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:
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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}
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 14th 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.
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:
You Tube
Ms. Subashashree Thanikacahalam’s You Tube channel: Ragamalika TV-QFR series.
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.
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 22nd 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
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 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.
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
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:
You Tube
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.
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 .
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.
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 3rd 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.
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.
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-100th 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:
You Tube
Wikipedia
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 : 19th November 1922 -5th 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 19th 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 40th 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.
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.
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 .
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!
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!
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:
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 : 16th November 1917 -14th 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.
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”.
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.
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:
You Tube
Wikipedia
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.
“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 8th 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.
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:
கொடியசைந்ததும்காற்று 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:
You Tube
Mr. Annadurai Kannadasan’s You Tube channel “ Kannadhasan Productions”
Ms. Subashashree Thanikacahalam’s You Tube channel: Ragamalika TV-QFR series.
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.
Ravi ( 3rd March 1926 to 7th March 2012 ) AND Sahir (8th March 1921 to 25th October 1980)
If we ask anyone who listens to the Hindi film songs of the 50’s and 60’s to list out some of the top music directors of that time, there is a high probability that the name of Ravi may not appear . Even some of the avid listeners of the music from the golden era of Hindi Film music may count Naushad, SD Burman, Shankar -Jaikishan, C Ramachandra , O.P Nayyar, Madan Mohan , Roshan among the top, but Ravi , though equally talented, may invariably be left out. This, in spite of Ravi’s songs fetching Filmfare awards for many singers as listed here: ( personally I never understood the logic of these awards but still mentioning them to showcase the sheer numbers of Ravi’s songs fetching the awards)
Mohammad Rafi – 1961- his first for Chaudvin Ka Chand Ho from the movie Chaudvin Ka Chand.
Lata Mangeshkar- 1966- Tumhi Meri Manzil from the film Khandaan.
Asha Bhonsale – 1968 -Garibon Ki Suno from the film Dus Lakh
Mahendra Kapoor – who got it twice : Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se -1964 Film : Gumraah and Neele Gagan Ke Tale-1968, Film : Humraaz
And as late as in 1983 even for a debutant Salma Agha – Dil Ke Armaan Aansuon Mein Beh Gaye
The well-known singer from south, K S Chitra got the National award for best playback in 1986 for the Malayalam song “Manjal Prasadavum” composed by Ravi for the film Nakakshathangal . Ravi himself got the Filmfare award for best music direction twice-Gharana -1961 & Khandan -1965, National award for best music direction for the Malayalam films Sukrutham and Parinayam in 1994.
It is surprising that such a musical genius remained always in the background. May be like his music style, that always enhanced the lyrical beauty of the song and gave full freedom to his singers who could give their best, he also remained in the background . His orchestration was simple but sublime , never overpowering the lyrics and singers.
Ravi had many hit songs with other lyricists like Rajendra Krishna, Shakeel Badayuni but his songs with the “ superstar” lyricist Sahir are a different class apart and is the theme of this blog. Sahir also had a great association with other legendary composers like S D Burman, Roshan ( already covered by me in my Team #4) , Madan Mohan , N Dutta , O.P Nayyar and many others. His associations with S D Burman and O. P Nayyar , however , ended in a somewhat bitter note, after the films Pyaasa and Naya Daur , respectively. On the contrary, with Ravi, he had a long collaboration and in this blog, let us look at their evergreen melodies that are popular till today. This combination also contributed to a great extent in giving a tremendous boost to one of the most under-rated singers of Hindi Film Music , Mahendra Kapoor.
Ravi, like many artists of those times had difficult times in building up his career, even being homeless , living on the streets during the day and sleeping on the Malad ( a suburb of Mumbai ) railway station. He had no formal training in music , but learnt music by listening to his father singing bhajans. He learnt to play some instruments on his own and took up the job of an electrician to support his family. Like many music directors, he also wanted to become a professional singer. In 1952 , at last luck smiled upon him and he was noticed by the music composer Hemant Kumar and started singing in the chorus for him. The famous Vande Mataram song tuned by Hemant da for the film Anand Math had Ravi in the chorus. SD Burman’s Naujawaan film also had Ravi singing in chorus. After assisting Hemant Kumar for few films, he got his first chance to compose independently for the 1955 film Vachan.
There was some strange connection between Ravi and wedding songs! His songs like Aaj mere yaar ki shaadi hai, Babul ki duyaen leti ja, Doli chadh ke dulhan sasural chali and Mere yaar bana hai dulha were very popular in wedding celebrations. He even had a perennial pre-wedding ceremony song “ Ae meri zohra zabeen Tujhe Maloom Nahin” sung by Manna Dey in the film Waqt.
Ravi was one of the music directors who shaped the career of Asha Bhosle with songs like Zindagi ittefaq hai, Tora man darpan, Aage bhi jane na tu , Sun le pukar aai and many such songs. After O P Nayyar, it was Ravi who gave Asha some of her best songs . Unfortunately this fact remains less talked about , may be due the fact that she herself not having talked about Ravi’s contribution in her career. He was also instrumental in giving Mahendra Kapoor some of his best songs , especially for the numerous B.R Chopra films. Not to forget , Rafi, just a letter ‘f’ & ‘v’ separating them ! Rafi must have sung around 250 songs for Ravi-must be his fourth highest after Laxmikant-Pyarelal , Shankar -Jaikishan & Chitragupt. Rafi also had some of his best melodious songs under the baton of Ravi and many-a-times I used to get confused if a particular melodious Rafi song was composed by Madan Mohan or Ravi!
When melody started taking a back seat in the Hindi Film Music world, he successfully entered the Malayalam film scene and became a great hit there , earning the name Bombay Ravi. Malayalam film director Hariharan had introduced him there and he had a very fruitful association with him . In Ravi’s music direction one of the leading female playback singers in South, KS Chitra received two National awards for best playback singing. Even after almost three decades of his debut , Ravi made his mark with some melodious songs in the 1982 film , Nikaah.
Regarding Sahir, I had already written about him in my blog on Roshan-Sahir combination and so I am not repeating it. Let us now look at some of the great songs of this team. Since Ravi mostly used to compose the tune as per the lyrics, his songs always had a great lyrical value and with Sahir, they just hit the jackpot more often.
This is the last in my series of famous music composer-lyricist pairs. I would be writing about many other composers, some well-known, some lesser-known without getting bracketed with any particular lyricist. Also I must write about the 8 composers that I had so far covered in this series , on the songs they had composed with other lyricists…there is always so much to discover in the vast ocean of the golden era of Hindi Film Music!
Songs are listed chronologically, with film/year/song/singer(s) mentioned in that order. I have tried to embed the songs so that reader can listen to the song while going through the article; sometimes due to technical issues they may not play and in that case one can click on the link provided to view/listen in a separate tab.
#1. Gumraah- 1963/चलो एक बार फिर से अजनबी बन जाए हम दोनों-Chale Ek Baar Phir Se Ajnabee/ Mahendra Kapoor
If one single song identified a playback singer the most, it was this. Mahendra Kapoor and this song can never be forgotten. Although the entire song defines Sahir’s genius in poetry and Ravi’s ability to enhance the same by using Mahendra Kapoor’s softer vocals , this one stanza absolutely stands out to be quoted for any difficult situation.
तार्रुफ़* रोग हो जाये तो उसको भूलना बेहतर ताल्लुक* बोझ बन जाये तो उसको तोड़ना अच्छा वो अफ़साना जिसे अंजाम तक लाना ना हो मुमकिन उसे इक खूबसूरत मोड़ देकर छोड़ना अच्छा
(*तार्रुफ़-Taaruf means mutual acquaintance & * ताल्लुक-Taalluk means relationship)
I have tried to translate this with the very limited knowledge of Urdu that I have.
If knowing each other becomes an illness it is better to forget it
If the relationship becomes a burden it is better to end it
If it is difficult to go ahead in the path chosen
It is better to give it a beautiful turn and leave it at that
#2 Humraaz- 1963/ नीले गगन के तले धरती का प्यार फले –Neele Gagan Ke Tale/ Mahendra Kapoor
If Chalo ek baar was an intense song, this lighter one showcases the exquisite melody in Ravi’s music . With a superb orchestration of violins, flute , santoor and the very unique style of dholak’s rhythm that was an outstanding feature of Ravi’s music, if you listen to this song even with closed eyes, you can visualize vast expanse of mountain, a gently flowing stream, a soft breeze caressing your cheeks…that is the power of Ravi’s simple but scintillating tunes.
#3 Humraaz- 1963/ किसी पत्थर की मूरत से मोहब्बत का इरादा है –Kisi Pathar Ki Moorat Se Mohabbat/ Mahendra Kapoor
Who can imagine lines like हर एक बेजान तकल्लुफ से भगावत का इरादा है ( I feel like revolting against the meaningless formalities of the society) except Sahir! This is a song that , in my childhood made me check meaning of Urdu words like parastishqi , takalluf etc . This is one of my personal favorite among Mahendra Kapoor’s songs . It reminds one of Rafi’s style of singing and Mahendra Kapoor looks to have taken lot of inspiration from his idol.
#4 Humraaz- 1963/ तुम आगा साथ देने का वादा करो –Tum Agar Saath Dene Ka Wada / Mahendra Kapoor
What a great prelude in this song!…santoor, flute , sitar, violins all compete to give a great start. Then the ubiquitous dholak of Ravi and Mahendra Kapoor take off along with chorus…in each antara , the way MK elaborates the line “ tum agar….is just mesmerizing.
#5 Humraaz- 1963/न मुँह छुपाके जियो और न सर झुकागे जियो– Na Mooh Chupa Ke Jiyo / Mahendra Kapoor
This is the fourth song from Humraaz! What a great score by Ravi for this film. A percussion extravaganza that is revealed in the prelude itself, this song also has Mahendra bhai reaching the Mt Everest with his unique pitch and lung power in the line “ Har ek pal ki”
After a feast of Mahendra Kapoor, we now come to the golden combination of Ravi with Rafi. Except for those BR Chopra films , who mainly preferred MK over Rafi ( reasons not very clearly known ) , Ravi’s most preferred male singer was always Rafi sahab. Ravi & Rafi had given many such pleasing melodies like this one. The tunes & orchestration were always simple but enhanced the beauty of the lyrics to a great extent.
#7 Waqt- 1965/ऐ मेरी ज़ोहरा जबीन तुझे मालूम नहीं– Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen / Manna Dey
Manna Dey and Mukesh have that uncanny ability to give an evergreen song for a music director who might not have offered them many songs. I have observed this trend with both these singers. For Ravi, Mohd Rafi and Mahendra Kapoor were the main male singers and Manna da must had few songs only. But what an indelible mark he made with this song. Not to forget the supremely gifted actor Balraj Sahni who had performed this on screen superbly without moving an inch and just sitting and enacting it.
#8 Waqt- 1965/आगे भी जाने न तू– Aage Bhi Jaane Na Tu /Asha Bhonsale
One of Asha’s career best songs, this is a masterpiece , but sometimes it so happens that a particular played so often in radio, music channels, TV etc. till we get tired of it!. Of course this is a full 7-minute song, but the way Asha had sung this is just amazing. The song has only three antaras but the interludes are quite long . Ravi had used the guitar so nicely and Asha’s westernized humming enhances the beauty of the composition.
Sahir makes this seemingly “ party song” into the one that summarizes the entire story of the film . Waqt-Time is the ultimate power-it creates and destroys-no one can predict what is going to happen and there is no point in brooding about the past-live your present moment to the best extent possible—this is the essence of the song.
Interestingly, in spite of having two heroines in the film-Sharmila Tagore & Sadhana, this is picturized on an obscure actress Erica Lal!
#9 Kaajal – 1965/यह ज़ुल्फ़ अगर खुलके भिकर जाए तो अच्छा –Yeh Zulf Agar Khulke /Rafi
Ravi belongs to that school of music composers who invariably composed the tune after the lyrics were written . Just in contrast to others like Shankar-Jaikishan, especially Shankar , who used to believe that by composing the tune the first and then asking the lyricist to write, they had more variety in the compositions and not bound by the metre set in the lyrics. For us listeners such varied styles of compositions gave so many gems during the golden era of Hindi Film Music! Coming back to this song, when Ravi saw the lines abruptly ending in
अच्छा, he requested Sahir to modify it ..but Sahir was stubborn. It is in such situations that the genius in Rafi comes to the rescue. Rafi sang that अच्छाso well that it became the highlight of the song. Not being satisfied with the variations composed by Ravi, Rafi sahab himself requested Ravi to allow him to add another variation of अच्छा….
And the end result is bound to be अच्छा!!
#10 Kaajal – 1965/छु लेने दो नाज़ुक होंठों को –Choo Lene Do Nazuk Honton Ko /Rafi
Rafi-Ravi-Sahir come together to give this intoxicating song that is melody personified. It is always a mystery how Rafi sahab, a complete teetotaler sang the best intoxicated songs in Hindi films!
#11 Kaajal – 1965/तोरा मन दर्पण कहलाये –Tora Man Darpan Kehlaye /Asha
Sahir, when he writes about life’s philosophy , he does it so wonderfully. Some of the best bhajans were written by him , though in his personal beliefs he was a non-believer!
Sahir talks about how one’s consciousness ( मन) is a mirror that sees as well as reflects all the good and bad
#12 Aankhein – 1968/गैरों पे करम अपनों पे सितम –Gairon Pe Karam Apnon Pe Sitam /Lata
When we look at the female singers that Ravi had worked with , Lata had comparatively lesser songs but she did have some evergreen ones with him.
