Book Review: “And The Music Lives On”

And The Music Lives On
Author: Manek Premchand
Publisher: Norton Press, India, October 2024
ISBN (Paperback): 979-8-89588-290-0
Price (Amazon): ₹539 (Paperback); ₹269 (Kindle Edition)
Pages: 417

Manek Premchand is a well-known name to SOY readers as a writer of many books on old film music. I have reviewed his several books on this forum. When he sent me his latest book fresh from the mint, I was quite keen to go through it. On my last review of RD Burman’s biography by Anirudh Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal, a reader was initially surprised to see review of an old book. Here is a new book for most of the readers.

The book is a compendium of 75 short articles written by the author for various publications in the past, updated to current information. Each article’s original date of publication and the journal’s name is given – most of them were published in DNA, Jaipur. Since these articles were meant for general reading, they are quite accessible, interesting, and written in a lucid language. The titles of the articles are attractive, you are drawn to look into them. You may guess an article’s content and you may find it familiar, nevertheless, it is quite informative, and even for the knowledgeable there is interesting information and connections you may not have thought of. For example, Maan Gaye, Munshiji. Even if you guess this might be about Munshi Premchand and you are familiar with his writings, films and songs, would you be able to think of the cosmic connection between Premchand and Rafi? Talking about Pipra ke patwa sareekhe dole manwa ki jiyara mein uthat hilore, Manekji points out Rafi passed away on 31 July 1980 exactly 100 years after the writer was born on 31 July 1880. (And Manek Premchandji, is there a cosmic connection between you and the legendary writer, Premchand?)

It is obvious, Musically Vending would be about songs of street vendors in our films, but you get to know the difference between ‘busking’ and ‘vending’. Vending songs are quite common, and Manekji has listed a lot of them, but none of ‘busking’. ‘Busking’ songs are less common – I believe Patanga’s (1949) Duniya ko pyaare phool aur sitaare is a pure ‘busking’ song. SOY readers are more mathematically oriented and they can think of a continuum where a situation/song may be some proportion of ‘busking’ and some of ‘vending’. I would put Raj Kapoor’s act of selling dant manjan made of Pissa hua koyla and Chaupati ki khalis ret in Shree 420 (1955) as some mix of busking and vending.

The rest of the articles are in the same vein – some quite novel and informative; some commonplace. But even the ‘commonplace’ articles have interesting titles and their introduction has interesting details and history of the subject. In this category I would place: Would You Like Some Tea Your Majesty (about ‘chai’ songs), Triangle of a Different Kind (about ‘love triangle’ in our films), Let’s Tighten the Booze Noose (about prohibition, ills of drinking and ‘sharabi’ songs), The Unhurried Flautist (about Hariprasad Chaurasia and the film songs in which he played the flute), Mera Naam Hai Shabnam (about Bindu), Door Hai Kinara (about seashore, kinara songs), Conceived Immaculately? (about atmospheric/ surrogate songs). Some have vanilla titles, such as Ameen Sayani – Voice Extraordinaire!, Shyam – A Star Forgotten, RIP Qawwali?, Engagements with Shama, Daan Singh, Garam Dharam’s Musical Sizzlers, Wisdom In Swimwear, Happy New Year Ensemble etc. You know the subject and the contents broadly, but you would enjoy Manekji’s style of writing. There is another article with Ameen Sayani’s clarion call – Behno aur Bhaiyo! But its about Raksha Bandhan and raakhi songs.

