I have expressed great admiration for Roshan at several places in my blog. Among the greatest and most melodious songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Roshan compositions occupy a very high place. He did not achieve big commercial success as some of his peers, but for music lovers he was among the greatest, especially as regards his songs for the two titans Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. His compositions were unmistakably identifiable with incredibly beautiful use of the flute and sarangi.
(My friend Subodh Agrawal is a great music lover and a keen follower of my blog. He once suggested I write on films songs based on classical ragas. This was already in my mind, but then I realised Subodh is much better equipped to do it. I am grateful that he accepted my request to do a guest series of articles on this theme. This curtain raiser showcasing his favourite 10 iconic songs on different ragas is delightful to read not only because of his deep insight but also for his fluent and witty style of writing. I am sure there are many more to come from his pen. – AK)
I was trying to motivate AK to do a few lists on songs based on ragas. He bounced it back to me, thanks to some pretensions I have of knowing something about classical music. I have accepted the commission with some reluctance, being well aware of how little I actually know about it.
I have not forgotten the Forgotten Composers, Unforgettable Melodies. It so happens that in a unique coincidence birth anniversaries of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, and death anniversaries of Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar fall in a narrow band of two and a half months between July 31 to October 13. They are the biggest icons of playback singing in the Golden Era, and I did not want to miss these special occasions to offer my tributes. I am back with C Arjun, who should rank among the top in this series not only alphabetically but because of his timeless creations. It was characteristic of the period that in a crowded field of many highly talented composers, some were consigned to B or C grade films. C Arjun was one of them. But his music towers over his films. Only one song of his – Paas baitho tabiyat bahal jayegi sung by Rafi is enough to give him immortality. Many of this blog’s readers have mentioned his name and this song. Much later his C grade film Jai Santoshi Maa, released in the year of the mighty Sholay and Deewar, established itself as one of the highest grossing films ever on the strength of his music.
MJ Akbar in his obituary to Shammi Kapoor wrote in India Today that one reason for Shammi Kapoor craze was that he was mad. But who was the maddest of them all? The great superstar Amitabh Bachchan could do a mad act with straight face. You can think of his job interview with Ranjit in Namak Halal where he shows his English speaking proficiency. But Kishore Kumar did not need to do an act. He was mad. He was crazy, he was wild. He would sing – in Hindi, in English, in Bengali, in Gibberish; he would dance, he would squat, he would jump, he would roll, he would sleep – all in the same song of 3 minutes. There was no logic to his madness. No one chased his girl more relentlessly; no one teased her more irritatingly. Some of his girls were good sports; they would play along with the fun. Some others were prim, proper and well brought up. They were exasperated, they would scream, they would do their darndest to ward him off. But he won them all in the end. And they were the biggest of their time – Nutan, Vyjayantimala and Madhubala.
Birthday greetings to Lata Mangeshkar on September 28
Presenting my favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs composed by C Ramchandra, as my birthday greetings to her on September 28, is not a very diplomatic thing to do, given the history of their relationship. As her biographical accounts go, Lata Mangeshkar was more than a muse to C Ramchandra, and central to his music. But when the relationship turned sour, its repudiation (by her) was ruthless and complete. When she gave her famed public performance of Ae mere watan ke logo at Lal Quila on the Republic Day 1963, which brought tears to Nehru’s eyes, its lyricist Pradeep was acknowledged, but its composer C Ramchandra was not. (Note: Please also see comments 49, 51, 52, 54). When in 1967 Lata Mangeshkar selected her best 10 songs for HMV, she did not include any song by C Ramchandra, but her by then favourite boys Laxmikant Pyarelal’s – made it to the list!
Having recently done a list of happy songs of Mukesh, I had no intention of doing another Mukesh post anytime soon. But dustedoff, AP Joshi and Subodh Agrawal in their comments entered into an earnest discussion on ‘happy’ duets of Mukesh and requested I do a list of my favourite such duets. This opened the floodgates of my memory and several beautiful duets came streaming in my mind. About the same time another amazing coincidence happened. I heard on radio, after at least four decades, a most fabulous Mukesh-Lata duet lying in deep recesses of my memory. This post is an outcome of all these happenings.
