Guest Authors

Duets of OP Nayyar: Part 2

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar

(Of the 223 total duets composed by OP Nayyar, the most conspicuous are male-female duets in which the male voice is Rafi and the female voice, either Geeta Dutt or Shamshad Begum or Asha Bhosle. These are 119 in number, and were the subject matter of Ravindra Kelkar’s last post on OP Nayyar’s duets. That leaves 104 duets, including 60 ‘other’ MF duets – Rafi with other female singers, and male singer other than Rafi – and 44 duets of mixed type, i.e. male-male, female-female or more than two singers. Thus, in spite of the smaller number, these 104 duets present immense variety. With this second part of the two-part post on OP Nayyar’s duets, Mr Kelkar completes the comprehensive review of OP Nayyar’s duets. Thank you, Mr Kelkar for your painstaking effort. – AK)

OP NayyarIn part 1 we listened to Rafi-Geeta Dutt, Rafi-Shamshad Begum and Rafi-Asha Bhosle duets. Now let us listen to some other combinations.

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Duets of OP Nayyar: Part 1

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar

(SoY readers would recall that Ravindra Kelkar has been making valuable contributions on OP Nayyar through his guest articles and, thus, filling up a gap in SoY. He has contributed three articles so far: ‘Three distinct phases of OP Nayyar’; OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt: A peerless combination’; and OP Nayyar’s influence on other music directors. As we inch towards the conclusion of the series, Mr Kelkar covers OP Nayyar’s duets in two parts. The first part is on his most conspicuous duets in which Rafi is the male voice, combining with his three most important female singers – Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum and Asha Bhosle, in chronological order.

Mr Kelkar observes OPN was among the four best music directors in composing duets. His choice of musical instruments, his rhythm and special features like either the male or the female singer entering late in the song, giving it an effect of solo, make OPN unique. The romanticism in his duets was a reflection of his fascination with women, observes Mr Kelkar. Thank you Mr Kelkar for another excellent piece. – AK)

OP NayyarI consider C Ramachandra, SD Burman, Shankar Jaikishan and OP Nayyar as the four best music directors (MDs) in composing duets. Of course, all other MDs have composed outstanding duets, but the sheer numbers and variety make these four MDs stand apart.

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Waterfalls in Bollywood

Guest article by DP Rangan (DP Rangan is a man with boundless energy. Even with a late debut on the Songs of Yore, at the rate he is writing he will soon overtake the regular guest writers. After the horse series, he switched to romantic themes of moon and stars. This post on Waterfalls inREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

OP Nayyar’s influence on other Music Directors

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar

(OP Nayyar was a craze for some years from the mid-50s. Every music director was imitating his style, composing OP-type songs from time to time. If you thought it was simply a bandwagon effect, our OP Nayyar-expert Ravindra Kelkar unravels several factors that were at play. Some did it voluntarily, some under producers’ pressure, and some also with the not so noble intention of cutting OP out – flood the market with OP-clones to drive out the original. According to Mr Kelkar’s fascinating thesis, even redoubtable names like Naushad, C Ramchandra and SD Burman were not untouched by the OP-influence. After his inaugural article on ‘The three distinct phases of OP Nayyar’s career’ and the second article on OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt songs, Mr Kelkar comes up with another Ace on OP.  Just close your eyes and enjoy these ‘OP’ compositions by several other MDs, with profuse thanks to Mr Kelkar. – AK)

OP NayyarOP’s musical career took off from Aar Paar (1954). A succession of musical hits followed, in the next two years, like, Baap Re Baap (1955), Mr & Mrs 55 (1955), Musafirkhana (1955), Chhoomantar (1956), CID (1956), Hum Sab Chor Hain (1956), and many others. Some of them were big hits, however, most of the movies managed to recover the money invested by the producer, largely due to the lilting music by OP. His music had freshness, liveliness, was infectious, easy to identify with, easy to hum and it was distinctly different from others. He had created his own style. It was easy to guess the identity of the composer as soon as you listened to the intro music of the OP song. Even the title music of the films had an OP stamp. It would be typically breezy and include a clarinet/flute/violins combo piece as well as a sarangi piece. In fact, OP would try to compose the title music in such a way that he would time the clarinet piece or sarangi piece when the title would show “Music Composed by O.P. Nayyar” on the screen. All this created a certain mystique around the name of O.P. Nayyar. Also, OP was easy to work with as long as you paid his price and didn’t interfere with his work, by giving him full freedom in composition, selection of song writers and singers. He didn’t really care about the star cast, story, name of the banner etc.

