Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)
(Our guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav have been writing an excellent series on the Arrangers and Musicians for the last few months in which they have already covered three of the most celebrated names: Sebastian D’Souza, Anthony Gonsalves and Enoch Daniels. Continuing the series, now they put the spotlight on Kishore Desai who was proficient with at least two instruments: mandolin and sarod.
The guest authors describe how these arrangers and musicians were instrumental in embellishing the melodies. They remained in behind the curtains, generally unsung and anonymous. With the series we now realise how they were so integral to some of our most favourite songs. You would be surprised to now how Kishore Desai was associated with some immortal songs with his mandolin or sarod. Besides, he was also the composer of some of the most famous non-film songs, Thank you Piyushji and Ashokji for another enlightening article in the series. – AK)
Tum bin jaaun kahan ke duniya mein aakar kuchh na phir chaha sanam (Pyar Ka Mausam, 1969 – Music: R D Burman) is one song which perhaps remains an unbridgeable divide between Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi fans. For more knowledgeable ones, initially it was also a hotly debated issue as to who has played the mandolin in the two versions. However, many subsequent interviews by the two instrumentalists who have played the mandolin, Manohari Singh and Kishore Desai, have it well-settled that Manohari Singh has played mandolin for Kishore Kumar version and Kishore Desai, on the very specific invitation by Manohari Singh himself as the arranger, has played the mandolin for Mohammad Rafi version.