REBIRTH FOR LP RECORDS IN MALAYALAM.

During the last one year a few music producers have been cutting new Long Play gramophone records reviving the golden days when gramophones/record payers/radios were the only/trusted means of listening to music for the lovers of music. Companies like T Series and Gramophone Company of India have come out with records of Hindi films like ' Dilwale Dulhania Ley jayaengi', 'Tees Mar Khan', 'Dil to Pagal Hai', '1942 A Love Story', and Mohabatten etc. Though these releases have not been able to create significant ripples in the listening world in general, lovers of gramophone music have been going after these LPs being brought out in limited quantities in the market. Lack of sufficient publicity and the rather high price being charged(though the quality is good) are standing in the way of these LPs becoming popular even among the enthusiasts.

In one of my earlier posts I had talked about the difficulty in collecting Malayalam LP records. http://jaysworldofmusic.blogspot.com/2010/04/gramophone-records-malayalam-lps.html Several readers were also expressing similar sentiments. Well, there is good news for those who want to listen to Malayalam film songs on gramophone records. M/s. Satyam Audios, Cochin, seeing the renewed interest for gramophone records among listeners, have entered the field of producing LP records. They have released their first album titled 'Timeless Melodies-Yesudas' in July 2011. The album contains 8 beautiful, but not so old film melodies of Yesudas, three of them duets with Chitra. Side one has ' Pachapanam thathe' and the Ravindran hit 'Etho nidrathan' by Yesudas. Side two begins with the immortal Girish Puthencheri-Vidyasagar melody 'Pinneyum pinneyum etho kinavinte' by yesudas. Besides, the melodious 'Manasse padoo nee' by yesudas from film Paranju theeratha visheshangal and the duet 'Parayathe ariyathe' from film Udayananu Tharam are on side two.

Apart from the richness of the selected songs what makes the album outstanding is the high quality of the recording. Played on a turntable(Techinics) with magnetic cartridge and stylus and a Techinics amplifier with matching speakers it gave near digital playback pleasure. The album comes in an aesthetically designed jacket with a painted profile of the singer Yesudas. The title of the album is in projected letters. The two-fold jacket also offers, on the inside layout, a thumb nail bio data of Yesudas.The usual round label at the centre of the discis refreshing. Altogether it is an outstanding effort and a 'must buy'record for gramophone lovers. The only deterrent is the price (Rs.650/-) which, of course, is matched by the quality. I understand that Sathyam Audios is coming out with more Malayalam LPs and one can hope that they will pass on the advantages of the future large scale production and sales to the customers

This album took my mind back to one of the earliest and much sought after Jesudas albums released by Gramophone Company of India in the year 1968.It was titled 'The Best Film Songs of K.J.Jesudas'.This album, in those days, used to adorn the music shelf of all Malayalee households having record players!The album contained some of the best ever Malayalam film songs like,'Nee Madhu Pakaroo', 'Shanku Pushpam kannezhuthumbol','Manikkya Veenayumayen', Oru Pushpam Mathramen' etc. The paper jacket of the album also has a picture of a young Jesudas sans the beard! Yes, a must possess record for collectors.

It is nice to see that Sathyam Audios have made a good beginning by releasing a good collection of songs by Yesudas and Chitra.

ENCHANTING HOURS, LINGERING MEMORIES, LEGENDARY SINGER MUHAMMED RAFI

Yet another 31st of July, the day on which the legendary Indian singer, Mohamed Rafi, left us 31 years ago, had come and gone. This year also the day was spent by me mostly by listening to those immortal Rafi songs on my record player and roaming nostalgically in the memories of that golden era of Indian film music.

Some of the best ever bhajans of Hindi films were rendered by Mohd.Rafi and the way he sang them, the emotion and the devotional feeling he imparted have all enthralled listeners always. Two of his greatest bhajans are from film 'Baiju Bawra' with music by Naushad and lyrics by Shakeeel Badayuni. The first is the highly acclaimed,'O Duniya ke Rakhwale' which brings out the best from the singer with the song ending with his singing the word 'Rakhwale' thrice, each time increasing the power as only Rafi could do. This is one song always sung by Rafi in his stage programs and I still remember him singing it at a program when the word 'Rakhwale' was repeated a fourth time leaving the listeners amazed at his range and lung power. The other bhajan from the film is,'Man tarpat Hari darshan ko aaj' an all time classic. These two songs along with the,'Mam re too kahe na dheer ' from film Chitraleka with Roshan's music rank among the best ever bhajans of Hindi films along with the likes of Lata's 'Alla Tero naam' from Hum Dono, Vani Jairam's 'Bole re papihara' and 'Hum ko man ki sakthi dena' from film Guddi, Lata's 'Kuhu kuhu bole koyalia' from Suvarna Sundari' and 'Jyothi kalash' from film Babhi ke Chudiyan. This also took me to another of Naushad's composition from film Amar, viz.,' Insaf ka mandir hai' and N.Dutta's composition 'Ishwar Allah Tere Naam' from film Naya Raasta'.

