Gori tere natkhat nainaa
Posted on: May 15, 2012
This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Once again, apologies for another gap in communications from my side. On the previous Sunday, i.e. 6th May, Nalin ji presented his program ‘Yaadon Ka Safar’ here in Delhi. The program lasted for about four and half hours, with a break in between. The evening was a very nostalgic and emotional journey through the earlier decades of Hindi film and film music, and with the amount of details and anecdotes that Nalin ji carries in his memory, the program was also very informative.
For me, it was the first opportunity to see this program presented live. Although I have spent time with Nalin ji working on some changes to it, and also have reviewed the visuals and notes etc., the actual live presentation was a very different impact. He discussed the works of some great stalwarts, and also some lesser known names in the industry. He talked about the people involved in making of films in the decades of 20s, 30s and 40s, and the kind of innovations they did, and the technical miracles they accomplished, given the state of the technology in that era.
And then of course, the songs themselves – the singers, the composers and the poets. He described the phases through which Hindi film music has developed, and what were the key events that impacted the industry and the music. E.g. he talked about the music itself and the influence it had from various quarters.
To start with, the music in the films, like mostly everything else, was a reflection of the live theatre and the plays onstage. The first musicians and singers were the people who worked in theatre, and the film song was an extension of the poetical dialogue and the songs in theatre. Many films in the first few years of the talkie era did not have any records cut for their music and songs, although recording of the film music started as early as 1932 itself. Some rare pieces of music are still available from films like ‘Maya Macchindra’ and ‘Madhuri’ from 1932.
Then sometimes in mid 30s, the Hindi film song started to acquire its own independent identity. A structure of the song emerged and its duration got defined, based on the benchmark that is limited by the recording capacity of the standard 78 rpm record. He talked about how the recordings in initial years were accomplished. Background singing came only in 1935, and the recordings prior to that are to be considered a marvel of technical innovation. The microphones had to be outside of the frame being filmed, and actors had to shout out even the whispered dialogue. And another important aspect – in the absence of background singing, the actors had to sing their own songs. And so, even such non-musically trained heroes like Ashok Kumar, Motilal, and Jairaj had to sing their own songs.
He shared an anecdote related to the song “Main Ban Ki Chidiya Ban Ke Ban Ban Doloon Re”, from ‘Achhoot Kanya’(1936). A song that appears to be as simple as a nursery rhyme, was rehearsed by Saraswati Devi with Ashok Kumar and Devika Rani, for twelve days. For the first three days, it was just the first line, and Saraswati Devi was trying to get the lead pair to sing perfectly, the part “. . .bo-loon re”, and “. . .do-loon re”. On the fourth day, Ashok Kumar asked when will they get to the rest of the song. Saraswati Devi almost scolded him, saying that he had better get this “. . .do-loon re” to perfection; “. . .abhi itna to gaa nahin sakte aur aage ka gaana kyaa gaayegaa” – that this first verse is not yet done well, what do you want to do with the rest of the song.
Nalin ji talked about the singers and the composers of that era, and many names from that time are not familiar to the current generations. He mentioned that amongst the current crop of music directors, there are people who are not aware of names like RC Boral and Hafiz Khan ‘Mastana’. The decades of 30s and 40s were ruled by the heavy and thick voices of singers like KC Dey, Pankaj Mullick, Naseem Akhtar, Rajkumari, Amirbai Karnataki, Noorjehaan, Surendra, Shamshad Begum etc. The music direction was ruled by composers like RC Boral, Feroze Nizami, Ghulam Haider, Khemchand Prakash, Anil Biswas and Naushad etc. who all had a very strong grounding in the classical and folk music of the country.
In the mid forties, a couple of new voices were heard – comparatively a delicate and a thin sound, that of Lata Mangeshkar and Suraiyyaa.
Lata, a voice that was to become a phenomena beyond comparison, was considered to be no good in the years 1944 and 45. But destiny had other designs. Entry of Lata into the Hindi films, and her rise to stardom was propelled by circumstances. Her father, Pt. Dinanath Mangeshkar, passed away at an early age, and being the eldest in the family, she ventured out into the film world to support her family. And then in 1947, the partition of the country happened. A good part of the music director and singer population migrated to Pakistan from Bombay, leaving behind a vacuum that implored to be filled. A newer crop of music directors came to the forefront – names like Hansraj Behl, Husnlal Bhagatram, Madan Mohan, C Ramchandra, Hemant Kumar, Vinod, Shyam Sunder etc. Hansraj Behl and Vinod brought in the folk music of Punjab, Naushad blended in the folk music of Uttar Pradesh, Khemchand Prakash brought in the sounds of Rajashtani folk music, and the landscape of Hindi film music began to change once more. As a result of the partition, the shakedown that happened in the industry, new composers and newer sounds found an opportunity to tread the road to success.
