हे भगवान्‌ !

Gods have been an important part of our lives and, therefore, our films. We do not set off on a journey without checking whether it was an auspicious moment or not. There is a Rahukaalam when everything comes to a standstill: No weddings, no new investment or purchase of car or home appliances, no taking of oath by the new CM, no moving to his earmarked bungalow. The inauspicious moments come for some short periods in a year. But in everyday life too there are obstacles, such as a cat crossing your car on the road; and the remedy for this bad omen is simple – stop for a moment, reverse the car and move on again. No meat on Tuesdays, no mangoes ever, not because of some allergy, but I had to sacrifice one favourite food item at the altar of some god.

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Vasant Desai Part 3 (post-50s): His best songs for Lata Mangeshkar

Continuing the series on Vasant Desai, his best songs for Lata Mangeshkar as a tribute to her on her 93rd birthday (28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022)

Vasant Desai-Lata MangeshkarLata Mangeshkar would have been 93 today. This is her first birthday after she left this mortal world and this calls for a tribute to her. Coincidentally SOY is paying a series of tributes to Vasant Desai who was a class composer but was not counted among the top by the conventional pecking order. His songs for Lata Mangeshkar were exceptionally melodious. Vasant Desai Part 1 was devoted to his multifaceted talent in the vintage era (pre-50s) as an actor, singer and music director. The part 2 onwards are devoted to the post-50s era with which we are all more familiar. Vasant Desai Part 2 was devoted to his male singers in which I also included MF duets. Lata Mangeshkar is by far his most preferred female singer (no surprise there), and quite a good number are unforgettable. It became appropriate to post a tribute to her on her 93rd birthday with her best songs by the maestro in Vasant Desai Part 3. This would also include her duets with a female singer.

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Best songs of 1943: Wrap Up 2

And the Award for the Best Female Solo singer goes to ?

Amirbai Karnataki-Parul Ghosh-Khursheed-Kanan DeviIf you browse through the Wrap Up 1 regarding the best solos of 1943, it was clearly a one-horse race with KL Saigal being the Pole Star. During Saigal-Noorjehan-era there was no female Saigal, or as I have said earlier a number of times, there was no Lata Mangeshkar before Lata Mangeshkar. But we should not draw an erroneous conclusion that female singing was devoid of talent. There were several exceptionally talented singers, and the total female solos outnumbered the male solos by a big margin. In fact my fascination for vintage singing is due to so many varieties of female voice.

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Khayyam at the Mountain Peak (2): Songs sans Pahadi

Second part of my two-part tribute to Khayyam (18.2.1927–19.8.2019) on his third Remembrance Day

Once the omission of Khayyam was brought to my notice by a reader, I realised any tribute to him could not be limited to one part. One can divide his work by the period, or by the singers, both are sensible approaches. He created great music from 1950 to 1982. This is a long span, not many of his stalwart peers had such a long productive life. He was not among the top music directors by the conventional pecking order. But he remained at the top without compromising quality, without joining the rat-race, without caring for the current trend. He created his own trend, which was classical, elegant, soulful and deeply moving.

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Book Review: ‘Hindi Cine Raag Encyclopaedia’ Vol. 3, 4 & 5

Hindi Cine Raag Encyclopedia Vol 3, 4 & 5

Hindi Cine Raag Encyclopaedia
(Reference Edition Raagwise: Vol. 3, 4 & 5)
Author: KL Pandey
Sangeet Shilp Prakashan, Lucknow
First edition 2022
Hardcover ₹4800 on Amazon

A passionate lover of Hindi film music, who has deep interest in classical music too, asks two different types of questions: One, which raag(s) this favourite song is based on; Two, which are the famous songs based on this particular raag? These are very different questions, and can be conveniently searched only if there are reliable sources compiled on the two different parameters. On the internet a respected site chandrakantha.com gives links for Index of Song Titles (and their underlying raags) and Index of Raags (and songs based on that raag).

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Khayyam at the Mountain Peak (1): Songs on Pahadi

A tribute to Khayyam (18.2.1927–19.8.2019) on his third Remembrance Day

A reader mentioned some time ago that Khayyam has not been covered on SOY. Then I realised that the only post I have included under his name in the side-roll is devoted to his wife, Jagjit Kaur who sang most of her songs under his baton. This is an obvious omission. Khayyam, though not in the race for top billing, always created top class music right through the Golden Era when hundred flowers bloomed, to the post-70s dominated by the triumvirate of RD Burman, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandji.

