Miscellaneous

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

व्याकरण, उच्चारण और उत्पीड़न

Phonetic and grammatical violence in songs

Piya laut ke ana 'bhul' gaye

Once Raja Bhoj went around his kingdom to see for himself the condition of his subjects. Seeing a frail woodcutter burdened by the weight of the log on his head, the king asked him solicitously, “किम्‌ ते बाधति भारम्‌?” Does the weight hurt you? The anguished woodcutter replied somewhat sharply: “भारम्‌ न बाधते राजन्‌ यथा ‘बाधति’ बाधते.” I am not hurt so much by the weight on my head as by your use of ‘बाधति’ instead of (the correct form) बाधते. The story is used at two levels. One, to make the political point that Sanskrit was a language of the masses at some point of time. But its practical purpose was to illustrate the point of Sanskrit grammar regarding Aatmenpad and Parasmaipad forms of verbs. And the interesting part was the royal being casual in grammar, whereas the commoner was ultra-sensitive to the correct usage to the point of ticking off the king. (Note: Parasmaipad verb follows the commonly known form पठति/ पठतः/ पठन्ति, whereas Aatmnepad goes बाधते/ बाधेते/ बाधन्ते, the difference being somewhat similar to transitive and intransitive verbs. – AK)

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Unified Theory of Fools

Wishing the readers a very Happy April Fools’ Day

April Fools' Day

When I wrote a sincere article, doing a comprehensive review of the songs of 1947 on the 1st April last year, Canasya commented, “you have fooled us”, because he was expecting something else appropriate to the occasion. N Venkataraman echoed the sentiments. By now, the readers have a good picture of Venkataramanji in their minds. He has earned a reputation for himself as a towering intellectual. Canasya has so far shrouded himself in complete anonymity (except for a brief lifting of the veil once), though his erudite comments are well known to the readers. I hope he would not mind if I disclose that he is a BTech, MBA and a PhD, and is a Don (not the Amitabh Bachchan-type, but academic) at one of the premier IIMs. You don’t get any smarter than that. Yet, these two learned persons felt that they were fooled. They are not two individuals, but they represent a large segment of the population. These are the people with high Mensa scores. Additionally, they fortify themselves for the 1st April by keeping a watch on the calendar for a year so that they are not caught off-guard. (Venkataramanji kept awake the whole preceding night, and pinched himself at 00.55 AM that the 1st April has arrived, and alerted everyone on SoY by posting a comment at that unearthly hour.) When the day comes, they smile unto themselves, look into any corners and crevices, and are on high alert for any hidden meaning in the day’s happenings and conversations with friends and family. When the world around them goes about its business as usual, they feel cheated because all their precaution has gone waste. They are Clever Fools who are fooled when no one makes a fool of them on the April Fools’ Day.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Barahmasa in film songs

Wishing a very Happy Holi to all the readers When the first monsoon rains quench the thirst of the parched earth, and dry rivulets, water bodies and ponds get filled with water, and green shoots emerge from dry plants and trees, and the farmers rush to the slushy fields for transplantation, it’s a time forREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Romancing the Pardesi

Wishing the readers a very happy 70th Republic Day

As you read this, the pardesis who had gathered at the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (15th PBD celebrated from 21 to 23 January 2019 at Varanasi, instead of January 9, meant to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa), would have either returned home, or stayed on to indulge in some religious nostalgia at Prayagraj Kumbh Mela, followed by soaking in the patriotic pride at the Republic Day parade. In the formal function inaugurated by the Prime Minister, these pardesis talked about emerging markets, their ever willingness to contribute to India’s growth, investment opportunities, and rights and privileges of the OCI. In the evening, while enjoying the classical dance and music performance at the banquet in the five-star hotel, they went on a nostalgia trip and romance for their homeland, its music and culture. On the side, many of them would have squeezed in time to meet with their cousins left behind, shower them with gifts, who would proudly display them as trophies to their neighbours, secretly nurturing a jealousy for the pardesi and dreaming that one day they would also go to pardes.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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…

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Faint Echoes of the October Revolution: A Centenary of the Capricious Philosophy in the Socio-political life!