There are a few other Rafi Bhajans like' Radhike too ne bansuri bajayi' from film Bete Bete with Shankar Jaikishen's music and two compositions of music director Ravi, viz., 'Badi der bhai nandalala' from film Khandan and the title song from the film 'Ganga Teri Paani Amrit.' How can we forget the 'Sukh se sub saathi' from film Gopi (Music:kalyanji Aanandji) and the highly popular and, apparently, easily 'singable' 'Brindavan ka Krishna Kanhaiya' from film Miss Mary with music by Hemant Kumar?

Get hold of a copy of the LP Album titled 'Mohd.Rafi-Bhajans from films'. You can get twelve of Rafi's outstanding Bhajans including most of the ones I mentioned above.

I also listened to a couple of other Rafi Albums . One is the "Lingering memories-Mohd.Rafi'. which gives a few of Rafi's less celebrated but still outstanding songs from films including the 'O door ke musafir' from film 'Uran khatola' (Naushad), the famous 'Basti basti parbat parbat' from film Railway Platform (Madan Mohan), Maine chaand aur sitaron ki tamanna ki thi' from film Chandrakanta (N.Dutta) and so on. It has also in it the soul stirring 'Na kisi ki ankh ka noor hoon' from film 'LalQuilla'(Music.S.N.Tripathi).Listening to this song is a great musical experience as Rafi exhibits why he is considered as one of the greatest ever in the field of playback singing.

It is a fact that Mohd. Rafi was always at his best when he sang playback for the great Dilip Kumar especially under music director Naushad. The combination of these three has given us many wonderful songs and one of the foremost among them being the semi-classical number 'Madhuban me radhika nache re' from film Kohinoor. Rafi, who had no formal training in classical music, was selected to sing this song by Naushad indicating his tremendous faith in the singer and Rafi did not disappoint the music director or the listeners or the actor Dilip Kumar on whom the song was picturised. The story goes that Dilip kumar had taken months of training to play Sitar so that he can do justice to the scene and the song. The dedicated efforts of the singer, composer and the actor, no wonder, made the song immortal.There are several such gems from the trio and two of the earliests are,'Muhabat ki rahon mein' from film Uran Khatola and 'Yeh zindagi ki mele' from film Mela. The magic is visible in several other songs like 'Koi sagar dilko bahalata nahin' from film Dil Diya Dard Liya and 'Aaj purani rahon mein' from film Admi. Again in film Ram aur Shyam we can see Rafi at his best again along with Dilip and Naushad in the song,'Aaj ki raat mere dil ki salami lele'. The depth and power of Rafi's voice take the listener to a differnt world. One or two folk based numbers also came to my mind,viz., 'Mere pairon mein Ghungharoo' from film Sanghursh and 'Nain lad jaihen to manwa' from film Ganga Jamuna'. The tipsy number 'Mujhe duniyawalon' from film Leader is another hit from the trio.

EMI had come out with several LPs titled ENCHANTING HOUR WITH...........' various artistes and there is one featuring Rafi also in which most of the songs mentioned by me above are included and it is a 'must possess' record for Rafi-Dilip kumar- Naushad fans. That again reminds me of another successful trio,Viz., Rafi, Shammi Kapur and Shankar Jaikishen, about them, probably, some other time!

In any homage to Rafi or while remembering Rafi there are three songs which I cannot omit and these are the songs which I listened to my heart's content on the last 31st July; the 1960 Filmfare award winning song, 'Chaudwin ka chand ho' from film Chaudwin ka Chaand'(Music-Ravi), 'theNo.1 song of Binaca Geetmala in 1961 'Teri pyari pyari ' from film Sasural and the No.1 song of Binaca Geetmala in 1966,viz.,'Baharo phool barsao' from film Suraj. The last two songs were composed by Shankar Jaikishen. These are songs which we have grown up listening to and listening even now. Yes, what a singer! Can we get another like him?

