Guest Authors

Rafi ‘s songs for “not the top heroes”

Continuing Rafi’s centenary celebrations, guest article by Sivanandam Palamadai on his songs picturised on not-so-famous actors

(Songs Of Yore has been celebrating Rafi’s centenary year 2024 with a series of articles, some by guest authors. Sivanandam Palamdai, who is one of Rafi’s prominent fans in blogosphere, now writes on his songs for not-so-famous actors. We selected this topic after some mutual back and forth discussion which he describes in some detail in the beginning of his article. But he has modestly not mentioned one development which as the host I must, that shows his utmost dedication and sincerity. After we had settled on this topic, he suffered some serious medical condition requiring hospitalisation. I had no inkling of this until I pinged him after a couple of months how he was doing. Despite my requesting him to forget the article and concentrate on his health, he came up with this brilliant piece as soon as his physical condition permitted.

Mr Palamdai has been a marketing professional, now based out of Pune for about 28 years in semi-retirement by choice. I convey my thanks to him on behalf of all the readers for the painstaking efforts he has taken to write this excellent article. – AK)

Almost two years back, I had written my first  blog for SOY on the theme of Rafi’s songs for unrecognised composers. In this birth centenary year of the legend Mohammad Rafi, AK Ji and myself were discussing on something similar and it was AK Ji who came out with the brilliant idea of focusing on his songs for those actors who were not the top heroes. Writing for SOY is always a privilege and I thank AK Ji for providing me an opportunity to continue my blogs here.

The initial idea was to select one song for all the top heroes, but we felt that would be a huge list and selecting one song would be a difficult task. Hence we decided to rather focus on those actors who were not among the top heroes. I had initially titled this article as Rafi’s songs for lesser-known and obscure actors, but that may lead to some debate as some of the actors cannot be categorized as lesser-known. You will understand once you got through the article. That is the reason I changed this to “Not the top heroes”! The language may appear not so elegant but would describe the category perfectly.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (14): Four Shades of the Dusk of the Series

The concluding article in the series on Arrangers and Musicians by guest authors, Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) & Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation), wishing everyone Eid Mubarak

(As we celebrate Eid, our guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav mark the happy occasion with their concluding article in the series on Arrangers and Musicians. In the thirteen earlier articles, eleven focussed on individual talented artistes, such as Anthony Gonsalves, Van Shipley, Enoch Daniels etc, and two were devoted to families whose more than one generation comprising several artistes made an impact – The Lords and Ramprasad Sharma & Sons.  

The concluding article brings the curtain down on the people who remained behind the curtain anyway. This also marks the end of the way music was made – a metaphorical dusk of an era. The authors discuss four different artistes who were active during the dusk. On behalf of the readers I convey our heartfelt gratitude to Piyushji and Ashokji for this wonderful series and a befitting concluding article. – AK)

Arrangers and musicians have been the unsung heroes, who gave shape to the music in films with their imaginative art and creative craft. Some of these arrangers and musicians had their work documented, howsoever sketchy it was. However, there are many more who remained unsung within the tribe of ‘unsung heroes’. We conclude our present series with four such unsung among unsung musicians whose work has mainly trickled in through the public programmes they have participated in, even though each one was a master of his own instrument(s), and has enriched the Hindi film music by expanding the range of these instruments.

Bhanu Gupta

The world of science is replete with cases where some great inventions happened from inadvertent errors. One most famous example is that of Penicillin. Sir Alexander Fleming was working on a cure for Pneumonia, rampant during WWI. In 1928, Dr Fleming observed that a particular type of mould growing on a Petri-dish of Staphylococcus bacteria seemed to be preventing the bacteria around it from growing. We know that accidental discovery of the mould as almost cure-all, Penicillin.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (13): Ramprasad Sharma & Sons

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(Ramprasad Sharma may be an unfamiliar name to many, but Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo were the biggest guys on the film music scene. They broke all the records: for number of films for which they composed music, total number of songs by them, total number of songs for the biggest singers, Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi. They went through the grind, climbing all the ladders from the beginning: musician, arranger, assistant music director and finally the pinnacle. Pyarelal was the son of Ramprasad Sharma, who was a highly respected musician, scholar, music director and teacher in the 40s and early 50s. His other sons too, namely Gorakhnath, Ganesh, Anand, and Naresh; and grandsons Monty and Mithun all came into music.

