OP Nayyar’s association with Mahendra Kapoor

27 May 2025

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar in OP Nayyar centenary series

(Ravindra Kelkar wrote a series of articles on OP Nayyar eight years ago. The grand centenary celebrations of Rafi on SOY inspired Mr Kelkar to mount a similar tribute to OP Nayyar whose centenary is on 16 January 2026. He also offered to write a number of articles culminating on the D-Day. This is Mr Kelkar’s second article in his second innings.

Mr Kelkar had close personal contact with OP Nayyar as his admirer, yet that does not cloud his judgement. Mahendra Kapoor was an important male singer for OP Nayyar in his post-Rafi phase, though Mr Kelkar acknowledges that he was not a match for Rafi. My view is somewhat nuanced. A famous song by any singer gets etched in our memory, and it is difficult to imagine it in any other voice, even in a superior singer’s voice. That would apply to some of Mahendra Kapoor’s songs by Ravi and OP Nayyar, and I have written posts on my favourite songs long ago. Mr Kelkar takes a more comprehensive look at OP Nayyar-Mahendra Kapoor combination.

Mr Kelkar has done Masters in Statistics and Computer Science, and he was an IT professional. Now retired, he is based out of Pune. Thank you Mr Kelkar for another nice article. – AK)

In my last series on OP Nayyar (6 posts in total) I had not written on this topic. I am making amends by writing this post. On the SOY blog, we already have quite a few posts related to Mahendra Kapoor, including one by AK on two songs of this combination, those songs being ‘Tumhara chahanewala’ from the film ‘Kahin Din Kahin Raat’ and ‘Mera pyar wo hai’ from film ‘Ye Raat Phir Na Aayegi’.  In the SOY family we have many Mahendra Kapoor admirers. I am impressed by their in-depth knowledge of many obscure and rarely heard Mahendra Kapoor songs. This also means that we need to include Mahendra Kapoor in the category of Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Talat Mehmood, Mukesh and Manna Dey. The Mahendra Kapoor and Ravi combination is very popular thanks to BR Chopra and on SOY this aspect is already covered in great detail. But in my view, the quality of OP Nayyar and Mahendra Kapoor songs is even better. Though I am not a Mahendra Kapoor fan as such, I do enjoy listening to many Mahendra Kapoor songs. In my view, he did a very competent job as Rafi’s replacement in OP’s music. But for me, Rafi was in a different class all together. Mahendra Kapoor was a hardworking, sincere singer and did his best in every song that he got to render. He was also a very soft spoken person and never had any ill word for anybody, like his guru Rafi.  

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Zindagi ai zindagi, zindagi tere hain do roop

16 May 2025

Haar Jeet, Sukh Dukh, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham – the two opposite feelings, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes alternately are so common in real life, we don’t give much thought to it. Even major disasters, terrorist acts do not move us, they are some statistics in news. Except that something so horrific happens that it hits you personally, even though your no near or dear one was affected. Pahalgam was one such incident. One moment you see honeymooning couples taking selfies in different poses, families with small children engaged in fun, frolic and laughter, and the other moment some terrorists swoop down, identify people by their religion, and shoot the menfolk. To the women’s entreaties to kill them also as nothing was left to live for, they said there is no such mercy, go and tell Modi. Our Armed Forces’ retaliatory strike two weeks later gave the victims’ families some solace, but Pakistan chose to escalate. This soon threatened to spiral out of control with geostrategic ramifications till we entered a phase of now-ceasefire, now no-ceasefire.

 

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Best songs of 1940

6 May 2025

And the winners are?

This is the transition year between the 1930s and 1940s. This was the year when Himanshu Rai, the founder of Bombay Talkies, passed away. The internecine war in the studio had not yet begun. So Bombay Talkies was going great guns with Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis with films like Aazad, Bandhan with music by Saraswati Devi and Ramchandra Pal. Ramchandra Pal working solo also gave outstanding music for Punarmilan with a great twin song Naacho nacho pyare man ke mor (by Arun Kumar/Snehprabha Pradhan). I don’t know whether it was the first twin song of Hindi films, but I can say without hesitation and disproving my general hypothesis, that both the versions are equally good.

Disaster also struck New Theatres too, which had a huge fire destroying most of their prints. But that didn’t deter them from making some great films with outstanding music: Zindagi with lead actor-singer KL Saigal, and Nartaki with lead actor-singer Pankaj Mullick, both scores composed by Pankaj Mullick, and Haar Jeet, composed by RC Boral.  

