One for the road...

The recent remarks of Madhya Pradesh CM , while on a trip to US, were the highlight of the week. He stated that the roads of MP were better than those of US. This has generated a lot of media buzz and the issue of roads has come back into focus, though unwittingly. I am reminded of a comment that the roads of Patna were better than cheeks of Hema Malini: another utterance by one of our political leaders, Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The roads have been used very well in narratives in Hindi films, specially in later years. However, the genre of Road Movies goes quite a few decades back. The concept is to have majority of events while in transit ( on roads) and thus, reminding the viewer of the excitement he is missing while sitting in the confines of his house. This could be an effective tool with Tourism agencies for their promotion.
Let us try to retrieve the Road Movies on Bollywood.

The first film that comes to mind is Chori Chori ( 1956), the film inspired by the template of  It happened One Night  and inspired by the recent  Roman Holiday ( 1953) !
The format of carefree hero + runaway heiress + road travel formula has been a popular one in hindi films, ever since.  Even when  the road angle  has been exploited partially, it makes for a good watch.  
  An year later, Nau Do Gyarah ( 1957) - the directorial debut of 21 year old Vijay Anand was released.  As the name suggests, it is a film which had characters ' on the run' !
Dev Anand's  trip to Bombay in a truck has its own moments, specially as the heroine Kalpana Kartik , a runaway bride disguised s a Sikh boy, is hiding in the vehicle. The two take turns in driving but only till the truth about Sardar Nihal Singh is out !

There have been a number of films with Road in the title , suggestive of the content being substantially related to adventures on the road. In the 60s, there was a film Road No. 303 ( 1960), Burmah Road (1962)  and Road to Sikkim (1969). Not much is found on internet about the plots of these films and it appears that they must be having some content related to road trips.

One of the most popular Road Film was the iconic Bombay to Goa (1970),  which narrates the hilarious trip on a bus from Bombay to Goa. The characters in the bus are as different as could be. The amusing portions of the film include the following:
 The driver and cleaner are called Rajesh and Khanna, respectively. The hitch-hiking by Kishore Kumar ( playing self to shoot for a film Love in Bombay--a film which was released   years later!). The hero was Amitabh Bachcan and he was paired with Aruna Irani, who later on played comedienne and vamp also.

Caravan ( 1971) was another film which had  a road trip with a lot of songs.This  was a film which had the  elements of road journey of the heroine Asha Parekh who has run away, a happy-go-lucky hero Jeetendra  and a seductress Aruna Irani  !
The music of the film, by R.D.Burman,  was its highlight , with foot-tapping numbers hummed to this day.

One of the reasons we didn't have many Road films in the 70s and 80s was that the roads , specially highways in the country were not so good. In fact, between 1947 and 1988, India witnessed no new major projects, and the roads were poorly maintained, single lane and mostly unpaved.Only about 200 kilometres were 4-lane highways.

In 1988, an autonomous entity called the National Highways Authority of India was established in India by an Act of Parliament, and came into existence on 15 June 1989. The Act empowered this entity to develop, maintain and manage India's road network through National Highways. However, even though the Authority was created in 1988, not much happened till India introduced widespread economic liberalization in the early 1990s. Ever since NHAI got operational in February 1995, more than  1 lakh  kilometres have been added, a quarter of them being highways, carrying 40% of the traffic !

On to the Nineties...

       The 1991 film Dil hai Ki Maanta Nahin starring Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt was a remake of Chori Chori. The film had good performances,  great music and a Mumbai-Bengaluru trip to boot. 

Daud ( 1997) was another 90s  film of  this genre which showed a small time crook on the run from both gangsters and police. A crime comedy, this Ram Gopal Varma film established him as a creative artiste. The film is an interesting watch with Sanjay Dutt and Urmila Matondkar in the lead and catchy music by A.R.Rahman.

The Road movies in Bollywood came into their own post-2000.

Dil Chahta Hai ( 2001) a coming - of -age film with a road journey thrown in was a path-breaking effort and endeared the audience with sincere portrayal of three young men, finding their own bearings. Not strictly a road-movie , it had the road trip adding to the bonding of the friends.

In 2002, there were two great Road-centric films, Mr & Mrs. Iyer and Road.

Mr. & Mrs. Iyer was a multi-layered classic, exhibiting the tension between the characters based on their religion, against the backdrop of a road journey  they are forced to take together. Rahul Bose and Konkona Sharma acted competently. One of the eminently watchable films of this genre.

Road ( 2002), was, of course, one of the best. Vivek Oberoi and Antara Mali are on their way in a tata safari when they encounter Manoj Bajpai, a hitchhiker. They realise their mistake in giving him a lift, but by then it's too late ! The neo-noir drama captures the uncertainty of the impending events  with chilling effect. Ram Gopal Varma showed that he is a master of the genre he picks up ( remember his Bhoot, in the horror genre ?)

These two films paved the way for other film makers to include in their narrative a "road" angle , even tweaking the plot for this inclusion. Bunty aur Babli ( 2005) , Kabul Express ( 2006) and Jab We Met ( 2007)  had interesting episodes on the road, though their stories were focussed on different themes.
 Dhamaal (2007) was as slapstick comedy about four  friends  on a road trip to find a treasure, as was Bombay to Goa, released the same year, but was no patch on its namesake film.

The film to stand out was Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd ( 2007), which had six couples on a road trip, with a mysterious biker following them. The comedy-drama had competent performances by the ensemble cast  and the Road was used an apt prop. 