Ramprasad’s pupils include a galaxy of well-known names who came to him to learn notation. He did not achieve great commercial success as a music director, and had to work for other music directors like Naushad and C Ramchandra. The trumpet in ‘Suhani raat dhal chuki’ was played by Ramprasad Sharma. I profusely thank the guest authors Piyush M  Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav for covering an important personality and his family in the series on Arrangers and Musicians. – AK)

The title of this episode may sound like a typical name we were used to seeing on the signboards in the markets in any town during the 1950s to ‘70s. The signboard would further read “Wholesale Merchants of Grains” or “Wholesale Cloth merchants” etc. Well, what has that to do with this series about musicians and arrangers? Is the present episode about some such firm which probably had been associated with ‘selling’ music instruments?

Well, No. Ours is a narrative of three generations of artists who have been practicing musicians in the world of Hindi film music: Ramprasad Sharma, a complete music director, researcher, composer and arranger with an in-depth knowledge of all known musical instruments, their notations and playing techniques in Indian as well as western styles; his sons: Pyarelal, Gorakhnath, Ganesh, Anand, Naresh; and the grandsons: Monty and Mithun. As is the case with most of the second and third tiers of artists like arrangers and musicians under the label ‘Music Director’, these names would not make sense with most of us, unless we further qualify Pyarelal with the suffix of ‘Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo’.

Ramprasad Sharma

Ramprasad Sharma (1900 -1995) belonged to Gorakhpur in the then United Provinces (present day Uttar Pradesh). The band master of Bharatpur State recognised Ramprasad’s flare for instrumental music. He played the trumpet here. He then played in Agra Military Band. This groomed him into the art of music arrangement to rise to the position of Band Master in a circus. He toured Delhi, Lahore and Calcutta with the circus. He settled for some time in Calcutta and worked for Columbia and New Theatres. At that stage, he mastered playing ten instruments and had acquired good knowledge of intricacies of classical raags.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Rafi’s Centenary Special: 35 songs from 35 years (1946-1980)

Guest article by Sivanandam Palamadai as a tribute to Rafi with 35 songs in 35 years (1946-1980) in the continuing series of articles on Rafi’s centenary (24th December 1924-31st July 1980)

(Songs Of Yore is celebrating 2024 as the centenary year of Mohammad Rafi. I heralded the year with his solos from A to Z. He has been the most prolific and versatile singer. Therefore, he can be discussed in several combinations and on many parameters.

Sivanandam Palamadai is a well-known Rafi fan. He writes regularly for a site dedicated to Rafi. My natural thought was to sound him whether he would be interested in contributing an article for Rafi’s centenary year. As I had expected he readily agreed. His debut article for SOY was also on Rafi with his songs for unrecognised composers.

Sivanandamji has been a marketing professional about 60 years of age, now living in Pune for 28 years in semi-retirement by choice. In this article he discusses Rafi’s 35 songs, one each year during his career (1946-1980). Rafi’s career actually started in 1944, but I suggested to start from 1946 when we started getting his great songs which achieved long-lasting fame. I am responsible for chopping off the first two years, but Sivanadamji deserves our appreciation and thanks for presenting a nice bouquet of 35 songs over 35 years. With this article you also get to appreciate many songs of Rafi with a new insight on his way of emphasising or elongating certain words. – AK)

When AK Ji wrote to me asking whether I would be interested in writing an article on Rafi on his centenary year, I was elated beyond words. This is a task that I would consider a blessing from the heavens! The year 2024 marks the birth centenary year of the legendary Rafi sahab  and I do not know when AK ji would be publishing this, but let us celebrate Rafi throughout the year. I do not think Rafi needs any introduction to the very knowledgeable readers of SOY and so I will skip even a brief biography. In his glorious career of around 35 years, he won the hearts of the listeners not only with his singing but, more importantly, with his humbleness and humanitarian character he earned people’s  love and respect. There can be personal likes and dislikes on music composers, singers, lyricists etc, but it is indeed rare to find anyone talk anything negative  about Rafi, the human being. The way he could emote the song depending on the mood and actor on whom it was picturised is legendary and one can say that he created a unique style of playback singing.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

The Sculptors of Film Songs (11): Goody Seervai

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(Continuing their series on Arrangers and Musicians, now the guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav throw the spotlight on one of the most respected musicians, Goody Seervai, who became synonymous with piano accordion. The songs they have mentioned have been our eternal favourites, but for most of us it would be the first time that we would be able to associate with the accordion player who sculpted these songs with his tunes. Thank you Piyushji and Ashokji for another excellent article, 11th in the series. – AK)