Among very novel articles that give some interesting insight and history known only to experts of the subject and widely-read persons is The Irony of an Iron Building. Lumiere Brothers’ first films which were a series of moving images on screen was shown in Bombay in the then famous Watson’s Esplanade Hotel which was shown to a paying audience. An Indian businessman Jamshedji Tata, the founder of the Tata Group, was denied entry to the ‘whites only’ hotel. Feeling insulted, he built his own hotel a few minutes away from the Watson Hotel, now the iconic The Taj Mahal Hotel on the waterfront opposite the Gateway of India. In the 1920s Watson ceased to be a hotel, having been sold to a new party who also renamed it Mahendra Mansion. In the later years the oldest cast-iron building of India was in serious structural disrepair with its pieces crumbling. There is no sign anywhere that India’s film history started here. On the other hand 26/11 earned the Taj Mahal Hotel renewed respect for the valour and dedication to the service and dedication of its staff, 11 of whom lost their lives in trying to shield their guests and bringing them to safety. Today it finds mention among the best hotels of the world.

Another informative article is The FRS Factor, FRS standing for Famous Recording Studio located in Mumbai’s Tardeo area. Belonging to Seksaria family, they had acquired the Bombay Talkies after Himanshu Rai’s death in 1940, the Famous Cine Laboratory fell in their lap due to a court ruling; they subsequently went on to acquire Modern Studio at Andheri. Now the films could be shot at one place, the songs could be recorded at the recording studio nearby. The film then would be brought to the Cine Lab where sound would be synchronised, the film would be processed, edited etc. The positive would thus become the master print from which hundreds of prints would be made for exhibition in the cinema halls across the country. The importance of FRS lies in the fact that the songs of hundreds of films and thousands of all-time great songs were recorded here. From  1955 to 1984, out of 964 songs featured in Ameen Sayani’s Geetmala, 459 were recorded at FRS. This article while talking about the physical facility, also talks about its technicians and the sound recordist Minoo Kartak who also played a major role in creating songs like Aa ab laut chalein (Jis Desh Mein Ganga Bahti Hai, 1960) involving massive orchestra and dozes of chorus singers much larger than the physical facility could accommodate. The last article Once Bitten, Twice Shy lists a large number of artistes who were associated only once with some aspect of film making – directed only one film, lyricists who wrote just one song, singers who sang just one, appeared only once on the screen etc. Ataullah Khan, known more famously as the father of Madhubala, directed just one film Pathan (1962), which has a unique distinction. The film used 9 lyricists for 7 songs.

Music being a matter of subjective choice you may differ with the author on some lists and some assertions. In Lift Kara De, the author tries to pick one song from each decade which vitalise our spirits. Is such a list possible to make? Even if I take it as the author’s choice and agree with his best song for the 1930s, Duniya rang rangeeli baba (Dhartimata, 1938), sung by Pankaj Mullick (playbacking for KC Dey), Uma Shashi and KL Saigal, I was sceptical about Manekji’s assertion that it was the first trio song in Hindi films. While randomly browsing the Hindi Film Geet Kosh, I came across a song, Rani, Aao sunaun man nagri ki tumko ek kahani from the 1937 film, Toofani Toli (Gyan Dutt). This songs is available on the YouTube. Hindi Filmdom’s Dubious Distinction Songs talks about songs that stuck out as a dud from superhit musical films. Thus, this is converse of “Hans Akela”, the guest article by Mr Rahul Bhagwanrao Muli published on 1^st January 2021. But many may be surprised by the author’s selection of the least popular songs, such as Hum haal-e-dil sunayenge kahiye ki na kahiye (Madhumati, 1958, Mubarak Begum), Haaye re haaye, ye mere haath mein tera haath (Kashmir Ki Kali, 1964, Asha Bhosle, Rafi), Tohe saanwariya, naahi khabarya (Milan, 1967, Lata Mangeshkar), Mera naam hai Shabnam (Kati Patang, 1970, Asha Bhosle and RD Burman). In Daan Singh, many would be surprised that the author fails to mention the quintessential Mukesh song, Gham-e-dil kisse kahun koi bhi ghamkhwar nahin from the unreleased film, Bhool Na Jana, though he does mention other popular songs of Mukesh, composed by Daan Singh.

The book is an excellent bedside reading, packed with songs, trivia and new information – you may or may not agree entirely with the author, but that is in the very nature of the subject matter of the book.