Songs on themes

Multiple Versions Songs (7) – Both versions by female playback singers (2) – A Happy and A Sad Version

Guest article by Mr Ashok Vaishnav

(Ashokji continues his mega series which is the seventh article in the series, a couple of which have been contributed by other guest authors, namely Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh and Mr N Venkataraman.  His last piece was on both the versions by female playback singers.  He develops the same theme further in the second part which deals with the specific case of female versions in which one version is happy and the other sad.  This article too bears his characteristic depth of research and ear for detail.  –AK) 

Multiple version songsWe continue the second part of our journey of multiple version songs in Hindi films – all versions rendered by female playback singer(s), in the form of one of the most basic use of version songs – to present a happy and a sad situation in the same film.  The instances presented here have cases where both the versions are rendered by the same female playback singer. As it happens, all songs except the last one are rendered by Lata Mangeshkar

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Romancing the dunce or ‘Mahamoorkhon Ke Gaane’

Mahamoorkh SammelanIn an interesting Holi tradition in many parts of North India, important personalities of the town get together to play the fool, and vie with each other to get the coveted best fool awards. The next day’s papers carry colourful reports of these proceedings with profile of the winners of Mahamoorkh or Moorkhshiromani awards.

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Multiple Versions Songs (6) – Both versions by female playback singer(s) (1) – Abhi To Main Jawan Hun

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav

(The series on multiple version songs, started by Mr Ashok Vaishnav, is now getting multidimensional.  Besides three parts by Ashokji, we also had Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh writing on Hindi-Marathi, and Mr N Venkataraman on Hindi-Tamil version songs.  Ashokji resumes where he left off – now with all-female versions.  This he proposes to do in two parts, which he explains in his article – AK)

Multiple version songsWe continue our journey of the multiple versions songs through a mirror-image of all-male version songs sub-category – multiple version songs in Hindi films – all versions rendered by female playback singer(s).

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Multiple Version Songs (5): Hindi and Tamil film songs (1) – ‘Inspired and adopted’ songs

Guest article by N Venkataraman

(Mr N Venkataraman had been benefitting the SoY readers with his erudite comments for quite some time. Therefore, when Mr Ashok Vaishnav’s mega series on Multiple Version Songs came along, my thoughts went to him for doing Hindi songs and their versions in South Indian languages. I am grateful that he accepted my request. He starts with Tamil, and this too he proposes to do in three parts, which he explains in the article. With Ashokji’s three articles, and the last guest article by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh on Hindi-Marathi, the mega series is now taking shape as we had envisaged. Please enjoy another learned article in the series, which is the first guest article by Venkataramanji.   This would be hopefully followed by many more. – AK)

Naushad_MS VishwanathanIn the first of the series of articles on this theme, Ashok Vaishnavji had presented an overview of the various types of multiple version songs. In his overview he had elaborated the types of possible variations and some very broad categories of this theme. He had suggested separate post for each of the categories/sub-categories and further suggested a collaborative effort in compiling bank of songs and in volunteering to write guest posts on some of the categories. AKji had laid out the road map for further exploration of the subject and reiterated the views expounded by Ashok Vaishnavji on collaborative efforts on this theme. I had mentioned in my comment that this is a monumental task and the effort deserves to be organized and well documented. In the meantime, Ashok Vaishnavji has come out with the second and third part in the series, and in the last post Arunkumar Deshmukhji has given an outstanding overview of Hindi-Marathi linkage in films and songs. Inspired by these painstaking efforts, and after an encouraging communication from AKji, I decided to venture into an area, where I have not made any serious attempt earlier.

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Multiple Version songs (4): Hindi and Marathi

Guest article by Arunkumar Deshmukh

(On the blogosphere dealing with old films and music, Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh is known as a  living encyclopaedia. SoY regulars are aware of the mega series on multiple version songs, started by another stalwart, Mr Ashok Vaishnav, spanning across singers, films, genres and languages, some parts of which may require treatment by super specialists. Here comes the living encyclopaedia, writing a guest article on Hindi films and songs which have their Marathi versions. While doing this, he takes us on a fascinating journey to the earliest days of our films when Marathi theatre and films were a major influence on Hindi films. – AK)

Ayodhya Ka RajaBombay was the first major centre of film making in India. The industry thrived, prospered and grew here. Bombay being the biggest city in Marathi speaking area, no wonder, initially, the industry was dominated by Marathi speaking artists. As the industry grew, more and more Marathi people joined it in all the branches of film making, whether it was production, editing, choreography, script writing, acting, composing or singing. The period of 1920s to 1960s was a time when Hindi film industry was crowded with Marathi artists.