Sahir’s poignant lyrics add so much value to this song, exceptionally composed by Ravi and sung by Lata in her commanding style.
From the film Neelkamal , the song Babul Ki Duayen Leti jaa is more recognized mainly for the fact that Rafi sahab had broken down while rehearsing for that as he had just then married off one of his daughters and even the final version he sung had an extra-ordinary sadness . Somehow I find that song is more to listen privately and get immersed in the emotion. That is why I chose a less intense one-which is more of a lament of a lover. A haunting note runs through this song keeping in mind the theme of this film which was about re-birth.
#14 Do Kaliyan – 1968/तुम्हारी नज़र क्यूँ ख़फ़ा हो गयी –Tumhari Nazar Kyun Kafa /Rafi & Lata
A very popular, evergreen duet that is played in almost all radio , TV programs, this is a rare duet of Rafi & Lata in Ravi’s music direction. Brilliant orchestration with Ravi’s signature rhythm pattern in full flow will ensure this song continues to be in the popular charts for years together.
#15 Aadmi Aur Insaan – 1969/ ज़िन्दगी इत्तेफ़ाक़ है –Zindagi Ittefaq Hai /Mahendra Kapoor & Asha
An out and out Ravi’s signature style of composition in this song. He effortlessly shuffles between two different tunes when Mahendra Kapoor joins Asha with the lines: कभी गैरों पे भी अपनों का गुमान होता है and again second time with the lines:
आज मालुम हुआ पहले ये मालुम न था that are in an altogether different metre
Guitar, saxophone , Asha’s superb singing in the high octaves and a mellow Mahendra Kapoor all together make this one great masterpiece. One more example of how Ravi gave some of the career best songs for Asha .
#16 Dhundh- 1973/ उलझन सुल्झेना रस्ता सूझेना जाऊं कहाँ में –Uljhan Suljhe Naa /Asha Bhonsale
A relatively rare song, this is a beautiful ‘duet’ between Asha & piano. The film Dhundh was an adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel (The Unexpected Guest), nicely made by B R Chopra who had supported Ravi the most. This song by Asha Bhosale with the piano perfectly in sync with her lines is one of my personal favorites.
#17 Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka – 1975/देखा है ज़िन्दगी को –Dekha Hai Zindagi Ko /Kishore Kumar
Kishore, Mukesh , Talat and Manna Dey -all had limited songs with Ravi as he had mostly Rafi & Mahendra Kapoor as his main male singers. But being the legends they were , they made their mark in within the limited opportunities they got. Like Manna Dey’s ऐ मेरी ज़ोहरा जबीन, Talat’s सब कुछ लुटाके होश में आये तो क्या किया , Mukesh’s वफ़ा जिसने की बेवफा हो गए.
Kishore had sung this song in his typical baritone and breezy , natural style that was always his forte. There is one more gem of a song by Kishore यह रातें यह मौसम नदी का किनारा but that was composed by Shailendra and so I could not include that here!
#18 Amaanat- 1977/ दूर रहकर न करो बात –Door Rehkar Na Karo Baat /Rafi
As written earlier, Ravi & Rafi had a fabulous association and Rafi had some of his most melodious songs in Ravi’s compositions, to be rivalled only by another melody king Madan Mohan. Sahir was equally at ease writing about the social injustice or romance. Rafi brings to life each line of the song composed to brilliantly by Ravi.
Acknowledgement & Disclaimer
I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources for the information that I could gather for this article:
You Tube
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.
When we talk about music, poetry cannot be ignored and if we talk about poetry , then there is always a tendency of poets to paint a “larger than life” picture through their words! Hence, I have taken the liberty of using the somewhat exaggerated title for this blog! The moods and genres in music obviously cannot be infinite. But when it comes to Rafi Sahab , like how he used to keep improvising certain phrases or words in his songs, I am stretching it a bit more to call it infinite variety!
24th December 2022 is the 98th birth anniversary of Mohammad Rafi Sahab -a great singer and an even greater, humble human being. It is also the first anniversary of my blog “ music unrestricted”. Having started off on 24th Dec 2021 with a blog on some of the extra-ordinary songs of Rafi , I had written about many music composers, singers & lyricists in the last one year both in Hindi & Tamil film music. But it is always a pleasure for me to come back to my most favourite singer -Rafi.
What better way to remember him just two years before we celebrate his centenary, than to look at some of the different genres that he sang with so much of passion and dedication. So, without wasting much time , let us look at the variety that he rendered through his fabulous singing. These select eleven songs will surely give you an idea about the immense versatility Rafi Sahab had in his singing. Each song has a different Rafi!
The moods/genres are randomly listed here , with each one having the song /film/release year/music director/ lyricist / singer(s)/ actor on whom the song is picturized.
Folk
पिपरा के पटवा सरीके ढोले मनवा की जियरा में उठत हिल्लोर:Pipra ke patwa sarike dhole manwa ke jiyara mein uthat hillor/Godaan/1963/Pt Ravishankar/Anjaan/Rafi/ Mehmood
A rarely played and heard song , this is a hidden gem from the film Godaan that was based on the great Hindi novelist Munshi Premchand’s story. Pandit Ravishankar , the veteran Sitar artist and musical wizard composed music for only three Hindi films-Godaan, Anuradha and Meera. All the films had fabulous songs. Long before the lyricist Anjaan became famous in the 1970’s with his songs in association with Kalyanji Anandji, he had written this superb Bhojpuri song , rendered with gusto by Rafi. For a person hailing from Punjab, the ease with which he had sung this Bhojpuri number isremarkable.
In present generation’s lingo, one can say this is Rafi-unplugged . Having understood that the rich heroine is in love with him, the character , Raja , played by Shashi Kapoor is in raptures and is dancing away in joy . One can hear his exuberance in Rafi’s tone and at one point in the second antaraa he goes into a rap starting with :
मरना जीना , खाना पीना , हंसना रोना
नहाना धोना ,सोना उठना ,चलना फिरना
आना जाना हम दीवानों ने मोहब्बत में भुलाया
…….and goes on in a single breath and then he goes on to play around with the word हमको in the line हमको तुमसे प्यार आया प्यार आया after that in his typical style.
No wonder Kalyanji-Anandji had their major breakthrough in their career with Rafi’s exceptional singing in the film Jab Phool Khile.
3. Devotion
आना है तो आ राह में कुछ फेर नहीं है:Aana hai to aa raah mein kuch pher nahin hai/Naya Daur/1957/O P Nayyar/Sahir Ludhianvi/Rafi/Background
If one hears this song immediately after listening to the boisterous Aaffoo Khuda , one can easily understand why Rafi sahab was known for his immense versatility. This sublime, devotional song has a complete change in the tone and style of singing. Starting off with the typical pitch for which he is well known , Rafi expertly conveys the feeling of providing solace to the listener , reassuring “ Bhagwan ke ghar der hai, andher nahi hai”. It is very rare to listen to a bhajan composed by the rhythm king O.P Nayyar . With a great collaboration with Sahir ( that unfortunately ended with this film), O.P.Nayyar gave his career best songs in this movie.
In his personal life Sahir was not a theist but can we believe that if we listen to the lines written by him in this song?
4. Desh Bhakti/Patriotism
ऐ वतन ऐ वतन हमको तेरी कसम:Ae Watan Ae Watan Humko Teri Kasam / Shaheed /1965/ Prem Dhawan -written and composed / Rafi /Manoj Kumar
The life story of Shaheed Bhagat Singh will move anyone to tears for the bravery and sacrifice shown by him at such a young age. Rafi brings to life the passion Shaheed Bhagat Singh had for our country with his impeccable singing. If one can listen keenly to this song composed and written by the veteran Prem Dhawan , the boldness and conviction in Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s life comes out so prominently in the tune, lyrics, and the superb rendition by Rafi.
There may be many singers who are talented musically , capable of intricate alaap,taan, murki etc, but the ability of Rafi to get into the soul of the song is one thing that was so unique to him. Personally, I would always say there was very little competition to him in this aspect.
5. Sadness
कोई सागर दिल को बहलाता नहीं: Koi sagar dil ko behlata nahin -Dil Diya Dard Liyai-1966/Naushad/Shakeel Badyuni/Rafi/Dilip Kumar
Although the film Dil Diya Dard Liya turned out to be a rare flop for the veteran actor Dilip Kumar, it had fabulous songs like the title song दिल दिया दर्द लिया, गुज़रें है आज इश्क़ में, सावन आये या न आये etc.
Rafi adds that extra drawl in the word “ सागर’” and that alone lifts the song to a different level! With his mentor Naushad creating an impeccable tune and Naushad’s eternal lyricist Shakeel Badayuni chipping with some superb lines like this , what more is needed!
ज़िन्दगी के आईने को तोड़ दो
इसमें अब कुछ भी नज़र आता नहीं
6. Classical—Raag Bhairavi
नाचे मन मोरा मगन तीखता धीगि धीगि: Nache man mora magan/Meri Surat Teri Aankhen/1963/S.D. Burman/Shailendra/Rafi/Ashok Kumar
The film Meri Surat Teri Ankhen revolves around the story of a child who is abandoned by his father at birth as he is ugly. The child is brought up by someone else and becomes a singer. This song is picturized in a situation where he is singing in the stage but hidden away from the limelight so that his ugly face is not visible. This Bhairavai raag based song is one of the best compositions of Sachin Dev Burman. Tabla played by the veteran Samta Prasad is simply outstanding. Rafi had that uncanny quality of moulding his voice to the actor on whom the song is picturized and in this one can clearly note the way he had sung for Ashok Kumar who had a unique voice and style of dialogue delivery. Apart from that modulation to suit Ashok Kumar’s voice , he goes on to carry the classic alaap with ease and then towards the end , when the dancer switches on the light and Ashok Kumar’s face is exposed, there is a sudden panic which is so subtly executed by the maestro Rafi. Should we say he was equally an actor and a singer ?!
7. Romance
ऐ फूलों की रानी बहारों की मल्लिका: Ae phoolon ki raani baharon ki mallika /Aarzoo/1965/Shankar-Jaikishan/Hasrat Jaipuri /Rafi/Rajendra Kumar
This is one genre that is Rafi’s greatest strength. There are so many actors for whom Rafi’s songs played a major role in their career. He used to do the emoting part more than the actors themselves could do on screen with the famous modulations he was known for.
The way he sings न दिल होश में है , न हम होश में है with that slight emphasis on “ sh” in होश, and again in तेरा लड़खड़ाना गज़ब हो गया , he sings that लड़खड़ाना in a drunken way. There is no limit to the way Rafi picks up few phrases and keeps improvising them to the best extent possible.
8. Qawwali
ये माना मेरी जान मोहब्बत सजा है:Ye maana meri jaan mohabbat saza hai/ Hanste Zakhm/1973/Madan Mohan/Kaifi Aazmi/Rafi , Balbir Singh & Chorus /Naveen Nischol
Ideally, I should have selected his qawwali : ये इश्क़ इश्क़ है इश्क़ इश्क़ ( न तो कारवां की तलाश है ) as it is the mother of all qawwalis. Since I had written about that song quite in detail in my blog on music composer-lyricist Roshan-Sahir duo, I do not want to repeat the same and hence selected this lesser heard qawwali from Hanste Zakhm. Madan Mohan is known more for his ghazals rather than qawwali, but being the wizard, he pulls off this one with a great amount of help from his favourite male singer, Rafi.
All serious followers of the golden era of Hindi film music must be aware that for many music directors , Rafi was mostly the first choice for qawwali. The energy that he brings to this genre is just infectious. The ups and downs that typically defines a qawwali is ,as the popular saying in Hindi goes – बाएं हाथ का खेल for Rafi. Madan Mohan, the perfectionist that he was, maintains the melody quotient also in this qawwali.
9. Seductive
मेरी दुनिया में तुम आयी : Meri Duniya Mein Tum ayee/ Heer Ranjha/1970/Madan Mohan/Kaifi Azmi/Rafi & Lata/Raj Kumar & Priya Rajvansh
If we look at the personal traits of Rafi sahab , one would find it difficult to believe that he can sing in such a sensuous or seductive tone. He was a pious man , who rarely talked and if at all he talked it would be just few words. But when he goes behind the microphone , he used to transform into a different person – who can shout with joy, cry, romance, pray to God, become a child when he sings a song for kids and when it comes to conveying a sensuous feel in a romantic song, he could do that also with equal skill. That is why he was just a one-stop solution!
This song from Heer Ranjha is sung in a whisper by both Rafi and Lata. It is difficult to write about this song-one must simply close the eyes and get immersed into it. I should not leave out another legend -Lata Mangeshkar for whom also such songs are generally rare , but she proves that she can sing like this also without over-doing it and even in a seductive tone, she maintains the dignity in her singing, which is something truly great.
10. Ghazal
दर्द मिन्नत कशे दवा न हुआ:Dard-E-Minnat Kashe/ Non Film Ghazal /Khayyam/Mirza Ghalib
Rafi’s films songs are so popular that they overshadow his hundreds of non-film ghazals, geet, nazm, bhajans, naats etc that remain relatively less heard. These are real gems for ardent fans of Rafi as we can hear him in his true form. There was no constraint of modulating his voice to suit the actor on whom film songs were picturized and so in these songs one can hear the true voice of Rafi!
