And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to?
The year 1943 was like 1944 in many respects. Kismet became a cult hit for its novel theme; it also happened to have outstanding music by Anil Biswas. Anil Biswas also gave some excellent music in Hamari Baat. Naushad didn’t have a Rattan (1944) exactly, but he gave music to three films – Namaste, Kanoon and Sanjog – and all the three celebrated silver jubilees. Towering above all these, KL Saigal, Khursheed-starrer Tansen became a musical masterpiece, composed by Khemchand Prakash. Ram Rajya, composed by Shankar Rao Vyas had some songs which have acquired iconic status. New Theatres maintained their quality with Kashinath (Pankaj Mullick) and Wapas (RC Boral). There were several others making a mark, such as Kamal Dasgupta, Shyam Sundar, Pt. Govind Ram, Vasant Desai and Rafiq Ghaznavi. For lovers of music of the vintage era, these are familiar names and they have acquired a place in the Roll of Honour.
In such a wide filed it is impossible to come up with agreed best male solos, female solos, and duets but I have been putting up Wrap Up 1, Wrap Up 2 and Wrap Up 3 respectively for the three categories. Even with a number of ‘Special songs’ in addition to the best ten in each category, I am not entirely satisfied that I have done full justice to throw a broad-sweep flashlight on the music of 1943. These can be seen as the best efforts at harmonising different choices, looking at popularity, quality and shelf-life of the songs. These Wrap Ups are an important outcome of these reviews.
Some readers have enthusiastically participated in the discussions enhancing our knowledge significantly. Arunkumar Deshmukh’s choice for the best music director is Anil Biswas for Kismet. Anup’s choice for the best is Khemchand Prakash for Tansen. So is Gaddeswarupji’s. Mahesh’s choice for the best music director is Anil Biswas for Kismet. Pramod Godble goes for two choices for the best MD, Anil Biswas for Kismet and Khemchand Prakash for Tansen. Neeruahaf, too, votes for Khemchand Prakash for Tansen. Thus, the general choice for the best music director veered between Khemchand Prakash and Anil Biswas.
Let me give a consolidated Table of the ten best songs in each of the three categories: Best Male Solos (Wrap Up 1), Best Female Solos (Wrap Up 2) and Best Duets of the year (Wrap Up 3). This gives a quantitative picture of the songs that made the most impact and are remembered till today, with their respective music directors. Let us see how this picture looks.
Consolidated list of the Best Male Solos, Female Solos and Duets of 1943
| Rank | Best male solos |
Best female solos |
Best duets |
| 1 |
Din soona suraj bina, chanda bin rain..Diya jalaao, jagmag jagmag diya jalaao (Khemchand Prakash |
Ab tere siwa kaun mera Krishna Kanhaiya (Anil Biswas) |
1-2. More balapaan ke sathi chhaila bhool jaiyo na (Khemchand Prakash) |
|
2 |
Bina pankh ka panchhi hun main (Khemchand Prakash) |
Aye bhi wo gaye bhi wo khatm fasana ho gaya (Naushad)
|
1-2. Dheere dheere aa re baadal (Anil Biswas) |
|
3 |
Neend hamari khwab tumhare kitne meethe kitne pyare (Shaym Sundar) |
Beena madhur madhur kachhu bol (Shankar Rao Vyas) |
Hum aisi kismet ko kya kahein haye, jo ek din hansaaye ek din rulaaye (Anil Biswas) |
|
4 |
Kaahe guman kare ri gori (Khemchand Prakash) |
Ghata ghanghor ghor more machave shor more sajan aa ja (Khemchand Prakash) |
Aao ri suhagan naari mangal gaao ri (Shankar Rao Vyas) |
|
5 |
Baag laga dun sajni (Khemchand Prakash) |
Barso re kaare baadarwa piya bin barso (Khemchand Prakash) |
Bharat ki ek sannari ki hum katha sunaate hain (Shankar Rao Vyas) |
|
6 |
Bhai bhaj le Shri Bhagwan (Vasant Desai) |
Papiha re mere piya se kahiyo jaay (Anil Biswas) |
Jeevan hai bekar bina tumhare (RC Boral) |
|
7 |
Tumne mujhse prem jatakar duniya se begana kiya (RC Boral) |
Shabnam kyun neer bahaye (Khursheed Anwar) |
Bhool na jana aaj ki baatein (RC Boral) |
|
8 |
Sabr-o-qaraar chheen ke ankhen chura gaye (Pt. Govind Ram) |
Ek tum ho ek main hun ek nadi ka kinara ho (Naushad) |
Gori baanke nayan se chalave jadua (Pt. Govind Ram) |
|
9 |
Preet ki jyot jalakar chup hain (Khemchand Prakash) |
Manwa kaahe phir tadpaye (RC Boral) |
More raja ki oochi atariya (C Ramchandra) |
|
10 |
Dil-e-nadan tujhe hua kya hai (Chhannalal Naik) |
Zara nainon se naia milaye jaao re more baanke raseele sanwariya (Kamal Dasgupta) |
Saajan ke naina jaadu baan main wari jaaun (Rafiq Ghaznavi) |
We can now present the same table music director-wise as follows:
Music directors of 1943 having most number of the Best Songs
| Sl No. | Music Director | Male solos | Female solos | Duets | Total |
| 1 | Khemchand Prakash | 5 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