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Multiple Version Songs (3): Both versions by male playback singers – Different Moods

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav

(In his last post Mr Ashok Vaishnav covered a sub-category of multiple version songs in which the two versions are sung, generally, by the same male playback singer, one version being happy, and the other sad. At times, the two versions are not so clearly differentiated – the variation in moods is more subtle than simple happy-sad division. You can trust Mr Vaishnav to peel the layers of meaning – in the third part of his mega series he makes a superfine analysis of this sub-sub category of multiple version songs. – AK)

Multiple version songsThe most frequent and popular use of hybrid songs in the same film is to depict a happy and a sad mood situation. We have covered a set of songs rendered by all male singers in our last episode. Today we will take a slightly different journey through a specific sub-category of multiple version songs in Hindi Films – all versions rendered by male playback singer(s) – Different Moods.

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Multiple Version Songs (2): Both versions by male playback singers – Happy and A Sad Song

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav

(In his first article in the mega series on Multiple Version Songs, Mr Vaishnav gave an overview of the subject, several types of multiple version songs, ranging from simple vanilla twin songs – male/female versions – to same singer different moods, different male or female singers, solo/duets, film/non-film songs, Hindi/regional films etc. He also laid out a road map for taking each sub-category in a separate post. Carrying it further, in the second in the series, he takes up a type in which both the versions are sung by male singers – generally one happy and the other sad version. It takes the perseverance of an intrepid explorer like Mr Vaishnav to go into the subtle difference between these songs with multiple versions. – AK)

Multiple version songsThe classic twin song – one by a male and the other by a female playback singer, normally, was used in Indian Films, with an intention to express similar-sounding sentiments under different circumstances. However, there are instances galore wherein only a male or only a female playback singer has rendered the different versions in the film.

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Multiple Version Songs (1): An overview of different types

Guest article by Ashok Vaishnav

(Mr Ashok Vasihnav needs no introduction to the regulars at Songs of Yore. His highly informed and researched comments are several times worth the original article. Therefore, his movement from the bottom boxes to the top line is a mere formality. I had written on Twin Songs more than two years ago, which was primarily about the plain vanilla songs which had a male and a female version. Anu Warrier also presented some twin songs in her blog recently. Mr Vaishnav, as is his wont,  recognises that Twin Songs are a small sub-set of a larger group, and delves deep and wide into this fascinating class of songs. In the first of his series of articles on this theme, he presents an overview of the various types of multiple version songs. A befitting Diwali gift to celebrate the multicoloured lights and sparklers. – AK)

Version Songs“In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song. It can sometimes have a pejorative meaning implying that the original recording should be regarded as the definitive or “authentic” version, and all others merely lesser competitors, alternatives or tributes (no matter how popular).” [Source: Cover version].

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Songs of Kinare

Nadi kinareWhen I wrote on the songs of nadi and naav sometime back, I thought one kind of journey was complete (with Harvey’s majhi). But I had missed a crucial element as I realised from Ashok Vaishnavji’s comments. The boat has to reach its shore, and the journey is not complete till you have reached kinare.

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Songs of Jigar

JigarIn my last post on Mukesh and his ‘dil’ songs, there was a song, Ae jaan-e-jigar dil mein samane aa ja. Urdu poetry gives the same status to jigar as to dil as a metaphor for something very vital and very dear. There are also other examples of ‘dil’ and ‘jigar’ being used together and interchangeably, such as Tumse achha kaun hai, dil-o-jigar lo jaan lo or a later one Dard-e-dil dard-e-jigar dil mein jagaya aapne. If long back Rafi sang Ek dil ke tukde hazar hue koi yahan gira koi wahan gira, a maverick politician, Mahamaya Prasad Singh came as tsunami in the mid-60’s in Bihar, riding the wave of student unrest and describing them as his Jigar ke tukde. His opening words in his public meetings, Mere jigar ke tukde, generated a hysteria Indian electoral politics had not seen before. That his short-lived rein unleashed student lawlessness and collapse of Bihar’s education system is another story. (An idea for Mr. Ashok Vaishnav’s blog – ‘Role of emotive slogans in politics: Quit India, Jigar Ke Tukde, Gharibi Hatao, Bhrashtachar Mitao, Down with Zionists’?)

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