Guest Authors

SD Burman: ‘The Courage of His Convictions’ (Has his way on Hemant Kumar)

Guest article by Moti Lalwani as a tribute to SD Burman (1 October 1906 – 31 October 1975)

‘Ye raat ye chandni phir kahaan’ by Hemant Kumar, lyricist Sahir Ludhiyanavi, composed by SD Burman

(When I wrote a review of HQ Chowdhury’s book ‘Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman’ sometime back, I had mentioned that an acknowledged authority on SD Burman, who has spent his lifetime studying him, and interviewing people associated with him, had sent me some of his articles. The time has come to disclose his name.  Anyone who has seriously studied SD Burman would be familiar with Moti Lalwani. Mr Chowdhury has referred to him eight-nine times in his book; Sathya Saran’s ‘Sun Mere Bandhu Re’ is largely based on his material. Mr Lalwani was always a fan of SD Burman’s music. That became a serious passion to counter some RD Burman-fanatic on a music forum, when he spoke sarcastically of SD Burman.

Mr Lalwani’s channel on the YouTube has over 150 short videos of interviews and other materials associated with SD Burman. He manages a Facebook group on the maestro which has 7600 members.

By profession he was a Mechanical Engineer with L&T, and after working with them for 29 years, he took voluntary retirement long back. Thereafter, he ran his own company for ten years. Even as an octogenarian, his zest for life has not waned, and now he continues serious study and research on SD Burman.

SD Burman is known to have his own methods for choosing which singer would best suit a particular song he was composing, and in this he would brook no interference. His choices were at times against conventional wisdom, but the final product turned out to be outstanding. I am happy that Mr Lalwani’s debut article on the SoY is on this theme, and it shows how the maestro had his way on Hemant Kumar for ‘Ye raat ye chaandni phir kahan’, overriding the doubting voices. I have decided to celebrate October as SD Burman-month as it begins with him and ends with him, all with Mr Lalwani’s articles. – AK)

SD Burman and Hemant KumarAfter a successful career in Calcutta, Hemant Kumar (1920-1989) shifted to Bombay (Mumbai) in 1951 to work for Filmistan Studios. He had sung very few Hindi songs till then, and his voice was unknown to the Hindi/Urdu music lovers. Composer SD Burman had already established himself, with successes in Do Bhai (1947), Shabnam (1949), Mashal (1950), followed by Baazi, Bahar, Naujawan and Saza, all released in 1951 and doing very well.

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‘Would there ever be another Lata Mangeshkar?’

Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very happy 90th birth anniversary (b. 28 September 1929) with a guest article by Shalan Lal

(Lata Mangeshkar turns 90 today. This momentous occasion demanded something special befitting the milestone. However, in the year of the Ravi celebration on SoY, most readers almost took it for granted that today I would write on her songs by Ravi. As the readers are aware, in this series the spotlight has been on his main female playback singer, Asha Bhosle, to whom Hans Jakhar has paid a handsome tribute on her birth anniversary earlier this month. Lata Mangeshkar being Ravi’s ‘other’ singer, was placed in an unfavourable situation. This dilemma resolved itself when Shalan Lal sent me her comprehensive treatise on her, analysing the ‘conditions’ that made the Lata Mangeshkar phenomenon. The rhetorical question in the title implies that there would never be another one like her. While emphasising the theory of ‘conditions’, Shalan also acknowledges that her voice had a divine quality, and there was something beyond her training, upbringing, hard work, and other conditions, that was transcendental and beyond any physical explanation.

The original article Shalan sent me was too long for this blog, and I have severely reduced it, without losing the essence of what she is trying to say. I am happy that she has allowed me editorial freedom in this regard. Let us join her in wishing a very happy 90th anniversary to the legend, Lata Mangeshkar. And thank you Shalan for your significant article for this special occasion.

As the SoY regulars are by now familiar with her style, Shalan never writes a piece without saying something highly provocative and controversial. I have added my own comments on some of her observations at the end of the article.

