Best songs of year

Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 4

And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

The year 1943 was like 1944 in many respects. Kismet became a cult hit for its novel theme; it also happened to have outstanding music by Anil Biswas. Anil Biswas also gave some excellent music in Hamari Baat. Naushad didn’t have a Rattan (1944) exactly, but he gave music to three films – Namaste, Kanoon and Sanjog – and all the three celebrated silver jubilees. Towering above all these, KL Saigal, Khursheed-starrer Tansen became a musical masterpiece, composed by Khemchand Prakash. Ram Rajya, composed by Shankar Rao Vyas had some songs which have acquired iconic status. New Theatres maintained their quality with Kashinath (Pankaj Mullick) and Wapas (RC Boral). There were several others making a mark, such as Kamal Dasgupta, Shyam Sundar, Pt. Govind Ram, Vasant Desai and Rafiq Ghaznavi. For lovers of music of the vintage era, these are familiar names and they have acquired a place in the Roll of Honour.

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Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 3

And the award for the best duet goes to?

More balapan ke sathi-Dheere dheere aa re baadalThere is something about duets which make them exceptional. If you take a re-look at my Overview Post, six out of the eight ‘Special Songs’ are duets. There are just so many varieties in them. For example, the titles of Bhojan ke nazaarein hain and Main to Agre se joota laya re are parodies of well-known songs of just a year or two earlier. Both the songs are medley parody songs which tests your knowledge or recall of vintage songs which became roaringly popular. There are some sung by music directors who were not quite known as singers. There were some others which were funky for different reasons: serious singers singing absurdly funny songs and so on.

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Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 2

And the Award for the Best Female Solo singer goes to ?

Amirbai Karnataki-Parul Ghosh-Khursheed-Kanan DeviIf you browse through the Wrap Up 1 regarding the best solos of 1943, it was clearly a one-horse race with KL Saigal being the Pole Star. During Saigal-Noorjehan-era there was no female Saigal, or as I have said earlier a number of times, there was no Lata Mangeshkar before Lata Mangeshkar. But we should not draw an erroneous conclusion that female singing was devoid of talent. There were several exceptionally talented singers, and the total female solos outnumbered the male solos by a big margin. In fact my fascination for vintage singing is due to so many varieties of female voice.

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Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 1

The SOY Award for the Best Male Singer goes to?

There are years when a competition becomes a one-horse race. That is the case with the best male singer for the year 1943. On the one hand we have the landmark film Tansen starring KL Saigal and Khursheed, on the other we have Kismet and Ram Rajya which have several landmark songs by female singers. There is no film which has several memorable songs by a male singer, though we do have sprinkling of some timeless male solos, such as GM Durrani’s Neend hamari khwab tumhare. Here I should add this song has Balakram singing sargam as the interlude, therefore, I treat it as a solo.

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Best songs of 1943: And the winners are?


If 1944 was the year of Naushad’s Jewel in the Crown, Rattan, 1943 was the year of Kismet which became a cult film on the back of its music by Anil Biswas. The Master Khemchad Prakash was at the peak of his craft, and so were KL Saigal and Khursheed in the film Tansen which had many timeless songs. And who can forget Ram Rajya’s defining song in Bhimpalasi, ‘Beena madhur madhur kachhu bol’ and other beautiful songs composed by Shankar Rao Vyas? This was also the year of Neend hamari khwab tumhare from Nai Kahani, composed by Pt. Shyam Sundar.

Other musical landmarks

There were many more songs in the year which have become milestones. Naushad would take a year to become a sensation with Rattan, but he made a mark in 1943 too. He gave music for three films – Kanoon, Namaste and Sanjog – and all the three celebrated silver jubilees. Each of them had some songs remembered till today. With their stalwarts already having left for Bombay, the New Theatres, gasping its last breath, made Kashinath and Wapas with music by Pankaj Mullick and RC Boral respectively, which had some beautiful songs by Asit Baran. Asit Baran I discovered after I started blogging when I was curious as to who minded the stable after KL Saigal, KC Dey and Pankaj Mullick had left the New Theatres. Kanan Devi had some excellent songs in Hospital, composed by Kamal Dasgupta. There were many more, such as Hamari Baat, composed by Anil Biswas; Panghat with music by SN Tripathi, Poonji by Ghulam Haider and Naadan by K Datta etc.

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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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