Shair Aur Sargam, Songs From Movies of 7 Great Lyricists Options

[swarapriya]

(Shakeel) Chaudhvin ka Chand (1960)

Guru Dutt bought the rights to the story of “Chaudhvin Ka Chand” from Asia Theaters long before he actually made the movie. The story, originally entitled “Ek Jhalak”, with the complete script was written by Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. He was the husband of the famous singer and actress Noor Jehan. He wrote and directed “Khandan (1942)” with Noor Jehan and Pran in the lead that was a huge success. After partition when Noor Jehan and Rizvi decided to migrate to Pakistan, he sold the rights of “Ek Jhalak” to Asia Theaters.

Guru Dutt paid a fortune to buy the rights of “Ek Jhalak” but postponed making it because he felt the script was too long. Guru approached Abrar Alvi to see what he can do with the story. In the original story, the friend sees a woman in a marketplace when she briefly uncovers her veil (thus “Ek Jhalak”). Unknowing that she is actually married to his best friend, he confides this to him about the beautiful woman he saw. Friend immediately realizes that he was talking about his own wife and vows to find her for him. He asks his wife to divorce him. When she refuses, he kills himself. His wife over stricken with grief kills herself. Abrar did not like how the story ended. Instead he revised the story where the friend realizes the mistake he made by unknowingly falling in love with his best friend’s wife and commits suicide. The movie’s title was changed to “Chaudhvin Ka Chand” which was the name of a short story Alvi published earlier. But as usually the case with Guru, he postponed making the movie for some time.

After “Kaagaz Ke Phool” failed miserably, Guru became close to insolvent. To keep his entire unit going, he decided to make “Chaudhvin Ka Chand”. Guru went against advice of many friends and hired M. Sadiq to direct the movie. Sadiq was not doing well professionally as well as financially. But Guru thought because the subject dealt with Muslim way of life, Sadiq would be the best person to handle it.

Guru Dutt originally wanted Naushad to give music to the film “Chaudhvin Ka Chand”. Nearly broke, he just could not afford the fees Naushad was charging. His publicist suggested Ravi’s name. Ravi was available for a modest amount of remuneration for his services and was hired.

Ravi has to come up with several tunes for the title song as Guru was neither happy nor easily satisfied. But Ravi’s efforts were vindicated as the title song became one of the all-time hits. It was also one of the best romantic songs Rafi has sung. He won the best singer Filmfare award for the song. The rich lyrics for the song won Shakeel Badayuni Filmfare award for best lyricist. Ravi richly deserved the award for best music, but he lost to Shankar & Jaikishan for their fine music of “Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai”. This same year Naushad ji was nominated for “Mughal-E-Azam”. That is how tough the competition was.

Making of colour movies was just coming into vogue and Guru Dutt originally wanted to make the movie in colour. He sent his regular photographer V.K. Murty to Europe for training. But because of the huge investment required for the colour movie, Guru decided to shoot the movie in black and white, and in a hurry. Nariman Irani was hired as the cameraman as Murty was still away in training in Europe. The movie was beautifully shot on location in Lucknow.

It is on record that even though Sadiq directed the movie, Guru’s unmistakable imprint is all over the movie. This is no more evident than in the songs picturized, especially the classic title song. That song was shot in colour. It was shot beautifully as the camera almost caressingly moves over Waheeda’s innocently charming face and catches every passing mood reflected by her shy radiance.

The movie when it was released became a runaway success. It remained the biggest hit of Guru’s career. It was shown in the Moscow International Film Festival of 1962. This was the first of Guru’s movies to be shown abroad. Guru traveled to the festival to Moscow. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t sit that well with the foreign movie critics.

With the money the movie brought in Guru could afford to buy part of Modern Studios in Andheri and renamed it as Guru Dutt Studios. The jubilee of “Chaudhvin Ka Chand” was celebrated on his studio grounds. This is where he started preparing for his next venture, “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)”.

Now here are the beautiful songs from this album. I am uploading the songs and various instrumentals based on some of the popular songs in four back-to-back posts. The first two posts contain songs from the film. The third post contains instrumentals of the songs from various CD albums. Finally, the fourth post contains instrumentals from videos.

The upload of these songs and instrumentals start in the next post…

[swarapriya]

Chaudhvin ka Chand (1960) - Post 1 (Songs)

This and the next post contains all the songs from the film. I am also including in this post some of the version songs sung by Sonu Nigam.

Here are the songs...

[swarapriya]

Chaudhvin ka Chand (1960) - Post 2 (Songs)

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

[swarapriya]

Instrumentals of Some Songs from "Chaudhvin ka Chand (1960)" - Post 3

The following instrumentals of some of the popular songs from this film are all from various CD collections. Here are these...

[swarapriya]

Instrumentals of Some Songs from "Chaudhvin ka Chand (1960)" - Post 4

In this final post, the following instrumentals of some of the popular songs from this film are all derived from videos. Here are they...

[swarapriya]

(Anand Bakshi) Adhi Raat ke Baad (1965)

Ashok Kumar returns once again playing “Mr. X” in this film. “Mr. X” was made in 1957. This film came eight years after that movie. With not much of story, poor screenplay, ineffective special effects, and lack luster execution plagued the entire movie. In the end it turned out to be dull and a drag. Even some good songs composed by Chitraguptji did not help the situation.