Shalan Lal is a UK-based academic having wide interest in art, culture and literature. – AK)

The top question creates the following forbearance:

“Que será, sera. Whatever will be, will be? The future’s not ours to see
Que será, sera”

Yes, Indeed!

Today on 28 September 2019 Lata Mangeshkar completes her 90 years and there will be celebrations on the filmy planet and in the Indian social and political world. She has already won numerous awards including the highest Indian civilian award ‘Bharat Ratna’. She is known as “The Queen of Melody, The Voice of the Nation, The Voice of the Millennium and The Nightingale of India etc etc.”

Mine is a rhetorical question. Some will think it as a pompous question; others may think that it is melodramatic. I do not see any harm in raising it.

The answer from the audience surely will be instantaneous and a unanimous emphatic “No, no and never”!

This I venture to say is an expression of sheer love for the icon Lata! There is a need for deeper examination of the ‘conditions’ that made Lata Mangeshkar. I had my Eureka moment to examine her on this basis when I watched a BBC series titled ‘The Planets’, presented by Brain Cox, a renowned expert on Space Science and the Solar System.

In one of his lectures, titled ‘Godfather Planet Jupiter’, Professor Cox explained that when the Big Bang happened billions of earth-years ago, and the sun and solar system came into existence to cool down to present time, it was Jupiter which is hundreds of times bigger than our earth, kept on guard and destroyed most of the asteroids or gobbled them up which were on the loose and going around destroying other planets, or whatever coming in their way, behaving like the wild west cowboys.

Jupiter helped to create an atmosphere on the earth and did not allow the water to dry up so life could be born and sustained. It was also instrumental in the occurrence of the orbit around the sun and also the larger orbit called the Solar System. Hence there are seasons on the earth, and human beings could eventually evolve and come up to what they are now. Unless what Jupiter had done occurs elsewhere in the space, it is unlikely that another earth can happen. Mere water is not enough to have a living world. Many planets have water in frozen conditions. But Jupiter took billions of earth-years to do what it did.

These are called the ‘conditions’ and did not occur anywhere else according to the present knowledge.

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Shakeel Badayuni: Revitalising bond with Ravi

Guest article by Hans Jakhar (This is the second guest article by Hans Jakhar on the trot after his debut with Asha Bhosle’s songs by Ravi. He had given enough indication that he would be writing on Shakeel Badayuni’s partnership with Ravi. Hans’s forte is mastery over data. And you see full evidence of thisREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Ravi and Asha Bhosle: A class combination

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) with a guest article by Hans Jakhar

(Asha Bhosle, despite being the most recorded artiste by miles, remained the ‘other’ singer for most music directors of the Golden Era. All the accolades and the most melodious songs went to her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Ravi is among the rare major music directors whose ‘first’ female playback singer by choice was Asha Bhosle. In the ongoing series on Ravi it was natural that her primacy would be highlighted, and no one is better suited than Hans Jakhar to pay a tribute to her on her 86th birth anniversary with her songs for Ravi. Hans is puzzled that some of us are hesitant to count Ravi among the ‘greats’. He is not only a fan of Asha Bhosle, but he also has a deep empathy for her for having suffered the ‘Sister Tax’ in her career.

With this article Hans debuts as a guest author. I am sure the readers would not be surprised by it, the surprise is why it has taken him so long. His comments on the blog posts are full of facts, analysis and insights. Hopefully we would see more from his pen.

Hans is a B. Com and LLB, which reflects in the way he presents his arguments. After working for over 20 years in the central secretariat service in various ministries, he took voluntary retirement and now straddles between two worlds: the rural Haryana, which is his home state, and the urban metropolis of Delhi. The series on Ravi inspired him to write on his songs for Asha Bhosle, for which I am sure the readers of SoY would be grateful to him. Thanks a lot Hans – AK)

Ravi and Asha BhosleSome time back Dr Shetty made a comment to the effect that Asha Bhosle could sing all the songs Lata Mangeshkar could, and in addition she could sing many which Lata could not, so why should Asha be not called the best singer. This thought of his has stuck with me, because, I have come across many who held the same view. There were some who rated Suman Kalyanpur  the better singer. My elder sister who is four years older than me held the same view. In fact, in those days of the late 60s and early 70s, there were a number of magazines in circulation which gave stories about Lata’s manoeuvres. My sister made very angry remarks against her on that count, Suman Kalyanpur was her favourite by far. Though I was younger, I tried to cool her down. At that time I did not have much knowledge about these things and was also a bit hesitant in arguing, especially with elders, so I gave just one argument, that Lata must have special talent and because of that the composers were giving her more songs.

