Foot Tapping & Heart Stopping Op, The King of Rhythm Options

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Mohabbat Zindagi Hai (1966)"...

I am uploading here a couple of extended version songs from this album...

[Pratul]

Dear Swarapriya,

Thanks a lot for Mohabbat Zindagi Hai! :-)

Pratul

[swarapriya]

Sambandh (1969)

I am re-uploading these songs on request...

Here is one of the great musical achievements. The music composed by OP for "Sambandh" is so different from the music he composed for other movies. There are so many things that are worth mentioning that makes this music just outstanding and that stands apart from others.

1. The film was based on a Bengali novel called "Pratham Prem". The serene and serious nature of the subject forced OP to create music that was different from others he composed thus far.

2. To aid in creating such music for the theme of the movie, OP for the first time in his career selected Kavi Pradeep to write the lyrics. Pradeepji comes through in flying colors with some outstandingly rich lyrics.

3. He selected Hemant Kumar to sing four songs; one solo, a small snippet, a duet with Mahendra Kapoor, and a duet with Asha. This is the only movie in which Hemantda worked for OP. The result was absolutely fabulous.

4. After several years OP selected Mukesh to sing just one song in this movie. Mukesh previously sang a duet for OP in "Miss Coca Cola (1955)". This was only the second time Mukesh was working with OP. The result is just astonishing. The song sung by Mukesh, "Chal Akela" is one to be remembered for ages. It is one of those magnificent creations where the lyrics, the music, and the singing all work in unison to produce maximum impact. Mukesh did sing couple of more duets for another OP movie "Ek Baar Mooskura Do (1972)". By the way, when OP was composing music for the Raj Kapoor starrer "Do Ustad", Raj suggested that he should use Mukesh for his songs. OP did not go along with the suggestion and went with Rafi Saab singing all the songs for Raj Kapoor in that movie. The songs for that movie became huge hits but the movie itself enjoyed only a modest success.

5. The songs by Mahendra also have that wonderful feeling. Especially listen to the song "Andhere Mein Jo Baithe Hain". Mahendra is good with such songs, but here he outdoes himself by doing an outstanding job.

6. Asha has four solos and a duet in this movie. Once again, Asha shows her love for OP's musical compositions. The song "Akeli Hoon Main Piya" is another outstanding example from this movie where she puts her soul into it.

In spite of such outstanding music and some rich lyrics and unforgettable songs, this movie did not garner a single award. It was not even nominated for any. That year, 1969, best music award went to Laxmikant-Pyarelal for "Jeene Ki Raah". Sure, this movie had some good songs, but none of them come close to the songs of "Sambandh". Best male singer was Kishoreda for "Roop Tera Mastana" from "Aradhana". Great song indeed. But Mukesh was not even nominated. Best female singer was Lata Mangeshkar for "Jeeni Ki Raah" song "Aap Mujhe Achche Lagte Hain". Very routine and ordinary song. Best lyricist was Neeraj for the film "Chanda Aur Bijli" for the song "Kaal Ka Pahiya". Pradeepji was not even nominated.

The late Erum Hashmi, one of a shining bright force as a member of this Forum, a friend who gave constant support to efforts of the contributors, and someone who always seeded ideas on new threads has generously shared three songs from this album that were not on the original soundtrack CD. These songs are the two solos by Asha, "Tum Ko Toh Karodon Saal Hue Batlaao Gagan (A)" and "Apni Maa Ki Kismat Par Mere Bete Tu Mat Ro-2" and a solo by Mahendra, “Kisi Se Ab Mera Rishta Na Koi Naata Hai, Ab Toh Shamshaan Ke Maati Hi Meri Maata Hai”. Erum had unwavering support for songs and music and was ever present with her contributions in many of the columns of this Forum. She was always there giving constant encouragement by lending her support to everybody’s efforts whenever it was necessary. We miss you Erum very very much.

It appears that there is still one more song I am missing from this album. This is listed in red italics in the table in the first post below. I am requesting members to share this song if they can. Thank you.

I am uploading these songs in back-to-back two posts. Here are the details of the songs and the songs themselves in the first post...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Sambandh (1969)"...

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

[Pratul]

Dear Swarapriya,

Thanks a ton for the uploads of Sambandh. You truly made my day!

Pratul

[Pratul]

Dear Swarapriya,

I think I am going to request you almost revive the thread altogether as I said before.

Could you please upload the songs of the following films? -

1. Mujrim
2. Basant
3. Akalmand

Thanks in Advance
Pratul

[swarapriya]

Basant (1960)

I am re-uploading these songs on request...

This film was loosely based on the 1957 English movie "An Affair To Remember" starring Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant. American Film Institute voted this Hollywood movie as "the most romantic film of all time". However, this movie itself was based on another Hollywood movie of 1939, "Love Affair", starring Irene Dunne and Charles Doyer. There was a third version also made by Hollywood in 1994 with the same name "Love Affair". It starred Annette Bening and Warren Beatty. Also, a year before this, the 1993 movie "Sleepless In Seattle" starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks was inspired by the same movie.

If Hollywood made this movie this many times, Bombay Hindi film folks were not too far behind. Apart from “Basant", Manisha Koirala and Aamir Khan starrer "Mann" released in 1999, also had the same source for inspiration.

The movie "Basant" is a celebration of music. It contains 14 fun and frothy songs! O.P. Nayyar was going through a peak period of his career. During this time he couldn’t do anything wrong. Almost all of the songs from this film were part of the hit parade. All of the songs were sung by either Asha or Asha with Rafi Saab except for a brief (43 seconds) title song that sounds more like that of Manna Dey rather than Rafi Saab. One additional song is a triplet where S.D. Batish joins the twosome of Asha and Rafi Saab. Asha also has three solos.

