Ravi

Book Review: “Soulfully Yours – Ravi”

Wishing all the readers and their families a very Happy New Year Soulfully Yours: Ravi Author: Manek Premchand Published by: Blue Pencil, Delhi 2025 ISBN: 978-81-943921-4-9 Price: ₹675 (Paperback on Amazon); Pages: 455 The regulars of this blog are well-informed about old film music. How do we view Ravi? I have been quite open aboutREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Rajendra Krishna with Chitragupta and Ravi: Reaching for the skies

Guest article by Hans Jakhar in continuation of his series on Rajendra Krishna

(When some readers observed that the lyricists have not been give their due importance on SOY, Hans Jakhar offered to write a series of articles on Rajendra Krishna’s combination with different music directors. He has already written two articles in the series on his association with two of his most famous combinations – with C Ramchandra and Madan Mohan. Continuing the series, in this article he covers Rajendra Krishna’s prolific combination with two other music directors, Chitragupta and Ravi. Among his several guest articles, he had earlier written on Shakeel Badayuni’s combination with Ravi.

Not everyone relates to lyrics as intensely as Hans Jakhar does. In most music lovers’ mind a great song is associated with the voice (singer) and the tune (music director). We often lose sight of the contribution of the lyricist, except for a very few prominent ones. Hans has shown his special expertise in analysing the lyrics of a song.

Once Hans takes up a work, he does a thorough job of it in spite of time constraints. He has done this article in face of his personal difficulties. Thank you Hans for another thorough article on a lyricist-music director combination. – AK)

Rajendra Krishna with Chitragupta and RaviWith Chitragupta and Ravi we move into the Rafi territory. It is not that C Ramchandra (CR) or Madan Mohan (MM) did not use Rafi enough, but their main focus was Lata Mangeshkar. CR did not care for Rafi after he got settled with Lata Mangeshkar, and even for MM, Rafi was in an assisting role. When in the 1960s MM used Rafi on a larger scale his use of Rajendra Krishna declined due to Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and Kaifi Azmi getting the lion’s share of good Rafi songs in that phase of his association with MM.

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Ravi’s many-splendoured genius with the ‘other’ singers

RaviWe now come to the end of the series on Ravi. In my opening post in the series we saw him as a many-splendoured genius with a large number of songs for themes and occasions, which have acquired an iconic status, many of which made the readers exclaim, Oh, this is also composed by him! Yet when some of us hesitated in bracketing him among the ‘greats’, Hans Jakhar was not pleased and challenged that at the end of the series we would concede that Ravi deserves to be called a ‘great’ music director. Without getting stuck on the semantics, please recall subsequent posts in the series: Rafi’s solos, Rafi’s duets, Asha Bhosle’s songs by him, Ravi’s special partnership with Shakeel Badayuni, Ravi’s songs for Lata Mangeshkar, and Mahendra Kapoor. That is a massive list of superhit songs with most of the major playback singers. But that is not the end of his work. He composed great songs for other playback singers too, and in this respect he ranks with those music directors whose special strength was their diversity in working with different playback singers, unlike some who were fixated on a couple of their favourites.

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Ravi’s ‘other’ female playback singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Another tribute to Lata Mangeshkar on her turning 90 (b. 28 September 1929)

Ravi-Lata MangeshkarLata Mangeshkar turned ninety two months ago to this day. On this special day Shalan Lal wrote a comprehensive article on her, analysing the ‘conditions’ that made the Lata Mangeshkar-phenomenon possible, while acknowledging that there was something divine about her voice, something transcendental beyond any physical explanation. Many readers were also expecting a post on her songs by Ravi, who is being felicitated on SoY in the series on the leading music directors and, in fact, were somewhat disappointed that there may not be one on this combination.

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Ravi: Booster rocket for Mahendra Kapoor

In my earlier posts on Mahendra Kapoor I have described him as the most ‘unloved’ singer. The general impression is that his entry into films started with his winning the ‘All India Murphy Metro Singing Contest’ in 1957 for which the judges were Anil Biswas, Naushad, C Ramchandra, Vasant Desai and Madan Mohan. One of the incentives of the competition was that the winner would get a chance to sing in films composed by the judges. However, Mahendra Kapoor had been singing in films in bits and pieces prior to the contest. He debuted as a singer in Madmast (1953), composed by V Balsara, in a duet with Ghan Indorewala, Kisi ke zulm ki tasveer hai majdoor ki basti. He also sang a qawwali in the film with SD Batish, Unhein dekhein to wah munh pher…Humein aankh dikhatein hain. But the music of this film failed to create any impact. Mahendra Kapoor got his first solo, Tere dar ki bhikmangi hai data duniya sari, in the film Diwali Ki Raat (1956), composed by Snehal Bhatkar. In the same year he sang a duet with Sabita Banerjee, O bedardi jaane ke na kar bahane, in the film Lalkar, composed by Sanmukh Babu. These songs, too, sank without a trace.

