Category: Music and Cinema

The fourteenth day of songs in this series.

And since we are finishing two weeks of the new – or not so new now – series, lets take stock of the songs that we have covered so far:

1. We kicked off the series with Talat Mahmood’s: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye.
2. On the 2nd day we took up Manna Dey’s: Aye mere pyaare watan.
3. On the 3rd day we took up Kishore Kumar’s: Aa chal ke tujhe main le ke chalun.
4. On the 4th day we took up Mohammad Rafi’s: Main ye soch kar us ke dar se utha tha.
5. On the 5th day we took up Mukesh’s: Guzra zamaana bachpan ka.
6. On the 6th day we took up Hemant Kumar’s: Tum pukaar lo.
7. On the 7th day we took up Mahendra Kapoor’s: Chalo ek baar phir se.
8. On the 8th day we took up Lata Mangeshkar’s: Ai mere watan ke logo.
9. On the 9th day we took up Asha Bhosle’s: Tora man darpan kehlaaye.
10. On the 10th day we took up SD Burman’s: Sun mere bandhu re, sun mere mitwa.
11. On the 11th day we took up Suman Kalyanpur’s: Nigaahen na phero chale jayenge hum.
12. On the 12th day we took up Shamshad Begum’s: Mere piya gaye Rangoon.
13. On the 13th day we took up Geeta Dutt’s: Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam.

Even though all songs in the series are eminently suitable to tug at our emotions, this is very very special to me. And it is not so much because of the singer with whom I have been starting the description of every song that I have shared so far. This song is special because it is the first song in Hindi movies of my favourite lyricist and poet Shakeel Badayuni.

The other contemporary poets and lyricists wrote; but, I feel Shakeel never wrote anything. I feel Shakeel reeved flowers of various shades and hues in a garland and put them around stars and moon. I feel he chiseled words until he achieved perfection. I feel that being a natural poet and lyricist of Love, he had dard and aansu as his close partners who probably used to play hide-n-seek with him whenever he used to pick up his pen to write.

कैसे कोई लिखे जज़्बात शकील के अलफ़ाज़ में,
हर किसी को नहीं मिलते तार दर्द – ए – साज़ के I

इश्क़ मोहब्बत ग़म ओ आंसू उनके हम जुबां थे,
दिल को झंझोटते थे बेकस आवाज़ में I

सागर में गोताखोर जैसे मोती ढून्ढ लेता है,
वह भी तराश लेते थे हकीकत दिल – ए – राज़ में I

कभी जब वह फ़िज़ाएं और बहारें बयान करते थे,
एक बेक़रारी छुपी रहती थी हुसन – ए – नाज़ में I

कैसे कोई लिखे जज़्बात शकील के अलफ़ाज़ में,
मीलों का फ़र्क़ है सबके और उनके अंदाज़ में I

Shakeel Badayuni has been my favourite for a long time and the reason is that I resonate the emotions expressed in his songs, ghazals and nazams. On this blog, I started off with ‘The Best Of Old Hindi Songs – Rafi, Shakeel, Naushad And Dilip Kumar Together’ to relive the era that I grew up in. It was followed by ‘Immortal Songs Of Mughal-E-Azam’, the movie that is still making waves more than 57 years after it was first released. And then, I just kept writing about him, eg, ‘Shakeel Badayuni – The King Amongst Lyricists And Poets – Part I’, ‘Shakeel Badayuni – The King Amongst Lyricists And Poets – Part II’,  ‘Immortal Ghazals Of Shakeel Badayuni – Part I’, ‘Immortal Ghazals Of Shakeel Badayuni – Part II’, ‘Immortal Ghazals Of Shakeel Badayuni – Part III’, ‘Another Tribute To Shakeel Badayuni In The Month Of His Death Anniversary’, ‘Shakeel Badayuni – Countdown To His Bith Centenary 03 Aug 2016 – Part I’, ‘Shakeel Badayuni – Countdown To His Bith Centenary 03 Aug 2016 – Part II’, ‘Shakeel Badayuni – Countdown To His Bith Centenary 03 Aug 2016 – Part III’, ‘Shakeel Badayuni – Countdown To His Bith Centenary 03 Aug 2016 – Part IV’, ‘Shakeel Badayuni – Countdown To His Bith Centenary 03 Aug 2016 – Part V’, and ‘Shakeel Badayuni Birth Centenary 03 Aug 2016 – Part VI’. Besides these, Shakeel happens to be there in many other posts on songs on my blog.

What an outstanding coincidence it is that Shakeel Badayuni’s first song in the movies should be for a movie titled Dard? No one knew ‘Dard’ better than him; eg, इस दर्द की मारी दुनिया में, मुझसा भी कोई मजबूर न हो; जिस तरह ख़ुशी से दूर हूँ मैं, यूँ कोई ख़ुशी से दूर न हो (1949 movie Paras), and हम नहीं वो जो ग़म-ए-इश्क़ से घबरा जाएँ, हो के मायूस ज़ुबाँ पर कोई शिकवा लाएँ; चाहे कितना ही बढ़े दर्द-ए-जिगर, अपने होंठों को सिए जाएँगे I तुम हमें प्यार करो या न करो, हम तुम्हें प्यार किए जाएँगे (1964 movie Kaise Kahoon). Even though Uma Devi (later comedian Tun Tun) sang the song as a woman, if one changes the song into a male song, it would be very much like Shakeel writing for himself.

Naushad Ali, the composer, was the guide and mentor of Shakeel Badayuni. Naushad gave Shakeel a break in AR Kardar’s 1947 movie Dard thereby ending days of destitution for the latter and his large family. This fact was never lost on Shakeel. Even though Shakeel worked for many other composers such as Ravi (two of his three Filmfare Awards) and Hemant Kumar (the third Filmfare Award for Kahin deep jale kahin dil), he owed his unshakeable loyalty to Naushad. The duo was together for more number of years and movies than any other duo in Hindi movies and together they produced outstanding music. In his dying days, when Shakeel was suffering from tuberculosis, Naushad paid him ten times his fees. This was because Naushad would be tilted more in favour of values than money. One incident that comes to mind is when K Asif desperately wanted Naushad to create music for his Mughal-e-Azam and approached him with a suitcase full of money. Naushad was so annoyed with it that he threw the suitcase and K Asif out of his house. K Asif later apologised and that’s how Naushad worked for him. Surprisingly, whilst everyone loves Naushad’s music even now, he received only one Filmfare Award (for 1954 movie Bauju Bawra). In 1981, however, the highest award in Indian Cinema, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, was conferred on him.

The songs of Baiju Bawra, put together by Shakeel and Naushad Ali are some of the most memorable songs in the Hindi movies. Both, ‘Man tadpat Hari darshan ko aaj’ (Raag Malkauns, Tal Tintal), and ‘O duniya ke rakhwale’ (Raag Darbari Kanada, Tal Kaherava) are amongst the best bhajans and best raaga based songs in Hindi movies. Naushad Ali is credited with bringing in raaga based songs in the movies and Shakeel supported him eminently in many of these.

Similarly, the songs of Mughal-e-Azam are so popular even after 57 years of the movie’s release. Recently, a Shapoorji Pallonji stage production, directed by Feroz Abbas Khan made big news with the original songs and dances from the movie. During the time when Khan was putting together the stage-play, Akademi did a tribute to the production in the making. Here is one of the dances:

Lets talk a little about the singer Uma Devi now. As with many singers of that era, she knocked at the door of Naushad Ali to be given a chance to sing in the movies. He listened to her and immediately signed her up. She made her debut as a solo playback singer in Nazir’s Wamiq Azra (1946). However, soon she had signed a contract with director AR Kardar and that’s how she sang for his 1947 movie Dard. So successful was this song – Afsana likh rahi hoon – for her that a gentleman from Delhi approached her and got married to her solely on the basis of this song. They had two daughters and two sons. This man whom she called Mohan died in 1992.

She had a very sucessful singing career until singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle arrived on the scene. And then her career went into tail spin because she had a limited vocal range. Naushad Ali then suggested to her to take up acting because of her bubbly nature. She thus emerged as Hindi movies first comedienne. It was her fervent desire that she should act in her first movie with Dilip Kumar. Naushad Ali made that too posible for her and the first movie that she acted as a comedienne was the 1950 Dilip Kumar starrer Babul.

The movie from where I have taken this song is the 1947 Abdul Rashid Kardar movie: Dard that starred Munnawar Sultana, Suraiya, Nusrat and Husn Bano. Munnawar Sultana’s name in the movie was Suraiya and Suraiya’s name was Hamida. Munnawar Sultana (a nawab’s daughter) and Suraiya (a poor village girl) both were in love with Nusrat who played Dr Iqbal. Shakeel Badayuni and Naushad created the following songs in the movie:

 

1	“Afsana Likh Rahi Hoon”	Uma Devi
2	“Aaj Machi Hai Dhum”	Uma Devi
3	“Yeh Kaun Chala Yeh Kaun Chala”	Uma Devi
4	“Betaab Hai Dil Dard-E-Mohabbat Ke Asar Se”	Uma Devi, Suraiya
5	“Beech Bhanvar Men Aan Phansa Hai”	Suraiya
6	“Dil Dhadke Aankh Meri Phadke”	Suraiya
7	“Hum Thay Tumhare Tum Thay Humare”	Suraiya
8	“Chale Dil Ki Duniya Barbaad Kar Ke”	Suraiya
9	“Yeh Afsana Nahin Zalim Mere Dil Ki Haqeeqat Hai”	Shamshad Begum
10	“Ham Dard Kaa Afsana Duniya Ko Suna Denge”	Shamshad Begum

Before we actually take up the song, a word about Abdul Rashid Kardar. He was the pioneer in establishing film industry in Bhati Gate, Lahore (later Pakistan). In 1924, the first silent film (11 years after Dadasaheb Phalke made his first silent movie: Raja Harishchandra), The Daughters of Today was released in Lahore at a time when the city only had nine operational cinema houses. Most of the films shown in theatres in Lahore were either made in Bombay or Calcutta, besides ones made in Hollywood or London. The Daughters of Today was the brain-child of GK Mehta, a former officer with the North-Western Railway, who had imported a camera into the country for this very project from London. He asked Kardar to assist him as an assistant director on the project and ended up giving Kardar his début role in his film as an actor. Muhammad Ismail, his friend and fellow calligraphist, accompanied Kardar in the making of the film. Kardar shifted to Calcutta in 1930 and after working in various production houses, he made his own Kardar Studios in 1940 (he shifted to Bombay in 1937) and started making films under the banner Kardar Productions. His 1946 film Shahjehan starred KL Saigal and the songs were by Majrooh (debut movie) and Naushad Ali. He worked with Naushad in a number of movies including the unforgettable Dil Diya Dard Liya starring Dilip Kumar, Waheeda Rehman and Pran.

Please enjoy Uma Devi sing: Afsana likh rahi hoon dil-e-beqraar ka….

अफ़सान लिख रही हूँ (२) दिल-ए-बेक़रार का
आँखोँ में रंग भर के तेरे इंतज़ार का
अफ़साना लिख रही हूँ

जब तू नहीं तो कुछ भी नहीं है बहार में
नहीं है बहार में
जी चाहता है मूँह भी
जी चाहता है मूँह भी न देखूँ बहार का
आँखोँ में रन्ग भर के तेरे इंतज़ार का
अफ़साना लिख रही हूँ

हासिल हैं यूँ तो मुझको ज़माने की दौलतें
ज़माने की दौलतें
लेकिन नसीब लाई
लेकिन नसीब लाई हूँ इक सोग़वार का
आँखोँ में रन्ग भर के तेरे इंतज़ार का
अफ़साना लिख रही हूँ

आजा कि अब तो आँख में आँसू भी आ गये
आँसू भी आ गये
साग़र छलक उठा
साग़र छलक उठा मेरे सब्र-ओ-क़रार का
आँखोँ में रन्ग भर के तेरे इंतज़ार का
अफ़साना लिख रही हूँ
(सोग़वार (Saugawar) is the opposite of Khushgawar)

When you are in love, which is the moment that you cherish most? Naturally, when you first saw your love, felt those vibrations coming from her/him to you, when your heart said yes, he or she is the one for me. Similarly, if you are in love with Shakeel’s poetry and lyrics, the way I am, you would cherish his first song in the movies. It has everything that makes you go back in time and freeze that moment when greatness, like a sprout, was just being born.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

The thirteenth day of songs in this series.

Today, let me begin by thanking those of you who have commented either here on the blog or elsewhere about how much you have liked this new series.

Today, we take up a song by our fifth female singer after Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur, and Shamshad Begum: Geeta Dutt whose birth anniversary was day before yesterday. Surprisingly, as seen by me, the lyrics of her debut song in the movies (1947 movie Do Bhai), Mera sundar sapana beet gaya (Penned by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and composed by SD Burman) were representative of the last years of her life. She married the director of Baazi (1951) Guru Dutt, on 26 May 1953 and on 10 Oct 1964 he killed himself after an overdose of alcohol and sleeping pils. As the song brings out: “Meri prem kahaani khatam hui, mere jeevan ka sangeet gaya”. Geeta Dutt became totally listless after her husband’s death (they were wedded for eleven years only), ran into financial difficulties, took to alcohol and finally died of liver cirrhosis in 1972, at the age of 41 years (Guru Dutt had died at the age of 39 years). The middle stanza of her first song, at the age of 17 years was:

ओ छोड़ के जाने वाले आ
दिल तोड़ के जाने वाले आ
आँखें असुवन में डूब गयीं
हँसने का ज़माना बीत गया
मेरा सुन्दर सपना बीत गया

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #52’) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have at times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series twelve days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the eleveth one, was put together by lyricist Rajendra Krishan, composer C Ramchandra and singer Shamshad Begum for the 1949 HS Rawail movie Patanga starring Nigar Sultana and Gope: Mere piya gaye Rangoon (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #12‘).

Today, we shall take up this unforgettable song from the 1959 Guru Dutt movie Kaagaz Ke Phool that starred Guru Dutt and his favourite heroine Waheeda Rehman. The song itself is picturised on both of them in his studio as a director in the movie. The song was put together by Kaifi Azmi as lyricist, SD Burman as composer and Geeta Dutt as singer.

Geeta Dutt was Geeta Roy before she married Guru Dutt. He was the young dashing director of 1951 movie Baazi, his debut movie as a director. She was famous much before him as Geeta Roy. Indeed, hats off to her characteristic style of singing that she could convert a Sahir Ludhianvi ghazal (Tadbeer (through deliberation) se bighadi hui taqdeer (destiny) bana le) into a lilting and feisty song; of course credit has to be shared with Sahir Ludhianvi. Two years later when she married Guru Dutt, he gained but decline started in her career. The reason was that he wanted her to sing only for his productions. At the same time, he wasn’t totally hers especially after Waheeda Rehman arrived on the scene. So she took to drinking heavily to get over the let-down. This affected her singing so hugely that SD Burman who was looking for an alternative to Lata Mangeshkar had to finally give up.

The worst of it was that she had to sing playback for her husband’s passion: Waheeda Rehman. Take this song for example from Kaagaz Ke Phool. He is married in the movie and a director. He takes her, a no body, to do Paaro in his movie Devdas. Gradually, they fall in love. Their situation is impossible because Guru Dutt has a daughter (Baby Naaz) from his marriage (that has not been annulled) and this daughter is determined to keep her parents together. Think of how close his reel life was to real life. By the way, killing themselves became some sort of fad with such highly talented and highly sensitive people. Take into consideration that their eldest son Tarun, who directed Rekha in 1984 movie Bindiya Chamkegi, also committed suicide in 1985, 21 years after his father did.

From the time of starting with 1947 movie Do Bhai‘s song: Mera sundar sapna beet gaya to her 1971 Basu Bhattacharya movie Anubhav‘s songs composed by Kanu Roy (Meri jaan mujhe jaan na kaho meri jaan, Koi chupake se aake, and Mera dil jo mera hota), Geeta Roy and later Geeta Dutt gave us some very memorable, sensuous and eminently romantic songs in the movies. Some other favourites of mine are: Na ye chand hoga and Chand ghatane laga raat dhalne lagi (Shart; song also sung by hemant Kumar but with different stanzas), Jai Jagdish Hare (Anand Math; also with Hemant Kumar), E ri main to prem deewani, Ghunghat ke pat khol and Main to Giridhar ke ghar jaayun (Meera bhajans in Jogan), Ai dil mujhe bata de (Bhai Bhai), Jaane kahan mera jigar gaya ji, and Thandi hawa kaali ghata aa hi gayi jhuum ke (Mr & Mrs 55), Bachpan ke din bhi ky adin the (with Asha Bhosle in Sujata), Dekh ke akeli mujhe barkha sataye (Baazi), Dil ki umange hain jawan (Munimji), Jaa jaa jaa jaa bewafa, Ye lo main haari piya hui teri jeet re and Sun sun sun sun zaalima (Aar Paar), Jaane kya tune kahi (Pyaasa), Kaisa jaadu balam tune daara (12 O’ Clock), Khayalon mein kisi ke is tarah aay nahin karte (Bawre Nain), Koi duur se awaaz de chale aayo and na jaayo sainya chhuda ke baiyan (Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam), Mera naam chin chin chu (Howrah Bridge), and Rimjhim ke taraane leke aayi barsaat (Kaala Bazaar). Perhaps the song that should be her legacy, in lyrics at least, is the Do Bhai (1947) movie song: Yaad karoge ik din hamako yaad karoge).

What can be the greatest tribute to Geeta Dutt? I think nothing can be greater than Lata Mangeshkar singing the song that I have selected for you: Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam, as a tribute to Geeta Dutt:

I have already, in my posts, said enough about the composer of this song: Sachin Dev Burman. Incidentally, although he was the composer and music director of choice for Dev Anand movies, he was so for Guru Dutt movies. The commonality came about because Guru Dutt directed movies for his great friend Dev Anand under the banner Navketan Films. Even at that there were movies that were not dev Anand starrers for which SD Burman composed, eg, Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and the songs of these are amongst his most memorable:

Finally, the lyricist of the song: Kaifi Azmi. I have as many as three blog posts on him: ‘The Best Songs Of Kaifi Azmi – Aa Great Lyricist And Poet’, ‘Part II’ and ‘Part III’. He was the only famous lyricist whom I heard live in a mushaira (in my college Govt College Dharamshala). I have found his poetry and lyrics so powerful that I wonder how could he write these in such simple words. In this song, for example, by using the expression बुन रहे हैं दिल ख़्वाब दम-ब-दम he laid bare the feelings of lovers, out of marriage, when his first marriage hadn’t succeeded; and he did it so easily without using volumes and without resorting to grandiose words.

