Hindi Cine Raag Encyclopaedia
(Reference Edition Raagwise: Vol. 3, 4 & 5)
Author: KL Pandey
Sangeet Shilp Prakashan, Lucknow
First edition 2022
Hardcover ₹4800 on Amazon
A passionate lover of Hindi film music, who has deep interest in classical music too, asks two different types of questions: One, which raag(s) this favourite song is based on; Two, which are the famous songs based on this particular raag? These are very different questions, and can be conveniently searched only if there are reliable sources compiled on the two different parameters. On the internet a respected site chandrakantha.com gives links for Index of Song Titles (and their underlying raags) and Index of Raags (and songs based on that raag).
But this site gives bare names of the songs or raags and contains a representative sample of such songs. Many well-known songs you are interested in may be missing in the Index. This is where KL Pandey’s Hindi Cine Raag Encyclopaedia : Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 come in. For having a full grasp of the magnitude of the work Pandeyji has done, please go through my review of his Hindi Cine Raag Encyclopaedia: Volumes 1 & 2 which addressed the first question, i.e which are the underlying raags in a particular song. The present Volumes 3, 4 and 5 answer the reverse question: Which are the famous songs based on a particular raag, say Asavari?
In fact all the five volumes are based on the same Mother Data. The importance of this monumental work lies in the comprehensiveness of the work done by Pandeyji. He has considered over 20000 songs from 1931 to 2020, which represents about 30% of all the available songs during the period. I have often mentioned that on the average over 90 years of film music, the memorable songs are not more than about 20%. Therefore, this should include any worthwhile song you could think of. What Pandeyji and his team have done is mammoth. The record of each song was played on a device or online and he and his team of musicians simultaneously played it on the harmonium or guitar and sang it. They meticulously recorded the sequence of Notes appearing in the song, and on that basis they identified sequence of raags appearing in the song. As we are very well aware, film songs do not follow a pure raag. The music directors are more concerned with the mood and melody of the song, and, therefore, many songs have a mix of several raags.
After the basic database was ready Pandeyji was initially toying with the idea of presenting a raag-wise list of songs. With 174 raags in all they found having been used in film songs, and each song appearing under several different raags, this would have been a huge work. They were advised that music lovers might be more interested in an Index of Songs and the underlying raags in them, therefore, Pandeyji published Volumes 1 and 2 first. But since the database was available, he got down to completing the raag-wise Index in Volumes 3, 4 & 5. Thus, the books first conceived have come out later, which is not unusual in such works.
You can visualise these five volumes as forming one whole comprising two separate sets – Volumes 1 & 2 forming one set, and the Volumes 3, 4 & 5 forming the second set, and both the sets completing one whole project. The volumes are available for purchase in these three combinations: Vol 1 & 2; Vol 3, 4 & 5; and all the five volumes.
We have seen the scheme of presentation in Volumes 1 and 2. The scheme of presentation in Volumes 3, 4 & 5 is quite different. I am presenting the first page of Raag Asavari below:
For each raag, Pandeyji uses a Lakshan geet, or a mnemonic which is used by music teachers and books on music as a convenient tool for memorising the main features of a raag. Thus, for Asavari we know from the top half of the first page that it is Audav-Sampoorna (five swars in aaroh, all the seven swars in avaroh), Gandhar and Nishad being varjit in aaroh, its Vaadi and Samvadi Swar, time of its rendering, its pakad and other special features.
One particular problem Pandeyji faced in the arrangement of the volumes was that there was no convenient way of dividing the raags in three equal parts, because some popular raags would spill over in two volumes. For example, the Index of Pahadi runs into 249 pages. He managed this problem by adding interesting tables at the end of each volume to keep these generally evenly distributed and fit a raag entirely in one volume. These tables enhance the utility of the books and are of more general interest. Here is a list of these tables:
End of Volume 3:
i. Classical vocalists in film songs
ii. Dhrupads in films
iii. Raagmalikas
iv. Independent Aalaps
v. Independent Taranas and Thillanas
vi. Rabindra Sangeet-based songs
vii Traditional Bandishes
viii. Western Classical Music in Hindi film songs
End of Volume 4:
i. Children’s songs
ii. Classical dance-based songs
iii. Devotional songs
iv. Festival-based songs
v. Haunting songs
vi. Hindi songs in films of other languages
vii. Lullabies
viii Nritya-natikas
ix. Patriotic songs
x. Season-based songs
End of Volume 5:
i. Folk songs
ii. Ghazals
iii. Literary Hindi songs
iv. Literary Urdu songs
v. Mujra songs
vi. Naghmas and Geets
vii. Navras-based songs
viii. Nazms
ix. Qawwalis
x. Sufi songs
xi. Thumris and Thumri-inspired songs
xii. Wedding songs
These Tables contain some startling information which will make you check up on the YT or elsewhere. Such as,
i. Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar has sung Dhrupad in a film titled ‘Dhrupad’ (1982).
