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

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Noor Jehan (1967)

Roshan Saab seems to have a corner for these kind of albums. This is a typical album from him for sure, yet it boasts several catchy songs. Here are these...

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Abhilasha (1968)

I recently saw this movie with high expectations. Except for its beautiful music, the movie was a let down. Meena did her usual thing like in so many movies she has done before and so are others in the film. But in a brief role, Rehman gave a winning performance.

The album has several good songs. But it is the song "Waadiyaan" that became a huge hit. I am uploading several versions of this song in the second post.

Please note that the full version of the song "Munne" is two separate parts combined. In the album it appeared as a full song. In the movie it appeared at two separate times. I am uploading these two separate parts as well.

Now for the songs in the first post...

[swarapriya]

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

In this post I am uploading various versions of the song "Waadiyaan". The movie version of the duet and Rafi Saab's solo are from the film. The solo version of Lata is the same as the duet version of the movie except Rafi Saab's voice that appears in the beginning is stripped. Instead few seconds of music precedes the song. The other version of the duet probably is a doctored version with parts of Lata's and parts of Rafi Saab's versions merged to make it appear as a duet.

Here are these various versions of the song...

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Baharon ki Manzil (1968)

Here are the songs from this film...

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Jawab (1970)

Here is a fine album from LP. I am uploading two versions of the duet "Aaja Meri Jaan". One is from an album and the other is from a DVD. The beginnings of these songs are different.

Here are the songs from this film...

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Saat Phere (1970)

Most of the songs from this album were contributed by the members of our Forum (three by Debopriyo and one by Neerajdivy). Thank you very much Debo and Neeraj. I am still missing a song from this album. It is shown in red italics in the table below. If anyone of you have it, please kindly share. Thank you.

Now for the songs from this album...

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Dushmun (1971)

Here is a fine album with Kishoreda's chart-buster song "Sachhai Chhup Nahin Sakti" from an original soundtrack album...

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Mere Apne (1971)

This movie has two distinctions. It was the last movie of one of our greatest actresses, the legendary Meena Kumari. (Two more movies of Meenaji were released in 1972, “Gomti ke Kinare” and “Pakeezah”.) It is also the first directorial venture of Gulzarji. Gulzar also wrote the screenplay, dialogues, and lyrics for this film. The movie itself was a remake of Tapan Sinha’s 1968 Bengali film “Apanjan”.

This is one of those movies that never got its proper due. It is a story of human saga and personal dignity that revolves around a woman who has strong moral values and changes people’s lives who come in to contact with her. Meena Kumari, looking pale and weak, was nevertheless excellent as the central figure, playing the role of an older woman. She was ably supported by so many aspiring young actors of that time, Asrani, Paintal, Keshto Mukherjee, Danny, Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna and others.

The movie has only four songs but Salilda makes them worth remembering, at least three of them. All three solos, one by Mannada (he sings the song on the river Ganga, reminding another gem of a song Gulzarji wrote 10 years earlier for Bimlada’s “Kabuliwala”, the song “Ganag Re Tu Aayee Kahaan Se”), another by Kishoreda, and the third one by Lataji are simply outstanding. The song of the album is Lataji’s solo, “Roz Akeli Aaye”. Lataji the way she sings this song, she puts much melody into the rich lyrics of Gulzarji. Even though available in the album, unfortunately this song is not included in the film. Gulzarji scheduled the shoot for this song on Meenaji but has to postpone it several times because of her declining health. He was opposed to the idea of using it as a background song so finally made the decision to leave it out of the film.

I am uploading these songs in two back-to-back posts. The first post contains songs from an original soundtrack album. The second post contains few extended version songs.

Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Mere Apne (1971)"...

Here are some of the extended version songs from this film...

[debjyoti]

Koi hota jisko apna by Kishoreji is an absolute gem,Salilda had later recollected that he was greatly impressed by his singing of the semiclassical song koi hota.

[swarapriya]

Koi hota jisko apna by Kishoreji is an absolute gem,Salilda had later recollected that he was greatly impressed by his singing of the semiclassical song koi hota.

This is refreshing because Salilda originally wasn't sure of Kishore's singing abilities even though he changed his mind later on about Kishoreda. Cheers. -S

[debjyoti]

Koi hota jisko apna by Kishoreji is an absolute gem,Salilda had later recollected that he was greatly impressed by his singing of the semiclassical song koi hota.

This is refreshing because Salilda originally wasn't sure of Kishore's singing abilities even though he changed his mind later on about Kishoreda. Cheers. -S

That was long before during the time of Naukri(1954).But later he had admitted that in 50's some music directors failed to totally visualise the singing power of Kishore Kumar,who eventually became the greatest from 1969 onwards.He also told that credit goes to Dada Burman(SD) for identifying the spark in him very early in early 50's.

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Gomti ke Kinare (1972)

Here are the songs from this album...

