N Datta: The Third Musketeer for Asha Bhosle

8 September 2020

Guest article by Hans Jakhar wishing Asha Bhosle (b. 8 September 1933) a very happy 87th birth anniversary and also greeting the unlucky genius N Datta

(By now we all know that Asha Bhosle is the most recorded singer, and has sung far more songs than her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar. Yet Lata Mangeshkar came to be acknowledged as the apogee of female playback singing in the Golden Era. She was the singer of choice of every music director for their best and most complex compositions, except a handful of MDs for whom Asha Bhosle was the main singer. N Datta is one of them, and what superb songs he gave for her as well as other singers! He was an unlucky genius. When Hans Jakhar wrote on Asha Bhosle’s last birth anniversary on her songs by Ravi, Arvinder Sharma commented that her predominance in N Datta’s music is relatively even more pronounced than Ravi.

I have no hesitation in admitting that I am an unabashed Lata-partisan, and that may be reflecting on SoY too, but fortunately we have a large band of Asha Bhosle fans. Hans Jakhar is the undisputed flag-bearer of this brigade which provides more than balance if there is any hint of bias on the other side.

But in my defence, in the very early stage of this blog, I wrote my first post on Asha Bhosle on her 78th birth anniversary nine years ago. Thereafter, I have written a number of posts on her songs by different music directors with great respect, because those songs are very special to me. Hans, in this article, has fairly acknowledged it. N Datta’s songs for Asha Bhosle are very dear to me, yet if someone has to write on this combination, no one could do it better than Hans. I am happy that he accepted my request to write this tribute to them as our greetings to Asha Bhosle on her 87th birth anniversary.

Hans brings his legal and commerce degree and long working with the government to full use in writing on film music, too, with his mastery over data and reasoning. It gives me great pleasure to present his third guest article for SoY which has all the hallmark of his sharp skills. – AK)

N Datta-Asha BhosleThe year 1955 was a special year for Asha Bhosle. Two composers who were inclined to use her more than any other female singers came out of the stable of pro-Lata Lata Mangeshkar composers and straight-away started using her as the main female singer. One of them, Ravi, was discussed last year. The other was N Datta who was an assistant to SD Burman. In the same year, the third pro-Asha composer who later became only Asha, OP Nayyar also had a big success with her in Baap Re Baap which, though not a block-buster, was quite a successful film. Success of the songs like ‘Raat rangili chamke taare‘ and ‘Piya piya piya mora jiya pukare‘ gave him the confidence to use her extensively, especially after moving out of Guru Dutt films. At a personal level, her biggest achievement was recording 300+ songs, which no singer had yet achieved.

 

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Hemant Kumar’s Female Playback Singers

27 August 2020

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the series of centenary tributes to Hemant Kumar (b. 16 June 2020 – d. 26 September 1989)

(Is Hemant Kumar a major singer or a music director? For his fans his mesmerising singing overshadows his contribution as a music director. Ashok M Vaishnav is known for going deep into data analysis and classification – SoY regulars have seen his perseverance in his mega-series, Multiple version songs. Ashokji plans to write a series of guest articles on Hemant Kumar’s various facets as music director, as a part of his centenary celebrations, which were set off brilliantly by N Vankataraman’s outstanding tribute, titled ‘Hemantayan – Part 1’, on his Birth Centenary, 16 June 2020.

Venkataramanji is planning his Part 2 on 26 September 2020 to coincide with Hemant Kumar’s death anniversary. His scheme, as the readers must have noticed, is to divide Hemant Kumar’s life and career in two parts chronologically – the first part going up to 1960 – taking a comprehensive overview of his career as a music director and singer in Hindi, Bengali and other languages, as well as his non-film songs.

It was very kind of Ashokji to offer on his own to supplement Venkataramanji’s two-part overview with some articles going into more detail on Hemant Kumar’s career on various parameters. Here is the first article of his planned series, on his female playback singers (in Hindi films). Since I have written on his songs for Lata Mangeshkar long ago, Ashokji only mentions her few songs, focussing more on his wide range of other female singers. He consciously chooses less familiar songs as a prudent policy.