ii. Bappi Lahiri has composed a Raagmalika in the film ‘Patthar Ke Insan’ (1991).
Pandeyji is cognizant that the target audience for these books are serious students of music, researchers, libraries and institutions. The price and the girth of these volumes may discourage a general fan of old Hindi film songs as he does not slot a favourite song by its raag. If and when its Kindle edition is brought out, I believe many general fans of HFM would also be interested.
The ocean of HFM is so huge that no one can claim perfect accuracy and that his list includes ‘all’ songs in that category. I noticed some obvious omissions. For example:
i. In children’s songs I didn’t find KL Saigal’s Aao bachcho, aaj main tumhein ek kahani sunata hun…Ek Raje ka beta lekar udanewala ghoda from the film President (1937), though a similar one from Mr Natwarlal (1979) is included.
ii. In the list of nazms in films I did not find Chalo ek baar phir se ajanabi ban jaayen hum dono. By any definition it is a nazm and it is one of the most famous nazms in the films.
Pandeyji is quite modest in admitting that music scholars may not agree with his Raag analysis and may question inclusions and exclusions in some Tables. He would welcome any contrary views. He is now working on Raag analysis of non-film songs. Many readers would be eager for that book. One can only admire the sheer dedication of Pandeyji for this magnum opus, while he was holding senior positions in the Indian Railways. (He has since retired, now fully dedicated to music and his creative writing.)
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
AK,
I think it is hardly necessary to laud you on a good review, because according to your general balanced approach in all matters your book reviews are always top class. So I will not comment on the book review.
I have the volumes 1 and 2 with me and have recently started analysing data. As you say the mother data is same, the price of the book is too high. I think girth does not matter to book lovers, 2000 pages in 3 vols. is not heavy stuff. In the fourth para from the end you mention Pandeyji has targeted serious students of music, researchers, libraries and institutions. I think serious students of music and researchers cannot remain content with this material only and must have other sources to study music. It means he is targeting the other two, which can only have commercial view in mind. Everybody has a right to earn from his labour, but keeping the price so high for profit may rob common music lovers of this ready information. Most of old music lovers are aged and they can hardly have the inclination or energy to visit libraries. But if the price is within reach, they can have the books at home for reference purposes. The data in vol 3,4 and 5 is meant for personal use and this will most probably rot in libraries. The other declared purpose of Pandeyji to increase interest in classical raags and music may be defeated.
For vol. 1&2 I paid 3200 and in addition got ‘Sur Samvaadini’ (priced at Rs 400 in about 250 pages of paperback) free. Now if I want vol. 3,4,5 I have to pay Rs 4800 for the same material, just arranged differently. That is not reasonable. Moreover, the book is neither available in paperback, nor its kindle edition. A cheaper paperback edition could have been put up for sale and hard cover could have been issued for libraries and institutions. So I would rather prefer arranging my data – as per my requirements – from the earlier volumes.
Hans,
Thanks a lot for going through my review and your appreciation. As far as the price of the book is concerned, since it is not a mass-selling product and it is perhaps self-published, my guess is the pricing is a factor of total cost divided by the likely number of copies to be sold. Amazon would have their own cut. This is just my guess and I have no clue about the business side of book publishing. The bulk becomes a factor for many of us living in flats, and having acquired a number of books over the years, many of which have remained unopened. That is why I have mentioned Kindle edition which addresses both the price and girth.
I am sure Pandeyji would be seeing your response and your interest in buying it.
About the Volumes per se, this fulfills a reverse enquiry which would otherwise be immensely difficult.
