1949

Best songs of 1949: Final Wrap Up 5

The SoY Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

Anil Biswas_Shankar-Jaikishan_Naushad_Khemchand Prakash_C Ramchandra_Husnlal-BhagatramFor the final wrap up, I can do no better than quote Mahesh: “The year 1949 itself was the biggest winner of all.” That refers to the historical place of the year in the evolution of Hindi film songs which we have discussed in the overview post, as well as in the various wrap ups: Wrap Up 1 (Best male solos), Wrap Up 2 (Best solos of ‘other’ female singers), Wrap Up 3 (Best solos of Lata Mangeshkar) and Wrap Up 4 (Best duets). In brief, there were two watershed events that changed the course of film songs. Lata Mangeshkar’s coming as a Tsunami shook the established order of the full-throated vintage era singers – her high-pitched thin voice becoming the industry standard for female playback singing for leading ladies. This started the era of Lata Mangeshkar versus ‘others’. Shankar-Jaikishan had a sensational debut with Barsaat in which they came with a unique orchestration, which was easy on the ears and extremely melodious. For the next twenty years they would be counted among the five most dominant music directors.

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Best songs of 1949: Wrap Up 4

And the SoY Award for the Best Duet goes to?

Ae mohabbat unse milneIt is always a pleasure to write the Wrap Up 4, which is for the best duets of the year. The best solos always generate some  controversy. In male solos this year, there was a close tie between Rafi and Mukesh. My conclusion that Mukesh was the No.1 singer of the year left many readers dissatisfied.  Lata Mangeshkar versus ‘other’ singers can never be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. Even in a year in which it was acknowledged that Lata Mangeshkar came as a tsunami, there was a dissenting voice. The duets, however, present a less contentious scenario. Here the ‘others’ come in full force; their combination with the leading male singers, such as Rafi and Mukesh, creates a kaleidoscope of colours. Shamshad Begum sheds off the challenge of Lata Mangeshkar when it comes to duets. Suraiya is always supremely melodious. Surinder Kaur, who is a legend in Punjab, gives some wonderful duets, besides solos which we have seen in Wrap Up 2. In female-female duets, we get some niche vintage voices. But the main charm is that we also get duets in which none of the familiar voices are there, and they are as delightful as any by the leading singers.

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Best songs of 1949: Wrap Up 3

Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very Happy Birthday on her 87th birth anniversary (b. 28 September 1929) with her best songs of 1949

Lata MangeshkarIt is a no-brainer that Lata Mangeshkar was the best female playback singer of 1949. In later years, that would become routine – she defined the lead female voice. But in 1949, it must have been an amazing phenomenon. Here was a twenty year-old girl who had an inconspicuous debut as a playback singer a couple of years earlier in Aap Ki Sewa Mein (1947). The next year some stories started growing around her – how Ghulam Haider ‘discovered’ her, took her to S Mukherji of Filmistan for Shaheed, but he rejected her as her voice was too thin, whereupon Ghulam Haider famously told him that a day would come when the producers and music directors would line up before her, begging her to sing for them. She did have a couple of memorable songs in the year, but who could have thought that in 1949 a dam would burst with torrent of Lata Mangeshkar songs, leaving the yesteryear stalwarts dazed?

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Best songs of 1949: Wrap Up 2

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

Amirbai Karnataki-Rajkumari-Zeenat Begum-Shamshad Begum-Suraiya-Surinder KaurAs the readers would recall from the overview post on the best songs of 1949, this was a great year for the ‘other’ singers, and female singers in general. There were about 80 female solos in my select list of 160 (the list mentioned up to #157, but some songs had more than one version), i.e. about 50%. The number of male solos, i.e. 22, was only a quarter of female solos. Further, the female solos presented amazing variety. Lata Mangeshkar’s 35 songs contain the largest number of all-time great songs she sang in any single year. And to think that she was just 20 then, having made a very inconspicuous debut only a couple of years earlier. The remaining 46 songs are shared by the doyennes of yesteryear. The two singers who had maximum number of songs are Shamshad Begum and Suraiya having 16 and 14 respectively. The remaining 16 was accounted for by others (i.e. others within the ‘others’), such as Rajkumari, Amirbai Karnataki, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Geeta Roy, Zeenat Begum, Surinder Kaur etc. Here is a convenient pie chart showing the relative share of different singers in female solos.

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Best songs of 1949: Wrap Up 1

Songs of Yore Award for the Best Male Playback Singer goes to?

Rafi and MukeshAs we have seen in the overview post on the Best songs of 1949, and as I have observed elsewhere a number of times, 1949 was the year of Tsunami wave of Lata Mangeshkar. The yesteryear vintage singers, like Suraiya, Shamshad Begum, Rajkumari and others like Zeenat Begum, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Surinder Kaur etc. were also at their glory. This is reflected in the numbers included in my Select List of about 160 memorable songs in the year which has 22 male solos as against 80 plus female solos. I find from my review of earlier years, too, that female solos generally outnumber male solos by a factor of four or five. If I include the memorable songs added by the readers which I had inadvertently missed, the ratio would still be the same, as female solos added would be far more. Can we conclude from this that this was not the year for male solos (as Subodh had famously said for 1953)?

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Best songs of 1949: And the winners are?

Adaaz_Barsaat_Mahal_Patanga_Badi Bahan_DillagiIn our journey in the Time Machine to yearwise review of the best songs of a year, we now enter what is the single most important year in the history of film music. The evolution of Hindi film music can be seen as gradual changes, shaken with major tectonic shifts once in a while. One such tremor happened in 1969 with Aradhana which marked the resurgence of a new Kishore Kumar who became the voice of every hero. It also led to a new kind of sound and musical style which would herald the decline of erstwhile doyens like Naushad, C Ramchandra, OP Nayyar and Shankar-Jaikishan, leaving only SD Burman with his fresh sound unscathed, and emergence of RD Burman as the industry standard. Compared to this, 1949 was a Tsunami. Lata Mangeshkar who had an inconspicuous debut a couple of years earlier, and was gradually being noticed in 1948, burst forth on the scene in 1949 as the would-be defining voice of female playback singing, and marking the beginning of the end of the old courtesan/ theatrical style singing of the vintage singers. Shankar-Jaikishan with their very first film Barsaat shook the music scene with a different kind of orchestration and musical style which was easy on ears. At a very young age they would break into the rarefied world of top music directors and would stay there for two decades.

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