A tribute on his death anniversary January 18
If you grew up in the radio era and had an ear for music, Saigal-song-a day was a daily ritual – Radio Ceylon would end their programme of old film songs with a Saigal song every morning at 7.57 AM. So by the time I reached college I had fully soaked in Saigal magic. Later when I came across my first Saigal LP, all its iconic songs from films like Devdas, Street Singer, Chandidas, President etc I knew by heart. Yet the song which kept me spellbound and moved me like never before was a non-film song Jhulna jhulao ri. Soon after a friend lent me a whole cassette of his non-film songs. Its anchor song Main baithi thi in two parts mesmerised me. One after the other a whole new world of non-film songs of Saigal opened before me, some of which sounded quite like his film-songs, some others were very different, but they seemed to reach where his film songs could not.
Double tribute on their birth anniversaries
Mohammad Rafi’s birth anniversary falls on December 24 (b 1924) and Naushad’s on December 25 (b 1919). This close proximity also extended to their music. Rafi was to playback singing what Naushad was to music composing – both at the commanding heights of their profession for over two decades. Their collaboration produced some of the best and most memorable music of the Golden Era.
My tribute on his birthday December 11
I had no plans of doing this post as it is not even a week since I did my last one. I need about two weeks to organise my thoughts and squeeze bits of time to write a piece. Secondly, my focus is on songs, their themes, singers and music directors, and not so much actors. The only time I have titled a piece on an actor – Raj Kapoor – was about several playback singers, other than the known ones Mukesh and Manna Dey, who sang for him – some of whom were quite a surprise discovery.
A friend of mine is a Storehouse of Information (SoI) on music of 1950s and 60s. He has an endearing way of posing teasers. One day he asked me if I had heard of Shailesh (Mukherji), the music director. I had not. Then came a helpful one, have you heard the song Nadiya ke pani o re nadiya ke pani. I jumped at it. To think that I did not know the music director of this my great favourite song! I immediately went to Youtube to check up on him. Then it was my turn to pose a teaser to SoI if he had heard Chhupa chhupi o chhupi aagad baagad aye re. He was thrilled to reconnect with the song. So you have two immortal songs from an unknown music director Shailesh Mukherji, that too from the same film Savera.
A tribute on his death anniversary on November 16
I have expressed great admiration for Roshan at several places in my blog. Among the greatest and most melodious songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Roshan compositions occupy a very high place. He did not achieve big commercial success as some of his peers, but for music lovers he was among the greatest, especially as regards his songs for the two titans Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. His compositions were unmistakably identifiable with incredibly beautiful use of the flute and sarangi.
Guest article by Subodh Agrawal
(My friend Subodh Agrawal is a great music lover and a keen follower of my blog. He once suggested I write on films songs based on classical ragas. This was already in my mind, but then I realised Subodh is much better equipped to do it. I am grateful that he accepted my request to do a guest series of articles on this theme. This curtain raiser showcasing his favourite 10 iconic songs on different ragas is delightful to read not only because of his deep insight but also for his fluent and witty style of writing. I am sure there are many more to come from his pen. – AK)
I was trying to motivate AK to do a few lists on songs based on ragas. He bounced it back to me, thanks to some pretensions I have of knowing something about classical music. I have accepted the commission with some reluctance, being well aware of how little I actually know about it.
I have not forgotten the Forgotten Composers, Unforgettable Melodies. It so happens that in a unique coincidence birth anniversaries of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, and death anniversaries of Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar fall in a narrow band of two and a half months between July 31 to October 13. They are the biggest icons of playback singing in the Golden Era, and I did not want to miss these special occasions to offer my tributes. I am back with C Arjun, who should rank among the top in this series not only alphabetically but because of his timeless creations. It was characteristic of the period that in a crowded field of many highly talented composers, some were consigned to B or C grade films. C Arjun was one of them. But his music towers over his films. Only one song of his – Paas baitho tabiyat bahal jayegi sung by Rafi is enough to give him immortality. Many of this blog’s readers have mentioned his name and this song. Much later his C grade film Jai Santoshi Maa, released in the year of the mighty Sholay and Deewar, established itself as one of the highest grossing films ever on the strength of his music.
A tribute on his death anniversary October 13
MJ Akbar in his obituary to Shammi Kapoor wrote in India Today that one reason for Shammi Kapoor craze was that he was mad. But who was the maddest of them all? The great superstar Amitabh Bachchan could do a mad act with straight face. You can think of his job interview with Ranjit in Namak Halal where he shows his English speaking proficiency. But Kishore Kumar did not need to do an act. He was mad. He was crazy, he was wild. He would sing – in Hindi, in English, in Bengali, in Gibberish; he would dance, he would squat, he would jump, he would roll, he would sleep – all in the same song of 3 minutes. There was no logic to his madness. No one chased his girl more relentlessly; no one teased her more irritatingly. Some of his girls were good sports; they would play along with the fun. Some others were prim, proper and well brought up. They were exasperated, they would scream, they would do their darndest to ward him off. But he won them all in the end. And they were the biggest of their time – Nutan, Vyjayantimala and Madhubala.
Birthday greetings to Lata Mangeshkar on September 28
Presenting my favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs composed by C Ramchandra, as my birthday greetings to her on September 28, is not a very diplomatic thing to do, given the history of their relationship. As her biographical accounts go, Lata Mangeshkar was more than a muse to C Ramchandra, and central to his music. But when the relationship turned sour, its repudiation (by her) was ruthless and complete. When she gave her famed public performance of Ae mere watan ke logo at Lal Quila on the Republic Day 1963, which brought tears to Nehru’s eyes, its lyricist Pradeep was acknowledged, but its composer C Ramchandra was not. (Note: Please also see comments 49, 51, 52, 54). When in 1967 Lata Mangeshkar selected her best 10 songs for HMV, she did not include any song by C Ramchandra, but her by then favourite boys Laxmikant Pyarelal’s – made it to the list!
Having recently done a list of happy songs of Mukesh, I had no intention of doing another Mukesh post anytime soon. But dustedoff, AP Joshi and Subodh Agrawal in their comments entered into an earnest discussion on ‘happy’ duets of Mukesh and requested I do a list of my favourite such duets. This opened the floodgates of my memory and several beautiful duets came streaming in my mind. About the same time another amazing coincidence happened. I heard on radio, after at least four decades, a most fabulous Mukesh-Lata duet lying in deep recesses of my memory. This post is an outcome of all these happenings.
If you grew up in the radio era and had an ear for music, Saigal-song-a day was a daily ritual – Radio Ceylon would end their programme of old film songs with a Saigal song every morning at 7.57 AM. So by the time I reached college I had fully soaked in Saigal magic. Later when I came across my first Saigal LP, all its iconic songs from films like Devdas, Street Singer, Chandidas, President etc I knew by heart. Yet the song which kept me spellbound and moved me like never before was a non-film song Jhulna jhulao ri. Soon after a friend lent me a whole cassette of his non-film songs. Its anchor song Main baithi thi in two parts mesmerised me. One after the other a whole new world of non-film songs of Saigal opened before me, some of which sounded quite like his film-songs, some others were very different, but they seemed to reach where his film songs could not.
