When Peter Drucker wrote in 1986 that the world economy is not changing, it has already changed, “We are living in a changed world” became a fashionable jargon. His assertion was open to question, but Corona has changed the world in a very fundamental way. Someone said that in the human history whenever mankind faced a major crisis, it came together to save itself, but today is a crisis when we have to stay apart to save the world. We are into Lockdown 3.0; even after it is lifted, would it be really back to the normal? It is already being said that we have to brace for a ‘New Normal’, and we can feel it within ourselves. Would I feel confident in going to my neighbourhood salon for a haircut? We always knew that there was a risk of infection, but didn’t give much thought to it. Or to a mall, a restaurant, a multiplex, or a wedding reception indoors?
Remembering a special singer Manna Dey
A tribute on Manna Dey’s 101st birth anniversary (1 May 1919 – 24 October 2013)
Manna Dey was one of the great playback singers of the Golden Era. I missed to acknowledge him on his birth centenary last year. This omission is symptomatic of his relative place in the film music. He was the most rigorously trained singer in classical music among his peers. He is outnumbered only by two male playback singers, Rafi and Kishore Kumar. He sang about 50% more Hindi film songs than Mukesh, three times as many songs of Talat Mahmood and five times of Hemant Kumar, yet there are possibly more passionate fans of the last three singers than him. I remember someone wrote an article titled ‘An Enigma Called Manna Dey’. He mentioned the word ‘enigma’ in a somewhat similar sense.
Baaja that was Harmonium that was Music
From time to time the importance of music instruments in our film songs have come in for some serious discussion on SoY. Some years ago, a reader Rohit Kumar (who seems to have gone off-radar) mentioned the strong association of some music directors with specific instruments, such as Roshan and flute, OP Nayyar and sarangi, SD Burman and folk instruments and so on, and suggested if I could write a series on this theme. Independently, Subodh sent me a mail discussing those songs where vocal and instrumental parts are engaged in a kind of jugalbandi, and he specifically mentioned Naache man mora magan dhikna dhik dhik as an example of the unforgettable tabla with voice. Later, in the comments on another post some earnest discussion took place about the flute and ektara. Around the same time Ashok Vaishnavji sent me a link of an article on Shankar Jaikishan’s romance with the piano accordion. More recently piano came in for intense discussion on the Open House and I was commanded by the readers to write on it. I am musically illiterate – my knowledge is limited to recognising some musical instruments when I see them 🙂 , but in deference to the readers’ request I thought of writing a few posts on some instruments I love visually in the films. The result was my first article on the piano in the series, which the erudite readers very indulgently appreciated despite coming from a lay person. Harmonium is another instrument I find very interesting and appealing in a film.
“Guide, The Film: Perspectives”
Book Review
Guide, The Film: Perspectives
Lata Jagtiani & Other Writers
Blue Pencil, New Delhi, 2019
ISBN: 978-81-939555-2-9
An unintended blessing of Corona-enforced lockdown, I thought, was that I would be able to finish some half-read books and watch and rewatch some of my favourite films. With this thought I resumed ‘Guide, The Film: Perspectives’ which had been sitting on my desk for a while. My desire appeared to be facing a serious setback as Doordarshan decided to take us back to their golden era by carpet-bombing DD National and DD Bharati with their classic serials, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Buniyad, Dekh Bhai Dekh and NFDC films etc. I didn’t want to miss the nostalgia, but by then I was quite engrossed in the book and I had to finish it by rationing my time between different pulls.
The immortal voice: The echoing memories of KL Saigal on his birth anniversary
Guest article by Sharad Dutt as a tribute to KL Saigal on his 116th birth anniversary (4 April 1904 to 18 January 1947)
(KL Saigal is the most towering actor-singer of our films. He was a part of our daily lives courtesy Radio Ceylon which made it a daily ritual to end its programme on old film songs with a Saigal song at 7.57 am. He has been omnipresent on SoY too, though without the need for that kind of formal reminder. It is amazing that with less than 200 songs in all languages, including film and non-film songs, he has achieved such immortal fame. I wanted to have a post on him in the SoY’s tenth year, and no one could do it better than Sharad Dutt, a recognised expert on Saigal and old film music in general.
