Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav paying a tribute to Ninu Mazumdar on his 21st death anniversary (9 September 1915 – 3 March 2000)
(Ninu Mazumdar is a big name in Gujarati music. Hence we have Ashok M Vaishnav paying a tribute to him with this guest article. He has brought us closer to other stalwarts from Gujarat, such as Avinash Vyas and Dilip Dholakia, who worked actively in Hindi films too. This is in addition to Ashokji’s numerous other guest articles on this blog on many themes.
Ninu Majumdar’s music and songs have been mentioned sometimes on SOY. But not many know that he was also a very melodious singer. Ashokji has done a very extensive research on his career, and in this article he presents songs sung by him under his baton as a music director. Except one, Ayi gori Radhika, all the songs presented here must be new to the readers. This bouquet of songs is a listener’s delight. I thank Ashokji for this excellent article. – AK)
Ninu is the family pet name of Niranjan Mazumdar (B: 9-9-1915 | D: 3-3-2000), who has 20 Hindi films to his credit as a music director, 28 Hindi film songs in his own voice, one film each as a lyricist and as a film director. Ninu Mazumdar was born in a community, which was traditionally more literate in those times. His father, Nagendra Mazumdar, was a dramatist and director in the silent film era. Nagendra Mazumdar has also acted in a comedy cameo role in K L Saigal’s classic Tansen (1943). Ninu Mazumdar’s childhood upbringing happened under the guidance of his maternal grandmother at the then Gaikwad princely state Baroda. She herself was a leading social reformist. Here, Ninu Mazumdar got his initial training in classical music under Ustad Faiyaz Khan and Ustad Imam Chili Khan.
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We saw in Dattaram Part 1 dealing with his songs for Mukesh and Manna Dey, how his association with the Big Banyan tree, Shankar-Jaikishan, made it difficult to get out of the comfort zone of SJ. The readers Mahesh and Hans Jakhar opined that Dattaram was himself part of the Banyan Tree. We need not presume that it was a millstone around his neck. The association gave him steady work and a sense of importance. Not everyone is entrepreneurial, he was contented with his station in life.