Before I give you the song: waqt ne kiya, I must tell you about her Baazi (1951) song: Aaj ki raat piya dil na todo. It is in my favourite Raag Pahadi, Tal Dadra (Please see: ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #7’). It is actually songs like these that made her immortal.

As I said, today’s song is from the 1959 Guru Dutt movie Kaagaz Ke Phool, which is the first Indian film in Cinemascope, and also the last one directed by Guru Dutt. The film is said to have been inspired by Guru Dutt’s association with Gyan Mukherjee, and to pay homage to Mukherjee. Mukherjee was a famous 1940s director whose Kismet (1943) made him a household name. The life and subsequent failures of Mukherjee, whom Guru Dutt had joined in 1950, influenced him deeply. However, the song and the movie also, in great parts, represent on reel Guru Dutt’s own story in real life.

Please enjoy Geeta Dutt sing: Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam….

वक़्त ने किया क्या हंसीं सितम
तुम रहे न तुम हम रहे न हम
वक़्त ने किया…

बेक़रार दिल इस तरह मिले
जिस तरह कभी हम जुदा न थे
तुम भी खो गए, हम भी खो गए
एक राह पर चलके दो क़दम
वक़्त ने किया…

जाएंगे कहाँ पूछता नहीं
चल पड़े मगर रास्ता नहीं
क्या तलाश है कुछ पता नहीं
बुन रहे हैं दिल ख़्वाब दम-ब-दम
वक़्त ने किया…

I think there are very few people who are not affected by the reel and real lives of Guru Dutt and Geeta Dutt, two of the most outstanding talents in Hindi films that were wasted because of their sensitivities leading to their excesses in their own ways that finally led to their untimely deaths. In between, we have Waheeda Rehman, the Living Legend, who was the cause of much heartburn for Geeta Dutt whose career went into sudden decline after her husband’s involvement with her. This song represents that confusion in their lives. The pain of the expressions of Waheeda Rehman, on screen, is nothing in comparison to the pain that Geeta Dutt brought to singing for her. Waheeda Rehman’s name in the movie was Shanti. Ironically, shanti (peace) was what Geeta Dutt lost forever after Waheeda Rehman came into her husband’s life. Seen from every angle: singing, lyrics, composition and cinematography (the play of shadows and lights), the song represents one of the best that Hindi movies had to offer. I am transported into another world everytime I listen to it.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

The twelfth day of songs in this series.

Today, we take up a song by our fourth female singer after Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Suman Kalyanpur: Shamshad Begum. She was one of the first playback singers in the Hindi films industry. How early? Well, Madan Mohan and Kishore Kumar used to sing as chorus boys in her songs.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #52’) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have at times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series eleven days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the tenth one, was put together by lyricist Upendra, composer Dulaal Sen and singer Suman Kalyanpur for the 1959 unreleased movie Black Prince: Nigaahen na phero chale jaayenge hum (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #11’).

Today, we shall take up a song from the 1949 HS Rawail movie Patanga that starred Nigar Sultana, Shyam, Yakub and Gope. The song itself is picturised on Nigar Sultana and Gope. The song was put together by Rajendra Krishan as lyricist, C Ramchandra as composer and Shamshad Begum as singer. The male voice on the phone in the prelude of the song is that of C Ramchandra though there are people who have contested it. I am forever grateful to the director Harnam Singh Rawail as he directed the 1963 movie Mere Mehboob, which has the best song of the combination of my favourites Shakeel Badayuni, Naushad Ali and Mohammad Rafi: Mere mehboob tujhe meri mohabbat ki kasam.

Shamshad Begum, as I have already said here, was one of our first playback singers. She was born on 14 April 1919 in Lahore. Most of you who know your history would recall that the day prior to that was the day of the Jallianwala Massacre in Amritsar, just 50 Kms from the place where she was born. She was from a conservative Muslim family. Two events in her life went against the family traditions. One was, when her uncle, impressed by her voice, took her, at the age of 12 years only, to cut records with musician Ghulam Haider and he signed her up for twelve songs with similar facilities that he gave to major singing stars. Her father Miya Hussain Baksh made peace with her singing on a condition that she would record her songs in burqa and never allow herself to be photographed. The second was even worse. At the age of 13 years she fell in love with a Hindu, Ganpat Lal Batto, and married him within two years (those days marriages, especially for girls used to be early). The rest of her biography reads like a Hindi film story. Her love life and her career boomed, courtesy the famous director Mehboob Khan (founder of Mehboob Studio in Bandra, Mumbai and maker of such movies as Andaz (1949), Mother India and Son of India) who brought her to Bombay. But then, fate played its cruel card in 1955 when her husband met with an accident and died. Shamshad Begum was so much in love with him that the shock of losing him made her listless and withdrawn. She preferred to become a recluse rather than continue with her singing in films. Shamshad Begum was one singer who opted out of her singing at the height of her popularity. For her, family life was more important than popularity.

Mehboob Khan first made her sing in his 1943 movie Taqdeer (the debut movie of Nargis) (She had, just to remind you, started singing for Ghulam Haider for Khazanchi when she was only 12 and Khandan one year later). She sang nine out of the ten songs of the movie Taqdeer composed by Rafiq Ghaznavi. She was an overnight celebrity in Bombay now. Even though Mehboob Khan took up singing stars such as Noorjahan, Surendra and Suraiya for his 1946 movie Anmol Ghadi, she also sang Udan khatole pe ud jaayun with Zohrabai Ambalewali. She came in touch with composer Naushad Ali in that movie and that started a very fruitful professional relationship. For example, she sang with Lata Mangeshkar in 1949 Mehboob Khan movie Andaz: Dar na mohabbat karle, a song composed by Naushad. Indeed, Naushad, in an interview, admitted that initially it was Shamshad Begum’s singing that made him famous as a composer. She was much in demand by other composers at this stage and the present song is from the movie Patanga, released in the same year as Mehboob Khan’s Andaz and the composer was C Ramchandra.

Some of my favourite songs of Shamshad Begum are: Badhi mushkil se dil ki beqraari ko qaraar aaye (Naghma), Bachpan ke din bhula na dena and Chaman mein reh ke veeraana (Deedar), Buujh mera kya naam re and Kahin pe nigaahen kahin pe nishaana (the debut song of Waheeda Rehman) ( both from C.I.D.), Chhod babul ka ghar and Milate hi aankhen dil hua deewana kisi ka (Babul), Dukh bhare din beete re bhaiya, Gaadi waale gaadi dheere haank re, Holi aayi re Kanhaai and Pi ke ghar aaj pyaari dulhaniya chali (Mother India), Duur koi gaaye dhun ye sunaaye (Baiju Bawra), Ek do teen aaja mausam hai rangeen (Awaara), Ham gham ka fasaana duniya ko suna denge (Dard, Jaate jaate ek nazar bhar dekh lo (Qawali Ki Raat), Kabhi aar kabhi paar laaga teer-e-nazar (Aar Paar), Kajra mohabbat waala (Kismat), Main bhnwara tu hai phool ye din mat bhool (Mela), the debut movie of my favourite lyricist Shakeel Badayuni), Reshami salwar kurta jaali ka (Naya Daur), Sainya dil mein aana re (Bahaar), and Teri mehfil mein kismat aazma kar ham bhi dekhange (together with Lata Mangeshkar in Mughal-e-Azam).

Lets now take up Lyricist Rajendra Krishan and Composer C Ramchandra. Rajendra Krishan shares his birthday with me: 6th June. He too spent his youth in Shimla. I have as many as four blog-posts on him; and not because of these coincidences or because he won Rupees 64 Lakhs as Jackpot in horse-racing (Please see: ‘The Best Songs Of Rajendra Krishan, The Richest Lyricist’, ‘Part II’, ‘Part III’ and ‘Part IV’). Some of Lata Mangeshkar’s best songs have been penned by him and composed by Madan Mohan. The best thing about him was that he could pen both serious and sad songs such as Anarkali songs: Mohabbat aisi dhadkan hai, Ye zindagi usi ki hai, and Zindagi pyaar ki do chaar ghadi hoti hai as well as Westernised Songs, for example in Bhagwan Dada’s Albela (Shola jo bhadake, Sham dhale khidaki tale, and Dil dhadake nazar sharmaaye). His Jahan Ara songs (Main teri nazar ka saroor hoon, Teri aankh ke aansu pi jaayun, and Phir wohi shaam wohi gham wohi tanhaayi hai) and Adalat Songs (Unako ye shikayat hai hai ke ham kuchh nahin kehte, Youn hasraton ke daag mohabbat mein dho liye, and Jaana tha hamase door) are in sharp contrast with his, for example, Padosan songs (Ek chatur naar and Mere saamne wali khidaki mein). Some of my other favourites of his are in Dekh Kabira Roya (Meri veena tum bin roye, Hamase aay ana gaya, Kaun aaya mere man ke dwaare), Nagin (All songs including Jaadugar sainya), Main Bhi Ladaki Hoon (Chanda se hoga wo pyara), Manmauji (Chanda ja, and main to tum sang nain mila ke) and Nai Roshnai (Kis tarah jeete hain ye log bata do yaaro).

Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar or C Ramchandra lived between 12 Jan 1918 and 5 Jan 1982. Whatever I said about Rajendra Krishan is true for him as well; ie, he could compose super slow sad songs (Tum kyaa jaano tumhaari yaad mein ham kitana roye) to those Shola jo bhadake type Albela songs. In addition, he could compose real classical music and songs for movies such as V Shantaram’s Navrang (Tu chhupi jain kahan, Are jaa re jhat natkhat, and Shyamal shyamal baran). C Ramchandra covered himself in glory by composing Kavi Pradeep’s Ai mere watan ke logo, which later became the signature song of the woman and singer he loved: Lata Mangeshkar. In addition to composing, he sang a number of songs with her. Here is one of them for the 1955 Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari movie Azaad, one of my favourites:

As I said, today’s song is from the 1949 Harnam Singh Rawail movie Patanga starring Nigar Sultana, Shyam, Yakub and Gope. The song is picturised on Nigar Sultana and Gope, sung by Shamshad Begum, on the lyrics of Rajendra Krishan and composition by C Ramchandra.

Please enjoy Shamshad Begum sing: Mere piya gaye Rangoon….

Man talking on phone: Hello,हिन्दुस्तान का देहरादून?
Hello,मैं रंगून से बोल रहा हूँ
मैं अपनी बीवी रेनुका देवी से बात करना चाहता हूँ
हां हां

श: मेरे पिया; हो मेरे पिया गये रंगून
किया है वहाँ से टेलीफ़ून
(तुम्हारी याद सताती है – २) जिया में आग लगाती है
मेरे पिया गये रंगून किया है वहाँ से टेलीफ़ून
(तुम्हारी याद सताती है)- २ जिया में आग लगाती है

चि: (हम छोड़ के हिन्दुस्तान (बहुत पछताये – २) – २
हुई भूल जो तुमको साथ ना लेकर आये – २
हम बर्मा की गलियों मैं और तुम हो देहरादून
(तुम्हारी याद सताती है – २) जिया में आग लगाती है

श: (मेरी भूख प्यास भी खो गये (गम के मारे- २) – २
मैं अधमुई सी हो गई ग़म के मारे – २
तुम बिन, साजन, जनवरी फ़रवरी बन गये मे और जून
(तुम्हारी याद सताती है – २) जिया में आग लगाती है

C: (अजी तुमसे बिछड़के हो गये (हम सन्यासी – २) – २
खा लेते हैं जो मिल जाये रूखी सूखी बासी – २
अजी लूंगी बाँध, के करें गुज़ारा भूल गये पतलून
(तुम्हारी याद सताती है – २) जिया में आग लगाती है

This Shamshad Begum song’s popularity doesn’t appear to be in any danger of fading away even after 68 years of its release. The same is the case with the singer despite her going into isolation after her husband’s untimely death in an accident when she was only 36 years old. I liked the way, the common people in India rhymed Teliphoon and Rajendra Krishan did well to rhyme it with Rangoon (Yangon), the capital of Burma. Burma and Rangoon always had fascination for us. This year Vishal Bhardwaj’s Rangoon was released starring Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Kapoor and Kangana Ranaut. Here in this song, it is not merely rhyming with Teliphoonn, but, the mention of Rangoon adds enigma to the song; viz, why would anyone go there considering that the grave of the Last Mughal Emperor in India is in Rangoon and he was exiled there by the British. All in all the song has a certain nostalgia about it, a strange pull, that connects what is believed to be a remote and arcane place (Rangoon/Burma) to Indian culture. We also cannot forget that our most loved cabaret dancer in the movies: Helen was born in Burma.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

The eleventh day of songs in this series.

Today, we take up a song by our third female singer after Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle: Suman Kalyanpur.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #84‘) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have at times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series ten days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the ninth one, was put together by lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri, composer and singer SD Burman for the 1959 Bimal Roy movie Sujata starring Nutan and Sunil Dutt: Sun mere bandhu re, sun mere mitwa (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #10‘).

Today, we shall take up a song for an un-released movie of 1959: Black Prince. During those days, songs used to be recorded much before the movie would be released. My research shows that even the cast of the movie wasn’t released. Upendra penned the lyrics and the song was composed by a little known music director Dulaal Sen. The song was sung separately by Mohammad Rafi and Suman Kalyanpur. I am giving you the Suman Kalyanpur version.

Suman Kalyanpur was born on 28 Jan 1937 as Suman Hemadi in Dhaka. She assumed the surname Kalyanpur in 1958 when she married a Bomaby based businessman Ramanand Kalyanpur. Her maiden surname Hemadi is because her father Shankar Rao Hemadi hailed from Hemadi or Hemmady village in Mangalore, Karnataka. He was serving in Dhaka when Suman was born.

Suman grew up with two interests: Music and Painting (she was a student in Sir JJ School of Arts in Bombay after her schooling in Columbia School. Simultaneously, she started learning classical vocal from Pune’s Prabhat Films’ music director and a close family friend, Pandit Keshav Rao Bhole. Somewhere along the line, her hobby changed into professional interest. And then she started learning from Ustad Khan Abdul Rehman Khan and Guruji Master Navrang.

Her first movie as a playback singer was the 1954 Darwaza and the composer was Naushad. She has sung a total of 857 songs. She hasn’t won either National Award or Filmfare Award. However, like me, she has many a fan who love her singing and range, even if it has likeness to that of Lata Mangeshkar. Two of her songs are my favourites: Na tum hamen jaano (Baat Ek Raat Ki; Hemant too sang it but not as a duet) and Mere mehboob na ja, aaj ki raat na ja (Noor Mahal). The others that I like are: Dil gham se jal raha hai par dhuaan na ho (Shama), Ajahun na aaye baalma sawan beeta jaaye (Saanjh Aur Savera), Behna ne bhai ki kalayi mein (Resham Ki Dori), Mera pyaar bhi tu hai (Sathi), Parbaton ke pedho par shaam ka basera hai (Shagoon), Raat suhaani jaag rahi hai dheere dheere chupake chupake (Jigri Dost), Rahen na rahen ham (Mamta song that she sang with Lata and Rafi), Tumhi mere meet ho, tumhi meri preet ho (Pyase Panchhi), Ye kisane geet chheda (Meri Soorat Teri Aankhen), and Younhi dil ne chaha tha rona rulaana (Dil Hi To Hai).

Very little is known about the Lyricist Upendra and Music Director Dulaal Sen. Lets deal with Dulaal Sen first. I don’t suppose there is any other movie for which this almost unknown Music Director composed songs for or gave music for. This song was sung separately by both Mohammad Rafi and Suman Kalyanpur. Rafi was famous at that time; much more famous than Suman Kalyanpur. However, he sang many a beautiful songs for lesser or little known composers like Nissar Baazmi (who later became famous in Pakistan), C Arjun, Pandit Shivaram, S Mohinder, GS Kohli, and Sapan Jagmohan. Dulaal Sen composed only for this movie and the movie wasn’t ever released. There were a total of four songs recorded: Nigaahen na phero chale jayenge ham (separately by Mohammad Rafi and Suman Kalyanpur; the second antara is slightly different, else these are essentially the same lyrics), Door desh se aaya hoon main (Rafi), Meethi lagi hai teri been (Asha Bhosle).

Upendra, on the other hand, penned songs for three movies: the un-released Black Prince of 1959 (four songs), Panch Ratan of 1965 (one song) and Bombay By Night of 1976 (five songs); a total of ten songs.

So now, if this was an unreleased movie, with little known lyricist and music director, then why am I giving you this song? What is more why am I giving you the Suman Kalyanpur version and not the more famous Mohammad Rafi version.

The fact is that I am different! On the net and in our milieu, we are more or less conformists. Go on the net and search for lyrics of any song, for example; you would find the same lyrics with exact punctuation marks on almost all portals. Even at that, I have many times given you lyrics either from memory or by simply listening to the song. Similarly, my list of Top Five Songs of Lata Mangeshkar (‘My Favourite Songs Of Lata Mangeshkar‘) is much different from the others. Indeed, on this blog, you would see a link called ‘Why Is This Blog Different?‘ I feel that if one is expected to merely repeat everything that is already available, there is no point in having another blog.

And I am not different for the sake of it. Listen to Suman Kalyanpur sing this song and you would know. Rafi singing the same song sounds so confident, modulated, and enthusiastic that when he dips to those low notes, he fills you with ruefulness. Of course, it is all expected from him; no one can sing like him. Suman Kalyanpur is measured (almost subdued as if she is afraid to lose her lover) and her voice carries the tremor (especially when she sings ‘Yaad’ and ‘Hum’), and the pain of rejection that would mar the beautiful atmosphere. The effect is similar to Mubarak Begum singing: Kabhi tanhayiyon mein youn hamari yaad (similar tremor) aayegi.