Nutan looks ravishingly beautiful in this movie. She was best known for her sensitive portrayals but the light side of her hasn't been fully exploited except possibly by Dev Anand (in movies like "Baarish (1957)", "Paying Guest (1957)", and "Tere Ghar Ke Saamne (1963)").

The songs of "Basant" came from CD compilations, DVD and other sources. Almost all songs have exceptionally good quality. I am including a full version of "Chori Chori" with these songs. This came from the Forum members. This song is a union of two parts of the same song that are also separately uploaded. In the movie these duets, almost identical, were lip synched by Nutan and Shammi for one song and Nutan and Johnny Walker for the other. It is not necessary for you to upload this full version if you upload the two separate parts and vice versa.

Abhay, one of our well informed members of this Forum has this to share about the song “Hum Ne”. I am quoting his comments from an earlier upload of these songs. “The lyrics of the mukhaDaa of the 'Basant' song "ham ne unake saamane pahale to kha.njar rakh diyaa" are identical to the prelude of the song "chaahe to moraa jiyaa lai le" from the 1966 film 'Mamta'. 'Basant' - which came six years earlier - had lyrics by Qamar Jalalabadi; the lyricist for "Mamta" was Majrooh Sultanpuri. Given that Majrooh asked Faiz for permission before using just one line - "terii aa.Nkho.n ke sivaa duniyaa me.n rakhaa kyaa hai" - from a Faiz nazm, one assumes he must have taken permission from Qamar too before using these lines.” Thank you very much for sharing this information, Abhay.

I will upload these songs in three back-to-back posts. Here are the details of the songs and the songs themselves in the first post...

[swarapriya]

Songs of "Basant (1960)" Continued...

Here is the second set of songs. The full version of "Chori Chori" is a union of the two parts of the song which I am uploading here. This is due to the courtesy of the Forum members. Thank you. For some reason, the two separate songs and the full version don't add up to the same length. Anyway, you may want to download two individual ones or just the full version. Here are the songs in this post...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Basant (1960)"...

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

[Pratul]

Dear Swarapriya,

Thanks a bunch for the uploads. I can't describe how happy I'm to get Basant songs :-)

Pratul

[swarapriya]

Akalmand (1966)

I am re-uploading these songs on request...

I.S. Johar wrote, produced, and directed the 1960 film “Bewaqoof” that starred himself with Kishoreda. It was only a matter of time that “Akalmand” came along. This 1966 movie was written by I.S. Johar and paired again himself with Kishoreda.

This album by OP has some fine songs. With the success enjoyed in earlier movies he worked with Kishoreda [“Baap Re Bap (1955), “Bhagam Bhag (1966)”, “Chham Chhama Chham (1952)”, “Do Dilon ki Dastan (1966)”, “Naya Andaz (1956)”, and Raagini (1958)], one expected more movies of OP working with Kishoreda. But that has never realized even though they worked in a couple of other movie later on [“Shrimanji (1968)” and “Ek Baar Muskura Do (1972)”]. Somewhere I read that this was because both had very strong personalities and their egos came in the way to work more together. Thankfully, in the few films they worked, they delivered several memorably beautiful songs.

According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Dev Anand was also in this movie. If indeed this is true, I believe his appearance was probably as a guest. I am requesting our learned members to either authenticate or repudiate this claim by IMDb, which sometimes is not accurate with the information it presents.

Some of these songs from this album came from various CD collections. The others came from sources like tape. Therefore, you may find the quality inconsistent and uneven though none of them are bad to listen to. Here are the details of the songs and the songs themselves...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: May 21 2011, 06:15 AM

[Pratul]

SP, you are awesome! Thank you very much.

Pratul

[swarapriya]

Mujrim (1958)

I am re-uploading these songs on request...

Here is a movie made by F.C. Mehra of Eagle Films. This was the first of several movies Shammi was associated with Mehra. I think this was the last movie OP provided music for a Mehra movie. Mehra switched to Shankar-Jaikishan after this movie and the team made several successful musicals. The switching happened not because Mehra wanted it, but Shammi insisted on it.

Ragini, the youngest of the Travancore sisters, made her debut in Hindi films with “Qaidi” in 1957, another OP film. She also appeared in “Payal” the very same year. Altogether she acted in some 15 plus movies in Hindi. All three sisters were classical dancers, with Padmini becoming more famous than others. It was this dancing talent that gave them a pass to enter into the movies. Ragini was the heroine of this picture. Even though it was out and out a Shammi's film, most of the songs were picturized on Ragini who had a role, not surprisingly, of a dancer in the movie. Most songs of the movie were filmed with dancing backdrop. Because of this most songs are female vocals.

Shammi was coming off his career making “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” from the previous year. OP was at the helm of music for that picture. There were high expectations for this film with OP again in-charge of music for this film as well. “Mujrim” music-wise was still on the mark, but the film did only an average business.

Incidentally, the Eagle Films banner is still alive. It is run by Mehra's son. In the late 80's he made a movie with the same title "Mujrim" but not with the same story.

There are eight songs in this album. Some are from different CD collections and others came from various sources such as tapes. Therefore you will find their quality not uniform. With that warning, here are the details of the songs and the songs themselves...

[Pratul]

Dear Swarapriya,

Thank you very much for Mujrim songs. I hope you don't mind if I request a few more OP albums :-)

Thanks,

Pratul

[swarapriya]

Dear Swarapriya,

Thank you very much for Mujrim songs. I hope you don't mind if I request a few more OP albums :-)

Thanks,

Pratul

Pratul

You're very welcome. No. No. Please don't be shy. If I have them I will be happy to share them. Keep them coming.

Cheers,
S