The Three Reigning Queens, Albums of Madhubala, Meena Kumari & Nargis Options

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Azad (1955)

Dilip Kumar who made himself a name as the tragedy king was looking to change his image by trying to find a suitable vehicle to act in somewhat of a lighter role. The movie "Azad" came in at the right opportune time for him. This movie was based on a hit Tamil film. Producers of that film also made it in Telugu in 1954. It was called "Aggi Ramudu". Both Tamil and Telugu versions were huge hits.

I went back to revisit the Hindi version recently. When the movie was released in 1955, it was a roaring success. Dilip's acting was unanimously praised. It even fetched him the Best Actor award from Filmfare. But when I saw it recently I was rather disappointed. Dilip Saab was okay, but nothing great to write home about. The movie itself seemed very dated and didn't have much appeal. Over the years people's tastes change. This may be one example of it.

However, one thing that did not lose its appeal is the melodious music of this film. Instead it seems like the music and songs even sound better today. Music director, C. Ramchandraji did a magnificent job. This movie is another colorful feather in much adorned cap of Ramchandra. It is absolutely amazing that even today, after 55 years, the songs haven't lost any of their luster. Lata ever so melodious during those years was absolutely beautiful in all the songs. Her two duets with her sister Usha are just wonderful. The standout song is their duet "Aplam Chaplam". What a beauty.

I am uploading all the songs of this movie from an original sound track album. I will also upload songs of the Telugu version immediately after this, in this same thread. Now here is the treat for you ...

[swarapriya]

Aggi Ramudu (1954) - A Telugu Film

This Telugu film and "Azad (1955)" were based on a hit Tamil film. I am uploading songs of the Telugu version below. Three songs are from various CD collections. Others are from MP3 albums. Some songs are of some what poor qaulity, but are okay to listen to. These are marked with asterisks in tha table below.

Here are the songs ...

[swarapriya]

(Nargis) Saagar (1951)

Actor Jairaj (his photo attached), who directed this movie, was a veteran of nearly 170 films starting in silent movies. A Telugu speaking Jairaj was born in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh. He gave up his college studies in pursuit of acting career in movies and moved to Bombay. He soon found work in a silent movie in 1929. He acted in 11 silent movies. When talkies came into vogue, he was in demand. For nearly 20 years he was a popular hero acting opposite most of the top heroines of the day. Because of his build he became popular playing mostly historic roles. He produced and directed several movies including this one. Ironically, even though Jairaj hailed from a Telugu family and his mother tongue was Telugu, he never acted in a Telugu movie.

In 1980 Jairaj was awarded the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his services to the movie industry.

I am uploading four songs from this movie. I am pretty sure there must be more. If so, please kindly share. These songs were all contributed by the Forum members. Thank you. The ones I downloaded had a lot of noise and I tried to clean them. It appears that now their quality is fair.

Four songs I am uploading here are very sweet songs, rich in lyrics, all sung by a different singer. Here are they …

[parag_sankla]

The film Saagar was produced and directed by P Jairaj ji himself and there was a discussion on HF some time back if the film was released or not. The film turned out to be a disaster at the Box office. We contacted the daughter of lyricist Pandit Narendra Sharma ji to get more information about the film and its songs. She confirmed that the film was indeed released but was a commercial failure. The families of Jairaj ji and Sharma ji were neighbors.
About the songs, this film has four more songs sung by Geeta ji :

Chhup Chhup Koi Mere Kaanon Mein
Hame Kab Khabar Thi Ki
Hoton pe Rahi Fariyaad
O Phoolwa Re Tu Khil Mere Man Ke Baag

The first is penned by Ramesh Gupta, the rest by Pandit ji.

A kind request to share these rare songs.

Here is an image of the email we received from Lavanya ji (daughter of lyricist Pandit Narendra Sharma ji) in the context of this discussion.

http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?s=&a...st&p=636516

I am also enclosing the publicity poster of the film which I found on the net.

Thanks
Parag

This post has been edited by parag_sankla: Apr 18 2010, 08:18 PM

[swarapriya]

The film Saagar was produced and directed by P Jairaj ji himself and there was a discussion on HF some time back if the film was released or not. The film turned out to be a disaster at the Box office. We contacted the daughter of lyricist Pandit Narendra Sharma ji to get more information about the film and its songs. She confirmed that the film was indeed released but was a commercial failure. The families of Jairaj ji and Sharma ji were neighbors.
About the songs, this film has four more songs sung by Geeta ji :

Chhup Chhup Koi Mere Kaanon Mein
Hame Kab Khabar Thi Ki
Hoton pe Rahi Fariyaad
O Phoolwa Re Tu Khil Mere Man Ke Baag

The first is penned by Ramesh Gupta, the rest by Pandit ji.