One such masterpiece is this evergreen Mirza Ghalib’s ghazal and I have included this mainly to bring out this aspect of his singing . Music is composed by Khayyam for whom Rafi had an album consisting of many such non film ghazals and bhajans.
11. Lullaby
में गाऊं तुम सो जाओ: Mein gaaon tum so jao/Brahmachari/1966/Shankar Jaikishan/Shailendra/Rafi/Shammi Kapoor
Apart from all the various moods I just mentioned above, yes, Rafi can also sing a lullaby to kids like a mother . The film Brahmachari had fabulous songs like : For the kids a playful छक्के में चक्का छक्के में गाडी , a romantic आज कल तेरे मेरे प्यार के चर्चे हर जुबां पर & तू बेमिसाल है तेरी तारीफ क्या करून, a pathos-filled दिल के झरोंखों में तुझको बिठा कर and of course this great lullaby. In fact, the songs from this film alone would showcase the different genres in Rafi’s singing repertoire.
With excellent lyrics by the great legend Shailendra and composed so soulfully by the inimitable duo Shankar & Jaikishan, the way Rafi croons this in soft tone , with his signature touches in the phrases सुख सपनों में सो जाओ and also pleads with the kids “सो जाओ न” .
The last stanza in this song has these lines penned by the great poet Shailendra that seem to have been written for Rafi sahab.
जी करता है जीते जी मैं यूहीं गाता जाऊं
गर्दिश मैं थके हारों का माथा सेहलता जाऊं
Till 31st July 1980 , he did provide solace to those who heard his songs after stressful day, like the last line . But even greater than that is he continues to provide the inner peace in this stressful world, even after 42 years of his untimely death. All Rafi fans would agree that as long as there is life and humanity in this earth, Rafi and his songs will always be alive.
Disclaimer: The song links have been embedded from the YouTube 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.
While exploring the music of Tamil films I was quite surprised to note that there were so many legendary composers , many of whom were well known during their times, but slowly have faded from our memory. All of them may not have been prolific or very successful but made a mark for themselves during their active career. Some had even composed everlasting melodies but remained obscure. While listening to the songs composed by them , I started having the idea of why not trace the journey of Tamil film music from the early pioneers to the later day maestros.
Before I start off, let me confess very honestly-this is not a scholarly work on tracing the history or evolution of music in the Tamil film industry. I am not at all qualified to do that! This is just my own perception based on the songs that I have listened over the years. This is a small tribute to all those music directors , whom I feel contributed in some way or the other to the rich legacy of Tamil film music. This is surely not an exhaustive list and I must have missed out many , which reflects only on my own ignorance or bias and not in any way on their contribution in enriching the music of the last 80 plus years .
With that disclaimer , let me try to take you on an exciting musical journey of half a century , starting from the 1943 to 1992, from the iconic film Sivakavi , to Roja , from the composer Papanasam Sivan to A R Rehman , from singers M.K Thyagaraja Bhagawatar to S P Balasubrahmanyam , from M.S Subbulakshmi to S Janaki , lyricist Papanasam Sivan to Vairamuthu ! Since the music composers involved are around 25 , I can only talk about one of their songs from the hundreds or thousands they had composed . I have also tried to give a brief profile of the music directors only. It would be too large a scope to cover the singers & lyricists in the present blog.
Most of the songs are selected based on any of these criteria: describe that music director’s individuality/ have been a trend setter / remained evergreen even after decades/in some cases it was the composer’s very first song / in few cases with just a handful of films in their entire career, they had composed some memorable songs etc. In some cases, it may not fit into any of these criteria and was just my own personal favourite. Two music directors have been covered in detail in my earlier blogs and so I have skipped the profile about them-MSV & KVM.
Listing is based on chronological order of the year of the film pertaining to the song selected and not based on the respective music director’s debut or seniority . The sequence of the details mentioned for each song is : the year the song (film) was released /song/film/singer(s)/lyricist. I have provided the links to the individual song-you can copy & paste in your browser to listen to them.
1.Papanasam Sivan
About the music director…
Paapanaasam Ramayya Sivan (26 September 1890 – 1 October 1973) was a composer & lyricist . Born at Polagam village in Thanjavur district , his given name was Ramayya. Having lost his father at a young age of 7, his mother shifted to Travancore ( Thiruvananthapuram) to his uncle’s place . There he learnt music and obtained a degree in Sanskrit grammar. After the death of his mother Yogambal when he was 20 years , he turned more towards spirituality , singing devotional songs, and visiting temples. He used to apply the sacred ash ( bhasma) on his body and came to be known as Papanasam Sivan. He learnt music from Noorani Mahadeva Bhagavatar, son of Parameswara Bhagavatar and later became the disciple of Konerirajapuram Vaidyanath Iyer, a well-known musician. Prominent disciples of Sivan were D K Pattammal and D K Jayaraman, the sister-brother duo.
As any fan of old Tamil film songs would know, the first “super star” of Tamil films was M.K Thyagaraja Bhagawatar. The films Sivakavi had some 29 songs with Soppana vazhvil magizhndu, Amba Manam Kanindhu unadhu kadai kan, Valalai paadum vayal etc being the famous ones . The early, vintage era music was more classical music based , with bare minimum orchestration and depended more on the singer’s vocal throw , being a transition period from the stage . Still , one can notice the early evolution of use of interludes and that too different ones for the first and second. It is said that though Papanasam Sivan composed the music, orchestration was taken care by another legend , G Ramanathan. The brilliance in singing by MKT paved the way for many others to emulate.
2.S.V. Venkataraman
About the music director…
Sozhavanthan Varadharajan Venkatraman ( 25 April 1911 – 7 April 1998) was born to Varadharajan Iyer and Lakshmi Ammal. He composed for around 200 Tamil ,Telugu, Kannada , Malayalam, and Hindi films and is considered as one of the pioneers in Tamil film music. Having lost his father at a very young age of three, he could not complete his education beyond fourth standard. He acted in few films , but after breaking his hand in one of the fight scenes , he bid goodbye to acting and focused on music. He was noticed by the legendary film producer A.V Meiyyapa Chettiar and got to compose for his film Nanda Kumar in 1938. Some of the films for which he composed music are: Tahsildar, Valmiki, Manonmani, Kannagi, Nandanar, Meera ( Tamil & Hindi versions) ,Irumbu Thirai. The music for the very popular Bhaja Govindam of Adi Shankaracharya , rendered by MS Subbalakshmi was composed by him.
I have selected his Kaatrinile Varum Geetham rendered soulfully by the venerable MS Subbalakshmi for the film Meera (1945) from the many gems he had composed ; anytime you hear this you will get goosebumps. The tune, the sweet voice of MS and lyrics of Papanasam Sivan take you into a world from which you would not like to come back. I tried to explore what is the raagam in which it was composed-there are some contrary views between Sindhu Bhairavi/ Nata Bhairavi; it is supposed to have been inspired by a 1940 Non filmi Hindi song Toot Gayee Man Beena . I listened to that original song also but the melody and feel that you get in MS’ rendition is definitely missing!
3.C.R.Subbaraman
About the music director…
C. R. Subbaraman also known as C. S. Ram (18th May 1916–27th June 1952) was a famous film music composer and producer. He was born to Ramasamy at Chintamani village in Thirunelveli, in present-day Tamil Nadu. Music director Shankar of Shankar–Ganesh duo was his younger brother. His ancestors were from the Krishna district of present-day Andhra Pradesh and due to this, his family spoke Telugu well.
During his short lifespan of about 36 years and cinema life of 10 years, he made lasting fame with films like Devadasu, Ratnamala, Chenchu Lakshmi, Balaraju, Laila Majnu and others.Though not much is known about the teachers from whom he learnt music, it is said that he was a very quick learner and was well versed in playing the harmonium at the age of 14.
He became an assistant music director in the gramophone company HMV a, after having been introduced by Sundara Bhagavatar , who was the brother of well-known music director G. Ramanathan.
He spotted the talent of a young violinist and made him his assistant. This was the legendary T.K Ramamoorthy who would later partner with M.S Vishwanathan and become a legend. He had composed music for around 35 films, in Telugu and Tamil. from 1943 to 1952 , till death snatched him away suddenly at a very young age of 36 years. One of the pioneers to bring a fusion of western and classical music, he had groomed many singers and other music directors like M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagawatar , Ghantasala, MS Vishwanathan, TK Ramamoorthy etc.
While composing the music for the film Devdas, he passed away and his assistants MSV-TKR completed the rest of the songs and background music, paving the way for their success and a long innings.
The song that I have selected is an amazing “ peek into the future”. The style is humorous and is more of a conversational style -almost like a melodic dialogue. What prophetic lyrics written by Udumalai Narayana Kavi!-just see these samples:
பள்ளிக்கூடத்துக்கு புள்ளைங்க போகாம படிக்க கருவி பண்ணியும் வைக்கணும்..
Online classes during Covid pandemic!!
பட்டனை தட்டி விட்டா ரெண்டு தட்டிலே இட்டிலியும், காப்பி நம்ம பக்கத்தில் வந்திடணும்
-Food delivery through mobile App!!
4.R. Sudarsanam
About the music director…
Ramakrishna Sudarsanam (26 April 1914 – 26 March 1991) was a music composer who had worked in Tamil, Hindi, KannadaMalayalam, Telugu and Sinhala film industry. He started his career with the 1939 film Thiruneelakantar and composed music for few films collaborating with T. A Kalyanam , Papanasam Sivan and started composing independently with the 1947 film Naam Iruvar. The songs rendered by the noted Carnatic singer, D.K.Pattammal for Nam Iruvar, Aaduvome pallu paaduvome anandha sudandiram , Vettri ettu dhikkum yetta kottu murase ( Mahakavi Bharatiyar’s poems) became very popular and made Sudarsanam famous.
Later Sudarsanam joined the AVM Studio‘s Saraswathi Orchestra Company and started working on a monthly salary. This association with AVM proved to be a big success for him and he gave many hit songs for the AVM banner.
Many of us would have heard his famous songs without realizing who had composed them like: Vazhkai yennum odam and Ka Ka in the film Parashakti, Anbale thediya yen arivu chelvam thangam , Azhagiya mithilai nagarinile yaarukku Janaki kathirindhal, Naan oru muttalunge, Indru vandha indha mayakkam yennai yengeyo kondu poguthamma etc.
One of his songs…
1952: ஓ ரசிக்கும் சீமானே வா ஜொலிக்கும் உடை அணிந்து-O rasikkum seemane/Parashakti /M.S Rajeshwari/ K.P. Kamatchi Sundaram
Although this song was based on some Urdu song , the way Sudarshanam master had arranged the orchestration for this song is amazing considering that it was year 1952! Clarinet, Mandolin, Shehnai, Guitar, Flute all come together in a melodious medley ; note that the song has such a fast tempo and even the minute pauses between the lines are filled with small bits of instruments. That is why such songs remain evergreen even after 70 years. Also, not to forget the excellent prelude and the humming that MS Rajeshwari does with so much of grace.
5.S. Rajeshwara Rao
About the music director…
Saluri Rajeswara Rao (11 October 1922 – 25 October 1999) was known predominantly for his works in the Telugu , Tamil , Hindi and Kannada films . A child prodigy, it is said that he could identify the Carnatic raagam at the young age of four. He was taken to Bangalore from his native Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh by Mr Huchins of the Huchins recording company . He got to enact the role of child Lord Krishna in the 1934 Telugu film Sri Krishna Leelalu and became a household name in Andhra with the songs he rendered. Later he was taken into the Gemini studios by the famous producer S.S Vasan and scored music for many of their films . During his early years he also went to Kolkata and learnt Hindustani music and to play instruments like tabla, dholak, mridangam, piano, harmonium, mandolin, guitar etc. He was one of the pioneers to bring classical music to films and orchestration , mixing of sounds etc.
One of his early epic compositions was for the film Chandralekha , in 1948 , produced by S. S Vasan that had the famous drum-dance sequence. It took almost one year for him to complete the music of that film . Way back in 1942 he had composed the songs in association with M. D. Parthasarathy for the film Nandanar that had more than 30 songs , mostly sung by the legendary Dhandapani Desikar ( Ayye metha kadinam umadhadimai, Yen appan allava, yen thayum allava ). Though his compositions for Tamil films are relatively less ( Telugu films being his major focus), the song that I had selected is quite popular to this day.
One of his songs…
1955: வாராயோ வெண்ணிலாவே கேளாயோ எங்கள் கதையே -Vaarayo Vennilave kelayo yengal kadhaye/Missiamma /A.M Rajah & P. Leela/ Thanjai N Ramiaha Dass
A simple song but it has a lilting melody with a pleasing use of mandolin that keeps you engaged though out the song. The prelude of the song also has a nice clarinet . Before PB Sreenivas became the de-facto voice for Gemini Ganesan, it was AM Rajah who rendered many hits for him. This duet is made more special with the fact that it was a rare duet of Rajah and P Leela, the legendary female singer. P Leela was a classical music trained and an established singer in the Malayalam films , also had a great innings in the Tamil & Telugu films. Many would not be aware that apart from being a play back singer , she was also an accomplished Carnatic classical singer.
6.Adi Narayan Rao
About the music director…
Penupatruni Adinarayana Rao (21 August 1915 – 19 August 1991), was born in 1915 in Kakinada of East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh to Penupatruni Krishnayya Gowd and Penupatruni Anasuya and was a music director, film producer, lyricist and play writer. He also produced many hit Telugu films under his own production house, Anjali Pictures, named after his actress wife, Anjali Devi. He also composed and produced music for several Tamil and Hindi films. The one film in Hindi Swarna Sundari keeps his name alive with excellent songs rendered by Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar.
