Shailendra (Shankardas Kesarilal) (30^th   Aug 1923 to 14^th   Dec 1966)

Part1-His association with Shankar-Jaikishan, S.D Burman & Salil Choudhary

After  three  consecutive blogs  on singers, namely , Rafi, Kishore  on their death and birth anniversaries respectively  and then one on a great singer in South Indian languages-P B Sreenivas,  I thought of writing one  exclusive blog on a lyricist. So , just as I was contemplating on which lyricist to focus upon,  my thoughts veered around Shailendra-one of my personal favorites. And what sheer co-incidence that I realized that 30^th August 2023 will be his 100^th birth anniversary. What a great occasion to pay tribute to this fabulous poet who wrote some of the greatest Hindi film songs. With some 1000 songs  written within the  young age of 43, he left behind immortal gems.

He brought the greatest philosophical concepts to a layman in very simple language and at the same time maintained  the lyrical beauty. Most of us would have heard songs like Awaara Hoon, Kisiki Muskurahaton Pe Ho Nissar, Sab Kuch Seekha Humne  Na Seekhi Hoshiyaari, Tu Pyar Ka Sagar Hai Tere Ek Boond Ke Pyase Hum…etc. Only a few would have known the man who was behind such simple, yet profound lines. As such lyricists are among the least recognized and talked about even among those who are very passionate about old film songs.

Shailendra’s name given at birth was Shankardas Shailendra. Born in Rawalpindi in the undivided India, his family moved to Mathura. At a very early age he  lost his mother , and had a difficult childhood . The harsh realities of life he faced in his formative years would make him write about life in simple words that would connect with the masses so easily. He  completed his Diploma in Electrical & Mechanical engineering and took  up with a job in the Indian Railways as a welder- Grade B mechanic. But fate planned something grand for him as one of the greatest poet and lyricist Hindi film music industry had ever seen.

In late 1930’s and 40’s  he took part in the freedom struggle and was even jailed by the then British government. The hardships and pains he underwent at that time , coupled with the difficulties in his childhood, made him write about life’s philosophies in his poems. Once , when the noted film maker Raj Kapoor heard about his poem Jalta Hai Punjab that he had read out in a mushaira ,  he was very much impressed and wanted Shailendra to get associated with him for the film Aag. However at that time Shailendra refused as he felt mainstream cinema was not his focus. But later, when he got married and was having financial difficulties he approached Raj Kapoor and at that time the latter was looking for fresh talent for his next film Barsaat. That film  revolutionized the Hindi film music and the golden quartet of Shankar-Jaikishan-Shailendra -Hasrat went on to become a permanent chart busting team for Raj Kapoor and for many other film makers. One after the other , songs from films  Awaara, Shree 420, Anaari brought immense fame to this quartet. Apart from RK, this team went on to create magic for other banners also. Shailendra’s next best association after Shankar -Jaikishan was with Sachin Dev Burman and Salil Chaudhury. If I have to do a proper justice to his repertoire I have to split the blog in parts. Part 1 shall be about his songs with the three main music composers he worked with . Around 75% of his songs were for these three. In the next part I shall focus upon his association with other composers.

Sometimes, a person makes a single mistake in life that leads to a tragic end. Despite advice from many of his friends, Shailendra went ahead with production of a film Teesri Kasam that was based on the novel Maare Gaye Gulfam written by Phanishwar Nath Renu. This film took a long 4 years in the making and ultimately was released in 1966. There were many bitter episodes associated in the making of the film that made Shailendra disillusioned. It was too late to save him from the ill effects of tobacco and alcohol and he died at the young age of 43 on 14^th Sep, 1966. If he had stuck to only writing songs, we could have had thousands more  from his golden pen.

His close associate Hasrat Jaipuri had written this song for the film Teesri Kasam, that aptly describes the pain in passing away of one of the greatest poets Hindi film music had ever seen:

 प्रीत बनाके तूने जीना सिखाया

हंसना सिखाया, रोना सिखाया

जीवन के पथ पर मीत मिलाए

मीत मिलाके तूने सपने जगाए

सपने जगाके तूने, काहे को दे दी जुदाई

काहे को दुनिया बनाई, तूने काहे को दुनिया बनाई

दुनिया बनाने वाले, क्या तेरे मन में समाई

Shailendra wrote almost 50 % of his songs for the great Shankar-Jaikishan composer duo. It is generally assumed that Shailendra worked more with Shankar and Hasrat Jaipuri with Jaikishan. Since S-J were mostly known for composing the tune first and then getting the lyrics written, it is commendable that Shailendra could write about romance, philosophical , comical songs that perfectly fitted the tune. He wrote in a language that was predominantly devoid of tough Urdu words  ( which was the more preferred style those days) and hence could be understood by the laity. 

It is a herculean task  to select say 20 songs from the thousands  he had written . But let me try to list out some outstanding among them.  While selecting these songs , I have tried to list out those that brought out the lyrical beauty of the song more than the musical or singing aspect.

The sequence of the details mentioned are: Film/Year of release/Song/Music composer/Singer(s) and are listed in chronological order.

1. Barsaat/1949/ Barsaat Mein Humse Mile/ Shankar-Jaikishan//Lata

The very first film for which Shailendra wrote-apart from this , he also wrote Patli Kamar Hai Tirichi Nazar Hai.  Maybe the fact that it was Barsaat that brought in a turn in his life and the words प्रीत ने सिंगार किया में बनी दुल्हन, सपनों की रिमझिम में नाच उठा मन, Shailendra named his home as “ Rimjhim”-Just my imagination!!

2. Awaara/1951/Dam Jo Udhar Muh Phere/ Shankar-Jaikishan/Mukesh & Lata

Shailendra’s imagination runs riot, asking the moon to turn aside so that the lovers can talk to each other! But towards the end he  asks the  moon to be a witness and a messenger:

मै चोर हूँ काम है चोरी

दुनिया में हूँ बदनाम

दिल को चुराता आया हूँ मैं

येही मेरा काम, हो येही मेरा काम

आना तू गवाही देने ओ चन्दा आ आ

मै उनसे प्यार कर लूँगा नज़रें तो चार कर लूँगा

दिल को चुराके खो मत जाना

राह न जाना भूल

इन कदमों से कुचल ना देना

मेरे दिल का फूल हो मेरे दिल का फूल

ये बात उन्हें समझा दे ओ चन्दा आ आ

मै उनसे प्यार कर लूंगी बातें हज़ार कर लूँगी

3. Do Bheega Zameen/1953/ Dharti Kahe Pukarke/ Salil Choudhury/Manna Dey

Shailendra’s first association with Salil da-two great creative minds together composed around 100 immortal songs for approximately 19 films.

Who can forget these eternal lines:

धरती कहे पुकार के, बीज बिछा ले प्यार के

मौसम बीता जाए, मौसम बीता जाए

अपनी कहानी छोड़ जा, कुछ तो निशानी छोड़ जा

कौन कहे इत ओर तू फिर आए न आए

मौसम बीता जाए…

4. Patita/1953/Andhe Jahan Ke Anghe Raste/ Shankar-Jaikishan/ Talat Mehmood

All the songs in the film Patita were written by Shailendra except for Yaad Kiya Dil Ne Kahan Ho Tum that was written by Hasrat. What great lyrics in all those. Difficult for me to select -still I went ahead and listed three . Talat’s velvety voice , S-J’s exceptional composition and Shailendra’s golden lines:

जीने की चाहत नहीं

मर के भी राहत नहीं

इस पार आँसू उस पार आहें

दिल मेरा बेज़ुबां

हम को न कोई बुलाए

ना कोई पलकें बिछाए

ऐ ग़म के मारों मंज़िल

वहीं है दम ये टूटे जहाँ

आग़ाज़ के दिन तेरा

अंजाम तय हो चुका

जलते रहें हैं जलते रहेंगे

ये ज़मीं आसमां

5. Patita/1953/Hai Sab Se Madhur Who Geet / Shankar-Jaikishan/ Talat Mehmood

It is strange that  songs that have pathos as the theme are mostly melodious , although a majority do not like them!.  Rather than describing the song, just read these lines and wonder at the imagination of this great poet.

हैं सबसे मधुर वो गीत जिन्हें, हम ददर् के सुर में गाते हैं

जब हद से गुज़र जाती है खुशी, आँसू भी छलकते आते हैं

पहलू में पराये दर्द बसाके, हँसना हँसाना सीख ज़रा

तूफ़ान से कह दे घिर के उठे, हम प्यार के दीप जलाते हैं

काँटों में खिले हैं फूल हमारे, रंग भरे अरमानों के

नादान हैं जो इन काँटों से, दामन को बचाये जाते हैं

जब ग़म का अन्धेरा घिर आये, समझो के सवेरा दूर नहीं

हर रात की है सौगात यही, तारे भी यही दोहराते हैं

6. Patita/1953/Mithi Se Khelte Ho Baar Baar / Shankar-Jaikishan/ Lata

The third song from this great album-this time he brings out the anguish of the heroine  in the film who faces so many struggles in her life that she asks her creator why He is tormenting her again and again.

मिट्टी से खेलते हो

बार–बार किस लिए

टूटे हुए खिलौनों

से प्यार किस लिए

बनाके ज़िदगानियाँ

बिगाड़ने से क्या मिला

मेरी उम्मीद का जहां

उजाड़ने से क्या मिला

आयी थी दो दिनों की

ये बहार किस लिए

ज़रा सी भूल को

ज़ज़ार रूप नाम दे दिए

ज़रा सी जान सर पे

सात आसमान दे दिए

बर्बाद ज़िन्दगी

का ये सीगार किस लिए

ज़मीं गैर हो गयी

ये आसमान बदल गया

हवा के रुख़ बदल गए

हर एक फूल जल गया

बजाते है अब ये

साँसों के तार किस लिए

7. Boot Polish/1954/ Nanhe Munne Bachhe Tere Muthi/ Shankar-Jaikishan/ Rafi & Asha

The film Boot Polish was  critically acclaimed with a special mention for the child actress Naaz in the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and three Filmfare awards-Raj Kapoor as a producer, Tara Dutt for Cinematography, and excellent acting as a  supporting actor for David.  This song was also one of the big break for Asha Bhonsle . Shailendra brings out the rays of optimism for kids who are forced to become vagabonds due to cruel fate. Just wonder at these lines -bringing out such profound philosophy in such a simple poetry was his greatest strength .

नन्हे मुन्ने बच्चे तेरी मुट्ठी में क्या है

मुट्ठी में है तक़दीर हमारी

 हम ने क़िस्मत को बस में किया है

भोली भली मतवाली आँखों में क्या है

आँखोन में झूमे उम्मीदों की दिवाली

आनेवाली दुनिया का सपना सजा है

भीख में जो मोती मिले लोगे या न लोगे

ज़िंदगी के आँसूओं का बोलो क्या करोगे

भीख में जो मोती मिले तो भी हम ना लेंगे

ज़िंदगी के आँसूओं की माला पहनेंगे

ज़िंदगी के आँसूओं की माला पहनेंगे

मुश्किलों से लड़ते भिड़ते जीने में मज़ा है

हम से न छुपाओ बच्चो हमें भी बताओ

आनेवाले दुनिया कैसी होगी समझाओ

आनेवाले दुनिया में सब के सर पे ताज होगा

न भूखों की भीड़ होगी न दुखों का राज होगा

बदलेगा ज़मना ये सितारों पे लिखा है

8. Seema/1955/ Kahan Jaa Raha Hai/ Shankar-Jaikishan/ Rafi

The best lines from this song are these that talk about how to overcome the struggles in life.  Shailendra’s own  experience in life and how he became a successful poet must have inspired him to write these.

जो ठोकर न खाए

नहीं जीत उसकी

जो गिर के संभल

जाए है जीत उसकी

निशा मंज़िलो के

ये पैरो के छाले

कहा जा रहा है

तू ऐ जाने वाले

9. Seema/1955/ Tu Pyaar Ka Saagar Hai/ Shankar-Jaikishan/ Manna Dey

One more masterpiece from the same film Seema.  Pankh Hai Komal, Aankh Hai Dundhli, Jaana Hai Sagar Paar….what a poignant way of conveying the humongous challenges of life !

तू प्यार का सागर है

तेरी इक बूँद के प्यासे हम

लौटा जो दिया तुमने, चले जायेंगे जहाँ से हम

घायल मन का, पागल पंछी उड़ने को बेक़रार

पंख हैं कोमल, आँख है धुँधली, जाना है सागर पार

जाना है सागर पार

अब तू हि इसे समझा, राह भूले थे कहान से हम

इधर झूमती गाये ज़िंदगी, उधर है मौत खड़ी

कोई क्या जाने कहाँ है सीमा, उलझन आन पड़ी

उलझन आन पड़ी

कानों में ज़रा कह दे, कि आये कौन दिशा से हम

10. Jaagte Raho/1956/Zindagi Khwab Hai/ Salil Choudhury/ Mukesh

The evergreen combination of Shailendra & Salil da continues. One of Mukesh’s best songs. The film Jagte Raho is unique and critically much acclaimed-the entire film talks about events happening in a single night , when the protagonist Raj Kapoor, is thirsty and wanders around to have some water to drink. In his journey , what he sees provides a metaphoric glimpse of life.

रंगी को नारंगी कहे, बने दूध को खोया

चलती को गाड़ी कहे, देख कबीरा रोया…

ज़िंदगी ख़्वाब है, ख़्वाब में झूठ क्या

और भला सच है क्या

सब सच है

ज़िन्दगी ख्वाब है…

दिल ने हमसे जो कहा, हमने वैसा ही किया

फ़िर कभी फ़ुरसत से सोचेंगे बुरा था या भला

एक कतरा मय का जब, पत्थर से होंठों पर पड़ा – २

उसके सीने में भी दिल धड़का ये उसने भी कहा

एक प्याली भर के मैंने, ग़म के मारे दिल को दी

ज़हर ने मारा ज़हर को, मुरदे में फिर जान आ गई

ज़िन्दगी ख़्वाब है…

11. Anari/1959/ Kisiki Mukurahaton Pe Ho Nissar/ Shankar-Jaikishan/Mukesh

This song has become a sort of an anthem  about humanity. Only a person with utmost sensitivity could come up with such inspiring lines that continues to move generations after generations. One need not write anything about these lines-it is enough to just read them and wonder at the imagination of Shailendra.

किसी की मुस्कुराहटों पे हो निसार

किसीका दर्द मिल सके तो ले उधार

किसीके वास्ते हो तेरे दिल में प्यार

जीना इसी का नाम है

माना अपनी जेब से फ़कीर हैं

फिर भी यारों दिल के हम अमीर हैं

मिटे जो प्यार के लिये वो ज़िन्दगी

जले बहार के लिये वो ज़िन्दगी

किसी को हो न हो हमें तो ऐतबार

जीना इसी का नाम है

रिश्ता दिल से दिल के ऐतबार का

ज़िन्दा है हमीं से नाम प्यार का

के मर के भी किसी को याद आयेंगे

किसी के आँसुओं में मुस्कुरायेंगे

कहेगा फूल हर कली से बार बार

जीना इसी का नाम है

12. Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai/1960/Hoton Pe Sachhai Rehti Hai/ Shankar-Jaikishan/Mukesh

Who else can one describe our great country and its even greater culture better than Shailendra?

होठों पे सच्चाई रहती है

जहाँ दिल में सफाई रहती है

हम उस देश के वासी है

हम उस देश के वासी है

जिस देश में गंगा बहती है

मेहमा जो हमारा होता है

वो जान से प्यारा होता है

मेहमा जो हमारा होता है

वो जान से प्यारा होता है

ज़्यादा की नहीं लालच हमको

थोड़े में गुजारा होता है

बच्चों के लिए जो धरती माँ

सदियों से सभी कुछ सहती है

हम उस देश के वासी है

कुछ लोग जो ज़्यादा जानते है

इंसान को कम पहचानते है

ये पुरब है पूरबवाले

हर जान की कीमत जानते है

मिल जुल के रहो और प्यार करो

एक चीज़ यही जो रहती है

हम उस देश के वासी है

जो जिससे मिला सीखा हमने

गैरों को भी अपनाया हमने

जो जिससे मिला सीखा हमने

गैरों को भी अपनाया हमने

मतलब के लिए अंधे होकर

रोटी को नहीं पूजा हमने

रोटी को नहीं पूजा हमनेस देश में गंगा बहती है

13. Kala Bazaar/1960/ Na Mein Dhan Chhahoon / S D Burman/ Geeta Dutt & Sudha Malhotra

In this song Shailendra proves his mettle in writing a bhajan and that too with profound philosophical undertones.

न मैं धन चाहूँ, न रतन चाहूँ

तेरे चरणों की धूल मिल जाये

तो मैं तर जाऊँ, शाम तर जाऊं

हे राम तर जाऊँ…

मोह मन मोहे, लोभ ललचाये

कैसे कैसे ये नाग लहराये

इससे पहले कि दिल उधर जाये

मैं तो मर जाऊँ, क्यों न मर जाऊं

लाये क्या थे जो लेके जाना है

नेक दिल ही तेरा खज़ाना है

सांझ होते ही पंछी आ जाये

अब तो घर जाऊँ अपने घर जाऊँ

थम गया पानी, जम गयी कायी

बहती नदिया ही साफ़ कहलायी

मेरे दिल ने ही जाल फैलाये

अब किधर जाऊँ, मैं किधर जाऊँ

14. Hariyali Aur Raasta/1962/Bol Mere Taqdeer Mein Kya Hai/ Shankar-Jaikishan/ Mukesh & Lata

In songs like this, Shailendra can become a true romantic at heart!

Just a sample from the  first antara :

बोल मेरी तकदीर में क्या है

मेरे हमसफ़र अब तो बता

जीवन के दो पहलू है

हरियाली और रास्ता

कहा हैं मेरे प्यार की मंजिल

तू बतला तुज को हैं पता

जीवन के दो पहलू है

हरियाली और रास्ता

जहा हम आ के पहुचे है

वहा से लौट कर जाना

नहीं मुमकिन मगर मुश्किल

हैं दुनियां से भी टकराना

तेरे लिए हम कुछ भी

सहेंगे तेरा दर्द अब दर्द मेरा

जीवन के दो पहलू है

हरियाली और रास्ता

15. Usne Kaha Tha /1960/ Aaha Rimjhim Ke Yeh Pyare Pyare Geet / Salil Choudhury/ Talat Mehmood & Lata

Sometimes the lyrics themselves enhance  the melody of the tune to a great extent. This is a classic example. Just reading the lines will make to swing to the inherent lilting quality of the lines.

“सुनो तो ज़रा , झिंगर बोले चीकी मीकी चीकी मीकी ” ….how sweet these words sound!

16. Bandini/1963/O Jaanewale Ho Sake To Laut Ke Aana/ S D Burman/ Mukesh

We can dedicate these immortal lines to all the great artists who are now not with us , but left such a deep impression with their immense work .

ओ जानेवाले हो सके तो लौट के आना

ये घाट तू ये बाट कहीं भूल न जाना

बचपन के तेरे मीत तेरे संग के सहारे

ढूँढेंगे तुझे गली गली सब ये ग़म के मारे

पूछेगी हर निगाह कल तेरा ठिकाना

दे दे के ये आवाज़ कोई हर घड़ी बुलाए

फिर जाए जो उस पार कभी लौट के न आए

है भेद ये कैसा कोई कुछ तो बताना ….

17. Guide/1965/Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai/S D Burman/ Lata

The film Guide was a milestone for Sachin Da-all the songs are beyond any comparison. The opening lines and the tune literally conveys the feelings of the heroine, who wants throw away the shackles in her life.  One of the best from the great team of SDB, Lata and Shailendra.

काँटों से खींच के ये आँचल

तोड़ के बंधन बाढ़े पायल

कोई ना रोको दिल की उड़ान को

दिल वो चला हा हा हा हा हा हा

आज फिर जीने की तमन्ना है

आज फिर मरने का इरादा है

अपने ही बस में नहीं मई

दिल हैं कही तो हूँ कहीं मैं

जाने क्या पा के मेरी ज़िन्दगी ने

हस कर कहा हा हा हा हा हा

मै हूँ गुबार  या तूफ़ा हुन

कोई बताए मैं कहाँ हूँ

दर है सफ़र में कहीं खो न जाऊं

रास्ता नया आ आ आ आ आ आ

कल के अंधेरों से निकल के

देखा है आँखे मलते मलते

हां फूल ही फूल ज़िन्दगी बहार है

तय कर लिया आ आ आ आ आ आ

18. Guide 1965/Wahan Kaun Hai Tera Musafir/S D Burman/ S D Burman

Burman da sang just a handful of songs in Hindi..and what immortal ones !!. This one describes the story of the film in few lines.