Thank you so much AK Ji for the wonderful review of the book. It surely reveals your deep study of my work, its purpose and its concerns. The very purpose of my work is to make classical music reach the masses through the easily available and popular music like Hindi film music. I am so happy and satisfied that Volumes 1&2 (Reference Edition) have been accepted so well. Volumes 3,4&5 are Raagwise and have a different purpose to serve. They have been created on the advice of many researchers, musicians, artists and music lovers. In fact my planning was to release the Raagwise edition first, but keeping in view the quest of knowing the Raagas of the songs as a preferred requirement of the music enthusiasts, the index wise edition was released first.
Now I would like to address the price concern of Mr. Hans.
I started this work in 2006 and with a team of people I could analyse around 14,000 by the end of 2013. I wanted to get it published and contacted some publishers in Delhi. They were ready to publish it but they wanted to keep the price of 3 volumes of index format around Rs. 22,000/- I told them that it was so excessive and my mission of making classical music to masses will get defeated. They said that I should not worry about my royalty as that will be taken care of and also that I should not worry about its sales because it is the duty of publishers to send it across all the libraries and people in any case will get benefited while referring it in the libraries.
It was at that time when I decided to publish it myself and when I got retired, I got this publication registered and published the grammar book ‘Sur Samvaadini’ first as Hindustani classical music, a learning experience. Then started the printing of the three bilingual volumes of Hindi Cine Raag Encyclopaedia in paperback, with no experience of publication. The initial investments were from my savings. The books came out in 2017 and were ceremoniously released in Mumbai by the famous music director Anandji on 01.05.2017. Around 100 sets were to be distributed free just to make their presence felt and around 200 sold with heavy discounts so that I could save some money for printing the forthcoming volumes. On the advice of music lovers, It’s second hardbound edition after adding 3000 more songs came in December 2020 with an analysis of 20,000 songs from 6200 films from 1931 to 2020.(Price 4200/- and discounted price 3200/- with Sur Samvaadini as complimentary). Total pages 1250 pages in landscape format in 2 volumes. Now 3 volumes in Raagwise format have been released in Hardbound 2080 pages.(Printed price 6800/- and discounted price 4800/- with practically very little saving for the forthcoming Non-film songs Raag Encyclopaedia).
These volumes, although have the same database, have a different analytical flavour. There are 174 different Raag tables and 30 additional tables for the songs of different genre which have been created after lot of hard work.
With constant pressure of my printer regarding increase of cost of paper, printing and binding, I want to make it clear that I wish to keep my mission self sufficient. It is not a business venture.
As far as Kindle edition is concerned, it will surely be released in near future.
Once again I am so thankful AKJi for such a wonderful review.
Great work by Pandey Ji for a marathon effort to publish such an encyclopedia. And thanks to AK Ji for bringing this to limelight.
Irrespective of the size, price etc of the books, I would like to thank Pandey ji for the very important task of compiling such data. One area where our country has always lagged behind is to record our achievements and history as a result most of the western world doesnt beleive our ancient history and accomplishments. Western countries meticulously record their history and work and hence it is always considered true whereas ours is mostly dismissed as stories!!
At least future generations may not dismiss our golden era of music as something ” fictional”….on a lighter vein.
How many producers/directors ever bothered to at least capture the recording of some of the epic songs composed by the masters…for example we all would have loved to see the recording of ” Na to caarvan ki talash hai/yeh ishq ishq hai ” that went on for almost 24 hours .,
Mr KL Pandey,
You are welcome. I have given the basic description of the book which would serve the purpose to apprise the readers. One can appreciate your difficulties, but in absolute terms a general music lover would find this set pricey. Thanks a lot for your clarification to Hans. Readers would be happy to know you are planning a Kindle edition.
Mr Sivanandam,
Thanks a lot for your appreciation. Mr KL Pandey’s work is awesome, no question about it.
A very readable review on release of the 3 new volumes that gives an idea of the monumental efforts of the author Dr KL Pandey who has made a great contribution to the understanding of HFM . This review would certainly help the common masses to further appreciate the application of raaga in HFM . It is also a tribute to Dr KL Pandey. I have said earlier (6/6/2021) also that Dr Pandey should be honoured with the highest award instituted for outstanding contribution to the film world.
