Tere saath chal rahe hain yeh zameen - Angaarey

A charming duet from one of S.D.Burman's less successful yet fondly remembered tracks from the early 1950s. Talat and Lata dazzle here, clearly at their respective peaks. Lata sounds deliciously sweet..

Lata - "bahaaren phir bhii aaye.ngii"

One of the finest of Lata's melodies ever. This is indisputably great composer Shyam Sundar's biggest claim to eternal fame. An early Lata voice in all its raw beauty. Cant get enough of this..

"Paava manippu" - A timeless soundtrack

Director Bhimsingh had established a nice team around making simple, family themed melodramas usually starring Sivaji Ganesan in the lead with Savitri, Gemini Ganesan, Devika, Balayya, Ranga Rao, Thangavelu and Chandrababu making regular appearences as well. "Paava manippu" came after "Pathi bhakthi" which was the director's first big success. But this was the film which really established the Bhimsingh theme of "small family stories". And of course, it boasted of sensational music.

Viswanathan Ramamoorthy had delivered brilliantly for Bhimsing in "Pathi bhakthi" but even by their own exalted standards, "Paava manippu" was a stunner. Every song in the track is worth treasuring for centuries and milleniums.. TMS, P.Suseela and P.B.Srinivas all at the peak of their powers. My favorites from this track :

vandha naaL mudhal : TMS is awesome. Kannadasan pens a critical take on humans and even a Tamil illiterate like me is wondered by these words :

paravaiai kaNdaan vimaanam padaiththaan
paayum meengalil padaginaikkandaan
edhiroli kaettaan vaanoli padaiththaan
edhanaikkandaan panamdhanaip padaiththan

A poor translation :

<i>he saw the birds and invented planes
the leaping fishes gave him the idea of boats
echoes he heard and created the radio
what did he see to create money</i>

I have always felt that the last line in the stanza we hear is an edited or a resung version - a badly done one at that. If you hear the stanza, the sound of the last line stands out obviously. What did Kannadasan actually pen in there ? I recall having heard somewhere "madhangaLai padaiththaan" instead of "panamdhanaip padaiththan" (meaning religions or castes). I wonder...

paal irukkum [Youtube] : A superlative Suseela solo going on Devika. The prelude music to the melody is a representative of the composers duo's orchestral finesse and the reason why they were such a revolution in Tamil cinema. So breezy, yet it hits you where it should.

aththaan ennaththaan : Perhaps the most famous Tamil song ever. Lata Mangeshkar's statement at the time to this song being one of her favorites raised this song's popularity all over the country and it has acquired a cult status, a song synonmous with the romance of a shy girl. Wonderful lyrics . superlative composition and subdued orchestration and beautiful singing.. perfection.

Other superb songs in the track include TMS' "silar siripaar silar azuvaar" and P.B.Srinivas' "kaalangalil aval vasantham". It is interesting that though this film has Gemini Ganesan in just a supporting role, the PBS song has become the definitive Gemini Ganesan song. No retrospect of PBS or Gemini Ganesan can ever be complete without a mention of this hugely popular melody.

A stellar soundtrack.. one of my all-time favorites !!

Jab jab phool khile tumhe yaad kiya - Shikast

A stunning beauty from Shankar Jaikishan during the pair's creatively peak years of the early 1950s. Lata and Talat sang a number of songs for SJ during this period and this duet is one of their very best. One of the definitive melodies of the time..

Noorjehan "Badi mushkil se" _ Lakhon me ek

A Pakistani song for a change. Noorjehan of course is the singer. I have heard and much enjoyed the song earlier. Nice to see it here..

Sapno ki suhani duniya ko - Shikast

One of Talat's most beautiful melodies in a film that is sadly forgotten today. I thought it was one of the best Dilip Kumar films of the time. Nalini Jaywant looks lovely as ever. Talat sounds his best and goes perfectly on Dilip. A melody forever

Reducing the size of a movie file for Youtube

I am rather new to uploading files on Youtube. I love the site and hence was surprised at how long it took to upload a song I had extracted from the "Garam coat" VCD movie. Took forever. On investigating, I found that the size of the song file was over 30MB !! No wonder it took so long. Then started my hunt to find tools that compressed a movie file on Windoze. I know a few apps on the Mac which could do this but not on Windoze. I downloaded plenty of apps which promised to do this but either they were too unfriendly or just didnt work. Finally, I was referred to this great tutorial where the author demonstrates how you could use the inbuilt Windows Movie Maker for this. I then experimented by reducing the size of this song to just 3MB and it worked just great. So a big thanks to the author of the tutorial..

Man mein kisi ki - Aaraam

My all-time favorite song can now be viewed on Youtube. Lata is sweet as honey, piano just out of this world, Madhubala so fresh and lovely though she falls short on acting the song on screen. Enjoy this song..

Anilda - thou art my God !

Yeh kis manzil pe le aayee - Main Suhagan Hoon

A wealth of videos of rare, old songs is available on Youtube. I will link to some of the ones I found and much enjoyed. Hope you like em as well. Thanks go to the kind souls who shared these videos with the rest of the world.

