SoY regulars would recall that last year I wrote a string of posts on the best songs of 1955. The idea came from the readers’ suggestion to do a yearwise review of the best songs of pre-Filmfare Award years. Even though Baiju Bawra (1952) became the first film to win the award for the best music, it transpired that in later years, no film of 1953 or 1955 won the Filmfare award, whereas two films of 1954 – Taxi Driver and Nagin – won the award in the years 1955 and 1956 respectively. Without getting into the reasons for this discrepancy, I decided to make the record straight and covered the year 1955. From this logic, this year I am reviewing the songs of 1953 (I am proceeding in the reverse order as suggested by the readers). Thereafter, it would be the turn of 1951, after which the sequence would become regular.
With this background, let me start with the musical landmarks of the year.
Musical landmarks
Anarkali: C Ramchandra
Once in a while a film comes which becomes an all time classic. And like all classics, several legends grow around it. Anarkali was one such film. The film is itself based on the legend of the Mughal prince Salim (Jehangir) falling deeply in love with an ordinary maid and dancer, Anarkali, much to the consternation of the emperor Akbar. This story of doubtful veracity has held enduring romance for the film makers since long. The most famous in the genre, Mughal-e-Azam, which came seven years later, had been in the making since the late 40s, undergoing several changes in the cast and technical team. Anil Biswas was supposed to give music for the movie, later to be replaced by Naushad. Sapru (Salim), Chandramohan (Akbar) and Nargis (Anarkali) were replaced by Dilip Kumar, Prithviraj Kapoor and Nargis. Taking advantage of K Asif’s interminable pursuit of perfection (or confusion), Filmistan pre-empted him by making this movie from start to finish. Knowing the long gestation of the other team, C Ramchandra knew that he had to create a musical landmark. While Naushad had CR to beat, CR had to set his own benchmark. And what a masterpiece he created! Even after Lata Mangeshkar had a ruthless break-up with C Ramchandra, she could not do a concert without singing Ye zindagi usi ki hai on public demand.
Aah: Shankar Jaikishan
After Barsaat and Awara, Shankar Jaikishan again come with a masterpiece we associate with RK Films. Though the film bombed, the music is everlasting.
Dil-e-Nadan: Ghulam Mohammad
This one is my special favourite. Readers have mentioned about Ghulam Mohammad’s talent. This was one of the movies which had Talat Mahmood as the singing star. His ‘official site’ mentions that there was an all-India competition to select a new girl to act opposite him. This girl was Peace Kanwal. We do not know much what happened to her later. Probably the film also was not a great commercial success, in spite of the presence of Shyama. But the music is out of this world, and one of the best scores of Ghulam Mohammad.
Patita: Shankar Jaikishan
Outside RK films also SJ could create great music of different style. Besides, Lata Mangeshkar, the film had songs by Talat Mahmood and Hemant Kumar, which have become as all time classics.
Other important musical compositions
This was a very good year for Shankar Jaikishan. Aurat, Boot Polish, Shikast – each had a number of songs which were not only of musically high quality, but remembered very well after 60 years. Shagufa (Apna pata bata de ya mere paas aa ja) and Jhanjhar (Ae pyar teri duniya se hum) are worth mentioning for CR-Lata songs. Early 50s was the best period of their collaboration with a signature style which was emulated by several composers. Ghulam Mohammd (with Sardar Malik) created another excellent score in Laila Majnu. He also gave some outstanding songs in Rail Ka Dabba. Salil Chaudhary created a sensation with his debut movie Do Bigha Zameen with a unique orchestration and style. Anil Biswas gave a number of excellent songs in Fareb (Aa mohabbat ki bast basayenge hum), Hamdard (Ritu aye ritu jaye skhi ri) and Rahi (Ek pal ruk jana). I have already done a post on Jamal Sen in my series on Forgotten Composers, Unforgttable Melodies. His Dayera is also a landmark for Rafi-Mubarak Begum duet, Devta tum ho mera sahara, Mubarak Begum’s solo, Deep ke sang jalun main, and some Talat Mahmood solos.
Debuts
The most famous debut is undoubtedly of Salil Chaudhary in Do Bigha Zameen with all time great songs including two Manna Dey – Lata Mangeshkar duets, Hariyala sawan dhol bajata aya and Mausam beeta jaye, and one of the greatest lullabies by Lata Mangeshkar, Aa ja ri aa nindiya tu aa. A member of left leaning association of artists and intellectuals, he also wrote the story of the film, which provided a natural fit for his sensibilities. It is said that Mausam beeta jaye is inspired by a marching song he had heard at the Red Square.
It has been mentioned by Jignesh in the discussion on Hindi-Gujarati songs earlier that Mahendra Kapoor debuted in Madmast, composed by V Balsara. His name indeed finds mention as one of the singers in the qawwali, Unhein dekhen to wo munh pher lete hain, and another duet in the movie. This also happened to be the debut for V Balsara. So far my understanding was that Mahendra Kapoor was given his first break as a playback singer in Sohni Mahiwal (1958) by Naushad, consequent upon his winning in an All India Competition in which Naushad was one of the judges.
There are several more debuts in this year – Pt Shivram Krishna as a composer in Teen Batti Chaar Rasta, Jagjit Kaur in Dil-e-Nadan (Khamosh zindagi ko afsana mil gaya), Meena Mangeshkar in a duet with Rafi in Farmaish (Aapne chheen liya dil ise kya kahte hain).
Another debut, which would not have created any ripples at the time, is of Shammi Kapoor in the film Jeevan Jyoti as per the information available at many sites and sources. He would have to wait for four years to cause a sensation as a rebel star in Tumsa Nahi Dekha (1957). But interestingly, it seems he had the largest number of films in any single year in his debut year – six in all (Jeevan Jyoti, Rail Ka Dibba, Thokar, Laila Majnu, Gul Sanobar and Khoj).
As per cinepot.com, Helen debuted this year as independent dancer in Alif Laila, and Kumkum debuted in Aansoo.
We can put two more as ‘debuts’. Shaukat Ali Dehlvi used the more commonly known name Nashad for the first time this year in Naghma. Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh had mentioned the story behind it in one of his comments earlier. The producer Naqshab Jarachavi wanted to engage Naushad, but the latter was dismissive of such a lowly project not being worthy of his stature. Cut up by this, Naqshab resolved to create a Naushad like name, who would create equally great music. We are aware of Nashad’s great music in 1955 (Baradari). Naghma’s music makes you feel that the producer’s audacious challenge was fully vindicated.
Khayyam also used this name for the first time this year in the film Footpath. Before this he used to give music under various names such as Sharmaji, or a part of duo Sharmaji-Vermaji. Every such incident has a story behind it. I am leaving it to Arunji to enlighten us how he strarted using the name Khayyam from this movie. Incidentally, Khayyam is a part of his longish real name – Mohammad Zahoorbakhsh Khayyam Hashmi.
Fact file and trivia
I have read somewhere that Lata Mangeshkar in a signed article mentioned that in the most legendary song of the year, Ye zindagi usi ki hai jo kisi ka ho gaya, C Ramchandra got stuck at one point, when his assistant Roshan helped him and composed the difficult portion. To be fair, I have also read that CR refuted this story. Incidentally, C Ramchandra also produced Jhanjhar this year, which had some of the most beautiful Lata Mangeshkar songs. One of the songs in this movie was Tum bin hamri kaun khabar le Govardhan Giridhari. Old timers would recall that a song with exactly these wordings was sung by Sheela in Sohrab Modi’s Pukar (1939).
This year also had some unusual screen appearances in songs, which are well known to the readers – Shailendra in the song Chali kaun se des gujariya (Boot Polish), and Mukesh in Chhoti si ye zindagani (Aah).
This year seems to have a fairly large number of twin songs and multiple version songs – Chali Radhe Rani (Parineeta), Ae gham-e-dil kya karun (Thokar), Ek pal ruik jana (Rahi), Apna pata bata de (Shagufa), Gore gore hathon mein mehdi racha ke (Parineeta) and so on. Readers may also recall I have mentioned earlier that Tere dar pe aya hun fariyad lekar by Talat Mahmood, composed for Laila Majnu, was removed from this film and used next year in Chor Bazar.
I also find it worth mentioning that that RC Boral composed music for Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Pankaj Mullick for Naya Safar. Till a decade back, they were the Gold Standard of film music, and arguably, the grandfather of Hindi film music. But I do not recall any song from these movies – I often use the phrase Bombay taking over Calcutta. Incidentally, I understand Bharat Bhushan won the Filmfare Award for the best actor for Shri Chaitaya Mahaprabhu – his first and the last.
What was the most unusual thing in the year? Taking off from Sherlock Holmes (Silver Blaze) – Naushad. But he did not do anything. Yes, that is the unusual thing – his absence from the scene between the great years of 1952 (Aan, Baiju Bawra, Deewana) and 1954 (Amar, Shabab). I miss him for sure.
LIST OF MEMORABLE SONGS
I am presenting here a fairly long list of songs from the year, which I believe covers all the well-known songs. But as has been my experience last year, the readers are so knowledgeable that no matter how exhaustive the list, they do manage to mention some unheard or forgotten gems. The list is in the order of films alphabetically for convenience of the readers.
Aah: Lyrics – Hasrat Jaipuri/Shailendra; Music – Shankar Jaikishan
1. Jane na nazar pahchane jigar – Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar
2. Jo main janti unke liye – Lata Mangeshkar
3. Raat andheri door savera – Mukesh
4. Aja re ab mera dil pukara – Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar
5. Ye sham ki tanhaiyan – Lata Mangeshkar
6. Sunte the naam hum jinka bahaar se – Lata Mangeshkar
7. Raja ki ayegi baraat – Lata Mangeshkar
8. Chhoti si ye zindagani – Mukesh
Aansoo: Lyrics – Qamar Jalalabadi; Music – Husnlal Bhagatram
9. Sun mere saajna re – Md Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar
10. Din pyar ke aye re – Md Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar
Aas: Lyrics – Shailendra; Music – Shankar Jaikishan
11. Chahe nain churao chahe daman bachao – Talat Mahmood and Lata Mangeshkar
Alif Laila: Lyrics – Sahir Ludhiyanvi; Music – Shyam Sundar
12. Mere naghmon mein un mastana ankhon ki kahani hai – Talat Mahmood
Anarkali: Lyrics – Rajendra Krishna, Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Jan Nisar Akhtar; music – C Ramchandra
13. Ae baad-e-saba aahista chal – Hemant Kumar
14. Ye zindagi usi ki hai – Lata Mangeshkar
15. Aa jane wafa – Geeta Dutt (composed by Basant Prakash)
16. Meri kismet ke kharidaar – Lata Mangeshkar
17. Mujhse mat pooch – Lata Mangeshkar
18. Dua kar gham-e-dil – Lata Mangeshkar
19. Jaag dard-e-ishq jag – Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar
20. Mohabbat aisi dhadkan hai – Lata Mangeshkar
21. Mohabbat mein aise kadam dagmagaye – Lata Mangeshkar
22. O aasmanwale shikwa hai zindagi ka – Lata Mangehskar
23. Zindagi pyar ki do chaar ghadi hoti hai – Hemant Kumar
Armaan: Lyrics – Sahir Ludhiyanvi; Music – SD Burman
24. Chahe kitna mujhe tum bulao ji – Talat Mahmood and Asha Bholse
25. Bharam teri wafaon ka mita dete – Talat Mahmood
Aurat: Lyrics – Hasrat Jaipuri/Shailendra; Music – Shankar Jaikishan
26. Nainon se naina hue chaar – Lata Mangehskar
27. Ulfat ka saaz chhedo samman suhana hai – Lata Mangeshkar
28. Dard-e-ulfat chhupaaun kahan – Lata Mangeshkar
29. Dard-e-jigar thahar zara dum to muhe lene de – Lata Mangeshkar
Baabla: Lyrics – Sahir Ludhiyanvi; Music – SD Burman
30. Raat ke rahi thak mat jana – Manna Dey/Lata Mangehskar (Twin songs)
Baghi: Lyrics – Majrooh Sultanpuri; Music – Madan Mohan
31. Hamare baad ab mahfil mein afsaane bayaan honge – Lata Mangehskar
Boot Polish: Lyrics – Shailendra, Hasrat, Swadesh Kumar ‘Deepak’; Muisc – SJ
32. Nanhe munne bachche teri mutthi mein kya hai – Md Rafi and Asha Bhosle
33. Thahar zara O janewale – Manna De, Asha Bhosle and Madhubala Jhaveri
34. Lapak jhapak tu aa re badarwa – Manna De
35. Chali kaun se des gujaria – Talat mahmood and Asha Bhosle
36. Main baharon ki natkhat rani – Asha Bhosle
Chacha Chaudhary: Lyrics – Rajendra Krishna; Music – Madan Mohan
37. Duniya pagalon ka bazaar – Mohammad Rafi and Shyam Kumar (two versions, and another sad version by Rafi)
Char Chaand: Lyrics – A Karim, Shevan Rizvi; Music – Nashad
38. Hai ye wohi aasman – Talat Mahmood
Dayera: Lyrics – Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaif Bhopali; Music – Jamal Sen
39. Deep ke sang jalun main – Mubarak Begum
40. Aansoo to nahi hai pahlu mein – Talat Mahmood
41. Ae chaand sitaro khamosh nazaaro – Talat Mahmood
42. Devta tum ho mera sahara – Mohammad Rafi and Mubarak Begum
Dhun: Lyrics – Kaif Irfani, PL Santoshi, Bharat Vyas; Music – Madan Mohan
43. Koi ek aana koi do aana – Mohammad Rafi, Batra/Madan Mohan, Babul (two versions)
44. Hum pyar karenge ek baar karenge – Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar
45. Sitaron se poochho nazaron se poochho – Lata Mangeshkar
Dil-e-Nadan: Lyrics – Shakeel Badayuni; Music – Ghulam Mohammad
46. Khamosh zindagi ko afsana mil gaya – Jagjit Kaur
47. Chanda gaye ragini – Jagjit Kaur
48. Mohabbat ki dhun bekaraaron se poochho – Talat Mahmood, Madhuba Jhaveri, Jagjit Kaur
49. Na wo hamaare na dil hamara – Sudha Malhotra
50. Jo khushi se chot khaye – Talat Mahmood
51. Zindagi denewale sun – Talat Mahmood
Do Bigha Zameen: Lyrics – Shailendra; Music – Salil Chaudhary
52. Hariyala sawan dhol bajata aya – Mana Dey and Lata Mangeshkar
53. Mausam beeta jaye – Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar
54. Aa ja ri aa nindiya tu aa – Lata Mangeshkar
Fareb: Lyrics – Majrooh Sultanpuri; Music – Anil Biswas
55. Aa mohabbat ki bast basaayenge hum – Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangehskar
Farmaish: Lyrics – Qamar Jalalabadi, Khaabar Zama; Music – Husnalal Bhagatram
56. Aapne chheen liya dil – Mohammad Rafi and Meena Mangeshkar
Footpath: Lyrics – Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sardar Zafri; Music – Khayyam
57. Sham-e-gham ki kasam – Talat Mahmood
Humdard: Lyrics – Prem Dhavan, Majrooh Sultanpuri, music Anil Biswas
58. Ritu aye ritu jaye sakhi ri – Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar
Jhanjhar: Lyrics – Rajendra Krishna; Music – C Ramchandra
59. Ae pyar teri duniya se hum bas itni nishani le ke chale – Lata Mangeshkar
60. Chhed gaye mohe sapne mein Shyam – Lata Mangeshkar
61. Tum bin hamri kaun khabar le – Lata Mangeshkar
Laila Majnu: Lyrics – Shakeel Badayuni; Music – Ghulam Mohammad, Sardar Malik
62. Baharon ki duniya pukare tu aa ja – Talat Mahmood and Asha Bhosle
63. Tere dar pe ayah un fariyad lekar – Lata Mangeshkar
64. Chal diya karwan – Talat Mahmood
65. Aasman wale bata teri duniya se ji ghabraa gaya – Talat and Lata Mangeshkar
66. Ankhon mein hai tu – Mohammad Rafi and Khan Mastana
Ladki: Lyrics – Rajendra Krishna; Music – R Sudarshanam-Dhaniram
67. Baat chalat nayi chunri rang daari – by Geeta Dutt
Mashooqa: Lyrics – Shailendra, Qamar Jalalabadi; Music – Roshan
68. Dil na lagaana – Mukesh
69. Jhilmil tare karen ishare – Mukesh and Suraiya
Mayurpankh: Lyrics – Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri; Music – Shankar Jaikishan
70. Khushiyon ke chaand muskaye re – Lata Mangeshkar
Naghma: Lyrics – J Nakhshab, Mirza Shaukh Lakhnavi; Music – Nashad
71. Teer chala teer chala – Talat Mahmood
72. Badi mushqil se dil ki beqaraari qaraar aya – Shamshad Begum
73. Kahe jadu kiya mujhko itna bata jadugar balma – Shamshad Begum
Naya Ghar: Lyrics – Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri; Music – Shankar Jaikishan
74. Chhum chhanan chum chum – Lata Mangeshkar
75. Laga kar dil pareshan hain – Lata Mangeshkar
Nav Durga: Lyrics – Ramesh Chandra Pandey, Anjum Jaipuri; Music – SN Tripathi
76. Chhaayi birahaa ki raat mora tadape jiya – Geeta Dutt
Paapi: Music – S Mohinder
77. Tera kaam hai jalnaa parawaane – Mohammad Rafi
78. Choodiyan le le gori pahan – Mohammad Rafi
Parineeta: Lyrics – Bharat Vyas; Music – Arun Kumar Mukherji
79. Chali Radhe Rani – Manna Dey (two versions)
80. Gore gore hathon mein menhdi racha ke – Asha Bhosle
Patita: Lyrics – Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri; Music – Shankar Jaikishan
81. Kisi ne apna bana ke mujhko – Lata Mangeshkar
82. Andhe jahan ke andhe raaste – Talat Mahmood
83. Tujhe apne paas bulati hai – Talat Mahmood
84. Yaad kiya dil ne kahan ho tum – Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar
85. Mitti se khelte ho baar bar kis liye – Lata Mangeshkar
86. Hain sabse madhur wo geet mere – Talat Mahmood
Rahi: Lyrics – Prem Dhavan; Music – Anil Biswas
86. Ek pal ruk jana – Lata Mangeshkar
Rail Ka Dibba: Lyrics – Shakeel Badayuni; Music – Ghulam Mohammad
87. La de mohe balma aasmani chudiyan – Md Rafi and Shamshad Begum
88. Angan more aao ji sajan dheere dheere – Shamshad Begum
Shagufa: Lyrics – Rajendra Krishna; Music – C Ramchandra
89. Apna pata bata de ya mere paas aa ja – Lata Mangeshkar
Shikast: Lyric – Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri; Music – Shankar Jaikishan
90. Kare badra tu na ja na ja – Lata Mangeshkar
91. Sapnon ki suhani duniya ko – Talat Mahmood
Teen Batti Char Rasta: Lyrics – PL Santoshi; Music – Shivram Krishna
92. Apni ada par main hun fida – Lata Mangeshkar
Thokar: Lyrics – Mazaz; Music – Sardar Malik
93. Ae gham-e-dil kya karun – Talat Mahmood/Asha Bhosle (twin songs)
Some ‘special’ songs
I present some ‘special’ songs of the year, which I have selected for some uniqueness or some special feature. All these would be relatively unknown, because I became aware of them in the internet era. These may not figure in any category for awards, but some of them are extremely melodious, making you wonder why were these gems hidden, and how many more could be still hidden.
1. Laga kar dil parishan hain by Lata Mangeshkar from Naya Ghar (1953), lyrics – Hasrat Jaipuri, music – Shankar Jaikishan
This is my most recent discovery, courtesy Vividh Bharati’s 7.30AM programme. I was struck by this beautiful, unknown-to-me, ‘C Ramchandra’ composition – I mentioned CR-Lata signature style in the early 50s which was emulated by many composers. This turns out to be composed by Shankar Jaikishan. Readers may judge for themselves.