Heroes, released in 2008 was a great road trip film with a difference. it tells the story of two film academy students, played by Vatsal Seth and Sohail Khan,  who have to make a documentary in order to go to US for graduation. They have  to deliver three letters to   families of martyred armymen by going on their motorbike. The experiences and interactions with the families  changes their outlook.

  In the last 10 years there have been around ten films revolving around the theme of Road trips. Anjaana Anjaani ( 2010) was shot mostly abroad, so we got to have a look on the roads in foreign land, finally. Liar's Dice (2013) was about the journey from a small village on the mountains called Chitkul which borders China to the industrial land of big dreams, Delhi city.


Films such as  Finding Fanny ( 2014) , Ho Gaya Dimaag Ka Dahi ( 2015) and All is Well (2015)  used the Road to take forward their story, but two films Highway ( 2014) and NH10 ( 2015)  actually made the "road film"  genre come alive again.


Highway is the story of a girl with the Stockholm Syndrome ( more on this in the article  http://amitabhn-randomthinking.blogspot.in/2017/05/blog-post_19.html). 
Alia Bhatt plays the kidnapped victim , who  goes along with her kidnappers ( Randeep Hooda, in particular)  in a journey, which  takes her  through six states.
 A love story, a social commentary and an adventure story, all rolled in one!

NH10 tells the story of a young couple whose road trip goes awry after an encounter with a group of violent criminals. Part of the story is loosely adapted from the 2007  Manoj-Babli honour killing case.  The film's title refers to the 403 km long National Highway 10. Anushka Sharma and Neil Bhoopalam are the protagonists.

The anthology must have a mention of Piku ( 2015)  whose posters  displayed a commode-chair atop a vehicle which took Amitabh Bachchan, a grumpy old man ( mostly on account of his dysfunctional digestive system !) from Delhi to Kolkata. Accompanying him was his daughter played by Deepika Paudukone and the driver/owner of the taxi, played by Irfan Khan.

Post -Piku there have been a couple of films like Khel To Ab Hoga Shuru and Traffic, both in 2016. The latter was a remake of a  Malayalam thriller  film in which the challenge is to beat the traffic for an urgent heart transplant. The film was acclaimed for its tight story-telling.
The latest release of the genre is Jia aur Jia, last week, incidentally !

Whether the roads of our country are better than foreign lands or not, our politicians are hell-bent on proving that they are totally out of touch with the ground realities of their own motherland.

A thought for the road....

Taj Mahal in songs

Despite the Diwali season in the week gone by, Taj Mahal was also in news. For all the wrong reasons, unfortunately. No fault of the great monument. The leaders of this country are busy finding something which will distract the attention of common man from his hardships of paani, bijli, sadak and prevent him from questioning the rulers about these important issues. Like may other things Taj has also become a prop to divert the attention from basics. However, the way it is done is all the more shameful.

Thankfully, the depiction of Taj Mahal in songs has been, mostly,  very positive. However, if we see how the Seventh Wonder is expressed in songs, we find a spectrum, so it is not only romantic, as we shall see.

The earliest song I could find with Taj Mahal in its lyrics is the S.D.Burman rendition in the film . The voice of S.D.Burman is so different from what we all are used to listening in his 60s and 70s songs. The song is from the film Taj Mahal, released in 1941. This was , essentially, a song which extolled the stature of the monument.

The song   “Dur hato ae duniya waalon, Hindustan hamara hai” from Kismat (1943) was actually against the British but camouflaged to be against the Germans/Japanese. Written by Pradeep, this song  reportedly got past the British censor by the skillful last line: “Shuru hua hai jang tumhara jaag utho Hindustaani/Tum na kisi ke aage jhukna Jarman ho ya Jaapaani..” as World War II was raging.
 

However, the Indian public was skillful at understanding whom “Jahan hamara Taj Mahal hai aur Qutab Minar hai/Jahan hamaare Mandir Masjid Sikhon ka gurudwara hai/Is dharti par qadam badhana atyachar tumhara hai” actually referred to.

The Fifties had two rarely heard/seen  songs either mentioning or showing Taj. The 1951 film Sanam had Dev Anand and Suraiyya, who had a dream sequence featured on them as Mughal royalty. They sing a song of love, with Taj as a backdrop. Though Taj is not mentioned in the song, it is implied and shown. 

In 1954, the Kishore Sahu film Mayurpankh had a very young Helen singing a song while tourists are on a  sight-seeing trip. Taj Mahal is one of the prominent monuments in the song and comes out as a tourist attraction, which it is.  Here the hero Kishore Sahu romances a foreigner (Odette Ferguson) who is unfamiliar with Indian ways of singing duets, and so the usual songs are ruled out. So another way was devised to include songs in this movie by having  performances by various female dancers.

The Fifties and Sixties had the maximum coverage of Taj in songs. The 1957 film Fashion had a Hemant Kumar solo which expressed the grandeur of Taj.

dharti ki god mein
aasmaan ke chhaanv mein
kab se khadaa hai yah taaj

chhupaaye man mein muhabbat kaa raaz
ke sun lo iske dil ki aawaaz
The song from Hum Hindustani ( 1961) , Chhodo kal ki baatein had a couple of glimpses of the Taj.
The film Begana 1963  had the beautiful Rafi solo, Phir wo bhooli si yaad aayi hai which showed Taj Mahal. Despite no mention of the monument, it showed Taj Mahal in its visuals. 