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Bharat Vyas: Lyricist Extraordinaire in Hindi

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Bharat Vyas on his 37th death anniversary (18 December 1918 – 4 July 1982)

(One oft-repeated complaint against Songs of Yore is that it does not give due importance to the lyricists. I have given my reasons from time to time, which may not be very convincing. I do not know whether DP Rangan was guided by altruistic motives to come to the rescue of the blog, but his offer to write on Bharat Vyas came as a big surprise. By now we are aware of his tremendous enthusiasm and capacity to write on different themes – this is his 19th guest article – but one thought familiarity with the language was necessary for writing on lyricists. For Mr Ranagn, no challenge is too great to deter him. The result is a comprehensive write-up on Bharat Vyas, one of the most respected lyricists for elegance of his language. The two Excel sheets he has prepared of Bharat Vyas’s Filmography would challenge anyone priding himself as a number-cruncher. My compliments and thanks to Mr Rangan for a very painstaking article. – AK)

Bharat VyasInvention of moving films for single viewer by Edison of USA and its further enhancement by Lamar brothers of France for simultaneous view by many in a sort of theatre had added new dimensions to entertainment for the people and the fever grew exponentially from then on. The epoch of silent movies started at the turn of the last century, but introduction of talkies in 1927 in the USA revolutionised picture viewing throughout the world and India joined the bandwagon almost from inception. The first talkie, Aalam Ara, was released in Mumbai in 1931 to a riotous start with the necessity of police intervention for control.

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Chorus Songs in the Hindi Films of Yore: Part 3

Guest article by Shalan Lal (After the earlier two articles covering the 1930s and 1940s, Shalan Lal concludes her three-part thesis on chorus songs with the Golden Decade of the 1950s. As we have come to expect from her, these articles do not merely present the representative songs of the period, but also take usREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Chorus Songs in the Hindi Films of Yore: Part 2

Guest article by Shalan Lal

(In the first part of her three-part dissertation on chorus songs in the films of yore, Shalan Lal covered the first decade of the 1930s, dominated by three major studios: The New Theatres of Calcutta, Bombay Talkies of Bombay and Prabhat Film Company of Poona.  This was published on 2 May 2019. The second part, dealing with  the second decade of the 1940s, and chorus songs from this era, gives a good insight into the main trends during this period and style of music. I compliment Shalan Lal on another well-researched article and thank her on behalf of the readers for her painstaking work. Shalan Lal is a UK-based academic. – AK)

Three Decades of Chorus Songs
Introduction and the Second Decade 1941-50

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Now into the tuneful forties.

In this section we discuss how the choruses and musical accompaniment in the films already established by the studio-based film companies had been used by the other companies to further the art of songs and chorus songs to their advantage.

The three film companies, New Theatres, Prabhat, and Bombay Talkies, mentioned in the first part of this series, developed internal institutional troubles and towards the end of the forties they were going to be dissolved or go limping to vanish; so more or less individual music directors became independent and allowed themselves to be hired by the film companies and the individual entrepreneurs to do contracted piece-work and free to do work for other companies on contracts. The reason for this was that the studios themselves would go on renting their space and facilities to other companies as well. Music directors would hire outside halls to rehearse their songs. As playback became gradually became the norm, the recording studios would need their studios booked in advanced.

