Salt, pepper and foods

16 October 2020

Celebrating the World Food Day (16 October)

Salt, pepper and foodYou would hardly find a dining table in homes or restaurants anywhere in the world which does not have salt and pepper shakers. Without salt and pepper the food would be without any taste. These have also acquired a venerable place in our history. ‘Namak Satyagrah’ or Dandi March (1930) was one of the three major movements launched by Gandhiji in India’s freedom struggle. The history of pepper is older than the history of India; there is archaeological evidence of people using pepper in 2000 BC in India. From here it went all over the world through trade from ancient times. Pepper also became a curse, because some European traders in pepper gradually became our rulers for about two centuries.

 

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Best songs of 1945: Wrap Up 2

7 October 2020

And the Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to?

Noorjehan-Amirbai KarnatakiWhen Noorjehan visited India in 1982 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Indian talkie movies, one of the songs she chose to sing was Baithi hun teri yaad ka lekar ke sahara from Village Girl (1945), composed by Shyam Sundar, to a deafening applause. She was the dominant female playback singer of the year, having memorable songs from Badi Ma, Village Girl and Zeenat. Her first superhit Hindi film was Khandan (1942), followed by some more successful films in which she was the lead actor-singer, such as Naadan (1943), Dost and Lal Haveli (1944). Thus by 1945 she was among the leading actor-singers of the era.

 

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Hemantayan – Part 2

26 September 2020

A tribute to Hemant Kumar on his 31st Remembrance Day (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) in his Birth Centenary year by guest author N Venkataraman

(N Venkataraman launched the Centenary Celebration of Hemant Kumar with his superb article Hemantayan Part 1 on his Birth Centenary, 16 June 2020. This gave a comprehensive overview of Hemant Kumar’s early life, his rise as a singer and composer of great repute in Hindi and Bengali films and non-film songs, up to 1960.

In this second and concluding part of his tribute, Venkatarmanji carries on his excellent work and covers his remaining career post-1960. The special aspect of this article is his focus on Hemant Kumar’s forays into production of films, which is not highlighted much as his heavenly voice left such a powerful impact. This aspect is also important because it became Hemant Kumar’s hubris, sucking him into deep financial troubles. But the multifarious talent that he was, he was able to come out of it as he had become an icon in Bengali music as a singer and composer. That became his main arena, where he was the Monarch.

This two-part tribute by Venkataramanji is the most comprehensive you can find on any blog. It is not only a chronicle of Hemant Kumar’s life and his professional achievements, it also provides insight into the ecosystem of Hindi and Bengali films of the era, his strength of character, simplicity and generosity and also his foibles, and his ups and downs. We are passionately fond of his singing and music direction, our awareness being primarily limited to Hindi. Thanks to Venkataramanji now we know that Hemant Kumar was much larger than that.  We can’t thank Venkataramanji enough for this. – AK)

Hemant Kumar 1“It was now time to build up on this success and reputation. Was he able to consolidate his position and career in Bombay and also in Calcutta? I will leave that for another post, the second part of this write-up. I would be covering his career post-1960 in the second part of my article”.

I had concluded the first part, Hemantayan – Part1 with the above lines.

 

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Hemant Kumar’s male playback singers

17 September 2020

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the series of centenary tributes to Hemant Kumar (b. 16 June 1920 – d. 26 September 1989)

(Hemant Kumar’s centenary celebration was set off with an excellent article by N Venkataraman, ‘Hemantayan Part 1’, in which he wrote about his family origin, early life, and his career up to 1960. Venkataramanji would write his second and last part on Hemant Kumar’s Remembrance Day, 26 September, covering his post-1960 career.

Ashok M Vaishnav has a great interest in delving deep into film songs and present micro-analysis on various parameters. He very kindly offered to supplement Venkataramanji’s two-part overview with some articles going into Hemant Kumar’s career on various parameters in greater detail. Ashokji’s first article in the series was on Hemant Kumar’s female playback singers. in his second article he covers his male singers. This article is another evidence of Ashokji’s perseverance in going deep and wide.

Ashokji is an engineer by profession. After retirement, he is engaged in management training. I thank him for his efforts to make this series of tribute so befitting the respect Hemant Kumar commands. – AK)

Hemant Kumar_Manna Dey-Rafi-Kishore KumarEvery time the topic of Hemant Kumar’s Hindi Film songs in male voice comes up, the discussion usually gets marooned in the question – was he a great composer who also sang well or was he a great singer who also made some memorable music?

