Anil Biswas

Down the memory lane with ‘Anil Da’

Wishing Merry Christmas to all with guest article by Sharad Dutt concluding Anil Biswas Centenary Celebrations

(SoY celebrated 2014 as the Centenary Year of Anil Biswas with a guest article by his daughter, Shikha Biswas Vohra on the New Year Day, remembering him as a father and a maestro. This was followed by singer-specific posts on his songs for Lata Mangehskar, Suraiya and Parul Ghosh, and Talat Mahmood, Mukesh, Surendra and Anil Biswas himself as a singer. One might think that Anil Biswas has been discussed enough. And some readers speculated last month whether there would be some more in the series during the rest of the year. Anil Biswas Centenary Series deserves a befitting finale, and I conclude the year, wishing Merry Christmas to all with this guest article by Sharad Dutt, an eminent radio/TV personality for nearly 50 years, who was among the closest persons to Anil Biswas during his Delhi years, which resulted in a 4-part short film on him and his biography ‘ऋतु आये ऋतु जाये’ – the only so far.

Anyone who followed old film music during the Golden Era of AIR and Doordarshan cannot but be familiar with the large body of work by Sharadji. He is the one who made all those short films on music personalities you would have seen on DD: KL Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Khemchand Prakash, Surendranath, Zohrabai Ambalewali, Naushad, Noorjehan, Roshan, Mukesh, Salil Chaudhary, and many more, besides Anil Biswas I mentioned earlier. He has produced about 100 documentaries on literary, political and film personalities. He has written a biography of KL Saigal too, besides Anil Biswas – both earning prestigious awards.

After retirement as Deputy Director General of Doordarshan, Sharadji is busier than ever in his second innings as Director of P-7 News. He is presently working on video documentation of Hindi film music since its beginning, and biography of poet-lyricist Shailendra. I am grateful that in spite of being neck-deep in work, he accepted my request to write this piece, with special emphasis on Anil Biswas’s association with the artistes of 30s and 40s. – AK)

Anil Biswas with Sharad DuttI was barely ten, when I first heard the song Seene mein sulagte hain armaan, ankhon mein udaasi chhayi hai. At that age I could not comprehend the meaning of the song, nor had I the courage to ask somebody. In those days, it was not becoming for a middle class kid to have undue interest in movie songs. I did not know then how the songs were composed, who were the music directors and what their role was in the making of the song, but I found the music so enchanting that I would croon it every day. There was one more song which I found really captivating. It was Jeevan hai madhuban, tu isme phool khila.

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Best songs of 1951: Final Wrap-Up 5

And the SoY Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

Anil Biswas_Shankar-Jaikishan_SD Burman_C RamchandraThis is the third series of detailed year-wise review of songs. Mid-way I had a feeling that this exercise might appear monotonous and uninteresting. I am very happy to note that my fears were unfounded. Rather, the readers’ participation has been more intense and passionate, and their comments very knowledgeable. Therefore, as I conclude this year’s exercise with the Final Wrap-Up about the best music director(s), I have to sincerely thank the readers for their participation and making the exercise worthwhile.

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Anil Biswas’s songs for Bombay Saigal: Surendra

A tribute to Surendra on his 104th birth anniversary as a part of Anil Biswas’s Centenary Year series

Surendra and Anil BiswasI have mentioned a few times that because of contractual difficulties inherent in the Studio Era, Anil Biswas could not compose for KL Saigal, even though their careers overlapped for over a decade, half of which was in Bombay itself where Saigal shifted from Calcutta in the early 40s. But, when Saigal was becoming a national sensation with the New Theatres in Calcutta, especially after Devdas (1935), Bombay was looking for its own Saigal, and its prayers were soon answered in Surendra – a tall, handsome young man, with a melodious voice, from Lahore.

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The Swar-Saamraagyi and the the Sangeet-Maartand: Best of Lata Mangeshkar by Anil Biswas

Continuing Anil Biswas Centenary series, his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as birthday greetings to her

Anil Biswas & Lata MangeshkarAnil Biswas occupies an important place among the music directors who played a major role in grooming and developing Lata Mangehskar. She was an artiste par excellence, but Anil Biswas taught her the craft of playback singing: the importance of words, as she came from a tradition which emphasized taans; breath control before mike to take breath without anyone noticing it, and maintaining the vocal quality at any pitch. Anil Biswas was to Lata Mangeshkar what GH Hardy was to Srinivas Ramanujam.

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The Maker of Mukesh: Anil Biswas

Continuing Anil Biswas Centenary Year celebration, a tribute to his most famous protégé, Mukesh, on his birth anniversary, July 22

Anil Biswas and MukeshAnd the rest is history. A worn-out cliché, but nothing describes Anil Biswas’s role in the emergence of Mukesh better. Mukesh was a struggling singer-actor in the period 1941-1945, when his brother-in-law, Motilal, took him to his close friend, Anil Biswas, and requested him to try out the young boy. Impressed with Mukesh’s singing, Anil Biswas suggested that in Motilal’s forthcoming film, Pahli Nazar, the boy could be given a chance. The producer of the film, Mazhar Khan, was furious at the prospect of his film being ruined by this new singer. So, Motilal said, that in that case, ‘I would sing my songs’. Anil Biswas, who was familiar with Motilal’s singing for him earlier, told him in his inimical style, ‘Tu rahne de, ye gana main khud gaaunga’.