Adinarayana Rao is known for blending Hindustani music in contemporary flavour and simplified orchestration, and thereby bringing his music not only to the connoisseurs but even laymen. Memorable music compositions from Rao are: “Rajasekhara Neepai Moju Theera Leduraa” in the film Anarkali released in 1955, “Piluvakuraa Alugakuraa” in the film Suvarna Sundari released in 1957. One of his most popular compositions in Hayi hayiga Amani Saage (Telugu), Kuhu Kuhu bole Koyaliya(Hindi), Thesulavuthe then malarale (Tamil).
One of his songs…
1957: தேசுலாவுதே தேன் மலராலே –Thesulavude then malarale/Manalane Mangayin Bhagyam /Ghantasala & P. Susheela/ Thanjai N Ramiaha Dass
This is one song that sounds so good in all the three languages it was composed: Thesulavude then malarale in Tamil by Ghantasala & P Susheela, Hayee hayyega aamane sake in Telugu by Ghantasala & Jikki and Kuhu kuhu bole koyaliya in Hindi by Mohammad Rafi & Lata Mangeshkar. It is a raagamalika composed so beautifully by Adi Narayan Rao in Sohini ( Hamsanandi), Bahaar, Jaunpuri and Yaman ( Yaman Kalyani). It is said that Rafi initially had requested that Ghantasala himself should sing the Hindi version as well after hearing the original Telugu version. Being the humble person that he was , he felt he may not do full justice to the song that had intricate Carnatic music base. But due to the language constraint ultimately, he agreed to sing. Though I am personally a great fan of Rafi, if we listen to the versions sung by Ghantasala , one can understand why Rafi initially had apprehensions. Superb rendition by both Ghantasala , Jikki & P Susheela in Telugu and Tamil versions.
7.Ghantasala
About the music director…
Ghantasala Venkateswararao (4 December 1922 – 11 February 1974), popularly known by his surname Ghantasala, was a playback singer and film composer known for his works predominantly in Telugu and Kannada cinema and also in few Tamil films. He is considered as one of the greatest singers & composers of Telugu cinema. He is referred to as the ‘Gaana Gandharva’ for his mesmerising voice and musical skills. Ghantasala was born in 1922 into a Telugu Brahmin family of Ghantasala Soorayya, a professional singer in Chowtapalli, a village in Gudivada taluk of Krishna District. Having lost his father when he was a child, he was brought up by his maternal uncle. He took formal music training from Patrayani Sitarama Sastry, and joined Maharajah’s Government College of Music and Dance in Vijayanagram. Before becoming a playback singer in films, he was an accomplished Carnatic classical singer.
Ghantasala had also participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942, for which he was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. After his release , he met Samudrala Sr., who advised him to try his luck in the film industry as a singer.
Ghantasala’s first break as a singer came from All India Radio. Ghantasala debuted as a chorus singer and for a character role in Seeta Rama Jananam by Pratibha Films. After this, he assisted well-known music directors Gali Penchala and C. R. Subbaraman. Ghantasala’s first film as a music director was Laxmamma. He introduced the technique of changing the vocal pitch and diction to suit the actor singing the songs. Ghantasala was well known for rendering the Telugu padyam and was incomparable.
N. T. Rama Rao‘s first film, Mana Desam also established Ghantasala as a music composer-cum-playback singer. He was the most prolific film composer and playback singer in Telugu cinema until the mid-1970s. He composed music for many popular Telugu movies, including Patala Bhairavi, Mayabazar, Lava Kusa, Pandava Vanavasam, Rahasyam, Gundamma Katha, Paramanandayya Shishyula Katha and Pelli Chesi Chudu, and also for popular Tamil and Kannada films in the 1950s and 1960s. The song “Siva Sankari” from the film Jagadeka Veeruni Katha (1961) is believed to be one of the most challenging songs from classical Hindustani and Carnatic style and was sung by Ghantasala in a single take.
One of his songs…
1957: ஆஹா இன்ப நிலாவினிலே ஓஹோ ஜகமே ஆடிடுதே-Aaha Inba Nilavinile Oho Jagame aadidudhe/Maya Bazaar/Ghantasala & P. Leela/ Thanjai N Ramiaha Dass
The bi-lingual film Maya Bazaar was a landmark film in both the Telugu and Tamil versions. With photography and special effects that was far ahead of its times ( Marcus Bartley, the Anglo-Indian cameraman worked on this ) . Although S Rajeshwar Rao was the music director assigned initially , he quit the film due to some differences after composing 4 songs. The film’s music was then completed by Ghantasala.
8.T.R.Pappa
About the music director…
Thiruthuraipoondi Radhakrishnan Sivasankaran (T. R. Pappa) (3 July 1922 – 15 October 2004) was born in 1922 at Thiruthuraipoondi, and was from a lineage of musical family. He learnt to play violin from his early childhood. Due to financial difficulties in the family, his education was stopped in middle. He joined as a helper to S.G. Kasi Iyer, elder brother of great singer S.G. Kittappa. In 1941, he shifted to Coimbatore, and started playing violin for some of the renowned music composers . Along with another well-known violinist , TK Ramamoorthy who also partnered with the legend MSV, TR Papa became one of the highly paid violinists.
In the year 1952 he got the chance to compose for a Malayalam film Athmasanthi and was also dubbed in Tamil under the same title. Papa also composed music for many Sinhalese films. As a Nilaya Vidwan of AIR from 1946, Papa accompanied the violin for many great classical vocalists. He composed music for many devotional albums with Seerkazhi Govindarajan . The song Chinnanjiru Penn Pole dedicated to the Goddess Abirami is notable. Papa scored music for the album Abirami Andhaadhi. Papa has also served as the Principal of Madras Music College.
T. R. Ramanna and Papa were classmates in Thanjavur and when the former was in the midst of the making of the film Arunagirinathar, the music director G. Ramanathan fell ill. It was TR Papa who completed the rest of the songs.
One of his songs…
1957: நீல வண்ண கண்ணனே உனது எண்ணம் எல்லாம் நான் அறிவேன் –Neela Vanna Kannane Unadhu Jalam yellam naan ariven/Mallika /P. Susheela/ M.K. Atmanathan
Although I would have selected the immortal song Muthai tharu pathi thiru nagai from the film Arunagirinathar as TR Papa’s best song, since I had already written about that in my blog on TMS, I have selected one more gem from this composer. A unique composition , that is rendered with the usual brilliance by P Susheela and lyrics written by a relatively unknown lyricist M.K Atmanathan who was also a music director. The mandolin and flute interludes are simple but complement the very intricate tune.
9.T.G. Lingappa
About the music director…
Thiruchirappalli Govindarajulu Lingappa (22 August 1927 – 5 February 2000) worked predominantly in Kannada language films. He also worked in Tamil and Telugu movies. T.G. Lingappa was the second son of G. Govindarajulu Naidu who was also a musician and had learned music from him. His family stayed in Thiruchi. G. Govindarajulu was a harmonium player in dramas, and had also taught music to K. B. Sundarambal. His business , selling musical instruments and gramophone records in Thiruchi, was not doing well and so shifted with family to Chennai.
There , the young TGL learnt many instruments like harmonium, mandolin , guitar etc and assisted many music composers like T.A Kalyanam, R Sudarshanam & CR Subbaraman. He had even bought an electric guitar from London and had played many instruments for veteran music directors G Ramanathan, SV Venkataraman and KV Mahadevan.TR Mahalingam the noted singer had produced few films and he was the one who gave the chance to TGL to score independently for the film Mohana Sundaram in 1951. Later on, another famous film producer-director BR Panthulu started giving opportunities to TGL . Among the many films they worked together, Sabash Meena and Thanga Malai Ragasiyam had great songs.
One of his songs…
1958: காணா இன்பம் கனிந்ததேனோ காதல் திருமண ஊர்வலம் –Kaana Inbam Kanindadheno kaadhal tirumana /Sabaash Meena/T.A Mothi & P. Susheela/ Ku Ma Balasubramaniam
While searching for songs composed by TG Lingappa, I came across this gem of a song , which I heard after many decades. It is really sad that the male singer of this duet is almost totally forgotten -T.A Mothi. I tried my best to gather some information about him but surprisingly there is nothing much available in the Internet about him. Long back I had listened to some of his songs that were for the 1956 film Vaana Ratham that was a Tamil dubbed version of the famous Naushad musical Uran Khatola. The songs were set to the original Hindi tune with TA Mothi singing the songs that were rendered by Rafi in the Hindi version. Recently in the YouTube channel Quarantine from reality, I happened to hear this song composed by TG Lingappa and understood that TA Mothi had sung just for a handful of Tamil films. The song selected here shows what a great singer he was-it is really a pity that we know so little about him. The classical touch in this song reveals his mastery.
10.G Ramanathan
About the music director…
Gopalan Iyer Ramanathan ( 1910- 20 November 1963) was born in Bikshandarkoil, Srirangam, Tamil Nadu. Known as Isai Methai (Genius of Music) or Sangeetha Chakravarthy (Emperor of Music) , he is considered to be one of the influential Tamil music composers to take Carnatic music to the masses. Notable for his association with M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, G. Ramanathan also composed for films of SalemModern Theatres and CoimbatoreCentral Studios. His career lasted until his death in 1963. During the 1950s , G.Ramanathan’s music was also one of the contributors to the box office hits of the leading Tamil movie stars Shivaji Ganesan and M. G. Ramachandran.
It is a sad to know that when it comes to recording the lives and times of some of the legendary artists, we as a country are far behind. I was shocked to learn that exact date of birth of a legend like G. Ramanathan is unknown . GR’s biographer, Vamanan indicates that his birth year could have been 1910. GR’s father was Gopalsamy Iyer who worked as sub-inspector in the Indian Railways. Having lost his parents while being young, he was taken care by his elder brother Sundara Bhagawathar. He could not study beyond standard 5.
He joined the Baratha Gana Saba, a drama troupe and played harmonium at the age of 18. Then he joined the V. A. Chellappa Drama company, and sang playback and played harmonium. In 1932, he first played musical instrument for a Tamil film called Galavarishi which was produced in Bombay.
In 1938 GR became the music director for the film Sathyaseelan produced by M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar in Bombay followed by the Vipranarayana (old). He went on to score the music for films that were subsequently produced in Madras like Bookailash, followed by Parasuraman and Bhoologa Rambai (old). He was also a resident music director for the Modern Theatres since the beginning ( K. V. Mahadevan had also did few films for them).
GR’s genius lies in the fact that he never had proper training in Carnatic music and learnt mostly through “ kelvi gnanam “ (learning by listening). In the very early years, he had pioneered the use of extensive orchestration and pioneered the fusion of Carnatic music with western music.
GR bought out the best from his singers and gave many career- best songs for them. T. M. Soundararajan said that if one could sing to the satisfaction and the tune of GR that singer could easily sing for the tune of any music director.
1958: யாரடி நீ மோஹினி-Yaaradi Nee Mohini/Uthama Puthiran/T.M Soundararajan, Jamuna Rani, Jikki &A. P. Komala/ Udumalai Narayana Kavi
A song that was far ahead of its times! A beautiful fusion of typical Tamil folk with Persian , jazz , rock & roll genres of music that was conceptualized way back in 1958 long before the later day maestros in Tamil film music. Around 70+ musicians rehearsed for 4 days to get this right. Right from the beginning when TMS starts off with that classic “ Ha” till the drums+ claps at the end this song will keep you engrossed. Excellently choreographed and picturised , with a stylish acting by the one and only Sivaji Ganesan, this song will last for eons .
11.Chitalkar Ramachandra
About the music director…
It may surprise many readers to see this name in a blog about Tamil music composers. It was only a few years back that I came to know that this very famous composer of Hindi films songs ( he was among the top most five legends of Hindi film music world, along with Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishan, S.D Burman & O.P Nayyar) started his career with Tamil films Jayakodi ( 1940) and Vana Mohini ( 1941), which were directed by Bhagwan Dada, the noted Marathi & Hindi actor.
Since I have written a detailed blog on CR in my Hindi film music section, I am providing the link to that so that I need not repeat the same:
The reason for selecting a music director who must have composed just 3 or 4 Tamil films is that the song that I am going to describe is a timeless classic that stands apart for its majestic orchestration , scintillating dance by two legendary dancers from the South -Padmini and Vyjanthimala . This one song is enough to keep CR’s name evergreen in Tamil film music.
In many aspects this song is an epic-the orchestration by C Ramachandra ( it is said that the percussion section alone consisted of around 24 musicians!), choreography by the famous dance masters Hiralal and Sohanlal brothers, and excellent dance by two leading dancers of Indian film industry-Padmini and Vyjantimala.
This song starts off with an alaap by P Leela in a classical style picturized on Padmini dancing in typical Bharat Natyam steps. I myself discovered what a great singer P Leela was only while doing some study for this blog. In 50’s and 60’s she was a formidable force to reckon with among the female playback singers of Tamil films. Just as you get enchanted with her singing, comes another legend, Jikki (her actual name was Pilavalu Gajapathy Krishnaveni) who was well known for her terrific versatility. That “Jilu jilu jilu jilu endru naane , jagathai mayakkiduvene” adds an unexpected dimension to the song, which shows C Ramachandra’s genius . And who can forget that very famous catch phrase that is used by many Tamilians even today, rendered by the actor P.S Veerappa-Sabash Sariyana Poatti!!
