Guest Authors

The Sculptors of Film Songs (7): V Balsara

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

(V Balsara was an extremely talented musician encompassing proficiency in all the links in the vertical chain of producing music – instrumentalist to arranger to music director. He was a master of many instruments. He was also a rare exception for a non-Bengali to make a reverse migration from Mumbai to Kolkata and made a mark in Bengali music scene. We are grateful that our guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav, continuing the series on Arrangers and Musicians, now cover one of the well-known musicians V Balsara. He had the unique talent of creating piano accordion sound with harmonium in many landmark songs. Thank you Piyush ji and Ashok ji for another excellent article on the sculptors of film songs who were not adequately credited. – AK)

V(istasp Ardeshir) Balsara (B: 22 June 1922 – D: 24 March 2005) was a musician of trinity of talents – as an instrumentalist, arranger and music director. He was considered uncrowned wizard of instrumental orchestration. A master keyboardist, he was an ace player of instruments like harmonium, organ, piano, piano accordion, melodica and univox. He is considered instrumental in popularising these instruments in the recording industry. Rich in the knowledge of Indian and Western classical music, he has left behind a legacy of his recorded albums of Indian and Western music and the fusion of both these schools. He has also composed music for around 12 Hindi films and 32 Bengali films and several timeless non-film compositions.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (6): S Hazara Singh

Guest Article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) & Ashok M Vaishnav (English Translation)

(Continuing their series on the Arrangers and Musicians our guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation) now write on S Hazara Singh who played several instruments, but became a legend with Hawaiian guitar. His Hawaiian guitar pieces became the identity of many superhit songs of OP Nayyar and several other music directors. His independent LP albums of tunes of old film songs he played on the guitar sold like hot cakes.

Piyush ji and Ashok ji have demonstrated through this series how important was the role of the musicians and the arrangers in embellishing the songs. S Hazara Singh is one of the legends whose Hawaiian guitar pieces in many songs transformed a shell into a beautiful sculpture. Thank you Piyush ji and Ashok ji for another excellent article in the series, and making us aware of S Hazara Singh’s contributions. – AK)

In the initial phase of film music, the instruments like harmonium, shehnai, flute, sarangi were used mainly for the music support of a film song. However, with advent of new generation of experimentalist music directors like Pankaj Mullick, Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash etc. instruments like piano and different types of violins, accordions, guitars, pianos, saxophones etc. also found way into film music compositions. With arrangers and instrumentalists from Goa Christian Western music also joining the film music industry, film music underwent a fundamental shift.

In this period of transformation of Hindi film music, sometime around 1942, in the city of Karachi, of the then undivided India, a young man worked as a craftsman of peti (harmonium). He was also very good at crafting the reeds and ‘tuning’ the assembled harmonium pieces. Not before long, he also started working on different string instruments. As the providence would have it, he came to the notice of Ram Singh, the famous saxophone player of the early era during his frequent travels between Bombay and Karachi for recordings. He invited this young man to Bombay. After initial hesitation, somewhere around 1947, the young man did land up in Bombay. The luck was favourable to him as he immediately got his chance to play guitar in the Khemchand Prakash orchestra for the two iconic songs Aayega aanewala and Mushkil hai bahut mushkil (Mahal, 1949). READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (5): Manohari Singh

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation) as a tribute to the legendary saxophone player Manohari Singh on his 13th Remembrance Day

(Our immortal songs are memorable not only because of the melody created by the music director, but also because of the preludes, interludes, the musicians who played them unrecognised, and the arrangers who decided in co-ordination with music director which instruments came when for how long. This combined effort created a beautiful ensemble.

Our guest authors, Piyush M Pandya (originally in Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation) have been writing an excellent series of articles on the Arrangers and Musicians who remained behind the curtain, but who deserve our recognition. They have already written on Sebastian D’Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, Enoch Daniels, Kishore Desai. In their fifth article in the series, Piyushji and Ashokji now put the spotlight on the legendary saxophone player Manohari Singh on his 13th Remembrance Day (8 March 1931 – 13 July 2010).