 

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N Datta: The Third Musketeer for Asha Bhosle

8 September 2020

Guest article by Hans Jakhar wishing Asha Bhosle (b. 8 September 1933) a very happy 87th birth anniversary and also greeting the unlucky genius N Datta

(By now we all know that Asha Bhosle is the most recorded singer, and has sung far more songs than her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Yet Lata Mangeshkar came to be acknowledged as the apogee of female playback singing in the Golden Era. She was the singer of choice of every music director for their best and most complex compositions, except a handful of MDs for whom Asha Bhosle was the main singer. N Datta is one of them, and what superb songs he gave for her as well as other singers! He was an unlucky genius. When Hans Jakhar wrote on Asha Bhosle’s last birth anniversary on her songs by Ravi, Arvinder Sharma commented that her predominance in N Datta’s music is relatively even more pronounced than Ravi.

I have no hesitation in admitting that I am an unabashed Lata-partisan, and that may be reflecting on SoY too, but fortunately we have a large band of Asha Bhosle fans. Hans Jakhar is the undisputed flag-bearer of this brigade which provides more than balance if there is any hint of bias on the other side.

But in my defence, in the very early stage of this blog, I wrote my first post on Asha Bhosle on her 78th birth anniversary nine years ago. Thereafter, I have written a number of posts on her songs by different music directors with great respect, because those songs are very special to me. Hans, in this article, has fairly acknowledged it. N Datta’s songs for Asha Bhosle are very dear to me, yet if someone has to write on this combination, no one could do it better than Hans. I am happy that he accepted my request to write this tribute to them as our greetings to Asha Bhosle on her 87th birth anniversary.

Hans brings his legal and commerce degree and long working with the government to full use in writing on film music, too, with his mastery over data and reasoning. It gives me great pleasure to present his third guest article for SoY which has all the hallmark of his sharp skills. – AK)

N Datta-Asha BhosleThe year 1955 was a special year for Asha Bhosle. Two composers who were inclined to use her more than any other female singers came out of the stable of pro-Lata Lata Mangeshkar composers and straight-away started using her as the main female singer. One of them, Ravi, was discussed last year. The other was N Datta who was an assistant to SD Burman. In the same year, the third pro-Asha composer who later became only Asha, OP Nayyar also had a big success with her in Baap Re Baap which, though not a block-buster, was quite a successful film. Success of the songs like ‘Raat rangili chamke taare‘ and ‘Piya piya piya mora jiya pukare‘ gave him the confidence to use her extensively, especially after moving out of Guru Dutt films. At a personal level, her biggest achievement was recording 300+ songs, which no singer had yet achieved.

 

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Hemant Kumar’s Female Playback Singers

27 August 2020

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the series of centenary tributes to Hemant Kumar (b. 16 June 2020 – d. 26 September 1989)

(Is Hemant Kumar a major singer or a music director? For his fans his mesmerising singing overshadows his contribution as a music director. Ashok M Vaishnav is known for going deep into data analysis and classification – SoY regulars have seen his perseverance in his mega-series, Multiple version songs. Ashokji plans to write a series of guest articles on Hemant Kumar’s various facets as music director, as a part of his centenary celebrations, which were set off brilliantly by N Vankataraman’s outstanding tribute, titled ‘Hemantayan – Part 1’, on his Birth Centenary, 16 June 2020.

Venkataramanji is planning his Part 2 on 26 September 2020 to coincide with Hemant Kumar’s death anniversary. His scheme, as the readers must have noticed, is to divide Hemant Kumar’s life and career in two parts chronologically – the first part going up to 1960 – taking a comprehensive overview of his career as a music director and singer in Hindi, Bengali and other languages, as well as his non-film songs.

It was very kind of Ashokji to offer on his own to supplement Venkataramanji’s two-part overview with some articles going into more detail on Hemant Kumar’s career on various parameters. Here is the first article of his planned series, on his female playback singers (in Hindi films). Since I have written on his songs for Lata Mangeshkar long ago, Ashokji only mentions her few songs, focussing more on his wide range of other female singers. He consciously chooses less familiar songs as a prudent policy.

Many readers have rightly observed that SoY is blessed with very generous guest writers. We are all lucky. Thank you Ashokji for your guest article. – AK)

 

Hemant Kumar with his female singers 2

Hemant Kumar (16-6-1920 | 26-9-1989) had already shown flare for music composition from his early childhood. Even though his formal career commenced as a singer, his talents as a composer also did not have to wait longer to get formal recognition. Of course, in so far as Hindi Films is concerned, the first ever film for which he got to compose the music was a decade after he sang his first film song. He then went on to compose music for 50+ films for the next 27 years.

