My post on Rafi’s solos by Roshan appeared more than six years ago, several years before I started the series on the stalwart music directors. And the reason was simple: Roshan ranked among the top in my reckoning for Rafi songs, along with Naushad, SD Burman and OP Nayyar. Duets have no less importance in creating this imprint on my mind. It just so happened that I am coming back to the duets of this combination after six years when DP Rangan set off a tandem series on Roshan and Madan Mohan.
Lata Mangeshkar
Madan Mohan’s tuning with Lata Mangeshkar
Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very happy 89th birthday (b. 28 September 1929)
Among all the music director-singer combinations Madan Mohan-Lata Mangeshkar ranks among the very top. This article by Anirudh Bhattacharjee and Srijit Mukherji quotes OP Nayyar as having once said, “It is difficult to figure out whether Madan Mohan was made for Lata Mangeshkar or vice versa.” We have all heard of Naushad’s ultimate tribute to Madan Mohan that he was willing to offer his entire work for two ghazals of Anpadh (Aapki nazron ne samjha; Hai isi mein pyar ki aabroo). Even allowing for Naushad’s Lakhanavi nafasat, and the fact that he said it in his obituary, it is undisputed that he was held in very high esteem for the quality of his music by his peers and music maestros, besides the listeners. It is said that Begum Akhtar was so impressed by the tune of Kadar jaane na (Bhai Bhai) that she called him once, when she was feeling low, and asked him to sing it for fifteen minutes on telephone. We may recall that Madan Mohan was himself a very good singer and he was very close to Begum Akhtar from his AIR days.
Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs by Hemant Kumar
Wishing a very Happy Birthday to Lata Mangeshkar (b. 28 September 1929) on her 88th birth anniversary and a tribute to Hemant Kumar (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) on his 28th death anniversary
Hemant Kumar was endowed with one of the most sonorous voices in light music. His film songs are universally popular. His non-film Hindi songs are equally sweet. In Rabindrasangeet, he is regarded as a titan. He has composed music for a large number of Hindi and Bengali films. The sweetness of his voice has also dripped into the music he composed. The melody-incarnate Lata Mangeshkar became his natural choice for the female songs. One Hemant Kumar-Lata Mangeshkar combination I have already covered – his duets with her, and they are indeed out of this world. Just recall some of them: Aa neele gagan taley pyar hum karein, Chandan ka palna resham ki dori, Ye raat ye chaandni phir kahan, Badli mein chhupe chaand ne phir mujhse kaha hai, Ek baar zara phir kah do, Jaag dard-e-ishq jaag and Nain so nain naahi milaao. One more Hemant Kumar-Lata Mangeshkar combination has long been my great favourite – that is her solo songs composed by him.
The first duo Husnlal-Bhagatram (1): Their songs for Suraiya, Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi
I have signed off the series on Shankar-Jaikishan recently. Before that I had done series on Anil Biswas, Naushad, C Ramchandra and SD Burman. As the readers now expect the next famous music directors in line, there are some yesteryears stalwarts who shone like meteor for a short while, or who gave great music consistently over a long period, but who were not lucky to get sustained commercial success. Though not counted among the G-5 or G-7, they are very dear to the lovers of songs of yore. I was always conscious while doing the series on the superstars that I have to take care that we don’t miss the lesser, but no less talented stars. Husnlal-Bhagatram occupy a very important place in the history of film music as a bridge between the vintage and the golden era, between the theatre-style singing of Zohra Ambalewali, Zeenat Begum and Amirbai Karnataki, and the smooth, melodious singing of Suraiya and Lata Mangeshkar, between GM Durrani and Rafi.
Some great songs of Lata Mangeshkar by Shankar-Jaikishan
Lata Mangeshkar is a ubiquitous presence on SoY. Shankar-Jaikishan, being one of the most dominant and successful music directors, have also figured very prominently on this blog. Therefore, it is difficult to believe, but it is true, that I have not done a post on the best songs of this combination as I have done for my other favourite music directors Chitragupta, C Ramchandra, Roshan, SD Burman, Anil Biswas and Naushad. To be sure, her songs by SJ, too, have figured very prominently in different contexts, such as in the reviews of the best songs of 1949 (currently underway), 1951, 1953 and 1955. In the SJ series, too, this year I have done a post on a special class of their songs – Lata Mangeshkar’s dance songs by SJ. Also, she figures in all but one song in the post on S-J’s female dance duets. But with this combination’s over 450 songs of which over 300 are solos, even if we exclude all that has been covered earlier, we would be still left with dozens of Lata Mangeshkar’s songs which would figure among her greatest.
