The effect of Indian music in general and specifically Hindi film music has had a far-reaching impact, literally. Indian songs being used in films of foreign origin has been observed to have been happening for a long time. Citing some instances of this "Export" of Melodies.
Probably the first time that an Indian song or dance was included as part of a film of English/foreign language was as far back as in 1959. The first film is a French one, ‘The River’ 1951 by Jean Renoir, which had this South Indian dance…
After more than a decade, we saw a Hindi film song in an out-and-out English film Bombay Talkies (1970). This film had a Kishore Kumar song. Incidentally, this was the time when post-Aradhana, Kishore Kumar was scaling heights in an exponential manner. The song from the James Ivory-directed film :
In 1972 a controversy highlighted the film world when a film named Siddharth was released showing a nude Simi Garewal and a mesmerised Shashi Kapoor. Based on a novel by Herman Hesse, the film tested the patience of the film censor board in India, but eventually the film was released, with limited cuts. The film had a Bangla song by Hemant Kumar ( a re-working of his earlier O beqarar dil, ho chuka hai mujhko aansuon se pyar) presented here:
The iconic bhajan to be incorporated in Gandhi (1982) remains one of the most popular one. Ironically, the lead role was played by an English actor Ben Kingsley ! Gandhi (1982) was a landmark film. For the first time a film in English language and by an English director was being attempted, keeping the most popular Indian, ever, in the centre. The film, when released, was of epic proportions and went on to win Oscars. Obviously being an Indian subject, there were bound to be Indian music in the film. Sure enough, the famous bhajan “Vaishnav Jan to tene kahiye” featured in the opening credits of the film.
Next up is a phenomenal song from the 1965 Hindi film Gumnaam. The song, composed by Shankar Jaikishan, was sung by Mohd. Rafi . This song was used three times by the West , once each in a film, a beer advertisement and a ballet !
The song is Jaan pehchaan ho, jeena aasaan ho…
The opening credits from the movie Ghostworld (2001) playing Jaan Pehchaan Ho from the movie Gumnaam with Mohammad Rafi singing the grooviest video track of Indian film music.
In quick succession, another Hindi film song found a place in an English film with the name The Guru (2002) ,coincidentally. In this film, a song, Kya mil gaya, haaye kya kho gaya … from the film Sasural ( picturised on Rajendra Kumar and B.Saroja Devi ) was incorporated with different actors lip syncing.
Finally, the 2007 film The Darjeeling Limited, paid a tribute to Satyajit Ray by playing the theme of his film Charulata in the film.
Wrapping up today's edition showcasing the best of Indian music marketed on foreign celluloid.
Over the years, so many music directors have worked int he film industry. All artistes, including composers, have a career graph from debut to swansong, which has a pattern, generally. In most cases, rather 90% of them, the debut is not spectacular. Actors are launched, specially if they are star kids and only a few of them vindicate the effort.
In case of music directors, the first few films are generally seen to be lukewarm and if they persist, they do get to have projects , some of which my result in their songs to become popular. Thereafter, it is a mix of hardwork and luck.
However, there have been music directors, at least one in each decade from the 40s, who have had an explosive debut and have continued their success in latter years. Today we shall examine the cases of 3 such composers.
1940s: In late 40s, Raj Kapoor , fresh from one film under his belt( Aag) was planning his next big project. Ram Ganguly had composed music for Aag and was also working in the new project. Difference crept up after purported leakage of a couple of tunes and Raj bade Ram goodbye.
The replacement was the composer duo, who were assistants in Aag and went by the names of Shankar jaikishan and the film was....yes, of course...Barsaat, released in 1949.
Like all things with the Showman Raj kapoor, scale of the film was extravagant. The music had to keep pace with the grandeur of the project. The lead pair Raj and Nargis were having a great chemistry and the songs had to reflect the same. Added to this was the second heroine Nimmi who had an important role with songs picturised on her and songs on Nimmi also had to be effective.
All the 10 songs in the film very popular and the film itself was the highest grossing films of 1949.
Let me recall the ten songs ( one better than the other) and one songlet, with an extended alaap.
Hawa mein udta jaaye
Jiya beqarar hai , chhayi bahar hai
Barasat mein, hamse mile tum
BichhaDe huye paradesi ik baar
O o o o mujhe kisii se pyaar ho
Meri aankhon mein bas gayaa koi re
Tirchhii nazar hai patali kamar hai
Main zindagi mein hardam rotaa hi raha hoon
Ab meraa kaun sahaaraa
Chhod gaye baalam mujhe haaye akela chhod gaye and
the songlet
Prem nagar mein basane vaalo
Lata Mangeshkar dominated the parade ( Except the Rafi solo at No.8, all songs had Lata's vocals) and never looked back. Interestingly, this was the year Lata actually arrived. Statistically speaking,, she had sung 66 songs from 1945 to 1948 and she sang 161 songs in 1949 !
Barsaat competed with the music of Andaz ( Jhoom jhoom ke naacho aaj and others by Naushad), Mahal (Aayega aanewala and others by Khemchand Prakash), Dillagi( Tu mera chand , main teri chandni and others by Naushad) , Badi behen ( Chup chup kahde ho and others by Husnlal-Bhagatram) and Dulari( Suhani raat dhal chuki and others by Naushad) , to name a few. Barsaat outshone almost all of them in terms of both quality and quantity, as well as giving the competition a run for their money !
This has been the most impressive debut by any composer ever, in Hindi film music.
Listen to the songlet, for a change, and marvel on the ethereal Lata !
The 50s was a period when the maximum number of music directors, who became popular in the 60s had debuted. But none of them were able to have a debut which would shake the Hindi film fans to sit up and take note of the greenhorn.
Except one, probably... And she was Usha Khanna !
Female music directors in Hindi films were not known to occur except Saraswati Devi, way back in the 30s. Actually, Jaddanbai ( mother of actress Nargis) was he first female music director when her film Talash-e-haq was released in 1935. Saraswati Devi's film Jawni ki hawa followed, close on heels, in 1935.
Almost 25 years later, another female music director handled the baton for the film Dil Deke Dekho ( 1959). Usha's father, Manohar Khanna, was a lyricist and singer,who started to write Ghazals for Hindi films by the name, Jaaved Anwar when Jaddanabi offered him Rs. 800 for 3 ghazals for Jaddanbai's home production Romeo and Juliet (1947), starring Nargis. .
The popular music director O.P.Nayyar introduced Usha Khanna to Sashadhar Mukherji . She sang a song for Mukherjee, and when he realised that she had composed the song on her own, he signed her as the composer for her debut film, which also introduced the actress Asha Parekh.She was pitted in a screen test with another newcomer - Sadhana. Asha Parekh clinched the role when did well in the audition while Sadhana didn't turn up for it.
The film had 10 songs, out of which 4 were very popular. By this time Binaca Geetmala had been on air since last 5 years and was a barometer of popularity of Hindi film songs. Three songs of Dil Deke Dekho notched up slots in Binaca Geetmala ( Dil deke dekho in 1959 and Bade hain dilke kaale and Pyar ho to kehdo yes in 1960 edition). Rafi's yaar chulbula hai was also popular, making the album a sell-out and Usha Khanna , an instant celebrity.
The 60s saw the debut of Laxmikant Pyarelal, one of the most successful composers of all times who had a great debut in Parasmani (1963)
After the death of his father, Laxmikant was advised by his father's friend, a musician himself, to learn music. Accordingly, Laxmikant learned to play the mandolin. He spent two years in the company of the well-known mandolin player Hussain Ali. He began organising and performing in Indian Classical instrumental music concerts to earn some money. Later, in the 1940s, he also learned mandolin from Bal Mukund Indorker and violin from Husnalal (of theHusnlal-Bhagatram fame). He was discovered by Lata Mangeshkar at the age of 10 and he met Pyarelal at Sureel Kala Kendra, an academy run by Lata’s family.
Pyarelal, the son of a renowned trumpeter Pandit Ramprasad Sharma (popularly known as Babaji), who taught him the basics of music. He started learning violin at the age of 8 and practised it 8 to 12 hours daily. He learnt to play violin from a Goan musician named Anthony Gonsalves.
Laxmikant–Pyarelal's first film as music directors was not released. The first released movie which featured them as music directors was Parasmani (1963), which was a costume drama. All the 6 songs of the film became immensely popular, . "Hasata Hua Nurani Chehara", "Wo Jab Yaad Aaye" , "Mere Dil Main Halki Si". " Ui maa Ui maa ye kya ho gaya"," Roshan tumhi se duniya" and " Chori chori jo tumse mili to log kya kahenge", all were played on Vividh Bharti incessantly and this was one of the most explosive debuts.
In the later decades, the best debuts were Rajesh Roshan ( Kunwara Baap in the 70s), Shiv Hari ( Silsila in the 80s) and A.R.Rahman( Roja in the 90s) Wo kahani phir sahi...
The film industry has always been viewed as a competitive arena and has been demonised with the the dog-eat-dog syndrome. However, it has been seen , in a few cases, that the composers have come together to create melodies and masterpieces , in the real quest of music. I shall cite a few such cases where ,forgetting their seniority and the rivalry, composers have collaborated in giving the music in the films. These, obviously , exclude the composers who were part of the same team.
The first and foremost instance is the legendary association of composer Salil Chaudhary for giving background music in so many films, often uncredited, too. The Devdas incident in his own words is worth listening:
"I remember once there was a knock on my door at about 2 am and I found Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh and S.D. Burman standing on my doorstep, the latter wearing a worried expression. Sachin da had been signed up for Bimal's "Devdas", but apparently Bimal had not been happy with his background music for the climactic reels of the film. So, at short notice early the next morning, I was compelled to compose and record four reel's worth of musicfor the ending of "Devdas", uncredited, as our relationships were very cordial."
In fact, Salil Chaudhary gave background music for a lot of films, even when the songs were composed by some other music director. B.R.Chopra who had Ravi as his regular composer engaged Salil Chaudhary for his films such as Kanoon, Waqt and Ittefaq. The list of background music given by him is very long and it is amazing how he could do such a lot of precision work, alongside composing songs of his own films. In fact, for most Hrishikesh Mukherji films , he composed the background music, without being credited, even when the main composer was someone else.
One of the major commercial success was Kala Patthar, whose music was composed by Rajesh Roshan and background music was by Salil Chaudhary.
Kalyanji Anandji started to compose music for films from Satta Bazaar 1959, when brother Anandji Veerji Shah joined Kalyanji , who was, till then, going solo. The duo had a lot of films to their credit and by end of 60s, were a name to be reckoned with. One team of their assistants comprised of young musicians: Laxmikant Pyarelal. In due course, LP ( as the latter came to be called) branched out and from Dosti 1963, debuted as independent composers. They continued to assist Kalyanji Anandji in a few films, till their workload forced them to focus on their own projects. Laxmikant Pyarelal hit big time in the 70s , when they ruled the Hindi cinema music scene. The success of LP spilled over to the next decade, as other contemporaries were not doing well and the market share of LP skyrocketed.In the late 70s and early 80s, LP had as many as 13 songs out of 33 played in Annual Binaca Geetmala, for 3 years running. Laxmikant Pyarelal were called Long Playing ( the vinyl records which had more songs were called so) and were composing music for many big banners. One of them was the banner of Subhash Ghai known as Mukta Arts. An interesting thing happened with Krodhi, the 1981 film of Subhash Ghai. They had so much of work that they could not find time to compose the background music of the film. Subhash Ghai had to fall back on his earlier composers Kalyanji Anandji ( Kalicharan) to compose the background score. Though Kalyanji Anandji were senior and LP had assisted them in the 60s, they took up the work. Later Ghai enganed them for Vidhata in 1982. In the credit titles, it was mentioned : "Music By Kalyanji Anandji" and "Songs composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal" Listen to the background music of the film Krodhi in this brief clip.
Laxmikant Pyarelal had an explosive debut with Parasmani ( 1963) and followed it up with another chartbusting score in Dosti ( 1964). In the film, one of the two main characters played harmonica or mouth organ in all the songs . One of the dear friends of the composer duo was another 60s debutant, R.D.Burman, who had begun his career with Chhote Nawab ( 1961). In Dosti, the harmonica was played by R.D.Burman , which contributed to the success of the songs. The friendship triumphed over rivalry and the result was a musical treat.
Years later, in one of the films of R.D.Burman called Teri Kasam, a musical contest was shown and as one of the judges, Laxmikant can be seen on-screen. In another song, the maestro was seen to conduct the recording of a song, sung on-screen by Kumar Gaurav. So, while the tunes were prepared by pancham, they were judged by Laxmikant !
Such a good example of comaradeship in the Hindi film music world.
Leaving you with the two songs, one each from Dosti and Teri kasam, which symbolise the friendship between the famous composers.
There have been a number of Bengali composers in Hindi films. From R.C.Boral to Pankaj Mullick and K.C.Dey to Anil Biswas and from S.D.Burman and Hemant Kumar to Bappi Lahiri and Preetam , Hindi film industry have seen so many music directors of Bengali origin. Most of these composers have composed original Bangla songs , for Bangla films as well as for private albums also.
There have been many instances when some tunes composed by them were so popular that these tunes were then adapted or re-worked for songs of Hindi films. While there are scores of such songs, some of them have been iconic songs in Hindi films. Today we shall enjoy such bilingual songs.
S D Burman started working as a radio singer on Calcutta Radio Station in the late '20s, when his work as a singer-composer was based on Bengali folk and light Hindustani classical music. Consequently, his compositions were mainly influenced by his huge repertoire of folk-tunes from present Bangladesh and later other parts of India and around the world. His first record was also released in 1932
As a music composer, he started with the Bengali plays Sati TirthaandJanani, and eventually gave his first score in the filmRajgee. In 1937, his second filmRajkumarer Nirbashan(1940) became a hit. He gave music in Bangla films such asProtishodh(1941),Abhoyer Biye(1942) andChaddobeshi(1944) and only one Bengali film in 1969/70 after he permanently moved to Mumbai in 1946. He composed for over 20 Bengali films and 89 Hindi films in all.
In 1944, Burman moved to Mumbai, at the request of Sasadhar Mukherjee, who asked him to give score for two Ashok Kumar starrers,Shikari(1946) andAath Din, but his first major breakthrough came the following year with the company'sDo Bhai(1947). The songMera Sundar Sapna Beet Gayasung by Geeta Dutt was his breakthrough song into the film industry. In 1949, Shabnam was released which was his biggest hit till then ,which paved the way for his success in the 50s right till his death in the 70s.
Burman composed a Bangla bhajan and later on , re-worked it as a popular song in Devdas 1955
The first Bengali film in which Salil Chowdhury composed music was Paribortan, released in 1949. Mahabharati, released in 1994, was the last of the 41 Bengali films where he rendered his music.
In an interview with All India Radio, Salil Chowdhury described his coming to Bombay in 1953 as a "stroke of luck". He was writing the script for a Bengali film, about a peasant who was disowned of his land and had gone to Calcutta to earn money as a Rickshaw puller. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who heard of it from Chowdhury during a visit to Calcutta liked it immensely and suggested that he narrate it to Bimal da (Bimal Roy). Bimal Roy heard it, and asked him to meet him again the next morning. However, when Chowdhury went to meet him the next day, he learnt that Roy had rushed to Bombay on an urgent call. A week later, he received a telegram from Roy that he wanted to turn his script into a movie. This resulted in Chowdhury's debut in the Hindi Film Industry in 1953 as the Music Director for (based on Tagore's poem/narrative by the same name, but the story was different. The story was written by Salil Chowdhury himself. Directed by , this film took his career to new heights when it became the first film to win the and won the international Prize at the
The combination of Salil Chowdhury and Lata Mangeshkar changed the course of modern Bengali song for ever. Amongst the scores of bilingual songs composed by Salil da, the song 'na jeo na' became one of the most important and most beautiful Bengali songs in history. It was thrilling to have Lata singing Bengali songs with practically flawless accent. She became one of them and the wonderful songs Salil composed for Lata during the next three decades still remain possibly the most melodic and lyrical Bengali modern songs.The song was re-composed as a beautiful song in Parakh (1960)
R.D.Burman's father S. D. Burman was a noted music director in Hindi film industry. When he was nine years old, R. D. Burman composed his first song,Aye meri topi palat ke aa, which his father used in the film Funtoosh (1956) The tune of the songSar jo tera chakraayewas also composed by him as a child; his father included it in the film Pyaasa.
There have been many films in which Burman is credited as the music assistant to his father. Burman also played mouth organ for his father's hit composition "Hai Apna Dil To Aawara", which was featured in the film Solva Saal and sung by Hemant Kumar
Burman's first released film as an independent music director was Chhote Nawab (1961). When the noted Bollywood comedian Mehmood decided to produce Chhote Nawab, he first approached Burman's father Sachin Dev Burman for the music. However, S. D. Burman declined the offer, advising he was unavailable. At this meeting, Mehmood noticed Rahul playing tabla , and signed him as the music director for Chhote Nawab.
It was a trend in the 60s that during the Durga Pooja, Bengali composers used to present their tunes in Bangla songs and once they were popular, they were used for songs in Hindi films. Many Hindi film songs had first been released at the annual festival.
Pancham's friend Sachin Bhowmik was after him to compose Bangla songs for the Pooja.Pancham was dodging him for a few days. One day Pancham asked Sachin to write a song for him to compose. Sachin Bhowmick actually surprised Pancham by writing this
wonderful song 'Mone Pore Ruby Roy', which refers to a lady ( name changed slightly) , on whom Mr. Bhowmick had a crush in his early days !
Pancham composed the song and sang it too and it was a big hit. The song was adapted to Hindi for the film Anamika ( 1973).
The life and times of Kishore Kumar have been replete with interesting events and happenings involving the multi-talented genius. His idiosyncrasies were talked about and there are not many anecdotes which are unknown , in this era of Internet.
A few of them are recounted here showing the innate talent of the actor-singer. A brief background will make the incidents more insightful. Kishore da was passionate about singing since a very young age. Inspired by the singing sensation K.L Saigal, poet Rabindra Nath Tagore and Danny Kaye, the voice of the Hollywood, singing was no less than meditation for him. Being the younger brother of Ashok Kumar, an already established name in the tinsel town, acting was forced upon him; singing continued to evade him. Though he had not acquired any professional training, singing in a chorus in Bombay talkies in the early 1940s marked his entry in the Indian film industry.
He made his first appearance on the silver screen with Savak B. Vacha’s Shikari (1946) in which Ashok Kumar was playing the lead role. Extremely reluctant to act, Kishore Kumar did not hesitate to test the patience of his directors and producers and disagreed to cooperate. His dislike for acting was no longer behind the wrap and was reflected in the flops that he was delivering.
He said once in your interview, “I only wanted to sing. Never to act. But somehow, thanks to peculiar circumstances, I was persuaded to act in the movies. I hated every moment of it and tried virtually every trick to get out of it. I miffed my lines, pretended to be crazy, shaved my head off, played difficult, began yodelling in the midst of tragic scenes, told Meena Kumari what I was supposed to tell Bina Rai in some other film – but they still wouldn’t let me go. I screamed, ranted, went cuckoo. But who cared? They were just determined to make me a star,”
Kishore sang in his own films and for Dev Anand after Ziddi ( 1948), in which he sang two songs, out of which one was serious, but he was generally known for light-hearted, peppy songs such as this one...
In early 50s, one afternoon Anil Biswas, at his residence, was in the company of celebrated actors –Dilip Kumar and Ashok Kumar. He played on his harmonium and hummed the tune of a forthcoming melody, which , he explained, was a slow romantic duet . Regarding the female singer, there was absolutely no doubt about Lata Mangeshkar, but the choice of the male voice was a more difficult decision. After all, at that time , there were a host of singers: Talat Mehmood, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh and Hemant Kumar, all of whom were competent to sing serious, sad songs. “Dada it should be Talat”-said Ashok Kumar. Whereas Dilip Kumar suggested –“Anil Da, considering the serious lyrical notes, the male singer should be your favorite Mukesh.” Anil Da had something else in his mind.
“What about Kishore singing with Lata ?", enquired the maestro “Kishore ?’ –Dilip was taken aback; “If Kishore will sing such a serious song, then ‘आपका जूता और मेरा सर' added Dilip Kumar.
“मैं जूता लेकर हूँ , तुम सर तैयार रखो ” replied Anil Biswas ! Kishore Kumar was called, who at the first instance, bluntly refused to sing the said duet with Lata. But, the maestro’s conviction prevailed and , as a result, a heart-throbbing duet was created!
The songs of the comedy film Padosan ( 1968) as well as the picturisation were unique , in a sense as most of it was done by brainstorming and since both Mehmood and Kishore Kumar were very spontaneous and creative artistes, the results were expected to be different.
For the song Ek Chatur Naar , Manna Dey was reluctant to sing for this song because he would be singing for Mehmood's character who would lose to Sunil Dutt's character (Kishore Kumar's voice) in the movie. He finally agreed after Mehmood, who also produced the film, reminded him of a similar situation in Basant Bahar( 1956), when, singing for hero Bharat Bhushan, had a musical duel with Bhimsen Joshi ( singing for Parashuram) and won that contest.
The songis an adaption of a song composed by Saraswati Devi for the film "Jhoola" (1941) and sung by Ashok Kumar. The original song was titled similarly but had different lyrics. Portions of the song also borrowed from "Ban Chale Ram Raghu Rai" ("Sant Tulsidas", 1939) composed by Gyan Dutt and sung by Vishnukant Pagnis and "Chanda Re Ja Re Ja Re" ("Ziddi", 1948) composed by Khemchand Prakash and sung by Lata Mangeshkar.
A 10 day rehearsal and 12 hour recording ensued for this song, which is one of the best songs to have been made in Hindi films. Manna Dey said after the song that despite all his classical training, he had to make a huge effort to match Kishore's brilliance.
J.Om Prakash had been a renowned producer since 1953 and when he turned director in 1974, he chose the pair of Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz as the lead pair in Aap Ki Kasam . The composer was R.D.Burman. As J. Om Prakash was the producer also, he was conscious of keeping the project within the financial budget planned and for which he had to get financiers. It is said that R.D. Burman had called extra musicians and chorus for the recording of Jai Jai Shiv Shankar as he wanted to create a sound to go in sync with the intended picturization of the song.This led the song's budget to shoot up from the planned 25000 rupees to 50000 rupees, . J.Om Prakash complained to Pancham about high cost of a song ( Rs.50,000). Apparently, he wanted the song to be scrapped.When Kishore Kumar came to know about this,on seeing RD in a sombre mood, he went up to him to enquire on the matter. RD promptly narrated the issue to Kishore who asked him not to worry and to go ahead with the recording. Kishore Kumar, naughty that he was,improvised in the song during the final recording, singing " बजाओ बजाओ इमानदारी से बजाओ, पचास हज़ार लगे हैं" ,which was not in the original lyrics ! This line was never removed and has been part of the song. A chart topper in Binaca Geetmala 1974; Jai Jai Shiv Shankar ranks among the all time hits!!!
How many times have we thought that a particular song would have been better in some other singer's voice or in the voice of our favourite singer? I am sure such thoughts must have crossed every music lover. HMV also thought of this , way back in the 50s. As we all acknowledge, the Fifties was the Golden Period of Hindi film music. The film industry was having top class composers and wordsmiths and an array of high quality singers such as Lata Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt, Talat Mehmood, Hemant Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Mukesh, Asha Bhonsle and Kishore Kumar. In the the West, version recordings (where one hit English song was sung by many singers) were quite popular and HMV decided to create a similar movement in India with reard to popular Hindi songs.
So , here are three instances of the experiment. It is for the listeners to judge whether it was successful or not.
Since Talat Mahmood was the most popular singer in those days he was persuaded him to do the first recording 'Chal ud ja re panchi' which Mohd Rafi had sung for film 'BHABHI'.
The confidence and conviction of Talat in his training and talent was also instrumental in his taking up the project. The result was a beautiful reprisal of an iconic songs. Here are the two songs, the original first and then the cover version.
Next up was the Mukesh masterpiece from the film Jaagte Raho. The song pictuised on Motilal , with Raj Kapoor in the frame ,bewildered at the antics of the intoxicated gent, was one of the best songs of Mukesh.
Manna Dey, one of the singers who got less than his potential was requested to sing the cover version. The Bengali crooner, accomplished in classical singing, must have found this an easy one, but if you listen to both versions, the original one still tugs at you , a little bit more. Or maybe we are conditioned to listening this song by Mukesh !
The other cover version was of a Hemant Kumar duet with Asha Bhonsle from the film Ek Jhalak ( 1957). The song itself was a sweet romantic song and both Hemant Kumar ( who also the music director ) and Asha sung it very well.
Now it is not an easy job to replicate a singer like Hemant Kumar ( who voice was praised by salil Chaudhary by saying that " if god had a voice, it would resemble Hemant Kumar's voice) and it was really a tough job for Mukesh.
Listen to the cover version and check out how Mukesh ( singing with J.B.Mesania) creates the magic, in his own sincere manner.
But this idea of singing other singers songs was not going down very well with the singers and they got together to finally decide against going ahead with this idea of HMV and dropped this idea entirely after that.
A lost opportunity, in my opinion.
Legends are not only people. Films are legends. Songs are legends. And so are the anecdotes and the efforts which go behind making of films and songs. So, it makes sense to turn our attention to such events and happenings which have turned legendary in the Hindi film folklore. The instances recalled today are the curious cases of change in the singers of legendary songs. Now, such changes may take place due to various reasons, but the interesting point here is that the singers were changed after the recording was done. It happens sometimes that the music director , during rehearsal, doesn't get the effect required and the singer is changed to a more suitable incumbent. But doing so after recording does not happen normally. Hence,legendary ! The first instance I recall is said to have happened during the making of the 1952 Bimal Roy film Naukri. Since Kishore Kumar was the hero of the film, the singer-actor justly assumed that he would sing his own songs. But Salil Chowdhury, the formidable music director from Bengall had sought Hemant Kumar’s vocals and had a portion recorded also. Kishore rushed to Chowdhury’s music room at Mohan Studios, Andheri, only to be told: “But I have never heard you before… Not one song of yours did I hear in Calcutta.” Kishore, pursuing his case, later went to Chowdhury with records of two of his best songs — “Marne kee duaaen kyun maangoon” (Ziddi, 1948) and “Jagmag jagmag kartaa niklaa” (Rimjhim, 1949). Chowdhury dismissed both as “laboured”. It was only after Bimal Roy put in a word that Chowdhury relented, though under protest Kishore Kumar justified the director’s trust by infusing the simple yet touching lyrics with sincerity. Kishore kumar went on to sing 24 more songs for Salil da in all the four decades from 50s to 80s.