(Note: Many sites mention film ‘Irada’ (1944) as his debut as a singer in Hindi films. However, it is now generally accepted that his first song was ‘Aankhon ki oat jo rahta tha’ in the film ‘Meenakshi’ (1942). – AK)

 

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Remembering Ajit Merchant

15 August 2020

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav as a tribute to Ajit Merchant on his 95th birth anniversary (b. 15 August 1925 – d. 28 March 2011)

(Talents from various regional languages have enriched Hindi film music. Music directors and singers from Bengal have occupied a central place in Hindi film music. From the recent generation AR Rahman has been incredibly successful in both Tamil and Hindi. Due to some quirk of fate similar success has eluded those from Gujarat, though they gave some immortal songs in Hindi, and occupy an iconic place for their contribution in Gujarati film music and Theatre. Ajit Merchant is one such talent whom Ashok M Vaishnav pays a tribute on his 95th birth anniversary.

Ashokji is an engineer by profession, and after retirement he is engaged in management training. He has a deep interest in music. SoY regulars know him as the creator of the mega series, Multiple Version Songs, and his deep analytical interest in exploring various facets of songs. He has been also introducing us to Gujarati music. Thank you Ashokji for highlighting the contribution of Ajit Merchant to Hindi and Gujarati film music. – AK)

Ajit MerchantAjit Merchant (15-8-1925 | 28-3-2011) belongs to that Hindi cinema club which includes some incredibly talented but commercially not successful music directors as members. These music directors have their names in the roll of honours, on account of just a song or two from the few that they could get to compose in their career.

 

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Chitragupta’s duets for Rafi: Melody Personified

31 July 2020

A tribute to Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) on his 40th Remembrance Day

Chitragupta-RafiToday is the 40th Remembrance Day of Rafi. He was the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era of film music and, more importantly, he was universally known as a good human being, without malice to anyone, and a generous kind-hearted soul. Someone has said, Rafi Saheb ko maloom hi nahin tha ki duniya mein sharaafat ke siwaa bhi koi cheez hoti hai (Rafi Saheb didn’t know that there was anything other than decency in the world). God snatched him at a very young age. Had his life not been cut short, he would have got much higher State honours than Padmashree. But he ruled the people’s hearts. As the news of his sudden death, on 31 July 1980, spread like wild fire, thousands of people – rich and poor, famous and ordinary, celebrities and commoners – poured out on the roads, braving Bombay’s monsoon downpour, to join his funeral procession. I was looking for something special to pay a tribute to him on this day.

 

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Best songs of 1945: Wrap Up 1

23 July 2020

And the Award for the Best Male Playback Singer goes to?

Mukesh-KL SaigalMy Overview post of the best songs of the year 1945 had a Master List of 59/60 Memorable Songs (one song had a female solo and a female-female duet version), the least in the year-wise reviews so far. This was expected not only because of the relative antiquity as we go further back chronologically, but also because the year saw the lowest number of films produced during the period 1941-49. This has resulted in significantly less songs than the other years reviewed earlier.

 

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Madan Mohan: The Pied Piper of Bollywood in Different Moods

14 July 2020

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Madan Mohan on his 45th Remembrance Day (b. 25 June 1924 – d. 14 July 1975)

(Two years ago to this day, DP Rangan wrote a tandem article on Roshan and Madan Mohan about their classical songs, with annotation by Subodh Agrawal, which set the stage for a series on them. The series concluded with Madan Mohan’s daughter Sangeeta Gupta’s nostalgic piece about him as a family man and a maestro. However, meanwhile Mr Rangan had also been working on Madan Mohan’s songs in different moods, and he was disappointed that, with the series closed with the calendar year, his piece might not see the light of day.

You can never have enough of Madan Mohan; he was a multi-faceted talent, composing songs for all the major playback singers, and songs in all possible moods. I am happy to present M Rangan’s guest article as a tribute to Madan Mohan on his 45th Remembrance Day. Thank you Mr Rangan. – AK)

Madan MohanUnder inspiration from the blog master AK, I wrote a  tandem post involving Madan Mohan and Roshan on 14 July 2018 which was Roshan’s 101st birth anniversary, and in a unique coincidence, Madan Mohan’s 43rd death anniversary.  It grew steadily through a number of posts exploring many aspects of their genius, ending with Madan Mohan’s daughter’s fond article on him titled ‘Remembering my father and the legend’ on 25 December 2018. The announcement of the closure of the series by AK disappointed me somewhat because I have been working on a post on Madan Mohan’s songs in different moods. As I don’t see any duplication with the posts in the series (though some songs might have figured earlier), I am happy that AK agreed to post it on Madan Mohan’s 45th Remembrance Day.

 

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