Year: 2019

‘Would there ever be another Lata Mangeshkar?’

Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very happy 90th birth anniversary (b. 28 September 1929) with a guest article by Shalan Lal

(Lata Mangeshkar turns 90 today. This momentous occasion demanded something special befitting the milestone. However, in the year of the Ravi celebration on SoY, most readers almost took it for granted that today I would write on her songs by Ravi. As the readers are aware, in this series the spotlight has been on his main female playback singer, Asha Bhosle, to whom Hans Jakhar has paid a handsome tribute on her birth anniversary earlier this month. Lata Mangeshkar being Ravi’s ‘other’ singer, was placed in an unfavourable situation. This dilemma resolved itself when Shalan Lal sent me her comprehensive treatise on her, analysing the ‘conditions’ that made the Lata Mangeshkar phenomenon. The rhetorical question in the title implies that there would never be another one like her. While emphasising the theory of ‘conditions’, Shalan also acknowledges that her voice had a divine quality, and there was something beyond her training, upbringing, hard work, and other conditions, that was transcendental and beyond any physical explanation.

The original article Shalan sent me was too long for this blog, and I have severely reduced it, without losing the essence of what she is trying to say. I am happy that she has allowed me editorial freedom in this regard. Let us join her in wishing a very happy 90th anniversary to the legend, Lata Mangeshkar. And thank you Shalan for your significant article for this special occasion.

As the SoY regulars are by now familiar with her style, Shalan never writes a piece without saying something highly provocative and controversial. I have added my own comments on some of her observations at the end of the article.

Shalan Lal is a UK-based academic having wide interest in art, culture and literature. – AK)

The top question creates the following forbearance:

“Que será, sera. Whatever will be, will be? The future’s not ours to see
Que será, sera”

Yes, Indeed!

Today on 28 September 2019 Lata Mangeshkar completes her 90 years and there will be celebrations on the filmy planet and in the Indian social and political world. She has already won numerous awards including the highest Indian civilian award ‘Bharat Ratna’. She is known as “The Queen of Melody, The Voice of the Nation, The Voice of the Millennium and The Nightingale of India etc etc.”

Mine is a rhetorical question. Some will think it as a pompous question; others may think that it is melodramatic. I do not see any harm in raising it.

The answer from the audience surely will be instantaneous and a unanimous emphatic “No, no and never”!

This I venture to say is an expression of sheer love for the icon Lata! There is a need for deeper examination of the ‘conditions’ that made Lata Mangeshkar. I had my Eureka moment to examine her on this basis when I watched a BBC series titled ‘The Planets’, presented by Brain Cox, a renowned expert on Space Science and the Solar System.

In one of his lectures, titled ‘Godfather Planet Jupiter’, Professor Cox explained that when the Big Bang happened billions of earth-years ago, and the sun and solar system came into existence to cool down to present time, it was Jupiter which is hundreds of times bigger than our earth, kept on guard and destroyed most of the asteroids or gobbled them up which were on the loose and going around destroying other planets, or whatever coming in their way, behaving like the wild west cowboys.

Jupiter helped to create an atmosphere on the earth and did not allow the water to dry up so life could be born and sustained. It was also instrumental in the occurrence of the orbit around the sun and also the larger orbit called the Solar System. Hence there are seasons on the earth, and human beings could eventually evolve and come up to what they are now. Unless what Jupiter had done occurs elsewhere in the space, it is unlikely that another earth can happen. Mere water is not enough to have a living world. Many planets have water in frozen conditions. But Jupiter took billions of earth-years to do what it did.

These are called the ‘conditions’ and did not occur anywhere else according to the present knowledge.

