Guest article by Sivanandam Palamadai as a tribute to Rafi on his 42nd Remembrance Day (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980)
(Rafi was the most dominant male playback singer of the Golden Era of film music. Yet he remained an unassuming, simple-hearted person with malice to none. The stories of his kindness and support to unrecognised music directors are legion. If his singing could help a struggling music director, he was willing to sing free for him. He sang some of his unforgettable songs for now-forgotten music directors.
Sivanandam Palamadai is relatively a new member of SOY, but is already an active participant. He is a passionate fan of Rafi and has been writing regularly for a forum dedicated to Rafi. When he offered to write on Rafi for SOY, we tossed ideas back and forth. I suggested this topic to him which can be worthy as a debut article on SOY.
Mr Palamadai is in his late 50s. He is a native of Tamil Nadu, but has lived in Pune for over 25 years. He has been a marketing professional all his working life, now in semi-retirement by choice to be in control of his career options. He is a keen listener of all kinds of music: film songs, non-film songs of Hindi and other languages, Hindustani, Carnatic and Western classical music. It gives me great pleasure to introduce a new guest writer with this superb article on Rafi’s songs for some unrecognised music directors, as a tribute to Rafi on his 42nd Remembrance Day. – AK)
There is a famous quote from Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’: Some are born great; some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. With due apologies to Shakespeare, we should add one more category to this: “Some are unfortunate in this world to be denied their greatness!!”
To this category belong many forgotten music composers of Hindi Film Music (HFM) who, in spite of being talented and also having given some excellent songs, remain unrecognised, known to only a few serious music aficionados.
This article is about such unrecognised but talented music composers. And among the many singers who had sung for such composers, there is one gentle soul who always went out of the way to help them – the legendary singer Mohammad Rafi.
I am a late entrant to the ‘Songs Of Yore’ forum and when I was interacting with AKji a few months back, he had suggested to write on Rafi’s songs with such rare composers. From the detailed list of Rafi songs he sent to me, I did some small analysis and found approximately 30% of Rafi’s total songs were for such unrecognised composers! I would like to call them as unrecognised as they may not be commercially and critically successful but still their songs were equally melodious or catchy. I thank AKji for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I am a diehard Rafi fan (primarily) apart from being a fan of almost all the golden era singers, music composers and lyricists.
I am one of those who, when listening to a song would always try to check who were the main artists involved, that is the composer, the lyricist and of course the singer. Strangely for me the film and even the actors on whom the song was picturised were always secondary or in many occasions a distraction that I would not like to focus upon! For me “listening” was always more pleasant than ‘seeing’. While I used to pride myself on my skill to guess the composer by observing certain typical ‘signature’ while listening to a song, many a times I used to get it totally wrong. That is when I realised that a Lachiram or Ramlal or Lala-Asar-Sattar or G S Kohli or C Arjun composition could sound very well like that of a Naushad or Sachin Dev Burman or Shankar-Jaikishan or Madan Mohan or O P Nayyar etc. That was the charm of some of these unrecognised composers, who were definitely talented but may be due to many factors couldn’t succeed. One prominent reason could have been (this is purely my own guess) the fact that since most of these composers got what is generally called as B or C grade films that were typically low budget, the orchestration and even the recording quality could not have been the best in the industry. But within these constraints, some of their compositions were exceedingly good. Anyhow if we have to analyse the reasons, it would be a separate topic and let us just stick to listing out a few songs from the batons of such composers. It is impossible to cover the huge list that I discovered and, therefore, for ease of reading, shall focus on some selected ones with the ever helpful Mohammad Rafi Saheb.
There can be differences in an individual’s taste when it comes to singers and so Rafi may not be the most liked or preferred singer for some, but one thing I can safely say is that everyone agrees that as a human being Rafi was humility personified. It is very rare to see a gentle soul like Rafi in the “ego-driven” music world. He would always help those who were needy and that could be the main reason why we see around 1900 songs out of his 5600 odd songs with such composers. There are many anecdotes about how he never charged or just took a token amount from some of the composers who couldn’t afford to pay much. The most striking quality of Rafi was that his commitment and effort to give an extraordinary song with such composers was as good as what he would do for a Naushad, S D Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, Roshan, Madan Mohan, O P Nayyar etc.
It would be impossible for one to select just a few from the 1900 odd such songs, but I have to make it readable and so like many such lists in any music blog, this is just a tip of the iceberg. I know fully well that SOY has so many knowledgeable readers that we shall see many such songs in the comments section. To have some logic, I have organised the list in the chronological order of the film’s release date. Also, I have excluded the early years of Rafi and started those songs from mid-50’s when Rafi was one of the leading singers in the industry.
1. Music Composer S Mohindar: Hazaaron rang badlega zamana from the film Shiri Farhad (1956), lyrics by Tanveer Naqvi
Bakshi Mohinder Singh Sarna, known professionally as S Mohinder mainly composed for Hindi and Punjabi films. There is an exhaustive post about him in SOY by AKji under the ‘Forgotten composers’ series and so I will not duplicate the same here. The Lata Mangeshkar song Guzra hua zamana aata nahin dobara from the same film is very popular but this Rafi solo stands out with Rafi’s silencing those laughing at the hero with his trademark pitch and the lines:
Na hanso pyar pe, naadan zamaane walo, kya mitaoge mohabbat ko mitane walo
This can very well be in the same league as Naushad’s ‘Zindabad ae mohabbat zindabad’.
2. Music Composer Mukul Roy: Aankhon pe bharosa mat kar duniya jaadu ka khel hai from the film Detective (1958), lyrics by Shailendra, co-singer Sudha Malhotra
Mukul Roy was the famous singer Geeta Dutt’s elder brother. Many songs from the film Detective are quite popular like the one in this article, apart from Rafi’s solo Chhodiye gussa huzoor aisi naarazi (interlude music is from Jim Reeve’s Bimbo!), Hemant Kumar-Geeta Dutt duet Mujhko tum jo mile ye jahaan mil gaya, Geeta’s solo Do chamakti aankhon mein. Not much information is known about Mukul Roy except that he was born in 1926 and died in 2009, having composed for three Hindi Films, two Bengali films and one Gujarati film (Courtesy: https://amvaishnav.wordpress.com/).
This song has an excellent mouth organ right from the beginning, and a very young Sudha Malhotra singing for the child artist Daisy Irani. Rafi excels in such peppy numbers with his typical breezy style of singing. Shailendra’s lines must have been composed for today’s ‘fake news social media’ – Aankhon pe bharosa mat kar duniya jadoo ka khel hai, Har cheez yahan ek dhokha, har baat yahan bemel hai.
3. Music Composer Bipin Dutta: Ye Bombay shehar ka bada naam hai from the film Kya Ye Bambai Hai (1959), lyrics by Noor Devasi
I think this song on Bambai (as it was known in 1959) is on the same league as the more popular Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan from CID (1956). Bipin Dutta (or Dutt?) and Babul (will be discussed in song # 5 in this series) were assistants to Madan Mohan. They had composed jointly and also independently. This song is an out and out Rafi’s signature style. He just freaks out in such type of songs and adds the necessary zing to the lyrics. The lyricist is also an obscure Noor Dewasi (Aao huzoor tumko sitaron mein le chalun from Kismet (1968) remains his most popular song). Those who had lived in Mumbai can really enjoy this seven minute song with six stanzas that fully captures the essence of Mumbai.
4. Music Composer S Madan: Ye raat ye fizayein phir aayein ya na aayein from the film Bantwara (1961), lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri, co-singer Asha Bhosle
One more composer from Punjab who was mostly ignored in Hindi films but made his name in Punjabi films. I couldn’t get much information about this composer except for the fact that he had earlier assisted the music director Vinod (of Lara lappa lara lappa fame) and independently composed for only four Hindi films – Ambe Ma Jagdambe Ma, Bantwara, Danka and Teri Pooja Kare Sansaar. Among all the songs he composed, Ye raat ye fizayein from Bantwara remains the most popular and truly a timeless song. There is one more Rafi solo in Bantwara: Yeh kaisi deewar hai duniya. Having got rejected from Hindi films, he then went on to compose for Punjabi films and, I understand, was more successful there.
This song is a very soft, pleasing melody that can be easily mistaken for a Madan Mohan (any coincidence on the name?! ) or Roshan tune. Rafi exudes that extra sweetness in such romantic numbers. A very interesting thing I noticed is that the audio version has the lines Ye raat ye fizayein, phir aayen ya na aayein, Aao shama bujhake, hum aaj dil jalayein whereas the film version ends with Hum aaj mil ke gayen! (There is a story behind it. This is what I wrote in my review of Manek Premchand’s book on Majrooh Sultanpuri, “Similar absurd objections of the Censors followed Majrooh Sultanpuri from time to time. For example, they objected to the second line in the immortal, Ye raat ye fizaayen, phir aayen ya na aayen, which was originally ‘Aao shama bujha ke hum aaj dil jalaayen’. To satisfy them he changed it to ‘Aao shama jala ke hum aaj mil ke gaayen’ (Bantwara, 1961, Rafi and Asha Bhosle, S Madan), which, according to me, reduces the song a great deal.” – AK)
5. Music Composer Babul: Tum poochhte ho ishq bala hai ki nahin hai from the film Naqli Nawab (1962), lyrics by Kaifi Azmi
There is an elaborate article on the composer Babul and his partner Bipin Dutta from whom he later split on this blog and also quite a good amount of information in the comments section under the same blog. I knew just the name Babul whenever the song under discussion was played on Vividh Bharati. There are many popular songs from Babul that have been comprehensibly covered in that post including this one. Rafi is a master of this type of ghazal – just note the line: Khone mein bhi paane ka maza hai ke nahin hai which he renders in his inimitable style.
6. Music Composer Ramlal Chaudhury: Taqdeer ka fasana jakar kise sunaayein from the film Sehra (1963), lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri
One can call Ramlal Chaudhury a two-film wonder, though he had composed for six films totally. Starting his career as a shehnai and flute player for many composers, he independently composed for a film called Taangewala which unfortunately was not completed. He then composed for very few films like Husn Bano (1956), Naqab Posh (1956), Naal Log (1957), and Maya Machhendra (1960) – music of which was mostly forgotten. Then came his association with V Shantaram’s Sehra (1963) and Geet Gaya Patharon Ne (1964). These two films stand out as classics even today with some career best songs of three leading singers: Rafi (Taqdeer ka fasana), Lata Mangeshkar (Pankh hoti to ud aati main) and Asha Bhosle (Tere khayalon mein hum). It is really cruel that luck (or should we say the industry?) didn’t smile upon him and tragically he died in penury.
Taqdeer ka fasana is a classic Rafi pathos song – there is an anecdote behind this which I heard from Ramlal’s own interview. Seems it was earlier recorded in Mahendra Kapoor’s voice as Shantaram had never worked with Rafi (I don’t know what was the reason!). Both Shantaram and Ramlal were not satisfied and it was Ramlal who went to Rafi and requested him to sing this. This film had two more Rafi songs – one a very popular duet – Tum to pyaar ho sajna and one that is very rarely heard or talked about but one of my personal favourites – Lagi mast nazar ki kataar, a song ‘designed’ for Rafi!.
