Mohammad Rafi from A to Z

1 January 2024

Wishing the readers and their friends and families a very Happy New Year with Rafi’s centenary year celebrations (b. 24 December 1924, d. 31.7.1980)

Mohammad Rafi is the undisputed most versatile playback singer of Hindi films. You think of genres – bhajan, qawwali, romantic, patriotic, ghazal – he could do all. There was another unique aspect about his voice – he had the unique ability to modulate his voice to sound like the character he was singing for on the screen, without much conscious effort. He personified Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, and he was the voice of Johnny Walker and Mehmood. His over 4800 Hindi film songs are the most by any male playback singer, leaving the next Kishore Kumar far behind. He is outnumbered by only the two great Mangeshkar sisters – Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.

 

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The Sculptors of Film Songs (10): Van Shipley

21 December 2023

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(Van Shipley earned acclaim for his proficiency in violin and guitar, and he brought out many independent albums of tunes of film songs on these instruments. As such, he was among the well known arrangers and musicians. Yet there is no authentic data of the specific songs in which he played these instruments. Raj Kapoor was highly impressed with him after hearing his violin at a concert and brought him into his team. Thus, Van Shipley got associated with many everlasting songs from RK films.

I thank today’s guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vasihnav for throwing some light on one of the legendary musicians of Hindi films in their series on Arrangers and Musicians. – AK)

(Valentine) Van Shipley (B: 30-8-1927 | D: 8-3-2008) commenced his career in Hindi films by playing violin, he is perhaps better known as ‘The Man with Golden Guitar’. His mother was a skilled sitar player. Valentine’s three brothers and two sisters were talented musicians. However only Valentine Van Shipley went to become a professional musician. Van Shipley took his first violin lessons from Allahabad-based violinist, Gagan Chatterjee. While he was learning Hindustani classical music from noted khayal singers Ustad Bande Hasan Khan and his son, Ustad Zande Hasan Khan, he also took lessons in western music. He continued his training in violin from Ustad Allaudin Khan while he was with AIR, Lucknow. While at Lucknow, he got further training in sarod from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who was then director of AIR Lucknow. Ustad Vilayat Khan was his classmate. He was friends with Pandit Ravi Shankar whom he had met in 1961.

 

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Best songs of 1942: Wrap UP 4

10 December 2023

And the SOY Award for the Best Music Director of 1942 goes to?

After the Overview Post, Wrap Up 1 of the best male solos, Wrap Up 2 of the best female solos and Wrap Up 3 of the best duets, it is time for the final Wrap Up 4 to discuss the best music director 0f 1942. There were at least two musical blockbusters in the year: Bhakt Surdas (composed by Gyan Dutt) and Basant (Pt. Pannalal Ghosh/Anil Biswas). The reason I am crediting like this is that Pt. Pannalal Ghosh is officially credited as the music director, but it is said that Anil Biswas was the actual music director, who could not use his name because of contractual reasons; Pt. Pannalal Ghosh only gave background score. This trivia has been mentioned so many times at different fora that I would henceforth use only Anil Biswas as the music director of Basant. There are some more films in the year in which Anil Biswas was the music director without any confusion.  

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The Sculptors of Film Songs (9): Dattaram

30 November 2023

Guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(The most prominent identity of Dattaram is as long-time assistant of Shankar-Jaikishan. He later started giving music independently, but he continued his association with S-J. Thus in public mind when one thought of Dattaram, one thought of Shankar-Jaikishan, even though Dattaram had composed some outstanding songs independently.

Most of us also know him as an ace percussionist who could play many instruments, such as tabla, dholak, drums, duff proficiently. His unique style of playing percussion instruments came to be known as Dattu Theka.

It is this aspect of Dattaram as a percussionist that the guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation) focus on. Continuing the series on Arrangers and Musicians, they highlight several immortal songs with which Dattaram has been associated as a percussionist, many with music directors other than Shankar-Jaikishan.

Thank you Piyush ji and Ashok ji for another informative article in the series. – AK)

Dattaram (Wadkar) (1929 – 7 June 2007), is, unfortunately, remembered either as one of those talented music directors who could not get the commercial success he deserved or as assistant to Shankar-Jaikishan who handled the percussion part of the orchestration. However, lamenting over this stark reality of the ways of Hindi Film music world, Dattaram’s nonrecognition as music director or as arranger also hides his outstanding contribution as an outstanding player of dholaki and other percussion instruments.

[Please visit Saaj Tarang special episodes on various percussion instruments like, Dholaki, Dholak, Pakhavaj, Mridangam, Tabla Tarang, Bongo and Folk Rhythm instruments.]  

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Best songs of 1942: Wrap Up 3

20 November 2023

And the award for the best duet of 1942 goes to?