The most popular film about Taj Mahal was, of course, Taj Mahal of 1963. Pradeep Kumar and Bina Roy were the lead pair the title song  ends with a majestic shot of Taj Mahal, which also brings the film to an end.

The most iconoclastic view on Taj was expressed by Sahir Ludhianvi. Sahir was a non-conformist, as he had exhibited all his life. His response "rehne ko ghar nahin hai, saara jahaan hamaara" to Iqbal's "saare jahaan se achchha" and his take on Pradeep's "dekh tere sansar ki haalat", which he turned upside down to " dekh tere bhagwan ki haalat kya ho gayi insaan, kitna badal gaya bhagwaan" are two such examples. 

He was one poet who did not mince the words. So, when he wrote about Taj Mahal, it was not in awe of the monument but a disdain for the display of wealth . The film Ghazal ( 1964) included a short version of his ghazal on Taj. Sahir, the maverick advises his  beloved to meet at a place other than the monument of love Taj Mahal ( एक शहंशाह ने दौलत का सहारा लेकर, हम गरीबों की मोहब्बत का उड़ाया है मजाक )

On the other hand, there was Shakeel Badayuni, who praised the monument of eternal love in his film Leader ( 1964), released in the same year as Ghazal. He  carried on with the conventional

 "ek shahanshah ne banava ke haseen tajamahal
       saari duniyaa ko muhabbat ki nishani di hai"

The diametrically opposite perspectives makes the monument more alluring. 

In the 70s, there was a non film song written by Madhukar Rajasthani and sung by Manna Day, which was played frequently on Vividh Bharti. The words express the yearning of a lover for his "Mumtaz".  Sung soulfully by Manna dey, this was one of the  many gems of the Manna-Madhukar combination, broadcast on Vividh Bharti in the 70s. 'Nathli se toota moti re', 'pal bhar ki pehchan' and 'ye awara raatein' also come to mind.  

sunsaan Jamuna ka kinaara
pyaar ka antim sahaara
chaandni ka kafan odhhe
so raha kismat ka maara
kis se poochoon main bhala ab
dekha kahin Mumtaaz ko

The fantasy film Bundulbaaz ( 1976) had a song with Rajesh Khanna and Sulakshana Pandit as the Mughal couple and shot probably inside the Taj. The song is also melodious to hear. Probably, it is alog-felt dream of every romantic hero be equated with the Maker of Taj Mahal. Such is the aura of Taj.

 
Another non film song on Taj was sung in the 80s by the couple Rajendra and Neena Mehta. By the 80s, the film music had almost stopped giving melodies and the private ghazal/geet scene was at its peak, with Jagjit Singh, Ghulam Ali, Mehdi hasan and a host of other singers. The Mehta couple was one of the notable  duos, apart from Jagjit-Chitra,  Anup Jalota-Sonali and Bhupinder Singh -Mitali. 

The later decades saw less and less of Taj Mahal being mentioned, as India opened up to the world and foreign locations such as Switzerland and Amsterdam were thought to be a more contemporary backdrop for love songs. The Taj Mahal was fast becoming anachronistic as far as song picturisations , specially of non-historical films was concerned.

Moreover, failure of such attempts reinforced this . The film Kasak ( 1992), featuring Rishi Kapoor and Neelam Kothari had a song on Taj Mahal. Both the film and the song remained nondescript.

 The private album were also not venturing into this area as the scene of non film music had shifted from ghazals to indipop. However, Pankaj Udhas came up with a ghazal, which praised the beloved giving many similies, one of them being taj. The poet was Zafar Gorakhpuri. 

The third film titled Taj Mahal was made in 2005 by Akbar Khan. The film had Naushad's music and Naqsh Lyallpuri's lyrics. There was bound to be a song on the epitome of love. The singers were Preeti Uttam and Hariharan. The song tried to bring back the melodious era , as the film was a historical. 

The last song which implied the grandeur of Taj was again a paean for the beloved. Arijit Singh's voice gave the song its emotional core, while Jeet Ganguly's  music and Kausar Munir's lyrics made it contemporary. The film was aptly called Youngistaan ( 2014) 

As we come to the end of this anthology, let us remind ourselves that the great architectural wonder is and shall remain one of the national heritages.
Waah Taj !






































 

Telephone songs in Hindi Films

The Airtel company's offer of giving a 4G smartphone at a throwaway price and their catch-phrase Har haath mein smartphone grabbed highlights, since this is a direct challenge to Jio Phone offer. Recently, Vodafone has also jumped in the fray, alluring data-hungry customers with more GB than the others. The number of phones ( whether smart or otherwise) in the country is increasing at an exponential rate.  For a country of 125 Crores, we have 118 crore mobile phones, which is 17% of the world's population of Mobile phones !!!

So much so that the National Dailies have their first and last pages covered with advertisements of phones: the news comes later !

The obsession with phone can be been on the streets as well. Headphones connected to the smartphone, people can be seen either watching videos on their phone screens or listening to songs/FM Radio, while crossing busy streets, either on foot or even while driving !

The hindi films have had a lot of songs in which the actors on the screen use phone either fully or partially. This appears a good time to remember such songs and surprisingly, the examples go back to 40s, when phones were so few !