Many readers have rightly observed that SoY is blessed with very generous guest writers. We are all lucky. Thank you Ashokji for your guest article. – AK)

 

Hemant Kumar with his female singers 2

Hemant Kumar (16-6-1920 | 26-9-1989) had already shown flare for music composition from his early childhood. Even though his formal career commenced as a singer, his talents as a composer also did not have to wait longer to get formal recognition. Of course, in so far as Hindi Films is concerned, the first ever film for which he got to compose the music was a decade after he sang his first film song. He then went on to compose music for 50+ films for the next 27 years.

(Note: Many sites mention film ‘Irada’ (1944) as his debut as a singer in Hindi films. However, it is now generally accepted that his first song was ‘Aankhon ki oat jo rahta tha’ in the film ‘Meenakshi’ (1942). – AK)

 

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Remembering Ajit Merchant

15 August 2020

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav as a tribute to Ajit Merchant on his 95th birth anniversary (b. 15 August 1925 – d. 28 March 2011)

(Talents from various regional languages have enriched Hindi film music. Music directors and singers from Bengal have occupied a central place in Hindi film music. From the recent generation AR Rahman has been incredibly successful in both Tamil and Hindi. Due to some quirk of fate similar success has eluded those from Gujarat, though they gave some immortal songs in Hindi, and occupy an iconic place for their contribution in Gujarati film music and Theatre. Ajit Merchant is one such talent whom Ashok M Vaishnav pays a tribute on his 95th birth anniversary.

Ashokji is an engineer by profession, and after retirement he is engaged in management training. He has a deep interest in music. SoY regulars know him as the creator of the mega series, Multiple Version Songs, and his deep analytical interest in exploring various facets of songs. He has been also introducing us to Gujarati music. Thank you Ashokji for highlighting the contribution of Ajit Merchant to Hindi and Gujarati film music. – AK)

Ajit MerchantAjit Merchant (15-8-1925 | 28-3-2011) belongs to that Hindi cinema club which includes some incredibly talented but commercially not successful music directors as members. These music directors have their names in the roll of honours, on account of just a song or two from the few that they could get to compose in their career.

 

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Chitragupta’s duets for Rafi: Melody Personified

31 July 2020

A tribute to Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) on his 40th Remembrance Day

Chitragupta-RafiToday is the 40th Remembrance Day of Rafi. He was the most versatile playback singer of the Golden Era of film music and, more importantly, he was universally known as a good human being, without malice to anyone, and a generous kind-hearted soul. Someone has said, Rafi Saheb ko maloom hi nahin tha ki duniya mein sharaafat ke siwaa bhi koi cheez hoti hai (Rafi Saheb didn’t know that there was anything other than decency in the world). God snatched him at a very young age. Had his life not been cut short, he would have got much higher State honours than Padmashree. But he ruled the people’s hearts. As the news of his sudden death, on 31 July 1980, spread like wild fire, thousands of people – rich and poor, famous and ordinary, celebrities and commoners – poured out on the roads, braving Bombay’s monsoon downpour, to join his funeral procession. I was looking for something special to pay a tribute to him on this day.

 

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Best songs of 1945: Wrap Up 1

23 July 2020

And the Award for the Best Male Playback Singer goes to?

Mukesh-KL SaigalMy Overview post of the best songs of the year 1945 had a Master List of 59/60 Memorable Songs (one song had a female solo and a female-female duet version), the least in the year-wise reviews so far. This was expected not only because of the relative antiquity as we go further back chronologically, but also because the year saw the lowest number of films produced during the period 1941-49. This has resulted in significantly less songs than the other years reviewed earlier.