2. Baat chalat nayi chunri rang daari by Geeta Dutt from Ladki (1953), music R Sudarshanam-Dhaniram
The second ‘special’ song I am presenting would be a delight to Geeta Dutt fans. This traditional Bhairvi thumri has been sung by many classical singers. In films I have heard an outstanding rendition by Mohammad Rafi and Krishrao Chonkar in the film Rani Rupmati (1959). This rendering by Geeta Dutt should also figure among the best.
3. Aapne chheen liya dil ise kya kahte hain by Mohammad Rafi and Meena Mangeshkar from Farmaaish, lyrics Qamar Jalalabadi, music Husnalal Bhagatram
What a beautiful duet by Mohammad Rafi and the debutant, Meena Mangeshkar. I never tire of repeating how grateful we are to live in the internet era, otherwise these gems would have been lost forever. The labels on the link are erroneous, but let us thank the uploader for this great song
4. Angan more aaoji sajan dheere dheere by Shamshad Begum from Rail Ka Dabba, lyrics Shakeel Badayuni, music Ghulam Mohammad
Shamshad Begum is my great favourite. Unfortunately, we lost her this year on April 23, and I do not miss to include one of her songs if an opportunity arises. This was a great year for her. Rail Ka Dibba had a well known duet with Rafi, La de mohe balma aasmani chudiyan. It also had three solos, this one which might be relatively unknown, is incredibly sweet and melodious. Unfortunately, it seems to be an incomplete link, but nevertheless a gem.
5. Aa jane wafa by Geeta Dutt from Anarkali, lyrics Geeta Dutt, music Basant Prakash (!)
A Geeta Dutt song in Anarkali may look odd. More surprising is that its composer is Basant Prakash. Atul mentions the story behind this oddity. The producer wanted all the songs in the voice of Geeta Dutt, but C Ramchandra was adamant on Lata Mangeshkar, obviously. Then he was replaced by Basant Prakash, who could do only one song, after which he could not continue because of illness. CR was back with Lata Mangeshkar with a vengeance. But this Geeta Dutt song stayed on.
6. Multilingual song from Teen Batti Char Rasta, music Shivram Krishna
We have seen a multilingual song in Aadmi (1939) in the article by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh in his post on Hindi-Marathi songs. Later I have come across a great multilingual song by Shamshad Begum in the film Nishan (1949), picturised on P Bhanumati. We should have occasion to discuss that song later. This one composed by Shivram Krishna in his debut film is a musical as well as visual delight. Such songs highlight the multi-ethnic and multilingual nature of our society, with an underlying unity. A feature of these songs is that different segments highlight the special mannerisms, accent or dress of that linguistic group. So watch this song again and again to identify the languages, and enjoy its picturisation. HFGK gives details of different segments, composed by different composers – Kanu Ghosh (Bengali), Natraj (Tamil), Gulshan Sufi (Sindhi), Vasant Desai (Marathi), Avinash Vyas (Gujarati), Shivram Krishna (Hindi, Punjabi). There are a number of singers also, my favourite is Zohra Ambalawali – you can’t miss her distinct voice.
7. Classical song from by Dr Vasnatrao Deshpande (?) from Chacha Chaudhary, music Madan Mohan
We have heard of Madan Mohan’s love for classical music. Surprisingly this song is not listed in HFGK, but from the video clip it is surely from the film Chacha Chaudhary. The YT link mentions Dr Vasantrao Deshpande as the singer and the Raga identified is Chandrakaus. The actors identified in the clip are Raja Paranjpe (singer) Durga Khote (lady) Dhumal (music teacher) and Chittaranjan Kolhatkar (young lad).
8. Duniya paglon ka bazaar by Mohammad Rafi and Shyam Kumar from Chacha Chaudhary, lyrics Rajendra Krishna, music Madan Mohan
I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts that Madan Mohan could go from pure classical to a pure crazy song in the same film. This one seems literally picturised on a bunch of lunatics in an asylum. The second singer, Shyam Kumar, I guess is the same person who was the male voice in O janewale balamwa (Rattan). The song is a parody, it is a challenge to identify the original songs. The ones I can clearly identify are Toofan Mail, duniya ye duniya (Jawab, 1942 by Kanan Devi) and Duniya ka maza le lo (Bahar, 1951 by Shamshad Begum).
9. Lahron ke rele sang naiya mori khele by Hridaynath Mangeshkar from Baabla, lyrics Sahir Ludhiyanvi, music SD Burman
If you hear this song without knowing its detail, you would probably guess it is by Geeta Dutt. Hridaynath Mangeshkar would have been 15/16 when he sang this song. It is surprising that at this age, his voice should be so thin.
10. Na main dil ki baat bataungi by Rajkumari from Gunah, lyrics Kedar Sharma, music Snehal Bhatkar
I have a great fascination for female singers of the vintage era, 1930s and 40s, who were swept away by the Lata Mangeshkar tornado in the 50s and 60s. We lost a good deal of tonal and vocal diversity. These singers got songs on the margins. We have seen a small fragment of Zohra Ambalawali in the song no. 6 above. Another great singer in the Vintage Era was Rajkumari. Enjoy this ghazal in the style of 30s and 40s by a great composer, who also unfortunately remained on the margins in Hindi films.
I have come to the end of my presentation. I believe that nothing of importance I have missed. But any discussion on old songs is also about discussing that which is unknown, and discovering hidden gems to together. Fortunately, we have among SoY regulars, great experts and explorers. So I present it before the house for Open House now. While discussing and commenting, you may also give your thoughts on
And the SoY winners are:
Best male playback singer
Best female playback singer
Best duet
Best music director
Based on the inputs and discussions, I propose to write separate wrap-ups on each of the above, as I did last year.
{ 166 comments… read them below or add one }
At the end of first day-first show my vote for the Best Performance is for the “special songs’ and The Best Lyricist is for the article itself.
But I have booked my ticket for each of the day the show is going to run. So I will have something or other to observe every other day as well..
Ashokji,
‘Special songs’ are indeed the unexpected bonus I got out of this series. Looking for songs of that particular year, you stumble upon unknown gems and thank yourself to be alive in the internet era. Looking forward to your detailed comments.
AKji,
There is another nice song from ‘Teen atti Char Rasta”, Ekdo teen, char by Talat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0O_ilLlaeMI do not know how it compares with the songs you mentioned, ut I like it. I never saw the film but know the name for a long time.
AK, C Ramchandra was not the original choice for Anarkali; it was Basant Prakash (the younger brother of Khemchand Prakash). His death brought in C Ramchandra, who, as everyone knows insisted on Lata as his female voice. But Basant Prakash had already recorded one song with Geeta and even though CR insisted that it be deleted (probably on Lata’s egging) the producers were in no mood to delete it, and so it stayed. From what I know, the film had a revolving door of music directors. I’ll try to find the link (I read it somewhere, but can’t remember where).
Lata did mention (in Conversations) that Roshan composed one of the antaras when CR was stuck. I put that in my blog as well, but thinking about it, I really am torn – I think it is one more of Lata’s tales since she had a falling out with CR anyway. 🙁
Footpath had other songs than Sham-e-gham ki kasam – did you intentionally drop them?
1. So ja mere pyaare – Asha Bhosle
2. Kaisa jadu dala – Asha Bhosle
3. Suhana hai ye mausam Asha Bhosle
4. Piya aaj re dil mera pukare
5. Thandi pawan chale Talat, Premlata, Ashima Bannerjee
My choices would be:
1. Lata (Is that even a choice? This was her era, and no one could hold a candle to her.)
2. This is difficult. Talat made great strides during this period, but my favourite of all male singers is Rafi… Heck, this is not about my favourites, so yeah, Talat Mehmood it is.
3. Best Music Director – Salilda (without a doubt! even though I’m afraid S-J will win the popular vote.)
4. Best Duet – Manna Dey -Lata (Mausam beeta jaaye)
Incidentally, Salilda confirmed that this song was based on a Russian marching tune. Here is the original (though you can see how much Salilda changed it to make it his own).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KbT-iA5768
My choices
1)Best female singer: Lata Mangeshkar
2) Best male songer: (for the year mainly based on one song Lapak Jhapak) Manna Dey
3) Best MD: C.Ramachandra
4) Best Duet:Jaag dard-e-ishq jag – Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar
Gaddeswarupji,
I heard the Talat song from Teen Batti Char Rasta you have mentioned, but it does not appeal to me as a great song on the first listening.
As for the best in each category – Lata Mangeshkar is very obvious. Others require some deliberation and analysis, which I would come to in due course.
Splendid piece of work. You have made me nostalgic. Those were the days when radio was considered a luxury and later Gramaphone. My compliments on a good write up and for enlisitng the songs.
Although 1953 had some of the best music being released and for me today all the songs and artists are winners in retrospection. However my personal favourites would be
Best Song by Male Playback – Raat Aandheeri door savera by Mukesh in Aah.
Best Song by Female playback – Yeh Zindagi usiki hain by Lata Mangeshkar – Anarkali.
Best Duet – Mausam Beeta Jaaye – Lata and Manna Dey – Do Bigha Zaamin
Best Music Director – Tie Between Salil Choudhary for Do Bigha Zamin and Shankar Jaikishan for Aah
There is no category given for best lyrics – I find the lyrics of song Mitti se Khelte ho baar baar by Shailendra very well written
Many thanks to you once again on such a marvellous work.
Namaskar
Anu,
I have mentioned the story behind Anarkali – CR – Basant Prakash in my special song #5, Aa jane wafa from ‘Atul Song A Day’.
I remember CR – Roshan story about Ye zindagi usi ki hai is also mentioned by Raju Bharatan in his biography of Lata Mangeshkar. It could be one of the Lata Mangeshkar’s ‘tales’. Though I have a somewhat different take on such stories. Even if true, it does not reduce C Ramchandra. As his assistant, Roshan might have given some suggestions to his mentor – so what does this prove? Such stories which appear as denigrating someone reduce the person telling the story. I had exactly the same reaction when she came up recently with a claim that Rafi had sent her a written letter of apology to make up after their fall out in the mid-60s.
Yes, I intentionally dropped some songs of Footpath as I also did several songs from other movies. Sham-e-gham ki kasam is up there with the best ever of Talat Mahmood. The other songs are not only nowhere in comparison, they don’t stick in memory even after repeated hearing (at least with me). The only thing I remember about one of the Asha Bhosle songs is that perhaps that is the first and the last shower scene of Meena Kumari (quite a voyeur’s delight – surprising for someone soon-to-become the epitome of a dignified Bharatiya Nari). I should also honestly admit I am not a great fan of Asha Bhosle.
In this era it would be Lata Mangeshkar, Lata Mangeshkar, Lata Mangeshkar……. For other categories I reserve my judgment based on the comments of the readers and my own preferences.
Kuldeep Chauhan,
Thanks a lot for your compliments. Ditto about Lata Mangeshkar. Let me wait for other comments for other categories. I have not given the Best Lyricist category, because it is in the nature of film song that name of the lyricist does not register easily in memory, unless it is someone like Sahir Ludhiyanvi or Pradeep.
AK ji,
Thanks for the lovely post again.
1953 had so many great songs as most of the 50s had.
One thing to be noted is that SJ composed great music for the big 3 of that era (Raj-Aah, Dilip- Shikast, Dev-Patita) in the same year.
Mayurpankh also had a delightful number featuring young Helen
Regarding Peace Kanwal, i recently came across this link-
http://beetehuedin.blogspot.in/
Regards
Siddharth
Sidharth,
Thanks for your compliments.
That song from Mayurpankh is wonderful. Helen in a completely new look! Thanks also for the link on Peace Kanwal.
AKji,
At last the much awaited ‘Best songs of 1953’ is out. Hats off to you for this colossal task. Everybody will not have the time, energy and inclination to browse through 100 or more films (roughly) and its songs released during 1953.
There were roughly 300 to 350 female solos involving 20 singers, out of which Lata Mangeshkar (about 45%) and Asha Bhosle (around 23%) had the major share, Shamsad Begum and Geeta Dutt together bagging roughly 15%. The remaining 20% was shared between the 16 odd singers.
Moving on to male solos, the number comes down drastically, almost to one third of the female solos, may be fewer not more. That means the total male solos will be equal to or may be fewer than the songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar alone! Roughly out of the 100 male solos Talat Mehmood (about 35 %), Md.Rafi (around 20%) and Manna Dey (around 13 to 14%) shared almost 70% of the songs. Mukesh, Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar shared approximately 16% and the remaining 15% roughly shared between another 9 to 10 singers. Another interesting observation is that C Ramchandra and Chitragupt together contributed 5%.
The scenario in the duet area is somewhat similar. Here too there were 100 odd duets. Md.Rafi and Asha Bhosle duets with 15% occupies the leading position, followed by Talat Mahmood-Asha Bhosle duets (7%), C Ramchandra and Lata Mangeshkar duets (7%), Talat- Lata (6%), Md.Rafi-Lata (5%), Kishore-Lata(5%), Hemant-Lata (5%), Manna-Lata (5%). About 25 pair of singers share the rest of the platform.
In the duets section, around 20 male singers were involved, Md.Rafi (about 30%) and Talat Mahmood (about 16%) in the lead with another 35% shared almost equally between C Ramchandra, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar and Mukesh.
Again Lata (about 40%) and Asha (around 25%) dominated the duet section also. Another dozen or so female singers share the rest of the duet scenario.
Besides, there may be another 50 to 60 songs which will not come under any of the categories under our consideration.
About 50 to 55 music directors composed music in 1953. In term of numbers, the leading MDs were:-
Shankar Jaikishan 8, Anil Biswas 6, S D Burman and C Ramchadra 5 each, Roshan, Ghulam Mohammad (alone) and Chitragupt 4 each and Vasant Desai and Jamal Sen 3 each.
Your selection of songs (short listed) also follows a similar pattern with 45 female solos, 23 male solos and 21 duets. Once again Lata Mangeshkar and Talat Mehmood dominate the list in the female solo and male solo categories respectively.
To Short list 93 songs and 37 films involving 20 or so MDs out of the mammoth list is not an easy task. Nor it is less difficult to choose the best from this list. I hope you will follow the similar pattern like last year in phasing and sequencing the wrap-ups.
Obviously I cannot look beyond Lata Mangeshkar for the best female playback singer. The only point of interest would be which of her ten songs will be short listed for the final wrap-up. The million dollar question would be whether we can squeeze in a couple of other singers in the top 10 list if not among the best five.
In the male solos, at this stage it appears that the final contest will be between Talat Mehmood, Manna Dey and Hemant Kumar.
It will require further deliberations before I can come to a conclusion on the male solos and Male-female duets.
I will try my best to do full justice to your efforts by going through each of the sections including the special song section in detail.
Thank you once again for this excellent and painstaking work
Akji,
I can understand the reason for leaving out the year 1954. But why leave out 1952 and jump on to the year 1951? Is there any specific reason?
Venkataramanji,
That is a painstaking statistics of the songs of 1953. From where did you get it?
You have given a very good approach how to go about the best in each category. One question I ask myself and the readers – Are there any good songs I have missed which deserve to be there in the list and which have the potential of being in the best ten in their category?
The reason for skipping 1952 I have explained earlier – Baiju Bawra won the best music award for Naushad. Therefore, I am taking the year covered by Filmfare Awards.
AK, there does seem to be some confusion about Rafi’s apology to Lata; his son has vehemently denied anything of the sort happened, but his daughter has been on record as saying that her father immensely regretted his stand later. Knowing the sort of person Mohammed Rafi was from all accounts, it is quite possible that he did apologise. It doesn’t make him a lesser man in my eyes. Quite the contrary. Of course, at this point, these are all speculations.
As for Roshan composing the tune of one verse in Ye zindagi usi ki hai (Sunaayegi ye daastan shama mere mazaar ki, Khizaan mein bhi khili rahi ye kali anaar ki, Ise mazaar mat kaho yeh mahal hai pyaar ka) , I do not think it took away from CR at all! In fact, when Lata mentioned it in the Nasreen Munni Kabir book, it was to illustrate how free of ego the master composers were, and how petty jealousies were unknown then.
It is a well-known fact that Salilda composed the background music for Devdas, uncredited, because SD and Bimal Roy landed up at his house asking him to. Rohan Kapoor has gone on record to state how Mohammed Rafi coached his father, Mahendra Kapoor, over the telephone so that the latter would give his best. These are stories that warm the cockles of the heart. That sort of give and take is missing today.
You made us wait for this one AK, but then you made it worth the wait. Making lists is fun in itself, but your observations add to the joy of listomania. The icing on the cake is the ‘Special Songs.’
I restricted myself to the list in your post. As a first step I copied all the song titles and then deleted all that I thought were not worthy of the shortlist. This left me with 18 songs out of 93. This list led to some interesting observations:
1. This was the year of duets – 10 out of 18 in my list. This includes chorus songs like the two from Do Bigha Zameen. My top choices are ‘Jaag dard-e ishq jaag’, ‘Yaad kiya dil ne kahan ho tum’, ‘Sun mere saajna’, ‘Ritu aaye ritu jaaye sakhi ri’ and ‘Devta tum ho mera sahara’ in that order.
2. This was not the year of male solos. Four male solos – all by Talat – made it to my shortlist: ‘Ae gham-e dil kya karoon’, ‘Zindagi dene wale sun’, ‘Sham-e gham ki kasam’ and ‘Ae gham-e dil kya karoon.’ All of them have the same sombre mood, and none of them makes it to my top 10 list of Talat songs.
3. Female solos too don’t do much better, but for two outstanding songs ‘Aaja ri nindiya’ and ‘Yeh zindagi usi ki hai’. They too would not make it to my top 10 list of Lata songs. Still, ‘Yeh zindagi usi ki hai’ has become a legend, much like ‘Aayega aane wala’ and ‘Aawaz de kahan hai.’ Personally I would rate ‘Aaja ri nindiya’ higher.
Coming to Music Directors – it is a tie between CR for Anarkali and SJ for Aah.
So, these are my votes for whatever they are worth. Don’t make us wait this long for 1951 (and also answer Mr Venkataraman’s question about omission of 1952.)
You haven’t kept a prize for lyricists. ‘Ae gham-e dil kya karoon’ would be a worthy contender. I remember a stanza from this song in a collection of Urdu poetry which was not there in the film version – at least not in the record that I have:
Jhilmilate kumkumon ki raah me zanjeer si
Raat ke haathon mein din ki mohini tasveer si
Mere seene par lage dahki hui shamsheer si.
Anu,
I heard Lata Mangeshkar live on TV making that statement about Rafi. And much before his son went ballistic, my reaction was “Whether he wrote a letter of apology or not is immaterial. Why is she lowering herself? Why can’t she have someone advise her on what kind of statements to make on media?”
I am not sure in what sense Lata Mangeshkar made CR-Roshan statement. At least CR was deeply offended.
The most heartening case of selfless help is of Pankaj Mullick promoting KL Saigal.
Subodh,
Thanks a lot for your comments.
You are quite ruthless in pruning down the list to 18. I agree with you that this was the year of duets. I remember Sun mere sajna re and Jaag dard-e-ishq jag have figured among the best in their categories earlier on this blog. I also agree that this was not a great year for male solos, except the Talat Mahmood’s songs you have mentioned – they figure in my list of his best.
But I would include many songs of Lata Mangeshkar – Raja ki ayegi baraat, Ye sham ki tanhaiyan, Hamare baad ab mahfil mein afsaane bayan honge, Ae pyar teri duniya se hum bas itni nishani le k chale – and many more.
In my comment #9 I have given my views about lyricist, and in #14 the reasons for skipping 1952.
I have decided to cover each year in a new calendar year. With some date specific posts and some other special posts like guest articles etc. I had to really squeeze an opening for this one. This should not be a problem, because we are here for a long haul.
Akji,
The special song section was indeed special.
It will be a pity that if the first song ‘Laga kar dil pareshan hain” do not figure in the best 10 songs. Such is the extensive repository of Lata Mangeshkar’s songs. There are four more solos of Lata Mangeshkar in this film. We can discuss them in the appropriate section.
