Archive for the ‘Post by Sadanand Kamath’ Category
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Lata Mangeshkar has sung for almost all the top music directors of the golden era of Hindi film music, the major exception being O P Nayyar. She has sung many popular and melodious songs for music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, C Ramchandra, Husnlal-Bhagatram, S D Burman, Roshan, Madan Mohan, Shankar-Jaikishan, Hemant Kumar, Salil Chaudhary etc. But her most talked about collaborations even today are that with C Ramchandra and Madan Mohan. And rightly so as there was something special about her songs under their batons. While her songs with C Ramchandra were mostly reflected the romance with ‘feel good’ factor, with Madan Mohan they were mostly associated with ‘heart felt’ pensive mood genre.
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Bahut be takalluf huye ja rahe hain
Posted on: June 19, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Recently I watched GHAR KI IZZAT (1948) on YT. The film was produced under the banner of Murli Movietone and directed by Ram Daryani. The star cast included Dilip Kumar and Mumtaz Shanti in the lead role with Gope, Manorama, Dixit, Jeewan, Gulab, Suleman etc in the supporting roles. The melodramatic story of the film reminded me of some of the Hindi films produced from the South in the 50s and 60s.
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Ye hawa ye fiza ye bahaaren
Posted on: June 14, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Geeta Dutt was one of the few singers who got a godsend opportunity as a playback singer in Hindi films. The devdoot or farishta (angel) in her case was none other than Pandit Hanuman Prasad, one of the music director of the 40s. While walking on a Mumbai street, he heard a singing voice coming from the balcony of the building above him which attracted his attention. He straightway walked into the room and found a teenage girl singing. She was Geeta Roy as she was known then. He liked her singing so much that he offered her the chance to sing a predominantly chorus song in the film ‘Bhakt Prahlad (1946) in which she had two lines to sing. These two lines from the song attracted the attention of S D Burman who persuaded her parents to let her sing in ‘Do Bhai’ (1947). The iconic song “mera sundar sapna beet gaya” and the box office success of the film signalled the arrival of Geeta Roy as a playback singer. By the end of 40s, she had already attained the status of one of the prominent female playback singers of Hindi films.
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Ye kis manzil pe le aayi
Posted on: June 9, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Hindi film industry is known for making most of the artists (actors, directors, music directors, singers, lyricists etc.) struggle for years before they finally reap the rewards of success in their careers. There are some who continued to struggle in the film industry for long without attaining much success in their pursuits. For examples, playback singers like Sudha Malhotra and Minoo Purshottam, music directors like C Arjun and G S Kohli and lyricists like Asad Bhopali and Naqsh Layalpuri did not attain the success in their filmy careers which they deserved. In this list, Asad Bhopali seems to be the ‘leader’ among strugglers.
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Ajeeb hai zindagi ki manzil
Posted on: May 24, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
hain aur bhi duniyaa mein sukhanwar bahut achchhe
kahte hain ki Ghalib kaa hai andaaz-e-bayaan aur
Whenever I remember this maqta of Ghalib’s ghazal, Majrooh Sultanpuri’s name props up in my mind. I always felt how apt it would be if words ‘duniyaa’ and ‘Ghalib’ from the maqta she’r were replaced with ‘filmi jahaan’ and ‘Majrooh’. During Majrooh Sultanpuri’s time, there were renowned poet-lyricists like Sahir Ludhianvi, Shakeel Badayuni, Shailendra, Kaifi Azmi, Jan Nisar Akhtar and later, Gulzar, Javed Akhtar etc. but Majrooh’s andaaz-e-bayaan , the sophistication even in his teasing, racy and light hearted lyrics in Hindi film songs was something which became the hallmark of his style of song writings. He wrote songs trending with the time. Perhaps this explains why Majrooh Sultanpuri had one of the longest innings of over five decades in the Hindi film industry, penning songs for most of the well known music directors – from Naushad in 1946 to A R Rehman in 2000.
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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.
Among the present generation of music directors of Hindi films, I like the songs composed by A R Rahman the most. If the songs composed by him are written by poets like Javed Akhtar, Prasoon Joshi or Gulzar, they are like icing on the cake. I must confess that the initial listening of his songs does not give me an extra-ordinary feeling. But after the release of the films and exposure of the songs to my ears multiple times, most of his songs begin to sound great. It takes time at least for me to develop a taste for his brand of music – from ‘Roja’ (1992) to ‘Gajini’ (2008), the last of his film I watched so far. Obviously, songs of ‘Rang De Basanti (2006) composed by A R Rehman gave me the same experience. I used to feel not so great about songs like the title song ‘rang de basanti’, ‘masti ki paathshala’ and ‘roobaroo’. It was only after watching the actual picturisation of these songs with contexts that I developed the taste to appreciate them. The film of course won many awards for its music and songs.
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Dukh se bhara hua hai dil
Posted on: May 7, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
In Hindi film industry, there were many artists – actors, playback singers, lyricists and music directors who after starting their careers soon faded into oblivion as they could not get on a firm footing in the industry. But there were some who remained with the film industry for a long time even though success eluded them. One of such artists was Shankar Dasgupta, playback singer and music director.
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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.
In the last few days, I have been looking for songs composed by Shyam Sundar, the forgotten music director of 40s and early 50s. Whenever I think of him, the name of another forgotten music director Sajjad Hussain creeps in my mind. If Shyam Sundar was called a genius music director, Sajjad Hussain was called an original music director by none other than Anil Biswas, the ‘Bheeshm Pitaamah’ of Hindi film music. Despite these superlatives against their names, Shyam Sundar and Sajjad Hussain composed music for only 20 and 17 Hindi films respectively in their careers. This works out to on an average 2 films per year for Shyam Sunder (1943 to 1953) and less than 1 film per year for Sajjad Hussain ( 1944 to 1977). One common reason attributed for their musical output not being commensurate with their talents was that both were short tempered and perfectionist to the extent that they were uncompromising which was not to the liking of producers/directors of the films.
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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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Ud jaayegaa hans akela
Posted on: May 3, 2013
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
In the Hindu mythology, Gandharvas are stated to be the male heavenly spirit and in the context of music, the term is used for a highly skilled vocalist. Maharashtra had the privilege of having four ‘Gandharvas’. First, Sawai Gandharva (real name : Rambahu Kundgolkar – 19/01/1886 – 12/09/1952). He was a popular Hindustani classical vocalist and Marathi stage actor-singer. He was the first disciple of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan of Kirana gharana. One of the disciples of Sawai Gandharva was Pandit Bhimsen Joshi who later started the annual Sawai Gandharva Festival at Pune in the memory of his guru.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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