वहाँ कौन है तेरा

मुसाफिर जाएगा कहाँ

दम ले ले घड़ी भर, ये छइयाँ पाएगा कहाँ

बीत गए दिन, प्यार के पल–छीन

सपना बनी ये रातें,भूल गए वो

तू भी भुला दे,प्यार की वो मुलाकातें प्यार की वो मुलाकातें

सब दूर अंधेरा,सब दूर अंधेरा

मुसाफिर जाएगा कहाँ

दम ले ले दम ले ले दम ले ले घड़ी भर

ये छइयाँ पाएगा कहाँ

कोई भी तेरी,राह ने देखे

नैन बिछाए न कोई

दर्द से तेरे,कोई ना तड़पा

आँख किसी की ना रोई आँख किसी की ना रोई

कहे किसको तू मेरा,कहे किसको तू मेरा

कहते हैं ज्ञानी,दुनिया है फानी

पानी पे लिखी लिखाई,है सबकी देखी

है सबकी जानी

हाथ किसी के ना आयी  हाथ किसी के ना आयी

कुछ तेरा ना मेरा, कुछ तेरा ना मेरा

मुसाफिर जाएगा कहाँ

19. Teesri Kasam/1966/ Sajan Re Jhoot Mat Bolo/ Shankar-Jaikishan/Mukesh

This film always brings bitter-sweet feelings. Although the songs, especially the lyrics , are one of the best ever , I always feel so sad for Shailendra as to why he took the decision to produce this movie. The terrible financial loss and the despair he had while making this broke him completely and took away this genius from us at a young age of 43.

सजन रे झूठ मत बोलो, खुदा के पास जाना है

न हाथी है ना घोड़ा है, वहाँ पैदल ही जाना है

भला कीजै भला होगा, बुरा कीजै बुरा होगा   

बही लिख लिख के क्या होगा

बही लिख लिख के क्या होगा, यहीं सब कुछ चुकाना है

सजन रे झूठ मत बोलो, खुदा के पास जाना है …

लड़कपन खेल में खोया, जवानी नींद भर सोया 

बुढ़ापा देख कर रोया

बुढ़ापा देख कर रोया, वही किस्सा पुराना है

सजन रे झूठ मत बोलो, खुदा के पास जाना है….

20. Mera Naam Joker/1970/Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan/ Shankar-Jaikishan /Mukesh-Lyrics by Shailendra and his son Shaily Shailendra

The film Mera Naam Joker flopped at the time of its release -a rare phenomenon for the immensely successful showman Raj Kapoor. However later it became a “ cult-classic.” Personally I always consider this as one of the best music created by S-J. Shailendra could write only a small part of this song and then passed away ( the movie was released 4 years after he passed away as it took a long time for RK to finish the movie). His son Shaily Shailendra completed this immortal  song that , fatefully , became an ode to all those who created this.

I will continue my tribute to this great poet-lyricist in part 2 that shall talk about the  great songs he composed for music directors apart from Shankar-Jaikishan , S D Burman and Salil Choudhury.

Acknowledgement & Disclaimer 

I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia
3. Yesterday’s Melodies Today’s Memories book by Mr. Manek Premchand
4. www.geetmanjusha.com
5. https://nikhileiyer.wordpress.com/

The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been embedded here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.

22^nd Sep 1930-14^th Apr 2013

காலங்களில் அவள் வசந்தம்

கலைகளிலே அவள் ஓவியம்

மாதங்களில் அவள் மார்கழி

மலர்களிலே அவள் மல்லிகை

With due apologies to the  great Kaviarasar  Kannadasan I am taking inspiration from his own lines to describe the singer who had rendered this immortal song as பாடுவதில்  அவர் தென்றல். Original line in that song is  காற்றினிலே அவள் தென்றல் . When one listens to P B Sreenivas’ songs it is just like  a gentle breeze caressing you softly. He was also lucky to have his profession etched in his initials! It seems he himself used to joke about fate selecting  his  initials that denotes   Play Back Singer !

Prathivadhi Bhayankara Sreenivas (22 September 1930 – 14 April 2013) popularly  known as P. B. Sreenivas or just PBS , like most of his songs , was a mild-mannered gentleman, and had never got into any controversies . When he sang it was as if the  words in the songs should not get hurt—he was so soft in rendering them. He possessed a very rare attribute of knowing multiple languages-not just singing in many languages, but had proficiency to even compose poems in eight languages. Apart from his mother tongue Telugu, he was proficient in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, Sanskrit , Hindi and English. His major  work as a play back singer has been in Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu languages.

PBS  was born in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. His father, Prathivadhi Bhayankara Phanindraswamy, was a civil servant  and Seshagiriamma, his mother was a musician. PBS completed his  Bachelor of Commerce degree and also  the Hindi Visharad from the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha. Though his father wanted him to pursue a career in Government sector, his passion was singing. PBS  himself narrated an anecdote from his early years , when his parents took him to an astrologer to get an advice on whether he will have a good career in music or should he opt for a regular job. Strangely the astrologer predicted that the boy will not have any future in music! But his mother went by his passion and took a chance , luckily for him and for us!

Initially his uncle, Kidambi Krishnaswamy, who was a drama artist and a singer, gave him an opportunity to sing in a drama. Later, he also took him to the legendary veena vidwan, Emani Sankara Sastry, who  introduced PBS to S. S. Vasan, the owner of Gemini Studios. There, PBS  sang a super hit song sung by Mohammed Rafi, his favourite singer,  “Huye Hum Jinke Liye Barbad”, composed by Naushad Ali, which landed him the opportunity to become professional playback singer. Although PBS became a well-known playback singer in the South film industry, his first song was for a Hindi film, Mr Sampath that was produced by Gemini studios and music was composed by Emani Sankara Sastry with B.S Kalla. His first song in Tamil was “ Sinthanai Yen Selvame for the film Jathakam ( 1953), that had music by R Govarthanam.

Later on, PBS started singing in Tamil, Kannada ( he was the main voice for Dr Rajkumar) and  also his mother tongue, Telugu. Malayalam songs were comparatively few. His long-cherished dream of singing with Lata Mangeshkar got fulfilled with the song Chanda Se Hoga Who Pyara in the film Main Bhi Ladki Hoon that was produced by AVM Productions and was a remake of the Tamil film Naanum Oru Penn. Although from 1953 onwards he kept singing few songs, the major turning point is his career was the evergreen Inbam pongum vennila veesuthe in the film Veerapandiya Kattabomman that he sang with P Susheela under the music direction of the veteran G Ramanathan.

By that time TM Soundararajan was well established as the de-facto voice for both the leading actors M G Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganesan. Most of the other male singers were also known for their high pitched, full-throated singing with exception being the composer-singer AM Raja. PBS found  a niche by having a soft style of singing that suited almost all the other actors except MGR and Sivaji , more prominently for Gemini Ganesan. Slowly he became the voice for Gemini Ganesan and many other actors . He was also sought after for soft , melodious romantic songs. His repertoire in languages apart from Tamil is also quite vast. My knowledge is limited to Hindi and Tamil music and so I am not qualified to talk about his works in other languages.

Before I start my song list, I would like to narrate a personal experience. So far in my life I was able to meet only one singer in  person and even have a few words. That was PBS . Long back ,in the early ‘90s  when I used to work in Hyderabad, I met him in a restaurant and again in Chennai somewhere in 2011-12 I met him in the New Woodlands Hotel in Chennai , which used to be his favourite joint. He is known for his trademark cap or turban and was always found carrying a dozen pens and a sheaf of paper. Over a masala dosai and cups of hot coffee , he used to compose hundreds  of poems in the eight languages he knew!

I have selected  25 songs of this legendary  singer . PBS has sung around 3000 songs and as far as Tamil songs are concerned most of the songs he had sung are great ones, making my task of selecting 25 from them a herculean one!

Listing is chronologically arranged based on the year of film with description in following sequence:

Song/ Film/ Year of film/ Music director/Lyricist/ Co-singer

Some of the links to the songs may not play here-you may have to open them in YouTube in order to listen/view by clicking on the link

1. Inbam Pongum Vennila/ Veera Pandiya Kattabomman/ 1959/ G Ramanathan/ Ku Ma Balasubramaniam/ Duet with P Susheela

Although PBS debuted in 1953 in Tamil film music, it took almost 6 years for him to get noticed , with  the veteran G Ramanathan giving him a  super  hit  in this 1959 film. The subtle, intricate sangathis that he does in this song are too good and  for the next few years , there was no looking back for PBS.

2. Kannale Pesi Pesi/ Adutha Veetu Pen/ 1960/ P Adi Narayana Rao/ Thanjai N Ramaiha Das

One can say that PBS rally “ arrived “ with  this great comedy film that had 5 songs rendered by him under the music direction of P Adi Narayana Rao. I have selected two songs from this movie-this one a superb romantic one and the next a classical master piece that is almost forgotten now.

3. Vanitha Maniye/ Adutha Veetu Pen/1960/ P Adi Narayana Rao/ Thanjai N Ramaiha Das

One can hear a totally different PBS in this classical masterpiece based on Hamsadhwani raagam.

4. Chittukuruvi Aaduthu ( Thennankeetru Oonjalile )/ Paathai Teriyudu Paar/1960/ M B Sreenivasan/ Jayakanthan

The debut film for music composer M B Sreenivas in Tamil and what an immortal melody he composed ! Known for his famous Madras Youth Choir music and experimental style of music, MBS got more fame in the Malayalam music industry. It is said that he composed this song fully with the help of the xylophone.

PBS & S Janaki later on rendered many immortal classics -the humming in this song by both are top class. Sadly, such songs have almost faded away from our memory .

5. Kalangalil Aval Vasantham/Paava Mannippu/1961/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan

The iconic song that always comes to one’s mind whenever we talk of PBS. By this time PBS had become the de-facto voice of Gemini Ganesan and rendered most of his hits for this actor. The greatest  strength of PBS was in giving a velvety softness to the lyrics.

6. Mayakkama Kalakkama/ Sumaithangi/ 1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan

PBS had the opportunity to render some of the immortal lines written by the great Kannadasan. This song conveys the essence of life  in a simple language but at the same time makes a profound philosophy. In my blog on Kannadasan, I had written in detail about this song and how it even inspired another contemporary of the Kaviarasar, Vaali to fight back and get his foothold in the industry.

7. Manithan Yenbavan Deivam/ Sumaithangi/ 1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/Kannadasan

PBS himself was a poet and used to write poems in eight languages. May be this made him give utmost respect to the lyrics and he has rendered some of the great masterpieces written by the one and only Kaviarasar Kannadasan. Just observe the way PBS renders the lines at the end of each charanam and you can understand what I am trying to convey. Absolute bliss to listen to this song again and again.

8. Poojaiku Vantha Malare/Paatha Kaanikkai/ 1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan/ Duet with S Janaki

One more exquisite duet of PBS and S Jananki. The way PBS does a subtle twist with the word “ vaa” is his unique skill.

9. Rojamalare Rajakumari/ Veerathirumagan/ 1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan/ Duet with P Susheela

If we see any playlist of PBS best  songs, this one is bound to be at the top. An evergreen romantic melody that was supposed to have been rage in neighbouring Sri Lanka.

10. Azhagiya Mithilai Nagarinile/Annai/ 1962/ R Sudarsanam/ Kannadasan/ Duet with P Susheela

A fast-paced romantic duet , composed by the veteran R Sudarsanam , picturised so nicely in  the Chennai of 1962! May be due to the song starting off with the description Azhagiya Mithilai Nagarinile, for those born and brought up in Chennai, it is so nostalgic to see all those iconic landmarks captured in vintage black& white photography. PBS & Susheela come up with a breezy , lilting duet that is as fresh as it has been  picturized.

11. Nilavukku Yen Mel Yennadi Kobam/ Poilcekaran Magal/ 1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan

The film Poilicekaran Magal is one more feather in PBS’ cap ( now think of it-he always had a  fur cap in early years and later on a turban!). All the songs from this film are nothing but sheer classics.

12. Ponnen Yenben Siru Poovenben / Poilcekaran Magal/ 1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan/ Duet with S Janaki

The magical vocals of PBS and S Janaki join together again. PBS being a master in the lower notes and Janaki in the highest. Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy compose a terrific Darbari Kanada based immortal classic. The story in the film is about the character played by Balaji ditching the heroine after loving her. The manner in which Kannadasan had written the song and the how  V-R composed this with an undercurrent of things to  follow in their lives makes this a haunting melody.

13. Intha Mandrathil Odi Varum/ Poilcekaran Magal/1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan/ Duet with S Janaki

Third song from the same film in this  listing-the mellisai mannargal must have been in one of their best ever creative moods to come out with such scintillating songs. Janaki, as usual is so much at ease , effortlessly singing at the higher octaves. Somehow, personally I always have a bias towards Janaki’s songs in the 50’s & 60’s when she sounded so melodious. Not to be left behind, PBS comes in the last charanam only and as these legendary singers always do, he makes his mark so impressively. The song, though a duet , is picturized on a brother-sister and the lines by Kannadasan , composed by V-R and excellent singing by PBS & SJ convey the theme of the song so nicely.

14. Ninappathellam Nadanthuvittal / Nenjil Or Aalayam/ 1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan

One more iconic song from the incomparable team of Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy, Kannadasan and PBS-the more I started listening to PBS’ songs while writing this blog, I realised how subtly and with such effortless  under-stated elegance, PBS conveys the emotions of a song in a unique way.

And how can I even attempt to write about the master-sculptor of words Kannadasan and the incomparable composers V-R  ? Immortal lines, with immortal music. That is the only way I can describe.

15. Pon Ondru Kanden Pen Angu Illai/ Padithal Mattum Poruma/1962/ Kannadasan/ Duet with TMS

I have a complaint against the mellisai mannargal-why did  they compose very few  duets of these two great legends -TMS & PBS!!! We definitely would have loved many more . What contrasting voices and styles but at the same what a perfect synchronised singing by them.

Sometimes I feel , how can I describe such songs?! It is enough to close one’s eyes and just get immersed in them.

16. Paalvannam Paruvam Kandu/Paasam /1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan/ Duet with P Susheela

To the best of my knowledge , one of the very few songs that PBS sung for the Puratchi Thalaivar MGR! This films commercially flopped as it was again one of the very few ( or may be the only one!) in which the character played by MGR dies at the end of the film. Kannadasan , in his inimitable style , condenses the entire story of the film with the lines:

நேர் சென்ற பாதை விட்டு நான் சென்ற போது வந்து,

வா வென்று அள்ளி கொண்ட மங்கை இல்லையா

17. Yentha Oor Yendravane/ Kaatu Roja/ 1963/ K V Mahadevan/ Kannadasan

What imaginative lyrics , words ending with “oor” that signifies  place names and at the same time the inherent beauty of Tamizh language that also conveys many other interpretations-only Kannadasan can think of such lines. And like adding icing on the cake,  we have two other geniuses -K V Mahadevan and PBS , the simple tune of the former and emotive singing by the latter. Songs like these are made once in thousands of years.

18. Aval Paranthu Ponaale/ Paar Magale Paar/ 1963/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan/ Duet with TMS

The two great legends once again render a classic , evergreen song-TMS & PBS. Except for the interludes , and a guitar that keeps playing in the song, there is almost nil orchestration-V-R created a gem of a song purely with the power of evocative  singing by both the singers.

19. Anubavam Puthumai/ Kathalikka Neramillai/1964/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy/ Kannadasan/ Duet with P Susheela

One of the topmost duets of PBS & PS, this is a melody that meanders along at a leisurely pace, with the deep bass voice of PBS and sweet  , honey-laced vocals of PS. V-R come up with a masterly orchestration -the interlude strings are simply addictive ! The magical Bongos of V-R is heard in its full glory with intricate variations in the rhythm patterns ; not only that even the strings , flute , accordion all add up to an evergreen song that simply cannot fade away from our memories.

20. Thol Kanden thole kanden/ Ithayakamalam/1965/K V Mahadevan/ Kannadasan/ Humming by  P Susheela

Ithayakamalam was a musical bonanza from the veteran KV Mahadevan. All the songs from this film are absolute classics. When it comes to such breezy romantic numbers, it is a pure cake-walk for PBS. Sheer bliss listening to his baritones in this song.

21. Kathirunthe Kangale/ Motor Sundaram Pillai/ 1966/Vaali/ M S Vishwanathan/ Duet with P Susheela

The list of peppy , romantic duets PBS sang with PS doesn’t seem to end…enjoy one more from this fabulous team, this time with lyrics by Vaali and composed by MSV .

22. Nilave yennidam nerungathe/ Ramu/ 1966/  M S Vishwanathan / Kannadasan/

This Bageshri raag based composition by MSV has an excellent shehnai playing in the interludes and to me I consider it as one of the best use of this instrument that is normally associated with north of India. MSV had used this instrument in so many songs so well. Also, this ranks among the top most songs of PBS. Just note the way he emotes the lines: Oomaiyin kanavai yaar arivaar

Though most of the versions feature this as a solo PBS song, I realised the songs starts with short recital by Susheela.

23. Mouname Paarvaiyal / Kodi Malar/ 1966/ M S Vishwanathan/ Kannadasan

The magic created by MSV with Shenai in the Nilave yennidam nerungathe, is now replaced with sitar and flute. Superb orchestration by MSV and once again a song dripping with romance from the velvety voice of PBS. I find a common trait between singers like PBS,  Talat Mehmood & Mukesh in Hindi , in the sense that though they sang comparatively lesser number of songs , the quality of their songs were simply great.

24. Thamari Kannangal/ Ethir Neechal/ 1968/ V Kumar/ Duet with P Susheela

One more under-rated and less recognised musical genius was Varadarajulu  Kumar, popularly known as V Kumar. He was closely associated with most of the early hit films of legendary director K Balachandar. In the midst of giants like G Ramanathan, Vishwanathan-Ramammorthy, KV Mahadevan , he made a unique niche for himself with some excellent orchestration and off-beat tunes.

The late 60’s gradually saw PBS singing far lesser number of songs . However, His quantity might have come down , but quality always reigned supreme. Composed at high octaves, both PBS and PS excel in this romantic duet , picturised on not a regular hero , but the comedy legend Nagesh.

25. Thendrale Nee Pesu/ Kadavul Amaitha Medai/ 1979/ Ilayaraja/ Vaali

By mid-70’s Tamil film music saw the entry of a phenomenon called Ilayaraja. He had his own set of new singers and also gave a fresh career to S Janaki. K J Yesudas and SPB started becoming the new sensations. I am unable to understand why this was the only song IR composed for  PBS. After listening to this , my own personal take is that if IR had utilised him for his soft melodious numbers , they could have been another unique combination.

But as everyone knows , the gentleman that PBS was, he never believed in running after money. Almost at the age of 50 when he had sung this  , his voice had that same freshness.

With those 25 songs, I conclude my small tribute to this genius.

Ohh..just wait-as a bonus song I am giving the link to his superb duet in Hindi he sang with the nightingale Lata Mangeshkar; on screen we have the macho Dharmendra and a beautiful Meenakumari !

Long before many famous singers from South sang with the legendary Lata, we had our PBS fulfilling his ambition way back in 1964 ( Film : Main Bhi Ladki Hoon, Composed by Chitragupt, written by Rajendra Krishan but the tune was taken from the Tamil version of the song Poo Pola Poo Pola Sirikkum from the  movie Naanum Oru Penn, 1963, music for which was composed by R Sudarsanam)

It was really a challenge to leave out many other great songs of PBS and I am sure many readers may feel disappointed not to see their favourites. May be one day I can select those which I had to reluctantly  leave out to make the blog as concise as possible. By sheer co-incidence , I started off by comparing his songs to Thendral-breeze and the last song in my listing happened to start with that word!

After a very long gap , in the year 1986 , when I was in college and watching the off-beat movie Oomai Vizhigal, I was totally surprised to hear PBS’ soulful song Tholvi Nilay Yena Ninaithal Manithan Vazhvai Ninaikalama and was simply floored by that song. What a depth in voice at the age of 56!

Even more  surprising for me was to realise ,  while researching for this blog , that PBS’ last recorded song for a Tamil film was in 2010 for the film  Aayirathil Oruvan-Song: Penmane , music composed by G V Prakash , written by Vairamuthu that he sang at the age of 80 along with Bombay Jayashree. The voice had an even heavier baritone but I would say not a tad faded or jaded  for his age! His lines were almost towards  the end of the song and more like a recitation. I felt that since he did not have a prominent part in the song, I did not include in my listing. Those interested can search for the same in YouTube.

As the cliché goes, legends like PB Sreenivas never die…they continue to live in their immortal songs that they left behind for us.

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer:
The songs mentioned are from the popular , public domain and  have been mentioned / embedded  only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights. .I sincerely thank the publishers of following  Internet sources  for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia
3. Quarantine from reality series in YouTube by Ragamalika TV

4^th August 1929-13^th October 1987

Around one and half years back I had posted an article here on Pre-Aaradhana Kishore Kumar. Obviously, there must be a sequel to it and what other occasion than the 94^th birth anniversary of the legend that falls on 4^th Aug 2023. For the benefit of those readers who might have not read that blog, I am posting the link to that here:

The Pre-‘Aaradhana’ Kishore Kumar

Kishore da started singing for films as a playback singer with the film “ Ziddi “ that was released in 1948 ; music was composed  by  Khemchand Prakash , picturised on a very young Dev Anand. However, he had to wait for around 21 years to get the major break , although, as I had mentioned in my earlier blog, he gave some wonderful songs in those 21 years. But somehow he remained slightly behind the stalwarts Rafi, Talat, Mukesh & Manna Dey, partially due to his  focus more  on acting instead of play back singing. Instead of going into endless arguments as to why he got sidelined, I always feel the discerning listeners of Hindi Film Music ( HFM) are really blessed to have these 5 greatest male playback singers who enriched the music world with their immense variety and talent. When I started writing my blogs, I realised that I like each and every artist who were great in some aspect or the other.

