And the SOY Award for the Best Music Director of 1941 goes to?
We are now coming to the end of the review of the best songs of 1941. After the Overview Post, Wrap Up 1 of the best male solos, Wrap UP 2 of the best female solos and Wrap Up 3 of the best duets, we can now take a holistic view of the best songs of 1941 and discuss who deserves to be anointed the Best Music Director of the Year.
While the Vintage Era was characterised by a large percentage of unknown songs, some films and their songs became everlasting. Doctor was one such landmark film with actor-singer-music director Pankaj Mullick giving his best. RC Boral with Lagan starring KL Saigal and Kanan Devi was another film with superb music.
This was the era of Khemchand Prakash and Khursheed. Their combo gave some everlasting songs. Khursheed sang some great songs for Gyan Dutt too. Saraswati Devi gave had a great knack for composing simple, but supremely popular songs for non-singers. She showed her talent in her favourite home Bombay Talkies film Jhoola, starring Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis. Ghulam Haider has the credit of launching Shamshad Begum with Khazanchi in which she gave voice in all the songs. That created a sensation and heralded a new kind of beat and frothiness which came to be known as the Punjab School of Music. Kidar Sharma’s Chitralekha with music by Ustad Jhande Khan gave some immortal songs in the voice of a never-heard singer Ramdulari. You can imagine the quality of wide variety of excellent music of the year by the fact that I am yet to mention the Bhishm Pitamah Anil Biswas who scored some great songs for Bahen and Aasra.
Readers’ choice
Arunkumar Deshmukh’s choice for the best music director is unambiguously Pankaj Mullick. Anup has the same choice. Anita modestly refrains from giving her ratings/ choices, but she says that Chale pawan ki chaal (Pankaj Mullick, Doctor) is one of the earliest examples of the use of sanchari in film songs. Raunak Joy has been giving learned analysis of the Vintage Era music for the last few years. Finally he gives his choice for best albums in order. At the top stands Doctor by Pankaj Mullick, followed by Lagan by RC Boral, Beti by Gyan Dutt, Chtralekha by Ustad Jhande Khan and AS Gyani, Khazanchi by Ghulam Haider, Anjaan by Pannalal Ghosh, Jhoola by Saraswati Devi, and Pardesi by Khemchand Prakash.
I have been talking of the best music director of the year in the sense of the total work in a year, i.e all the albums he or she composed. On the basis of Wrap Up 1, Wrap UP 2 and Wrap Up 3 I am presenting below a consolidated list of the best male solos, best female solos and best duets of the year.
Consolidated list of the Best Male Solos, Female Solos and Duets of 1941
| Rank | Best male solos |
Best female solos |
Best duets |
|
1. |
Aayi bahaar aaj aayi bahaah (Pankaj Mullick) |
Nainon se nain mila ke pyari chhavi dikhala ke (Khursheed, Beti, Gyan Dutt) |
1-2. Main to Dilli se dulhan laya re (Saraswat Devi) |
|
2 |
Mahak rahi phuwari apni (Pankaj Mullick) |
Neelkamal muskaye bhanwra (Ramdulari, Chitralekha, Ustad Jhande Khan) |
2-1. Saawan ke nazaare hain (Ghulam Haider) |
|
3 |
Chale pawan ki chaal (Pankaj Mullick) |
Tum jaao jaao bhagwan bano, insan bano to jaanein (Ramdulari, Ustad Jhande Khan) |
Zindagi hai pyar se pyar mein bitaaye ja (Rafiq Ghazanvi) |
|
4 |
Kaahe ko raar machaai (RC Boral) |
Pahle jo mohabbat se inkaar kiya hota (Khemchand Prakash) |
Bhigoyi mori sari re, dekho bheege na choli (Khursheed & Ishwarlal, Shaadi 1941, Khemchand Prakash) |
|
5 |
Aaj apni mehanaton ko (Pankaj Mullick) |
Tum bin kal na aave mohe (RC Boral) |
Jaake naina matwaale hain, baal ghungharwaale hain (Ishwarlal, Shamim & Snehprabha Pradhan, Pyas, Khemchand Prakash) |
|
6 |
Kab tak nirash ki andhiyari (Pankaj Mullick) |
Madbhari madbhari matwari (RC Boral) |
Bhulana na yaad karo na karo (Ishwarlal & Snehprabha Pradhan, Pyas, Khemchand Prakash) |
|
7 |
Hat gayi lo kaari ghata (RC Boral) |
Ye dard-e-mohabbat hai kaise wo bhala jaanein (Khursheed, Beti, Gyan Dutt) |
Naino ke baan ki reet anokhi, baan chale aur nain na dekhe (Khazanchi, Ghulam Haider) |
|
8 |
Bhayi jagat ujiyari (Pankaj Mullick) |
Armaan kuchh to dil mein tadap ke hi rah gaye (Khursheed, Beti, Gyan Dutt) |
Tore kajra lagaaun mori rani (Beena Kumari & Baby Meena, Bahen, Anil Biswas) |
|
9 |
Na jaane kidhar aaj meri naav chali re (Saraswati Devi) |
Bitaai kahan ratiya O maharaja (Husn Bano, Aasra, Anil Biswas) |
Dekho hamre raja ki aaj sagaai hai (Saraswati Devi) |
|
10 |
Dil hi bujha hua ho to fasl-e-bahaar kya (Nirdosh, Ashok Ghosh) |
Diwali phir aa gayi sajni (Khazanchi, Ghulam Haider) |
Bhari dupahari kamini ikli, dukli mat jaaye (Charnon Ki Daasi, Annasaheb Mainkar) |
We can now present the same table music director-wise as follows:
Music directors of 1941 having most number of the Best Songs
| Sl No. | Music Director | Male solos | Female solos | Duets | Total |
| 1 | Pankaj Mullick | 6 | – | – | 6 |
| 2 | RC Boral | 2 | 2 | – | 4 |
| 3 | Khemchand Prakash | – | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 4 | Gyan Dutt | – | 3 | – | 3 |
| 5 | Ghulam Haider | – | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 6 | Saraswati Devi | 1 | – | 2 | 3 |
|
7 |
Ustad Jhande Khan | – | 2 | – | 2 |
| 8 | Anil Biswas | – | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | Ashok Ghosh | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| 10 | Rafiq Ghaznavi | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Annasaheb Mainkar | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
Quality and numbers are not always synonymous. But in this case there is an uncanny correlation between the two and it matches with the readers’ choices. Now we can declare:
Pankaj Mullick wins the SOY Award for the Best Music Director of 1941. They are closely followed by RC Boral and Khemchand Prakash.