And with the shakeout that happened, more new voices came to the forefront – that of Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Geeta Roy / Dutt, Talat Mehmood, Asha Bhosle, Sudha Malhotra, Suman Kalyanpur etc. But the stars of ascendency that favored Lata took her to the heights of popularity. Nalin ji’s opnion is that Lata rendered the best of her work in the years 1949 to 1952. And that even if she had stopped singing after 1952, she would still be the Lata that she is today.
Nalin ji took the audience through the decades of 1950s and 60s. The sounds of classical music were interleaved with music like “Shola Jo Bhadke, Dil Mera Dhadke” (film ‘Albela’, 1951) and “Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo” (film ‘Howrah Bridge’, 1958). Regarding this latter song, Nalin ji narrated this episode. In 1957-58, Geeta Dutt was a broken person. After her success of the early fifties, the breakdown in her personal life brought in a lots of trauma and sorrow. During the fifties, when SD Burman and Lata had a standoff, Burman Da had started to prefer Geeta Dutt over Asha Bhosle. But due to Geeta Dutt’s erratic discipline, SD Burman started to work more with Asha. OP Nayyar was already working full time with Asha, and Geeta Dutt was left out in the cold. One day, Geeta called up OP Nayyar, and commented “. . . aap to mujhko bhool gaye” (that, you seem to have forgotten me). OP Nayyar felt a pang of guilt, because it was Geeta’s voice that had helped bring stardom to his name. But his relationship with Asha was overpowering at that time. Music for the film ‘Howrah Bridge’ was being prepared at that time, and OP Nayyar somehow convinced Asha to let Geeta take on a club dance song. Apparently, as the music was being prepared, this dance song was being considered as probably the least significant, as compared to the other offerings in the film. Asha conceded his request, and allowed this song to be rendered by Geeta Dutt. And the rest is history. The music of this film, the signature sound of Geeta Dutt, and the first major hit performance by Helen – all got defined by this one song.
And so the journey continued. There is a ton of other episodes and anecdotes that were narrated by Nalin ji, in connection with the song clips that he was projecting. Sometimes emotional, sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant and sad, it was a wonderful journey through the decades.
At the end, Nalin ji presented a few themes on how the songs were in the 40s and 50s, and how the same emotions and themes are now being presented in the 80s and 90s. In Nalin ji’s words, the content of the emotion has not changed. The themes of love, anger, sorrow, happiness are still the same – just the manner of expression has changed, which is what he presented with the examples. And surely, the music has changed, the expression has changed.
He mentioned about the film ‘Parineeta’ (2005). One of his nieces referred him to this film, during a discussion on film music, and cited this as an example of good music still being created by newer crop of music directors. Nalin ji says he bought the CD and listened to the music. And he was intrigued. He called up Shantanu Moitra in Kolkatta, and talked to him about this music. And Shantanu shared that in keeping with period flavor, he had actually fallen back on Rabindra Sangeet and for the club song by Rekha, he had taken inspiration from the dance songs of 1960s.
Good and not so good music has always existed. There are sounds from the 40s and 50s that are not pleasing to hear, and there are tunes in 90s and 2000s that sound dear to the heart. In that manner, Nalin ji quipped, the Hindi film music is like the Indian Parliament. Good and bad politicians have always been there, but in the 1950s, one had to make a great effort to find a corrupt politician, whereas in 2000s, one has to make a great effort to find an honest one. Same with the music, in the decades of 40s and 50s, one had to search for songs that one could label as not good. Today, one has to search for the songs that one can term as good.
Another very important thing that happened on that day was that I met with AK ji, the gentleman whose blog “Songs of Yore” is a wonderful source of information and great songs from the 40s, 50s and 60s. It was good to meet him at the program, but yes, could not spend much time with him on account of the program itself. We are planning to meet again shortly.
And likewise, I also came in touch with many other music lovers, from different walks of life. And got introduced to another listener’s club here in Delhi. This is a very interesting group of very simple minded people, who collectively have a huge storehouse of music and films from the early decades. Since getting introduced I have already attended one of their informal meetings. This group is so open to share. Anything they have, and if you need it, they will happily share it with you. I may write more about this group in one of my future posts.
And now coming to this song. The 1959 film ‘Hum Bhi Insaan Hain’ has not yet debuted on this blog. This song is one of those I had short listed for the Shailendra write up. A lovely lilting romantic duet, that will put in a thrill and joy in your heart as you listen to it. The words are by Shailendra, and the music composition is by Hemant Kumar. The singing voices are those of Geeta Dutt and Subir Sen. Subir Sen’s voice is so close to that of Hemant Kumar, that one has to know to make out the difference.
