Year: 2015

Naushad’s Priceless Moment: ‘Anmol Ghadi’

Wishing Merry Christmas to all with a tribute to Naushad, Rafi and Noorjehan

I heralded 2015 with Naushad’s Crown Jewel, Rattan (1944), and decided to celebrate the year as The Year of Naushad. I cannot think of a better way to conclude the year than to remember his next Priceless Moment in his career, Anmol Ghadi, which came two years later. A blockbuster of its times, it is the only movie which links Naushad with two other greats together – his would-be most favourite male singer, Rafi, and the reigning actor-singer of the era, Noorjehan. Naushad, Rafi and Noorjehan are also linked in an incredibly eerie way – Rafi was born on 24 December (1924), Noorjehan’s death anniversary falls on December 23 (2000) and Naushad’s birth anniversary falls on December 25 (1919). If you believe Raju Bharatan, Naushad was actually born on December 24, but he chose December 25 as his ‘official’ birthday for better optics (Naushdanama). Had the shared birth anniversaries something to do with Naushad, later, firmly settling for Rafi even after tasting great success with Mukesh and Talat Mahmood? And the contra-anniversaries, with the fact that Anmol Ghadi remained Naushad’s first and the last work with Noorjehan? Though the film links the three greats, ironically Rafi did not have a duet with Noorjehan – with Surendra being the singing star of the film, there was no occasion for such a duet (though they would have a duet a year later in Jugnu – Yahan badla wafa ka bewafaai ke siwa kya hai – but that was composed by Firoz Nizami, who was also among those who migrated to Pakistan along with Noorjehan).
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C Ramchandra as Chitalkar

C RamchandraIn the Naushad-C Ramchandra duel I have presented through the year, both seem to be evenly matched so far in spite of my known partiality towards Naushad. But as Chitalkar, the singer, CR has no competition from Naushad. As the year draws to a close, continuing the series on the Year of Naushad (with C Ramchandra in tandem), I present the songs of CR as a singer. He sang most of his songs as Chitalkar, mostly composed by himself, but he has also sung for other music directors, such as Mir Saheb (Lal Haveli, 1944), Anil Biswas (Jwar Bhata, 1944; Veena, 1948), Husnlal-Bhagatram (Apni Chhaya, 1950), Hemant Kumar (Samrat, 1954; Lagan, 1955), Roshan (Baraati, 1954), Usha Khanna (Faisla, 1965), Laxmikant-Pyarelal (Chhaila, 1967) etc.

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Naushad’s gems before ‘Rattan’ (1944)

NaushadIt is well known that Naushad zoomed off in an orbit of his own with Rattan (1944). He had debuted four years earlier as independent music director with Prem Nagar (1940). To be exact, his first recorded song was Bata do koi kaun gali more Shyam in the voice of Leela Chitnis for Kanchan (1941), but because of some rift with that film’s team he had to leave it after recording this song and the remaining songs were composed by Gyan Dutt. Kanchan’s release got delayed and, thus, Prem Nagar became his first film. Before Rattan, Naushad did over a dozen films, having over 120 songs. You may ask, is it worthwhile to discuss his pre-Rattan songs?

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Best songs of 1950: Final Wrap Up 5

The SoY Award for the Best Music Director goes to? This year’s detailed review had more songs (152) than in any preceding year, and I had hoped that this would cover most of the noteworthy songs. Nevertheless, the readers added a large number of songs in the comments. This shows that there are a numberREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Best songs of 1950: Wrap Up 4

Songs of Yore Award for the Best Duet goes to? (Wishing Happy Diwali to everyone)

1950 filmsHans recently commented in some other context that duets generally create less impact than solos. This is certainly true of tennis where the doubles players are not counted in the same league as Federers and Djokovics. In the olden days before the open era, it was quite common for the top ranking players (think of John Newcombe and Tony Roche) to be at the top both in singles and doubles. I have mentioned earlier that often the contrasting voices make duets extremely charming. Duets also provide more opportunity to the music director for innovation.

