A tribute to SN Tripathi on the 35th Anniversary of his Remembrance Day (14 March 1913-28 March 1988)
Whenever we think of melody, honey-dipped sweetness and beautiful dances to classical/ semi-classical tunes we think of SN Tripathi. We all have many of his immortal songs on our lips: Aa laut ke aaja mere meet, Nain ka chain churakar kar le gayi (Mukesh); Zara saamne to aao chhaliye, Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hun, Lagta nahin hai dil mera ujade dayar mein, Parvardigaar-e-aalam tera hi hai sahara (Rafi), Sakhi kaise dharun main dheer, Nigaahon mein tum ho khayalon mein tum ho jidhar dekhati hun nazar aa rahe ho (Lata Mangeshkar). And it goes on and on. Chitragupta must have got his melody and sweetness under his tutelage.
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We are all aware of the drug problem in Bollywood, thanks to the media which went into frenzy at some NCB raids at rave parties and the homes of some celebrities. There was a lot of moralising about the decadent lifestyle of our role models. Bollywood in turn was surprised at the hullaballoo and their response was, Guys! Grow up to the new social reality. Everyone does party drugs, which have been legalised in many countries. And Hey lawmakers and enforcement agencies! Remove them from the list of banned substances. 
Even a very keen follower of film music would it find it difficult to list the music arrangers and instrument players beyond a few, more by luck than design, handpicked popular names. When radio was the major source of listening to the film songs, one possible reason that music arrangers and instrument players hardly got any mention when the song was played was that for each song such a list would probably take more time than possibly the actual paying time of the song, typically recorded on one side of a 78-RPM shellac record. By the time FM radio listening generation came in, this genre of supporting music was confined to pre-programmed database of ‘digitally generated’ sounds of digital or electronic instruments. So, when the music director himself was becoming more of an assembler, it would be surprising if any other support sources would have got some mention. 
Let us jump back in time, a favourite concept in very many scientific novels/films (e.g. Back to the Future, a Hollywood movie) and position ourselves before Hotel Rialto, London on the 18th July 1952. It is a gathering of distinguished guests from England, India, Indonesia etc. Nimmi is part of the entourage along with Mehboob Khan, producer of the movie Aan. The premiere of the movie in its English version named The Savage Princess is being held. It is the first Indian film to be made in full colour and shown abroad. A few days later a reception was well attended by film personalities from Hollywood too. Dazzled by the charm of Nimmi, four producers from Hollywood, including Cecil B. De Mille offered her roles in their future ventures. Nimmi refused it. Errol Flynn, a leading Hollywood actor, sought the hand of Nimmi to plant a kiss in the traditional western style. Taken aback, Nimmi declined it stating that she was an Indian girl and such practices were foreign to her culture. As usual paparazzi were buzzing among the guests. Next day came headlines in many papers – ‘Nimmi the Unkissed Girl of India’. This was stated by Nimmi herself in an 
In one of my earlier posts on lyricists, I had stated that with the advent of talkies from 1931 in India, the triumvirate of music director, singer and lyricist constituted a major element of film production. It has continued to be so till date, but with a progressive decline in quality over years, particularly in the twenty first century.
You might recall some songs picturised on Harindranath Chattopadhyay, who always looked over 80, or on the patriarch of three generations Prithviraj Kapoor, and several such songs on an ever-old Om Prakash or David. Coming to the next generation, most songs were picturised on adult romantic lovers. As for children, they had an important place in our films as in our lives, and you can reel off dozens of songs picturised on them in our films. It is another matter that barring a few songs like Naani teri morni ko mor le gaye, baaki jo bacha tha kaale chor le gaye, or Lakdi ki kaathi, kaathi pe ghoda, most of the children songs made them mouth mature philosophies. A popular soap on Sony TV, currently on air, is centred around a 6-year child who, like a 60 year old strategist, untangles the mess, removes her mother’s confusion and helps her in defeating the gang of vamps and villains in the family. Bollywood took Wordsworth’s poetic expression, “The Child is Father of the Man”, literally, and gave it a new meaning altogether. 