7. Music Composer Sapan Jagmohan: Phir wo bhooli si yaad aayi hai from the film Begaana (1963), lyrics by Shailendra
There were so many “duo” composers in HFM and Sapan Sengupta-Jagmohan Bakshi were one more. They started off as singers in Salil Chowdhury’s youth choir and later on started composing music. Around a dozen Hindi films were composed by them, with Mukesh’s ‘Main to har mod par tujhko doonga sada’ in the film Chetna (1970) being a very popular one. This Rafi number Phir wo bhooli si yaad aayi hai from ‘Begaana’ sounds almost like an early Kalyanji-Anandji composition. The second antara starts off in a different way as compared to the first and third ones. Once again we can notice how Rafi sings with so much sincerity and brings out the pathos even with a relatively lesser-known composer
8. Music Composer Sardar Mallick: Mujhe tum se mohabbat hai from the film Bachpan (1963), lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri
When one talks about Sardar Mallick, Mukesh and the song Saranga teri yaad mein only come to mind. But it was amazing for me to note that Rafi had sung 46 songs for him. The song in this selection being one of the very soft, romantic melodies and can easily be considered among the top songs of Rafi. The same film Bachpan has a sweet duet with Suman Kalyanpur – Tere hum O sanam tu jahan main wahan. There is one peppy duet with Lata Mangeshkar in Saranga – Piya kaise milun tumse apart from the shorter version of Saranga teri yaad mein.
Sardar Mallik is a classic case where the son became more popular than the father, though most of the SOYers may agree that the father’s tunes were more melodious than the son’s!
The way Rafi develops on the word ‘mohabbat’ in the line ‘Mujhe tumse mohabbat hai’ in so many ways (that was his ‘patent’ or ‘trademark’) makes this sweet melody more enjoyable.
9. Music Composer C Arjun: Paas baitho tabeeyat bahal jayegi from the film Punarmilan (1964), lyrics by Indivar
Chandnani Arjun, known just as C Arjun is another example of a very talented composer, confined to mostly B or C grade films till he got some recognition with Jai Santoshi Ma (1975). There is again a very good article by AKji on this blog and so I wouldn’t elaborate much on the composer.
The Rafi solo selected here and one excellent male duet with Talat in film Sushila (1966), Gham ki andheri raat mein are two very good Rafi songs that I could think of. Paas baitho tabeeyat bahal jayegi is the first song many think of whenever C Arjun is talked about.
10. Music Composer Iqbal Qureshi: Subah na aayi shaam na aayi from the film Cha Cha Cha (1964), lyrics by Neeraj
If you ask me, personally I would bracket Iqbal Qureshi among the top 20 composers just for the one film Cha Cha Cha. What great compositions in this movie!
Born on 12th May 1930 in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, he later moved to Hyderabad. He was quite a tall figure, literally, at more than six feet. He was closely associated with the Urdu poet Maqdoom Mohiuddin. Although Cha Cha Cha is his best-known film, he had composed some great songs in his earlier films like Panchayat (Lata-Geeta duet Ta thaiyya karke aana), Bindiya (Rafi’s Main apne aap se ghabra gaya hoon), Love in Simla (The Urdu alphabet song by Rafi and Sudha Malhotra Alif zabar aa alif zer ae alif pesh o) and so on. Of the 25 odd films for which he composed music Cha Cha Cha was a class apart. There were totally five songs: Rafi’s solos – Subah aayi shaam na aayi; Wo hum na the – which are more popular, and a very less heard, Ek lalli ghar se chali, which is a very mellow song just in contrast to the other two solos of Rafi and two duets with Asha Bhosle – Ek chameli ke mandve tale and Tumse maano na maano tumse, with Rafi whispering the mukhda.
Of course, the song in this selection is an all-time classic with Rafi touching the peak at the end with Aa jaao, aa jaao. Not to forget the exemplary lyrics by Neeraj, starting with:
Khushi jisne khoji, wo dhan leke lauta
Haseen jisne khoji, chaman leke lauta
Magar pyaar ko khojne jo chala wo
Na tan leke lauta, na man leke auta
11. Music Composer Lacchi Ram: Gori tore nain nainva kajar bina kaare from the film Main Suhagan Hoon (1964), lyrics by Kaifi Azmi, co- singer Asha Bhosle
Whenever I used to hear the name of this composer in Vividh Bharati as they played his songs Dhalti jaaye raat, kah le dil ki baat or Tu shokh kali, main mast pawan, my thoughts would go as to why the composer of such sweet melodious songs never became popular. Till the time I read a detailed article about this composer by our AKji in SOY under the tab ‘Forgotten Composers’, I never knew anything about him.
The song selected here is very rarely played/heard and is a great composition set in the Raag Desh. The interludes have a great sitar and sarangi combination. So far I had heard the audio version in radio but when I saw the full version as picturized in the film, I was really amazed by the mastery in composition and singing by Rafi and Asha.
Can easily be in the same league as any classical raag based composition by the legendary composers!
12. Music Composer Snehal Bhatkar: Aapne huzoor mujhe kya se kya bana diya..meharbaani from the film Fariyaad (1964), lyrics by Kedar Sharma, co-singer Suman Kalyanpur
Snehal Bhatkar, real name Vasudev Gangaram Bhatkar, was born in 1919 and lived till 2007. He had composed for some 30 odd films in Hindi and Marathi. With a limited repertoire he has left behind some landmark songs like ‘Kabhi tanhaiyon mein yun hamari yaad aayegi which is considered as the best by Mubarak Begum, Suman Kalyanpur’s Haal-e-dil unko sunana tha, even making Nutan a singer in the film Chhabili – Ae mere humsafar rok apni nazar.
Most of his tunes are extraordinary with the song selected in this blog being a sort of tongue twister – Mere teri dum se teri meri dum se hai ye zindagani zindagani….meharbani.
The film Fariyad has one more peppy, unique composition with Mahendra Kapoor and Suman Kalyanpur getting excited with a papiha that has seen them! Dekho dekh raha tha papiha, Papiha bhala chup kyun rahega papiha!
Snehal Bhatkar initially composed under the name B Vasudev also and had a great combination with the lyricist and film maker Kidar Sharma.
13. Music Composer Lala Asar Sattar: Main to tere haseen khayalon mein kho gaya from the film Sangram (1965), lyrics by Esh Kanwal.
Lala Gangawane, Asar & Sattar Khan, were a trio – a rarity in HFM which had many duo composers. They were mostly percussion players/ assistants for the legendary composers and as a trio composed for a handful of films before Asar, from the group parted. Sangram had some very good unique songs like Lata Mangeshlar’s ‘Ho masti mein dole jiya ho’ and the Rafi solo, Main to tere haseen khayalon mein kho gaya.
Totally they may have composed for some ten odd films only.
14. Music Composer G S Kohli: Maana mere haseen sanam from the film Adventures of Robin Hood (1965), lyrics by Yogesh Gaur
If we ever wanted to imagine how Lata Mangeshkar would have sounded in an O P Nayyar composition, there were the songs from the 1963 film Shikari composed by his long-time assistant Gurusharan Singh Kohli. Tumko piya dil diya, Chaman ke phool bhi tujhko, Agar main poochun jawab doge and Baaje ghungroo chham chham – all were fabulous songs of Lata Mangeshkar as duets and solo.
G S Kohli, in spite of composing independently, continued to assist OPN till 1968. As with most of these unrecognised composers, in spite of being immensely talented they could get the ‘so called’ B or C grade films only .
This Rafi’s solo from the Adventure of Robin Hood remains among the top songs of Rafi, with the typical romantic style in which he excels.
15. Music Composer Brij Bhushan: Kahin aisa na ho tum ajnabi raahon mein from the film Milap (1972), lyrics by Naqsh Lyallpuri
Except for the details that his full name was Brij Bhushan Sahni and had married the younger sister of the famous actress Madhubala, I couldn’t get any information about this composer. Milap had the evergreen Mukesh song, Kai sadiyon se kai janmon se. The Rafi song selected here Kahin aisa na ho tum ajnabi is another very rare but a haunting melody, with excellent use of guitar.
16. Music Composer Ganesh: Dil ne pyar kiya hai ek bewafa se from the film Shararat (1972), lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri
When I started doing some research for this article, I realised that for some of these unrecognised composers, even being in the family of a very illustrious and successful artist doesn’t help. Ganesh , in spite of being the younger brother of Pyarelal Sharma (of Laxmikant -Pyarelal duo) remained in the side-lines. Even after composing for 16 films he couldn’t get the fame and success as his brother. In fact, there were two more brothers in the family, Naresh Sharma and Gorakh Sharma also in the music industry as arrangers/ assistants. Incidentally, Mithoon, son of Naresh Sharma is a very successful music composer in today’s Bollywood. Sometimes the luck smiles upon the next Gen!
Coming back to Ganesh, there are a few songs that immediately come to mind, Asha Bhosle’s Hum tere bin ji na sakenge sanam from the film Thakur Jarnail Singh and the song in this list. Rafi is always known for articulating a phrase in different ways in a song. The way he sings Dil ne with his inimitable style adds so much to the great composition. Without knowing the composer, if we listen to this song we can easily assume it to be Shankar-Jaikishan with the piano and violin orchestration being top class. Adding more charm to this song are Hasrat’s lines:
Dil humara tha
Humne hara tha
Tum pe wara tha
17. Music Composer Shyamji Ghanshyaamji: Apni aankhon mein basakar from the film Thokar (1974), lyrics by Sajan Delavi
Contrary to popular perception this is not a duo composer team but a single individual! Having changed his name from Ghanshyam to Shyam and then finally to Shyamji Ghanshyamji, he achieved fame with this one song from Thokar. And what a composition! It can very well be considered among the top 50 songs of Rafi. Like many of the olden day songs, there are two versions of this song – one with two antara is more commonly heard but the one with the third antara is too good with Rafi in his usual elements.
A few other songs of this composer that I could remember – Teri jheel si gehri aankhon mein with a rare combination of Vani Jayaram and Nitin Mukesh (film Dhuen Ki Lakeer), Meri hasraton ki duniya tu mile kahin jo mujhko, Rafi and Krishna Kalle (from a strangely titled film Gaal Gulabi Nain Sharabi!).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv87jmRp7zo
18. Music Composer Shambhu Sen: Nav kalpana nav roop from the film Mrigtrishna (1975), lyrics by Shambhu Sen
One more example of next Gen becoming more popular – Shambhu Sen’s son Sameer and Sameer’s uncle Dilip became very successful composers as the duo Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen, whereas Shambhu Sen, son of the illustrious Jamal Sen remained in the shadows.
Shambhu Sen had only one main film, Mrigtrishna with songs by Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Rafi, and even a solo by Mehdi Hasan. Of all these songs, Rafi’s Navkalpana nav roop se set in Raag Yaman can be one among the many good Nritya – based songs. A classic example of how Rafi with his total dedication to singing makes even lesser-known composers immortal.
19. Music Composer J P Kaushik: Sona re tujhe kaise milun from the film Aankhen Dekhi (1978), lyrics by Padma Sachdev, co-singer Sulakshana Pandit.
Although I had listened to this song a few times, I had not heard this composer’s name! I was surprised to learn that J P Kaushik had composed for some 50 odd films in Hindi, Haryanavi, Rajasthani and Gujarati films. Incidentally J P Kaushik composed for the debut film of Big B – Saat Hindustani and some more films of K A Abbas.
I understand that he worked in the Indian Air Force as an officer, had also taken part in the freedom struggle. Basically from Rohtak, Haryana, he got in touch with the noted composer Jaidev after leaving the Air Force and got into the music industry. K A Abbas had given him a lot of opportunities and his first film as a composer Shahar Aur Sapna fetched the National Award for best film in 1963.
The song Sona re tujhe kaise miloon is a rare but sweet duet that most of us might have listened in the past without knowing who had composed it.