There is hardly a serious follower of old film music who is unaware of Sharadji. His body of work is enormous. Besides a biography of KL Saigal, he has written an authoritative biography of Anil Biswas, and he is about to complete the biography of the lyricist Shailendra. He has made over three hundred short films on literary and music personalities. After 50 years in the AIR and Doordarshan he joined a private TV channel where he hosted a number of interviews. Currently, he is engaged in video documentation of old film music, and he writes a weekly column every Sunday in the Millennium Post on old film music.
I am very grateful that in spite of his busy schedule Sharadji agreed to write this tribute to Saigal on his 116th birth anniversary. – AK)
From 040404 to 040420 one hundred sixteen years have passed. On 4th April 1904 a couple, Tehsildaar Amarchand and Kesar Kaur, were blessed with a son in Jammu. Everybody was joyous in the family. They named him Kundanlal Saigal. Saigal became the greatest singer of the 20th century. Today is hundred sixteenth birth anniversary of the legendary singer KL Saigal, and I am very happy to pay my tribute to him on Songs of Yore. (Wikipedia and many sites mention 11 April 1904 as Saigal’s birthday, but Sharadji is sure from his research that it is 4th April. – AK)
Saigal’s mother Kesar Kaur took the newly born baby boy to her spiritual Guru Pir Salman Yusuf. Pir Baba blessed her son and prophesied that the child would become a reputed singer. When Saigal grew up he started singing bhajan, kirtans at his home with his mother. His father Amarchand was dead against music but he allowed his son to act in Ram Leela. Saigal used to play the role of Sita in Deewan Mandir Rang Manch (now Sanatan Dhram Natak Samaj, Jammu). Once his act of Sita in Ashok Vatika was so spectacular that the audience wanted an encore of the same scene which was re-enacted.
The lost world of piano when it was more than a musical instrument
Do you remember when we last saw a piano song in Hindi movies? In my recollection, Parineeta (2005) was the last movie which had a piano song, Piyu bole, in the classic style. And there is a reason for that: the story is set in the early 20th century in which the hero was from an aristocratic family. But there was a time when piano songs were quite common in our films. The grand piano was the central feature of a large hall in a mansion. It was not merely a symbol of wealth, but of class and taste. Because of its conspicuous presence, and the way it was presented in songs, it was not only a musical instrument or a mise-en-scène, but a living personality, an important character in the film.
In the Musical Memory of Meena Kapoor
Guest article by Shalan Lal as Part II of the Remembrance Tribute to Meena Kapoor (c. 1930 – 23 November 2017)
(Shalan Lal wrote a comprehensive post on Meena Kapoor on her first death anniversary 23 November 2018. I didn’t know that she was planning to write a second part too. She sent me the Part II of her Remembrance Tribute a few days before 23 November 2019, but by that time I was committed to post some date-specific articles in the calendar year 2019. As such, this has spilled over in the new calendar year. But Shalan Lal has been very understanding, her only request was that I do not use the editor’s guillotine liberally. In deference to her hard work and deep research, I have retained the entire article as it is, which gives the readers a lot of information about the films, their star cast and other related facts. She also gives a very good idea about Baburao Patel and his celebrated journal ‘Filmindia’. Thanks a lot Shalan for your exhaustive post. – AK)
“Here’s, looking at you, my listeners, from the heaven above!”
Meena Kapoor’s playback singing appeared in about eighty Hindi films. Then again, more films are discovered by the film buffs and connoisseurs as the time passes by. My efforts here are to cover them annually with ten films each year.
On 23 November 2018, i.e. her first death anniversary I wrote a tribute Part I covering the first ten films in which Meena Kapoor sang as a playback singer, films up to 1947 although I used her film song in the film Pardesi (1957) to point out that she had equal talent that Lata had during fifties and before.
In the second part I cover her ten more films until the end of the decade of the forties of the Bollywood. In this part I touch the Indian filmy culture, aka mahaul, giving information about the greatest Indian film magazine called Filmindia which created information and entertainment as the part of the Indian film-world along with some interesting information about Suraiya who was a singing actor and contemporary of Meena Kapoor.
The numbers attached to the films are the continuation of the films from the previous tribute.