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R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations – Rhythm Instruments

25 April 2025

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav

(My first post of the current calendar year was a review of RD Burman’s biography by Anirudh Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal. In that review I had also mentioned that for me RD Burman was a post-1970 phenomena, which was beyond the time period I had set for this blog. I was not very up to date with music of this period, yet I had decided to celebrate the year as the year of RD Burman, as he came chronologically as the next great music director. I was quite open that I would need the support of guest writers in this endeavour.

Our perennial guest author Ashok M Vaishnav has taken up my request. He completed a nice series of articles on the Arrangers and Musicians last year. RD Burman was renowned for his creative rhythms and experiments with sound with different instruments. Continuing where he left off, Ashokji comes up with a nice article on RD Burman’s orchestration improvisations, focussing on his three key instrumentalists: Basu Chakravarty, Manohari Singh and Maruti Rao Keer. Thank you Ashokji for this worthy article to carry forward the tribute to RD Burman. – AK)

Being born to parents – Sachin Dev Burman and Meera Burman – it was natural that R D Burman had natural flair for music. As a very young boy he had penchant for the note Pa. As such, Ashok Kumar used to call him ‘Pancham’. Very soon, father S D Burman, recognising the musical inclination of the son, also rechristened Pancham as his nick name, from the earlier name Tablu as the parents used to call him. R D Burman used his nick name as his signature musical identity.

S D Burman had used R D’s tune for Aye meri topi palat ke aa (Funtoosh, 1956). S D Burman also used R D’s tune for Sar jo tera chakraye (Pyasa, 1957). R D used to attend music sessions at his father’s recordings, soon to join him as his assistant. All these experiences helped R D Burman to lend breadth and depth to his music and build a network of highly innovative musicians. The core of R D Burman’s music team was built on the foundation of triumvirate of his assistants, each one an ace instrumentalist: Basu Chakraborty – a cello player, Manohari Singh – a saxophone player and Maruti Rao Keer – rhythm specialist. It was this team that helped R D Burman to establish his unique identity by creating the music style that blended the essence classical, folk, regional and western music.

 

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OP Nayyar’s transition from Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt to Asha Bhosle

14 April 2025

Guest article by Ravindra Kelkar launching OP Nayyar’s Centenary Celebrations with a tribute to Shamshad Begum on her 106th birth anniversary, and also wising a very Happy Baisakhi, Bihu, Vishu and similar festivals across India

(Ravindra Kelkar is another once-an-SOY-regular who has woken up after a deep slumber. This time it came as a bigger surprise. Mr Kelkar had written a series of six articles on OP Nayyar starting from his 10th death anniversary on 28.1.2017. The old-timers remember him as an OP-expert. Perhaps he had an epiphany when he saw the centenary celebrations of Rafi on SOY. As OP Nayyar’s centenary falls on 16 January 2026, Mr Kelkar approached me to celebrate his centenary likewise, and also offered to write a number of guest articles on him culminating on his Centenary Day.

OP Nayyar’s earliest superhit song was in the voice of Shamshad Begum, ‘Kabhi aar kabhi paar laaga teere-e-nazar’. Her contribution to OP Nayyar was immense – when he was facing boycott, she stood by him and gave one superhit after another. Yet, after giving some great songs with Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum, OP Nayyar gradually shifted wholesale to Asha Bhosle, with Rafi remaining a constant. The story is well-known but Mr Kelkar gives some critical insights. Though an unabashed fan of OP Nayyar, Mr Kelkar does not mince words when discussing his personality flaws. Similarly, in this provocative write-up there is no trace of malice when he concludes that finally it was a complete takeover by Asha Bhosle leading to his sharp downfall as he could not maintain the boundary between the professional and the personal.

Music is a matter of personal choice and you may disagree with Mr Kelkar with many of his observations. But according to me, this is a worthy article to launch OP Nayyar’s centenary celebrations. Shamshad Begum maintained a dignified silence all this while. This article coincides with her birthday (14 April 1919 – 23 April 2013), so it is befitting to pay our tributes to her. This day is also a joyous occasion in many parts of the country – Baisakhi (Punjab), Bihu (Assam), Vishu (Kerala), Gudi Parwa (Maharashtra) and so on. Wishing the readers the very best on this happy day.