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Remembering Anil Biswas, The Singer

A tribute on Anil Biswas’s Birth Centenary (b. 7 July 1914; d. 31 May 2003)

Anil Biswas 2Songs of Yore heralded 2014 as the Year of Anil Biswas with Inaugural post by his daughter, Shikha Biswas Vohra – Anil Biswas: The Maestro and My Father. We have since had three more posts dedicated to him with his songs for Suraiya, Talat Mahmood, and his sister, Parul Ghosh The year is only half gone, and many more on Anil Biswas are yet to come to do full justice to him. So what is the best way to remember him today which is his Birth Centenary?

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The incredible brother-sister in music: Anil Biswas’s songs for Parul Ghosh

Continuing Anil Biswas Centenary Year celebration with his songs for Parul Ghosh as a tribute to her

Anil Biswas and Parul GhoshI can’t think of a weightier brother sister-duo in Hindi film music. Obviously, Mangeshkars’ dominance is unparalleled, but they are primarily ‘sisters’; Hridaynath’s footprint is very negligible on film music, whereas Anil Biswas is a Titan. Parul Ghosh was born in 1916 to a music-loving mother, two years after her brother Anil Biswas, who would dominate the film music as one of the all time greats in the years to come. Thus, music was in her DNA. She was married to the renowned flautist, Pannalal Ghosh. With such pedigree, it is not surprising that she got a break with the New Theatres. Her name is associated with a landmark event in film music – the first playback song, Main khush hona chaahun, in Dhoop Chhaon (1935), composed by RC Boral. She was one of the three singers to have this achievement, the other two being Suprova Srakar and Harimati Dua. In spite of an impressive start, her early career progressed in fits and starts, until her brother, Anil Biswas, took her as his major singer.

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The Mentor and the Protégé: Talat Mahmood songs by Anil Biswas

A tribute to Talat Mahmood on his 90th birth anniversary

Anil Biswas and Talat MahmoodAnil Biswas was not the first composer for whom Talat Mahmood sang in films. He debuted as an actor-singer in Calcutta in Raj Laxmi (1945). While in Calcutta, he also sang (and acted) in Tum Aur Main (1947), Samapti and Swayansiddha (1949). During this period he sang some 40-50 songs (film and non-film) under the name Tapan Kumar. But well before he came to films, he had acquired great fame because of his non-film geets and ghazals. His singing debut was in 1941 with his first non-film geet Sab din ek samaan nahi. A few years later his another non-film song Tasweer teri dil mera bahlaa na sakegi became a national rage.

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Door Papiha Bola: Suraiya by Anil Biswas

A tribute to Anil Biswas in his centenary year and to Suraiya on her 10th death anniversary

Anil Biswas and SuraiyaFor many years after getting deeply attached to the vintage songs, I regarded Anil Biswas as peripheral to the music career of Suraiya. When I thought of Suraiya, the composers who came to mind most prominently were Naushad, Husnlal Bhagatram and Ghulam Mohammad. Much later, I heard Door papiha bola in a most unlikely situation. This created an impact I had not felt before. Songs of Yore was not on the anvil then, and my browsing the net was also sporadic. Therefore, locating the co-ordinates of the song by chance gave me an indescribable joy, and I started looking at Anil Biswas’s songs for Suraiya in a different light. Door papiha bola represents to me the very essence of every music lover’s relationship with music – a distant call of the papiha in the night, which you wish went on forever, but soon the night is half gone when your tryst has just begun. When I started this blog, effectively its first post was titled Door Papiha Bola.

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Anil Biswas: The Maestro and My Father

SoY heralds 2014 as the Year of Anil Biswas with guest article by Shikha Biswas Vohra

(Anil Biswas is described as the ‘Bhishm Pitamah’ of Hindi film music, though he used to describe RC Boral as the Father, and himself, somewhat jocularly, as the Uncle (Chacha) of film music. Yet, did he get his due, and does the country remember his legacy adequately? In one of the most hyped programmes on our cinema’s centenary last year, ‘Bollywood@100’, presented by Karan Johar on the venerable History channel, in the episode on the best music directors, Anil Biswas’s name was missing in the list of about two dozen composers! This was blasphemy, and I decided that I would recompense for it adequately on Songs of Yore in his Centenary Year, 2014 (b. 7 July 1914, d. 31 May 2003). Fortuitously, around that time Mrs Shikha Biswas Vohra came across SoY for the first time, and posted a very generous comment on one of my articles. I was familiar with her name having seen her in a TV programme. She very kindly agreed to write the Inaugural Article in the series – we cannot have a better placed person than his daughter, who has seen him as father, as a maestro, and has also seen the industry as an insider, to do the honour. I am delighted to wish the readers a Very Happy Centenary Year of Anil Biswas with this lyrical tribute by Shikhaji to the great man. – AK)

ANIL BISWAS….The Maestro

Anil BiswasMany years ago, when Indian cinema was in a nascent stage, there came into its stream a clutch of fine dedicated men. They came to shape its history and define its metaphors. These men were dreamers and seekers, who had run the gamut of struggle, the looking at hunger in the face, the sleeping on pavements. They sought to contribute their knowledge and skills to shape this new exciting medium to an established art form. Each contributed a style distinctive and individualistic. They gave freely of their time, inspiration and talent without expectation of rewards and returns. They worked with honesty, principles and earnestness, a reflection of their time.

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