A delicious Talat gem. This is from a 1966 film and Talat's voice was still good enough to lend the perfect ambience to rhis melody. This shows that had the music of the times been along the lines of the 50s when Talat dominated, we could well have seen Talat's career continue with success till the late 1960s.

"Milan"- a classic soundtrack

Watched the 1946 Dilip Kumar starrer “Milan” again yesterday and lived through the gorgeous Anil Biswas melodies all over again. There is no question that this is amongst the greatest of all Anilda sioundtracks and belongs to the top league of soundtracks like “Taraanaa”, “Aaraam” and “Kismat” by the same man. Parul Ghosh rules the track with four stunners and Shankardas Gupta, if I remember right, makes his first appearence in Anilda's music.

The film starts with a very young Dilip Kumar walking down the street and hearing "gun gun gun gun bole bha.Nvaravaa" being sung by his lady love - rendered so beautifully by Parul. You can almost feel a gentle breeze wafting across you when you hear Parul singing this song, so effortless and simple is her style. Then that masterpiece of a melody "suhaanii beriyaa biitii jaaye".. what a song that is !! Parul breezes through the melody.. at her best. The two other Parul songs are heavier, more melancholic but no less beautiful. "mai.n kisakii laaj nibhaauu.N" captures the dilemma of the heroine to a nicety while "jisane banaadii baa.Nsurii giit usii ke gaaye jaa" is one of my personal favorites. All in all, a veritable Parul Ghosh treasure here. Amidst all these treasures, it may be a trifle difficult to remember the two male-voiced songs in the film "vo kahe.n aap se" and "uupar hai baadriyaa kaarii". The latter is a masterpiece which captures the boatman's philosophy and the composition conveys the dark looming clouds and impending tragedies without going overboard. This is Anilda's genius - he captures the mood of the sequence without resorting to melodrama.


All in all. "Milan" is one of the treasure tracks of Hindi cinema and worth a million hears !

A gorgeous melody.. not as good a picturization

Roshan stands no 3 on my list of best composers for Lata which is no mean feat considering the people just below him are legends like Salil Chowdhury, Sajjad Husain. Sachin Dev Burman, Madan Mohan etc. and one of the prime reasons for this exalted position is demonstrated in the sublime melody from "Zindagi aur hum" - "tuu hamako dekh aur hamaarii nazar se dekh". The song is a musical triumph of Lata's divine singing, Roshan's simplistic, ethereal melody creation and the romantic lyrics. I imagine a moonlit night with Nalini Jaywant gently caressing her lover's hair as he lies on her lap.. a gentle breeze blows across the trees.. Nalini Jaywant because for one she is the heroine of this film (as per the titles) and more importantly, I think she is one of the best emoters to Lata's singing. "Naubahaar" is an example. But I was sorely disappointed to see (thanks to a kind soul at Youtube) that the song was picturized on Chand Usmani and the picturization itself was patchy and hardly as romantic as the song intends to me. Where is the gentleness, that subdued but undoubtable sensuality that the song sings ? Ah well.. just another instance of the picturization and the song being in different directions altogether...

The CR series - held up a bit

I switched jobs last week and going to my new office this week so time has been too insufficient to do sufficent justice to the musical flights of C.Ramchandra during the 1951-55 period I had started. However, I have created a complete list of songs that CR composed during this period - derived of course from the Geet Kosh. I will share this document as well in my next post when I get to expanding on the memorable melodies that this great man created in 1952.

Till then, adieu.

C.Ramchandra - A tribute

Jan 5th was C.Ramchandra's 26th death anniversary. I had wanted to start a run through the musical legend's compositions a little earlier so that at least a start is made by that time. But unfortunately, I got a little busy in other things and I am able to provide a first instalment of my series almost a week after the aniversary. However, that in no way diminishes the intent of the series which is to focus on Annasaab's career through his zenith years of the early 1950s.

What is unique about Annasaab is that while the other leading composers of the day like Naushad only worked with big banners, C.Ramchandra lent his musical talents to all kinds of films - be it for bigger directors like V.Shantaram or for B-grade stunt films of Sheikh Mukhtar. The quality of his music is consistently great regardless of the directors or the stars. His music was the prime reason for the success of films like Albelaa and Khazaanaa.

Lets start looking at the music that C.Ramchandra delivered during his peak years between 1951 and 1955. Each article takes one year at a time and looks at each film he composed during that year and the melodies therein. I hope it is of interest to you :)

1951
Naushad, C.Ramchandra and Husnlal Bhagatram ruled the box office with Anil Biswas the undisputed Emperor who had relinquished the race. C.Ramchandra staked his claims as the Numero Uno in no uncertain as he delivered three stellar soundtracks during the year, one of them becoming a definitive soundtrack of the period. His tuning with Lata Mangeshkar scaled higher peaks. Talat Mahmood entered his musical realm for the first time while he himself had a hugely successful year as a singer. So all in all, 1951 was a very happy year indeed for C.Ramchandra.

Albelaa- There is very little introduction required to this soundtrack. 57 years later, the songs of the film still resound across the country. The marriage bandwallahs still use these songs extensively, feet start dancing of their own accord as the charming Lata & Chitalkar duets play out. The soundtrack also acts as a showcase of all C.Ramchandra's music. There are the fun songs, the sweet, romantic Lata melodies, and the pleasing romantic duets.