When the Aaradhana tsunami came , there was no looking back for Kishore and he shot into the limelight he richly deserved. With RD Burman and Rajesh Khanna team strongly rooting for him, he started giving hits after hits with astounding speed and quality .  By this time , he practically stopped acting , directing , producing , writing, and even composing music -all the other skills he was good at,  but might have been diverting his attention away from his core competency. An  analysis of the number of films he acted and the number of songs he had sung in both these periods is interesting:

Period	No. of films acted	No. of songs          ( approx.)
1946-1969	74	363
1969-1987	13	2260

The perennial dilemma for me is how to select a few songs, say 25-30, from the vast ocean he left behind from 1969 to 1987. I know that many of my friends who are ardent  Kishore fans may feel that I have missed out some of their favourites but as I always say , these are my personal choices and I have to restrict the length of my blogs!

Song list is arranged chronologically based on the year of the film and  described in this sequence: Song-Film-Year of release-Music director-Lyricist-any co-singers

1. Roop tera mastana-Aaradhana-1969-S.D Burman-Anand Bakshi

The song that gave the biggest break of his career. Accordion, saxophone, and the thundering rhythm of Burman da, excellently picturised  in a single shot and with that so-sensual tone of Kishore…the most remembered song of Kishore.

2. Mere Naseeb mein ae dost-Do Raaste-1969-Lakshmikant-Pyarelal- Anand Bakshi

Laxmikant-Pyarelal come out with a superb song with a sombre tone .  Their  usually elaborate orchestration gives way for a very simple , soulful melody and Kishore excels in such sad songs also.

3. Woh Shaam Kuch Ajeeb Thi-Khamoshi- 1969-  Hemant Kumar-Gulzar

A haunting melody  from Hemant da, sung with a great intensity  by Kishore. Khamoshi was an intense film and in line with the mood of the film, Hemant da & Kishore da created  a masterpiece.

4. Teri duniya se hoke-Pavitra Paapi-1970-Prem Dhawan-Prem Dhawan

Prem Dhawan was an under-rated and not-so-recognised ,  multi-talented artist-choreographer, lyricist, and an occasional music composer also. This is a very famous song of Kishore picturized on a young Parikshit Sahni. The deep baritone of Kishore traverses from the low to high notes with that  natural , free style of singing , which was his greatest strength.

5.  Phoolon ke rang se-Prem Pujari-1970-S.D.Burman-Neeraj

Burman da had a great association with Kishore da and in fact considered him as a “ manas putra”-godson. Kishore da always gave his best for the senior Burman. Lyricist Neeraj wrote some great songs for S D Burman . Picturized in the beautiful Swiss alps, this  evergreen song  will remain as fresh as it was when composed 53 years ago!

6. Zindagi ka safar-Safar-1970-Kalyanji -Anandji-Indeevar

Kalyanji -Anandji were one of those rare composers who worked successfully right from the early 60’s and were able to quickly adapt to the changing style of music right up to the early 2000. Also, they composed excellent songs with all the three stalwarts-Rafi, Mukesh, and Kishore.

7. Geet gaata hoon mein-Lal Pathhar-1971-Shankar -Jaikishan-Dev Kohli

Shankar-Jaikishan and Kishore are a unique combination. They had very few songs together but whatever they composed for him were excellent and projected a totally different tone of Kishore . Sadly, in the popular realm, this combination is mostly ignored . Out of the duo , Shankar was always open to try other singers like Kishore and Manna Dey. After the unfortunate death of Jaikishan at a very young age of 40 , the industry totally ignored Shankar , but I keep discovering many gems from him which he composed individually, but always under the title of Shankar-Jaikishan . Whenever Shankar & Kishore  worked  together, what else can one expect than gems like this song Geet Gaata Hoon Mein.

8. Yeh jo mohabbat hai-Kati Patang-1971-R.D.Burman-Anand Bakshi

Apart from Aaradhana, there are two films that are known for Kishore’s fabulous songs : Amar Prem & Kati Patang. Any playlist of Kishore is bound to have this immensely popular song, that defines exactly  Kishore’s style of singing. That intoxicated ‘ yeh jo mohabbat hai’ is something that will remain etched forever in the film music world.

9. Zindagi ek safar hai suhana-Andaaz-1971-Shankar Jaikishan-Hasrat Jaipuri

There were many songs that had that famous yodelling of Kishore , but I consider this  one as one of the best ever  yodelling!! The very first strains of the prelude will announce fabulously that it is a S-J composition. That grand orchestration , the high-octane energy, and the furious rhythm-all typical S-J sytle. One more “ signature song” of Kishore da.

10. Dil aaj shayar-Gambler-1971-S.D.Burman-Neeraj

One of my favourite Kishore songs, this has that remarkable stamp of senior Burman, with Kishore  conveying the intense emotions written by the great poet Neeraj in an  impeccable way.

11. Koi hota jisko apna-Mere Apne-1971-Salil Choudhury-Gulzar

Salil da is well known for his intricate compositions. In his initial days he had composed some songs for Kishore that were  lighter tunes , mainly for those films which had Kishore as the actor. For Salil da , the main preferences were Talat, Mukesh and to a lesser extent Rafi. However, after hearing Kishore render this song that had intricate transitions from the lower to higher octaves and how Kishore da rendered them so effortlessly, it seems Salil da repented very much that he had not worked with Kishore da more .

One of my very favourite Kishore song-an absolute gem.

12. Tum kitni khoobsurat ho-Jangal Mein Mangal-1972-Shankar-Jaikishan-Hasrat Jaipuri & Neeraj

The humming at the beginning, and once again , those fabulous violins of S-J ,the way in which Shankar brings out the vibrato in Kishore da’s voice-all these make this a masterpiece. I am sure many Kishore fans might not have heard this rare song. I would request them to listen to this song and enjoy a different texture in Kishor’s voice.

13. Yeh kya hua kaise hua-Amar Prem-1972-R.D Burman-Anand Bakshi

Amar Prem had “ amar” songs of the Pancham da-Kishore da -Anand Bakshi troika who were a terrific team. Chingari koi bhadke, Kuch toh log kahenge are the other two immortal songs of this team in this film.

The voice modulation of Kishore da  perfectly fits the on-screen Rajesh Khanna. Pancham da’s superb use of the flute that keeps “ answering” Kishore’s queries and Anand Bakshi’s simple but powerful lines are just out of the world.

14. Oh mere dil ke chain-Mere Jeevan Sathi-1972-R.D Burman-Majroh Sultanpuri

The juggernaut of Pancham-Kishore-Rajesh Khanna continues….How can I describe this song except to say that it is an emotion that can only be felt.

The guitar and thundering percussion of Pancham joined with a santoor piece all add up to an evergreen number. The breezy style of Kishore da’s singing is in full glory.

15. Yeh Jeevan hai-Piya Ka Ghar-1972- Lakshmikant-Pyarelal -Anand Bakshi

The songs in which Kishore da slightly softens  his natural  baritone are simply nectar. LP for a change create a very soothing and soft tune with minimal orchestration that consists of mainly a  guitar. One of the greatest melodies from L-P & Kishore da.

16. Pal pal dil ke paas-Blackmail-1973-Kalyanji Anandji-Rajendra Krishan

The 4-5 years after Aaradhana saw Pancham, L-P and K-A vying with each other to give Kishore da their best creations. This one is again a perennial favourite of any Kishore fan and must definitely be among their  top ten . KA were also equally great in their percussions ; in this song the combination of guitar, violins and accordion complement the full-throated Kishore da’s free style singing.

17. Mere bheegi bheegi si-Anamika-1973-R.D.Burman-Majrooh

Another vintage Pancham-Kishore combo, this time with Majrooh and picturized on the great actor Sanjeev Kumar.

An iconic song. That slight breaking of voice in the word “ mann” at the end of first antara and again at the end of the song are Kishore’s USPs.

18. Mere dil mein aaj kya-Daag-1973-Laxmikant Pyarelal-Sahir Ludhianvi

Laxmi-Pyare come out with one more super hit for Kishore da. Their typical percussion that keeps pounding at your heart and at times, takes a strategic pause at certain places , where Kishore lowers his voice. These subtle variations in the orchestrations make the songs of the golden era evergreen.

19. Ghungroo ki tarah-Chor Machaye Shor-1974-Ravindra Jain

The blind music director cum lyricist Ravindra Jain composed some great songs with many singers. I can say he was the last one to continue the rich legacy of melody from  the golden era to the late 80’s.

Kishor delivers a pathos ridden song in his inimitable style.

20. Oh Hansini mere Hansini-Zehreela Insaan-1974-R.D Burman-Majrooh

One more personal favourite of mine. Pancham creates sheer magic with saxophone, accordion, flute  and guitar. The antara of the song is simply superb.

21. Dil Aisa Kisi Ne  Mera Thoda-Amanush-1975-Shyamal Mitra-Indeevar

Shyamal Mitra was a noted singer and  music composer who worked mainly in Bengali film music  . Amanush was his most noteworthy Hindi film and this famous song by Kishore da made Shyamal Mitra’s  name popular in HFM.

22. Tera bina zindagi se koi-Aandhi-1975-R.D Burman-Gulzar-With Lata

The first duet in my selection- I did not realise that all the songs I selected from the “top of my mind recall” were solos! This is a fabulous duet with Kishore making  a late entry. All the three duets from the film Aandhi are great. The other two mesmerizing duets are :

Is mod se jaate hain, kuch chust kadam rakhkar &

Tum aa gaye ho noor aa gaya hai

23. Badi sooni hai-Mili-1975-S.D.Burman-Yogesh

The last song composed by S D Burman, the recording of which he could not attend as he suffered a stroke and was in hospital. Few days later, on 31^st Oct 1975, Burman da passed away . Maybe the pain that Kishore might have felt while recording this song , knowing his mentor was in hospital , is reflected in the immense emotion he had put in this song. Remains one of Kishore da’s best sad song.

24. Tum bhi chalo-Zameer-1975- Sapan Chakravarty-Sahir Ludhianvi-With Asha

Sapan Chakravarty was a long-time assistant to Pancham da and also a singer in Bengali films. He had composed music for  a handful of Hindi films, and this one is the best among them. There are two versions of this song, and both are excellent. The fast one is a duet with Asha and there is a slower , solo version of Kishore. I have selected the former.

25. Chalo bhool jayen-Do Jhoot-1975-Shankar -Jaikishan-Vitthalbhai Patel-With Lata

The fourth S-J song in my list-one more hidden gem from Shankar. Somehow, being a great S-J fan, I cannot digest the popular perception that after Jaikishan’s demise , their music was not good. Of course , Shankar could give only few hits , but some of his compositions were too good and maybe the public could not appreciate. This is also a great Kishore-Lata duet.

26. Chalte chalte Mere Yeh Geet-Chalte Chalte-1976-Bappi Lahiri-Amit Khanna

Between the many fast paced, disco songs that Bappi Lahiri was famous for, he had composed some great sober songs. This song had become a sort of epitaph for Kishore da…no one can ever say ‘alvida’ to his songs. I prefer the audio only link instead of the video of the song.

27. Rimjhim gire sawan-Manzil-1979-R.D. Burman-Yogesh Gawde

Whenever one thinks of the famous rain songs in HFM, this will always be there at the top.

28. Chhookar mere man ko-Yaarana-1981-Rajesh Roshan-Anjaan

I end this blog with , what I consider , as one of the best by Kishore in his latter days. The soft tone of his voice gently caresses you like a cool breeze. Excellent composition by Rajesh Roshan, son of the legendary Roshan Lal Nagrath.

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer:
The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been mentioned here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights. I sincerely thank the publishers of following  Internet sources  for the information that I could gather for this article

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia

This year on 31^st July , it will be 43 years since the great singer Mohammad Rafi, always Rafi Sahab for his countless admirers,  departed from this world at the age of 55 , leaving behind a rich legacy of immortal songs. Even after more than 4 decades  of his demise, he is still alive through his immortal songs.

If we look at Rafi’s  songs, approximately 6000 in number, around 50 % of them , he sang for those music directors , who were not among the top dozen in the Hindi film industry. This  reflects his great  personality. He was always there to help  the upcoming, lesser-known music directors, many-a-times even singing for a very low remuneration or even a token one rupee.

In this article I am going to focus on some of his great songs that he had sung for those composers , who may fall into a unique category. These composers  fall into a category which is neither consisting of the topmost, very successful and well-known  dozen   nor were totally obscure or unknown.

They were  extremely talented , composed excellent songs and many-a-times were commercially successful also, but only few discerning listeners might  have heard their names. Now this could be a contentious topic  as many discerning  music lovers may not agree  when they see the names of some great composers included by me in this category. I am making it very clear that this categorization   is not in any way  reflecting on the quality of their music. In fact, some of them like Jaidev and Vasant Desai deserve to be among the top most, but it is a bitter fact that somehow they could not get the fame they richly deserved . Only the very serious Hindi film music lovers would be able to identify these composer’s names after listening to their songs.  

A common factor that cuts across all these categories is our dear Rafi Sahab. The reason why Rafi sahib’s name is remembered with respect is that he never bothered much about  whether he is singing for a leading composer, actor or for some relatively unknown composers or actor. He gave his best even for a debutant music composer. The passion and dedication with which he rendered his songs remained the same .

On his 43^rd anniversary, let us look at some of his great songs ,some very popular, some may not be so popular , which he sang for some of those  composers.

I am sequencing them in the alphabetical order of the music composer’s name , with a very brief sketch about them. Due to the constraint of making the blog reasonably short, I am giving only a very brief sketch of the composers -some of them will be covered in detail in my future blogs.

In  these songs you will be able to listen to the multiple tones/genres in which Rafi showcases his immense variety is singing , making him one of the most versatile singers ever.

Song name-Film-Year-Lyricist -Any co-singers are mentioned in that order.

1. Dattaram Wadkar( 1929- 7^th June 2007)

Chun chun karti aayee chidiya-Ad Dilli Door Nahin-1957-Shailendra-Rafi solo

Dattaram Wadkar  was the man behind those fabulous percussion in the songs of  famous duo Shankar-Jaikishan. Even after composing as an independent composer , he continued to work for Shankar-Jaikishan. In his long association with Shankar-Jaikishan, he gave that  special touch to the  percussion in SJ’s music,  which later became a byword as “ Dattu theka.” His first film as an independent composer was  Ab Dilli Door Nahin. Rafi’s Chun Chun Karti Aayee chidiya is a beautiful song that appears to be tailor-made for Rafi . In such songs, Rafi becomes a child himself and literally “ lives” the song. Note  the way he modulates his voice throughout the song. That was his trademark.

2. Datta Naik -Popularly known as N Dutta-( 12^th Dec 1927-30^th Dec 1987)

Maine chaand aur sitaron ki tamanna-Chandrakaanta-1956-Sahir Ludhianvi-Rafi solo

Datta Naik was born in 1927 in Aroba , a small village in Goa. At the age of 12, he ran away from his family and came to Mumbai. His talent was noticed by  Sachin Dev Burman and he  employed him as his assistant. N. Datta also developed a notable career as an independent composer. His compositions were a beautiful mix of  melody and excellent orchestration. The noted  lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi was  his close friend & associate and the songs both created  together are among some of the masterpieces of Hindi Film Music. The iconic song Maine Chand Aur Sitaron ki tamanna kee thi , sung soulfully by Rafi remains one of N Dutta’s landmark songs. If you hear this song just after listening to the one listed in # 1, you can only wonder at the voice modulation of Rafi Sahab—he was well known for the extraordinary way he could emote the song.

3. Ghulam Mohammad ( 1903-17^th March 1968)

Hum tum yeh bahaar dekho rang-Amber-1952-Shakeel Badayuni-Rafi with Lata

Hai Baski Har Ek Unke Ishare-Mirza Ghalib-1954-Mirza Ghalib-Rafi solo

Ghulam Mohammed was born in Bikaner, Rajasthan, into a family of musicians.

He first became an assistant, to music director, Naushad in Kardar Productions, and worked with him and the veteran film composer Anil Biswas, for over 12 years, before composing independently, in the film ‘Tiger Queen’ (1947). Even after becoming an independent composer, he continued working as assistant to Naushad .

Despite being a very accomplished music composer, commercial success eluded him always, and it was more tragic that he could not live to see his last film Pakeezah becoming a super hit mainly for its immortal music. In honour of this veteran , I have selected two songs of Rafi-one a lilting melodious duet with Lata and the other  , a solo from the film   Mirza Ghalib the music of which has been considered among the best of Ghulam Mohammad.

4. Hansraj Behl ( 19^th Nov 1916-20^th May 1984)

Mohabbat zinda rehti hai-Changez Khan-1957-Qamar Jalalabadi-Rafi solo

Hansraj Behl was born on 19 November 1916 in Shaikhpura (near Rawalpindi,  Pakistan) to Nihal Chand Behl. Like any other artist of that time , he  came to Bombay in the year 1944  to try his luck in Hindi film industry, along with his younger brother Gulshan Behl and Verma Malik, ( Varma Malik would go on to become a prominent lyricist) . His first film  as an independent music director was in 1946 with Ardeshir Irani’s film -Pujari. In a career spanning 33 years,  he went on to give music for about 70 films up to Badshahon Ka Badshah (1979), composing approximately  530 songs.

The patriotic hit, “Jahan Daal Daal Pe Sone Ki Chidiya Karti Hai Basera..” sung by Mohammed Rafi in the film Sikandar-e-Aazam (1965), starring Prithviraj Kapoor remains  one of his last memorable numbers and is an integral part of any Independence day / Republic day celebrations in our country.

Rafi had sung many songs for him and the song Mohabbat Zinda Rehti Hai from the film Changez Khan is a classic example for the skills of Hansraj Behl and Rafi , who , as usual goes to the highest notes with so much of ease.

5. Husnlal-Bhagatram ( Husnlal-8^th Apr 1920-28^th Dec 1968; Bhagatram-1914-29^th Nov 1973)

Beqaraar Hai Koi Aa Mere Dildar Aa-Shama Parwaana-1954-Majrooh Sultanpuri-Rafi with Suraiya

Husnlal-Bhagatram are the ones who became the first well-known duo music composers in Hindi film music. Husnlal was fond of  violin, and could also sing while  Bhagatram was an ace harmonium player. Though Bhagatram initially composed alone, it was only after  the brothers formed the duo Husnlal-Bhagatram,  they got their success. They scored some of the best songs for the great singer-actress Suraiya  in the period  1948-51 . Duets were their forte  and

I have selected a rare Rafi-Suraiya duet from the film Shama Parwana. The unique aspect of this song is the exquisite alaap that both Rafi & Suraiya perform, almost breathless, in one go.

6. Jaidev Varma ( 3^rd Aug 1918-6^th Jan 1987)

Kabhi khud pe kabhi haalat pe-Hum Dono-1961-Sahir Ludhianvi-Rafi solo

Jaidev Varma , always known by his  mononym  Jaidev , was born on  August 3, 1918 in Nairobi Kenya. His initial  fascination was to become an actor and so he ran away at the age of 15 to Bombay. Luckily for his numerous fans , he was not successful and it was then he realised  music was his real forte. Once he joined as assistant to SD Burman, he made his name.

As an independent music director, he got his break with Joru Ka Bhai (1955), but it was the Dev Anand-starrer Hum Dono that made the world notice  him.  The music of Hum Dono remains a classic  till today and may survive for years to come. One can understand how quality was predominant in his music , when we see that in a career spanning three decades, he scored music for just under 40 films!. A unique achievement of Jaidev was to bag three National awards for best music with a repertoire of just 40 films- a feat no one has been able to match.

Kabhi Khud Pe, Kabhi Halaat Pe Rona aaya remains one of my personal favourites. Once shall definitely get mesmerized with  Rafi rendition of   the phrase  “ ronaaaaaa aaya” , in a way only he could do.

7. Khayyam ( 18^th Feb 1927-19^th Aug 2019)

Aur Kuchh Der Thehar -Aakhri Khat-1966-Kaifi Aazmi-Rafi solo

Kahin Ek Masoom Nazuk Si Ladki -Shankar Hussain-1977-Kamal Amrohi-Rafi solo

Mohammad Zahoor Khayyam Hashmi was born on 18^th February, 1927 in Rahun, Punjab. Like most of the artists of those times, he initially tried his hand in becoming an actor , but failed. Later he got his musical training under Pt Amarnath ( elder brother of Husnlal-Bhagatram) . He became an assistant to music director Baba Chisti . In 1953, with the film Footpath , he got fame for the evergreen Talat Mehmood ghazal Shaam-E-Gham ki kasam.  He was one of the few music composers who started off as early as the late 40’s and went on to compose even as late as  2014, a career of almost 66 years!! His last memorable music was for the 1983 film Razia Sultan.

