DP Rangan

Love is Bliss

Wishing everyone a very Happy Valentine’s Day with guest article by DP Rangan

(Our mid-octogenarian guest author today is an ever romantic. PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Cricket, Bridge, Sherlock Holmes, History, Mathematics – his range of interests is limitless. An eternal peripatetic, he drops in India for change of his laundry, or medicines, during Spring when love is in the air. He is about to come back from US/Canada next month for a short visit to Delhi when the weather is conducive here. This is the time when Mr Rangan thought of resuming his writing for Songs Of Yore. “Love is Bliss” is the result of that yearning. He has written a trilogy of love articles for the blog a few years back. Mr Rangan explains how this one is distinct from his earlier love articles. It is my pleasure to welcome him.

Thank you Mr Rangan for this excellent offering. For newcomers, Mr Rangan is a retired senior government official. – AK)

Love between male and female of a species has been in vogue since many aeons with the aim of creating progenies for survival of next generation and beyond. It is a fundamental axiom of life for perpetuation. Birds are a classic example of love dances with gay abandon. Human beings are no less accomplished.

I had already contributed three posts on the theme. I consider it an over simplification to confine them into rigid patterns. It can be interpreted in various ways. I am exploring this aspect and am aiming to inflict another post on the site by coaxing our blog master. But that is far into the future.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Mohammad Rafi & Johnny Walker in Symbiosis

Guest article by DP Rangan as a joint tribute to Rafi on his 44th Remembrance Day and Johnny Walker on his 21st Remembrance Day.

(The title of this post says it all. When you think of Johnny Walker you think of Rafi. JW established a presence for himself and soon the producers and music directors realised that giving a song or two to him increased the commercial prospects of a film. For a comedian to achieve that status was remarkable. Thus, many songs picturised on him achieved iconic status, and are often remembered till today towering over other songs in the film. The credit was also due to Rafi who could modulate his voice to sound like JW.

The indefatigable guest author DP Rangan describes this relationship in detail as only he could. The statistics relate to only those songs that Rafi sang for Johnny Walker. JW lip-synched several songs on the screen, sung by other singers. Further, JW acted in many films in which he had no songs or no songs by Rafi. That is why you would see difference in the number of films in two tables – one only for movies, and the other movies and songs.

The symbiotic relationship between JW and Rafi extended to another unique aspect. Their death anniversaries are separated by two days. Today is Rafi’s 44th Remembrance Day. We had JW’s 21st Remembrance Day two days ago. This is a befitting tribute to two great artists in symbiosis. Thank you Mr Rangan for another superb article. – AK)

The first post in the blog SOY for 2024 was posted on 1st January by AKji, on the late Mohammad Rafi (hereinafter referred to as Rafi for brevity), a superlative playback singer who straddled the film world as a giant for over 35 years from 1944 till his early demise in July 1980. A series of articles will probably appear during this centenary year of his birth. This is my humble endeavour to contribute at least one article on the symbiotic relations he had with the noted comedian Johnny Walker (JW). I am stretching the meaning of “symbiosis” a little by taking refuge under the assumption that one is a playback singer and the other is an actor, though both are homo sapiens. AKji has written everything of note about Rafi and I have nothing further to contribute.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Street Dancers of Bollywood

Guest article by DP Rangan

(An interesting feature of our films is the dances performed in the streets, often by unknown actors. Sometimes the main protagonists also take to dancing and singing in the streets. Naturally a big crowd assembles around them enjoying the performance. These songs generally come at a critical juncture in the film, for relieving the tension, or as a surrogate for the inner feelings of shy lovers, or a gangster’s mole distracting the attention of the people for the gang to commit their act. These songs were key for taking the story forward. Often these songs became the high point of the film and achieved everlasting popularity – note the recent remix of ‘Jhumka gira re’ in ‘Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani’.  

Our guest author today is well-known to the regulars of SOY – he has written over 30 articles for the blog. Considering that Hindi is not his native language, and he is into 80s, and half the year he travels abroad, this is no mean feat. The theme ‘Street Dancers of Bollywood’ has long been on his radar, and in fact the completed article has been in my folder for quite some time. He is still not back in India from his travels. But I find he has been logging in and commenting nevertheless. Therefore, without waiting any further I post this superb article. Thanks a lot Mr Rangan. – AK)