Its well known that C.Ramchandra was inspired immensely by Benny Goldman's music and used that form in many of his songs and most successfully in Albelaa. His duets with Lata, diivaanaa ye paravaanaa and sholaa jo bhaDake are both such inspirations. . mere dil ki ghaDii kare Tik Tik Tik and shaam Dhale khiDakii tale are amongst the most popular duets ever, while the now-mandatory Lata solos took the forms of such beauties as dil dhaDake nazar sharamaaye to samajho pyaar ho gayaa and balamaa baDaa naadaan re and that lullaby-of-lullabies dhiire se aajaa rii akhiyan me. Add to those the pure Chitalkar fun in o beTaajii qismar kii havaa kabhii naram and bholii suurat dil ke khoTe. All in all, truly one of all-time great soundtracks.

List of songs :
Gazab kii nii.nd..mahafil me merii kaun ye (Mohd Rafi & Lata Mangeshkar)
dhiire se aajaa rii akhiyan me (1) (Lata Mangeshkar)
diivaanaa paravaanaa shamaa pe aake (Chitalkar & Lata Mangeshkar)
hasiino.n se muhobbat kaa (Chitalkar)
kabhii kaalii ratiyaa.N...o beTaajii qismat kii (Chitalkar)
mere dil kii ghaDii kare Tik Tik Tik (Chitalkar & Lata Mangeshkar)
dil dhaDakae nazar sharamaaye (Lata Mangeshkar)
shaam Dhale khiDakii tale (Chitalkar & Lata Mangeshkar)
balamaa baDaa naadaan re (Lata Mangeshkar)
bholii suurat dil ke khoTe (Chitalkar & Lata Mangeshkar)
dhiire se aajaa rii akhiyan me (2) (Chitalkar & Lata Mangeshkar)
sholaa jo bhaDake dil meraa dhaDake (Chitalkar & Lata Mangeshkar)


Khazaanaa : This Madhubala-Nisar Khan starrer was an amazing cascade of melodies. CR didnt need big banners to inspire him. Always open to experimentation, he used a lot of African folk music sound in the film.

muhabbat pe itanii javaanii na hotii (Lata Mangeshkar) : A typical Lata-CR melody. Focus on just the sweetness of Lata's voice bringing out the coyness of the character.
bam biyaanaa..do diivaano.n ka afsaanaa (Chitalkar & Lata Mangeshkar) : Starts with the sounds of African tribal drums then eases to a typical Lata duet. A very pleasing one at that.
soii soii chaa.Ndanii hai(Lata Mangeshkar) : One of the contenders for the top-10 Lata-CR melodies. A charming, melodious, romantic number. Lata doesnt sound this sweet with any other composer :)
baabaDii buubaDii bam bam bam (Chitalkar & Lata Mangeshkar) : A rock-and-roll style song well before the advent of rock and roll. This is one of my very favorite CR songs because of the sheer energy it exudes but its not noisy at all. Its all about the beats and not the volume. A sheer joy.
dhiire dhiire Gam kaa zamaanaa gayaa (Lata Mangeshkar) : Pleasing chorus backed Lata melody
mujhe tumase bahut hai pyaar (Mohd Rafi & Lata Mangeshkar) : CR always does the Rafi-Lata duets very well. I always get the feeling that he has ordered Rafi not to vent "too much emotions" in his songs which is why perhaps Rafi sounds so restrained and hence unjarring in CR's songs :) While the "Sagaai" duet remains my Rafi favorite melody with CR, this is not too far behind.
ae chaa.Nd pyaar meraa tujhase ye (Lata Mangeshkar) : An absolute stunner. CR was a master at orchestrating his songs and the thrilling violin pieces in the song are worth travelling miles to hear. The way the violin moves after Lata sings "tum bevafaa na honaa" is so wonderful. An easy walk-in to my top 10 CR-Lata list.
zambo chii kolaa..kar de zaraa ishaaraa (Lata Mangeshkar) : One would hardly expect a sad melody when hearing the prelude music to the song. But it turns out to another charming piece.

More to come...

Madan Mohan's best : His first decade

Madan Mohan is a very curious composer in many ways. Distinguished from the beginning as a composer of high quality, today he is toasted as the numero-uno composer for Lata. That of course is not true. But certainly, Madan has weathered time much better than most of his seniors and peers of superior quality. C.Ramchandra and Anil Biswas hardly ring a bell in today's music listeners' ears, but chances are high that Madan Mohan's name will bring a spark of recognition.

While you feel happy for the man who in his lifetime never got his due, it is a little sad to note that the music for which he is receiving accolades today is hardly his best. His post-"Adalat" output is inconsistent, often showing signs of a man trying to live up to an image - the image of a ghazal king. No question that some of his melodies in "Anpadh", "Woh kaun thi", "Mera Saya" et al. But Madan's freshest compositions and his superior ones (IMO), came during the 1951-57 phase with Lata and Talat. Consider the cascade of such brilliant soundtracks as

.. Adaa : Lata's "priitam merii duniyaa me" and Talat's "jis dil me basaanaa chaahaa thaa" make this a track to own and listen to repeatedly.