English songs, Jim Reeves, Cliff Richard and more memories.

My collection of records includes a few LPs of English songs of old even though I am not a big fan of English music now. This includes a number of LPs. of instrumental English music purchased in the 70s at Bangalore after buying a stereo system for the first time. These English LPs helped in testing and enjoying the stereo effect of the system better than any other LPs as their stereo quality was the best. Besides, there are other reasons also for taking interest in English songs in the 60s.

English films were regularly screened in the theatres at Kozhikode and English songs were very popular among the college students and youngsters. In the functions of college fine art societies and in the college annual day functions a main item for students to participate was the 'Orchestra' in which Hindi and English songs dominated. There were several Rafis and Mukeshs as also Jim Reeves, Cliff Richards, Frank Sinatras etc. among us and their singing used to be normally accompanied by hooting and catcalls from the student audience eventhough both the singers and listeners enjoyed the 'orchestra' best among all the variety entertainments. The singers to perform on the stage were selected after trials and they used to have a big fan following especially among the fairer sex which made them the buts of envy of others which also contributed for the hooting. Whatever little interest I have for English songs owes much to this experience. The songs of Jim Reeves and Cliff Richards were the ones sung most along with those of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Niel Diamond, Elvis(the pelvis)Priestly etc to a lesser extent.

There were several very active music clubs in Kozhikode and Brothers' Music Club was the most popular. Their frequent musical evenings were highly enjoyable . We used to look forward to for their annual day program, normally held at the Town Hall, which used to be a musical extravaganza those days. Songs were mostly from Hindi films and English albums mostly of Jim Reeves. I still remember one singer named Ralphy who used to sing the songs of Rafi and Jim Reeves to the thunderous applause of the audience. There was also Premnath who specialised in the songs of Mukesh. I wonder where they are now! Music and musical evenings were an integral part of Kozhikodan life those days along with cinema, drama and football.

There were then only three theatres in Kozhikode city,viz., THE CROWN, CORONATION AND RADHA. Later DAVISON theatre came up. PUSHPA with latest equipments and comfortable seats including air-conditioned box came up followed by the small but beautifully designed GEETHA at West Hill. There were two other talkies on the outskirts, viz., CHANDRA at Chevayur and LAKSHMI at Kallai. Kozhikode seemed to have a penchant for giving female names for the theatres!! Much later the centrally located and grand BLUEMOON and SANGAM arrived Alas!Only the oldest four (Crown, Coronation, Radha and Davison) are alive now. Pushpa and Sangam are still there in a closed condition and others have either been demolished or converted and used for other purposes. With the problems faced by the theatre industry and by the look of it I don't know how long Davison will survive. But fortunately, kindling nostalgia in old Kozhikodans like me, The Crown, Coronation and Radha are still there without much alteration and face lift.

These three theatres have a special place in our hearts and we have fond memories about them. Malayalam films were few in those days and Hindi, Tamil and ,of course, English films were regularly shown. The Crown theatre, in particular, used to show Emglish films as and when they are released at other important centres. I still remenber seeing films like TEN COMMANDMENTS and BENHUR, a number of Westerns like 'the dollar series' of Clint East wood, A FIST FULL OF DOLLARS, A FEW DOLLARS MORE and THE GOOD, BAD, AND THE UGLY at Crown as also Yul Brynner's MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, and John Wayne's TRUE GRIT and THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and so on. Seeing Western cowboy films was a passion for us in those days. Hindi films LIKE MUGHAL-E-AZAM, MADHUMATI, NAYA DAUR and so on are also fresh in the memory. Tamil films were usually shown at Radha and I remember seeing films like Palum Pazhamum, Aalayamani, Kathalikka Neramillai, Vennira Adai, M.G.R's Ayirathil Oruvan, Balachander's Major Chandrakanth, Neerkumizhi etc.Malayalam films were seen mostly at Coronation. But the classic film,'Bridge on the River Kwai' was shown at Coronation. Yes, those were the days when we really enjoyed going to film theatres. Compared to that, going to a theatre nowadays has become a nightmare. No wonder theatres are being shut down left,right and centre to be mourned only by sentimentalist old timers.