It is next to impossible to determine when dancing as a sort of celebration was introduced among humans. Migration of homo sapiens commenced from Africa and over several millennium they spread over Europe and Asia. It is much later they settled in various places, found a community with distinct language of their own.  Once basic necessities of survival were achieved, society turned towards development of various kinds of artistic skills.  Music and dancing were the offshoot of such an endeavour. There is adequate archeological evidence of prevalence of a sort of music and dance even in early societies of human beings. Over a long period of time as they improved their standard of living, artistic skills also flourished in tandem. Music and dancing diversified among societies in the world and in our country this reached a pinnacle much earlier.  Many schools of music and dancing were established in different regions.  In music we had the Hindustani and Carnatic system.  In dance many offshoots as Kathak, Kuchipudi, Bharatnatyam evolved. READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Qamar Jalalabadi: The Unforgettable Lyricist

Guest article by DP Rangan paying a tribute to Qamar Jalalabadi on his 21st Remembrance Day (b. 9 March 1917 – d. 9 January 2003)

(Among the main markers of a film song – the film, the singer, the lyricist and the music director – the lyricist, whose words gave birth to the song, is remembered the least. SOY regulars used to comment about lack of due recognition to the lyricists on the blog. No longer; thanks to several guest writers many lyricists have since been well covered. Today’s guest writer, DP Rangan, himself has contributed a number of articles on them.

Qamar Jalalabadi is very well known to the lovers of old film songs for his successful association with  Husnlal-Bhagatram, Kalyanji-Anandji, OP Nayyar and others. Many of his songs are of timeless quality. Thank you Mr Rangan for another thorough article on an eminent lyricist of yesteryears, Qamar Jalalabadi. – AK)

A seven year old lad of Jalalabad (now in Pakistan) is busy compiling songs in Urdu. He has developed a flair for shayari, but his skill is frowned upon by his unsympathetic  family. He continues in the same vein and pours out more songs. When he is around nine years old he comes across an individual with similar disposition named Amar Chand and has intimate discussions with him on his passion. Recognising the talent hidden in the boy, he is all encouragement and asks him to change his name and suggests Qamar  (meaning Chand). The imaginative boy coins the name Qamar Jalalabadi (adopting the village Jalalabad where he lived) for himself and is known by this moniker thereafter.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Shikwa in Bollywood

Guest article by DP Rangan

(Our love guru DP Rangan, after exploring the ecstacy, agony and flippant sides of love, now explores another common aspect shikwa/shikayat, or ‘complaint’, ‘grievance’. Nay, Mr Rangan explains in the introductory lines that shikwa/shikayat is universal to human nature in all social interactions.

The 84-year young Mr Rangan is a man of unbounded zest for life. Such a person has to be an expert in love, as in so many other things. Thank you Mr Rangan for another excellent article. – AK)

When human beings in their evolutionary history crossed wandering stage and became a settled community, they designed rules and regulations to govern themselves to ensure equity in their day to day life so that the weakest among them could also coexist. With such close day to day dealings among themselves, friction arose from time to time. In order to get redressal of their grievances they had to formally lodge their shikwa/shikayat with the deciding authorities. This trait continues to prevail over aeons. There are several types of shikwa/shikayats.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Ballads of Love: Flippant

Guest article by DP Rangan completing his Trilogy of Love

(Our octogenarian guest author, DP Rangan, surely has great experience in ‘Love’. This is an evidence that age is not just a number, but wisdom and knowledge. After his previous two articles on the ‘Ecstasy’ and ‘Agony’ aspects of love, he concludes his trilogy with the flippant side of love. This is a very important feature of our film songs which have parallel comic tracks, and also mainstream actors acting wild on the screen. These are songs of pure fun, and qualitatively different from leg pulling or teasing.   

When Mr Rangan is not travelling around the US and Canada, his fingers itch to pen an article for SOY. His enthusiasm is inspiring. ‘Love’ is such a complex emotion that one can’t claim that it can be encompassed in three articles. But Mr Rangan covers a fairly broad range of love. Thank you Mr Rangan for a befitting end to your trilogy of love. – AK)

This is the last post on this theme. The title may strike one as “irreverent or weird” to say the least. Being in love is a serious affair and the previous two posts have amply demonstrated it. There is also another way of exhibiting it to the other partner or by both mutually, i.e., treating it as a light affair, each pulling the others leg literally.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Ballads of Love: Agony

Guest article by DP Rangan (DP Rangan had written on the ecstasy side of love when the stars shine bright, sky is bluer than ever, flowers are in bloom, and the world smiles tenderly. But joy and sorrow are the two sides of the same coin – खुशी के साथ दुनिया में ह्ज़ारों ग़म भीREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Ballads of Love: Ecstasy

Guest article by DP Rangan

(We celebrated Holi sometime back. This is the season of romance and love, when the flowers bloom, there is music in the stream of rivulets and rustling of leaves, and the hearts of even old people are aflutter with desire. There is a folk proverb to describe this: ‘फागुन में बुढ़वा देवर लागे’. (This has nothing to do with the guest author DP Rangan’s age though.) Mr Rangan is deeply romantic, but absolutely clean; he has taken additional precaution to start this post with the evolutionary anthropology of love.

