Survey of musical trends

New Theatres’ romance with Prem

Best love songs of Vintage Era

New Theatres I have been in the New Theatres mood since I wrote my last post on Pankaj Mullick. BN Sircar established New Theatres in Calcutta in 1931, i.e. the same year the first talkie Alam Ara was released in Bombay. Music has been an integral part and a defining feature of our films ever since. And so it has been with the New Theatres as well. It is also not surprising that love has been the dominant theme of our songs. But the New Theatres took love to entirely unexpected heights. It was not merely a matter of semantics that pyar, mohabbat, ishq for them was Prem or Preet. It also denoted for them something deeply spiritual, other-worldly and supremely blissful.

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Mohammad Rafi versus Kishore Kumar

An era changes with Aradhana (1969)

Rafi_Kishore Kumar When Aradhana unfolded in 1969 with the heroine sitting by the window of the hill train, tentatively browsing a book, and the hero being driven in a jonga by his friend on the hilly road alongside the toy train, with an innocent smile, a wink in his eyes and the harmonica on his friend’s lips, singing Mere sapno ki rani kab ayegi tu, a phenomenon called Rajesh Khanna was born. Also born was another and perhaps more startling phenomenon – a new Kishore Kumar who with this one film swept aside Rafi to emerge as the No.1 male singer. Rafi did have two duets in the film Bagon mein bahaar hai (with Lata) and Gunguna rahe hain bhanwre (with Asha Bhosle), but Kishore Kumar with Lata surpassed him with Kora kagaz tha ye man mera, and Rafi had nothing to counter his two solos Mere sapno ki rani kab ayegi tu and Roop tera mastana.

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Lata Mangeshkar vs Noorjehan

Would Noorjehan have survived the 1949 Lata tornado?

lata-mangeshkar-noor-jehan
Noorjehan’s migration to Pakistan in 1947 left behind the enduring question – if she had stayed back in India, would Lata still have reached the commanding heights as she did in the following three decades? As Lata’s early songs had a distinct Noorjehan tinge, the suggestion is that Noorjehan’s absence from the scene in a way helped Lata’s rise; with her around Lata might have perhaps remained a copy of the original.

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Twin songs: A front runner and a laggard

We all remember the following evergreen songs:

Song Singer Film Music director
Ae mere dil kahin aur chal Talat Mahmood Daag (1952) Shankar Jaikishan
Dil matwala lakh sambhala Talat Mahmood Bewafa (1952) AR Qureshi
Chali Radhe rani Manna Dey Parineeta (1953) Arun Kumar Mukherji
Mera qaraar le ja Talat Mahmood Ashiana (1952) Madan Mohan
Na ye chand hoga Hemant Kumar Shart (1954) Hemant Kumar
Jayen to jayen kahan Talat Mahmood Taxi Driver (1954) SD Burman
Kaise koi jiye Hemant Kumar Badbaan (1954) Timir Baran
SK Pal
Ae gham-e-dil kya karun Talat Mahmood Thokar (1954) Sardar Mallik

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Door Papiha Bola

Your relationship with songs that moved you, that brought tears to your eyes the first time you heard them and every time you hear them, is deeply personal.  How can others relate to your experience?  And no matter how well you write it would be less than what you felt.

Nida Fazli famously said:

Yun to har ghazal mukammal hoti hai
Par kalam se kaghaz par utarti hai to kuch kami rah jati hai.

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