Knowing that Asha Bhosle has a huge fan following and there are people more passionate about her than Lata Mangeshkar, I have to carefully choose my words to describe my relationship with her. If I am asked to choose only 20 singers from the 1930s to 60s for company on a remote island, Asha Bhosle probably won’t figure in my list. There are zillion themes swirling in my head for my blog, but doing OP Nayyar-Asha Bhosle is not one of them, much less RD Burman-Asha Bhosle. Yet there is a very special Asha Bhosle, very unique, incredibly sweet and out of this world. Here are my favourite ten ‘special’ Asha Bhosle songs as my greetings to her on her 78th birthday. (Warning: If you are looking for the ‘best’ songs of Asha Bhosle, you need not proceed further – you will not find Aaiye meherbaan or Jaaiye aap kahaan jayenge here).
I recently heard a joke on a reality show which went something like: Jo jeetega wo Singapore jayega, jo harega wo Mukesh ka gana gayega. I found the joke quite neat, though I did not agree with the underlying premise. I do not view a song as a happy or sad song. Great songs are beyond this classification. How do you describe Amir Khusro’s Aaj rang hai or Main to piya se naina mila ayee re. These songs are of joy and union between two lovers. But every time you hear Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or anyone sing them, it brings tears to your eyes. But deferring to the popular stereotype of Mukesh as a singer of ‘sad’ songs, here is my tribute to him on his death anniversary August 27 with a compilation of my favourite ten ‘happy’ songs of Mukesh.
The song La re lapaa la re lappa layee rakhda from Ek Thi Ladki (1949) always intrigued me. Its words (of mukhda) carried no meaning to me. Today I know it is based on a traditional Punjabi folk song, and these words indeed have some meaning. Then, the music director Vinod. Who was he? What other songs he composed?
All this was a black box, and for many years he was a one-song wonder for me. Yet when Lata Mangeshkar tornado hit the music scene that year with Ayega anewala and several more songs, now considered iconic, with the greatest music directors of the time Naushad, C Ramchandra, Anil Biswas, and soon to become great Shankar Jaikishan and many others, La re lappa stood tall among them. It is still extremely popular, I have seen many reality shows featuring Daler Mehdi’s medley of songs which invariably include this song.
Thanks to this site and Pankaj Raag’s Dhuno Ki Yatra we now know Vinod was born Eric Roberts in a Punjabi Christian family, converted from Hindus, in Lahore in May 1922. He learnt music from the famous music director Pandit Amarnath (the elder brother of the duo Husnlal Bhagatram). As per the prevailing norm of those days he adopted the name Vinod to make it look more appropriate. He was a highly talented music director in Punjabi films in Lahore, moved over to Bombay with Roop K Shorey team and composed music for several Hindi films. Though a highly talented person, the fickle film industry did not allow him the commercial success and fame he deserved. He died young in 1959 in poverty, which may be another reason why we do not get to hear more about his music.
But more importantly, I have come across several Vinod songs, which are incredibly beautiful. There are some I now recall I always knew and regarded as my top favourites, without knowing they were his composition.
The Golden Era of 1950s and 60s abounds in such unforgettable melodies whose composers are forgotten. I am excluding 1930s and 40s from this as the songs of that period (I call it the Vintage Era) face the problem of oblivion from public consciousness and have to be discussed in a different manner. I had planned to start this series on Forgotten Composers, Unforgettable Melodies with Vinod, who is also among the first chronologically in the period, and who held a special fascination for me for his music. He is coming second, as I did Daan Singh as the first article in the series as my obituary on hearing about his death.
Now enjoy some of Vinod’s great songs which are absolutely brilliant and unforgettable.
1. Jab kisi ke rukh pe zulfen aa ke lahrane lageen by Talat Mahmood from Anmol Ratan (1950), lyrics DN Madhok
Anmol Ratan had several songs of incomparable beauty. Here is a Talat solo which is so melodious and sweet that once you hear it, it lingers forever. My attraction for this song is because it has a special charm akin to what you find only in his non-film songs.
2. Yaad anewale phir yaad aa rahe hain by Talat Mahmood and Lata Mangeshkar from Anmol Ratan
If you had any doubts about Vinod’s versatility here is a Talat-Lata duet which I easily rate among their best.
3. Shikwa tera main gaaun by Talat Mahmood and Lata Mangeshkar from Anmol Ratan
Vinod is not done yet. Here is another great Talat-Lata duet from the same film.