Here are the songs from this album…

[swarapriya]

(Hasrat Jaipuri) Shree 420 (1955)

Songs from this popular album were recently uploaded in this very thread. They are available starting at the following location...

http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?show...4658&st=601

[swarapriya]

(Javed Akhtar) King Uncle (1993)

This film is an Indianized version of one of the longest running Broadway musical hit shows “Annie”. It was also made into a movie in Hollywood in 1982. The film was directed by the famous John Huston. Oscar winner Albert Finney headed the cast of the film. In spite of the big budget, the movie barely made back its invested money.

The Hindi version was directed by Rakesh Roshan. Originally the title role was offered to Amitabh Bachchan. This was during his lean phase. Bachchan decided not to accept the offer. Eventually Jackie Shroff was cast in the title role. The up and coming Shah Rukh Khan had a supporting role.

The movie belonged to a little girl who was called “Munna” in the movie. Pooja Ruparel, who was introduced in this film who played Munna, literally stole the show from the veterans. She was disarmingly charming and her presence brightened an otherwise ordinary film.

I am uploading songs from this film in two back-to-back posts. Here is the first set…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "King Uncle (1993)"...

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

[swarapriya]

(Majrooh) Paying Guest (1957)

Here is a blithely Nutan paired opposite a buoyant Dev and when mingled with some breezy music by Burmanda for the songs written by magnificent Majrooh Saab the result is a playful ride called "Paying Guest". This movie has no pretensions to be anything else but to entertain. It does so superbly.

I have several favorite songs from this album. Among them are Lata's "Chaand Phir Nikla", Kishoreda's both solos, and both duets. My personal favorite is the duet "O Nigaahen Mastaana" where Asha is just humming along to the crooning of Kishore. It is an absolute charmer. This album is al out and out winner...

I am uploading these songs in two back-to-back posts. The first post contains all songs from the film. This includes the song “Gaye Ghabraake Mil” by Geetaji. This song was not included in the film. It is from an audio from You Tube that was uploaded by Parag Sankla. The song was contributed by Romesh Vora. Thanks Romesh and Parag for the song…

The second post contains several instrumentals of some of the popular songs from the film. It also contains a version song of “Chaand Phir Nikla”. I am also including here a shorter version of “Chhod Do Aanchal” with an introduction by Majrooh Saab.

Here is the first set of songs...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Dec 14 2013, 10:35 PM

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Paying Guest (1957)"...

Here are some specials and instrumentals of some of the popular songs from the film...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Dec 14 2013, 10:36 PM

[swarapriya]

(Rajinder Krishan) Mastana (1954)

Here is another Madan Mohanji's album minus Lataji...

[swarapriya]

(Shailendra) Jagte Raho (1956)

“Jagte Raho” is one of the brilliant movies ever to adorn the Indian cinema. It probably ranks high up there with Guru Dutt’s classic “Pyaasa”. Yet neither could earn even a single award nationally. But both movies received significant recognition in later years. Indian audience took notice of “Jagte Raho” only after it won the Grand Prix Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

“Jagte Raho” was made in Bengali and Hindi simultaneously. The Bengali version was called “Ek Din Raatre”. The closed nature of the city and indifference of its people that form the theme for the movie gives Raj Kapoor another chance to give a mesmerizingly stunning performance. This set up of the movie has close resemblance to Raj’s earlier hit “Shree 420 (1955)”.

The debutant director duo Amit Moitra and Shombhu Mitra also were responsible for the story and the screenplay of the film. The story goes that Raj has invited the actor Shombhu to co-direct this movie with Amit. Shombhu directed only another movie later in Bengali in 1959, “Subha Bibaha”. I am not sure what Amit has done after this movie. One thing is for sure, neither one directed another Hindi movie. K.A. Abbas, who authored “Shree 420” earlier for Raj, wrote the dialogues for this film.

The movie boasts several good performances by many of the supporting actors. But the most brilliant one was by the venerable Motilal. As a drunk he gave one of the most memorable performances ever to hit the Indian screen. The song he sings on the screen, “Zindagi Khwaab Hai”, was done by Mukesh. Interestingly, Motilal was the one who brought Mukesh to Bombay when he heard him sing at his sister’s wedding. Interestingly, it was Manna Dey who was signed to sing this song. He did have a first cut of the song. But Raj changed his mind and wanted to Mukesh to sing the song. The movie was released with Mukesh’s version. Mannada’s version became available later on. I am including this in one of my posts.

Shankar & Jaikishan, who were regulars with Raj’s movies, did not compose music for this movie. Instead the honors went to Salil Chowdhury. Salilda took the opportunity to compose some beautiful tunes. Apart from “Zindagi” the other numbers that are worth their weight in gold are the bhangra song “Teiki Main Koi Jhoot Boliya”, Asha’s melodious “Thandi Thandi” and the beautiful “Jaago Mohan Pyaare” by Lataji. Incidentally, the piece of music composed at the end of the movie was later used by Salilda for Bimal Roy’s “Madhumati (1958)” in the song “Aaja Re Pardesi” at the suggestion of the lyricist Shailendra. Bimalda was initially reluctant to this idea but Salilda won him over.

Nargis made a cameo appearance in this movie near the end. This was the sixteenth and the last time Nargis and Raj Kapoor were in a movie together. Nargis parted her ways with Raj and married Sunil Dutt whom she met when she was working with him in “Mother India” the previous year.

I am uploading below all the songs from the movie in two back-to-back posts. The first post contains all the songs from the film. The second post contains some instrumentals.

The songs start in the next post…

[swarapriya]

Jagte Raho (1956) - Songs

Here are the songs from this fine album including Manna's version of "Zindagi"...

[swarapriya]

Jagte Raho (1956) - Instrumentals

Here are some instrumentals of songs from the film...