Guest Authors

Mughals Engulf Bollywood

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to the Last Mughal Emporer Bahadur Shah Zafar II on his 158th Remembrance Day (24 October 1775 – 7 November 1862)

(Mughal period has fascinated our film makers from the very early days – not to make ‘historical’ films as we understand by the term, but to weave tales of romance and legend, mostly apocryphal, in the backdrop of grandeur, opulent sets, colourful costumes, songs and dance, and flowery Urdu language. Even over 260 years of the de facto demise and 160 years of official end of the Mughal Empire has not dimmed the romance for the period.

When did the Mughal empire actually end? The real answer is it was a painful slow death for over a century, shrinking from a large swathe of Indian territory extending up to Afghanistan, to just Delhi, and finally the Lal Quila, at the time of the last emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar II, who lived on the pension paid by the British. So we can say the empire ended with the arrest of the last emperor on 20 September 1857, after which he was exiled to Rangoon where he died on 7 November 1862. India was the crown jewel for the British, and too valuable to be left to the rule by the East India Company. If you want to be legalistic, the Queen’s Proclamation dated 1 November 1858 brought India under the direct Rule by the British Crown.

DP Rangan’s range of interest is amazing. From objects of nature, to variety of themes like cycle, tonga, horses, to film stars, now he writes on the films and songs around Mughal rulers. You may scoff at the authenticity of their history, but the songs the music directors created were everlasting. Mr Rangan selects some of the best songs for the post.

Bahdaur Shah Zafar was ‘technically’ the Last Mughal. Though only a nominal emperor, he fostered a multi-cultural and multi-religious society around him, and presided over a court having great Urdu poets like Zauq, Ghalib, Momin and Dagh. At a time fraught with inter-faith tension and mistrust, it is befitting to pay a tribute to him with this article on his 158th Remembrances Day. Thanks a lot Mr Rangan. – AK)

Bahdurshah ZafarIndian subcontinent since time immemorial has had her belly exposed to all sorts of invaders through Khyber and Bolan pass. The petty kingdoms nestled around this vulnerable locality were too busy fighting each other, and failure to present a united front against aggressors from further North eventually cost them dear. This was checkmated during periods of great empires like Kanishka, Gupta and Harshvardhan. The power vacuum thereafter led to a resurgence of such invasions. Repeated invasion and retreats with booty led to colonization subsequently. Delhi sultanates were first such settlements ruling over a big territory in the North. With the proselytizing Islam as their creed they sought to swell their numbers from among the conquered people. A delicate balance prevailed between Islam and the native faith.

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Hemant Kumar’s Hindi Duet Compositions

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the continuing series of Hemant Kumar’s Centenary (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989)  celebrations

(The Grand Centenary Celebrations of Hemant Kumar were set off by N Venkataraman’s omnibus article Hemantayan Part 1 on his Birth Centenary 16 June 2020, which covered his early life and his career up to 1960. He completed his comprehensive overview with its Part 2 on his Remembrance Day 26 September 2020. In parallel Ashok M Vaishnav offered to take a closer look at Hemant Kumar’s career as a music director in Hindi films. He has already written on his songs for female playback singers and male playback singers. Ashokji completes his micro view of Hemant Kumar as a music director with this third article in the series in which he covers his duet compositions. Ashokji, characteristically, covers some unknown songs; his logic being that everyone knows his famous songs. This also gives an opportunity to the readers to post some obvious songs which are missing here.

