1946

Best songs of 1946: Final Wrap Up 4

And the SoY Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

Wishing Merry Christmas to the readers and a tribute to Naushad on his Birth Centenary (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006)

Naushad-Ghulam Haider-Hansraj BahalI need not have put a question mark about the best music director of 1946. Rarely one comes across such a single-horse race. This was the year of Naushad all the way. The SoY regulars would recall from my reviews of 1947, 1948 and 1949 (I am doing the review in the reverse chronological order) that he continued his dominance in these years too, being chosen the best music director in 1947 jointly with C Ramchandra, and unambiguously in 1948 and 1949. He did one better in 1946, by making the competition in all categories – male solos, female solos and duets – a Naushad race.

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Best songs of 1946: Wrap Up 3

And the SoY award for the best duet goes to?

Aawaz de kahan haiIn the year-wise reviews of the best songs, as we entered pre-1949, we gradually encountered less and less familiar songs. It became quite pronounced in 1946, in which I could include only 81 MEMORABLE songs in my Overview post, which is far less than the number in the later years, in absolute as well as relative terms. The level of unknown can be gauged from the fact that out of 1270 known song-titles, nothing is known about the singers of about 740 songs, i.e. 58% of all the songs. Of the remaining 534 songs whose singers are credited, here is a chart giving break-up of male solos, female solos and duets. This chart was also included in the Wrap Up 2 relating to the best female solos of 1946.

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Best songs of 1946: Wrap Up 2

And the SoY Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to?

Noorjehan-Amirbai Karnataki-Shamshad Begum-SuraiyaAs the readers would recall from Wrap Up 1, the Award for the Best Male Solo turned out to be a one-horse race, thanks to KL Saigal’s superlative songs in the film Shahjahan, composed equally superbly by the Great Mughal Naushad. Lata Mangeshkar acquired that status 1949 onwards, when in most of the years you would have to create two categories: One, she by herself, and the other, ‘Other Singers’. She did have some songs in the year in minor acting roles, but these went unnoticed. Today we know about them because of the Internet, but in the earlier era these songs would have been known only to the collectors and researchers. Lata Mangeshkar out of the reckoning in 1946, is there any other female singer sprinting far ahead of the pack?

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Best songs of 1946: Wrap Up 1

And the SoY Award for the Best Male Playback Singer goes to?

KL Saigal-Durrani-Surendra-Rafi-Mukesh-1946Now we come to category-wise discussion of the best songs, following from my overview post on the Best songs of 1946. Understandably, the total number of MEMORABLE SONGS mentioned in the post (81) was the lowest so far in the series on year-wise reviews. Since we are going back year to year, this is a function of entering into less and less familiar territory. The male solos in the list were 22 in number, divided among the following singers:

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Best songs of 1946: And the winners are?

Anmol Ghadi-Shahjehan-Safar-Eight DaysAs I started traversing back from the 1950s to the 40s in the year-wise review of film songs, I mentioned that we are entering the era of more unknown than the known. This is best exemplified by the year 1946: Out of 153 films in the year, nothing is known about five films, whether its actors, song titles, what to speak if its singers etc. It is a huge number of films in a year, overtaken only in a few years in the entire history of talkie films starting from 1931. Of the over 1270 known song-titles, nothing is known about singers of about 740 songs, i.e. about 58% of all the songs. My list of MEMORABLE SONGS in any year has been generally well over 100, but in the year 1946, I could not stretch it beyond 78/81 (one song has a male solo and female solo versions, and two songs have a male solo and a male-female duet versions). Even in this list many songs would appear to be unfamiliar and unheard. That makes the exercise of the year-wise review more challenging as well as interesting.

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