 

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Madan Mohan: The Pied Piper of Bollywood in Different Moods

14 July 2020

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Madan Mohan on his 45th Remembrance Day (b. 25 June 1924 – d. 14 July 1975)

(Two years ago to this day, DP Rangan wrote a tandem article on Roshan and Madan Mohan about their classical songs, with annotation by Subodh Agrawal, which set the stage for a series on them. The series concluded with Madan Mohan’s daughter Sangeeta Gupta’s nostalgic piece about him as a family man and a maestro. However, meanwhile Mr Rangan had also been working on Madan Mohan’s songs in different moods, and he was disappointed that, with the series closed with the calendar year, his piece might not see the light of day.

You can never have enough of Madan Mohan; he was a multi-faceted talent, composing songs for all the major playback singers, and songs in all possible moods. I am happy to present M Rangan’s guest article as a tribute to Madan Mohan on his 45th Remembrance Day. Thank you Mr Rangan. – AK)

Madan MohanUnder inspiration from the blog master AK, I wrote a  tandem post involving Madan Mohan and Roshan on 14 July 2018 which was Roshan’s 101st birth anniversary, and in a unique coincidence, Madan Mohan’s 43rd death anniversary.  It grew steadily through a number of posts exploring many aspects of their genius, ending with Madan Mohan’s daughter’s fond article on him titled ‘Remembering my father and the legend’ on 25 December 2018. The announcement of the closure of the series by AK disappointed me somewhat because I have been working on a post on Madan Mohan’s songs in different moods. As I don’t see any duplication with the posts in the series (though some songs might have figured earlier), I am happy that AK agreed to post it on Madan Mohan’s 45th Remembrance Day.

 

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NASEEM BANU: The Maiden Venus of Bollywood

4 July 2020

Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Naseem Banu on her 104th birth anniversary (4 July 1916 – 18 June 2002)

(Naseem Banu was arguably the most bewitching beauty of her time. When Saira Banu burst on the screen in the 1960s, she was immediately hailed as a Beauty Queen, and the media coverage was replete with references to her mother, Naseem Banu, who was regarded as even more mesmerising than her daughter. She achieved great fame as the lead actress of Sohrab Modi’s historical magnum opus, Pukaar (1939). And in keeping with the times she also sang many songs for films, but gradually let regular playback singers sing for her. She deserves to be remembered on Songs of Yore in a befitting manner, and DP Rangan is ever ready for doing the honours.

As the regulars of SoY are aware, Mr Rangan is a unique person. Though not familiar with the language, he has nevertheless written over twenty guest articles on various themes relating to old Hindi film songs, including on stars like Meena Kumari, Suraiya and Madhubala.  He does an equally competent job, typical of him, for Naseem Banu. Thank you Mr Rangan for this tribute to Naseem Banu. – AK)

Naseem BanoThe Industrial Revolution from the mid-nineteenth century ushered in an era of prosperity for a few and misery for the majority. Entertainment avenues also underwent a radical change. Introduction of cinematography was one such event and people crowded theatres to enjoy silent movies. Advent of talkies in 1927 was a fillip to boost people’s interest and India had its first talkie in 1931. Cinema viewing was a new rage among the populace and film actors commanded a huge following. The time was ripe for the arrival of a maiden of beauty and the miracle did happen.

 

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Fanciful ideas about breaching embankments (6)

25 June 2020

Guest article by Ashwin Bhandarkar

(The regular readers of SoY are aware that Ashwin Bhandarkar is a BITS Pilani and IIM Calcutta alumnus and is an IT professional based in Pune. What makes him exceptional is that he has had over ten years of formal training in Hindustani classical music. This (Pun)dit (Pun)-e-kar, in a befitting यथा नाम तथा गुण, is also blessed with incorrigible punny bones which we have seen in plenty in his previous posts.

Ashwin continues his penchant for combining the profound with the light with the Title of this post, which is a cleverly crafted convoluted conundrum, which you can crack only if you are a cruciverbalist. Oh no, this is not how I write! This post must have infected me with a bug which you encounter in the very first sentence, and which permeates the entire article. You don’t have to specially look for it, you can’t miss it as it comes. But make no mistakes; Ashwin’s matter is never mundane, his mastery over music is magnificent, and the melody is always absolutely mellifluous.