The entire song shuffles between the classic style of Padmini-P Leela versus the reverberating western style by Vyjantimala-Jikki .
My limited knowledge about the percussion instruments prevents me from identifying exactly which of them were used, but I can easily identify, Mridangam, Pakhawaj, Tabla, Dholak, Dhol, Morsing, the typical Kerala’s Chenda vadyam etc. I am sure the rich legacy of Maharashtra’s Lavani, Tamasha & Dhol tasha( typically played during Ganapati processions ) must have influenced C Ramachandra to compose one of the best percussion pieces ever heard in film music.
12.A.M Rajah
About the music director…
Aemala Manmadharaju Rajah ( 1st July 1929- 8th Apr 1989) popularly known as A. M. Rajah, was one of those rare playback singers who was also a successful music director. A. M. Rajah was born on 1 July 1929 in Chhamanchipuram, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh. His family had to shift to Renukapuram in Madras, as known then, when he lost his father died at a very young age of three months. He obtained a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Pachaiyappa’s College .
Having noticed his two compositions while he was studying , the noted film producer, S.S Vasan booked Rajah for his upcoming film, Samsaram. Soon Rajah was composing for the films of MGR -Rajambal and Kumaari. When the noted film maker Raj Kapoor dubbed his Hindi film Aah in Tamil, the music directors Shankar-Jaikishan chose AM Rajah and Jikki to sing the songs.
Like it happens with many people who are too outspoken and forthright in expressing their views, Rajah ruffled the feathers of many producers, directors and music composers and became a difficult person to work with and started slowly losing out on opportunities. Even the legendary C.V Sridhar who made hit films like Kalyana Parisu, Then Nilavu with him that had evergreen songs , had to part with him after the film Then Nilavu due to serious differences . However, he continued to sing for Malayalam films under the music direction of G. Devarajan .
Rajah had a very unfortunate, fatal accident on 8th April 1989 while boarding a moving train in Valliyur station in Tamil Nadu .
The film Then Nilavu was a great musical, with many songs from the film being popular to this day. Songs like “Chinna Chinna Kannile, Kaalaiyum Neeye, Malare Malare Theriyatha, Nilavum Malarum paaduthu” and Paattu Padava”. Most of the songs based on the horse-hoof beat rhythm turn out to be hits, and this is no exception. The superb orchestration , the small flute pieces in between the lines make this song so catchy. AM Rajah and PBS were always the preferred play back for the ever-romantic Gemini Ganesan and this song by Rajah no doubt fits him to a tee.
13.Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy
About the music director…
I made a small attempt to write about the institution in Tamil film music world called Vishwanathan -Ramamoorthy in my blog:
One can never do justice in writing about this great composer duo as they had given the best songs for more than two decades together and later , as an independent composer MSV carried the baton successfully for another three decades. I may need more years of study to write further about their music; I could only touch upon very briefly about them in my earlier blog .
One of his songs…
1961: மாலை பொழுதின் மயக்கத்திலே நான் கனவு கண்டேன் தோழி-Maalai Pouzhudin Mayakathile Naan/Bhagyalakshmi/ P. Susheela/ Kannadasan
Based on the raagam Chandrakauns, this is one of those songs where the tune, the lyrics and the singing come together in such a way that you are left speechless to say which one of the three is better. Just as you get immersed in the tune with an excellent Veenai playing along, comes Susheela’s divine voice that is so captivating and when you are listening to her, Kaviarasar’s words start making you think: how can someone even think of such lines?!
இன்பம் கனவில் துன்பம் எதிரில்
காண்பது ஏன் தோழி
கனவில் வந்தவர் யார் என கேட்டேன்
கணவர் என்றார் தோழி
கணவர் என்றால் அவர் கனவு முடிந்ததும்
பிரிந்தது ஏன் தோழி
இளமை எல்லாம் வெறும்
கனவு மாயம், இதில் மறைந்தது சில காலம்
தெளிவும் அறியாது முடிவும் தெரியாது
மயங்குது எதிர்காலம்
One lifetime would not be enough to complete listening and appreciating the gems created by Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy & Kannadasan combination!
M S Vishwanathan
Why this separate section on MSV if we had already seen him along with his illustrious partner ? As I said with some music directors, the heart is not satisfied with just one . Also, logically V-R as a duo were a formidable force but MSV , even after his separation from TKR continued to rule the Tamil music industry for another two decades. Let us look at one of his iconic songs that I could not include in my earlier blog on him.
The noted lyricist, Vaali ( Tiruchirapalli Srinivisan Rangarajan) had always considered this song one among his best. There cannot be any doubt as to why. The grandeur in orchestration that MSV has created in this song based on Karaharapriya raagam and the way the legend TMS has rendered with a virtuosity that only he can do and finally the lyrical beauty in Vaali’s words-all of these make this song eternal.
The prelude has excellent sitar, flute ,veenai and sets the tone for the song. Vaali’s mastery in describing the beauty of the heroine’s face :
வானில் விழும் வில்போல் புருவம் கொண்டாள் இளம் வயதுடையாள் இனிய பருவம் கண்டாள் கூனல் பிறை நெற்றியில் குழலாட கொஞ்சும் குளிர் முகத்தில் நிலவின் நிழலாட
கலை மானின் இனம் கொடுத்த விழியாட
அந்த விழி வழி ஆசைகள் வழிந்தோட
நல்ல மாதவிப்பொன் மயிலாள் தோகை விரித்தாள் வண்ண மை இட்ட கண் மலர்ந்து தூது விடுத்தாள் காதல் மழை பொழியும் கார் முகிலா இவள் காதலன் நான் இருக்க பேரெழிலாய்
MSV completes this song with a scintillating jati-swaram by TMS and a delightful percussion that has a mix of typical mridangam, ghatam, morsing, kanjeera with the unique chenda vadyam of Kerala. As I had mentioned at the beginning of my blog on MSV few months back, it is really a grave injustice that MSV was never recognized by the government for the National awards.
14.S.M Subbiaha Naidu
About the music director…
Subburayulu Munuswami Subbaiah Naidu (a.k.a. SMS) (15 March 1914 – 26 May 1979) was a music composer, conductor, and orchestrator who worked as an in-house music composer for Central Studios and Pakshiraja Studios .SMS also worked with many films under Jupiter Pictures banner and was a favourite of M. G. Ramachandran. Born in 1914 in Kadaiyanallur, SMS ran away from home with dreams of finding his fortune in Singapore, but ended up working in drama troupes such as those of Jagannatha Aiyer and Nawab Rajamanickam Pillai. Finding himself drawn more to music than acting, SMS learned music from masters such as Rajagopala Iyengar and Subramaniya Bagavathar.
Fondly known as “Sangeethayya” in the south Indian film industries, he preferred Indian music more and generally avoided Western influence in his music. SMS worked jointly with other composers on a few movies in the early 1940s. He then composed music for the first movie in which MGR played the hero, Rajakumaari in 1947. While he was composing music for this film at Central Studious, SMS made the acquaintance of the hero MGR. This laid the basis for a lifelong friendship between the two, which was further strengthened with the films Marma YogiMalaikkallan ,Nadodi Mannan,Thaayin Madiyil, Aasai Mugam and Thalaivan etc. His tunes were very catchy and reached the masses easily. He had given many songs to the noted actor-comedian-singer J. P. Chandrababu ( e.g Kunguma Poove Konjum Puraave) .
Some of the unique contributions and anecdotes about SMS:
In 1947, SMS was the first music composer in Tamil film industry to start the play back singing concept with Tiruchi Loganathan singing “Kasinimel Nangal”, a playback song for M. N. Nambiar in the movie Rajakumari.
In 1948 it was under SMS’s composition, that Kannadasan wrote his first song “Kalangathiru Manamey Un Kanavellan Nanavagum Oru Dinamey” for Kanniyin Kathali , sung by K. V. Janaki.
M. S. Viswanathan and Kannadasan, always acknowledged many a times the crucial role played by SMS in shaping their career. They had organized a grand function to celebrate the 60th birthday of the master composer.
It was M. S. Viswanathan who took care of the childless SMS and his wife at his own house and attended to their every need with solicitude till their end.
One of his songs…
1962: சிங்கரா வேலனே தேவா-Singara Velane Devaa/Konjum Salangai/S. Janaki/ Ku Ma Balasubramaniam
In my opinion, this song can be considered as one of the best ever by S Janaki. The way she took up this challenge with the unique instrument of South India-Nadaswaram that is known for the highest octaves is remarkable. The nadaswaram for this song was played by the noted Nadaswara Vidwan Karakurichi Arunachalam who was an expert on this very difficult-to-play instrument . Composed in the Aabheri ragam by SMS, he chose the perfect singer S Janaki based on the recommendation by another legendary singer P Leela who suggested that only SJ would be able to match the pitch of the nadaswaram.
The lyrics of this song are just a few lines ..the rest is all about the fantastic duet between S Janaki and the Nadaswaram…really an iconic song that will be remembered for centuries.
15.K.V.Mahadevan
About the music director…
In my earlier blog “ The under-stated elegance of K V Mahadevan, I had described the person and his music as a humble tribute to this veteran who gave excellent music for almost half a century in the South Indian film industry . I am providing the link to that blog here:
I have selected a song that I could not include in that blog( there will be hundreds of such songs !)
One of his songs…
1963: சின்னஞ்சிறிய வண்ண பறவை எண்ணத்தை சொல்லுதம்மா –Chinnanchiriya Vannapparavai Ennathai solluthamma/Kungumam/T.M Soundararajan & S. Janaki/ Kannadasan
Darbari Kananda is a favourite raagam in both Tamil and Hindi film music and most of the songs based on this raagam are hits; this song is no exception. Like in many of KVM’s compositions, the tune , lyrics & singing take predominance over any extra-ordinary orchestration. At the stage when the heroine ( played by Sharada) starts fumbling in the lines Ulagam theriyavillai, ondrum puriyavillai, the hero ( Sivaji Ganesan) chips in and goes to the stage to support her . And that is where this song goes to the next level. The “jugal bandhi” -a competition between them is a masterpiece in composition and singing. The majestic voice of TMS and the soft and sweet voice of S Janaki complement each other so well. Both perform the intricate alaap towards the end of the song brilliantly.
There is an anecdote behind this song. It seems Seerkazhi Govindarajan was originally supposed to sing this but on insistence of Sivaji this was given to TMS . Once in an interview I heard TMS himself saying that Seerkazhi might have done a better job as he was well versed with the type of intricate alaap at the end of the song, but sometimes , the actors play a major role in choosing the singers rather than the music directors!
16.G.K.Venkatesh
About the music director…
Gurusala Krishnadas Venkatesh (21 September 1927 – 17 November 1993) primararily worked in Kannada cinema during the 1960s, 1970s and until the late-1980s, but had also composed music for Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil films. He is credited with bringing in Western background score into Kannada films and had composed music for many popular movies of Rajkumar in the 1960s to 1970s.
Born in a Telugu family, Venkatesh learnt music from a very young, veena from his elder brother G. K. S. Pathi. Even as a teenager, he began playing Veena for the great music directors such as S. V. Venkatraman, S. M. Subbaiah Naidu and C. R. Subburaman. Apart from being a composer , GKV was also a talented singer. While working under S. M. Subbaiah Naidu , he had become close to M. S. Viswanathan (MSV) during the late-1940s.
In 1952, he composed music independently for a Malayalam film, and gradually progressed with Kannada films and soon became a much sought after and one of the successful music directors in Kannada films along with T. G. Lingappa and Vijaya Bhaskar. GKV launched P. B. Sreenivas as a successful singer in Kannada films. At some point of time Ilaiyaraja and L. Vaidyanathan were playing instruments under GKV’s troupe, assisting to compose music. Fate had some ironic twist in his life and after the debacle of losing his money in producing a film, GKV was taken into Ilayaraja’s orchestra as a mark of respect by the former student to his guru.
GKV was also a technical wizard apart from being a fine composer. His re-recording techniques , use of instruments in his songs and background scores still feels fresh and advanced even today. Although the number of Tamil films for which he had composed music were not too many ( less than 20) , he left his indelible mark with some evergreen melodies like the one mentioned here.
One of the very early hits of SPB ( he must have been just around 25 years when this was made), one can hear the youthful voice of SPB , full of expressions and that typical “signature” laugh at the end of the song when he says “ malargalo” . A very stylish composition is what one can say about this GKV’s song that he composed after a long gap in Tamil films. Ilayaraja himself played the guitar in this song , which has his expertise stamped all over.
17.Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan
About the music director…
Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan (2 March 1935 – 8 September 2008) was a famous classical music violinist and a music composer for few films. When one listens to him playing the violin , it appeared as if it was a toy for him that could do whatever he wanted! Purists may not like his style but he brought the difficult instrument to the masses with his amazing bowing skills. He was known for his dexterity and subtlety in handling the violin and catered not only to the music scholar but also to the layman. His play reflected his own different moods and the demands of his audience with whom he established and enjoyed a good rapport. He dwelled with ease and competence in the high as well as the low octaves.
At the age of 12, he used to accompany great stalwarts like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Maharajapuram Santhanam in vocal concerts as a violinist and had even performed with Nadaswaram vidwans like T.N.Rajarathinam Pillai and Thiruvenkadu Subramania Pillai. He stopped accompanying vocal artistes in 1976 to concentrate more on solo concerts. He was famous for his fingering techniques on the violin. His interest in new attempts and innovations led him to work with veteran thavil vidwan Valayapatti_A._R._Subramaniam. They performed over 3,000 shows together. Vaidyanathan had deep faith in the therapeutic merits of music.