In the early days of his career, he composed fantastic music, especially with Rafi . I have chosen two  songs; one from the early years and one from the latter.

Aur Kuch Der Tehar mainly for the superb modulation by Rafi with the word “ Tehar.” In the early days of Rajesh Khanna, Rafi had sung some superb melodious songs for him  and this is one of them, though many may not be aware of  this.

Kahin Ek Masoom Nazuk si ladki is one of those songs that one can say,  were composed or created only for Rafi. They take you into a different world, with Rafi’s  impeccable Urdu diction and intonation and a honey-laced voice.

8.. Prem Dhawan ( 13^th June 1923-7^th May 2001)

Ae watan ae watan humko-Shaheed-1965-Prem Dhawan-Rafi solo

Allah Hi Allah Kar Pyare Bhai-Pavitra Papi-1970-Prem Dhawan-Rafi solo

Prem Dhawan was born on 13 June 1923 at Ambala, Haryana  to a Jail Superintendent working for the British government. Starting off as an assistant to the  composer Khwaja Khurshid Anwar in Khwaja Ahmad Abbas’s film Aaj Aur Kal, his association the renowned classical musician, Ravi Shankar enabled him to  learn classical music. He started off as a lyricist in 1946 with the movie, Dharti Ke Lal,  and went on to become a very successful lyricist.. A real multi-talented artist , apart from being a music composer & lyricist , he was also a successful choreographer. It is very rare to see such a bundle of talents.

One of the most famous patriotic songs that is played everywhere during our Independence and Republic days is Rafi’s Ae watan, Ae watan Humko Teri Kasam and this is bound to be my first choice. Incidentally, Prem Dhawan had composed many patriotic songs as a lyricist.

The second song , Allah Hi Allah , Kar pyare bhai I have selected is rarely heard, reason for which I am not able to comprehend as it is a superb one with very profound lyrics written by Prem Dhawan himself. Whenever I watch this song, I get a feeling that Rafi must have been inspired by  that fakir , behind whom he used to keep walking when he was a child. Note the tone in which he sings is exactly like that of a fakir!

9.Sajjad Husain ( 15^th Jun 1917-21^st July 1995)

Phir Tumhari Yaad Aayee Ae Sanam-Rustom Sohrab-1963-Qamar Jalalabadi-Rafi with Manna Dey and S D Batish

Sajjad Husain is a name that is well known among the serious music lovers and could be the only one , whose name is taken with so much reverence even by his peers and competitors despite having composed music for just about 14  films in a career of 34 years!  He was born in 1917 in Sitamau, a village  Madhya Pradesh  as the youngest child among nine. The young Sajjad  got an exposure to music at the durbar of the Rajah for whom his father was a tailor and soon he  started learning music. By the time he was in his teens, he could play the sitar , violin, flute ,  piano and was also an accomplished mandolin player. He is considered to be one of the most original music composers in Hindi film music.

Among his  early films , Sangdil’s songs like Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh Chandini , Dil mein sama gaye sajan  became very popular and are liked even today. His magnum opus was Rustom Sohrab released in 1963 and the intricate compositions of this film are without any parallel. This one film is enough to retain his name among the glorious composers of Hindi film music. Rafi had just a handful of songs with him , but as everyone knows, he could grab whatever little is given to him and make it into classics. The triad song Rafi had with Manna Dey and S.D Batish in Rustom Sohrab has all the three singers at their best and is a classic example of the unique style of Sajjad.

10. Shri  Nath  Tripathi, known as S.N.Tripathi ( 14^th Mar 1913-28^th Mar 1988)

Parwar Digar-E-Alam Tera Hi Hai Sahara-Hatimtai-1956-Akhtar Romani-Rafi solo

Na kisiki aankh ka noor hoon-Lal Quila-1960- Bahadur Shah Zafar ( Muztar Khairabadi?)** -Rafi solo

SN Tripathi was born on 14^th March 1913 ,  in a traditional Brahmin family in Banaras.  His strong  grounding in Hindi literature and Sanskrit  was a legacy from his family . After his primary education in  Marris College, Lucknow (now known as Bhatkhande Music Institute) , he was noticed by Saraswati Devi, the famous music director with the Bombay Talkies. Soon after he began his career as  a violinist assisting music director Saraswati Devi at Bombay Talkies. His music was an eclectic mix of Classical and folk music. Apart from being a music composer he also acted in few films in his early days and even directed few films.

Rafi sang some excellent songs for him . I have selected two gems-one from the 1956 film Hatimtai that is an excellent Na’at and the eternal Na Kisi Ki Aankh Ka Noor Hoon.

** The actual lyricist is  debated between the two-since I am not an authority , I have mentioned both names.

11. Sonik-Omi ( Manohar Lal Sonik:1925- 9^th Jul 1993  &  Om Prakash Sonik: 1937-   7^th Jul 2016)

Kaliyon ne ghoonghat khole-Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya-1966-G L Rawal-Rafi solo

Donon Ne Kiya Tha Pyaar Magar-Mahua-1969-Qamar Jalalabadi-Rafi solo

Sonik–Omi were a music  composer duo consisting of Manohar Lal Sonik, who was blind  and his nephew Om Prakash Sonik.  Manohar Lal, later, initially worked with composer Pt. Amarnath, as an assistant. Om Prakash was a chorus singer and then assistant to music director Roshan before branching off as a music director. The uncle-nephew duo debuted with Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya in 1966 and almost all the songs in this film were great hits.  Few other films like Mahua and Sawan Bhadon also had good songs , but still they were mostly relegated to low budget films. With the death of Manohar Lal Sonik in 1993, their career almost ended with  Om Prakash mostly restricting himself certain non-film and private albums, religious music, and other genres of music.

Rafi, in his usual style, always gives his best  for all music composers, be it top-notch composers or debutants. I am listing the peppy “ Kaliyon ne ghooghat khole” and pathos-filled “ Donon ne kiya tha pyaar magar.”  One unique aspect of the song Donon Ne Kiya is that it has a two-minute postlude …normally songs have elaborate preludes . An excellent orchestration of Sonik -Omi.

12. Usha Khanna( Born 7^th Oct 1941)

Maine Rakha hai mohabbat-Shhabnam-1964-Javed Anwar-Rafi solo

Usha Khanna (born 7 October 1941) is the  third female music director to enter the Hindi film industry, after Jaddan Bai and Saraswati Devi  and is the most famous female music composer as the earlier two belonged to the vintage era ( pre-1940’s) . A heartening fact is that she is one of the most commercially successful music directors in the male dominated music industry. She remained active in film music for more than 3 decades from 1960s to 1980s and even later was active with some non-film albums, appearance as judge in TV music shows.

She was  born in Gwalior, and her father, Manohar Khanna, was a lyricist and singer, and was also working as Assistant Superintendent in the Water Works Department in the then Gwalior State. He had also written few songs under the pseudonym Javed Anwar, in collaboration with another lyricist Anwar. Usha Khanna herself also sang a few songs as a playback singer.  Rafi renders a scintillating Arabian style melody “ Maine Rakha hai mohabbat.” The opening lines with Rafi elaborating the phrase “ Ya Habibi” is just something out of the world!

13. Vasant Desai ( 9^th Jun 1912-22^nd Dec 1975)

Jeevan Mein Piya Tere Saath Rehe-Goonj Uthi Shehnai-1959-Bharat Vyas-Rafi with Lata

Kehdo Koi Na Kare Yahan Pyaar- Goonj Uthi Shehnai-1959-Bharat Vyas-Rafi solo

Vasant Desai was born 9^th  June 1912 into a wealthy family in Sonawade village, Savantwadi , near Goa . His music interest was influenced by his mother Mukta Bai and her father , Baba Bhaskar Parulekar , who was a Kirtan singer . Not much interested in studies , he started playing some small roles in the Marathi folk theatre . After shifting to Kolhapur, which was a centre for great music , he learnt classical music from many gurus.

Vasant Desai’s association with V. Shantaram continued for many years , with many hit songs  till they had some mis-understanding in the ‘50s. Later , Vasant Desai continued his journey with many others. He was active till 1975, when in a very sad , freak accident while getting into the lift in his apartment , he passed away on 22^nd Dec , 1975.

He was one of the very few composers who had begun their career in early 40’s and continued till the late 70’s. He will always be remembered for bringing to the film world , the legendary singer Vani Jayaram, with her song in Guddi             ( 1971) , Bole Re Papihara , making her famous all over India overnight. One of these days, I will write a separate blog on him and his music as it cannot be restricted to few paragraphs.

Once Vasant Desai had commented that Rafi was a Gandharva ( celestial singer) , who was sent to the earth! He had composed around 35 songs for Rafi , prominent among them being ‘ Jeevan Mein Piya Tera Saath Rahe” , Keh Do Koi Na Kare Yahan Pyaar” , Teri Shehnai Bole -all from the film Goonj Uthi Shehnai and Pyaar Ki pyaas ( Kya Dharthi Aur Kya Aakash) from the film Pyar Ki Pyaas. The songs I have selected here are :

Rafi’s superb rendition in Kehdo Koi Na Kare Yahan Pyaar.

          A scintillating duet by Rafi and Lata-Jeevan Mein Piya Tera Saath Rahe-the way Vasant Desai composed the initial alaap by Rafi and Lata is something very unique and just a handful of songs might have had such a fantastic start.

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer:
The songs mentioned are from the popular , public domain and  have been mentioned or embedded  only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights. .I sincerely thank the publishers of following  Internet sources & book  for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia
3. Book: Yesterdays Melodies , Today’s Memories by Manek Premchand

??  1910 – 20 November 1963

I am trying to write about a musical genius who had passed away even before I was born! Further, I have listened to only few of his songs and so have a very limited awareness about his music. But still I am going ahead as I feel such genius should never be forgotten . Along with few other illustrious contemporaries in the period 1930-60’s he had paved the way for setting high standards in Tamil film music of those times , that was strongly rooted in classical music but at the same time could be appreciated by the general public.

Gopalan Iyer Ramanathan , G Ramanathan ( for simplicity we will henceforth refer to as GR in this article)  is also known as Isai Methai (Genius of Music) or Sangeetha Chakravarthy (Emperor of Music) and is  one of the most influential Tamil music composers to take Carnatic music to the masses. He had pioneered the art of combining the classical Carnatic music with the style required for film music and  made them more popular. One can say for sure that  he  paved the way in which many other illustrious composers, later travelled,  like Vishwanathan -Ramamoorthy, K V Mahadevan , Ilayaraja, A R Rehman etc. He was not only a master in the classical genre, but could compose foot-tapping jazz , pop, rock and roll  styles and  composed some of the greatest hits based on raaga and thala maaligai ( multiple raagam and thaalam in same song).

In a career that  lasted until his death in 1963, he composed for around 85 Tamil movies  and even few other language movies. In the  1950s , his music played a vital role in popularizing  both the leading stars of Tamil films , i.e. M.G. Ramachandran  and Sivaji Ganesan.

It reflects badly on how we keep records of our legendary artists when we find that we do not even know the exact birth date of GR; it is estimated to be in the year 1910!! He  was born in Bikshandarkoil, Srirangam, Tamil Nadu. GR’s father was Gopalsamy Iyer who worked as sub-inspector in the Indian Railways. At a young age he lost his parents and was taken care by his elder brother Sundara Bhagawathar. GR could have schooling only until standard 5. He married Jeyalakshmi in 1942 and had two daughters – Sai and Lakshmi.

Having learnt to play  harmonium at the age of 18, he joined the Baratha Gana Saba, the V. A. Chellappa Drama company, and did some  playback and played harmonium. From the year 1936, GR started assisting the veteran music director-lyricist Papanasam Sivan and for many films , he was put in charge of the orchestration, while the tunes were composed by Papanasam Sivan. Many famous films that were musical hits and starred  the legendary actor-singer M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, like Sivakavi, Haridas etc. had this team of Sivan and GR. Later GR got associated as a resident music director for the Modern Theatres since the beginning except a few which were done by K. V. Mahadevan.

GR , although did not have much formal training in carnatic music, had a great passion and liking towards carnatic music and honed his skills more by “Kelvi Gnanam” (learning by listening). Almost all the yester year singers had sung for GR . The famous singer  T. M. Soundararajan used to say that  if one could sing to the satisfaction and the tune of GR you could easily sing for the tune of any music director in any part of the world. GR’s last film that he worked on fully  was Deivathin Deivam by K. S. Gopalakrishnan. He died of a heart attack during composing for the film Arunagirinathar, which was later completed by  T. R. Pappa.

I have tried my best to showcase 25 gems from this great maestro. It was a truly great experience for me to explore his music that I was not much aware till the time of writing this blog. I always wonder, when I discover such exceptional music of yesteryears, how these would have sounded if they had good recording , mixing audio technology! With most primitive tools, they could create such masterpieces!

Listing based on chronological order of the film release, with song , film, year of release, lyricist, and singer(s) in that order:

1. Manmatha Lellaiai vendraar undo ( some places it is credited to GR fully but in some as assistant to Papanasam Sivan)-Haridas -1944-Papanasam Sivan-M K Thyagaraja Bhagavatar

The first “ superstar” of Tamil films-M K Thyagaraja Bhagavatar’s iconic song. Even now , in Tamil music scene, any talk about romanticism will refer to this song.  It is supposed to be most popular film song set in the Charukesi raagam. For a song composed in 1944, just hear those subtle touches of a pause in between ( with even a blasphemous “ kiss” thrown-one could imagine what a sensation it must have created those days).  The interlude that comes after the first charanam  must have been the work of GR. It is very rare to hear such a long interlude in those times.

2. Vaarai nee vaarai-Manthiri Kumari-1950-A Maruthakasi- Tiruchi Loganathan & Jikki

Manthiri Kumari was one of the early films that propelled the career of MGR . This song , however is picturized not on him but  on S A Natarajan ,  who plays a negative role . The very subtle guitar played at the start of the song , the intricate humming in the song by both the legends Tiruchi Loganathan ( who was incidentally the first playback singer in Tamil when almost all others were singer-actors ) and Jikki. Simple orchestration , but a very catchy tune that remains as fresh as it was composed 73 years ago!

3.Ulavum thendral kaatrinile- Manthiri Kumari-1950-A Maruthakasi- Tiruchi Loganathan & Jikki

Those days songs picturized on boat were very popular . In this one can appreciate the immense talent of GR who had even used a counter melody, a western waltz rhythm throughout the song, with a trumpet  piece at the right places. Put on a headphone and enjoy the intricate tabla patterns that was a trademark of GR.

Maruthakasi reigned at the top during the early years of Tamil film music- a sample of his exquisite poetry

தெளிந்த நீரை போன்ற தூய காதல் கொண்டோம் நாம்

களங்கம் அதிலும் காணுவாய்

கவனம் வைத்தே பார்

குதர்க்கம் பேசி என்னை மயக்க எங்கு கற்றீறொ

உனது கடைக்கண் பார்வை காட்டும் பாடம் தண்னிலே

உலக வாழ்க்கை ஆற்றினிலே

காதல் என்னும் தோணி தன்னில் ஊர்ந்து  செல்லுவோம்

4. Yeratha malaithanile -Thooku thooki film-1954-Thanjai N Ramaiah Das-T.M Soundararajan

This was the film that brought the immortal pair of Sivaji Ganesan and TMS. It is said that till that time C S Jayaraman was the preferred singer for Sivaji and when GR brought in TMS , initially Sivaji was apprehensive. TMS had offered to sing the songs for free and only if they were liked by Sivaji , he may be paid. After listening to the songs, Sivaji was so much impressed that there was no looking back and TMS became his almost permanent voice.

As usual GR , composes a song that song has different melodies , with a strong folk base,  changing the tempo seamlessly. It may not be a surprise if you get up and start dancing after listening to this. Sivaji , in his inimitable style , does a perfect job of enacting the song on screen.

5. Sundari Soundari  Nirandariye -Thooku thooki film-1954- A Maruthakasi-TMS & P Leela -A P Komala

Based on Kurinji raagam, this is a very serene and pure classical number , sung in perfect synchronization by the legendary P Leela and A. P Komala, and  an upcoming  TMS chipping in , with comical expressions by the thespian Sivaji Ganesan.

• 6. Vaanga machan vaanga-/Thedi vandhene pullimaane-Madurai Veeran-1956- Thanjai Ramiah Das-TMS & P Leela

We will be looking at  many such “ composite” or “ complex” tunes composed by the musical genius GR. This is an early sample of such unique melodies  from this master. Starting off in a typical folk style, GR uses just a dholak and an innovative clapping to give a peppy song.  P Leela , known for her classical expertise , renders a fast, folksy number. Not to be left behind ,  TMS renders  a pure classical  second part of the song “ Thedi vandene pulli mane.” In the early days , MGR had a totally different style and enacts the song in his inimitable style.

• 7. Nadagamellam Kanden -Madurai veeran film-1956—Kannadasan-TMS& Jikki

While listening to many songs of GR for writing this blog, I kept discovering more and more gems. From the same film , Madurai Veeran, one more pleasing duet by TMS & Jikki. Note the extensive & intricate  alaapanai that makes up the first charanam, with only a harmonium  accompanying! Only a musical genius can think of such compositions.

• 8. Sindhanai Sei Maname-Ambikapathy-1957-K.D.Santhanam-TMS

Considered by many as one of the best songs composed in Kalyani raagam, this is a milestone in the career of TMS. GR creates a beautiful Kalyani , keeping the interludes and orchestration to the bare minimum. The unique tabla pattern ( popularly called as Tabla nadai)  of GR and impeccable rendition of TMS are  just enough to elevate the song to a great height.

• 9. Vadivelum Mayilum Thunai- Ambikapathy-1957-Kannadasan ( and also K D Santhanam , Ku Ma Balasubramaniam for the later part of the songs?-not clear)-T M Soundararajan

Long before many modern singers made their “ breathless” songs more famous, with only primitive recording techniques, GR and TMS gave us , maybe the first breathless Tamil film song. Starting from the lines “ தாபமிகு வெப்பு வானமொடு” till  தமிழ்மாலை தனைச் சூடுவான் he sings the entire portion in one breath. Just imagine this was done  in 1957, without any technical tools to help!. It is a pity that such songs are almost forgotten by a majority. I place my sincere appreciation and acknowledge my thanks to Ms Subashree Thanikachalam to pay  tribute  to such songs in her QFR series in her  Youtube channel.  

தாபமிகு வெப்பு வானமொடு பித்த மான பிணி மொய்த்து உடம்போடு

தாபமிகு வெப்பு வானமொடு பித்த மான பிணி மொய்த்து உடம்போடு

சாருமுயிர் துன்ப சாகரமுழன்று சாதனை இழந்து வருந்தாவுன்

சாருமுயிர் துன்ப சாகரமுழன்று சாதனை இழந்து வருந்தாவுன்

தாளையளித்திட வேணுமெனத் துதிமாடனருணகிரி நாதனழைத்திட

தயவுடன் இசைந்து அருள்மழை பொழிந்து

முத்தைத்தரு பத்தித் திருநகையென

முதலடி உதைத்த தழைத்த கருணையை

நினைந்து நினைந்து கவிமலர் தொடுத்த

தமிழ்மாலை தனைச் சூடுவான் – கொன்றைத்

தளிர்மாலை மலர் மாலை ஜெபமாலையுடன் சந்தத்

தமிழ்மாலை தனைச் சூடுவான்

GR was a master in raagamalikai songs and this one starts off with  Manirangu ragam and then moves on to Kambhoji raagam followed by  Kedara Gowlai & Gowlai.

{ The story behind this great song is that the king challenges  Ambikapathi , son of the illustrious Tamil poet Kambar, to sing 100 devotional songs in succession, the King shall give his daughter Amaravathi’s hand in marriage. If he failed in this challenge, he would be executed forthwith. Amaravathi visits Ambikapathi in prison that night and urges caution. Ambikapathi laughs away her fears, assuring her that he is wholly confident of his own capabilities. A relieved Amaravathi says that she would be counting the songs, and would appear before him at the end of the ordeal.

The court assembles next day at the vasantha madapam, and in the august presence of the King, ministers, and scholars, Ambikapathy commences his soiree with a short invocation to Saraswathi, the Goddess of learning. Amaravathi mistakenly counts this as one of the hundred songs, and so at the end of the 99th song, she appears happily in front of Ambikapathi to signal his victory. Overjoyed at sighting his beloved, and thinking that he has completed the hundred songs, Ambikapathy bursts into a verse in praise of Amaravathi’s appearance. Rising with grim satisfaction, Ottakoothar points out that only 99 devotional songs had been sung, and hence Ambikapathy has lost the challenge. Kamban’s anguish-filled plea for clemency falls on deaf ears, as the King orders the death sentence to be carried out. Ambikapathi is put to death, and the grief-stricken Amaravathi too dies and their souls unite in heaven}

10. Kannile Iruppathenna Kanni- Ambikapathy-1957-KD Santhanam -P Bhanumathi

The film Ambikapathy had around 27 songs-some were just a few lines. GR proved his mettle by composing some of the best songs . This one by the singing star P Bhanumathi who had a unique powerful voice is one of her best.

11. Masila Nilave Nam Kadhalai- Ambikapathy-1957-Ku Ma Balasubramaniam-TMS & P Bhanumathi

A trademark Raagamaligai by GR. Starting off with Maand ragam that extends to the first charanam , then a westernized waltz  in the second charanam and finally  at the end a mesmerizing Punnagavarali which is generally associated with the snake-charming tune-GR stitches together all these three different themes seamlessly, that results in an evergreen song which sounds fresh even today.

12. Thaen Kuyil Pole Isaipaadum-Pudhu Vaazhu-1957-A Maruthakasi-MKT & Jikki

(GR  Composed this along with another  music director-C N Pandurangan)

While looking at many songs of GR in the Net, I came across this song that must have been the last film of the first superstar of Tamil films- M K Thyagaraja Bhagavatar. After listening to this , I was mesmerized by the unique tune that , in my opinion ,  was far ahead of its times. Even today if this song is recreated ( not remixed!!) , it could be a hit. One more uniqueness of this song is that it must be the only duet of MKT with the venerable singer  Jikki ( P G Krishnaveni). I am sure those who listen to this song would like to listen again and again. It is an absolutely intoxicating melody.

The way the song starts with  a very abrupt “ தேன்” and in the first charanam “வான்” makes it so unique. The preludes and interludes are also unusually long for those times. Simple instruments , but great orchestration! Both MKT & Jikki render the song with stunning alaapanais interspersed in between.

13.Yaradi Nee Mohini-Uthamaputhiran – 1958-Ku Ma Balasubramanian-TMS, Jikki, Jamuna Rani, A P Komala

We now come to what one can call the iconic song of GR. This is the one that comes to anyone’s mind immediately while talking of GR’s songs. Normally I avoid repeating a song if it was already mentioned in earlier blogs -but this one must be an exception. I had included this in my blog on the 25 great composers in Tamil film music  . But it will be a sacrilege if I leave this out in GR’s top songs list.

Far ahead of his times, GR was truly a pioneer to have composed this complex song with folk, jazz, rock and roll and an extra-ordinary orchestration. Despite being almost 6 min song, it will keep you engrossed till the end. It is said that around 70 plus musicians were used in the orchestration, that was rehearsed for 4 days. The choreography , with stylish acting by the one and only Sivaji Ganesan, this song will survive hundreds of years and  is enough to keep the name of GR flying high.

14.Kathiruppan Kamala Kannan- Uthamaputhiran – 1958-Sundara Vadyar-P Leela

Uthamaputhiran was a magnum opus for GR . What a great variety he provided in the songs!

From the boisterous Yaaradi Nee Mohini to a pure classical Kaathiruppan Kamala Kannan in the divine voice of P Leela. One more raagamaligai ( there seems to be an unending treasure of raagamaligais from GR) , with multiple violins played by classical musicians and that distinctive tabla of GR. One Mr. Bhairavan used to  play the tabla for  GR for most of his songs. Personally I had the privilege of meeting this gentleman when I was in Chennai.

15.Mullai Mele Moikkum Vandu Pole- Uthamaputhiran – 1958- A Maruthakasi -TMS & P Susheela

Any discussion on GR and Uthamaputhiran cannot be complete without this immortal romantic gem. P Susheela had said on many occasions that this film was one of the  major turning points in her career. Whenever the best songs picturized on lovers rowing a boat on a moonlit night are listed, this one would be at the top. Not to leave TMS who excelled in the high notes with lines “ Minnal urumaari man mele kanniyai pole “ and once again “ Sindhai nilai maarinadhale yenthan munnale.” There is a beautiful flute that keeps playing in perfect synchronization throughout the song.

16.Mannulagellam Ponnulagaga Maaridum-Uthamaputhiran-1958-Ku.Ma. Balasubramaniam- Jikki & P Susheela

I have mentioned this point in my earlier blogs also that any song that has the horse-beat rhythm is bound to be a super hit. There is always some magic! A rare Susheela -Jikki duet. The alaapanai by both are simply out of this world. It is a pity that gradually songs like these are mostly getting faded from public memory.

17.Un Azhagai Kanniyargal- Uthamaputhiran -1958—K. S Gopalakrishnan-P Susheela

A superb dance number by the great Padmini and matching her gymnastic dance movements is Susheela’s vocal gymnastics. The song takes on a fast tempo towards the end the way she takes the intricate alaap is just amazing!

18.Vasantha Mullai Pole Vandhu Asaindhu Aadum-Sarangadhara-1958-A Maruthakasi-TMS

If M K Thaygaraja Bhagavatar rendered a master piece Manmatha leelaiyai vendraar in Charukesi raagam, it was the turn of his successor TMS to give us one more gem of a Charukesi. The high notes at “ Indira vil neeye” is TMS’ forte and GR brings out the best in him.

19.Inbam pongum Vennila-Veera Pandiya Kattabomman-1959-Ku Ma Balasubramaniam-P B Sreenivas & P Susheela

For a struggling singer PBS, this was a turning point in his career. GR shows his mettle with a light music song , which no doubt remains rooted in classical base. Those beautiful brief pauses in the song  with a question-answer “ Yennai kandu?,” “Yenni -yenni?”  with a  guitar playing  in the background are some genius touches of GR. The entire song gives a feel of a whiff of fresh air gently caressing us. Both PBS and PS excel in those intricate alaap in the charanams. Parallel to PBS & PS ‘s duet , there is an exquisite duet orchestrated by GR between the sitar and clarinet. And above all, that famous Bhairavan’s   tabla nadai completes the song with a flourish.

20.Vanamevum Rajakumara-Raja Desingu-1960-Thanjai Ramiah Das- Seerkazhi ,Jikki ,C S Jayaraman & P Bhanumathi

If we go through the songs of GR , we understand  how he had composed some of the best songs for almost all the legendary yester year singers. For a normally “ devotional song expert Seerkazhi Govindarajan” , GR offers a superb romantic number to him. All the four singers, Seerkazhi, Jikki, C S Jayaraman ( surprisingly singing for MGR!) and P Bhanumathi  freak out during the charanam with their mastery in alaap. GR takes us through a differing pace in this song, starting off with a fast pace in the Pallavi  and then slowing down in the charanam to just the singer and a harmonium in perfect synchronization and then picks up speed , slowing down in between…a roller-coaster experience!

Enjoy this lilting quartet!

21.Vellippani Malayin Meedhulavuvom-Kappalottiya Thamizhan-1961-Mahakavi Subramania Bharatiyar- Seerkazhi & Tiruchi Loganathan

For the most respected poet in  Tamizh, Mahakavi Subramania Bharatiyar’s lines, GR must have composed many immortal tunes. This film was mainly about the freedom fighter V. O Chidambaram who was also known as Kappalotiya Tamizhan as he had challenged the British Empire by running his own shipping company to break their monopoly at that time. He was charged with sedition and sentenced to life imprisonment. This film was a biography of that great freedom fighter.

The song Vellipani malayin meedulavom is a very popular patriotic film song written by the Mahakavi. GR relies just on his tabla  and the powerful vocals of two legends-Tiruchi Loganathan and Seerkazhi Govindarajan who render full justice to the power-packed, optimistic lines of the great poet.

22.Kaatru Veliyidai Kannamma- Kappalottiya Thamizhan-1961- Mahakavi Subramania Bharatiyar -PB Sreenivas & P Susheela

Like many of his other films, GR creates several hit songs in a single  film. Kappalotiya Tamizhan was no exception. This is once again a melodious duet sung by PBS and P Susheela, written by the Mahakavi.

23.Endru Thaniyum Indha -Kappalottiya Thamizhan-1961- Mahakavi Subramania Bharatiyar- Tiruchi Loganathan

A lament of the poet Mahakavi Bharatiyar on when India would be free from the  slavery to British is poignantly brought out in this song by both GR & Tiruchi Loganathan.

24.Oru Mada Maadhu -Pattinathaar-1962- Saint Pattinathaar -TMS

GR was indeed blessed to have composed music for many historical, mythological , patriotic, and philosophical films. His genius made him compose this song with nothing but a simple percussion, with TMS ( who also acted in the titular role) going inside the soul of the song to render this masterpiece.

Pattinathar was a poet -saint who lived in the 14^th century in Tamil Nadu. In this 5-minute song he explains the entire journey of man right from the formation of embryo to ultimately becoming ash. While working on this blog , I came across this song, which really surprised me as I had never heard it before. I was too moved listening to this-wish I was more knowledgeable in understanding  the classic Tamizh language.  To be honest, this song really moves you to tears.

Saint Pattinathar  had composed the entire life’s journey  and giving full respect to the lines,  GR had composed a simple but sublime tune.  TMS, with his impeccable Tamizh emotes the song that , I feel no other singer can ever dream of.

25.Kannan Mananilayai Thangame Thangam-Deivathin Deivam-1962-Mahakavi Subramania Bharati-S Janaki

I conclude the blog with  this musical masterpiece of GR that was from a film called Deivathin Deivam , which turned out to the last film he worked on completely. Like the popular cliché goes, one should say this was his swan song.

S Janaki, the immensely talented singer who got her dues much later in her career, renders a masterpiece ( for want of adjectives, I am using this!). One more superb raagamaligai from GR, that starts off with Bhimpalasi , then meanders to a soft Bhageshree and ends with  raag  Bihaag that oozes romance. Matching step by step with SJ is the veenai played with so much of classicism .

The intricate alaap, use of shehnai in the first charanam set in Bhagashree , the soft , caressing notes of the flute in the second charanam set in Bihaag raagam and then at the end the veenai with accompanying percussion of tabla and mridangam alternating …there is no way I can describe these songs. Just listen to it and get immersed in the genius of the great composer  G Ramanathan and pay our respects to him.

I should acknowledge at the end that writing this blog about the genius G Ramanathan was a very humbling and moving experience for me. I felt the utter lack of knowledge about the intricacies of Carnatic classical music and if I had known a little of that , I could have written in a better way. Researching for this blog , I was able  to hear so many unheard songs ( for me!) , so many gems from the singers of those times and could only wonder at the very rich heritage of music they had left behind. It may take one’s lifetime to explore them and do proper justice.

As compared to the quality of the music and the songs , I know  this is an amateurish attempt by me  to showcase the genius of a master composer. I request readers to consider this as a tribute by a passionate music lover and not from a person who is in any way qualified to talk about the phenomenon called G Ramanathan.

Acknowledgement & Disclaimer 

I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Ms. Subashashree Thanikacahalam’s You Tube channel: Ragamalika TV-QFR series.
3. Wikipedia

The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been mentioned /embedded here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.

22^nd July 1923-27^TH Aug 1976

The years from late 1940’s till late 1960’s were the golden years when we had a huge variety of music composers, lyricists, and singers in Hindi film music ( HFM).  Among the great male  singers of that era, we had versatile singers like Rafi & Kishore and in the niche category we had legends like  Manna Dey, Talat Mehmood , Mukesh, Hemant Kumar and Mahindra Kapoor . Although they also sang in genres that were different from their core strengths but generally they were well known for their niche. Manna Dey sang the best classical songs   , Talat was the ghazal king ,  Mukesh’s soulful pathos touched one’s heart  ,Hemant da’s baritone suited devotional and soulful melodies  and  Mahindra Kapoor excelled in  extra-ordinary high pitch and lung power in patriotic and power-packed songs . Avid listeners of the Hindi film songs of the golden era are indeed lucky to have such a great variety of singers.

I have so far written about Rafi, Kishore, and Talat among male singers . Continuing that series , this blog is about Mukesh Chand Mathur, always known by the mononym Mukesh who had an intrinsic pathos in his voice that makes you connect with the emotion of the song. Fans of Mukesh will vouch for the fact that when they listen to his songs they could feel the inherent pain in his voice . Quality always dominated over quantity and so his output was also just around 1300 songs in a career of 35 years. 

Born on 22^nd July 1923 to Zorawar Chand Mathur and Chandrani Mathur in Delhi , he was the sixth child among ten children. The young Mukesh would listen to the music lessons that one of his sisters used to attend at their home from an adjoining room. After passing out from the tenth grade , he briefly worked in the Public Works Department. The actor Motilal Rajvansh was Mukesh’s distant relative  and it was he who encouraged Mukesh to come to Bombay ( Mumbai), after knowing about his interest in singing. Like most artists those days, he also tried to act, apart from his singing assignments. However, as an actor , he did not get much success and ultimately ( luckily for us!)  he focused only on his singing career.

The yester-year legendary singer K L Saigal was his idol and his very first recorded song was “ Dil hi bujha hua to fasl-e-bahaar kya “ in the film Nirdosh ( 1941) in which he sounded almost like K L Saigal. However, it was Anil Biswas’ composition “ Dil jalta hai to jalne de “ for the film Pehli Nazar (1945) that made the public notice him. It is said that even K L Saigal had remarked after listening to that song that “ I do not remember having sung this song”!

Initially Naushad had utilized Mukesh’s voice for Dilip Kumar for the film Andaz ( 1949). Songs like Jhoom ke nacho aaj, Tu kahe agar Jeevan bhar, Hum aaj kahin dil kho baithe became very popular and along with Anil Biswas , Naushad played a major role in enabling Mukesh find his own style , steering him away from that of K L Saigal.

After Raj Kapoor took Mukesh for his early films Aag & Barsaat , he was a permanent member  of  the  formidable team along with the others: composers Shankar -Jaikishan, lyricists Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri. Raj Kapoor had always considered Mukesh as his “ soul” and had remarked when Mukesh passed away at a very young age of 53 years that “ he had lost his voice”.

Although many music directors had worked with Mukesh, Shankar -Jaikishan and Kalyanji -Anandji had created some of the best & highest number of  songs for him. My usual practice is to select around 20 or 25 songs of a particular artist. For Mukesh, I felt that it would result in leaving many of his great songs and so thought of writing  about his songs in two parts. Part 1 would be his songs with the  two great music composer duos, S-J & K-A,  who gave him the maximum number of songs(roughly 20%). Part 2 would be one or few songs  from other music directors who had given exceptional songs for Mukesh..

I have listed his best songs music composer-wise , mentioning in that order, the film , year of release, song(s), lyricist, and co-singer(s) wherever applicable, with the usual disclaimer that these are my own personal choices. Since the listing is some 30+ songs  I am restricting my description of the song, its salient points as briefly as possible so that readers can go through them with ease.

PART 1-Mukesh with Shankar-Jaikishan and Kalyanji-Anandji

Shankar-Jaikishan

The emperors of Hindi Film music, Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal played a great role in shaping up Mukesh’s career along with Raj Kapoor , who , except for few songs in his early days, always preferred Mukesh and even considered his voice as his soul.

Undoubtedly this combination gave some of the best songs for Mukesh. It was a tough task for me to list out few songs from this team as almost all are too good and popular.  I know I have left out many songs for making the blog reasonably short.

Awaara-1951-Awaara Hoon-Shailendra

Iconic, one can even say a global hit especially  in Russia and the middle-east. A very simple , but catchy tune with equally simple lines written by Shailendra , but the way the song was orchestrated and sung, made this almost a signature tune for Mukesh.

Anaari -1959-Kisiki Muskurahaton Pe Ho Nisaar—Shailendra

One more song of Mukesh , that will always be at the top of any listing. Shailendra sums up life’s philosophy in few simple lines.

Ek Dil Sau Afsaane-1963- Kuch sher sunatha hoon main-Hasrat Jaipuri

To those who may think  Mukesh can sing only pathos and not romantic ones, this is a fitting reply. The way he traverses through the song with its ups and downs is remarkable. The ever-romantic Hasrat’s imagination goes wild with the lines :

Makhmal pe tum chalo to chhile paaon gulbadan

We should pay a tribute to all the artists who created this by saying:

Kitni bhi tareef karun, rukthee nahi zubaan,

Rukthee nahin zubaan

Sangam-1964-Dost dost na raha-Shailendra

If there is one word that comes to one’s mind while listening to a composition of Shankar-Jaikishan, that is “ grandeur.”  Right from the beginning the strains of Shankar’s famous piano takes you into an opera-like setting , and later joined by those exquisite  strings, one feels as if sitting in western orchestra concert.  Mukesh renders one of his all-time best for Raj Kapoor. Sangam was in many ways a musical bonanza.

Teesri Kasam- 1966

Sajan re jhoot mat bolo-Shailendra

Sajanwa bairee ho gaye-Shailendra

Duniya banewale kya tere man-Hasrat Jaipuri

Shailendra took the risk of making this movie, that became a commercial flop and landed him in deep debt and soon after  even snatched  away this genius at a young age of 43! But what an immortal music he left behind. All three songs are real gems. He brought in his inseparable team member Hasrat Jaipuri for two songs in the film- Duniya bananewale and Mare gaye gulfaam.  

The full-of energy Sajan re jhoot mat bolo, the pathos-ridden Sajanwa bairee hog aye hamaar and the philosophical question Shailendra posed to the creator- Duniya bananewale kya tere man mein samayee. Each one has Mukesh’s soulful singing at its peak.

Around The World -1967- Josh-e-jawaani hai re hai-  Shailendra

My selection of this song may raise few eyebrows!  Why should we talk only about Mukesh’s pathos! Here is a foot tapping peppy number that is my personal favorite .

A superlative guitar joins with a gusto, and becomes  the heart of this song, keeping Mukesh a good company all the way.

Diwana-1967-Taron se pyare dil ke ishare-  Hasrat Jaipuri

One more  grand feast from  S-J who go all out with piano, flute, violins and if I am not mistaken the Scottish bagpipe ( I could not get this verified in the Net but I strongly so) .

Mera Naam Joker-1970-

Jaane kahan gaye who din-Hasrat

Kehta hai joker sara zamana-Neeraj

Jeena yahan marna yahan-Shailendra, Shaily Shailendra( it is said Shailendra could not complete this and his son had to chip in after his untimely death)

I end the Mukesh & SJ combination with, what I can say is undoubtedly one of the best musical extravaganza Hindi film world  had ever created.

The poignant Jaane Kahan Gaye who din , set in Raag Mishr-Shivaranjani , the philosophical Kehta Hai Joker Saara Zamana & Jeena Yahan Marna Yahan are eternal. These will be heard even after 1000 years if humanity is still around!

Kalyanji-Anandji

After Shankar-Jaikishan, it was another famous duo-brothers Kalyanji Veerji Shah & Anandji  Veerji Shah who utilized Mukesh’s vocals to the full extent. KA’s music had some extra-ordinary preludes and they were also too good in composing duets. KA  stood their own ground among other stalwarts by focusing more on songs that were melodious and based on classical raagas but at the same time made them catchy so that even a layman can appreciate.

The sad songs they composed for Mukesh are so many in numbers ; they also gave Mukesh some great romantic songs.

Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere-1960- Mujhko Iss Raat Ki Tanhai- Shamim Jaipuri

Great use of violins and saxophone in this song.

Phool Bane Angaare-1963-Chand aahen bharegaa-  Anand Bakshi

Superlative lines written by Anand Bakshi who had a great initial innings with K-A.

Tere khatir farishte , sar pe ilzaam lenge, brought to life by Mukesh. One more example of how he could sing romantic songs also with ease.

Himalay Ki God Mein-1965- Chand Si Mehbooba Ho Meri- Anand Bakshi

That trademark prelude  of KA is in full glory after Mukesh croons the initial line: Chand si Mehbooba ho meri kab aisa maine socha tha…

Upkaar-1967- Deewano se yeh mat pooch- – Qamar Jalaalabadi

Each singer has a unique style; in this song Mukesh puts his special stamp in the word  “ Haan, unke dilon se mat pocho “ ..that very brief pause after Haan summarizes Mukesh’s style.

Mere Humsafar-1970-Kisi raah mein kisi mod par- Anand Bakshi- With Lata

It is my personal observation that among all the great music directors, K-A were very strong in composing exquisite duet songs. This one , set in their favorite Charukesi raag is an evergreen Lata-Mukesh duet.

Holi Aayee Re-1970-Meri tamannaon ki taqdeer- Qamar Jalaalabadi

Once again that fabulous prelude of K-A that keeps playing throughout the song is superb and coupled with a very soft rendition by Mukesh , this song is  a quintessential KA-Mukesh combo.

PART 2-Mukesh with other music composers

Although we saw great songs of Mukesh in the first part, his association with other great music directors, some well-known legends and some like Daan Singh, Satish Bhatia (almost unknown to the general public)  was also a very successful one with numerous evergreen songs. With some of these music directors, even if  he had very few songs , he gave his best and breathed life into them.

Anil Biswas

Pehli Nazar-1945-Dil Jalta Hai To Jalne De- Aah Sitapuri

This is the song that made the world sit up and wonder who had sung this , almost like the legendary K.L Saigal. Mukesh’s mastery over the lower notes is very much evident when he starts off with “ Dil….Jalta hai tho jalne de” and so is the pain that he brings out so evocatively.

Naushad

Saathi-1968- Husne-E-Jaana Idhar aa-Majrooh Sultanpuri

Naushad comes out of his usual  staid and under-stated orchestration and delivers a superb song that gives ample scope for Mukesh to showcase his unique singing ability.  After a long hiatus, Naushad teamed up with Majrooh Sultanpuri in this film and was one of the very few films of Naushad that did not have any Rafi song!

S D Burman

Bandini-1963- O jaanewale ho sake toh laut-  Shailendra

Burman da’s favourite male singers were Rafi and Kishore but two songs of Mukesh under his baton are enough to ensure these are in the topmost songs of Mukesh. One is Chal ree sajni ab kya soche and the  one I have selected -Oh Jaanewale ho sake to laut ke aana

Roshan

Roshan was another legend who gave his singers their career best songs-be it Lata, Rafi, Manna Dey or Mukesh. Just these two songs from the film Dewar are enough to prove that Mukesh can render scintillating songs for other composers apart from  Shankar-Jaikishan and Kalyanji -Anandji.

Dewar-1966

Baharon ne mere chaman loot kar -Anand Bakshi

Aaya Hai Mujhe phir yaad-Roshan-Anand Bakshi

Anokhi Raat-1968-Ohre Taal Mile Nadi ke jal mein- Indeevar

The swan song of Roshan-he could not see his last song becoming a masterpiece  as he had passed away by the time song could be recorded. The final recording was done in his absence. Mukesh takes this song to its  greatest height, with  the lines: Oh mitwaa re…..pani mein seep jaise pyaasi har aatma &  Oh mitwa re…kal tak jo begane the janmon ke meet hai.

SN Tripathi

S.N Tripathi was known for his raag based composed compositions in many mythological/historical films. This Mukesh song is always at the top when one thinks of Mukesh soulful songs.

Rani Roopmati-Aa laut ke aaja mere meet-Bharat Vyas

Madan Mohan

For Madan Mohan it was mostly Rafi & Talat among male singers and Lata among female singers. He did compose  few great songs for other singers also. This one for Mukesh , based on the most used raag in Hindi films songs, Raag Yaman ( Kalyan) is really a gem.

Sanjog-1961-Bhooli hui yaadon mujhe itna-Rajendra Krishan

Khayyam

A vast majority would say Kabhi Mere Dil Mein , the famous title song is one of the best from the combination of Khayyam & Mukesh. There is absolutely no doubt about that , but I feel it is always played in every playlist of Mukesh, in all radio , TV Channels to the point of over-kill. That is why I selected this song from the very early days of Khayyam . With Sahir , in his inimitable style , composing superlative life’s philosophy evocatively , this is a far superior song and is one of the best by Mukesh, in my opinion.

Phir Subah Hogi-1958- Woh Subah Kabhi To Aayegi- Sahir Ludhianvi- with Asha Bhonsle

Salil Chowdhury

The musical genius , Salil da composed some great songs for Mukesh in films like Madhumati, Jagte Raho etc . The two songs from Anand are just tailor-made for Mukesh. No one can even think of hearing these in any other voice. Mukesh at his pinnacle!

Anand -1970

Kahin door jab din dhal – Yogesh

Maine Tere Liye Hi saat- Gulzar

O P Nayyar

Sambandh-1969-Chal akela chal akela- Kavi Pradeep

The noted poet Kavi Pradeep initially wanted to compose the tune and  also sing  this one , but OPN then refused the film. Ultimately the producer & director had to reconcile OPN & Kavi Pradeep together  and when the latter listened to this unique composition , he immediately agreed and asked OPN to go ahead  with any singer of his choice. This remains a masterpiece till date -magic of Mukesh and OPN.

Jaidev

Jaidev, the great composer , never had any “ favourite or fixed” singers. He had composed great songs for  almost  all the great singers of the golden era and even with newer talents. The film Kinare was unique in which Jaidev gave three superb  songs with Rafi( Teri tasveer bhi tujh jaise), Talat Mehmood ( Dekh Li Teri Khudayee)  and Manna Dey( Chale jaa rahe the mohabbat ke maare kinare kinare). But then  with Mukesh he gave this song  Jab gham-e-ishq sathata hai to hans leta hoon-and in my opinion this was the  first among equals!

The flute played in this song will keep haunting you along with Mukesh’s very soulful rendering.

Kinare Kinare-1963-Jab Gam-E-Ishq sathata hai to hans leta hoon-Nyaya Sharma

Hansraj Behl

Among the countless songs in Hindi film music, this is a hidden gem from a relatively unknown music composer Hansraj Behl- unknown to the general public, but ardent  music lovers will know him. The composition has a striking contrast with very low notes & pace in Mukesh’s singing as compared to the high notes and fast paced singing of Lata. How could someone even imagine such a composition!!!. Truly a masterpiece and sadly neglected in the mainstream media.

Sawan-1959 Nain dwar se man mein wo aake -Hansraj Behl- Prem Dhawan

https:–www.youtube.com-watch?v=sxMPnAYG1Pc

Sardar Mallik

In the Hindi film world, there are many such genius composers , who due to many reasons , remained in obscurity , although they were immensely talented. Few were lucky in the sense that  at least their children became more famous. One such example is Sardar Mallik. His film Saranga is still remembered for these two evergreen Mukesh melodies.

Saranga-1961

Haan Deewana Hoon Mein-Bharat Vyas

Saranga Teri Yaad Mein-Bharat Vyas

Laxmikant- Pyarelal

In terms of number of songs composed  for Mukesh one more music duo-Laxmikant-Pyarelal  came third.  Laxmikant-Pyarelal also broke the stereotype to restrict Mukesh to only sad songs and instead gave him lot of peppy duets. However, one duet that always stands out , though a sober one , is the immortal Ek Pyaar Ka Nagma hai, which is popular across the country-even in the regions not familiar with Hindi.

The lullaby from Milan -Ram kare aisa ho jaaye, meri nindiya tohe mil jaaye is a  rare song  but is remarkable for the fact that it is one of the very few lullabies that Mukesh sang.

Shor-1972- Ek pyar ka nagma hai- Santosh Anand- With Lata

Milan1967 -Ram kare aisa ho jaaye meri nindiya-Anand Bakshi

Daan Singh

When we look at some of the exceptional songs of Mukesh, one is really surprised to note that many have been composed by relatively obscure composers. There are two songs from the film My Love that was composed by Daan Singh-Who tera pyaar ka gham and Zikr Hota Hai Jab .

Anand Bakshi wrote excellent lines in both these songs.

My Love-1970-Zikr hota hai jab- Anand Bakshi

Satish Bhatia

Continuing our journey of Mukesh with lesser-known music directors, this one from Satish Bhatia is a well-known song , but how many would really be aware of the music director.

Pure Hindi poetry always flowed from the pens of Bharat Vyas. This song is a celebration of Nature at its best.

Boond Jo Ban Gaye Moti-1967-Yeh kaun chitrakaar hai-Bharat Vyas

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer:

I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources  for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia

The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been mentioned here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights. I would also like to thank various blogs-articles published in the Internet from which I had obtained many information while writing this.

I can compare the task of me writing about the genius composer Ilayaraja to an ant attempting to climb the Mt Everest. There are many reasons for this:

• I am not that knowledgeable about his music as I have listened only to his songs he had composed early in his career , to be precise from 1976 till around 1990 when I had left Chennai and started living mostly in states other than Tamil Nadu. That makes my knowledge restricted to only 15 years of his more than 4  decades career that is still going on .
• There must be hundreds of articles about him by his more knowledgeable , ardent fans  and so what new am I going to write?
• The last reason is that how can one do justice to the vast repertoire he has created  by selecting , say,  around 20 songs from the seven thousand he has composed ?

But still I feel , as a music  blog writer  , if I do not write about him , my blogsite will be incomplete ! With these caveats , let me attempt the impossible!

Almost the entire population in South need no introduction to R Gnanathesikan who became Ilayaraja after going through various names like Rajaiya , named by his father while admitting him to school, people in his village calling him Rasayya , his music teacher Dhanraj Master christening him Raaja and finally the film producer Panju Arunachalam giving him the nom de plume Ilayaraja. In Tamil film industry there was another music director by the name A.M Rajah and so the “ younger Raja” .  I wonder whether so many transformations in his name symbolizes the immense variety in his music!

My earlier blog was on the musical genius Salil Chowdhury who became a successful and much-admired composer in multiple languages. When he was working in the South Indian film industry, he noticed one young guitarist in his orchestra and after observing him closely  he had commented that one day this person would become a great music director and that was none other than Ilayaraja. It is not a co-incidence that I chose to write on him immediately after my blog on Salil da.

The journey of Ilayaraja from a very humble background , born in a  small village , Pannaipuram , Theni district of Tamil Nadu to become the maestro is well known to almost all his fans . Also there are many well-documented articles about him in the Net and so I will leave that part out and focus only on his music. Once again I am making it clear the songs selected are purely my personal choice -how I had listened and enjoyed them, mostly during my school and college days.

Still , if anyone wants to know about his journey , they can read it in this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilaiyaraaja)

I was around 10 years when his first film Annakili made a sweeping wave across T.N . The completely fresh sound of the songs from this film made him a household name. For an average  Tamil film music listener ,  till then enriched with great music by  stalwarts like  G Ramanathan, Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy, K V Mahadevan and many others , this was something totally fresh . IR’s music  ( going forward , I am taking the liberty of referring to him as IR for ease!) was an eclectic mix of  folk, classical and western  music with a scintillating orchestration, very catchy preludes, interludes that was easy for a layman to sing along. One after the other songs like ‘Kannan Oru Kai kuzhandai from the film Bhadrakali -1976, Chinna Kannan Azhaikiran by the veteran Classical singer M Balamuralikrishna in the film Kavikuyil (1977) , Vizhiyile Malarnthathu by SPB in film Bhuvana Oru Kelvikuri ( 1977) and the song that catapulted S Janaki and IR into a path that they never looked back – “ Senthoorapoove “ from 16 Vayathinile, all made IR a force to reckon with.

Film after film , song after song, IR showed exemplary mastery in his tunes, structuring, and placing various  instruments in the orchestration, creating interludes that were so catchy along with the main melody , always innovating with new sounds , introducing many new voices , thus making the Tamil film music of the 70’s , 80s and 90s very creative. Few major technical developments  in form of better sound recording, stereophonic sound , easy availability of tape recorders all helped in giving the listeners a revolutionary sound experience. IR exploited these technical developments and gave a heightened listening pleasure .

There are many experts who are writing and also presenting videos about his music with a great knowledge on the classical aspects of his songs .  I am  severely constrained by my lack of knowledge in that area and can only compensate to some extent by my passion in listening to good music as a layman.

Although the stalwarts of Tamil film music , in the years preceding IR’s arrival  did compose  many evergreen songs that are no way less popular , one of the outstanding features of IRs music was his preludes ,  interludes and the exceptional back ground scores he did for films. Most of his songs had totally different interludes and sometimes , when we listen , we wonder how the interlude takes off in a different path from the main melody and how  is he going to bring it back to the tune…but he always did this with superlative skills. One more unique feature was , within the interlude , multiple instruments will be used , with one instrument starting a melody and gradually fade away and a new one will join seamlessly and after few seconds that will fade away and a third one will start off. All this within a minute or so…it is always “ Never dull a moment” in IR’s orchestration. In my opinion these aspects endeared him to millions of fans who cannot spend even a day without listening to at least  some of his songs . There are many popular “combos” a typical IR fan will talk about- a rainy day with IR songs, a long drive with IR songs etc. IR , for countless fans is part of their  life-they eat , sleep and breathe  IR!

I think with that introduction , let me try the impossible task of listing out few of his masterpieces. I know for sure that any IR fan may have his/her own choice and may not agree with my selection. I am listing out my own personal favorites.

Songs listed  in chronological  order of the year of film with following sequence: Song/ Film/Year/ Singer(s) /Lyricist .

1. Senthoorapoove/ 16 Vayathinile-1977/ S Janaki/ Gangai Amaran

The multi layered guitar-violins-flute set the tone for this song, with the  voice of  S Janaki that sounds exactly like 16 years! The first and second interludes have the early signs of IR’s immense talent in structuring the background music that later became his signature style.

2. Uravugal thodar kathai/Aval Appadithhan-1978/K J Yesudas/ Gangai Amaran

IR being a great guitarist himself, starts off the prelude with a superb guitar , that gets into an exceptional duet with piano . In the first interlude the flute  joins and then goes on to “ sing “ along with KJY and takes on a solo flight in the second interlude. What a great melody and what exquisite singing by KJY!

3. Yen kanmani /Chittu Kuruvi-1978/ SP Balasubrahmanyam & P Susheela/ Vaali

A classic example of the concept called counter-point in Indian film music. IR  brings  in two different melodies that , if taken separately  will be  individual tunes . It seems they played the first melody and then along with that recorded the second one and when we hear it sounds as if it is a seamless single tune. What a beautiful imagination and execution ! The ‘ in-between’ dialogues that were merged within the tune  -Nanna sonnel pongo, thama karuvattu koodai munnadi po, Teynampettai super market irangu  were something totally new at that time and caught the imagination of the public in a big way.

4. Senthazhampoovil vanthadum-1978/ K J Yesudas/ Kannadasan

One of the early super hits of KJY , this time IR teaming up with the legendary Kaviarasar Kannadasan . An all-time favourite song that any IR fan will instinctively hum while going on a long drive. This has three interludes and all are brilliant , but the 3^rd one which has a violin -flute jugalbandi is just out of the world. Strings, flutes , guitars were IR’s eternal favourites, but in this song, we can hear santoor also in between.

Not to forget the unique table rhythm pattern throughout the song!

5. Thamthananam Thana/Puthiya Vaarupgal-1979/Jency and B Vasantha/Gangai Amaran

How to describe this “ seven course meal of a song”?! It is really a feast with an eclectic mix of Carnatic classical base, interspersed with western symphony. If you focus on the second interlude, you can hear  the veenai notes are traditional but the answering notes of the violins are westernized. A quintessential IR composition that is a heady mix of the classical Indian music with a symphony feel. Another unique aspect of this song is the  chorus that keeps constant company to the main singers.

6. Ennullil etho yengum/ Rosappu Ravikkaikari-1979/ Vani Jayaram/ Gangai Amaran

Although the number of songs Vani Jayaram sang for IR were less compared to the other female playback singers IR had worked with , some of them are just eternal. This one , with use of a  unique bass flute instrument ( I think it is called recorder) in the second interlude is simply mesmerizing.

7. Poongathave thaazh thiravai/Nizhalgal-1980/ Deepan Chakravarthy & Uma Ramanan/ Gangai Amaran

For me , this one song defines IR ‘s style of music comprehensively.

The prelude of this song is something out of this world. It starts with a  rising crescendo of the violins , culminating with the clap of the cymbals , and then the veenai, flute and violins start having a conversation within themselves!

A completely new voice -Deepan Chakravarty ( son of the legendary playback singer Tiruchi Loganathan) & Uma Ramanan gave one of their best songs. The first interlude is then taken over by piano and a solo violin and then we hear the trademark IR’s style of building up the orchestration with an overlap -wherein a new instrument and melody takes over as the earlier one slowly fades away. The solo violin is taken over by a string ensemble and then a brief flute chips in , and as you are mesmerized by these instruments,  totally out of the blue our traditional nadaswaram and thavil end the interlude with a  classical flourish!

I can listen to this song again and again   without getting bored just for the first interlude.

8. Yen iniya pon nilave/Moodupani-1980/ K J Yesudas/Gangai Amaran

An eternal favourite of almost all , IR made KJY render a song with a  “westernised” tone, that was a refreshing change from the staid   classical style  he had been singing earlier.

For KJY fans , this will always be among his top ten Tamil songs without a doubt. Guitar , one of the favourite instruments of IR , is the hero of this song.

The film Moodupani had many landmarks-100^th film of IR and for the fact that a young , 13-year-old Dilip ( later A R Rehman) assisted IR in the background score.

Keeping a close step with the exquisite instrumental ornamentation through out the song is the chorus , that lifts this song to its greatest height.

9. Kaatril yenthan Geetham/ Johnny-1980/ S Janaki/ Gangai Amaran

For me , this is one of Janaki’s all time best song, which I am sure many would agree.

Once again IR’s favourite guitar is in full flow, along with the unique bass flute and saxophone in the first interlude. Strings, as usual keep haunting you with their beautiful ebb and flow. The effect of pouring rain and winds is so powerfully brought out in the orchestration.

10. Puthum puthu kaalai/ Alaigal Oivathillai-1981/ S Janaki/Gangai Amaran

One more gem of a song from IR & SJ. The prelude alone is enough to make this song to qualify among the best compositions of IR. With a flute setting the tone , taken over by the ubiquitous strings of IR , followed by an ever-so-sweet sounding humming by SJ, all make you intoxicated. If the flute at the prelude was just a starter, wait for a full main course treat with the flute in the first interlude. Throughout the song , the percussion is simple but very unique and a guitar keeps playing in the background , which gives an ethereal sound effect to this song.

11. Kanne kalaimane/ Moondram Pirai-1982/ K J Yesudas/ Kannadasan

Always remembered as  the last  film song written by the genius Kaviarasar Kannadasan , this is one more milestone in the Tamil film music. Compared to most of his songs, IR had kept the orchestration to the bare minimum, with the highlight being a solo violin that plays totally in sync with KJY.  A  simple rhythm played with a ghatam enhances the poignant mood of the song.

Sung with a restrained pathos by KJY , this remains one of the most beautiful sombre compositions of IR.

12. Panivizhum malarvanam/ Ninaivellam Nithya-1982/ S P Balasubrahmanyam / Vairamuthu

SPB is simply outstanding in this song and creates sheer  magic along with IR in this song. All those little nuances of SPB’s singing  are in full play, including that trademark laugh. The most unique aspect of this song is those strings that seem to respond to SPB after the phrase “pani vizhum malarvanam” and “ un paarvai oru varam” with a rise and fall.

13. Poongatru thirumbuma/ Muthal Mariyathai-1985/ Malaysia Vasudevan & S Janaki/ Vairamuthu

It is said the two main architects of the great music of this film never liked the film and so did not see the completed movie!! Both IR & Vairamuthu , who even got the National award for best lyrics, gave one of their best in this film.

This film is also well known for the very under-played acting of the veteran , Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan.

Almost all songs are too good and so I just chose one that I like personally .

Malaysia Vasudevan was at his best in this song and so were the lyrics by Vairamuthu, and above all IR’s simple and sublime interpretation of Karaharapriya raagam.

The sound of the kuil ( cuckoo) will keep playing in your mind even after you stop listening to the song.

14. Sangeetha megam/ Udaya Geetham-1985/ S P Balasubrahmanyam/ Muthulingam

Who would have ever imagined the following lines  will become an apt ode  to describe the great singer SPB after his untimely departure in 2020 , 35 years after he sang this:

Intha thegam marainthalum , isaiyai malarven…..

Enthan moochum, intha paattum anaiya vilakke…

One of the best ( we can keep saying this to hundreds of them) from the team of IR & SPB, this song is known for its superb saxophone , piano & drums,  Muthulingam’s superb lyrics and above all  the honey-laced vocals of SPB.

15. Naan Oru Sindhu / Sindhu Bhairavai-1985/ K S Chitra/Vairamuthu

K Balachandar was not only known for his films with  bold, innovative stories but also for utilizing music  to convey  the entire  film’s story in one song .  He had great association with many legendary composers  like V Kumar, M S Vishwanathan but with Sindhu Bhairavi , he had his first collaboration with IR. And what a musical milestone this film turned out to be!

Chitra got her first National award for best female playback with the two great songs of IR-Paadariyen Padippariyen and Naan Oru Sindhu.

In KB’s traditional style, the song Naan Oru Sindhu captures the story of the heroine through the excellent lyrics of Vairamuthu , set to a great score by IR , based on the Sindhu Bhairavi raagam.

The strings used through out the song are simply outstanding.

16. Kodiyile malliyappu/ Kadalora Kavithaigal-1986/ P Jayachandran & S Janaki/Vairamuthu

There are many songs of IR in which the orchestration becomes another “ singer” accompanying the actual singers. This is one such song. I think it is a synthesizer that keeps playing all along ( I stand corrected if I am wrong) and as always, the strings, flute in the interludes are out of the world!

17. Nilave vaa/ Mouna Raagam-1986/ S P Balasubrahmanyam/ Vaali

Mouna Raagam was a musical bonanza from IR. Again, it is difficult to choose one song from this film. But this is best among the best!

Embellished with one of his best vocalizations, SPB had rendered a timeless classic.

This film was not only famous for the songs , but had one of IR’s best background scores.

18. Raja Raja cholan/Rettai Vaal Kuruvi-1987/ K J Yesudas/ Mu Mehta

Very few singers can sound so sweet in  the lower octaves and KJY is definitely one  among them. IR, with  his favourite guitar weaves a magical tune. Flute , strings and guitar have a merry time in the first interlude .

