Best songs of year

Best songs of 1947: Final Wrap Up 4

And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

Naushad_C Ramchandra_Husnlal-Bhagatram_Khursheed AnwarAfter the Overview post and the three category-wise wrap ups: Wrap Up 1 for the best male solo, Wrap Up 2 for the best female solo and Wrap Up 3 for the best duets – it is time to collate and discuss the dominant music directors of the year 1947 and try to decide a winner.  Recapitulating, this was the year of C Ramchandra’s Ana meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday which was a brazen break from the tradition of classicism. The purists scoffed, but CR had the last laugh because it became uproariously popular. Shalan Lal’s last post on Meena Kapoor describes the frenzy this song created.  Shehnai had some more delightful songs. He also had a stupendously popular Humko tumhara hi aasra tum hamare ho na ho from Saajan. This was a two-version song – a Rafi solo and a Rafi-Lalita Deulkar duet – both being immensely popular. The Overview post in the long list of ‘Memorable Songs’ had some more songs of CR from other films.

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Best songs of 1947: Wrap Up 3

And the Song of Yore Award for the Best Duet goes to?

Parwana-Dard-Jugnu-Meera-Shenai-Mirza SahibanThe total number of duets in the list of ‘Memorable Songs’ in the Overview post on the best songs of 1947 is about 30 out of 119. This is about 50% more than the male solos, but less than half the female solos. This is similar to the average distribution of the types of songs. As I go down the list of the songs, they can be clearly divided into two categories: one, that attained everlasting popularity; and the other, which remained unknown, except among collectors and intense followers. This is unlike the 1950s and 60s when a large number of songs were in the middle. The absence of the middle ground in 1947 and earlier is a reflection of the antiquity of these songs. The Internet era has made many more songs known, but these are unlikely to displace the ones that have got etched in our memory. Therefore, while any exercise of selecting the best ten will necessarily remain within the familiar territory, I have been covering the unique but less familiar songs under the category ‘Special Songs’.

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Best songs of 1947: Wrap Up 2

And the SoY award for the Best Female Singer goes to?

Suraiya-Amirbai Karnataki-Noorjehan-Uma Devi-Shamshad Begum-Zohrabai AmbalewaliThis was the year of female playback singers. Compared to 19 male solos as discussed in the Wrap Up 1, female solos numbered 67 (N Venkataraman counted 69) in the list of 117/119 Memorable Songs (referred to also as Master List) in my overview post . They were from immense variety of voices. The year saw the departure of the Malika-e-tarannum Noorjehan post-partition. It also saw the entry of Lata Mangeshkar as a ‘playback’ singer with the film Aap Ki Sewa Mein, composed by Datta Davjekar. As is too well known, this 18 year old girl would sweep all the established vintage singers aside in a couple of years, and, for two decades thereafer, she would be the undisputed queen of female playback singing. Her debut song Paaon lagun kar jori re has come to public consciousness only during the Internet era, but connoisseurs have acclaimed it as an outstanding song.

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Best songs of 1947: Wrap Up 1

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

Saigal-Rafi-Mukesh-SurendraAs I go down the list of 117/119 memorable songs (two songs had double versions) in my overview post on the best songs of 1947, the most striking thing is the rarity of male solos. I could count only 19 male solos, 50% of which are accounted for by two singers – KL Saigal (5 songs from a single film Parwana) and Mukesh (4 songs). Female solos outnumber male solos by about 4 to 1, and the rest is taken up by duets (male-female as well as other combinations and songs by three or more singers). That does not leave much room for other singers to have any significant number of songs. Surendra, Rafi had Shyam Sundar had two each. This Shyam Sundar was different from the famous music director. He was a comedian who sang four songs in Raj Kapoor-starrer Dil Ki Rani. Four other singers had a song each in my overview post. Thus, the male solos were distributed as follows:

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Best songs of 1947: And the winners are?

Parwana-Dard-Jugnu-Meera-Shenai-Mirza Sahiban

It was the best of years, it was the worst of years. The euphoria of independence was marred by the trauma of partition, the communal frenzy sweeping large swathes of the country, the bloodshed, and the largest mass migration in history from one side of the border to the other. The film world too could not remain untouched by these events. Many Muslim music directors and actors chose to go to the other side or would move shortly – Ghulam Haider, Rafiq Ghazanavi, Firoz Nizami, Khursheed Anwar, Noorjehan etc. It was a sad year for another final departure – the greatest actor-singer ever KL Saigal passed away on 18 January 1947 at a young age of 43. But the year also saw the debut of Lata Mangeshkar as a ‘playback’ singer in Aap Ki Sewa Mein.

