Lockdown Legends ( Day 8) : Castaway Composer

This is the story of a maestro who saw good and bad times, despite being one of the celebrated musicians in the 60s. I am referring to Ramlal and if the name still did not strike a chord, it will...in a few moments.

Ramlal Chaudhary, skilled in playing flute and shehnai,   came to Mumbai in 1944 and got a job in Prithviraj Kapoor's Prithivi Theatre Group as an assistant to music director Ram Ganguly. With Ganguly, he played the flute in popular songs such as 'Dekh Chaand Ki Oar' Sung by Shamshaad Begam and Shailesh ,  'Zindaa Hoon is Tarah Ki Ghame Zindagi Nahin ' sung by Mukesh and 'Kaahe Koyaliyaa Shor Machaae Re', sung by Shamshaad Begum.

As a full-fledged music director, he first landed a film  with producer P L Santoshi's  Raj Kapoor-Vaijayantimala starrer 'Tangaawalla' in 1950. He recorded six songs for this film. Unfortunately, the movie was never released. In between, he played continued to play the flute and shehani in various films.He got a few films, beginning with Husn Banoo( 1956) in which he used  the Tangawala compositions. In 1960, he gave a  score in  Maya Machhindra , which had melodious, if not popular songs. This song was completed in just 15 minutes as Lata Mangeshkar had to go for another recording and Ramlal promised her to record the song in that period only !

Ramlal was destined for fame , which was came to him after 3 more years of struggle,  with the release of his film Sehra ( 1963). Produced and directed by V.Shantaram , who had an  ear for music, had confidence in the ability of Ramlala. He was right because Sehra is one of the iconic scores in the annals of Hindi film music with the songs Taqdeer ka fasana jaa kar kise sunaayein , Tum to pyar ho sajna and Ja ja re tujhe hum jaan gaye. But the piece de resistance was this Lata solo, which will certainly go down as one of the 10 most melodious songs in Hindi film music, ever ! 

Close on the heels of Sehra, Ramlal got repeated in V.Shantaram's Geet Gaya Pattharon ne ( 1964) , which again had path-breaking melodies. Kishori Amonkar the vocal exponent in classical music performed the title song of the film , which had  other popular ( and equally melodious ) songs. This was the first Hindi film song sung by Kishori Amonkar. She would work in only one other Hindi film after this, when she composed the music and sang songs for "Drishti" (1991).The title song sung by her was one of the top ten hit songs ( and easily  the most melodious out of them )  in the Annual Hit Parade Binaca Geetmala, the only such programme in those times.

It is indeed, surprising that this was the last film of Ramlal. Whether he was under a contract with V.Shantaram which prevented him from composing films for other producers or he just didn't get any offers , the moot point is that this was his swansong, as far as composing music is concerned.

Some say, he found himself out of the industry due to the machinations of some powerful music directors and renowned producers. 

He decided to produce his own film. With a partner, Charles, he started the film, 'Tyagi' under the banner, 'Panna pictures.' but after some time, the partner left him stranded. Ramlal lost about Rs 60,000 in the project and a whisper campaign started in the industry that as producer, he could not do justice to his films.

He got no more films.

In 2007, he died at the age of 85, a broken and penniless virtuoso.

Leaving you with his song which became prophetic, as far as he was concerned.

PS: You can listen to his interview at the following link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lltKRbUp9-c

Then came producer-director V Shantaram's 'Sehara'.It was a superhit film. 'Pankh Hoti to Udd Jaati Re O Rasiya Jaalimaa' sung by none other than Lata Mangeshkar, 'Takdeer Ka Phasaana Jaakar Kise Sunaaen' sung by Mohammad Rafi, 'Tum To Pyaar Ho Sajana' rendered by Mohammad Rafi and Lata and other songs brought Choudhary international fame.

One more feather was added to his cap with V Shantaram's 'Geet Gaaya Pattharon Ne' released in 1965. Mr Choudhary recorded 'Tere Khayalo Mein Hum' sung by Asha Bhosale, 'Saanson Ke Taar Par' and 'Dhadakan Ki Taal Par' sung by Asha Bhosale and Mahendra Kapoor were all popular numbers of those days.

Lockdown Legends ( Day 7) : Effortless Entertainer

Today's celebrity is a very well-known composer, whose repertoire includes huge hits and memorable scores, even when not popular. A pillar of the Golden period, C.Ramchandra ( who also sang as Chitalkar) was a prolific music director. His tunes were extremely hummable and are remembered, even  78 years after his debut !

C.Ramchandra pioneered the inclusion of Western music into Hindi film songs, something he had learnt from his mentor Hoogan, while working for Sohrab Modi's production company. He had mastered the art of using western instruments for songs based on Indian classical music . Amongst many anecdotes associated with CR, here are three of the most delightful , which go on to show what an  effortless composer he was.

The music of the film Anarkali was being planned. Once in a while a film comes which becomes an all time classic. And like all classics, several legends grow around it. Anarkali was one such film. Moreover it was, at that time, competing woth Mughal-e-Azam, also in the making , though it released many years later. 

Anarkali had its own problems. Before C.Ramchandra ( CR) came on the scene, many other music directors had worked on the music composition for the  film.  The producer of this film kept replacing music directors. It was like a revolving door. Finally, CR stepped in and fine tuned all the songs and gave one of the best music of his career, mindful of the fact that Naushad was composoing for Mughal-e-Azam.

During the composition of the intoxicating song `Mohobbat me aise kadam dagmagaaye' for this film, CR had a problem in fitting a proper word after `peeke aaye' as there was a small gap. He used hiccups very creatively after `peeke aaye'  Next day, he recorded

this song with Lata's voice (and Lata Mangeshkar performed perfectly.)

 The gap after the lyrics `peeke aaye' was filled up and the song was completed. and when Beena Rai as Anarkali sang this song on the screen with a hiccup, the effect was tremendous !

The story of Azaad is also very interesting.

It is said that Dilip Kumar was feeling depressed after Devdas and was advised to accept a light hearted film. He accepted Azad, which was completed in a short period and offered a refreshing change to Dilip Kumar. The songs and the movie both became successful.

It was a 1955 film and the producer SM Naidu wanted the famed composer Naushad to compose the music for the film.  Since shooting was already underway, Naidu wanted the entire soundtrack in a fortnight.   ‘Naushad retorted that he was not a factory, and he couldn’t promise even one song in such a short time. Naidu then approached C Ramchandra, who gamely took on the challenge and composed all 10 songs in two weeks! Here was a man who could deliver high quality music  with amazing speed, almost effortlessly !’

The third episode is about a song which is one of the earliest gibberish songs. CR was known to have an inclination for "anokhe bol" genre of songs ever since his early films.The words of this song were inspired by kids playing outside composer C. Ramchandra’s music room.

 The kids were chanting “Eeny, meeny,miny, moe”, which inspired Ramchandra and his assistant John Gomes to create first line of the song, “Eena Meena Deeka, De Dai Damanika”.Gomes, who was a Goan, added the words “Maka naka” (Konkani for “I don’t want”). They kept on adding more nonsense rhymes till they ended with “Rum pum po!”. Kishore Kumar was the right choice for this song, being a natural entertainer. The real hero of the song is, undoubtedly, C.Ramchandra who made the rock-and-roll part of Hindi cinema music.

Leaving you with this iconic song to hum and wear away the lockdown blues.

Lockdown Legends(Day 6): Melody Incarnated

There have been a  number of music directors that have ruled the Hindi film scene from time to time. One of them was a composer who has consistently given melodies, in his career , from 1948 to 2017 !

Mohammad Zahoor Khayyam, known as Khayyam, generally  had four distinct parts in his career. When he debuted he was one  in a team of composers. After he went solo, he had a lot of films and though his films often did not succeed, the music was always of a high quality and suiting the film. Then there was a 7-year gap, a sabbatical he took, before joining back for the most memorable phase of his career.

Khayyam started his career as part of the  composer duo known as ...... Sharmaji-Varmaji !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)

From 1949 to 1967 Khayyam composed alone, but he had to compete with stalwarts like Shankar Jaikishan, Naushad, S.D.Burman, Madan Mohan, O.PNayyar , Hemant Kumar and Kalyanji anandji, amongst other maestros. Despite  the high quality music in those years , Khayyam stood out for his music ,but got branded as a composer whose films didn't do well, though no fault of his. 

In the period of his  absence of 7 years from 1967 to 1974, Hindi film music changed substantially. The legends of 50s were on the wane and those composers who had debuted in 60s were ruling the hit parades. Ravi and S.D.Burman from the 50s, Laxmikant Payelal, R.D.Burman, Usha Khanna and Sonik-Omi from the  60s and Rajesh Roshan, Bappi Lahiri and Ravindra Jain  were latest entrants. His last notable film before his self-imposed exile was Akhri Khat 1966 , which had  beautiful songs, but the film , being an off-beat one, was unsuccessful at the box-office. Proabably the last straw, which prompted him to opt out. 

It is the innate talent, exquisite knowledge and amazing adaptability of Khayyam that within a couple of years Khayyam notched up the biggest success of his career.

Kabhi Kabhie was released in 1976 and this signalled a lot of paradigm shifts. Amitabh Bachchan got a role of a sensitive poet, not playing  his usual action -oriented character. Yash Chopra consolidated his brand of Romance, he has triggered off with Daag, three years earlier. Sahir Ludhianvi was the lyricist and Khayyam was the most well-suited to compose his poetry to give a score which had all types of songs, catering to old and young alike. Incidentally, it was Khayyam, who  had recorded the Sahir Ludhianvi poem ( which became the  title song ) earlier for Chetan Anand's shelved film, "Kaafir". Sudha Malhotra and Geeta Dutt had recorded that version.


The album was both a critical and commercial success and Khayyam remained in the film industry for the next 40 years , composing great songs in numerous films, keeping his signature intact, which was ...MELODY

Lockdown Legends ( Day 5) : Maestro's Masterpiece

 

The tune of Naina Barse Rimjhim Rimjhim was composed by Madan Mohan in late 40's, but he never found any situation in a film to record it. It was often rejected by the directors who he sang it to.

Many years later, Raj Khosla agreed to try it out as the theme song of the suspense thriller Woh Kaun Thi (1964).

For Woh Kaun Thi , Madan Mohan had already composed amazing songs like Lag ja Gale , Aap Kyon Roye, Shokh Nazar Ki Bijliyan and Chhod kar Tere Pyar Ka Daaman. It was thus   a challenge to create a popular track which,while being romantic, also had to have a lingering and haunting effect, as it appeared in the film in various parts.

Madan  adapted his original tune of many years ago to create this hit song.

This song had to be shot in Shimla where the unit had already arrived. However the recording could not be completed in time as Lata Mangeshkar  was unwell for a few days. Madan Mohan decided to sing the song himself, for shooting purposes, and Sadhana had to lip sync to Madan Mohan's voice.

It is said that various onlookers at the outdoor shooting wondered what kind of ghost story was being filmed with the heroine singing in a male voice!!Fortunately, a small part of the recording in Madanji's voice was found on his spools, the rest was erased. 



Lata dubbed the song later, within the limitations of the expressions and synch of what was already shot. She recounts how when nominated for the music of Woh Kaun Thi for the popular award of the year, Madan Mohanwas disappointed when he did not win it, yet again!


 


Madan Mohan may not have won many awards but the respect he got for his compositions from his peers was unparallelled. One instance of the recognition is such that all awards fade in comparison.

The movie 'Anpadh' (1962) had immortal classics like “Aap Ki Nazron Ne Samjha” and “Jiya Le Gayo Ji Mora Sanwariya.” The  ghazal sung by Lata Mangeshkar  left Naushad speechless when he heard it.

He asked Madan Mohan to play the song for him again and he heard it this time with his eyes closed. When it was over, he nodded his approval to Madan Mohan telling him, “ Such a wonderful song, I wish I had composed it.”

And then followed it up by saying, “If I could claim the credit for this one song, I would willingly hand over the credit of my entire music over to you.”

Saying this, Naushad turned and left the room, leaving a very embarrassed and beaming Madan Mohan behind to ruminate over a compliment that was the greatest any music director could hope to receive.The ghazal, deserving of such high praise from Naushad is "Hai Isi Mein Pyar Ki Aabroo". 

Lockdown Legends ( Day 4) : The Swansong of a songwriter

After the release of Teesri Kasam ( and its monumental debacle commercially, despite being critically acclaimed), lyricist  Shailendra ,also  the producer of the classic , was shattered emotionally. 