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Asymmetric Duets

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal

(I have often mentioned that duets, though far less in number than solo songs, present a fascinating variety of music. One variety is on account of the lesser known female singers getting a chance to sing with major playback singers like Rafi and Mukesh, and we are richer for that because we get some absolutely fabulous songs minus the Mangeshkar sisters. The other and, perhaps more interesting, variety is on account of the experimentation the music directors do in composition. On this blog there has been detailed discussion on a number of occasions about the duets in which one singer just hums, or has only a few words or just a couple of lines to sing. I developed a Duet Balance Index for analysing this kind of asymmetry in my post titled ‘Some thoughts on mathematical-taxonomic analysis of Hindi films and songs’. That dealt with what may be called ‘airtime asymmetry’. Another interesting asymmetry is ‘tune asymmetry’.

In this guest article, Subodh Agrawal takes a look at such asymmetric duets. I am sure readers will welcome his taking a break from classical songs. Thank you Subodh for another interesting and ‘different’ article. – AK) –

I am taking a break from classical songs in films to write on this topic, which arose from a discussion on AK’s post on duets of Talat and Asha. Duets are common in Hindi film music. I don’t have the encyclopaedic knowledge of Mr Vaishnav, Mr Bhatia or Mr Venkataraman to do a detailed analysis, but my hunch is that male-female duets would account for about one third of all songs.

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MEENA KUMARI: An enigma

A tribute to Meena Kumari on her 85th birth anniversary (1 August 1932 – 31 March 1972) by guest author DP Rangan

(SoY readers are now familiar with DP Rangan’s prolific guest posts. So far, he has focused on themes. He now forays into film personalities. Several readers have suggested that I write on songs picturised on specific heroes or heroines. I have been generally hesitant, because my primary classifications are music directors and singers, and any new category becomes overlapping. Our 70-year-old-going-on-17 Mr Rangan is not deterred by such challenges. The tinsel town is full of stars who were at the height of name and fame, but who had a most unhappy personal life, finally dying in penury. Meena Kumari is the foremost example of such tragic figures. It is befitting that Mr Rangan chooses her to pay tribute on her 85th birth anniversary. He also introduces us to her less known singing talent; and true to SoY’s tradition, he presents a good number of her vintage and unknown songs. Thank you Mr Rangan for another excellent article. – AK)

Meena KumariIt was about a year ago that my ‘writing’ was first published, thanks to the generosity of AK in accepting it for this august blog. It was a wonderful moment for me, and enthused by this success I wrote a number of posts on different themes. Emboldened by my new-found confidence, I decided to foray into areas other than themes and plunge into the field of biography, even though I knew it to be a minefield.

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OP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt: A peerless combination

A tribute to Geeta Dutt on her 45th death anniversary (23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) by guest author Ravindra Kelkar

(A general grievance against SoY is that Geeta Dutt has not been given her due place on the blog. There has been one exclusive post on her best songs by SD Burman which, too, incidentally appeared on her death anniversary, four years ago. My post on SD Burman’s best duets for Rafi, too, contained some songs with her. Her songs have also appeared in some other contexts. However, I am aware this is not commensurate with her appeal among music lovers. I was waiting for a worthier person to do justice to her. My wish was granted when our OP Nayyar-expert, Ravindra Kelkar offered to write a series of articles on OPN. His first article giving an overview of three distinct phases of OPN’s career was highly acclaimed. Continuing his series, he comes up with another outstanding article, on OPN-Geeta Dutt combination, as a tribute to her on her 45th death anniversary. I am sure this would more than recompense for my omission. Thanks a lot Mr Kelkar. – AK)

OP Nayyar-Geeta DuttOP Nayyar-Geeta Dutt association started right from OP’s first film Aasman in 1952, in which Geeta Dutt sang 4 solos. It ended with Ragini in the year 1958. She sang in 22 of OP’s films for 62 songs, which included 35 solos, 22 male duets, all with Rafi, and 5 female duets, all with Asha Bhosle. During their association in Aasman, she was impressed with OP’s potential and recommended his name to his would-be husband Guru Dutt for his maiden venture Baaz (1953), and as everybody knows it was the success of Guru Dutt’s next film Aar Paar (1954) which launched OP’s career. So, he had a lot to be grateful to Geeta Dutt.

