दिल जो न कह सका ....

                                

The most explosive event this week was the premature termination of a government, elected by the public with a lot of hope and enthusiasm. Without going into the myriad controversies, it will suffice to say that this was a dampener for those who wanted to see the elected representatives complete the mandate given to them. There would have been many schemes and plans which may have been pushed to  the back-burner.

The closest analogy with Hindi films I can think of is that of films shelved midway. There have also been cases where songs composed for films have not been used or worse, edited out at the last moment. 

So, today we go through some "unsung" songs, like the unannounced schemes of the government, whose tenure got truncated. The list is, by no means, exhaustive. There have been innumerable such songs.  Even all such  songs I like to listen have not been possible to be accommodated , but these are some of the representative songs. Examples of more such songs are welcome, if indicated by erudite readers

There are songs which are recorded for a film but not included due to excessive length of the film or being out of context in the final version of the film. Then there are songs which are not released because the film itself is shelved after a few reels.  

Starting off with a very popular song, whose unsung “twin” was never released.

It was an established practice in the hindi film music industry that the Music Director used to have  the last word, in all matters pertaining to the score of the film. Established composers were known to try out a couple of singers for a song and then decide on the  version to be included. 

Salil Chaudhary probably was thinking on these lines when he got the same  song recorded by two singers in the film Jaagte Raho ( 1956) . The version of this song which was released in the film   was sung by Mukesh. However, the song was also sung by Manna Dey, but the Mukesh version was kept in the film. Manna Dey appears equally competent to deliver the emotions required, nevertheless.

In the same year there was another song which became popular but could not find the place in the film ! The reason was that it was picturised in a bar and the hero, a CID officer goes in the bar. The presence of hero in a such a place was too much for the pristine censors and they had the song knocked off from the film. Almost sixty years later , the song made a comeback in a film called Bombay Velvet (2015).

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The instances of the song being picturised and then getting edited out of the final print have have also been there, though rare. Mostly it happens due to the length of the film not able to accommodate all that was shot.   Here is the visual of a song said to have been edited out of Pyar Mohabbat, the song having been picturised on  the Dev Anand and Shashikala.  A number of such shelved songs ( and scenes, too) were compiled in  a film called Film Hi Film ( 1983), which has archival value.

The most puzzling instances are when songs which become popular are found to be missing on the silver screen. The most popular song conspicuous by its absence must be this song played frequently on Vividh Bharti but not present in the film. Asha Bhonsle sang this gem of a song for O.P.Nayyar in the film Kashmir Ki Kali. However, no visuals are found for this song.  A similar fate was suffered by the  song from Ek Musafir Ek Haseena, "Main pyar ka raahi hoon", a couple of years earlier.

                                  

The major  reason why songs which are recorded and then don't see the light of the day is because the film itself is shelved. The film business is essentially a commercial exercise and the slightest hint of the project becoming non-viable is trigger enough for the producer to cut losses by discontinuing the film's production. Also, lack of finance is a major reason for the films getting cut short. The dedicated efforts of the artistes, both on and off screen go waste. One such instance  is an unreleased Mukesh song composed by Salil Chaudhary for the film Mitti ka Dev. The song was later composed and sung by Jagjit Singh for an album.

Both Talat Mehmood and Geeta Dutt were past their prime in the 70s. Together they sang for a film called Midnight in which the music was by Subir Sen. Obviously, the trends of the times,  coupled with the outcome of the recording would not have inspired the producers to go on and the  1972 film  remained in the cans.

                                       

The next song is one of the most tragic instances of a song getting edited out, simply because it is a very melodious composition, probably the best in this  anthology. The R.D.Burman composition is inspired from Charlie Chaplin's Theme from Limelight, but the inspiration has been an  effective one. The song may have been cut out because of thecomic nature of the content of the film. Pancham later re-worked it to use  in another song "Main jo chala peekar" from Mukti (1977), but the wannabe song from Bombay to Goa  was way better.

There have been instances of famous composers and singers making a team ( Naushad-Rafi, Shankar-Jaikishan-Mukesh, R.D. Burman-Kishore Kumar or Ravi-Mahendra Kapoor)  and on the other hand there are cases where two artistes have collaborated only once in their careers. The next song is in such a category. The only song that Kishore Kumar sang for Naushad Sahab ( a duet with Asha Bhonsle) was edited out of Sunehara Sansar 1975. Therefore, the only instance of a unique collaboration came to nought by the song getting struck from the film.

These are the melodies we missed out on due to shelving of the films. Had the songs been released in an album ( maybe one day someone will take up the idea and compile random unreleased songs!), it would have been a treat !

The following song is the coming together of the geniuses   Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar ,Gulzar and   Pancham for the film Bharosa.

While the big budget films suffer from  unmanageable length, the small budget films have the handicap of non-viability. This  Yesudas-Salil Chaudhary-Yogesh creation which got left out  due to the film getting shelved, probably because there were no takers of a middle-of-the-road film in a grossly commercial industry!

There have been many versions of Devdas and every creative director worth his salt harbours the ambition of having his version on the silver screen. Gulzar, too wanted to have his take on Sharat babu's most famous character, with Dharmendra playing Devdas ! The film never got on the floors. As a consequence, a Lata melody, based on classical music by Pancham  is a gem lost …

While we enjoy the popular and repeat value songs, spare a thought for those songs which failed to see the light of the day…as the lyricist par excellence Indeevar expressed:

ऐसे जीवन भी हैं , जो जिए ही नहीं

जिनको जीने से पहले ही मौत आ गयी /

फूल ऐसे भी हैं जो खिले ही नहीं

जिनके खिलने के पहले खिज़ां छा गयी //