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Ten best songs (solos) composed by SD Burman

A tribute to SD Burman on his 40th death anniversary (1 October 1906-31 October 1975)

SD BurmanMusic evokes strong emotions. Therefore, it is natural that SoY has seen serious difference of views on songs, singers, music directors and a whole host of related issues. But none has been as sharp as mine with Dinesh’s. It is beyond my comprehension that anyone could be as dismissive of Naushad as he has been. Further, very often he ‘does not care much for’ the songs I have posted. He very graciously ascribes this to the difference in personal tastes. But there has been something more basic on which our views are diametrically opposite.

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Best songs of 1950: Wrap Up 3

(After the overview post on the Best songs of 1950, I have written Wrap Up 1 on the best male solos, and Wrap Up 2 on the best female solos by ‘other’ singers.  Continuing the series, here is the third Wrap Up on the best songs of Lata Mangeshkar. – AK)

Songs of Yore Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to Lata Mangeshkar (?)

Lata MangeshkarIn the three previous yearwise reviews for 1955, 1953 and 1951, the announcement of the Best Female Playback Singer of the Year was an exultant, “The Award goes to Lata..Lata…Lata..Lata Mangeshkar”. This year we had some very strong voices questioning her invincible superiority, though, by and large, she remained the overwhelming favourite for the best female playback singer. Most readers took the trouble of giving separate lists of her best and the best of “other” female singers, as well as a combined list, which had on the average about 4-5 of her songs, and the rest by the others, she, of course, being rated as the overall best. However, in a democracy, minority voices are equally important. The dissent is very categorical, and quite interesting. Therefore, this year’s announcement is suffixed with a question mark in parenthesis.

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First male dancer of Hindi films: Mumtaz Ali

Mumtaz Ali_thumb[1]I came to Mumtaz Ali in a very roundabout way. Before the Internet era I was only aware of his name as the father of Mehmood and Minoo Mumtaz etc. Internet made me aware that he was also into films, with the Bombay Talkies. Then a rare chance occurrence gave me a day out with his grandson, Ajaz Ali a.k.a AJ (son of Minoo Mumtaz), and later with his help, with Minoo Mumtaz. What they told me about his early life was most fascinating, which could be straight out of classic tales: How a young boy in Saudi Arabia, run-away from his oppressive elder sister, hid himself in a ship’s hold, and found himself on the shores of Bombay where he started eking out a living with other street children, when a kind-hearted Englishman, BG Horniman, editor of Bombay Chronicle, took a liking for him and brought him up. Mumtaz Ali was a born dancer. Bombay had a large number of theatre groups where he started dancing. Devika Rani took a liking for him and employed him in the Bombay Talkies, where he danced in many films. His dance in the song Main to Dilli se dulhna laya re ae babuji became a roaring hit. You can see the account of my meeting with AJ and his mother in conversation with Minoo Mumtaz.

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The Great Mughal and The Empress of playback singing

Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 28 September 1929) with her songs for Naushad

Naushad and Lata MangeshkarA blog would start losing its appeal if it became too predictable. Today is one such day when everyone is going to exclaim, ‘’I knew it!’ However, there is no way I can avoid it. There are many who are as enamoured of Naushad as I am. As for Lata Mangeshkar, I doubt if there is anyone who does not regard her as The Female Playback Singer, as a class by herself, far above her rivals. The Great Mughal of film music and the Empress of playback singing make an unparalleled combination.

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Asha Bhosle with reluctant Naushad and C Ramchandra: Part 2 (duets)

Asha Bhosle with C Ramchandra and NaushadI could not have imagined until sometime back that I would be writing two posts back to back on Asha Bhosle. But I have since become conscious of a strong Asha Bhosle Fan Club on SoY. In my last post on her songs with Naushad and C Ramchandra, we saw that even though they might have gone to her reluctantly, they created some of the best songs of her career. That post was devoted to her solos. While looking for their songs I realised that her duets, too, composed by them are no less memorable. We can make a general statement that duets as a class, right since the earliest days from when film songs are available, have held a special charm. Therefore, to have a complete picture of the songs that Naushad and CR composed for Asha Bhosle, I am presenting her duets made by the two reluctant Masters.

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