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

This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

This article is the 14000^th song post in the blog.

Aah, the magical triple zero. There is always quite a long wait to get to a milestone that carries all zeroes in the last three digits. Welcome all, to the fourteenth such milestone. Yes, I hear you say it – it IS getting to be a staggering collection, this ASAD blog. You can pick your time preference, we are on to the

• 3, 485^th day, or
• at 497 weeks and 6 days, or
• 114 months and 14 days, or
• 9 Years, 6 Months and 14 Days

of the continued proliferation of this blog.

Given where we are today, and from when we started, the average posting rate has been a tad over 4 songs a day, 4.0172 to be precise. Or to put it another way, if we were exactly at 4 songs a day, then today we would have been at 13,940, requiring 15 more days to hit the 14K milestone. So we are running marginally faster than 4 songs a day. And today morning, I was just wondering, maybe I should suggest to Atul ji, and maybe we should name this blog as AFSAD, instead of ASAD. OK yes, you guessed it right – Atul-Four-Songs-A-Day. 😀 😀

I am once again reminded of “Gaata Jaaye Banjaara. . .”; the operative phrase here being “Gaata Jaaye” – continues to sing, continuously sings, does not stop singing. . . whichever way you want to put it. Ah yes, continues to sing, and never repeats. Now that has been the amazing wonder sans pareil. If anyone else, any reader has come across at such a consistently prolific web destination on the internet, I would like to know about it. The quality, the content, the sheer volume, the authenticity et al – it is no longer just a matter of curiosity for the web surfers. This is seriously serious stuff, that does not just raise eyebrows in remark-ability, but also in invidious envy. ASAD is the Gold Standard of Hindi film music on the internet. And then some.

As I checked the visitors ticker just now, we just rolled over the count at 10,054,000^th visitor today. The average works out to be close to 2,900 visitors per day – wow. इंटरनेट है तो चल जाता है, इतने लोग रोज़ गाना सुनने के लिए घर आने लगें तो॰ ॰ ॰ 😀 😀

And so, a very special milestone, just the fourteenth one over all these 9+ years. And just to see where we have been at the time these 13 previous milestones were breached, here is the list to go with this analysis.

The above table gives the progression of the ‘K’ milestones, as they have occurred during the journey of our musical bandwagon. The first five columns in this table are self explanatory. The last two columns are titled D1 and D2 (for lack of print space 🙂 ). D1 is the difference of no. of days between the two subsequent ‘K’ milestones. And D2 is the number of days after which we hit a ‘K’ milestone, calculated from the Day-1 i.e. 19^th July, 2008. The data contained in this table lends itself to many interesting analyses and observations.

• The shortest ‘K’ journey was from 4K to 5K – 154 days.
• The longest ‘K’ journey was from 11K to 12K – 387 days.
• The average journey from one ‘K’ milestone to the next is 250 days, or just a little over 8 months.
• Considering a gap of 5000 songs, the fastest run has been from 5K to 10K – only 980 days, with an average of 196 days per K milestone.
  . . it seems that from Nov 2011 to Jul 2014, the blog team had a lot of time on hand 😀 😀
• Our pace beyond 10K has slowed down considerably, and for good reasons – our journey from 5K to 14K has consumed 1292 days already.

I am sure the regulars and readers will notice more interesting details in this data. I would encourage all to please share more interesting analyses of the above data.

Now a word about these posts themselves.

The 1K post –

A very interesting choice that Atul ji made – to bring on a good song, and a rare song, not available till then. The film – ‘Lootmaar’. The posting performance – right about at 255 days, setting the average pace that apparently has been sustained so far. A brief quote from his write up :-

[…] I take this opportunity to thank all my readers whose encouragement (visits, comments etc) have made this blog an important blog for those who want to savour the best songs that Bollywood music world has to offer. I hope that this blog will go from strength to strength and I will be able to add many more thousands of songs to this blog in the times to come.

He did write that he expects the blog to go from “strength to strength” and that he would “. . .add many more thousands of songs […] in the times to come”. So this is one question I would like Atul ji to respond to specifically – was his expectations that we shall reach, where we have reached today, and still going strong??

The 2K post –

Atul ji made a very interesting and a very profound start to this post – “Bollywood movies and Indian Railways are two of the major unifying factors for this vast nation of India.” The song is a ‘Rail’ song. Then he goes on to say that he himself can barely believe – to quote – “Yes, believe it or not, this song is the 2000th song of this blog. 2000 songs in 14 months is a barely believable feat even for myself.” And then he closes it requesting for blessings from readers and contributors, and with the hope that the blog continues to go from “strength to strength”.