Please enjoy Suman Kalyanpur sing: Nigaahen na phero chale jaayenge hum….(the video though has both Rafi’s and Simon’s versions):

निगाहें ना फेरो चले जाएंगे हम -२
मगर याद रखना कि याद आएंगे हम -२
निगाहें ना फेरो …

तुमने जादू किया है नज़रों से नज़रें मिला के -२
आशियाँ अब तो बना मेरे पहलू में आ के
न दामन छुड़ाना बहक जाएंगे हम -२
याद आएंगे हम
निगाहें ना फेरो …

ज़िन्दगी प्यार की है फ़िज़ा इकरार की है
ये घड़ी तेरी क़सम नहीं इन्कार की है
मोहब्बत की दुनिया में खो जाएंगे हम
याद आएंगे हम
निगाहें ना फेरो …

Many Yaad songs have this element of ruefulness: what could it have been had things gone right (Please see: ‘The Best Of ‘Yaad’ Songs‘). However, there are others with varied feelings. For example, these fill you with melancholy (eg, Woh jab yaad aaye bahut yaad aaye and Yaad aa gain woh nasheeli nigaahen), nostalgia (eg, Yaad na jaaye beete dinon ki), quiet resolve (eg, Jab yaad kabhi tum aaoge samajhenge tumhen chaha hi nahin (Jis dil mein basa tha pyaar tera)), self-pity (Meri yaad mein tum na aansu bahaana), and even self-destruction (Teri yaad dil se mitaane chala hoon). In this song, one has this feeling that one can’t really categorise it; more so since the situation in the movie is not known to us (the movie was never released). Thus, there is a touch of enigma added to the ruefulness. And that adds to this song tugging at your emotions in all three facets: lyrics, composition and singing. What adds to it is the fact that the hero and the heroine both were to be driven into this situation, though at separate times. Every time I listen to it, it sends me thinking and imagining.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

The tenth day of songs in this series. Sorry for the break that I took as I wasn’t feeling up to it. I had been giving you songs by only male singers so far and even though some of the best, such as KL Saigal’s and Pankaj Mullick’s, were yet to come, I had decided to interject songs of female singers too. The first one was Lata Mangeshkar with a song about sacrifices of jawans in 1962 Sino-Indian War, which became her signature tune even though she didn’t believe in it to start with. The second one was an Asha Bhosle song that is one of the best bhajans penned by Sahir Lushianvi and composed by Ravi: Tora man darpan kehlaaye.

Today, I am back with another male singer: Sachin Dev Burman.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #84‘) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have at times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series nine days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the ninth one, was put together by lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi, composer Ravi and singer Asha Bhosle for the 1965 Ram Maheshwari movie Kaajal starring Meena Kumari, Raaj Kumar, Padmini and Dharmendra: Tora man darpan kehlaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #9‘).

Today, we shall take up a song not just composed by Sachin Dev Burman but also sung by him.

When you recall the life of one of the best and most influential composers in Hindi movies, it amazes you to know that he died on 31 Oct 1975, that is 42 years ago; however, his legacy and popularity continue as if it was yesterday. In addition to his delightful compositions that were both raaga based and semi-classical, he had a powerful singing voice that transported one to the atmosphere of the song as driftwood in strong flow. He didn’y allow his voice to be lent as playback singer for actors. Hence, his singing voice was often used as a background commentary. Here in this song, Bimal Roy has used his voice to convey the feelings of the actress Nutan in the title role of Sujata through background singing (lip-syncing) by a boatman in the river Hoogly.

Some of the memorable songs sung by him are: O majhi, mere sajan hain us paar (Bandini), Kaahe ko roye, safal hogi teri aradhana (Aradhana), Wahan kaun hai tera and Allah megh de paani de (Guide), Prem ke pujaari ham hain ras ke bikhari (Prem Pujari), and Meri duniya hai maa tere aanchal mein (Talaash). You would notice that each one of these songs adds meaning to the situation without the lead actors lip-syncing them.

Before we go on to the lyricist of this song, lets turn to SD Burman as a composer and music director. He was born on 01 Oct 1906, as a member of Tripura royal family. His mother was Raj Kumari Nirmala Devi, the royal princess of Manipur and father was Nabadwipchandra Dev Burman, son of Maharaja Ishanachandra Manikya Dev Burman, Maharaja of Tripura. He started his career not as a composer but as a singer in 1920s on All India Radio, Calcutta. The other day a friend Atul Dhabe (an avid classical instrumentalist (particularly on Sitar)) brought out to me how Bengalis have a natural love for Raag Khammaj. Interestingly, SD Burman’s first record on 78 rpm for Hindustan Records, released in 1932 , was with this semi-classical raag Khammaj, ‘E Pathey Aaj Eso Priyo’ on one side, and the folk ‘Dakle Kokil Roj Bihane’. For the next decade Sachin da kept singing and he cut 131 Bengali songs. As a music composer, he started with the Bengali plays Sati Tirtha and Janani, and eventually gave his first score in the film Rajgee. In 1937, his second film Rajkumarer Nirbashan (1940) became a hit. He gave music in Bengali films such as Protishodh (1941), Abhoyer Biye (1942) and Chaddobeshi (1944) and only one Bengali film in 1969/70 after he permanently moved to Mumbai in 1946. He composed for over 20 Bengali films and 89 Hindi films in all.

He emerged as one of the greatest music directors in Hindi films. His song for 1947 movie Do Bhai, penned by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan (when he was only about 17 years old) and sung by Geeta Dutt (who too was around the same age as Raja) was the turning point of his career as a composer, at the gae of 41 years: Mera sundar sapana beet gaya. With Sahir Ludhainvi he formed one of the greatest musical pairs in the 50s (they worked in 18 movies together until they split after Guru Dutt’s 1957 movie Pyaasa). Some of their memorable songs are: Ye raat ye chandini phir kahan (Jaal), Tadbeer se biagadi hui taqdeer bana le and Aaj ki raat piya dil na todo (Baazi), Jeevan ke safar mein rahi and Dil ki umange hain jawan (Munimji), Teri duniya mein jeene se to behatar hai ke mar jaayen and Chup hai dharti chup hain chand sitaare (House No. 44), Jise tu qabool kar le and Kisako khabar thi (Devdas), Jaayen to jaayen kahan (Taxi Driver), and those unforgettable songs of Pyaasa: Jaane woh kaise log the, Ham aapki aankhon mein is dil ko basa dein to, Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kyaa hai, Jaane kya tune kahi, Tang aa chuke hain kashmakash zindagi se ham, Sar to tera chakraaye, Aaj sajan mohe ang laga lo and Jinhe naaz hai Hind par woh kahan hain.

If you notice most of the movies, for which SD Burman composed songs, are Dev Anand starrers. He had Dev Anand as his favourite actor and used to see that his middle name Sachin Dev Burman was for his hero.

After 1957, he had another great pairing with Majrooh Sultanpuri and the 1960 movie Manzil in which Dev Anand aspires to become a music director in Hindi films, much to the chagrin of his father, is supposed to be based on SD Burman’s own story. The movie revolved around one of the greatest songs sung by Hemant Kumar: Yaad aa gayin woh nasheeli nigaahen (remembering his love Nutan):

His association with Majrooh Sultanpuri, the lyricist of the present song, produced many memorable songs such as Chhod do aanchal zamaana kya kahega and Chand phir nikala (Paying Guest), Ham hain rahi pyaar ke and Aankhon mein kya ji rupahala baadal (Nau Do Gyarah), Hai apna dil to awaara (Solvah Saal), Achha ji main haari, Ham bekhudi mein tumako pukaare chale gaye, and nazar laagi raja tore bangle pe (Kala Pani), Deewana mastana hua dil and Chal ri sajani ab ky soche (Bambai Ka Babu), Na tum hamen jaano na hum tumhen jaane (Baat Ek Raat Ki), Aise to na dekho and Khwaab ho tum ya koi haqeeqat (Teen Deviyan), Hontho pe aisi baat, Rula ke gaya sapna mera and Dil pukaare (Jewel Thief), Tere mere milan ki ye raina, Piyas bina piya bina basiya, Teri bindiya re, and He nadiya kinaare (Abhimaan).

Songs based on raagas were the strong point of SD Burman and there are quite a few of them. The best of these were on the lyrics of Shailendra in the 1963 movie Meri Soorat Teri Aankhen; songs such as: Puuchho na kaise maine rain bitayi, Tere bin soone nayan hamare, and Nache man mora magan dighdaa dhigi dhigi (the last one happens to be one of the best Raaga based songs sung by Mohammad Rafi) (Raag Bhairavi, Tintal/Kaherava) (Please see: ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #74‘).

The song Sun mere bandhu re sun mere mitwa is from the 1959 Bimal Roy movie Sujata with Nutan in the title role of an untouchable caste falling in love with Sunil Dutt as Adhir, from an upper Brahmin caste. The song, sung by a boatman in the background, is sung at the time when they express love for each other in histrionics as well as in words. SD Burman has sung it on his own composition. His compositions were, many a times, based on folk music and this is one of them.

Please enjoy SD Burman sing: Sun mere bandhu re….

सुन मेरे बंधू रे, सुन मेरे मितवा
सुन मेरे साथी रे

होता तू पीपल, मैं होती अमर लता तेरी
तेरे गले माला बन के, पड़ी मुसकाती रे
सुन मेरे साथी रे
सुन मेरे बंधू रे …

जिया कहे तू सागर, मैं होती तेरी नदिया
लहर बहर करती अपने, पिया से मिल जाती रे
सुन मेरे साथी रे
सुन मेरे बंधू रे …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9eppdrcyHI

As far as the song is concerned, I am reminded of one of the best of Lata Mangeshkar for the 1962 movie Anapadh: Aapki nazaron ne samajha pyaar ke kaabil mujhe, dil ki ai dhadakan thehar ja mil gayi manzil mujhe. Mala Sinha was in the title role of Anapadh (Illiterate) because her brother Balraj Sahni felt schooling and education for girls was unnecessary as long as they were well-versed with household skilled. She married into a family of well-read (Dharmendra’s) and the moment the family found out she was illiterate she was treated as a worm until Dharmendra fell in love with her and decided to teach her himself. That song was an expression of gratitude for being accepted. This song, preceded the Anapadh song by three years and went several steps ahead in that by using a boatman sing it to express her feelings, Bimal Roy let her maintain a dignified elegance rather than a grateful comedown. I saw the movie as a child/boy but I still remember the complete lyrics (the lyrics on the net are all wrong) and the excellent picturisation.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

Raaga Based Song of the Day: Jhoomati chali hawa, yaad aa gaya koi….
Raag Sohani, Tal Dadra

Ladies and gentlemen, please forgive me for being off the series for about ten days. I wasn’t feeling like it and there is no other excuse. Anyway, here I am now; back with you with the next one in the series.

This is the second time I am giving you a song based on Raag Sohani. The first time it was, if you recall, a treat to listen to Ustaad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan singing something that Shakeel Badayuni and Naushad Ali put together for K Asif’s magnum opus Mughal-e-Azam: Prem jogan ban ke. It was in Tal Dipchandi (Please see: ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #42‘). Naturally, nothing could have been better than that.

Today’s song has been sung by Mukesh. Yesterday, when I gave in ‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #5‘ his Guzra zamaana bachpan ka, I brought out that from the very first song that he sang, ie, Dil jalta hai to jalne de, he tried to imitate KL Saigal. It was left to Naushad to hone his own unique style of singing, which he initiated in Mehboob Khan’s 1949 movie Andaz, in which he sang for Dilip Kumar two very fine songs: Tu kahe agar jeevan bhar main geet sunaata jaayun, and Jhuum jhuum kar naacho aaj. There was no looking back after that. This is from the 1962 movie Sangeet Samrat Tansen that was directed by the music director SN Tripathi. Naturally, by this time, Mukesh had not only a unique voice but also had made quite a name for himself.

The lyricist Shailendra has been called by me as lyricist beyond compare (Please see: ‘The Best Songs Of Shailendra, The Lyricist Beyond Compare – Part I‘ and ‘Part II‘). Unlike almost all poets turned lyricists of that era, Shailendra was solely a lyricist; lyrics were his life and he put his life and soul into it. His lyrics always made you think, frequently with their deeper meaning. Take the present song itself. Try to imagine what he means by: Chandini ki ote se muskura gaya koi. Only my favourite lyricist Shakeel Badayuni has that kind of imagination; eg, Tere saaye ko samajh kar main haseen Taj Mahal, chandini raat mein nazaron se tujhe pyaar karun. It is not surprising at all that the first five years of Filmfare Awards for Best Lyricist, from the year 1958 to 1962, went to both of them, with the first two going to Shailendra for: Yeh mera deewanapan hai, and Sab kuchh seekha hamane.

Music Director SN Tripathi (Shri Nath Tripathi) was also the Director of this 1962 movie. He started his career in 1935 by being a violinist assisting Saraswati Devi in Bombay Talkies. In 1942, he became a full-fledged music director. I remember him best for two of his songs that influenced me hugely during my boyhood: Zara saamne to aa o chhaliye and Aa laut ke aaja mere meet. I also remember him fondly for his two Mohammad Rafi sung ghazals that he composed for the 1960 Nanabhai Bhatt movie Lal Quila: Lagta nahin hai dil mera ujade dayaar mein (penned by the last Mughal Emperor: Bahadur Shah Zafar) and Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hoon (penned by Muztar Khairabadi).

We have completed eighty-two days of Raaga Based Songs of the Day. Our first post in the series was titled ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #1’ and the song was a Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar song from the 1970 Shakti Samanta movie Pagla Kahin Ka: Tum mujhe youn bhula na paoge.  It is in Raag Jhinjhoti, Tal Kaherava.

Our eighty-third post or the last post was titled ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #83‘ and the song was a Mohammad Rafi song from the 1965 Amar Kumar movie Mere Sanam starring Biswajeet, Asha Parekh and Pran: Tukade hain mere dil ke ai yaar tere aansu. It is in Raag Pahadi, Tal Kaherava.

This blog has a number of posts on Raaga based songs in Hindi movies titled similarly; for example: ‘The Best Raaga Based Songs in Hindi Movies – Raaga Jhinjhoti – Part I‘.

In the last eighty-three days of sharing Raaga based songs of the day, I have given you songs based on Raag Jhinjhoti, Gara, Bhimpalasi, Madhuvanti, Shivaranjani, Bihag, Pahadi, Sarang, Pilu, Bhairavi, Khammaj, Charukesi, Kalyan or Yaman, Desh, Malgunji, Kirwani, Kedar, Bageshri, Megh Malhar, Bhupali, Ahir Bhairav, Malkaush, Mand, Adana, Kafi, Rageshri, Jaunpuri, Tilang, Janasammohini, Chayanat, Shuddha Kalyan, Gaur Sarang, Jogiya, Asavari, Maru Bihag, Durga, Lalit, Puria Dhanashri, Bhinna Sahdja, Sohani, Multani, Patdeep, Jaijaiwanti, Tilak Kamod, Hemant, Basant Mukhari, Gujri Todi, Kalavati, Hamir, Bhatiyar, Gawati, Shyam Kalyan, Gorakh Kalyan, Madhamat Sarang, Manj Khammaj, Darbari Kanada, Vibhas, Shankara, Bahar, Nand and Mian Ki Malhar; making it a total of 61 raagas. The raagas that have been repeated so far are Pahadi, the raaga of my home place in the Himalayas, Maru Bihag, Raag Kirwani, Jhinjhoti, Bhairavi, Gara, Basant Mukhari, Malkauns, Bhairavi and Mand. Today, I am repeating Raag Sohani for the second time.

Today’s song has been sung by Mukesh on the lyrics of Shailendra and composition by SN Tripathi. As I said, it is in Raag Sohani, Tal Dadra. The song is picturised on Bharat Bhushan in the title role of Tansen missing his childhood love Hansa (Anita Guha) in the 1962 SN Tripathi movie Sangeet Samrat Tansen.

Lets take up Bharat Bhushan, the actor, screen-writer and producer. He was best known for the portrayal of Baiju Bawra in the 1952 Vijay Bhatt movie by the same name. The first Filmfare Award for Best Actor was instituted in 1954 and Dilip Kumar got it for the 1952 movie Daag over his Baiju Bawra. However, he received the second such award for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Indeed, he was considered best suited for portrayal of historical and mythological characters in the Hindi movies. Such was his acting prowess that in the 1960s, he and Dev Anand (one each) were the only actors other than Dilip Kumar who won the awards; though Raj Kapoor too was nominated twice.

Lets get to the movie: Sangeet Samrat Tansen. As I said, this 1962 SN Tripathi movie starred Bharat Bhushan in the title role and Anita Guha as his beloved Hansa. SN Tripathi along with directing the film also gave the music direction. The lyrics were by Shailendra and Swami Haridas who is the author of “Sapta Suran Teen Gram” sung in Raaga Yaman Kalyan (or Adbhut Kalyan). Some of the Raaga-based songs: The song “Raag Bhairav Pratham Shant Ras” shows the completion of Tansen’s training by Haridas by his singing the raagmala, “Deepak Jalao Jyoti Jagao” in Raaga Dipak and “traditionally associated with fire”, “Badli Badli Duniya Hai Meri” in Raag Jhinjhoti sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Mahendra Kapoor, and “Jhoomti Chali Hawaa” in Raaga Sohni sung by Mukesh.

Before we actually take up the song, first, lets take up the value added learning of today. From the last three-times onwards we started learning about some of the leading personalities in Indian Classical Music or Shastriya Sangeet. The first one that we took up was Ustaad Asad Ali Khan, the finest Rudra Veena player in the country. Then we took up Pandit Hari Parsad Chaurasia, the greatest Bansuri player in the country. Then we talked about Ali Akbar Khan, the greatest Sarod player in the country. Tonight, we shall take up Pandit Ravi Shankar, the greatest Sitar player in the world.

You would recall I told you about Sitar when I was covering Hindustani Musical instruments (Please see ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #53‘). Ravi Shankar was born on 07 Apr 1920 in Benares (UP) to a Bengali family, the youngest of seven brothers. He spent his youth touring India and Europe with the dance troupe of his brother Uday Shankar. It is only in 1938 that he took up learning Sitar from Ustaad Allauddin Khan. After finishing his studies in 1944, Shankar worked as a composer, creating the music for the Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and was music director of All India Radio, New Delhi, from 1949 to 1956. In 1956 he began to tour Europe and the Americas playing Indian classical music and increased its popularity there in the 1960s through teaching, performance, and his association with violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Beatles guitarist George Harrison. His influence on the latter helped popularize the use of Indian instruments in pop music throughout the 1960s.