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Chorus Songs in the Hindi Films of Yore: Part 1

Guest article by Shalan Lal (Readers are aware, when Shalan Lal  writes on a topic she writes a research paper as if  for an academic seminar, even if it is for a blog like ‘Songs of Yore’. She does a similar comprehensive work to discuss the chorus songs of the films of yore. This isREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

MADHUBALA: The Bewitching Beauty of Bollywood

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Madhubala on her 86th birth anniversary (14 February 1933- 23 February 1969)

(The regular readers of Songs of Yore are aware of the tremendous enthusiasm of DP Rangan for writing on various themes and artistes associated with old film songs. After covering themes like Horses, Tonga, Moon, Stars, Bacchus, Deepavali, Steam Engine, Flowers, Cycle, Waterfall, Tasveer and Nuptials, Mr Rangan wrote life sketch of film stars and music directors. He has already written excellent articles on Sajjad Hussain, Suraiya and Meena Kumari. Carrying on the good work, Mr Rangan pays a tribute to the incredible beauty, Madhubala, commonly known as the Venus of Indian Cinema. It is a befitting coincidence that she was born on the Valentine’s Day.

Mr Rangan is a retired civil servant. At seventy-plus, his zeal can be the envy of many persons much younger to him. SoY is lucky to have him among the family. I join him in paying my tribute to the ethereal beauty, Madhubala, and also wishing the readers a very Happy Valentine’s day. Thank you Mr Rangan for your contribution to this blog. – AK)

MadhubalaImagine an audience bedazzled by the beauty of the heroine of the film they are intensely focused on, and coming out at the conclusion completely dazed and still reliving in the dream world of the preceding few hours, and the harsh wakeup to the reality of day to day struggle for carrying on their mundane life. Such was the hold of Madhubala on the public during the heydays of 1950s and 1960s. She was not an actress who could excel in serious roles as her contemporary Meena Kumari and yet such was her mesmerisation of one and all, even when her acting was below par now and then, it was glossed over. Yet her life was not a bed of roses, but one of thorn. She was a glorious star in the film world during her halcyon years, In astronomical language, she could be equated to super massive blue stars that gallop through their life rapidly and sink into a red dwarf or a black hole. She was amply endowed with je ne sais quoi. While Meena Kumari committed seppuku by excessive indulgence in drinks, our contemporaneous heroine was born with a major debility which was to prove a torment in the last few years of her life that did not complete forty years of existence. It is my humble attempt to recapitulate her life with my limited ability and I request patrons of the blog to keep this in mind while going through this post. This is my fourth biography and I am certain the three previous ones of Meena Kumari, Suraiya and Sajjad Hussain are already archaeologist’s delight.

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Swing a song of sixpence

Swing into the New Year with guest article by Ashwin Bhandarkar

(A promise made is a debt unpaid. When Ashwin Bhandarkar wrote his first guest article on 6 May 2017, titled Beena madhur madhur kachhu bol, I had indicated he would be writing more articles for SoY. Here he makes good his promise, and I thank him profusely for that. There is yet another good news for music lovers – this is different from the theme he had reserved with me originally, which means we can expect more from him.

Ashwin is one of the select Group of Music Experts on the blog. As for his day job, he is a BITS Pilani and IIM Calcutta alumnus, and works with an IT services major in Pune. His last post established his reputation as a Pun-dit Pun(e)kar. In this one, too, he wears his scholarship lightly. He presents an amazing range of ‘Jhoola’ songs from Hindi and regional films, and Hindustani and Carnatic classical music. There is no better way to ring in the New Year than swinging to the massive playlist (42 songs) he has compiled in the end. Thank you Ashwin again, and wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. – AK)

Raagmala_Raag HindolIt feels so good to be back as a guest writer on SoY! My prolonged absence, after a debut that I am not shy to say I am proud of, can be attributed to a combination of procrastination, writer’s block and the fear of not being able to come up with something that would hold the attention of my readers. A few days back, I decided that enough was enough and that everything would work out well, provided I only put finger to keyboard and got started. So I swung back into action in right earnest over the weekend by beginning this article on songs on swings.

One of the criticisms of my debut post was that readers had to wade through a lot of stuff before they could get to the music. Stung by (and that was not an intentional pun on the topic of my previous post – my coming up with it was by hap-pun-stance) this, I decided that for future posts, I would get on with the business of presenting the songs curated by me, without much ado. So, here goes…

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