Naushad

Naushad’s “The Singing Girl Next Door”: Suraiya

A tribute on her 86th birth anniversary (15 June 1929 – 31 January 2004)

Naushad and SuraiyaOur last singing star, Suraiya, attained incredible heights of popularity bordering on mass hysteria. She started her singing career, as a child artiste, with Naushad; subsequently, she sang playback for Mehtab in a few films; she graduated as an actor-singer and reached superstardom on the strength of the songs he composed for her. Out of her 300 odd songs, Naushad accounts for about 50. Husnlal Bhagatram might have done a few songs more; he, too, occupies a very important place in her career. But considering Naushad’s association from her debut to her grooming to her maturity, he is the single most important factor in creating the Suraiya legend. For all the superb Suraiya melodies we love, she was an untrained singer, with a limited range. The skilful master, Naushad, kept her in her basic range, and created a feeling in the minds of the viewer that The Girl Next Door was singing.

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Raju Bharatan’s ‘Naushadnama’

Book Review as a tribute to Naushad on his 9th death anniversary (25 December 1919-5 May 2006)

Naushadnama

 

Naushadnama
By Raju Bharatan
Hay House India (2013)
pp. 341

The most important thing about Raju Bharatan’s Naushadnama is that it is Raju Bharatan’s Naushadnama. Which means, if you are familiar with his writings, that there is a good deal of Raju Bharatan in the book, besides its principal character, Naushad. And as you expect from him, he is not only an observer and chronicler of Naushad, he was also his trusted friend and confidante, as he was of C Ramchandra, Anil Biswas, Shankar-Jaikishan, SD Burman, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Lata Mangehskar, Shamshad Begum, Suraiya, and all the major characters that appear in the book. The blurb on the book modestly describes him as “widely recognized as the last word on Hindi film music in India – as the only one physically there ‘on the scene’, through the decades, when music sittings and song recordings took place”.

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Shamshad Begum songs by Naushad

A tribute to Shamshad Begum on her 96th birth anniversary (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013)

Shamshad Begum and NaushadIn my mind the best of Shamshad Begum always meant Naushad. I would be surprised if any of her famous songs, which I would automatically attribute to him, turned out to be composed by a different music director. Much later, when I was better informed and I had an overview of her career, I knew she was discovered by Ghulam Haider, she sang for most of the famous composers of the vintage era, and she was already at the top when Naushad first used her in 1946 (Shahjehan). She continued her great run concurrently with C Ramchandra, SD Burman, Ghulam Mohammad and later with OP Nayyar, but the 60 odd songs she sang for Naushad still remain at the highest pedestal for me. Naushad publicly acknowledged that she played an important role in giving a boost to his career at a critical stage when he was looking for a voice which did not have the ‘nautch-girl’ tinge. She, too, acknowledged Naushad’s role in her career, even though he did not hesitate to jettison her when he firmly settled for Lata Mangeshkar (giving her about 160 songs).

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Tennis, Pathakji and ‘Tere sadke balam’

Tere sadke balamThat I am an inveterate fan of Lata Mangeshkar is nothing exceptional. She was ‘the’ female playback voice of the Golden Era. Now the readers are aware I am fascinated even more by Naushad. Therefore, I took it for granted that I have already written on Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs by Naushad, as I have done on her songs with other composers. When I tried to recall the songs I had included in that post, I realised, to my surprise, that I have not written it at all. Had I done that, ‘Tere sadke balam’ would have come in for some special mention. A fellow blogger has written he could listen to this song a hundred times continuously without getting tired of it. I have done that, and more, because it was more than a song for me; it was a binding element, an anthem with which are associated my memories of some most fascinating people at the Patna Secretariat tennis courts, where I was a regular for about eight years, until I shifted to Delhi.

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Naushad-C Ramchandra duel for Amirbai Karnataki

A tribute on the 50th death anniversary of Amirbai Karnataki (c.1906 – 3 March 1965)

(As her death anniversary was too close to my scheduled post on Holi songs, I am posting my tribute to Amirbai Karnataki, with her songs by Naushad and C Ramchandra, with some lag.)