Lastly, a little information about Ashwin’s perseverance with this post. He first appeared as a guest author on this blog over three years ago, and this post is also as old, because right then he had placed his handkerchief to reserve this topic for himself. After reading it, I can imagine why it has taken him so long. Now the hanky goes back to its holder until he or another guest author puts it to reserve a seat for another topic. Thanks a lot Ashwin for another superb post. – AK)

Andal's dream_Painting by S RajamI’m sure that cryptic crossword buffs amongst SoY readers would have cracked the crossword clue that is the title of this post. Let me solve it for the others:

‘Dams’ is a synonym of ‘embankments’. In crosswords, ‘about’ is the cryptic clue for ‘Re’, the short form for the reference line in formal letters. ‘Breaching’ between ‘about’ and ‘embankments’ indicates that the solution is an anagram of ‘Re Dams’. Now, what is a 6-letter anagram of ‘Re Dams’ that means ‘fanciful ideas’? ‘Dreams’, of course! And, songs about dreams are what this article is about.

 

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Hemantayan – Part 1

16 June 2020

A tribute to Hemant Kumar on his Birth Centenary (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989) by guest author N Venkataraman

(Lata Mangeshkar once said in an interview about Hemant Kumar, “Listening to Hemant Da, I feel as though a sadhu sitting in a temple is singing a bhajan.” But a more endearing observation was made by Salil Chowdhury: If God had to sing, he would do it in the voice of Hemant Kumar. After you read this article, you would say, if Hemant Kumar wanted someone to write a tribute on his Centenary, he would have N Venkataraman do the honours.

Venkataramanji needs no introduction to the regular readers of SoY. He is a management professional based in Kolkata, but on SoY we know him for his scholarship and breadth of knowledge. Truly a Renaissance Man from Bengal. I am grateful that he has agreed to write a superb tribute to Hemant Kumar on his Centenary in two parts. In the first part he covers Hemant Kumar’s career up to 1960, giving us a broad panorama of his family roots, his early life to his emergence as a singer and composer of great repute in both Hindi and Bengali, including films and non-film songs. This article also gives a summary of his output in other regional languages. Thank you Venkataramanji for your great effort. – AK)

Section-1: 1920 – 1940

Hemant Kumar 1The Mathurapur- Laksmikantapur railway tracks pass through South 24 Parganas, leaving in its trail many old-world, sleepy stations. One such station is BAHARU. BAHARU, one of the many janapadas, that grew up along the old Bhagirathi offshoot from the ancient times, finds a mention in Bipradas Pipilai’s Manasavijaya, composed in 1495; BAHARU, the place where the Dewan of the East India Company, Nandakumar Bose, in the beginning of the 19th century, built a temple for Shyamsundar, acquiring stones from Chunar and requisitioning architects from Jaipur, to recreate Mathura-Vrindaban for his aged mother; BAHARU, the origin of Joynagarer Mua, a sweet well-known all over Bengal, made of Kanakchur, a sweet-smelling variety of rice (popped or puffed) grown in this region, mixed with good quality of liquid palm jaggery and desi ghee; BAHARU, the place where the famous singer and music director Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay spent eight years of his childhood and the village his ancestors originated from.

 

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Ten years of Songs of Yore

7 June 2020

SoY Ten YearsWhen I started blogging a new buzzword had just come into vogue: Vision 2020. We all – whether in public, private or non-profit sectors – were rushing in and out of seminars, workshops and breakout rooms, to prepare a Vision 2020 document for our organisations in nice spiral-bound volumes containing Mission Statement, Vision Statement, Objectives, Tasks, Values, Weights and Weighted Scores. All this was Greek and Latin to me, I still don’t know whether Mission Statement came first or Vision Statement, and why. I was equally clueless about blogging, least of all how long it would last and what shape it would take. SoY completes ten years today and, coincidentally, we are in the year 2020. Even if I had attempted a Vision 2020 document for SoY, letting my imagination soar as in those documents, writing the most grandiose goals, I would not have been able to visualise what the blog is today.

 

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