Guest article by Shalan Lal

(No event in history has caused as much impact on the world of politics and ideas as the Russian Revolution of October 1917. And no revolution has strayed as much from its path, turning into a totalitarian regime and causing untold miseries on its people. The political edifice collapsed under its own weight, but it did have a romanticised sway on art, culture and literature for a long time.

The topic of this post is way beyond the scope of this blog, but Shalan Lal has a way of weaving many threads and transcending boundaries in her articles. She shared her first draft long ago, in time for the centenary of the revolution, but I had a lot of comments on her content and presentation. Anyone else would have given up, but she persisted and has redone the article substantially. After the politics, she quickly comes to the echoes of the October Revolution in our films and songs. This would stimulate and provoke, which she encourages liberally. I am happy to present Shalan Lal’s guest article commemorating the completion of a century and one year of  the October Revolution. – AK)    

Communist starThe October Revolution occurred ‘One hundred and one’ years ago on 24 October 1917 in Russia, in Petrograd, renamed later on as Leningrad, and then renamed again, after the Soviet Project was dissolved like an air bubble in 1994, as St Petersburg or Petrograd. (And some say why the changes of Bombay to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai and Calcutta to Kolkata, Poona to Pune, etc. – ironically they all are the echoes of the Red Revolution!)

This seemed to be a practice in politics of many parts of the world. In  Tripura, a Lenin’s statue was knocked down by the jubilant BJP party workers after their victory in the last state election. Here is the picture of the Lenin’s statue being knocked down in the city of Belonia. After knocking down the statue the severed head of the statue was wickedly kicked about. A kind of anger expressed by supposedly civilized BJP members in the style of the knocking down of the statue of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after the fall of Iraq. Also the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

‘Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion’

Welcoming the ‘writer’ Arunkumar Deshmukh and his first book

Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema

‘Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion’
By Arunkumar Deshmukh & Prof Surjit Singh
Published by Professor Toofaanii Publishers

I want some information about Master Vitthal and Zubeida, the lead actors of the first talkie, ‘Alam Ara’, for writing my dissertation for my film course. Where can I get information about the early stars like Master Nissar and Jahanara Kajjan, and other actors, such as Mridula, Vasanti, Bhudo Advani etc? Did the hero Shyam of ‘Dillagi’ (1949) also sing his songs, such as the duets with Suraiya, ‘Tu mera chaand main teri chaandni’ or ‘Zaalim zamana mujhko tumse chhuda raha hai’? Is Rajkumari, who played the role of Chandramukhi in ‘Devdas’ (1935), the same as the famous singer Rajkumari who sang ‘Suno bairi balam kuchh bol’ in ‘Bawre Nain’ (1950)? Are Sitara Kanpuri and Sitara Devi the same person?

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Songs of Yore completes eight years

Songs of Yore eigth anniversaryOn the eighth anniversary of Songs of Yore, I am going to break an unwritten code I have tried to follow – keeping private and public apart. I have met SoY regulars in the NCR from time to time, and also those living in other places during my travels to the cities where I knew an active member lived, but I have never mentioned these meetings. However, this year the meetings have been very special, and KS Bhatia has alluded to the get-together last month in his comments. This makes me overcome my reserve.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The path, the traveller, the journey and the destination

Raah-musafir-safar-manzil

We are told that to succeed in life we have to have a goal, and we have to take the right path to reach there. But how do we get to the right path? You reach a fork in life, you choose a path and that makes all the difference. Had you chosen the other path your life would have panned out in an entirely different way. Our ancients said महाजनो येन गत: स पन्था:।The right path is the one that has been trodden by the great men. But Javed Akhtar does not like to go where everyone goes; he does not like travelling on the worn-out path.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE