Sri K NATWAR SINGH, HIS BOOK 'ONE LIFE IS NOT ENOUGH' AND FILM ACHHUT KANYA.

I just finished reading Sri Natwar Singh’s recently published book, ONE LIFE IS NOT ENOUGH  which had stirred up a lot of political controversies, arguments and debates especially on the English news channels. These discussions had, regrettably,  centred mainly on those portions of the book dealing with Smt Sonia Gandhi’s role in Indian politics and her stranglehold on the UPA 1 and UPA 2. The reasons as exposed by Sri Natwar Singh for her not accepting the country’s prime ministership which was offered to her on a platter  received more attention than anything else. 

E.M.Forster

Sri Natwar Singh a well known editor, author, successful bureaucrat and influential diplomat  entered politics at his option and went on to become the Minister of  External Affairs of the country. An ardent admirer and friend of British writer and author E.M.Forster , Sri Natwar Singh gives interesting details of his association and meetings with the author.  So also about his association with R.K. Narayan, Kenneth Kaunda the first President of Zambia,  rulers, diplomats and world leaders. Closely associated with the Nehru-Indira Gandhi family right from the days of India’s independence as revealed by him in his book he was privy to and had first hand information on  several of the course changing decisions taken by successive Congress governments at the Centre.The partition of India, invasion of Kashmir by Pakistan, the handing over of the issue to the U.N.,  the Indo-Chinese engagements and the war with China in which India was defeated, the nationalisation of banks, Operation Blue star, the two wars with Pakistan and the forming of Bangladesh, declaration of emergency, the Sri Lankan expedition of the IPKF, Shah Banu case,the deeds and misdeeds of UPA 1 and UPA 2 and so on have all been discussed from a diplomat’s point of view as well as that of an insider who had a ring side view of the happenings. In fact the book helps the reader to know how the country’s foreign policy evolved over the years, its nuances, its high as well as low points, how the foreign offices worked and so on  coming as it is from the author who was an officer of the foreign service, a diplomat and a minister of external affairs. Sadly these aspects did not  find a place in the discussions on the book.

The book is interestingly written, is easy  on the reader and succeeds in giving the impression that the author is nearer to the actual than otherwise.   He does not seem to allow his closeness to the ruling family to cloud his vision. He does not mince words while pointing out the blunders of Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi at the same time highlighting the contributions of the first three. He is highly critical of the UPA1 and UPA 2 regimes, Sonia Gandhi  and the former Prime Minister Manmohan  Singh. It is in this context that the reader gets the impression that the  frustration and bitterness, in connection with the circumstances that made him  resign from the cabinet and the Congress party, get the better of him. But he had the last laugh when the people of  India gave a resounding slap to the UPA and the Congress  when the results of the parliamentary elections were announced on the 16th May 2014. 

The book also contains a number of nostalgic photographs  including  a photo of Natwar Singh and wife with Lata Mangheshkar and another showing Natwar Singh with the pet lion of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethopia.

EP Record

One paragraph  on page 35 of the book touched a chord somewhere. The picture of a young Natwar Singh visiting a movie house in Bharatpur with his parents to see the  Bombay  Talkies film Achhut Kanya, an Ashok Kumar-Devika Rani  film, evoked memories of my going to see films with my parents though the circumstances were not comparable. It also made me take out and play the EP record of the film’s songs rendered by Ashok  kumar and Devika Rani! The 1936 film directed by Franz Osten and produced by Himanshu Rai was one of the first super hit movies of Hindi films and one of the earliest Indian movies with a social reformist theme. I also liked a sentence in another part of the book, “I knew too well the fate of the retired officers- the doers of yesteryears become the drifters of today.”

FILM MADHUMATI, SALIL CHOUDHURY, HIS MUSIC.

 Walking down  the memory lane, there are several  films that evoked plenty of nostalgic memories of our younger days. One such film is Bimal Roy Productions, MADHUMATI (1958) directed  by  Bimal Roy with Dilip Kumar and Vijayantimala in the lead. The novelty of the story and theme, viz. reincarnation and life after death, beautiful picturisation, pleasing performance by the lead and supporting actors, the way the story  was handled retaining the suspense till the end and above all,  the fascinating songs and music by Salil Choudhury made lasting impressions especially on the younger viewers.The fact that the film bagged six National Awards and nine Filmfare Awards for all the major categories added to its aura. Bimal Roy, who had earlier made such wonderful films like PARINEETA, DO BHIGA ZAMIN, DEVDAS, NAUKRI, BIRAJ BAHU etc.  acquired cult status with Madhumati and went on to make highly acclaimed films like SUJATA, BANDINI, PARAKH  and so on.

While listening to the LP record of Madhumati on  my record player, I realised that the most important factor for the success of the film was the music of Salil Chowdhury . The  LP record holds 12 songs of the film and most of them are even today hugely popular with Lata’s Filmfare Award winning  ‘Aaja re pardesi’ topping the list. The Lata-Mukesh duet  “Dil tadap tadap’ is regarded as one of the top duets ever of Hindi films. The  Mukesh-Salil-Dilip Kumar song, ‘Suhana safar aur mausam’ happens to be a rare song of Salil Chowdhury filmed on Dilip Kumar. Two lively group  songs, viz., ‘chad gayo papi bichhua’ and ‘Zulmi sang aankh ladi’adds variety and displays Salil’s penchant for folk music. Mubarak Begum’s sweet and soulful ‘Ham hal-e-dil sunnaaeenge’was a hit over the radio those days. Not in the least is one of Rafi’s best ever ‘Toote hue khwabon mein’ making the LP record of the film one of the most sought after one even now.

 Kabuliwallah

Some of the evergreen songs of Salil Chpidhury also flashed through my mind while listening. Manna Dey remained one of his favourite male voices right from the 1953 film ‘DO BIGHA ZAMIN’, the chorus ‘Dharti kare pukar ke’( with Lata) being very popular.The song  ‘Hariyaala saawan dhol bajata aaya’, again a chorus with Lata, revealed Salil’s mastery over folk style of music. In film USNE KAHA THA there is ‘Janewale sipahi se poochho’, a highly patriotic song by Manna Dey. Two very popular and melodious songs of Manna Dey for Salil Choudhury coming readily to mind are ‘Zindagi kaisee hai paheli’ from Aanand and the sweet ‘Ek samay par do barsati’ from JHOOLA. For me, the second is the favourite for his softness of voice in the Talat Mahmood style. And for voice modulation and style of singing  there is this beautiful song from Bimal Roy’s KABULIWALLAH ,viz.,’Yeh mere pyare vatan’. My search for a gramophone record of this song fructified only a couple of days back when I got a well maintained 78 r.p.m record! The credit for using Manna Dey’s voice for a Malayalam film and making him a much loved singer of Keralites also goes to Salil Choudhury  with Manna Dey’s song ‘ Manasa maine varoo’ from the President’s gold medal winning Malayalam film  CHEMMEEN. That reminds me about Lata Mangeshkar’s only song in Malayalam ,viz., ‘Kadali thenkadali’ in the much accclaimed film  NELLU  which was also composed by Salil Choudhury.The film also has a chorus. ‘Chemba chemba’, sung by Manna Dey and Jayachandran . The rhythmic, vibrant and catchy folk/tribal songs of the film, as the story demanded, were very popular those days.

Many of the well known and popular songs of Talat Mahmood were composed by Salil Choudhury and the songs of film CHHAYA , a Sunil Dutt – Asha Parekh starrer, come readily to mind.The song , ‘Ankhon mein masti sharaab ki’, is a rare, but beautiful and pleasant, romantic song of Talat as against his usual ghazals. So also is the song, ‘Itna na mujhse to pyar badha, sung solo  by Talat as weIl as as a duet with Lata. Talat is at his ‘ghazali best’ in the song ‘Aansoo samajh ke kyon mujhe’ from this film. The duet of Talat with Lata, ‘Aha rim jim ki ye pyare pyare’ from film USNE KAHA THA and the song,’Raat ne kya kya’ from film EK GAON KI KAHANI  are Salil Choudhury’s gems with Talat. And for me Lata’s best song for Salil Chudhury after ‘Aaja re pardesi’ is the melodious lilting song from film PARAKH, viz., ‘Oh sajana barkha bahar ayi’.

Two songs of Mukesh for Salail Coudhury,  I just remembered, are  the one from the superhit Rajesh Khanna film AANAND,viz., ‘Kahin door jab din dhal jaye’ and the immortal song from the Raj Kapur film JAGTE RAHO, viz., ‘Zindagi kwab mein’ which haunts listeners even today. I also remember two songs of Jesudas for Salil, a popular duet with Asha in film CHHOTI SI BAAT,viz.,’Jan-e-man jane-e-man’, an example as to how a duet is to be sung with the singers trying to excel each other at the same time retaining the mood and tempo of the song. The other is the semi-classical song, ‘Ni sa ga ma pa ni.’ from film ANAND MAHAL. It is also a fact that only Salil Choudhury and music director Ravindra Jain could exploit fruitfully the talent and voice of Jesudas at his prime for Hindi films.

Any discussion of Salil Choudhury’s music without mentioning his fine compositions in film MAYA could be termed incomplete. Lata Mangeshkar’s lilting ‘ Ja re ja re ud ja re panchi’ and Rafi’s fast paced ‘Koi sone ke dilwala’ are outstanding numbers. But, to me, what makes the music of the film noteworthy are the two duets. In fact Salil Choudhury could be credited with some of the best duets of Hindi films with ‘Dil tadap tadap’(Lata Mukesh), ‘Itna na mujhko’ and ‘Ah ha rim jim’ (both by Lata-Talat), ‘Chhota sa ghar hoga’(Film Naukari- Kishore–Usha Mangeshkar)and so on proving the point.The two duets from film Maya are also equally fascinating. One is the lilting melody by Lata-Rafi, ‘Tasveer teri dil mein’ which is even now often heard on the radio. But the top of the chart is the two part duet , ‘Ae dil kahan teri manzil’ by Lata and the inimitable, but sadly foregotten, Dwijen Mukherjee. The tune of the song, meaningful lyrics, the beauty of the two sweet voices matching and complementing each other make this song a top favourite. Dwijen Mukheri, with a voice and singing style of Hemant Kumar, Aas ka Panchi Subir Sen and Hoke Majbhoor Bhupinder , was not heard much in Hindi films in spite of the  success of this song and soon vanished from the scene to the utter disappointment of discerning listeners! But the song is still as refreshing as ever.

Vayalar-Salil

Salil Choudhury’s presence in Malayalam film music did not end with CHEMMEEN and NELLU. In fact he had composed music for about 25 Malayalam films besides providing background music for ABHAYAM,DWEEP and the award winning film VASTUHARA etc. In association with noted Malayalam poets like Vayalar, O.N.V. Kurup and Srikumaran Thampi he gave a large number  of highly popular songs for Malayalam films and achieved a high level of success in Malayalam film music which no other Hindi music director except Ravi could achieve. With Srikumaran Thambi he created the songs for film ETHO ORU SWAPNAM.  With Vayalar he tuned songs for several films like RAAGAM, RAASALEELA, THULAVARSHAM, EZHU RAATHRIKAL and so on apart from the songs of CHEMMEEN and  NELLU. The song ‘Kaadaru masam’ from film Ezhu Raathrikal and ‘Kelee nalinam’ from Thulavarsham were super hits of the period.

Pratheeksha

It was with O.N.V. Kurup that Salil Choudhury created a large number of popular songs which are even today a rage among singers and listeners. In film PAREEKSHA  there is this soulful song rendered by Jesudas, viz., ‘Oormakale’ and the rare EP record of this song is one of my proud collections.In film SWAPNAM the song ‘Saarikee’ by S.janaki; in MADNOTSAVAM the song ‘Sagarame santha maaku nee’ by Jesudas, in film SAMAYAMAYILLAPOLUM  the song ‘Shyama meghame’ by Jesudas and several other films  and songs bear testimony to Sali’s prowess as a music director even in a language which was alien to him. In THUMBOLIKADAPPURAM (1995), probably the last film of Salil in Malayalam, singer Chitra rendered this immortal song ‘Kaathil thenmazhayay paadoo’ which remains as  sweet as ever.

Salil Choudhury had used the tunes of his successful Hindi songs in Malayalam either for songs as such or in the background. For example, the tune of this beautiful song ‘Chhotta sa ghar hoga badalon ki chhaomen’ from film NAUKARI  rendered by Kishore and Usha  Mangeshkar has been beautifully used for O.N.V’s lyrics in film AIR HOSTESS for the song ‘Onnaanam kunninmel.’http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=chhotta+sa+ghar+hoga&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz35 In film CHEMMEEN  the tune of the song ‘Baag mein kali khili’ from  film CHAND AUR SURAJ has been fruitfully used in the background of the chaakara song ‘Pennale kannale’.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwAvatrW3XA

Salil Choudhury whose melody was based on Indian Classical music and folk music with orchestration influenced by Western music  ruled the hearts of millions of listeners for more than 40 years. His musical creations will preserve his memory for generations to come.

Tail piece: Madhumati remains as the only film I had seen twice in a theatre. It was on its  second release at a local theatre in 1960 on an intervening holiday of my degree exam!

GRUNDIG REEL TO REEL TAPE RECORDER. TK141.

In the 1950s and the 60s no voice recording devices were available to us and music for us meant music from the radio and the records played on the gramophones /record players. Reel to reel tape recorders also known as spool type recorders were the only familiar recording device which were not freely available in the market though.  Rare imported sets of brands like Phillips,Akai, Grundig, Pioneer, Panasonic etc., could be seen in some affluent/fortunate households.  Out of this, the Grundig spool tape recorders were the most seen. Despite various sizes of the spools and the cumbersome procedure to play them and record on them they were still coveted objects of music lovers. As youngsters, who could ill afford to buy even gramophone records and record players, they remained as one more item in our long list of gadgets to be acquired as and when our purse could oblige. The U.M.S. Radio factory at Coimbatore who used to manufacture the popular brand of UMS Radios under technical collaboration with Grundig, Germany, we thought, would bring out the Grundig model recorders in the local market at affordable prices. But our hopes were belied when the UMS-Grundig tie-up was terminated in 1970.

The position remained so till the beginning of the 70s  when there was a revolution in the Indian music scene with the arrival of compact cassette recorders. The portability of the device, affordable price, operational convenience and availability of choice made cassette recorders a huge hit.  Panasonic, Sharp, Akai, Bush, Philips and similar brands made in India were available to the consumers.  Soon they totally replaced records and record players. Since then there has been a sea change in the way people recorded their music and voice and the recording industry has gained dizzying heights with the explosion of digital technology.

But the desire to acquire a spool tape recorder, though latent, remained strong within. Years later it was with great thrill that I could  get an antique Grundig Reel to Reel tape recorder, the 1970 Model TK.141 made in Germany,  in very good working condition. It has a spool size of 6 inches with four track recording facility. Even after almost half a century the set looks beautiful without any noticeable scratches inside or outside the box. Of course thorough cleaning and a bit of polishing along with servicing by  an expert old hand helped. The  famous Grundig logo is very much there on the box in all its glory. Yes, the Grundig TK 141 is a proud item on my shelf of old music systems.

Looking at my small collection of gramophone records, record players, old radios, compact cassettes and cassette players and so on I often  wonder what purpose will it serve and what is the use of having all of them  when clear, cultivated and enriched music is available at one’s finger tips from anywhere in the house with a smart phone and a bluetooth enabled speaker system. Occasional visitors and friends also expressed the same thoughts and a few of them, I thought, even felt sympathy towards me. I can see them wondering what will happen to these old gadgets when once I leave the scene sooner than later though what happened to the equipments then is of no consequence to me. But the fact remains that more and more people, especially the young generation, is taking keen interest in collecting these gadgets, mainly gramophone records, record players and old valve radios as evidenced by the huge demand for them and the consequent increase in price. People are prepared to pay fancy prices for them. A visit to some of the sites like E-bay and Amazon will prove the point. Vinyl records are staging a big revival world over with many music companies cutting new LP records.

Coming back to the point as to what drives the young and old to take to radios and record players, etc., the reasons appear to be different for each. For the young it could be their curiosity. For those pursuing it as a hobby it probably is a compelling need. For the old it is nostalgia, the pleasure of walking down the memory lane and enjoying  music as they enjoyed it in the past. For the lovers of old music in general they offer a number of endearing features.

They feel that the warmth of sound, especially human voice, coming from an old radio or record player is nearest to the original. For them there is no better way of listening to Rafi, Lata, Talat,Noorjahan, K.L.Saigal, Hemant Kumar and so on, than on the radio or record player. They point out that, for many, an old wall clock with a pendulum chiming every hour/half hour is a dynamic presence in the living room. Similarly, for them, a record player/changer with a LP record turning in circles, filling the room with music and, at the end of the record the playing arm going back  on its own and resting on its small pedestal is an  enduring dynamic experience.This is ‘visible’ music for them. Besides, they feel that there is the need for active involvement of the listener in the process of listening. In a modern gadget a mere touch of the screen or a click/tap on the pad produces music. But on an old radio searching for favourite stations and tuning in becomes a skilled job! On  a record player the process starts from  taking out the record from its jacket, wiping it, placing it carefully on the turn table, adjusting the speed, switching the set on, lifting the arm and placing the stylus(needle)gently on the edge of the turning record without  shivering of the hand and then adjusting the volume level. The ardent user took pride in placing the stylus on the record without the help of the cuing lever which many record players provide. Yes, it is music hands on! One more point. One can listen to music at random without an option to select the song. A radio offers this. The pleasure of suddenly hearing an old much loved song over the radio is immense. One can also  select a favourite song and listen. A record player offers this.

These points may be real and valid. They may be imaginary and arguable. But the lovable, old music devices continue to fascinate a whole lot of music enthusiasts even today.

Tail piece:- Grundig A.G., the German giant in  consumer entertainment electronics since 1930 and a very popular household brand in India went  bankrupt in 2003. The brand GRUNDIG itself has now become memory!

1957 Grundig Ad.