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 !!

That sublime melody again..

Oh oh oh.. I found the video of that sheer-magic song sunaa tuu man kii biin par from Ram Hanuman Yudh on Yuotube. A musical triumph from S.N.Tripathi and Lata that takes you to sublime levels of tranquility. A sense of peace that only truly great music can bring.  The quality of the song in the video is also better than what I have so its much more of a listening pleasure.

Listen to the song from the 3:35 time of the video.

Sublime melody

Luck eluded them

The late 1940s through the early 1950s was a harsh period. It dealt cruelly with many many musical folks, Talented artistes who came with dreams of being among the constellation of stars in the musical sky of cinema. But there was room for only a few, so most faded or disappeared altogether. When you listen so the creation of some of those artistes today, you are filled with anguish that we could not get more music from them. Apparently, there were close to 100 music directors vying for survical. It was eventually the suvival of the luckiest. That is not to belittle those who survived. Not at all. How can one grudge the likes of Naushad and Sachind Dev Burman and Salil Chwodhury the success they achieved. They were truly great composers who deserved the success they received. But think of sapanaa ban saajan aaye- one of the greatest Lata melodies of all time. Lata is of course a phenomenon but who remembers Jamal Sen, the man who composed the song? The same Jamal Sen was the man behind one of the greatest soundtracks of our films – Daayeraa, a Nasir Khan-Meena Kumari film directed by Kamal Amrohi. Each song in that heavy, morose film is a treasure. Has there ever been a better bhajan in films than devataa tum ho meraa sahaaraa? I tell you- no. Not all the great bhajans that Lata or Asha sang can match the depth and beauty of this song. And whose was the glittering voice that rendered this song? Ah Destiny. That the voice behind this most magical of songs should remain unsung. Give it a listen:

Isnt that mgic? Mubarak Begum sang that song and at least for the conneisseurs, signed herself for eternal memory. But the crulety of fate becomes more evident when you listen to her other sublime renditions from the same film- suno more nainaa, diip ke sa.ng jaluu.N mai.n, jalii jo shammaa to.. each song worth going miles and miles to hear.. worth spending a trasure to own. Outstanding compositions and superb renditions.. its just not fair that Mubarakji was never utilized to any great extent further. Snehal Bhatkar provided her with one of the few real successes of her career in Hamaari yaad aayegi- kabhii tanhaaiyo.n me yuu.N. Again, a splendind song. But for me, Daayeraa remains her greatest achievemt and not even Lata could have provided the life that Mubarak provided to words of those songs.

And while on Daayeraa, it is also worth recalling the three superlative Talat solos that Jamal Sen created in this film- aa.Nsuu to nahii hai aa.Nkho.n me, aa bhii jaa merii duniyaa me koii nahii and ae chaa.Nd sitaaro.n. All of them sheer classics and rank among the finest solos of Talat. Ah Destiny..

My favorite "chaaNd" songs

The moon is one of the favorite metaphors fused by our filmi poets. They use it to describe the beauty of the heroines, the same heroines beseech the satellite to look after love of their hart or send messages to him and the same moon looms large in the skies as the tears flow from the heroines' eyes.

Amongst the multitude of "chaand" songs, I selected ten of those which I am enjoying most at the present. I have made a small slide-show of this list here:

Hope you like it !

Khayyam saab's magic

As I browsed through Youtube today (a daily search that I make to discover any rare songs that I missed earlier), I found this lovely piece of Lata singing a portion of her wonderful "jiit hii le.nge baazii" duet with Rafi in "Sholaa aur shabnam". I daresay I have heard it earlier but it made a resounding impact on me as I heard it today. No instruments, just pure Lata. The effect is simply magical !!



See the full duet in all its glory:

Seergazhi at his best - "Padikaada mEdai"

I am back after a while- and surprisingly enough, it is Seergazhi Govindarajan who forces me out of this lull. Seergazhi is not one of my favorite singers- not by a long way. I mock him a lot saying he has this "constipated" way of singing.

But of course, he had a great range and one of those true Tamil singers. This song is a triumph. Bharathiyar's poetry is taken to great heights by the magnificent music of K.V.Mahadevan and rendition of Seergazhi. A melody forever.

But what elevates the song further is the performance of S.V.Ranga Rao during the song. Tamil cinema was blessed with a whole host of brilliant character actors during that time. The likes of Balayya, M.R.Radha, Thangavelu are all unforgettable even today. Ranga Rao belongs to that league. A natural actor with a booming, unforgettable voice, he loomed large in the world of Tamil cinema as well (in addition to Telugu films) through the 50s and 60s. Sivaji Ganesan and Ranga Rao's exchanges in this film "Padikaada mEdai" is the stuff of legends.

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)