Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

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.

Sachin Dev Burman started his musical career as a singer-composer, mainly of non-filmy songs in the 1930s in Calcutta (Kolkatta). After joining the Hindi film industry as a music director in 1946, he sang very few songs in Hindi films and that too only those composed by himself. So I was under the impression that he did not sing any songs in Hindi films under the baton of other music directors. I was wrong in my impression as I found a few days that he sang such songs way back in the beginning of his career. As early as 1941, he had rendered a song for a Hindi film under the music direction of Madhulal Damodar Master. This song happened to be his debut song for Hindi 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.

MAN KI JEET (1944) was produced and directed by W Z Ahmed under the banner of Shalimar Pictures owned by him. Shyam and Nina were in the lead roles. The story of the film was said to be based on Thomas Hardy’s novel ‘Tess of the D’urbervilles’. One of the most popular songs from this film nagri meri kab tak yoon hi barbaad rahegi has been discussed in this blog.
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This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.

In the decades of 30s and 40s, some of the female singers made it to Hindi films as actors thanks to their ability to sing well. It would appear that in those days, it was more of the singing ability than the acting skills which was the deciding factors for the film producers to pick up the female actors. Some of the prominent singing female actors of that period were Khursheed Bano, Noor Jehan, Kanan Bala, Shanta Apte, Suraiya, Amirbai Karnataki, Rajkumari etc.
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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.

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.
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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 sphere of Geeta Dutt’s non-filmy songs (NFS), I was aware of only one of her songs hauley hauley hawaayen doley during my younger days, thanks to the radio. Much later, I had bought 78 RPM record of this NFS sometime in early 70s. If I remember correctly, this record had ‘jamuna ke teer kaanhaa aao’ on the other side. So I became aware of one more NFS of her. Probably those days of early 50s, the singers will have to sing at least two NFS songs to bring out one 78 RPM record. With the advent of internet, we have access to some more of her NFS based on which I have a feeling that compared with other playback singers of her time like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Mohammed Rafi, Talat Mehmood, Mukesh, Manna Dey etc, she has cut comparatively very few Hindi NFS discs. I found that none of her NFS other than the two I referred to above, were known to me though they are beautifully rendered by her. I have recently heard ‘ye hawaa ye fizaa ye bahaaren’ composed by V Balsara and I liked it very much.
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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.

Recently, I came across a non-filmy song on the internet, sung by Talat Mehmood which happened to be his first disc cut in 1941 for HMV. The mukhda of the song was

sab din ek samaan nahin thha
ban jaaunga kyaa se kyaa main
iskaa to kuchh dhyaan nahin thha

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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.

I have been an admirer of Gulzar’s films ever since I saw his film ‘Parichay’ (1972). I have seen all of his films released till 1982 and thereafter I have watched most of his subsequent films either on TV or on VCDs/DVDs. His films may not be a box office bonanza for film distributors but his ‘middle of the road’ films revolving around the intricate human relationship are a treat to watch for an audience of the good 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.

Among the Mughal emperors, Bahadur Shah Zafar (24/10/1775 – 7/11/1862) evoked my sympathy whenever I used to read the chapters on Mughal Empire in the history book during my school days. One rarely comes across such a moving tale of a reluctant emperor at a time when Mughal empire had almost crumbled. It is an irony of fate that the last emperor of Muhgal dynasty who had ruled India for over 300 years had to spend the last few years of his life in exile in Rangoon (Yongon) in Burma (Myanmar) and died unsung in anonymity.
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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 my younger days, I disliked the traditional classical vocal music as I had no patience to listen to a couple of verses umpteen times with longish alaaps. I used to feel that the ‘progression’ in the vocal music was too slow for me to get interested in listening to such recitals. However, I liked the filmy and non-filmy songs based on classical ragas as those would get over in about 3 minutes. My taste on traditional classical vocal music changed when I bought a LP of Pandit D V Paluskar in early 70s mainly for 5 devotional songs contained in the one side, the other side being his full length vocal recital on raag Shri. This LP was a turning point for me and I started liking Hindustani classical music. I felt that he must be a great classical vocalist whose vocal music sounded great to my untrained ears.
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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.

Connoisseurs of vintage Hindi film songs while listening to songs like jaao jaao ae mere sadhjo raho guru ke sang and baba man ki aankhen khol, would identify these songs with K C Dey without blinking their eye lids. The name K C Dey and kirtan songs (devotional and philosophical songs) are inseparable. Since he was blind, this genre of songs suited him best when he was also acting and singing in the films. Whenever I listened to his filmy songs, I felt that his voice quality suited well for thumri and ghazals. Little did I know at that time that he was also an accomplished Hindustani classical and bhajan singer with more than one hundred NFS in Hindi, Urdu and Bengali to his credit. I also find from his discography that he had recorded at least four Gujarati devotional songs in 1942.
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