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Shakeel Badayuni: Revitalising bond with Ravi

Guest article by Hans Jakhar (This is the second guest article by Hans Jakhar on the trot after his debut with Asha Bhosle’s songs by Ravi. He had given enough indication that he would be writing on Shakeel Badayuni’s partnership with Ravi. Hans’s forte is mastery over data. And you see full evidence of thisREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Ravi and Asha Bhosle: A class combination

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) with a guest article by Hans Jakhar

(Asha Bhosle, despite being the most recorded artiste by miles, remained the ‘other’ singer for most music directors of the Golden Era. All the accolades and the most melodious songs went to her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Ravi is among the rare major music directors whose ‘first’ female playback singer by choice was Asha Bhosle. In the ongoing series on Ravi it was natural that her primacy would be highlighted, and no one is better suited than Hans Jakhar to pay a tribute to her on her 86th birth anniversary with her songs for Ravi. Hans is puzzled that some of us are hesitant to count Ravi among the ‘greats’. He is not only a fan of Asha Bhosle, but he also has a deep empathy for her for having suffered the ‘Sister Tax’ in her career.

With this article Hans debuts as a guest author. I am sure the readers would not be surprised by it, the surprise is why it has taken him so long. His comments on the blog posts are full of facts, analysis and insights. Hopefully we would see more from his pen.

Hans is a B. Com and LLB, which reflects in the way he presents his arguments. After working for over 20 years in the central secretariat service in various ministries, he took voluntary retirement and now straddles between two worlds: the rural Haryana, which is his home state, and the urban metropolis of Delhi. The series on Ravi inspired him to write on his songs for Asha Bhosle, for which I am sure the readers of SoY would be grateful to him. Thanks a lot Hans – AK)

Ravi and Asha BhosleSome time back Dr Shetty made a comment to the effect that Asha Bhosle could sing all the songs Lata Mangeshkar could, and in addition she could sing many which Lata could not, so why should Asha be not called the best singer. This thought of his has stuck with me, because, I have come across many who held the same view. There were some who rated Suman Kalyanpur  the better singer. My elder sister who is four years older than me held the same view. In fact, in those days of the late 60s and early 70s, there were a number of magazines in circulation which gave stories about Lata’s manoeuvres. My sister made very angry remarks against her on that count, Suman Kalyanpur was her favourite by far. Though I was younger, I tried to cool her down. At that time I did not have much knowledge about these things and was also a bit hesitant in arguing, especially with elders, so I gave just one argument, that Lata must have special talent and because of that the composers were giving her more songs.

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Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri: Two lyricists in tandem and contrast

A tribute to Shailendra (30 August 1923 – 14 December 1966) and Hasrat Jaipuri (15 April 1922 – 17 September 1999), the lyricists in tandem, on Shailendra’s 96th birth anniversary

Shailendra and Hasrat JaipuriA common refrain of the readers from time to time has been that the lyricists have not been given due importance on this blog. A new reader Neeruahaf, who has been actively participating for some time, has also mentioned this and strongly suggested, while commenting during the discussion on the songs of 1946, that I introduce an award for the best lyricist of the year too. I have explained that my reasons are twofold: one is practical, it only creates another overlapping category for mapping the songs. And two, it is accepted that we remember songs by the films, singers and music directors, and rarely by the lyricists. As an illustration I mentioned Shailendra (30 August 1923 – 14 December 1966) and Hasrat Jaipuri (15 April 1922 – 17 September 1999), who featured together as lyricists in most of the films composed by Shankar-Jaikishan. I doubt if there is any tell-tale sign to determine who wrote which song. Let us examine this further as a tribute to the two lyricists, who worked in tandem a great deal, on the 96th birth anniversary of Shailendra.

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Ravi’s best duets for Rafi

Ravi-RafiIn my last post I covered Ravi’s best solo songs for Rafi. He composed about 250 songs for Rafi, including duets. It is a huge number in absolute as well as relative terms. Only two, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Shankar-Jaikishan, have undisputedly composed more Rafi songs than him, as can be expected. Chitragupta is in the same range or marginally more than him. About 42% of these songs are duets, including male-male duets, and songs having more than two singers. Over 100 duets is a significant number, and several of them are so good, no discussion on Ravi’s songs for Rafi is complete without mentioning his duets.

