Saat Saath

(Sunil) Padosan (1968)

Until late 40’s most South Indian language films were made in Calcutta because there were no studios anywhere in the south. But things started changing soon as studios like Gemini, Bharani, Vauhini and others started sprouting up in Madras. Because of the Bengali connection, there was always a fascination of Bengali stories in the South.

It all started with a comedy called “Pakka Inti Ammaayi” in 1953. This Telugu film was actually made in Calcutta by its producers, East India Company. The main reason for this was that the company itself was from Calcutta. Also, the film was based on a Bengali story. A year before, Sudhir Mukherjee made it is story into a movie called “Pasher Bari”. The Telugu version starred Telugu comedian Relangi (Sunil Dutt in Hindi version), Anjali Devi (Saira in Hindi) as his love interest. The playback singer A.M. Raja starred in the role Kishoreda played in the Hindi version. This was the first for A.M. Raja as an actor. The movie was a hit. Years later, in 1960, it was remade in Tamil as “Adutha Veettu Penn”. The Tamil version had T. Ramchandran as the hero, Anjali Devi again as the love interest, and Tangavelu. Based on this very story, with very little changed, Mahmood made “Padosan” in 1968. This was remade in Telugu in 1980 with Chandra Mohan as the simpleton hero, Jaya Sudha as his love interest, music director Chakravarti in Mahmood’s role, and the famous singer S.P. Balasubramanyam (affectionately known as Balu) in Kihsoreda’s role.

“Padosan” was a great comedy and its songs are an absolute delight. The jugalbandi between Manna Dey and Kishoreda was the highlight of the film. I read a column that stated that Mannada wasn’t too happy about the fact that in the movie he loses to Kishoreda because he felt that in private life being a trained classical singer that he is losing to Kishoreda who had no such training wasn’t really fair. I don’t know how far this story is true because this was just a movie and not the real thing. Mannada also is a great professional.

I read an article where Sunil Dutt confides that he was ill at ease in acting in the comedy role of the hero. He almost backed off, but both Mahmood and Kishoreda encouraged him to not to worry. While shooting Sunil Dutt admitted to have many retakes done, especially those in which he and Kishoreda were together. While shooting these scenes Sunil couldn’t help himself but used to crack up with Kishoreda’s antics. Each time something like that happened it took some time for him to get his composure back and ready for the retake.

I had hard time finding songs of the 1953 Telugu movie. I was able to get only one song. I will upload it after this song with a small feature on A.M. Raja, right in this section, after uploading Hindi songs. I will also upload the songs of 1980 Telugu version.

I am uploading several extras with all the songs from the film from an original soundtrack album. In the second post, I am including “Bhai Battoor” song which has a lovely introduction by Lata who talks glowingly about RD. I am also including a combined version of “Mere Saamnewaale” that has both sad and happy versions together albeit neither one is a complete song. This is from he album “Legends: R.D. Burman – The Versatile Composer (CD 1)”. I am also uploading Amit’s and Abhijeet’s versions of “Kehna Hai” from their respective private albums.

Concluding Songs from "Padosan (1968)" ...

Here are the rest of the songs from this beautiful album including several specials. I am including “Bhai Battoor” song which has a lovely introduction by Lata who talks glowingly about RD. I am also including here a combined version of “Mere Saamnewaale” that has both sad and happy versions together albeit neither one is a complete song. This is from the album “Legends: R.D. Burman – The Versatile Composer (CD 1)”. I am also uploading Amit’s and Abhijeet’s versions of “Kehna Hai” from their respective private albums.

Here are these songs ...

(Amitabh) Sholay (1975)

This movie became a phenomenon through out India as it went on to establish a record after record at the box office. It ran successfully for over five years. It grossed an astounding figure of nearly 800 crores of Rupees. It celebrated the golden jubilee in over 60 theatres. It ran over 25 weeks in more than 100 theatres. BBC declared it as the “Film of the Millennium”. Even though “Sholay” snubbed originally, Filmfare gave recently the award for it as the Best Film in 50 Years.