Mr Kelkar is a post-graduate in Statistics and Computer Science and was an IT professional. He has since retired and is based out of Pune. Thank you Mr Kelkar for returning with an excellent article on OP Nayyar, who despite some personality flaws, gave us joyous music. I am happy to launch his centenary celebrations on a joyous occasion. – AK)

After reading the title, the question that comes to the mind is, was there really a transition to Asha or a takeover by Asha Bhosle? In my view, it was both, transition as well as a takeover. Was it the first time that a composer shifted from singer A to singer B? Of course not! When Lata Mangeshkar, who had debuted a few years earlier, created a storm in 1949-50, within no time there was a complete takeover by her. The reason was obvious. The sheer quality of Lata’s pure, melodious and sweet voice, so completely different from the then prevalent voices, along with her inborn musical intelligence and flawless rendering made it a virtual walk over. All the major composers en masse shifted to Lata. Nothing like this happened in Asha Bhosle’s case. OP Nayyar’s first film was Aasmaan (1952), in which Geeta Dutt sang for the first time; and Asha Bhosle and Shamshad Begum sang for the first time in OP Nayyar’s second film Chham Chhama Chham (1952), So, by the end of first two films itself, OP had used all the three singers.

 

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Book Review: Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion Book 3

2 April 2025

Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion Book 3
Author: Arunkumar Deshmukh
Publisher: Professor toofaani publishers, East Lansing, MI, USA
Price (Pothi.com): ₹590 plus shipping (Paperback)
Copyright: © Arunkumar Deshmukh
Pages: 161

No one can be a hero to his friend. We all know Arunkumar Deshmukh well, I also happen to have met him a couple of times. Yet I have been his admirer for many reasons. One, his archival knowledge of forgotten artists of early era and his ability to recall which is due to his excellent organisation of his data. Two, his zest for life and his desire to give back to the society his knowledge. He is into his mid-eighties and it is amazing that he learnt word-processing, and first handled a computer well past retirement when he was about 70.

I often remarked that he had many books in him. I am happy that of late he has published several of his books. Book 3 is in continuation of Book 1 and 2 of “Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion”, both of which I have already reviewed on this blog.

He has befittingly dedicated the book: “To all the forgotten artists”. Its PART ONE comprises brief profiles of over 50 artists, some of whom acquired long-lasting fame, such as Geeta Bali, Durga Khote, SN Tripathi, Pankaj Mullick, Kanan Devi, RC Boral; some familiar to those who have interest in old films and music; and some quite unknown, such as Vithaldas Panchotiya, Vanmala, Mirza Musharraf etc. The book cover has pics of (from top left corner): Hansa Wadkar, Dada Salvi, Zahoor Raja and Sulochana (Ruby Myers). There are profiles on all of them, the last mentioned, in the section on same name confusion.

Arunji has kind of launched a campaign on blogosphere to clear confusion about the same names. He has carried the messianic zeal in this Book 3 too. The PART TWO of the book deals with eight sets of same names. PART THREE and PART FOUR of the book have some articles of general interest and some interesting trivia.

The book befittingly starts with a tribute to Ardeshir Irani, the First Man of Talkies cinema – He was the maker of Alam Ara (1931), which has the credit of being the first talkies of Indian cinema. Before that our films were silent and Irani was an important personality in that era too. Any new technology disrupts an industry. There was scepticism about the switchover from silent to talkies all over the world. Many stars of silent era were phased out, as limitations of their dialogue delivery was exposed. Most studios of the early 30s, carried on making silent films too; thus, both the technologies co-existed for some years, until talkies became a rage, and no doubts remained about their viability. Irani himself was a man of many talents – he was producer, director, distributor, actor and writer, and a shrewd businessman. He was aware through his sources in Calcutta that Madan Theatres was close on his heels for the credit of being the maker of the first talkies. Irani cut short the number of songs, and beat Madan by a few weeks to create history.

Rafiq Ghaznavi was another man of many talents – actor, writer, singer, music director. He had a reputation with ladies with his charming personality and dress. A well-read man, he is the voice behind Mehboob Khan’s logo voice-over, Muddai lakh chaahe kya hota hai, wohi hota hai jo manzoor-e-khuda hota hai.

Chandramohan was one of the earliest film stars of our films. He debuted in V Shantaram’s Amrit Manthan (1934). Prabhat used to make bilingual films – in Hindi and Marathi. Though a Kashmiri, Chandramohan subsequently acquired enough proficiency in Marathi to act in Prabhat’s later bilingual films in both Hindi and Marathi. With his powerful grey eyes and dialogue delivery, tall, handsome frame, Chandramohan cut a dashing figure. He played the role of Emperor Jehangir in Sohrab Modi’s Pukar (1939) and a negative character in Roti (1942). Mughal-e-Azam was in the making since 1944. Chandramohan-Nargis were to play the lead roles in the film, but his early death derailed the project, it was later continued with Dilip Kumar-Madhubala-Prithviraj Kumar to turn into a magnum opus in 1960 we all know. Chandramohan’s is sadly a riches to rags story. He died in penury on 2nd April 1949.