4. Dilli se aya bhai Pingu from Ek Thi Ladki (1949), lyrics Aziz Kashmiri, music Vinod
Interestingly, the music conductor seen in the video is Vinod himself. Actor Singer is Honey O Brien, the lady who also danced to Ek bewafa se pyar kiya in Awara. (Correction: See comment #59, Arunji informs that while Honey O Brien performs on the screen, the playback singer is Vinita Kalmadi, who took the name Binota Chkravarty after her marriage to the pianist in the orchestra, Krsihna Chakravarty.)
5. Ab haal-e-dil ya haal-e-jigar kuchh na poochhiye by Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar, from Ek Thi Ladki
One of the best Rafi-Lata duets ever. I am surprised why such a beautiful song remained virtually unknown.
6. Ghatkari matwari kari ghir ayi by Zeenat Begum from Ek Thi Ladki
Ek Thi Ladki, coming in the watershed year of 1949, was musically also a confluence of the Vintage and Golden Era with Zeenat Begum firmly from the Vintage Era and Lata Mangeshkar who would be the dominant singer of the Golden Era, both featuring prominently in the film.. Motilal, a senior manager, had been sent by his company from Bombay to discuss an important business deal with a Delhi seth (whom he had not seen before). But his scatterbrained secretary, Meena Shorey has gotten themselves in a situation where she and her boss Motilal have to take up residence as a servant couple in the house of the same seth. He rues that she has managed to reduce him from a manager to naukar to bawarchi to dhobi. But unconcerned, Meena Shorey dances on to this beautiful song by one of the famous singers of 1940s. Motilal also gets to enjoying the situation and smilingly passes the washed clothes to her for hanging on the clothesline. From the review of this film by dustedoff, I visualise this as a perfect screwball comedy, and I could almost imagine Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in this scene.
7. La re lappa la re lappa laye lakhda by Lata Mangeshkarfrom Ek Thi Ladki
And now the signature song of Vinod you might have heard a million times, but sounds as fresh as ever.
8. Ankhiyan mila ke ankhiyon ki need chura ke aa
Here is beautiful song by Sulochana Kadam from the film Mukhdaa (1951), lyrics by Aziz Kashmiri, and composed by Vinod. One song which made her known to all lovers of old film songs is Chori chori aag si dil mein laga kear chal diye from the film Dholak from the same year, composed by Shyam Sundar. In an interesting coincidence this song is also picturised on Meena Shorey.
9. Thumak thumak chali kamini by Asha Bhosle and GM Durrani in Ek Do Teen (1953), lyrics Aziz Kashmiri
This song is from Ek Do Teen, which was made by the same team of Roop K Shorey, with actors Moti Lal and Meena Shorey. This is a lovely duet by Asha Bhosle and GM Durrani. Asha Bhosle seems to be consciously singing in Lata Mangeshkar style. SD Burman and OP Nayyar would be happening to her a few years later to evolve her own style. GM Durrani was the prime singer of 1940s and a role model of Rafi. Ironically Rafi’s ascendancy directly brought GM Durrani’s fall, but you do occasionally get his songs in 50s. Another feature of this song is that it distantly reminds you of DV Paluskar’s Thumak chalak Ramchandra.
10. O Arabpati ki chhori dil le gayee by Talat Mahmood and Geeta Dutt in Makhichoos (1956), lyric Pt Indra Pandit, music Vinod
Here is a fun and light hearted duet by Talat Mahmood and Geeta Dutt on Mahipal and Shyama. Shyama as ever is a delightful dancer. Mahipal complements her in playful flirting. Talat is an unlikely choice for such a song, but there are several songs, especially duets in which Talat Mahmood comes out of his image trap of a soulful, slow tempo ghazal singer and lets himself go.
(I would like to acknowledge that I heard some of the songs mentioned in this article for the first time on Atul song a day).
Remembering Mohammad Rafi on his death anniversary July 31
Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar were two colossus whose comprehensive domination in the golden era of 1950’s and 60’s made them synonymous with playback singing. They were what is described in marketing jargon as the brand becoming the product. What better way than to write on their best ten duets to pay my tribute to Rafi on his death anniversary, July 31.
I have expressed great admiration for Roshan at several places in my blog. Among the greatest and most melodious songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Roshan compositions occupy a very high place. He did not achieve big commercial success as some of his peers, but for music lovers he was among the greatest, especially as regards his songs for the two titans Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. His compositions were unmistakably identifiable with incredibly beautiful use of the flute and sarangi.
