Archive for the ‘Kanan Devi solo’ Category
Chali pawan harson
Posted on: July 17, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
July 17th is the death anniversary of Kanan Devi (22/04/1916-17/07/1992). I had written an article for this blog on her last birth anniversary. So I will not go into her profile. She was one of the most beautiful and graceful actors of her time. She brought respectability to female actors. It is said that she was the highest paid film actors of her time and in one film, ‘Chandrashekhar'(1948), she was paid one rupee more than the remuneration paid to her lead actor Ashok Kumar. Sahir Ludhianvi, probably took a hint from her when he started demanding one rupee more than that paid to the music directors.
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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 30s and 40s, female actor-singers like Noor Jehan, Khursheed, Rajkumari, Amirbai Karnataki and Zoharabai Ambalewali dominated the Hindi film industry. These artists were based in Lahore and Bombay (Mumbai). Kanandevi who was based in Calcutta(Kolkatta) held somewhat higher status of a superstar actor-singer for nearly two decades both in Bengali and Hindi film industries. Today, April 22nd is the birth anniversary of Kanandevi who was born in Howrah to a poor family. Her adoptive father died early which forced her to take the responsibility of looking after her family at a young age of 10 years. A well wisher introduced her to Jyoti Studios where she was given a small role in a Bengali silent film Joydeb(1926). Thereafter she worked in some more silent films. It took about 10 years for her to be noticed as an accomplished actor in the film Khooni Kaun (1936).
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Kaisa ujda chaman khushi ka
Posted on: March 23, 2012
This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
A very remarkable song indeed. Not just for the words and music, but the way the music is arranged, and the manner in which it has been rendered. The special feature of remark-ability can either be told, or can be perceived by listening to the song itself. Maybe some of the readers would pause reading this write up, listen to the song and then come back to read the rest of it. And possibly, some readers can recognize what is special about this song.
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Kuchh yaad rahe to sun kar jaa
Posted on: March 7, 2012
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
One of the remembrances of my childhood days of early 50s was a song ‘kuchh yaad rahe to sun kar jaa’ which my mother used to sing quite often. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I grew up with this song. Those days, I did not remember the beginning line of this song but one line from this song – ‘tu haan kar jaa yaa naa kar jaa’ remained embedded in my mind. I had no inkling at that time that it was a filmy song.
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More angnaa mein aaye aali
Posted on: November 15, 2011
“Vidyapati” (1937) is one of the earliest Hindi talkies and it is one that was a landmark movie of its time. It was produced by Calcutta’s New Theatre. This movie starred Pahadi Sanyal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Kanan Devi, K C Dey, K N Singh, Kidar Sharma, Nemo, Chhaaya Devi, Leela Desai etc.
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This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
Street Singer (1938) is a wonderful musical bonanza, that has two of the greatest singer-actors in it, in the person of Saigal Saab and Kaanan Devi. Six songs from this movie are already posted on this blog. This is the seventh song, and what a wonderful ghazal it is. The ghazal itself is presented as a duet, and is rendered very simply, yet elegantly by Saigal Saab and Kaanan Devi. A summary of the story line of this film has already been discussed in the previous two songs posted for this movie, viz., ‘Ghungharwaa baaje chhananana chhan’ and ‘Hai kyaa koi suhaawan sapnaa’. In this song, the two street singers meet the rich theatre owner for the first time – a meeting that will change their lives and destinies. The theatre owner’s role is played by Jagdeesh Sethi. (Folks can recall the film ‘Baat Ek Raat Ki’ (1962), where this very person, Jagdeesh Sethi has played a role of a rich film producer who takes fancy to a street performer (Waheeda Rehman), takes her under his care, and makes her a film star. Another variant to the theme of this movie, although the 1962 creation further develops as a murder mystery).
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Hai kyaa koi suhaawan sapnaa
Posted on: July 26, 2011
This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.
The 1938 New Theatres production of ‘Street Singer’ is a definitive trendsetter movie that stars KL Saigal, Kaanan Devi. Bikram Kapoor, Subeer, Jagdeesh, Boken Chatto, Chamanlal, Abdul Rehman, Ram Kumari, Nirmal Bannerjee etc. It is story of childhood friends Manju and Bhulwaa. I have written about the story line in yesterday’s post for ‘ghungharwaa baaje chhann’ananaa chhann’.
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Preetam se preet nibhaaungi
Posted on: April 7, 2011
“Street Singer” (1937) is one of the earliest Hindi movie after movies started talking in 1931. This movie had K L Saigal, Kanan Devi, Jagdish Sethi, Bikram Kapoor, Nirman, Satya Mukherji etc. This movie was produced by New Theatre of Calcutta and it was directed by Phani Majumdar.
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Movies of 1930s and 1940s are obviously movies far too old for anyone of us. Hardly any information is available about movies and actors of that era. The generation who followed these movies are also no longer there with us. So, with passage of time, the music of that era is getting forgotten.
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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