20. Music Composer Manas Mukherjee: Khushbu hoon main phool nahin hun jo from the film Shaayad (1979), lyrics by Nida Fazli
Manas Mukherjee was the son of Jahar Mukherjee, a Thumri singer, composer, lyricist and a film producer based in Kolkata, West Bengal. He unfortunately passed away at young age of 43 years leaving behind his son and daughter, Shaan and Sagarika Mukherjee who went on to become famous singers.
This song picturised on Naseeruddin Shah has Rafi continuing his sweet melodies even at the time when music had become mostly noisy. The lyrics seem to be a perfect fit for being the last song in this series:
Khushboo hoon main, phool nahin hoon jo murjhaaunga,
Jab jab mausam leharaayega, main aa jaaunga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chjBjaOXRyU
Acknowledgements and Disclaimer:
The song links have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.
{ 103 comments… read them below or add one }
Mr. Suvanandam’s knowledge and his passion for Hindi Film music is amazing and mind boggling
Sorry, spelled the name wrong Mr.Sivanandam
Sivanandam Palamadaiji,
Thank you so much for filling up the uncovered space for the the hidden gems of Rafi by even more forgotten music directors.
I can very well appreciate the care and pains you have taken in selecting these 20 songs.
However now that you opened up the field, I am sure SoY forum will chip in with
many more.
I submit a couple of songs from my side:
Main Apne Aap Se Ghabara Gaya HuN – Bindiya (1960) – Rajinder Krishna – Iqbal Quereshi
https://youtu.be/wPIxxiT8kV0
And one duet that I rate as one the best among all duets of HFM
Devta Tum Ho Mera Sahara – Daera (1953) – with Mubarak Begum – Kaif Bhopali – Jamal Sen
https://youtu.be/wkLJ7YPcIVM
BTW, equally interesting area to explore is Mohammad Rafi’s forgotten songs by well-known music directors.
I am sorry to have mention Bindiya song at #1 above, since that is well covered in the main post.
I will substitute it with another solo
Nigahein Na Phero Chale Jaayenge Hum – Black Prince (1959) – Upendra – Dulal Sen
https://youtu.be/OjVPej75az4
At the outset I would like to thank AK ji for having given me this opportunity to contribute to this great blog and also for the kind introduction . It is a great pleasure to be part of SOY and to see the passion of so many towards the good music of yesteryears.
Looking forward to hear from others about many such composers whom I couldnt cover due to the contsraint of keeping the article of ‘readable’ length.
Ashok ji you ( & others also) can address me just Siva!…thanks for the ‘Nigahen na phero song’-an intricate composition indeed!
Regards
Siva
Nice article and well return.
Welcome to the entrant of this fine Music blog.
I just add one song on this category.
Film – Mrig Trishna
Music Director – Sambu Sen (hope I am correct)
song – nav kalpana nav rup se rachana hai.
A song beautifully sung – based on Hindusthani classical type.
Siva…Wonderful Post. Written after an in depth research and with so much passion. Keep the good work going.
Refer # 4
Dear Vasudevan ji
Thanks !! Yes-I have mentioned that song in #18 in my article. Good classical number.
Siva ji,
Thanks for the wonderful article. You have covered most of the composers, I think.
It was actually one of the topics which I had in mind after I wrote on Lata’s association with lesser known composers.
I would take the opportunity to add Rafi’s first solo with Lata Mangeshkar which the duo sang for the film, Shadi se pehle under the baton of Ramakant Paingankar and Karnad. I guess Rafi sang a few more songs for the movie.
Here’s the song,
Chal Ho Gayi Taiyar
https://youtu.be/nj_xdoJUeJM
Anup
🙂
I am adding a few more composers to the list.
Ram Ganguly was known for the film Aag (1948). But later his career graph collapsed badly. He is now remembered only for Aag. Adding one if his songs with Rafi.
O soniye jab jeet hui hai hamari with co singer Geeta Dutt
Film – 10’O clock (1958)
Composer – Ram Ganguly
https://youtu.be/0859wtXFblQ
Yeh Bheegi bheegi raat
Again with co singer Geeta Dutt
Film – Dr Z (1959)
Composer – Manohar
https://youtu.be/6WNYnjghEWk
And,
Humen Pyar karne na dega zamana
with Geeta Dutt
Film – Pyar Ki Baazi (1966)
Composer – Jimmy
https://youtu.be/AychtKvI-80
Anup
🙂
Anup Ji
Thanks for adding to the list…I am hearing the song posted in #6-Chal Ho Gayi Taiyar for the first time!
Ram Ganguly’s Aag had some unique compositions…Shamshad Begum’s Kahe koel shor machaye was outstanding and so were Mukesh’s Zinda hoon is tarah, Raat ko jab chand. Rafi had a duet ‘ Solah baras ki ‘ with Shamshad in that movie.
AKji
Thanks for introducing another guest writer to SoY! The SoY family clearly establishes that music goes well beyond the boundaries of language and region and unites us all in a very unique way.
Sivaji,
Thanks a lot for this lovely post on Rafi!
Mohinder worked quite closely with Rafi. I had written a post on his songs with Rafi long ago. I am posting the link in case you want to read it. https://anitamultitasker.wordpress.com/2020/07/03/songs-of-s-mohinder-and-md-rafi/
Though yodelling is usually associated with Kishore Kumar, in one of Mohinder’s songs, Rafi tries to yodel with Asha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToV1QF98Pi4
I would like to add another composer – Kanu Ghsoh. Rafi sang Aaj Is Nagri Kal Us Nagri for him in the movie Naya Zamana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp0PK5B0V68
Anita Ji,
Thanks for your comments. I will definitely go through your blog and also the songs you have posted.
Kanu Ghosh’s songs for Geeta Dutt in the film Anubhav-1971 ( her last I think) are masterpieces.
AK ji,
In song number 9, the name of C. Arjun is written as Chanchalani.
As far as I know, his name was ARJUN PARMANAND CHANDNANI.
In your post on C.Arjun, his nephew Sham Chandnani had commented and he also wrote his name as Chandnani.
Kindly look into it.
-AD
#14…regret error. I had referred some site in the Net..could have been a wrong source.
Unfortunately for many of these composers , there are not much of details available .
Sivaji@13
Kanu Ghosh and Kanu Roy are two different music directors. Kanu Ghosh did not compose prolifically as an independent music director and worked more as an assistant of music director Salil Chowdhury.
The other Kanu was Kanu Roy who also incidentally started off as an assistant of Salil Chowdhury but later became a part of Basu Bhattacharya’s team. He independently composed music for Basu’s films such as Uski Kahani, Anubhav, Avishkaar, Griha Pravesh. Here are two links about Kanu Roy
https://www.cinemaazi.com/people/kanu-roy
and
https://thedailyeye.info/thought-box/retroscope-unsung-talents/9b44831654047857
One question I however have for the experts like Arun Kumar Deshmukhji is-
Who is Kanu Roy who features as Ashok Kumar’s friend in Mahal(1949)? Is he the same as the music director Kanu Roy?
Sivanandam ji,
Thanks for responding.
Lala,Asar,Sattar gave music only to 2 films – Sangram and Jahan Sati wahan Bhagwan, both in 1965. Then Asar left. Lala and Sattar together gave music to only 8 films.
Secondly, out of the 20 MDs you have chosen, full details are available on about 15 of them.
Thirdly, I would hesitate to call S. Mohinder (36 films-243 songs), Sardar Malik (25-199), Iqbal Qureshi (33-202), Or Snehal Bhatkar (26-173), as ” Unrecognised MDs.”
It is true that Rafi sang for many less known MDs and many times at less fees than his normal fees. You can find many such MDs and their songs.
I appreciate your post for such songs, as these are not highlighted much otherwise. Thanks for your efforts and Welcome to the group of contributors of SOY. It is always a pleasure to write on AK ji’s Blog.
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Anita ji @ 16
Kanu Roy-MD and Kanu Roy-actor are two different persons. I have given details about them under ” Same Name Confusion” in my book. I can send you their details if you want . I would need your Email ID. Mine is deshmukh.arunkumar@ gmail.com
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Post #16…Anita ji….yes..i got confused between Kanu Ghosh & Roy!! Thanks for the correction.
Post #17..Arunkumar ji…thanks for your comments. Agreed some of them may be known among the knowledgeable music connoisseurs like in SOY, but for a majority, they remain unknown.
I had mentioned this in my earlier comments in SOY. I still feel like I am in Kindergarten amongst the group in SOY!! Lot to learn…
There is a proverb in Tamil that loosely translates to : what we have learnt is just a handful and what is yet to be learnt is as large as this world.!!
Arunji@18
I shall email you tomorrow. Thanks a lot for sharing your email id!
Nice blog…would love if you post a blog on the new singers of bollywood(2010-2022).
A large number of viewers would be awaiting.
Thank you
Nice blog…would love if you post a blog on the new singers of bollywood(2010-2022).
A large number of viewers would be awaiting.
Thank you
Nice blog…would love if you post a blog on the new singers of bollywood(2010-2022).
A large number of viewers would be awaiting.
Thank you
Sivanandamji,
Welcome to SoY. And thanks to Akji for introducing one more guest writer.
I would go through your post at leisure. For now here is my welcome song.
Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao was classical musician, to be exact a flautist. Besided he was also a composer and choreographer. He was under the tutelage of Pandit Ravi Shankar since 1945. He had several students, Pt. Ranu Majumdar being one of the prominent ones. He scored music for a few films.
Posting a song, may be the only song he composed for Md.Rafi. The song, a stage show, was picturised on Junior Mehmood. And this was Amitabh Bachhaan’s and Jaya Bhaduri’s first film together.
Na Koi Paisa Na Ilam, Bansi Birju (1972), music Vijay Raghav Rao, lyrics Yogesh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzYdwKRLRCk
Shivanandamji
Fabulous article on a unique subject and a feast of Rafi gems. The list shows that for the legend it did not matter whether the composer was recognized or unrecognised.
Except the first 2 songs all others are familiar to me.
I add here 3 songs.
Prem Dhawan to many is better recognized as a lyricist than a composer. His output as a composer and lyricist bears testimony in terms of both quantity and quality. But there are at least 2 films Shaheed and Pavitra Paapi where he gave some memorable songs.
Ye watan, ye watan – Shaheed
https://youtu.be/ZeXHtLx2HI4
Pt Hridayanath Mangeshkar is also not a recognised in Hindi film industry as a composer as films for which he gave music are too few and far between. Here is a song from an unknown film Harishandra Taramati
Ek hai zarana ek hai Nadiya – Virendra Mishra
https://youtu.be/LCfSoQyA8U8
And the last one is composed by Sudhir Phadake who perhaps used Rafi’s voice in this song only. Babuji,as he was known in Marathi industry, composed score for very few Hindi movies. This perhaps is his last film in Hindi and also the only time he used Rafi’s voice
Chal Gori chal us paar – Daraar – Kulwant Jaani – Rafi and Asha
https://youtu.be/OoAwhOgZdaA
#1 & 7-Mohan and Sridhar-thanks for your kind comments.
Venkataraman Ji , Rahul Ji-# 21 & 22
Thanks a lot for your comments and also sharing some rare songs. Had never heard them before! Real pleasure to be associated with such a knowledgeable group.
This type of articles can only be written by someone who has internalised Rafi so much in his body, mind and soul. Siva is thorough in whatever he does and music is his passion and Rafi is his soul. What else we can say!
A Hindi song sung by Md.Rafi from a Bengali film ‘Indrani’ (1958), lyrics Shailendra, music Nachiketa Ghosh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yblcbipMsBE
Nachiketa Ghosh may be a unknown MD outside Bengal, but was one of the popular and most sought after MDs in Bengal during the golden period.