He also made a significant contribution to Tamil devotional music. A. P. Nagarajan giving him his first break in the movie Vaa Raja Vaa. He had several hits such as Agathiyar in which “Sirkazhi govindarajan” acted as Agathiyar. And Raja Raja Chozhan, for which he scored music, were also phenomenal hits.
One of his songs…
1971: வென்றிடுவேன் உன்னை வென்றிடுவேன் எந்த நாட்டையும் நாதத்தால் வென்றிடுவேன்-Vendriduven Unnai Vendriduven, Yentha Nattaiyum Nathathaal Vendriduven/ Agathiyar/T.M.Soundararajan and Seerkazhi Govindarajan /Ulundurpettai Shanmukham
Before writing about this song, I should first thank God for having been born as a Tamilian , for the language has such a great beauty in the play of words. The entire song set as a raagamalika ( should I say a mini encyclopaedia of various raagam!) of sixteen different raagam has a beautiful play of words that convey a meaning and also the name of the raagam.
Nattai, Bhairavi, Thodi, Aarabi, Shanmugapriya, Darbar, Hamsadhwani, Vasantha, Mohana, Manolayam, Bageshwari, Saranga, Kambodhi, Gowri Manohari, Kalyani and Saraswati are the 16 raagam mentioned.
The beauty of the Tamil language is that each word leads to multiple meanings and interpretations like : Yendha Nattaiyum nadhathal vendriduven here means he can conquer any “ nadu”-country with his “ nadham”-song and this line is sung in the Nattai raagam. The entire song goes like this ( it is an eight-minute song) and whoever understands Tamil can enjoy and appreciate the beauty.
The lyricist Ulundurpettai Shanmukham must have had a real challenge when the producer A.P Nagarajan and music composer Kunnakudi wanted him to incorporate the name of raagam in each line. The main point to note is that with all the word jugglery, the entire song conveys the competitive challenge between Ravanan and Sage Agasthiyar. Though the story is that they both had a competition on playing the instrument Veenai , for cinematic experience it was felt that a song would have more appeal. For Kunnakudi , it must have been a child’s play to compose being the vidwan he was, but the lyricist really came up with a masterpiece.
As far as the legendary singers TMS and Seerkazhi were concerned, I do not have any qualification to comment anything about their singing as they were so great .
Such songs are really one in a million!
18.V.Kumar
About the music director…
Varadarajulu Kumar (V. Kumar-28 July 1934 – 7 January 1996) was born in Chennai, Tamilnadu on 28 July 1934 to Varadharajulu and Dhanabhakiyam couple. Known as Mellisai Maamani, V Kumar was introduced to Tamil film music by K. Balachander and had composed music for many of the films of Balachandar , especially in the early years.
Nothing much is known about him from the Net . It was so great of late Shri S.P Balasubrahmanyam for providing some information about him in his Youtube program Simply SPB. I could understand the V Kumar was a very amicable and simple person who had very good relations with all those he worked with. In that program , SPB explained about how he lost out the opportunity to sing one of the greatest ever compositions of V Kumar ( the song selected in this blog), Unnidam mayangugiren, ullathaal nerungugiren .
Like it always happens when there is someone so immensely talented in the music field, others , no less talented generally lose out . Many of V Kumar’s great compositions were thought to be that of his more illustrious contemporary, MSV. When you go through this small list of songs, you would be surprised to know that these were all composed by V Kumar. In spite of having tough competition from MSV, KVM , V Kumar had created a niche for himself and gave many evergreen melodies.
Naan unnai vaazhti padugiren nee varavendum
Aduthathu Ambujatha paatheella, ava aathukaarar konjaradhe kettela
One of the best compositions of V Kumar, this song has an excellent piano in the prelude and throughout the song with a beautiful feel of a ghazal. As mentioned earlier , V Kumar initially wanted SPB to sing this but as he was very busy those days, he could not get his time. Ultimately this went to KJY and as SPB himself said in his Simply SPB YouTube channel, it went to the right singer! For KJY also this remains one of his best songs in Tamil.
19.Shankar Ganesh
About the music director…
Not much information is known about this duo who shared the first name with another legendary musician duo of Hindi film world Shankar -Jaikishan. What I could gather was that Shankar ( Shankaraman) of this duo was the younger brother of the famous music composer C R Subbaraman ( mentioned in this blog at serial number 3) . Even his birth date or year is not known, leave alone any other personal details .
After lot of struggles, having knocked the doors of various composers , they began their career playing various percussion instruments and assisting them. They had worked as musicians for G Ramanathan, Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy and GK Ventatesh. Gradually they became as assistants to Viswanathan– Ramamoorthy in the mid 60’s . When Kannadasan started his own film titled “Nagarathil Thirudargal” , they got the opportunity to score the music. Unfortunately, this film was shelved , but Kannadasan introduced them to Chinnappa Devar and they had their first hit film Magaraasi in 1967. As a mark of respect to both Kaviarasar Kannadasan and Chinnappa Devar they used to call themselves ” Kavinger vazhangiya thevarin” Shankar Ganesh.
They hit the jackpot when the musically inclined MGR gave them two films :Naan Yen Pirenden and Idhaya Veenai which helped them come up as successful music directors. Shankar from the duo died early; however, Ganesh continued take the band forward with the name Shankar–Ganesh.
In the 80’s , Ganesh had a major accident when a parcel received by him purported to be from someone seeking a chance as a singer contained a tape recorder and cassette and on switching it , he was badly injured as there was a bomb blast. Luckily , he pulled on despite the setback and continued his musical journey.
One of his songs…
1975: என் காதலி யார் சொல்லவா இசையென்னும் பெண்ணல்லவா-Yen Kaadhali Yaar Sollava/ Thangathile Vairam /K.J. Jesudass & S.P. Balasubrahmanyam /Vaali
The most unique thing about this song is that this was the first Tamil song that the two legendary singers of South , KJY & SPB sang together . Although it is supposed to be a disco song , it has a nice melody . It is really to the credit of Shankar Ganesh that despite working amidst the stalwarts like MSV, Ilayaraja , they created a niche for them and gave some memorable hits.
20.V Dakshinamurthy
About the music director…
Venkateswaran Dakshinamoorthy (9 December 1919 – 2 August 2013) was a veteran Carnatic musician and composer and music director of Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi films, predominantly in Malayalam films. He has composed music for nearly 125 films. He composed around 1400 songs over a period of 63 years. Fondly known as Dakshinamurthy Swamigal, he was instrumental in pioneering classical music-based film songs. A well-respected figure in both Malayalam & Tamil film industry for having groomed many of the singers.
Dakshinamoorthy was born on 9 December 1919 as Venkateswaran Dakshinamoorthy Iyer, to Parvathiammal and D. Venkateswara Iyer a Bank Officer, at Mullakkal in Alappuzha, Travancore, British India. His interest in music was nurtured in part by his mother, who taught him keerthanas of Thyagaraja Swamikal when he was still a child. He also learnt Carnatic classical music from Venkatachalam Potti in Trivandrum.
In 1948, he came to Chennai with his parents and had his first opportunity to compose independently for the film Nalla Thanks in 1950. The hero of the film was Augustin Joseph, a well-known stage actor and singer, who was also the father of renowned singer K. J. Yesudas.
R. K. Shekhar, father of the music director A. R. Rahman was his assistant for a few films. He was one of the very few artists to have been active even at the age of 93, when he was still composing .
One of his songs…
1977: நந்தா நீ என் நிலா, நிலா- Nandha nee yen nila/ Nandha nee yen nila/S.P.Balasubrahmanyam/Ira Palanisamy
This was very popular when it was released , but over the period it must have been forgotten . A beautiful composition set in Dharmavati raagam, this is one of the early classics of SPB . The richness of his voice and his ability to sail through the extra-ordinarily long Pallavi with ease is simply amazing. The very structure of the Pallavi is something unique and reflects the genius of Dakshinamurthy swamigal.
21.Ilayaraja
About the music director…
Ilaiyaraaja is a name that needs no introduction . For a majority of Tamilians , the day is not complete without listening to at least few of his songs, especially for those who were in their early teens when he stormed into the Tamil music world like those hundred violins bursting forth in a symphony, typical in his compositions. Born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943, in a small village Pannaipuram , he became a leading musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer and ruled the Tamil film world like an emperor. Honoured with the title Isaignani he is one of the most prolific Indian composers, in a career spanning over forty-five years, he has composed over 7,000 songs and provided film scores for over 1,000 films, apart from performing in over 20,000 concerts.
In his later years, Ilaiyaraaja started to celebrate his birthday on 2 June instead, so that people of Tamil Nadu can celebrate only that of Karunanidhi on 3 June, as both their birthdays fall on the same date. It was done out of respect for the late politician who bestowed him the title “Isaignani”.
While working for his first film Annakili, Tamil film producer Panchu Arunachalam added the prefix “Ilaiya” (Ilaiya meaning younger in Tamil language) to the name Raaja, and renamed him as “Ilaiyaraaja”, as in the 1970s there was another popular music director with the same suffix, namely A. M. Rajah
His life story is quite well known to almost all and so I need not write much about his initial struggles and the break he got with Annakili film in 1976 . If the phrase in English “ like a whiff of fresh air” can be musically defined it has to be with the type of music that he brought in . For the initial two decades or so, when people like me in college days used to listen to his songs , one can never predict how the song would progress, especially the preludes, interludes, the unique instruments he would use. Like a magician he would take few notes from the Tamil folk music, set them in a Carnatic raagam like no would have ever thought about and then suddenly at the unexpected moment he would introduce the western symphony notes …and then blend them into a sublime melody that would make the listener go into raptures. For me , one of his immortal songs, Poonkadave thaazh thiravai always remains the defining song which carries all the elements I had just now mentioned.
Like I had said in my earlier blogs about the older legends like KVM, MSV ,for a person uninitiated into the intricacies of music , it would be a sacrilege to talk about his music. For that I need to listen more to his songs , may be for years with the knowledge of the raagam, the western notes he had used in composing them and may be after that I can attempt to write something!
Again , it would seem outright silly to talk about one song from thousands of melodies he had created , but I would always consider this one song as the defining moment in Tamil film world. It just split the Tamil film history into Pre -Ilayaraja and Post -Ilayaraja. When I ( like million others ) listened to the first humming of S Janaki: Laaali lali lalo…laaali lali laloo…yen machane, machhnane….machane patheengala , mala vazha thoppukkulle …with the flutes playing in tandem with S Janaki , the interludes that were like a roller-coaster ride .it was like Oh God …what is this ….who is this composer …how can one even think of such a tune and more so the orchestration that was never-dull-a-moment. Ilayaraj had arrived….and it was a great 20 plus years of sheer bliss for Tamil music.
This was also the beginning of a great innings IR had with S Janaki and later with SPB, KJY, Malaysia Vasudevan, Jayachandran, and many new singers he introduced like Jency, Chitra , Sujatha into the Tamil film music world.
22.T Rajendar
About the music director…
Thesingu Rajendar (born 9 May 1955), also known T. Rajendar or T. R., is an actor, filmmaker, musician, cinematographer, and distributor. TR is known for being able to speak mostly in rhyming sentences that has become a sort of his trademark !
The sleeper hit film , Oru Thalai Raagam propelled him into the industry . Apart from being a music director & lyricist he normally does the multiple roles of director, actor, art director, production manager and even playback singer. During the 1980s, many of his movies were successful and his songs usually had some unconventional music pattern and lyrics that sometimes appeared to not exactly fit into the metre but somehow, he could carry that off successfully and became a sort of USP for him. Over the years, his films became too predictable, tending to follow the similar storyline and oratory style of repetitious dialogues.
However, as a music director he did give some good hit songs that were very popular those days.
One of his songs…
1980: வாசமில்லா மலரிது வசந்தத்தை தேடுது-Vasamilla Malaridhu, Vasanthathai Theduthu/ Oru Thalai Raagam/S.P. Balasubrahmnayam/ T Rajendar
There was some controversy as to who actually composed the music for Oru Thalai Raagam, with the official credits initially been given to A A Raj, which was disputed by T Rajendar and he had even vowed not to see that movie at all. However, if one listens to this song , it does have that unique style of lyrics and tune which defined TR’s music. Personally, I am not a great fan of his music , but as a chronicler of Tamil film music, I should definitely include him. Leaving aside my personal bias, he did compose some very good, popular songs like:
Lakshminarayana Vaidyanathan 9 April 1942 – 19 May 2007) was an acclaimed violinist and music director , trained in the classical Carnatic music. He was born in Chennai to V. Lakshminarayana, and Seethalakshmi, both accomplished musicians. He was the elder brother of accomplished violinist duo L. Shankar and L. Subramaniam. He was famous for having composed the tunes of the iconic TV serial : Shankar Nag’s Malgudi Days ( the title tune ‘Thaana na nana’ ). All three brothers received their musical training from their father.
Vaidyanathan started his career assisting the noted music director G. K. Venkatesh and composed the score for over 170 films in languages including Tamil and Kannada. His notable works include Pesum Padam, Ezhavathu Manithan, Dasaratham and Marupakkam in Tamil. He was one of the best music arrangers in the country and was known for his use of rare and unknown instruments, subtly mixing sounds from the mandolin, flute and violin with various folk percussion instruments before the advent of present-day technological advances in sound mixing. He collaborated with C.Ashwath and composed music for many Kannada movies in the name Ashwath-Vaidi.