| 2 | Anil Biswas | – | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | RC Boral | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Shankar Rao Vyas | – | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | Naushad | – | 2 | – | 2 |
| 6 | Govind Ram | 1 | – | 1 | 2 |
|
7 |
Chhannalal Naik | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| 8 | C Ramchandra | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Kamal Dasgupta | – | 1 | – | 1 |
| 10 | Khursheed Anwar | – | 1 | – | 1 |
| 11 | Rafiq Ghaznavi | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | Shyam Sundar | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| 13 | Vasant Desai | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| Total | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
The above Table shows the rank of music directors in terms of the number of their songs in the three best lists:
Khemchand Prakash: 8
Anil Biswas: 4
RC Boral: 4
Shankar Rao Vyas: 3
This follows the popular choice. The surprising part is the Khemchand Prakash overtakes Anil Biswas by a factor of two. Khursheed was at her very best in Tansen,
And the SOY Award for the Best Music Director of 1943 goes to:
1. Khemchand Prakash for Tansen
As the year-wise review for 1943 comes to an end, it is time to thank all the readers for their participation, and special thanks again to Arunji for sharing his notes about the year.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear AK ji,
And is it just a co-incidence that the SOY Award comes on the eve of KP’s Birth Anniversary today, 12th December?
YouTube uploader has just Posted this Collection of some of KP’s songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2w6ODMf4s
One is sure that Khemchand ji will also walk away with the Award in the succeeding years.
With warm regards
PARTHA CHANDA
PS : For some strange reason, your Posts are not received by me regularly. Is it necessary to re-register?
Partha,
Your last point first. Yes, you need to register your email address in the box at the end of the bottom of the post and comments. You would get a mail for confirmation from follow.it. It is not a spam. Once you confirm you should start getting future posts.
This happens to be a coincidence, and the most pleasant at that. I would add a sentence at the end of the post. Thanks a lot.
AK Ji
A scholarly article on the vintage era -even for someone uninitiated into the music of those times, it is really a pleasure to read your blogs mainly for the excellent manner in which you approach a theme.
Many , like Mr Partha have recently asked about the notification mails that one gets ( rather does not get recently!!) after a post in SOY. I had also faced this issue but would like to confirm that after re-registering my email id, I have started getting them regularly.
Insightful post and apt conclusion.
I’m sure you are going to continue till 1940, are you planning to go to the 30s?
Also I wish you extend the series post 1954.
Anup
🙂
Mr Sivanandam @3,
Thanks a lot for your kind words. I am happy to know that re-registering has solve the problem.
Anup @4,
Thanks a lot for your appreciation. You have read my mind! I have not given a thought to going up to 1931. But why not?
Post-1954, you are doing a great job. For everything there is a ‘Use before’ date. This applies to a blog, too. Some day, it would have to end.
AK ji
So Khemchand Prakash ji won. Anyone who composed Sapt Suran Teen Gram deserves to. I am very very happy. And I am so looking forward to 1942.
Neeruahaf,
You are among the faithfuls. It resonates with my inclinations.
I had started reading the overview episode of Best Songs of 1943 with great trepidation, because all these were to be most unfathomable waters fro me.
When the year-wise review for the year 1943 has concluded, that feeling has gone.
Barring a few songs that remained popular in 60s – the period when I got aware of the HFM and started taking interest – even after having heard over 200 songs for the year, I feel that even though I have not been able to connect myself totally with vintage ear style, the experience of listening to all these songs was good pleasure over an above enriching whatever little sense of appreciation of the film music.
As one listens to Naushad’s sons of the year, one can really appreciate what forward looking styles the likes of Kemchand Prakash, Anil Biswas or Ghulam Haider etc. was.
As I listened to the Khemchand Prakash songs for the year, I could realize why he could compose a game-turner master piece like Ayega Aanewala.
On that note, it is no surprise the Khemchand Prakash is adjudged the Best Music Director for 1943.
Ashokji,
Thanks a lot for your detailed comments. I am happy that I am getting some music lovers, who are cool about the vintage era, to look deeply into the songs of that period.