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Songs of Sarcasm

Ek chatur naarIf the world only comprised narcissists at one extreme, and the most polite and courteous who profusely praise others at the other end, it would be a very boring place. Things are never black and white. There are various shades of grey in life. In our interactions we often cannot resist the temptation of putting-down a pompous person by a clever repartee, prick his ego by a smart one-liner, use various figures of speech from irony, pun, tongue-in-cheek statements, sarcasm to trenchant scorn. Even with dear friends or respected persons we often indulge in mild leg-pulling and harmless humour.

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Rafi’s songs with some unrecognised composers

Guest article by Sivanandam Palamadai as a tribute to Rafi on his 42nd Remembrance Day (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980)

(Rafi was the most dominant male playback singer of the Golden Era of film music. Yet he remained an unassuming, simple-hearted person with malice to none. The stories of his kindness and support to unrecognised music directors are legion. If his singing could help a struggling music director, he was willing to sing free for him. He sang some of his unforgettable songs for now-forgotten music directors.

Sivanandam Palamadai is relatively a new member of SOY, but is already an active participant. He is a passionate fan of Rafi and has been writing regularly for a forum dedicated to Rafi. When he offered to write on Rafi for SOY, we tossed ideas back and forth. I suggested this topic to him which can be worthy as a debut article on SOY.

Mr Palamadai is in his late 50s. He is a native of Tamil Nadu, but has lived in Pune for over 25 years. He has been a marketing professional all his working life, now in semi-retirement by choice to be in control of his career options. He is a keen listener of all kinds of music: film songs, non-film songs of Hindi and other languages, Hindustani, Carnatic and Western classical music. It gives me great pleasure to introduce a new guest writer with this superb article on Rafi’s songs for some unrecognised music directors, as a tribute to Rafi on his 42nd Remembrance Day. – AK)

RafiThere is a famous quote from Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’: Some are born great; some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. With due apologies to Shakespeare, we should add one more category to this: “Some are unfortunate in this world to be denied their greatness!!”

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Duets (+) of Mukesh: With Male Singers

Guest article by Ahok M Vaishnav as a tribute to Mukesh on his 99th Birth Anniversary (b. July 22, 1923 – d. August 27, 1976)

(Once SOY-veteran N Venkataraman remarked that there has been a post on Mukesh every year. If it was there, I or a guest author must have had something new to write on. It was not mechanical. The enthusiastic reader-cum-guest author Ashok M Vaishnav has noticed that a post on Mukesh’s duets with male singers is missing.

One reason for this omission is that MM duets are very few in number compared to the conventional MF duets, and these do not cause same waves as MF duets. But for a gold prospector like Ashokji, this is no deterrent. The result is a very thorough article on Mukesh’s duets with some male singers.

As the SOY regulars are aware, Ashokji is a retired engineer and now a freelance management training professional. He has been a prolific writer on this blog. Thank you Ashokji for yet another superb article on Mukesh as a tribute to him on his 99th Birth Anniversary. – AK)

Mukesh and his male co-singersFilms in India, by and large, revolve around different themes of love between a boy and a girl. As such, songs come in very handy as a very strong and direct, easy-to-comprehend, medium to express the different shades of feelings of love. Traditionally, the solo songs occupied the space of prime importance. During vintage era this was more a necessity because the singers were generally actors themselves. Moreover, the recording technology also was in the development stage, which made recording a duet song with two vastly different musical qualities of pitch and timbre of a male and female voice was quite difficult in comparison to the recording of a solo song.

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Vasant Desai Part 2 (post-1950s): His male singers

Vasant DesaiIn Vasant Desai Part 1 pertaining to the vintage years (1930s and 40s), we were introduced to his multifaceted talents, including his acting and singing. As per N Venkataraman he had sung a total of 37 songs in Hindi and Marathi. We all agreed that he was an outstanding singer, but surprisingly his singing career came to a complete halt in 1944. The era of the great male playback years was a few years away. The difference between vintage and golden era (post-1950s) is not merely chronological, but also the singing style and emergence of new great playback singers: Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhosle etc.

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