A couple of months back, when I was at Kozhikode, I just walked around the city to see my old favourite theatres and it was then that I realised that except the four theatres mentioned earlier all the others are no more alive. But I was happy that The Crown, Coronation and Radha are still there . There has been no change to Radha and the hotel Arya Bhavan which stood in the compound is still there. The theatre is now air-conditioned and with Dolby and Dts. Malayalam film KAYAM was on. There has been a face lift on Coronation and it was gleaming with a fresh coat of paint. But its compound has been eaten away by the widened road. It may not survive the next widening of the road. The Crown, I found, was getting a facelift/a fresh coat of paint. They were showing the film TOURIST and I was temped to enter just for old time's sake but refrained as it was getting late for me to return. Later I realized that seeing a film at Crown alone like a stranger/outsider would have made me sadder.

It was mostly during the 60s and 70s that I collected the English L.P. records. There are three LP records of Jim reeves, viz.,the famous 'Moonlight and Roses' with the title song and the beautiful song,'There is a new moon over my shoulder'.The other one is 'The Best of Jim Reeves' with his best selling songs,'The Blue Boy'and 'Four Walls'.The third is JIM REEVES-BIMBO' with his ever popular song 'Bimbo' in it. These three along with two records of Olivia Newton John,.viz.'Don't Stop Believing' and 'Olivia Physical 'are my favourite English records which I listen to often. I also listen to Cliff Richard's 'Love Songs' and Neil Diomond's album,'Classics-The Early Years'.Among the instrumental tunes the favourites are'GOLDEN NON-STOP DANCING 10--JAMES LAST.It has several beautiful songs including,'Raindrops keep falling on my head' used in film, 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid' and the ACCORDIAN a.la CARTE. Among the LPs of jazz music the LP of Brooker T & the M.G.'s. titled 'I WANT YOU'with the song,'Johnny,I love you' is a favourite of mine. Another one is ,'THE VERY BEST OF WES MONTGOMERY.

Well, for a collector of English records these few records in my possession mean nothing. But their nostalgic value is what is important to me.














Tail piece:- Seeing the picture of Jim Reeves on the L.P. my grandson exclaimed
'Woh! Ricky Ponting! Awesome!

MUSIC DIRECTOR ROSHAN AND HIS BARSAT KI RAAT.

The other day, rather bored with the numerous reality shows and news channels repeatedly dishing out visuals of same events, I was furiously clicking the remote control when I saw in the B4U Music channel the famous quawali scene from the film BARSAT KI RAAT, with the actors singing with gusto, in the true quawali style, the song, 'Nato karavan ki talaash hai''. The song penned by Sahir Ludhianvi and set to music by Roshan and sung by MannaDey, Asha Bhosle, S.D. Batish,Sudha Malhotra and chorus is, to me, one of the best ever film quawalis matched only by a few others like,e.g, ' Parda hai parda' from Amar Akbar Antony, 'Hamein to loot liya' from film Al Hi Lal, and the other quawali from Barsat ki Raat itself, viz.,'Yeh hai ishq ishq hai' in which Rafi also joins.The 'na to karavan' song and the scene with the lead artistes of the film, Bharat Bhushan, Madhubala and Shyama, participating, was also a visual treat in black and white which lifted me out of my boredom and took my mind to the contribution of Roshan to Hinfi film music during his rather short career.(1917-1967)

The music of Barsat ki Raat was sensational and popular and the success of the film was, to a large extent, due to the quality of the songs which made the names Roshan and Barsat ki Raat synonymous. The song,'Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi woh barsaat ki raat' sung solo by Rafi, which was the No.1 song in Binaca Geetmala for the year 1960, and also as duet with Lata continues to be as haunting as ever. There is another beautiful Rafi song,'Main ne shayad' and a Lata solo,'Mujhe milgaya bahana' , both with melody and 'bhav' at their best. As the theme of the film demanded, there are two more quawalis, 'Niga-e-raazki' and 'Ji chahta hey jhoom loon' and the LP record is a must for quawali lovers and it is a rare LP where we can listen to the great S.D.Batish,Sudha Malhotra, Balbir, Shankar Shanbhu,Bande Hasan in addition to a semi-classical duet by Suman Kalyanpur and Kamal Barot,'Garjat barsat sawan ayo re'.