.. Madhosh : Talat's "merii yaad me" was the first true success of Madan's career and remained one his personal favourites. Talat was hitting the zenith of his career and he sounds simply thrilling here. Lata's melodies like "chhoD mujhe naa jaanaa" and "mujhe ho gayaa tumas epyaar" are overshadowed.

.. Aashiyaanaa : One of Madan's great tracks. Lata had a whole host of unforgettable melodies - "tum chaa.Nd ke saath chale aao", "mere piyaa se koii jaake kahade", "mukh moD naa lenaa saajanaa", "samaa hai bahaar kaa" and the tandem with Talat, "meraa qaraar lejaa" . Then there is Talat's "mai.n paagal meraa manavaa paagal" - one of my very favourite Talat melodies. This is Madan at his very melodious best.

.. Khoobsoorat : Just the two Talat masterpieces "merii raato.n ke" and "mohobbat me qashish hogii" make this a track worth trasuring.

.. Chacha Chodhury : Has Asha ever sounded sweeter than in "mere piyaa chheDe jiyaa" ? A superb melody, sadly ignored even by the legions of Asha devotees.

.. Baghi : "dard ki ae raat guzar jaa", "hamaare baad ab mehafil me", "kahii.n bin aag jale naa paravaanaa" among others make this a veritable Lata-Madan track of desert-island value !

.. Railway Platform : To me, "chaa.Nd madham hai" is a Lata song to die for. It belongs to that category of songs which leave you awestruck, haunted.. you just are lost !! Madan did not make such songs very often.. this is tops !

1957 saw Madan scaling new peaks with "Dekh Kabira Roya" which takes my vote for Madan's greatest ever soundtrack. Madan tries his hand at a variety of musical moods. His classical leanings and his expertise at blending them to a film song come out strongly in "kaun aayaa mere man ke dvaare" and "merii viinaa tum bin roye", typical ghazal tones in "ham se aayaa na gayaa", "ashqo.n se terii hamane" and "tuu pyaar kare yaa Tukaraaye" and the breezy melodies, "ham pa.nchhii mastaane" and "ham bulaate hii rahe". We dont get such overall outstanding soundtracks too often. And look at the singers - Lata, Asha, Geeta, Talat, Manna Dey and Rafi. Almost every top singer of the day.. a treasure indeed !!

To round off the decade, the first and truly golden phase of Madan's career, is "Mohar" - another track with a number of singers together. Lata holds centre spot again with the unforgettable "tum ho saath raat bhii hasiin hai" and the pleasing duet with Rqfi "ae hamasafar bataa de". Hemantda was used very very rarely by Madan - "kho gayaa jaane kahaa.N" was perhaps his only solo for him which is one of Hemantda's well remembered songs. Talat makes it a track to treasure with the glittering "yaad jab aaye terii", a composition cast in the Sajjad style. When I first heard this melody, I assumed the composer to be Sajjad !

Madan had much greater successes perhaps in the next decade but in my opinion, the brilliance of these tracks and others in his first decade were far superior in terms of quality, diversity and fresheness.

"Yaasmeen" - a CR-Lata zenith !

C.Ramchandra is a name that is recalled by most even today, if only for the more popular "Anarkali" and "Albela" soundtracks. But for all the beauty of these tracks, I am most CR fans would vouch for "Yasmeen" as the defining Lata-CR soundtrack. While I generally consider "Sangeeta" a shade superior, when I hear the gentle despair of Lata in "ab vo raate.n kahaa.N", I am tempted - nay, convinced - to rate "Yaasmeen" higher. What a melody it is !! What genius ! What brilliant orchestration, composition and rendition. Simple poetry.. just plain awesome. I had the good fortune to get the video of this song recently. And seeing a ravishing Vyjantimala render the song does no harm at all to the whole musical experience.

CR saab - wherever you are in Heaven, I hope thats the sweetest spot there, for you deserve it so for enriching our lives with such great music. Thank you Sir !

Remembering Hansraj Behl

Hansraj Behl is one of those great composers of the golden age of Hindi film music who once was a well-known name but is now confined to the memory of a few music lovers. His musical genius shines through in a host of classic melodies from the late 40s through to the 60s. He has created something memorable with a number of leading singers of the day. He also has a substantial output in Punjabi cinema. His best compositions were however reserved for Lata though quantity wise, he has worked more with Asha and Madhubala Jhaveri. Amongst male singers, Rafi and Talat have sung many of the legend's memorable compositions.

Here are some of my favourite Hansrajji's creations :

haaye chandaa gaye parades(Lata/Chakori, 1949) : Lata at her sweetest, this is a song that never ceases to delight. The emotions of a young girl in love are so beautifully captured.

saajan kii oT leke(Lata & Rafi/Zeverat, 1949) : This has grown on me to become one of my favourite duets. There is such a vigour to the song, a life to it which is infectious. There is of course a strong Punjabi flavour which is not surprising.

dil e naashaad ko jiine kii(Lata/Chunariyaa, 1948) : This song has Ghulam Haider written all over it. Hansrajji was Masterji's (as Ghulam Haider was called) assistant for some time. A ghazal, this is one of Lata's earliest ghazals and she has rendred it beautifully.

