Maybe they did, but I have not heard any of them.

Hemant Kumar's name is missing from this list. He holds such a unique position in Indian cinema - the only top-league singer AND a top-league composer. I think of him first as a composer then a singer. But no question - he is perhaps the richest musical personality of our films.

Oh Madhubala!!

Every now and then, I see an old video on the web, more specifically on Youtube, and I happen to see something new or fresh in that most illuminating face of Hindi films, Madhubala. Today it was this unforgattable Hemant-Geeta duet from the film "Police":

chale ham kahaa.N..

Madhubala has cast her spell on me since I saw her in "Taraanaa" about 20 years ago. I still consider "Taraanaa" to be her best film, both in terms of performance and looks. And of coure, the magnificent Anil Biswas-Lata combo helped no end. This is such a delightful scene:

Dilip & Madhubala sizzle on screen

I found myself scourging the web for more of her pictures/stills and found there are so many enthusiastic fans she has in today's world who seem to be more active and creative in declaring their adoration for her than I am. This is a wall paper a fan has created. Its now the wallpaper on my Macbook too :) Than you Sir!

And of course, that she lip-synced my all-time favorite song only adds to her aura:

man me kisii kii priit basaa le (Aaraam)

Tampering with credits - bad, bad

The music forums have been abuzz of late following the credit of the "sar jo teraa chakaraaye" to R.D.Burman instead of S.D.Burman in the film "Road, Movie". S.D.Burman was of course the official music director of the film. Apparently, Guru Dutt's son Arun Dutt has "confirmed" that it was the son who actually created this song and not the father.

For ages now, we have been hearing about not just RDB but other assistants being the actual sources of S.D.Burman's songs. If we to believe everything, then poor Sachinda might end up with a handful of original creations!! But this is the first time that someone has actually tampered with credits officially and that is what is causing the uproar.

"Pyaasaa" is more than half-a-century behind us. Most of the people who were involved in the making of the film are no longer alive. So how can anybody mess around changing official credits of a film. There is no documented evidence of R.D.Burman having composed "sar jo teraa". Changing credits of a song simply based on word-of-mouth is totally ridiculous. Worse, it sets a really dangerous precedent. Not so long ago in one of the TV shows, Hridaynath Mangeshkar mentioned that Roshan had been more responsible for "Anarkali"'s "ye zindagii usii kii hai". So should we start crediting this song to Roshan and not C.Ramchandra based on Hridaynath's assertion? And havebnt we heard that the songs of "Sohni Mahiwaal" were actually Mohd Shafi's compositions which Naushad just bought? Where does truth begin and where does it end? There is no end to debates and discussions. This mukhadaa carries the RDB touch so it must an RDB song, that piece of orchestration is all C.Ramchandra so how can it be Roshan? etc etc.

There was a lot of collaborative music (some healthy and some perhaps not so healthy) done during those times. So discovering credit based on some "experts" is too shallow.

Khayyam - A legend recognized at last

Khayyam, that most under-appreciated and unsung of our great music directors, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by Filmfare. I believe this to be the most redeeming Filmfare moment over the past many years of the Award.

Khayyam has been active in the film world for over sixty years now. It was heart-warming to see him remembering Husnlal-Bhagatram, G.A.Chishti and Pt Amarnath in his speech - all composers whom he assisted during his early years in Bombay. I hve not seen too many composers being so generous. In fact. Khayyam also is most generous in paying tribute to his peers and seniors like Khemchand Prakash, Jaidev, Madan Mohan and Roshan in various interviews in recent years.

Khayyam entered the film world during the years when there was a pantheon of top-notch music directors, many of them whom had carved a niche for themselves. Though his music quickly achieved critical acclaim, the films themselves failed at the box-office. Even "Footpath", which starred superstar Dilip Kumar and boasted of wonderful melodies including "shaam-e-Gam ki qasam" came a cropper. This quickly led to Khayyam being looked on as a jinx. Over the next two decades or so, Khayyam held on. He kept composing any number of bewitching melodies in films like "Gulbahaar", "Phir subah hogi", "Baarood", "Mohobbat isko kahate hain", "Sholaa aur shabnam", "Shagoon", "Aakhri khat" and many, many non-film geets and ghazals with Begum Akhtar, Talat, Mukesh and Rafi. But popularity or box-office success continued to prove elusive.