Roshan went on to give outstanding music in the period film 'Taj Mahal'. a Pradeep Kumar- Bina Rai starrer. The evergreen duet,'Jo wada kiya woh'by Lata and Rafi(two versions, one sad and the other happy) was the No.1 song of 1963 in the Binaca Geetmala and the music of the film also bagged the Filmfare Award for the year. The melodious ,'Jo baat tuj me hai'(Rafi)and 'Julme ulfat pe'(Lata) were also ranked high in Hindi film music. Yes, being a period film it has also a very popular quawali,'Chandi ka badan sone ki nazar' emphasising Roshan's penchant for Quawalis proved again in another film with similar back ground, "Bahu Begum'. In 'Bahu begum', a Pradip Kumar-Meena Kumari film. there are two famous quawalis, 'Waqif hun khub ishqake' and Dhund ke laoon kahan se' both sung by Rafi and Manna Dey apart from a Rafi melody,'Hum intezar karenge'. The success of Taj Mahal also was due, a large extent,to the popularity of Roshan's music. In film ,'Dil Hi To Hai', with Raj kapoor-Nutan duo, apart from Manna Dey's, 'Laga chunari me daag' and the title song,'Dil jo bhi kahega' by Mukesh, there is the quawali, 'Nigahe Milane ko jee chahata hai' by Asha Bhosle in her inimitable style reinforcing Roshan's contribution to filmy quawalis.

It is not only in 'Bahu Begum' that Pradip Kumar, the handsome hero, and Meena Kumari, the tragedy queen, had appeared together with outstanding music by Roshan. In 'Bheegi raat' there is this haunting Rafi number of Roshan,'Dil jo na kahsaka'; in 'Aarti' there is the 'Ab kya mishal doon' by Rafi; in 'Chitralekha' there is an all time great number (I had mentioned about this in a previous post) by Rafi,' Man re tu kahe na dheer dare'. Pradip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Roshan team appeared to be a sure success mantra those days!!

While the films mentioned were of the 60s, there were a few films of the 50s in which Roshan had tuned music in the traditional style with which listeners were so familiar with. But what made these songs outstanding was the modernity he infused in them which made them far beyond their time and loved even now.While in the 60s he used the voice of Rafi more , it was Mukesh he depended on to render some of his classic numbers in the 50s. The Raj Kapur-Geeta Bali film, 'Bawre Nain' comes to mind in this context. The Mukesh-Geeta Roy(Dutt) duet, 'Khayalon mein kisi ke' is one such song heard occasionally even now on Sri Lankan radio. The grief filled,'Teri Duniya men dil lagta nahin' by Mukesh is another great number'. It was after a lot of search and waiting that I got the LP record of Bawre Nain and it is a valuable one as it contains three solo songs of the legendary singer-actress, Rajkumari, including the most famous and popular song,'Sun Bairi Balam'. The other two are,'Kyon mera dil mein' and 'Roothe hua chanda'.The nostalgic Rajkumari-Mukesh duet,'Mujhe such such batado' is also there in the LP. That again eminds me of the 1952 Raj Kapur-Nargis film, Anhonee, in which Roshan had used the voice of Rajkumari for two of her sweet songs, 'Zindagi badli'(with Lata) and 'Sharifon ke mehfil mein'. It is also the film in which Roshan used the sweet, trembling voice of Talat Mahmood to create the evergreen,'Mein dil hoon ek armaan bada' and two other duets with Lata,'Mere Dil ki dhadkan kya bole' and, 'Sama ke dil mein humare'.

It is in film Malhar, a film produced by Mukesh himself under the banner, Darling Films, that the Roshan- Mukesh duo is at their best. Two beautiful duets with Lata, 'Bade armanon se' and 'Ek bar agar too kah de' are nostalgic.Who can forget the' 'Zalim zamana' by Lata and 'Dil tujhe diya tha rakhne ko ' by Mukesh?But in spite of these songs the film did not succeed in the box-office probably in the absence of a big star cast! In 1966 Roshan again came up with two melodious Mukesh songs, 'Baharon ne mera chaman' and 'Aaya hai mujhe phir yaad' in film Devar, a Dharmendra-Sharmila starrer. There were several other films also where Roshan had given memorable tunes like e.g, Noor Jahan, Chandni chowk, Humlog, Soorat aur Seerat, Nayi Umar ki Nayi Fazal and so on. Let me mention only the Mukesh number;'Bahut diyaa denewale ne tujhko' from Surat aur Seerat and 'Aaj ki raat bahut shok badi natkat hai' by Rafi in film 'Nayi Umar ki Nayi Fazal''.I cannot but mention two great songs by Lata from film,'Mamta', ' Rehena rahen' and 'Rahte they kabhi'. His last film was Anokhi Raat released pothmously in 1968 with the poignant Mukesh song,'Ore taal mile nadi ki jal mein Nadi mile sagar mein.'