Teesri Kasam boasted  of a creative team par excellence. The actors Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman were also competent and suited for the characters they played.
Phanishwarnath Renu who wrote the original short story Mare Gaye Gulfam in 1954,  also wrote the script. The screenplay was written by Nabendu Ghosh, whose works include Devdas (1955), Sujata (1959) and Bandini (1963). Basu Bhattacharya directed the film with a sense of realism and natural style. He felt it was important for the film that Raj Kapoor should avoid his usual "Chaplinsque" mannerisms.Despite all the efforts in making the film, which drained Shailendra of his resources, the film did not do well at the box office.
The film was received well and took the National Award for the Best Film, but commercially, it was a failure. Shailendra's lines ,

Chitthiya ho to, har koi baanche

Bhaag na baanche koye

were prophetic.

Shailendra was heart-broken and also broke, financially. He went into depression.

His writing sessions just petered away. It was as if the creative force within Shailendra had died. It was at this juncture that director Vijay Anand ( flush with the success of guide, in which Shailendra had written songs)  approached Shailendra to write songs for Jewel Thief. 

But Shailendra had lost his will to write songs after the debacle of his movie Teesri Kasam.On much persuasion by Vijay Anand,he penned this song for Jewel Thief,considered as one of his last songs.The film Teesri Kasam had released in September 1966 and Shailendra died in December 1966.
The song clearly shows melancholic   state of mind in his last days. It was ironically a reflection on his state of mind after his dream shattered. That was the only song Shailendra wrote for Jewel Thief.Rest of the songs in the movie are written by Majrooh Sultanpuri on Shailendra’s recommendation.

Just ponder at the melancholy of the second antara in this song:

कैसी ये ज़िंदगी, कि साँसों से हम, ऊबे
हाय, कि दिल डूबा हम डूबे
एक दुखिया बेचारी,
इस जीवन से हारी
उस पर ये ग़म का अन्धेरा

रुला के गया सपना मेरा
बैठी हूँ कब हो सवेरा

For the record, as a lyricist Shailendra had 11 releases in 1967, including Jewel Thief. His songs were released as late as 1990 ( for the Kishore Kumar's film Mamta ki chhaon mein) , but his last few films ended with Door ka rahi ( 1971).

 

Lockdown Legends ( Day 3) : Wondrous Wordsmith

There are some songs which one remembers forever. Add to this, a

special feature of such songs which makes one aspect of song ( either

of these: music, lyrics, rendition or picturisation ) tower over the

other so much that one remembers the song only for that aspect.

Today's legend  has to his credit at least one such "immortal" song

for which the credit was largely associated with singing and

picturisation and to an extent composition. As in many cases lyrics

came last. However, now when you listen to the song
"aayega aanewala aayega..."from Mahal, you will realise

the greatness of its lyricist NAKSHAB JARACHAVI , who is our special

celebrity today.

Born in  1925 in a small village Jaracha in

Bulandshahar district of UP. Nakshab Jarachvi shot to fame in 1945,when his debut

film Zeenat (1945 )was released and its Qawwali song , "aahein na

bhari, shikve na kiye " became an instant super hit in British

India.It was sung for the first time in India, by an all female

qawwali singing group of Zohrabai Amabalawali, Noor Jehan and

Kalyani.

Nakhshab Jarchavi got noticed after Mahal and got more work, as a result

of this success.

It was not long before he held the megaphone for his own directorial debut

Naghma 1953. A very interesting anecdote is associated with this film.

With Ashok Kumar and Nadira as the lead pair, Nakshab wrote all the

songs. What follows is  an insight into the working of Nakshab. 

 He initially approached Naushad Ali for

composing the music for his film. When Naushad Ali refused, the irate

director Nakshab   then chose Shaukat Ali Delhalvi and changed his

name to Nashad, to make it sound like Naushad !

Shaukat had composed music under several names earlier. 

Rechristened as Nashad, he composed for

Jarachavi's 1953 film Naghma, starring Nadira and Ashok Kumar.
The effect was awesome.

 The songs kahe jadu kiya,
badi mushkil se dil ke beqarari ko and
teer chala o teer chalane wale were declared  hits.

Nakshab was known for his magnanimity and there are anecdotes which

indicate that he was ready to help his friends without giving it

another thought. He  was fond of throwing lavish parties and betting on horses.

Once someone expressed that he had not seen a Rs. 500 note,

 Nakshab took out a note from his pocket and gifted it to the gentleman. 

When the person returned the money,
 Nakshab refused to take it and is reported to have said,

 "what comes out of the pocket does not go back ! "

The style and substance which Nakshab had in abundance mad him a

memorable name across the borders and the songs he wrote

reverberate  in our psyche till this day, making him a legend in his own right.