1935 to 1946 have been years of KL Saigal dominance of the film music. Yet, there is something about duets that even in these years duets leave a lasting imprint. These include some duets in which KL Saigal is the male singer, but the female counterparts hold their fort. I have no hesitation in saying say that Jis jogi ka jog liya ho and Sar pe kadamb ki chhaiyaan muraliya baaj rahi have been embellished by the presence of Khursheed and Rajkumari respectively.

In the list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the Overview Post, there are 20 duets in 84/85 songs. I find that I have counted 23 male solos in Wrap Up 1 and 34 female solos in Wrap Up 2. If you total these, it leaves a gap of 7/8 songs. This is because in some songs either one or both the singers are unidentified.  

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Book Review: “Reflections & Stray Thoughts”

10 November 2023

Reflections & Stray Thoughts
By HQ Chowdhury
Publisher: Blue Pencil, New Delhi
ISBN: 978-81-952978-3-2
Price (Amazon): ₹314 (Paperback); 0 (Free Kindle)

The SOY regulars know HQ Chowdhury as the author of “Incomparable SD Burman”, which is regarded as the definitive biography of Burman Dada. That book establishes Chowdhury as a great fan of SD Burman, and one who has a deep insight into the film and non-film songs of yore of both Hindi and Bengali. But it was entirely devoted to his subject, and didn’t give a glimpse of the author himself, except that he was from Dhaka.  

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The Sculptors of Film Songs (8): Ramlal

30 October 2023

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(We all know Ramlal as the music director of V Shantaram’s films ‘Sehra’ and ‘Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne’. We also generally know that he was an ace shehnai player having been associated with Ustad Bismillah Khan. But we hardly know that besides his these two acknowledged scores, he was also associated as a great flute and shehnai player in many songs. His instrumental pieces had an important role in making those songs great. It is telepathic that a few days ago, a regular reader, Ashok Kumar Tyagi, who had recently come across Ramlal’s talents with many instruments, requested for an article on him in this series. And as if in answer to his requests, our guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation), continuing the series on Arrangers and Musicians, now put the spotlight on the legendary musician, Ramlal. Thank you Piyush ji and Ashok ji for another excellent article in the series. – AK)

For most of the fans of Hindi film songs, the name Ramlal should instantly remind them of the songs of ‘Sehra’ or ‘Geet Gaya Paththoron Ne’. If such is the case, would mention of Ramlal in this series on Musicians and Arrangers not be incongruous?

Howsoever Ramlal’s music for these two films is applauded, the fact remains that such exceptional success did not bring him any more substantive work. In fact, it has effectively overshadowed his lifelong work as one of the most outstanding players of flute and shehnai in the Hindi film industry.

We will, therefore, focus on his work as an instrument player.  

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SN Tripathi Part 5 (post-50s): His best songs by other female playback singers

19 October 2023

Concluding the series on SN Tripathi with his best songs for ‘other’ female playback singers

It is time to conclude the series on SN Tripathi after a comprehensive coverage of his multi-faceted talent in the Vintage Era (1949 and earlier) in Part 1 as a singer, actor, music director and dialogue and story writer; Part 2 (post-50s) about his best songs for Rafi; Part 3 (post-50s) about his best songs for Mukesh and other male singers; and Part 4 (post-50s) about his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar. I also mentioned that during post-50s, while we know him primarily as a music director, he continued to act and added a new talent to his immense portfolio – as a director of famous films, such as Rani Roopmati (1959). While writing on Lata Mangeshkar I discovered that she did not appear much in SN Tripathi’s music in her Tsunami years of 1949 through early 50s. He used several ‘other’ female playback singers, with Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum appearing quite frequently.  

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Best songs of 1942: Wrap Up 2

8 October 2023

And the SOY ward for the Best Female Singer goes to?

In my overview post of the best songs of 1942, I had mentioned that the ratio between male solos and female solos in the songs in which singers were credited was 1:2.55 in the year as a whole. I had included 84 songs in my list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the year. The Wrap Up 1 of the best male solos listed all the 23 male solos that were in the list of MEMORABLE SONGS. These were divided among 15 singers, but KL Saigal naturally dominated the list. During his years of dominance the male singing was mostly a one-horse race.

How does female solos compare with this picture? In the list of MEMORABLE SONGS I had included 34 female solos divided among 17 singers as follows:  

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SN Tripathi Part 4 (post 50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

28 September 2023

Continuing the series on SN Tripathi with a tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her 94th birth anniversary (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022)

It is matter of satisfaction that after a reader noted the omission of SN Tripathi, I have been able to cover him in some detail, though late. I have already posted three articles on him: Part 1 about his multifaceted talent – actor, singer, music director, story and dialogue writer – in the Vintage Era (pre 50s); Part 2 (post 50s) about his best songs for Rafi, Part 3 (post-50s) about his best songs for Mukesh and other male singers. There cannot be a better way to continue the series than with his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as a tribute to her on what would have been her 94th birth anniversary.  

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