Although he was not much popular as a music director in Tamil films, having scored for very few movies , personally I always liked this song from Ezhavathu Manithan as it was a unique composition . The song has a very beautiful melody and at the same time a jazz style orchestration . For a Mahakavi Bharatiyar’s poem this was a unique experimentation .The way he had brought out the deep baritone of KJ Jesudas makes this song one of the best every by KJY.
24.V.S Narasimhan
About the music director…
Narasimhan is the son of the violinist Gottuvadyam Srinivasa Iyengar. He studied Carnatic music from age four under his father and used to accompany his father in his concerts. Narasimhan also learnt Western classical music and entered Tamil cinema as a violinist, playing for all leading composers like S Rajeshwara Rao, Ghantasala, Vijay Bhaskar etc. While working with G K Venkatesh as violinist he got into a friendship with Ilayaraja who was also working for GKV as a guitarist and assistant . This led him to work with Ilayaraja right from the debut film of Ilayaraja -Annakili.
His violin in the films Raja Paarvai and Netriken were remarkable for their excellence. Narasimhan debuted as a composer with Achamillai Achamillai (1984), having chosen by the director K Balachandar. He had also contributed to Ilaiyaraaja’s non-film albums like How to Name It?, Nothing But Wind etc.
One of his songs…
1984: ஆவரம்பூவு ஆறேழு நாலா நீ போகும் பாதையில் –Aavaram Poovu Aarezhu Naala Nee Pogum Padhayil/ Achhamillai Achhamillai /S.P. Balasubrahmanyam & P. Susheela/ Variamuthu
Starting off with an excellent humming by P Susheela , this melody has a totally different feel and was a great hit when it was released. The interlude music were unconventional and SPB ‘s excellent voice and singing added more charm.
25.A.R. Rehman
About the music director…
Allah Rakha Rahman was born A. S. Dileep Kumar on 6 January 1967 is a music composer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with some forays into international cinema. Rahman started off his career composing documentaries, jingles for advertisements and Indian television channels. Rahman’s film-scoring career began during the early 1992 with the Tamil film Roja directed by Mani Ratnam. This film was a turning point for him as it had become quite a hit not only in Tamil but in Hindi also. This success was followed by many Tamil films, like Bombay, Kadhalan, Thiruda Thiruda, and S. Shankar‘s debut film Gentleman. He is nicknamed “Isai Puyal” (musical storm) and “Mozart of Madras”.
Many of his songs have a classical base with a western treatment and orchestration that was unique and had superb audio effects. One of the flop movies, Duet had some of the best songs he had ever composed and they are my personal favourites. Like Ilayaraja, I need not write much about him as any Tamil music fan would be knowing better than me . Together, IR and ARR brought Tamil film music to a pan-India and even international stage that none of their predecessors could ever achieve, despite composing equally good music.
One of his songs…
1992: புது வெள்ளை மழை இங்கு பொழிகின்றது –Puthu Vellai Mazhai Ingu Pozhigindradhu/ Roja /Unni Menon and Sujatha Menon/ Variamuthu
Like how IR revolutionized the music scene with Annakili, ARR ‘s debut film Roja brought another dimension to Tamil film music. The use of synthesizers, keyboards and electronic music got more prominence and gave the listeners a completely new experience . This particular song , gives you a real feel of the white snow-clad Himalayas, perfectly in sync with the situation.
Over a period, ARR’s music with superior sound effects, orchestration would take more prominence , at times even rendering the singer & lyricist’s role to the side-lines. My own passionate listening to Tamil film songs ended with the early 90’s and I have not been following much of it subsequently, having moved out of Tamil Nadu . Hence my personal journey of Tamil film music ends with ARR.
If any reader is wondering why I have not talked about Deva, Vidyasagar, Harris Jayaraj , Yuvan Shankar Raja, D Imman and the more recent Anirudh, Santosh Narayan etc she has to pardon my total ignorance about their music.
Due to the constraint of length of the blog, I might have missed out many music directors even from the period I had covered-may be one day I shall write about them .
Acknowledgements: I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources for the information that I could gather for this article:
You Tube
Wikipedia
Ms. Shubashree Thanikachalam’s videos in YouTube -Quarantine From Reality
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.
O.P Nayyar ( 16th January 1926 to 28th January 2007 )
S.H.Behari (12th July 1920 to 25th Feb 1987)
<Brief biographies of both the artists given at the end of the blog.>
It is very rare that when we think of a music composer from the Golden era of Hindi Film Music, one can list out so many unique traits. Some of these are:
A trademark hat, always impeccably dressed even when he fell out of his good times.
Starting a career straight away as independent music director without having assisted anyone earlier and that too without any formal training in music.
Music with that ‘typical’ rhythm , mostly with tabla and dholak that would earn him the title “ Rhythm king” -music that one can immediately identify who the composer was.
A name that , when mentioned on the film poster would guarantee success even if the film turned out to be mediocre . He even had the unique distinction of having his photo on the film poster instead of the hero/heroine!
The first music director to command a fees of one lakh rupees in the 50’s.
First to insist that all his musicians are paid on the spot once the recording is completed so that they need not keep ‘begging for their remuneration’ as it was the practice earlier. The entire music fraternity was thankful to him for this.
A fierce, independent nature that never compromised to the extent that he never worked with the leading lady of Hindi film music , Lata Mangeshkar and remained successful. However many a times this trait went against him, with people perceiving him as an egoist!
A stickler on punctuality so much that even when his most favored male singer Rafi came late for one recording, he did not allow him into the recording studio and didn’t work with him for some time ( till they patched up few years later!)
The intense association and grooming of Asha Bhonsale for whom he composed her career best songs ( which very sadly she never acknowledged publicly ) and the equally bitter and sudden parting of ways from her permanently, that almost finished off his career.
….the list goes on and on to describe the supremely gifted music composer Om Prakash Nayyar ( OPN) was.
Having no formal training in music, and without having assisted any other music director , he was one of the very few ( or may be the only one?!) to compose independently from the beginning, his music always came from his heart and so would be liked by the masses immensely. Although many others used the horse-beat rhythm even years before him , he sort of “ patented ” it to the extent that any song with the typical horse-beat rhythm would be associated with him. Romantic songs were his main strength but now and then one can get to hear a gem of a bhajan like “ Aana hai toh aa raha mein kuch der nahin hai, Bhagwan ki ghar der hai andher nahi hai” or a patriotic “ Yeh desh hai veer jawanon ka” a pathos ridden” Chain se humko kabhi aap ne jeene na diya” etc.
In one of the programs aired in the Vividh Bharati channel of All India Radio, I heard him saying in a film song 50% of credit should go to the lyricist, 25 % to the singer and orchestra and only the balance 25% to the music director! He was one of the very few composers who had acknowledged this aspect. He had worked with many lyricists starting from Qamar Jalalabadi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri , Jan Nissar Akhtar , Kavi Pradeep and later on, with relatively lesser known or those who worked mostly with him like Shevan Rizwi, Aziz Kashmiri , Noor Dewasi ( his one song Aao Huzur tumko sitaron mein with OPN made him famous) and last but not least the lyricist chosen for this blog: Shamshul Huda Behari-SH Behari ( abbreviated SHB henceforth in this article).
Whenever I pick up a legendary music director’s association with a particular lyricist, it is only to highlight the fact that the lyricist chosen had more hits with that music director and may not be vice-versa. This implies OPN’s best songs were with all the other lyricists also. The major exceptions to this rule that I could think of were Naushad-Shakeel and Shankar-Jaikishan-Hasrat-Shailendar ,wherein the partnership was fiercely loyal.
SH Behari was fluent in Hindi, Urdu and also in Bengali. OPN had credited him as Shayar-E-Azam meaning the emperor among poets. He also wrote story and dialogue for few films. Although he began his career in the 50’s with some songs for Roshan in the film Bedardi, Madan Mohan for Khubsurat etc, he got his first fame with Hemant Kumar composed film Shart in 1954. The songs Na yeh chand hoga, na tare rahenge, Dekho wo chand chupke karta hai kyai share became very famous. Initially he worked with Hemant Kumar and then with his one-time assistant-turned independent composer Ravi for few films. But his major hits were mostly with OPN. In the Hindi music world , lyricists generally never got their dues, except few like Sahir, Shailendra, Shakeel & Majrooh. Even among serious music lovers, singers and music composers are more talked about and lyricists remain a last priority.
Among them SH Behari was one great lyricist who is sadly, almost totally forgotten! Once you go through this list , it may surprise you that the song is well known but you had never realized it was written by SH Behari.
Let us look at few gems from this great team. Songs are listed chronologically in the order of the year of the film’s release with Film-Year/Song title/Singer(s) mentioned in that sequence. Although I have provided the links to each song, my experience is that due to technical /copyright issues , many of them may not work. Readers can either search for the songs or play them in respective sites.
#1. Ek Musafir Ek Hasina-1962/Bahut shukriya badi mehrbaani/ Rafi & Asha
It is surprising that both OPN & SHB started their careers almost at the same time, in early ‘50s, but it appears they were running on absolutely parallel tracks. OPN had mostly Majrooh , Sahir, Jan Nissar Akhtar , Qamar Jalalabadi as his main lyricists, occasionally working with others also like Hasrat Jaipuri, even Madan Mohan’s close associate Raja Mehdi Ali Khan for one or two films. And SHB was more in collaboration with Hemant Kumar and his assistant-turned independent composer Ravi in the initial few years.
It was only with Ek Musafir Ek Haseena, the team of OPN & SHB started striking gold. This film had ten songs in all, with two of them penned by SHB and rest by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and Shevan Rizvi.
Bahut shukriya badi mehrbaani has that characteristic harmonium and dholak that are mostly enough for OPN to create his immortal tunes. SHB’s imagination is amazing-the heroine starts worrying if she would totally lose her heart to the hero if keeps praising her beauty so much!:
मुझे डर है मुझ मैं गुरूर आ न जाए
लागूं झूमने मैं सुरूर आ न जाए
कहिं दिल न मेरा ये तारीफ सुनकर
तुम्हारा बने और मुझे भूल जाए
#2. Ek Musafir Ek Hasina-1962/ Mujhe dekh kar aapka muskurana/Rafi
This song is something that is“ made to order” for Rafi. OPN had once commented that if there is no Rafi , there is no OPN. It is sad to read in many articles , highlighting only the one incident when OPN had refused to work with Rafi when he arrived late for a recording. They always forget that for OPN , Rafi was the main male playback singer and he created so many masterpieces for him. That “ Ho” before the phrase Mujhe dekh kar with a slight break in the voice is just Rafi all the way!
#3. Kashmir Ki Kali-1964/ Deewana hua badal/Rafi & Asha
Kashmir Ki Kali was a landmark film in OPN’s career and all the songs were great hits. I have selected five songs from this film that had Shammi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore as the main actors. The romance in Deewana Hua Badal made it so popular that even now this songs comes at the top of any romantic song list. OPN was revolutionary in using the instrument Sarangi in such romantic mood, taking it out of the sad tones it was usually associated with.
#4. Kashmir Ki Kali-1964/ Hai duniya usi ki, zamana usi ka/Rafi
One of the best use of Saxophone in Hindi film songs ( played by the veteran Manohari Singh), the trio -OPN, SHB & Rafi come out with a stunner. The way Rafi improvises on the words ‘ mohabbat’ in ‘n’ number of ways is something he does with style.
#5. Kashmir Ki Kali-1964/ Isharon mein dil lenewale/ Rafi & Asha
Like how he had used the harmonium, sarangi, saxophone in the songs mentioned earlier, this one is all about the Sitar & Violins.
SHB makes out a question in form of an answer to a question with the lines:
इशारों इशारों में दिल लेने वाले , बता ये हुनर तूने सीखा कहाँ से
निगाहों निगाहों में जादू चलना मेरी जान सीखा है तुमने जहाँ
#6. Kashmir Ki Kali-1964/ Subhan allah haseen chehra/Rafi
With the dholak belting out a thundering percussion aided with one more unique aspect of OPN’s music-the clap of the hand used so innovatively, this is another vintage OPN composition. Excellent use of harmonium, mandolin & clarinet-how does he ever think of such compositions! Rafi’s ‘twist’ in one of those “ subhan allah” perfectly matches the on-screen antics of Shammi Kapoor.
#7. Kashmir Ki Kali-1964/ Yeh chaand sa roshan chehra/Rafi
If the story is about Kashmir , can the santoor be left behind? A medley of sitar , santoor, sax, guitar, violins OPN provides a buffet lunch , riding on the famous Shikara. Though he was initially reluctant to allow Rafi do that repetitive ‘tareef karoon kya us ki’ towards the end of the song, but when Shammi & Rafi together convinced him , he appreciated that…Rafi repeats it 5 times and during the 6th one Shammi falls into the lake. One more unique thing in this song is that OPN has different interludes -usually he maintains the same one for all the three stanzas. The ubiquitous clap is also there!