I hope this song (#2) finds a place in the first ten. Ladki was a AVM production there were three versions, Ladki in Hindi, Sangham in Telugu and Penn in Tamil. Anjali devi and Vyjaynthimala acted in all the versions. Gemini Ganeshan played the lead male role in Tamil, N T Rama Rao in Telugu and Bharat Bhusan in Hindi. I am presenting another song from the film Ladki.
A song rendered by little know singer Krishn Goel (?). Can anybody give more information about this singer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJIBvZGc-l4
The duet (#3) by Md Rafi and Meena Mangeshkar was really good. There is one more song by this pair in this film. Although the uploader of the song states the female singer as Lata Mangeshkar, But, I think it is Meena Mangeshkar. Please correct me if I am wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNDtgmbHe7g
Thanks for the Shamsad Begum number (#4) from Rail Ka Dibba. There are 3 more songs of Shamsad Begum in this film, two solos and one duet with Md.Rafi and one more solo by Asha Bhosle. But let us listen to a lilting duet sung by Md.Rafi and GANDHARI (?). I have not heard this name before.
There is one more song of her available on YT from the film Tara (1949). It seems she is around since 1946 and I can find her name along with Arvind and Sunder in the fim Naulakha ka haar (1953).
That was a often heard, but an interesting story about this Geeta Dutt song (#5) from Anarkali.
The beautiful multilingual song (#6) from Teen batti aur Chaar Raasta was new to me. The male voice I believe to be that of Balbir. Am I right if I say Lata and Asha also lent their voice to this song? Besides the one posted by Arunji, I have come across a few more multilingual songs including the one from Nishan. As you have rightly said we can discuss them later in an appropriate post.
Recently I came across the classical rendition by Pt. Vasant Rao Deshpande. I was looking for the Radha Krishna dance performed by Gopi Kishan from this film. I could not trace it, but I found this rendition instead. Pt. Vasnt Rao Desh Pande had talim from many Gurus, the most noteworthy being Dinanath Mangeshkar. He was adept in many Raags especially in ‘Kauns ang’. So it is not surprising that Madanmohan had him render Chandrakauns in this film. Thanks for introducing Pt. Deshpande’s rendition (#7).
The crazy parody song (#8) was also discovered recently during the same pursuit. I agree with your observation on Madanmohan.
The song #9 was a revelation and when I first heard this song I too mistook the voice to be that of a female singer. There was another song rendered by Raajkumari Dubey in this film. I am not sure whether Raajkumari mentioned by you in #10 and Raajkumari Dubey are one and the same person. I feel they are the same. But let the experts confirm. Let us listen to this pleasant song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v17xNzpml_Y
Thanks for another charming song (#10) in the vintage style. Yet again there is some confusion regarding the music director. In some place it is mentioned as Roshan !
Raajkumari rendered roughly a dozen songs in the year 1953.
The statistics was compiled by me and I am sure it is almost correct. There is a possibility of a small percentage of error since the whole exercise was done manually. I would be glad if I can get hold of a soft copy HFGK which can be converted into an excel sheet form. Then the job will be easier. However I enjoyed the exercise.
Thank you for answering my query on the year 1952.
I will approach one section at a time. In the process, if I feel that you have missed out any potentially good song(s), which deserved to be in the top ten, I would mention it there. Again you or for that matter other readers may/need not agree with my views.
Thanks once again for the special section. I will come back with a few more special songs before venturing into the main section.
Good night.
Akji, Welcome back with the second edition of SoY Awards (now it has surpassed the fame of Filmfare awards in a short period ! 🙂 ). Anilji, once again many thanx for our heritage’s revival in ur own unique style. We were waiting for 1953 award function. U have covered almost all magnificent songs of that year. Some of my favts r missing from ur list and i will mention them in later comments. Ur specially selected 10 songs r the bonus enjoyment. Thanq v much.
i m completely agreed with Subodhji. ‘AE GHAM E DIL KYA KARUN’ is no doubt the best lyrics of 1953. Though lyricists r not invited in this award ceremony, we should send a special trophy to Majaz for this song. He deserves.
i m not interested to select best male-female singers bcoz in female section there is no competition and in male section, from ’50 to ’55, for this 6 yrs span i will go for only TALAT MEHMOOD.
In Best Music director section, i m voting for C. Ramchandra 4 this year. Possibly this one his only chance to get a trophy. Shanker Jaikishan has many trophies even with their mediocre albums. Salilda has already got one for madhumati, and others r not enough to compete with ‘Anaarkali’.
Akji,, there r many songs in ur list which i hv not heard before. And many songs u skipped which r my favorites.
In 1995 during my college era, i had bought 2 cassettes of talat, inspired by listening ‘meri yaad men tum na’ on radio. Thenafter Talat made a way into me forever. There were 35 talat solos in those 2 cassettes which i hv heard for several nights in that decade. How can i forget those 2 masterpieces of talat from ‘naya ghar’ which were my night companions over a long time.
1. Unhen tu bhul ja ae dil
Tadapne se bhi kya haasil
2. Hum unke paas aate hai
Woh humse door jaate hai
Tadapkar daastan apni
Sitaaro ko sunaate hai
One lata masterpiece of ‘naya ghar’
3. Lo aaye din pyar karne ke
Nigaahen ab char karne ke
this anilda_kishoreda rare combo is my top favt from film ‘FAREB’
4. Husn bhi hai udaas udaas
Ishq bhi gham se choor hai
Mere naseeb dekhiye
Paas wo hoke door hai
And this lata_anilda real gems from ‘Fareb’ and ‘Aakash’
5. Mila dil mil ke tuta ja raha hai
Naseeba ban ke phuta ja raha hai
6. So gayi chandni, jaag uthi bekali
Tum mujhe aur bhi yaad aane lage
some wndrful songs from ‘Baaz’ of OPNayyar
7. Ae dil ae diwaane_masterpiece of geeta
8. Mujhe dekho hasrat ki tasveer hun main…Talat
9. Zara saamne aa, zara aankh mila, tera shukriya kar du adaa….great duet of geeta_rafi.
Two songs from ‘alif laila’
10. Tujhko bhulana mere bas me nahin….lata’s gem
11. Kya raat suhani hai…lata rafi well known duet
12. Badi barbaadiya lekar meri duniya me pyar aaya….lata in ‘dhun’
13. Suno more naina….mubarak begum in ‘daaera’…recent addition
Now some surprize package for u
14. Kain aise bhi aansoo hai, jo aankhon men nahin aate
Bahot se raaz aise hai, jo samjhaye nahi jaate
15. Ise na aur lutiye, ye dil bahot gareeb hai
Naseeb se mai kya kahun, naseeb to naseeb hai
Both great songs of lata-bulo c rani from ‘Gul sanobar’
And now Vinod’s beauty in ‘Ek do teen’ by Asha
16. Lo phir chaand nikal aaya
Tum paas nahi mere
Haay dil is liye ghabraya
(must listen)
Since Lata Mangeshkar figures a lot in this discussion, this comment in http://roughinhere.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/teen-batti-char-rasta/ may be of interest. One Suresh (last ut one comment) said that Sandhya mimicked Lata in the film.
Interesting information on the inspiration for ‘Mausam beeta jaaye’. Thanks to Anu for locating and posting the original link.
Before TV we were very fond of the ‘Special Jayamala’ program on radio in which a film personality would present their favourite songs for the soldiers. I remember something interesting about ‘Mausam beeta jaaye’ from the program presented by Balraj Sahni. During the outdoor shoot of this song the villagers thought that the film unit was selling sweet limes – musammi or mausambi – ‘mausambi taaja hai!’ That’s a real mondegreen (my thanks to Dustedoff for this word.)
The day-2-show has had the great advantage of enjoying the views of the co-viewers who have had a good look, thereby getting to know so much of diverse information, and ever more interest-inspiring angles to enjoy the fare.
Shri Venkataraman’s painstaking analysis of the macro picture, in a way relieved me from my plan to undertake a similar exercise and then try to look the scene from possible different angles.
Subodh Agrawal, Jignesh Kotadia and all others have added different flavors to the flames of the test.
SoY and its active community have always given equal weightage to factors other than popularity. So, now, I will try to beyond few obvious inferences- Lata Mangeshkar or Yeh Jindagi Usiki Hai or C Ramachandra , Ae Gam-e- dil Kya Karoon – and come up with ‘Top other 4’ of my choices, and then re-look at what mind says over the voice of heart.
+++
The YT clip of Teen Batti Char Rasta multilingual song mentions Karan (Diwan) as possible male voice.
The Gujarati piece in that song is composed by Avinash Vyas and has been used as a full song , first as a non-film song, than in a Gujarati film – Here is Gujarati film clip – http://youtu.be/VLdVGlp8qgQ
Here is the clip of the ‘oroginal’ song – Chaanu Re Chhapanu Kain Thay Nahin ( You can to do dream secretly) – http://youtu.be/VUJOqbIEF2k (The lyrics also are by Avinash Vyas.)
Venkataramanji,
What you have done is awesome – the statistical analysis as well as some rare gems you have added. Song #2 is really great. However, there is another Geeta Dutt song in this year which is my top favourite which I rate as her best, and I am surely going to include that in the top ten.
Krishna Goyal sounds very sweet. Swaron Ki Yatra by Anil Bhargav gives some information about him. He was born in 1927 in Jammu. After education and music training, he shifted to Lahore where his songs were broadcast on the radio. He first acted and sang in Krishna Sudama (1947). Thereafter he sang in Raees (1948), Dahej (195o), Kaale Badal (1951), Lanka Dahan (1952), Dhuan, Ladki (1953), Ankh Ka Nasha, Khul Ja Sim Sim, Malika, Passing Show (1956), Nag Padmini (1957) etc. Good material for a post if we get hold of enough worthy songs on YT.
You are right, the female singer in the Khushiyon ke zamane aye from Farmaish is Meena Mangeshkar. That is a good song, but Aapne chhen liya dil appeared to me at a different plane which sticks with you on the very first hearing.
The Rail Ka Dibba duet by Rafi and Gandhari is very good, especially its picturisation on Sajjan and Cuckoo. But I did not give a thought to it, as this film also had an outstanding Rafi-Shamshad Begum duet La de mohe balma asmani chudiyan, and I had to include Shamshad Begum solo Angan more aao ji in my ‘special’ songs.
Swaron Ki Yatra also mentions other Gandhari songs from Namumkin (1946), Neera Aur Nanda (1946), Jalan (1948), Talash (1952), besides the ones you have mentioned.
Yes, the male voice in the multilingual song is of Balbir.
Thanks for the additional information on Pt Vasantrao Deshpande.
About Gunaah, HFGK mentions Roshan also with Snehal Bhatkar as the music director. But it also identifies the songs individually. On Roshan’s account only a Talat Mahmood solo Mere khayalon mein aa ke galey laga ja has been mentioned.
About Rajkumari I have no doubt, she is the Dubey of Banaras. The other Rajkumari (Shukla) of Calcutta was primarily an actor, and sang very few songs. So the famous singer of the vintage era, who also sang in Mahal, Bawre Nain, and who often appeared on DD several times singing Ghabra ke jo hum and whose face is very familiar, is the one we are talking about. Now it appears there was a third Rajkumari also from Calcutta, but not called Kalkattewali, who acted in some movies of New Theatres. Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh has informed me that he would be away from the scene for a few days. So we have to wait for the return of the Master to clarify the three Rajkumaris – Rajkumari (Banaraswali), Rajkumari (Kalkattewali) and Rajkumari of Calcutta but not called Kalkattewali.
Thanks a lot for your wonderful addition, and triggering this interesting search, which many ‘sane’ people would consider pointless.
Jignesh,
If you choose C Ramchnadra out of sympathy, that would not be fair to him. Many would regard him by far the best composer of 1953.
I heard all the songs you have mentioned. At least half were new to me. This Kishore Kumar song from Fareb should have figured as a ‘special’ song, because it is so uncharacteristic of him. It is also difficult to recognise his voice.
Husn bhi hai udas udas by Kishore Kumar from Fareb, lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri, music Anil Biswas
Two other songs from your list should have been in my shortlist.
Suno more naina by Mubarak Begum from Dayera, lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri, music Jamal Sen
Kya raat suhani hai by Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar from Alif Laila, lyrics Sahir Ludhiyanvi, music Shyam Sundar
Among the other songs, some by Talat Mahmood and Lata Mangeshkar are very good, such as Serial #1, 2, 3, 6, 12 and 14. These could figure in the shortlist. The only question is how big you want to keep the list, given that these singers already have a large number of great songs included.
Having said that, I now realise that there is a Talat Mahmood duet (which has probably Tamil and Telugu versions as well) which I have missed. That song is incredibly sweet and would probably figure in the best ten duets of the year. I am waiting for the readers to mention that song.
‘now it has surpassed the fame of Filmfare awards in a short period !‘ – I like that :). Jokes apart, SoY would not give absurd awards like Suraj over Guide, and Beimaan over Pakeezah.
Gaddeswarupji,
Ek do teen char panch by Talat Mahmood from Teen Batti Char Rasta is a very interesting song, especially its mood of fun picturised on Karan Dewan, who is normally very stiff. But the year had a good number of quintessential Talat Mahomood songs. This one may not figure among his best in the year. So Anand Baxi is not the original creator of Ek do teen char (Tezaab)!
That link of Richard’s site is very interesting. However, when they say Sandhya has acted like Lata Mangeshkar, it is not very accurate. Lata Mangeshkar almost stood still while singing, whereas Sandhya uses very distinct hand gestures, and at times also breaks into dancing.
Subodh,
I should thank you and Madhu for ‘Mondegreen’, but it is too obscure a word to be used for impressing people. 🙂 Can you prepare a list of some accessible bombastic words which one could drop on unsuspecting people? Might come in handy in my blogging.
Ashokji,
That Gujarati original is very good. Thanks.
It seems you are still keeping your views up your chest. Waiting for that.
A : is it a case of sympathy ?
J : no, not at all. It’s not a case of sympathy but i wanted to remind u ppl that any fair judgement not taken at proper time would deprive the deserving talent forever what it deserves (e.g. C.Ram, Madan Mohan, Ghulam Mohd, Chitragupt…)
A : how big you want to keep the list ?
J : i dont want to expand ur list, it’s well and enough.
It is my humble attempt to bring Magnificent songs like ”Husn bhi hai udas”, ”Lo phir chand nikal aaya” or ”kain aise bhi aansu hai” on upper surface, bcz they r equally superb as the popular ones. It’s not list expansion but sheer enjoyment.
Thanks Akji for warm responses. I hv no idea abt the duet u mentioned !? Waiting to see it….
Such bonanza in just one year. Since nobody seems to be sharing my fascination for ‘Lapak Jhapak’, I link an article *which I might have linked earlier) by somebody else who fascinated by that song
http://www.svabhinava.org/abhinava/Sunthar-LapakJhapak/LapakJhapak-frame.php
I also think that the Telugu adoptation of Jaag dard-e-ishq jag is equally good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIryMqxwijc
I would like to know what experts think.
I would now present MY views on the subject. I have simply listed down the songs that I like for each of the category, and then offered my own FINAL choice, as I perceive.
Duets –
[A] Talat Mahmood – with others
Chahe Naina Churao – with Lata Mangeshkar – Aas – Shanker Jaikishan – http://youtu.be/rk7a8BwBfp8
Kisi Ne Nazar Se Nazar Mila Di – with Asha Bhosle – Hamsafar- Ali Akbar Khan (Assistant – Jaidev Varma – is he the one whom we know as (the) Jaidev?) http://youtu.be/8WpPHyqyYcI
Baharon Ki Duniya – with Asha Bhosle – Laila Majanoo – Sardar Malik – http://youtu.be/GPWF9O8P2u8
Jab Jab Phool Khile – – with Lata Mangeshkar – Shikast – Shanker Jaikishan http://youtu.be/WMlPY9x4GK8
Chahe Kitana Mujhe Tum Bhulaoge – with Asha Bhosle – Armaan –S D Burman – http://youtu.be/ChNLcV_3lIQ
[B] Other Duets
Din Pyaar Ke Aaye Hain – Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar – Aansoo – Hushnlal Bhagatram – http://youtu.be/2w_Cbd4KCvg
Kya Raat Suhaani Hai – Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar – Alif Laila – Shyam Sundar – http://youtu.be/-iewTNlrMMw
Devata Ho Tum Mera Sahara – Mohammad Rafi, Mubarak Begum – Daera – Jamal Sen Version 1 – http://youtu.be/U1TjubgBOyg Version 2 http://youtu.be/sVxu_vwrk2I Version 3 http://youtu.be/cHUYOqe-1Js
Rutu Aaye Rutu Jaye Re – Manna Dey, Lata Mangeshkar – Humdard – Anil Biswas – http://youtu.be/UPVAR6eQ9BI Sarang Malhar – Joigiya Bahar
Jil Mil Taaren Kare Ishare – Mukesh, Suraiya – Mashooqua – Roshan – http://youtu.be/zthBD6hwQqw
Jaane Na Nazar Pahechane Magar – Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar – Aah – Shanker Jaikishan – http://youtu.be/49xi7ReLgu4
I have not included Anarkali and Patita duets of Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar here, since for obvious reasons, I would take them up when I take up Best Music category.
I have no hesitation in picking up as “Devata Ho Tum Mera Sahara” as [My] THE 1953 Favorite Duet.
Gaddeswarupji,
‘Semblance’ of raga, rasa and hasya: The Lapak Jhapak approach to Bollywood, Indian aesthetics and Vedic ritual – I am awed. From where do you get such exotic stuff? Towards the end the author says, “The digest of my series of ‘humorous’ posts on ‘Semblance of rāga, rasa, and hāsya: Lapak Jhapak approach to Bollywood, Indian aesthetics and Vedic religion’ is now available in one place at...” If the author meant it as a humorous post, it is no less scholarly than his PhD thesis on “Abhinavgupta’s conception of humour”, which, needless to say, went over my head. But it did make me “see” the song in a different light. I agree with you it is an absolutely fabulous song, especially with its picturisation. I should also thank you because you have added one more wish to my long list of wishes I have for my after-life – to be born an “intellectual”.
The Telugu ‘adoption’ of Jaag dard-e-ishq jag is a very nice song. But are you sure it follows the same tune? The Hindi song is in Raga Bageshree, whereas the Telugu song appears to me as Malkaus. I would go by what the Experts, Subodh and Mr N Venkataraman say on this.
Ashokji,
That’s an interesting list of duets. Some omissions stand out. Sun mere sajna re by Rafi-Lata Mangeshkar does not figure in your list of greatest duets? It figures in mine, and not only for this year but all-time. I had also included it in my favourite Rafi-Lata Mangeshkar duets. And what about Aasman wale bata teri duniya se jee ghabra gaya by Talat-Lata Mangeshkar from Laila Majnu? Then in Aah my preference would be Aa ja re ab mera dil pukara.
I take it that Anarkali and Patita duets are in your list of best. What about the duets of Do Biga Zameen? I agree with Subodh that we can ignore the chorus part and treat them as Manna Dey-Lata Mangehskar duets.
I just wanted to be sure that these are not inadvertent omissions.
AKji,
The songs that you mention are “obvious/ default” choice, for most of the HFM fans, almost every time. I have tried to beyond few obvious preferences, and have tried to highlight those songs that I do like, but get to listen to less often, unless a conscious effort is made.
You may find a similar Pattern(of misses) in the subsequent category listings too.
In other words, by deliberately being an odd man out, I hope to generate some wider discussions, too.
AKji,
I found that song only 6-7 years ago. One day I called a friend to listen to it and it actually rained. I think that I was fascinated by the song and just googled and found that article. I wonder what kind of confluence of talents , aspirations and concerns went into producing so many wonderful songs those days.
About the other song and the Telugu adaptation, I do not about ragas. Each reminds of the other. I think that I read in some Telugu articles a few songs in the Telugu Anarkali were adopted from the Hindi version. But Adinarayana Rao was quote original, there wre some original ones too and the adaptations might not have been very exact.
