O.P.Nayyar, Tonga Beats etc.

Recently I could get a rare O.P.Nayyar album, titled 'The Magnificent O.P.Nayyar, His Memorable Film Hits' through a contact from Pune. The album contains a few of Nayyar's very beautiful songs from lesser known films like Choo Mantar( Tumhin ne dard diya hai),Ustad, Qaidi, Do Ustad, Diya to Jala(Dhake ki malmal-C.H.Atma), Jali Note, etc. The album also contains the great Rafi hit,'Raat bhar ka hain mehman andhera'from film 'Sone ki Chidiya' and the film Bapre Baap number,'Piya piya piya mera jiya pukare'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxgA-d_DwJY&feature=related

Listening to this record and the 'piya piya' song, another of Nayyar's famousTonga(horse drawn carriage)beat songs, took my mind to his other similar songs like the 'Maang ke saat tumhara' from Naya Daur, the 'Tumsa Nahin dekha' song and the 'haule haule' song from film Sawan ki ghata','Lakhon hain nigahon mein' from Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon',and 'Deewana Huaa Baadal' from Kashmir ki Kali, Mujhe Mera Pyar de do' of film 'Humsaya' etc. All these songs have the sound of horse hooves in the background. It also made me make a mental search of songs, of other music directors, having the sound of horse hooves and the peculiar 'tonga beats' in the background.

One of the earliest of such songs was 'Chale pawan ki chal' by Pankaj Mullick from the 1941 film, 'Doctor'.There is also another song from this film again sung by Pankaj Mullick,viz., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NX6S3aw6bc " Aayi bahar aaj".These two beautiful songs are even now heard on Ceylon Broadcasting Corporation in its program 'Purani Geet' in the mornings.

Another music director who had used the sound of horse hooves and tonga beats beautifully in the background is Naushad. In film Kohinoor there is this very popular song,'koi pyar ki dekhe jaadugari'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ7ROcqGYCE (Lata-Rafi - Dilip Kumar- Meena Kumari) and in the film 'Ann', again a Dilip Kumar starrer , there is this haunting song, 'Dil mein chupake pyar (rafi)'. In these two songs and in several of his songs in films like Ram aur Shyam, Leader, Uran Khatola etc. Naushad had shown that he is as good as O.P. Nayyar in handling 'tonga beat songs'. Yes, there is one more song (Lata-Shamshad Begum)

,
'Bachpan ke din bhulana dena', in film Deedar, once again a Dilip Kumar starrer with Nargis, in which Naushad had shown his mastery over 'horse hooves'.

Music Director Ravi , like O.P. Nayyar, had given a lot of importance to rhythm in his music. The, 'Bar bar dekho, hazar bar dekho', song from film 'China Town'(Shammi Kapoor-Shakila starrer) is just one example. And Ravi does a Nayyar with the song 'Hamse na poocho hum kahan chale''(Rafi- Asha) in this film with the sound of trotting horse in the back ground. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEH86NVQ_yk&feature=fvw

That brings to my mind music diector Salil Chowdhury who also had the penchant for the 'tonga beats' as seen in the 'Dil tadap tadap' and the 'ghadi ghadi mere dil' songs from film Madhumati. Again just listen to the Lata-Talat song,'Itna na na mujh se' from film Chhaya and the Lata-Talat song, 'Aha rim jim ki ye pyare pyare' from film ,'Usne kaha tha,' to enjoy the beautiful blend of back ground music and the 'tak tak'of horse hooves. A pure 'horse hooves' song of Salil is in film, 'Tangawali,viz., 'Hal ke halke chalo saware', a beautiful duet by Hemanr Kumar and Lata. As in the music of O.P. Nayyar the strains of tonga beat is inbuilt in many songs of Salil Chowdhury also.


One of the features of these songs is that most of them are duets where the hero and the heroine enjoy a tonga ride singing to their hearts' content!!That reminds me of the song of Mukesh in film Lal Bungla(Music Usha Khanna), 'Chaand ko kya maalooon', with Sujith kumar and shyama(if I remember correct) riding a tonga in a scene similar to the Dilip Vyjayanthimala song in Naya Daur.

Well, with the disappearance of costume dramas, films on kings and kingdoms, charming princes and princesses and horse riding sword swinging heros and villains, village belles, their lovers and feudal go-getters, music lovers are denied new songs in this genre since long. But memories about actors, who did such roles, like Ranjan, Mahipal, Premnath, Bharat Bhushan, Dilip Kumar, ,Jairaj, Ajith, Nimmi, Suraiyya, KaminiKaushal, Bina Rai, MeenaKumari, M.G.R, M.N.Nambiar,Veerappa and several others and their period films still enliven old timers. I still remember receiving the tragic news of the death of that highly popular and handsome singer actor Shyam, of film Dillagi fame, who died falling from the horse he was riding for the film Shibistan in 1951! Who can forget the duet, in film Dillagi, he sang with Suraiya, the heroine of the film, 'Too mera chaand mein teri chandini'?( The song and its tune appeared in Malayalm as 'Neeyen chandrane njan nin chandrika,ooh......Was it in film Navalokam?)