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Cycle trails of Bollywood

Guest article by DP Rangan

(It is ironic that while bicycle is being crowded out by scooters, motorcycles and cars in the developing world, it is the developed world where bicycle riding is being promoted in a big way as a means of transport to commute to work or pleasure. A time may come when bicycle may become a distant memory to be savoured from old film songs in India.  Not too long ago, it was the main mode of transport. It also has a fascinating history going back to about three centuries, but, surprising as it may sound, the modern pedal-bicycle evolved later than trains.

After taking us through horses, tongas and steam engine, our indefatigable DP Rangan now logically takes us on a joy-ride of cycle songs. Along the way, he also writes a dissertation on its history. Blog readers have a short attention span, but SoY has a number of readers who would find this part interesting and useful. I must thank Mr Rangan profusely again for his great effort. – AK)

Cycle songI started my first post on a thematic subject – ‘horse’ – because my knowledge of Bollywood in its various aspects is next to nothing. I even admit to some muted feeling of jealousy on my part at the multi-faceted genius of the blog founder AK who can turn out post after post of a bewildering variety with aplomb and rapidity. Theme writing has already been established and I adopted it conveniently to suit my needs. Dinesh K. Jain, a keen and punctilious commentator of the blog made an observation on my first post:

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Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (12) – A morning with Asavari/Jaunpuri

Guest article by Subodh Agrawal

(I had once hesitantly asked Subodh whether he would be writing on Asavari and Jaunpuri in his series on articles on film songs based on classical ragas. The reason for my hesitation was that these ragas might be too light for a connoisseur like him. Therefore, I was extremely happy to find his article on my favourite ragas without any extra nudging from me. The beautiful Ragamalika painting on Asavari Ragini, used as the thumbnail with the article, located by his daughter, is from the Victoria & Albert Museum, London collection, available on their website, which I have downloaded with their permission with grateful thanks. As credited by the V & A Museum, this is by an unknown artist from Hyderabad from 18th century.

Subodh decodes the similar ragas Asavari, Jaunpuri and Dev Gandhar with his characteristic clarity. About the painting, he pointed out a unique feature: In all the paintings on Asavari, snake figures very prominently for some unknown reason. As you enjoy this post, the experts are also called upon to throw light on the snake-Asavari connection.  Thanks Subodh for another excellent piece. – AK)

Asavari Ragini, courtesy @Victoria & Albert Museum, LondonIndian ragas have different times of the day assigned to them. One begins with Lalit at the crack of dawn, and goes on to the Bhairav family. Asavari and its clones Jaunpuri and Dev Gandhar belong to late morning. The original version of Asavari used all four komal swaras – much like Bhairavi. It then ceded popularity to the modern version of Asavari, which uses shudh ‘re’ but komal ‘ga’, ‘dha’ and ‘ni’. When Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande grouped north Indian ragas into ten thaats, he chose Asavari (with shudh ‘re’) as the key raga of the thaat named after it.

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Beena madhur madhur kacchu bol

Guest article by Ashwin Bhandarkar

(If we broadly divide the SoY community into two categories – ‘music experts’ and ‘others’ – Ashwin Bhandarkar belongs to the first category. Therefore, it is not surprising that he is appearing as a guest author; the surprise is that it has taken him so long to do so. He explains that he has “had a bee in his bonnet” for long about contributing a guest post; finally it took DP Rangan’s post on flowers to spur him to write on the connected theme of ‘bees’ and ‘honey’.

An expert who can write with a light touch is a treat to read. Ashwin’s content is impressive and shows his deep knowledge of music across genres. But what makes the piece delightful is his unpretentious style peppered with a dash of humour. It gives me great pleasure to welcome and introduce him as a guest author. Ashwin is an alumnus of BITS Pilani and IIM Calcutta, and is working with an IT services major in Pune. – AK)

Bhanwra bada naadanEver since I started following SoY, I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about contributing a guest post, but for the life of me, I could not make up my mind about the topic. Then, all of a sudden, inspiration struck after I read D.P. Rangan’s latest post – if flowers can make their debut on SoY, then it follows that bees should not bee far bee-hind, right? Therefore, busy as a bee though I have bee-n over the past few weeks, I managed to take some time out to type this post on bees – and honey – in Hindi film music and other musical genres, and luckily for me, AK has found it good enough to be published. Hope SoY followers find it interesting.

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