As I come to the end of the review of the songs of 1941, I express my gratitude to the readers for their participation, and to the sources and the people who have helped me.
Acknowledgements:
1. Arunkumar Deshmukh for sharing his notes for the year.
2. Atul Song A Day
3. Hindi Film Geet Kosh
4. YouTube
5. Prof. Surjit Singh’s site
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
AK Ji,
Thanks for your comments on the music of 1941.
In my opinion, Pankaj Mullick was one of those people who did the job of bringing the HFM out of the clutches of stage drama and classical music, be it Urdu, Parsi, Gujarati or Marathi. HFM started breathing fresh air and many newcomer composers started contributing a variety of film songs.
If one compares the songs of the 30’s with the 40’s, this point will be very clear.
Thanks for your analysis of old time music and your views/comments which make the readers think about the changes in the HFM.
-AD
AKji,
Going by the readers’ choice, it is Pankaj Mullick all the way. Your choice too, computed on the basis of your selection of top ten songs for each of the category, endorses the choice of the readers. Raunak Joy’ s nomination of music directors, in his preferential order is in sync with the first 7 names in your nominated list. His list includes Panna Lal Ghosh’s name.
“Quality and numbers are not always synonymous”.
I can’t agree more. Pankaj Mullick and Rai Chand Boral had only one film each and both of them are among the top two. So are Jhande Khan and Ghulam Haider, and they are among the top ten. It seems the same goes for the grossers too. Surprisingly Doctor is not among the top five grossers of 1941. Khazanchi, Chitralekha, Sikander, Jhoola and Lagan appears to be the top five grossers of 1941.
You have mentioned the name of S N Tripathi instead of Anna Saheb Mainkar as the 11th nominee in your list. I know that is just a slip. I believe, S N Tripathi made his debut as an independent MD in 1941 with the film Chandan. There are a few nice songs rendered by one Aashiq Hussain in this film. And that also gives me an excuse to post them.
Bansi bajaa bansi bajaa re ho Kanhaiya, bansi bajaa bansi bajaa re, Aashiq Hussain, Pt.Indra, S N Tripathi, Chandan (1941)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNHirCldv9E
This song reminds me of the Bengali NFS Nishite Jaio Fulbone (1935), which he reprised in Hindi, Dheere se jana bagiyan mein (1942)
And a nice duet by Aashiq Hussein and Rajkumari from the Chandan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=838w6LlFzeQ
Thank you AKji, for your perseverance in continuing the series. Hope I would be able to participate more actively in the next edition.
Arunji,
Thanks a lot for your appreciation. It is a sad commentary of our days that many youngsters have not heard the name of Pankaj Mullick
Venkataramanji,
Thanks a lot for your detailed comments. I should first of all thank you for pointing out the error in MD #11, since corrected. I still don’t know how it crept in.
Both the songs you have added are superb.
Bansi baja re/ Nishithe jaio phoolbone/ Dhhere se jana bagiyan mein: The scales may be faintly the same, but the composition and SD Burman’s treatment makes a lot of difference.
Thank you for this post AKji.
And thank you Arun ji and N Venkatramanji for their insightful comments.
Anup
🙂
You are welcome, Anup.
Had it not been for the still – remembered (by at least our generation) – albums of Doctor (Oankaj Malik) and Lagan ( R C Boral), choosing from Khemchand Prakash, Ghulam Haiderm Gyan Dutt and Anil Biswas of new generation of Vintage Era perhaps would have been dificult !
Ashokji,
Very apt observation.
AK ji,
Compliments for an excellent completion of year1941 project in this spectacular series taking us back from mid-fifties.
Fully agree with list of the best MDs of the year 1941. This year had some of the greatest Hindi films ever as far as songs are concerned.
Regards.
Tyagiji,
Thanks a lot for your appreciation Appreciation of readers like you is a great encouragement.