Moving to the other extreme of an unknown name, Vithaldas Panchotiya was a producer, director, story writer, dialogue writer, screenplay writer, lyricist, singer and music director. Born in Gujarat, he was a staunch Gandhian and was associated with a drama company. Arunji has been able to compile his filmography which consists of 11 silent and 25 talkie films as actor, one film as a writer, 9 films as a director, two films as a lyricist, 2 films as music director. He sang 37 songs in 8 films. Compiling this data shows some perseverance.

Towards the end of PART ONE, there are interesting overview articles on other contributors, such as those from Germany: the legendary Franz Osten who directed several landmark films of the Bombay Talkies, including Achhut Kanya; their cinematographer Joseph Wirsching; Germans outside the Bombay Talkies, such as Paul Zils, the music scholar and composer Walter Kauffman, credited with composin the signature tune of the All India Radio; Marathi Artists; Bengali Artists, such as: Pankaj Mullick, Pahadi Sanyal, Kanan Devi, RC Boral, Nitin Bose, Debaki Bose; Stars from South, such as: SS Vasan, SV Ranga Rao, LV Prasad, P Bhanumathi, and so on.

PART TWO is about same name confusion, Arunji’s favourite topic. In this book he covers eight pairs. Two Sulochanas, separated by a generation. The elder Sulochana was of Jewish ancestry (born Ruby Myers) and she was a superstar of the silent era, smoothly transitioned in to the talkies, and in later films in mother’s role; Sulochana Chatterjee was not famous as a leading heroine, but she took to a mother’s role like a duck to water. Think of the film Sujata. Two Arun Kumars: the first, a cousin of Ashok Kumar and a famous composer and singer. His voice had an uncanny fit with Ashok Kumar. He sang many songs for hm, also many songs sung by Ashok Kumar on the screen were recorded in the voice of Arun Kumar. The other Arun Kumar (Ahuja) was an actor in early era. His venture into production was not successful. His wife Nirmala Devi who was also an actor and playback singer, had a successful career in classical music concerts. Their son Govinda achieved great commercial success, relieving his parents from financial distress.

PART THREE of the book, titled “Look what I found!” has some interesting trivia. One such is “Playback to Playback Singer” which shows Kishore Kumar’s 21 songs picturised on him were in the voice of other playback singers. The last PART FOUR of the book has two special articles: one on the impact of the Partition on the film industry on the two sides of the border; and the other on the fascination of the ‘C’ grade films for some film buffs.

Like Arunji’s other books and writings, this one, too, is packed with information about our early stars. One can weave a story about our industry as a whole. Some articles do give a story, others, the readers have to navigate through the story on their own. In that sense the book introduces us to many unknown facts and figures. It is a labour of love. But considering that the author is in his mid-80s, he deserves compliments for giving back to the society his knowledge and information.

 

 

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Songs of Alankars: Figures of Speech

20 March 2025

My last post was also on alankars; that was the jewellery women wear on different parts of their body. The language also needs alankars to beautify it. Without figures of speech a language would be quite bland. A British writer Nate White’s article, “Why do some British people not like Trump” went viral sometime back. It was not because of his xenophobic, bigoted, racist policies, nor his incoherent rantings, it was because he was crass in language, he didn’t show any wit, any wry humour, never said anything amusing or remotely funny – in short he was devoid of any figure of speech. They are integral to our everyday usage and we use many figures of speech without any conscious effort. In fact the two meanings of ‘alankar’ themselves constitute a figure of speech called ‘Yamak’ – that is, the same word is mentioned more than once in a text, each having a different meaning.

Off and on, a visitor to the blog posts a comment (in Hindi) sort of disapproving why a blog on Hindi film songs should be in English. I don’t have great fancy for any kind of vigilantism. I politely thank him for his love for our language and that I would be greatly pleased to interact with him on Hindi literature on mail. But that set me thinking, if we can discuss onomatopoeia, synecdoche and metonymy, why can’t we अनुप्रास, यमक, श्लेष, उत्प्रेक्षा, उपमा, रूपक etc.  

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Songs of Alankar: Women Obsessed With Jewellery?

8 March 2025

Commemorating International Women’s Day

Last year around the time I wrote about the subtleties of female bonding on the International Women’s Day, a momentous event called “Pre-Wedding” was taking place at Jamnagar. It filled me with pride, as I am sure it would have many Indians, that at the bash hosted by an Indian tycoon the world’s top multi-billionaires and celebrities were landing up in their private jets at the Jamnagar ‘International’ Airport and dancing to his tunes, dressing up for multifarious events as per the given chart, and serving food to the guests with beaming smiles displacing the liveried waiters. Mark Zuckerberg for the first time in his life gave up his trademark T – the style statement of a Silicon Valley nerd – and ‘dressed up’ for the occasion. We also knew that some ladies were wearing on their person the GDP of some middle-sized countries.  