Came the 1970s and suddenly, Khayyam found himself in the limelight. "Kabhi Kabhi" achieved immense popularity. This was followed by "Trishul", "Noorie", "Thodi si bewafaai", "Razia sultaan" and of course, "Umraao jaan". With minimal comprimises to the more modern musical tastes, Khayyam managed to achieve great popularity with music rooted in the folk and classical elements of Indian music. "Umraao jaan" has become the definitive "ghazal" film of Indian cinema. Say "ghazal" and you cant but think of Asha's mesmerizing vocals in "in aa.Nkho.n kii mastii me". Khayyamsaab's fote has always been the ghazal or the ghazal-numa-geet. Some of my very favorite ghazals include Talat's "kaun kahataa hai tujhe" and Mukesh's "ashaar mere yuu.N to zamaane ke lie hai.n".

Some personal well known Khayyam favorites:
- sojaa mere pyaare sojaa (Asha, Footpath)
- gar terii navaazish ho jaae (Talat, Gulbahaar)
- kaii aese bhii aa.Nsuu hai.n (Lata, Gul Sanobaar)
- ro ro biitaa jiivan saaraa (Talat, non-film)
- aese naa mu.nh chhupaao (Rafi & Lata, Baarood)
- terii duniyaa me nahii koii (Lata, Baarood)
- jo ham pe guzaratii hai (Suman Kalyanpur, Mohobbat isko kahate hain)

My very favorite Khayyam songs (desert-island material) - those two sublime melodies from "Sholaa aur shabnam" - Rafi-Lata's "jiit hii le.nge baazii ham tum" and Rafi's "jaane kyaa Dhuu.nDhatii rahatii hai".

A true legend of Indian film music. I hope the Indian government also steps in and recognizes him with further honors. Congrats Khayyam saab. Thank  you for all the sublime moments you have brought to our lives.

Geetmala ki chhaaon me - First impressions

Ameen Sayani with Saregama released the second installment of the "Geetmala ki chhaaon me GMKCM)" series - a journey through the lesser-ran-but-great songs of the great years of his Geetmala radio series.

The first GMKCM set had three of the five CDs covering the pre-countdown years (mostly 1950-1953) while CDs 4 and 5 focussed on the hit songs of 1954 and 1955 respectively. I had bought this set after a lot of internal debate. I had almost all the songs in my collection and I knew well what were the top hit songs of the years 1954 and 1955. The only incentive was to experience that golden age of Indian film music in the voice of Ameen Sayani himself. I enjoyed the set immensely. You felt you were back in that black and white period where legends of music ruled the roost and melody was queen. Though I obviously was disappointed by the non-inclusion of masterly soundtracks like "Parchhaaian", "Aaraam", "Anandmath", "Raag rang", "Naubahaar" etc.,
I still enjoyed Ameen Sayani's presentation and decided that the set was truly worth it.

I waited for the next set eagerly and bought it quickly enough. At the end of listening to three of the five CDs, I am left feeling disappointed. No - its not a case of too-high-expectations. Some thoughts which may explain this feeling:

1. You can clearly see the sagging overall quality of music in our films and popular taste. Ameensaab cannot of course help this but it does affect the listening pleasure.

2. But I am completely irked by Ameensaab's apparent devotion to Raj Kapoor and to a letter extent, Shankar Jaikishan. He actually played out a song from "Aawaaraa" in CD 2 (meant for songs in 1957) just because people had complained about the film not being mentioned. My dear Sir, why do not you then mention "Parchhaaiaan" too. and "Naubahaar"? Are these lesser soundtracks than "Aawaaraa"? I thought this series of CDs were meant for songs that did not make the hit list. "Aawaaraa" songs certainly make that list dont they? Can any of "Aawaaraa" songs match the sheer bliss that is conveyed by songs like "kaTate hai.n dukh me din" or "dekho jii meraa jiyaa churaaye liye jaae" or "man me kisii kii priit basaa le"?

Then, he played snatches opf all the popular songs from "Basant bahaar" (6 or 7 of them I think) but mentions sadly that only a couple of "Madhumati" songs made the list. Whoa! Why not play snatches of all the "Madhumati" songs pray? "Madhumati" is, arguably, the most popular and universally loved soundtraks ever.

3. Worst of all, I never got that back-in-time experience that the first set conveyed. CD2 of this set is devoted totally to the 2007 function held to release the first set. While it is fine to recall that good occassion, you cant do that for one full CD.

4. The overall presentation of the hit-parade and the "chhaaon" songs was a little chaotic. I never knew if I was listening to a hit-parade song or not.

In summary, the problem with this second set is that it doesnt convey an "experience". You do not feel that you re-lived another age.

A lovely snap

It is not very often that you see a photo of a very animated Lata, even in photos of her younger days. This photo hence is very special! She is caught in perhaps an amusing chat with Anilda as Madan Mohan and Talat look on.