Thursday 27 September 2012

Musically Yours- R D Burman and Mohd Rafi

A combination producing around 110 songs would have been otherwise highly discussed; alas, with Mohd Rafi and R D Burman it was not to be. Again, a classic case of the fan groups of the singer and the MD constituting two entirely separate sets.


Even before Chhote Nawab happened in 1961, RD had already chosen Rafi for his first independent assignment under Guru Dutt Productions’ Raaz in around 1957. A 18 year old Pancham had selected Hemant Kumar, Geeta Dutt and Rafi as his first set of singers for his first film. Unfortunately, the movie was not released. Chhote Nawab was an album all full of Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd Rafi. Three beautiful duets and an overtly emotional song was what RD had to offer for Rafi. “Ilaahi tu sunle” was the solo but my personal favourite is “Matwali aankhonwale”- the amazing Lata-Rafi duet in that movie.
It wont be an understatement to say that Rafi was RD’s main voice in the sixties. Rafi, in the helm of his career and ruling the industry like a colossus , featured in almost all the movies of RD in the sixties, except - Bhoot Bangla(1965), Pati Patni(1965) and Padosan(1968).
Teesri Manzil(1966) was the movie which happened to be the career changer for Pancham.  Shammi Kapoor, an otherwise SJ loyalist, worked for the first and as an hero last time, with R D Burman. A musical extravaganza, Teesri Manzil revolutionized Indian cine music with ultra modern sound and arrangement. Electric Guitar, sax, trumpet soared the sky and made the entire youth of India dance to its tunes. And all the songs went to Rafi- Shammi’s official voice. It is of no use to discuss the songs of TM, as they have been discussed umpteen number of times. My only observation is I have hardly seen Rafi going so unconventional as he did in “Aaja aaja main hoon pyar tera”- I so wish he had done some more of such stuff! Amazing shivering of voice, absolute perfection by the great singer.
My personal favourite Rafi solo under RD came next year- “Tumhe dekha hai” from Chandan Ka Palna(1967). Dharmendra had still not started drinking the blood of the Dogs that time, and an absolute soft, tender composition from Pancham to suit the then image of Chocolaty Dharmendra rendered superbly by Rafi in his more comfortable domain- the Nazms. The composition has shades of Madan Mohan influence in the early Pancham, and again it was observed in the Lata solo of “Sharm aati hai magar” in the following year.
1967 also saw “Zamane ne maare jawan kaise kaise”, yet another beautiful solo composed by Pancham for Rafi in Baharon ke sapne(1967). Following just after Teesri Manzil the previous year, this was an entirely contrast to the jazzy theme of TM with the same producer- Nasir Hussain. A true blue versatile composer after Shankar Jaikishen, had arrived in Indian cinema.
Abhilasha(1968) saw RD using Rafi and Manna together in a duet under him- Ek janeeb sham-e-mehfil. The same year, RD had created the immortal and the first Kishore-Manna duet under him in the other movie- Padosan. Abhilasha also saw arguably the best RD-Rafi solo “Wadiyan mera daman”- a song which had a Lata solo version also, but clearly the Rafi version landing up as the winner by a substantial margin.
Pyar ka mausam(1969)- yet another Nasir Hussain musical saw RD-Rafi in a high again. Rafi was all over the album with three versions of the evergreen “Tum bin jaaoon kaha” on the lip of the hero- Shashi Kapoor. Also a beautiful duet with Lata “Ni sultana re” and the solo “Che khush nazare”- rafi rocked the album! In the same year, Waaris(1969) was released and Rafi again was there in three songs- one solo and two duets.
1970 saw RD first time switching from Rafi’s prime voice with Kati Patang. However, in the same year, he had already recorded for the same hero, Rajesh Khanna, another album with Rafi as the voice- The Train. “Gulaabi aankhein”- a breezy and typical Pancham rhythmic track- was a runaway hit. In Ehsaan(1970), Pancham used Rafi for Joy Mukherjee in a beautiful Asha-Rafi duet “Aaj tere naina”. A forgettable “Raaton Ka Raja” was also released that year, which had Rafi as the prime male voice again with three songs. The title track “Mere liye aati hai sham” was a treat.
Nasir Hussain made Caravan in 1971. An album mainly an extravaganza with Mangeshkar sisters with the elder sister having one solo and two duets and the younger three solos and one duet; what Rafi had to do was accompany the sisters in their duets. All the Rafi duets in that movie with varied moods and rhythms were chartbusters. Apart from Caravan, Mela was another movie released in the same year where Rafi was the main voice for a RD movie. “Rut hai Milan ki” is a highly melodious and memorable Lata-Rafi duet from the movie. Amitabh Bachchan’s early days as hero in “Pyar Ki Kahani” released that year, saw RD using Rafi as his voice and Kishore as the supporting hero Anil Dhawan’s voice in that movie. “Koi aur duniya mein tumsa haseen” is yet another lovely solo from RD-Rafi combo. In 1971, RD-Rafi combo produced some other popular numbers in Laakhon mein ek and Adhikar .
By 1971, RD had created Paraya Dhan, Amar Prem and Hare Rama Hare Krishna with Kishore as the prime voice, and was divided in his choice. With the big success of each of those soundtracks,by 1972, his preference started getting a lot more prominent. However , he did give a beautiful duet to Rafi with Asha in Parchhaiyan(1972)- Saason mein kabhi.
Nasir Hussain never lost his loyality- neither to RD nor to Rafi. Yaadon Ki Baraat(1973)’s two most popular songs went to Rafi- the evergreen Chura liya hai and the title song. Also, in Chhalia in the same year, we could hear Rafi croon to RD’s beautiful tune “Ae jaan e wafa”.
But Rafi was evidently missing in the more touted works of RD in that period with Shakti Samanta, Gulzar, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Dev Anand. Between 1974-1976, RD recorded a beautiful duet of Rafi with Lata in Bundalbaaz- Naghma humara gayega yeh zamana, a philosophical gem in Mukti- Pyar hai ik nishaan qadmon ka and the famous Qawalli of Aandhi with Bhupinder Singh and Amit Kumar- Salaam kijiye ali janab aaye hai.
Speaking of Qawallis, RD did utilize this shade of Rafi beautifully with some filmy qawallis- “Hai agar dushman zamana”( Hum kisise kum nahi) and “Pal do pal ka saath”( The Burning Train) .

Hum kisise kum nahi was definitely the turning point of Rafi’s career in the 70s and made him start his second innings afresh. An album with youthful music and peppy tracks, Rafi brought the serious depth with “Kya hua tera wada” and romanticism unlimited with “Chand mera dil”. Rafi’s voice texture, which had taken a slightly husky touch by then, brought the exact emotions out of “Kya hua tera wada”.
Between 1978-1980, Pancham continued to use Kishore as his main voice with making good space for Rafi in every film and making him use more after the lapse in association between 1972-1976. Most memorable RD-Rafi songs that period were “ Jab kisi kaza se guzro”(Devta-1978), “Pyar mein aji kya”(Fandebaaz, 1978), “Maine poochha chand se”(Abdullah, 1980), “Poochho na yaar kya hua”(Zamane ko dikhana hai, 1981) and “Dukh such ki har ek mala”(Kudrat, 1981).
Rafi passed away in 1980, creating a vacuum in the film music industry. A great singer who had a marathon career of 36 years in the industry and gave us some of the evergreen melodies ever, left a legacy we cherish even today. R D Burman, also has left us a treasure of melodies to spend our lifetime with, and a good chunk of that treasure was contributed by Mohd Rafi’s voice as well!


Saturday 22 September 2012

Songs with "Hatke" Formats

If I ask you what is the similarity amongst these three beautiful songs, viz, “Phoolon ke rang se dil ki kalam se”, “Dil aaj shayar hai gham aaj naghma hai” and “Ek ladki ko dekha to” apart from being Dev Burman Family Productions, what would be your answer? I know, many of you know- in each of these three songs , mukhda lines are never repeated throughout the song, or, rather there is no bifurcation between mukhda and antara. All the verses are independent . While “Phoolon ke rang se “ does reciprocate around the lines “badal bijli chandan pani…”, so does “Ek ladki ko dekha to”, reciprocating around these initial few words only(although none of them ever repeating the complete mukhda anywhere in the songs), “Dil aaj shayar hai” is absolutely unique and consists of verses absolutely independent of one another.
There have been quite such interesting songs in the old Hindi Film Music with quite unique formats- especially with the traditional mukhda-antara format- which we can discuss here.  The above example discussed here is one such instance of “No repetition of Mukhda”.
Antara Tune to start with and then Mukhda:
One such example is “Khwab ho tum ya koi haqeeqat”, where the song starts with bare vocal Kishore Kumar rendering the antara tune first- “subah pe jis tarah sham ka..” and then picking up the mukhda tune “Khwab ho tum ya koi haqeeqat”.
Another such example is “Dekho yeh mere bandhe haath” from the movie “Bandhe Haath”, where the song starts with “Kya janoo main hoon kaun…” which is again the antara tune and then comes the mukhda tune which is  “Kaise miloon tumse chahonn to mil na sakoo main” .
Sanchari Format in Hindi Songs:
Sanchari format is quite common in Bengali traditional songs, in fact in many Tagore songs. Sanchari is mainly used in the second antara, where before repeating the tune of first antara, a separate tune is created for an extra couplet before. Very few music directors tried to replicate this in Hindi songs, with the exception of Salil Chowdhury, who composed some very beautiful “Sancharis” (her daughters were also named Antara and Sanchari by the way). One example is “O sajna barkha bahar aayi” from Parakh(1960), where the Sanchari part is “Aese rimjhim mein O sajan, pyase pyase mere nayan tere hi khwab mein kho gaye”, which is used before the common antara tune of the song is used in the second stanza. Also, there was “Na jiya lage na” from Anand(1970), where sanchari part comes again before the start of second stanza as “ Na jiya lage na, piya teri bawri se raha jaye na”. So strong was Salil’s hold on Sanchari making that very few other Bengali MDs dared to implement this format lest they got compared with him. Bhanu Gupta- a long time associate with R D Burman, once told me that he had asked RD as to why the latter did not compose Sancharis in his songs(he did once though, in a Bengali song “Jete daao amaye deko na”), to which RD replied that the day he would feel confident that he could make a Sanchari as good as that of “O sajna”, he definitely would.
Varied Paces of Mukhda Antara with Varied Moods:
Burmans again! J One of the classic examples is S D Burman’s “Kaisa hai mera dil tu khiladi” from Gambler, where Papa Burman makes the mukhda tune sad and slow and then suddenly picks up the tempo and the mood in the antaras , only to come down again while repeating the mukhda tune.  Amazingly done by Kishore Kumar in terms of switching frequent moods.
Not so much from the elite groups, Bappi Lahiri did try out this format a decade later with Kishore and Asha in “Imtihan ho gayi intezaar ki”, which starts with slow and sad pace, continues one full antara in the same mood, after which the heroine appears and the whole mood and pace of the song go jazzy! Not a bad job from the Disco Deewana by the way.
R D did this trick in “Sapna mera toot gaya”, where the overall mood of the song being sad is reflected in the mukhda, and in the antaras, when the girl starts recollecting her romantic past, the antara tunes and moods take a romantic twist, only to bring her back to the sad present while converging again into mukhda.
Three antaras with Individually different tunes
“Jab dard nahi tha seene mein” from Anurodh(1977) composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal had an innovative concept where there were three antaras in the song, each being distinctly differently composed in tune. The first “ Yaaron ka gham”, the second “Aese to thes na lagti thi” and the third “ Is qadar pyar to”- all are entirely differently composed and written in structure with no similarities. While I recall many instances where in a three antara song, there have been two antaras with one tune and third one with a different tune, all three antaras being distinctly composed is quite unique. Full marks to Laxmikant Pyarelal for pulling this off brilliantly.

Songs with no antara
No couplets to start with, no verses in the middle to be independent or converging whatever, there  is only one verse with multiple lines- more like a descriptive poetry, a long continual verse- very challenging to give tunes to them. Kishore Kumar composed and sang “ Mujhe kho jaane do” from Door Ka Rahi(1971); those who have not heard this, please listen. It would give you goosebumps for sure, a great creation from a true genius.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Top 5 Music Directors of Hindi Film Music

Even before I publish this article, I know pretty clearly that this is going to be my most criticized article, hugely because there is “comparison” in this which my earlier articles did not have. So, at the very outset, let me clarify that “this is not a judgemental article” as I am not at all qualified enough to judge the Greats but merely a “personal favouritism” which is highly dominated by subjectivity. So, in stead of putting criteria and judging people, I would rather try to put down the artistic shades of the 5 people for which I “like them more than the others”.  Also, they were all great MDs and given us great melodies, so, quality of songs is never a criteria as each of them has enough of them.
5. Shankar Jaikishen:

If I need to describe in one word what SJ were, then it would “versatile”. They ruled the industry for 2 long decades which is nothing less than a Herculean achievement. They could compose all sorts of music, and had shades of brilliance in each of the segment. They never confined themselves to any genre or gambit, and created music for the mass as well as class. Their music was equally popular in Pan Shops as well as Musical concerts.
Also, I like the kind of adjustments they maintained in their selection of movies. For Raj Kapoor movies, they had a set of theory which was entirely different to what they applied for Shammi Kapoor movies. Even for Dev Anand, they gave music to around 8 movies! And all were with success.
Their consistency is another feature I like a lot. To give hits after hits for 2 continuous decades is not a matter of joke! That too, considering that they were a mainstream composers and not like Naushad or Roshan, who were highly selective in their assignments. Definitely, working in more movies and maintaining consistency is more creditable for me than working in limited movies and giving regular good music; as the earlier stuff needs much more creative stretch.
The musical arrangement for SJ has been for me, both their positive as well as negative point. Positive point is, they were so fresh in their orchestration and arrangement when they arrived. They made accordion and harmonica popular in Hindi movies. They iconized violins and guitars and I have never found a better utilization of Hawaiian Guitar than in “Ajeeb daastan hai yeh”. However, down the line, from mid-60s, their orchestration became a bit too predictable for me. Violins were going higher and higher, sometime disturbing your audiometric tolerance also.
Also, a shade of low marking goes to SJ due to their choice of singers. No, not Sharda Rajan choice only, a topic which has been beaten to death! J But, because barring a few numbers, I think, they did not explore the beauty of Talat Mehmood, Hemant Kumar, Geeta Dutt , Shamshad Begum and even to some extent Asha Bhosle also- all of them were contemporaries. However, they did explore talents in Sharda, Subir Sen and Suman Kalyanpur- which is audible job! So, some plus and some minus marks on this aspect.
Overall, SJ for me, were Giant music directors and one of the top 5 to have ever graced the industry.
 Points:
  • Longevity. – 8/10.
    (Would deduct some points for post-Jaikishen death period).
  • Consistency. – 8/10. (Post-1965, would deduct some points, but not much looking at their volume of work).
  • Versatility. -10/10.(No doubt.)
  • Experimentation and Arrangement.- 7/10. (Although they have popularized many concepts, in terms of experimentation- which we would elaborate with 2-3 MDs later, SJ lags behind a bit. It is more like innovating concepts or trying out different things).
  • Genius component/Out of the Box stuff- 6/10. ( We would discuss later why some MDs have scored over a bit here).
  • Use of singers- 8/10.
  • Originality- 8/10.(Except some here and there scores, SJ have been out and out original composers).
  • The “X” Factor- 7/10.- A subjective quotient which describes or specifies a MD. This can be in terms of his universal appeal, popularity, contemporariness and overall charm of his music. SJ is quite high on these criteria as well, as many of their tunes are still evergreen, they still enjoy a great popularity from the current generation and some of their tunes have retained great freshness as well.
Total= 62/80.

4. Madan Mohan:

It might surprise a bit to some, as I had put so much of importance on versatility while discussing SJ, and now I have put MM a notch above them in my personal favouritism. Well, yes, I do deduct marks from Madanji for not being too versatile, but, leaving apart this one point, he has scored superbly well in many other criteria.
First is his consistency. If you remember, while discussing SJ, I did not discuss what happened ater the demise of Jaikishen when Shankar alone was the composer. Also, they were a group of 2 people, so, the talents of both could be shared over the years resulting better consistency. Madan and the other MDs discussed later were alone.  And then, Madan did not have the blessings of working under Big Banners and Big Stars. He majorly worked with average filmmakers with average budgets, except, Raj Khosla and Chetan Anand. So, with lots of resource limitation, Madan gave superb numbers in his career of 25 years.
Madan Mohan never sounded repetitive.  People say he was not comfortable with Western tunes, but listening to “ Ae haseeno nazneeno” or “Tum jo mil gaye ho” or the unreleased “Aaj mujhe jal jaane bhi do”, you know pretty well that this gentleman was really erudite in Western sound and arrangement.
And of course, Lata-Madan combo! What if MM failed to explore too much out of Lata gambit, this one association has taken film music to an altogether different level. Of course, as an impartial assessor, we must deduct some marks for him being too partial with Lata, but should give some extra marks also for exploiting the “Voice of India” so brilliantly. And for male voices, he judiciously extracted good out of many- Rafi, Talat, Manna, Kishore , Mukesh and Bhupinder have all got their fair share of gems from MM.  
  • Longevity. – 9/10.
    (Although never been on top, MM was very much there at the helm throughout his career).
  • Consistency. – 10/10. (Absolutely no doubt).
  • Versatility. -7/10.(Shades of brilliance could be seen in bits and parts everywhere, but thorough delving lacked )
  • Experimentation and Arrangement.- 7/10. (It would be wise to say MM’s true beauty lied in him being a puritan and traditional. He was mainly a “solo” composer as 80% of his classics are solo songs).
  • Genius component/Out of the Box stuff- 6/10. (Cant call him a genius but he was a maestro in all possible ways. We will explore this genius component later and try to justify why SJ and MM scored a notch low here).
  • Use of singers- 7/10. (Recovered some marks for extremely brilliant use of Lata Mangeshkar)
  • Originality- 9/10.(Truly original composer, very  few inspirations in his career).
  • The “X” Factor- 8/10- MM’s charm remains very much in present generation and so his legacy. His compositions, especially those for Lata, are evergreen. Even a Veer-Zara, a twenty first century film with MM’s music, turned out to be a chartbuster. It tells a lot about his rich legacy.
Total= 63/80.
3. Salil Chowdhury:

Here is an ideal musician on whom I can explain the Genius Component the best. He was one of his kind and one of his kinds. He innovated some concepts which were unparalleled, he brought in things which were unique and he showed some experimentations which were utterly his own. Truly speaking, he was an unconventional music director who could bring beauty in unorthodox music as well.
He was a great perfectionist. Being a Bengali, he brought Bhangra into Hindi films for the first time with “Jaagte Raho”. He introduced the fusion music for the first time when he coupled Raga Bhairavi with Mozart’s 40th symphony in “Itna na mujhse tu pyar bada”. Saxophone was introduced with Salil Chowdhury in Indian film music. Latin American folk music got its entry with Salil Chowdhury in Indian films. The concept of introducing “Sanchari” in a song( O sajna barkha bahar aayi) was first introduced by Salil and replicated by none thereafter. He was the master of experimentation, innovation and fusion.
He use of singers was very judicious. Except Lata, no other singer could record more than 100 songs with Salil. Yet, talk of Mukesh, Manna, Kishore, Rafi, Yesudas , Talat or Hemant- all have got beautiful songs from Salil.
His sense of rhythm was unputdownable. Although Salil never enjoyed the mass popularity like say, SJ, he was quite versatile with expertise in folk, classical and western. He was mainly a Urban composer, and hardly ventured into any devotional or historical movies. So you never really know how Salil would have responded to a project like Amrapali or Jahan Ara. This was a bit low scoring for him in versatility.
  • Longevity. – 7/10.
    (He had a good longevity starting from mid 50s to mid 80s. Thereafter, there was a decline. Both in terms of popularity and creativity. Started recycling his old tunes too much later. Also, even in his prime, Salil was never amongst the top demanded MDs., although being very much in the contention).
  • Consistency. – 8/10. (Very consistent, but since his assignments were low, it was a bit easier task for him..:) .
  • Versatility. -7/10.(Shades of brilliance could be seen in bits and parts everywhere, but thorough specialization in genres like Ghazal and Qawalli snatched away some marks)
  • Experimentation and Arrangement.- 9/10. (Salil was a pioneer in many techniques, sounds and melodies in India.).
  • Genius component/Out of the Box stuff- 9/10. (The difference between a maestro and a Genius is a Maestro has handhold on all that is traditional and a Genius creates and masters something which is never defined as traditional. Fusion, Arrangement, Rhythm and Sound- Salil Chowdhury has given a clear cut impression of his genius).
  • Use of singers- 8/10. (Considering his limited assignments, I can safely conclude that his rotation of singers was better than Madan. He never overdid with any singer. However, sometimes I felt that he had given some songs to wrong singers)
  • Originality- 8/10.(Would give him a notch lower than Madan Mohan here, there have been some inspiration and ahem, copy as well).
  • The “X” Factor- 8/10- Salil’s tunes are fresh, modern and never sound out of date. His tunes have got a sort of addictive qualities. He had a contemporary sound and arrangement.
Total= 64/80.

2. Rahul Dev Burman:


A music director who scores amazingly above all in the “X” factor. The RD magic just denies to die even with this generation. A revolutionary composer and a genius, R D Burman, to many of the youth in India, iconizes the Golden Era of Indian music and sometimes, synonymous also. Of course, this is not true, as RD was definitely not the only Great that time, but at least this perception talks volumes of his school of music.
Equally comfortable in all sorts of music- folk, Western, ghazals, qawallis, comic, romantic, philosophical- R D Burman was a phenomenon and his popularity can only be compared to that of Shankar Jaikishen in their prime.
But with all these, I have deducted quite a few marks from RD for being too much inspired sometimes. Although, his inspirations more than often bettered the originals, but still, you must give more marks to those who have invented something entirely original.
But RD definitely gets very good marks for creating some amazingly original tunes with melody maximum. His choice of singers has been most of the times, judicious. He used Asha, Kishore and Lata in huge quantity, but considering his total amount of work- around 350 movies- this can be considered as matter of fact. Also, Rafi, Amit Kumar, Manna De and Bhupinder have got their fair share of gems from RD. But, of course, in female category, Pancham failed to see anything  beyond Lata and Asha, except a few occasions mostly towards the end of his career.

  • Longevity. – 8/10.
    He rose to fame in 1966 with Teesri Manzil and his last film, released after his death, again enlivened his true brilliance. I would have deducted some more marks on longevity for Pancham, as his last years were not professionally very amazing, but 1942 ALS makes it look a bit different.
  • Consistency. – 7/10. (He had a loss of touch between 1986-1992, I have deducted some marks, but not much, considering his volume of work) .
  • Versatility. -9/10.(There is hardly any genre where RD has not ventured, apart from music in mythological movies J)
  • Experimentation and Arrangement.- 10/10. (Absolutely path breaking. Concepts like twin track recording, fast breathing between lines, fast forwarding record to make it sound like a child voice, usage of bottles, glasses, water etc to create different sounds of music, fusion with Guitar rhythm in Indian classicals- RD is all about experimentation and arrangement ).
  • Genius component/Out of the Box stuff- 9/10. (RD was a genius. He could experiment and get away with it with flying colours. In spite of being a lover of Western music, he has given some sensational classical songs as well).
  • Use of singers- 7/10. (Volume of work being huge, RD’s usage has been quite good. Although amongst female singers, he did not explore Suman Kalyanpur, Vani Jairam, Sudha Malhotra,Hemlata etc too much apart from some here and there songs. )
  • Originality- 6/10.(You would give him some and take out more. RD has been more than occasionally taken help from Western tunes. Not that SJ or SC have not done that, but Rd’s proportion has been unnecessarily high ).
  • The “X” Factor- 10/10- I don’t think this requires a lot of explanation. RD is without fail the most talked about MD of the bygone era and gets full marks for keeping his legacy intact even in the Twentyfirst century.
Total= 66/80.


  1. Sachin Dev Burman:
He is the Numero Uno for me, scoring thinly above his illustrious son for the most favourite position. Amazing melody maker, a talent which his son inherited from him.
SD was one music director, who died at his helm. He and Madan Mohan were very much in demand when they expired, but SD was undoubtedly more sought after. From 1946 to 1975, SD had only one challenge to the top spot- his own health. Apart from that, nobody could stop this old man, who in spite of being generations older than the other MDs we have talked of here, gave cut throat competition to them.
Sachin Da’s major talent which some of the MDs lacked was to adjust with the change in generation. He changed his music with time. His music kept on changing, retaining their melody and simple structure but changing the presentation. One big reason why SD was never outdated, not even for a day!
Amazing consistency. I can hardly recall any bad album of SD. Forget bad, even a mediocre album is hard to find. And it is not that he had limited work like Naushad, Khayyam, Jaidev or Roshan that he could maintain quality, he had more than 100 movies released in his career, with non film albums and Bengali movies also having their shares. So, a full marks to this man to maintain such great quality in his career.
The best MD, if you consider the selection of singers. No lifetime compilation of Kishore, Rafi, Lata, Asha, Talat, Hemant, Manna or Geeta can be complete without having at least two songs of S D Burman.  Speaks volumes of his contribution in the biodata of Great singers.
Equally good in different genres, Dada however lost a few marks in versatility as I cannot readily recall any of his Qawalli or his music in any mythological or historical album(What was “Chittor Vijay”?)
  • Longevity. – 10/10.
    (No doubt. Always amongst the Top right from 50s to 70s- right until his death)
  • Consistency. – 10/10. (Very consistent) .
  • Versatility. -7/10.(Shades of brilliance could be seen in bits and parts everywhere, but some genres he absolutely avoided J)
  • Experimentation and Arrangement.- 7/10. (Not a great unorthodox school like Salil or Pancham. But his arrangement was quite fresh and served the evergreen purpose).
  • Genius component/Out of the Box stuff- 7/10. (Cant call him a genius, as I can hardly remember any concept in music/rhythm/sound which Dada had introduced or innovated. But he was a perfectionist and brought in some new techniques like conversational duets and popularized folk music in Hindi movies).
  • Use of singers- 10/10. (Again, a point where he would get best marks. Never overused any singer and composed songs keeping the singer in mind.)
  • Originality- 7/10.(Again, like his son he loses some marks. ).
  • The “X” Factor- 9/10-SD music is evergreen. The songs he composed are very popular. Clear examples are the songs of Aradhana, Guide, Abhimaan, Jewel Thief, Pyasa etc.  
Total= 67/80.
My Final Favouritism:
1.       S D Burman- 67/80.
2.       R D Burman- 66/80.
3.       Salil Chowdhury-64/80.
4.       Madan Mohan-63/80.
5.       Shankar Jaikishen- 62/80.

Longevity
Consistency
Versatility
Experimentation
Genius Component
Use of Singers
Originality
The X Factor
Total
S D Burman
10
10
7
7
7
10
7
9
67
R D Burman
8
7
9
10
9
7
6
10
66
Salil Chowdhury
7
8
7
9
9
8
8
8
64
Madan Mohan
9
10
7
7
6
7
9
8
63
Shankar Jaikishen
8
8
10
7
6
8
8
7
62




Some highly deserving people not included:
         Khayyam, Jaidev, Vasant Desai, Hemant Kumar and Roshan- Not too many films.

Again, to conclude, this was only my favouritism and justification behind it and in no way an attempt to rank these legends. I am not at all qualified enough to do that. So, this will only be my viewpoint.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Those 20 years...The lean phase of singer Kishore Kumar

Marne ki duayein kyun mangu in 1948 to start with and Mere sapno ki rani in 1969 to superstardom; 21 years in between were mixed bag for Kishore Kumar. He saw success as an actor between 1955-1960, saw decline in all fields in the 60s majorly due to personal turmoil before he finally decided to make playback singing his career in the late 60s, and one film was good enough to take him where he should have reached much before.
But were those 20 years in between (1949-1969) so insignificant for the singer Kishore Kumar? Because, when I started revisiting Kishore around 10 years back, I discovered some of his best songs in that period. Kishore himself, when asked to choose his own Top 10 by Pritish Nandy, selected as many as 6 songs from that period. Really, you cant overlook them entirely, can you?
In those 21 years, singer Kishore did much more than doing part time playback for friend Dev Anand and full time playback for himself, as the hero, as often been believed. Revisiting those 21 years would show, he had done playback for many other actors and there was indeed a period, in the early 50s, when he was “Quite Regular” to playback singing. Interesting, isn’t it? Lets take a relook, year wise, as to see, except Dev Anand, who were the other significant actors who got Kishore’s voice as playback singer. Kindly note, this is not a database and many songs will not be covered as well, but we will try to see the significant songs only in terms of quality or popularity.


1949: Rimjhim had an absolutely brilliant Kishore Kumar solo “Jagmag jagmag karta nikla” composed by Khemchand Prakash and picturized on Kishore Sahu. No video is available of that song to anyone that I know. The movie had another song of Kishore, his first duet with Shamshad Begum- “ Mere Ghar aage hai”, assumingly picturized on Kishore Sahu only.
1950: S D Burman gave as many as 5 songs to Kishore to sing for Raj Kapoor in Pyar. That was the only instance when Kishore sang for Raj Kapoor on screen(later, he did sing in some movies where Raj Kapoor was there, like Aashiyana, Kal aaj aur Kal, Dharam Karam , but the songs were not for the showman). Neither S D Burman nor Kishore Kumar, later on, had too much to talk about in RK movies.  Also, there was a Bengali film “Samar” in the same year, where SD again gave Kishore an ensemble number with Geeta Dutt and Arun Kumar. I am not sure on whom the Kishore part was picturized, but that was without doubt a playback service. Also, in the same year, Hansraj Behl gave Kishore a song in Khiladi- “O phool chunnewali tu khud hi gulab hai”. Again, no video is available, but since Ashok Kumar was the hero in that movie, perhaps that was the first song Kishore playbacked for his elder brother.
1951:  Madan Mohan had debuted in 1950 as an independent music  director, and in his second film- “Ada”- he gave 2 songs to Kishore Kumar for playback service on Shekhar. But the winner that year was S D Burman composed “Qusoor aapka huzoor aapka” picturized on Karan Dewan from Bahar. S D Burman that year, gave Kishore three actors to playback for- Karan Dewan in Bahar, Premnath in Naujawan and Gope in Ek Nazar.  Kishore also sang his only male duet with Talat Mehmood that year- “Damri damri paisa paisa” composed by Chitragupta, again a playback assignment, in "Humari Shaan".
1952:  Making a niche for himself by that time, in 1952, Kishore got playback assignment from quite a few MDs- albeit mainly for comedy songs. Some examples were Madan Mohan’s “O madam ek se hum ho gaye” in Aashiyana (picturized on Agha) and Roshan’s “ Dil ho gaya senti flat” in Sheesham (picturized on Gope); S K Pal’s “Jiyo jiyo mere laal” in Maa(picturized on Bharat Bhushan, yes, “Tum bin jaaoon kaha” was decade and a half later) and “Baiyan chhodo balam” by Chic Chocolate in Rangili(picturized on Mumtaz Ali- Mehmood’s father). But the song of the year for Kishore was “Woh meri taraf yun chale aa rahe hai” composed by Husnlal Bhagatram and picturized on Ashok Kumar from the movie Kaafila. The song is an absolute stunner.  Other playback songs worth mentionable from the same year is “ Kaun hai aesa mehfil mein jo na tera deewana ho” composed by C Ramchandra in the movie “Sin sinaki babla boo”, supposedly picturized on Ranjan and "Yeh kaali ghata" composed by Bhola Shreshtha from Nazariya. Another song for Bhagwan  happened in Sindabad the Sailor under composer Chitragupta.Kishore also sang that year in Shrimatiji for the music director Jimmy- 3 comedy songs, again playback assignment.( Info Courtesy: Mr. Sanjay Sengupta- RCAB, Kolkata).
1953:  Many people won’t believe today, Kishore’s most productive association that year was with music director Roshan. Roshan used Kishore for 6 songs in three films in 1953, all playback assignments, namely Maalkin, Maashooqa and Aagosh. Roshan stopped working altogether with Kishore from 1954 onwards and did not live long enough to see the release of Aradhana, otherwise, some gems surely would have been made together by them. Roshan’s son Rajesh Roshan used Kishore to the maximum in the 70s when his father was gone.
Maashooqa song- a gem of a duet with Meena Kapoor- “Yeh sama hum tum jawan” was picturized on Agha. Maashooqa was a Mukesh-Suraiya starrer film.  Maalkin had as many as 4 songs of Kishore picturized on Sajjan.  Aagosh, the launching movie of Nutan as heroine, had a Kishore-Lata duet picturized on Agha again. .
Another mentionable playback assignment that year , although for Dev Anand, was Humsafar whose music was composed by Ali Akbar Khan. Alongwith Pandit Panna Lal Ghosh, Pandit Hrudaynath Mangeshkar and  Pandit Shiv Hari, this was another Kishore association with a classical maestro.
1954:  The most famous background song of those days, “Din hai suhana aaj pehli tarikh hai” was sung by Kishore for the composer Sudheer Phadke in “Pehli Taarikh”. Also, under S D Burman, Kishore sang for Jeevan in Angaarey- “Gori ke nainon mein nindiya bhare”.  . S D Burman gave another playback song to Kishore in “Chalis Baba Ek Chor”- “O meri guiyan goo dulha dulhaniya”, a Kishore-Lata duet. I am not sure on whom the song was picturized. Another mentionable playback song that year was “Ae bandi tum begum bano” from Parineeta(1954) composed by Arun Kumar. Madan Mohan used Kishore for Gope that year in "Mastana" in 2 songs.
1955: Actor Kishore Kumar catching up fast in the earlier year with Ilzaam, Miss Mala and Naukri, actor Kishore started getting busier and busier and the singer Kishore taking a backseat slowly. Kishore did give playback jobs that year like “Meethi narangi lana” in Raj Durbar for Chitragupta and three songs for composer Jaidev’s debut film “Joru Ka Bhai” for Balraj Sahani, but his acting was more in demand and slowly eating away more of his time.
Between 1956 to 1964, I can hardly remember any Kishore Kumar song other than him as the hero or Dev Anand. There was a unreleased movie in 1962- “Ramdoot Hanuman” by composer Dakshinamohan Tagore, where Kishore did sing a song. I assume that was a playback service. Also, in 1956, there was a Salil Chowdhury number “Araram tararum duniya ke kaise kaise gham”(which is again a super song and only Kishore could have pulled that off) on Anwar Hussain in Awaaz. Also, you can consider that famous song of Half Ticket for Pran. And in Bengali, the beautiful Rabindrasangeet on Soumitra Chatterjee in Satyajit Ray's "Charulata".
Kishore gave his first playback service to comedian Mehmood in 1965 with Johar Mehmood in Goa and Bhoot Bangla. Later in the 70s, Kishore successfully became the voice of Mehmood with Mastana(1970), Humjoli(1970), Albela(1971), Laakhon mein Ek(1971), Kunawara Baap(1974), Ujala hi Ujala(1974) and many more Mehmood flicks.  Before Aradhana happened in 1969, some other successful playback assignments by Kishore between 1966-1969 were- Abhilasha-1968(Sanjay Khan), Farishta-1968(Sudhir), Teen Bahuraniyan-1968(Rajendra Nath), Bhai Bahen-1969,  Aansoo ban gaye phool -1969(Dev Mukherjee), Pyar ka Mausam-1969(Bharat Bhushan), Khamoshi-1969(Rajesh Khanna), Rahagir-1969(Biswajeet), Sabarmati(Bangla)-1969(Uttam Kumar) and Suhaag Raat-1968, background singing.
And then of course, gradually building good association with S D Burman, R D Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal and Kalyanji Anandji, Kishore gave the ultimate punch on 29th November, 1969 when Aradhana was released. All the 400 songs put together on one side in the last 21 years, Kishore Kumar became the busiest playback singer in the industry by 1971 and remained so till his death in 1987.