A Hindi song by Md.Rafi from a Malayalam film;
Shabab le ke woh Jaane shabab aya hai, film ‘Thaliritta Kinakkal’ (1980), lyrics Aayish Kamal, music Jithin Shyam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIJ0FiuKQWk
Jithin Shyam has composed around 20 songs in Malayalam films during the period 1978 – 1995. Hailed from Alappuzha in Kerala, Jithin Shyam’s original name was Mohammed Ismail. Jithin Shyam studied Hindustani music, worked as assistant to Brij Bhushan and later trained under the redoubtable Naushad for 12 years.
Venkataraman Ji,
Thanks for the unique songs-Rafi’s Hindi songs in Bengali & Malayalam films.
For native Tamil fans of Rafi , there will always be a big disappointment that he didnt sing any Tamil song ( he had sung in Telugu & Kannada among the south indian languages). There is an intersteing anecdote about how Rafi came very close to singing the title song of the film: Mohammad-Bin -Tughlaq, which was originally made as a play by the famous actor-magazine editor-playwright-humourist Cho Ramaswamy. It was a political satire with a fictionalised visit of Mohammad Bin Tughlaq to visit the country in 70’s. The play was very popular.
I dont know how far true but such anecdotes are indeed interesting!
Seems the legendary music director M S Vishwanathan wanted Rafi to sing the title song of the movie ( Allah Allah nee illadha idame illai , neethane ulagin ellai- rough translation:there is no place you dont exist, you are the limits of this world). However the director of the movie Cho Ramaswamy wanted only MSV himself to sing and after lot of debate it was decided to do a drawal of lots. Cho cleverly wrote MSV ‘s name in all the chits of paper and thereby deprived the Tamil fans of their only possible Rafi song!.
Dear Mr Mohan Shankaran @1, Mr Srdhar Subramanian @7, Mr R Siddhesh @21, and Mr P Krishnamurthy @26,
Let me formally welcome to Songs of Yore.
Mr Siddhesh,
Thanks a lot for your appreciation. I understand your sentiments. But I am very ignorant about songs of 2010-22. It is my loss that I have to lose so many readers who may be looking for new songs. I am sure there must be other forums which engage in songs of this period.
Anita @12,
It is my good fortune that so many knowledgeable persons have patronised this blog and some of them have also written guest articles for this blog. Thanks a lot also for your nice words and I have to also thank you that you have also been a contributor here.
Arunji @14,
Thanks for pointing this out. Since corrected.
Arunji @17,
Thanks a lot for all the details about Lala Asar Sattar. It is one of the quirks of Hindi film music that Lala Asar Stattar is not one person but the collective name of three distinct persons Lal, Asar, and Sattar. After one (Asar) fell down, there were two by the single name Lala Sattar. And Shyamji Ghanshyamji is not a duo but one person.
A very unique example is of an eminent name – Alex Rutherford – for writing fictionalised accounts of six Great Mughals. I have the books but I am deterred by their girth to read them. AR is not one person but the collective pen name of two persons – Diana Preston and her husband Michael Preston.
Anita @16,
Thanks a lot for the links on Kanu Roy the music director. Arunji has already clarified that Kanu Roy and Kanu Roy are two different persons. To compound matters, there is a Kanu Ghosh too. This Kanu Ghosh is immortal for me for his composition of Mukesh’s Do roz mein wo pyar ka aalam guzar gaya from the film Pyar Ki Raahein.
Do roz mein wo pyar ka aalam guzar gaya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tems5NkpCLY
Rafi has sung for many such composers .. I can recollect the names such as Bhushan, Daan Singh, Aziz Hindi , Sudarshanam and Adi Narayana Rao the South Indian composers. Then there were Chic Choclate , Narayana Dutt ,Chand Pardesi
and so on. He is even said to support them with discounted prices ! But the unfortunate aspect is that many of them could not make it to the top!
The great Rafi has a vast following and a post to honour him is very welcome. A great write up with a wonderful selection of songs. @24, that Prem Dhawan was also an MD could be a revelation to many. It was an exercise for me to decide which MDs to cover here . It would not be wrong to cover under this post songs of Rafi with MDs other than…SDB, RDB , SJ, NAUSHAD , CR , LP, OPN , RAVI , MADAN MOHAN , ROSHAN , HEMANT , SALIL CHOUDHARY, CHITRAGUPT , KALYANJI ANANDJI, KHAYYAM .
A once popular song…
‘ Watan ki Raah…’/ 1948 / SHAHEED / Raja Mehdi Ali Khan / Ghulam Haider / Rafi , Khan Mastana +
https://youtu.be/j4k2bcecBrQ
Sivanandam ji and KB @33,
Rafi sang for many small and un recognised (in true sense) MDs. Some names are Meer Saheb-Zeenat-45, Premnath-Rangbhoomi-46, Tufail Faruqi-Sona chandi-46, Naresh Bhattacharya-Dak Bangla-47, Motiram, P.N.Sharma- Ek kadam-47, B S Thakur-Shanti-47, Datta Thakur-Amar Prem-48, S Purushottam-Mere Laal-48, Dhoomi Khan-Rehnuma-48. Amirbai karnataki-Shahnaz-48, Ram Prasad-Banoo-49, Harbans Lal-Jauhari-51, Krishna Dayal-Lekh-49, Narayan Dutt-Mordhwaj-52, B.Balsara-Madmast-53, Shivram-oonchi haveli-55, D D Jagannath-Golkonda ka Qaidi-54, Sailesh Mukherjee-Parichay-54, B S Kalla-Do dulhe-55 etc etc.
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Joseph ji , Arun ji
Thanks for adding so many songs. Will search for the songs mentioned by Arun ji.
Sivanandamji @ 28,
Thank you for your response and for sharing the interesting anecdote about how Rafi came very close to singing the title song of the Tamil film, Mohammad-Bin –Tughlaq. These side-chats add spice to the post, what we call “Adda”in Bengali, most probably the Tamil equivalent will be “Arattai”
KB has mentioned eight MDs. Posting a song of composed by Bhushan ( mentioned as Brij Bhushan in some sites)
Ae Jaan E Bahara Ruh-E-Chaman Pehlu, a nice waltz solo, lyrics Naqsh Lyallpuri, Purani Pehchan (1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHBpnJlCy8o
I would select two MDs out of the long list of MDs placed by Arunji.
Ameerbai Karnataki is a well-known name. She also composed music for few films.
Mohabbat Me Khudaya Aise Guzre Zindagi, Shahnaz (1948), lyrics Ameer Usmani Deobandi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmkiEGrKGZU
Naresh Bhattacharya, you may remember his name appeared along with S V Venkataraman and Ramnath in the credit titles of the Hindi film Meera (1947). It seems he did not compose for many films. Beside Meera (1947), he was the MD for the Hindi films Dak Bangla (1947) Bihari (1948), Shole (1953), Asst. MD for the film Bombay (1949), Jagrata Bharat (Bengali Film 1950) and Panchayat (Bengali film 1950).
Posting a songs from Dak Bangla (1947)
Jab Baite Baite Dil Bhar Aaye, lyrics D N Madhok, music Naresh Bhattacharya
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCq_g21nZg4
Siva,
I was a bit busy at home front so I could not respond earlier on a topic of my favourite singer and some sort of research was needed to reply. This is a great post, with all the proper research which I know is time consuming. You have selected a wide range of MDs and have been able to clearly establish Rafi’s association with such lesser known composers right till the end. The songs selected are mind blowing and the best to emphasise your point.
Also thanks to AK for introducing a very fine writer and selecting a rare topic. Actually SOY needs more and more guest authors (to ease pressure on AK), because barring Vaishnavji, nobody is able to contribute regularly.
Arunji objected to inclusion of some MDs in the list to which you have replied and I second you. I think MDs who were never in the top ten at any given point of time can be said to be lesser known, as general music lovers hardly remember them. S Mohinder, Sardul Kwatra and Hans Raj Behl alternated between Hindi and Panjabi films and were never regular in hfm. It is tribute to their talent that in such a scenario they gave so many Hindi songs. Bulo C Rani would be another case study who despite having a long hfm career, never made it to the top.
Josephji has given a list of MDs which can be left out, which is a good starting list. But, we can add others like Husnlal Bhagatram, who ruled for some years. Khayyam is an intersting addition to his list, because upto Kabhie Kabhie he was even lesser known than many of those included. Kabhie Kabhie happened after 28 years of his debut in Heer Ranjh in 1948. A lot of careers have not even lasted that many years.
Now I will add some new MDs to the list.
Here is an MD Gajanan who, to my knowledge composed just two songs in film Kal Hamara Hai(1959), the main composer for which was Chitragupta. He composed this gem ‘ye sach hai ae jahan walo hamen jeena nahin aaya’ for Rafi which any great composer would be proud of. Song was written by Shailendra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVpFX8klILw
A similar MD was Vishwanath-Ramamurthy, who composed in one film Naya Aadmi (1956) in which Madan Mohan also composed two songs. This was a Madras based film, the hero being NT Rama Rao. So the composer duo were from South. The famed song ‘jagat ka rakhwala bhagwan’ was written by Rajinder Krishan.
Nirmal Kumar – to my knowledge – composed in three films in 1959 and 60. This song ‘teri nazar ki chabi ne khola mere dil ka tala’ was posted by me in the ‘praise for women’ post. Anand Bakshi was the lyricist.
‘Padhe likhe kuchh khas nahin par naam hai mister Y’ was a song composed by Sudarshan and written by an equally unknown person Veeren Dublish, for the film Mall Road (1962). I dont know if he composed for another film or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My8tZt0bgL0
Venkataramanji,
You posted a song composed by Brij Bhushan. He was one of the nine composers used in 1962 film Pathan for 7 songs – a unique experiment. What KB said is based on a fact. There was a film Maikhana in 1967 directed by Kedar Sharma. The composer for that film was Bhushan. I dont know whether this is the same person. This fact only Arunji can establish. Whether it is the same person or not, he composed a great solo for Rafi in Maikhana, which I am posting here.
Baithe baithe dile nadan – lyrics Kedar Sharma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QWTDW68Za0
Brij Bhushan also composed for Milap in which Mukesh had the famed ‘kai sadiyon se’. Here is an equally great solo for Rafi in the same film.
Kahin aisa na ho tum ajnabi rahon men – lyrics Naqsh Lyallpuri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzk03utxNTo
Here is another from 1973 film Ek Nao Do Kinare.
Ye sham hai dhuan dhuan – lyrics Naqsh Lyallpuri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6kaQeg3Ib8
N Venkataraman ji @37,
Please note ..
Brij Bhushan and Bhushan are different.
Brij Bhushan gave music to films like Milap-72, Ek naav do kinare-73 etc.
Bhushan gave music to only 2 films Maikhana-67 and Purani pehchan-71.
BHUSHAN was born on 15-11-1933,at village Bhon in erstwhile Punjab(which is in Pakistan now),in a jahagirdar’s house. Being rich they had Gramophone and Bhushan grew up listening to the songs of films of that era.
After Partition his family shifted to Lucknow and Bhushan started learning music.When young he also started singing on AIR-Lucknow.He wanted to become a film singer,which was resented by his family,as it was ‘below their Dignity’.
However Bhushan came down to Bombay and started looking for opportunities for singing in Films.he faced a real hard time.Sometimes he would get a chance in a chorus singing.Ultimately he got few songs in films like Oonchi haveli,Baghi sardar,Badal aur bijli,Bhala aadmi,murad etc.But his future as a singer did not look very bright despite singing with Sabita bannerji,sudha Malhotra,babul,Suman kalyanpur etc.he took up a job as Asst.to C.Ramchandra.
