Year: 2018

Remembering my father and the legend Madan Mohan

Guest article by Sangeeta Gupta, daughter of Madan Mohan, wishing Merry Christmas to the readers

(Sangeeta Gupta discovered ‘Songs of Yore’ like any other person who stumbles upon this blog while searching for something relating to old film music, and started commenting like any other reader, without wearing her identity on her sleeve. Arvinder Sharma informed me that she is the daughter of Madan Mohan. Since SoY was carrying a tandem series on Roshan-Madan Mohan, I approached her for writing a guest article on her father, as a finale to the series, with his songs for ‘other’ singers. As unassuming as she is on the blog, she accepted my request without any fuss or airs, even though she was not in good health.

Sangeetaji is the eldest among the three siblings, her two younger brothers being Sanjeev and Sameer Kohli. She is a homemaker, she has been away from Bombay for 36 years (she lives in Jaipur). She is a passionate listener of the music of all composers, especially semi-classical songs and ghazals. I thank Sangeetaji for concluding the tandem series on Roshan-Madan Mohan, with her personal reminiscences of Madan Mohan. Since I have covered major singers separately, she very kindly agreed to mention songs by ‘other’ singers. Thank You, Sangeetaji. – AK)

Madan MohanI have been an admirer of ‘Songs of Yore’ ever since I discovered it. The blog shows respect to all the artistes, and does not indulge in bringing down one to bring up another. This is the quality which made me read it regularly, especially whenever I was looking for some reference link to a song or topic. My heartfelt congratulations to AKji and wish that he continue with his efforts and endeavours. It is my pleasure to write for this blog about my father, who was a legend in his lifetime.

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Rafi’s best duets by Madan Mohan

Madan Mohan-RafiThe best songs of Rafi for any music director would include a number of duets. So it is for Madan Mohan, despite the fact that his solos for Rafi are significantly more than the duets. That is an exception to the general trend of duets being far more in number than male solos. Since we are doing a tandem series on Roshan and Madan Mohan, we have seen in the case of Roshan that his duets for Rafi are far more than his solos. In the case of Madan Mohan-Rafi, out of a total of 168 songs, solos are more than 90, and duets are about 75. But the sheer number of duets makes a post on this necessary to enjoy the full charm of their association.

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Best songs of 1947: Final Wrap Up 4

And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

Naushad_C Ramchandra_Husnlal-Bhagatram_Khursheed AnwarAfter the Overview post and the three category-wise wrap ups: Wrap Up 1 for the best male solo, Wrap Up 2 for the best female solo and Wrap Up 3 for the best duets – it is time to collate and discuss the dominant music directors of the year 1947 and try to decide a winner.  Recapitulating, this was the year of C Ramchandra’s Ana meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday which was a brazen break from the tradition of classicism. The purists scoffed, but CR had the last laugh because it became uproariously popular. Shalan Lal’s last post on Meena Kapoor describes the frenzy this song created.  Shehnai had some more delightful songs. He also had a stupendously popular Humko tumhara hi aasra tum hamare ho na ho from Saajan. This was a two-version song – a Rafi solo and a Rafi-Lalita Deulkar duet – both being immensely popular. The Overview post in the long list of ‘Memorable Songs’ had some more songs of CR from other films.

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In the Musical Memory of Meena Kapoor

Guest article by Shalan Lal as a tribute to Meena Kapoor (c. 1930 – 23 November 2017) on her first death anniversary (Meena Kapoor has not been acknowledged enough on SoY. Mumbaikar8 has drawn pointed attention to this omission, and was sore that I credited the songs of ‘Anokha Pyar’ (1948) like ‘Yaad rakhan chaandREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Roshan’s songs for ‘other’ singers

A tribute to Roshan on his 51st death anniversary (14 July 1917-16 November 1967)

RoshanDP Rangan started a tandem series on Madan Mohan-Roshan on July 14 which, in a unique coincidence, happened to be the birth anniversary of one, and the death anniversary of the other. I have since written a number of posts on their association with their main singers Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, and their qawwalis. As the year end approaches, it is time to pay a final tribute to Roshan on his 51st death anniversary with his songs for ‘other’ singers. Later, I plan to end the year with a similar tribute to Madan Mohan with his ‘other singers’.

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Rafi’s duets by Roshan

Rafi with RoshanMy post on Rafi’s solos by Roshan appeared more than six years ago, several years before I started the series on the stalwart music directors. And the reason was simple: Roshan ranked among the top in my reckoning for Rafi songs, along with Naushad, SD Burman and OP Nayyar. Duets have no less importance in creating this imprint on my mind. It just so happened that I am coming back to the duets of this combination after six years when DP Rangan set off a tandem series on Roshan and Madan Mohan.

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The Faint Echoes of the October Revolution: A Centenary of the Capricious Philosophy in the Socio-political life!

