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

[swarapriya]

(Shakeel) Leader (1964)

S. Mukherji, who was the head and part owner of Filmistan Studios that produced a string of box-office hits, decided to leave the good company and form his own independent one. The new company was Filmalaya. As its maiden venture he launched this film, “Leader”. Dilip Saab, who wrote its story, was looking for someone to make the film. With Mukherji launching a new studio, he thought it would be ideal if he could get him make the film. Mukherji Saab accepted and launched the movie on a grand scale.

The major problem with the movie was it has an atrocious and incohesive screenplay. This caused too many problems in the production. Also movie was getting too long. It eventually ran into financial problems. So instead of waiting for the completion of this movie, to generate some quick cash to make the studio solvent, Mukherji hired Nasir Hussain to make “Dil Deke Dekho”. That movie became a huge hit and kept the new studios going forward.

When finally movie resumed its production, Dilip Saab was so unhappy with the director Ram Mukherjee that in the press there were rumors that he ghost directed the movie himself. When the movie finally was released in 1964, it did not run as expected. Dilip Saab got the Best Actor Filmfare Award even though I thought his histrionics were too slapstick and disappointing.

Incidentally, Ram Mukherjee, whose father was a brother of S. Mukherjee, was also the father of actress Rani Mukherjee. He introduced her in a Bengali film, “Biyer Phool” made in 1996 that he directed. He later introduced her to the Hindi film audience in the movie “Raja ki Ayegi Baraat” in 1997, that he also directed.

What lifted “Leader” was its music by Naushadji. The movie may have fared poorly both critically and financially but Naushadji working with Shakeel Saab gave memorable music with most of the songs becoming chartbusters.

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

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Leader (1964)"...

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

[swarapriya]

(Anand Bakshi) Professor X (1966)

I do not have a single song from this album. The following is a list of the songs from this film. If anyone of you can, please kindly share these songs with rest of us. Thank you.

[swarapriya]

(Hasrat Jaipuri) Mr. Qartoon M.A. (1958)

The title role of this film was played by the comedian actor Johnny Walker. He was also joined by Mahmood in the film. The M.A. in the title does not stand for the Master of Arts degree. Instead it is short for Master of Aloo, where Johnny played the role of a chef in a popular restaurant.

The only distinguishing feature of this forgettable movie was its magnificent music composed by OP Saab. Each one of the songs became highly popular especially the title song. That also is my favorite song from the film. Here are two parts of that song and others from this film…

[swarapriya]

(Javed Akhtar) Jaane Jigar (1998)

This is simply an atrocious movie. It is poorly scripted from a razor thin story, poorly directed, and poorly acted. Jackie Shroff appears a minute before the intermission and maybe he has five or six scenes in the entire film. In each of those scenes he is involved in a fight, without exception. Only thing that is not bad in the film is its music. Rajesh Roshan and Javed Akhtar together gave several good hits before. This is not in the same league but considering this farce of a film it is okay. One song stands above rest of them with its rich lyrics, “Sau Barson Tak”. It is beautifully sung by Kumar Sanu with a fine music arrangement. Here are this and other songs from this film in two back-to-back posts…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Jaane Jigar (1998)"...

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

[swarapriya]

(Rajinder Krishan) Pocket Maar (1956)

In some of his earlier movies Dev played several shady character roles. This movie was one of them. I am not certain how successful the movie was, but overall it was not bad. Even though Geeta Bali was the leading lady of the film it was Nadira who had a bigger and meatier role. Music by Madan Mohanji, who seldom disappointed, was about average. The duet of Lataji and Talat Saab, “Yeh Nai Nai Preet Hai”, was a chart buster. It is also my favorite of the album. Here is this and other songs from this film…

[swarapriya]

(Majrooh) Dil Deke Dekho (1959)

This was the first film released under S. Mukherjee’s Filmalaya banner. He left Filmistan to form this company. “Leader” was the first vehicle he launched under this banner. For various reasons the filming of “Leader” was stalled. He decided to invite Nasir Husain, one of his regular writers at Filmistan and the director of the hit “Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957)”, to direct this film. For Husainji, this would be his second directorial venture.

Husainji elected Shammi to play the male lead. Shammi got a boost to his career with mold breaking performance in “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” that was directed by Husain. This movie, “Dil Deke Dekho”, introduced Asha Parekh as an adult actress, in the role of the leading lady opposite Shammi. Hitherto she acted only as a child artiste. But this was her big breakthrough. When S. Mukherjee asked Nasir Hussain, the writer and director of the movie, to select either Sadhana or Asha Parekh for heroine's role, he went along with Asha. Sadhana came later in Mukherjee's "Love in Simla" as its heroine in 1960. Incidentally Asha was only 17. She and Nasir Husain Saab collaborated in six more films, most of them huge hits. She was also his business partner in distributing films. Asha also is the most successful stars ever in Hindi films with most jubilee hits, more than any other leading lady, to her credit.