Ashokji is a systematic researcher. That comes from his engineering and management background. After retirement he now freelances as management training professional. I convey my thanks to Venkataramanji and Ashokji for their series of articles which is such a befitting tribute to Hemant Kumar who was a great artiste and a great human being. – AK)

Quantitatively, duets are known to constitute a smaller share of Hindi Film Songs, as compared to the solo songs. However, it is well acknowledged that duets have an important place in the portfolio of any music director and singer. Musicologists will have their own detailed treatise to address the intricacies of duet compositions. They may also have different analyses of why one duet is better than the other or which duet has experimented successfully or otherwise with some out-of-the-box experiments. However, as an amateur listener of Hindi Film Songs, my inherent bias towards duets invariably is reflected in the joy of listening to a song composed as (MF) duet. In that context duets of Hemant Kumar have their own charm – be it an another music director composition or a Hemant Kumar’s own composition. Certainly, there should be no comparison between Hemant Kumar’s duets composed by other music directors and the ones that he composed himself. They are two different worlds and must be enjoyed as such.

Presently, we will focus our attention to the duets composed by Hemant Kumar in Hindi films

Hemant Kumar_Duets singers

Hemant Kumar has composed music in 54 Hindi films, spanning around 418 songs. Of these, 9 films (covering ~66 songs) had no duets. From the rest of the songs that Hemant Kumar has composed, duets have a little more than the one fourth share. These comprise MM and MF duets and triads+ where he is a singer and music director, and FF and MF duets and triads+ which have only ‘other singers’, in nearly 53:47 proportion. Well, well, it seems the statistical analysis of Hemant Kumar composed songs itself seems to be a full-fledged subject that can be discussed as interestingly as listening to his songs, and hence better be left for the more competent people to address.

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Hemantayan – Part 2

A tribute to Hemant Kumar on his 31st Remembrance Day (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) in his Birth Centenary year by guest author N Venkataraman

(N Venkataraman launched the Centenary Celebration of Hemant Kumar with his superb article Hemantayan Part 1 on his Birth Centenary, 16 June 2020. This gave a comprehensive overview of Hemant Kumar’s early life, his rise as a singer and composer of great repute in Hindi and Bengali films and non-film songs, up to 1960.

In this second and concluding part of his tribute, Venkatarmanji carries on his excellent work and covers his remaining career post-1960. The special aspect of this article is his focus on Hemant Kumar’s forays into production of films, which is not highlighted much as his heavenly voice left such a powerful impact. This aspect is also important because it became Hemant Kumar’s hubris, sucking him into deep financial troubles. But the multifarious talent that he was, he was able to come out of it as he had become an icon in Bengali music as a singer and composer. That became his main arena, where he was the Monarch.

This two-part tribute by Venkataramanji is the most comprehensive you can find on any blog. It is not only a chronicle of Hemant Kumar’s life and his professional achievements, it also provides insight into the ecosystem of Hindi and Bengali films of the era, his strength of character, simplicity and generosity and also his foibles, and his ups and downs. We are passionately fond of his singing and music direction, our awareness being primarily limited to Hindi. Thanks to Venkataramanji now we know that Hemant Kumar was much larger than that.  We can’t thank Venkataramanji enough for this. – AK)

Hemant Kumar 1“It was now time to build up on this success and reputation. Was he able to consolidate his position and career in Bombay and also in Calcutta? I will leave that for another post, the second part of this write-up. I would be covering his career post-1960 in the second part of my article”.

I had concluded the first part, Hemantayan – Part1 with the above lines.

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Hemant Kumar’s male playback singers

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the series of centenary tributes to Hemant Kumar (b. 16 June 1920 – d. 26 September 1989)

(Hemant Kumar’s centenary celebration was set off with an excellent article by N Venkataraman, ‘Hemantayan Part 1’, in which he wrote about his family origin, early life, and his career up to 1960. Venkataramanji would write his second and last part on Hemant Kumar’s Remembrance Day, 26 September, covering his post-1960 career.

Ashok M Vaishnav has a great interest in delving deep into film songs and present micro-analysis on various parameters. He very kindly offered to supplement Venkataramanji’s two-part overview with some articles going into Hemant Kumar’s career on various parameters in greater detail. Ashokji’s first article in the series was on Hemant Kumar’s female playback singers. in his second article he covers his male singers. This article is another evidence of Ashokji’s perseverance in going deep and wide.