Manohari Singh has the rare distinction of appearing on the screen prominently in a famous song with his saxophone. The guest writers start this article with that iconic song. Thank you Piyushji and Ashokji for another excellent article on the Arrangers and Musicians. – AK).      READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Love Counsellors in Bollywood

Guest article by Anita Rupavataram

(There is no upper age limit for falling in love. As our octogenarian love guru, DP Rangan, has explained in his recent series of articles, love entails going through different phases: ecstasy, agony, flippancy, and finally when the things go wrong, shikwa/shikayat. This has led to a mushroom growth of counsellers and self-proclaimed relationship experts.

Our guest author Anita Rupavataram is rightly sceptical of such experts. She cites some literary sources, too, in her support. Nevertheless, this has not deterred Bollywood, and we have several songs in the nature of an advisory to the lovers.

Anita had debuted as a guest author on SOY in February 2022. This is her second article for the blog. She also writes her own blog of which I am a regular follower. Anita writes very well as you can see from her uncluttered style. Therefore, when she offered to write for SOY on this theme, I had no hesitation in welcoming it as it fitted very well with the series by the Love Guru. Thank you Anita, for an excellent article. – AK)

One of the sections I consciously avoid in any book store is that on self-help books. Belonging to a generation where there were no life coaches and relationship experts during the growing up years, life as it rolled out was (and is still) the biggest advisor and teacher. Thus, there is no connect with such self-improvement books. Today, however, there is no dearth of specialists who could advice you on just about anything under the sun. This is more the case with so many social media platforms mushrooming.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

The Sculptors of Film Songs (4): Kishore Desai

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

(Our guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav have been writing an excellent series on the Arrangers and Musicians for the last few months in which they have already covered three of the most celebrated names: Sebastian D’Souza, Anthony Gonsalves and Enoch Daniels. Continuing the series, now they put the spotlight on Kishore Desai who was proficient with at least two instruments: mandolin and sarod.

The guest authors describe how these arrangers and musicians were instrumental in embellishing the melodies. They remained in behind the curtains, generally unsung and anonymous. With the series we now realise how they were so integral to some of our most favourite songs. You would be surprised to now how Kishore Desai was associated with some immortal songs with his mandolin or sarod. Besides, he was also the composer of some of the most famous non-film songs, Thank you Piyushji and Ashokji for another enlightening article in the series. – AK)

Tum bin jaaun kahan ke duniya mein aakar kuchh na phir chaha sanam (Pyar Ka Mausam, 1969 – Music: R D Burman) is one song which perhaps remains an unbridgeable divide between Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi fans. For more knowledgeable ones, initially it was also a hotly debated issue as to who has played the mandolin in the two versions. However, many subsequent interviews by the two instrumentalists who have played the mandolin, Manohari Singh and Kishore Desai, have it well-settled that Manohari Singh has played mandolin for Kishore Kumar version and Kishore Desai, on the very specific invitation by Manohari Singh himself as the arranger, has played the mandolin for Mohammad Rafi version.

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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

The Sculptors of Film Songs (3): Enoch Daniels

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation) as a tribute to Enoch Daniels on his 90th birth anniversary (b. 16 April 1933) in the continuing series on Arrangers and Musicians

(After their articles on Sebastian D’ Souza and Anthony Gonsalves, the guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav now write this article as a tribute to another legend Enoch Daniels on his 90th birth anniversary. We are lucky that he is still around, in Pune.

Enoch Daniels is synonymous with piano-accordion. He is among the few Arrangers and Musicians who established their independent identity, through his records and concerts. I am grateful to Piyushji and Ashokji for another excellent article on the legendary Enoch Daniels. – AK) 

How to begin the article on Enoch Daniels is the dilemma of choosing between presenting the musician first or his instrument. Accordion has its presence registered in almost all genre of music, such as Rock n Roll, Jazz, Pop etc. The great accordionists like Goody Seervai, Sumit Mitra, Kersi Lord, Dheeraj Dhanak, K. Bharat, Enoch Daniels, Sammy Reuben and Suraj Sathe greatly contributed to the wide-spread use of (piano) accordion in songs, title music, background scores, or anywhere where music had a role in Hindi films in the 50s and 60s. Because of its universal appeal, it seems better to talk about the accordion first.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.

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