Pandit Ravi Shankar was honoured with the highest award by the government of India: Bharat Ratna in 1999. He is also the recipient of Padma Bhushan (1967) and Padma Vibhushan (1981) (the third and second highest awards in India).

He is also recipient of several awards on the global stage such as Ramon Magsaysay Award (1992), Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) (2001), and five Grammy Awards.

As far as Hindi movies are concerned, he composed songs of three movies and also directed the music: Anuradha (1960) (Songs such as Kaise din beete kaisi beeti ratiyan, Saanvre saanvre, Jaane kaise sapno mein kho gayi akhiyan, and Haay re woh din kyun na aayen), Godaan (1963) (Songs such as Hiya jarat rahat din rain and Chali aaj gori piya ki nagariya) and Meera (1979) (Karuna suno shyam mori).

As I said, today’s song is in Raag Sohani, Tal Dadra.

Sohani, also known as Sohni and Sohini,  is a raaga that belongs to Marwa Thaat. Its Jati is Audhav – Shadav, ie, five notes in Aaroha and six in Avroha. The time for performing this raaga is in the wee hours of the morning or last prahar of the night, that is, from 3 to 6 AM. In the Marwa thaat, Sohani is similar to Marwa and Puria raagas. In the Poorvi thaat, it is similar to Basant.

In the wee hours of the morning, you would find the atmosphere of dew. Hence, the mood of the raaga is the moist atmosphere that prevails in a tranquil and silent night.

Some of the other songs composed in Raag Sohani are:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Prem Jogan Ban Ke Jhoomti Chali Hawa Kuhu Kuhu Bole Jeevan Jyot Jale Saawan Ban Gaye Nain Muft Hue Badnaam Jhoote Zamane Bhar Ke Bedardi Nazarein Mila Ke Sajan Tori Preet Naina Hai Jadoo Bhare Payal Chham Chham

Mughal-E-Azam Sangeet Samrat Tansen Suvarna Sundari Grihasthi Karorpati Baraat Musafir Khana Aji Bas Shukriya Sagai Bedard Zamana Kya Jaane Basant

Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Mukesh Lata, Rafi Asha Asha Mukesh Nirmala Devi, Rafi Lata Asha Mukesh Asha

About Tal Dadra, I have already told you adequately.

The movie Sangeet Samrat Tansen had as many as sixteen songs:

1	Sapta Suran Teen Gram	Manna Dey	Swami Haridas
2	Raag Bhairav Pratham Shant Ras Jake	Manna Dey	Swami Haridas
3	Badli Badli Duniya Hai Meri (Duet)	Lata Mangeshkar, Mahendra Kapoor	Shailendra
4	Sakhi Kaise Dharoon Main Dhir	Lata Mangeshkar	Shailendra
5	Kantadha Kantadha	Manna Dey	Shailendra
6	Jhoomti Chali Hawa	Mukesh	Shailendra
7	Mitwa Laut Aaye Meri	Manna Dey	Shailendra
8	Sudh Bisar Gayi Aaj	Manna Dey, Mohammed Rafi	Shailendra
9	Deepak Jalao Jyoti Jagao	Mohammed Rafi	Shailendra
10	Ghir Ghir Ke Chaon Mein		Shailendra
11	Hey Natraj Gangadhar Shambu	Kamal Barot, Mahendra Kapoor	Shailendra
12	Log Jaage Pavan Jaage		Shailendra
13	Kuhoo Kuhoo Pi Kahan		Shailendra
14	Yeh Jahaan Hai Teri Kudrat		Shailendra
15	Toot Gayi Mere Man Ki Bina Toot Gayi	Poorna Seth, Pandharinath Kolhapure	Shailendra
16	Badli Duniya Hai Meri (Female)	Lata Mangeshkar	Shailendra

Please enjoy in Raag Sohani, Tal Dadra: Jhoomati chali hawa, yaad aa gaya koi….

JhUmatii chalii havaa, yaad aa gayaa koI
Bujhatii bujhatii aag ko, phir jalaa gayaa koI
JhUmatii chalii havaa …

Kho ga_ii hai.n ma.nzile.n, miT gaye hai.n raaste
Gardishe.n hii gardishe.n, ab hai.n mere vaaste
Ab hai.n mere vaaste
Aur aise me.n mujhe, phir bulaa gayaa koI
JhUmatii chalii havaa …

Chup hai.n chaa.Nd chaa.Ndanii, chup ye aasamaan hai
MiiThii miiThii nii.nd me.n, so rahaa jahaan hai
So rahaa jahaan hai
Aaj aadhii raat ko, kyo.n jagaa gayaa koI
JhUmatii chalii havaa …

Ek huuk sii uThii, mai.n sihar ke rah gayaa
Dil ko apanaa thaam ke aah bhar ke rah gayaa
Chaa.Ndanii kii oT se muskuraa gayaa koii
Jhuumatii chalii havaa …

We have intended to learn about Raaga based music whilst we entertain ourselves with Raaga based songs. So, lets, once again, take stock of our collective learning so far:

1. On the first day we learnt about the Raaga system devised by Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, which is the prevalent system in Hindustani Classical Music and based on ten Thaats.
2. On the second day we learnt about Tal or Taal.
3. On the third day we learnt about characteristics of Raagas that included Swar, Jati, Thaat, Arohana and Avarohana, Vadi, Samvadi and Pakad.
4. On the fourth day, we learnt about Sargam.
5. On the fifth day, we learnt about notations used in Indian classical music or simply Swar Lipi.
6. On the sixth day, we learnt about the Ras (sentiments) that Raagas evoke.
7. On the seventh day, we learnt about various types of Swar: Shuddha, Achal, Vikrut, Komal and Teevra.
8. On the eighth day, we learnt the parts of a composition in Indian Classical Music.
9. On the ninth day, we learnt the names of some of the popular instruments used in Indian Classical Music.
10. On the tenth day, we learnt about the sources of names of Raagas.
11. On the eleventh day, we learnt about why Bhairavi is the first raag to be taught to beginners and also why it is the last in a performance.
12. On the twelfth day, we learnt about Khammaj Thaat.
13. On the thirteenth day, we learnt about Tal Punjabi Theka or Sitarkhani.
14. On the fourteenth day, we learnt about Alap.
15. On the fifteenth day, we learnt about List of Raagas (Raagmala) in my favourite book: Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
16. On the sixteenth day, we learnt about tips for raaga identification.
17. On the seventeenth day, we learnt the basics of Gharana system.
18. On the eighteenth day, we learnt about Filmi Sangeet.
19. On the nineteenth day, we learnt about the commonest Tal in Raagas: Tintal.
20. On the twentieth day, we learnt about the Kafi Thaat.
21. On the twenty-first day, we learnt a little more in detail about the classification of Raagas.
22. On the twenty-second day, we learnt the essential differences between Bhairavi and Bhairav.
23. On the twenty-third day, we learnt a little more in detail about the Jati or Jaati of a raaga.
24. On the twenty-fourth day, we learnt details of Thaat Bilawal, the most basic thaat in the Bhatkhande’s system of raagas.
25. On the twenty-fifth day, we learnt about Tintal.
26. On the twenty-sixth day, we learnt in detail about the Raaga – Samay linkage.
27. On the twenty-seventh day, we learnt about Lehar.
28. On the twenty-eighth day, we learnt about the history of the Hindustani Music.
29. On the twenty-ninth day, we learnt about Dhrupad.
30. On the thirtieth day, we learnt about Rupaktal that I was introduced to, a few months back, by my friend Anand Desai.
31. On the thirty-first day, we learnt about Khayal.
32. On the thirty-second day, we learnt about Thumri.
33. On the thirty-third day, we learnt about Tappa.
34. On the thirty-fourth day, we learnt about Tarana.
35. On the thirty-fifth day, we learnt about Tal Dipchandi (Moghali).
36. On the thirty-sixth day, we learnt about Tabla.
37. On the thirty-seventh day, we learnt about Kirtan.
38. On the thirty-eighth day, we learnt about Pakhawaj.
39. On the thirty-ninth day, we learnt about Hori.
40. On the fortieth day, we learnt about Dadra.
41. On the forty-first day, we learnt about Kajri.
42. On the forty-second day, we learnt about Chaiti.
43. On the forty-third day, we learnt about Sarangi.
44. On the forty-fourth day, we learnt about Shehnai.
45. On the forty-fifth day, we learnt about Sarod.
46. On the forty-sixth day, we learnt about Bansuri.
47. On the forty-seventh day, we learnt about Ektal and Tanpura.
48. On the forty-eighth day, we learnt about Veena.
49. On the forty-ninth day, we repeated our learning of Veena with a small excitement added.
50. On the fiftieth day, we learnt about Dilruba/Esraj.
51. On the fifty-first day, we learnt about Jaltarang.
52. On the fifty-second day we learnt about Qawwali.
53. On the fifty-third day, we learnt about Sitar.
54. On the fifty-fourth day, we learnt about Surbahar.
55. On the fifty-fifth day, we learnt about Harmonium.
56. On the fifty-sixth day, we learnt about Santoor.
57. On the fifty-seventh day, we learnt about Swarmandal.
58. On the fifty-eighth day, we learnt about the Shruti Box.
59. On the fifty-ninth day, we learnt about Alankar.
60. On the sixtieth day, we learnt about singing in Aakaar.
61. On the sixty-first day, we learnt about the Classification of Indian Musical Instruments.
    
62. On the sixty-second day, we learnt a little about Carnatic Music.
63. On the sixty-third day, we learnt about Natya Shastra.
64. On the sixty-fourth day, we learnt about evolution of musical instruments in India down the ages.
65. On the sixty-fifth day, we learnt about Riyaaz.
66. On the sixty-sixth day, we looked at a list of Raagas in Hindustani Classical Music.
67. On the sixty-seventh day, we learnt about the health benefits of raagas.
68. On the sixty-eighth day, we learnt a little more comprehensively about the moods and emotions that raagas evoke.
69. On the sixty-ninth day, we learnt about a mobile application to help identify raagas.
70. On the seventieth day, we learnt about Melakarta Raagas.
71. On the seventy-first day, we learnt about Sangita Makarand.
72. On the seventy-second day, we learnt about TaalMala an Android application for personalized accompaniment of musical instruments during Riyaaz or even during Concert.
73. On the seventy-third day, we learnt about Indian Classical Ragas, an Android application for mobile phones.
74. On the seventy-fourth day, we learnt about Saregama Classical, another application for Classical Raagas.
75. On the seventy-fifth day, we learnt about a free online service available to learn Indian Classical Music.
76. On the seventy-sixth day, we learnt about List of Hindustani Classical Musical Festivals in India and Abroad.
77. On the seventy-seventh day, we learnt about List of Carnatic Musical Festivals in India and Abroad.
78. On the seventy-eighth day, we learnt about Jhaptal.
    
79. On the seventy-ninth day, we learnt about Ektal.
    
80. On the eightieth day, we learnt about Tivra Tal.
81. On the eighty-first day, we learnt about the greatest Rudra Veena player ever: Ustaad Asad Ali Khan.
82. On the eighty-second day, we learnt about the greatest Bansuri player alive: Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.
83. On the eighty-third day, we learnt about the best Sarod player in the country: Ustaad Ali Akbar Khan.
84. And today, on the eighty-fourth day, we learnt about the greatest Sitar player in the world: Pandit Ravi Shankar.

There is much more still to be learnt and enjoyed.

Please stay tuned!

The ninth day of songs in this series. Sorry for the break that I took as I wasn’t feeling up to it. I had been giving you songs by only male singers so far and even though some of the best, such as KL Saigal’s and Pankaj Mullick’s, were yet to come, I had decided to interject songs of female singers too. The first one was Lata Mangeshkar with a song about sacrifices of jawans in 1962 Sino-Indian War, which became her signature tune even though she didn’t believe in it to start with.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #78‘) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have at times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series eight days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the eighth one, was put together by lyricist Kavi Pradeep, composer C Ramchandra and singer Lata Mangeshkar not for any movie but to recall the sacrifices of those jawans who lost their lives in the 1962 Sino-Indian War (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #8‘).

Today, we shall cover Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar’s younger sister, the one who lost the opportunity to sing Ai mere watan ke logo with the latter.

You would have noticed that I didn’t put up posts for the last four days since I was busy in the monthly thematic Music Fest on my group ‘Yaad Kiya Dil Ne‘. This month’s fest was on my favourite theme: Chand, with the difference that in addition to the word Chand in the mukhada or antara of the song, the song’s video should have Chand in it. I don’t participate as a contestant since I am usually the judge. However, I put up posts ‘out of contest’ just to add interest. My last post in the last Fest was the song ‘Tanha tanha yahan pe jeena ye bhi koi baat hai’ sung by Asha Bhosle on the lyrics of Mehboob and composition of AR Rehman (this being his debut Hindi movie). She was 62 years old at that time, singing for Urmila Matondkar, one third her age. And she oozed sexiness. That’s Asha Bhosle for you with her forever young and sensuous voice. She was the favourite of OP Nayyar and he stopped composing the moment she went out of his life.

However, I am one who thinks of Asha Bhosle as a complete singer and not just a singer of sexy and sensuous numbers. Have a look at some of the sad and serious numbers that she has sung: Phir thes lagi dil mein phir yaad ne tadpaaya (Kashmir Ki Kali), Ye khaamoshiyan ye tanhaayiyan mohabbat ki duniya hai kitani jawan (Ye Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke), Wo subah kabhi to aayegi (Phir Subah Hogi), Tang aa chuke hain kashm-e-kash zindagi se ham (She sang the same song of Sahir Ludhianvi in 1958 movie Lighthouse as was sung by Mohammad Rafi in 1957 movie Pyaasa), Sun le pukaar aayi (Phool Aur Patthar), Sawan aaye ya na aaye (Dil Diya Dard Liya), Sach huye sapne tere (Kaala Bazaar), Raaton ko chori chori bole mera kangana (Mohabbat Zindagi Hai), Raat ke hamsafar thak ke ghar ko chale (An Evening In Paris), Puuchho na hamen ham unake liye kyaa kyaa nazraane laaye hain (Mitti Mein Sona), Piya piya na laage mora jiya (Phagun), Mujhe gale se laga lo bahut udaas hoon main (Aaj Aur Kal), Mere bhaiya mere chanda mere anmol ratan (from the same movie Kaajal from where I have selected today’s song), Main jab bhi akeli hoti hoon tum chupake se aa jaate ho (Dharmputra), Koi aaya dhadkan kehati hai (Lajwanti), Koi shikwa bhi nahin koi shikaayat bhi nahin (Neend Hamari Khwaab Tumhaare), Kali ghata chhaye mora jiya tarsaaye (Sujata), Jab chali thandi hawa (Do Badan), Jaa jaa re jaa saajana (Adaalat), Ik pardesi mera dil le gaya (Phagun), Ham intezzar karenge tera qayaamat taq (Bahu Begum), Ham tab simat ke aapki baahon mein aa gaye (Waqt), Do ghadi woh jo paas aa baithe (Gateway Of India), Dil ki tamanna thi masti mein (Gyaarah Hazaar Ladkiyan), Dekh hamen awaaz na dena (Amardeep), Chain se hamako kabhi aap ne jeene na diya (Pran Jaaye Pazr Vachan Na Jaaye), Chand sa mukhada kyun sharmaaya (Insaan Jaag Uthja), Bachchon tum taqdeer ho kal ke Hindostan ki (Didi), Aur is dil mein kyaa rakha hai (Imaandaar), Ashkon mein hamane tasveer banayi hai (Dekh Kabira Roya), Ab ke baras bhej bhaiya ko babul (Bandini), Aapse maine meri jaan mohabbat ki hai (Ye raat phir na aayegi), and Aaj ki raat badhi shok badhi natkhat hai (Nai Umr Ki Nai Fasal).

The ghazals that she has sung include: Rafta rafta woh hamaare dil ka saaman ho gaye (Ham Kahan Ja Rahen Hain), Raaz-e-dil hamase kaho ham to koi gair nahin (Teri Talaash Mein), Kisi nazar ko tera intezaar aaj bhi hai (Aitbaar), Kabhi kisi ko mukammal jahan nahin milata (Ahista Ahista), Dil cheez kya hai aap meri jaan leejiye and In aankhon ki masti ke mastaane hazaron hain (Umraao Jaan), Beqasi hadd se jab guzr jaaye (Kalpana), and Aur kya ahd-e-wafa hote hain (Sunny).

Then she has sung many a bahajan such as: Saancha naam tera (Julie), Shyam abhimaani (Geet Gaata Chala), Radha kaise na jale (Lagaan), Mujhako bhi Radha bana de Nandlal (Ankahee), Jay Raghunandan jay Siyaram (Gharana), He Ambike Jagdambike (Baawri), Ganpati bappa morya (Hamase Badhkar Kaun), and Bhagwan teri duniya mein insaan nahin hain (Rail Ka Dibba).

No other song of Asha Bhosle so ably meet the criteria that I have set for these series other than my selected song. It is one of the best and most meaningful bhajans in the movies. It has been penned by Sahir Ludhianvi, the poet and lyricist who felt for women more than others because of the hardships that his mother had to face when his father married again. He didn’t write as many bhajans as my favourite Shakeel Badayuni. However, some of the bhajans that he penned are very good indeed, eg, Allah tero naam Ishwar tero naam, Prabhu tero naam jo dhaye phal paaye, Ishwar Allah tere naam, and Ganga tera paani amrit.

I am fond of Music Director Ravi Shankar Sharma or simply Ravi, not just because he is my namesake. First of all, he was the discovery of my favourite Hemant Kumar. Together with Kalyanji, he was assistant to Hemant da in the 1954 movie Naagin. The film included thirteen tracks, including the hit ‘Man Dole Mera Tan Dole’, whose ‘Been Music’ was performed by Kalyanji on clavioline and by Ravi on harmonium. I am also fond of Ravi for having got two of the three Filmfare Awards for Best Lyricist: Chaudhvin ka chand ho and Husn waale tera jawaab nahin. The instrument Sitar figured in many of Ravi’s songs, just like the one that I have selected for you tonight. Ravi was known for bringing poignancy of some of his songs to the fore through his excellent compositions. The song that comes to mind is Shakeel Badayuni’s Do Badan song picturised on Asha Parekh and sung by Lata Mangeshkar: Lo aa gayi unaki yaad woh nahin aaye.