In his rather short career Roshan had not created music for a large number of films when compared to some other music directors of his time. But the quality of his songs is that matters.The songs of Barsat ki Raat and Taj Mahal alone gave him a permanent place in the hearts of music lovers.'Zindagi bhar.............. Barsat ki Raat'. What a song it is!!

Like the combination of Roshan and Barsat ki Raat, there are also other similar combinations like Hemant Kumar- Nagin.... S.D.Burman-Aaradhana...Shankar Jaikishan- Awaara....Khayyam-Kabi Kabhi..... Jaidev-Hum Dono.....R.D.Burman- Kati Patang.....O.P.Nayyar-Naya Daur....Naushad- Mughal-E-Azam....Kishor kumar-Jhumroo....Khemchand Prakash-Mahal....Salil Choudhuri-Madhumati........... Can any music lover think about these music directors and these films separately?



Tail piece: While searching I realized that CHITRAHAR the most popular TV program of the 80s on the DD is still on!!

KARAYILEKKU ORU KADAL DOORAM -

It was with great expectation that I saw the film KARAYILEKKU ORU KADAL DOORAM directed by Vinod Mankara. The initial media write-ups, the video clippings on the channels, the songs (Music: M. Jayachandran, Lyrics: O.N.V.)and the fact that some of the brighter young stars of Malayalam films like Indrajit, Mamta, Dhanya Mary , Sarayu etc. are the actors triggered the expectation. The impression was that it would be a movie in the genre of Passenger, T.D,Dasan, Madhyavenal, Aatmakatha, Cocktail and so on. But hopes were belied. It turned out to be a damp squib with an absurd story line and characters living in an imaginary world of their own far removed from reality. Yes, we want good films different from the run of the mill variety. But not one like " Karayileku....." Meaningless like the very name; talents of actors like Indrajith, Mamta and Dhanya wasted.

But the film has one very positive feature. That is the musical score by Sri M. Jayachandran. The beautiful lyrics of O.N.V. and K.Sachidanandan have been melodiously composed mainly in semi classical style. After a long time all the leading playback singers of Malayalam,viz., Jesudas, Chitra, Sujatha, Venugopal, Madhu Balakrishnan and M. Jayachandran himself have been brought together in one film. The best song of the film is the romantic melody, 'Hridayathin madhupatram nirayunnu"(ഹൃദയത്തിന്‍ മധുപാത്രം നിറയുന്നു) sung sweetly by Jesudas and Chithra separately. Such beautiful songs from Jesudas is becoming rare these days and the music director deserves kudos for giving Jesudas in all his singing glory again to the listeners with this song. The song reminds us of the song 'Oru naru pushpamay en nerkku'(ഒരു നര്രു പുഷ്പമായ് എന്‍ നേര്‍ക്ക്‌ നീളുന്ന) from film 'MEGH MALHAR' (Music :Ramesh Narayan, O.N.V.) and the immortal,'Vaathil pazhutheelooten munnil kumkumam' (വാതില്‍ പഴുതീലൂടെന്മുന്നില്‍ കുംകുമം ) from film 'Idanazhiyil oru kaalocha' (O.N.V., Dakshinamurthy).The song, 'Pachhila' by Sujatha and Venugopal separately is also an outstanding effort. "Chitrashalabhame' by Madhu Balakrishnan and Chitra is another great duet. For lovers of Malayalam ghazals, there is the solo 'Neeyillayengil' sung and enacted in style by Jayachandran himself. After his great music in film BANARAS, Jayachandran has come up with another outstanding score in this film. No wonder he got the state award for best music(2010) announced recently.

LATA MANGESHKAR--HER FAVOURITE SONGS.

In the early 60s, FILMFARE had published a series of articles by famous singers of the period about their own colleagues, co-singers etc. and about their songs. One of the earliest of such articles was by Lata Mangeshkar in which she gave her assessment of other singers and listed their songs which, in her opinion, was their best. Gramophone Company of India Ltd. had, in the year 1965, released a LP.Album containing eleven songs listed by Lata in the article. The album is titled MY FAVOURITE FILM SONGS-LATA MANGESHKAR. Obviously, the songs belonged to an earlier period and better songs of these singers might have come later. But the LP record is significant in that it is seldom that a singer wrote about the songs of contemporary singers and indicating his/her favourite songs among them. It is rare too that an album was released on that !