The 3K post –

This post is by Raja ji. And we saw two ‘thousand’ celebrations combined for the first time. It was 3000th song for the blog and it was 1000th song of Lata Mangeshkar. Raja ji opens this post with

“[…]today we mark the 3000th song on this blog. Yes, it is mind-b(l)ogg(l)ing, considering this blog is hardly two years old. That is an average of 4-5 songs every day! That’s an amazing run-rate, especially if you consider how much effort goes into every single song here.”

Yes – ‘bloggling’ – one of the very first new words coined by the team, and contributed to the international effort to enrich the Oxford English Dictionary. 🙂 And then, follows it up with a very interesting and detailed examination of the song itself.
[Ed Note: we have other interesting coinage – gangout, yippeeable, etc. 🙂 ]

The 4K post –

The burden of writing this post once again fell on to Raja ji. And this time around, we had a combined ‘thousand’ celebration – the blog milestone plus the 1000^th song for Rafi Sb. Raja ji called it the ‘double mega’ celebration. The post, written with apprehension, as per Raja ji himself, is a very interesting read about Rafi Sb. His passion for Rafi Sb’s voice and his singing, and his personal experiences with his songs, clearly shines through the write up.

The 5K post –

So far, the ‘K’ milestones were important, but nonetheless, were kind of part of the ongoing journey. By the time we started to feel the proximity of the 5K milestone, things had gotten much warmer. For one, the group of regulars had become a sizeable and a very stable team. And approaching 5K became a beacon milestone that Atul ji started planning well in advance. And what became manifest is probably the longest write up as yet. And that – because three people collaborated to do the write up. One part is penned by Raja ji, writing about the blog history, as he has seen it from day 1. The second part is written by yours truly, and this piece contains a detailed bio sketch and career discussion of the music director Bulo C Rani. The third part is written by Atul ji, in which he talks about the batting line up – a blazing opening stand, a solid middle order, and then a tailender scoring “some runs”. 🙂

The celebration was heightened by the choice of the song – one of the most iconic qawwaali in the history of Hindi film music. Atul ji pointed out that the blog visitor ticker had then recently turned over the 2 million mark; that the blog was being ranked 3^rd and 4^th in the Google page rankings; and that the daily visitor hits had gone up significantly – almost 7,000 visitors per day sustained for a good period of time. The celebration and the echoes of it in the comments area were a fitting reverberation of a 5K milestone.

An interesting insight that was provided by Atul ji – at the 4700^th milestone, he had kind of made a decision to get this qawwaali as the 5K milestone song, along with the 100^th song for Bulo C Rani. The problem however was that Bulo C was at 20 songs when the blog touched 4700. As per Atul ji, it was a concentrated and focused effort that brought 79 more Bulo C Rani songs to the blog within the next 300 posts. 🙂

The 6K post –

On to the 6^th celebration of thousand quotas, we again combined a double mega milestone – 6K for the blog and the thousandth song for Asha Bhosle. The post, written by yours truly, was all about Asha Bhosle, her career, her singing, her accomplishments and honors in the arena of Hindi film music. The journey of the bandwagon was also covered, with the acknowledgement that the visitor ticker had slid past the 3 million mark around the time the 5900^th post came up. The song picked for this occasion is a non-film song – a fantastic favorite of all Asha Bhosle fans. And we have a very interesting comment from Raja ji – once again equating to the cricketing world, he likened the pace on the blog with a T20 match. 😀 😀

The 7K post –

The occasion was the Diwali celebrations of 2012. The double celebration was getting the 1700^th song of Rafi Sb on board. The post came about when the blog was just a few days short of breaching the 4 million visitor’s milestone. And quite specifically I had been saving an fabulous non film song, and a very rare one at that – Rafi Sb’s voice and the song about Diwali.

So the special post about Rafi Sb, the Diwali celebration and the 7K milestone. I would like to quote myself, for the fun of the Magic Box –

“Be that this blog is a Wonderful Bag of Magic. And that makes Atul ji, the Magician. Just close your eyes and imagine – Atulji, wearing a flowing robe with sparkling stars stitched on it, wearing a magicians hat, with a wand in hand. And every time he waves his wand (or clicks the mouse 🙂 ), this Wonderful Bag of Magic is richer with a few more flavors of life. Bringing joy to the lovers of music in all parts of the world.”

The 8K post –

The song that I picked for this post is really very very special – the ‘rockingest’ song in the Hindi film history. The discussion included topics such as having viewed this film on Doordarshan as a child, and the ensuing discussion amongst school friends the next day. And that the film had completed its tally of all songs on the blog. The Yippeee terminology had not yet been invented, and we just completed the song list for the film.