dil meraa teraa diivaanaa(Talat & Madhubala Jhaveri/Apni Izzat, 1952) : An out-of-the world melody that ranks as amongst the finest duets of all time. Absolute melody.. a soft, gentle romantic air fills the air when you hear the singers hold sway. Madhubala Jhaveri is a delight to hear. Innocence and charm all over. Talat is just regal.. has there ever been more romantic a voice ? The other duet by the same singers from this film, pyaar kii rut dora.ngii saajan is equally magnificent.

kisii gariib kaa ghar baadashaah ne luuT litaa(Talat/Chunariyaa, 1948) : A typical Talat blue song.. melancholic and just honey to the ears !

jab raat nahii kaTatii(Lata/Changez Khan, 1956) : Another masterpiece from Lata. Lata's rendition, the orchestration just move you to tears. Soft, deeply moving.. they just dont make em like this any more ! Rafi's "mohobbat zindaa rahatii hai" from this film is much more popular and well-remembered. In contrast to the gentle lament of the Lata song, this is a powerful, forceful cry from the hero asking his love to come to him. Rafi's high-voltage, brilliant rendition makes it a song to be treasured for long.

haaye jiyaa roye(Lata/Milan, 1958) : Now, Lata has sung magnificent songs with the top composers of the day. This song is fit enough to be compared with any song she has sung. It is definitely one of her best songs and is for sure Hansraj Behl's finest composition. The pathos of the song can almost be touched. Its one of those perfect songs. The orchestra is suitably muted allowing Lata to hold forth. This masterpiece came at a time when the older line of composers were slowly being moved out and a few composers only remained in business into the next decade. This thrilling melody just proves that popularity and film's success dont necessarily define the composer's class.

nain dvaar se man me vo aake(Mukesh & Lata/Saawan, 1959) : Another memorable creation, with the duet sung by the lead singers at different paces and two pitches. Mukesh sings in a sad mood at a very low pitch and slow pace and Lata backed by chorus coneys the happier mood, sings at a much faster pace and at a high pitch. Transitions from one mood to another have been done brilliantly too. The film boasts of other memorable numbers also like Rafi-Shamshad duet "bhiigaa bhiigaa pyar kaa samaa" and Lata's "kanhaa chheDo baa.Nsurii".

jahaa.N Daal Daal me sone kii chhiDiyaa(Rafi/Changez Khan, 1964) : Arguably, the most famous and definitely my most favourite patriotic song of all time. The passionate patriotism in the song gives you gooseflesh. Rafi has rendered it as only he can. Magnificent !! Lata's "o diladaar o mere yaar" from this film is also a delightful piece which I heard for the first time recently and its on the top of my Most Played songs list in iTunes for this month :)


Those are some of Hansraj Behl's songs that I treasure. He remains an undersung composer who deserves to be recognized a lot more for his great creations. But then, when you think about it, the biggest achievement of an artist is the longevity of his art. How his creations are remembered in time. In that respect, he is a great achiever all right !!

O.P.Nayyar, the man, is with us no more..

Omkar Prasad Nayyar passed into history yesterday. He was one of those mavericks who created history. He brought a new freshness to film music. It was Nayyarsaab who lent new dimensions to Asha and Rafi. His music was a blend of the east and the west - folk, Indian classical, jazz and symphonies all fused to create the O.P.Nayyar brand of music.

Nayyarsaab was first noticed when he composed for C.H.Atma that unforgettable geet "priitam aan milo". He went on to create a host of classic songs with this singer in films like "Aasmaan" and "Dhaake ki malmal" as well outside films. In fact, Atma's "diyaa to jalaa sab raat re baalam" in "Dhaake ki malmal" remained one of Nayyarsaab's personal favourites. Its a song that immediately displays the unsung facet of O.P.Nayyar - the non-typical O.P.Nayyar. "Aasmaan" was his breakthrough film which had one unforgettable melody after another - Atma's "is bevafaa jahaa.N me", "sach samajh nahii aae" and "raat suhaanii ha.nsate taare", Geeta's "dekho jaaduu bhare more nain" and "pom pom pom baaje" and Rajkumari's magnificent "piyaa aa na sake more nainan me". Each song a treasure.

He created the Nayyar-sound, the very typical melodies which combined the usage of the saarang, the electric guitar and the harmonica, with Guru Dutt's "Aar paar" in 1954. "ye lo mai.n haarii piyaa", "sun sun sun zaalimaa", "mohobbat kar lo jii bhar lo" and the ever-touching "jaa jaa jaa bevafaa" were instant successes catipulating Nayyar into star-composers league. He followed it up with "Mr & Mrs 55" (1955) and C.I.D (1956). B.R.Chopra then roped in Nayyar to compose for "Nayaa daur". The film was a musical treat and showcased Nayyar's flair for Punjabi folk music. He created some of the most popular bhangras ever in "uDe jab jab zulfe.n terii" and "ye desh hai viir javaano.n kaa". Tune in next to the ever-popular "maa.Ng ke saath tumhaaraa" - one of Nayyarsaab's earliest "ghodaa-gaadi" songs. In the same film, he turned in one of the most moving devotional songs ever - "aanaa hai to aa raah me".