It was after 1943 that the new crop of music directors started using western musical instruments in the orchestration of the Hindi film songs. C Ramchandra, because of his association with trumpet player Chic Chocolate and jazz drummer Kawas Lord, went in almost overdrive by experimenting with using western tunes in the songs. Music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, S D Burman etc. further expanded the range by combining Indian classical and folk music with western music and western musical instruments like violin, cello, guitar etc. It was this trend in orchestration of Hindi film music that led the search for the instrumentalists in hotels, clubs and functions of the communities in big cities like Bombay and Calcutta, where strong culture of bands consisting of Goanese and Parsi instrumentalists had developed very well. It was at one of such bands that Chocolate and Lord met Goody Seervai and were impressed by Seervai’s style of playing the accordion. They immediately introduced Seervai to C Ramchandra and Naushad.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

The Sculptors of Film Songs (10): Van Shipley

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(Van Shipley earned acclaim for his proficiency in violin and guitar, and he brought out many independent albums of tunes of film songs on these instruments. As such, he was among the well known arrangers and musicians. Yet there is no authentic data of the specific songs in which he played these instruments. Raj Kapoor was highly impressed with him after hearing his violin at a concert and brought him into his team. Thus, Van Shipley got associated with many everlasting songs from RK films.

I thank today’s guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vasihnav for throwing some light on one of the legendary musicians of Hindi films in their series on Arrangers and Musicians. – AK)

(Valentine) Van Shipley (B: 30-8-1927 | D: 8-3-2008) commenced his career in Hindi films by playing violin, he is perhaps better known as ‘The Man with Golden Guitar’. His mother was a skilled sitar player. Valentine’s three brothers and two sisters were talented musicians. However only Valentine Van Shipley went to become a professional musician. Van Shipley took his first violin lessons from Allahabad-based violinist, Gagan Chatterjee. While he was learning Hindustani classical music from noted khayal singers Ustad Bande Hasan Khan and his son, Ustad Zande Hasan Khan, he also took lessons in western music. He continued his training in violin from Ustad Allaudin Khan while he was with AIR, Lucknow. While at Lucknow, he got further training in sarod from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who was then director of AIR Lucknow. Ustad Vilayat Khan was his classmate. He was friends with Pandit Ravi Shankar whom he had met in 1961.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (9): Dattaram

Guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(The most prominent identity of Dattaram is as long-time assistant of Shankar-Jaikishan. He later started giving music independently, but he continued his association with S-J. Thus in public mind when one thought of Dattaram, one thought of Shankar-Jaikishan, even though Dattaram had composed some outstanding songs independently.

Most of us also know him as an ace percussionist who could play many instruments, such as tabla, dholak, drums, duff proficiently. His unique style of playing percussion instruments came to be known as Dattu Theka.

It is this aspect of Dattaram as a percussionist that the guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation) focus on. Continuing the series on Arrangers and Musicians, they highlight several immortal songs with which Dattaram has been associated as a percussionist, many with music directors other than Shankar-Jaikishan.

Thank you Piyush ji and Ashok ji for another informative article in the series. – AK)

Dattaram (Wadkar) (1929 – 7 June 2007), is, unfortunately, remembered either as one of those talented music directors who could not get the commercial success he deserved or as assistant to Shankar-Jaikishan who handled the percussion part of the orchestration. However, lamenting over this stark reality of the ways of Hindi Film music world, Dattaram’s nonrecognition as music director or as arranger also hides his outstanding contribution as an outstanding player of dholaki and other percussion instruments.

[Please visit Saaj Tarang special episodes on various percussion instruments like, Dholaki, Dholak, Pakhavaj, Mridangam, Tabla Tarang, Bongo and Folk Rhythm instruments.]READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (8): Ramlal

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(We all know Ramlal as the music director of V Shantaram’s films ‘Sehra’ and ‘Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne’. We also generally know that he was an ace shehnai player having been associated with Ustad Bismillah Khan. But we hardly know that besides his these two acknowledged scores, he was also associated as a great flute and shehnai player in many songs. His instrumental pieces had an important role in making those songs great. It is telepathic that a few days ago, a regular reader, Ashok Kumar Tyagi, who had recently come across Ramlal’s talents with many instruments, requested for an article on him in this series. And as if in answer to his requests, our guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation), continuing the series on Arrangers and Musicians, now put the spotlight on the legendary musician, Ramlal. Thank you Piyush ji and Ashok ji for another excellent article in the series. – AK)

For most of the fans of Hindi film songs, the name Ramlal should instantly remind them of the songs of ‘Sehra’ or ‘Geet Gaya Paththoron Ne’. If such is the case, would mention of Ramlal in this series on Musicians and Arrangers not be incongruous?

Howsoever Ramlal’s music for these two films is applauded, the fact remains that such exceptional success did not bring him any more substantive work. In fact, it has effectively overshadowed his lifelong work as one of the most outstanding players of flute and shehnai in the Hindi film industry.

We will, therefore, focus on his work as an instrument player.READ THE FULL ARTICLE