The Three Reigning Queens

Some of the Version Songs of "Chori Chori (1956)" ...

The following couple of version songs, a solo and a duet with Geetaji as the principal singer, are by the courtesy of the Forum members. Thank you ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Oct 26 2010, 12:07 PM

Can anyone re-confirm who the duet singer is on the Ye Raat Bheegi Bheegi version? My collection says Ambar Kumar not Bhushan.

He was Bhusan.

Thanks for the confirmation, Jyoti. Cheers. -S

(Madhubala) Howrah Bridge (1958)

“Howrah Bridge” made by the producer and director Shakti Samanta (later of “Aradhana (1959)” fame) borrowed heavily from the movies of Humphrey Bogart with Lauren Bacall and Ava Gardner. The whole atmosphere of the movie that was a murder mystery gives that feeling thanks to the brilliant cinematography that showed the grimy streets, seedy people, shifting landscape, and shady nightclubs. Yet Kolkata (Calcutta that time) is shown in all its glory with several exotic locales, especially during the song “Eent ki Dukki Paan ka Ikka” sung beautifully by Rafi Saab, with the magnificent backdrop of the famous Howrah Bridge serving as an appropriate background.

Ashok Kumar in some scenes impeccably looked like Humphrey Bogart, mainly because he was suited up that way. But Dadamoni was his own actor and he displayed that ease and smile with his role that left an impression that he was enjoying every minute of it. By the way, Bogey who always played serious roles seldom smiled in his movies.

Madhubala playing an Anglo-Indian in the movie looked absolutely gorgeous. She was dressed very much like Lauren Bacall or Ava Gardner lush in full skirts. She was stunningly radiant through out the movie. She torches and scorches the screen with the sensuality and sexiness seldom seen in the movies. Especially in the night club cabaret song, she is aided by that beautiful song by Asha, “Aaiye Meherbaan”. Incidentally Madhubala’s other song from the film “Mahal (1949)”, “Aayega Aanewaala”, with Ashok Kumar made Lata a singinig sensation. Even though Asha was an established singer at this time, the song “Aayiye” established her as one of our premium singers, no less talented than her famous sister.

Helen who is an Anglo-Burmese by birth plays a Chinese lady in this movie, cutely made up like a Chinese doll. She was still new into the movies, only 19 when this film was made. Her song in the night club, “Merra Naam Chin Chin Chu” had sparks flying all over thanks to the singing of Geetaji. This song not only became a perennial favorite among filmgoers but is still popular all over the world. For Geetaji, who was instrumental in kick starting the career of music director O.P. Nayyar’s career with several assignments for her husband’s (Guru Dutt) films during OP’s struggling days, this was the last song she sang. It is such a pity because together these two people who were brilliant in their own respective fields and gave us so many winning songs when they worked together in earlier movies couldn’t come to grips to work again.

Talking about the music, here OP delivers some of his best work. Every song is such a delight. His music always has that tilt towards lilt, sensibility of sensuality, and caressing care freeness. If nothing else the songs mentioned earlier have stood the test of time proving once again what kind of a musical genius he was and why his style set him apart from everyone else.

I am uploading songs from the film in first two posts. The third post has three instrumentals by Dr. Kamath. All songs in the first two posts are from an original soundtrack album.

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

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Nov 25 2010, 06:23 AM

Continuing Songs from "Howrah Bridge (1958)"...

Here are the rest of the songs from this swinging album from the inimitable OP...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Nov 3 2010, 04:58 AM

Concluding Songs from "Howrah Bridge (1958)...

I am uploading in this post three brief instrumentals of the same song, "Aaiye Meharbaan", by N.R. Kamath. The first one is performed with a flute using tabla beats. The second version uses the same flute with a slow beat and no tabla. The third version uses a long bass flute with a white scale of 4, and is done like in the second version with a slow beat. The source of all three instrumentals is YouTube. Here are these ...

(Meena) Savera (1958)

Here is a fine album from the very seldom heard Sailesh Mukherjee. There are several good songs in this album including a couple of melodious ones from Geetaji. I am uploading these songs, all but one due to the courtesy of the Forum members. Please be warned that quality of these songs is about average.

It appears like that I may be missing the song shown in red italics in the table below. If indeed this is the case, and if you happen to have it, please do share with rest of us. Thanks.

Here are these songs ...

Hi SP,

Here is the missing one.

Viraj

Thank you very much Viraj for the missing song. Cheers. -S

SP,
I have miss some earlier posts, I just figure out nearly 61 albums from "The Three Reigning Queens" thread.
Shall i request you now or after your complete remaining list.

Thanks in advance

Thanks for the note, Yogi.

I still have several albums to go on this thread before it reaches a conclusion. It is up to you if you would like to wait that long. However, if you would like, I will try to accommodate your requests one or two at a time, like you did on the other threads. I will leave it up to you.

Take care.

Cheers,
S

Hello SP
Thank you very much
First request to reupload the album.

(Madhubala) Basant (1942)

This was Madhubala's first movie as a child artiste. She used her real name Baby Mumtaz for the movie. The music for this movie was credited to Pannalal Ghosh (his picture attached below). Many believe that it was Anil Biswas who composed the music. But Ghosh was no ordinarily man. A disciple of Ustad Allauddin Khan, he was one of the greatest flutists India has known. He was married to the famous playback singer of that time, Parul Ghosh, sister of Anil Biswas, a notable music director of eminence. Parul Ghosh sang several songs in this movie. I am uploading Pannalal’s flute performance from one of his albums below.

Among others, the movie also stars Esther Abraham (screen name Pramila). I am attaching her photo also below. Our fellow member Mahesh(ks) originally informed in a response to the songs uploaded from this movie earlier about the great lady Pramila. This led my curiosity to learn about her a little more.

Miss Abraham was the first lady to be crowned as Miss India (in 1947). She was born in an orthodox Jewish family and was raised in Kolkata as a child. From her early life, she was a free spirit and left home early to pursue a theatrical career. She entered movies and starred mainly as a vamp or a stunt queen. She started her own production company, Silver Productions, and produced 16 films under that banner. Interestingly one of her films had a song “Choli Ke Andar”. D.M. Madhok wrote the lyrics of that song. That was much before Madhuri Dixit ever existed in this world.

Dating back to late 40’s Pramilaji dressed mainly in pants and gowns as a protest about some perceived values and to express her independence. She was married to actor Kumar for some time. Kumar later migrated to Pakistan. As part of the business she was running, she used to make frequent trips to Pakistan to distribute her movies. Morarji Desai was the chief minister of Maharashtra (Bombay that time) during that time. His state government accused Abraham of being a Pakistani spy. She was arrested only to be later vindicated and released. In 2006 she passed away. She was 90.

Here is Pannalal Gosh's flute performance is Darbari Raga and Drut Teentaal ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Nov 11 2010, 05:13 AM

Basant (1942)

The songs from this album came from various sources including several from the Forum members. The quality of them is adequate for a 68 year old movie. I am uploading them in two back-to-back posts.

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