Now I take a look at my short-listed songs under the category of Female Song for 1953 –
Solo – Female Songs – Lata Mangeshkar
Yeh Shaam Ki Tanhaaiyan – Aah – Shanker Jaikishan – http://youtu.be/YrfjG88MFMA
Hamare baad Ab Mehfil Men Afsane Bayan Hoge – Baagi- Madan Mohan – http://youtu.be/Say8ga6Mm5k
Ulfat Ka Saaz Chheda , Shama Suhana Hai – Aurat – Shanker Jaikishan – http://youtu.be/FcovvfV8eDU
Raat Ke Raahi Thak Mat Jana – Baabla – S D Burman – http://youtu.be/Ruz0QwGvWMI
Khushiyon Ke Chand Muskaye Re – Mayurpankh – Shanker Jaikishan – http://youtu.be/jyVNxhKgrLw
Kaare Badara Tu Na Jaa – Shikast – Shanker Jaikishan – http://youtu.be/HwB4M7rkq5Y
I have not mentioned songs of Anarkali and Patita here, since I propose to discuss them later on under “Best Music Director” category”.
Solo- Female Songs – Other Than Lata Mangeshkar
Chahe Kitana Mujhe Tum Bhulaoge – Asha Bhosle – Armaan – S D Burman Happy Version- http://youtu.be/ZS7drpE-ixo
Mere Piya Chhede Jiya – Asha Bhosle -Chacha Chaudhari – Madan Mohan – http://youtu.be/mnVGR9AQp6o
Hai Wahi Aasaman Aur Hai Wohi Jameen – Asha Bhosle – Char Chand – Nashad http://youtu.be/G5VpL36R_Zo
Khamosh Jindagi Ko Ik Afsana Mil Gaya – Dil-e-Naadan – Jagjit Kaur – Ghulam Mohammad – http://youtu.be/GsEn7HzbZ-8
Ham Re Munder Bole Kaaga Sakhi – Baabala – Rajkumari – S D Burman – http://youtu.be/v17xNzpml_Y
Baat Chalat Nai Chunari Rang Daali- Ladki- Geeta Dutt – R. Sudrashanam, Dhaniram – http://youtu.be/5Ig7abJ3FNc
Badi Mushkil Se Dil Ki Bequarri Ko Karar Aaya Hai – Nagma – Shamshad Begum – Nashad – http://youtu.be/gz2tODhgo8w
This does indicate a fairly strong presence of ‘other’ female singers even while Lata Mangeshkar has, more or less established her domination, post- Barsaat. No wonder Lata Mangeshkar so vehemently guarded her turf all the years.
For 1953, my top favorite songs in female voice remain – Mitti Se Khelte Ho Baar Baar Kis Liye (Patita) , Dua Kar Gam-e- Dil Khuda Se Dua Kar, O Aasman wale Shiqwa Hai Zindagi Ka, Aa Ja Ab To Aaja (Anarkali), Ye Shaam KI Tanhaiyan (Aah). Hence, I vote for Lata Mangeshkar as MY 1953 Female Singer Favorite.
Ashokji,
Thanks a lot for your comprehensive comments, it would help me in writing my Wrap Up.
While Lata Mangeshkar seems to be the obvious choice, the only question is which of her songs we regard as tops. And, which of others, if any, are included in the best ten. I find many of your favourites overlap with mine.
Some quick comments. I notice you have included Hai ye wohi asmaan of Asha Bhosle. You would have noticed I have included the Talat version of this song in my list and omitted Asha Bhosle version. In Twin songs I have a very clear bias in favour of male version. If it is Talat Mahmood versus Asha Bhosle I don’t even give a second thought.
I had given Baat chalat nahi of Geeta Dutt as a ‘special’ song. Now I have to come out with my top Geeta Dutt favourite not only for this year, but of all time. I would like Geeta Dutt experts and fans to judge between the two songs.
Ayi biraha ki raat mora tadape jiya by Geeta Dutt from Nav Durga, lyrics Anjum Jaipuri, music SN Tripathi
Rather than judging between the two songs, I would keep both.
For Naushad it was blank year and similarly Md Rafi did not have many solos in 1953. But including only two solos of Md.Rafi (Paapi) in your main list is unfair to him. May be the song ‘Ajab tori duniya’ from Do bigha zamin may not qualify as a male solo song. But you may give a second hearing to the following songs. Some of them are gems. You may at least include some of them in your main list, if not in the last ten.
1. ‘zara sambhal ke beta Zambura’ from Hazar Ratein, lyrics Shakeel Badyuni, music Ghulam Mohammad
2. Here is a composition by the great R C Boral
‘Hum ne Dard-e-dil ko’ from Dard-e-dil, lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri, music R C Boral
3. Title song from Laila Majnu
Mil gaye taqdeer se from Laila Majnu, lyrics Shakeel Badyuni, music Ghulam Mohammad
4. ‘Sulag Rahi Hai Husn Ki Sigdi’ from Madmast, lyrics Madhuraj, music V Balsara
5.’Chanda ka dil toot gaya’ from Khoj, lyrics Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, music Nisar Bazmi
All the above songs are available on YT.
I am not sure the song to which I am providing the link below, was actually from the film Aasoo. I have my doubts. But I cannot restrain myself from providing the link here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BWmOsnN9F4k
In some places it is mentioned that the film ‘Boot polish’ and ‘Mayur Pankh’ were released in 1954. Similarly when was the film ‘Chalis baba Ek chor’ released? 1953 or 1954
An interesting trivia about Char Chand! Arunji in his write-up in Atulsongaday blog provided this information.
‘There were 2 Music Directors for the 9 songs of this movie. Nashaad composed 8 songs and and one song was composed by K.Manohar.
This film had created a sort of record. It used 12 playback singers for 9 songs!’
I am not sure which one of the 12 songs was composed by Manohar Khanna (K Manohar). Incidentally Manohar Khanna was the father of MD Usha Khanna. Here is the link to Arunji’s write-up.
http://atulsongaday.me/2013/05/02/tumbak-tumba-tumbak-tumba/
@ Venkataramanji…….
1. I listened Rafisaab’s song in ur given link. It doesnt seem a song of 50’s. The tune is not made by any golden era music director, it is obvious. It is LP like tune, looking like a private song and later might be used in any film. Why uploader has put ‘aansoo’ in title is mysterious !
2. I have already an email discussion with Akji about the release year of ‘boot polish’ and ‘mayur pankh’. He says that he goes with the data of HFGK. In HFGK both films included in 1953. But,,personally i dont consider so, i strongly believe them both of 1954 movies. I dont think Raj kapoor’s two movies can release in a single year.
3. Thanx for the information abt another Manohar. Earlier U have (may be someone else, i cant recall) given facts of Manohar of ‘chingari’. Manoharlal sonik, one of sonik-omi.
venkataramanji, tonight i listened all 5 songs of Rafi indicated by u. ‘hum ne dard e dil ko tamanna bana liya’ is an excellent song amongst them. ‘sigdi’ song of ‘madmast’ is also good.
Venkataramanji, Jignesh
Interesting observation that I have included only two solos of Rafi. I didn’t realise it until you mentioned. This was not by design. I kept going down the list of films alphabetically and noting down the songs.
I heard the five songs you have mentioned. For an unheard song my criteria is does it stay with me after listening once? Do we miss if the song is not included? The songs while being good, did not excite me. But thanks for mentioning. Zara sambhal ke beta is an interesting song because of its theme.
One song I have definitely missed inadvertently is this Talat Mahmood-P Bhanumati duet from Chandi Rani. I understand it also has Telugu and Tamil versions. Did we discuss it in one of the posts on Multiple Version Songs ?
Chanda taley muskurati jawaniyan, lyrics Vishwamitra Adil, music CR Subbaraman-Vishwanathan
The ”Aansoo” song is not listed in the movie. I agree with Jignesh that it does not sound like early 50s and could be one of his non-film songs.
About the year of Boot Polish and Mayur Pankh, the problem with various internet sites is of circularity. I have written to some experts on this. Let me see what they say.
A general observation about the year of a movie – I do not know what basis they follow – whether the year of release, or year of certificate of Censor Board, or year of release of music record. It is clear there could be difference at the margins (end/beginning of year). On this let me give you a specific example. Raju Bharatan mentions in his ‘A Journey Down Memory Lane’ (p. 146) that Barsaat was released in March 1950. But this movie is always mentioned in 1949 everywhere, and I am going to treat it as 1949.
PS
While I was writing my above comment I got the sad news of Pran passing away. He was a real hero. Started as a hero. Then became a hero among villains. Then a comic villain. Then pure comedian (Victoria No. 203). Then an outstanding character actor. Well deserved Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
May his soul rest in peace.
What a coincidence that I write my piece on Male Solos of 1953 on a momentous event of Hindi Film Industry – Pran of ‘pran’ in villain roles finally called it day. He was personification of the dictum of the art of acting – live the character you play.
If he was exemplary on screen, he was worth emulating in real life.
++
When I look at my first-cut list of songs in this category, further division into Talat Mahmood Solo songs and Solo Songs of Other Male Singers comes out so starkly. This one major difference that can be seen as compared to what was seen in 1955 post @ SoY. This year, all Rafi_playback heroes – Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor – still have Talat Mahmood as the playback singer. So even as statistics presented by Mr. Venkataraman do show strong emergence of Mohammad Rafi, my list does remain skewed in favor of Talat Mahmood solo songs.
[A] Talat Mahmood
Mujhe Dekho Hasrat Ki Tasveer Hun Main – Baaz – O P Nayyar – http://youtu.be/CUTo5tXgI88 (Talat Mahmood, O P Nayyar and Guru Dutt – an exceptional combination, that will soon give way to a new order).
Hai Ye Wai Asaman, Aur Hai Wahi Jameen – Char Chand – Nashad – http://youtu.be/43YrQ3BXRL4
Chal Diya Karwan – Laila Majnu- Ghulam Mohammad – http://youtu.be/mNjoF0oFELs
Unhe Tu Bhul Jaa Ae Dil – Naya Ghar – Shanker Jaikishan – http://youtu.be/G9WnC045SQw
Hai Sab Se Madhur Who Geet Jnhe Hum Dard Ke Sur Men Gaate Hain – Patita – Shanker Jaikishan – http://youtu.be/ejMqQDpxf-Y
And of course, the other two Talat Mahmood solo songs of Patita, and several of his other ‘hot-list’ solo songs also would find a place here as well.
[B] Solo – Other Male Singers
Tera Kam Hai Jalana Parawane – Paapi – Mohammad Rafi – S Mohinder – http://youtu.be/O91xBh_O5g8 (Raj Kapoor is lip-singing a Rafi Song!)
Zindagi Do Char Ki Ghadi Hoti Hai – Hemant Kumar – Anrakali – C Ramchandra – http://youtu.be/fjWC-wwIr8Q
Raat Ke Raahi Thak Mat Jana – Manna Dey – Baabala – S D Burman – http://youtu.be/5Msm_z7tKKA
Lapak Zapak Tu Aa Re – Manna Dey – Boot Polish – Shanker Jaikishan – http://youtu.be/yDr9g_x2nYk
For the year 1953, even as macro statistics show fairly notable presence of all leading male playback singers of this period, I did need a finer tooth comb to ensure that I do not miss out any of the notable (not necessarily popular) song of singers other than Talat Mahmod.
In the final analysis Talat Mahmood is THE Male Playback Singer for 1953, and the song I would cast my vote for is Hai Sabse Madhur Who Geet Jinhe Hum Dard Ke Sur Men Gaate Hain (Patita).
++++
I also tried real hard to get at least couple of more of Mohammad Rafi songs in this list. However, none could fit into this elite list. Normally Mohammad Rafi song gatecrashes in selection criteria, and then gets sidetracked only because of someone’s very strong preferences for the other choices.
AKji
At the outset let me join you also join you in paying my respects to the veteran actor Pran, who passed away yesterday. May his soul rest in peace.
AKji, Jignesh
Yes, I agree with you that the song ‘Na de dil ilzam dil unko’ does not belong to the 50’s. I had expressed my doubts in my comments. I wanted a confirmation from the experts. But I liked the song rendered without any percussion support.
Jignesh , thank you for staying awake late and listening to the songs. Do not strain yourself. Take care. I too felt that ‘hum ne dard e dil ko tamanna bana liya’ was the best among the five songs.
Regarding Boot Polish and Mayur Pankh, if you are going to follow the HFGK it is fine with me. No arguments. Just I wanted to be sure.
I agree with you that for an unheard song the criteria should be whether the song lingers after listening once? My purpose was to bring forth the songs and let the listeners decide. With only two Md.Rafi solos in the main list, I was not really contented. Ultimately none of them may/will make it to the final 10. At least we can discuss them here. I still feel ‘hum ne dard e dil ko tamanna bana liya’ can be included in the main list.
The duet ‘Chanda taley muskurati jawaniyan’ certainly should be included in the main list. Thank you for posting the song. I would have brought up the song during my selection of Duets. I hope to find the song in the final 10.
Here is a special composition from the fil ‘Aah’. The chorus song comes up after 4:00 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL0XBYWEsn4
Here is another special song.
‘Dhoti aur Patloon by Ram Kamlani, Md.Rafi, Kishore Kumar from Maalkin, lyrics Rajendra Krishan, music Roshan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3GryqhMK_e8
Ashokji,
Thanks a lot for your detailed comments again on male solos. You have added some songs which are not there in my list. Especially Talat Mahmood’s Mujhe dekho hasrat ki tasveer hun main from Baaz should have been there. Oh, Talat Mahmood again! I also see that you do not find anything unfair in including only two songs of Rafi. One gain of yearwise analysis is getting these nuances. I would not have believed that there were years when Talat Mahmmood was far ahead of other singers including Rafi. Shall we say he was the Lata Mangeshkar of male playback in 1953? Your comments would be a big help in writing my Wrap Ups. Thanks again.
Venkataramanji,
That Aah song is my special favorite. Dhoti aur patloon song is also very nice. Thanks for these additions.
Now that you mention it again, Humne dard-e-dil ko tamanna bana liya grows on you after listening a couple of times. It could have been there in the shortlist. Though it does not change the overall picture about male solos, so nicely summed up by the readers, especially Ashokji.
Venkataramanji, Jignesh and others,
PS,
About the year of Boot Polish and Mayur Pankh I have got response from Mr Har Mandir Singh “Hamraaz”, the author of HFGK. He says he has taken the date of Censor Board certificate as the year for the movie, which for these movies are 31.12.1953 and 1.12.1953 respectively. He also says that in the first edition of HFGK (Vol. III) these were mistakenly shown in 1954, which could have been a source of confusion. In the revised edition this has been rectified. I should have noticed these dates which are mentioned at the bottom right of each entry. Thank you Har Mandirji.
You would notice December dates, which means release in theaters could have been in the next calendar year.
@ Venkataramanji…..thanx for concerns for me
really. But listening music in late night is my old
hobby. It’s been running since more than 2
decades. I love to listen melodies in complete
silence of night and hence i perceive the tune
quickly. In early 90’s i had tape recorder of ‘national’, then came CD Player and now i listen
songs on mobile with earplugs. It’s quite
comfortable and not disturbing anyone. I know
this late night habit is hazardous to my health but i hardly find time in daytime for my music passion, so i made
a niche in my sleeping time and now accustomed to it.
@ Akji….thanq v much for this strenuous
microsearch of release dates. All confusion came
from the earlier edition of hfgk. But ‘1953’ even
with the additions of boot polish and mayurpankh
in it, doesnt seem a stronger year in comparision
with 48-52 five year span and other years of 50’s. Reasons may be…. 1. Naushad’s absence 2. Sdb,
roshan, husn-bhagat, madan mohan, opnayyar all
failed to serve a biggie. It is my short sight,,,u ppl’s
views r more reliable.
The song ”humne to dard e dil ko tamanna bana
liya” is now really making a firm place in mind
with repeated hearings. I listened at least 10 times last night. It’s one of the great rafi
song. Wonderful !! The only problems with this
song r that it is a part of an obscure movie and the
audio quality not so good. We should back it.
@Akji, ‘chanda tale muskurati jawaaniya’ is wonderful discovery. I cudnt understand a line of p.bhanumati in it. U ppl’s help needed.
Chanda tale muskurati jawaaniya
Hothon pe aa gayi dil ki kahaaniya
Dil ka fasaana kaha bhi na jaye
Kahe bina humse raha bhi na jaye
Bhaa gayi teri naadaniya
Pehli wafaaen pehli bahaar hai
Koi bata de kaise ye pyar hai
(??? this line of bhanumati is bouncer)
MohdRafi’s Golden piece.
Hundreds thanx to uploader for its revival and to mr. Venkataraman for bringing it here.
Hum ne to dard e dil ko tamanna bana liya
Muddat hui charag e muhabbat jala liya
Puchhe na hum se koi muhabbat ki baat ko
Apna bana liya hai kisi chaand raat ko
Dil ne jab unka naam liya sar jhuka liya
Gaate hai dil ke saaz par chaahat ke raag ko
Ashko men rakh liya hai muhabbat ki aag ko
Hum kya bataae kisko jigar men samaa liya
Jignesh,
One may sound preachy, but I would endorse what Venkatramanji said about late nights.
Humne to dard-e-dil ko tamanna bana liya does grow on you. But its beauty is RC Boral’s orchestration. I am not sure if it can overtake top songs of other male singers. If one has to include a Rafi song any way in 10, it is a good candidate, perhaps better than the two solos from Paapi.
Prima facie your observation about 1953 being weaker in the 5-year span does seem to be apt. Naushad’s absence indeed seems to be a major reason. OP Nayyar was yet to enter big league, which came with Aar Paar in 1954. Madan Mohan and Roshan did have some great music in 1950-52, but they really flowered much later. But you have given an interesting insight for inter-year comparison – so far we have been doing intra-year.
Chanda taley muskurati jawaniyan – the last line by P Bhanumati seems to be “Taron ke jaise paawaaniyan ho paamaaniyan“, though I have not heard of a word पामानियाँ.
And now MY views on THE Music Director – 1953
I would try to set up Macro-Statistical Analysis, ‘Musical Landmarks” and The Presence in The Nominations for Other Categories (Male/Female/ Duet) Songs as the additional filters over my own “likes” while trying to choose THE Music Director 1953.
The statistical analysis presented by Mr. Venkataraman projects Shanker Jaikishan, Anil Biswas, S D Burman / C Ramchandra, Roshan / Ghulam Mohammad / Chitragupt and Vasant Desai / Jamal Sen – among a total universe af around 50 /55(!) music directors – who occupy a the typical ‘area of dominance’ of the classical ‘power law distribution’. So that provides a reasonable basis to shortlist the likely nominations. Each of these music directors did give at least one significantly ‘notable’ film in the year.
So let me add another filter- Musical Landmarks – to further prune the list. We now get, Anarkali (C Ramchandra, Aah (SJ), Dil-e-Naadan – Ghulam Mohammad) , Paitta (SJ) and to which one just would not miss THE landmark debut of Salil Chaudhary (Do Bigha Zameen).
The field is still wide open – so I now take a look at the third filter , viz. Presence of the Music Director in (My) Other Category of (Male / Female/ Duet) Songs. And now I find, dice rolling more towards Shanker Jaikishan.
Shanker Jaikishan not only gave some outstanding scores for Boot Polish, Patita or Aah, but their other films – Aas,Aurat, Mayurpankh, Shikast, Naya Ghar – also had songs that had merit attention and popularity. Each of the film had different subjects and very different teams for the SJ team to work with. But, they certainly have done a great job flying through the first baptism beyond “Barsaat” accolades and marked their presence as Horse of a Long Race.
So Now, I allow MY Likes to finally call the shots.
Patita and Boot Polish had remarkable scores for each of the songs. If Chali Kaun Se Desh (Talat, Asha), Raat Gayi (Manna Dey, Asha), Lapak Jhapak (Manna Dey) stood out so brilliantly in Boot Polish – which incidentally does not have a Lata Mangeshkar Song – Andhe Jahan Ke Andhe Raste, Hai Sabse Madhur Geet, Tujhe Apne Paas Bulati Hai (Talat), Kisi Ne Apna Banake and Mitti Se Khelte Ho Baar Baar Kis Liye ( Lata) and Yaad Kiya Dil Ne (Hemant/ Lata) in Patita are so wonderfully melodious and musically rich that they continue to remain in the Top of the List in any type of categorization.