This movie was kind of a landmark in the sense that it introduced to the Bombay filmworld a new music director. Introduction of music directors may not happen every day, but they do happen on occasion. There is nothing really new about that. But this time the new music director happened to be a woman. After these many years of mature film industry, even today, there are not too many women music directors. Usha Khanna was only 17 years when she made her debut as a music director. It was a sensational debut by a young music director. Every song in the movie became a huge hit with beautifully composed and melodiously addictive songs.

Amazing thing about these songs is that they sound so much like O.P. Nayyar's. Not to take away any credit from Usha Khanna as songs composed by her in subsequent movies demonstrated that she is no flash in the pan. O.P. was her family friend and she followed OP's music closely. Some of that must have influenced on her music compositions of "Dil Deke Dekho". It was OP who introduced Usha to Mukherjee who. Initially Usha wanted to be a singer. But when Mukherjee saw that she can compose too, she composed songs of some songs written by her father, he gave her a break as a music director.

In a male dominated industry Usha Khanna has been a lone shining star. It is a great tribute to her that she will not let any artificial barriers erected in her path discourage her. She went on to be active in the film industry for 40 plus years. That kind of longevity itself speaks volumes about her ingenuity as a creative artist. On the way, she composed music for some 80 plus movies and television shows. Her legacy is a rich repertoire of hit songs from many popular films, like this debut film of hers that are popular even today.

She composed music for 11 movies written or produced or directed by Sawan Kumar. Many of these were musical hits (like "Hawas" and "Souten"). Later she was married to him but that lasted only a brief period.

Incidentally Usha is credited with helping several budding singers by giving them opportunities to sing in her films. Some of these names include Anupama Deshpande, Hemlata, Mohd. Aziz, Roop Kumar Rathod, Shabbir Kumar, and Sonu Nigam.

I am including a picture of Usha here. Also in the second post, I am including a brief interview she did with "BharatStudent.com" where she talks about how she got a break as a music director.

There are so many beautiful songs in this great album. Every song is an utter delight. Each one of them is immensely hummable. One of my favorite Rafi Saab songs is in this album. It is the song "Hum Aur Tum Aur Yeh Sama". It is one of those great songs that only Rafi Saab can sing, charged with erupting emotion and packed with heart weakening romance. In the film this was picturized beautifully too. This is one song for ages to remember... unforgettable!

I am uploading all songs and some music clips from this film, a couple of version songs, and some instrumentals in three back-to-back posts. The first set of songs start with the beginning of the next post...

[swarapriya]

Songs from "Dil Deke Dekho (1959)"...

Here is the first set of songs from this popular film...

[swarapriya]

Continuing Songs from "Dil Deke Dekho (1959)"...

Here are more chartbusters from this hit album including one of Rafi Saab's greatest songs, "Hum Aur Tum"...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Dil Deke Dekho (1959)"...

Here are some music clips from the film, version songs, and instrumentals...

[surhall]

namskar
very good and best your services to hf
dhall

[swarapriya]

namskar
very good and best your services to hf
dhall

Thank you kindly Dhallji.

Cheers,
S

[swarapriya]

(Shailendra) Yahudi (1958)

The great Bimal Roy who made many socially conscious films directed this period drama set in the days of Roman Empire. I was apprehensive to watch this film at first lest my feelings for Bimlada may change. But Roy did not disappoint. He was a great director and here told a powerful love story between a Roman prince (Dilip Kumar) and a Jewish woman (Meena Kumari). This was the time when Jews were mercilessly persecuted by the Romans.

The movie was based on Agha Hashar Kashmiri’s play “Yahudi ki Ladki”. This play in turn was adapted from a classic Persian play.

Sohrab Modi appeared as the father of Meena Kumari in a very powerful role. The movie had some of the best dialogues seen in a Hindi film, especially those scenes in which Dilip Saab and Modiji appear together or separately. Vajahat Mirza penned these dialogues but did not win any awards. This very same year, 1958, Bimalda’s “Madhumati” was released and swept just about every Filmfare Award there was. Rajinder Singh Bedi won the Award for Best Dialogues for “Madhumati”. But I think Mirza Saab richly deserved it.

The movie, in spite of its ridiculous looking costumes and men’s make up had good performances by Dilip Saab and one of the best by Modiji. Sohrab Modi Saab was nominated for an Award in the Best Supporting category but lost to Johnny Walker in “Madhumati”. There is nothing to take away from Johnny but just go figure this one out.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee was the editor of the film.

Music by Shankar & Jaikishan has some good songs. Shailendra won the Award for the Best Lyrics for “Yeh Mera Deewaanaapan Hai”. Here are this and other songs from this film…

[swarapriya]

(Shakeel) Bedaag (1965)

Songs from this film were uploaded few months back in this very thread. The songs are no longer available. I will be happy to re-upload them if anyone is interested. Thanks.