The film is from VAK Productions, produced by K Sadanand and directed by R Majumdar. The cast of actors includes Abhi Bhattacharya, Anil Kumar, Lata Sinha, Kumar, Chaman Puri, Aruna, Samar Rai, Madhumati, Prabha Devi, Sarita, Leela Jaywant, Shakuntala, Dilshad, Tarun Ghosh, Dilip Dutt, Dhumal, Lalita Kumari etc.
The song seems to have some parts missing. E.g. after the second antaraa, there seems to be a jump in the music and the mukhdaa that one expects to hear after the antaraa is missing. Similarly, the end seems to be abrupt. I went back to check from the original 78 rpm record (with my collector friend), and the song is recorded as such on the original disc also. Apparently, some edits have been made to accommodate the song on the record with the 3 mins and few seconds limitations. I would like to get hold of the film disc and see how the song is presented on screen.
Enjoy is this so loveable duet, the melody of which will keep playing in your mind, again and again.
Song-Gori tere natkhat nainaa (Ham Bhi Insaan Hain)(1959) Singers-Subir Sen, Geeta Dutt, Lyrics-Shailendra, MD-Hemant Kumar
Subir Sen + Geeta Dutt
Lyrics
gori tere natkhat nainaa
waar karen chhup jaayen
sainyyaan tere ras bhare bainaa
saari saari rain jagaayen
gori tere natkhat nainaa
waar karen chhup jaayen
chup chup mera
tan mann phoonke
kis ne ye meetthi aag lagaa di
prem lagan bin jeena kaisa
preet ne jeevan reet sikhaa di
premi mann albele
aag se aag bujhaaye
sainyyaan tere ras bhare bainaa
saari saari raat jagaayen
gori tere natkhat nainaa
waar karen chhup jaayen
jis path se tu panghat jaaye
us pe mein apne nain bichhaa doon
jis sapne mein tu aa jaaye
us pe mein saari umar lutaa doon
tum sang uljhe nainaa
ab kaise suljhaayen
ab aankhon mein tum hi tum ho
tum bin saajan kal nahin paaun
dil to chaahe tujh ko churaa kar
jag se door kahin le jaaun
kab tak dheer dharey hum
kab tak preet chhupaayen
gori tere natkhat nainaa
waar karen chhup jaayen
9 Responses to "Gori tere natkhat nainaa"
May 15, 2012 at 8:29 pm
I SO wish I could have been there for this. How wonderful it would have been!!! *sigh*
Anyway, the next best thing to actually being there is to get a commentary of the proceedings from you. So thank you so much for writing about the programme. As always, it makes a wonderful read.
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May 15, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Sudhirji,
I feel same like Rajaji of missing this oppurtunity. We will wait for your introduction about the new group that you found in Delhi.
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May 16, 2012 at 11:16 am
This is a priceless write up. It is so good to read about the older singer and the changing order that brought changes in singers and singing styles.
My older cousin used to dislike the post 50’s sound of Lata’s voice, saying that she had lost her vocals. Her best features were a very expressive voice and her discipline and sadhana, that has made her what she is. But to be sure, the timbre of her voice has lost its richness progressively since the 50s.
Asha on the other hand, maintained her full voice for a very very long time.
Voices like K L Sehgal and Talat Mehmood would never succeed in these times, but what a lovely contribution they made to the world of hindi film songs.
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May 18, 2012 at 9:20 am
It seems the print media have given short shrift to the 100 years of Hindi film program. Nor have the visual media have cared cover/highlight the programme. We are the looser as there was nothing there to be seen nor read. Those who have the video clip can upload on the youtube so we all can see it happen.
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May 18, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Nitin ji,
print media did take a notice of the program.Here is the link-
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/248228/musically-yours.html
this is from Deccan Herald,new Delhi edition.Similarly,I am sure many papers must have given publicity to it,but we do not know.
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May 25, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Though a novice in such matters, I find this extremely interesting and would love to attend any such shows….can you let me know when and how?
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
May 15, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Sudhir ji,
There are already 2 songs of ‘Hum Bhi Insaan Hai”-1959
posted on 14th and 18th Dec 2011.Whats more,there are comments by you on 18th Dec song also.
Similarly the same title movie of 1948 has also debuted on the 24th march 2012.
Your description of the programme is very good.I was lucky to see a video recording of the programme done by mr.Naresh Khattar of Delhi,made on his Mobile phone.Though on mobile phone,as he was in the first 1-2 rows,it has come out very clear and the sound is also very good.
Additionally,I received the ivitation card of the programme only on 8th of May,in Mumbai.
I am glad that you have met AK ji and also plan to meet again.
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May 15, 2012 at 3:52 pm
contd….
You are also visible in that VDO,when you went to the dias to whisper to Nalin Shah ji.
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