1942

Best songs of 1942: Wrap UP 4

And the SOY Award for the Best Music Director of 1942 goes to?

After the Overview Post, Wrap Up 1 of the best male solos, Wrap Up 2 of the best female solos and Wrap Up 3 of the best duets, it is time for the final Wrap Up 4 to discuss the best music director 0f 1942. There were at least two musical blockbusters in the year: Bhakt Surdas (composed by Gyan Dutt) and Basant (Pt. Pannalal Ghosh/Anil Biswas). The reason I am crediting like this is that Pt. Pannalal Ghosh is officially credited as the music director, but it is said that Anil Biswas was the actual music director, who could not use his name because of contractual reasons; Pt. Pannalal Ghosh only gave background score. This trivia has been mentioned so many times at different fora that I would henceforth use only Anil Biswas as the music director of Basant. There are some more films in the year in which Anil Biswas was the music director without any confusion.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Best songs of 1942: Wrap Up 3

And the award for the best duet of 1942 goes to?

1935 to 1946 have been years of KL Saigal dominance of the film music. Yet, there is something about duets that even in these years duets leave a lasting imprint. These include some duets in which KL Saigal is the male singer, but the female counterparts hold their fort. I have no hesitation in saying say that Jis jogi ka jog liya ho and Sar pe kadamb ki chhaiyaan muraliya baaj rahi have been embellished by the presence of Khursheed and Rajkumari respectively.

In the list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the Overview Post, there are 20 duets in 84/85 songs. I find that I have counted 23 male solos in Wrap Up 1 and 34 female solos in Wrap Up 2. If you total these, it leaves a gap of 7/8 songs. This is because in some songs either one or both the singers are unidentified.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Best songs of 1942: Wrap Up 2

And the SOY ward for the Best Female Singer goes to?

In my overview post of the best songs of 1942, I had mentioned that the ratio between male solos and female solos in the songs in which singers were credited was 1:2.55 in the year as a whole. I had included 84 songs in my list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the year. The Wrap Up 1 of the best male solos listed all the 23 male solos that were in the list of MEMORABLE SONGS. These were divided among 15 singers, but KL Saigal naturally dominated the list. During his years of dominance the male singing was mostly a one-horse race.

How does female solos compare with this picture? In the list of MEMORABLE SONGS I had included 34 female solos divided among 17 singers as follows:READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Best songs of 1942: Wrap Up 1

And the award for the Best Male Singer goes to?

KL Saigal in most of his active years was a colossus and, thus, the answer to this rhetorical question was a foregone conclusion. In 1942, Saigal had just one film, Bhakt Surdas, but that was enough to make his songs etched in the memories of music lovers forever. To be sure, there were many other male singers as well, such as KC Dey, Surendra, GM Durrani, Khan Mastana, Rafiq Ghaznavi etc. Out of a total of 84/85 songs in my list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the overview post, there are 23 male solos, distributed among 15 singers as in the table below.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Best songs of 1942

And the winners are? As we go back more and more into vintage years there is a concern whether we would come across some familiar songs. There are indeed some undiscovered gems, but there are also many songs which have become immortal and have been part of us since the radio era. KL Saigal wasREAD THE FULL ARTICLE