A notable thing about this song and the write up was probably the first discussion about the variations in the 78 rpm record and the sound track versions of the song. And quite likely also the first time that both versions of the song were included in the post and the lyrics.

The 9K post –

As I was trying to decipher the concept of ‘nine thousand’ itself, I did find something very interesting – a definition of 9000 from the world of anime literature. I include a brief quote from my own write up, telling about what I found out about this multi mega number.

“As Goku powers up in rage, Vegeta senses an explosive increase in his power level and yells: “It’s over nine thousand!”. The phrase immediately caught on and continued to become popular, and the number 9000 soon became adapted as a slang term to describe something or someone of impressive strength.

That is what this blog is now becoming – a thing of impressive size and collection, that is unmatched anywhere on the internet. And by tomorrow, when the next post is uploaded, we can all claim our blog to be “over 9000” – a blog size that cannot be beaten or bettered.”

But the other very interesting thing that is attached to this 9K milestone – in the preceding 2 to 3 weeks the posting activity had gone up significantly, touching 8, 9 or even 10 posts per day. And the reason for the activity was revealed in the write up. Atul ji had observed that the 5K milestone had fallen on the 13^th November, and so had the 7K milestone. So in his effort to ensure that the 9K also made it on the same day of the year. We were posting feverishly to get the number on the date. And we did. 🙂

And the musical milestone that was combined was the 2100^th song of Rafi Sb. And the song selected for this milestone is really very very special song.

The 10K post –

I do not need to reminiscence the circumstances and the content of this post. The event was remarkable just in the fact that almost the entire bandwagon was connected on email and text message, as we waited out the last few hours waiting for the dime to drop. This particular celebration had a massive and an impressive build up. We planned it such that many regular contributors prepared a special post about another member of the bandwagon. And we kind of created a record – the entire set of posts related to the 10K celebrations numbers 63 – wow, that is massive.

The build up was of course very invigorating, and the climax was meant to be a very very special surprise, which was not revealed till the very end of the posting process. In a manner of speaking, the blog changed the history of Hindi film music, by brining on board a song from a film from 1931. Till that time, the acknowledged fact was that the earliest recorded film songs came from 1932. It was just like re-writing the history.

The date for this event fell on 20^th July, and Atul ji explained in his part of the writeup on why we missed the 19^th July target, which would have coincided with the birth date of the blog.

I quote from Atul ji’s part of the write up

“What had started with the aim of being just another blog has become one of the shining examples of the power of online collaborations which had led to the creation of an amazing collection of authentic information on the topic of HFM.”

And more

“The mark of 10,000 posts is a landmark that takes us to the five figure mark. This figure is a mindboggling figure. I recall that Raja had came to meet me in 2010. The blog then had 4000 songs in it and I has told Raja that I had about 6000 songs with me in all. Both of us had considered that figure to be an enormous figure. And now we are talking of 10,000th post. 🙂 And now we find that we still have lots of songs that have not yet been covered in the blog !”

And I had added my bit as –

“[…] having cracked the 10K target, then the 15K and 20K are going to be relatively minor in comparison, and the next BIG ONE (as they say in surfing) is now going to 25K. Ah well, we are all going to be gainfully occupied for many many years to come. Now that is a BIG thought.”

The 11K post –

Just the one case in the entire history of Hindi film music, did we have this solitary opportunity to have a song that exactly was the post number itself. The regulars will know what I am talking about – “Gyarah Hazaar Ladkiyaan”. This song is so tailor made and so one of its kind that it is just once in a lifetime opportunity. And as I mentioned in the write up, Atul ji and I had been saving it for centuries – I mean blog centuries. The write up was a rambling piece about anything related to the number 11, but then I did get round to the song at the end. 🙂  And yes, we did get to have an interesting input from dear Arun ji about the title of the film and the song. Check it out if you missed it earlier.

The 12K post –

This was a post that was delayed by an unprecedented three days. I had intiated the post with the comment that the “counter has been stuck at double one triple nine, for three days now. That, I am sure, will have beaten all the records in the books.”

Yet once again, the blog made a significant contribution to writing the history of Hindi film music. There had been many occasions when an animated discussion had happened on ‘Lata Mangeshkar’s first song’. A lot of research and analysis had been done, and the answers have been structured in a few different ways. In this post, we brought up as a first, the first Hindi song of Lata ji, sung in a Marathi film. Once again, a discovery of phenomenal proportions, accompanied by the requisite analysis of all available information, this post yet once again turned out to be a very special post.