19. Valai osai/Sathya-1988/ S P Balasubrahmanyam & Lata Mangeshkar/ Vaali

It was really IR and SPB’s skill in coaching the legendary Lata to render a Tamil song with  an impeccable diction . Reason for selecting this , apart from my bias towards Lata , is that the composition is just too good to ignore -how can one ignore the multi-dimensional musical arrangement throughout the song and in the interludes.

Those famous , layer-upon-layer construction of the interludes are in full glory in this song.

20. Raakamma Kaya thatu/ Thalapathi-1991/ SPB & Swarnalatha/Vaali

I end this list with a grand finale –IR must have been in one of his most creative moments when he composed this. Recreated  even to this day by many artists ,this remains one of IR’s best ever creations. Who else could have even dreamt of pairing  symphonised violins with the sound of snapping fingers. This takes this song to “ vera level” as the popular phrase used in TN goes. The sudden shift to a classical “ kunitha puruvamum kovvai chevvalyil” and coming back to the main melody seamlessly is what makes IR a genius composer. And to complete the song with a flourish, he creates a superb counter melody -not with instruments but the vocal humming of a chorus towards the end .

The best way to describe this song and the music of IR in a phrase from this song :

Jaangujakku chajakkujakku Jaangujakku ja

I don’t know how many parts will be required to cover many of his other songs , but I  will attempt to keep writing about them …….

Acknowledgements:  I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources  for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia
3. The Youtube channel QFR -By Ragamalika TV.

 Disclaimer:
The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been mentioned and embedded here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.

Salil Chowdhury    : 19^th November 1922 -5^th Sep 1995

When we look at the music of Hindi films during  period 1950- 1970, the most fascinating aspect is the immense variety brought out by the music composers  in composition  , orchestration , style etc. -a real challenge because a typical  film song was just around 3-4 minutes long. For those ( like me!)  infatuated with the music of the golden era, it is a great treat to listen  and enjoy the various individual styles of those composers. A discerning listener can guess the music director in majority of the songs by just listening to few lines.

Among all those stalwarts , if there was one composer whose music would stand out so prominently that one can immediately identify  the composer, it was undoubtedly  the legendary Salil Chowdhury. He was not only a great music composer, but a lyricist ( for most of his Bengali songs), story-writer, poet, arranger, instrumentalist and one of the prolific music composer in multiple language films like Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil , Kannada , Marathi etc. He could play the flute, violin, piano, esraj etc.

Born on 19^th November 1922 in a village called Ghazipur, South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, Salil Chowdhury’s childhood was spent among the lush tea gardens of Assam, where his father Dr Gyanendra Chowdhury was the Medical officer. The Chief Medical Officer was  Dr Maloni, an Irish national. He used to listen to western classical music in the gramophone records at this gentleman’s house and this could have influenced the young Salil’s musical talent. He would go on to become one of the pioneers in using western classical music , especially the arrangement, innovative use of chorus and integrate them so beautifully into the Indian folk music and create immortal music for film songs in various languages already mentioned . Even when he took inspiration from other music like Mozart’s 40^th Symphony for Itna Na Mujhse Tu Pyaar  or a Russian Red Army marching song for Mausam Beeta Jaaye, it was done so beautifully, integrating the same into the grammar of a film song.

He was also greatly moved by the plight of the poor peasants especially during the Bengal famine and made him a full-time member of the IPTA ( Indian Peoples Theatre Association-a cultural wing of the Communist Party of India). He went on to compose many revolutionary songs for the peasants and even had to go underground fearing reprisal  from the then ruling British .

The first Bengali film in which Salil Chowdhury composed music was Paribortan, released in 1949. From then to his last Bengali film Mahabharati, released in 1994, he had scored the music for  41 Bengali films.

His debut in Hindi films was through the award winning (Filmfare Best Movie Award and International Prize at the Cannes Film Festival ) “ Do Bigha Zameen” , which initially was made as a Bengali film . Though based on Rabindranath Tagore’s work , Salil Chowdhury had adapted the same with a difference in the story. Music for Do Bigha Zameen became very popular , with the song Mausam beeta jaaye ( Apni kahani chod jaa) being played even today.

There is some similarity between Salil Chowdhury and the music composer Ravi, not in their styles, but in the way they shifted their focus to Malayalam cinema. Malayalam film music always welcomed melody and when Salil Chowdhury  entered the Malayalam film industry with the   movie Chemmeen, its music   became a landmark. In all he went composed music for films in 13 languages. This includes over 75 Hindi films, 41 Bengali films, around 27 Malayalam films, and a few Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Odia and Assamese films.

 If we see the styles of different music composers, there are two schools. Some composers  like Madan Mohan, Ravi, Khayyam in Hindi and KV Mahadevan in Tamil always preferred to compose the song based on the lyrics written. The others like Shankar-Jaikishan and Salil Chowdhury mostly liked to compose the tune first  and then the lyrics  were written. As per this school of thought, this gave them ample opportunity to experiment and create completely fresh tunes . There is no point in saying which style was better-each has its own charm and that is why listeners like us could listen to so many immortal songs that continue to entertain us.

Some of the unique aspects of his music was very innovative use of the obligato ( essential but subordinate instrumental part), counter melody and chorus that many-a-times accompanies the main singer and in some songs even acts as the  interlude instead of the usual instrumental interlude. I always visualize his compositions as that of the river Amazon that is said to flow unpredictably, changing course suddenly. One can never guess how the antara would start after listening to the mukhda of his song. Even the second antara can be totally different than the first and third could be even more different!

Equally unique is his “ recreation” of his own tunes  into multiple language film songs. For e.g. take the song Baag Mein Kali Khili ( from the film Chand Aur Suraj) which he originally composed in Bengali as Ja Re Ja Aamar Ashar Bhul Bheshe sung by his wife Sabita Chowdhury. The same tune in Bengali is more subtle and sober whereas the Hindi version is so lively and peppy, for a romantic genre. Not content with these two difference treatments , he takes the same tune for the antara in the Malayalam song Puthan Valakare from Chemmeen film …and converts into a perfect fisherman’s folk tune.  I heard him saying in one of his interviews in All India Radio that he could do this with multiple languages as the  film songs in our country have their  own unique grammar that is understood across languages. What a beautiful observation! Salil da also composed the background score for many films in which the songs were composed by some other music director and some times he did not even take credit for the same .  

I have only listed  a fraction of his evergreen melodies – 20 songs that are my personal favorites. Sixteen of them are Hindi songs and two each from Malayalam and Tamil ( unfortunately I do not know much about his Bengali songs as that could be a separate ocean by itself and hence pardon me for the omission).

Songs are listed chronologically in the order of the films’ release with film /year/song title/ singer(s)/ lyricist mentioned in that sequence.

1. Do Bhiga Zameen-1953/Hariyala Sawan Dhol Bajata Aaya/Manna Dey  & Lata/ Shailendra

The debut Hindi film of Salil da, Do Bhiga Zameen  had fabulous songs and  my personal favorite is the one I have selected . The tempo of the song is so infectious that when you listen to this , you would fell like getting up and dance. The song is composed without any major interludes and is a seamless blend of singing and orchestration.

2. Jaagte Raho-1956/Teki Main  Jhoot Boliya/Rafi & S.  Balbir /Prem Dhawan

This is the first ‘Bhangra’ song in Hindi films and what a rocker it is. Rendered impeccably by Rafi and Balbir, with superb lines by Prem Dhawan ( in fact Salil da had acknowledged that this song was more of Prem Dhawan’s creation than his!). Amazing that some one from Bengal could create a masterpiece Punjabi bhangra.

3. Madhumati-1958/Dil Tadap Tadap Ke Keh Raha/ Lata & Mukesh/ Shailendra

Madhumati fetched Salil da his first  Filmfare award for best music direction and is one of his most successful music score. Totally eleven songs are there in this film and all are gems. As Aaja Re Pardesi and Suhana safar aur yeh masusam are played so often and is known to everyone , I have selected the Dil Tadap Tadap Ke song , inspired from a Polish folk song. Salil da , in fact embellished this even more beautifully than the original with his superb orchestration and treatment.

4. Parakh-1960/O Sajana Barkha Bahaar Aayee/Lata/Shailendra

One of his superb compositions with bare minimum orchestration. I can say that this one carries the perfect stamp of his style. I am not very sure about  the instrument that accompanies Lata as she starts the antara “ Tumko Pukare Mere Man Ka Papihara” -could be flute or the oboe which Salil da had used in many of his songs. Exquisite use of the sitar , the way the second antara is structured all make this just a pleasure to keep hearing again and again.

5. Parakh-1960/Mere Man Ke Diye/Lata/Shailendra

A very rarely played song , this song shows how beautifully Salil da had used Lata’s vocals. Lata herself on many occasions said that she always loved to sing Salil da’s compositions as many of them were challenging. If we have a composer like Salil da, singer like Lata and lyricist like Shailendra, a masterpiece can be created without just 2-3 instruments! That was the specialty of the golden era!

6. Chhaya-1961/Itna Na Mujhse Tu Pyaar Bhadaa/Talat Mehmood & Lata/ Rajendra Krishan

Once Salil da had jokingly said  he could have been a re-incarnation of Mozart! That was his way of acknowledging the influence of his music on him. He must have composed this immortal classic duet of Talat and Lata as a tribute to Mozart. The tune is inspired from Mozart’s 40th symphony in G Minor but then the treatment is totally Indian .

7. Kabuliwala-1961/Ganga Aaye Kahan Se/Hemant Kumar/ Gulzaar

Kabuliwala is known for the masterpiece from Manna Dey -Ae Mere Pyare Watan, which , no doubt is a great song. Equally poignant and sung with that typical baritone of Hemant da, is  the song  ‘ Ganga Aaye Kahan Se” . Only while researching for this blog , I realized this was written by Gulzar. Long before he got his fame. With only the bare minimum instruments accompanying, Salil da brings to your eyes the immense depth of Ganga .

8. Maya-1961/Jaa Re Jaa Re Ud Jaare Panchhi/Lata / Majrooh Sultanpuri

The film Maya was one more feather in the cap of Salil da with some 8 songs and most of them being hits. Rafi had some great solo songs – Koi Sone Ke Dilwala and Zindagi hai kay sun meri jaan .  

{Trivia about Zindagi Hai Kya song: This is somewhat inspired from the theme music of Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight and it seems not only Salil da, but many other music directors got inspired from this Chaplin’s tune -goes to the credit of Chaplin who basically was untrained in music!}

The Lata -Rafi duet Tasveer Teri Dil Mein is  also popular to this day. But , again my personal favorite is the Lata solo—Jaa Re Jaa Re Ud Panchhi that is vintage Salil da all the way. The counter melody that runs through the antara is his specialty. I am poor in identifying the instruments , but I think the unique wind instrument that sounds like flute-Oboe was used by Salil da and he was one of the pioneers to bring that instrument in popular film music.

The prelude starts off with a flute , accompanied by strings, and then a brief guitar gives the kick -off. Lata’s exquisite rendering of the song takes us into a different world. The saxophone in the interlude continues the song seamlessly and just when you are thinking that one can not compose anything better than this, Salil da throws a surprise by bringing in  that counter melody of Oboe as Lata sings Na dali rahi na kali.

Listen to the song with headphones and enjoy each instrument along with the divine voice of Lata to enjoy this song fully .

9. Anand-1970/Kahin Door Jab Din  /Mukesh/Yogesh

When it comes to Salil da’s compositions , it is always quality over quantity. The film Anand has only 4 major songs-Kahin door jab din dhal jaaye, Maine Tere Liye Hi -both sung by Mukesh, Manna Dey’s evergreen Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli and Lata’s Na Jiya Laage Na. All are fantastic songs and it is really difficult to talk about one among those.

Kahin Door is  Mukesh all time best song -the pathos that he was famous for comes out so poignantly in this . The way he starts off the song before the orchestration starts -especially that “ Saanjh ki Dulhan” in the low notes               ( Mukesh’s forte)  is enough to make this an epic song.

10. Mere Apne -1971/Koi Hota Jisko Apna /Kishore/Gulzar

In the early films of Salil da, he had utilized the vocals of Kishore Kumar in songs like Chota Sa Ghar Hoga Badlon Ke Chhaon mein , in the comical Aake Seedhi Lagi Jaise from Half ticket film but those were lighter songs. Salil da himself felt  after recording this “ Koi Hota Jisko Apna” that he had not utilized Kishore da for such songs earlier. Personally one of my very favorite Kishore da songs, this is really a tough one to sing.

11. Annadata-1972/Raaton Ke Saye/Lata/ Yogesh

If one has  to pick out  Salil da’s most unique and difficult composition , in my opinion it must be definitely this one. It is unfortunate that this song is very rarely played in radio or TV. One can understand that it is difficult for anyone else to perform this in a singing show, but at least the original song could have been made more popular. Maybe it is too difficult for the general listener to appreciate!

What a complex structure Salil da has though about! I must confess that it would be impossible for me to write about the musical intricacies of this song. Only a person knowledgeable  about music can do justice. A layman like me can only keep  listening to this song again and again and wonder  how could someone compose such a tune and more so how can a singer render this with so much ease. Hats off to Salil da and Lata!

12. Annadata-1972/Nis Din Sis Din /Lata/ Yogesh

Continuing with one more Lata solo from the same film Annadata, this is once again a typical composition of Salil da. After listening to just few seconds of the song one can guess the composer must be Salil da. Before the actual song starts there are two lines:

जिया लागे ना तेरे बिना जैसे प्रीतम हाए

चाँदनी बिना रात ना भाये

आ आ आ आ आ आ

The way these two lines are composed , gives you a glimpse of how unpredictable the song will turn out. Just like how Lata & Madan Mohan were a great combination, Lata & Salil da also gave us so many  intricate melodies.

I am giving the link to the Bengali version of this song where you can hear a different interlude ( almost Arabic in nature) and different orchestration. Salil da could weave a magic with the same tune with different treatments in different languages!

13. Annadata-1972/Nain Hamare Sanjh Sakare/Mukesh/ Yogesh

A song that is completely ignored song  ( reason I am saying this is that I have very rarely heard this in radio or even in any of the Mukesh playlists in the various media in Internet) . This is vintage Mukesh all the way-there cannot be anyone who can touch the lowest notes with so much of sweetness and at the same time maintain that typical pathos that runs through  the song. Put on a headphone and listen to those particular words:

Koi jaane na….koi jaane naa…

( a brief pause here ) and then…Yahan.

When you listen to that “ Yahan” , you will realize what  great singing  Mukesh is capable of.

Unlike many other tunes , Salil da has kept this relatively simple ; however the very subtle instrumental ornamentation that he does in the background compensates for the typical twists and turns!

14. Rajnigandha-1974/Kai baar yuhin dekha hai/ Mukesh/Yogesh

This low budget film from Basu Chatterjee was a sleeper  hit , mainly through word-of-mouth publicity. Basu Chatterjee became famous for such “ middle cinema” that were with simple plots , but picturized with reality without the typical “masala” elements of Bollywood films of those days.

There are just  two songs in this film-the other one being Lata’s immortal Rajinigandha phool tumhare mehke yuhin Jeevan mein.

Mukesh once again gives one of his best for Salil da and got his first National award for best male playback singer.

15. Choti Si Baat-1976/Na Jaane Kyoon Hota Hai /Lata/Yogesh

The most popular song from this film , once again by the team of Basu Chatterjee and Salil da, is of course Jaane Man Jaane Man Tere do nayan, that propelled the veteran “ Gana Gandharvan “ from Kerala, K J Yesudas into the Hindi film world.

However I have selected this totally “ western” style song Na Jaane Kyoon by Lata . Reason being , excellent use of guitar , saxophone and not to forget the innovative use of chorus for which Salil da was well known.

The nightingale , in her own way , creates a magical song with ease as  she carries those intricate notes that keep  moving up and down.

16. Anand Mahal-1977/Ni Sa Ga Ma Pa Ni Sa Re Ga ( Aa aa re mitwa) /K J Yesudas/Majrooh

Since I did not list  the Yesudas duet from Choti Si Baat, I decided to list out this superb , classical song which reveals a totally new Salil da . This is a classical master piece, set in raag Kalavati. Unfortunately this film , although completed was not released due to supposedly legal issues.

K J Yesudas’s absolute mastery over the classical genre is fully  evident in this song.

Malayalam Songs

17. Chemmeen (The Prawn) 1965/Kadalinakkare Ponore/ KJ Yesudas/Vayalar Ramavarma

If I remember correctly , this could have been the first Malayalam song that I got hooked to in my childhood. The absolute freshness in the tunes , rooted very strongly in the folk style makes the songs of Chemmeen immortal. A very young voice of K J Yesudas is so pleasing to hear.

18. Chemmeen 1965 /Puthan Valakkare/KJ Yesudas, P Leela, K.PUdaybhanu, Shanta P Nair/ Vayalar Ramavarma

A song with a complex structure: it starts with fast mukhda  and immediately shifts into a slow , lilting melody and the antara is completely different that is based on Salil da’s own Hindi song Baag Mein Kali Khili ( sung by Asha in Chand aur Suraj film). The rhythm of the song is perfectly in synchronization with a typical fisherman’s rowing of a boat.

Even those not knowing the language will listen to this again and again-truly an addictive song!.

Tamil songs

19. Azhiyada Kolangal ( Enduring Patterns)-1979 /Poovannam Pola Nenjam/P Jayachandran, P Susheela/Gangai Amaran

The film maker Balu Mahendra made his debut in Tamil with this ‘ coming of age’ film Azhiyatha Kolangal. Since Salil da had composed the music for Balu Mahendra’s Kannada debut film Kokila, he had expressed his wish to compose music for the Tamil film also. The music of this film had a total fresh feel in the Tamil film music that was so far dominated by veterans MSV, KVM, Ilayaraja and the songs remain popular to this day.

Right from the  prelude to the rhythm pattern, interludes -all had a completely different feel that was knew to the Tamil film music and brought in a fresh fragrant whiff of air. Salil da based the orchestration with innovative use of the Ukulele ( a type of  mandolin ) and a flute .

20. Azhiyada Kolangal-1979/ Naan Yennum Pozhuthu/ S P Balasubrahmanyam/Gangai Amaran

Na Mano Lage Na in Bengali, N a Jiya Laage Na in Hindi and then Naan Yennum Pozhudu—the first two by Lata and the Tamil version by the legend S P Balasubrahmanyam. Salil da  in his own style takes the same tune and embellishes them with different orchestration in different languages.

It is not an easy task to render a song that was immortalized by the great Lata , but if SPB is the singer , it is possible! He takes this song to a different level, that is in his favourite  ghazal style. Salil da’s typical use of chorus in the interludes, with some brass &  guitar accompanying  and percussion shifting between drums and table seamlessly -all these make this a treat to listen to.

  I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources  for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia
3. Songsofyore blogsite
4. Ragamalika TV You Tube channel
5. www.salilda.com website

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer:
The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been mentioned & embedded here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.

Chitragupt Shrivastav    : 16^th November 1917 -14^th Jan 1991

Many would have heard the song “ Chali chali re patang meri chali re” , “ Chal ud jaa re panchi ke ab yeh desh hua begaana” or “ Jaag Dil-E-Deewana, Rut Jaagi” etc without realizing who had composed  such timeless classics. These and many more such melodious songs were composed by Chitragupt Shrivastava ,  one  of the most under-rated, unrecognized music directors in the Hindi Film Music world. He was also one of the most educated music directors, having obtained double M.A degrees in Economics and Journalism!

Chitragupta Srivastava was born  in Karmaini village of Gopalganj district of Bihar He initially  worked as  a lecturer in a Patna college. Music , however was his passion and like many others , he  took the decision to try his luck in the Hindi Films . Starting off  as assistant to the veteran composer  SN Tripathi, he tried his hand as independent music composer for some  devotional/ mythological films.  Apart from the low-production value mythological films , he also worked on some “ stunt” films all with lesser-known actors. He was unfortunate to be not in the radar of the big stars like Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and also the big banners. Only the well-known production house from Chennai -AVM gave lot of opportunities to him apart from another  producer-director- Phani Majumdar. He was, however ,  very successful in the Bhojpuri film music , having composed for the first Bhojpuri film “ Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadaibho” ( 1963) for which the  great lyricist Shailendra had worked with him.

The golden era of Hindi film music ( roughly 1950-70) was dominated by  the stalwarts like Naushad, C Ramachandra, Shankar-Jaikishan, O. P Nayyar and S.D Burman who were  the most successful and critically acclaimed   top five music composers. Equally talented and also  critically acclaimed , there were other composers like Vasant Desai,  Madan Mohan, Roshan, Ravi,  Jaidev, Salil Choudhury, etc who created a niche for themselves .  Towards the late 60’s and subsequent period, music composers like Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and R D Burman ruled the music scene with their own new style of music. Between all these , Chitragupta somehow managed to create a name  for himself and composed great music even if the films for which he worked were mostly by lesser-known banners or with relatively lesser-known  actors. Commercial success and the notoriously biased “ awards” eluded him , but the songs he created are appreciated by music lovers to this day. Melody reigned most  supreme in his music.

