After I had covered the best songs of Kalyanji-Anandji for Mukesh and Rafi, I once browsed through their songs for ‘other’ male singers for a lark. I was amazed to find an enormous variety of singers they had chosen. Though all the songs were well-known it had not registered in my mind instantly. The result was a post on Kalyanji-Anandji’s best songs for ‘other’ male singers. That was, of course, KA1.0 (up to 1970).
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I had written my first post on Kalyanji-Anandji about ten years ago on their best songs for Mukesh and had titled it “Made for each other”. I used that phrase studiedly because that was my instinctive feeling. Nudging by a reader made me explore their more songs – for Rafi, Other male singers, and Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers in the current year. I now discover that he composed more than twice the songs for Rafi as he did for Mukesh. But I still hold on to “Made for each other” tag for KA-Mukesh. All this discussion was limited to the 50s and 60s.
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Concluding the series of tributes to Usha Khanna with her best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers
Usha Khanna’s debut score in Dil Deke Dekho (1959) sounded so much OP Nayyar-ish that you may get the impression that she too would exclude Lata Mangeshkar completely and her female singer would be predominantly Asha Bhosle as she was in Dil Deke Dekho. But from her very second film Hum Hindustani (1960), just as she showed great felicity with Mukesh, she also composed a superlative Lata Mangeshkar song in the film, Chori chori tori ayi hai Radha, kadam tale haule haule. Usha Khanna showed remarkable competence for composing for most of the prominent female playback singers, such as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Suman Kalyanpur and others. My first post was on her best songs for Rafi, and second on Mukesh and other male playback singers. In these two posts I have also included their male-female duets. The third and last post in the series of tributes to Usha Khanna is on her best songs for Lata Mangeshkar and other female singers. Since their duets with male singers are already covered this would be limited to their solos, and female-female duets.
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Continuing the tribute for Usha Khanna, her best songs for Mukesh and other male singers
The last post was on Usha Khanna’s best songs for Rafi on her 83rd birth anniversary (b. 7 October 1941). This was also a tribute to Rafi as a part of his centenary celebrations. How does she do with other playback singers? This is where she presents a big surprise. After her debut with Dil Deke Dekho (1959), her main male playback singer in Hum Hindustani (1960) was Mukesh! She gave many memorable songs for Mukesh subsequently, such as Teri nigahon pe mar mar gaye hum, Gori tere chalne se mera dil kurban, Chaand ko kya maloom chahta hai use koi chakor, Aaj tumse door hokar. Each a quintessential Mukesh-gem. It seems quite a misnomer to include Mukesh among ‘other’ singers. It is as if Usha Khanna was born to compose great songs for Mukesh. Similarly I remember an all-time great song by Manna Dey and one by Mahendra Kapoor composed by Usha Khanna. Her spread of singers for their memorable songs is not very wide, but enough to include her among important music directors of the Golden Era. In this post I present a sample of her versatile talent; I would also include duets of these male singers.
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Continuing the Centenary Celebrations of Rafi with his songs by Usha Khanna (b. 7 October 1941) wishing her Happy 83rd Birth Anniversary
Music direction in our films had been generally a male monopoly. Usha Khanna was the only one in the Golden Era to break the glass ceiling. Long before her, in the Vintage Era that honours belonged to Saraswati Devi of Bombay Talkies who created everlasting songs sung by non-singers like Ashok Kumar, Devika Rani and Leela Chitnis. Though on record Saraswati Devi was preceded by two more female music directors, Jaddan Bai (Talaash-e-Haque, 1935) and Ishrat Sultana aka Bibbo (Adal-e-Jahangir, 1934), it is Saraswati Devi and her songs that are remembered till today. That is about all regarding female music directors. That makes Usha Khanna’s rise to the top very remarkable, and significantly she created a storm with her very first score Dil Deke Dekho (1959).
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Kalyanji-Anandji were extremely melodious composers. But in a crowded field at the top comprising Naushad, SD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Roshan, Madan Mohan, etc. they were not among the elite at the High Table. But 70s onwards the gods were kind to them. Kalyanji-Anandji showed amazing talent to adapt themselves to the new voices (read Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle) and new kind of music. They were undisputedly part of the Big Troika with RD Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal.
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Hindi Film Reviews (1931-1950)
By: Arunkumar Deshmukh
Edited by: Prof Surjit Singh
Published by: professor toofaani publishers, East Lansing, MI, USA
I have reviewed Arunkumar Deshmukh’s first two books on this forum – Forgotten Artists of Early Hindi Cinema Book 1 and Book 2. I know enough about Arunji through our couple of meetings and his writings on Atul Song A Day and other blogs that he has many books in him. Sometime back he asked me for my postal address and, after a week, when he asked whether I had received a packet, I had to say, No. Then he sent me the courier’s tracking id, and I came to know it was this book. The courier’s local office was in shambles, and after a good deal of follow up from his side and my side, the book finally arrived, after considerable delay.
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And the SOY Award for the best duet of 1941 goes to?
I have mentioned the special charm of duets for the variety they add to the film music. In the Vintage Era it is more pronounced as we come across many gems by singers whose names we have not heard.
The long term average of number of songs gives a pattern – the number of duets is more than male solos but far short of female solos. As we run down the list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the overview post, we can see 21 duets. Sharp observers can see the total of the three categories does not add up. This deviation by 1 or 2 is because of errors in classification – some songs classified as solos should be classified as duets as we discover another distinct voice. Needless to say our analysis is not complete if we don’t include the duets – many of them are absolutely superlative though some singers are completely unknown.
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Guest article by Ashok Vaishnav continuing the centenary celebrations of Mohammad Rafi (24.12.1924-31.7.1980)
(Among many romantic solos of Rafi there are several gems hidden under the layer of superhit songs. Some of the hidden gems are more melodious than superhit songs. Our SOY regular and guest author today, Ashok Vaishnav, throws the spotlight on some such gems. Ashokji is a is a prolific writer for SOY on a variety of themes. He is a known Rafi-fan, and it was unthinkable that he would not join in his centenary celebrations
As a retired engineer and now a management trainer Ashokji brings analytical rigour to his articles. He is based out of Ahmedabad. Thank you Ashokji for this interesting write-up. – AK)
The spectrum of Mohammad Rafi’s songs through his entire career contains innumerable hues and shades, even within a given genre. Moreover, every historian or an analyst or a fan of him who have been writing, or airing the views, about his songs have had their own context or view. As such, every piece has always come out as a totally different view under the kaleidoscope. It would, perhaps, be a very safe bet to say that anything written or said about Mohammad Rafi’s songs will start repeating if, and only when, human imaginations and interests (or even those of AI in the future 😊) will reach their limits. The occasion of celebration of Mohammad Rafi’s birth centenary year has made the viewing of the spectrum of Mohammad Rafi’s songs more intense and more microscopic, and hence, much more interesting.
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And the SOY Award for the Best Female Singer goes to?
As the readers are aware from the year-wise reviews, the female solos on the average far outnumber the male solos. In the Overview Post of the best songs of 1941, I had included 71 songs. In the Wrap Up 1 about the best male solos in the year I mentioned there were 17 male solos distributed among 7 singers in the list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the overview post. If you run down the same list you would find 35 female solos divided among 19 singers as follows:
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