The song Tora man darpan kehlaaye is from the 1965 Ram Maheshwari movie Kaajal and is picturised on Meena Kumari as Madhavi (the story of the movie was adapted by Phani Majumdar and Kidar Sharma from Gulshan Nanda’s novel Madhavi) and Durga Khote as Rani Sahiba. The movie’s starts with this song through its credits.

The bhaav of the song is the same as in our scriptures especially in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, viz, Man jeete jag jeet (Conquer your mind to conquer the universe). It has been appropriately composed in Raag Darbari Kanada, Tal Kaherava.

Please enjoy Asha Bhosle sing: Tora man darpan kehlaaye….

प्राणी अपने प्रभु से पूछे किस विधी पाऊँ तोहे
प्रभु कहे तु मन को पा ले, पा जयेगा मोहे

तोरा मन दर्पण कहलाये – २
भले बुरे सारे कर्मों को, देखे और दिखाये
तोरा मन दर्पण कहलाये – २

मन ही देवता, मन ही ईश्वर, मन से बड़ा न कोय
मन उजियारा जब जब फैले, जग उजियारा होय
इस उजले दर्पण पे प्राणी, धूल न जमने पाये
तोरा मन दर्पण कहलाये – २

सुख की कलियाँ, दुख के कांटे, मन सबका आधार
मन से कोई बात छुपे ना, मन के नैन हज़ार
जग से चाहे भाग लो कोई, मन से भाग न पाये
तोरा मन दर्पण कहलाये – २

तन की दौलत ढलती छाया मन का धन अनमोल
तन के कारण मन के धन को मत माटि मेइन रौंद
मन की क़दर भुलानेवाला वीराँ जनम गवाये
तोरा मन दर्पण कहलाये – २

I feel that Sahir Ludhainvi didn’t just write this bhajan but carved out a piece of his heart. Each stanza makes you think about Life and our own conduct in it. Ravi’s composition made it sacred, memorable and drove home the bhaav of the song. Asha’s singing is – if I may use the word – flawless. I remember when I saw the movie as a young boy, I could remember the complete lyrics simply by listening to it just once. This bhajan often echoes in the depths of my heart.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

The eighth day of songs in this series. I have been giving you songs by only male singers so far and even though some of the best, such as KL Saigal’s and Pankaj Mullick’s, are yet to come, I have decided to interject songs of female singers too.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #78‘) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have at times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series eight days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the seventh one, was put together by lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi, composer Ravi and singer Mahendra Kapoor for the 1963 BR Chopra movie Gumrah: Chalo ik baar phir se ajanabee ban jaayen hum dono (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #7‘).

We have so far covered the only male playback singers in Hindi movies: Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar and Mahendra Kapoor. Today, we shall cover Lata Mangeshkar, the Nightingale of India and a Bharat Ratna.

Lata Mangeshkar is my favourite female singer from my childhood days. Unless a song was sung by Mohammad Rafi, whenever a male and female singer (Lata) sang the same song in a movie (not duets but separately), I somehow liked her rendition better than that of the male. Let me give an example: One of the best of Kishore Kumar’s is the 1955 movie Munimji song: Jeevan ke safar mein raahi milate hain bichchad jaane ko put together by Sahir Ludhianvi and SD Burman. I instinctively like the slower and more poignant Lata Mangeshkar version. Similarly, even though I have my childhood memories of Mukesh singing Aa laut ke aaja mere meet of 1959 movie Rani Roopmati, I have my heart melting when the same song is sung by Lata ji for Nirupa Roy.

Besides Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar is the only other singer on whom I have a blog – post. In this I have listed five of my most favourite songs sung by her (Please see: ‘My Favourite Songs Of Lata Mangeshkar‘).

Some of my other favourites of Lata Mangeshkar are: Ajeeb dastaan hai ye and Dil apna aur preet praayi (both from Dil Apna Aur Preet Praayi), Seene mein sulagate hain armaan (Taraana), O sajana barkha bahaar aayi (Parakh), Raja ki aayegi baraat (Aah), Sharm aati hai magar aaj ye kehna hoga (Padosan), Mere mehboob tujhe meri muhabbat ki kasam (Mere Mehboob), Tera mera pyaar amar phir kyun mujhako lagta hai dar (Asli Naqli), Chand phir nikala magar tum na aaye (Paying Guest), Thandi hawaayen lehra ke aayen (Naujawaan), Youn hasaraton ke daag muhabbat mein dho liye (Adalat), Aap ki nazaron ne samjha pyaar ke kabil mujhe (Anapad), Bane ho ek khaaq se to duur kya kareeb kya (Aarti), Raina beeti jaaye Shyam na aaye (Amar Prem), Piya tose naina laage re (Guide), Chhod de saari duniya kisi ke liye (Saraswati Chandra), Jab raat hai aisi matwali phir subah ka aalam kya hoga (Mughal-e-Azam), Muhabbat aisi dhadakan hai, Mujahse mat poochh mere ishq mein kyaa rakha hai, and Ye zindagi usi ki hai (All from Anarkali). I would, however, advise not to read too much in this list (these just occurred to me off-hand); there are hardly any songs of hers that are not my favourite.

I could have selected many songs of Lata Mangeshkar that would have met the criteria I have set for songs in this series. However, I decided to take up this immortal song on several counts. It is a patriotic song in memory of soldiers who died during the debacle of Sino Indian War of 1962. It has been repeatedly said that when this song was played in the National Stadium, New Delhi on 27th Jan 1963, immediately after the war, it brought tears in the eyes of the Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. In addition to crying for the soldiers, he must have cried for the debacle that he was largely responsible for.

As far as love for the armed forces is concerned, I am sorry to say that despite the emotional appeal of the song, there were and are very few people, especially of the filmy crowd, who actually feel for the armed forces. Jawahar Lal Nehru assiduously kept armed forces away from the nationall decision making apparatus since he was scared off the armed forces taking over the country. For Lata ji herself it was just another song; she revealed in 2013, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the song (when she sang it again in Mahalaxmi Racecourse in Mumbai) that she had said ‘No’ to Kavi Pradeep because she didn’t have time to rehearse it. She wasn’t confident about the success of the song until Kavi Pradeep convinced her of it. And then, gradually, it became her signature tune; no show of hers was complete without it. She would have been devoted to the song if she had told Kavi Pradeep that come what may she would sing this for the sacrifices of the jawans, even if she had to cancel her other scheduled recordings. Nevertheless, Lata ji is a singer par excellence. As a playback singer she would have sung songs for varied actresses as if she would have actually felt those emotions. Hence, it would have actually seemed, when she would have sung this song, that she actally felt those emotions for the jawans who lost their lives.

As far as Films people, in general, are concerned, patriotic themes involving armed forces are great money earners, for example, for JP Dutta’s Border. Ask any of them to endorse any of the causes of armed forces and they become sort of Milkha Singhs; sprinting away from the issue to break the world records.

C Ramchandra, the composer, wanted Lata Mangeshkar to sing it solo even though she had wanted it as a duet to be sung with her sister Asha Bhosle. It is because he was in love with her and actually wanted to marry her. Do recall that when he took over the composition of songs of the 1953 movie Ananrkali after the original composer Vasant Prakash had died, he insisted that all female songs recorded earlier, other than those of Lata, be cancelled. Miraculously Aa jaane wafa sung by Geeta Dutt survived.

So then, who are the people who actually felt for the song? I would say that at that time the common people of India who had genuine respect for the armed forces. Sadly, their numbers are dwindled significantly now. If people at large actually felt for the armed forces, how is it that the OROP agitation (in Jantar Mantar) for restoring something that was denied to them in 1973, is 848 days old and not a whimper is heard from the people who shed crocodile tears on: Jab desh mein thi diwali woh khel rahe the holi; Jab ham baithe the gharon mein woh jhel rahe the goli? Lets not forget that we have had an elected representative of people who in the recent years said that armed forces personnel are paid to die.

I would think that one person who would have actually felt those emotions was lyricist and poet Kavi Pradeep and hence, more than anyone else, the song actually belongs to him. He was driven by nationalistic fervour right from the beginning. In 1943, for the movie Kismet, when he penned Aaj Himaalay ki choti se phir ham ne lalkaraa hai, duur hato ai duniyaa vaalon Hindustaan hamara hai it was a sign of bold rebellion against the British. Some of his other songs are: Aao bachchon tumhen dikhaayen jhanki Hindustan ki, Ham laaye hain toofaan se kishati nikaal ke, is desh ko rakhana mere bachcho sambhal ke, and De di hamen azaadi bina khadag bina dhaal, Sabarmati ke sant tune kar diya kamaal. Interestingly, Kavi Pradeep wasn’t invited when the song was sung by Lata Mangeshkar on 27 Jan 1963. However, later he was conferred the honour of Rashtriya Kavi (National Poet). Kavi Pradeep went on to win the highest award in Indian Cinema: the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

The others who actually felt and feel for the song were/are the armed forces personnel. This poor lot lives and takes solace in the mirage that people actually care for it.

I, therefore, cry every time I listen to this moving song but not exactly for the reasons for which a motley of people shed crocodile tears. I pay attention to the powerful lyrics and I imagine the lost war of 1962 with every word of the song, for example:

Thi khuun se lath-path kaayaa
Phir bhi banduuk uthaake
Das-das ko ek ne maaraa
Phir gir gaye hosh ga.Nvaa ke
Jab ant-samay aayaa to
Kah gaye ke ab chalate hai.n
Khush rahanaa desh ke pyaaro.n
Ab ham to safar karate hai.n
Kyaa log the vo dIvaane
Kyaa log the vo abhimaanii
Jo shahiid…

Sadly, the people for whom past tense is used in the lyrics, are still the same. However, the people in our country, for whom the song was meant have changed: the politicians, the bureaucrats, the films people…..just about everyone. Kavi Pradeep would have this to say about them:

Dekh tere insaan ki haalat kya ho gayi Bhagwan,
Kitana badal gaya insaan (of Hindustan!)

Still, please enjoy: Aye mere watan ke logo…

ऐ मेरे वतन के लोगो
तुम खूब लगा लो नारा
ये शुभ दिन है हम सब का
लहरा लो तिरंगा प्यारा
पर मत भूलो सीमा पर
वीरों ने है प्राण गँवाए
कुछ याद उन्हें भी कर लो -२
जो लौट के घर न आये -२

ऐ मेरे वतन के लोगों
ज़रा आँख में भर लो पानी
जो शहीद हुए हैं उनकी
ज़रा याद करो क़ुरबानी

जब घायल हुआ हिमालय
खतरे में पड़ी आज़ादी
जब तक थी साँस लड़े वो
फिर अपनी लाश बिछा दी
संगीन पे धर कर माथा
सो गये अमर बलिदानी
जो शहीद…

जब देश में थी दीवाली
वो खेल रहे थे होली
जब हम बैठे थे घरों में
वो झेल रहे थे गोली
थे धन्य जवान वो आपने
थी धन्य वो उनकी जवानी
जो शहीद…

कोई सिख कोई जाट मराठा
कोई गुरखा कोई मदरासी
सरहद पर मरनेवाला
हर वीर था भारतवासी
जो खून गिरा पवर्अत पर
वो खून था हिंदुस्तानी
जो शहीद…

थी खून से लथ-पथ काया
फिर भी बन्दूक उठाके
दस-दस को एक ने मारा
फिर गिर गये होश गँवा के
जब अन्त-समय आया तो
कह गये के अब मरते हैं
खुश रहना देश के प्यारों
अब हम तो सफ़र करते हैं
क्या लोग थे वो दीवाने
क्या लोग थे वो अभिमानी
जो शहीद…

तुम भूल न जाओ उनको
इस लिये कही ये कहानी
जो शहीद…

जय हिन्द… जय हिन्द की सेना -२
जय हिन्द, जय हिन्द, जय हिन्द

Despite all the mixed feelings now, I remember when the song was first played and I was not yet ten years old, it moved me immensely. Amongst other things, it is because of songs like these that I joined the armed forces, the best and the only life that I ever had (Please read: ‘Indian Navy Is The Only Life That I have Known And Seen‘).

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

The seventh consecutive day of songs in this series.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #83‘) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have at times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series a week ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the sixth one, was put together by lyricist Gulzar, composer and singer Hemant Kumar for the 1969 Asit Sen movie Khamoshi: Tum pukaar lo (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #6‘).

We have so far covered the following male playback singers in Hindi movies: Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh and Hemant Kumar. Lets, therefore, take up today a song sung by Mahendra Kapoor.

Mahendra Kapoor considered Mohammad Rafi his guru, even though he learnt classical music under classical singers like Pt. Hussanlal, Pt. Jagannath Bua, Ustad Niaz Ahmed Khan, Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan and Pt.Tulsidaas Sharma. This devotion towards his initial inspiration (Rafi) continued throughout his life. Annu Kapoor on Mastii channel once related this anecdote about a felicitation ceremony for Mahendra Kapoor after Mohammad Rafi’s demise. As Mahendra Kapoor was being garlanded on stage, he noticed Mohammad Rafi’s son, Shahid Rafi, sitting in the audience. Mahendra Kapoor called Shahid Rafi on stage, touched his feet, took out his garland and garlanded Shahid Rafi and said, “How can I be felicitated when the son of my guru is present?” Remarkable humility, you would say. I would like to add that the real great of that era had it, which included Mohammad Rafi himself. With this devotion, Mahendra Kapoor must have been excited about singing a song with Mohammad Rafi (the only one he sang) for the 1967 movie Aadmi in which Mohammad Rafi sang for Dilip Kumar and Mahendra Kapoor sang for Manoj Kumar: Kaisi haseen aaj baharon ki rat hai. Indeed, most often than not, Mahendra Kapoor sang for Manoj Kumar; one MK singing for another MK.

Some of the popular songs of Mahendra Kapoor are: Tere pyar ka aasra chahta hoon (1959, Dhool Ka Phool), Aap aayi to khyaal-e-dil-e-nashad aaya (1963, Gumraah), Mera pyaar woh hai (1965, Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi), Badal jaaye agar mali (1966, Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi), Ye kali jab talak phool ban ke khile (1966, Aaye Din Bahaar Ke, duet with Lata Mangeshkar), Mere desh ki dharti (1967, Upkaar), Neele gagan ke tale and Na munh chhupa ke jiyo (1967, Hamraaz), Laakhon hain yahan dilwaale (1968, Kismat), Jiske sapane hamen roz aate rahe (1970, Geet), Bharat ka rehnewala hoon (1970, Purab Aur Paschim), Hey Ramchander keh gaye siya se (1970, Gopi), Iktara bole (1970, Yaadgaar), Aur nahin bas aur nahin (1974, Roti Kapada Aur Makaan), Fakira chal chala chal (1975, Fakira), Ab ke baras (1981, Kranti), Kab talaq shama jali and Jab yaad ki badli chhati hai (1983, Painter Babu).

Mahendra Kapoor won National Award for Best Singer for the Upkar song: Mere desh ki dharti. He won three Filmfare Awards, the first one for the song from 1963 movie Gumrah that I am giving you today, which is undoubtedly his best. The others were in 1968 for Neele gagan ke tale, and in 1975 for Aur nahin bus aur nahin.

The song that I have taken for you today is from the 1963 BR Chopra movie Gumrah that made waves, as most BR Chopra movies, of a theme of lovers Sunil Dutt and Mala Sinha trying to carry on with their former love affair despite Mala Sinha having been married to Ashok Kumar since then in order to save the children of her dead sister Nirupa Roy from ill-treatment from a step-mother. Therefore, in the movie, she is caught between love for her lover (Sunil Dutt) and duty to her husband (Ashok Kumar).

Sahir Ludhianvi was the lyricist. Some of his best penned songs are to be found in this movie; songs such as Aa bhi jaa, Aap aaye to khayal-e-dil-e-nashad aaya, and In hawayon mein in fizaayon mein tujhako mera pyaar pukaare. The song Chalo ik baar phir se ajanabee ban jaayen hum dono is one of the best he has penned and competes with Hum Dono’s Kabhi khud pe kabhi halaat pe rona aaya as his best. The song brings out the impossibility of the situation of erstwhile lovers after she has already married another man. The song was composed by Ravi and sung very well indeed by Mahendra Kapoor.

It meets the demands of the criteria set by me for inclusion in this series because it makes you think. In the end, you have as divided emotions as the lead cast.

Please enjoy: Chalo ik baar phir se ajanabee ban jaayen hum dono…

चलो इक बार फिर से, अजनबी बन जाएं हम दोनो
चलो इक बार फिर से …

न मैं तुमसे कोई उम्मीद रखूँ दिलनवाज़ी की
न तुम मेरी तरफ़ देखो गलत अंदाज़ नज़रों से
न मेरे दिल की धड़कन लड़खड़ाये मेरी बातों से
न ज़ाहिर हो तुम्हारी कश्म-कश का राज़ नज़रों से
चलो इक बार फिर से …

तुम्हें भी कोई उलझन रोकती है पेशकदमी से
मुझे भी लोग कहते हैं कि ये जलवे पराए हैं
मेरे हमराह भी रुसवाइयां हैं मेरे माझी की – २
तुम्हारे साथ भी गुज़री हुई रातों के साये हैं
चलो इक बार फिर से …

तार्रुफ़ रोग हो जाये तो उसको भूलना बेहतर
ताल्लुक बोझ बन जाये तो उसको तोड़ना अच्छा
वो अफ़साना जिसे अंजाम तक लाना ना हो मुमकिन – २
उसे एक खूबसूरत मोड़ देकर छोड़ना अच्छा
चलो इक बार फिर से …

The reason that I mentioned to you about mixed feelings is because even whilst he sings the song about forgetting their earlier love, all of us knwo that it is easier said than done. In the good old days Love used to be taken quite seriously and not as the Flavour of the Month. Hence, BR Chopra, indeed, dealt with a very difficult subject of those times and this song was representative of the difficulties involved. Hence, it left a lasting impression on my mind and I am moved every time I listen to it, more so because of its superb lyrics.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

The sixth consecutive day of songs in this series.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #82‘) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have many a times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series three days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the fifth one, was put together by lyricist Anand Bakshi, composer Roshan and singer Mukesh for the 1966 Mohan Sehgal movie Devar: Guzra zamaana bachpan ka (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #5‘).