The ” notoriously biased” awards always eluded this great melody master Chitragupt, but he got some solace , when his sons Anand-Milind got the Filmfare award for best music direction for their Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak that was a breakthrough film for them and a huge commercial success.

Just as a representative sample, I have lsited 15 of his evergreen songs in their chronological order of year of release. The film name/year of release/song/ singer(s)/ lyricist are mentioned in that order.

1. Bhabhi-1957/Chal Ud Jaa Re Panchhi/ Rafi/ Rajendra Krishan

Chal Ud jaa re panchi is one of the topmost songs from the team of Chitragupta-Rajendra Krishan-Rafi. A very emotionally moving song, Chitragupta should  be considered among the top  legendary music directors for this one song alone !  There is no  elaborate music arrangement or orchestration in this simple tune. Powerful  lyrics by Rajendra Krishan and the immortal rendition by Chitragupt’s most prolific male singer – Rafi  created this magical song and it remains  one of the topmost songs of HFM.

Rafi and Lata , both had some of their career best songs in the compositions of Chitragupt. With some 261 songs , Chitragupt stands number three in terms of the highest number of songs composed for Rafi after Laxmikant-Pyarelal & Shankar-Jaikishan!

The song appears in various stages in the film and it is nice to hear the entire song in a good quality audio in the following link:

2. Bhabhi-1957/Chali Chali re patang meri/Rafi & Lata/ Rajendra Krishan

An evergreen song played during the Sankranti festival when kite flying is popular, this is a super hit song from Chitragupt with his  signature style . Rafi had few simple passions in his personal life and kite flying was one of them. He must have thoroughly enjoyed singing this one!

Chitragupt does a beautiful arrangement of making Lata join Rafi after the line “ yun mast hawa mein lehrayee, jaise udan khatola uda jaaye in the first antara and the other way in second antara, with Rafi joining Lata after the line Rang meri patang ka dhani , hai yeh neel gagan ki rani.

The humming by Rafi and Lata in the interludes is also so sweet.

3. Kaali Topi Laal Rumaal-1959/Laagi Chhute Na Ab To Sanam/Rafi & Lata/Majrooh Sultanpuri

One of the most iconic song that describes, Chitragupta’s style of composing pleasing melodies, this song used to be played regularly in  Vividh Bharati and I remember having heard this from the time I was around 10 years old. Chitragupta composed another song with almost similar tune “ Teri duniya se door chale hoke majboor “ for the film Zabak in 1961 that had lyrics by Prem Dhawan.

The defining style of Chitragupta’s music was that you will mostly  not find any elaborate orchestrations or some extra-ordinary preludes & interludes , but it was compensated to a great deal with a very sweet melody underlying the whole song. It is always had a soothing effect on you. Not to forget -the lilting mouth organ played through the song.

4. Kaali Topi Laal Rumaal-1959/Daga Daga Vai Vai Ho gayee/Lata/Majrooh Sultanpuri

Normally one  would not associate his music  with such  prominent percussion  as melody was always his focus. But this one has a superb rhythm . One interesting word in the lyrics of this song is that “ che-kunam” that means an expression of  dilemma or bafflement.

5. Patang-1960/Rang Dil Ki dhadkan bhi/Lata/ Rajendra Krishan

This is the first song that comes to one’s mind whenever  Lata’s songs for Chitragupta  are thought of. One can feel that ‘dhadkan’ in the way he had composed the song right from the start of the song with that beautiful little pause after the words “ laati to hogi”. When the tune, lyrics and singing complement each other so well, you always get a song that will remain with us for centuries.

6. Opera House-1961/Balma Maane Na/Lata/ Majrooh

Whenever the best songs of Lata are talked about, some of the top music directors like Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishan , Madan Mohan, Roshan, Salil Chowdhury come to one’s mind. But it would be surprising to note that Chitragupta had composed some of Lata’s career  best  songs.  Balma Maane na is such a brilliant classical song composed in raag Malkauns and can be easily rated among Lata’s top songs. It is really a pity that most of Chitragupta’s songs were for smaller banners and stars -the so called ‘B’ or ‘ C ‘ grade films. His songs always remained TOP CLASS irrespective of the films.

7. Mein Chup Rahoongi-1962/Koi Bata de dil hain Jahan/Lata & Rafi/ Rajendra Krishan

A fast-paced duet of Lata and Rafifrom the same film ‘Mein Chup Rahoongi’. Teasing romantic lines from Rajendra Krishan:

Koi batade dil hai Jahan, kyun hota hai dard wahan

Teer chalake yeh to na poocho, dil hai kahan aur dard kahan

8. Ganga Ki Lehren-1964/Chedo Na Meri Zulfen Sab log /Kishore & Lata/Majrooh

One more soft, romantic melody from the team of Chitragupta-Majrooh -Lata and Kishore. Although Kishore had sung few songs only for Chitragupt, he always gives his best . Listen to the way Kishore sings in his typical style with a drawl , the lines “ hum ko deewana , tumko kaali ghata kahenge”.

9. Oonche Log-1965/Jaag Dil-e-Deewana/Rafi/ Majrooh

Oonche Log was a remake of the Tamil film Major Chandrakant that was directed originally by the legendary Tamil film director K Balachandar. The Hindi version was directed by Phani Majumdar, who had given many opportunities for Chitragupt.

Oonche Log,  was one of Chitragupta’s career best film-all the three songs mentioned here are truly masterpieces. Rafi’s “Jaag Dil-E-Deewana” sung in a very soft , sensual style can be easily considered one among his top 25 songs.

10. Oonche Log-1965/Haye Tere Chanchal Nainwa/Lata/ Majrooh

Uniquely picturized song -a young Feroz Khan holding a transistor and listening to this song and we can  hear   Mahindra Kapoor’s voice crooning softly along with Lata , humming the last lines in each antaraa.

11.Oonche Log-1965/Aaja Re Mere Pyaar Ke Rahi-Lata & Mahindra Kapoor/ Majrooh

It was during the period in which Rafi & Lata did not sing together and so in duets,  whenever the male singer was Rafi , it was mostly Suman Kalyanpur or Asha who sang with him and whenever the female singer was Lata , it was mostly  Mahindra Kapoor  who got the chance to sing with her. This is one such example and one of the very beautiful romantic number of Mahindra Kapoor.

12.Aakash Deep-1965/Dil Ka Diya Jalake gaya/Lata/Majrooh

Lata was known for her ease in rendering songs at high octaves and so it is relatively rare to hear her sing in the lower ones. But in this song, Chitragupta had Lata singing almost at a whisper and what a great song this turned out to be!

13. Aakash Deep-1965/Mujhe Dard-E-Dil Ka pata na tha/Rafi/ Majrooh

A hidden gem of Rafi-the way he gives that special touch at “ Mazee mein tha” in the line “ Main akele yoon hi maze mein tha” is something one must listen to carefully ,  appreciate and enjoy! Great composition by the melody master.

14. Aadhi Raat Ke Baad (1965)/Bahut haseen hain tumhari ankhen/Rafi &  Suman Kalyanpur / Prem Dhawan

A rarely heard duet , again from the time period when Suman got chances to sing duets with Rafi. This is one more example of the lilting melodious tunes that Chitragupt was so good in composing.

15. Vaasna-1968/ Yeh Parbaton Ke Dayare Yeh shaam ka duan/Rafi & Lata/ Sahir Ludhianvi

I saved the best one from Chitragupt for the last in this list of songs. One of my personal favorites , this song captures the essence of his style . An excellent tune , with masterly use of violins, accordion , saxophone and guitar , aided by a mild percussion that enhances the song to a great level. Rafi , Lata at their best and with the Shehenshah among lyricists-Sahir Ludhianvi joining in , we get an evergreen song that will live for centuries .

  I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources  for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia
3. Songsofyore blagsite

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer:
The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been mentioned here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights. I would also like to thank various blogs/articles published in the Internet from which I had obtained many information while writing this.

24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981

நான் நிரந்தரமானவன் அழிவதில்லை

                      எந்த நிலையிலும் எனக்கு மரணம் இல்லை

       “I am eternal and is never destroyed….there is no end for me..”

Only poets have the rare privilege of writing their own epitaphs! Kaviarasar Kannadasan wrote these  prophetic lines  for himself, when he was just 39 years old !

The above lines are from his song “ஒரு கோப்பையிலே என் குடியிருப்பு” from the film Ratha Thilagam , music composed by K V Mahadevan. Like the song Paramasivan kazhutilirundu paambu kettadhu , this is one more song that  Kannadasan had lip-synched  on screen  to make it immortal. One may consider these lines  a bit egotistic but it is well known that he was one of those rare persons who openly talked about his various shortcomings and mistakes he made in life. In the same song , he talks about his weaknesses also!

Even after 41 years of his passing away , his songs continue to mesmerize the countless Tamizh music lovers worldwide. Among the 5000 odd songs that he wrote for films, he himself discounted around 20% as trash. But the rest 80% may need a lifetime for one to write about and this blog is a small step towards that.

I  had not studied  Tamizh except in the primary classes , and so it may be a foolish  attempt to write about the poetry in that language and that too by a legend like Kaviarasar Kannadasan. Still I am attempting the impossible mainly due to my intense love for my native language and the lyrical beauty in Kannadasan’s songs. He was able to use the ancient, classical language’s inherent beauty  and convey life’s philosophies in a way that even a layman could easily understand. He is also well known for many literary works like the famous “அர்த்தமுள்ள ஹிந்து மதம்” ( The meaningful Hinduism)  and was even awarded a Sahitya Academy Award for his novel Cheraman Kathali . However I am not qualified to talk about those and would restrict myself to his film songs, that too with my limited understanding .  

For a very long time I was more into listening to Hindi songs and used to admire the Hindi poetry & Urdu shayari in the Hindi film music( HFM).  But when  I started listening  keenly to the great songs composed by Kannadasan , I concluded that he was simply an encyclopedia , an  institution by himself. There was no limit to his imagination, spontaneity , versatility, and it is my opinion that he was first among the equals!

Born , Muthiah , to Sathappan Chettiar and Visalakshi Achi as eighth among ten children, he was brought up by one Chigappi Achi who had adopted him. He had studied up to 8^th grade and did some job in a private company and worked as an editor for a magazine.  His film career started off with the song Kalangathiru maname for the film Kanniyin Kadhali in 1949 ,  music composed by SM Subbiah Naidu , sung by K V Janaki and ended  with “ Kanne Kalaimane” in 1981 for the film Moondram Pirai composed by Ilayaraja and sung by K J Yesudas. In those 32 years.  he could make people laugh, cry, ponder over life, inspire , entertain , be optimistic,  romantic  through his songs and the  mastery in Tamizh language.

This is the first blog that I am attempting to write exclusively about a lyricist. It is too daunting a task to select few songs from the approximately 5000 songs that he had written for films. I am restricting myself to just five songs to begin with and will keep writing in parts ( over many years ..I am sure!!). In my opinion that is the only way one can do justice to this legend and his immortal songs.

#1.மயக்கமா கலக்கமா மனதிலே குழப்பமா -Mayakkama Kalakkama Manathile Kuzhappama/Sumaithangi-1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy /P B Sreenivas .

There is an interesting anecdote of how Kannadasan’s own song inspired another great lyricist  in the Tamil film music , Vaali ( T S Rangarajan) to overcome the latter’s dejection . This has been narrated by Vaali himself to highlight the impact of Kannadasan’s lines. When Vaali was disappointed & dejected  in not getting a breakthrough as a lyricist in films, he was thinking of going back to his hometown Srirangam, when he listened to this  song written by Kannadasan. Taking inspiration from that song, he decided to fight it out and then later became a successful and even  a competing lyricist. Can there be any better example to describe the power of words?

Listen to Vaali himself explaining the lyrics of this song in the following link:

மயக்கமா கலக்கமா
மனதிலே குழப்பமா
வாழ்க்கையில் நடுக்கமா

வாழ்க்கை என்றால் ஆயிரம் இருக்கும்
வாசல்தோறும் வேதனை இருக்கும்
வந்த துன்பம் எதுவென்றாலும்
வாடி நின்றால் ஓடுவது இல்லை
எதையும் தாங்கும் இதயம் இருந்தால்
இறுதி வரைக்கும் அமைதி இருக்கும்.

ஏழை மனதை மாளிகை ஆக்கி
இரவும் பகலும் காவியம் பாடி

நாளை பொழுதை இறைவனுக்கு அளித்து
நடக்கும் வாழ்வில் அமைதியை தேடு
உனக்கும் கீழே உள்ளவர் கோடி
நினைத்து பார்த்து நிம்மதி நாடு

Note the simple lines he had used in the last stanza  to convey the essence of life’s philosophy. If one is going through a difficult time , it is better to do one’s duty ,dedicating it to the Almighty and find peace ; at the same time one can seek solace by thinking  about the countless who are going through even more  difficult times . That was the genius of Kannadasan. The chain of thought in this song is simply amazing.

#2. அத்திக்காய் காய் காய் –Athikkai kai kai Aalangai Vennilavee/ Bale Pandiyai-1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy / T.M Soundararajan, P.B Sreenivas, P. Susheela and Jamuna Rani.

From philosophy to romance, let us look at how Kannadasan used the immense beauty of Tamizh language in the song . It seems initially MSV was making fun of the lyrics : what is this song—”kai -kai” like a  vegetable market! But once he understood the hidden beauty of the song , along with   the producer-director B.R Pantulu , the team created a  landmark song. It is all the way the  word play of Kaviarasar  in full glory. In Tamizh a particular word has two or sometimes even more meaning and that was used so nicely in this song. 

அத் திக்காய் காய் காய் 
ஆலங்காய் வெண்ணிலவே
இத் திக்காய் காயாதே 
என்னைப் போல் பெண்ணல்லவோ
நீ என்னைப் போல் பெண்ணல்லவோ 

கன்னிக் காய் ஆசைக் காய் 
காதல் கொண்ட பாவைக் காய்
அங்கே காய் அவரைக் காய் 
மங்கை எந்தன் கோவைக் காய் 

மாதுளங்காய் ஆனாலும் 
என்னுளங்காய் ஆகுமா
எனை நீ காயாதே 
என்னுயிரும் நீ அல்லவோ
இத் திக்காய் காயாதே 
என்னைப் போல் பெண்ணல்லவோ 

இரவுக்காய் உறவுக்காய் 
ஏங்கும் இந்த ஏழைக்காய்
நீயும் காய் நிதமும் காய் 
நேரில் நிற்கும் இவளைக் காய் 
புருவங்காய் ஆனாலும் பருவங்காய் ஆகுமோ
என்னை நீ காயாதே என்னுயிரும் நீயல்லவோ

ஏலக் காய் வாசனை போல் 
எங்கள் உள்ளம் வாழக் காய்
ஜாதிக் காய் பெட்டகம் போல் 
தனிமை இன்பம் கனியக் காய் 
சொன்னதெல்லாம் விளங்காயோ 
தூது வழங்காய் வெண்ணிலா
என்னை நீ காயாதே 
என்னுயிரும் நீயல்லவோ

உள்ளமெலாம் மிளகாயோ 
ஒவ்வொரு பேர் சுரைக்காயோ
வெள்ளரிக் காய் பிளந்தது போல் 
வெண்ணிலவே சிரித்தாயோ 
கோதை என்னை காயாதே 
கொற்றவரங்காய் வெண்ணிலா
இருவரையும் காயாதே 
தனிமையிலேங்காய் வெண்ணிலா

#3. நினைக்க தெரிந்த மனமே /Ninaika Therintha Maname / Ananda Jothi-1963/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy /  P. Susheela.

From romance , we move on to pathos – a song that describes the emotions of a lady who is unable to bear the separation from her lover. This is another classic by Kannadasan. Each line has a phrase  that is  exactly  contrary to  the earlier one. The way in which Kannadasan keeps adding such antithesis in each line is just superb. Few examples that highlight this :

நினைக்க தெரிந்த மனமே உனக்கு மறக்க தெரியாதா

பழக தெரிந்த உயிரே உனக்கு விலக தெரியாதா

எடுக்க தெரிந்த கரமே உனக்கு கொடுக்க தெரியாதா

இனிக்க தெரிந்த கனியே உனக்கு கசக்க தெரியாதா

Like a sculptor not being satisfied and chiseling away till he gets the right shape or a painter working on his brush with strokes after strokes, Kannadasan does this with his immortal words.

கொதிக்க தெரிந்த நிலவே உனக்கு குளிர தெரியாதா

குளிரும் தென்றல் காற்றே உனக்கு பிரிக்க தெரியாதா

பிரிக்க தெரிந்த இறைவா உனக்கு இணைக்க தெரியாதா

இனைய தெரிந்த தலைவா உனக்கு என்னை புரியாத , தலைவா என்னை புரியாதா

Add Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy’s evocative tune with excellent use of the shehnai  and the nightingale P Susheela’s impeccable rendition-you get a song that will move you.

#4. வசந்த கால நதிகளிலே / Vasantha kaala nadigalile / Moondru Mudichhu-1976/ M.S. Vishwanathan /  P. Jayachandran & Vani Jayaram

It is difficult to categorize the next song that I am going to talk about. It  starts off as a pleasant duet, with the lovers enjoying a boat ride, but  suddenly turns into a horrific tragedy, with the hero drowning in the lake in a sudden twist . The master-film maker, K Balachandar (KB) picturized this epic song for the film Moondru Mudichu. In most of KB’s  films, there will be one song by Kannadasan that comprehensively  summarizes the entire film. Composed in an innovative  “அந்தாதி ” style, each line starts off with a word that is the ending word of the previous line.

I am reproducing  the entire lyrics, so that we can appreciate the beauty of the language used by  Kannadasan.

வசந்த கால நதிகளிலே
வைரமணி நீரலைகள்
நீரலைகள் மீதினிலே
நெஞ்சிறண்டின் நினைவலைகள்

நினைவலைகள் தொடர்ந்து வந்தால்
நேரமெல்லாம் கனவலைகள்
கனவலைகள் வளர்வதற்கு
காமனவன் மலர்கணைகள்

மலர்க்கணைகள் பாய்ந்து விட்டால்
மடி இரண்டும் பஞ்சனைகள்
பஞ்சனையில் பள்ளிக் கொண்டால்

மனம் இரண்டும் தலை அணைகள்

தலையணையில் முகம் புதைத்து
சரசமிடும் புதுக் கலைகள்
புதுக்கலைகள் பெறுவதற்கு
பூமாலை மனவினைகள்

மணவினைகள் யாருடனோ
மாயவனின் விதி வகைகள்
விதி வகையை முடிவு செய்யும்
வசந்த கால நீரலைகள்

MSV himself renders the last  lines in a menacing tone that brings out the villainy in the scene, where the character played by Rajinikanth intentionally does not save his friend from drowning.

#5. கொடி அசைந்ததும் காற்று வந்ததா – Kodiasainthathum Kaatru Vanthatha / Paarthal Pasi Theerum-1962/ Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy /  T.M Soundararajan & P. Susheela

One can call this song a “Cause-and-Effect analysis” or the eternal “chicken or egg” puzzle. Who else can weave  around a romantic theme on this other than the inimitable Kannadasan?!

கொடி அசைந்ததும் காற்று வந்ததா

காற்று வந்ததும் கோடி அசைந்ததா

Apart from being a lyrical beauty, it is  a pleasing , melodious romantic one from the film Paarthal Pasi Theerum. Kannadasan takes the cause-and-effect theme and keeps weaving around it , using the words like ornaments. Read the whole lyrics to immerse yourself in the beauty of the poetry:

கொடியசைந்ததும் காற்று வந்ததா?
காற்று வந்ததும் கொடியசைந்ததா?
நிலவு வந்ததும் மலர் மலர்ந்ததா?
மலர் மலர்ந்ததால் நிலவு வந்ததா?

பாடல் வந்ததும் தாளம் வந்ததா?
தாளம் வந்ததும் பாடல் வந்ததா?
பாவம் வந்ததும் ராகம் வந்ததா?
ராகம் வந்ததும் பாவம் வந்ததா?
கண் திறந்ததும் காட்சி வந்ததா?
காட்சி வந்ததும் கண் திறந்ததா?
பருவம் வந்ததும் ஆசை வந்ததா?
ஆசை வந்ததும் பருவம் வந்ததா?

வார்த்தை வந்ததும் வாய் திறந்ததா?
வாய் திறந்ததும் வார்த்தை வந்ததா?
பெண்மை என்பதால் நாணம் வந்ததா?
நாணம் வந்ததால் பெண்மை ஆனதா?
ஓடி வந்ததும் தேடி வந்ததும்
பாடி வந்ததும் பார்க்க வந்ததும்
காதல் என்பதா? பாசம் என்பதா?
கருணை என்பதா? உரிமை என்பதா?

Acknowledgement & Disclaimer 

I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Mr. Annadurai Kannadasan’s You Tube channel “ Kannadhasan Productions”
3. Ms. Subashashree Thanikacahalam’s You Tube channel: Ragamalika TV-QFR series.
4. Wikipedia

The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been mentioned /embedded here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.