Ashokji is an engineer by profession. After retirement, he is engaged in management training. I thank him for his efforts to make this series of tribute so befitting the respect Hemant Kumar commands. – AK)

Hemant Kumar_Manna Dey-Rafi-Kishore KumarEvery time the topic of Hemant Kumar’s Hindi Film songs in male voice comes up, the discussion usually gets marooned in the question – was he a great composer who also sang well or was he a great singer who also made some memorable music?

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N Datta: The Third Musketeer for Asha Bhosle

Guest article by Hans Jakhar wishing Asha Bhosle (b. 8 September 1933) a very happy 87th birth anniversary and also greeting the unlucky genius N Datta

(By now we all know that Asha Bhosle is the most recorded singer, and has sung far more songs than her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Yet Lata Mangeshkar came to be acknowledged as the apogee of female playback singing in the Golden Era. She was the singer of choice of every music director for their best and most complex compositions, except a handful of MDs for whom Asha Bhosle was the main singer. N Datta is one of them, and what superb songs he gave for her as well as other singers! He was an unlucky genius. When Hans Jakhar wrote on Asha Bhosle’s last birth anniversary on her songs by Ravi, Arvinder Sharma commented that her predominance in N Datta’s music is relatively even more pronounced than Ravi.

I have no hesitation in admitting that I am an unabashed Lata-partisan, and that may be reflecting on SoY too, but fortunately we have a large band of Asha Bhosle fans. Hans Jakhar is the undisputed flag-bearer of this brigade which provides more than balance if there is any hint of bias on the other side.

But in my defence, in the very early stage of this blog, I wrote my first post on Asha Bhosle on her 78th birth anniversary nine years ago. Thereafter, I have written a number of posts on her songs by different music directors with great respect, because those songs are very special to me. Hans, in this article, has fairly acknowledged it. N Datta’s songs for Asha Bhosle are very dear to me, yet if someone has to write on this combination, no one could do it better than Hans. I am happy that he accepted my request to write this tribute to them as our greetings to Asha Bhosle on her 87th birth anniversary.

Hans brings his legal and commerce degree and long working with the government to full use in writing on film music, too, with his mastery over data and reasoning. It gives me great pleasure to present his third guest article for SoY which has all the hallmark of his sharp skills. – AK)

N Datta-Asha BhosleThe year 1955 was a special year for Asha Bhosle. Two composers who were inclined to use her more than any other female singers came out of the stable of pro-Lata Lata Mangeshkar composers and straight-away started using her as the main female singer. One of them, Ravi, was discussed last year. The other was N Datta who was an assistant to SD Burman. In the same year, the third pro-Asha composer who later became only Asha, OP Nayyar also had a big success with her in Baap Re Baap which, though not a block-buster, was quite a successful film. Success of the songs like ‘Raat rangili chamke taare‘ and ‘Piya piya piya mora jiya pukare‘ gave him the confidence to use her extensively, especially after moving out of Guru Dutt films. At a personal level, her biggest achievement was recording 300+ songs, which no singer had yet achieved.

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Hemant Kumar’s Female Playback Singers

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the series of centenary tributes to Hemant Kumar (b. 16 June 2020 – d. 26 September 1989)

(Is Hemant Kumar a major singer or a music director? For his fans his mesmerising singing overshadows his contribution as a music director. Ashok M Vaishnav is known for going deep into data analysis and classification – SoY regulars have seen his perseverance in his mega-series, Multiple version songs. Ashokji plans to write a series of guest articles on Hemant Kumar’s various facets as music director, as a part of his centenary celebrations, which were set off brilliantly by N Vankataraman’s outstanding tribute, titled ‘Hemantayan – Part 1’, on his Birth Centenary, 16 June 2020.

Venkataramanji is planning his Part 2 on 26 September 2020 to coincide with Hemant Kumar’s death anniversary. His scheme, as the readers must have noticed, is to divide Hemant Kumar’s life and career in two parts chronologically – the first part going up to 1960 – taking a comprehensive overview of his career as a music director and singer in Hindi, Bengali and other languages, as well as his non-film songs.