Music of Anrakali not only broke the “Albela – Ana Meri Jaan Sunday Ke Sunday” tag that C Ramachandra had so unjustifiably got branded, it played a decisive role in establishing Lata Mangeshkar, undeniably, Melody Queen. Jaman Ye Samja Ke Hum Pi Ke Aayen did show the chinks in her armour of the range of moods she could handle with equal aplomb. Hemant Kumar Solos Ae Baad-e- Saba Aahista Chal and Zindagi Pyar Ki Do Char Ghadi Hoti Hai and Hemant/ Lata Duet – Jaag Dard-e-Ishq Jaag add pleasing variety to otherwise (obviously) Lata Solos-dominated-film. Naushad must have had a very tough time to set tunes for Mughal-e-Azam, against such ultra-high, individual and collective, benchmark songs and music for a film!
So, I would choose Shanker Jaikishan as (overall) Top Music Director for 1953, C Ramchandra for “Best Music in 1953 Films” for Anarkali.
Ashokji,
This is as comprehensive technical and musical analysis as anyone can do. Thanks a lot. This would be very useful for my Wrap Up.
Mukesh had a tally of only 10 songs in 53. The songs from Mashuka merit special consideration. His solo “ooohh dil na lagana”……is such a wonderful song and is often played on SLBC to this day.
All said and done, Lata and Talat deserve solo winners hands down.
Mahesh,
I have included Mukesh’s songs of Mashooqa in my list. They are indeed very good.
Your conclusion about Lata Mangeshkar and Talat Mahmood is self-evident, and shared by everyone. While Lata Mangeshkar we could have picked blindfolded in the early 50s; it is only this kind of survey article which reveals Talat Mahmood domination, whose overall number of songs would be about one-tenth of Rafi’s.
Ak ji,
I have just come back from a Holiday and I saw your mail.
Before I get into the details of this wonderful post about 1953 music,I give my opinion about the 2 films and a short note on various Rajkumaris.
BOOT POLISH- This was a film made in 1953. It was passed by the Censors on 31-12-1953 (No. 10125) and naturally it was not possible to release it in 1953,so it was released in February 1954. Therefore it qualified for Filmfare Award of 1954 and got it in 1955. So,for all practical purposes it should be considered as a 1954 film only. The Indian Film trade also declares it as a 1954 film.
MAYUR PANKH- The case is very similar to Boot polish. This too was made in 1953,but was passed only on 1-12-1953 (No. 9945) and was released on 15-3-1954. IFT,Indian Box office etc also treat it as a 1954 film.
My diary notes indicate that I have seen these films in 1954 only.
So,this too has to be considered as a 1954 film.
Coming to Rajkumari..
There were 3 Rajkumaris-
1. Rajkumari Banareswali,the famous actor/singer which we all know.She became Rajkumari Dubey after marriage.
2. Rajkumari Calcuttewali. Her real name was Pullobai. She acted as Chandramukhi in Devdas-1935.She also acted in Carvan-e-Hayaat-1935. Then she acted in few films from new Theatres in insignificant roles and disappeared.
3. Rajkumari Shukla. She came in films a bit late .Her first film was Society-1942.Her other films were -Panghat,Uljhan,Aaina,Fariyad,Badalti Duniya,Dulhan,Aaage kadam,Bandhan,Swami,Dheeraj,Ek Raat,Hamari Baat,Nazma,namaste,Paraya Dhan,Prem Sangeet,Sanjog etc. Though she was not a singer,she sang only ONE song in film Panghat-43 along with Baby Tara.The song was ” Chachi ji mori…”.After this she never sang any songs. She was only an actress.
(credits- my sources include notes by Dr.Surjit Singh ji on RMIM,Listener’s Bulletin No 72, my own notes and other materials.)
I will read in details and then comment on this lovely post in a day or two,since I have to clear my pending mails first.
Thanks.
-AD
Arunji,
Please take your time, I would wait for your detailed comments. But thanks a lot for all the details you have given. Meanwhile I also got in touch with Mr “Hamraaz” about the year of the two films. At the margins there will be this confusion about some films. But as a convention I would go by Censor Board certification which is the basis in HFGK.
@ Arunji…welcome back to SoY arena….mmmyyy gggoooddd…. U r a living encyclopaedia !!! It’s my good luck that i m reading u. Thanks very much for sharing such unachievable infos.
@ Akji….ok ..if u like to proceed according to censor board certi date..ok no problem. The main thing is to enjoy melodies.
Now my choices for the year 1953
Best male playback singers
GOLD MEDAL : Talat mehmood ,for
”shaam e gham ki kasam”__footpath__khaiyyam
SILVER MEDAL : Manna dey ,for
”lapak jhapak tu aa re badarawa”__boot polish_SJ
BRONZE MEDAL : Mukesh ,for
”chhoti si yeh zindagani”__Aah__SJ
CONSOLATION prize 1 : Kishorekumar ,for
”husn bhi hai udas udas”_fareb_Anilda
CONSOLATION Prize 2 : Mohd Rafi ,for
”hum ne to dard e dil ko”_dard e dil_r.c.boral
Best female playback singers
GOLD MEDAL : Lataji ,for
”yeh zindagi usi ki”_anarkali_C.Ramchandr
SILVER MEDAL : Lataji ,for
”raja ki ayegi baraat”_aah_SJ
BRONZE MEDAL : Raajkumari ,for
”kagwa re jaa, balma ke deswa”_bahadur_s.mohinder
CONSOLATION prize 1 : Shamshad begum ,for
”badi mushkil se dil ki”_naghma_nashaad
CONSOLATION prize 2 : Mubarak begum ,for
”suno more naina”_daaera_jamal sen
Best duets
GOLD MEDAL : ”Jaag dard e ishq jaag”_lata-hemant_ anarkali_ c.ramchandr
SILVER MEDAL : ”Mausam beeta jaay” _ lata-manna_ do beegha zameen_ salilda
BRONZE MEDAL : ”yaad kiya dil ne” _ lata-hemant _ patita _ SJ
CONSOLATION prize 1 : ”devta tum ho mera sahara”_ rafi-m.begum _ jamal sen
CONSOLATION prize 2 : ”aasmaan wale teri duniya se”_ talat-lata _ s.malik-g.mohd
best music director
GOLD MEDAL : C. Ramchandra :: ‘Anaarkali’
SILVER MEDAL : Shankar Jaikishan :: ‘Patita’
BRONZE MEDAL : Shankar Jaikishan :: ‘Aah’
CONSOLATION prize 1 : Salil chaudhary :: ‘Do beegha zameen’
CONSOLATION prize 2 : Ghulam mohd :: ‘Dil e nadaan’
I have been following this page with bated breath to see who the winners are. Ashok M Vaishnav ji is right in that 1953 was SJ’s, although the biggest musical that year belonged to CR. Jignesh Kotadia ji’s votes give me courage to post mine (with comments):
Best male playback singer – Talat (Shame gam ki kasam, Footpath, Khayyam): The theme and structure of this song appear similar to those of Rafi’s masterly “Suhani raat dhal chuki” (Dulari, 1949). Rafi’s mannerisms and idiosycracies were restrained under Naushad. For Talat such restrain was usually supplied by Anil Biswas, SDB, or Madanmohan. Under Khayyam Talat’s singing is perhaps not as well controlled, but his soft tremolo still is more successful in evoking the blue mood of a frail, desperate, vulnerable lover who has been stood up. I do not have Madhu ji’s facility with words, so I will take recourse to an analogy. To me “Shame gam” was Mazda Miata (of the early 1990s) and “Suhani raat” the Rolls Royce (and I am not thinking of the Bentley convertible of that period). Both were great, but Mazda Miata – nick-named “Babe catcher” by some in the 1990s in the US (pardon the sexist terminology), oozed romance.
Best female playback singer – Lata (Ye sham ki tanahaiyan, Aah, SJ): Here too the theme is same. And true to AKji theme in his post on twin (male & female version) songs, Lata’s “Ye sham ki” is no match to Talat’s “Shame gam” (although these are not twin songs). She begins well. But perhaps it’s the western popular music’s influence on SJ that the intensity goes up in the latter half of the “antaras”. Still I find this song more melodious than Lata’s Patita and Anarkali songs. Part of the reason, I suspect, is that the quality of recording in the CD that I have (and on the LPs that I used to listen to decades ago) of Aah is superior to that for the other movies of that era. (I heard Amirbai’s version of Naghma song on YT. Pity it was not used in the movie.)
Best duet – Jaag dard-e-ishq jaag (Anarkali, CR): The melodic variation between refrain (mukhada) and antaraa enhances the charm and is structurally closer to the Hemant-Lata duet in Jaal. On the other hand, Mohabbat ki dhun (Dile-e-Nadan) and Jaane na nazar (Aah) are also melodious, but like honey dripping monotonically for 3 minutes!
Best music director – SJ (Aah): The background score of Aah is lilting and so are its 10 songs. Anarkali was the most successful musical that year. Still I found the sound of guitar (“Dua kar gam-e-dil”) in a (Moghul-) period film jarring. Mughal-e-Azam’s score in this respect is perhaps superior, although Arunkumar Deshmukh ji had, in another SoY post, pointed out that Jamal Sen had once indicated incongruities in some dance steps and “Bol” in that movie. I realize that a number of string instruments had their origin in the middle-east. Perhaps the experts on these pages will be able to say whether there were instruments sounding like guitar during that period.
Ashokji,
Apropos your comment #64. “Music of Anrakali not only broke the “Albela – Ana Meri Jaan Sunday Ke Sunday” tag that C Ramachandra….” Probably you meant Shehnai (1947) rather than Albela.
Jignesh,
Your final medal list neatly sums up 1953. There would be a fair degree of agreement barring some details. Let me give you some quick observations:
1. I noticed Rajkumari over other singers like Geeta Dutt – we have discussed two of her songs, and Shamshad Begum. I did include another Rajkumari song – Na main dil ki baat btaungi’ from Gunah – in ‘special’ songs. The vintage era singers have a special charm, mainly because they brought so much tonal variety, which was Gone With The Wind of Lata Mangeshkar. Kagwa re ja balma ke deswa is such a beautiful composition in Bhairvi, it deserves to be posted here. I heard it for the first time. Thanks a lot.
Kagwa re ja balma ke deswa
2. I just wanted to be sure that you have made a conscious choice of Badi mushqil se dil ki beqaraari ko karaar aya over Kahe jadu kiya mujhko itana bata – my favourite is the latter.
Canasya,
Your observations take the discussion to another plane. The comparison between Suhani raat dhal chuki with Sham-e-gham ki kasam is so apt. The first one is Rafi’s all time high point, and especially significant because it came so early in his career. The latter is Talat’s high point – though he sang many more superlative songs, and some others are my bigger favourites, such as Meri yaad mein tum na ansoo bahana. Even in 1953, I have a huge liking for Zindagi denewale sun. Your point about “not well controlled” – I thought Talat Mahmood was one singer who did not need to be controlled or restrained, his natural style was such a flat, even terrain. Lastly, the automobile simile of the two songs – one needs to be more educated about the context, but yes, I do get a hang of it, and you are spot on. Having said that I would hate to put Rafi’s song lesser than Talat’s – it is one of the greatest in its own right.
I take it from your comments that you prefer Kahe jadu kiya mujhko itana bata over Badi mushqil se, which synchs with mine.
On the duets no one can quarrel with Jaag dard-e-ishq jag. But in my view you are unfair on Mohabbat ki dhun beqaraaron se poochho (it is actually a triad song, but we can take it as a duet for fitting it in a category). This is one song which is far from “…monotonically for 3 minutes” (I agree with this epithet about Jaane na jigar). Mohabat ki dhun beqaraaron se pooschho ranks among my all time best songs – one reason being its beautiful utaar-chadhaav.
Your observation about the string sound – I am not competent to comment on that, one has to leave it for the experts.
AKji,
I did not really meant to link the film and the song on a one-to-one basis. What I mean was but for Anarkali, C Ramchandra’s fabulous success at catchy western dance tunes would have tagged him to be stereotyped to that category of songs.
Anarkali gave him a place of honour in the class of sensitive, melodious Indian tunes in his own signature style.
AKji,
The female singer in the Fareb duet seems to be Lata Mangeshkar.
Akji..
1. I didnt want to give all three places to lataji..so for the bronze , amongst the rest, i found ‘kagwa’ of rajkumari is a deserving candidate. There were two songs of shamshad from ‘naghma’ also competible but my choice is this well made classical tune sung by sweet Rajkumari. To listen Rajkumari is a luxury.
2. U r right 4 ur vote for ‘jaadugar balma’. I heard it some more time after ur suggestion and it grew well beyond my expectation. Really good one. It’s as strong as ‘badi mushkil’. But no one of them still entered in my favt songs tally so i think the more popular song of shamshad should remain at there place. Now i leave it on u to decide which is more popular of them both.
there is also AMIRBAI version of ‘Jaadugar baalma’ on YT.
Gaddeswarupji,
Thanks a lot for pointing out the error. Inadvertently I got it mixed up with Kashti ka khamosh safar hai which is a Kishore Kumar-Sudha Malhotra duet from the film Girl Friend (1960).
AKji,
Let me place my list of songs under female category for the year 1953.
First my choice of ten songs of Lata Mangeshkar. Most of them may not find a place in the final 10, I expect, at least, some of them to be in there.
First, I pruned the huge list of Lata’s songs (roughly 350) to 40. On a scale of 10, all these songs would have a scored above 8.5. On further listening, the list got reduced to 30, then 15 and finally I got my 10 favourites. Since Lata Mangeshkar would be the obvious choice for the best female playback singer for the year 1953, I though it will be better to bring into spotlight a few of my favourite songs which may not find a place in other readers’ list.
1. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, music R C Boral, Kajrare Naina Chhup Chhup Ghaat Kare
2. Naya Ghar, music Shankar Jaikishan, Lagaa Kar Dil Parishaan Hain
3. Naya Ghar, music Shankar Jaikishan, Chhum Chhanaanan Chhum Chhum
4. Baghi music Madanmohan, Hamaare Baad Ab Mehafil Men
5. Aah music Shankar Jaikishan, Raajaa Ki Aayegi Baaraat Rangili Hogi Raat
6. Anarkali, music C Ramchandra, Duaa Kar Gam E Dil Kudaa Se Duaa Kar
7. Anarkali, music C Ramchandra, Muhabbat Aisi Dhadakan Hai
8. Aakash, music Anil Biswas, Thume mujhe aur bhi yaad aane lage
9.Naina, music Ghulam Mohammad & MannaDey, Jiya Chhahe Karun tose pyaar
10. Naina, music Ghulam Mohammad & MannaDey, Main Dekhoon Tohe Din Raati
I am not sure about the music director for the last two songs from Naina. In some places I find only the name of Manna Dey. But the orchestration sounds like that of Ghulam Mohammad. I need confirmation.
Next I am placing a list of songs by female singers other than Lata Mangeshkar. Ashokji has pointed the strong presence of other female singers in spite of Lata Mangeshkar’s domination. It seems, we do not have to squeeze any song in the final ten. A couple or more songs from this category should rightfully find its place in the final 10.
1. Naghma, music Nashad, singer Shamsad Begum, Kahe Jaadu Kiya Aa
2. Naghma music Nashad, singer Shamsad Begum, Badee Mushkil Se Dil Kee Bekaraaree Ko
3. Rail Ka Dibba, music Ghulam mohammad, singer Shamsad Begum, Aangan More Aao Ji Sajan Dhire Dhire
4. Bahadur, music Mohinder, singer Rajkumari, Kagwa re ja belma ke sedswa
5. Babla, music S D Burman, singer Rajkumari, Hamre Munder Bola Kaga Sakhi Ri
6. Ladki, music Sudarshanam-Dhaniram, singer Geeta Dutt, Baat Chalat Nayi Chunri rang daari
7. Nav Durga, music Chitragupt, singer Geeta Dutt, Ayee Birahaa Ki Raat Moraa Tadape Jiyaa
8. Armaan, music S D Burman, singer Asha Bhosle, Chahe kitna mujhe tum bulao ji
9. Aakash, music Anil Biswas, singer Meena Kapoor, Mere dil ke geet chup te
10. Daera, music Jamal Sen, singer Mubarak Begum, Suno More Naina Suno More Naina
From the above list I would be glad to find song #1, #4 and #6 among the final ten.
As regards the song #1, I prefer the Shamsad Begum version to that of Amitbhai Karnataki version.
The one song that could have made a difference to Asha Bhosle was not included in the film. The film version of the song was rendered by Lata Mangeshkar set to a faster pace. The recorded version of Asha Bhosle was composed to a slower tempo and I found it better than the Lata version.
Let us listen to the film version.
‘Chhayee Kali Badariya’ from Jeevan Jyothi’ by Lata Mangeshkar , lyrics Sahi Ludhyanvi, music S D Burman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GoA71EQP2w
Here is the recorded version.
‘Chhayee Kali Badariya’ from Jeevan Jyothi’ by Asha Bhosle , lyrics Sahir Ludhyanvi, music S D Burman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxxSS2ZgeR0
Later S D Burman composed another song, set to a slower temp, which was beautifully rendered by Asha Bhosle.
‘Ab ke baras bhej bhaiyya ko babul’ by Asha Bhosle from Bandini (1963, lyrics Shailendra, music S D Burman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH66-FUBOfQ
Will come back with the list of Male solos soon.
It should be ‘Chhayee Kari badariya’ instead of ‘ Chhayee Kali badariya’.
Sorry for the mistake.
Venkataramanji,
This is awesome – trawling through the entire corpus of songs of the year and coming up with so many unknown gems. Chhayi kari badariya is absolutely fantastic. Thanks for sharing it. Did you mean SD Burman used the same tune in Ab ke baras bhej. I could not find much similarity, but I had strong recollection of an identical tune, and then I remembered. Here is the thumri from Sardari Begum
Mohe kanha jo aye
Another song I liked immensely was Tum mujhe aur yaad aane lagey. I notice that you have not included Ye zindagi usi ki hai.
As for other singers probably there would be room for Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum and may be one more. Anything more might be unfair to Lata Mangeshkar.
Let me catch up with the comment section.
Ashok Vaishnavji,
‘Mitte se Khel te ho baar baar kis liye’ is a beautiful song, especially the lyrics by Shalilendra as pointed by Kuldipji.
It was in my best 20. But ultimately I could not retain in my final 10.
The original versionof the Gujrati song ‘Chanu ne Chapanu ka thay nahi’ made good listening.
Went through your detail comments and list on female solos. I find there are few common favourite songs. Regarding the two songs of Geeta Dutt, I have followed your advice and retained both of them.
Gadeswarupji,
The song ’Ek do teen chaar Paanch’ from Teen batti chaar Rasta’ (#3) was interesting. Thanks for the same.
Thanks too for the informative link on ‘Teen Batti chaar raasta’.
I have not gone through write up on ‘Lapak Jhapak Tu aare badarwa’. I would go through the link at leisure.
Akji is absolutely right on the Raags of ‘Jaag dard ishq jaag’ and the Telugu version. Akji is nos less an expert. He is modest.
Anuji,
Roshan composing the antara for ‘Ye zindagi usi ki hai’ was interesting and was new to me.
Listened to all the five songs of Asha Bhosle from Footpath. Asha had not come around yet in 1953. If I remember right it was in 1957 O P Nayyar gave her full exposure in solos and duets. Truly speaking none of Asha songs of 1953 will make it to the (leave alone the best 10) final 25. Noticed that your choice for best MD is Salil Choudhry!
Kuldipji too has mentioned Salil Choudhury’s name for the best MD along with SJ.
Subodhji,
The female play back category does have many songs worth listening to. Besides the songs mentioned by AKji, you may have a look at my list. I would like to have your comments.
Yourself, Jignesh and Kuldeepji have mentioned your choice for best lyricist. That would be a welcome addition, although my participation will be restricted. But I would love to have this section, of course with the translation for no less than the best five lyrics!