Tail piece:-Which is the best ever duet with the sound of horse hooves in the back ground?Undoubtedly the Filmfare Award winning Asha-Rafi song,'Maang ke saath tuhmara' from film Naya Daur.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qxn2mEP4tI

GOOD BYE, MY BROTHER.

I have been away from blogging and away from my gramophones and music records, not by option but by force of circumstances, for the last one month.

I lost my only brother on the 21st of May unexpectedly. He was taken from his office and admitted to a hospital on the evening of the 18th May with giddiness and he passed away after three nights on the 21st.afternoon. Loads of medicines, fluids, injections, tests, scans, a brain surgery and the continuous day and night vigil by us outside the ICU and the CCU did not help as he breathed his last on the 21st after a sudden cardiac failure as told to us by the doctors. The end came as a shock to all of us as his condition was stated to be continuously improving for about 34 hours after the surgery and we were all feeling slightly relieved.

On the 8th May we had lost our only uncle, aged 85 years but quite healthy, at Trichur. Myself and my brother along with our families had travelled together to Trichur to attend to uncle's last rites. My brother, a bit shaken, was overseeing the arrangements etc., for the funeral, he being the eldest nephew. Watching my brother, an unholy thought as to how I would face the situation in case something happened to him had crossed my mind. I had chided myself immediately for entertaining such a thought and soon forgot about it. As ill luck would have it, I have been forced to face the situation within two weeks. Of course the shock and panic are fading and all of us are limping back to normalcy.

Well, brother, you have been fastidious and well planned in everything you did. Your punctuality, sense of personal hygiene and appearance, planning and execution, meticulous book keeping and maintenance of records, your desire to go only for the best, your willingness to extend whatever help you could to others and, above all, your honesty and integrity made us all proud. Probably you had planned your departure also this way to avoid possible inconvenience to others!

You have left with me a lot of fond memories about our childhood, school days in our village, later our college days at Calicut and life thereafter. I remember how stoically you had faced personal tragedies and set backs in life. I have pleasant and glorious memories about your very successful professional career in banking in India and abroad. It was celebration time for us whenever you came home on leave.

First my mother, then my father and, thereafter, my uncle. And now, good bye my brother. We will meet again there.



Tail piece: Are our ICUs and CCUs trustworthy? How can we ensure that patients left by us in ICUs are in safe enough hands and that they are getting the expected attention in time? Have not the near and dear ones of the patients waiting round the clock outside the ICUs got the right to get information about the patients at frequent intervals from competent persons?

FILM STARS, SINGERS AND POSTAGE STAMPS.

Indian Postal Department has been bringing out postal stamps commemorating Indian life, events, arts, personalities and so on. Postage stamps on eminent film personalities, legendary singers and actors have also been released by them. Though I am not a philatelist and do not know much about stamp collection I have a few stamps of Indian singers and actors brought out by Indian Postal Department in recent years.

The first is a set of four stamps released simultaneously commemorating Mohamed Rafi, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar and Kishor Kumar. The colour combination and the cine/musial equipemns in the background make these stamps unique and imaginative. But I felt that a commemorative stamp for Talat Mahmood should also have been released with these four stamps.

Another stamp I have is the one on the versatile film producer, director and actor, Guru Dutt, in black and white with similar background as in thestamps mentionedabov

I have also a postage stamp of Madhubala, the immortal heroine in the film Mughal-e-Azham and, arguably, the most beautiful face ever in Indian film industy.

Surely there are several other similsr stamps also which I would have loved to possess. But it appears to be too late for me to go after them.

GRAMOPHONE RECORDS - MALAYALAM L..Ps.

Those who pursue the hobby of collecting gramophone records will surely admit that Malayalam L.P. records are hard to get nowadays. It appears that Malayalam audio records were released mostly by way of E.P..records and SP(short play) records.which are even now available in antique market and sellers of old items in cities. Music companies, in view of the market limited to only Kerala, had not, probably, released as many Malayalam L.P. records as they did in other languages like Hindi or Tamil.It could also be due to the fact that the development of Malayalam film music industry was a later development compared,e.g., Hindi and by the time it got established, the music cassettes had actually made its dominance. Besides, the high cost of L.P. records and therefore, their slow saleability forced music shops not to stock them in large quantities. Well, the difficulty for us now is that those who are having them are not prepared to part with them!!.