Our films are generally love stories full of songs and dances. The Bollywood hero and heroine hid in the bushes and ran around trees; when they were bashful, flowers swayed and kissed each other. In another type of love, towards the end, the woman applied the dust of her devata’s feet to her parted hair and installed the deity in the mandir of her heart. We lapped these songs. I was not surprised when I got a suggestion to write on ‘love songs’. I was hesitant because every second song was a love song, and some of the ‘romances’ made me cringe.

I find on SOY that when I am not able to fulfil the readers’ request, by some telepathy someone offers to fill up the gap. Mr Rangan is now in his 80’s, but he has the energy of an eighteen-year old. He is the most prolific guest author, having written 28 articles for SOY. Here he comes up with another exhaustive article on the commonest theme of Bollywood songs. Thank you Mr Rangan for this interesting piece. – AK)

Human beings were the last to emerge in the evolutionary process which commenced with unicell organisms progressing to multi-cell and more complicated forms of life over aeons. Initially humans were living as a hunter-gatherer society following their prey. Invention of agriculture about 12000 years ago was a great step in progress. It enabled them to stay rooted in a region and stabilise their lives. Their numbers grew into an organised society. Endowed with cognitive abilities, they developed skills as painting on rocks of which there are plenty of evidence discovered by archaeologists. To celebrate important occasions in their lives, community get together was born with activities as dancing.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Pyarelal Santoshi: Jack of All Trades?

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to the polymath PL Santoshi, the lyricist, dialogue & script writer, actor, singer, producer, director

(Most of us with some familiarity about our vintage films know PL Santoshi as one of the prominent lyricists. His association with C Ramchandra in several blockbusters made his name quite well-known. But very few of us know about his other talents as comes out in this article by DP Rangan. After reading this article you would know that he also produced and directed films, acted and sang in some films, and wrote dialogues, stories, and scripts. One can’t but bow to such a talent.

Mr Rangan has chosen to present his tribute on the 105th birth anniversary of C Ramchandra in recognition of Santoshi’s most prominent association with him. SOY regulars are quite familiar with Mr Rangan. For a septuagenarian with a non-Hindi background to do this kind of thorough work is awe inspiring. Thanks a lot Mr Rangan. – AK)

In one of my earlier posts on lyricists, I had stated that with the advent of talkies from 1931 in India, the triumvirate of  music director, singer and lyricist constituted a major element of film production. It has continued to be so till date, but with a progressive decline in quality over years, particularly in the twenty first century.

Film industry is a conglomerate of different disciplines as is revealed in the details of names of various individuals along with their role at the start of the film projected on the silver screen in the auditorium. I can think of a few constituents – lyricist, dialogue writer, story writer, screen writer, scenario, art director, special effects, actor, producer, director et al. READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Master Ghulam Haider: A Trailblazer

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Ghulam Haider on his 69th Remembrance Day (1908 – 9 November 1953)

(DP Rangan has been the most prolific guest writer for SOY, but it is more than a year since he last wrote. Some health issues which required hospitalisation, and his computer suddenly conking off has kept him down. But he has been restless all this while to come back to SOY. After getting over his niggling problems he is back with an exhaustive article on Ghulam Haider. There has been no exclusive article on him on this blog so far; he only makes one-third appearance in my post titled Shamshad Begum with 3G (one of the 3G, albeit the most important for Shamshad Begum’s career being Ghulam Haider).

Mr Rangan has long retired from government service and he is well into his seventies. Because of his frail health and his handicap of language I have been advising him to take it easy. But he has boundless energy. This exhaustive article is a proof. Thank you Mr Rangan for filling an important gap on the SOY. – AK)

Ghulam HaiderHuman beings are highly individualistic in nature and each has his own unique personality and attributes. What sets apart some from the multitude is their innate good nature, getting along with fellow human beings, caring for the sensibilities of others, readiness to nurture and encourage talents of those they are frequently interacting with, besides being highly proficient in their chosen field of activity. This is a sine qua non in film industry to avert ego clashes. Ghulam Haider (hereinafter referred to as GH in the post) is unique in this regard as he had all these qualities fused in him. He cared for his fellow workers and had an uncanny ability to spot talents among budding singers and nurture them in right ways. He was a pioneer in revolutionising the way music was set for films and was a pathbreaker. In his career of 18 years in film music composition from 1935 to 1953, he gave music for just about 32 films of which roughly one fourth were Punjabi films. Quality always takes precedence over quantity while judging a music director’s calibre and he came out with flying colours when viewed in this light.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE