The years 1960 and 1961 were years of great melody in Hindi films with the release of highy
successful, musically charged films like
Mughal-E- Azam, Barsaat ki Raat, Kohinoor , Chaudvin ka Chaand, Junglee,
Gharana, Sasural,Hum Dono, Kala Bazar and so on. The decades of the 50s and the 60s were also the heydays
of great music directors like S.D.Burman, Shankar Jaikishen, Naushad,
O.P.Nayyar, Roshan and so on whose songs
were hitting the top of the chart on the
radio and figuring prominently in the
list of winners of the Filmfare Awards . In the early 60s two songs from two
films used to be heard several times daily
on the radio be it the Radio Ceylon or Vividh Bharati of AIR. Both the songs are by Muhammed Rafi, the
title song ‘Chaudvin ka chaand ho’ from that film and ,‘ Husnewale tera jawab
nahin’ from film Gharana. They were two of the top songs of the period and both were composed by the redoubtable,
but less celebrated, music director Ravi ( Ravi Shankar Sharma-March 1926 –
March 2012).There are several common factors for the two songs; both were
penned by Shakeel Badayuni winning
Filmfare awards for best lyricist for the songs in 1960 and 1961; the
song Chaudvin ka chaand won for Rafi the
Filmfare Award for the best male singer
and the song Husnewale tera jawaabb nahin won for Ravi the Filmfare Award for the best
music director ; both are beautiful romantic melodies delightfully picturised
on the pairs of Guru Dutt-Waheeda Rahman and Rajinder Kumar - Asha Parekh
respectively ; the first is intense and the other happy and
light hearted. Frequently heard on the radio and repeatedly featuring in
the weekly Binaca Geetmala programs the two songs were our favourites eventhough the top of the hit position in the Binaca Geetmala program for
the years 1960 and 1961 were won by Roshan’s
‘Zindagi bhar nahin ‘ (Barsaat ki Raat) and S & J’s ‘Teri pyari pyari’
(Sasural) respectively.
Ravi’s earlier films
like Vachan, Ek Saal, Dilli ka thug,
Chirag Kahan Roshni kahan and so on also had several beautiful songs in them.
Film Dilli ka thug had a few popular songs by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle
like ‘ Yeh ratein yeh mausam nadi ka kinare’ (Kishore -Asha), Yeh bahar yeh
shama(Asha) and the hilarious, ‘C.A.T., CAT Cat
mane billie’ (Kishore). In Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan there is this children’s
song ‘Tim tim karke tare...’. In Ek Saal there is this immortal ghazal of Talat
Mahmood, ‘ Sub kuch luta ke hosh mein
aaye to kya hua’. But it was Ckaudvin ka
Chaand which gave Ravi the well deserved
recognition as a top music director of Hindi films. The song scene of the title
song Chaudvin ka chaand showed how best even black and white photography
(Cinematography- V.K.Murthy) can exploit the light and shade to glorify a
scene.The film has a few other wonderful
songs like Rafi’s ‘Yeh Lucknow ki sar zameen’ and the Asha Bhosle –
Shamshad Begum qawwali, ‘Sharma ke kyun pardanashin’ (two parts). The song
‘Husnewale tera jawwaab nahin’ from film Gharana still remains as one of the
top romantic songs of Rafi.There was no looking back thereafter for Ravi in the 60s and early 70s when
he came out with musical hits for films after films like Khandan, Bharosa,
Kajal, Gahra Daag, Pyar ka Saagar, China town,Do Badan, Ankhen, Waqt, Neeel
Kamal, Tower House, Yeh raaste hai pyar ki, Aaj aur Kal and many more. 
Film Gumrah( Sunil Dutt-Mala Sinha) marks the beginning of
a long and fruitful association of Ravi with singer Mahendra Kapoor . In fact
it was Ravi who lifted the singer,
reeling under the shadow of a Rafi at his peak,
to the centre stage with this film. In fact there was no song for Rafi
in this film and the three solos rendered by Mahendra Kap oor, viz., ‘Aap
aayen’, ‘Aa bhi ja’ and Chalo ek bar’ earned for him an identity of his own and
listeners could connect to his voice and style separate from
that of Rafi. The songs were super hits on the radio and Mahendra kapoor won
the Filmfare Award for the best male playback singer for the song ‘Chalo ek
baar’. The duet, ‘aaja aaja re’ with Asha also was hugely popular. Film Gumraah
was followed by Waqt in which Mahendra
Kapoor had three duets with Asha the top being ,’Maine ek khwab sa dekha hai’
and, ’Din hain bahar ke ‘ a close second. Of course the most popular song of
the film is by Rafi,viz., ‘Waqt se din
aur raat’ followed closely by the
evergreen Manna Dey hit, ‘Ae mere Zohra Jabeen’.