And here is the sad version of the song, Salil Chaudhary recorded in the voice of Hemant Kumar !
Two interesting events happened during the making of the music of the film Aadmi (1968) , whose composer was Naushad. One song which was a solo, 'Na aadmi ka koi bharosa' was to be sung by Mohammad Rafi. The recording was held up because of Rafi's trip abroad and Naushad was forced to record the song in the voice of Mahendra Kapoor. But before the picturization , Rafi came back . Naushad changed the tune and recorded the song in the voice of Rafi.
Then there was a duet , " Kisi haseen aaj baharon ki raat hai", in which both Dilip Kumar and Manoj Kumar were present and Naushad had already recorded the song in the voices of Rafi ( for Dilip) and Talat Mehmood( for Manoj Kumar) and all was well.
However,after the solo song incident, Manoj Kumar ( whose ghost voice by now was Mahendra : remember 1967 film Upkar's Mere desh ki dharti ) insisted that the Talat portion in the duet be re-recorded by Mahendra. Since Mahendra Kapoor had no other song planned in the film, the assertions by Manoj Kumar were taken seriously.
When it was decided that the song will be re-recorded , Mahendra Kapoor said he couldn’t do it as he had idolised Talat saab. As told by Rohan Kapoor, his son, Mahendra Kapoor met Talat and shared the decision. “Talat saab, magnanimous as he was, said, ‘You’re like my son. If you don’t sing it, someone else will. So it was with Talat saab’s blessings and consent that Mahendra Kapoor sang the song". The record , which already had been released , only contains the Rafi - Talat duet whereas the film has the Rafi - Mahendra Kapoor version.
Here are the two versions, one after the other.
While switching the singers had happened in the 50s on the request of the director and in the 60s, due to the insistence of a star, in the 70s, this happened because of a completely different reason !
HMV had been the giant record company since times immemorial in India and had the copyrights of almost all the songs in Hindi films. During the late 1960’s The Gramophone Company of India, Ltd. was challenged in the market for Indian repertoire by the formation of Polydor India, Ltd., who had a disc pressing plant at Kandivlee, north of Bombay. Thus developed a market struggle between the ‘Gramophone’ and ‘Polydor’ companies in India for the rights to songs from the films being produced by numerous motion picture producers in India.
In the early 70s, film producers started to shift to Polydor and they notched up important projects , some of whom proved to be chartbusters, thanks to the composers of the films. The Train, Sachcha Jhootha, Johny Mera Naam, jawani Diwani are some of Polydor's early successes. In fact, if you listen to SAREGAMA ( the new avatar of HMV) Geetmala Ki chhaon mein, a 2010 series by Ameen Sayani based on Binaca Geet Mala Hit Parade , the songs which were recorded by Polydor are not played and only mentioned by sayani , as HMV does not have a copy right.
Back to 70s. The success of the films mentioned above forced the big company to devise a strategy to counter the rapidly rising competitor. HMV exploited the lax Copyright Act 1957(section 52) , which permitted cover versions just by filing a notice of intent and paying nominal royalty, without the necessity of seeking permission, to make cover versions of the music of these films. HMV employed new siingers ( Ambar Kumar, Krishna Kalle etc.) to sing these re-recorded songs and sold the LPs. Gullible fans bought them thinking they are original and HMV raked in money even from the recordings made by their competitiors.
The cover version LP
The Original LP
Leaving you with one such recording, after which the original song from Johny Mera Naam is also presented in the voices of Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar, composed by Kalyanji anandji.
The cover version
The original
Years later , Gulshan Kumar ( for T-series) paid HMV back in its own coin when he made a flourishing empire whose foundation was an array of cover versions by up-and-coming singers !
