Guest article by Ahok M Vaishnav as a tribute to Mukesh on his 99th Birth Anniversary (b. July 22, 1923 – d. August 27, 1976)
(Once SOY-veteran N Venkataraman remarked that there has been a post on Mukesh every year. If it was there, I or a guest author must have had something new to write on. It was not mechanical. The enthusiastic reader-cum-guest author Ashok M Vaishnav has noticed that a post on Mukesh’s duets with male singers is missing.
One reason for this omission is that MM duets are very few in number compared to the conventional MF duets, and these do not cause same waves as MF duets. But for a gold prospector like Ashokji, this is no deterrent. The result is a very thorough article on Mukesh’s duets with some male singers.
As the SOY regulars are aware, Ashokji is a retired engineer and now a freelance management training professional. He has been a prolific writer on this blog. Thank you Ashokji for yet another superb article on Mukesh as a tribute to him on his 99th Birth Anniversary. – AK)
Films in India, by and large, revolve around different themes of love between a boy and a girl. As such, songs come in very handy as a very strong and direct, easy-to-comprehend, medium to express the different shades of feelings of love. Traditionally, the solo songs occupied the space of prime importance. During vintage era this was more a necessity because the singers were generally actors themselves. Moreover, the recording technology also was in the development stage, which made recording a duet song with two vastly different musical qualities of pitch and timbre of a male and female voice was quite difficult in comparison to the recording of a solo song.
In Vasant Desai Part 1 pertaining to the vintage years (1930s and 40s), we were introduced to his multifaceted talents, including his acting and singing. As per N Venkataraman he had sung a total of 37 songs in Hindi and Marathi. We all agreed that he was an outstanding singer, but surprisingly his singing career came to a complete halt in 1944. The era of the great male playback years was a few years away. The difference between vintage and golden era (post-1950s) is not merely chronological, but also the singing style and emergence of new great playback singers: Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhosle etc.
A keen reader S. Joseph often suggests some themes to write on. He once wrote to me that there were many songs of a man praising the beauty of a woman, and also, somewhat less, of a woman praising a man, and it might be a nice theme for the blog. I felt diffident precisely for this reason – that this was too common and almost all the bloggers I follow have written on this. But I now realise, after ‘Songs of narcissists’ some balancing has become necessary lest you should get the impression that the world is full of people obsessed with themselves.
Narcissism is seen as some kind of personality disorder denoting an exaggerated sense of self-importance, arrogant, self-centred behaviour and need for excessive attention and admiration. Narcissus in the Greek mythology was cursed by the gods to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. When he saw his reflection he became transfixed in love, he slowly pined away and died. If anyone calls you a narcissist, you will become defensive, and vehemently protest. But my views have changed after I became an admirer of the girl from Gujarat (GFG) since she decided to marry herself, as she could not think of anyone she would love as much as she loved herself. It is trite that one has to love oneself to be happy. A low self-esteem would make a person brooding, sad and a misfit in the society. No one admires a person who pines Ab mera kaun sahara or Teri duniya mein dil lagta nahin, wapas bula le. You would much rather prefer a wild person who prances around with Yaar chulbula hai.
In normal times, completing twelve years of blogging would have been a matter of joy, and possibly a bit of crowing. That would look quite out of place in these unusual times. We thought that we would be getting some respite from Covid. But now there is a scare of the fourth wave hitting the country. It is clear by now, the scientists are as clueless as we all are. Otherwise, we would not have got conflicting signals: It would be very mild, it would be like any normal flu; Don’t take it lightly, it has mutated into extremely virulent variants, you have to continue following Covid-appropriate behaviour. Masking is the only remedy, make it a part of your life; masking creates a sense of fear. A friend tells me, forget everything, enjoy your normal life, अधिक से अधिक क्या होगा, मर जाओगे, in the long run we are all dead. But I am not in a hurry to reach there.
The SOY Award for the Best Male Singer goes to?
There are years when a competition becomes a one-horse race. That is the case with the best male singer for the year 1943. On the one hand we have the landmark film Tansen starring KL Saigal and Khursheed, on the other we have Kismet and Ram Rajya which have several landmark songs by female singers. There is no film which has several memorable songs by a male singer, though we do have sprinkling of some timeless male solos, such as GM Durrani’s Neend hamari khwab tumhare. Here I should add this song has Balakram singing sargam as the interlude, therefore, I treat it as a solo.
If a new visitor looks up Songs Of Yore, she would notice some names conspicuously missing in the right-hand scroll of music directors. There is no design in it, it has just happened. Yet I have to thank our regular reader Shachindra Prasad for drawing my attention to the omission of Vasant Desai so far on the blog. We know him primarily as the music director of V Shantaram’s famous films like Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955); Toofan Aur Diya (1956); Do Aankhein Barah Hath (1957); Mausi (1958); and outside films like Ardhangini, School Master, Goonj Uthi Shehnai (1959); and Guddi (1971). But during review of songs of the Vintage Era, we came across Vasant Desai as a singer too, besides being a music director. That was not a casual dalliance. Some of the songs sung by him may be a new discovery for most of us, but they are absolutely mellifluous.
Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav as a tribute t0 Manna Dey on his 103rd birth anniversary (1 May 1919 – 24 October 2013)
(Manna Dey has been described by some as an enigma among singers. That was a reference to his apparent defensiveness about his place among the contemporary playback singers, despite having the most solid training in classical music. I take it as his modesty and accepting the reality that singing in films is different from classical music, and that there was something in Rafi which he didn’t have. I contrast it with the public grumbling by the later era Suresh Wadkar, how thorough was his training in classical music, yet Bollywood has been so unfair not to give him his due.
Manna Dey was a man of many parts, and he was a singer of many parts. One important part of his singing – non-film songs – has not yet been covered on this blog. Ashok M Vaishnav identified this omission and fills the gap by this article.
Ashokji is a retired engineer, and now a freelance management professional. He is a keen lover of different forms of music and a prolific writer on this blog. Thank you Ashokji for this comprehensive article – AK)
Among his contemporaries of the 1950s Manna Dey was considered as versatile as others. His voice had unique strength even when being inherently soft. Devoid of any jerks, his voice radiated a feeling of eternal peace despite the extreme passion embedded in the rendition. As such the connoisseurs of film music fondly credited his voice to be capable of delivering the poetry along with music and melody. He was considered artist among fellow artistes and a singer of singers. It was perhaps his being so respectfully perched on a high pedestal that kept him away from being considered as ‘popular’, ‘mass’ singer.
However, I was lucky that my awareness, and in turn liking, for Manna Dey’s voice occurred during the very early years when I was unconsciously getting groomed to liking the films songs, much before I started reading about those divergent views about Manna Dey’s singing. As a result, all that I read about his singing never affected my very own liking for that enchanting voice.
If 1944 was the year of Naushad’s Jewel in the Crown, Rattan, 1943 was the year of Kismet which became a cult film on the back of its music by Anil Biswas. The Master Khemchad Prakash was at the peak of his craft, and so were KL Saigal and Khursheed in the film Tansen which had many timeless songs. And who can forget Ram Rajya’s defining song in Bhimpalasi, ‘Beena madhur madhur kachhu bol’ and other beautiful songs composed by Shankar Rao Vyas? This was also the year of Neend hamari khwab tumhare from Nai Kahani, composed by Pt. Shyam Sundar.
Other musical landmarks
There were many more songs in the year which have become milestones. Naushad would take a year to become a sensation with Rattan, but he made a mark in 1943 too. He gave music for three films – Kanoon, Namaste and Sanjog – and all the three celebrated silver jubilees. Each of them had some songs remembered till today. With their stalwarts already having left for Bombay, the New Theatres, gasping its last breath, made Kashinath and Wapas with music by Pankaj Mullick and RC Boral respectively, which had some beautiful songs by Asit Baran. Asit Baran I discovered after I started blogging when I was curious as to who minded the stable after KL Saigal, KC Dey and Pankaj Mullick had left the New Theatres. Kanan Devi had some excellent songs in Hospital, composed by Kamal Dasgupta. There were many more, such as Hamari Baat, composed by Anil Biswas; Panghat with music by SN Tripathi, Poonji by Ghulam Haider and Naadan by K Datta etc.
The Unforgettable Music of HEMANT KUMAR
By Manek Premchand
Pages: 441
First Edition: 2020
Blue Pencil, New Delhi
(With study of his Bengali repertoire by Antara Nanda Mondal and Sounak Gupta)
Salil Chowdhury once said if God wanted to sing, he would do it in the voice of Hemant Kumar. Lata Mangeshkar said about him, “Listening to Hemant Da songs, I feel as if a Sadhu is singing bhajan in a temple.” A darling of Bengal where he was known as “Chhoto Pankaj” (Little Pankaj Mullick), and one of the top singers of Rabindra Sangeet. There was something divine about his mellifluous voice. I have not met a person who is not deeply passionate about Hemant Kumar’s voice. This blog celebrated his centenary in a very comprehensive manner in 2020, anchored by two erudite articles by N Venkataraman – Hemantayan Part 1 and Hemantayan Part 2 and a number of other articles on Hemant Kumar’s music in different combinations. Thus SOY readers’ appetite whetted by the capsules on him, they would lap up Manek Premchand’s exhaustive book on Hemant Kumar.
Hemant Kumar was a man of many parts. We love him as a singer, his non-film songs are as mesmerising as his film songs. If he ruled our hearts in Hindi, he was an icon in Bengal. He continued his professional commitments in both Bombay and Calcutta, shuttling between the two cities at a frenetic pace. He was a composer par excellence where he didn’t show any partiality to his own voice, freely taking other male voices if he considered that more suitable. He also ventured into film production, which barring some exceptions, were a commercial failure. With all that he looked after and provided for a large family. All this, coupled with his smoking habit must have told upon his health. All this is captured in the book in sufficient detail.