Lockdown Legends (Day 2) : PLAYBACK THROWBACK

On Day 2 of the Lockdown , we look at the most unusual songs for which playback has ever been given.

PLAYBACK THROWBACK
-------------------------------------

The voice is Rafi's who was a classically trained singer, but the on-screen presence is of Kishore Kumar, a singer par excellence himself.

When the song was released, there was an erroneous belief that it was offered by O.P.Nayyar to Rafi Sahaab.
The unknown fact behind this move was that initially the hero of this film “Raagini” was Bharat Bhushan and accordingly this song was recorded in Rafi’s voice to suit the actor mainly considering the stupendous success of Baiju Bawra.

Subsequently the lead role was enacted by Kishore Kumar and to save on the expenses of re-recording the song all over again in Kishore da’s voice it was decided to retain the earlier version sung by Rafi Sahab in this film.

There are other songs also, which were sung by Rafi for Kishore.
Prominent amongst them are “Ajab hai dastaan teree hai zindagi” from the film Shararat in the year 1959, “Hume koyee gam hai” , “Masiha banke bimaron ke chale ho kahan karke jee bekarar” from the film Bhagam Bhag in the year 1956, Main is masoom chehre ko from Baaghi Shehzada 1964 and Apni aadat hai sabko salaam karte hain from Pyar Diwana 1972, apart from other less popular ones.


Apart from Rafi, there were cases of other singers also singing for on-screen Kishore !
Hemant Kumar sang the sad version of Chhota sa ghar hoga in Naukri, the peppy song by Kishore himself.  Focusing on unemployment among educated youth in independent India, this film by Bimal Roy had music by Salil Choudhury, for whom, Kishore remained an untested potential on screen and Hemant Kumar was the preferred voice . It  took a lot of convincing on the part of the makers to sign Kishore. However, Salil da  retained the sadder version of it, with Kishore lip-syncing to Hemant's  voice.






 It is rumoured that Kishore-da who could at times act finicky about payments had decided not to record songs for this movie because of not having been paid. Manna Dey sang the song Aap huye mere, for Krorepati 1961.




The icing on the cake is certainly the song from the film Baap re baap 1955, in which see who is giving playback for Kishore Kumar !
Kishore, wearing a saree prefered to lip sync to Asha's voice rather than sing in his " feminine" voice ( a la Aaake seedhi lagi... his duet with himself )
 

Lockdown Legends : Trivia from Bollywood

With the Lockdown of 21 days in place, I thought it fit to resume the musiblog which has been an intermittent affair now. After a consecutive run of 50 weeks in 2017 ( it seems ages now) and infrequent attempts  to resume , over the last couple of years, this is the best window of opportunity, surely. Locked down at home , it is a cinch, as they say, except  that...
there are a whole lot of things on my To Do List for the Lockdown :)

In view of the above ( as is stated in all of bureaucratic lingo !) , I shall make this a mini-blog. This means that the content will be short and sweet and related, generally to Bollywood trivia: a small tidbit to remember. Since the shots ( like those of tequila !) shall be small, there may be many of them during the period, each a separate incident or anecdote, wrapped up with a beautiful song, to hum.


So, here goes.



How Bimal Roy got his banner !
___________________________

Bimal Roy Productions was actually conceived on a double decker bus, in early 50s ! Bimal da and his friends from Calcutta ( as it was known then) had come to Bombay ( as it was known then) and saw Akira Kurusowa's classic Roshoman. On the way back to where they had put up,while on the bus they were silent, obviously awed by the film. One of them ( probably Asit Sen) said, why can't we make such films. "Who will write the story", someone quipped. Hrishikesh Mukherji, then 27 (he had already spent 5 years as editor with Bimal da) said he would.After some more discussion, it was decided to launch a banner Bimal Roy Productions.

Great endings have often humble beginnings !

The first film of the production was Do Bigha Zameen and this is a song from the film Parivar 1956

Something about the song from the film Parivar, too.

This song “jhir jhir jhir jhir badarwaa barse” is a wonderful song in all respects. Shailendra’s words are so imaginatively written. Salil Chaudhary was at his best in coming up with music that touched the heart strings of the audience. Add to it,  the therapeutic voices of Lata Mangeshkar and Hemant Kumar and we have a song that can be called a superb example of a “mental massage” song, one that is currently required in the times that we are.

This song is picturised on Sabita Chatterji and Ashim Kumar