Lets turn to today’s song sung by Hemant Kumar.

“If God could sing, He would have a voice like Hemant Kumar’s”. This is how Salil Chowdhury described Hemant da’s singing. And we, who adore him, completely agree.

Hemant’s singing has the magical effect of carrying you – body, heart and soul – into the world of the song. Take Ye raat ye chandini phir kahan; and you realise that the Jaal (Net or Trap) is not just cast by Dev Anand for Geeta Bali, but that you yourself are caught in it like a struggling fish. When he goes on to sing… Taaron ki chhaon mein keh le kahaniyan…, you don’t have to imagine the scene; it unfolds before your eyes with his each word. Let’s take just one more illustrative song, a Waltzing number: Chup hai dharti chup hai chaand sitaare, mere dil ki dhadkan tujhako pukaare. Suddenly, you experience an enchanting silence wherein only thing that is awake is your soul.

Interestingly, Hemant da has sung and composed more songs on Chand and Chup than any other. The atmosphere of moonlit night is to be enjoyed in silence and not in crescendo. For example, Lehron pe lehar, kismat hai jawan; Raaton ki sehar, chali aao yahan; Sitaare  timtimaate hain to aaja aaja, Machalti jaa rahi hai ye hawaayen aaja aaja.

Hemant Kumar was a singer and composer who came alive, gently and heart warmingly at Raat (Night): Raat haseen, ye chand haseen, tu sabase haseen mere dilvar; Aur tujhase haseen tera pyaar.

Is it, therefore, any surprising that he sang one of his best for a movie called Sannata (Complete Calm): Bas ek chup si lagi hai? Is it also surprising that his own film production of 1969 (he had Asit Sen (the famous director and not the comedian) directing it) was called Khamoshi (Silence)?

Raat, Khamoshi, Chandini are the themes that one can associate with Hemant Kumar: Jaadugar sainya, chhod mere bainya, ho gayi aadhi raat, ab ghar jaane de (from Hemant Kumar’s music direction Nagin), we would want to sing to him, trying to get back home. And Hemant da, in his characteristic baritone would sing back: Ek raat hoke nidar, mujhe jeene do. Life, for him, came alive, at night, like Wordsworth’s Lucy Gray:

“The stars of midnight shall be so dear,
For her and she shall lean her ear,
In many a secret place;
Where rivulets dance their wayward round,
And beauty born of murmuring sound,
Shall pass into her face.”

See the video of the song I am giving you today and watch the beauty born of murmuring sound pass into the face of Waheeda Rehman as Nurse Radha in a mental asylum. No wonder NDTV, on their 25th anniversary of broadcasting, had the President give her an award as one of the 25 Living Legends in India. And look at the high standards that she set for herself: she wasn’t satisfied with her own performance. She said Suchitra Sen in the Bengali version did a much better job of it. That’s remarkable humility.

She is a nurse in a psychiatric ward. Her sensitivity towards her patients is so much that they invariably get healed. That includes Dharmendra (the singer of this song in the movie) and that finally includes Rajesh Khanna. However, the doctors in the hospital are insensitive to the fact that she gets so personally involved in the treatment of her patients that finally there is an emotional bond, if not that of love (Pyaar ko pyaar hi rehane do koi naam na do). After being cured, when they leave, there is Khamoshi in her life. She can’t take it any more after Rajesh Khanna too leaves and heartbroken, she is finally admitted into the same ward as mentally imbalanced.

In this song, all that she does is walk up to Dharmendra‘s room and back (we are not even face to face with him) and yet, there is so much packed in that walk, in terms of histrionics. Outstanding indeed.

Gulzar is the lyricist. He made not just this song but all songs of Khamoshi memorable and amongst his best. We just can’t get them out of our system; eg, Woh shaam kuchh ajeeb thi.

Hemant da was excellent in his singing always. However, his best was on his own compositions. This is one of them.

Please enjoy: Tum pukaar lo…

तुम पुकार लो, तुम्हारा इन्तज़ार है,
तुम पुकार लो
ख़्वाब चुन रही है रात, बेक़रार है
तुम्हारा इन्तज़ार है, तुम पुकार लो

होंठ पे लिये हुए दिल की बात हम
जागते रहेंगे और कितनी रात हम
मुक़्तसर सी बात है तुम से प्यार है
तुम्हारा इन्तज़ार है, तुम पुकार लो

दिल बहल तो जायेगा इस ख़याल से
हाल मिल गया तुम्हारा अपने हाल से
रात ये क़रार की बेक़रार है
तुम्हारा इन्तज़ार है, तुम पुकार लो

I am fond of Hemant Kumar, raat, chand and khamoshi. When I am in Mumbai and most of the time there is constant din of religious festivities, I seek the silence of the hills. I believe that in noise the distance between a person and his inner self increases with each decibel. Khamoshi is the essential linkage to one’s soul. Hence, I enjoy most Hemant Kumar songs. Being an avid exponent of Rabindra Sangeet, there is never a jarring note in his singing. This is one song that tugs at my emotions whenever I listen to it.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

Raaga Based Song of the Day: Tukade hain mere dil ke ai yaar tere aansu….
Raag Pahadi, Tal Kaherava

This is the eighth time I am taking up a song based on Raag Pahadi here, the raaga of my place in the Himalayas. I believe that in everyone’s musical life a little Pahadi must fall like a gentle rain. I took up, for the first time, a song in this raaga on the 7th day: Aaj ki raat piya dil na todo (Tal Dadra). The very next day, I took up Zara sun haseena ai nazneen (Rupaktal). On the 32nd day, it was Chal udd jaa re panchhi (Kaherava), followed by Sawan ka mahina (Kaherava) on the 46th day. And then I took a break from Pahadi for the next almost a month until I was back with Mushkil hai bahut mushkil (Kaherava) on the 72nd day. This was followed by Tum apna ranj-o-gham (Kaherava) on the 80th day and now I give you Tukade hain mere dil ke (Kaherava). Do you see a pattern? Of course you do; which is that even though Pahadi is a romantic and enchanting dhun, I have given you most songs (except two) that tilt towards regret, ruefulness and sadness. Today’s song seals it, once and for all, that the dhun does as much justice to pensive thoughts as it does to happy romantic songs like Sawan ka mahina.

Lets have a look at all the artistes who made this song possible. Naturally, the very first one is OP Nayyar or Omkar Prasad Nayyar, the composer. I don’t know if anyone has kept track of it, but, OP Nayyar probably has the maximum percentange of hit and super-hit songs in his movies. He brought to the table signature Punjabi tunes such as Ik pardesi mera dil le gaya, Udhe jab jab zulfen teri, Reshami salwar kurta jaali ka, Sar pe topi laal haath mein resham ka rumaal, and Kajra mohabbat wala. Although there are many who believe that OP Nayyar had little or no knowledge of raagas, many of his songs have been composed in raagas, particularly his favourite Raaga Pilu and Pahadi. Being a Punjabi, he had strong likes and dislikes. For example, he didn’t have Lata Mangeshkar sing any of his songs since he didn’t find her voice “sexy enough”. Similarly, he fell apart with Mohammad Rafi in later years and shifted to mahendra Kapoor. He had Asha Bhosle sing most of his female songs until they too fell apart in 1974. This song from 1965 movie Mere Sanam is at the height of his association with both Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle and they delivered outstandingly.

As far as the singer Mohammad Rafi is concerned, even if you write volumes about him, his singing, his modesty and gentlemanliness, these are still not enough. I was once listening to Annu Kapoor on Mastii, at late night. Annu said Mohammad Rafi once spent an entire night outside the recording studio of Naushad Ali so that the latter would finish recording and give Rafi the busfare to go home. Now, Naushad was also a workalohic and some sort of perfectionist. Hence, it was in the wee hours that Naushad appeared from the studio and found Rafi waiting outside to be given busfare to go home. Naushad felt bad that a great singer like Rafi should be so waiting and hence told him, “You could have just knocked at the door.” This is what Mohammad Rafi replied, “I couldn’t have ever thought of disturbing you in your work.” Take this song itself. It is so typical of the gentlemanliness that Rafi possessed: always being mindful of the feelings of others, especially women. It was concerned the chivalrous thing for gentlemen to do as far as ladies were concerned. Compare this with Yesudas‘s, “Maana ke ho tum behadd haseen, aise bure ham bhi nahin”, trying to compete with the lady. No wonder, Yesudas courted controversy in Oct 2014 by his ill thought of remark, “What should be covered must be covered. Women should not trouble others by wearing jeans.”

The lyricist of this song is Majrooh Sultanpuri, the only lyricist to have been awarded the highest in Indian Cinema: the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. His art was quite a mixed bag: on one hand he would write excellent Urdu poetry such as Bane ho ek khaak se to duur kya kareeb kya; on the other hand he kept dishing out forgettable songs with Chitragupta (except for a few of them). His forte’ was however romantic, enchanting songs such as Deewana mastaana hua dil, and Tum bin jaayun kahan. This movie gave him ample opportunity to brush up his art.

We have completed eighty-two days of Raaga Based Songs of the Day. Our first post in the series was titled ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #1’ and the song was a Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar song from the 1970 Shakti Samanta movie Pagla Kahin Ka: Tum mujhe youn bhula na paoge.  It is in Raag Jhinjhoti, Tal Kaherava.

Our eighty-second post or the last post was titled ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #82‘ and the song was an Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik song from the 2001 Farhan Akhtar movie Dil Chahta Hai starring Aamir Khan, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, and Akshay Khanna: Jaane kyun log pyaar karte hain. It is in Raag Nattakurinji, Tal Kaherava.

This blog has a number of posts on Raaga based songs in Hindi movies titled similarly; for example: ‘The Best Raaga Based Songs in Hindi Movies – Raaga Jaijaivanti‘.

In the last eighty-one days of sharing Raaga based songs of the day, I have given you songs based on Raag Jhinjhoti, Gara, Bhimpalasi, Madhuvanti, Shivaranjani, Bihag, Pahadi, Sarang, Pilu, Bhairavi, Khammaj, Charukesi, Kalyan or Yaman, Desh, Malgunji, Kirwani, Kedar, Bageshri, Megh Malhar, Bhupali, Ahir Bhairav, Malkaush, Mand, Adana, Kafi, Rageshri, Jaunpuri, Tilang, Janasammohini, Chayanat, Shuddha Kalyan, Gaur Sarang, Jogiya, Asavari, Maru Bihag, Durga, Lalit, Puria Dhanashri, Bhinna Sahdja, Sohani, Multani, Patdeep, Jaijaiwanti, Tilak Kamod, Hemant, Basant Mukhari, Gujri Todi, Kalavati, Hamir, Bhatiyar, Gawati, Shyam Kalyan, Gorakh Kalyan, Madhamat Sarang, Manj Khammaj, Darbari Kanada, Vibhas, Shankara, Bahar, Nand and Mian Ki Malhar; making it a total of 61 raagas. The raagas that have been repeated so far are Pahadi, the raaga of my home place in the Himalayas, Maru Bihag, Raag Kirwani, Jhinjhoti, Bhairavi, Gara, Basant Mukhari, Malkauns, Bhairavi and Mand. Today, I am repeating Raag Pahadi for the eighth time.

Today’s song has been sung by Mohammad Rafi on the lyrics of Majrooh Sultanpuri and composition by OP Nayyar. As I said, it is in Raag Pahadi, Tal Kaherava. The song is picturised on Biswajit and Asha Parekh in the 1965 GP Sippy production and Amar Kumar directed movie Mere Sanam.

Lets first take up Biswajit Ranjitkumar Chatterjee, the actor, and the director of his own 1975 production Kehte Hain Mujhako Raja. He is a singer too and performs in concerts. After acting in Bengali movies in Calcutta, he made his debut in 1962 in Hindi movies with Bees Saal Baad with Waheeda Rehman. The movie had two beautiful Hemant Kumar songs picturised on him: Beqraar karke hamen youn na jayiye, and Zara nazaron se kehdo ji; both the songs having been penned by my favourite lyricist: Shakeel Badayuni.

Asha Parekh was born on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday in his state Gujarat, in the year when Gandhi started Quit India movement against the British. After having done a few movies as a child-artiste, she was rejected by Vijay Bhatt for the role of a heroine in his movie Goonj Uthi Shehnai. Finally, she became the find of Nasir Hussain, who cast her as a heroine opposite Shammi Kapoor in his 1960 movie Dil Deke Dekho. She soon emerged not just as a huge star but also earned the sobriquet of being the Dancing Queen. Two of her early successes are Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai with Dev Anand with that most enchanting and ever-fresh duet: Sau saal pehle mujhe tumase pyaar tha, and Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon with Joy Mukherjee, which too had songs composed by OP Nayyar such as Aankhon se jo utari hai dil mein, and Zulfon ki chhaon mein chehre ko ujala dekar.

Lets get to the movie: Mere Sanam. As I said, this 1965 GP Sippy production and Amar Kumar direction movie starred Asha Parekh, Biswajit, Pran, Mumtaz and Rajendra Nath. The movie is a remake of Come September which is a 1961 romantic comedy film directed by Robert Mulligan, and starring Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin. The best part of this copied story movie is that the copy, in India, did as well at the original and was a box-office success. Its songs are still fresh with the people and like in another movie of OP Nayyar: Kashmir Ki Kali, the songs have the freshness of the Kashmir valley.

Before we actually take up the song, first, lets take up the value added learning of today. From the last time onwards we started learning about some of the leading personalities in Indian Classical Music or Shastriya Sangeet. The first one that we took up was Ustaad Asad Ali Khan, the finest Rudra Veena player in the country. Then we took up Pandit Hari Parsad Chaurasia, the greatest Bansuri player in the country. Tonight, lets talk about Ali Akbar Khan, the greatest Sarod player in the country.

You would recall I told you about Sarod when I was covering Hindustani Musical instruments (Please see ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #45‘). Ali Akbar Khan was born on 14 Apr 1922 in the village of Shibpur, Nabinagar Upazila, Brahmanbaria, in present-day Bangladesh, (then Comilla, East Bengal), to renowned musician and teacher, Allauddin Khan and Madina Begum. Soon after his birth, Khan’s family returned to Maihar (in present-day Madhya Pradesh, India) where his father was the primary court musician for the Maharaja of the princely state. Hence, Ustaad Ali Akbar Khan belongs to Maihar Gharana.

In addition to classical music performances, Ali Akbar Khan composed a few songs in movies, the famous one being Har kisi pe shaadmani sung by Lata Mangeshkar in Chetan Anand’s 1952 movie Aandhiyan.

He performed in India and traveled extensively in the West. In 1956, Khan founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta, with the mission to teach and spread Indian classical music. He founded another school of the same name in Berkeley, California in 1967 and later moved it to San Rafael, California.

He is the recipient of many awards; Padma Bhushan in 1967 and Padma Vibhushan in 1989 being two of the highest.

As I said, today’s song is in Raag Pahadi, Tal Kaherava and I have told you a lot about this raaga already.

Why do I have this urge to get back to Pahadi? On the tenth day, I had covered for you, the sources of names of raagas and mentioned that raagas like Marwa, Jaunpuri, Mand and Pahadi were named after places. Pahadi is not a place, in the same manner, as Marwa, Mand and Jaunpur. You should expect Pahadi anywhere you see pahad or hills but actually the name is from hills in Himalayas, my home place. It is a light raaga and is more akin to being a dhun.

Pahadi is a very beautiful raag. Soundofindia.com describes it beautifully: the raga is like a lover, unruffled in union, serene in separation, powerful enough to achieve eternal union, but resigned to the painful parting ordained by destiny.

All raagas are supposed to transport you to the mood of the raaga (bhaav). But, none other does it better than Pahadi: you can’t escape the freshness, quiet, wetness, echoing effect and palpable romance of the hills. It is as if the raaga says to you: ‘Love is in the air’.

I am not giving you again a list of songs composed in Raag Pahadi as I have already given you this elsewhere.

The song Tukade hain mere dil ke ai yaar tere aansu is from the 1965 Amar Kumar movie Mere Sanam. As I said, OP Nayyar had a record of hit and super-hit songs in his movies. Have a look at the complete list of songs of this movie:

1	“Roka Kayi Baar Maine Dil Ki Umang Ko”	Asha Bhosle & Mohammed Rafi	05:58
2	“Yeh Ab Kya Sochiye”	Asha Bhosle & Mohammed Rafi	04:50
3	“Pukarta Chala Hoon Main”	Mohammed Rafi	03:52
4	“Jaaiye Aap Kahaan Jaayenge”	Asha Bhosle & Mohammed Rafi	06:29
5	“Ye Hai Reshmi Zulfon Ka Andhera”	Asha Bhosle	03:22
6	“Humdum Mere Maan Bhi Jaao”	Mohammed Rafi	04:32
7	“Tukde Hain Mere Dil Ke”	Mohammed Rafi	03:30
8	“Hue Hain Tumpe Aashiq Hum”	Mohammed Rafi	04:02
9	“Haaji Haaji Haaji Arrey Haaji Baba”	Asha Bhosle & Mohammed Rafi	04:40

Please enjoy in Raag Pahadi, Tal Kaherava: Tukade hain mere dil ke ai yaar tere aansu ….