In fact, an advertisement of the phone  of 1937 was published in an English daily, extolling its virtues at the cost of Rs. 12 a month. The price of Gold in 1937 was Rs. 30 per 10 gm ( 1000 times less than current rates). This is one technology which has got the prices down to Rs. 149 ( Jio) !!!

In 1949, in the film Taara , there was a song "hello hello, pyar karna ho to, yaaro kar lo haan kar lo kar lo TELEPHONE  se "!  The visuals are not available but this Aziz Kashmiri -Vinod song sung by Satish Batra and Rajkumari appears to be one of the earliest songs featuring  Graham Bell's invention.

The popular song, however, was the one which showed actors talking on phone,   from Patanga (1949) : the famous Mere Piya gaye Rangoon ! An international call which conveyed the longing of lovers separated by distance.

Talat was indeed the first male voice in the films to have crooned a song into the phone. No, I am not referring to the Sujata which was released in 1959. A full seven year earlier, in the film , Talat and Lata sang a duet on phone for Raj Kapoor and Nargis in Anhonee ( 1952). The words of Shailendra were cute  and Roshan gave them a flowing composition. While Nargis keeps on sitting, Raj Kapoor is all over the place with his handset !

A year later , in the film Ek Do Teen, we saw Motilal exchanging sweet nothings with Meena Shorey over the phone. Rafi and Asha Bhonsle were singing Aziz Kashmiri's words, composed by Vinod ( Eric Roberts). Both remained seated , accompanied by their respective sidekicks !

This was the lyricist-composer's second attempt at creating a phone-song after Taara ( 1949).

And so we come to the most famous song sung on phone, from Sujata ( 1959). Talat mehmood singing a solo for Sunil Dutt, expressing delicate feelings  ( penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri ) set to tune by Sachin dev Burman. In fact, SDB had warned him not to botch up ( Sachin wanted Rafi, but had agreed on Talat eventually, on insistence of Bimal Roy). Talat was flawless and the song is iconic as one of the most romantic songs ever, in the annals of Hindi film industry. Sunil Dutt keeps on standing throughout the song.

In the same year, in V.Shantaram's Teen Batti Char Raasta , there was a stage song with giant-sized  telephone exchange and phone instruments , on which the actors are singing. A funny scene, but the phone sets were not  looking real. Also, there was film Minister in 1959, which had a Rafi-Asha phone duet on Suresh and Roopmala, the musical creation of Madan Mohan and Rajinder Krishan.

Jaali Note ( 1960) had a song which started off with  mustachioed Dev Anand whistling and singing to Madhubala , a song which is one of the sweetest duets and oh so romantic. The two lovers share the nature's bounties through the words of Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and O.P.Nayyar's composition.

By the Sixties, the phone was a fascinating thing to have in the household, but  only in upper middle class homes. However, the film makers were infatuated by this piece of technology and we had a number of telephone songs in the decade.

Some of these songs were comic in nature and some, romantic. Kishore Kumar and Mala Sinha had a phone duet in Bombay ka chor ( 1962), but was not popular enough.  The solo phone song to become mildly popular was the one in which  Dilip Kumar wooed Vyjantimala in Leader ( 1964), "aajkal shauq-e-deedar hai". Sunil Dutt attempted another phone-song in Waqt ( 1965) , but was shadowed by other , more melodious songs of the film.  Dev Anand had a romantic rendezvous with Saira Banu in Pyar Mohabbat ( 1966), as did Dharmendra and Waheeda in Baazi ( 1968), but the audience were not impressed.
What all the top-notch actors could not do, Shashi Kapoor and his three heroines in Juaari ( 1968) accomplished,  with the song Neend ud jaaye teri, in which the three stanzas were sung by different female singers: Mubarak Begum, Suman Kalyanpur and Krishna Bose, singing for Tanuja, Nanda and Naaz, respectively !

Shammi Kapoor also had a telephone song, Tumse Achchha Kaun Hai ( 1969)  with a number of sets, not knowing which one to pick up and which to drop. The song was , however, popular and also inspired a film of the name "kis kis ko pyar karoon",   46 years later !

The 70s had relatively less instances of phone songs.

The Mumtaz film Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi ( 1970) had an Asad Bhopali song which was composed by Ganesh, an under-rated music director. The song and the film were ignored by the masses.

Naushad had recorded a song for Sunehara Sansar ( 1975) sung by Kishore Kumar ( for the first and last time ) and Asha Bhonsle which had the mukhda Hello hello , kya haal hai... but since the song was edited out, the visuals of Romesh Sharma and Preeti Sapru , sitting on their beds, having a romantic conversation , were also expunged.

The emphasis those days , was more on letters( the humble postcard or envelope)  for communicating feelings. People had more patience and were prepared to wait for days and weeks instead of calling up loved ones in a different city on phone. Even within the local area, nothing could beat a love-letter, as it was for keepsake, too !

In the Eighties, Amitabh Bachchan revived  the telephone brigade with the Mahaan ( 1983) song, Jidhar dekhoon , teri tasveer,nazar aati hai. Amitabh had a triple role in the films and also sang this song. Amitabh had started to sing from Mr. Natwarlal ( 1979) and his rich , baritone voice was considered suitable for romantic duets.

https://gaana.com/song/jidhar-dekhoon


The hand set made an appearance in Mera Faisla ( 1984) too, but it was blink-and-you-miss-it type of scene in the song Mera ek deewana. Similarly, the Begana ( 1986) song, "Dear Sir main aapko"  had giant sized models of telephone and typewriter in the mundane song.