#8. Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi-1966/ Yehi who jagah hai/Asha
Although she never talked about OPN’s immense contribution to her professional career , more so after their bitter parting of ways, Asha always gave her best in his compositions only. To be very frank, on a strictly personal note , I am not a great fan of Asha. I like only few of her selected songs, but as a blog writer, I always set aside my personal bias!. However, if I have to rank her best songs, it would be mainly with OPN, SD Burman , Ravi and then only the ‘most-hyped and talked about’ R D Burman. This song Yehi who jagah hai is such a subtle melody that shows how OPN , apart from being a rhythm king was without any doubt a melody king also. One more song where the saxophone was used so nicely .
#9. Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi-1966/ Phir miloge is baat ka wada/Rafi & Asha
Just like Kashmir Ki Kali, the film Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi also merits multiple selections from the OPN-SHB team. Once cannot ignore this evocative duet that meanders in a slow pace unlike OPN’s foot tapping tempo. Rafi & Asha have just one stanza each but make their mark with their superb rendition. We talked about many instruments that OPN had used in the songs discussed so far. In this we see the flute being used in perfect sync with the song. And Rafi weaves his usual magic with the nuances he brings about in the words वादा, मिलोगे, बात , मुलाकात!!
#10. Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi-1966/ Aap se maine meri jaan mohabbat/Rafi & Asha
One more slow-paced melodious duet by Rafi & Asha with some excellent , imaginative writing by SHB.
ज़िन्दगी क्या है मुहब्बत की मेहरबानी है दर्द को मैंने हक़ीक़त में दवा समझा है
सैंकड़ों साल के जीने से है बेहतर वोह गड़ी
हाथ में हाथ हो जब यार का
और मौत आ जाए
#11. Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi-1966/Mera pyaar who hai ke /Mahendra Kapoor
The only song by Mahendra Kapoor in this film and what a superb rendition by him! Poets , by nature imagine the most extra-ordinary things and that is why their words make such an impact. In the golden era of HFM lyrics had so much of beauty in any genre, more so in the romantic. That is why SHB writes:
मेरा प्यार वो है के मरकर भी तुमको
जुदा अपनी बाहों से होने न देगा
मिली मुझको जन्नत तो जन्नत के बदले
खुदा से मेरी जान तुम्हें मांग लेगा
#12. Saawan Ki Ghata-1966/Zulfon ko hata le chehre se/Rafi
It is a fact that OPN gave an altogether different dimension to Rafi’s singing. Not that other music directors did not do that. When one listens to the songs of Rafi in OPN’s compositions , one can appreciate the breezy romance and the free-wheeling style of Rafi. The मुँह रात का काला and थोड़ा सा उजाला are the cherries on the top of the cake. One must also give credit to GS Kohli, OPN’s assistant who normally took care of the percussion section-keenly listen to that tabla which sounds as if some vessel is dropped and running on the floor. It is always a poet’s job to exaggerate things; SHB exactly does that in the lines:
ज़ुल्फो को हटा ले चहरे से थोड़ा सा उजाला होने दे सूरज को ज़रा शर्मिदा कर मुंह रात का काला होने दे
(if the heroine removes her tresses that are covering her face, the brightness would embarrass the sun and at the same time would be an insult to the dark night!!)
#13. Saawan Ki Ghata-1966/Aaj koi pyar se/Asha
The dholak , sitar , sarangi and santoor and Asha, SHB-OPN needed only these to create this lilting melody.
#14. Saawan Ki Ghata-1966/Zara haule chalo more saajna/Rafi & Asha
After talking about twelve songs, only now we are into that trademark horse beat rhythm of OPN! Shows that contrary to the popular perception, OPN’s music was not just about horse-beat rhythm! The first interlude throws up one more instrument which we have not talked about in all the songs so far-Clarinet. It is said that although OPN had Sebastian D’Souza as his arranger( who was also a long-time arranger for Shankar-Jaikishan) he used to personally get involved in the interlude orchestration also. That is why we see a huge variety of instruments and a distinct flavor in his interludes.
SHB once again brings out the romantic essence so beautifully , especially the lovers’ tiff:
पड़ गई जनाब मैं तो आपके गले अब तो निभाए बगैर ना चले प्यार के सफ़र में होते ही रहेंगे झगड़े हज़ार सनम प्यार के दीवाने, चलते ही रहेंगे फिर भी मिला के कदम सजना होते ही रहेंगे नीची नज़र के मीठे-मीठे इशारे ज़रा हौले-हौले चलो…
#15. Mohabbat Zindagi Hai-1966/Na jaane kyon hamare dil ko/Rafi
When we look at most of the songs from the pair of OPN & SHB , they are mostly romantic , light hearted breezy numbers. This is one is no exception. The typical beat of OPN makes it lively.
#16. Humsaya-1968/Aaaja mere pyar ke sahare/Asha
When it comes to songs of this type, there is no competition whatsoever for Asha. She is simply outstanding in this song. I was surprised to know that this song was edited out of the film!! What a sacrilege!
The song has a long prelude that has Arabic/Persian influence . The interludes have that special “ clapping” -I feel he was one of the few music directors who used the clap to the best extent.
#17. Kahin Din Kahin Raat-1968/Tumhara chahne wala khuda ki duniya mein/Mahendra Kapoor & Asha
It is really to the credit of OPN and SHB that they could bring out the romantic in Mahendra Kapoor ( who otherwise mostly got relegated to singing certain type of songs only). OPN had that special attention to using a solo instrument in the interludes that brings out the essence of the melody One cannot see much clutter of instruments in his orchestrations. The sitar and flute are simply fabulous in this.
This is one of the best duets of MK, what with SHB , as usual running amuck with his imagination:
ये बात कैसे गवारा करेगा दिल मेरा तुम्हारा ज़िक्र किसी और की ज़ुबान पे हो तुम्हारे हुस्न की तारीफ आइना भी करे तो मैं तुम्हारी क़सम है के तोड़ दूँ उसको तुम्हारे प्यार तुम्हारी अदा का दीवाना मेरे सिवा भी कोई और हो खुदा न करे तुम्हारा चाहने वाला….
OPN had started off his career with Shamshad Begum and Geeta Dutt , with the latter even playing a major role in giving him the much-needed break by recommending him in Guru Dutt’s Aar Paar. However, his infatuation with Asha made him neglect these two singers. It was after a long gap he composed for Shamshad Begum . This was the last hit song that Shamshad Begum had sung and would always be remembered for this.
OPN needed just a harmonium to create this magical number-the dholak, tabla , claps, flute all play a subdued role before the harmonium which was one of OPN’s favorite instrument.
#19. Kismat-1968/Lakhon hai yahan dilwale/Mahendra Kapoor
#20. Kismat-1968/Ankhon mein Qayamat ke kajal/Mahendra Kapoor
These two songs from Kismat can be rated as the best solos by MK for OPN. One can hear a completely refreshing feel in these two songs to this day. OPN proves his point by using a single instrument to the best possible extent. It is guitar all the way in Lakhon hai yahan dilwale and Aankhon mein Qayamat ke kajal with a flute chipping in between like a bird’s chirping.
#21. Dil Aur Mohabbat- 1968 /Kahan se laayi ho jaan-e-man yeh kitabi chehra gulabi Aankhen/Mahendra Kapoor & Asha
While listening to this song, we also feel like asking OPN, SHB & MK, from where do they get to compose and render such intoxicating songs! The heady cocktail of guitar, santoor and just the brush against the drums to provide the percussion makes it an intoxication one can get addicted to. Asha has only a brief humming now and then, the sarangi comes in for a fleeting moment and a solo violin at the background end gives the song an ethereal feel. No wonder OPN used to say that he does not need any big banner films-HE WAS THE BIG BANNER in his films! I would rate this as one of the top songs of Mahendra Kapoor-a super sensual rendition by him. Note the way he enunciates “ yehi who chehra jise poojte hain”. Absolutely stunning.
#22. Ek Baar Muskurado-1972/Chehre se zara aanchal/Mukesh & Asha
In 1968 there was an unfortunate break up that OPN had with his all-time favorite male singer and one of the gentlest souls in music world -Mohammad Rafi. The usually very punctual Rafi had come late for the recording of a song for Humsaya and the innocent man that he was , he gave the actual reason to OPN that he got stuck in another recording for Shankar -Jaikishan!…this infuriated the stickler for time OPN and said that he will not work with Rafi further as he did not value OPN’s recording. The gentleman Rafi then told him that they will part ways but after completing the recording or else the producer will have to bear the loss. After few years they did patch up ( as usual it was Rafi who took the initiative but by that time OPN’s career was on the downslide). During that period, Mukesh, Kishore got the chance to sing more for OPN apart from the other singer whom OPN had to rely on during that period-Rafi’s own protege Mahindra Kapoor.
It is amazing that Mukesh always makes his mark with the few opportunities that he gets in his way. One can get to hear a different Mukesh in this song. At the low octaves he sounds best among most of the singers. The melody is also too good, Asha joining Mukesh with superb alaap.
#23. Ek Baar Muskurado-1972/Yeh dil lekar nazrana /Mukesh & Asha
The creative juice had still not dried up in Nayyar sahab-the Punjabi beats with the dholak & claps could still work in 1972 even after the new trend in music was creating waves by RD Burman, Kalyanji Anandji , Lakshmikant Pyarelal in the early 70’s . The tempo is foot tapping and reaches a crescendo at the end.
#24. Pran Jaaye Par Vacahan Na Jaye-1974/ Chain se humko kabhi aap ne/Asha
I still cannot understand how this song had lyrics that so perfectly matched the bitter parting of ways between OPN & Asha. It is said that Asha did not turn up for receiving the Filmfare award for best female singer for this song and instead OPN took it but neither he handed it to her nor she took it from him.
In my blog I consciously avoid writing much about the personal lives that are not relevant to their career and so let us leave it at that.
But what a swan song! Was it some sixth sense that made SHB compose these immortal lines? A completely “ non-conforming to OPN style “ composition with almost nil orchestration except for a piano, flute, one can say that this remains the career best by OPN-Asha and of course SHB also contributing his best . It is another co-incidence that after this song , though SHB had written few songs for OPN it better not to talk about them as they were nothing compared to what they had created earlier. I am giving the full lyrics of this song as a fitting tribute to this great pair.
चैन से हमको कभी आपने जीने ना दिया ज़हर भी चाहा अगर पीना तो पिने ना दिया चैन से हमको कभी
चाँद के रथ में रात की दुल्हन जब जब आएगी याद हमारी आपके दिल को तरसा जाएगी आपने जो है दिया वो तो किसीने ना दिया ज़हर भी चाहा अगर पीना तो पिने ना दिया चैन से हमको कभी
आपका गम जो इस दिल में दिन रात अगर होगा सोचके ये दम घुटता है फिर कैसे गुज़र होगा काश ना होती अपनी जुदाई मौत ही आ जाती कोई बहाने चैन हमारी रूह तो पा जाती इक पल हँसना कभी दिल की लगी ने ना दिया ज़हर भी चाहा अगर पीना तो पिने ना दिया चैन से हमको कभी.
Although OPN continued to compose music for another 20 years for mostly mediocre films , the spark had died. The only saving grace was a 1988 Telugu film ,Neerajanam that turned to be a great musical in Telugu film music history and had excellent songs.
Very brief life-sketch of these two legends
Omkar Prasad Nayyar was born on 16th Jan 1926 in Lahore . His family did not have any musical legacy nor did he undergo any formal training. Music was in his bloods. At the age of 17 , he composed two songs one of which was the famous Preetam Aan Milo sung by the legendary CH Atma. After partition, he shifted to Amritsar and one of his friends took him along with those two songs to one Dalsukh Pancholi , a film maker. He was called to Bombay ( as known at that time) and was signed up as composer for his first film Aasmaan. Though the music was appreciated, the film flopped and so did his next two films: PL Santoshi’s Chham Chhama Chham and Guru Dutt’s Baaz. Again , the music of Baaz was very good but the film flopped. A dejected OPN was thinking of going back to Amritsar but as he had some dues from Guru Dutt he went to him for recovering the same. However Guru Dutt was also in dire straits but as he was in need of a composer for his next venture, Aar Paar, from the funds he could raise for this film , he paid Rs 2000 as advance to OPN and he scored 8 songs . What great hits they turned out to be , with the film also being a success. There was no turning back for him in the next 20 years . But life turned a full circle for him as he had a bitter separation not only from Asha but also from his family consisting of his wife Sarojini, three daughters and a son. He just left them and became a recluse, living in Thane as a paying guest of one of his ardent fans, Rani Nakhwa. He had very few friends at that time and had cut off his connections with the film industry except for Gajendra Singh and Ahmed Wasi. The former introduced him to the popular TV singing reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and that was the time people could see the legend back in public life. He died almost unknown to the film industry, with even his family not attending his funeral as per his wish.
Shamshul Huda Behari’s personal life , like many of the legendary lyricists of the golden era remains obscure. Nothing much is known about him except that he was born in Arrah, Bihar on 12th July 1920. He had a long career , starting off as a story and dialogue writer and then a lyricist from the early 50’s till the late 80’s. Apart from OPN he had worked with Roshan, Madan Mohan , Hemant Kumar, Ravi and Shankar-Jaikishen and in the later part of his career with Laxmikant Pyarelal ( his songs Tumse milkar na jaane kyoon in the 1985 film Pyaar Jhukta Nahin and Teri Mehrbaaniyan title song became quite famous) . He passed away at the age of 66 on 25th Feb 1987.
Acknowledgement & Disclaimer
I sincerely thank the publishers of following blogsites & Internet sources for the information that I could gather for this article:
You Tube
Wikipedia
Yesterday’s Melodies Today’s Memories book by Mr. Manek Premchand
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.
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