One very important additional benefit of this work is the great data base that is being generated. Once digitised , this information can help exploring HFM in unlimited ways and also make it easily accessible .I think HFM songs have not been stored in an organised manner yet. I also do not know if HFM songs are being given some unique numbers like the ISBN in the case of books. If a pre film release condition is imposed on all movie producers to give all the information about the songs , it would help a great deal.
I am raaga illiterate as is perhaps 99.99 % of the population . As rightly observed , that these works are meant for serious students and research, so I am not likely to refer to these works unless these are readily accessible.
Though a repeat at SOY, I feel it may help if I share the links to two interviews of Dr KL Pandey aired over Doordarshan and posted on YouTube…
1) Aaj Savere…
https://youtu.be/dtZu9nx53LI
2) Good evening India…
https://youtu.be/eayXZ6kx0nI
Mr S Joseph,
Digitisation of data is possible. I understand Mr KL Pandey’s data is in digital form. From the database these two sets have come.
Hindi Film Geet Kosh belongs to pre-digital era. Digitising that data would be very valuable, as it permits corrections, updating. I believe the project was started, but the differences between different stakeholders has created a stalemate.
I got to know about Dr. Pandey’s encyclopedia long back and got a few copies of Volumes. 1 and 2. I found it very useful for my understanding of the ragas on which many songs are based. I am quite conversant with carnatic music and a reasonably good understanding of Hindustani music too. A great soul who had devoted his precious time over aeons to bring out these treasures. He has given all possible data about each and every song. The present volumes are reverse of the previous ones. For many classical music savvy individuals, it may be of academic interest.
Serious music conversant individuals like Subodhji who had given posts here on various ragas may find this a ready reckoner for any raga writeup in future.
I am in regular contact with Dr. Pandey and had seen all the you tube videos in which he had appeared. He is well known in studios in Toronto and quite a few videos were filmed there.
Acquisition of his works may be of help to budding aspirants
Harminder’s monumental work has been digitalised and is in cold storage. I understand that its release is blocked as it is yet to be made secure against piracy.
@ 3 ,
Great to hear from the book author at SOY. I was not aware that Dr Pandey ji has done away with the publishers and has himself taken this daunting responsibility by ‘ Self Publishing ‘ in order to reduce the costs. Self publishing means taking over the job of publishers… like selecting good editors , marketing , printing and all such other works which are time consuming and also not easy.
Do not know why the film producers association or the government do not provide any support for such works of public interest.
Though the Kindle version of these volumes is expected soon , perhaps the Audio or Audio-cum-Video versions of this book may be more effective in achieving the intended goals .
AK, @ 2
I agree with you about space problem in flats. I have myself lived in flats for about a quarter century and at those times I kept many books at my home town of which quite a good number I lost to predators human as well as termites. That is why I decided to leave govt job early and settled in semi-rural conditions. It is very hard for me to read material except from books. So I do not have any kindle editions. I had extensively read Collective Works of Mahatma Gandhi from libraries when in service. When its CD was issued I purchased one and also copied it on computer, but it was very hard to cope with information the way I wanted. So two years back I purchased the whole set of 100 volumes when I got this farm house constructed. The books I purchase generally do not go unopened.
To your point about these new volumes fulfilling a reverse query, I would say these queries are endless. Some may ask which MD used which raag in how many songs or singerwise list may be demanded. To my thinking Pandeyji should have given a thought to publish paper back edition or kindle edition first. They would have sold along with the hard cover edition on the basis of book reviews like yours. If they come later, the sales may not be as good.
Hans,
I have to congratulate you on your proud possession of your farmhouse and your books. On the second part, I would refrain from giving any comments as it deals with business aspect of book production.
AKji,
You sent me the volumes 1 and 2 and I found them very useful. In fact I used the data to write a post – Same mukhda, two different songs.
https://anitamultitasker.wordpress.com/2022/05/11/same-mukhda-two-different-songs/
The subsequent volumes also indicate the monumental effort that has been made to document songs raaga wise. Congratulations to Shri Pandey for this great publication!!
Anita,
Volumes 3, 4 & 5, too, are monumental works. You would find these volumes also quite helpful in your blog. I understand you are trained in music. If I pretend on SOY I would soon be exposed, but at suitable places I can drop in statements like, “Both Yaman and Yaman Kalyan are identical in all respects, except that Yaman uses only Teevra Madhyam, whereas in Yaman Kalyan, both Shuddh and Teevra Madhyam are used.