Archive for the ‘Ghazal’ Category
Dahar mein naqsh e wafaa
Posted on: March 7, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath,a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The year was 1947. Dilip Kumar, Anil Biswas and Lata Mangeshkar were travelling in a suburban local train to Malad where Filmistan Studio was located. During the journey, Anil Biswas introduced Lata Mangeshkar as a Maharashtrian girl who would be the singing star of tomorrow. Those days most of the Hindi film songs used to have more Urdu words than Hindi. Dilip Kumar retorted sarcastically. ‘A Maharashtrian? Her Urdu would not do justice to the song. My ears would tingle in shame’. These words stung Lata Mangeshkar so much that in the following morning, she started learning Urdu from an Urdu tutor just to prove Dilip Kumar wrong. This incident was revealed by Lata Mangeshkar in a private function at Dilip Kumar’s residence some time in 1970. Dilip Kumar in his characteristic style, replied that Lata Mangeshkar’s pronunciations and diction both in Hindi and Urdu are so clear and correct that now his ears tingle in shame for those remarks he made in 1947.
Read more on this topic…
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
A few months back, I came across a non-filmy ghazal ‘asser-e-gham ka bhalaa phir kahaan thikaanaa thhaa’ sung by Kamla Jharia, a classical singer of dadra, thumri, ghazals and devotional songs. She was also an actor-singer and a playback singer mainly in 30s and 40s. I loved this ghazal so much that in token of my appreciation, I decided to write an article on this ghazal for which I was collecting background information on it. During this period, I came across another audio clip of the same ghazal on YT, sung by her. But this time, it was accredited to a Hindi film ‘Struggle’ (1936). So I put my plan to write an article on hold until I solved the puzzle of this ghazal being labelled both as non-filmy as well as a filmy ghazal.
Read more on this topic…
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
My browsing through non-filmy songs on the internet for the last few months have been like a nostalgic journey in the down memory lane. Some of the NFSs I have listened to in the recent period took me back to 60s and 70s when I had heard those on the radio. I had completely forgotten some of them until I rediscovered them on the internet. My latest rediscovery of a non-fllmy ghazal is less than 24 hours old but I have already listened to it umpteen times and still listening. This Shakeel Badayuni’s ghazal is ‘nazar nawaz nazaaron mein jee nahin lagtaa’ sung by Shanti Hiranand, a well known classical vocalist and a disciple of Mallika-e-Ghazal Begum Akhtar. I has heard this ghazal many times in the 60s on the radio but had completely forgotten it until I came across the audio clip of this ghazal again.
Read more on this topic…
This article is writtten by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The ghazal ‘ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe ronaa aayaa’ and Begum Akhtar are inseparable. If ‘deewaana banaana hai to deewaana banaa de’ (1925) heralded the arrival of Begum Akhtar as a ghazal singer, ‘ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe ronaa aayaa’ (early 1950s) consolidated her position in ghazal singing paving the way for her to be bestowed upon the title of ‘mallika-e-ghazal’ later. I came to know about Begum Akhtar in my younger days only because of this ghazal which was regularly played on the radio. The simple words in this ghazal with the captivating style of Begum Akhtar’s rendition attracted not only the connoisseurs of ghazals but also the commoners. No wonder, the sales of gramophone records of this ghazal attained the stature of a platinum disc.
Read more on this topic…
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
When the techniques of song recording were first introduced in India by a few music record companies, there was some initial myths and superstitions associated with it. A few of the professional singers believed that song recordings reduced the life span of singers as the electric gadgets suck away the lung power. A few even went to the extent in saying that the microphone takes away all the good qualities of a singer’s voice. It is said that Kesarbai Kerkar, the classical singer did not record a single song for music companies during her life time. Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, the doyen of Patiala Gharana initially evaded recordings on some pretext or other but the underlying factor seemed to be the fear of losing the quality of his voice.
Read more on this topic…
Tumko fursat ho meri jaan
Posted on: February 15, 2013
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
My younger days were made more enjoyable by Talat’s songs. Though I was born and brought up in Hyderabad state- a Muslim ruled state(The Nizam was the king ruling on 85 % Hindu population….exactly opposite of Raja Harisingh of Kashmir ruling on 85% Muslims ! ), initially I was not much interested in Urdu Gazals etc. My interest in Urdu Gazals was ignited and further nurtured by by the way Talat sang them.
Read more on this topic…
This article is written by Shekhar Gupta, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
My curiosity in the Keshav Talpade directed Tigress (1948) was piqued when Mr. Sudhir Kapur posted the patriotic number Hum iss zameen ke hain from this film on the occasion of India’s Republic Day a couple of days ago.
Read more on this topic…
Ik shab ke musaafir hain ham to
Posted on: January 20, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Among the film producers and directors of early days of talky films, Kidar Sharma was one among a few producer-directors who evoked my interest in knowing him. My information about him was limited to what I had known from print media and interviews on Doordarshan in 70s and 80s. He was known for introducing new faces like Raj Kapoor, Madhubala, Geeta Bali in the Hindi film industry who subsequently attained the star status. He also introduced Snehal Bhatkar and Roshan as music directors. Kidar Sharma was a multifaceted personality – painter, photographer, story/screen play/dialogue writer, poet, lyricist, actor, director and producer as I came to know much later when I read his autobiography ‘ The One and Lonely Kidar Sharma’ (2002).
Read more on this topic…
Ae jazba e dil gar main chaahoon
Posted on: January 18, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
A few months back, I watched the movie ‘In Custody’ ( Urdu title : ‘Muhafiz’, 1994) on the internet. The film was produced under the banner of Merchant-Ivory Productions and directed by Ismail Merchant. Probably it was a bilingual film – in English and Hindi/Urdu. The star cast included Shashi Kapoor, Shabhana Azmi, Om Puri, Neena Gupta, Sushma Seth, Tinnu Anand, Ajay Sahani etc. The film was based on Anita Desai’s English novel by the same name. A pleasant surprise to me was that the film had 4 ghazals composed jointly by two well known ustads – Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ustaad Sultan Khan in the style reminiscence of the compositions of 50s and 60s. After all, it is a period film. Of the four ghazals, three ghazals are of Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Read more on this topic…
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Connoisseurs of Urdu poetry may recall that sometime in early 90s, Doordarshan televised a TV serial KAHAKASHAN covering the lives of six of the doyens of Urdu poetry – Firaq Gorakhpuri, Hasrat Mohani, Jigar Moradabadi, Josh Malihabadi, Majaz Lacknawi and Makhdoom Mohiuddin. This TV serial was produced by another well known Urdu poet and writer, Ali Sardar Jafri, the contemporary of these galaxy of poets. The serial was directed by Jalal Agha. I had seen some of the episodes of this serial in the 90s but did not remembered much of the contents. A few months back, I came across the episodes of this TV serial on the internet. I have already watched the episodes covering Firaq Gorakhpuri and Majaz Lucknawi. The treatment in the serial is biographical in nature covering some of the important events in the lives of these poets interspersed with their own ghazals many of which were sung Jagjit Singh who also composed the music for the TV serial. Watching the episodes covering these two Urdu poets, to say the least, was a heart wrenching experience for me as the lives of these two poets were full of pains, misery, misfortunes and loneliness. My curiosity to learn more about these six Urdu poets grew after I had watched this T V serial.
Read more on this topic…
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
Recent comments