A kind request to share these rare songs.

Here is an image of the email we received from Lavanya ji (daughter of lyricist Pandit Narendra Sharma ji) in the context of this discussion.

http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?s=&a...st&p=636516

I am also enclosing the publicity poster of the film which I found on the net.

Thanks
Parag

Thanks for the info, Parag. Cheers. -S

[swarapriya]

(Madhubala) Naata (1955)

This movie was produced by Madhubala herself. I haven't seen the movie and am not sure how did it fare. But one thing of the film I am sure of. It has some great music. S. Mohinder composed plenty many songs and most of them are quite good. I am uploading 11 of them here in back-to-back two posts. All these songs are by the courtesy of the Forum members. I cleaned up songs to get rid of noise and static and the results are not that bad.

Here is the first set of songs ...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs of "Naata (1955)" ...

Here are rest of the songs from this album ...

[surhall]

The film Saagar was produced and directed by P Jairaj ji himself and there was a discussion on HF some time back if the film was released or not. The film turned out to be a disaster at the Box office. We contacted the daughter of lyricist Pandit Narendra Sharma ji to get more information about the film and its songs. She confirmed that the film was indeed released but was a commercial failure. The families of Jairaj ji and Sharma ji were neighbors.
About the songs, this film has four more songs sung by Geeta ji :

Chhup Chhup Koi Mere Kaanon Mein
Hame Kab Khabar Thi Ki
Hoton pe Rahi Fariyaad
O Phoolwa Re Tu Khil Mere Man Ke Baag

The first is penned by Ramesh Gupta, the rest by Pandit ji.

A kind request to share these rare songs.

Here is an image of the email we received from Lavanya ji (daughter of lyricist Pandit Narendra Sharma ji) in the context of this discussion.

http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?s=&a...st&p=636516

I am also enclosing the publicity poster of the film which I found on the net.

Thanks
Parag

hi parag give add your web site ??

not understand --- .
dhall

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Bandish (1955)

Meena Kumari had very little do in this movie. It was all out Ashok Kumar show. You can seldom go wrong with Hemantda's music but the songs of this album are a notch below his standard. Yet they are quite good.

Here are the songs ...

[sangeetbhakt]

On "Bandish", I would argue that this was an all-out Daisy Irani show.
Even Ashok Kumar managed to be sidelined by her.

[swarapriya]

On "Bandish", I would argue that this was an all-out Daisy Irani show.
Even Ashok Kumar managed to be sidelined by her.

SB, you do have a point. Cheers. -S

[swarapriya]

(Nargis) Amber (1952)

Here are the songs from this movie, all by the courtesy of the Forum members. Thank you ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: May 3 2010, 10:36 AM

[swarapriya]

(Madhubala) Naqab (1955)

This movie starred Madhubala & Shammi. Madhubala was at the height of her romance with Dilip Kumar during this time. In a recent journal interview, Shammi fondly recalls those times and adds that when they were shooting this film in Pune at the Prabhat Studios, Dilip used to come from Mumbai to visit with Madhubala on her sets. He recalls another occasion when Dilip was shooting for Gemini's "Insaaniyat" in Madras. It was Eid time and Dilip took a break from shooting to flew in to Mumbai particularly to spend the festive time with Madhubala.

Pt. Govind Ramji who composed the music for this film had only few films to his credit but does a great job here. I am uploading five songs here but it appears like I may be missing several songs. It could be as many as seven more. If indeed this is true and if you happen to have any of the missing songs, please kindly share with rest of us. Thank you.

Here are the songs I have ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: May 7 2010, 10:11 AM

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Rukhsana (1955)

Here is a beauty from Sajjad Hussain, the maestro. He may have said a lot of things about lot of people, including most singers he worked with, but there is no denying the fact that he was terrific. This album proves my point.

You probably heard this many times before. Sajjad Hussain, who was famous in name calling, said that Kishore Kumar should be Shore Kumar. Yet here was Hussain Saab composing a couple of beautiful duets for Asha and Kishoreda. Rest of the songs follow the similar pattern. Absolutely great to listen to.

Most of these songs were conributed by the members of this Forum. Thank you kindly. It appears like I am still missing three songs shown in red italics in the table below. If indeed this is the case, and if you can share them, pease kindly do. Thank you.

Now for these beauties from Hussain Saab ...

[swarapriya]

(Nargis) Anhonee (1952)

Talat Mahmood Saab sings for Raj Kapoor in this K.A. Abaas directed movie with Nargis as Raj's costar. There are several nice numbers in this movie. Sometimes the snippet "Yeh Jhilmil" is included as part of the extended version of "Main Dil Hoon". Here are the songs ...