Guest article by Shalan Lal

(No event in history has caused as much impact on the world of politics and ideas as the Russian Revolution of October 1917. And no revolution has strayed as much from its path, turning into a totalitarian regime and causing untold miseries on its people. The political edifice collapsed under its own weight, but it did have a romanticised sway on art, culture and literature for a long time.

The topic of this post is way beyond the scope of this blog, but Shalan Lal has a way of weaving many threads and transcending boundaries in her articles. She shared her first draft long ago, in time for the centenary of the revolution, but I had a lot of comments on her content and presentation. Anyone else would have given up, but she persisted and has redone the article substantially. After the politics, she quickly comes to the echoes of the October Revolution in our films and songs. This would stimulate and provoke, which she encourages liberally. I am happy to present Shalan Lal’s guest article commemorating the completion of a century and one year of  the October Revolution. – AK)    

Communist starThe October Revolution occurred ‘One hundred and one’ years ago on 24 October 1917 in Russia, in Petrograd, renamed later on as Leningrad, and then renamed again, after the Soviet Project was dissolved like an air bubble in 1994, as St Petersburg or Petrograd. (And some say why the changes of Bombay to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai and Calcutta to Kolkata, Poona to Pune, etc. – ironically they all are the echoes of the Red Revolution!)

This seemed to be a practice in politics of many parts of the world. In  Tripura, a Lenin’s statue was knocked down by the jubilant BJP party workers after their victory in the last state election. Here is the picture of the Lenin’s statue being knocked down in the city of Belonia. After knocking down the statue the severed head of the statue was wickedly kicked about. A kind of anger expressed by supposedly civilized BJP members in the style of the knocking down of the statue of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after the fall of Iraq. Also the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha!

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Best songs of 1947: Wrap Up 3

And the Song of Yore Award for the Best Duet goes to?

Parwana-Dard-Jugnu-Meera-Shenai-Mirza SahibanThe total number of duets in the list of ‘Memorable Songs’ in the Overview post on the best songs of 1947 is about 30 out of 119. This is about 50% more than the male solos, but less than half the female solos. This is similar to the average distribution of the types of songs. As I go down the list of the songs, they can be clearly divided into two categories: one, that attained everlasting popularity; and the other, which remained unknown, except among collectors and intense followers. This is unlike the 1950s and 60s when a large number of songs were in the middle. The absence of the middle ground in 1947 and earlier is a reflection of the antiquity of these songs. The Internet era has made many more songs known, but these are unlikely to displace the ones that have got etched in our memory. Therefore, while any exercise of selecting the best ten will necessarily remain within the familiar territory, I have been covering the unique but less familiar songs under the category ‘Special Songs’.

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Madan Mohan’s tuning with Lata Mangeshkar

Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very happy 89th birthday (b. 28 September 1929)

Madan Mohan-Lata MangeshkarAmong all the music director-singer combinations Madan Mohan-Lata Mangeshkar ranks among the very top. This article by Anirudh Bhattacharjee and Srijit Mukherji quotes OP Nayyar as having once said, “It is difficult to figure out whether Madan Mohan was made for Lata Mangeshkar or vice versa.” We have all heard of Naushad’s ultimate tribute to Madan Mohan that he was willing to offer his entire work for two ghazals of Anpadh (Aapki nazron ne samjha; Hai isi mein pyar ki aabroo). Even allowing for Naushad’s Lakhanavi nafasat, and the fact that he said it in his obituary, it is undisputed that he was held in very high esteem for the quality of his music by his peers and music maestros, besides the listeners. It is said that Begum Akhtar was so impressed by the tune of Kadar jaane na (Bhai Bhai) that she called him once, when she was feeling low, and asked him to sing it for fifteen minutes on telephone. We may recall that Madan Mohan was himself a very good singer and he was very close to Begum Akhtar from his AIR days.

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King of Ghazal Talat Mahmood with Ghazal Maestros Madan Mohan and Roshan

Roshan-Madan Mohan-Talat MahmoodDP Rangan set-off a tandem series on Roshan-Madan Mohan with their classical-based songs. I have since written on their songs for Rafi (Madan Mohan’s; Roshan-Rafi covered earlier); Qawwalis; Mukesh; and Asha Bhosle. Several readers requested that I write on their ghazals. Since I am covering them generally by singers, ghazal would have been an overlapping category. Fortunately, Talat Mahmood, widely regarded as a legend in ghazal singing, was an important singer for both Madan Mohan and Roshan, and he is yet to be covered. Therefore, a tandem post also gives us an opportunity to look at their prowess for ghazal composition for this singer gifted with a silky-smooth voice. I would be flexible in the definition of the genre, and would also include songs that may not be strictly ghazal as per the rules of structure and meter.

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