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Best songs of 1948: Final Wrap Up 4

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

Naushad_C Ramchandra_Ghulam Haider_Husnlal-BhagatramI start with wishing the readers  Merry Christmas. After the Overview post and the three category-wise wrap ups – Wrap Up 1 for the best male solos, Wrap Up 2 for the best female solos, and Wrap Up 3 for the best duets – we now have a fairly good idea of who the dominant music directors were. Naushad with all his songs in Anokhi Ada and Mela – totalling about two dozen – being super hits, is undoubtedly top of the pack. Anil Biswas in Anokha Pyar, Gajre and Veena; C Ramchandra in Nadiya Ke Paar and Khidki; Husnlal-Bhagatram in Pyar Ki Jeet; Ghulam Haider in Shaheed; Ram Ganguly in Aag; and Khemchand Prakash in Ziddi gave some everlasting songs. The underrated genius, Ghulam Mohammad never fails to create outstanding songs, and he did so in Grihasthi and Pugree. There were others, too, whose one or two songs featured in the best lists.

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Best songs of 1948: Wrap Up 3

And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Duet goes to?

Kyun unhe dil diyaAs per the long-term average, female solos outnumber male solos by a big margin, with duets somewhere in between. The same is true for the year 1948. My list of 114/115 MEMORABLE SONGS in the Overview post has the following break-up:

 

Male solos        –  26
Female solos    –  53
Duets                  –  36
       TOTAL    –   115

Besides the significant number, the duets present  interesting variety of combinations of singers. This category also includes all male or female duets, and songs by more than two singers (which could be all male or female or mixed). I count the chorus songs in which there is only one identifiable dominating voice as a solo of that singer.

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Best songs of 1948: Wrap Up 2

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

Lata Mangeshkar-Shamshad Begum-Suraiya-Surinder KaurThe readers may recall from my Overview post, and the detailed review of the best songs of 1949, that one significant difference between the two consecutive years was in Lata Mangeshkar coming as a tsunami wave in 1949, leaving her competitors awestruck, whereas in 1948, i.e. just a year before, she was behind Shamshad Begum in terms of ‘Memorable Songs’. Suraiya, not far behind, can be regarded as the third leg of the Triad Power that dominated the female playback singing in the year. Surinder Kaur and Lalita Deulkar had a short-lived career in Hindi films, but their best was in 1948. Uma Devi and Amirbai Karnataki also had noticeable presence in the year. Given this overall picture of the female playback songs, I have decided to do away with separate posts for Lata Mangeshkar and ‘Others’. In the remaining three years of my planned review, i.e. 1947, 1946 and 1945, there would be no dilemma – Lata Mangeshkar sang (and acted) some songs, but she would be virtually invisible.

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Best songs of 1948 songs: Wrap Up 1

And the Songs of Yore award for the best male solo goes to?

Rafi and MukeshSome general observations are in order. The year 1948 did not have a great diversity of male playback singers, unlike the female singers. KL Saigal had passed away a year earlier; Talat Mahmood would appear a couple of years later; Hemant Kumar and Manna Dey who had been around for some time, did not yet have their big breaks. Among the great playback singers of the Golden Era, Mukesh was the only one who had a significant presence with great songs in at least four films; Rafi was playing a catch-up game. From the Vintage Era, GM Durrani had some nice songs. The actor-singer Surendra was virtually on his last lap, though with some outstanding songs. His singing career would decline sharply, and he would graduate to ‘character’ roles in the later years.

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The first duo Husnlal-Bhagatram (1): Their songs for Suraiya, Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi

Husnlal-BhagatramI have signed off the series on Shankar-Jaikishan recently. Before that I had done series on Anil Biswas, Naushad, C Ramchandra and SD Burman. As the readers now expect the next famous music directors in line, there are some yesteryears stalwarts who shone like meteor for a short while, or who gave great music consistently over a long period, but who were not lucky to get sustained commercial success. Though not counted among the G-5 or G-7, they are very dear to the lovers of songs of yore. I was always conscious while doing the series on the superstars that I have to take care that we don’t miss the lesser, but no less talented stars. Husnlal-Bhagatram occupy a very important place in the history of film music as a bridge between the vintage and the golden era, between the theatre-style singing of Zohra Ambalewali, Zeenat Begum and Amirbai Karnataki, and the smooth, melodious singing of Suraiya and Lata Mangeshkar, between GM Durrani and Rafi.

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