गीत गाया पत्थरों ने ...

For music lovers, the  single most important ( and saddening) event this week was the passing away of classical vocalist Kishori Amonkar. Those who understand classical music actually feel the huge loss due to her demise.
                                                       

 For those who are not that fortunate , classical music has always been a bit of enigma. Specially for guys like me who were enamoured with hindi film music since I was a kid, listening to Vividh Bharti for hours together.
Yet, it was accepted, though grudgingly, that classical music was, well…a class apart !

It was therefore, a double treat when you came across a song from hindi film which has the vocals of a classical singer. In the 1970s, in the film Do Boond Paani, there was a song which  was sweet to listen to ( it was played often on Vividh Bharti ) and was sung by Meenu Purushottam and Parveen Sultana. The latter was an accomplished classical singer, it was learnt. Her efforts for the film songs were few and far between. But she was , by no means, the first classical singer to have adorned the panorama of film music.

In fact Kishori Amonkar preceded her, as far as Hindi film music is concerned. But the association of exponents of classical vocal music with mainstream Hindi cinema, dates even further back.

For the complete story, read on....
and also enjoy listening to the great renditions !

Right from 1940s, film producers and directors have been able to persuade classical singers to lend their voices to hindi film songs, but the Hindi films have been privileged to have pure classical singers performing in Hindi films only occasionally.

In the 1940s Begum Akhtar was a much respected name in Classical music, being an expert in rendering ghazals, thumris ( classical music-based romanric or devotional song , usually revolving round love for Lord Krishna) and dadras   ( light classical vocal form, based on six-beat rhythmic cycle).
She was amongst the early female singers to give public concert, and break away from singing in mehfils or private gatherings.  In her early years, her voice made her an ideal choice for the films, but she elected to pursue classical music. Film-maker Mehboob Khan approached Begum Akhtar to act and sing in his film, which she agreed, as an exception.

In 1942, Begum Akhtar or Akhtaribai Faizabadi, as she was called , sang for the film Roti under the music direction of Anil Biswas. The song was rendered in her characteristic style.

A decade  later, in 1952,  Pandit D.V.Paluskar and Ustad Amir Khan sang for the film Baiju Bawara, in what was an “out of the world” experience for us  “sugam sangeet”-types. Naushad , the maestro who knew his ‘notes’, was able to bring the two greats of classical music to the proletariat world. The album had two duets by the legendary singers and one solo performance by each of them. 

Pandit D.V.Paluskar  was a master  at presenting an attractive and comprehensive picture of a raga in a very short duration. Besides pure classical music, he was also a great bhajan singer.His original surname was Gadgil, but as they hailed from the village Palus (near Sangli), they came to be known as the "Paluskar" family. Unfortunately, he died an early death, at the age of just 34.

Ustad Amir Khan had a rich baritone voice with a three-octave range, and could move equally effortlessly in any octave. He developed his own gayaki (singing style).Amir Khansahib believed that poetry was important in khyal compositions, and with his pen name, Sur Rang ("colored in swara"), he has left several compositions.Amir Khan was born in a family of musicians in Indore. His unique style, known as the Indore Gharana, blends the spiritual flavor and grandeur of dhrupad with the ornate vividness of khayal.

Ustad Amir Khan sang for many films such as  Shabab ( Naushad), Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje ( Vasant Desai) and Ragini ( O.P.Nayyar)

In 1956, Shankar Jaikishan achieved the unthinkable !
They brought Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Manna Dey at one place ( in their studio) to collaborate in a duet for the film Basant Bahaar. The effect was pure magic. The context was a musical contest in which  Gopal ( played by Bharat Bhushan ),  a young talented singer  aspiring to become the Emperor's musician has to get past tough competition.

An interesting similarity happened years later when Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar were the off-screen voices in a musical competition in Padosan. Manna Dey was not ready to sing the song, since the character he was singing for
(Mehmood),  has to lose to Sunil Dutt, eventually. He was reminded of Basant Bahar, in which Bharat Bhushan defeated Parasuram ( playback by Bhimsen Joshi). after which he realised that his resasoning was not correct.


Born as Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi   in a town called Ron,  in the Gadag  district of Karnataka , Bhimsen Joshi  was known for his  spontaneity, accurate notes, dizzyingly-paced taans which make use of his exceptional voice training, and a mastery over rhythm.

In 1957, with the release of Rani Roopmati, music director S.N.Tripathi introduced Krishna Rao Chonkar ,a classical vocalist of repute , who sang a song बाट चलत नयी चुनरी रंग डारी , with Mohammad Rafi. This was a scene showing a disciple learning from his Guru. The alaaps rendered by Chonkar in this song are just out of the world.

 Interestingly, in 1953 Geeta Dutt had sung a similarly written song as a solo for the film Ladki, under the baton of music director Dhani Ram.

Actually this traditional song is a thumri written by Kunwar Shyam , a krishna-bhakt and composer of many dhrupads, thumris and khayals.