There was a film, too by the name Telephone in 1985 and this Annette song was the highlight of the film

The 90s had  a song from Tyagi ( 1992), Himalaya telling  Bhagyashree on phone why he had given her a phone call ! Also, a year later, in  Pehla Nasha ( 1993),  Deepak Tijori and Raveena Tandon had a tete-a-tete on phone.  Kshatriya, same year release also had a phone song, from one moving car to the other, since the film was shot abroad. This showed Sunny Deol calling up Raveena Tandon , both driving fast cars. So much for following traffic rules , when in a foreign land !
The more melodious and popular song was, however , from Sunghursh ( 1999), which had Aman Varma on a landline call up Priety Zinta ( who uses a cordless one !)  to sing in Sonu Nigam's voice, "Mujhe raat din, bas mujhe chahti ho". Funnily, when the phone gets disconnected after the mukhda, Aman runs out of his house to an STD Telephone Booth and resumes from the antara !

In the same year, ironically, there was a song which showed the transition from land line to Mobile !
Even without being shown , the Haseena Maan Jaayegi song, "What is Mobile number" meant that mobile had , indeed, arrived.

Post year 2K, Amitabh Bachchan again made an impression with a phone song in Baaghbaan ( 2003), as the forcibly separated senior citizen. The song expressed a lot of anguish and is one of the most poignant songs to use the hone as a prop.

                                    

Surprisingly, in the last decade,  while the mobile handset has proliferated so much in India, there have been very few songs featuring the mobile/smartphone. True, in 2008, there was a film Hello.But no great shakes. 
One song which used the zany android was the Khoobsoorat ( 2014) song, advising boys to pick up their mothers' call !

The cell phone is now a panacea since it functions as a camera, tape recorder, calculator, alarm clock and so many other gadgets, which are now redundant. That is why songs such as "Le le selfie le le re"  from Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015 ) and  "To kheench meri photo" from Sanam Teri Kasam ( 2016)   have also become popular.

Leaving you with the title song of a 2016 film 'Phone mein teri photo', which indicates that 

Sequels are here to stay !

The recent release and success of Judwaa-2 ( Rs. 100 Crore mopped up in the weekend) has brought into limelight the fact that film-makers have found sequels  saleable. In the last few years this has become a formula and many film-makers are finding it easier to rehash old stuff on their road to success.

The various aspects of having a film reprised are complex in nature and it is intriguing why the sequels have been popular more in the last few years,  than in the earlier periods. It is a general perception  that it is only the last decade and a half in which the trend has gained prominence.

In fact after 2000 , there was a deluge of sequels. Sequels of more than 25 films  were made after 2000, totalling almost a 100 films or so  !
It has become common-place now to  have a sequel and therefore, there is no point recounting sequels released post-2000. The idea is to explore the trend of sequels down the years   till 2000 and see if they were, indeed, worth remembering.
This keeps the subject of sequels interesting.

It appears that the ploy of making a sequel to an earlier film has been used with aplomb  in yesteryears also !

 Check out  below for a touchdown on the topic of Sequels in Hindi Films.

 

One of the earliest instances of a sequel was in 1943 , when after a gap of 8 years, Homi Wadia made Hunterwali ki beti, which was a sequel of the 1935 film featuring Fearless Nadia !

The first Hunterwali had Nadia performing stunts, a sight not seen by audiences, specially from a female artiste. This probably had audience in awe and the sequel hit the bull's eye again, as far as box office is concerned.

At this point of time, it is important to delve on what actually is a sequel. The continuing of the story from where Part One has been left is the normal way of  categorising a sequel. The different episodes of the same characters are also generally acceptable as sequels. But apart from these broad sub-categories, there are many other instances of making a sequel. The plot may be different but the mood of the film may be the same, with identical elements and this would make it a sequel, as we will see later in the blog. The important thing is that the two films are made or directed  by the same banner/director , which gives the sequels their unique identity. In Bangle films, for instance Satyajit Ray's three films Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar formed a triology which was based on two novels.  There are many such examples of sequels in Hindi films , as we shall see.

On to the 50s and we had Homi Wadia again start off the Zimbo series. Zimbo ( 1958) was followed by Zimbo Shehar Mein ( 1960). The first film was about a boy lost in jungle ( a favourite story of the Mowgli -type ) and the story revolves around a secret formula and villains in the forest. The sequel, as the name tells us brought Zimbo to the city. There was a final film called Zimbo ka Beta also, released in 1966.
Azad and Chitra were the lead pair in many such  stunt films which  carved out a niche for themselves by the time 60s arrived.

The B grade films of the 60s found another hero: Tarzan !
There have been a total of 18 films having Tarzan in the title, except Tarzan the Car , which was a film about a car named Tarzan. Out of the 18 films , one was in the 30s, two in the 70s and one in 80s ( Hemant Birje and Kimi Katkar film).
The remaining 14 films were all in the 60s. Tarzan was associated with wide-ranging subjects ( Tarzan and .....), the more hilarious being Gorilla, Jadugar, Jadui Chirag and Jalpari , apart from the usual Hercules, King Kong and Delilah. Then there was Tarzan comes to Delhi and Tarzan in fairyland.

So, which of these were sequels ?