It was very kind of Ashokji to offer on his own to supplement Venkataramanji’s two-part overview with some articles going into more detail on Hemant Kumar’s career on various parameters. Here is the first article of his planned series, on his female playback singers (in Hindi films). Since I have written on his songs for Lata Mangeshkar long ago, Ashokji only mentions her few songs, focussing more on his wide range of other female singers. He consciously chooses less familiar songs as a prudent policy.

Many readers have rightly observed that SoY is blessed with very generous guest writers. We are all lucky. Thank you Ashokji for your guest article. – AK)

 

Hemant Kumar with his female singers 2

Hemant Kumar (16-6-1920 | 26-9-1989) had already shown flare for music composition from his early childhood. Even though his formal career commenced as a singer, his talents as a composer also did not have to wait longer to get formal recognition. Of course, in so far as Hindi Films is concerned, the first ever film for which he got to compose the music was a decade after he sang his first film song. He then went on to compose music for 50+ films for the next 27 years.

(Note: Many sites mention film ‘Irada’ (1944) as his debut as a singer in Hindi films. However, it is now generally accepted that his first song was ‘Aankhon ki oat jo rahta tha’ in the film ‘Meenakshi’ (1942). – AK)

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Remembering Ajit Merchant

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav as a tribute to Ajit Merchant on his 95th birth anniversary (b. 15 August 1925 – d. 28 March 2011)

(Talents from various regional languages have enriched Hindi film music. Music directors and singers from Bengal have occupied a central place in Hindi film music. From the recent generation AR Rahman has been incredibly successful in both Tamil and Hindi. Due to some quirk of fate similar success has eluded those from Gujarat, though they gave some immortal songs in Hindi, and occupy an iconic place for their contribution in Gujarati film music and Theatre. Ajit Merchant is one such talent whom Ashok M Vaishnav pays a tribute on his 95th birth anniversary.

Ashokji is an engineer by profession, and after retirement he is engaged in management training. He has a deep interest in music. SoY regulars know him as the creator of the mega series, Multiple Version Songs, and his deep analytical interest in exploring various facets of songs. He has been also introducing us to Gujarati music. Thank you Ashokji for highlighting the contribution of Ajit Merchant to Hindi and Gujarati film music. – AK)

Ajit MerchantAjit Merchant (15-8-1925 | 28-3-2011) belongs to that Hindi cinema club which includes some incredibly talented but commercially not successful music directors as members. These music directors have their names in the roll of honours, on account of just a song or two from the few that they could get to compose in their career.

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Madan Mohan: The Pied Piper of Bollywood in Different Moods

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Madan Mohan on his 45th Remembrance Day (b. 25 June 1924 – d. 14 July 1975)

(Two years ago to this day, DP Rangan wrote a tandem article on Roshan and Madan Mohan about their classical songs, with annotation by Subodh Agrawal, which set the stage for a series on them. The series concluded with Madan Mohan’s daughter Sangeeta Gupta’s nostalgic piece about him as a family man and a maestro. However, meanwhile Mr Rangan had also been working on Madan Mohan’s songs in different moods, and he was disappointed that, with the series closed with the calendar year, his piece might not see the light of day.

You can never have enough of Madan Mohan; he was a multi-faceted talent, composing songs for all the major playback singers, and songs in all possible moods. I am happy to present M Rangan’s guest article as a tribute to Madan Mohan on his 45th Remembrance Day. Thank you Mr Rangan. – AK)

Madan MohanUnder inspiration from the blog master AK, I wrote a  tandem post involving Madan Mohan and Roshan on 14 July 2018 which was Roshan’s 101st birth anniversary, and in a unique coincidence, Madan Mohan’s 43rd death anniversary.  It grew steadily through a number of posts exploring many aspects of their genius, ending with Madan Mohan’s daughter’s fond article on him titled ‘Remembering my father and the legend’ on 25 December 2018. The announcement of the closure of the series by AK disappointed me somewhat because I have been working on a post on Madan Mohan’s songs in different moods. As I don’t see any duplication with the posts in the series (though some songs might have figured earlier), I am happy that AK agreed to post it on Madan Mohan’s 45th Remembrance Day.