I have a few Malayalam LP records in my collection. While looking at these records I have always wondered how beautifully designed and creative are the paper jackets of some of


them.Two of them stand out. One is the record of film 'SAGARASANGAMAM', directed by Sankarabharanam fame K. Viswanath. The film has music by ILAYARAJA composing a few beautiful semi-classical songs penned by Sreekumaran Thampi and sung by Jayachandran, S.Janaki and S.P. Balasubramaniam and S.P.Shylaja..The front side of the jacket shows the lead artists of the film, Kamal Hasan and Jayapradha, in a captivating dance pose.The other side of the jacket contains the details of the songs and the pencil sketches of two dancing damsels. The record was brought out by a new music company.viz., ACE MUSIC COMPANY,MADRAS.
The second record is of the film 'RANGAM', by I.V.Sasi and M.T. Vasudevan Nair, with music by the maestro K.V.Mahadevan. The film has Kathakali as its background. The front side of the jacket shows the pictures of the lead artists, Shobhana and Mohanlall and the back side shows the details of songs and a rare picture of Mohanlal in the attire of a Kathakali artist. This record was brought out by THARANGINI RECORDS, TRIVANDRUM.

Yes, the jackets of these two records are different because they are not from the familiar HMV mould!



P.S.Click on the photos for zooming them.

BACK TO GRAMOPHONES ETC.

I have been away from music with JAYSWORLDOF MUSIC for about two months. Happily, I am back in the midst of my radios, gramophones and records once again. During the last two months I was travelling abroad mainly in U.A.E. and, of course , Kerala. During my travels I was always on the look out for Gramophone records and gramophone accessories etc. Indeed I could get a few rare records and equipments during my search. I would write about the records in due course. But let me show you the picture of an amplifier that I acquired for which I have been on the look out for a long time.

This is a 'TECHNICS V6' 2x70 watts RMS amplifier of the 1980-81 make with
separate inputs for Phono( Magnetic cartridge and Magnetic Coil cartridge), Tuner, Tapes and Auxiliary and tape to tape dubbing. It has provision for 4 speakers (two main and two remote). It is in great working condition and looks brand new without any scratches on the body.

I also got a new gramophone turntable , BUSH MTTI Model. It is a simple


turntable without amplifier and speakers with a magnetic cartridge. It is suitable for attaching to an amplifier and speakers as it has a built-in pre-amp.It is light weight and easily portable and low priced. Well suited for cool personalised listening.

What I could find nowadays is that several music lovers, young and old, are taking a lot of interest in gramophones and records and it is becoming increasingly difficult and costly to acquire them. There is also renewed interest for old valve radios as more and more enthusiasts are acquiring them for their old world charm and for displaying them in their living rooms! Antique shops are still stocking them but they are becoming dearer. Old Malayalam and Hindi LP records are also in great demand. This may not be good news for buyers but for people passionately pursuing it as hobby,increase in the number of their tribe is always a positive development. The pleasure in collecting an item also increases as competition becomes stiffer. Besides, the realization that the value of their existing collection is going up goads them further in their pursuit.

Random Thoughts

Recently I had an occasion to visit the Wild Life Sanctuary at Muthanga, in Wynad district of Kerala. It is about 30 kms. from Sultan's Battery and we reached there by about 10:45 A.M. However, we were not allowed to enter as entry was not allowed after 10:30 A.M. till 3 P.M.So we had to go back and return at 2 P.M.

The formalities like buying tickets for entry, arranging transportation to the interior of the forest where only Jeeps can travel on the rough forest roads etc. took a lot more time than one would normally/reasonably expect. There was no official transportation but rows of private jeeps were parked outside and they took their turns on payment at the counter like prepaid taxi service.A lot of ad hocism was seen but none felt like complaining as there was no option. No facilities were availabe for the hundreds of waiting tourists; not even a few standard concrete benches to sit!!! Can't we manage all this better?

After all the hassles, we set our journey into the forest. It took about 45 minutes on the rough forest roads. We could not see any wild animals except a herd of four elephants including two baby elephants and one or two deers! Where were all the others?Well, after all, which wild beast will come out when jeep after jeep carrying 'yahoos' slowly roared along the forest road endlessly? I realised that I should not have been one of those 'Yahoos'!

We also noticed a curious board at the entrance of the sanctuary ,showing the entrance fee for various categories of people and vehicles etc. The rates of fee was Rs. .20/- for adults, Rs. 10/-for children, Rs.10/- for students etc. But for foreigners the fee was shown as Rs. 100/-!!! For light vehicles it was Rs.50/- and for heavy vehicles Rs.150/-.For camera it was Rs.25/- and for video camera Rs.150/- Probably the authorities thought it fit to categorise foreigners along with objects like camera, vehicles etc or vice versa!! Of course, objects like vehicles will not complain and foreigners do not appear to have any option. We too have no option in similar situations abroad.

Please click on the photo to zoom it.

Dubai Tennis Again

It was with great expectation that I made a brief visit to Dubai this year as I wanted to see Roger Federer and other top players in action Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships once more. But as ill luck would have it, Federer withdrew at the last moment with a lung infection and Nadal did not even enter the draw. Other top players like Andy Roddick, Llewton Hewitt, Soderling, Verdasco etc. did not participate. Nicholai Davydenko, Andy Murray, Tsonga etc., did not survive early rounds. To cap it, the final between Djokovic and Youshney on the 27th February was washed away by rain when Djokovic was leading by a set. The Championship was finally won by Djokovic in three sets the next afternoon. What an uninspiring end to a usually outstanding Tour event!!