Music Directors

Categories by music director.

Best songs of 1942: Wrap UP 4

And the SOY Award for the Best Music Director of 1942 goes to?

After the Overview Post, Wrap Up 1 of the best male solos, Wrap Up 2 of the best female solos and Wrap Up 3 of the best duets, it is time for the final Wrap Up 4 to discuss the best music director 0f 1942. There were at least two musical blockbusters in the year: Bhakt Surdas (composed by Gyan Dutt) and Basant (Pt. Pannalal Ghosh/Anil Biswas). The reason I am crediting like this is that Pt. Pannalal Ghosh is officially credited as the music director, but it is said that Anil Biswas was the actual music director, who could not use his name because of contractual reasons; Pt. Pannalal Ghosh only gave background score. This trivia has been mentioned so many times at different fora that I would henceforth use only Anil Biswas as the music director of Basant. There are some more films in the year in which Anil Biswas was the music director without any confusion.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

SN Tripathi Part 5 (post-50s): His best songs by other female playback singers

Concluding the series on SN Tripathi with his best songs for ‘other’ female playback singers

It is time to conclude the series on SN Tripathi after a comprehensive coverage of his multi-faceted talent in the Vintage Era (1949 and earlier) in Part 1 as a singer, actor, music director and dialogue and story writer; Part 2 (post-50s) about his best songs for Rafi; Part 3 (post-50s) about his best songs for Mukesh and other male singers; and Part 4 (post-50s) about his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar. I also mentioned that during post-50s, while we know him primarily as a music director, he continued to act and added a new talent to his immense portfolio – as a director of famous films, such as Rani Roopmati (1959). While writing on Lata Mangeshkar I discovered that she did not appear much in SN Tripathi’s music in her Tsunami years of 1949 through early 50s. He used several ‘other’ female playback singers, with Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum appearing quite frequently.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

SN Tripathi Part 4 (post 50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

Continuing the series on SN Tripathi with a tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her 94th birth anniversary (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022)

It is matter of satisfaction that after a reader noted the omission of SN Tripathi, I have been able to cover him in some detail, though late. I have already posted three articles on him: Part 1 about his multifaceted talent – actor, singer, music director, story and dialogue writer – in the Vintage Era (pre 50s); Part 2 (post 50s) about his best songs for Rafi, Part 3 (post-50s) about his best songs for Mukesh and other male singers. There cannot be a better way to continue the series than with his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as a tribute to her on what would have been her 94th birth anniversary.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

SN Tripathi Part 3 (post-50s): His best songs for Mukesh and other male singers

A tribute to Mukesh on his 47th Remembrance Day (22 July 1923 – 27 August 1976) in the series on SN Tripathi

Last month radio, print and visual media was awash with tributes to Mukesh on his birth centenary (22 July 1923 – 27 August 1976). All the tributes were unanimous that he was gifted with an extremely sonorous and melodious voice. He touched the hearts of the listeners with his voice which had a natural pathos. He didn’t sing too many songs, but there were movies with superhit songs galore, but just one song of Mukesh soared over the others. He repeated his magic with SN Tripathi too. Just remember his Laut ke aa…aa laut ke aa ja mere meet tujhe mere geet bulate hain (Rani Roopmati, 1960). And there are more timeless songs: Nain ka chain churakar le gayi (Chandramukhi, 1960); Thane kajaliya bana lun (Veer Durgadas, 1960) and so on.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

SN Tripathi Part 2 (post-1950s): His best songs for Mohammad Rafi

A tribute to Rafi on his 43rd Remembrance Day with the continuing series on SN Tripathi

In SN Tripathi Part 1 (1930s and 40s) we became familiar with his multi-faceted personality: an actor, a singer, a music director, and surprisingly also a director – though of post-50s films. But post-50s we know him mostly as a music director, and we slot him in a narrow range – generally for his sweet melodies and classical-based songs and dances.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

SN Tripathi Part 1: The Vintage Years – A Multi-faceted Talent

A tribute to SN Tripathi on the 35th Anniversary of his Remembrance Day (14 March 1913-28 March 1988)

Whenever we think of melody, honey-dipped sweetness and beautiful dances to classical/ semi-classical tunes we think of SN Tripathi. We all have many of his immortal songs on our lips: Aa laut ke aaja mere meet, Nain ka chain churakar kar le gayi (Mukesh); Zara saamne to aao chhaliye, Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hun, Lagta nahin hai dil mera ujade dayar mein, Parvardigaar-e-aalam tera hi hai sahara (Rafi), Sakhi kaise dharun main dheer, Nigaahon mein tum ho khayalon mein tum ho jidhar dekhati hun nazar aa rahe ho (Lata Mangeshkar). And it goes on and on. Chitragupta must have got his melody and sweetness under his tutelage.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Book Review: “चल उड़ जा रे पंछी (संगीतकार चित्रगुप्त: व्यक्ति एवं कृति)”