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Book Review: “Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman”

Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman By HQ Chowdhury Published by Blue Pencil, New Delhi, 2018 ₹599 (Available for less on Amazon); pp 437 Among all the biographies of SD Burman – I am aware of at least four, all well known – the ‘Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman’ by HQ Chowdhury of Bangladesh, first published in BangladeshREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Rafi’s best songs by Ravi

A tribute to Rafi on his 39th death anniversary (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980)

Ravi-RafiRafi being undoubtedly the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era, he sang a number of great songs for many music directors. For most composers, he was their leading singer. Who gave the greatest songs for Rafi? I put Naushad, SD Burman, OP Nayyar, Roshan and Shankar-Jaikishan in the Elite Five. Immediately in the next level would be a number of composers, such as Madan Mohan, Chitragupta and Ravi, and if you go further in time, Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Ravi’s output for Rafi songs (250, including duets) was huge, outnumbered only by Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Shankar-Jaikishan, who were hit machines. It is comparable to Chitragupta’s 259 songs for Rafi; and it is comfortably ahead of other music directors, including those in the elite group. But is it only about quantity? Where would these figure among Rafi’s most iconic and greatest songs. (Note: Hans mentioned in comments on my first post on Ravi that he gave 234 songs for Rafi, but I am going by the detailed Excel sheet of Rafi songs prepared by Muveen, which I have shared with many readers earlier.)
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Ek bangala bane nyara

Ek banga bane nyaraHaving a shelter over one’s head is one of the basic needs of humans. Having one’s own house used to be the lifetime’s dream. It happened only once at the time of retirement when one pooled in all the savings to make this investment. But this meant buying sand, cement, steel, stone-chips, cables, tiles, bathroom, electric fittings, and dealing with masons, carpenters, electricians and plumbers. You supervised in grime and dust, and dealt with cantankerous and recalcitrant workmen. Till a generation back this was how a middle class person got his house made. It was far from the romance of ‘Chhota sa ghar hoga baadalon ki chhaon mein’.

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Bharat Vyas: Lyricist Extraordinaire in Hindi

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Bharat Vyas on his 37th death anniversary (18 December 1918 – 4 July 1982)

(One oft-repeated complaint against Songs of Yore is that it does not give due importance to the lyricists. I have given my reasons from time to time, which may not be very convincing. I do not know whether DP Rangan was guided by altruistic motives to come to the rescue of the blog, but his offer to write on Bharat Vyas came as a big surprise. By now we are aware of his tremendous enthusiasm and capacity to write on different themes – this is his 19th guest article – but one thought familiarity with the language was necessary for writing on lyricists. For Mr Ranagn, no challenge is too great to deter him. The result is a comprehensive write-up on Bharat Vyas, one of the most respected lyricists for elegance of his language. The two Excel sheets he has prepared of Bharat Vyas’s Filmography would challenge anyone priding himself as a number-cruncher. My compliments and thanks to Mr Rangan for a very painstaking article. – AK)

Bharat VyasInvention of moving films for single viewer by Edison of USA and its further enhancement by Lamar brothers of France for simultaneous view by many in a sort of theatre had added new dimensions to entertainment for the people and the fever grew exponentially from then on. The epoch of silent movies started at the turn of the last century, but introduction of talkies in 1927 in the USA revolutionised picture viewing throughout the world and India joined the bandwagon almost from inception. The first talkie, Aalam Ara, was released in Mumbai in 1931 to a riotous start with the necessity of police intervention for control.

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Best songs of 1946: Wrap Up 1

And the SoY Award for the Best Male Playback Singer goes to?

KL Saigal-Durrani-Surendra-Rafi-Mukesh-1946Now we come to category-wise discussion of the best songs, following from my overview post on the Best songs of 1946. Understandably, the total number of MEMORABLE SONGS mentioned in the post (81) was the lowest so far in the series on year-wise reviews. Since we are going back year to year, this is a function of entering into less and less familiar territory. The male solos in the list were 22 in number, divided among the following singers:

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