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Shakeel Badayuni: Revitalising bond with Ravi

Guest article by Hans Jakhar (This is the second guest article by Hans Jakhar on the trot after his debut with Asha Bhosle’s songs by Ravi. He had given enough indication that he would be writing on Shakeel Badayuni’s partnership with Ravi. Hans’s forte is mastery over data. And you see full evidence of thisREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Ravi and Asha Bhosle: A class combination

Wishing Asha Bhosle a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 8 September 1933) with a guest article by Hans Jakhar

(Asha Bhosle, despite being the most recorded artiste by miles, remained the ‘other’ singer for most music directors of the Golden Era. All the accolades and the most melodious songs went to her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Ravi is among the rare major music directors whose ‘first’ female playback singer by choice was Asha Bhosle. In the ongoing series on Ravi it was natural that her primacy would be highlighted, and no one is better suited than Hans Jakhar to pay a tribute to her on her 86th birth anniversary with her songs for Ravi. Hans is puzzled that some of us are hesitant to count Ravi among the ‘greats’. He is not only a fan of Asha Bhosle, but he also has a deep empathy for her for having suffered the ‘Sister Tax’ in her career.

With this article Hans debuts as a guest author. I am sure the readers would not be surprised by it, the surprise is why it has taken him so long. His comments on the blog posts are full of facts, analysis and insights. Hopefully we would see more from his pen.

Hans is a B. Com and LLB, which reflects in the way he presents his arguments. After working for over 20 years in the central secretariat service in various ministries, he took voluntary retirement and now straddles between two worlds: the rural Haryana, which is his home state, and the urban metropolis of Delhi. The series on Ravi inspired him to write on his songs for Asha Bhosle, for which I am sure the readers of SoY would be grateful to him. Thanks a lot Hans – AK)

Ravi and Asha BhosleSome time back Dr Shetty made a comment to the effect that Asha Bhosle could sing all the songs Lata Mangeshkar could, and in addition she could sing many which Lata could not, so why should Asha be not called the best singer. This thought of his has stuck with me, because, I have come across many who held the same view. There were some who rated Suman Kalyanpur  the better singer. My elder sister who is four years older than me held the same view. In fact, in those days of the late 60s and early 70s, there were a number of magazines in circulation which gave stories about Lata’s manoeuvres. My sister made very angry remarks against her on that count, Suman Kalyanpur was her favourite by far. Though I was younger, I tried to cool her down. At that time I did not have much knowledge about these things and was also a bit hesitant in arguing, especially with elders, so I gave just one argument, that Lata must have special talent and because of that the composers were giving her more songs.

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Ravi’s best duets for Rafi

Ravi-RafiIn my last post I covered Ravi’s best solo songs for Rafi. He composed about 250 songs for Rafi, including duets. It is a huge number in absolute as well as relative terms. Only two, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Shankar-Jaikishan, have undisputedly composed more Rafi songs than him, as can be expected. Chitragupta is in the same range or marginally more than him. About 42% of these songs are duets, including male-male duets, and songs having more than two singers. Over 100 duets is a significant number, and several of them are so good, no discussion on Ravi’s songs for Rafi is complete without mentioning his duets.

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Rafi’s best songs by Ravi

A tribute to Rafi on his 39th death anniversary (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980)

Ravi-RafiRafi being undoubtedly the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era, he sang a number of great songs for many music directors. For most composers, he was their leading singer. Who gave the greatest songs for Rafi? I put Naushad, SD Burman, OP Nayyar, Roshan and Shankar-Jaikishan in the Elite Five. Immediately in the next level would be a number of composers, such as Madan Mohan, Chitragupta and Ravi, and if you go further in time, Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Ravi’s output for Rafi songs (250, including duets) was huge, outnumbered only by Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Shankar-Jaikishan, who were hit machines. It is comparable to Chitragupta’s 259 songs for Rafi; and it is comfortably ahead of other music directors, including those in the elite group. But is it only about quantity? Where would these figure among Rafi’s most iconic and greatest songs. (Note: Hans mentioned in comments on my first post on Ravi that he gave 234 songs for Rafi, but I am going by the detailed Excel sheet of Rafi songs prepared by Muveen, which I have shared with many readers earlier.)
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The silent giant-killer and the man of many-splendoured talents: Ravi

A tribute to the music director Ravi on his 7th death anniversary (3 March 1926-7 March 2012)

Ravi

How do you describe Ravi winning the Filmfare Award for the Best Music Director for the film Gharana (1961)? This was the year in which the giants of Hindi film music, Naushad (Ganga Jamuna) and Shankar-Jaikishan (Aas Ka Panchhi, Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai, Junglee and Sasural) were at the peak of their career. The year also had superlative scores by C Ramchandra (Stree), Ghulam Mohammad (Shama), Jaidev (Hum Dono), Khayyam (Shola Aur Shabnam) and Salil Chowdhury (Chardiwari, Kabuliwala, Maya and Mem Didi). A silent giant-killer! Though I don’t consider this as a marker of Ravi’s talent. Nor even his second Filmfare Award for Khandan (1965), when compared with SD Burman’s Guide, Roshan’s Bedaagh, Bheegi Raat and Nai Umar Ki Nai Fasal, Khayyam’s Mohabbat Isko Kahte Hain, Kalyanji-Anandji’s Himalay Ki God Mein, Jauhar Mehmood in Goa, Purnima and Saheli, and OP Nayyar’s Mere Sanam. Not to mention Shankar-Jaikishan’s hit-factory with Arzoo, Gumnam and Jaanwar. His own Waqt (1965) had far superior music in the year. Ravi was a many-splendoured genius, not because of these two Filmfare Awards, but despite them, composing several iconic songs for different situations, singers, moods and genres. After my series on the greats like Anil Biswas, Naushad, SD Burman, C Ramchandra, Shankar-Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Roshan and Madan Mohan, if I had asked you who comes next, Ravi’s name would pop up at the top.

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