Amirbai KarnatakiWhich is the most popular Amirbai Karnataki song which even the new generation is aware of? Gore gore baanke chore kabhi meri gali aya karo (her duet with Lata Mangehskar) is a perennial favourite. If one is asked to name another song, the most likely answer would be O janewale baalamawa laut ke aa laut ke aa (her duet with Shyam Kumar). One by C Ramchandra, and the other by Naushad. In the vintage era, ‘A’ stood for Amirbai Karnataki. And the Great Mughal Naushad and the Mighty Maratha C Ramchandra were the two Ace music directors whose battle royal continued over Amirbai Karnataki too.

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Talat Mahmood by Naushad and C Ramchandra

A tribute to Talat Mahmood on his 91st birth anniversary (24 February 1924 – 9 May 1998)

Talat Mahmood-Naushad-C RamchandraThere was every reason for Talat Mahmood to have a long innings with Naushad. Both coming from Lucknow, they represented a similar Urdu sensibility and cultural milieu. Talat’s entry into Bombay Hindi film music was spectacular with Ae dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal jahan koi na ho (Arzoo, 1950), composed by Anil Biswas, picturied on Dilip Kumar. Sure enough, Talat Mahmood became Dilip Kumar’s voice under Naushad’s baton in Baabul (1950) with great success. This was a perfect launch for a long career at the top, because Naushad had emerged as the undisputed No.1 and the preferred composer of Dilip Kumar – Naushad-Dilip Kumar notching at least a dozen films together hence. But in a twist which must be unparalleled in the annals of film history, Baabul became effectively the first and the last film in which Talat Mahmood could sing for Naushad. The reason given in popular writings is that Talat managed to give some offence to Naushad by his behaviour during the recording of a song for this film.

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The Jewel in the Crown of Naushad: ‘Rattan’ (1944)

SoY celebrates 2015 as the Year of Naushad in the 75th Anniversary Year of his debut

RattanIf I were to write the history of Hindi film music, it would go as follows. Once upon a time there were RC Boral and Pankaj Mullick. Then came Anil Biswas. He was followed by Naushad, who in a few years reached a pinnacle which his peers could only envy and aspire to attain. He became the Greatest Mughal of Movie Music, who withstood palace intrigues and all overt and covert attempts to dethrone him, and straddled like a colossus for about 25 years.

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Best songs of 1955: Final Wrap Up 4

The SoY award for the best Music Director goes to?

Naushad-SD Burman-OP Nayyar-Shankar Jaikishan-C Ramchandra-NashadThis is like completing the circle, which means you come to the same point from where you started. So I look back at the mother post on the overview of the best songs of 1955  and I am amazed at the overwhelming response it generated, both in numbers and quality. As I said earlier, the methodology is not some kind of poll, but trying to capture the sense of the house. The SoY regulars would also recall that at the readers’ suggestions, I also wrote categoriwise summaries – Wrap Up 1 for the best male playback singer; Wrap Up 2 for the best female playback singer and Wrap Up 3 on the best duets. These are parts of the whole. Therefore, it is obvious that the final wrap up on the best music director would also draw a great deal from these subsidiary posts.  Here I am presenting the final wrap up of the string of posts that originated from the readers’ suggestions and which took shape as we moved on, as my Christmas and New Years Greetings to all.

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Naushad’s best songs for Mohammad Rafi

 

Double tribute on their birth anniversaries

Naushad-RafiMohammad Rafi’s birth anniversary falls on December 24 (b 1924) and Naushad’s on December 25 (b 1919). This close proximity also extended to their music. Rafi was to playback singing what Naushad was to music composing – both at the commanding heights of their profession for over two decades. Their collaboration produced some of the best and most memorable music of the Golden Era.

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Remembering Mughal-e-Azam’s Music

Travesty of missing the Filmfare award

Mughal-e-AzamThis is the Golden Jubilee year of Mughal-e-Azam (1960), and the media, both print and electronic, is rightly full of the movie. Everything about the film was superlative – its lavish production, awesome battle scenes with thousands of camels, horses and soldiers (there were no computer generated imaging those days), great acting by all the lead players Prithviraj Kapur (Akbar), Dilip Kumar (Salim) and Madhubala (Anarkali), grand ornate dialogues, and above all its timeless music composed by Naushad. But all the stories in the media have missed what Sherlock Holmes would have called the most significant thing about the film – that is, the Filmfare award for the best music director which Naushad did not win. The composers who beat him to it were the duo Shankar Jaikishan for Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayee.

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