Of recycled songs...and Recycled Artistes !!!

The twin-releases of Raees and Kaabil hogged all the limelight this week,  in a disproportionate manner, with all the TV channels and print media comparing the two. Both of them appear to be good business propositions, though the stories and treatment are reported to be widely different. Film enthusiasts have found half a dozen commonalities between the two films, one of which is most obvious: Recycled Song !

For quite some time, we have been observing these "cover versions" or recycled songs being used by film-makers. While it is an honest admission that they have nothing original to offer (imitation is the best form of flattery) , the re-working, if not done with finesse, insults the original number. In the two films mentioned above , we have Laila main laila ( the Qurbani foot-tapper by Kalyanji Anandji) and Saara Zamana ( Rajesh Roshan's own work in Yaraana) recycled for your listening pleasure. 

Which leads me to other forms of re-cycling. Songs composed on same tune, lyrics matching earlier songs and actors recycling themselves in newer versions. Remember Pran doing a makeover from bad guy to good samaritan or Shatrughan Sinha from a villain to hero ?

 But that is merely playing different roles, as is wont for an accomplished actor. 

The "real" re-cycling is when an artiste does a complete makeover with a different name altogether ! 

So, while people change names to appear in films, there are instances when the same person has changed his name and has contributed with both names. Rare, but possible.

Let us look at some examples of this happening in film world. 

Who hasn't heard Talat Mehmood, the man with silky voice and the King of Ghazals ?
 His romantic and sad songs in his characteristic vocals  still give goosebumps, when listened through a lonely evening.

The Lucknow-born Talat started to sing ghazals from the age of 16 and soon earned enough fame, to reach Calcutta. In the late 40s and early 50s , Talat used used to sing Bangla songs as Tapan Kumar !

His Bangla songs were a rage and it was Anil Biswas (composer of  Ae dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal jahaan koi na ho-Arzoo, 1950) who had faith in Talat , due to his  velvety voice with a unique tremolo and the rest is history. Here is a  Bangla song as Tapan Kumar.

Shaukat Ali Dehalvi was a music director in the 40s and 50s , who did a lot of films with various producers and directors. When he was contacted by Nakshab Jarachvi in 1953 for the film Nagma   , he did not know that everything is going to change for him, including his name !

It seems Nakshab had approached music director Naushad for the film, who had expressed his inability. Dejected but not defeated, Nakshab picked Shaukat and had an agreement with him that he will be presented as Nashad in the credits as music director. Probably the first instance in the creative industry where the original was challenged by his name-alike.
 That's how Shaukat became Nashad and since the music of was a superhit score ( badi mushkil se dil ki beqarari ko qarar aaya, kaahe jadoo kiya  and other gems) , he retained the new name for the rest of his life. Listen to a song he composed as Shaukat Dehalvi, another of his names !

Lata Mangeshkar had become very busy with hindi films in the 50s and was scaling dizzy heights in popularity. However, she had not forgotten the Marathi film industry, from where she had come up. In 1955, she became a music director but under the pseudonym of Anand Ghan ! 

She composed for a few films of  Marathi language, while continuing her success in hindi films to be crowned Nightingale of Hindi films. One of her early compositions was in the film and is this:

ram ram pahune

A unique example is of a mainstream music director, extremely successful and still going for another name to compose music...!
Did you guess the name?

 It was Shankar of the famous Shankar Jaikishan team. The duo was the leading pair of composers and after Sangam (1964), Janwar ( 1965) and Suraj ( 1966), they were actually ruling the film music scene. What transpired so that  he took on the name of "Suraj" to give music in the 1966 film Street Singer,  is a matter of conjecture. The working of SJ was known to be such that each prepared songs individually and then the team presented the score as a team effort. Is it possible that at that point of time, Shankar thought it fit to try out a film on his own and did the film or was it the Sharda effect ?To his credit, after the untimely death of Jaikishan in 1971, he continued the brand name Shankar Jaikishan for the next 10 years, giving great numbers.

An instance of a lyricist choosing to take on two names is that of Manohar Khanna. He was the father of Usha Khanna, the music director of 60s through 80s. While he wrote songs as Manohar Khanna and at times  as M.L.Khanna, he had another name Javed Anwar in some films. It appears that he chose to change his name due to continued lack of success. His song Haaye tabassum tera as Javed Anwar gained popularity, while his songs in his original name ( one variant was K.Manohar) were not as popular. He had maximum hit numbers in the mid-sixties as Javed Anwar.
This is his song as K.Manohar.

The child artiste Baby Sonia , who also got a double role in Do Kaliyan, did not use her name but switched to Neetu  Singh as adult. She had a long run as a successful mainstream leading lady and her pairing with Rishi Kapoor moved from reel to real life. They did a couple of films together  as senior citizens also.  She remains a rare example of an on-screen artiste changing her name.

The hero who changed his name was none other than the son of a great actor, a shadow he could never shrug off. Balraj Sahni's son Ajay Sahni entered the filmdom with a lot of expectations and had to switch to being called Parikshit Sahni, which remained his name ever since. He did get a few films as solo hero ( though , in heroine-oriented films) and then became an in-demand  character actor, doing small roles in big budget films like Desh Premi etc.

Recycling oneself seems to be an exercise not entirely futile. Whether it is a choice or it is forcibly done,  doesn't really matter. What matters is that the creative juices that flow, irrespective of the name.

 As Kalidas has said, "what's in a name?"
Or was it Shakespeare?
Well, what's in a name...
 :)