If you noticed, Asha Bhosle had crept into Nayyarsaab's music room by this time. The two combined first in "Mangu" and though Nayyarsaab used Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum occasionally later, he had fallen completely for Asha's vocals. The two created a treasure of compositions that stand out as amongst the best ever. In my books, Asha-OPN is the third best combo ever (Lata's combos with C.Ramchandra and Anil Biswas taking the first two).

"Nayaa daur" fetched Nayyarsaab his first Filmfare award and he was on top of the music world. Then inexplicably, things started going awry. "Do Ustaad" and "Jaali note" flopped. And though "Tumsaa nahi dekha" was a success, it needed S.Mukherji's "Ek musaafir ek haseenaa" to resurrect Nayyarsaab's career. I rate this film as the best of O.P.Nayyar. This was music - classy and wonderful, yet so popular. Rafi and Asha were at their best. Have they ever sounded as romantic as in "aap yuu.N hii agar ham se milate rahe" ? Has Rafi sounded as romantic as he did in "mujhe dekh kar aap kaa muskuraanaa" ? What melodies !!

The 60s were the "chocolate" years of Hindi films - sweet romantic fluffy stories with little substance, sweet looking heros who couldnt act.. and all built on music. It was O.P.Nayyar's music that made stars out of non-actors like Biswajeet and Joy Mukherji. "pukaarataa chalaa huu.N mai.n" is what we remember Biswajeet for while "ba.ndaa paravar thaam lo jigar" is Joy Mukherji's definitive cinematic moment.

Compare what O.P.Nayyar composed for the ebullient Shammi Kapoor in "Tumsaa nahi dekhaa" and "Kashmir ki kali" with Shankar Jaikishan's songs for the same actor. While S-J thought Shammi was about loudness, OPN brought so much melody and softness to his songs while still being very ebullient. Which is why a "ye chaa.Nd saa roshan cheharaa" is so much more memorable than a "diivaane kaa naam to puuchho" which had Rafi just bellowing the lines.

However, the Nayyar wave was about to collapse. He broke off with Rafi in the late 60s and got Mahendra Kapoor to sing most of his songs. And finally, in 1972, Asha also broke away from him literally ending his career. It was an impact as huge as Lata's on C.Ramchandra. "chain se ham ko kabhii" was Asha's swan song for the great composer. We dont know if there is any deeper significance to those words, but the fact is that O.P.Nayyar was never the same without Asha.

So how will history remember Nayyarsaab ? As a composer par excellence ? As an arrogant man who bowed to none and had fights with a number of film makers ? As the creator of some of the most loved and popular melodies of all time ? Whatever it may be, there is no question that we owe Nayyarsaab lots of thnak-yous for bringing so much joy into our lives with his music. For that reason alone, he will remain a legend - never to be forgotten.


My 10 favorite O.P.Nayyar melodies (in no order) :

1. diyaa to jalaa sab raat re baalam (C.H.Atma / Dhaake ki malmal / 1956)
2. ae dil hai mushqil jiinaa yahaa.N (Md Rafi & Geeta Dutt / C.I.D / 1956)
3. Gariib jaan ke ham ko na tum (Md Rafi & Geeta Dutt / Chhoo mantar / 1957)
4. pyaar par bas to nahii hai (Talat Mahmood & Asha Bhosle / Sone ki chidiyaa / 1958)
5. dekho qasam se dekho qasam se (Md Rafi & Asha Bhosle / Tumsa nahi dekha / 1959)
6. aap yuu.N hii agar hamase (Md Rafi & Asha Bhosle / Ek musaafir ek haseenaa / 1962)
7. jaaiye aap kahaa.N jaaye.nge (Asha Bhosle / Mere sanam / 1964)
8. diivaanaa huaa baadal (Md Rafi & Asha Bhosle / Kashmir ki kali / 1964)
9. ba.ndaa paravar thaam lo jigar (Md Rafi / Phir wahi dil laya hoon / 1965)
10. chain se hamako kabhii (Asha Bhosle / Pran jaaye par vachan na jaaye / 1971)

Piano in Hindi film songs

The piano was one of the rather oft-used instruments in the Indian film melodies of the 1940s and 1950s. This may be attributed to Tagore's love of the piano which manifested itself in his Rabindra Sangeet and as most of the early pioneers in orchestration like R.C.Boral and Pankaj Mallick were Bengali, that might well be the source of the inspiration.

I love the sound of the piano and feel it adds so much melody and beauty to the song. Even a simple tune becomes more appealing when the dulcet tones of the piano are added to it. Piano found a prominent place in the orchestra of most music directors of the time. In those days when the Victorian British influence on Indian society was still heavy, the piano used to be a common instrument in most upper-class households and the various rich-poor romances of the time provided ample scope for the usage of the piano. Either the boy or the girl would exhibit their happiness or their pathos on the piano. A good thing.. what melodies were created using the piano !!

I am not sure when was the first time piano was used in films. But I recall "rut hai suhaanii" from "Street singer" composed by R.C.Boral which had some lovely piano tones. Then there are a host of Pankaj Mallick songs which have a strong piano base. But in Bombay, I think it is safe to attribute much of the popularity of the piano to Anil Biswas.