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NASEEM BANU: The Maiden Venus of Bollywood

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Naseem Banu on her 104th birth anniversary (4 July 1916 – 18 June 2002)

(Naseem Banu was arguably the most bewitching beauty of her time. When Saira Banu burst on the screen in the 1960s, she was immediately hailed as a Beauty Queen, and the media coverage was replete with references to her mother, Naseem Banu, who was regarded as even more mesmerising than her daughter. She achieved great fame as the lead actress of Sohrab Modi’s historical magnum opus, Pukaar (1939). And in keeping with the times she also sang many songs for films, but gradually let regular playback singers sing for her. She deserves to be remembered on Songs of Yore in a befitting manner, and DP Rangan is ever ready for doing the honours.

As the regulars of SoY are aware, Mr Rangan is a unique person. Though not familiar with the language, he has nevertheless written over twenty guest articles on various themes relating to old Hindi film songs, including on stars like Meena Kumari, Suraiya and Madhubala.  He does an equally competent job, typical of him, for Naseem Banu. Thank you Mr Rangan for this tribute to Naseem Banu. – AK)

Naseem BanoThe Industrial Revolution from the mid-nineteenth century ushered in an era of prosperity for a few and misery for the majority. Entertainment avenues also underwent a radical change. Introduction of cinematography was one such event and people crowded theatres to enjoy silent movies. Advent of talkies in 1927 was a fillip to boost people’s interest and India had its first talkie in 1931. Cinema viewing was a new rage among the populace and film actors commanded a huge following. The time was ripe for the arrival of a maiden of beauty and the miracle did happen.

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Fanciful ideas about breaching embankments (6)

Guest article by Ashwin Bhandarkar

(The regular readers of SoY are aware that Ashwin Bhandarkar is a BITS Pilani and IIM Calcutta alumnus and is an IT professional based in Pune. What makes him exceptional is that he has had over ten years of formal training in Hindustani classical music. This (Pun)dit (Pun)-e-kar, in a befitting यथा नाम तथा गुण, is also blessed with incorrigible punny bones which we have seen in plenty in his previous posts.

Ashwin continues his penchant for combining the profound with the light with the Title of this post, which is a cleverly crafted convoluted conundrum, which you can crack only if you are a cruciverbalist. Oh no, this is not how I write! This post must have infected me with a bug which you encounter in the very first sentence, and which permeates the entire article. You don’t have to specially look for it, you can’t miss it as it comes. But make no mistakes; Ashwin’s matter is never mundane, his mastery over music is magnificent, and the melody is always absolutely mellifluous.

Lastly, a little information about Ashwin’s perseverance with this post. He first appeared as a guest author on this blog over three years ago, and this post is also as old, because right then he had placed his handkerchief to reserve this topic for himself. After reading it, I can imagine why it has taken him so long. Now the hanky goes back to its holder until he or another guest author puts it to reserve a seat for another topic. Thanks a lot Ashwin for another superb post. – AK)

Andal's dream_Painting by S RajamI’m sure that cryptic crossword buffs amongst SoY readers would have cracked the crossword clue that is the title of this post. Let me solve it for the others:

‘Dams’ is a synonym of ‘embankments’. In crosswords, ‘about’ is the cryptic clue for ‘Re’, the short form for the reference line in formal letters. ‘Breaching’ between ‘about’ and ‘embankments’ indicates that the solution is an anagram of ‘Re Dams’. Now, what is a 6-letter anagram of ‘Re Dams’ that means ‘fanciful ideas’? ‘Dreams’, of course! And, songs about dreams are what this article is about.

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