One day he happened to meet Kidar Sharma.Kidar ji appreciated his talent and gave him his first break as MD in MAIKHAN-67.He really gave very good songs in this film.Rafi sang a wonderful Gazal in it.Songs became popular,but Bhushan did not get any films.His second and last film as a MD was PURANI PEHCHAN-1971.
It is a matter of regret that talented and hard working artists do not get the opportunities. Bhushan could not get any further as a MD. He worked as an Asst.to Ravindra jain,till last.
Hans ji @38
Nirmal Kumare was another name used by singer/MD S.D.Batish to give music to few films.
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Arunji,
Many thanks for the information. Sometimes I think what would we do without you. So we now have three persons with Bhushan in the name (or there are others too), Pt. Bhushan – the writer, Bhushan the MD for two films and Brij Bhushan – MD and producer.
When I saw Nirmal Kumar’s three films, a thought had come to my mind why a person had suddenly come and went. Now I can relate it.
@ 38 I had forgotten to add the link to the Lal Nishan song ‘teri nazar ki chabi ne’ by Nirmal Kumar aka SD Batish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3IgBGiYwdw
@ 39
The milap song has already been posted by Siva. Sorry for repetition.
Hans Ji, Venkataraman ji-Ref # 37 & #38
Thansk a lot for your kind words. It is indeed a great honour for me to be in the midst of such a knowledgeable group of music lovers. I will listen to all the rare gems posted by you and also by others. Regarding the great legends Vishwanathan ( M S Vishwanathan) & Ramamoorthy ( T K Ramamoorthy) , though I noted about that song you mentioned, I was getting confused as in some places it was mentioned as Madan Mohan. Being from TN I am a great fan of V-R . They ruled the golden era of Tamil film music for nearly two decades till they split in 1964. In fact Naushad & M S Vishwanathan were mutual admirers of each other’s work. It is a grave injustice that MSV was not given any award-National/Filmfare/Padma etc and he is loved till today by millions of Tamils across the globe.
Arun Ji
Thanks for the information about the rare music composers-you are indeed an encyclopedia!!!
Till I came to know about SOY I used to wonder what would happen , say after 50 years? whether that generation will ever know what great music existed in our films? After reading the articles in SOY , now I am rest assured that the name and fame of those legends will be there for eternity. And a special thanks to AK ji and all the authors in this forum who are doing yeoman service in preserving the great music of yesteryears.
Arunji mentioned Harbans Lal (Jauhri) and V Balsara ( Madmast). I think he also likes comic songs.
In Jauhari Harbans Lal composed a song in two parts. In the first Amarnath is lip-syncing and telling about some love experience and in the second part Sunder is teasing Amarnath after they land in jail. I give here separate links of the two parts which have video, though of poor quality. I have added the third link which has both the parts combined (only audio) because the second part in video is incomplete. The apt lyrics are by unknown lyricist Tejnath Jaar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYT-KOgiD5A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAl9bEJFy3k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1RfrLAAYc
The second song from Madmast was written by Madhukar Rajasthani and composed by V Balsara.
‘Sulag rahi hain husn ki sigdi, aaja pakayen pyar ki khichdi’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGk2XnbnfWo
Hans ji @ 45
Just for information, Pt.Harbans lal was the son of Pt. Amarnath (Batish), the eldest brother of Husnlal-Bhagatram duo.
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The main post has one song from Babul’s baton and one from Lala-Asar-Sattar. So Bipin is left from the Bipin-Babul duo and also Lala-Sattar who composed after Asar left. Both songs I am posting has a special connection. Both are filmed on Kishore Kumar and play-backed by Rafi. It is important to note that even such small-time composers used Rafi for playback of Kishore Kumar.
First one is a duet with Suman Kalyanpur. ‘Main is masoom chehre ko agar chhoo loon to kya hoga’ is written by Noor Devasi and composed by Babul. The film is Baghi Shehjada-1964.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srXbLMKN3TM
The next one is from 1972 film Pyar Deewana, ‘apni aadat hai sabko salaam karna’. The song is written by Asad Bhopali and composed by Lala-Sattar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py5e_cF9f2E
Arunji,
Thanks again. I was aware of Amarnath being elder brother of HB, but not this one about Harbans Lal.
Philosophical songs was another area where Rafi dished out a lot of songs. Here are two of them composed by Mohammad Shafi and Shivram.
O moorakh insaan apne ko pehchaan – Annadata – Anjum Jaipuri – Md. Shafi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKaA_ev1zaU
Daulat ke jhoothe nashe men ho choor – Oonchi Haveli – Bharat Vyas – Shivram
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmVB9vob5wI
With Bharat Ratna Pt Ravi Shankar… who was uni universally known for his sitar .
‘ Holi khelat nandlal…’/ 1963 / GODAAN / Anjan / Pt Ravi Shankar / Rafi & chorus
https://youtu.be/fTs_BwxwiAc
Godaan had one more nice song of Rafi..Pipra ke patwa sareeke dole manva..lyrics by Anjaan
‘With Hansraj Behl.
‘Le chala jidhar…’/ 1957 / MISS BOMBAY / Pem Dhawan / Hansraj Behl / Rafi
https://youtu.be/fJZn8IaGFCc
@47
Music for Baghi Shehzada was given by Bipin Dutt and not Babul. Regret the error.
On 43. I agree with Mr Sivanandham;s view that Music Directors MSV who contributed so much along with Ramamurthy were not given the recognition they deserve.
Hansji @39, Arunji @40
Thanks for the information. It was like a volleying game. KB did a dig, and myself volleyed (unintended) it to Hansji at the net, Hansji made a precise setting for Arunji to spike it for a finish. Arunji has provided thorough information on Bhushan.
All this arose due to a mistake in one of the sites on Md.Rafi, where the MD of Purani Pehchan was mentioned as Brij Bhushan. So while posting the song I mentioned Brij Bhushan in parenthesis. And that acted as the catalyst.
Arunji thanks once again.
Shivanandamji, while posting a song composed by Brij Bhushan for Md.Rafi (#15), rued that he could not get enough information about this composer except for the fact that his title is Sahni and he was married to Madhubala’s sister Madhur (originally Zahida).
I did some deep dredging and could scoop out some more info on Brij Bhushan.
Basically he was a commercial broadcaster, voice-over and dubbing artist. Later on he was into Ad-promotionals and commercials, created jingles. I gather he worked with Amin Sayani mainly in commercials of Radio Ceylon. Then he went on his own and had his own studio. Started making Ad Films and promotional for TV.
I could get his date of birth, 28th April. The year could be between 1941 and 1945. At the age of five he started participating in children’s program of AIR. He also worked in Voice of America for a brief period. He learnt classical music from Pt. Amarnath , who scored music for only one film “Garam Coat” (1955) and was the disciple of Ustad Amir Khan. Brij Bhushan met his future father-in-law, Ataullah Khan in the sets of Pathan (1962). He scored one song for this film. Ataullah Khan was the director of this film. Besides Milap (1972) and Ek Naav Do Kinare (1973), he scored music for Kam Sashtra (1975) and Ye Sach Hai (1975). He also scored music for the film Zaroorat (1972), however there was no song in this film. It seems, his last film Sangdil (1981), which he produced and directed, was not released. Out of his seven known films four were under the banner Nitin film International, produced by I M Kunnu and directed by B R Ishara. He also assisted various directors. Thus he donned multiple caps.
He may not be remembered for his scores in films, but one jingle for which he scored music remained popular for a long time.
Lifebuoy hai jahan tandurusti hai wahan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3n8b5Zd_T4
Sorry Sivanandamji, I have digressed from the theme of the post. I would try to rectify it by posting a duet from Brij Bhushan’s last known film Sangdil (1981)
Sapne tere sach ho jahan, Mohd.Rafi & Asha Bhosle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OghK-PpWWFQ
Venkataraman Ji-#55
Amazing information about Brij Bhushan. no need to say sorry sir !! These are the interesting points that we all enjoy writing & reading about the yesteryear music and the artists involved. Thta Lifebuoy jingle is an evergreen one and no one broguht up during the 70’s will ever forget.
Those days in theatres one used to enjoy these ads before the main film and in fact before TV had come we all used to look forward to those ads!!
Arunji,
The information on Nirmal Kumar and Pt. Harbanslal were news to me. Thank you.
Hansji,
Thank you for posting the song “teri nazar ki chabi ne khola mere dil ka tala” by Rafi, composed by Nirmal Kumar
I gather, S D Batish was also known by the name Master Ramesh, which he acquired while singing covers of songs rendered by popular singers, especially KL Saigal.
I believe he was a distant cousin of Pt. Amaranth, Husnlal and Bhagathram and they too were Batishs, but did not use the title. I remember reading somewhere Shiv Dayal Batish had a brother named Krishna Dayal. I am not sure and unable to recollect the source. Who else to turn to for help, other than Arunji?
Krishna Dayal worked in 5 films
Zanzeer (1947) was Krishna Dayal’s first film as a composer followed by Lekh (1949) ,Baawra (1950), Malika Saloini (1953) and Vijay Garh (1954). There is a common thread; his first three films were produced by J Rakesh. For Malika Salomi (1953), he composed three songs and the other three were composed by Iqbal. And his last film Vijay Garh (1954), A K Prem composed 5 songs and Krishna Dayal the other two songs.
Krishna Dayal composed 3 songs for Md.Rafi,
a nice duet with Asha Bhosle for the film Lekh (1949)
Karle Kisise Pyar Jawani Do Din Ki, lyrics Qamar Jalalabadi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55yw2C9OZpc
another fine solo for the film Baawra (1950)
Sahil Jo Dubo De Kashti Ko Sahil Ke Tamanna Kaun Kare, lyrics Amar Khanna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3Z0kts_jg
and a duet from the same film with Geeta Duta
Shamma Jalti hai To Parwane Chale Aate Hai, lyrics Gafil Harnalvi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV6hZBh3oEc
N Venkataraman ji @ 57,
I am not aware of any relationship of Krishna Dayal and S D Batish. I have not come across such reference anywhere.
-AD
@58
Thank you Arunji .
Siva Saar,
Vanakkam. Brilliant debut. Of course, I am with Arun ji in not agreeing about some composers being in your list.
Rafi sang 6 songs for Hemant Bhonsle in 4 movies…
1. ANPADH
2. DAMAAD.
Both in 1978… 2 Duets in each with Asha.
Zindagi ke safar mein na jaane was quite popular .
3. NAZRANA PYAR KA, 1980.
A duet with Asha. ..
Gham chupate raho, Muskurate raho. Nice song.
4. RAJA JOGI, 1983.
A solo.
Dr Shetty Ji
Thanks for your kind comments. ” Recognition” is subjective and so I agree that different perspectives will always be there and I respect your & Arun Ji’s opinion on this. Any healthy forum should always welcome and accept such differing views and I am glad that SOY is one of those. My selection criteria was mainly from the perspective of a majority people who will not be aware of these composers . It was definitely not from the perspective of the highly knowledgeable connoiseurs of SOY.
Purely on a lighter vein….For me even an accompolished & genius music director like Roshan can be called unrecognized because today we may have to sadly introduce him to a certain section of the population ( which will be quite a large section) as Hrithik’s grandfather!!!!!
Few years back whenever I used to search for Roshan songs in Youtube, it will take me to Rajesh Roshan!!! Now thanks to some good souls we see good collection of Roshan songs in Youtube.
Sacrilege for people like us, but thats how life is….
Dulal Sen scored music for only 2 Hindi movies?