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The evolution of Mohammad Rafi: PART ONE (1944-55)

25 February 2025

Guest article by Hans Jakhar extending the centenary celebrations of Rafi (b. 24 Dec 1924 – d. 31 July 1980)

(Hans Jakhar, an SOY regular, is an avid Rafi fan and a Master of Data. Therefore, when I decided to celebrate 2024 as Rafi’s centenary year, my thoughts first went to him whether he would like to write a couple of articles on him. When he was more active on SOY he had written some guest articles, some of which were predominantly on Rafi. But of late he has been busy. This article came to me late when I had tightly packed the last months of 2024. My concluding article in Rafi’s centenary celebrations was on his evolution over the years with his duets. To highlight his versatility I had taken one duet a year with the condition that no music director was to be repeated. Even with this restriction I could get 25 gems over 25 years, composed by 25 distinct music directors.

Hans focusses on solos without any filters of a song in a year and a distinct music director. Therefore, you may get gap years and more than one song by a music director. However, with all the data Hans takes you on an interesting journey, and you discover many gems from Rafi’s early career. Some more articles on Rafi came late and I was happy to extend the centenary celebrations to 2025. This is in continuation of the celebrations.

Hans is a retired government official. He spends his post-retired life with his family in Haryana. Thanks a lot Hans for this nice article. – AK)   

AK asked me in April last year whether I would like to write for Mohammad Rafi’s Centenary in 2024. Normally he would not have asked but I have been extremely irregular in the past one year. I had, always in mind, this topic about progression of Rafi’s career, his struggles and his evolving as a top singer. Since the start of 2024 I thought it was the right time for presenting my thoughts. So I suggested and he agreed. It would be in two parts, the first part covering the time upto 1955 and the second from then to 1970. The time limit is kept up to 1970, it being the span of SOY’s primary interest. Even if that has not been the case it would have been impossible to cover his whole career in two parts. It is hard to cover it in two parts, but we will have to adhere to some limit.  

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Some Less Heard Gems of Mohammad Rafi – The Sad Romantic Solos: 1940s through 50s

14 February 2025

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav wishing everyone a very Happy Valentine Day with Rafi’s sad romantic solos, extending his centenary celebrations

(Ashok M Vaishnav had sent this article for Rafi centenary celebrations in the calendar year 2024. But with series on Kalyanji-Anadnji and Usha Khanna added in, I could not squeeze this article in 2024. But Rafi’s oeuvre is limitless. Ashokji had earlier written a guest article in the Centenary Series titled Some Hidden Gems of Mohammad Rafi: The Romantic Solos. That was without any emphasis on their underlying mood. If you go over that article and hear those songs, their mood is neutral or happy. In the present article the emphasis is on ‘sad’ romantic solos. He further focuses on the 1940s and 1950s during which Ashokji located several hidden gems of Rafi that were sad romantic solos. Thus this is a companion article to his earlier article in the series. Ashokji was very understanding of my scheduling difficulties and agreed if it was published in 2025.

Valentine Day now has become a day of rejoicing. But romance is often very poignant, therefore, today seems to be the most befitting day for this article. Ashokji has gone great lengths to select less less heard songs for his post. In the process we are treated to some real hidden gems of Rafi. Wishing everyone a very melodious Valentine Day with this guest article by Ashokji.

A retired engineer, Ashokji is an avid fan of Rafi and a prolific guest writer on this blog. He is based out of Ahmedabad. Thank you Ashokji for another nice article from your pen. – AK)    

While working on Mohammad Rafi’s solo songs from the 1940s and 1950s, I was able to locate more sad songs from various music directors. In fact, by 1950, Mohammad Rafi had already recorded several universally popular romantic duets and solo sad songs, like Yahan badla wafa ka bewafai ke siva kya hai (Jugnu, 1947, with Noor Jehan – Music: Firoz Nizami), Ek dil ke tukade hazar hue (Pyar Ki Jeet, 1948 – Music: Husnlal Bhagatram) and Suhani raat dhal chuki na jaane tum kab aaoge (Dulari, 1949 – Music: Naushad). As can be expected in any typical normal distribution curve, there were both sad and happy romantic songs that could be considered “too obscure”. However, many songs have also been quite popular.  

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