The 13K post –

Atul ji stepped in to write this 13^th episode in the ‘K’ series of our blog. He presented an analysis about the strike rate of each of the 1K interregnums and then presented a very rare song from an obscure film from 1960s. The reason he chose this song was that all artists associated with the song seemed to have worked only in this film, making it a rarest of rare commodities in the annals of Hindi film music.

And that brings us to the 14K milestone.

The special anniversary we wanted to connect it to, has actually passed by yesterday. On account of certain exigencies of work and personal situations, both Atul ji and I were not able to complete all the requirements to have the 14K milestone yesterday i.e. 31^st January.

The special post we have today is for the legendary singer of the golden era of Hindi film music. Yes, it is Suraiya, whose passing away anniversary was yesterday.

For this occasion, I have dug out another music piece which can be classified as rarest of the rare and heretofore considered lost. Regular folks with easily recall the 1946 film ‘Omar Khayyaam’. The film has seven songs listed in the Geet Kosh. Three of these songs are sung by Saigal Sb, and the same have already been showcased on the blog. The remaining four songs are all in the voice of Suraiya, and sadly enough all of them are unavailable anywhere as yet.

But that situation changed a while back. One of my collector friends shared with me one of these four songs, in audio. And I have been planning a write up, waiting for such one momentous occasion to bring it to the attention of the music lovers. I communicated with Atul ji and we decided that we shall bring it up as the song for the 14K milestone. This discovery is of momentous proportions, meriting a milestone of this size. And so we were working towards getting this posted on 31^st January. But circumstances intervened and now we are posting it a day late.

In any case, an additional windfall that happened in the interim is that another friend sent me another link from the YouTube. As I checked it out, it almost was heartbeat stopping experience. The song that I was planning to post as audio, the video of the same has also been uploaded online. This discovery has significant implications, the most important being the fact that the film ‘Omar Khayyaam’ is available in the public domain and needs to be traced.

The real beauty of the find is to see Suraiya perform this song  -“Khayyaam Hai Allah Waala”. It is a dance song in the presence of an audience that does not seem to be a king’s court. However, the dancer, Suraiya and the accompanying ladies appears to be dressed up for a royal performance. The video clip is a little less than one and a half minutes. The audio clip that I have seems to be prepared from the same video clip.

The massive milestone today also merits congratulations all around. Of course, Atul ji’s indefatigable devotion to this task, and the commendable team work of the group of contributors are the bulwark strength of this blog and its exemplary achievements across the board.

And now, it is just another 1000 posts to go for the major 15K milestone. That is very definitely reachable now. 🙂

Song – Khayaam Hai Allah Waala  (Omar Khayaam) (1946) Singer – Suraiya, Lyrics – Dr Safdar Aah Sitapuri, MD – Lal Mohammed

Lyrics

khayaam hai allah waala
khayaam hai allah waala
matwaala allah hoo
jeena
aur jee kar peena..aa..aa
jeena
aur jee kar peena..aa..aa
peena
aur pee kar jeena
peena
aur pee kar jeena

maikhaana allah hoo ka
maikhaana allah hoo ka
aur pyaala allah hoo
allah hoo
allah hoo
allah hoo

ye mast hawaaein aayin
ye mast hawaaein aayin
rehmat ki ghataayen chhaain
rehmat ki ghataayen chhaain
mai ishq e khuda ki lekar
mai ishq e khuda ki lekar
jannat se hooren aayin
jannat se hooren aayin
gardish mein aa kar boley
gardish mein aa kar boley
khud pyaala allaah hoo
allah hoo
allah hoo
allah hoo

———————————————————
Hindi script lyrics (Provided by Sudhir)
———————————————————
खैयाम है अल्लाह वाला
खैयाम है अल्लाह वाला
मतवाला अल्लाह हू
जीना
और जी कर पीना॰॰आ॰॰आ
जीना
और जी कर पीना॰॰आ॰॰आ
पीना
और पी कर जीना
पीना
और पी कर जीना

मैखाना अल्लाह हू का
मैखाना अल्लाह हू का
और प्याला अल्लाह हू
अल्लाह हू
अल्लाह हू
अल्लाह हू

ये मस्त हवाएँ आईं
ये मस्त हवाएँ आईं
रहमत की घटाएँ छाईं
रहमत की घटाएँ छाईं
मय इश्क़ ए खुदा की लेकर
मय इश्क़ ए खुदा की लेकर
जन्नत से हूरें आईं
जन्नत से हूरें आईं
गर्दिश में आ कर बोले
गर्दिश में आ कर बोले
खुद प्याला अल्लाह हू
अल्लाह हू
अल्लाह हू
अल्लाह हू