Naushad,second to none, achieved  the impossible in 1960 for the magnum opus Mughal e Azam. For the biggest film till then, Naushad alongwith director K.Asif, coaxed, convinced and brought the most revered Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Sahab to sing two pieces, based on ragas Sohni and Ragashree . Legend has it that Bade Ghulam Ali Khan charged the sum of Rs.25000 when Rafi and Lata were being given less than Rs.500 !That was the gap….

Bade Ghulam Ali Khan amalgamated the various  traditions into his own Patiala-Kasur style:  the Behram Khani elements of Dhrupad, the gyrations of Jaipur, and the behlavas (embellishments) of Gwalior .His raga expositions were brief contrary to convention and while he agreed that the beauty of classical music lay in leisurely improvisation, he believed that the audience would not appreciate long alaaps and he had to sing for the masses and change the music to what the audience wanted.
This thumri from ‘Mughal e Azam is an audio-visual treat. It has to be so because Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan insisted on watching the rush print of the picturisation of the thumri which was projected on the screen placed in front of him as he recorded the piece.

Four years later, music director Ramlal ( of the Pankh hote to ud aati re… fame) persuaded Kishori Amonkar to sing the title song in V.Shantaram’s Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne. The song remains one of the best in the genre. 

Kishori Amonkar was born in Bombay. Owing to early death of her father, she was raised primarily by her mother, the classical vocalist Mogubai Kurdikar.  Known for her   technique of meend, or gliding, between notes, she modified her Jaipur gharana performance style by applying features from other gharanas.

She reportedly returned to classical music  because of unpleasant experiences with the film industry and also due to her mother disapproval; Kurdikar is reported to have told Amonkar that she would be forbidden from accompanying her mother if she continued to work in the film industry.

Cut to the 70s…

Jaidev  composed the music of Do Boond Paani (1972) and the song which I referred at the beginning of the blog came into being. Parveen Sultana ( who later sang the twin-song “Hamein tumse pyar kitna…” in R.D.Burman’s Kudrat 1982 ) was accompanied by Meenu Purushottam in this song. Based on the scarcity of water in Rajasthan, the songs were in sync with the theme of the film and the folk-classical composition was truly like a stream of sweet water in the arid desert.

Parveen Sultana was born at Daccapatty in Nagaon City, Assam. She is a accomplished classical vocalist, known for her stage renditions. Parveen practiced in front of a large mirror for hours to ensure her posture and facial expressions wouldn't look ugly or unsuitable for stage performances.

NOTE: The link to the song, if the above gives an error

https://youtu.be/FDJq80a2YK0
In 1976, classical singer and thumri specialist Shobha Gurtu sang for the film Sajjo Rani. The music director was Sapan Jagmohan and the kothe-wala songs were still in vogue ( before the discos took over).

                                          

With the arrival of the 80s, a lot of things were left behind and vanished  from the hindi films : Ghazals, Loris, Classical music …and melody.

Still, there were isolated attempts to involve classical vocalists to sing for Hindi films. As mentioned earlier, Parveen Sultana sang for Kudrat in 1982.  Vasantrao Deshpande sang with Kumari Faiyaz in Rang Birangi ( 1983), also composed by Pancham. Jaidev  brought back Bhimsen Joshi for Ankahee 1985, while Pandit Jasraj of Mewati Gharana sang in the film Susman( 1987) for composer Vanraj Bhatia. The Kabir song starts at 2:36 in the video below. Dialogues are bonus.

The most interesting event of cacophonous 80s, however,  was music director duo  Laxmikant Pyarelal roping  in classical vocalist duo Rajan Mishra - Sajan Mishra for  Sur Sangam, a film whose story was based on classical music.  Rajan (born 1951) and Sajan (born 1956) Mishra were born and brought up in Varanasi. The Mishra brothers had achieved fame by singing in concerts and stage, being   part of a 300-year-old lineage of  khayal singing of the Banaras Gharana.

The efforts to include the performances of classical vocalists continued in the next two decades but few and far between. Aarti Ankalikar-Tikekar sang for Sardari Begum 1997 under the baton of Vanraj Bhatia.
 Also, Shubha Mudgal, the classical singer of  our generation, sang for Anu Malik in Lajja 2001. Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan sang for Hyderabad Blues ( 2004).


Then there was the beautifully sung Aaoge jab tum sajna by Ustad Rashid Khan of Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana  in Jab We Met ( 2007), composed by Sandesh Shandilya.  Pandit Bhimsen Joshi had once remarked that Rashid Khan was the "assurance for the future of Indian vocal music"

                               


Last but not the least, we were privileged to listen to Pandit Chhannulal Mishra in the film Aarakshan ( 2011), in whic the music directors were Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.  Pandit Chhannulal Mishra   is a HIndustani classical singer from Varanasi,  a noted exponent of the Kirana Gharana  and especially the Khayal and the 'Purab Ang'-Thumri.

Leaving you with the exquisite "Saans Albeli" by Pandit Chhannulal Mishra from Aarakshan.

May the melodious traditions of Hindustani classical music remain  forever !