BLACK PRINCE, 1959, has a lovely Rafi, Suman K tandem..
Nigahen na phero chale jaayenge hum.
Even better is it’s reworking for a 1969 Kannada movie, PUNARJANMA. P B Srinivas has soulfully sung it and Rajkumar has emoted beautifully on screen.
Olumeya hoove nee hode ellige?
( Where has thou gone, my loving flower? )
D Sen’s score for this movie is excellent.
Venkataramanji, @57
This post is already fulfilling its objective for which it was chosen by Siva and AK. I think more than 30 MDs, from the era upto 1970, have been mentioned including Siva’s selection. The period from 1955 to 70 was the most productive for Rafi and in the 60s he had a lot of concerts and Rafi nites. Still he had time for the minor composers. Besides that, he helped LP, KA and RDB in establishing themselves and these three dominated the 70s and beyond.
The songs of Krishan Dayal are all good. He used the suffix BSc after his name. In those days every BSc could have good income as science teacher. I think love for music brought him there. After reading stories of many of those times we find that quite a number of people joined just for love of music and not for money like nowadays. That was the reason music was so good in those times. This difference can best be brought out from output of the father SDB and son RDB. SDB, even at his peak never averaged more than 3-4 films. RDB from 1971 to 80 did 133 films though he was single. The pair of KA did 113 and LP did 171 during the same period. SJ who so dominated the 60s, did only 68 films from 1961 to 70 which was their peak period.
Now I post here a few songs. Rafi was very good at almost everything. He did a number of devotional songs praising as well as complaining to god. I will go through this theme with some new MDs.
Kahe ko bisara hari naam – Chakradhari – Pradeep – Avinash Vyas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBPXIn5TlM0
Bhagwan tera insaan dekh le – Aastik – SP Kalla – Narayan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4cqMq3qIy4
Two praising god and now two complaining. BN Bali was an old timer. In 1955 he composed this song ‘ameeron ke bhagwan gareebon ko sataya na karo’ in film Mastani. Lyrics were by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZyi9BsMtos
The second one is –
Bhagwan banne ka prabhu jhootha bahan chhod de – Patit Pawan – Bharat Vyas – Jamal Sen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcSoPv7gNnQ
In the cut throat competition of 60s there were quite a few composers new as well as old who composed music for only one film in this period. I am posting songs of some really unknown few who composed for on film in this period and I am not sure if they ever scored music for another film.
1. Pardesi
Wai wai qurbaan of meri jaan ( with Tuntun) – Khufia Mahal – Shyam Hindi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXpR3sZMYLc
2. PD Sharma
Ek ek tinke par yun kab tak – Baghi Haseena – lyricist not known
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzDjkPwE9VU
3. Ronodeb Mukherjee – composed music for Tu Hi Meri Zindagi in 1965, in which there were 10 songs. He used only Rafi and Asha. Rafi had five solos and two duets and Asha 3 solos. His solos with Rafi are also good, but I am posting here the duet which became very popular.
Jidhar bhi main dekhun udhar tu hi tu hai ( with Asha) – Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eySFPCv7Db0
4. Babu Singh
Bankar ke insaan banayen tumko hum bhagwan – Vidyarthi – Madhukar Bihari
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8teDNOCPxE
5. Ved Sethi
Ek nanhin si kali roye daali ke liye – Anchal Ke Phool – Naqsh Lyallpuri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emTS7rJKfs8
T G Lingappa has the unique distinction of scoring music for all of B R Pantulu Kannada movies ( including the one produced posthumously by Padmini Pictures ) and also many of his Telugu and Tamil ones.
What does one say about S Janaki?! I would say she is as versatile and sweet as the Mangeshkar sisters.
Rafi, SJ and chorus for TGL in RAMAYAN, 1960.
No idea whether it is a dubbed movie.
Surya pataka ki chaya mein sukhi rahe sansaar..
I think it was their first song together. Later, their duets in ARAADHANAA, the Telugu remake of GEETH were super hits, especially
Naa madi ninnu pilichindi..
Tune is of
Aajaa tujhko pukare mere geeth re.
Hans Ji
Thanks a lot for posting the great duet of Rafi-Asha composed by Ronodeb Mukherjee-Jidhar bhi mein dekhoon….for all diehard Rafi fans, that grand entry by him with an “out of the world” Mariaaaaaa…..” is simply spellbinding. Asha had also sung this song superbly..and what a great tune…I now feel that I should have included this in my list!!!
Read this article from Raju Bharatan long time ago, Am reproducing as it perfectly fits in the theme, remeber this article was written in 1993.
Raju Bharatan writes:
Could you believe that end-July signalled full 13 luckless years without the charismatic voice of Mohd. Rafi? I, for one, couldn’t believe it, if only because I discerned that it was during these very 13 tuneless years that Rafi had grown more dominant in our vocal imaginations. Whether it be TV or radio, his vocals have been even more vibrant in the years he has been away from us. Shabbir Kumar, Anwar, Mohd. Aziz, their performing stature diminishes with every year that passes without Rafi.
So unique is Rafi’s vocal mystique that he is always throwing up new areas, for example, not one anniversary article on Rafi touched on how this big-hearted tenor made small-time composers. It is this lacuna we now seek to fill in a resonant reply of some Rafi’s all-time hits for the lesser-known music directors. The idea is to spotlight Rafi’s role in keeping the small-time composer professionally alive.
Remember an obscure 1953 C-grade film called Khoj for which music was scored by Nissar Baazmi, the man who later went to Pakistan and became such a big composer there that even Noorjehan and Mehdi Hassan considered it an honour to sing for him. Yet so long as Nissar Baazmi was in India, he somehow remained a C-grade composer. And at the time he did Khoj, he was literally a nobody.
This was when Baazmi approached Rafi to sing for the maximum Rs 50 that his producer could afford for the rendition of a composition on which he prided himself. And Rafi charged Baazmi just the token Re 1 to produce for him, in Khoj, the memorable Radio Ceylon hit, Chanda ka dil toot gaya roney lage hain sitaare. This Raja Mehdi Ali Khan lyric began with the cry: Mohabbat aur wafaa kis tarah tauheen ki tu ne. What a compelling sense of expression Rafi brought to this tune of a struggling composer!
Nor was Pandit Shivram a big-time composer when Rafi (this time for Rs 50) obliged him with an all-time hit that made its way from Radio Ceylon to the Binaca Geetmala. It was written by Bharat Vyas (for a shoestring-budget starrer of Nirupa Roy, Karan Dewan and Bhagwan) and it became, in Rafi’s orotund voice, the surprise hit of the year 1955. My reference is to the Oonchi Haveli Rafi chartbuster: Daulat ke jhoote nashe main ho choor garibon ki duniyan se rehte ho door. Who but Rafi could have scaled such a vocal peak from the pit-class for which Oonchi Haveli was made? To this day, Daulat ke jhoote nashe main ho choor remains the biggest hit given by Pandit Shivram.
S. Mohinder may not exactly have been a C-grade composer, but the fact remains that he rarely worked in A-grade set-ups. Ranjit’s Papi, starring Nargis and Raj Kapoor, was one of those rare films in which S. Mohinder had the support of a hit star-team. But the problem was that, but the time Papi came in 1953, Mukesh was settled as the voice of Raj Kapoor. Even so Sardar Mohinder made bold to opt for Rafi for Raj! And that too in the climax of Papi!
Only, by the time the climax of Papi came to be reached, the film had already been dismissed by the audience as a visual disaster. Yet the same audience which, I remember, had virtually gone to sleep in Delhi’s Regal Cinema came to sudden life and began tapping its feet to the Rafi rhythm of Tera kaam hai jalna parwaane chahe shama jale ya na jale.
That audience clearly felt that Rafi was made for Raj Kapoor. Who knows, Rafi, given the chance, might have been good on Raj Kapoor too! Come Dilip Kumar, come Raj Kapoor, come Dev Anand, Rafi was a vocal match for any hero, big or small.
The hero of Mirza Ghalib was Bharat Bhooshan, the hero in Devdas was Dilip Kumar. And both heroes in both films had plumped for the soft vocals of Talat Mahmood. Rafi therefore had only one atmospheric song each in these two films. Yet, even in these two films in which Talat dominated so sentimentally, Rafi left his own distinct individual impact – under Ghulam Mohammad with Hai has ki har ek unke ishare mein nishaan aur (Mirza Ghalib), under Dada Burman with Manzil ki chaah mein (Devdas). Neither Talat, nor Mukesh, nor Kishore, nor Hemant, nor even Manna Dey, could ever take Rafi for granted. I might have been better trained classically by my uncle K. C. Dey, Manna once told me, but if Rafi was singing in the same film as I was, I never could be sure he wouldn’t overtake me.
The same Manna Dey had given of his best to the hapless composer, Babul, in Reshmi Roomal, through Zulfon ki ghata lekar saawan ki pari aaye (with Asha) and Aankh mein shokhi lab pe tabassum (with Suman). In the same Reshmi Roomal, Babul had made a telling impression with Talat, too, through Jab chhaye kabhi saawan ki ghata. Therefore, since Mukesh too had scored in the same Reshmi Roomal through Gardish mein ho taare, there was no reason for Babul to switch to Rafi when he came to scoring Naqli Nawaab on the same Manoj Kumar. Yet Babul did switch to Rafi. And somewhere at the back of his mind, Rafi must have known that, in Babul’s recording room, the competition was with Talat, Mukesh and Manna Dey alike. Therefore regardless of the fact that he was now being paid only Rs 200 for each song in Naqli Nawab, Rafi came up, for Babul, with such heart-stealers as Tum poochhte ho ishq bala hai ke nahin hai and Allah jaane maula jaane.
Nor was Rafi’s best reserved for just Babul, who had broken away from the team of Bipin-Babul. Rafi produced for Bipin (Datta) too, in Yeh Bambai Hai the N53097 two sided hit: Yeh bambai shehar ka bada naam hai.
Likewise, G.S. Kohli never rose above the B-grade film. Yet, given the aid of Rafi’s vocals, Kohli was able to come up, in Lambe Haath, with an all-time hit, for our super-patriotic Vividh Bharathi, in the form of Pyaar ki raah dikha duniya ko. The message in this Lambe Haath hit, Tum mein hi koyi Gautam honga tum mein hi koyi Gandhi, remains distinctly RAFIan.
G. S. Kohli was at least a name that appeared on the banner of half a dozen films. But Dulal Sen, you saw his name on the banner of only one film Black Prince. Yet even in that one film, what depth of feeling Rafi brought to the rendition of Dulal Sen’s Nigahen na phero chale haayenge hum, as put over by Rafi for Dulal Sen in Black Prince, that lingers in Radio Ceylon memory.
It was Shivkumar Saroj, the sensitive Radio Ceylon announcer, who drew our attention first to the tuning artistry of another modest composer: C Arjun. When I met C Arjun much later, he told me that he felt very proud that he had at least created a ghazal that could come somewhere near a Madan Mohan composition. I wanted special attention to this my coveted ghazal from my singer but all good singers available were bigger than the film for which I had composed it! revealed Arjun. It was with great hesitation, therefore, that I approached Rafi Saab to render my ghazal, so feelingly written by Indivar. And Rafi Saab, without bothering about the small payment we were in a position to make, said it was one of the best ghazals that had fallen to his lot and he would give it everything that he had.
Rafi certainly gave that C Arjun ghazal everything he had, that is how it came over to us Paas baitho tabiyat behal jaayegi maut bhi aa gayi to hal jaayegi in Punarmilan. This ghazal proves, if proof is needed, that no composer was too small for Rafi as long as the composition was great. After all, who were Lala-Asad-Sattar but three instrumentalists who had turned music directors. Yet for even such a stunt trio trying to combine as a music director team, Rafi proved a salvation with such a surpassingly lovely solo in Sangram as Main to tere haseen khayalon mein kho gaya.
