1944

Best songs of 1944: Final Wrap Up 4

And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

Khemchand Prakash-Naushad-Pankaj MullickWhen you think of the year 1944, you think of Naushad. That was the beginning of Naushad phenomenon with his Jewel in the crown, Rattan. This was his 13th movie, having debuted in 1940 as an independent music director, he already had five Silver Jubilees under his belt. But the songs of Rattan are remembered even today. That film became a Diamond Jubilee, first of his three Diamond Jubilees. In the year he gave music to three more films; the list of 80/81 Memorable Songs in the Overview Post includes his songs from all the films. His Pahle Aap, too, in the year had some everlasting songs, rightly making the film a Silver Jubilee hit.

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Best songs of 1944: Wrap Up 3

And the Award for the Best Duet goes to?

In my list of 81 MEMORABLE SONGS in the Overview Post on the best songs of 1944, I counted 17 duets. This is quite a small number, but as we have seen in the reviews of other years, duets always punch above their weight. There is something special about combination of different voices, generally a male and a female, and some very unlikely combinations. The eight ‘Special Songs’ in the overview post included six duets, only two of which were in the list of Memorable Songs. Remaining four were discoveries made between compilation of the Memorable Songs and writing the post. In the vintage years, we never cease to make new discoveries, and every time some beautiful song turns up, it gives immense joy and makes this exercise worthwhile. After the Wrap Up 1 on the best male solos and the Wrap Up 2 on the best female solos, let us discuss the best duets of 1944.

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Best songs of 1944: Wrap UP 2

And the award for the Best Female Song goes to?

If you browse through my Overview Post on the best songs of 1944 and the Wrap Up 1 about the best male solos, two features would strike you immediately. One was the significantly large number of female solos compared to the male solos. And two, while KL Saigal was the Pole Star of male solos, there was no such Pole Star in female solos. There was no Lata Mangeshkar in 1944. I used to think that Noorjehan was the Lata Mangeshkar before her, but now I realise that I was conditioned by all the optics created by Lata herself, and by reading a good deal about Noorjehan-romantics like Dilip Kumar, Khushwant Singh, and proponents of Track-II diplomacy with our neighbour. I give allowance that as she sang for herself, her songs would be less than independent playback singers. Yet a detailed review shows that a large number of female singers sang absolutely melodious songs, making Noorjehan one among many as far as the quality of songs is concerned.

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Best Songs of 1944: Wrap Up 1

And the award for the Best Male Solo goes to?

In my Overview Post of the best songs of 1944, I had mentioned that in the total songs in the years in which the singers’ names were known, male solos to female solos to duets followed a ratio of 1: 3.69: 1.69. Thus, the male solos were about 16% of the total songs in the year. In my shortlist of 80/81 Memorable Songs in the year (one song had a female, and a duet version), the number of male solos is proportionately more at 19, accounted for by the following 9 singers:

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Best songs of 1944: And the winners are?

Season 2 of the year-wise reviews begins

Rattan-Bhanwra-Bhartrihari-My SisterI have explained in my final wrap up of the review of songs of 1945 how the idea of year-wise reviews of the best songs of the year started and why I termed the year 1945 as the end of Season 1. There was doubt in my mind whether the series would or should at all continue after that. That had to do with the culmination coinciding with 10 years of SOY, which ended neatly in 2020. But the readers urged for continuation – some for taking up 1956 onwards, some preferring 1944 backwards. Since the blog is not shutting down, I veered towards continuing the series.

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