Best songs of 1944: Wrap UP 2

And the award for the Best Female Song goes to?

If you browse through my Overview Post on the best songs of 1944 and the Wrap Up 1 about the best male solos, two features would strike you immediately. One was the significantly large number of female solos compared to the male solos. And two, while KL Saigal was the Pole Star of male solos, there was no such Pole Star in female solos. There was no Lata Mangeshkar in 1944. I used to think that Noorjehan was the Lata Mangeshkar before her, but now I realise that I was conditioned by all the optics created by Lata herself, and by reading a good deal about Noorjehan-romantics like Dilip Kumar, Khushwant Singh, and proponents of Track-II diplomacy with our neighbour. I give allowance that as she sang for herself, her songs would be less than independent playback singers. Yet a detailed review shows that a large number of female singers sang absolutely melodious songs, making Noorjehan one among many as far as the quality of songs is concerned.

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Best Songs of 1944: Wrap Up 1

And the award for the Best Male Solo goes to?

In my Overview Post of the best songs of 1944, I had mentioned that in the total songs in the years in which the singers’ names were known, male solos to female solos to duets followed a ratio of 1: 3.69: 1.69. Thus, the male solos were about 16% of the total songs in the year. In my shortlist of 80/81 Memorable Songs in the year (one song had a female, and a duet version), the number of male solos is proportionately more at 19, accounted for by the following 9 singers:

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Raja Mehdi Ali Khan: Lyricist Par Excellence

Guest article by D P Rangan as a tribute to Raja Mehdi Ali Khan on his 55th Remembrance Day (b. 1915/1928? – d. 29 July 1966)

(There are at least two dozen lyricists who wrote more songs than Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. Yet every lover of old film songs has the highest regard for him, especially for the exquisite songs he wrote for Madan Mohan. For many of us, it might come as a surprise that his songs for Madan Mohan are about one-sixth of his total output. That underscores the talent of Raja Mehdi Ali Khan.

To do full justice to such a highly respected lyricist, you would expect the writer to have very deep familiarity with Hindustani language. D P Rangan is not deterred by minor constraints, such as lack of adequate knowledge of the language. He comes up with another of his very sincere guest articles. He is conscious that lyricists have not been given due importance on SOY, therefore, his article fills up an important gap.

Mr Rangan is a retired government servant, now well into his 70s. We know him for his enthusiasm and zest for life. He has written over two dozen guest articles for SOY, the most by anyone. This article has been in my folder since the last year, but it turned out to be a very crowded year. Mr Rangan  appreciated my scheduling difficulties, and allowed me to post it on a later suitable date.

Let us pay our tribute to the great lyricist Raja Mehdi Ali Khan on Madan Mohan’s 97th birth anniversary, with whom he had the most memorable association. Thank you Mr Rangan for this nice guest article. – AK)

Raja Mehdi Ali KhanA rare combination of poet, writer and lyricist in erudite Urdu is how I think of this gifted individual who streaked across the cinematic field in blazing glory for a brief span of time and embraced eternity by his untimely demise at a very young age of just thirty eight years. His achievements in this brief sojourn in terra firma speak for themselves. Here is my humble effort to pen his biography for scrutiny by blog followers.

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‘Hindi Cine Raag Encyclopaedia’ by KL Pandey: Book Review

Hindi Cine Raag Encyclopaedia (Reference Edition: Vol. I and Vol. II) Author: KL Pandey Sangeet Shilp Prakashan, Lucknow Second edition (Revised and Enlarged): December 2020 Hardcover ₹3200 on Amazon (Note: ‘Sur Samvadini’, a glossary of Hindustani Classical Music and a list of 174 raags appearing in Hindi film songs with their basic grammar, available complimentaryREAD THE FULL ARTICLE

Songs of Yore completes eleven years

Songs of Yore_11 years

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,…. it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Charles Dickens started his “A Tale of Two Cities” with these lines. If we look at the last two months, this has been a period of unmitigated darkness, the winder of irredeemable despair. In fact, the eleventh year of the SOY began in a state of Lockdown, but then it was a piece of statistics for us, these things do not happen to us. The recent second wave has been ferocious beyond imagination, and there is hardly anyone who is unaffected by it.

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Dattaram Part 2: Breaking out of the Banyan Tree with ‘Other’ Singers

Second and final part of tribute to Dattaram (1929 – 8 June 2007)

DattaramWe saw in Dattaram Part 1 dealing with his songs for Mukesh and Manna Dey, how his association with the Big Banyan tree, Shankar-Jaikishan, made it difficult to get out of the comfort zone of SJ. The readers Mahesh and Hans Jakhar opined that Dattaram was himself part of the Banyan Tree. We need not presume that it was a millstone around his neck. The association gave him steady work and a sense of importance. Not everyone is entrepreneurial, he was contented with his station in life.

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Dattaram Part 1: Under the shadow of big banyan tree with songs of Mukesh and Manna Dey

A big banyan tree gives shelter and protects you from elements. But this may become a trap because one may be deterred from venturing out on one’s own for the risks involved. But a human being also has an urge to venture out and stand on his own. That involves a vertical progression from earning from one’s skill to being an entrepreneur: Mason to a contractor; dancer to a choreographer; instrumentalist/ arranger/ assistant to becoming an independent music director; paid employee to a free-lancer.

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‘क्या भूलूँ क्या याद करूँ’

Bhooli hui yaadonWe had thought we would try to forget 2020 as a bad dream. The pandemic last year for most of us was a piece of statistics, a news item. It would not affect us, we all thought. Suddenly in a span of the last few weeks its second wave has struck us as a mighty river in full fury after breaching a dam. Now it has reached our doorstep. Everyone knows of some close acquaintance whose dear one has gone through unimaginable medical crisis. Now clichés, such as ‘we would get over this’ sound like insensitive platitudes for those who have gone through personal tragedies.

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Best songs of 1944: And the winners are?

Season 2 of the year-wise reviews begins

Rattan-Bhanwra-Bhartrihari-My SisterI have explained in my final wrap up of the review of songs of 1945 how the idea of year-wise reviews of the best songs of the year started and why I termed the year 1945 as the end of Season 1. There was doubt in my mind whether the series would or should at all continue after that. That had to do with the culmination coinciding with 10 years of SOY, which ended neatly in 2020. But the readers urged for continuation – some for taking up 1956 onwards, some preferring 1944 backwards. Since the blog is not shutting down, I veered towards continuing the series.

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Jogi, Bhogi or Dhongi

Wishing the readers and their families a very Happy Holi

JogiColloquial equivalents of Sanskrit terms usually retain their exact meaning, such as singaar for shringaar, barkha for varsha etc. But did you give a thought how in case of jogi, which is the Hindi equivalent of yogi, the connotation changes so drastically? As regards yogi, there is no doubt they are ascetics, detached from the world, engaged in their personal meditation and communion with the divine, in some cave in the Himalayas. “The Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramhans Yoganand, first published in 1946, is still regarded as a spiritual classic after 75 years.

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