Jignesh,
Listened to the female solos mentioned in your comment #26 & 27. The song #12, #14, #15 made good listening.
But they will be outside my best 40 songs of Lata Mangeshkar. Such is her huge repository. I have already expressed my views on Asha Bhosle’s songs of 1953.
I am glad that you liked the song ‘Hum ne to dard e dil ko tamanna bana liya’. Thanks. At this stage I feel, it will be among my favourites in the Male solo category. I will take it up when I present my male solo list. I tend agree with your and Akji’s views on the songs and MD’s of 1953.
Thanks for introducing the wonderful song ‘kagwa re jaa, balma ke deswa’ . Except for the ‘Gold Medal Song’, you will find the other four medal winning songs of yours in my list of Best female solos.
Arunji,
Thanks for sharing the information on Boot Polish & Mayur Pankh and the three Raajkumaris.
AKji,
Thanks for your nice words. Thanks also for the clarifications on Meena Mangeshkar (Farmaish) and Gunah (Roshan) and additional information on Gandhari and Raajkumari.
There no similarity between ‘Chhayi Kaari Badariya’ and ‘Ab ke baras bhej’. I did not mean that. I have a liking for slower tempo composition and both the songs were beautifully rendered by Asha Bhosle. Thanks for the link on ‘Sardari Begum’ .
Lata’s song from Aakash, is indeed a wonderful song.
I felt ‘Zindagi usi ki hai’ and ‘Aaja re nindiya’ will find ample representation in other reader’s list. Kuldeepji, Subodhji and Jignesh have included ‘Zindagi usi ki hai’ in their list and you will find the other song in Subodhji’s list. I have consciously kept ‘Zindagi usi ki hai’ out of my list. I found the other two songs from Anarkali, which I have mentioned in my list, equally pleasing.
I will address the other comments when I present my list on male solos.
Before I take leave let me share two songs.
An all female duet from Aagosh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2R3-bwgLEU
A beautiful Lata solo from ‘Surang’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FPzWDeOdTt8
Venkataramanji,
Bansuriya kahe bajayi by Lata Mangeshkar-Sudha Malhotra from Aagosh is superb. Thanks for refreshing my memory.
Venkataramanji,
The female duet Bansuriya kahe bajai by Lata Mangeshkar and Sudha Malhotra from the film Aagosh is outstanding. Thanks for refreshing my memory of this song.
@ venkataramanji…. I listened the song ‘ chhayi kari badariya’ of asha. I think u r right. Maybe not recognisable at first hearing but It is the same tune as ”ab ke baras bhej”.
Dear AKji,
The icing on the cake is the special songs which you have presented. Some of the surprises are
1) Song by Lataji – Lagakar dil from Naya Daur. The rendition is marvellous more than any thing the quality of the sound is quite good for an old number. For me this is the find from the article written by you.
2) The song by Hridaynathji from Baabla Lehreron ke rele sang – Very difficult to identify the singer. I still can’t believe that it is Hridaynathji. Quite a surprise.
3) Aapne chin liya dil by Rafi sahab and Meena Mangeshkar from the film Farmaish. Beautiful rendition. One can clearly see the influence of Lataji in the singing of Meena Mangeshkar. Over the years Meenaji has evolved as an unique singer with her own style.
The Find of Classical songs
4) Baat Chalat Mori chunri rang daari from Film Ladki by Geeta Dutt is a fantastic bandish with 6 Maatraas, in Thumri style. Of Course one cannot miss the style of singing which is more Carnatic style with complete alankar of sargam. Maybe the Music Director wanted it in Carnatic style. I liked the song.
5) Pandit Vasantrao Deshpandeji’s rendition of classical bandish in Chandrakauns Raag is a wonderful piece. I marvel over the range of Madan Mohan on one side such a classical bandish and on the other hand the song Duniya pagalon ka bazaar a parody of old hits.
I consider myself to be lucky for various good things in life.
I used to marvel at the Radio for bringing such good songs. My favourite was Sangeet Sarita at 7.30 am.
During 1970’s I thanked god for the television and doordarshan where we used to get to see old classic movies in black and white on Sunday evenings. I still remember seeing Padosi of V. Shantaram. Classics of Sohrab Modi on Doordarshan when the television was black and white.
Then You Tube was the marvel of marvels where I could see some good songs filmed on yesterday’s stars. I would have never been able to see and hear the songs which were composed even before my birth.
And lastly I consider myself to be very lucky and kismet ka dhani as I have come to know the people of Songs of Yore. Such lovely comments, what treasure is brought to us. I could have never seen Helen in such a simple attire in the film Mayurpankh and the song Mohabbat ki dastaan. Thanks to Siddarthji for the video clip.
And lastly before I close this writeup – My Shrandhanjali to PRAN Sahab. An artiste who lived his life to the fullest and entertained us. A true cadet of Black and White era who shined even in the Colour Era and could put the young lot in awe by his sheer hardwork and screen presence.
Namaskar
Kuldeep,
When I embarked upon the year-wise review, I had no idea what structure to give it. Once I discovered ‘special’ songs of stunning beauty, which are not in public consciousness, that became a major take-away of this exercise. The readers have added some more. I would especially recommend Rafi’s Humne to dard-e-dil ko tamanna bana diya and Rajkumari’s Kagwa re. Some of the ‘special’ songs look like making it to the main list of the best ten.
Most readers of SoY must have been Radio and Doordarshan romantics like you. You echoed the journey of all of us. Then we are all grateful to internet and YouTube. It is the internet which has brought so many wonderful people together at SoY.
Thanks a lot for your comments.
Another masterpiece of Talat-Roshan in Gunaah
Melodious galaxy is endless like this universe !
‘Mere khayalo me aake gale laga ja mujhe
Ke aaj phir mera jee chahta hai rone ko
Namak chhidakte hai, le le maza, wohi aansoo
Jo tere dar se mile, dil ke zakhm dhone ko
Thaka hua hai musafir, sawaal hai daata
Kafan dila mujhe, munh dhaankne ko, sone ko’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lUXKSIb3os
this is my attempt to sing this ‘special’ one. I recently came across with this sweet song with an immediate effect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGomWOZWBR0
The selection of best singers and music director for the year 1955 was based on the overall contribution and performance for the whole year and was not based on any particular song or film. I hope, this year also, we will be following the same system. In the female play back singer category it will not make any difference. Either way the best female playback singer for solo songs will be Lata Mangeshkar.
Let me take up the category for male playback singer for solo songs of 1953.
Ashok Vaishnavji has mentioned, while discussing male solo songs, that in spite of the strong emergence of Md.Rafi, Talat Mahmood dominated this section. The statistics too indicate similar trend. On the whole there were a little more than 100 male solos in 1953. I might have missed a few, but the percentages of error will not be significant. Talat Mehmood with almost 35% was in the lead with Md.Rafi bagging a little more than 20% and Manna Dey taking 13% to 14% of the pie. On this basis, initially it appears that the contest will be between Talat Mahmood, Md.Rafi and Manna Dey. But numbers cannot be the criteria for final selection.
Let me start from the bottom. Eight singers share the bottom 9% of the pie.
Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Vasantrao Deshpande, Afzal Hussein, Dhananjoy Bhattacharya, Asit Baran, Shankar Dasgupta, S Balbir and Bahadur Nanaji. One song each of Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Vasantrao Deshpande, Afzal Hussein, Asit Baran and Shankar Dasgupta are available on YT. Two songs of Dhanajoy Bhattacharya and one each of Shankar Dasgupta, S Balbir and Bahadur Nanaji are not available on YT.
Can we consider Vasantrao Deshpande’s rendition of Raag Chandrkauns among the final ten? I am not sure. The other 7 singers remain out of the ambit of deliberation. Both Chitragupt and R Chitalkar too stay out of contention..
Of the 5 out 6 available solos of Kishore Kumar, the two songs from ‘Fareb’ can be taken up for discussion. The first one ‘Husn Bhi Hai Udas Udas’ rendered in Talat Mahmood style, posted by Jignesh, was discussed earlier. ‘Mere SukH Dukh Ka Sansaar‘ too is a good song. Any one of the above mentioned songs may jostle for a place in the final ten. Here is an interesting anecdote from the article, ‘Anil Biswas: The Bhishma Pitamah of Film Music’ by Chiranjiv Singh, which came out in “Anmol Fankaar’.
“When Kishore Kumar was taken as hero of Fareb, Anil Biswas decided to have the songs sung by him. The word went around and people said Kishore would not be able to sing Anil Da’s compositions………. two songs were recorded by Kishore for Fareb: ‘Husn bhi hai udas udas’ and. ‘Mere sukh dukh ka sansar’. These are among the finest songs Kishore Kumar ever recorded.”
Hemant Kumar’s ’Zindagi Pyaar Ki Do Chaar Ghadi Hoti Hai’ and Mukesh’s solo, ‘Raat Andheri Door Savera’ are my other choices for a place in the final ten.
I had expressed my disappointment on finding only two songs of MD.Rafi in the shortlist. But after listening to the twenty or more songs of Md.Rafi, I find my apprehension unfounded. Only two songs of Md. Rafi can make it to the final ten. My first choice would be ‘Hum ne Dard-e-dil ko’ and the song ‘Ajab Tori Duniya He More Raama’ may also claim a place in the final ten.
After scanning through 35 songs of Talat Mehmood, I have selected the following 5 songs, out of which three songs may find a place in the coveted 10.
1. Zindagi Denewale Sun, Teri Duniya Se Dil Bhar Gaya – Dil-e-nadan
2. Hai Yeh wohi aasman – Char Chand
3. Yeh Bebasi Yeh Mera Halezara Dekh Toh Le – Alif Laila
4. Shaam-E-Gham Ki Kasam,– Footpath
5. Mujhe dekho Hasrat – Baaz
At this stage it appears that Talat Mahmood will emerge as the Best Male Playback singer for the year 1953.
But let me take up Manna Dey’s songs before coming to a final conclusion.
Even if I over look the omission of the song ‘Hum ne Dard-e-dil ko’, I was even more surprised by the exclusion of Manna Dey’s songs from Hamdard! Or am I making some mistake/overlooking something? There were four songs rendered by Manna Dey available on YT from this film. None of the four songs, including the song ‘Tore Naina Raseele’ were mentioned in the shortlist, or brought up for discussion by readers. Let us see what Chiranjiv Singh wrote about the songs from Humdard.
“Another gift of Anil Biswas to the Hindi film music was Talat Mahmood, who remained his favourite till the end, along with Mukesh and Manna Dey…………….. Hamdard 1953 was Biswases’ home production. Hamdard was an ordinary film with extraordinary music. About its music Dada said, “I wanted to show in one film all the major types of our music: khayal, thumri, ghazal, Rabindra Sangeet, film song, qawwali, cabaret style song, etc……”
With this quote, let me present six of my favourite solo songs of Manna Dey from the year 1953, which includes the songs from Hamdard.
1. Rat Ke Rahi Thak Mat Jana – Babla
2. Chali Radhe Rani Ankhiyo Me Paani – Parineeta
3. Torey Naina raseeley – Humdard
4. Teraa Hath Hath Me Aa Gaya – Humdard
5. Jab Ankhe Hi Na Di Malik Ne – Humdard
6. Lapak Jhapak Tu Aare badarwa – Boot Polish
I have not included another song based on a Rabindra Sangeet composition here. Since AKji had suggested that there will be a separate write up on this subject in the ‘Multiple version songs’ section, I thought, it would be appropriate to introduce and discuss this song there.
Thus, I have presented 16 songs in all, the break up being Manna Dey-6, Talat Mahmood-5, Md.Rafi-2, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Mukesh one each. Out of this I expect 3 songs each of Talat Mahmood and Manna Dey, 2 songs of Md.Rafi, and two from the selection of songs rendered by Mukesh, Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar to be in the final list. The final decision lies with AKji.
Now coming to the final decision, ‘The Best male playback singer for the year 1953”:
My heart say ‘Talat Mehmood’, but my head says ‘Manna Dey.
Talat Mehmood renditions are beautiful. He is the king of Ghazals. The renditions in his unique silky voice, filled with pathos (Gham) are wonderful. Manna Dey did full justice to the confidence reposed in him by his ‘Humdard’ Anil Biswas and rendered the composition in his fresh voice with élan. So my choice, based on the overall performance for the year, for the best male playback singer would be “MANNA DEY”. Even if you had to go by a particular song, any one of the three songs, ‘Lapak Jhapak tu are badarwa’, Tore Naina Raseele and Tere Hath hath me aa gaya would earn the honour for him.
That is all for now. Will back with my selection pf duets.
Good night.
AK ji,
Probably,I am the last one on the comments board.
I have gone thru all the comments and I felt that now writing something again will not only be a repetetion of what my learned friends have already said but also will be a stale thought. So,I am just giving my choices here-
1. The best Music Director- SALIL CHAUDHARI for Do Bigha Zameen
2.The Best Male P.B.Singer-Talat mehmood for Shaam-e-gham ki kasam (Footpath0
3.The Best Female P.B.Singer- Lata mangeshkar for ‘ Mohe laage saraa jag feeka feeks(Jhanjhar0 and
4.The best Duet- Yaad kiya dilne kahan ho tum(Hemant/Lata in Patita) and Aa muhabbat ki basti (Kishore /Lata in Fareb)
Some may find my choices odd,but I have my own justifications for the.
All in all,leaving the final results aside,it was a fantastic travel down memory lane of an era from the Golden period. many forgotten songs were reminded in this discussion.
I thank you and all the other knowledgeable commentators for giving pleasure to us.
Thanks.
_AD
You write great articles. Your grasp on the subject and research is unmatched. However, I have one observation to make here, it seems that you unconsciously don’t want to give credit at times to the greatest of all singers, male and female, Rafi.
I think he surpasses everybody in singing, not even Lata comes near, but according to you, even Kishore Kumar is better.
This is my personal opinion, please don’t take it on heart.
Arunji,
It is never late for your comments.
Among your list, the most unusual choice is Lata Mangeshkar song Mohe laage sara jag pheeka from Jhanjhar. C Ramchandra did give some outstanding Lata Mangeshkar songs in this film, some of which I have mentioned, my top favourite being Ai pyar teri duniya se hum bas itni nishani le ke chale. As for other choices many readers have mentioned these, including Salil Chaudhary for music director.
Jignesh,
I heard your songs. There is a karaoke track of Jhuki jhuki si nazar from Arth. If it is sung by you, you are a pro – it is too good. Congrats.
Venkataramanji,
Your due diligence, analysis and appraisal would do a McKinsey proud! You have made my job of writing Wrap Ups interesting and challenging.
I went over your songs. Not including Manna Dey’s Torey naina raseeley kateeley haye Ram from Hamdard was a gross omission on my part. It deserves to find a place in the top ten. Tera haath haath mein aa gaya is also quite good, and should have figured in the long list. Thanks for these additions.
If we have to include a Rafi song it should be Humne to dard-e-dil ko. For this I have to thank you as I was not aware of this song.
As for Kishore Kumar in Fareb, his duet with Lata Mangeshkar Aa mohabbat ki basti is obviously in a class of its own, and should figure very high in the list of duets. As for his solos, Husn bhi hai udas udas is the best, but very obviously is an imitation of Talat Mahmood style, which seems to be on account of Talat being the reigning singer then, and also Anil Biswas’s own Talat-oriented style. The other solos are quite obscure and require very deliberate listening a number of times to register.
I noticed your choosing Ye bebasi ye mera haal-e-zaar dekh to le over Mere naghmon mein un mastana ankhon ki kahani hai! I saw from your earlier comments that you were trying to provoke. The songs may vary, but Talat Mahmood would surely figure most prominently. And finally I noticed your heart versus mind selection between Talat Mahmood and Manna Dey.
You have made the discussion very stimulating. Many thanks. I guess you are still to come up with two more summaries. Eagerly waiting for them.
Jignesh
I listened to your song posted by you. Also listened a few more songs recorded and uploaded by you. I liked your singing, especially the Mukesh song ‘Mai to ek Khwab hoon’. By the way are you connected with medical profession in any way?
In my selection of songs for duets, I have strictly adhered to Male-Female duets only. There are other duets and even triads and quadruples. But I will come to that later.
There were around 100 Male-Female duets for the year 1953. In my first round of selection I could eliminate almost one-third of the songs. This section throws up some interesting duets involving MDs, Chitlalkar-Lata Mangeshkar 6, Chitragupt-Shamsad Begum 2 and one each of Anil Biswas-Meena Kapoor and Shivram-Mubarak Begum. Besides there are duets involving Sundar, Dhanajoy Bhattacharya, Iqbal, Afzal Hussein, S D Batish, Surendra, Shankar Dasgupta, Bande Hasan, G M Durani, Satish Batra, Jawar Hussien and Master Gopal among maler singers and Sulochana Kadam, Gandhari, , Sandhya Mukherjee, and Nargis among the female singers.
Further pruning resulted in the elimination of duets involving Premlatha, Meena Kapoor, Meena Mangeshkar, Suraiya and Indira Manchanda. I was left with around sixty songs involving Talat Mehmood, Md.Rafi, Manna Dey, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar among the male singers and Lata Mangeshkar, Shamsad Begum, Geeta dutt and Asha Bhosle among the female singers.
After further listening, I decided on the following 12 duets.
1. Kisi Ne Nazar Se Nazar Jab Mila Di – Talat Mehmood and Asha Bhosle / Ali Akbar khan/ Humsafar
2. Mukh Se Na Bolun Ankhiyaan Na Kholun – Talat Mehmood and Lata Mangeshkar/ Anil Biswas/ Jallianwala Bag ki Jyoti
3. Baharo Ki Duniya Pukare Tu Aaja – Talat Mehmood and Asha Bhosle/ Ghulam Md. and Sardar Mullick/ Laila Majnu
4. Bol Na Bole Janewale – Talat Mehmood and Asha Bhosle/ S D Burman/ Armaan
5. Ritu Aae ritu Jaae Sakhi ri – Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar/ Anil Biswas/ Humdard
6. Dharti kahe pukaar ke – Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar/ Salil Choudhury/ Do Bigha Zamin
7. Hariyala sawan dhol bajata aaya – Manna Dey and Lata Mangeshkar/ Salil Choudhury/ Do Bigha Zamin
8. Devta tum ho mera sahara – Md. Rafi and Mubarak Begum/ Jamal Sen
9. Yaad Kiyaa Dil Ne Kahaan Ho Tum – Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar/ Shankar-Jaikishan/ Pateeta
10. Jaag Dard-E-Ishq Jaag – Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar/ C Ramchandra/ Anarkali
11. Aa Mohabat Ki Basti Basayege hum – Kishore kumar and Lata Mangeshkar/ Anil Biswas/ Fareb
12. Jaane Na Najar Pehachaane Jigar – Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar/ Shankar Jaikishan/ Aah
And my choice for the best duet singers for the year 1953 would be MANNA DEY and LATA MANGESHKAR for either ‘Ritu Aae ritu Jaae Sakhi ri’ or ‘Dharti kahe pukaar ke’.
Venkataramanji,
Thanks a lot for your detailed comments again. This would be very useful. But some of my favourites are missing in your list. Are these conscious omissions?
1. Sun more sajna re
2. Aasmanwale bata teri duniya se jee
There are some more, but these two are most startling. I see you are a great fan of Manna Dey.
Just for convenience, a triplet song which has at least a male and female may be counted as a duet so that we don’t miss songs like Mohabbat ki dhun beqaraaron se poochho. That leaves all female songs which I find awkward to count as a duet. For that we may make a special mention if we come across a truly outstanding song which needs to be recognised.