The movie was based on a simple idea. It was a story of revenge molded after several successful westerns. Yet it is surprising why this movie became such an unprecedented rage among filmgoers. The biggest answer lies in the character played by the great Amjad Khan, Gabbar Singh, molded after a real life dacoit of the same name. Khan Saab (son of the great actor, Jayant) made his acting debut as the sadistic dacoit in this movie. With the memorable performance he gave one would think that he probably was a veteran actor and the one who was not making his film debut. He was absolutely fabulous. Apparently he prepared for the role by reading Taroon Bhaduri’s book “Abhishapth Chambal” which chronicled the doings of dacoits of Chambal valley. Taroonji was the father of Jaya Bhaduri. Interestingly Khan Saab was not the original choice of the producers. They wanted Danny Denzongpa for the role. But Danny was away in Afghanistan shooting for Feroze Khan’s “Dharmatma (1975)” and was not immediately available.

I think the song “Mehbooba O Mehbooba” by RD was another chief contributor to the success this movie enjoyed. RD did such a splendid job with his vocals and the music he composed for the film fuses Indian sounds with elements of Afro-Cuban, Arabic, and Latin was just fabulous. Especially the background score where Gabbar Singh located in a desolate rocky terrain gives one that eerie feeling.

Both the romantic pairs got hitched while preparations to make this movie were going on. Few months before the movie was to be launched, Jaya and Amitabh were married. Soon after that Jaya got pregnant delaying the shooting of the movie. Also, besides being already married and with children, garam Dharam was after Hema’s affections. Originally Dharam wanted to play the role of Thakur (eventually played by Sanjeev Kumar). He was informed that then Sanjeev will get the role of Veeru. When he learned that Veeru will get the girl in the movie, as Sanjeev proposed to Hema only a few months back, Dharam changed his mind quickly and took Veeru’s role. Dharam used to bribe the light boys while shooting so that he can have several retakes with Hema. Incidentally, Hema does not appear with Sanjeev in any scenes in the movie. This was done at her request because she did not want to be near him.

Shatrughan Sinha was considered for the role of Jai, but Dharmendra persuaded the director to have Amitabh play the role. Amitabh also went to the director to convince him that he would be the right choice to play Jai.

The movie was shot near Bangalore. The rocky terrain, called Ramanagaram, where the movie was shot is now a tourist attraction. Parts of Ramanagaram were renamed as “Sippy Nagar”. The village that was built for the movie was left intact by the producers.

“Sholay” was the first Hindi movie to be shot in stereophonic sound. It was also presented in the 70mm widescreen format. The song “Chaand Sa Koi” is not in the movie. After the song was recorded, the director Ramesh Sippy decided to not include it in the movie. So the song was never picturized. Anand Bakshi Saab, the lyricist, was one of the co-singers of the song.

I am uploading songs from this film in back-to-back two posts. The first post contains all the songs from the film. The second post contains several extended version songs and some specials.

Here is a description of the songs in the first post and the songs themselves …

Concluding Songs from "Sholay (1975)" ...

I am including in this post three extended version songs and two specials. The song "Mehbooba" was recorded live and is taken from the album "Legends: R.D. Burman - The Versatile Composer (CD 3)". I am also including a beautiful instrumental of the song "Mehbooba" by the Kronos Quartet group. This is taken from the album "You've Stolen My Heart".

Here are these songs ...

(Dharmendra) Baazi (1968)

Songs from this album were recently uploaded in the "Muse & Music" thread in this directory and are available at the following location ...

http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?show...140&st=1275

Swarapriya, I missed this album. I request you to upload it at your convenience.

Thanks in advance.

rpnawani

Next two posts, RP ...

(Raaj) Shararat (1959)

Here is a fine album from S&J where every song is a hummable delight. I am uploading these songs on request in back-to-back two posts. Here are the songs in the first post ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Sep 17 2010, 03:32 AM

Concluding Songs from "Shararat (1959)" ...

I am including several extended version songs from this fine album in this post ...

Thanks Swarapriya for promptly uploading this album. The songs of this album are real gems which I was missing.

rpnawani

the singer in lushka lushka lushka lui lui sha is the one and only RAFI SAAB with lata mangeshkar

Shahrukhji, thanks for the confirmation. I have updated the table to reflect your suggestion. Cheers. -S

(Jeetendra) Garam Masala (1972)

Here are the songs from this album ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Sep 18 2010, 12:44 AM

abab hai dastaaan teri yeh zindagi is a timless classic, hear the voice modulation, simply matchless!!!

(Manoj) Mera Naam Joker (1970)

Songs from this film were recently uploaded in the "Raj Kapoor" thread in this directory. They are available at the following location ...

http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?show...3261&st=432