(Tuka.De hai.n mere dil ke, e yaar tere aa.Nsuu
Dekhe nahii.n jaate hai.n, diladaar tere aa.Nsuu ) – 2

Katare nahii.n chhalake ye, aa.Nkho.n ke piyaalo.n se
Motii hai.n muhobbat ke, in phuul se gaalo.n pe, in phuul
Bahane nahii.n duu.ngaa bekaar tere aa.Nsuu
Dekhe nahii.n jaate

Ashko.n se bharaa dekhuu.N kaise terii aa.Nkho.n ko
Ai jaan ye sulagataa Gam, de de merii aa.Nkho.n ko, de de merii
Palako.n pe uThaa luu.ngaa, sau baar tere aa.Nsuu
Dekhe nahii.n jaate

We have intended to learn about Raaga based music whilst we entertain ourselves with Raaga based songs. So, lets, once again, take stock of our collective learning so far:

1. On the first day we learnt about the Raaga system devised by Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, which is the prevalent system in Hindustani Classical Music and based on ten Thaats.
2. On the second day we learnt about Tal or Taal.
3. On the third day we learnt about characteristics of Raagas that included Swar, Jati, Thaat, Arohana and Avarohana, Vadi, Samvadi and Pakad.
4. On the fourth day, we learnt about Sargam.
5. On the fifth day, we learnt about notations used in Indian classical music or simply Swar Lipi.
6. On the sixth day, we learnt about the Ras (sentiments) that Raagas evoke.
7. On the seventh day, we learnt about various types of Swar: Shuddha, Achal, Vikrut, Komal and Teevra.
8. On the eighth day, we learnt the parts of a composition in Indian Classical Music.
9. On the ninth day, we learnt the names of some of the popular instruments used in Indian Classical Music.
10. On the tenth day, we learnt about the sources of names of Raagas.
11. On the eleventh day, we learnt about why Bhairavi is the first raag to be taught to beginners and also why it is the last in a performance.
12. On the twelfth day, we learnt about Khammaj Thaat.
13. On the thirteenth day, we learnt about Tal Punjabi Theka or Sitarkhani.
14. On the fourteenth day, we learnt about Alap.
15. On the fifteenth day, we learnt about List of Raagas (Raagmala) in my favourite book: Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
16. On the sixteenth day, we learnt about tips for raaga identification.
17. On the seventeenth day, we learnt the basics of Gharana system.
18. On the eighteenth day, we learnt about Filmi Sangeet.
19. On the nineteenth day, we learnt about the commonest Tal in Raagas: Tintal.
20. On the twentieth day, we learnt about the Kafi Thaat.
21. On the twenty-first day, we learnt a little more in detail about the classification of Raagas.
22. On the twenty-second day, we learnt the essential differences between Bhairavi and Bhairav.
23. On the twenty-third day, we learnt a little more in detail about the Jati or Jaati of a raaga.
24. On the twenty-fourth day, we learnt details of Thaat Bilawal, the most basic thaat in the Bhatkhande’s system of raagas.
25. On the twenty-fifth day, we learnt about Tintal.
26. On the twenty-sixth day, we learnt in detail about the Raaga – Samay linkage.
27. On the twenty-seventh day, we learnt about Lehar.
28. On the twenty-eighth day, we learnt about the history of the Hindustani Music.
29. On the twenty-ninth day, we learnt about Dhrupad.
30. On the thirtieth day, we learnt about Rupaktal that I was introduced to, a few months back, by my friend Anand Desai.
31. On the thirty-first day, we learnt about Khayal.
32. On the thirty-second day, we learnt about Thumri.
33. On the thirty-third day, we learnt about Tappa.
34. On the thirty-fourth day, we learnt about Tarana.
35. On the thirty-fifth day, we learnt about Tal Dipchandi (Moghali).
36. On the thirty-sixth day, we learnt about Tabla.
37. On the thirty-seventh day, we learnt about Kirtan.
38. On the thirty-eighth day, we learnt about Pakhawaj.
39. On the thirty-ninth day, we learnt about Hori.
40. On the fortieth day, we learnt about Dadra.
41. On the forty-first day, we learnt about Kajri.
42. On the forty-second day, we learnt about Chaiti.
43. On the forty-third day, we learnt about Sarangi.
44. On the forty-fourth day, we learnt about Shehnai.
45. On the forty-fifth day, we learnt about Sarod.
46. On the forty-sixth day, we learnt about Bansuri.
47. On the forty-seventh day, we learnt about Ektal and Tanpura.
48. On the forty-eighth day, we learnt about Veena.
49. On the forty-ninth day, we repeated our learning of Veena with a small excitement added.
50. On the fiftieth day, we learnt about Dilruba/Esraj.
51. On the fifty-first day, we learnt about Jaltarang.
52. On the fifty-second day we learnt about Qawwali.
53. On the fifty-third day, we learnt about Sitar.
54. On the fifty-fourth day, we learnt about Surbahar.
55. On the fifty-fifth day, we learnt about Harmonium.
56. On the fifty-sixth day, we learnt about Santoor.
57. On the fifty-seventh day, we learnt about Swarmandal.
58. On the fifty-eighth day, we learnt about the Shruti Box.
59. On the fifty-ninth day, we learnt about Alankar.
60. On the sixtieth day, we learnt about singing in Aakaar.
61. On the sixty-first day, we learnt about the Classification of Indian Musical Instruments.
    
62. On the sixty-second day, we learnt a little about Carnatic Music.
63. On the sixty-third day, we learnt about Natya Shastra.
64. On the sixty-fourth day, we learnt about evolution of musical instruments in India down the ages.
65. On the sixty-fifth day, we learnt about Riyaaz.
66. On the sixty-sixth day, we looked at a list of Raagas in Hindustani Classical Music.
67. On the sixty-seventh day, we learnt about the health benefits of raagas.
68. On the sixty-eighth day, we learnt a little more comprehensively about the moods and emotions that raagas evoke.
69. On the sixty-ninth day, we learnt about a mobile application to help identify raagas.
70. On the seventieth day, we learnt about Melakarta Raagas.
71. On the seventy-first day, we learnt about Sangita Makarand.
72. On the seventy-second day, we learnt about TaalMala an Android application for personalized accompaniment of musical instruments during Riyaaz or even during Concert.
73. On the seventy-third day, we learnt about Indian Classical Ragas, an Android application for mobile phones.
74. On the seventy-fourth day, we learnt about Saregama Classical, another application for Classical Raagas.
75. On the seventy-fifth day, we learnt about a free online service available to learn Indian Classical Music.
76. On the seventy-sixth day, we learnt about List of Hindustani Classical Musical Festivals in India and Abroad.
77. On the seventy-seventh day, we learnt about List of Carnatic Musical Festivals in India and Abroad.
78. On the seventy-eighth day, we learnt about Jhaptal.
    
79. On the seventy-ninth day, we learnt about Ektal.
    
80. On the eightieth day, we learnt about Tivra Tal.
81. On the eighty-first day, we learnt about the greatest Rudra Veena player ever: Ustaad Asad Ali Khan.
82. On the eighty-second day, we learnt about the greatest Bansuri player alive: Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.
83. And today, on the eight-third day, we learnt about the best Sarod player in the country: Ustaad Ali Akbar Khan.

There is much more still to be learnt and enjoyed.

Please stay tuned!

The fifth consecutive day of songs in this series.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #82‘) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have many a times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series three days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the fourth one, was put together by lyricist Kaifi Azmi, composer Madan Mohan and singer Mohammad Rafi  for the 1964 Chetan Anand movie Haqeeqat: Main ye soch kar us ke dar se utha tha (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #4‘).

Today’s singer, Mukesh Chand Mathur or simply Mukesh, has a cult following. His fans swear by him as much as those, in my young days in the Indian Navy, who were hooked on to Charminar cigarettes and won’t accept even Rothmans and Dunhills freely available on board. In his initial years in the movies, he tried to imitate KL Saigal. Indeed, his first song in the movies: Dil jalta hai to jalne de was so similar to the style of singing of Saigal that the latter remarked, “That’s strange, I don’t recall singing that song”.

Mukesh sang for many heroes , which included Dilip Kumar in Shimla based Mehboob Khan movie Andaz (Beautiful numbers such as Tu kahe agar jeevan bhar main geet sunata jaayun, and Jhuum jhuum kar naacho aaj) and Madhumati (Suhana safar aur ye mausam haseen). He was, however, known as the Singing Voice of Raj Kapoor and hence frequently associated with Raj Kapoor team of Shankar Jaikishan, Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri.

As far as Dharmendra is concerned, the hero on whom this song is picturised, many like to think of him as Garam Dharam, Dharam paaji and even Jatt Yamla Pagla Deewana. However, he is a serious actor in his own right. I do recall that his very first song in his debut movie in 1960 Dil Abhi Tera Ham Bhi Tere was a serious Mukesh number: Mujhako is raat like tanhayi mein awaaz na do. In his next movie, the 1961 Shola Aur Shabnam, he delighted us with another very serious songs put together by Kaifi Azmi, Khayyam and Mohammad Rafi: Jaane kya dhoondati rehati hain ye aankhen mujh mein, and Jeet hi lenge baazi ham tum.

This last song is an indicator of what to expect in this song; that is memory of childhood love. What was there between Dharmendra and Tarla Mehta in Shola Aur Shabnam was also there between him and Sharmila Tagore in 1966 Mohan Sehgal movie Devar and that’s why this song, because she was to be married to someone else.

The pairing of Dharmendra with Sharmila Tagore was first done by Hrishikesh Mukherjee in the 1966 movie Anupama, just before their Devar the same year (indeed, Mohan Sehgal retained the entire team of Anupama including Shashikala and Deven Verma). Hrishikesh called this the best pairing ever made in Hindi movies and they (Dharmendra and Sharmila Tagore) went on to make eight movies together.

The composer of the song is Roshan of Barsaat Ki Raat and Taj Mahal fame.
Once again, as with all songs in the present series that I have given you, the song fills you with nostalgia about your own childhood and its strains persist with you long after you finish listening to it.

The lyricist is Anand Bakshi, the winner of four Filmfare Awards.

Please enjoy: Guzra zamaana bachpan ka…..

आया है मुझे फिर याद वो ज़ालिम
गुज़रा ज़माना बचपन का
हाय रे अकेले छोड़ के जाना
और ना आना बचपन का
आया है मुझे फिर याद वो ज़ालिम

वो खेल वो साथी वो झूले
वो दौड़ के कहना आ छू ले
हम आज तलक भी ना भूले – २
वो ख्वाब सुहाना बचपन का
आया है मुझे फिर याद वो ज़ालिम

इसकी सबको पहचान नहीं
ये दो दिन का मेहमान नहीं
मुश्किल है बहुत, आसान नहीं – २
ये प्यार भुलाना बचपन का
आया है मुझे फिर याद वो ज़ालिम

मिल कर रोये फ़रियाद करें
उन बीते दिनों की याद करें
ऐ काश कहीं मिल जाये कोई – २
वो मीत पुराना बचपन का
आया है मुझे फिर याद वो ज़ालिम

When asked about the most intense nostalgia of their lives, nine out of ten people are bound to tell you that it is nostalgia about their childhood. This is extremely curious since during that period we want to quickly grow and become big and capable. However, we continue to fondly remember it as the best and the happiest period of our life. This song gnaws at my innards when it reminds me of this period. I am suddenly transported to when I was small and carefree and hopeful and happy.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

The fourth consecutive day of songs in this series.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #81‘) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have many a times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series three days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the third one, was put together by Kishore Kumar as Lyricist, Composer and Singer  for the 1964 movie Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein that was written, produced and directed by Kishore Kumar: Aa chal ke tujhe main le ke chalun (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #3‘).

So now you are hooked to the new series? Some of you have written back (thank you for that) that you can’t wait to see what would be the next song.
I plan. I gave you, in the first three days, songs by Talat Mehmood, Manna De and Kishore, so that when you actually listen to Mohammad Rafi you are bound to say, for the nth time, that there was no one like him and no one is going to be. He was the god of songs. All of us have our favourites such as Hemant and Mukesh and yet we know, there is no comparison with Rafi. The other day I mentioned that Lata ji (my favourite female singer) was the delight of the composers, especially Shankar Jaikishan. She delivered exactly what was expected of her. Mohammad Rafi was several steps ahead of her in that he showed the composers how much more they could expect from him, every time. When he died, in Bombay, at the age of just 55 years, all composers admitted that they had still not exploited Rafi’s complete capabilities. Achha hai kuchh le jaane se dekar hi kuchh jaana.

Take this song from Chetan Anand’s 1964 movie Haqeeqat explaining the debacle of 1962 Sino Indian War. Madan Mohan, the best composer ever for songs with pathos and agony, was trying in this song a new concept in that the song was like a free flowing poem, without traditional and recurrent mukhada and antaras. He actually asked Kishore Kumar and Manna De to sing it and then, disappointed, he turned, once again, to Mohammad Rafi.

Why am I in love with this song? Yes, it is not just because of its outstanding rendition by Rafi. This song is the finest example of Lyrics, Composition, Music and even the scenario (of the war with its frustration and hopelessness) and scenery (of Ladakh), all blending seamlessly into giving us an unforgettable song. You have no idea of what tugs at your emotions more; nor do you care because you are, with the first few notes, transported into another world wherein the silence of your soul converses with you.

Of all the lyricists that I know of, Kaifi Azmi mastered the art of giving vent to the most intense and most powerful emotions through simplest words. One author who did that is my favourite: Ernest Hemingway. Likewise, taste this from Kaifi in Hanste Zakhm:

Dil ki naazuk ragen toot ti hain,
Yaad itna bhi koi na aaye,
Aaj socha to aansu bhar aaye….

These are, as I am fond of saying, raw emotions hanging from hooks of poignancy.

It is the same with this song. You know the background of the song and yet I am repeating it. Mail is received in that war sector and once again this jawan Ram Singh (played by debutant Sudhir who was later reduced to doing small villainous roles) hasn’t received a letter from his beloved. It is not just that he lost a bet with another jawan, he has come a cropper in his wager with life itself. Kaifi Azmi, Madan Mohan, Mohammad Rafi, and Chetan Anand had to now have a song that would rise from an individual situation to the general helplessness of a war that takes one as far as possible from normal human desires and longings. And, they did it so well.

Please enjoy: Main yeh soch kar usake dar se utha tha ke woh roke legi mana legi mujhako…..

मैं ये सोचकर उसके दर से उठा था
के वो रोक लेगी मना लेगी मुझको

हवाओं में लहराता आता था दामन
के दामन पकड़कर बिठा लेगी मुझको

कदम ऐसे अंदाज़ से उठ रहे थे
के आवाज़ देकर बुला लेगी मुझको

मगर उसने रोका
न उसने मनाया
न दामन ही पकड़ा
न मुझको बिठाया
न आवाज़ ही दी
न वापस बुलाया

मैं आहिस्ता आहिस्ता बढ़ता ही आया
यहाँ तक के उससे जुदा हो गया मैं …

By this time, you would be convinced that in this song, we witnessed something extraordinary that the team of Chetan Anand’s 1964 movie Haqeeqat essayed to give to us. As with some of the other songs in the movie, notably Hoke majbuur mujhe usane bhualaya hoga, and Kar chale ham fida jaan-o-tan saathiyo, ab tumhaare hawaale watan saathiyo, this song leaves a lasting impact on one’s mind and heart. I have goosebumps every time I listen to it.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.

 

 

Raaga Based Song of the Day: Jaane kyun log pyaar karte hain ….
Raag Nattakurinji, Tal Kaherava

A new raag tonight and that too from Carnatic Music. The song in this raag is composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, also known as S-E-L, standing for the Composer Group of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendosa; Shankar Mahadevan is the vocalist, Ehsaan Noorani is the lead guitarist and Loy Mendosa is a multi-instrumentalist who plays the piano, bass guitar, harmonica and is currently learning to play the trumpet. Their first big break was in the 2001 movie Dil Chahta Hai, the debut movie of Farhan Akhtar as a director. They happened to be the music director for the movie because AR Rehman, who was the first choice, had to back out due to other engagements. They are recipients of three Filmfare Awards and one National Award (for Kal Ho Na Ho) besides a host of other awards.

A word about the singers: Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik. Udit Narayan Jha was born on 01 Dec 1955 and has been the recipient of three National Awards and Five Fimfare Awards. He started singing in the Hindi movies in 1980 and hence is the only male singer who has won Filmfare Awards over three decades of singing. Alka Yagnik is over 10 years younger, having been born on 20th Mar 1966. She has a record of winning seven Filmfare Awards from 36 nominations and two National Awards. Incidentally, this song got Udit Narayan a National Award.

The song’s lyrics were penned by Javed Akhtar. Javed Akhtar, born on 17 Jan 1945, is the son of noted lyricist and poet Jan Nisar Akhtar. He is the recipient of five National Awards, six Filmfare Awards, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.

We have completed eighty-one days of Raaga Based Songs of the Day. Our first post in the series was titled ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #1’ and the song was a Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar song from the 1970 Shakti Samanta movie Pagla Kahin Ka: Tum mujhe youn bhula na paoge.  It is in Raag Jhinjhoti, Tal Kaherava.

Our eighty-first post or the last post was titled ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #81‘ and the song was a Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar song from the 1962 Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie Aashiq starring Raj Kapoor, Nanda and Padmini: O shama mujhe phoonk de. It is in Raag Bhairavi, Tal Kaherava.

This blog has a number of posts on Raaga based songs in Hindi movies titled similarly; for example: ‘The Best Raaga Based Songs in Hindi Movies – Raaga Darbari Kanada – Part III‘.

In the last eighty-one days of sharing Raaga based songs of the day, I have given you songs based on Raag Jhinjhoti, Gara, Bhimpalasi, Madhuvanti, Shivaranjani, Bihag, Pahadi, Sarang, Pilu, Bhairavi, Khammaj, Charukesi, Kalyan or Yaman, Desh, Malgunji, Kirwani, Kedar, Bageshri, Megh Malhar, Bhupali, Ahir Bhairav, Malkaush, Mand, Adana, Kafi, Rageshri, Jaunpuri, Tilang, Janasammohini, Chayanat, Shuddha Kalyan, Gaur Sarang, Jogiya, Asavari, Maru Bihag, Durga, Lalit, Puria Dhanashri, Bhinna Sahdja, Sohani, Multani, Patdeep, Jaijaiwanti, Tilak Kamod, Hemant, Basant Mukhari, Gujri Todi, Kalavati, Hamir, Bhatiyar, Gawati, Shyam Kalyan, Gorakh Kalyan, Madhamat Sarang, Manj Khammaj, Darbari Kanada, Vibhas, Shankara, Bahar, Nand and Mian Ki Malhar; making it a total of 61 raagas. The raagas that have been repeated so far are Pahadi, the raaga of my home place in the Himalayas, Maru Bihag, Raag Kirwani, Jhinjhoti, Bhairavi, Gara, Basant Mukhari, Malkauns, Bhairavi and Mand. Today, I am giving you a new raaga: Nattakurinji.

Today’s song has been sung by Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik on the lyrics of Javed Akhtar and composition by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. As I said, it is in Raag Nattakurinji, Tal Kaherava. The song is picturised on Aamir Khan and Preity Zinta in the 2001 Farhan Akhtar debut movie Dil Chahata Hai. A word about the movie and its principal actor: Aamir Khan.

