Archive for the ‘Post by Sadanand Kamath’ Category
Zauq e barbaadi hai mujhko
Posted on: November 28, 2012
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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This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
I had no much idea about Jahanara Kajjan except that I was aware of a couple of her classical raag based songs in the film ‘Bharathari’ (1944). Very recently, I came across one more of her song ‘tumre darshan ka nainaa taras gaye ho’ from the film PRARTHANAA (1943). I heard this song for the first time and instantly liked it. The song is rendered in dadra style (crisp version of thumri ) based on raag Gaur-Malhar but with typical filmy musical orchestration of early 40s.
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Kaali badariya chhaa gayee
Posted on: November 23, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
I am reasonably well versed with the profiles of maestro S D Burman and his son R D Burman but not about Meera Burman, wife of S D Burman and mother of R D Burman. I was also curious to know about her life after the untimely death of her only son in January 1994. Apart from keeping a low profile, Meera Burman remained in the background under the shadows of her illustrious husband and son. Contrary to my expectation, I was able to get enough information about her from the archives of newspapers reports, articles and Yahoo discussion forum of R D Burman Fans on the internet. But reading all the these material made me very sad, particularly after knowing that this multi-talented woman had spent the last 13 years of her life in a very pathetic condition.
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Ab to Madhav mohe ubaar
Posted on: November 22, 2012
This article is wrtitten by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Among the singers of devotional songs, one name that comes to my mind is Lakshmi Shankar. It was almost a daily ritual for me to listen to one of her devotional (bhajan) songs almost every day in the morning on All India Radio, Bombay (Mumbai). At that time, I had no inkling that she was a classical dancer and later a renowned classical vocalist of Patiala Gharana. I was not even aware that she belonged to the illustrious Shankar family.
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Nuktaa cheen hai gham e dil
Posted on: November 20, 2012
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 on the internet, an old review of the book ‘Darlingji – the true love story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt’ (2007) on Onlooker magazine. The book was written by Kishwar Desai. What caught my attention in the review was a comment about Jaddan Bai, Nargis’s mother. It was stated in the review that there was a subtle hint in the book about Jaddanbai being a love child of Motilal Nehru and Daleepa Bai – a courtesan of Allahabad. I am not sure whether this is a fact or a mere rumour which remained unsubstantiated. But this review brought back to my mind Jaddanbai whom I had almost forgotten. In any case, my awareness about Jaddan Bai ( 1892 or 1906 – 08/04/1949) was limited to her being the mother of Nargis and some connection to Hindi film industry.
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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.
It is interesting to note the striking similarities in the musical career of S D Burman and Hemant Kumar though the latter was 14 years younger than the former. Both started their musical careers as singers in the 30s followed by composing many non-filmy Bengali and Hindi songs in Calcutta (Kolkatta). Both started their Hindi filmy careers as music directors under the banner of Filmistan – S D Burman in Shikhar (1946) and Hemant Kumar in ‘Anand Math’ (1952).
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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.
Most of the people other than the die hard connoisseurs of filmy and non-filmy music, may not be aware that Sachin Dev Burman (S D Burman) started his musical career as a singer on All India Radio Calcutta (Kolkatta) in early 30s. During his early period of musical journey, he had sung many Bengali non-filmy songs some of them written by such distinguished personalities like Jasimuddin and Kazi Nazrul Islam. I was pleasantly surprised to know that he had also rendered Hindustani classical thumris like preet mein huye badnaam in concerts at Allahabad and Calcutta.
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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.
Presently, I am on a nostalgic journey of the 60s when I was blessed with listening to some popular non-filmy songs sung by the top playback singers and other singers of that time. In fact some of non-filmy songs of that time were as popular as Hindi film songs. Almost all top playback singers of that time like Talat Mehmood, Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Mukesh, Geeta Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle had recorded non-filmy songs at one time or the other. If Hindi films songs have hidden gems which are being unearthed on this blog every day, there are also lesser known gems in non-filmy song segment which need to be brought to the notice of the readers of this blog for the sake of posterity.
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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.
A few days back, one of the readers of this blog commented on the song arree hato kaahe ko jhoothhi banaao batiyaan sung by Manna Dey that he is not a versatile singer. Well, the reader has given his view which we respect in line with ‘pasand apni apni khayal apna apna’. Of course, with such a sweeping statement, there were responses by some of the regulars of this blog. A few examples of songs in support of Manna Dey’s singing versatility were also listed. There is no doubt that Manna Dey is a complete singer. His repository of singing encompasses classical, patriotic, romantic, light comedy, ghazal and more. His versatility goes beyond the different genres of songs. Take for instance the variations in his renditions within the genre of romantic songs of expressing love – tera haath haath mein aa gayaa, roop tumhaaraa aankhon se pi loon, tum jo aao to pyaar aa jaaye and some non-filmy songs like ‘ye awaara raatein ye koyi si baatein’ and ‘ nazaaron mein ho tum khayaalon mein ho tum’.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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