Director A. Shamsheer had two of them :Tarzan and Delilah and Tarzan and King Kong two years apart ( 1964 and 1966). Director Radhakant had Tarzan aur Jadugar and Tarzan aur Jalpari, ending with the 1970 Tarzan 303 !
Interesting to note that actor Azad ( Zimbo, remember ? ) starred in as many as 9 films , the highest someone had acted as Tarzan. Dara Singh and Mumtaz had two Tarzan films together, Tarzan and King Kong and Tarzan comes to Delhi.

The 60s also had the Johar-Mehmood team naming films after their screen names and getting some 

semblance of respect in the mainstream Hindi cinema. Johar Mehmood in Goa ( 1965)  was the first film, showing the two comedians play themselves in a drama of revenge, patriotism and comedy, in the backdrop of the then Portugese- ruled Goa . I.S.Johar directed the film and went on to direct 4 more Johar films: Johar in Bombay ( 1967), Johar in Kashmir(1966), Mera naam Johar(1968) and Johar Mehmood in Hongkong (1971). The films were no great shakes and the slapstick comedy could not make the Brand Johar rise above a level.

The 70s saw a different kind of sequel, the sensitive one. Basu Bhattacharya had his own sequel of the married couple Amar and Mansi and the conjugal tensions they go though in the films Aavishkaar ( 1974) and Grih Pravesh ( 1979). While the former had the pair fall in love and marry, the latter film examined their relationship  in an arranged marriage setting. Anubhav, the first such film had Amar and Meeta, but it was essentially the story about the complex institution called marriage and so we can say Basu had a triology, in the real sense.

Ravikant Nagaich, having given us Bond-like films such as Farz and The Train,  presented the desi  James Bond known as Gun Master G-9, aka Mithun da in Suraksha ( 1979)  and Wardaat( 1981).The films covered the adventures of action- oriented dancing Agent , a trigger-happy hero , outsmarting foreign governments and macabre villains.

Director Sawan Kumar Tak had his own take on extra-marital affairs with Souten ( 1983) and Souten Ki Beti ( 1989) . The names of protagonists were also the same : Shyam, Radha and Rukmini, a reminder of the story of Lord Krishna. The plots revolved round the much-in-love couple falling apart due to the Other Woman.He had earlier toyed with "Saajan"  in Saajan Bina Suhagan and Saajan Ki saheli. Souten series was probably more popular !

Another instance of sequel was that of the film Nigaahein ( touted as Nagina -Part II)  , which carried forward the Naagin story of Nagina ( 1986) . The fascination for reptiles and that too "ichchhadhaari" had been exploited to the hilt and still the two films within 3 years of each other repeated the same old story. Harmesh Malhotra was the director and this was perhaps the first time that it was explicitly mentioned as a sequel.

The 60s slick film Jewel Thief got a sequel 20 years later with the title Return of Jewel Thief ( 1996), starring   Dev Anand. The film was not a patch on the original and sank without a trace. The ploy to use the thriller of the 60s fell flat as the theme was anachronistic.

In the Nineties, however, the maximum number of sequels ( due to their titles) were churned out by two teams.

The first  sequel-churning happened with  the Khiladi series with Akshay Kumar and his action sequences. Khiladi ( 1992) , Main Khiladi Tu Anadi ( 1994), Sabsse bada Khiladi (1995),  Khiladion ka Khiladi(1996) , Mr and Mrs Khiladi (1997), and International Khiladi(1999).  Post 2000, the suffix of 420 and 786 were added to this series.

  The second team of David Dhawan-Govinda-Vashu Bhagnani combination   gave a long list of
"No. 1"-suffixed  films from 1995 to 1999. Coolie, Hero, Aunty, Anari and Biwi, all were No.1. All had the slapstick comedy of the Dhawan/Govinda genre and were generally successful. The 2000 decade additions to No.1 were Beti, Jodi and Shaadi. Though not associated by story of characters , the mere titles suggest that the mood and temper of these films are similar, entitling them to be sequels.


                                   


The Khiladi and No.1 franchise gave a solid fillip to the practice of having a sequel of a successful film and one can go through Wikipedia   to check out the names of all such reboots. Interestingly, the concept of prequel has also hit the film industry !

All we can say is that whether it is a sequel or an original, the film should be engrossing in content and should have competent performances both on and off-screen. However, if sequels are here to stay, so be it !

Melody Mates

The coming together of Alstom and Siemens in Europe, this week,  to make the continent a front-runner in railway  Technology is a watershed moment for the businesses. A similar hope has been expressed by  Airtel , eyeing  Reliance Communications, to meet as equals and forge ahead in the industry. This may become a watershed moment in Indian telecom history !

Bollywood has had a great tradition of pairs of composers giving music in films, each one being a giant in his own right. A team of music directors brings a lot of experience and a combination of their individual skills , making the scores more melodious and successful.
Let us have a recollection of the famous Music Director Duos which have graced the hindi film music scene, down the years.

One of the earliest combinations was that of Husnlal Bhagatram. They debuted with Chand ( 1944) and are considered to be the pioneers as a composer-duo. Their family name was Batish and one of their relative S.D.Batish also became a music director and singer later on.

Husnlal was an accomplished violinist and a good classical singer and Bhagatram was an ace harmonium player. They were the brothers of the famous composer of the 40's, Pandit Amarnath, and both worked as his assistants.
 Pyar Ki Jeet and Badi Behan brought them centre-stage. They worked with an array of lyricists to give memorable songs. They also composed the famous song Suno suno ae duniya walon, Bapu ki ye amar kahani. They parted ways in 60s after their last venture Apsara ( 1961)  This  Rafi song from Pyar ki Jeet ( 1948) , written by Qamar Jalalabadi was a rage in its time.

