Miscellaneous

A ‘serious’ review of Sangam (1964) in its Golden Jubilee Year

Raj Kapoor overturns Bollywood triangle to convey profound social messages

SangamReviewing a film is not a joke unless you are Madhu, Anu or Memsaab Greta. Then, why am I venturing into a field in which I have no expertise, and why Sangam?

Review of a Bollywood blockbuster like Sangam suffers from both the ends. At one end are the highbrow intellectuals, who have breakfast with Fellini, lunch with Kurosawa, dinner with Vittorio de Sica and tea, off and on, with Satyajit Ray. At best they would grudgingly acknowledge Bimal Roy and Do Bigha Zameen. They would trash Sangam as the usual worthless, escapist fare with songs and dances and a lot of melodrama. At the other end are the rest, people like you and me, who go to see what it offers, and come back ga-ga over its grand star cast, high drama, tense love triangle, wonderful foreign locales and great music. Both the set of reviewers miss some very profound social messages strewn in the film, which would be obvious if you watch it with a little more than casual interest.

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Songs of Atariya

With a tribute to Begum Akhtar in her Centenary Year

Romeo and Juliet on AtariyaI had thought songs of atariya are one of the things – like lori, bidaai songs, bhajan, piano songs etc. – that have been irredeemably lost from our films. Loosely translated as ‘balcony’, atariya was the place where the heroine would go stealthily from the prying eyes of her parents, to wait for her lover, who would come on tip-toe to serenade from below, or if he was more daring, climb up through the drain pipe or a rope or bed sheet, helpfully slung down by the lady. Modesty was a virtue for women not only in India, but also in the West – Romeo too met Juliet on her atariya.

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Songs of Yore completes three years

Celebrating with three triad songs

Songs of Yore Third AnniversaryToday SoY completes three years. When I look back, it is not merely more of the same. To be sure, the frequency has increased from the preceding two years. Thirty-three posts in the year gone by, i.e. a post every 11 days, is far more than the preceding two years. But more important is the variety. With songs on themes like River, Naiya, Kinare, Jigar; personalities like Asit Baran, Mubarak Begum, Minoo Mumtaz, some potpourri like Wrap Up of Songs of 1955, Mahamoorkhon ke gaane, and historical-musical travelogue of Rangoon/Burma, I have indulged in my freewheeling wanderings. I have to admit, as I have said earlier, that there is an element of स्वान्तः सुखाय here, borne out of the fact that I am the host of the blog. But what is really gratifying is that a lot many people with tremendous amount of knowledge have joined me in sharing my delights.

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In conversation with Minoo Mumtaz

Wishing her Happy 71st Birthday on April 26, 2013

Minoo MumtazI am not a journalist, nor am I in a line which should bring me anywhere near film people. Yet, here I was having a relaxed conversation with Minoo Mumtaz in her apartment in Pune, a few months back. Some stories are epic in scale. This one had its beginning on the other side of the globe, about a year back, when I had gone for a conference in Toronto, Canada.

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Caught stealing from ‘Songs of Yore’, two Harvard students sadden me

plagiarismI wish I had never written this piece, and I tried my best to see that I didn’t have to. Yet there are times when you have to face up to unpleasant situations.

When I started Songs of Yore about three years ago, I did not have a clue what blogging meant. My only excuse was a notion I had about myself that I knew a good deal about old film music. As SoY has progressed, I have learnt a great deal more, and I realise how mistaken I was about myself and how little I knew. I have learnt from fellow bloggers and I have learnt from readers from their comments, and I have often been awed by them, and envious of them. At times I have also used material from them, acknowledging and praising them openly. Similarly, fellow bloggers, who are extremely accomplished, have often referred to something which I wrote, praising me generously and, at times, excessively. We have done it not only because it is legally and morally correct thing to do, but also because it comes so naturally.

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Romancing the dunce or ‘Mahamoorkhon Ke Gaane’

Mahamoorkh SammelanIn an interesting Holi tradition in many parts of North India, important personalities of the town get together to play the fool, and vie with each other to get the coveted best fool awards. The next day’s papers carry colourful reports of these proceedings with profile of the winners of Mahamoorkh or Moorkhshiromani awards.

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A novice’s romance with Raga Durga

Remembering Durga, Sangeet Mahakumbh at Patna and Pandit Kumar Gandharva

DurgaThere are great romantic lovers like Dev Anand renowned for their ways with women.  And there are illiterate, bumbling ones no less endearing like Raj Kapoor with Padmini in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Bahti Hai – so has been my romance with Raga Durga for over 35 years.

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Songs of Yore completes two years

clip_image001Today Songs of Yore completes two years. While the first year was somewhat tentative and kind of groping its way around, it has become surer of its steps in the second year. I have generally maintained a frequency of a post every two weeks. SoY has also become more interactive. The readers’ comments, views and observations have added a great deal to the blog. They have introduced us to several unknown or little known marvelous songs. Some novel ideas for themes have come from readers’ comments. One example is a string of posts on year wise survey of the best songs of pre-Filmfare Awards. The first post in the series for the year 1955 attracted a lively discussion. This itself gave another idea to write wrap up posts on different categories. I have done the first wrap up on the best male playback singer; three more are still to come.

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Some perspectives on Jhumka gira re

JhumkasEvery married man encounters this experience quite often – you are all dressed up to go to a wedding, you go out to take out your car. The dear wife should have by then locked the house and come to the driveway. But you wait and wait, yet there is no sign of her. You go in to find out what the matter is. She is crouching on the floor and searching desperately for something under the carpet, cushions, in nooks and crevices. Some tiny attachment, a screw or a latch, which lets the earrings or danglers hold on to the ear, has slipped off. You barely suppress your smile, when she flares up, what is so funny about it, don’t you think you should help me in finding the damn thing?  As a dutiful husband you also go down on all the fours to join her in the search.

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