It is for no reason that Anilda is called the pioneer of the orchestra in Hindi films. Recall the glorious "ek duniyaa basaa le" from "Basant" ? What an outstanding song and something that enthralls even today. The years that followed saw Anilda create plenty of magnificent songs on the piano including arguably the finest ever song on the piano - Lata's "man me kisii kii priit basaale". But thats not to be little the magnificent "tumhaare bulaane ko jii chaahataa hai" from "Laadli" and Mukesh's "ae jaan_e_jigar dil me samaane aajaa" from "Aaraam" again. Both these are right up there in the "greatest evers" list as well. Meena Kapoor's "bhiigii bhiigii raat aaii" is also very special. Talat's "jiivan hai madhuban" from "Jaasoos" is also pleasing.

Naushad Ali achieved his first success with songs based on UP folk songs in "Rattan". His piano songs in "Andaaz" - four in all and all rendered by Mukesh - were big hits. But to my mind, only "ham aaj kahii.n dil kho baiThe" as a real piano melody and is my favourite song from the film. And who can forget the memorable Talat-Shamshad duet "milate hii aa.Nkhe.n dil huaa" from "Baabul" ? However, to me, Naushad's piano melodies dont have the finesse and "class" which Anilda's songs had. Of course, there are exceptions - Rafi's "ae husn zaraa jaag" from "Mere mehboob" for example.

The piano melody that stands out in my mind as being the one closest to matching Anilda's magic is Roshan's "Anhonee" masterpiece for Talat in "mai.n dil huu.N ek aramaan bharaa". One of Talat's most popular songs, Roshan's usage of the piano is masterly. There are however not too many other piano songs Roshan has composed. Madan Mohan also does not have too many piano songs - "ham pyaar me jalane vaalo.n ko" from "Jailor" starts with piano pieces but finally has little to do with the piano.

S.D.Burman is not highly regarded for his orchestration - and I cant recall any memorable piano melodies from him. Shankar Jaikishan however has a few but the most beautiful piano piece was the prelude to "miTTii se khelate ho baar baar kis liye" from "Patita". Just beautiful ! Then the beautiful "aa jaao taDapate hai.n aramaa.N". But again, this is not really a piano song - the instrument only preludes the song and doesnt play much of a role thereafter.

Khayyam has composed a few exquisite melodies on the piano - "jiit hii le.nge baazii ham tum" is one of the greatest duets of all-time and the usage of the piano there illustrates what I said about the piano enhancing the song. A superb composition, beautiful renditions and then the piano.. superb. The other superb piano piece worth treasuring is Talat's soft-as-a-whisper romantic "gar terii navaazish ho jaaye" from "Gulbahaar". Another brilliant, waltz-like composition, brilliantly rendered.. and the piano WOW ! And I must mention Talat's non-film "kyaa itanaa bhii adhikaar nahii" which again has awesome piano notes. "Shagoon" had "tum apanaa ra.njho Gam" which is another winner.

Typically, Sajjad Husain presented a very different kind of piano presentation in "Sangdil" for Talat - "kahaa.N ho kahaa.N mere". Here the piano, in contrast to the usual gentleness, is almost raging here mirroring the despair of Dilip Kumar on screen. Its an outstanding song..

O.P.Nayyar composed for Rafi "aap ke hasiin rukh pe" in "Bahaaren phir bhi aayegi" and "puuchho na hame hamn un ke liye" for Asha Bhosle in "Mitti me sona" - both of which are all-time classics. Ravi's "chalo ek baar phir se" in "Gumraah" in Mahendra Kapoor's voice is one of his bests.

One of the last times we saw the piano used on screen was in "Kati patang" where Kishore Kumar croons "pyaar diivaanaa hotaa hai". But the tone had become louder and somehow, the old gentleness of the piano was missing. And by the mid-1970s, the piano had faded away completely from the movies. Today, we hardly ever get to hear original instruments on screen, most sounds are synthesized. And so is sadly the piano. The image of a hero or a heroine behind the piano will almost forever be an abiding image of the 1950s and 60s.

Viswanathan Ramamoorthy classics : Paarthaa pasi theerum

I have generally been talking mostly about Hindi film music on this page. While Hindi film music does dominate my listening spectrum, I do spend a lot of time with music from films made in other languages of the country. I am particularly fond of Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada music. Starting today, I will be spending some time with a few magnificent soundtracks from one of the finest composing duos of Indian cinema history - Viswanathan Ramamoorthy. The duo came together in 1951 and started as assistants to Subbiah Naidu. They got their first breaks as independent composers with "Panam" and that as they was it. They revolutionized Tamil film music and attained peaks of excellence that compare favourably with anything created at Bombay. They catered to all sections of the society. Their music was based on melody and lightness of execution. The hallmark of their compositions was their orchestration which a sheer delight. They used the flute and violin in particular to great effect in their music. In fact, to me, they fall in same bracket as C.Ramchandra when it comes to orchestration. Fresh and dazzling always. The duo split in 1965 after a wealth of unforgettable creations and plenty of outstanding soundtracks. I shall spend some time looking at some of their wonderful tracks from today.

We start with Bhim Singh's Paarthaal pasi theerum, another film in the "pa" series of the director which usually had Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan and Savitri as leading stars with a mix from Chandrababu, Thangavelu, Ranga Rao and Ballaya playing the supports. It was one success after another and almost all of these films were orchestrated by the composing duo. This film I choose because the songs have been haunting me all day today..