Lets first take up Aamir Khan, the actor, producer and director, besides a figure for humanitarian causes. In everything that he puts his hands to, Aamir Khan is known as a perfectionist. Unlike other contemporary actors and stars, Aamir Khan gets into the soul of the role that he takes up and is choosy about quality more than quantity. Take the year 2001, for example; Aamir Khan’s own production and an Ashutosh Gowariker movie Lagaan was released that year and he played a rustic hero with excellent leadership qualities who got his village out of paying lagaan (tax) to the British after winning a game of cricket with them, a game they had never played before. He was so convincing in his role as the village-boy Bhuvan that no one expected him to switch to an urbane role as Akash Malhotra in his second movie of the same year: Dil Chahta Hai. One has to imagine that there must have been occasions when the shooting of the movies would have been near concurrent and Aamir Khan had to shift from rustic to urbane.

Lets get to the movie: Dil Chahta Hai. It was the debut directorial venture by Farhan Khan who wrote the story and the screenplay too. The movie was about three childhood friends, Akash Malhotra (Aamir Khan), Sameer Mulchandani (Saif Ali Khan), and Siddharth “Sid” Sinha (Akshaye Khanna). Akash didn’t believe in the concept of love and hence this song that I have chosen for you is so appropriate with Preity Zinta bringing out the benefits of love and Aamir Khan denying them fervently. The movie won seven Filmfare Awards, two National Awards and four IIFA awards. If you now consider the awards won by Lagaan, these are: eight National Awards, nine Filmfare Awards, nine Screen Awards and ten IIFA Awards. This would mean that these two movies in 2001 carried a bulk of awards that year.

Before we actually take up the song, first, lets take up the value added learning of today. From the last time onwards we started learning about some of the leading personalities in Indian Classical Music or Shastriya Sangeet. The first one that we took up was Ustaad Asad Ali Khan, the finest Rudra Veena player in the country. Tonight, lets talk about Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, the greatest living flautist (Bansuri player) in the country.

You would recall I told you about Bansuri when I was covering Hindustani Musical instruments (Please see ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #46‘). Indians have a natural fascination towards Bansuri, the instrument played magically by our most loved Lord Krishna. Even at that time I briefly covered Padma Vibhushan Hariprasad Chaurasia. I recall, on 21 Dec 2013, when NDTV had the President honour 25 Living Legends (on the occasion of NDTV completing 25 years of broadcasting), Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia was one of them. His father wanted him to become a wrestler. Hence, he had to learn music without the knowledge of his father (his mother died when he was only 6).

Chaurasia started learning vocal music from his neighbour, Pandit Rajaram, at the age of 15. Later, he switched to playing the flute under the tutelage of Pandit Bholanath Prasanna of Varanasi for eight years. He joined the All India Radio, Cuttack, Odisha in 1957 and worked as a composer and performer. Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia composed music for Hindi films along with Pt. Shivkumar Sharma, forming a music duo called Shiv-Hari. Coincidentally, today, on the first birth anniversary of actor Vinod Khanna after his demise on 27 April 2017, I gave in my Facebook Group ‘Yaad Kiya Dil Ne’ one of their songs: Lagi aaj sawan ki phir woh jhadi hai penned by Anand Bakshi.

Pandit ji received many awards in his career. The first important one was the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1984. It was followed by Padma Bhushan in 1992 and finally Padma Vibhushan in 2000.

As I said, today’s song is in Raag Nattakurinji, Tal Kaherava.

Raag Nattakurinji is a raaga of Carnatic Music. It is an audhava janya raaga of 28th Melakarta raaga Harikambhoji. This gentle raaga evokes devotion and compassion, ie, the raaga is most suited to bring about Karuna and Sringara Rasa. A pleasant raga, its phrases are very graceful and when handled tastefully, this raga can be quite a treat. Mostly suited for singing in the evenings, it is actually a rakti raaga, ie, can be sung at any time. Natakurinji is easily identifiable owing to its unique Aarohana-Avarohana pattern:

Aarohana (Ascending) : S R2 G3 M1 N2 D2 N2 P D2 N2 S’
Avarohanam (Descending) : S’ N2 D2 M1 G3 M1 P G3 R2 S

Natakurinji is a relatively recent raga. There is no reference to this raaga in pre-18th century literature. The name of the raaga suggests that the origins of this raaga are in the music of the early Tamils; which is not really correct.

In film music, Natakurinji songs are just a few, noteworthy and full of bhava. The convoluted patterns in the raga often scare off film composers from touching upon it. Those brave enough to handle it have done so admirably. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are an exception in Hindi movies, as far as this raag is concerned.

The song Jaane kyun log pyaar karte hain is from the 2001 Farhan Akhtar directorial movie Dil Chahta Hai. Other songs of the movie penned by Javed Akhtar and composed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy are:

1.	“Dil Chahta Hai”	Shankar Mahadevan, Clinton Cerejo	5:11
2.	“Jaane Kyon”	Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik, Caralisa Monteiro	4:49
3.	“Woh Ladki Hai Kahan”	Shaan, Kavita Krishnamurthy	5:06
4.	“Kaisi Hai Yeh Ruth”	Srinivas	5:29
5.	“Koi Kahe Kehta Rahe”	Shankar Mahadevan, Shaan, KK	5:46
6.	“Akash’s Love Theme”	Michael Harvey	2:10
7.	“Tanhayee”	Sonu Nigam	6:10
8.	“Dil Chahta Hai (Reprise)”	Shankar Mahadevan, Clinton Cerejo	4:18
9.	“Rocking Goa”	Chorus	2:06

Please enjoy in Raag Nattakurinji, Tal Kaherava: Jaane kyun log pyaar karte hain ….

Jaane kyuu.N log pyaar karate hai.n
Jaane kyuu.N vo kisii pe marate hai.n
Jaane kyuu.N

Pyaar me.n sochi_e to bas gam hai
Pyaar me.n jo sitam bhii ho kam hai
Pyaar me.n sar jhukaanaa pa.Dataa hai
Dard me.n muskuraanaa pa.Dataa hai
Zahar kyuu.N zi.ndagii me.n bharate hai.n
Jaane kyuu.N vo kisii pe marate hai.n
Jaane kyuu.N

Pyaar bin jiine.n me.n rakhaa kyaa hai
Pyaar jis ko nahii.n vo tanhaa hai
Pyaar sau ra.ng le ke aataa hai
Pyaar hii zi.ndagii sajaataa hai
Log chhup chhup ke pyaar karate hai.n
Jaane.n kyuu.N saaf kahate Darate hai.n
Jaane kyuu.N

Pyaar bekaar kii musiibat hai
Pyaar har tarah khuubasuurat hai
Ho pyaar se ham duur hii achchhe
Are pyaar ke sab ruup hai.n sachche
Ho pyaar ke ghaaT jo utarate hai.n
Duubate hai.n na vo ubharate hai.n
Jaane kyuu.N

Pyaar to khair sabhii karate hai.n
Jaane kyuu.N aap hii mukarate hai.n
Jaane kyuu.N

We have intended to learn about Raaga based music whilst we entertain ourselves with Raaga based songs. So, lets, once again, take stock of our collective learning so far:

1. On the first day we learnt about the Raaga system devised by Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, which is the prevalent system in Hindustani Classical Music and based on ten Thaats.
2. On the second day we learnt about Tal or Taal.
3. On the third day we learnt about characteristics of Raagas that included Swar, Jati, Thaat, Arohana and Avarohana, Vadi, Samvadi and Pakad.
4. On the fourth day, we learnt about Sargam.
5. On the fifth day, we learnt about notations used in Indian classical music or simply Swar Lipi.
6. On the sixth day, we learnt about the Ras (sentiments) that Raagas evoke.
7. On the seventh day, we learnt about various types of Swar: Shuddha, Achal, Vikrut, Komal and Teevra.
8. On the eighth day, we learnt the parts of a composition in Indian Classical Music.
9. On the ninth day, we learnt the names of some of the popular instruments used in Indian Classical Music.
10. On the tenth day, we learnt about the sources of names of Raagas.
11. On the eleventh day, we learnt about why Bhairavi is the first raag to be taught to beginners and also why it is the last in a performance.
12. On the twelfth day, we learnt about Khammaj Thaat.
13. On the thirteenth day, we learnt about Tal Punjabi Theka or Sitarkhani.
14. On the fourteenth day, we learnt about Alap.
15. On the fifteenth day, we learnt about List of Raagas (Raagmala) in my favourite book: Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
16. On the sixteenth day, we learnt about tips for raaga identification.
17. On the seventeenth day, we learnt the basics of Gharana system.
18. On the eighteenth day, we learnt about Filmi Sangeet.
19. On the nineteenth day, we learnt about the commonest Tal in Raagas: Tintal.
20. On the twentieth day, we learnt about the Kafi Thaat.
21. On the twenty-first day, we learnt a little more in detail about the classification of Raagas.
22. On the twenty-second day, we learnt the essential differences between Bhairavi and Bhairav.
23. On the twenty-third day, we learnt a little more in detail about the Jati or Jaati of a raaga.
24. On the twenty-fourth day, we learnt details of Thaat Bilawal, the most basic thaat in the Bhatkhande’s system of raagas.
25. On the twenty-fifth day, we learnt about Tintal.
26. On the twenty-sixth day, we learnt in detail about the Raaga – Samay linkage.
27. On the twenty-seventh day, we learnt about Lehar.
28. On the twenty-eighth day, we learnt about the history of the Hindustani Music.
29. On the twenty-ninth day, we learnt about Dhrupad.
30. On the thirtieth day, we learnt about Rupaktal that I was introduced to, a few months back, by my friend Anand Desai.
31. On the thirty-first day, we learnt about Khayal.
32. On the thirty-second day, we learnt about Thumri.
33. On the thirty-third day, we learnt about Tappa.
34. On the thirty-fourth day, we learnt about Tarana.
35. On the thirty-fifth day, we learnt about Tal Dipchandi (Moghali).
36. On the thirty-sixth day, we learnt about Tabla.
37. On the thirty-seventh day, we learnt about Kirtan.
38. On the thirty-eighth day, we learnt about Pakhawaj.
39. On the thirty-ninth day, we learnt about Hori.
40. On the fortieth day, we learnt about Dadra.
41. On the forty-first day, we learnt about Kajri.
42. On the forty-second day, we learnt about Chaiti.
43. On the forty-third day, we learnt about Sarangi.
44. On the forty-fourth day, we learnt about Shehnai.
45. On the forty-fifth day, we learnt about Sarod.
46. On the forty-sixth day, we learnt about Bansuri.
47. On the forty-seventh day, we learnt about Ektal and Tanpura.
48. On the forty-eighth day, we learnt about Veena.
49. On the forty-ninth day, we repeated our learning of Veena with a small excitement added.
50. On the fiftieth day, we learnt about Dilruba/Esraj.
51. On the fifty-first day, we learnt about Jaltarang.
52. On the fifty-second day we learnt about Qawwali.
53. On the fifty-third day, we learnt about Sitar.
54. On the fifty-fourth day, we learnt about Surbahar.
55. On the fifty-fifth day, we learnt about Harmonium.
56. On the fifty-sixth day, we learnt about Santoor.
57. On the fifty-seventh day, we learnt about Swarmandal.
58. On the fifty-eighth day, we learnt about the Shruti Box.
59. On the fifty-ninth day, we learnt about Alankar.
60. On the sixtieth day, we learnt about singing in Aakaar.
61. On the sixty-first day, we learnt about the Classification of Indian Musical Instruments.
    
62. On the sixty-second day, we learnt a little about Carnatic Music.
63. On the sixty-third day, we learnt about Natya Shastra.
64. On the sixty-fourth day, we learnt about evolution of musical instruments in India down the ages.
65. On the sixty-fifth day, we learnt about Riyaaz.
66. On the sixty-sixth day, we looked at a list of Raagas in Hindustani Classical Music.
67. On the sixty-seventh day, we learnt about the health benefits of raagas.
68. On the sixty-eighth day, we learnt a little more comprehensively about the moods and emotions that raagas evoke.
69. On the sixty-ninth day, we learnt about a mobile application to help identify raagas.
70. On the seventieth day, we learnt about Melakarta Raagas.
71. On the seventy-first day, we learnt about Sangita Makarand.
72. On the seventy-second day, we learnt about TaalMala an Android application for personalized accompaniment of musical instruments during Riyaaz or even during Concert.
73. On the seventy-third day, we learnt about Indian Classical Ragas, an Android application for mobile phones.
74. On the seventy-fourth day, we learnt about Saregama Classical, another application for Classical Raagas.
75. On the seventy-fifth day, we learnt about a free online service available to learn Indian Classical Music.
76. On the seventy-sixth day, we learnt about List of Hindustani Classical Musical Festivals in India and Abroad.
77. On the seventy-seventh day, we learnt about List of Carnatic Musical Festivals in India and Abroad.
78. On the seventy-eighth day, we learnt about Jhaptal.
    
79. On the seventy-ninth day, we learnt about Ektal.
    
80. On the eightieth day, we learnt about Tivra Tal.
81. On the eighty-first day, we learnt about the greatest Rudra Veena player ever: Ustaad Asad Ali Khan.
82. And today, on the eighty-second day, we learnt about the greatest Bansuri player alive: Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.

There is much more still to be learnt and enjoyed.

Please stay tuned!

The third consecutive day of songs in this series.

I have been giving you Raaga Based Songs of the Day (eg, ‘Raaga Based Song Of The Day #81‘) for the last nearly three months now. Many of you, who know your music well, have many a times pointed out that a particular song, though ostensibly close to one raaga has traces of other raagas or has deviated substantially from the chosen raaga. I have readily admitted that, pointing out that it is not the job of the film songs composers to stick to the purity of any raaga. Their job is to produce tunes that would be popular and would tug at the emotions of the listeners.

With that in mind, I started a new series two days ago to give you songs that tug at your emotions even when they are not based on any raagas.

These are the songs that stay in the creases of your mind long after you last heard them, somewhat like the strains of the song of The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth.

I also feel that these are the songs that make you wonder whether the lyrics influenced you more or the composition or is it the composition that made you look at the beauty of the lyrics?

The first of these was put together by lyricist Shailendra and composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Talat Mahmood for the 1957 Dulal Guha movie Ek Gaon Ki Kahani starring Talat Mahmood, Mala Sinha and Abhi Bhattacharya: Raat ne kyaa kyaa khwaab dikhaaye (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #1‘).

Our last one, that is the second one was put together by lyricist Prem Dhawan, composer Salil Chowdhury and singer Manna Dey for the 1961 Bimal Roy production and Hemen Gupta directed movie Kabuliwala starring Balraj Sahni in the title role: Aye mere pyaare watan, aye mere bichhade chaman, tujhpe dil qurbaan (‘Songs That Tug At Your Emotions – Song #2‘).

Today’s song is another special one.

At the height of Amitabh Bachchan’s popularity, he was covered by Time magazine in a feature, the crux of which was that the Big B was an industry by himself. However, one artiste who actually fitted the description of an industry was not AB but Kishore Kumar. Look at his versatility: he was a playback singer, actor, lyricist, composer, music director, screen and story writer, producer and director, all rolled into one.

Let’s just look at his singing and musical acumen. On one hand he sang comical songs such as those of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (Paanch rupaiya barha aana, for example). On the other hand, he sang for Vinod Khanna (whose first birth anniversary after we lost him on 27th of April this year), the Mere Apne song, a serious song: Koi hota jisako apna, ham apna keh lete yaaro.

When it came to producing and directing, Kishore Kumar opted for making movies like Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein and Door Ka Rahi that satisfied his inner urge rather than with an eye on commercial success.

Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein was released in 1964 and starred his son Amit Kumar and Supriya Choudhury together with Kishore da himself. The movie’s story was based on American film The Proud Rebel, of 1958. Kishore da played Shankar, a retired army man, who returned home to find his family had died in a fire leaving his son Ramu who had become a mute since the fire. Shankar faced intense difficulties in trying to seek treatment for his son as also to lead a normal life. That included personal assault on him, something that I too faced, even when I had not yet retired.

The movie did poorly at box office, which was the fate of almost all movies that tried to get out of the mould of ‘formula films’. Shailendra’s Teesri Kasam is a fine illustrative example.

The movie’s songs, however, became very popular. There were eight penned by Shailendra and composed by Kishore da himself. These included Jin raaton ki bhor nahin, Koi lauta de mere beete huye din, and Rahi tu mat ruk jaana.

The last one, sung by Hemant Kumar, is how I would like to remember Kishore Kumar, a Rahi in search of a Utopian world.

None of these songs, however, became as popular as the only one in the movie penned by Kishore Kumar. It was sung by him on his own composition, in a movie that was written, produced and directed by him, and that starred he and his son Amit Kumar.

You have to admit that the song stays with you long after you have finished listening to it and hence it eminently meets the requirements of the present series.

Please enjoy: Aa chal ke tujhe main le ke chalun….

आ चल के तुझे, मैं ले के चलूं
इक ऐसे गगन के तले
जहाँ ग़म भी न हो, आँसू भी न हो
बस प्यार ही प्यार पले
इक ऐसे गगन के तले

सूरज की पहली किरण से, आशा का सवेरा जागे (२)
चंदा की किरण से धुल कर, घनघोर अंधेरा भागे (२)
कभी धूप खिले कभी छाँव मिले
लम्बी सी डगर न खले
जहाँ ग़म भी नो हो, आँसू भी न हो …

जहाँ दूर नज़र दौड़ आए, आज़ाद गगन लहराए
जहाँ रंग बिरंगे पंछी, आशा का संदेसा लाएं (२)
सपनो मे पली हँसती हो कली
जहाँ शाम सुहानी ढले
जहाँ ग़म भी न हो, आँसू भी न हो …
आ चल के तुझे मैं ले के चलूं …

 

As motivational songs go, this song is in a class by itself. Despite all the difficulties faced by Kishore Kumar he still dreams of a Utopian world. The first part of the video where his son chooses a flute over a toy-gun is also very symbolic. This is one of the few songs that I know of wherein no matter what mood you are in, you feel like singing along, somewhat similar to Neil Diamond’s Song Sung Blue.

I hope you enjoyed it too.

Please await tomorrow’s song.