A short-lived innings of a a composer duo was that of Sharmaji-Varmaji !

Yes, there was a pair of composers who had that  pseudonym. Interestingly, both of them were Muslims. Sharmaji was Khayyam, the music director who stayed as a solo composer and is well-known for his melodies. Varmaji was Rehman Varma who left for Pakistan soon after the country was partitioned. They gave music in the film Heer Ranjha ( 1948)

Shankar Singh and Jaikishan Panchal came together to form the chart-busting duo of Shankar Jaikishan ( hereafter referred as SJ)  and had an explosive debut with Barsaat ( 1949). SJ were the most flamboyant of all the composer-duos to have been in Bollywood. Their association with Raj Kapoor played a role in their success, no doubt. But it was their versatility to employ both  western and  classical music ,  as and when required,  which was instrumental in getting them scores of projects. Each success created more work and in no time, SJ were in the top rung.

Shankar knew  Tabla,  Sitar, Accordion and Piano etc. Besides his work at Prithvi theatre, he also started working as an assistant to the leading composer duo of Husnlal Bhagatram.   Jaikishan was adept at playing the harmonium.
The 50s and 60s saw SJ ruling the hindi film music scene unfettered. They were also instrumental in making the Yahoo star Shammi get his debonair dancer  image, taking his stock higher. At the same time, their romantic compositions for Rajendra Kumar was a factor in Jubilee Kumar's success story.

SJ was a team which was known to compose different songs separately and still maintain their "joint" brand equity.  This  eventually led to differences between them, making the fissures visible . The   untimely death of Jaikishan in 1971 cut short a partnership, but Shankar kept on using SJ as the Team Name even when he composed himself, in latter years.

Kalyanji Virji Shah had started off as a composer and continued solo for a few films like Post Box 999 and Samrat Chandragupt, before being joined by his younger brother Anandji Veerji Shah, to make the team known as Kalyanji Anandji. The duo worked their way up in the 50s and 60s , amidst stiff competition from stalwarts like Naushad, Sachin Dev Burman, Hemant Kumar and Shankar Jaikishan. They made their place, slowly but surely, carving a niche for themselves.

The Shah brothers began to learn music from a music teacher, who taught them in lieu of paying his bills to their father, who ran a grocery store. Kalyanji started his career as a musician, with a new electronic instrument called the claviolin   which was used for the famous "Nagin Been "   in film Nagin (1954). 

The early 60s films  Chhalia, Himalaya Ki God Mein and Jab Jab Phool Khile firmly entrenched them in the industry and they never looked back. By 70s , they were in great demand and despite no strong affiliation with any " camp", they were able to give popular music throughout the 70s and even in the 80s.
 They were also instrumental in popularising stage shows  and finding new musical talent, resulting in promoting a large number of fresh voices in Hindi films.

Sapan Sengupta and Jagmohan Bakshi were two singers in Salil Chaudhary's choir. Jagmohan had also given playback for Dev Anand in one film. The two debuted as a team in 1961. They had sporadic hits in the sixties and seventies, but could not make it to the big league despite hit songs  like Phir wo bhooli si yaad aayi hai ( Rafi), Teri talash mein ( Asha), Ulfat mein zamane ki ( Kishore) and Main to har mod pe ( Mukesh). They kept on getting less projects and despite a good understanding of music, could not flourish.

Close on the heels, came another music director duo: Laxmikant Pyarelal. This team had an impressive debut in 1963 with Parasmani. They had a big hit in Rajshri's banner in Dosti ( 1964) and that paved the way for Laxmikant Kundalkar and Pyarelal Sharma to consolidate a tenure which was unprecedented. They were called LP, which also was an abbreviation for  Long-Playing, indicative of their active period.

Laxmikant learned to play the mandolin and performed in Indian Classical instrumental music concerts to earn some money. Later, in the 1940s, he also learned violin from Husnlal (of the  Husnlal Bhagatram  fame).
Pyarelal was the son of a renowned trumpeteer Pandit Ramprasad Sharma. He learnt to play violin from a Goan musician named  Anthony Gonsalves. The song  "my name is Anthony Gonsalves" from the movie  Amar Akbar Anthony is regarded as a tribute to Mr. Gonsalves (the film had music by Laxmikant–Pyarelal).


The seventies was their most productive decade. In a direct competition with R.D.Burman, Kalyanji Anandji ( to whom they were assistants at one time ), Bappi Lahiri, Rajesh Roshan and Ravindra Jain, they grabbed the best of banners ( Raj Kapoor, Manoj Kumar, Yash Chopra, Manmohan Desai etc. ) to conjure up an endless list of superhit scores. They continued in the eighties, shifting gears for Subhash Ghai, Mahesh Bhatt and N.Chandra to have an unparalleled sway over the Hindi film music scene. They have the highest number of songs in Binaca Geet Mala history.

Though the quality of music went down in the 70s and 80s, LP continued to give melodies in films like Naam, Sur Sangam  and Utsav.

In fact, the reign of LP was so complete that in the 70s and 80s,  hardly any music director duo dared to compete with them. However, there  were a few entrants who tried to make their place.