1) paartaal pasi tiirum : A typically soft, P.Suseela melody which just wafts through the air.

2) yaarukku maapiLLai yaarO : A delightful song. The "o..o.." fillers in the song sound ever so charming in Suseela's voice.

3) koDi asaindadum kaaTru vandadaa : This song is a delight to hear. A romantic song around the "chicken-or-egg" question. The lyrics are superbly imaginaive, typically Kannadasan. A sample :


paaDal vandadum taaLam vandadaa
taaLam vandadum paaDal vandadaa
baavam vandadum raagam vandadaa
raagam vandadum baavam vandadaa
kaN tirandadum kaaTchi vandadaa
kaaTchi tirandadum kaN vandadaa
paruvam vandadum aasai vandadaa
aasai vandadum paruvam vandadaa


It never ceases to enchant. TMS and P.Suseela are also in top form here. The orchestration is magnificent. The interlude music is beautifully done. One of the all-time great duets..

4) uLLam enbadu aamai : This song has grown on me over the years to become one of those songs which I can keep hearing again and again all the time. What a magnificent creation this is ! TMS is brilliant, the composition wonderful, lyrics soulful and the orchestration outstanding. And to top it all is Sivaji on the screen. Confessedly rather bloated in the film, what remains etched in memory is the way Sivaji lives the song. Every movement, every look he gives in the song captures the meaning of the song superbly. Its Sivaji the actor you see in your mind as this song plays. The sardonic smile he gives as he sings, "adu naaTpaDa naaTpaDa puriyum" is somethign I always remember. One of my all-time favourite songs and one that can be held out as a representative philopsophical song of pathos.

5) piLLaikku tandai oruvan : Again, a song beyond adjectives. A lullaby that stands out as one of the finest of all times. There arent too many male-sung lullabies and this rannks as perhaps the greatest of em all. The violin interludes are out of this world. This I think where Ramamoorthy came into the picture. The primary difference between the music of Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy and MSV on his own are the orchestral touches. MSV's brilliant compositions found a perfect match in TKR's orchestration. Once they seperated, MSV's music lost tier orchestral brilliance while TKR wasnt a great music creator. In any case, This song is definitely amongst TMS' very bests. A song forever...

All in all, this track is a veritable feast for TMS-P.Suseela lovers. Both are in top form and the compositions exploit their abundant talents to the hilt. A superlative soundtrack worth treasuring forever...

iTunes track busters

Starting this week, every fortnight I will be posting the top 10 songs in my iTunes music play list sorted by play count - meaning the songs most often played during that fortnight. Interesting.. yeah..

So here is the list on 15 Oct 2006 :


1. man me kisii kii priit basaa le (Lata Mangeshkar / Anil Biswas /Aaraam / 59)
2. naa umiid hoke bhii (Lata Mangeshkar / C.Ramchandra / Sangeetaa / 53)
3. jogii re..tuu sach batalaa mujhe jogii (Lata Mangeshkar / Jaidev / Joru Ka Bhai / 52)
4. aa ga_ii.n fir se bahaare.n aa ga_ii.n (Talat / Khayyaam / Non Film / 49)
5. ro ro biitaa jiivan saaraa (78 RPM version)(Talat / Khayyaam / Non Film / 48)
6. bigad ga_ii kyo.n merii taqadiir banate banate (Lata Mangeshkar / C.Ramchandra / Saudaagar / 47)
7. kaun kahataa hai tujhe (Talat Mahmood / Khayyaam / Non Film / 47)
8. mere fuulo.n me chhipii hai javaanii (Lata Mangeshkar / Anil Biswas / Anokhaa Pyaar/ 43)
9. dil kii duniyaa basaa gayaa hai kaun (Talat Mahmood / Non Film / 43)
10. jab se milii hai nazar dil hai meraa (Lata Mangeshkar / C.Ramchandra / Sangeetaa / 42)
11. udhar se tum chale aur ham idhar se (Mohd Rafi & Lata Mangeshkar / C.Ramchandra / Sagaai / 42)
12. man kare yaad vo din ( Kishore Kumar / Salil Chowdhury / Aakhri badlaa / 41)
13. CheD gayo mohe sapane me (Lata Mangeshkar / C.Ramchandra / Jhaanjhar / 39)
14. meraa pyaar mujhe lauTaa do (Talat Mahmood / Non Film / 39)
15. o aasamaan vaale shiqavaa hai zi.ndagii kaa (Lata Mangeshkar / C.Ramchandra / Anaarkali / 37)
16. terii galii me koii diivaanaa (Lata Mangeshkar / C.Ramchandra / Sangeetaa / 37)
17. kise maaluum thaa ek din (Talat Mahmood & Lata Mangeshkar / C.Ramchandra / Saaqi / 37)
18. sitaaro.n chaa.Nd se kahado (Lata Mangeshkar / Anil Biswas / Badi bahoo / 36)
19. ye jhilamil karate hue diye ( Talat Mahmood / Roshan /Anhone / 36)
20. ae andaliib_e_zaar jaane ko hai bahaar (Talat Mahmood / Non Film / 36)


I think most of these songs would turn up again in the next list this month end. But again, who knows..