To help every little composer trying to gain a toe-hold in the quicksands of filmdom was Rafi’s singing philosophy. Sapan Jagmohan, as a duo, got their break in Sadashiv Row Kavi’s Begaana, with Suprita Chowdhury. It was Sapan-Jagmohan’s first film and the two had to show spot results to make headway.
Jagmohan (of this team) had sung 10 years earlier, in Kishore Sahu’s Hamlet, the hit duet with Rafi Ghir ghir aaye badarvaa re kaare. On the strength of this connection, Jagmohan (Bakshi) approached Rafi to render what Sapan-Jagmohan felt was their prize composition in Begaana. And Rafi made this prize composition unforgettable as one he could by articulating it as Phir woh bhooli si yaad aayee hai. Remember, Phir woh bhooli si yaad aayee hai was just a good composition in the hands of Sapan Jagmohan. It was left to Rafi to immortalise it as Sapan Jagmohan’s best ever composition by rendering it in a style no singer could excel.
Annu’s father Sardar Maalik, though highly talented, never made it to the big league. Bachpan therefore was just another pulp film for which Sardar Maalik was scoring the music. And it would have been forgotten as just another potboiler churned out by our industry, but for Rafi, under Sardar’s baton, arrested our attention with Mujhe tum se mohabbat hai magar main keh nahin sakta.
The tune came first, the money after, in the case of Rafi. But for the instinctually generous way in which Rafi adjusted his charges for the small composer, we would have not got, in his voice, from Iqbal Quraishi Subah na aaye shaam na aaye from Cha Cha Cha, not from Sonik-Omi Dono ne kiya tha pyaar magar mujhe yaad raha tu bhool gayi meri from Mahua.
In the rare film in which Prem Dhavan doubled as song writer and song composer, like in Pavitra Papi, Rafi came up with a memorable hit for him like Allah hi Allah kar pyare Allah hi Allah.
The Rafi touch it could turn any disc into gold!
Naghma,
This is a valuable addition to this theme. For once Raju Bharatan has written in a comprehensible style. Thanks a lot.
Siva, @ 66
Yes Rafi was special in these special effects. He did this in a number of songs. Remember ‘haji haji haji are haji baba’ in Mere Sanam with his chant of ‘haji baba’ in different styles. In Halaku he repeated 4-5 words of Lata in each antara in the song ‘dil ka na karna aitbaar koi’. In this one he says ‘maria’ in three different styles, taking the song to dizzy heights.
Later, RDB used this ‘maria’ trick in Caravan in ‘piya tu ab to aaja’ with RDB adding ‘monica my darling’. That part of RDB was hyped with propaganda, but, if you listen to it carefully, RDB looks just repetitive in every part. It is unimaginable to what heights Rafi would have taken it.
After my comment @ 64, I did some research on the songs Rafi had from 1961 to 70. During this period he sang more than 1450 (at present my tally is 1452) songs. He sang for 99 composers during this period. I also made a list of composers (old and new) who gave music to only one film during this decade and total came to 75(pairs taken as one). Out of these 75 he sang for 29. Importance of his contribution is this regard would be more pronounced, when I tell that our no. 1 female singer Lata sang only for 4 of the 75. These four included Pt. Ravishankar and Sajjad Hussain whom she could not ignore. The third was Adi Narayan Rao, who gave her 6 solos and 3 duets in Suvarna Sundari including the eternal gem ‘kuhu kuhu bole koyaliya’. So it was her duty to sing for him in Phoolon Ki Sej. So there is only one MD, Raj Ratan for whom she sang one solo in Dekha Pyar Tumhara – 1963.
#64, 69, 70
Hans Ji,
Thanks a lot for the invaluable information on few more rare composers and songs.
I have a question for the learned members in this forum-sorry this is not related to this topic but I felt I can get answer only here.
Few months back I was reading Mr Manek Premchand’s book ‘ Yesterday’s melodies, today’s memories’. In the section about Shankar-Jaikishan, it was mentioned Shankar had married one lady Kunda and it was a childless marriage. However I clealry remember few years back there was a news that Shankar’s grandson , one Mr Santosh Kumar had donated his piano to the National Film Archive of India, Pune.
Confusing!!!
Now I am posting a few songs from films based in Madras, out of the 29 one film composers I mentioned above.
First is from Mera Suhag – 1961, which is a short video clip. I could not find the whole song. This was the only song given to Rafi. The rest were in the voices of South singers.
Yug yug se anyay ho raha hai nari ke sath – lyrics Vinod Sharma – MD Arun Raghavan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4gMam6FscQ
The next is Sati Renuka – 1961, in which Music was given by SL Merchant and Sriram. The song is ‘haye ri kismat ki ye kahani’ written by Bharat Vyas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl729CIj7qo&t=84s
Pyar ko madhur madhur ikraar ko ye duniya kya jane – Phoolon Ki Sej – 1965 – Hasrat Jaipuri – Adi Narayan Rao. This song was a big hit in its time. Lata had 5 solos and three duets with Mukesh, Manna Dey and Asha. Out of these two solos ‘taron ki ankhon ka tara hai tu’ and ‘jane mujhe kya ho gaya’ became hits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWOvysuS3gc
Hardam rahe tu more sang men – Danveer Karna – Prem Dhawan – K Balkrishnan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRVfRD1lOPY
Rafi also sang a solo and a duet with Suman for MS Subaiyah in Hamen Bhi Jeene Do -1962. But, I could not find any of the songs on youtube.
Siva, @ 71
I think this riddle will be solved by Arunji.
A lot of enlightening information is coming out here .There is no doubt about the singing , contributions , greatness or the fan following of Rafi.
In such discussions, one question that always comes up is…. why no ‘ Bharat Ratna ‘ award for Rafi ? But in a country where…. generally there are no standards , deadlines, transparency , accountability etc…such controversies would continue happening every day.
Rafi was not even given Padma Vibhushan award what to talk of higher awards .
Hemant Kumar politely declined any government honours. Recently a renowned South Indian female singer declined the Padma Bhushan award.
With ref to # 69 by Hans,
Adding to special effects in Rafi songs I remember one song from AKELI MAT JAIYO where he only sings Yes My Darling , oooo in a number of styles to Lata singing the rest of it. Similarly , the famous Gumnaam song Jaan Pehchan Ho was a real treat with the most energetic singing which probably no other singer could do! Likewise there are more such songs with special effects as we get into the other songs by him like the one from Waris , Ek bechara pyar ka maara !
Sivanandam ji @71 and Hans ji @73,
Shankerji gave shelter (some say married) to a widow named Kunda, who had two sons from her previous husband. Shanker ji did not have any issue from his blood.
-AD
Arun ji,
Thanks for the clarity. Very little is known about him.
Pradeepji @60,
First let me post the songs that you have mentioned.
“Zindagi ke safar mein na jaane was quite popular”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u-PyXeFlfg
“NAZRANA PYAR KA, 1980.
A duet with Asha. ..
Gham chupate raho, Muskurate raho. Nice song”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm3VAc0uSrM
Raja Jogi (1982),
Toote Dilon Ka Le Pyar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tviQo-Fbrhc
Aakhri Sangarsh is another film where Rafi sang one more duet with Asha Bhosle. The film was completed in 1982, but the release was delayed, most probably due to the demise of Narender Bedi, the director of the film. Hemant Bhosle scored music for this film too.
Here is the duet from the film
Aachal Pe Tera Hi Naam Likha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf_x5vjl7_g
Pradeepji @62
“Dulal Sen scored music for only 2 Hindi movies?
BLACK PRINCE, 1959, has a lovely Rafi, Suman K tandem..Upendra”
Posting the link
Nigahen na phero chale jaayenge hum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjVPej75az4
Dulal Sen’s other film was “Tu hI Raam Tu Hi Krishna (1976)”
Pradeepji @ @65
Rafi, S Janaki and chorus for TGL in RAMAYAN, 1960.”
No idea whether it is a dubbed movie.
Surya pataka ki chaya mein sukhi rahe sansaar”
Here is the link to the song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEvdkt9Mf8
All the four Hindi films for which T G Lingappa scored music were dubbed films.
The Hindi film Ramayana (1960) was the dubbed version of the Tamil film Sampoorana Ramayanam (1958). The music for the Tamil version was scored by K V Mahadevan.
Suhag 1958, directed by B R Panthulu, was the dubbed version of the Tamil film Thangamalai Rahasyam (1957). It was simultaneously made in Kannada as Rathnagiri Rahasya. The music for the three version were by T G Lingappa.
Akhri Geet (1975) was dubbed from Kannada film Hamsageethe (1975), original music was by Dr.M Balamuralikrishna. For the Hindi dubbed film T G Lingappa’s service was requisitioned.
Veer Arjun (1977) dubbed from Kannada film Baruvahana (1977) original music was by Paamarthi.
Hansji @ 63, @ 64, @ 70,
Thank you for sharing your observations.
You are right. The post has more than fulfilled its objective. As of now the post has covered more than 60 lesser known MDs for whom Md.Rafi had sung. And you are one the main contributors.
Thank you for the devotional numbers by Md.Rafi composed by Avinash Vyas, B N Bali, Narayan & Jamal Sen.
You have once again come out with some remarkable statistics especially on ” One-Film-MDs” and the Southern MDs therein. Kudos.
I remember Arunji wrote sometime back that Chand Pardesi was the full name of Pardesi and he had scored music for 6 /7 films. Arunji may confirm.
A few words about Rondeb Mukherjee.
Rono Mukherjee was the eldest son of Sashadhar Mukherjee (Co-founder of Filmistan) and Sati Rani Mukherjee (the only sister of the Ganguly brothers-Ashok Kumar, Anup Kumar & Kishore Kumar). Joy Mukherjee, Deb Mukherjee,Shomu Mukherjee & Subir Mukherjee were his younger brothers.
Raj Kamal, everybody will remember the composer for the Doordarshan series “Mahabharat” .
He scored music for roughly eighteen films including one Malayalam film. Md. Rafi rendered 5 songs for Raj Kamal’s first two films and one more. All nice songs.
Dost aur Dushman (1971)- 1 solo and one duet with Hemlata
Posting the solo from the film
Jab jab dekhoon teri roop, lyrics Asad Bhopali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfm0ERsmFNs
Achha Bura (1972) – 1 duet with Krishna Kalle
Wallah Hum Se Pochhoo Tum Kitne Haseen Ho, lyrics Asad Bhupali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tgiB3-m7k0
Mera Salam (1980) – 1 solo and one duet with Usha Timothy
Posting the duet from the film
Meri Jaan Tumse Mohabbat Hai, lyrics Kulwant Jani
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY5ibMsmBe4
N Venkataraman ji @81
yes, Chand Pardesi provided music to 9 films, namely Banjarin-60, Khufia mahal-64, Parivartan-72,Bankelal-72, Kitne paas kitne door-76, Ban Manush-80, Ye kaisa nasha hai-81, Bhai aakhir bhai hota hai-82 and Ek baar chale aao-83.