Nayika Bhed in songs
Commemorating International Women’s Day (March 8) and wishing everyone a very Happy Holi
The erudite readers of the SoY will be surprised to see a post on Nayika Bhed on the International Women’s Day (March 8), which commemorates the movement for women’s rights relating to equality etc. If you look at Nayika Bhed from the prism of a modern woman, it objectifies women and categorises them on the basis of their physical attributes, conduct, and their state (अवस्था) of union/ separation/relationship with their lover/husband – the very antithesis of what the IWD stands for. I have no explanations or excuses to offer except that long ago a silent US-based reader Anant Desai, out of the blue, wrote a mail to me on Nayika Bhed and also gave a list of songs befitting each type. From time to time Shalan Lal also chipped in with her mails to me on the subject. Sometime back Vidur Sury, a known lover of vintage songs, wrote to me that he was trying his hand at writing poetry in Brajbhasha, and sent me some in the style of Ritikaleen poets (17-19th century) on अभिसारिका नायिका. I don’t know whether he has since written on other types too. And lastly, when Ashwin Bhandarkar had to locate from Pune to Boston on job, he was not excited about his foreign assignment, nor worried about the challenges of relocating there; his primary concern was about a विरहोत्कण्ठिता नायिका he was leaving behind who would pine for him thus in Raga Jaijaiwanti:
‘The stormy petrel of the Indian screen’: Shanta Apte
A tribute to Shanta Apte on her 56th Remembrance Day (b. 23 November 1916/1918 – d. 24 February 1964)
I became aware of Shanta Apte quite late compared to her contemporary Kanan Devi about whom I was quite familiar from my very young radio listening days. Today I know that Shanta Apte was to Pune/Bombay what Kanan Devi was to Calcutta. The former was the First Lady of the Prabhat Studios while the latter was the First Lady of the New Theatres. These two great film companies in the studio era occupied the pole position in Poona/Bombay and Calcutta respectively. Kanan Devi was a bilingual actor-singer in Bengali and Hindi, and likewise Shanta Apte in Marathi-Hindi. The two studios often made bilingual films, one in Hindi and the other in their respective regional language. Shanta Apte and Kanan Devi were the top female actor-singers of the 1930s and early 40s. Yet with such uncanny symmetry, it is surprising that while AIR was very enamoured of the New Theatres, they almost completely blacked out, as far as I can remember, early songs of Prabhat Talkies. The vintage female singers featured on AIR comprised Khursheed, Amirbai Karnataki, Zohrabai Ambalewali (thanks to Naushad), Bombay Talkies songs, besides the usual Shamshad Begum, Suraiya and Noorjehan. An hour-long documentary anchored by Harish Bhimani, titled Gaaye Chala Ja (recently repeat telecast on DD), ostensibly as an overview of 60 years of Hindi film music, followed the same pattern, omitting to mention Shanta Apte as well as Prabhat and other songs of the early 1930s from Bombay/Poona. And interestingly, this asymmetry in the recognition of the New New Theatres-Calcutta’s early music and Prabhat-Bombay’s still continues. The Vividh Bharti broadcasts an hour long programme of old film music at 6.30 AM everyday. I don’t recall when I last heard a Shanta Apte song on the radio, though Kanan Devi, Khursheed, Amirbai Karnataki are quite common.
Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (13) – An afternoon with ragas: Bhimpalasi and her Sisters
Guest article by Subodh Agrawal
(Subodh Agrawal, a well-known name with SoY regulars for his series on film songs based on classical ragas, is resuming his series after a break of about three years. This was primarily due to logistic issues he faced regarding proper Internet connection and computer. But as he has shown before, whenever he has come back after a hiatus, he has more than made up for the gap. Subodh does it again by choosing Bhimpalasi and her sister ragas for this post. Bhimpalasi is one of the most popular ragas which appeals to connoisseurs and lay listeners alike. The music directors have taken to it in a big way, composing some of their everlasting compositions in this raga. If you watch Mughal-e-Azam, though there are no songs in this raga, you can’t miss the strains of Bhimpalasi permeating in the background for the major part of the movie. Subodh’s presentation is as usual lucid and uncluttered of technical details. Welcome back Subodh and Thank You for this excellent post. – AK)
Classical ragas are associated with a particular time of the day. Mornings, evenings and night are musical times of the day, and there is no dearth of ragas related to them. Afternoon – at least to me – appears to be the least musical time, but some of the most popular ragas are related to this time. There is the entire Sarang family, which deserves a separate post to itself. In this article I would focus mostly on Bhimpalasi and touch briefly upon three related ragas: Patdeep, Madhuvanti, and Multani. There will be passing references to two others – Dhanashri and Dhani.