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.
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.
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.
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
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) !!!
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).
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 !
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
2 comments:
Excellent blog- the whole repertoire of Phone songs is amazing to read
Thanks, Dilip for the kind words
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