Archive for the ‘Ghazal’ Category
Humne tumne kiyaa thha jo aabaad
Posted on: July 3, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
It is generally believed that scriptwriters (I use this word to include story, screenplay and dialogue writers) in Hindi films gained recognition and their status enhanced thanks to Salim-Javed duo who reigned over Hindi film industry with their fast paced screen plays and dialogues during 70s and early 80s. In fact, those days during our family discussions, if someone gives a hard hitting response, we used to say “here comes Salim-Javed” which would help in bringing normalcy to the ongoing heated disussions. The duo became so popular that they used to decide who would be the lead actor in the films for which they wrote scripts. It is also believed that in addition to their fixed component of fees, they would also get a share of profits from the films for which they wrote. I have seen their names being printed in bold letters in film posters and newspapers advertisements signifying that along with lead actors, music director etc, the name of Salim-Javed also played a role in attracting cinegoers to the movie halls.
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This article is written by nahm, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
I first heard this private song of Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh, in the film ‘Hero’ (1983). In a scene in the film Meenakshi Sheshadri is seen moping around and listening to this song on a cassette player. Just a few lines are heard before the scene continues on, but later on we got to hear the whole song in a cassette of this duo’s ghazals. I do not remember the name of the collection. It may have been ‘classic collection’ .
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This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
During 1960-70, Lata Mangeshkar had sung some beautiful non-filmy ghazals. Two of these NFS, viz. dahar mein naqsh-e-wafaa and aankh se aankh milaata hai koi have already been covered in the blog. These ghazals were composed by Faiyyaz Shaukat and K Mahavir respectively. In 1969, a LP of her non-filmy ghazals of Mirza Ghalib composed by her brother Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar was released.
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Wo jo roothhen to manaana chaahiye
Posted on: April 25, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Most of us are aware that a ghazal is a series of couplets (she’rs), each one being independent of others. In fact each she’r is a poem by itself. So theoretically, she’rs written by different poets (shaayars) can be woven to make it a ghazal. This is easier said than done as there are other parameters to make it a traditional ghazal. Normally, there are five essential aspects of a traditional ghazal. They are
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Aankh se aankh milaata hai koi
Posted on: April 20, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
It is a human nature that most top professionals would think that they are perfect in their professions, be it in the fields of sports or fine arts. Then why do we need coaches, guides, trainers etc ? A few years back, it looked odd to me to know that top seeded professional lawn tennis players have personal coaches. Some of the coaches may not have even played in any of the grand slam tournaments. Even in cricket, some of the teams’ coaches have not been top cricketers in their own national team. Now I know of two maxims in professional sportsman-coach relationship. First, all top players need not be perfect and coaches of these top players need not be top sportsmen in their fields. Second, the best coaches have the wherewithal to extract from the top professionals something more than the perfect which makes a vast difference in closely fought competition. This led me to think why not have a system of coaches (in Indian musical parlance, ‘guru’) for professional singers as well?
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This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Traditionally, ghazals are supposed to be rendered in a soft voice and in a slow tempo to make the listeners understand the deep meaning behind each words. Ghazals rendered in an appropriate mood can awaken emotional feelings even in a stone-hearted person. Perhaps it was in these context that ghazals were sung in thumri style in the early 20th century, creating a melancholic mood and offering the opportunity for singers to emphasise on some specific words in the ghazals which were important in understanding the meaning in the ghazals. Singers like Begum Akhtar, Kamala Jharia, Master Madan, K C Dey, K L Saigal etc sang ghazals mostly in thumri style.
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Chaand tanha hai aasmaan tanha
Posted on: March 31, 2013
This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
A remembrance of today that must include her own expressions. Mahajabeen was an emotional personality, and as with all emotional people, there is an expression of the artist in ways more than one. A poetess in her own right, she is known to have been writing couplets and ghazals from a very young age. And when her life started on downhill glide, it was the drink that became a faithful companion, and it was her pen that became an outlet for her to tell the world, about her sorrows and her wounds.
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Udaasiyon mein nazar kho gayi
Posted on: March 29, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Majrooh Sulatanpuri’s filmy career as a lyricist started with ‘Shah Jehan’ (1946) under the music direction of Naushad. In the same year, he also wrote lyrics for ‘Keemat’ (1946) for which Naushad was the music director. It was only after the success of ‘Andaz’ (1949) that Majrooh Sultanpuri got his foothold in Hindi film industry. Unfortunately, this success was short lived as he was arrested in 1949 for his anti-establishment poems. He was given an option of either to apologise or face two years of prison. He opted for the later. At the time of his arrest, he was writing lyrics for the film ‘Aarzoo’ (1950) and it was his first collaboration with the music director Anil Biswas. This film also became a hit and all the songs including the iconic song ae dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal became very popular.
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Jis raat ke khwaab aaye
Posted on: March 19, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular cotributor to this blog.
The name of Habba Khatoon, the Kashmiri poetess may not be familiar to many people. This name became familiar to me only sometime in 1987 when Muzzafar Ali ( of Umrao Jaan fame) announced his plan to make a film on the life of Habba Khatoon. Dimple Kapadia was taken for the title role with Vinod Khanna in the role of the first husband of Habba Khatoon. The title of the film was changed to ‘Zooni’, Habba Khatoon’s maiden name. The lyrics were to be written by Shahryar and Khayyam was to give the music direction. Muzzafar Ali believed that Zooni’s life was the powerful vehicle to project the real Kashmir. After nearly 20 months of shooting in Kashmir, the film was shelved in 1989 probably due to the rise of militancy in the Kashmir valley. I got my hand on a small video clip of the film on YT uploaded by Basheer Ali who was the Director of Photography for the film. From the content of the clip which also has a part of the song ‘rukh-e-dildaar deedam daras ko aaye preetam’ picturised on Dimple Kapadia, it appears that it was made as a part of marketing the film for international audience. The video clip is here.
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Dil e naadaan tujhe huaa kyaa hai
Posted on: March 18, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
In recent years, there has been a trend in Hindi film industry to make sequels of the box office hit films. Sequel films are said to be comparatively risk free as the success formula has already been tested. The earliest sequel film that I spotted on the internet was ‘Hunterwali Ki Beti’ (1943) which was supposed to be a follow-up of ‘Hunterwali’ (1935). I doubt whether the maker (Wadia brothers) of these two films ever thought in terms of a sequel but the story of the later film seems to be a follow up of the first film. Fearless Nadia (real name Marry Ann Evans) the first stunt heroine in the Indian film industry, John Cawas and Bhoman Shroff were part of the cast in both these films which were box office hits.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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