One of the serious contender-duo was an Uncle-Nephew team which had a great debut but found it difficult to continue with music of sustained quality.  Sonik-Omi (Master Sonik and  Om Prakash Varma ) whose songs in Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya ( 1966) created a rage and each song in the score became popular.
Master Sonik was a blind musician who hailed from northern India. He was the creative side of the duo, and Omi was in charge of business activities.
After their initial success,  they gave a few good scores  like Mahua, Sawan Bhadon  and Dharma but failed to live up to the early  promise. Within a decade, they were doing B and C grade films. A couple of great hits now and then sustained them for some time before they fizzled out.


R.D.Burman's assistants Basudeo Chakraborty and Manohari Singh teamed up as Basu-Manohari to compose for a few films in 70s.
Uttam Singh was a sitar and violin player , who teamed up with another musician and arranger Jagdish  to form Uttam- Jagdish duo, who composed for Manoj Kumar's Painter Babu and Clerk.  Later on , he also composed music as a solo composer for Dil To Pagal Hai.

 The sons of Anil Biswas, Amar and Utpal had a hit in Shahenshah, as Amar-Utpal.

There have been a couple of instances where the name of the composer appears to be that of a duo , but in reality it is only one person. Shyamji Ghamshyamji gave music in a few films in the 70s, debuting with Dhuen Ki Lakeer. They were not two persons but a solo composer, with a catchy name. Similarly Raamlaxman was actually the pseudonym of Vijay Patil, who gave great hits like Maine Pyar Kiya and  Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.


There are pros and cons of having a team instead of going it solo, as far as composing music is concerned. The upside is a meeting of skills, sharing of the various aspects of arranging and being a standby in case of distress. This comes at an expense of losing your own idea of the song and the solo handling of musicians and arrangers, coupled with commercial negotiations. The SJ model makes sense, when we think of the enterprise in this perspective !



The only team which sustained the 80s was of classical musicians , santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma and flautist par excellence Hari  Prasad Chaurasia formed the Shiv-Hari pair to render quality music in Yash Chopra's Silsila ( 1981). Shiv Hari continued to be associated with Yash Chpra for the films in 80s and 90s such as   Faasle,  Vijay,  Chandni ,  Lamhe and Darr. The melodious creations of this team came as a fresh breeze in the 80s and 90s and established that the classical music has got unmatched  sustenance value.

The Nineties saw a number of music director duos, to compete for the LP slot.

Anand and Milind were the  sons of music director Chitragupt, who worked as Anand-Milind. After a few years in the industry, they  had a blockbuster in Qayamat se Qayamat Tak  ( 1988)  and followed up with many good scores such as Baaghi, Dil and Beta.   Milind  was given the name by Lata Mangeshkar at the time of his birth.  Their music was influenced by Laxmikant Pyarelal and due to this many LP loyalists chose them as composers when possible.

The direct competitors of Anand Milind in the 90s were another team of two composers,  Nadeem Saifee and Shrwan Rathod, working as Nadeem -Shrawan.
The superhit duo  Nadeem Shrawan   had a string of hits starting with Aashiqui (1990) , giving them a successful  reign for the next 7-8 years.  They were closely associated with Gulshan Kumar, the T-Series tycoon and it was this involvement which eventually led to their separation and untimely phasing out from the music scene.

                                         

                             

Dilip Sen- Sameer Sen hailed from a family of musicians and trace their lineage to Jamal Sen, the music director  of the 40s. Interesting to note that Jamal Sen’s forefather Kesarji was said to be a disciple of Tansen and was hence called Kesar Sen. The family tradition in music was passed on to Jamal at a very young age by his father Jeevan Sen, a court singer and an acknowledged  Ustad.
  Coming from such great musical traditions, a lot was expected from the duo, who debuted in Soorma Bhopali ( 1988) and had a popular score in Ye Dillagi. Sadly, they could not live upto the expectations.

Jatin Lalit , brothers of Sulakshana Pandit shot to fame with Khiladi, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and   Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge  and gave melodies unabated till their split after 16 years due to personal reasons. Till they lasted , they seemed to be one of the most melodious composer-duos of their times. They were heavily influenced by R.D.Burman's style of music.


                                     

The last decade and a half has seen many other teams :  Vishal-Shekhar, Sajid Wajid, Salim Suleiman, Nikhil Vinay, Sachin Jigar, Sanjeev Darshan,Sangeet &  Siddharth Haldipur, Justin-Uday, Nitz 'N' Sony ( Nitin Arora and Sony Chandy) , Meet Bros, Ajay-Atul and the two trios Meet Bros Anjjan ( who later split up) and the most promising of them all: trio  Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

The last couple of decades  has also seen  composer duos making music outside films. Colonial Cousins ( Hariharan and Leslie Lewis), Kailash-Naresh-Paresh ( Kailsh Kher with Naresh and Paresh Kamath) and Bombay Vikings (  Neeraj Shridhar with   Oscar Söderberg  and Mats Nordenborg), to name a few. But non-film music is another story, to be told some other time !


Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa  debuted in Bhopal Express ( 1999) and quickly shot to fame through superhit scores such as Dil Chahta hai, Kal ho na ho and Bunty aur Babli. They have captured the imagination of music lovers ever since and are still giving phenomenal scores, the last few ons being Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, 2 States and Dil Dhadakne Do.

The coming together of talent is a great thing and let's hope there are more such teams in the years to come, giving us great music.