As far as I know, a few more than 100 films were released in the year 1953. 50 to 55 Music directors composed music for these films. Of this top prolific music directors were:
1. Shankar Jaikishan (8) – Shiksat, Naya Ghar, Pateeta, Aah, Aas, Aurat, Mayur Pankh and Boot Polish
2. Anil Biswas (6) – Mehmaan, Jalianwala Bag ki jyoti, Fareb, Rahi, Humdard and Aakash
3. C Ramchandra (5) – Shagufa, Jhamelaa, Jhanjhar, Anarkali and Leharien
4. S D Burman (4) – Shahensha, Babla, Jeevan Jyothi and Armaan
5. Roshan (4) – Maalkin, Aagosh, Mashuqa and Gunah
6. Ghulam Mohammad (4) – Rail ka dibba, Gauhar, Dil-e-naadan and Hazar raatein
7. Ghulam Mohammad and Sardar Mullick (1) – Laila Majnu
8. Ghulam Mohammad and Manna Dey (1) – Naina
9. Chitragupt (4) – Manchala, Nav Durga and Naag Panchami,
Besides, Jamal Sen and Vasant Desai had three films each to their credit.
R C Boral, Shivramkrishna, S Mohinder, Madanmohan, Md.Shafi, Husnlal- Bhagatram, Vinod, Bulo C Rani, Robin Chaterjee and Nashad had 2 films each.
21 music directors composed music for almost two-third of the films released in 1953.
The music for the rest one-third of the films was shared between 30 to 35 music directors.
Of them the siginificant names were Salil Choudhry, Ali Akbar Khan, Khayyam, V Balsara, Manna Dey, O P Nayyar and Shyam Sundar.
Based on the discussion and selection of best songs in each category, the top five music directors for 1953 would be;
1. Shankar Jaikishan
2. Anil Biswas
3. C Ramchandra,
4. Salil Choudhury
5. Ghulam Mohammad
I have no hesitation in placing Salil Choudhry and Ghulam Mohammad in the fourth and fifth position.
But the top three positions can be settled between the three composers I have mentioned above. It will be a touch and go situation.
AKji,
Both songs ‘Sun more sajna re’ and ‘Aasmanwale bata teri duniya se ’ are wonderful songs no doubt. Both the songs along with ‘Din Pyar ke Aye re’, to be precise, were in my final 18 for the year 1953. But like in the case of male solos, I thought these songs will definitely find a place in the discussion, so why not bring up three of my other favourites and ‘provoke’ a discussion. Hence the three songs ‘Kisi Ne Nazar Se Nazar Jab Mila Dee’, ‘Chhahe kitna mujhe tum bulaoge..bol na bol ye jane wale’ and ‘Mukh sena bolun’ found place in my final list. I can understand your reaction because both songs had Lata Mangeshkar. Perhaps omission of good songs of Lata Mangeshkar is unpardonable and inclusion of Asha Bhosle’s songs in its place may seem to be ridiculous. But jokes apart, but all the three songs are beautiful duets especially the last mentioned one.
Manna Dey, although number wise he was much behind Talat Mehmood and Md.Rafi, had a great year. At least my list says so! Let me wait for your final verdict.
Coming to triplet songs category, there were at least 14 of them, the break up being, 10-MFF, 1- MMF, 3 – MMM, 1- FFF songs that I am aware of. Out of these 10 are available on YT. I have not given a serious listening to these songs.
‘Mohabbat ki dhun bekararon se pucho’ is a good song. I noticed Canasya too has mentioned this song in her discussion. I will listen to the other triplets and let you know if I find any song worth mentioning.
In addition there are 14 MM duets and 10 FF duets out of which 15 songs are available on YT.
Thank you Akji for your generous appreciation and observations
Venkataramanji,
You got me worried for a moment when I didn’t find the two duets in your list, because I didn’t want to impose my choice.
Among your additions Mukh se na bolun ankhiyn na kholun is a superb duet, presence of Lata Mangeshkar with Anil Biswas does make a difference. This was an omission in my list. Looks like it might be a strong contender for final ten. Thanks for mentioning it. The rest are good, but.
Mukh se na bolun ankhiyan na kholun by Talat Mahmood and Lata Mangeshkar from Jallianwallah Bagh Ki Jyoti, music Anil Biswas.
I should think you would be neutral between Jane na jigar and Aa ja re ab mera dil pukara.
In music directors there can be no question about the final five. But your inter-se ranking is interesting. People have generally given Shankar Jaikishan or C Ramchandra the top spot, some have mentioned Salil Chaudhary too. But probably no one gave Anil Biswas no 2 above CR.
Akji and Venkataramanji.. . . . Thanx very much for complements. Akji…i m not a pro…i wanted to become so but god led me to another way. I have uploaded 10 songs recorded with karaoke tracks in a studio. Venkataramanji…yes, i m a medical man, a doctor,, and the clip was recorded in my clinic in some freetime. I m v v delighted that u ppl liked my songs. I recommend to listen also ‘jalte hai jiske liye’ and ‘o hansini’ of mine.
Venkataramanji…. Thanks for introducing ‘ Tera hath hath men aa gaya’ . I heard it 1st time. It’s too good. Pieces of sitar inbetween r my favorite hearing, i also love it very much esp in madanji’s gems. I actually wanted to discuss abt two wonderful songs of ‘hamdard’…’Tore naina rasile’ and the manna-lata duet ‘Pee bin suna ri, patjhad jaisa jeevan mera’ ..but cudnt comment for them earlier….thanx for bringing them in mainstream..we cant omit them.
After listening ‘rasile nain’ of mannada, listen ‘rasile nain’ of lataji in gunaah. Snehal bhatkar’s classic melody.
Hum par jadoo daar gaye ho julmi
Teer karejawa pe maar gaye ho julmi
Nain rasile, nain rasile ho julmi nain’
these r not to extend the main list of selection. But can we afford to omit such wonderful varieties ?
‘Tu ishq se dar, bemaut na mar, ye woh dard woh dard hai jiski ki koi dawa hi nahi..
Yeh woh jadoo hai jiska maara hua, maara hua koi aaj talak to jiya hi nahi’
Now the question is ‘is the tune made first or the poetry ?’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZxKMrCNlLQ
There r still more lata gems remained to discuss. Next time. Good night.
Rajinder Sharma,
I am sorry I am coming back to you late. There might be some issue with the WordPress which did not show up your pending comment at its usual place.
Thanks for your compliments, and welcome to SoY. As for your observation about my bias against Rafi, had you made this charge against me about Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle I would have readily pleaded guilty – I have been quite frank that I am not very passionate about them. But I am a great admirer of Rafi. I do not know from where did you get “…but according to you, even Kishore Kumar is better“. I would urge you to read my posts on Rafi, one of which is Rafi versus Kishore Kumar comparison which one should read carefully till the end.
Jignesh,
Thanks for Hum par jadoo daar gayo re zulmi. Absolutely great song.
Akji
After all the main purpose was to bring forth as many good songs as possible under different categories and make the discussion lively and stimulating. In the process I might have left out, both intentionally and inadvertently, some songs which would certainly come up from one or more of us. Ultimately it is joy of enjoying and listening to as many good songs as possible. The ultimate decision lies with you and certainly nobody will consider it as an imposition. We have full faith in your assessment.
Yes, I am neutral to both the duets of Mukesh. One of those songs can be among the final ten.
Anil Biswas composed some beautiful female solos for the films Humdard, Fareb,Rahi and Aakash, four have wonderful male solos of Manna Dey for Humdard and two more of Kishore Kumar for Fareb. The solo of Shankar Dasgupta for Aakash also made good listening. In the MF duets he gave us two outstanding duets for the films Humdard and Jalianwala bag ki jyoti and one more for Fareb. Except for the duet, none of the songs from Jalianwal bag ki jyoti were available in YT.
C Ramachandra composed some excellent female solos for Anarkali and a few more for Jhanjhar and Shagufa. We have two male solos and one MF duet from Anarkali.
If you consider only the female solos, CR will be miles ahead. When you take into account the male solos and MF duets it will be a touch and go situation.
Jignesh,
I am glad that you liked the song ‘Tera hath hath men aa gaya’. Certainly it is a good song and deserves a place in the final ten.
If I am not mistaken ‘Pee bin soona re’ is a part of the duet ‘Ritu aae rite jae’, the third stanza in Raag Jogiya.
You have mentioned two songs of Lata Mangeshkar from Gunah. Both are good. AKji has posted a song of Raajkumari in the special song section from this film. There is one more song of Raajkumari from this film – ‘Chiththi to Teri Zalim Hum Padh Nahi Paate Hain’
I listened to the songs mentioned by you. They were good.
Venkataramanji…..i listened the song ‘ritu aaye ritu jaaye’ fully. I think ‘pee bin suna ri’ is not the stanza of ‘ritu aaye’ but it’s a different one. Actually the song is an amalgamation of three classical songs..1. Ritu aaye 2. Barkha ritu bairi hamaar and 3. Pee bin suna ri. It’s a combined show of those songs sung during different sessions while the hero teaches nimmi singing.
It is a trisong like as in ‘dekh kabira roya’…’meri beena tum bin’+ ‘ashko se teri humne’ + ‘tu pyar kare ya thukraye’ (lata+asha+lata) !
and yes, GUNAAH is really a topclass album with 2 rajkumari gems, 2 lata wonders and 1 sixer of talat , a great discovery. That is why i request to Akji ‘plz dont skip the other years of 50’s in discussion’. Everytime we come out with a lot unknown gems during the analysis of a particular year.
Given the amount of interest this post has generated — 114 comments already and only a fortnight since it began – and the precedent set by the post on “The best songs of 1955” which had begun in April last year and the final results could come only in December, I am looking forward to at least another couple of months of wonderful time with 1953 goldies on this page.
Two quick comments. To N Venkatramanji @ 103: it should have been “Canasya too has mentioned this song in ‘his’ discussion”, rather than ‘her’. I squirmed a bit upon reading it, but that is the price of anonymity on the net. Perhaps the misunderstanding was natural. I am no authority on Sanskrit and am not sure whether Canasya (pronounced ‘chanasya’, Sanskrit for “delight”) denotes a masculine or a feminine term. In online dictionaries it appears more often as a verb. But to me it is associated with the fabulous sound of an amplifier that bears that name.
To Anuji @ 4: Pankaj Raag in his “Dhunon ki Yatraa” mentions the date of Basant Prakash’s demise as Mar 19, 1996. In fact, his Mahendra Kapoor-Asha duet “Rafta rafta wo hamare” (Hum Kahan Ja Rahe Hain, 1966) became quite popular:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hpeKYS-wbQ
His last film seems to have been Ablaa, 1989 (source: Pankaj Raag).
Canasya ji,
Till this minute I knew that ‘Canasya’ is a girls name. One of my Bengali friends daughter too bears this name. Anyway, We are delighted to have you among us in this discussion.
First some trivia.
As many of you may be knowing ‘Aah’ initially had a tragic end in which Raj Kapoor dies and Pran marries Nargis. Later it was changed into a happy ending. What I wanted to tell was that the end was changed very late, because I saw the film with tragic end in early 70s (1971 or 72) in Moti Cinema in Old Delhi. Can someone tell when the end was changed.
Music for the film ‘Alif Laila’ was given by Shyam Sunder, but he died during its production and Madan Mohan completed its music without taking any credit. Coincidentally Madan Mohan died in 1975 during the making of ‘Laila Majnu’ and its music was completed by Jaidev. By the quirk of fate both the films contained the name of Laila.
There is another film of 1953 for which Madan Mohan js not given credit. The film is ‘Dana Pani’ and as per Begum Akhtar he composed its music by the name of Mohan Junior. In that film he gave a ghazal to Begum Akhtar ‘ae ishq mujhe aur to kuchh yaad nahin hai’. link given below:
I also give a link for an interesting song ‘bhagwan tujhe main khat likhta’ sung by the famous MD Chitragupta in film ‘Manchala’.
Hans,
I have seen Aah with happy ending. The change must have done quite early.
Very interesting information you have given about Alif Laila and Laila Majnu. It is known that Madan Mohan was a great fan of Begum Akhtar, and she also had a great respect for him. He often hummed his tunes to her on telephone for her approval. After her appearance in the 1940s in films such as Roti, composed by Anil Biswas, I was not aware of her film songs in the 50s, except Satyajit Ray’s Jalsaghar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FylE675fL0
Both the songs you have given are very special. Thanks a lot. It would be interesting to compile songs sung by composers, not known to be singers.
I thank Hans ji for the lovely Begum Akhtar gazal and the interesting trivia. I had seen the tragedy version of Aah in around 1968 or so in an open air theatre and had liked it. And I remember everybody in my circle I had talked to thought it was a tragedy. Only now did I read about its end having been changed and suddenly, to me, it became a Gilbert and Sullivan version of Devdas. During the shooting of the climax of Teesari Kasam, according to one story, one of the financiers had asked Shailendra to change the ending by pulling the chain as the train was gathering speed!
@hans
Thanks for those interesting trivia about Alif Laila and Laila Majnu.
I found some more information regarding the MD of Daana Paani.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.music.indian.misc/0H1-eOXKHfo
I do not know which one is authentic.
Thanks for the wonderful Ghazal by Begum Akhtar.
I have heard the song rendered by Chitragupt from Manchala earlier. That was also good.
Here is a link to another song by Chitragupt.
‘Jaijaikar karo mata ki’ by Chitagupt from Nava Durga (1953), lyrics Gopal Bahadur Nepali, music Chitragupt/S N tripathi
AK ji,
A correction to the oft popular belief that Madan Mohan gave music to Daana paani as ” Mohan Junior.”
This is totally wrong.
I have done lot of research on this and I have Sanjiv Kohli’s,Girdharilal Vishwakarma’s and Harish Raghuvanshi’s proofs that these two were different persons.
Madhubala Jhaveri,who sang for Mohan Junior has confirmed over Phone that Mohan jr. was a different person.
Mohan Jr. was a Gujrati music Director who has given music to other Gujrati films also.
Knowing this only,perhaps,Madan mohan family never included Dana pani or Ajamil as Madan mohan’s films.
A Ph.D. student who did his Thesis on Gujrati film music has written about mohan junior-the Gujrati MD. I have all these documents with me.
So,please,once again Madan Mohan and Mohan Junior are two different persons.
Now a question remains about Begum Akhtar saying that her Gazal was composed by madan Mohan.But she did not say that the film composer was madan Mohan. It is very much possible that MM might have composed this gazal separately and it was used in Dana pani.
I brought this point to the notice of hamraz ji also,since he mentioned in HFGK about Madan mohan and Mohan junior.
Like some other mistakes,this is also another mistake in HFGK.
-AD
Venkataramanji and Arunji,
Thanks a lot for so much formation about Mohan Junior, lifting the veil from one of the common confusions. So we can take it settled that Mohan Jr was another person. Had HFGK been in digital form, doing these corrections would have been very easy.
SN Tripathi composing for his protégé Chitragupta is very interesting. Is its converse there in which Chitragupta composed for his Guru? Well, there is one, almost – Chitragupta composed for Pawanputra Hanuman (1957) in which SN Tripathi played the role of Hanuman! By the way, SN Trpathi was himself an excellent singer, who sang many songs in the 1940s. Here is a very interesting shower song sung by him in Panghat (1943) which was his first major success. For a 1943 film, the video quality is superb, and the song is very modern, where in one of the stanzas, the actor is cajoling the drying tap which splutters to life with some cajoling and nudging.
Panghat ke ghayalon ka from Panghat (1943), lyrics Pt Indra, music SN Tripathi
Thanks for the interesting song ‘Panghat ke ghaylon ka panghat hi hai tikhana’ by S N Tripathi.
There were few more occasion where S N Tripathi acted in films for which Chitragupt composed music,like Bhakt Puran (1952), Veer Babruvahan (1950) etc. I am not aware of any song sung by SNT for Chitragupt.
AK
It is quite possible that end of Aah was changed earlier and may be cinema people where I viewed the film had some old print. But I have another witness Canasya who viewed it quite late.
Desmukhji, who is a storehouse of information, has clarified the point about two Mohans. But, it is still not clear who composed the gazal. Begum Akhtar’s one more gazal is listed in film Ehsaan (1954) against the name of Madan Mohan. But I could not find it on YT. As you say he was having access to her, but how Mohan Junior got her to sing is a mystery.
The Panghat song posted by you is really great. The creators of songs were close to realities of life and as such very imaginative. I listened to other songs of Panghat available on YT and there are 2-3 good songs sung by SN Tripathi. Besides the Anil Biswas song in Arzoo, I remember the title song of Ek Phool Do Mali by Ravi viz. ‘kismat ke khel nirale mere bhaiya’.
The aarti posted by Venkataramanji is also great and was very popular in North in temples and religious gatherings at least till late 70s. Chitragupta’s voice here is much better than ‘bhagwan tujhe main khat likhta’.
Canasya(comment 75)
While choosing Talat as the best male singer for ‘shame gam ki kasam’ you compared its theme with ‘suhani raat dhal chuki’ of Rafi and referred to his mannerisms and idiosyncrasies being restrained by Naushad. No one would grudge Talat being the no. 1 for the year and which song you like is your choice. For me the themes of ‘suhani raat’ and shame gam’ are different. I have seen both films. In ‘suhani raat’ the hero is waiting for the heroine who is late, but in ‘shame gam’ there is a serious misunderstanding between them because the hero has gone on the wrong path. But that is my least concern.
I want to say something about the matter of Rafi’s mannerisms etc. First of all, why was there any need of this comment. Neither were you comparing both singers for the no.1 spot nor ‘suhani raat’ is this year’s song. This terminology for Rafi is used by fans of another singer who want to criticise him in a sophisicated manner. I have seen a really knowledeable person criticising Rafi for his vocal gimmicks and in the same breath declare Kishore as his favourite, though Kishore is the undisputed king of gimmicks. I would like to give here a statement of Lata:
“I remember very well one interesting anecdote of those olden days. For Film:Tere Ghar Ke Samne(1963), Rafi and I were to sing the title song, “Ek Ghar Banavunga, Tere Ghar Ke Samne”. I was actually feeling very nervous. The reason is that Rafi Saab was singing one of the lines, “Main Bhi Kuch Banavunga”, so excellently (with that unique Rafi-brand Ada)! Dada had understood my problem and had requested Rafi Saab to somewhat tone that Sangat/Ada down! Rafi Saab had burst out laughing! With that, I became normal and less nervous. Such was Rafi Bhaiya!”
Rafi was a singer who elevated the level of the composers. Lata’s above statement confirms that. Even Lata is scared of him. The same specialities of Rafi which fellow singers and mds called Rafi adas or hakaten are called mannerisms or vocal gimmicks by his detrators. But, would that make any difference to Rafi?
In the main article, with reference to Nashad it has been said that, Naushad turned down giving music for Naghma calling it a lowly project not worthy of his stature. This story is quite baseless and such stories were circulated to defame legends like Naushad. Firstly, Naushad’s fees were beyond the reach of the producer of Naghma, so it does not seem possible that he might have approached Naushad. Secondly, Naushad had decided after Baiju Bawra that he would do only one film per year and he was at that time busy with the music of Shabaab and Amar and was also working on the music of the mega project of Mother India. As such, there was no question of his even thinking about Naghma. Even otherwise, this MD Nashad did not use this name Nashad for the first time for Naghma. He was in the habit of using different names for his films. He used, Shaukat Ali or Shaukat Hussain either with or without Dehlavi. As early as 1948 he used Shaukat Ali Nashad for film Toote Taare and Shaukat Dehlavi Nashad for film Dada in 1949. In 1953 he used simply Nashad also for another film Char Chand which was released about 2 and a half months earlier than Naghma. The name Nashad was used by producers to take advantage of the name and fame of Naushad, whose name on posters ensured full houses and not to put Naushad to shame, which has been suggested in this article. Though Nashad gave good music, but his standard could never be upto Naushad. And it was the greatness of Naushad that he did not object publicly or drag them to court for such attempts. Earlier also there was an attempt to malign Naushad by referring to his one time Assistant Ghulam Mohammad.
Hans,
It is always interesting to go through your comments which give a contrary view to the conventional wisdom. On anecdotes I think I have earlier also mentioned that I take them as points of curiosity rather than truth on which one can make any judgement. But thanks for so much information on Nashad. As for the 1948, 49 films you have mentioned, HFGK does mention ‘Nashad’ in parenthesis. I am not sure whether this was how the music director was identified, or it is editorial clarification of the author Mr ‘Hamraz’.