Dear friends,
I owe it to the author Mr Sivanandam Palamadai to compliment him on his grand debut, and all the participants, especially Hans, Venkataramanji, Arunji, Ashokji, Anup, Mr Muli and others for adding so much to the theme. This raised an issue who to be counted among unrecognized composers. One category, those of vintage era should be excluded, because many have mental block about the 1930s and 40s. Thus we have to confine it to 50s and 60s which we all think that we are familiar with. This ‘we’ is surely the category which is well up on the songs of the Golden Period, and not some youth who is clueless about Roshan, Naushad, C Ramchandra etc. For him a song like ‘Chalte chalte mere ye geet yaad rakhna is ‘old’. On that criteria, Lachhiram, Pardesi, Lala Asar Sattar etc would qualify as they also gave some everlasting songs.
Most of us do feel about some music directors on the margins that they should not have been included in ‘unrecognised composers’, but finally, it would be the writer’s choice.
Sivanandamji,
A very well-written debut post ! Look forward to read many interesting posts from you in future.
A good number of MDs have been covered here with very informative inputs by Hansji, Arunji, Venkataramanji etc.
Rafi singing for Pandit Shivram has been covered.
He also sang two duets for the debut film of Shivram’s sons – Jugalkishore- Tilakraj – Bheegi Palkein (1982), the songs and the film being released two years after Rafi’s demise.
One of the duets that he sang with Lata is a good one and was reasonably popular when the film was released.
Janam janam ka saath hai tumhara humara
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8MV6C-M01M
Arun ji @ 83
Your list of movies for which Pardesi composed movies rekindled my memories of college days. I had seen Kitne paas kitne door during those days. It had one good song ” mere mehboob Aaj kuch naraz hai mujhse”. But during those days the movie was more famous for its novelty. It included 2 independent stories. One before the interval and the second after the interval. Utpal Dutt featured in one of them.
The title song of ye kaisa Nasha hai rendered by Shailendra sing became quite popular.
Now few more Rafi songs with unrecognised composers
Sharda
Accha hi hua dil tut gaya – Maa, behen aur biwi- Qumar Jalalabadi & Vedpal Verma
https://youtu.be/rRLGHXHLvAM
V Balsara
Akkad ke kaha chale – Pyar – Pralhad Sharma
https://youtu.be/uhU2-QylLvQ
Yet another example of variations and control over them
N Venkatraman ji,
Saw your comments just now.
As always, thanks a ton.
A small error: the hugely successful BABRUVAHANA had music by TGL. Nice songs, Kanda padyas ( conversation style ).
If you find time, do provide the link to PBS’s Olumeya hoove.. from PUNARJANMA, 1969. D Guha gave 6 evergreen songs of so many emotions.
Pradeepji @ 87,
Yes, you are right. Thank you for the correction.
Actually Paamarthi was the MD of the 1964 Telugu version of Babruvahana.
Here is the link to Olumeya hoove nee hode ellige
PUNARJANMA (1969), P B Srinivas has soulfully sung it and Rajkumar has emoted beautifully on screen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP8sCzPzumo
Arunji @ 83,
Thanks for the information on Chand Pardesi.
Saluri Rajeswara Rao (1922 – 1999) was a musician predominantly known for his works in South Indian films. A popular MD in demand, he was active for 50 years. His worked in four Hindi films.
Chandralekha (1948) a simultaneously produced bilingual (Tamil & Hindi) film under Gemini Pictures banner.
Nishan (1949), Apoorva Sagodharargal (Tamil) and Apoorva Sahodarulu (Telugu) was simultaneously made trilingual film under the same banner.
Aladin Ka Chirag (1957), Allauddin Adhbhuta Deepam(Telugu) and Allavudeenum Arputha Vilakkum (Tamil) too were simultaneously made trilingual film under Jai Sakthi banner.
Md.Rafi did not sing any song for the above three films.
Bhakta Prahlada (1967) was a Telugu film. It was dubbed in Tamil with the same title. The Hindi-dubbed version of the film was released the same year. Rajagopal Krishnan assisted S Rajeshwar Rao in the Hindi dubbed version.
A few scenes were re-shot and included in the film.
A Karunanidhi and T. S. Balaiah played the roles of Chanda & Amarka in the Tamil version, and were replaced by Rajendranath and Dumal in the Hindi version. Chanda & Amarka were the sons of Sukracharya. Hiranyakashipu sent his son Prahlad to Chanda and Amarka for formal learning. In the film they were portrayed as comical characters.
Posting two highly enjoyable duets from the film Bhakt Prahlad (1967)
Md.Rafi sings for Rajendranth and Manna Dey sings for Dhumal.
Suno Suno Ji Hum Tumko, Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey 1967, Pyarelal Santoshi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3TqaNtbyko
A song and dance sequence featuring Gopi Krishna and Vanisri also replaced the original sequence.
O Ri Chatpat Chatpat Chhori, Md.Rafi and Asha Bhosle, lyrics P L Santoshi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4kUzeKoPVQ
I am not sure whether the songs and the MD would fulfil the stipulations set by AKji.
Rajesh Deshpande Ji…#85
Thanks a lot for your kind comments.
Also thanks to all those who had posted their kind words on my blog…and a special thanks to AK Ji .
After going thru the additioanl songs that many have posted I am really humbled to realize how many more songs I am yet to listen from the vast ocean of the golden era songs.
In the present world that is innundated daily with negative and sensational news , the world of old Hindi songs is an oasis in the midst of a scorching desert and brings so much relief listening and talking about them.
I should also thank my idols-two authors whose English has been a great inspiration- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ( creator of the charming fictional detective Sherlock Holmes) and P G Wodehouse–the master of English prose. Sarcasm was PGW’s forte and I already see AK ji’s new post on songs of sarcasm. Some coincidence!!
Just to wrap up…I am reminded about a Non film song of Rafi that I like so much I am not very sure who was the composer-some where it is mentioned as Shyam Sagar and some where Shyam Sundar…Lyricist unknown to me.. The apprecciation of many knwoledgeable veterans of the SOY forum makes me say:
Mein kab gaatha, mere swar mein pyaar kisika gaatha hai
Yaad kisiki jab aathi ek naya geet ban jaata hai
Pyaar kisika gaatha hai…
Sivanandam Sir
Addressing you in Tamil style. A glorious entry as a guest writer and you have scored an ace all right. A post possible only after diligent search, first for obscure music directors and many could be one film celebrity and the songs of Rafi.
Rafi is not easily describable and beyond words. He was Allah’s gift to film industry and his ability to identify himself with the actor and the situation of the song has not been matched by any other singer. There was nothing stereotype about his singing. His fusion with Johnny Walker is legendary. I came across an instance where he completed a recording for the hero of the film. When he came out he was accosted by an individual who stated it was supposed to be sung by him. Rafi went back, got the recording cancelled and redid it for the actor relevant for the scene.
Oh my god! Such a wonderful post and such a stimulating discussion. Even disagreements are expressed so subtly – that says a lot about this blog. So much of research has gone into this! I am really stupefied and amazed.
To be frank, I feel that film industry (Bollywood in particular) is hugely political. What I mean is – rather than appreciating talent and rewarding talent, the focus is more about counting on “experience” and relying on “comfort levels”. Those MDs who were good in marketing themselves and were able to build a rapport with film makers sustained. Those who did not know how to market themselves or could not kow-tow to the powers-be were relegated to the shadows. But what the heck… so what? Their compositions that are so few remain immortal. Some of these compositions were in B or C grade films or were picturised in unimaginable ways … yet the compositions stand the test of time. Was Jaidev part of this list? He had composed music for “Hum Dono” which had the immortal number – Main Zindagi Ka Saat Nibhata.. Rafi’s “Naiya Meri Chati Jaaye” from My Friend that starred Prema Narayan and Gujarati actor Rajeev (music composed by Naushad) is not often heard but is a memorable number. Quite a few people have commented about how frugal and thrifty V Shantaram was. I happened to listen to the interview of Ramlal on Vividh Bharti where he mentioned about the challenges that he faced in getting a remuneration as a music director that he truly deserved. It is also baffling that V Shantaram, an otherwise prolific film maker, did not treat his employees so well despite some of his films becoming blockbusters. Why did V Shantaram not repeat Ramlal for “Boond Jo Ban Gayi Moti”? It remains a mystery.
In Boon Jo Ban Gayi Moti, Shantaram had signed his daughter Rajshree along with Jeetendra. One day Rajshree turned up late for the shoot. The strict disciplinarian that he was, Shantaram threw his daughter from the film and replaced her with Mumtaz. Rajshree may have heaved a sigh of relief as she seems to have lost interest in films after meeting her future husband in 1967.
Valliyoor Satya,
I have to thank you for your nice words for the blog. I hope the author of this article joins in the discussion. From your comments it is clear you are here for long haul. Hope to see you regularly.
Post #92&93…
Thanks a lot Rangan sir & Satya ji.
Sorry for the delayed response as I have been travelling. Rangan ji..yes Rafi’ s unique ability to mould his voice according to the character on screen & situation made him the great playback singer.
Satya ji…Jaidev was not in the list because although he totally composed for some 30-40 films, he was duly recognised with three national awards and also is relatively well known at least among a considerable lot of music lovers. Moreover his Hum Dono songs with Rafi are quite well known even among the masses though many of them may not know he was the composer.
My focus was more on those who by and large didn’t get critical & commercial acclaim inspite of giving some good songs. There were some healthy debates here on whether some of the names i had included were really unknown or unrecognised.
Ramlal is really a tragic case of an immensely talented composer not getting even a double digit number of films to score.
Sivanandam Sir
Please excuse me for addressing you like this. It comes naturally for a Madrasi like me. Forms of address imbibed during formative years of one’s life remains indelible. That is the only excuse I can offer.
Got some more information on Brij Bhushan Sahni (15th song of your post). He married Zahida, younger sister of Madhubala and seems to have been bitten by the bug of changing wife’s name after she enters sasur as was the custom in Tamilnadu in a few families so far as I know and changed it to Madhur . He was an actor, director, singer, composer, song writer. Starting with his film Ada (1951) he seems to have had a chequered career lasting for a few decades. One of the few films in which he had acted, had a strange moniker – Yeh Hai Chakkad Bakkad Bumbe Bo (2003). Here is a song from the film – Ek Nao Do Kinare (1973) – Yeh Sham Hai Duwaiyan by Rafi, lyrics Naqsh Lyallpuri
https://youtu.be/GWuxO1qpqmw?list=TLGGrbqf2aopRiAyODA4MjAyMg
This is a duet with Asha Bhonsle and his sole version is not available.
R Siddhesh,
Thanks a lot and welcome to SOY. You must have noticed the title of the blog, ‘Songs Of Yore’ and its tagline, ‘A tribute to old Hindi film music of 1930s to 60s’. That is because I have some familiarity with old film music, but I am very ignorant about new music.
Many thanks for this post, Siva ji! These songs are truly gems and their authors deserve recognition.
Several commentators above have mentioned Rafi’s frequent collaborations with S. Mohinder. Besides the Hindi songs that have already been ennumerated, Rafi sang for many (perhaps most?) of Mohinder’s Punjabi scores. One of my favorites is “Farida Kaale Mainde Kapre” from “Man Jeete Jag Jeet” (1973), based on a beautiful Sikh shabad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAwnQAqqeRU
Shelomit Ji,
Thanks a lot for your kind words. While researching for this article, I came to know that S Mohinder had composed some very good songs for Punjabi films. The one you shared is nice.
Siddhesh,
Welcome to SOY and thanks a lot. As you would have seen from the tagline of this blog it is abould old songs from 30s through 60s. I am familiar with and relate to the music of that era. I am quite unfamiliar with music of 2010 to 2022.
Can some body inform me YOUTUBE link where I can find Mohammed Rafi’s very old song : ZINDAGI HAR PAL TUMHARI YAAD LEKE AAYEGA
Sanjiv,
Welcome to SOY.