The success of the team of Ravi-Sahir Ludianvi(lyrics) and
Mahendra Kapoor in film Gumraah and Waqt
was repeated in the super hit film Hamraaz(Sunil Dutt-Vimi- Raaj Kumar). In
fact it was Mahendra Kapoor all the way in this film with four super hit solos
including , ‘ Yeh neele gagan ke tale’
which won him the Filmfare Award for the best male playback singer for 1967.
The song ‘Na moonh chupake jiyo’ and ‘Tum agar saath dene ka wada karo’ were
also super hits along with the high pitched,
melodious ‘Kisi pather ke murat se’. These songs were a fitting reply to the critics, many of them perhaps
motivated, who sidelined Mahendra Kapoor
as a singer who adopted Rafi’s style. The singer’s own style was, of
course, obvious to the discerning listeners.
There are two films the music of which showed Ravi’s talent
and range in different types of music.
One is film China Town, (1962-Shammi Kapoor-Shakila) in which all the songs
were by Rafi and Asha. The film offered ample scope for dance songs,
Rock-n-roll and club dance songs etc. and Ravi showed that he could do justice
to the need. Though the film was not a huge hit
the songs were very popular , the ‘Bar bar dekho ‘ in particular, with
Rafi sizzling. The songs ‘Yumma yumma
yumma’ and the title song ‘China town’ shows Asha in her elements . The duets
of Rafi and Asha, ‘Bada quatil hai’ and ‘Humse na poochho’, were also pleasing.
Ravi with these vibrant foot tapping songs showed that he can give even O.P.
Nayyar a run for his money as far rhythm
is concerned.
The other film which tested Ravi’s talent is the 1982 film
Nikaah with Raj Babbar, Deepak Parashar and Salma Agha in the lead. All the songs of the film were Ghazal based
ones as demanded by the theme and all of
them were rendered by Mahendra kapoor and the leading lady Salma Agha
herself.The ghazals were appreciated by the discerning listeners and it was
Salma Agha who got the Filmfare award for the best playback singer of the year
for her song ‘Dil ke armaan ansuon mein bah gaye’, the special nasal timbre of
her voice helping her to do justice to the composition. This is true in the
case of ‘Fiza bhi hai jawab bhi (in two parts) also. Mahendra kapoor shows his
range in the ghazal, ‘Bete hue lamhon ki
kasak saath to hogi’ and also in the duet with Salma, ‘Dil ki yeh arzoo thi’
with clear, emphatic delivery of words.
The qawwali,’ Chehra chhupa liya hai kisi ne nagar mein’
by Kapoor, Asha and Salma is an added attraction. The LP album of the film also contains Ghulam
Ali’s famous composition ‘Chupke chupke raat din’ making it a collectors’ item.
Music director Ravi who was very busy in Hindi film music
till the early years of the 70s was
seen less and less thereafter and during the 80s and 90s became very busy in
Malayalam films especially in
association with director Hariharan and poet/lyricist O.N.V. Kurup and came out with award winning music in films like Panchagni, Nakhashatangal, Sargam
,Vaisali, Parinayam, Srukretam, Ghazal and so on. He won National award for
best music Director for films Parinayam and Sukrutam and Kerala State Award
for Nakhakshatangal and Sargam. Singer K.S.Chitra won her third
National Award for the song ‘Indupushpam choodi’ from film Vaisali.
Though Ravi came
back into Hindi film music strongly with
Nikaah in 1982, he was unable to weave his former magic as by then the trend
had changed with the ascendancy of Kishore Kumar, Lakshmikant Pyarelal and so
on and
had to remain content with working in Malayalam films with
Mayookham(2005) being his last Malayalam film. Music Director Ravi, Known as
Bombay Ravi in Malayalam film world continues to be remembered and respected in
Kerala as a king of melodies.
Tail piece:-There was a successful
Palmolive ad featuring Kapil Dev and the jingle ‘ Pamolive da jawab nahin’
seemed to have been inspired by the Gharana song,’Husnewale tera jawab nahin’.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ9uo-7_aeE