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Pakeezah (1972)

These are the last uploads of this thread. In the last three years we covered albums starring Madhubala, Meena Kumari, and Nargis. Of Meena, we covered over 90 of her films. A magnificent actor she was, she will be remembered for many tragic roles she played so well. It is only fitting that she went with a bang as this last movie of hers is considered a classic.

Here are the details of this movie. Most of this write up appeared in one of my earlier uploads…

This movie was conceived around 1960 by Kamal Amrohi. He wanted to make a movie that ages will remember Meena Kumari, his actress-wife, as one of the greatest actresses ever. Amrohi Saab was a perfectionist, much like Asif of “Mughal-E-Azam” fame. He was behind everything in making of the movie; music, photography, sets, costumes, art, acting, editing, story, dialogues, lyrics, screenplay, and other areas.

As the color pictures started becoming vogue, Amrohi Saab scrapped the movie he was shooting because it was being done in black and white. After a few months of shooting, he scrapped the partly shot color film again. He felt that ordinary lenses could not do justice to the elaborate sets designed for his movie. He restarted shooting the film in cinemascope, which is a special lense.

Also, because Amrohi was into each and every detail in making the movie, the schedules slipped badly. Meena Kumari got busy and was not easily available. Then the relationship between Amrohi and Kumari soured and they were first separated and then eventually divorced. After the divorce, Meena Kumari refused to act in the movie. By 1968, Kamal Amrohi’s financial situation deteriorated. He was hoping to complete “Pakeezah”. Meena Kumari’s roles as an actress were also few by this time. She finally decided to resume shooting for the movie.

In between years, Ghulam Mohammad Saab, the music director of the film, passed away after composing several songs. Also, the original cameraman passed away. The movie was to resume with Dharmendra in the lead but Amrohi scrapped the idea as it was rumored that he was romantically involved with Kumari. Raaj Kumar was brought in. Naushadji was brought in to finish the musical score.

In the final version of the movie, only six songs of Ghulam Mohammad Saab were used. Naushadji composed three new songs as well as the title music. He also scored the background music which itself is considered to be a classical masterpiece. The songs composed by Ghulam Mohammad Saab that didn’t make into the film were released as a separate album years later as “Pakeezah Rang Barang”. It has nine separate tracks.

Apparently there were three more songs which Naushadji composed that didn’t make the final cut. These were “Ban Ban Bole Koyaliya” by Parveen Sultana, “Mori Baali Umariya Mein” by Rajkumari, and “Ab Ke Na Jaa Bides”, also by Rajkumari. I don’t know whether these songs are available or not. If they are available, I am inviting members to share them if they can.

As a musical experience goes, this probably was the best one by Ghulam Mohammad Saab. He enjoyed only a limited success as a composer and as an occasional actor. He also worked as an assistant to Naushadji. Unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to see the musical masterpiece he has created.

The movie, which is a milestone in the Hindi film industry, wasn’t honored with any noteworthy awards. It was nominated in few categories for Filmfare awards, but was able tom scrape up only one. It was nominated as the Best Picture and lost to the lousy film “Be-Imaan”. Kamal Amrohi lost to Sohanlal Kanwar as the Best Director. Kanwar directed “Be-Imaan”. Meena Kumari lost to Hema Malini as the Best Actress. Hema won for “Seeta Aur Geeta”. Ghulam Mohammad Saab was nominated for the Best Music Director Award but lost to Shankar & Jaikishan for “Be-Imaan”. Not something to be proud of by S&J, I am sure. The only Filmfare Award it won was the Filmfare Critics’ Award for N.B. Kulkarni in the Best Art Direction category. When Pran’s name was called as the Best Supporting Actor for “Be-Imaan”, he refused to accept his award saying that the snub by the Award Committee to Ghulam Mohammad Saab was too much to take. Bravo Pran Saab for taking such a bold stand.

There are more stories of recognitions bestowed on the undeserved like that happened in the year 1972. Unfortunately, it happens so routinely year after year, but this one takes the cake. I think the 1972 Filmfare Awards put many people to shame, including most of the winners who are probably not to be blamed.

I am uploading songs in six separate back-to-back posts. The first two posts are the ten songs from the film and a couple of specials. The third post contains some of the musical pieces from the film. The fourth and fifth posts contain the songs from “Pakeezah Rang Barang”. The last post contains some instrumentals.

Here are details of the songs in the first post and the songs themselves. I am including a couple of specials in this post. One of them is the song "Chalte Chalte" with Lata's introduction. This is taken from her album "Lata in Her Own Voice-1". The other one is the song "Inhi Logo Ne". This one is a live recorded version. This is from the album "Lata Live in 1981-1".

Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Continuing Songs from "Pakeezah (1972)"...

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

This post has been edited by swarapriya: May 14 2012, 12:55 AM