The immortal voice: The echoing memories of KL Saigal on his birth anniversary

4 April 2020

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)

KL Saigal_courtesy Kidar SharmaFrom 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.

 

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The lost world of piano when it was more than a musical instrument

26 March 2020

The Grand PianoDo 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.

 

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In the Musical Memory of Meena Kapoor

17 March 2020

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.

 

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Nayika Bhed in songs

8 March 2020

Commemorating International Women’s Day (March 8) and wishing everyone a very Happy Holi

Abhisarika NayikaThe 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:

 

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‘The stormy petrel of the Indian screen’: Shanta Apte

24 February 2020

A tribute to Shanta Apte on her 56th Remembrance Day (b. 23 November 1916/1918 – d. 24 February 1964)

Shanta Apte

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.

 

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Film Songs Based on Classical Ragas (13) – An afternoon with ragas: Bhimpalasi and her Sisters

15 February 2020

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)

BhimpalasiClassical 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.

 

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Film Songs From Firmament

5 February 2020

Guest article by DP Rangan

(DP Rangan is by far the most prolific guest writer on SoY, and among its most senior members. If he is appearing after a long gap, I am partly responsible for it as a couple of his articles have been in my folder for a while. I had already scheduled some articles which most fitted earlier. But Mr Rangan has unbounded energy, and he is always bubbling with new ideas. He can willingly write on command on any topic, even during his travels abroad to meet his family. I have restrained my temptation to palm off some topics to him in deference to his age. But whatever comes from him, I take it happily if it fills a gap in the SoY.

The topic of ‘Atmospheric songs’ has been on Mr Rangan’s ‘firmament’ for quite some time. After consultations back and forth, this is the final product. If you miss  his usual heavy research, I am again to blame. But thank you Mr Rangan for your understanding, and I am grateful for this nice article from you. You can see these songs as a cousin of Surrogate Songs about which I wrote a post last month. In the earlier post readers often mixed up surrogate songs with atmospheric songs. This post will clarify that the two are distinct categories. – AK)

Atmospheric songsWith the advent of talkies, films became a hot favourite in Hollywood from 1927 and commanded a huge following of film crazy viewers. India followed suit with the first talkie Alam Ara in 1931 and music became an integral part of our cinema. Songs were of many kinds, i.e., solos by male and female singers, duets – male/female, male/male or female/female and also chorus songs, main singer followed by a multitude of nondescript characters repeating the stanza. The songs were generally lip-synchronized by the actors and the live song scene was part of the film. All these categories of songs were more or less fitted in the films in line with the unravelling of the plot. As instances of conundrum, certain songs did not fit the bill. They seem to float down from an empyrean source and not identifiable with the characters in the scene. It also appeared that they were the most appropriate one for the scene unfolding before the viewing audience.

 

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‘Vandya Vande Mataram’: The story of a Song Perennial

26 January 2020

Guest article by N Venkataraman to celebrate 70th Anniversary of the Republic

(During our days of innocence we learnt in the school that ‘Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka Jaya He’ was our ‘National Anthem’ and ‘Vande Mataram’  was our ‘National Song’, both of  equal reverence, and we sung both with equal fervour on special occasions.

When we grew up and became more ‘knowledgeable’, we learnt that both the songs had controversy dogging them right since they were created. ‘Jana Gana Mana’ was said to have been written by Rabindranath Tagore in 1911 in the honour of the British King George V on the occasion of his visit to India, and ‘Vande Mataram’  occurring in Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s 19th century novel, ‘Anandamath’, was said to have religious overtones, which might offend the sensibilities of the minority community.

This controversy carried on right through the sessions of the Indian National Congress and, later, Constituent Assembly debates when question as to the declaration of a National Anthem came up. There were strong voices in favour of ‘Vande Mataram’ – as a matter of fact the Constituent Assembly session on 14 August 1947, which is famous for Nehru’s ‘Tryst with Destiny’ at the midnight, began at 11 pm with singing of this song.  However, the hesitation to take a final call continued.  Finally, right on the last day, i.e. 24 January 1950, at the time of signing of the copies of the Constitution, the President Rajendra Prasad made a statement that ‘Jana Gana Mana’ shall be the National Anthem and “Vande Mataram, which has played an important part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with ‘Jana Gana Mana’ and shall have equal status with it.”

Today we are again at troubled times because of the sectarian fault lines. As the Indian Republic turns 70,  we wish all the best for our country and its people. To celebrate the occasion, N Venkataraman  writes a scholarly article on the National Song ‘Vande Mataram’. As per the policy of this blog to steer clear of contentious political issues, Venkataramanji has put the focus specially on its rich musical history.

This article has long been in the making. A keen follower and the creator of the mega-series ‘Multiple Version Songs’, Ashok M Vashnav was also contemplating to write on different versions of ‘Vande Mataram’,  but happily passed it up when he came to know that Venkataramnji was at it. I am happy that despite his personal difficulties and other commitments, he has been able to complete it on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Republic Day, which happens to be in the 10th year of this blog. Thanks a lot Venkataramanji. – AK)

Vande MataramLet me backtrack to my early childhood days, a nostalgic trip down the memory lane. At the break of the dawn, as the activities of the house started, I would wake up to the Akashwani signature tune followed by VANDE MATARAM on the National Echo radio-set placed on the shelf of our living room (then it was my bedroom too). It took a minute for the vacuum tube valves to start up and the green magic eye to glow. Initially only a crackling sound could be heard before the station came on air. If I remember right it was 6:00 AM, I have no doubt that most of us and many more woke up to a new dawn listening to the Akashvani signature tune and ‘Vande Mataram’. And that was my first acquaintance with this song.

 

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Surrogate Songs

13 January 2020

Le ke pahla pahla pyarMusic and dance became an integral part of our films right from the first talkies, as our sources for initial films were Parsi Theatre, or Marathi Natya Sangeet which had music galore, or Mythologicals in which apsaras entertained in the Devlok. These gradually evolved into usual romantic stories, with a third angle thrown in at times, or villains who put spoke in the wheel. This gave rise to the lead actors expressing love with songs – solos and duets – and songs of despair and separation when the affair went off-track.

 

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Romancing the Route 66

1 January 2020

Wishing the readers a very Happy New Year with some nostalgia about Americana

Route 66 sign_PontiacI became aware of the name ‘Route 66’ after I started blogging, but my dream of driving cross-country through small-town America goes back about three decades when I was a graduate student at Yale. As a country boy landed in the big city, I was first dazzled by the physical America –  the soaring twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the 300′ high LED screens shining bright whole night at the Times Square, the cavernous supermarkets, acres and acres of open parking lots, and hundreds of miles of seamless expressways. It soon gave way to my admiration for the American values of freedom and individualism. Along the way, I soaked in classic Hollywood, thanks to some very active film societies on the campus. The Westerns, which were not only about cowboys and guns, but how the frontier was opened literally yard by yard, and towns came up where sweet water was discovered, with their Main Street, and saloons with the barmaid of ambiguous morality who would dispense her favours equally to the hero and the outlaw. The B&W road movies in which the rugged hero was thrown in with the runaway pampered daughter of a wealthy baron in a bus, and later in a motel, ending up in romance after the hero had instilled some sense in her; or the girl on the run having stolen the bank’s cash to help her boyfriend tide over his financial difficulties, landing up at a creepy motel in the night which would end in horror in the shower. Roadside motels, simmering neon signs announcing ‘Vacancies’, Diners, Mom and pop stores, Service stations, and on to the road again piercing through vast emptiness ahead as far as your eyes could see.

 

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