चल उड़ जा रे पंछी…
संगीतकार चित्रगुप्त: व्यक्ति एवं कृति (खण्ड 1 एवं खण्ड 2)
By: Dr. Narendra Nath Pandey
Kautilya Books, New Delhi: 2022
ISBN: 978-93-90885-68-8
Pages: (256+474=730)
Price on Amazon: ₹1500 (Hardcover)

I have to start with a disclosure. The author of the above book, Dr Narendra Nath Pandey, is well known to me, having studied in the same college and lived in the same hostel, he being four years senior to me in the Physics Department. This small hostel of Patna Science College was known as a house of nerds, but Narendraji stood out even those days with his interest in literature, theatre and radio plays. After college our paths separated; I moved into the wide world of anonymity, and he into academics, finally retiring as University Professor of Physics. Along the way he pursued his other interests; the Research Council of the University gave him special permission to do research in the Hindi Department, finally honouring him with D. Litt.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Vasant Desai Part 4 (post-1950s): His ‘other’ female singers

Continuing the series of tributes to Vasant Desai, the final tribute on his 47th Remembrance Day (9 June 2012 – 22 December 1975)

Vasant Desai

When I started writing my tribute to Vasant Desai to fill up a noticeable gap on SOY, I didn’t know how many articles I would need to cover his career to my satisfaction. I knew it would be more than one, because he straddled both the Vintage Era (1930s and 1940s) and the Golden Era (1950s and 60s) and he was multi-faceted having acted and sang in his early films, besides being a renowned music director. Sometime in the Vintage Era he gave up acting and singing. I have covered all the facets of his enormous talent in the Vintage Era in Part 1 of my tribute. In the post-50s period he confined himself only to music direction and made a mark for himself. This was a period when a hundred flowers bloomed, and to do justice to Vasant Desai, I had to continue my series by writing on his songs for major singers.

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Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 4

And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

The year 1943 was like 1944 in many respects. Kismet became a cult hit for its novel theme; it also happened to have outstanding music by Anil Biswas. Anil Biswas also gave some excellent music in Hamari Baat. Naushad didn’t have a Rattan (1944) exactly, but he gave music to three films – Namaste, Kanoon and Sanjog – and all the three celebrated silver jubilees. Towering above all these, KL Saigal, Khursheed-starrer Tansen became a musical masterpiece, composed by Khemchand Prakash. Ram Rajya, composed by Shankar Rao Vyas had some songs which have acquired iconic status. New Theatres maintained their quality with Kashinath (Pankaj Mullick) and Wapas (RC Boral). There were several others making a mark, such as Kamal Dasgupta, Shyam Sundar, Pt. Govind Ram, Vasant Desai and Rafiq Ghaznavi. For lovers of music of the vintage era, these are familiar names and they have acquired a place in the Roll of Honour.

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Master Ghulam Haider: A Trailblazer

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Ghulam Haider on his 69th Remembrance Day (1908 – 9 November 1953)

(DP Rangan has been the most prolific guest writer for SOY, but it is more than a year since he last wrote. Some health issues which required hospitalisation, and his computer suddenly conking off has kept him down. But he has been restless all this while to come back to SOY. After getting over his niggling problems he is back with an exhaustive article on Ghulam Haider. There has been no exclusive article on him on this blog so far; he only makes one-third appearance in my post titled Shamshad Begum with 3G (one of the 3G, albeit the most important for Shamshad Begum’s career being Ghulam Haider).

Mr Rangan has long retired from government service and he is well into his seventies. Because of his frail health and his handicap of language I have been advising him to take it easy. But he has boundless energy. This exhaustive article is a proof. Thank you Mr Rangan for filling an important gap on the SOY. – AK)

Ghulam HaiderHuman beings are highly individualistic in nature and each has his own unique personality and attributes. What sets apart some from the multitude is their innate good nature, getting along with fellow human beings, caring for the sensibilities of others, readiness to nurture and encourage talents of those they are frequently interacting with, besides being highly proficient in their chosen field of activity. This is a sine qua non in film industry to avert ego clashes. Ghulam Haider (hereinafter referred to as GH in the post) is unique in this regard as he had all these qualities fused in him. He cared for his fellow workers and had an uncanny ability to spot talents among budding singers and nurture them in right ways. He was a pioneer in revolutionising the way music was set for films and was a pathbreaker. In his career of 18 years in film music composition from 1935 to 1953, he gave music for just about 32 films of which roughly one fourth were Punjabi films. Quality always takes precedence over quantity while judging a music director’s calibre and he came out with flying colours when viewed in this light.

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