1951

Best songs of 1951: Final Wrap-Up 5

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

Anil Biswas_Shankar-Jaikishan_SD Burman_C RamchandraThis is the third series of detailed year-wise review of songs. Mid-way I had a feeling that this exercise might appear monotonous and uninteresting. I am very happy to note that my fears were unfounded. Rather, the readers’ participation has been more intense and passionate, and their comments very knowledgeable. Therefore, as I conclude this year’s exercise with the Final Wrap-Up about the best music director(s), I have to sincerely thank the readers for their participation and making the exercise worthwhile.

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Best songs of 1951: Wrap-Up 4

And the award for the best duet goes to?

1951 FilmsWe are now nearing the end of the Review of the songs of 1951, with the penultimate wrap-up – of the best duets – before the final wrap-up of the best music director. The wrap-up of the best solos, especially of the male solos, caused some serious differences of views and sharp reactions. I had thought duets would not pose such problems. But looking at the comments in the overview post, I could not have been more wrong. Several readers added a number of duets from outside my long list, which I had thought was fairly exhaustive. One such addition I find so breathtaking that I have to give it a place in the final shortlist. There is an all female duet, which is my great favourite, but seems to be on no one’s radar screen, though another all female duet from the same film has been mentioned. There are some other all female duets, or songs with more than two singers, mentioned by the readers. And among the well-known songs, the choices vary widely, some being quite unexpected.

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Best songs of 1951: Wrap Up 3

Songs of Yore Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to Lata, Lata, Lata…Lata Mangeshkar, with Happy Diwali greetings to all

Lata MangeshkarAll superlatives fall short of describing Lata Mangehkar’s dominance in 1951, just as we saw in 1955 and 1953. Mahesh even said that the best female playback singer other than Lata Mangeshkar is Lata Mangeshkar herself. Many of us would give 1 to 10 slots to her, and still feel that many more everlasting songs are still left out. Since the year also had career landmarks of several ‘other’ singers, we decided to split the female singers in two parts. ‘Other’ singers have been covered in the Wrap Up 2. In this Wrap Up (3), devoted exclusively to Lata Mangeshkar, we can discuss her best without being constrained to look over our shoulders to include ‘others’ for equity.

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Best Songs of 1951: Wrap Up 2

Songs of Yore Award for the Best ‘Other’ Female Playback Singer goes to?

Amirbai Karnataki-Rajkumari-Zeenat Begum-Shamshad Begum-Geeta Dutt-Sandhya MukherjeeIn the previous two series for 1953 and 1955, I had one Wrap Up for the best female playback singer, and unlike the question mark for male singers, the by-line for female singer had a straightforward: “And the Award goes to Lata, Lata, Lata, Lata, Lata….Lata Mangeshkar.” But in the write-up and the final ten I made efforts to include about 3-4 songs of other singers too, in the nature of affirmative action. Her dominance is no less pronounced in 1951- Mahesh goes to the extent of saying that the best female playback singer other than Lata is Lata Mangeshkar herself. But several readers gave separate lists of their favourite songs of Lata and ‘other’ female singers, and suggested that I do the female playback singers in two parts. The ‘other’ singers bring immense variety and several of them had their landmark songs in the year. Therefore, let me split the female singers in two parts, and start with the ‘other’ singers first.

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Best songs of 1951: Wrap Up 1

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

As the readers of SoY are by now aware, the survey article on the best songs of a year is followed by category-wise Wrap Ups. I start with the first Wrap Up on the Best Male Playback Singer of the year. The series is now attracting progressively more and more extensive and intensive comments. I am greatly benefitted by all the comments on the survey article Best songs of 1951: And the winners are? I have tried to capture the sense of the House to come up with the best ten male solos and the best singer of the year.

Rafi_Mukesh_Talat Mahmood_CH Atma_GM Durrani_Kishore KumarI have to start with a Breaking News: Awara hun does not excite the erudite readers of SoY a great deal, and no one will lament – except perhaps with the exception of one – if it is consigned to the category of SSS songs (Songs that became a Surprise Sensation). Therefore, I am announcing up-front that I am not including it in the ten best songs of the year. Who is the solitary exception? Mahesh was the first off the block with a firm endorsement of Awara hun. This song did figure in some other comments too, but somewhat tentatively in the manner of ‘how can one leave out a landmark song like this?’.

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Best songs of 1951: And the winners are?

1951 FilmsAfter reviewing the best songs of 1955 and 1953, which were gap years in the Filmfare Awards (Baiju Bawra, 1952 was the first film to get the Filmfare Awards for the best music, but in the later years no films of 1953 and 1955 won these awards), I come to the pre-Filmfare era with 1951. This briefly explains my odd selection of years. Henceforth, it is going to be yearwise review in reverse order until 1945, which is the task given to me by the readers.

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