Best songs of 1949: Wrap Up 3
Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very Happy Birthday on her 87th birth anniversary (b. 28 September 1929) with her best songs of 1949
It is a no-brainer that Lata Mangeshkar was the best female playback singer of 1949. In later years, that would become routine – she defined the lead female voice. But in 1949, it must have been an amazing phenomenon. Here was a twenty year-old girl who had an inconspicuous debut as a playback singer a couple of years earlier in Aap Ki Sewa Mein (1947). The next year some stories started growing around her – how Ghulam Haider ‘discovered’ her, took her to S Mukherji of Filmistan for Shaheed, but he rejected her as her voice was too thin, whereupon Ghulam Haider famously told him that a day would come when the producers and music directors would line up before her, begging her to sing for them. She did have a couple of memorable songs in the year, but who could have thought that in 1949 a dam would burst with torrent of Lata Mangeshkar songs, leaving the yesteryear stalwarts dazed?
Shankar-Jaikishan’s female dance duets
My post on Shankar-Jaikishan’s dance songs for Lata Mangeshkar generated a great deal of enthusiasm. I think the readers were with me that these songs are of exceptional quality and their orchestration and picturisation are very unique to SJ. KS Bhatiaji who has a great liking for SJ, matching mine for Naushad, suggested that their female duets and the standard male-female duets, too, have outstanding dances, and asked whether I had any plans of writing on them. On female dance duets, I am entirely with him, because a large number of songs pop up in my mind, which are absolutely melodious, and their dance rhythm is equally pleasing. The songs I refer to are not the ones in which you have to storm up the floor, but your heart and the whole being sways to joy in bliss – the feeling of Jhoome jhoome dil mera.
Shankar-Jaikishan’s dance songs for Lata Mangeshkar
(DP Rangan recently asked me who would be the music director of 2016. Obviously, he presumed there would be one, because I celebrated 2015 as the Year of Naushad (with C Ramchandra in tandem), and the year before that as the Year of Anil Biswas. Concurrently, I also covered SD Burman extensively, but that happened organically. Next in line, no one deserves this honour more than Shankar-Jaikishan, who were arguably the most successful music director(s) ever, and among the most dominant figures on the music scene for about two decades. I start my tribute to SJ with a special niche of their songs for Lata Mangeshkar which has been my great favourite, and which would make your heart dance. Thank you Mr. Rangan, for the timely reminder. – AK)
Shankar-Jaikishan have come in for some unkind comments on Songs of Yore, not so much for the decline in their music in the later years – everyone has a sunset – but for some of their astonishing Filmfare Awards. When they composed Jai bolo beimaan ki, no one would have realized they meant it literally, and would pull it over Pakeezah. They had achieved a similar feat with Pehchaan. This was no less brazen than their Dil Apna Aur Preet Paraayee victory over Mughal-e-Azam, or Suraj over Guide. Yet, even if we delete all of this, and all that is considered loud and unmusical, what is left is still enormous in scale, and of outstanding quality. Shankar-Jaikishan are by any yardstick among the greatest music directors, and arguably the most successful ever. When I think of them, I remember a very nice line from a story of Nirmal Verma – कुछ झूठ अनावश्यक होते हैं. Siddharth put it very aptly that Beimaan is not their only Pehchaan. One very important part of their identity is their songs for Lata Mangeshkar, and I start my tribute to them with a very special sub-set of their songs for her, which is very dear to me.
Best songs of 1950: Wrap Up 3
(After the overview post on the Best songs of 1950, I have written Wrap Up 1 on the best male solos, and Wrap Up 2 on the best female solos by ‘other’ singers. Continuing the series, here is the third Wrap Up on the best songs of Lata Mangeshkar. – AK)
Songs of Yore Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to Lata Mangeshkar (?)
In the three previous yearwise reviews for 1955, 1953 and 1951, the announcement of the Best Female Playback Singer of the Year was an exultant, “The Award goes to Lata..Lata…Lata..Lata Mangeshkar”. This year we had some very strong voices questioning her invincible superiority, though, by and large, she remained the overwhelming favourite for the best female playback singer. Most readers took the trouble of giving separate lists of her best and the best of “other” female singers, as well as a combined list, which had on the average about 4-5 of her songs, and the rest by the others, she, of course, being rated as the overall best. However, in a democracy, minority voices are equally important. The dissent is very categorical, and quite interesting. Therefore, this year’s announcement is suffixed with a question mark in parenthesis.
The Great Mughal and The Empress of playback singing
Wishing Lata Mangeshkar a very happy 86th birth anniversary (b. 28 September 1929) with her songs for Naushad
A blog would start losing its appeal if it became too predictable. Today is one such day when everyone is going to exclaim, ‘’I knew it!’ However, there is no way I can avoid it. There are many who are as enamoured of Naushad as I am. As for Lata Mangeshkar, I doubt if there is anyone who does not regard her as The Female Playback Singer, as a class by herself, far above her rivals. The Great Mughal of film music and the Empress of playback singing make an unparalleled combination.