The concluding article in the series on Arrangers and Musicians by guest authors, Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) & Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation), wishing everyone Eid Mubarak
(As we celebrate Eid, our guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav mark the happy occasion with their concluding article in the series on Arrangers and Musicians. In the thirteen earlier articles, eleven focussed on individual talented artistes, such as Anthony Gonsalves, Van Shipley, Enoch Daniels etc, and two were devoted to families whose more than one generation comprising several artistes made an impact – The Lords and Ramprasad Sharma & Sons.
The concluding article brings the curtain down on the people who remained behind the curtain anyway. This also marks the end of the way music was made – a metaphorical dusk of an era. The authors discuss four different artistes who were active during the dusk. On behalf of the readers I convey our heartfelt gratitude to Piyushji and Ashokji for this wonderful series and a befitting concluding article. – AK)
Arrangers and musicians have been the unsung heroes, who gave shape to the music in films with their imaginative art and creative craft. Some of these arrangers and musicians had their work documented, howsoever sketchy it was. However, there are many more who remained unsung within the tribe of ‘unsung heroes’. We conclude our present series with four such unsung among unsung musicians whose work has mainly trickled in through the public programmes they have participated in, even though each one was a master of his own instrument(s), and has enriched the Hindi film music by expanding the range of these instruments.
Bhanu Gupta
The world of science is replete with cases where some great inventions happened from inadvertent errors. One most famous example is that of Penicillin. Sir Alexander Fleming was working on a cure for Pneumonia, rampant during WWI. In 1928, Dr Fleming observed that a particular type of mould growing on a Petri-dish of Staphylococcus bacteria seemed to be preventing the bacteria around it from growing. We know that accidental discovery of the mould as almost cure-all, Penicillin.
{ 6 comments }
Ramprasad Sharma (1900 -1995) belonged to Gorakhpur in the then United Provinces (present day Uttar Pradesh). The band master of Bharatpur State recognised Ramprasad’s flare for instrumental music. He played the trumpet here. He then played in Agra Military Band. This groomed him into the art of music arrangement to rise to the position of Band Master in a circus. He toured Delhi, Lahore and Calcutta with the circus. He settled for some time in Calcutta and worked for Columbia and New Theatres. At that stage, he mastered playing ten instruments and had acquired good knowledge of intricacies of classical raags. 
When AK Ji wrote to me asking whether I would be interested in writing an article on Rafi on his centenary year, I was elated beyond words. This is a task that I would consider a blessing from the heavens! The year 2024 marks the birth centenary year of the legendary Rafi sahab and I do not know when AK ji would be publishing this, but let us celebrate Rafi throughout the year. I do not think Rafi needs any introduction to the very knowledgeable readers of SOY and so I will skip even a brief biography. In his glorious career of around 35 years, he won the hearts of the listeners not only with his singing but, more importantly, with his humbleness and humanitarian character he earned people’s love and respect. There can be personal likes and dislikes on music composers, singers, lyricists etc, but it is indeed rare to find anyone talk anything negative about Rafi, the human being. The way he could emote the song depending on the mood and actor on whom it was picturised is legendary and one can say that he created a unique style of playback singing. 
Men may not be from Mars nor women from Venus, but there is a fundamental difference in the way the two genders bond with each other. In semi-urban settings at a party, the two genders automatically segregate, each forming their own group. We generally ascribe it to patriarchy. But at a recent get-together for three days at a resort with colleagues, including women colleagues and their spouses, we were at a dinner hosted by a local friend. As the number of guests increased, there was a need for some to move into another room to decongest. We didn’t realise there was anything unusual when men moved into another room until, after some time, the ladies led by some feisty colleagues trooped into the room slamming the gender segregation. Patriarchy surely does not explain this. 
Even in the absence of authentic statistics, there is unanimity among Hindi film historians that, from 1947 to 1987, one or other member of the Lord family – father Cawas Lord, the elder son Kersi Lord and the younger son Burjor Lord – has, on an average, played in every third song recorded in Bombay. Jazz and Latino music became integral to Bombay film music largely due to the Lords.
It is next to impossible to determine when dancing as a sort of celebration was introduced among humans. Migration of homo sapiens commenced from Africa and over several millennium they spread over Europe and Asia. It is much later they settled in various places, found a community with distinct language of their own. Once basic necessities of survival were achieved, society turned towards development of various kinds of artistic skills. Music and dancing were the offshoot of such an endeavour. There is adequate archeological evidence of prevalence of a sort of music and dance even in early societies of human beings. Over a long period of time as they improved their standard of living, artistic skills also flourished in tandem. Music and dancing diversified among societies in the world and in our country this reached a pinnacle much earlier. Many schools of music and dancing were established in different regions. In music we had the Hindustani and Carnatic system. In dance many offshoots as Kathak, Kuchipudi, Bharatnatyam evolved. 
It was after 1943 that the new crop of music directors started using western musical instruments in the orchestration of the Hindi film songs. C Ramchandra, because of his association with trumpet player Chic Chocolate and jazz drummer Kawas Lord, went in almost overdrive by experimenting with using western tunes in the songs. Music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, S D Burman etc. further expanded the range by combining Indian classical and folk music with western music and western musical instruments like violin, cello, guitar etc. It was this trend in orchestration of Hindi film music that led the search for the instrumentalists in hotels, clubs and functions of the communities in big cities like Bombay and Calcutta, where strong culture of bands consisting of Goanese and Parsi instrumentalists had developed very well. It was at one of such bands that Chocolate and Lord met Goody Seervai and were impressed by Seervai’s style of playing the accordion. They immediately introduced Seervai to C Ramchandra and Naushad. 
A seven year old lad of Jalalabad (now in Pakistan) is busy compiling songs in Urdu. He has developed a flair for shayari, but his skill is frowned upon by his unsympathetic family. He continues in the same vein and pours out more songs. When he is around nine years old he comes across an individual with similar disposition named Amar Chand and has intimate discussions with him on his passion. Recognising the talent hidden in the boy, he is all encouragement and asks him to change his name and suggests Qamar (meaning Chand). The imaginative boy coins the name Qamar Jalalabadi (adopting the village Jalalabad where he lived) for himself and is known by this moniker thereafter. 