I know that in 1948, 49 films the name ‘Nashad’ appears in parenthesis. But, in 1948 film ‘jeene do’ the name appears as Shaukat Hussain (Dehlavi) and even in later films the name ‘Nashad’ does not appear in parenthesis. And also in 1953 itself, the name ‘Nashad’ was used in ‘Char Chand’. So, it is unlikely that it is an editorial clarification. And this is not my main argument.
Regarding your statement that you dont take anecdotes seriously. It may be so, but in this case you have believed in it, because you wrote “Naghma’s music makes you feel that the producer’s audacious challenge was fully vindicated.” This can be written only when you believe the first part of the story.
I wonder whether the producer was a fool that he could believe that he could put to shame Naushad through an MD who had not done anything of note till then, when the great stalwarts of the time failed to dislodge Naushad from the high pedestal in a whole decade.
I think it is safe to assume that the intent behind using the name ‘Nashad’ was to create confusion somehow in the minds of people with ‘Naushad’.
I am not as dismissive of the talent of Nashad. His Baradari which came two years later belongs to the very top bracket.
Yes that was exactly what I wanted to convey. I am not at all dismissive of the talent of Nashad, but to equate him with Naushad is not at all justified. I am all for bringing to limelight the forgotten ones, but for that the legends should not be made to suffer.
I have referred to this and other anecdotes which I thought illogical only to highlight the fact, that this site has acquired a status and credibility of its own, on the basis of your well researched and analysed articles and also comments from some really knowledgeable readers. Those readers who are credulous and not given to or having time to think and research, tend to believe everything that is written. My effort is designed to caution and not to criticise. I have myself gained immensely from this site.
this duet from ‘pamposh’ isnt good to listen but the personnel related to this film r interesting.
1. YT link shows it a 1954 movie BUT myswar@HFGK considers it in 1953,, another B.P. and M.P. like case.
2. Who is ”SEETA KALYANPUR” ?? Seen only in this movie…New name…is she related to suman kalyanpur ?
3. MOTI SAGAR !?! Had sung just 8 songs in 7 films. I have seen a name ‘moti sagar’ in ‘ramayan’ serial. Is he the same ‘moti sagar’ or another person ?
4. MANOHAR KHANNA,, also known as m.l.khanna,,father of Usha Khanna,,lyricist and md of this film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPT7tQ4quBk
jignesh ji,
1. PAMPOSH should be a 1953 film because the Censor certificate was issued on 25-6-1953. no doubts about it .
2. SEETA KALYANPUR as far as I know,was related to Suman kayanpur from her Husband’s side. She has sung few songs in some other films also. The details can be dug out.
3. MOTI SAGAR was a producer,Actor and singer too. Born on 16-4-1925,at Delhi,he studied in Lahore.Under the influence of musicians G A Chishti and Inayat Hussain, he came to Bombay in 1946 and got a role in malhar-1951 as a co-hero. His first song was with kalyani in Gul Sanober-1953 then he sang in pamposh,Jai mahadev,Shikar,Diwali ki rat,makhichoos,meri behan and flying horse.
he was the father of singer Priti Sagar. he died on 14-3-1999,in Mumbai.
He was from the Sagar family only.
4. As per a comment in HFGK,citing Usha Khanna’s statement, she was the actual composer of PAMPOSH-53,but her father’s name was given as MD. In the film’s booklet however names of Mohanlal Aimma and Cecil mendoza are the names indicated as MD of this film.
-AD
Arunji….thanks very much again for this invaluable info….Arunji and Ashokji,, plz call me only jignesh..i feel discomfort when father figure like persons call me ‘jigneshji’.
I got to visit this site after about a month. Couple of comments and observations.
Hans ji @ 126: I am no movie buff but enjoy HFM. I thought I was commenting on a “swantah sukhay” site and not submitting an article to an academic journal for scrutiny by rigorous reviewers. Still, I do agree with Hans ji @ 131 that this site has acquired a status and credibility of its own and plead guilty to introducing an extraneous element in comparing “Shame ghum ki qasam” to “Suhaani raat dhal chuki”. The example of Tere Ghar ke Saamne cited by Hans ji would appear to reinforce the belief that Rafi’s “mannerisms” needed to be restrained at times. I assume that by Kishore’s gimmicks Hans ji @ 126 means primarily his yodeling. But yodeling is an established genre of (country) singing in the West (popular in the forties). And after SDB, Kishore was the one leading singer in HFM who used to “break” his voice melodiously. Lata confessed that she was unable to do that (although she attempts it once to great effect in Parakh – “O Sajana, Barkha bahar aayee”).
Jignesh Kotadia ji @ 134: Arunkumar Deshmukh ji and Sudhir Kapur ji provide very interesting information about Manohar Khanna on
http://atulsongaday.me/2011/09/15/pajama-tang-hai-kurta-dheela/
Ak, I understand you have ruled out Asha from the top 10 songs of 1953. I would still like you to listen t0 this beautiful song from Dil e Nadan, may be this song inspired SDB to take Asha for the Bandini song ( ab ke baras)
Lijo Babul hamara salaam re
Mumabaikar8,
Did I say that I would not include an Asha Bhosle song in the best ten? Let us wait for the Wrap Up 2.
Ljo babul hamara salaam re is really an excellent song and could be a precursor of Ab ke baras. However, Dil-e-Nadan had such outstanding songs that this was lot. I am hearing it for the first time. Thanks a lot.
AK ji, Iam a new entrant to yours very intresting site and being lover of the golden era of old classic movies; hold intrest in music compositions ,background music ,interludes ,preludes and title music of the movies. I have glanced thru many comments made above and i really appreciate the magnum efforts made by each one in analysis and observations thereon. As I am a big fan of Shanker Jaikishan I will definately vote for them for their contribution of music in the year 1953. My vote goes to lataji’s for her song from Aurat …..ankhon ankhon main tum ko basake dekh liya…… a beautiful rendering classical raga based meloncaly melody fully supported by SJ’s jems of interludes and preludes depicting the era of the movie. In fact all the songs of the movies were by lataji and all of them were excellent. I vote Shanker Jaikishan for this movie .The title music and the dance numbers were excellent.
With so many male female duets floating around, it is almost certain there is no space for female duets in 10 best duets of 1953, but I think that these 2 beautiful female duets can be discuseed with other 150 plus songs of 1953.
1 Jhanjar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrJsenqaJUA&feature=player_embedded
2 Ladki
Man more machave shor ghata ghanghor by Lata Mangeshkar and Geeta Dutt, lyrics Rajendra Krishna, music R Sudarshanam-Dhaniram
Mumbaikar 8,
Thanks for the two lovely duets – Ja ri ja nindiya ja by Lata Mangehskar and Madhubala Jhaveri from Jhanjhar, and Man mor machave shor ghata ghanghor by Lata Mangeshkar and Geeta Dutt from Ladki. I liked the second one more, picturised as a beautiful dance-song on Vyjayanthimala and Anjali Devi (?). As per the information in HFGK, C Ramchandra was also the MD of this film along with R Sudarshanam-Dhaniram. Hoever, the songs are individually attributed – this one has been credited to the former duo.
I have not created a separate category for female duets, because there may not be that many of such high quality. I put them in the generic category of duets. I had missed to include them in the long list, which should have been there. Thanks again for mentioning theses songs.
KS Bhatia,
I hope you are able to catch up with the earlier posts of Songs of Yore. The readers have indeed invested a lot of their time and intellectual input in giving comments and analysis. This shows the common passion we all share for old film songs.
1953 was indeed a great year for Shankar Jaikishan. They had a number of outstanding scores in this year – Aah, Aurat, Boot Polish, Mayurpankh, Naya Ghar, Patita and Shikast. If we consider the total corpus, they far surpass any other composer. And these were memorable not for commercial success – some were not – but outstanding musical merit.
It is a measure of their quantum of work that Ankhon ankhon mein was not even in my shortlist. Everyone would have his own favourite, somehow I liked the other songs of Aurat I have listed more.
AK,
Selecting a handful of songs from 100s created each year is a huge task.
We, the visitors to your blog, thank you time and again for the hard work you put in and feel obliged to fill in the gaps (if any)
Thanks for appreciating my effort.
AK, I totally agree with you. Selecting catchy tunes ,their orcastarization, anlysing melody of its listening pleasure for eras to come etc. in fact is a huge task. And then ranking them ; one can imagine the efforts and the inputs.We, as listeners, drive pleasures of comparison of our own ranking with that of experts.We do have some knowledge about the instruments used in the prelude and interludes as the song proceeds. It is finally the silver screen where its real impact gets noted.
AK,
I am so glad I stumbled upon this song today.
As Ameen Sayani would say this is Geetmala ki Chhaaon me ka song of 1953.
Doesn’t it sound like a sweet Rafi Lata duet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILhialq2V1c&feature=player_detailpage
Nice discovery Mumbaikar8 ji, the song is just uploaded recently on 16th july ! Very melodious duet. This is 3rd gud song came out from ‘Bahadur’ others being a rajkumari solo (kagwa re ja) and an asha solo (zanjeer ne karvat li, daaman ne li angdai, shayad ke bahaar aai..). But i have some doubt whether it’s rafi’s voice or someone else’s ?
Jigensh,
Thanks, I have to look for the other two songs you are talking about.
Do not cultivate any doubt because it says so on the web, this is Rafi without any doubt.
Mumbaikar 8,
You have added a very good Rafi-Lata duet. Thanks a lot.
Jignesh,
Kagwa re ja by Rajkumari is a real gem. One of the best Bhairvis in films. It is a pity it remained hidden.
AK,
I said, it sounds like Lata Rafi duet, it is not Lata Rafi duet the female singer is Ashima Bannerji and thanks for uploading Rajkumari’s song.
Jignesh,
Thanks for the Rajkummari song kagave ra ja, it is indeed a gem.
Mumbaikar8,
Thanks for the correction.
SOY family,
24th October, first death anniversary of Manna Dey, a singer who was sidelined by his MD’s and equally ignored by HFM lovers.
Mr Venkataraman had expressed his frustration in comment # 95.
Paying my tribute to this great singer and wondering does he not deserve more? I would like to upload two songs from Humdard cited by Vemkataraman ji.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz936ZuNGWs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IDmVuKaezs
@mumbaikar8,
Thank you. I too join you in paying respects to Manna Dey.
I too join in paying my tributes to Manna Dey. Songs of Yore needs to do more on him.
Mumbaikar8,
Many thanks for remembering my favorite Manna De, the great singer, who is fondly remembered by all those who are passionate about classical music in Hindi films.
I still remember having bought four LP’s titled ‘Classical songs from films’, and one of them had the song ‘Pee bin soona ri’ by Manna De and Lata, and my foundation of appreciating classical music was laid there.
I would also like to join all in paying my tributes to the humble soul.
Thanks to Mumbaikar8, we could remember a great and true artist Manna Dey. Anybody who is fond of golden era music can hardly forget him. To me in singing ability among male singers he was second only to Rafi, which he as a true artist admitted. He was unfortunately type-cast in the mainstream cinema by many mds and the reason given was that he could not carry a film on his shoulders, which is not true. And this was shown to us by SJ in ample measure. Look at films like Chori Chori, Basant Bahar and Ujala. Everybody knows about Chori Chori and Basant Bahar, but Ujala song ‘jhoomta mausam mast mahina’ was so popular that it was frequently heard on radio, at least till mid 70s. Even 10 years after the release of the film I used to stop in the street, if that song was played to listen ‘yalla yalla dil le gayi’. And who can forget the call of ‘hillori’ in the lata song ‘panchhi banu udti phirun’. Only Rafi and Manna Dey were the masters of such special effects. SJ really gave him recognition in top films as well as great variety of songs.
Manna Dey was always in great demand for classical based films as well as historical and religious films and in many of such films he sang almost all the songs. I would particularly advise readers to watch the songs of 1961 movie Jai Chittod – video clips of which are available on you tube – to view the impact Manna Dey’s singing made in the film.
A thought has been lingering in my mind that a regular thread is needed in SOY, where everyone can post whatever comes to mind a new song or some idea or some information which is not covered by any other post in SOY. This post of Mumbaikar8 has revived that thought. If that live thread was available, this post could have been posted there, instead of posting in a dead thread, which has the chance of it going unnoticed. Therefore, I would request AK to start such a thread, which could be named SOY Adda or SOY Chaupal or some other convenient name.
Now two songs to remember him and which also show his class and range.
Nirbal se ladayi balwan ki – Toofan aur Diya – Vasant Desai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up1rsSYPUf8
Tu chhupi hai kahan – Navrang – C Ramchandra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EAoRs1Wfgs
Venkataramanji , AK, Sharmaji and Hans,
Thanks for connecting.
You are partial to Malkauns Hans?
I think of the old time male singers the most classically inclined exponent was Manna De and yet he was versatile enough to sing a rock song with much elan as he did in Bhoot Bangla or even Pyaar kiya jaa. His vocal acrobatics in “aao twist karen” and “o meri maina” in those movies were performed with some panache.
I am very partial to his singing in this song , a wonderful Laxmikant Pyarelal composition with lovely harmonies by the orchestra and chorus in the interludes. I wonder if anybody can clarify if those pieces were done by Pyarelal himself or Anthony Gonsalves.
How wonderfully Manna De takes the notes between 2:27 and 2:36
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEVz3Aq1F8w
SSW
By your comments you have elevated me to a raag expert which I am not. In fact I know nothing about identifying raags. If the songs were based on malkauns that was just a coincidence. In fact, I was looking at songs written by Bharat Vyas, who had mostly worked with the likes of Vasant Desai, Tripathi and Avinas Vyas, who mostly gave music in historical, mythological and religious films and also some classically based films. And I found a large number of songs in these films which were sung by Manna Dey. I had referred to Jai Chitod, the songs for which were written by Bharat Vyas. The song posted by you is a great song and was new to me, thanks for it. The song mentioned by Arvinder Sharma was also great. In fact, Manna Dey has not been talked about as per his due, as rightly pointed out by Mumbaikar8.
Now listen to a song by Avinas Vyas (poor fellow he created so many gems and nobody cares for him). What to talk about the song even the film’s name was not known to me till a couple of months ago. In this song Manna Dey sings in a slow tempo, which many said he could not do. When I heard this song, I wished this song should never come to an end.
Meethi-2 yaad teri – Great Show Of India – Avinas Vyas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhg4oj8guM4
Now see this song from Seeta aur Geeta. Everybody knows about Rafi’s great specialisation in singing sharabi songs, but here Manna Dey has sung it so beautifully and with Dharmendra’s super sharabi acting it has become a classic.
Abhi to hath men jaam hai – Seeta aur Geeta – music RD Burman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95rqsD0lSSo
There is also this non-film song composed by Manna Dey himself.
Nathli se toota moti re – non-film – music Manna Dey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imK1TGTFfKY
Manna Dey’s versatility is well proved. Some of his contemporaries like Mukesh, Hemant and Talat could hardly sing qwwalis – which is a difficult format. But, Manna Dey could sing them in his sleep and some of the best qwwalis could not have been completed without his singing. In fact a separate article can be written only on his qwwalis.
AK Ji,
Thanks to mumbaikar8 and Hans Ji, Manna De is being revived on this post. I support Hans Ji’s idea of a thread, which should be a kind of an open forum, where readers can discuss music not covered in earlier posts. I believe, KS Bhatia Ji and many other regulars will support this idea.
But you are the final judge of such an exercise.
Coming back to Manna De, it was his versatility which was his asset. Be it quawwalis, bhajans or folk songs, he was at ease in every genre of singing.
In my opinion, in singing capability, he was equal to Rafi. But Rafi had a divine voice which superseded every other singer of the golden era of HFM. I would rather equate him with Asha Bhonsle, who could sing anything Lata Mangeshkar could, but always ended up coming second to her great sister.
I’ll pay my homage to the great singer by picking up two of my favorite songs, and two Bhajans of the lesser heard variety.
Film ‘Jhoola’, music Salil Chaudhary
Ek Samay Par Do Barsaatein Manna Dey Jhoola (1962…: http://youtu.be/IpiS_hjd0GE
Film ‘Aalingan’, music Jaidev
(Pyas thi phir bhi taqaaza na kiya)
Manna Dey – Pyaas Thi Phir Bhi Jaane Kuo: http://youtu.be/OfmdrEtSRzc
Film ‘Bank Manager’, music Madanmohan
Jab Dil Me Nahi Hai Khot To – Manna Dey – BANK MA…: http://youtu.be/qa8We8RSAPM
And the last one is a special one from ‘Narsi Bhagat’, music by Ravi, a solo of the famous Bhajan,’Darshan do Ghanshyamnath’ by Manna De.
Narsi Bhagat: http://youtu.be/YH4lLlrqnWg
Sharmaji,
Thanks. I agree with most of your comments. The songs are just superb. ‘Pyas thi phir bhi’ – what composition and what singing. Narsi Bhagat contained another great bhajan by Manna Dey ‘vaishnavjan te tene kahiye’ which is the standard for this song. Darshan do ghanshamnath reminded me of some bhajans by him which contained ‘shyam’ or ‘ghanshyam’. ‘Bata do koi kaun gali gaye sham’ from film Madhu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AEfXtDDdmI. ‘Aayo kahan se ghansham’ from Buddha Mil Gaya https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc4omjTgolE. The third one is from Kan Kan Men Bhagwan. ‘Sabko naach nachata’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XXbLwC2X8E.
Manna Dey, Lata and Dattaram have another feat to their credit. They produced three songs which were all hits, within a period of one year on the same tune.
1. Masti bhara hai saman – Parvarish (1958)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zlpmUvvAzU
2. Pyar bhari ye ghatayen – Qaidi no. 911 (1959)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaK7snro8hY
3. Bole ye dil ka ishara – Santan (1959)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dntXrX5piQ
Dattaram just loved this tune. He used it in other songs also with slight modifications.
And finally there is a song from Baharon Ke Sapne, which was extremely popular in those times though the film flopped. This song is specially for our orchestra specialist SSW for his comments regarding the prelude.
Chunri sambhal gori – music RD Burman (though unlike his music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIrBYGPcNhs
Sharma ji Hans,
I share your sentiments about the song “Pyaas thi phir bhi takaaza na kiya”
Jaidev’s compositions and Manna da’s rendition both outstanding.
One more Manna Dey song I love is Sharada’s
Chahe Zindaji se kitna bhi bhag re
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sv2QLk10Rc
I read your posts for year 1953. I compliment you for very detailed & well researched study. One thing I noticed was that you did not mention film Baaz. It had a very good music score by OP Nayyar. It has historical significance on two accounts, viz first song of OP-Rafi combo & first OP-Guru Dutt combo movie. These two associations were to have a great impact on the Hindi Film Music in the years to come.
Baaz had 6 Geeta Dutt solos. Three of them are wonderful, viz. Zaara Samane Aa, Tare Chandani Afasane & Ae Dil Ae Diwane. Zaara samane Aa is the first OP song where you have clarinet-flute combo + castanet & Punjabi Dholak beat which later on became OP trademark style of orchestration. Taare Chandani Afasane is a very soothing melodious song. Geeta’s humming at the end of the song is excellent. Ae Dil Ae Diwane is an all time great & is worth figuring in top 20 Geeta songs of her career. The film also had Talat’s “Mujhe Dekho Hasarat Ki Tasveer Hoon Main”(which you have referred to). So all things considered, the lack of mention of Baaz in the list of memorable music of year 1953 is a glaring omission.
Some additional comments.
My list of top female songs of the year, would have Ae Dil Ae Diwane from Baaz & Mohabbat Aisi Dhadkan Hai from Anarkali.
In the list of duets of the year, I would have included, Kehata Tha Zaman-Rafi, Asha from Aag Ka Darya, Kya Raat Suhani Hai-Rafi, Lata from Alif Laila.
Ravindra,
Thanks a lot for the detailed information on Baaz. You do have some off-beat choices. From your list, besides the Talat duet, Kya raat suhani hai is my favourite and it could have figured in my list. Other songs I would have still missed with advantage of additional knowledge.
AK,
We discussed few Nav Durga songs but this duet went unnoticed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIuPjkuwtQc
Mumbaikar8,
Nice song. But the best was Geeta Dutt solo आई बिरहा की रात.