The LP album came in a beautiful jacket with the picture of Lata in front of a Radiogram with records spread on the carpet.

Side I of the record has five songs beginning with the song,'Yeh rangeen mehfil' of Asha Bhosle composed by the talented, but not celebrated, music director G.S.Kohli who had given notable music for films like Foulad, Namesteji etc. This is followed by the ever-green semi-classical song of Manna Dey from the Pradeep Kumar- Asha Parekh film, 'Meri Surat Teri Ankhen',viz.,'Poochho na kaise maine'composed by S.D.Burman.One of her favourite songs of Rafi on Side I is ,'Tumse Izhar-I-hal' from film Mere Mehboob(Naushad). It is notable that she selected this song of Rafi as her favourite eventhough there are two other more popular songs in the same film,viz., 'Mere mehboob tujhe' and 'Aye husn zara jag'.Of the two songs of Mukesh one is from Sangam, 'Dost dost na raha'. The second Asha Bhosle song is the one from "Dil hi to hai',viz., 'Nighahen Milane ko' composed by Roshan.

The lone Talat Mahmood song is the melodious and soulful, 'Phir wohi sham' a Madan Mohan classic from film 'Jahan Ara'. The typical Manna Dey song, 'Pyar ki aag men' from film Ziddi(S.D.Burman) is also there.Of the four songs of Mukesh in the album, the one,'Ansoo bhari hai', from the Raj Kapur-Mala Sinha starrer, Parvarish,' is one of the best ever of Mukesh. By selecting this song Lata has done justice to that great composer, Duttaram, a long time associate of Shankar-Jaikishan, who could not make it big as an independent music director in spite of such wonderful songs like 'Mujhe milgayi hai muhabat ki manzil'(Mukesh-First Love) and 'Meethi meethi baton se bhajna zara'(Lata-Quaidi No.911).Two more songs of Mukesh and one by Rafi are also there in the LP record.

The very fact that the songs were selected by Lata herself made this album a much sought after one for music lovers.

That reminds me of another Lata Mangeshkar album, SHRADDHANJALI-MY TRIBUTE TO THE IMMORTALS'', released in the year 1992 by HMV, of course, as an audio cassette. Later, CDs of the album were also released. The special feature of the album is that here Lata is offering her tributes to six immortal singers of our time by rendering a few of their songs in her own voice. There are three songs of K.L.Saigal and two songs each of Rafi, Hemant Kumar, Mukesh, Punkaj Mallick and Kishor Kumar. Saigal's songs include the immortal,'Soja Raajkumari' and 'Main kya janoon kya jadoo hai', both from film 'Zindagi'( Music: Punkaj Mullick).Ardent fans of Saigal and a few critics of the period had tried to pick holes in Lata's singing of the songs. But the fact remains that it was a pleasant experience to listen to these songs, especially 'Soja Rajkumari', in female voice that too of Lata Mangeshkar! Similar was the experience of listening to Punkaj Mallick's,'Piya milan ko jana' from film 'Kapalkundala'.(Music and lyrics by Punkaj Mullick). Two songs of Rafi are, 'Kabhi khud pe' from film Hum Dono (Music Jaidev)and,' Man re too kahe na dheer dhare', the great song composed by Roshan for film 'Chitralekha'.

Two songs selected by Lata to sing for Mukesh are,'Jaoon kahan bata yeh dil' from Chhoti Bahen(Music Shankar-Jaikishan)and 'Kahin door jab din' from film Aanand(Music:Salil Choudhury). For Hemant Kumar Lata has selected two of his very popular songs.viz., 'Tun Pukar lo' from film Khamoshi and 'Yeh nayan dare dare' from film Kohra, both original compositions of Hemant Kumar. For Kishor Kumar Lata took the R.D.Burman's composition,'O mere dil ki chain' from film Mere Jeevan Sathi and 'Yeh jeevan hai' from film Piya ka Ghar.(Lakshmikant Pyarelal).

Lata has done justice to all the songs and deserves kudos for expressing her regard for fellow singers though fans of the singers may say, 'original is original'. The greatness of Lata is that she did sing these songs and not how she sang them. A rare gesture from a great singer, especially when viewed in the present context of cut and paste music.




Ps. Please click on photos to zoom them.