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

[swarapriya]

Songs from "Bandini (1963)"...

Here are the beautiful songs from "Bandini"...

[swarapriya]

A Few Specials and Instrumentals of Songs from "Bandini (1963)"...

Here are a couple of specials and a few instrumentals of the songs from "Bandini:...

[swarapriya]

(Anand Bakshi) Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971)

Zeenat Aman made a sensational appearance in this movie auguring a new era of womanhood in Bombay filmdom. Never before this film had the audience seen in a Hindi movie a woman puffing smoke and enjoying the company of drug addicts. In Raj Kapoor’s classic film “Shree 420 (1955)”, Nadira smoked a cigarette, but she was showing off fashionable elegance. In this movie, Zeenat was showing an indifferent irreverence towards anything so called decent life loving norms humans believe in. She put on quite a convincing show. The kudos and tributes go to the director of the movie, Dev Anand.

This was Dev's second movie as a director. After the miserable flop of his first directorial venture “Prem Pujari (1970)”, Dev was looking to reprieve himself by coming up with something unforgettable. That he did with this movie about pop culture and its effect and consequences on people’s lives. The movie was based on Dev’s own story idea. For Dev, this smashing success will elude for the rest of his career. He was never able to repeat the similar spectacular success he enjoyed with this film.

Another contributing factor for the success of the movie was R.D. Burman's mesmerizing music. Dev rightfully chose RD, instead of RD’s father SD who was his regular, to compose the music for the film. RD responded with a bang by providing unforgettable music that was full of heat and beat. The song "Dum Maaro" became an instant cult phenomenon. Huffing and puffing, Asha breathes life into the song making it an unforgettable high of listening experience. The oomph, the "mast", it is all there. It is simply an unforgettable lovely.

Sometime back I was in attendance at one of Asha's concerts. She recited the story that the song "Dum Maaro" almost didn't make it. Dev Anand wanted to scrap it thinking that it will project a wrong image and may be not necessary to the proceedings of the story. But better senses prevailed. The song did remain in the movie and became such an integral part of the story. Asha won the Best Female Singer Award for the song from Filmfare.

Zeenat was not the first actress of choice for the role she played in the movie. Several others were considered including Mumtaz. But Mumtaz wanted to play the part of the leading lady opposite Dev. Then the role was offered to Zeenat which she readily accepted. For her stunning performance, Zeenat earned the Best Support Actress Award from Filmfare magazine. She also won the BFJA Award as the Best Actress.

While making the movie, Dev went to court to have Mumtaz available for shooting of the film in Nepal. She was a busy actress during this time and producers did not want her to go on an extended period of time without honoring her other commitments. When they tried to stop, Dev went to the court and got a verdict in his favor. The movie was shot without further hitch.

I am uploading all songs of this film, a few music clips, some specials, and a number of instrumentals in five back-to-back postings. The first set of songs start in the next post...

[swarapriya]

Songs from "Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971)"...

Here are the hits songs from "Hare Rama Hare Krishna"...

[swarapriya]

Music Clips from "Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971)"...

Here are few music clips from this pop cultural hit film...

[swarapriya]

Few Version Songs from "Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971)"...

Here are a few version songs from the film...

[swarapriya]

Few Instrumentals of the Songs from "Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971)"...

Here are a few instrumentals of the songs from the film...

[swarapriya]

More Instrumentals of the Songs from "Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971)"...

Here are a few more instrumentals...

[swarapriya]

(Hasrat Jaipuri) Sanjh aur Savera (1964)

It is strange to see Hrishida get into this kind of a family drama, a trademark trait of many movies from South during that period. But again Hrishida did direct one film for AVM Productions in 1961, “Chhaya”. He may have seen the movies AVM as well as others like Gemini were making when he was working in the South. Whatever the reasons are, this one is unlike any of Hrishida’s movies. Unfortunately, it was an utterly forgettable film except for its beautiful music by Shankar & Jaikishan.

The movie had Guru Dutt paired opposite Meena Kumari, but he hardly had anything to do in the film. It was all Meenaji’s movie. Mahmood had a bigger role than Guru. This also happened to be Guru’s last film. In the month of October of the same year he passed away. So young, so much promise, such an explosive potential. All gone even though he left behind several nugget like movies as his heritage forever to remember.

As mentioned earlier, the one thing that is outstanding about this movie is its music. Most songs, especially the title song, became very popular. But for me song of the album is the duet by Sumanji and Rafi Saab, “Aj Hoon Naa Aaye”. S&J seldom forayed into the classical or semi-classical genre of music. Whenever they did, the results have been outstanding. Here with this song the result was no different. Magnificent composition and melodious singing by both the principles make it an unforgettable listening experience.

I am uploading this and other songs from the film and a few music clips in two back-to-back posts. Here are the songs from the film in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Sanjh aur Savera (1964)"...

Here are a few music clips and a couple of specials of the songs from this film...

[swarapriya]

(Majrooh) Abhilasha (1968)

This is not a good movie. Even though the story tries hard to come up with unexpected turns, it is so poorly directed that one loses interest. On the top of it, the hero as played by Sanjay Khan, simply a dud. He just cannot emote. He has that one solid expression and I wonder how he was able to fool moviegoers even with the mediocre career. He should have gotten a cue from two masters of acting, Meena Kumari and Rehman who were his parents in this film. Meenaji was always on the heavy side but she always compensated it with her beautiful face, pathos ridden acting, and great dialogue delivery. In this film it appeared like there was something missing in her performance.

In spite of all this, RD who was its music director, and Majrooh Saab, the lyricist try desperately to make the film passable. Both of them succeeded in their departments but it did not help the film recover any of its investment.

There are several popular songs in the film. Song of the album is Rafi Saab version of “Waadiyaan”. Simply a knock out. I am uploading this and other songs from the film, few music clips, and a few instrumentals in two back-to-back posts. Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

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

Here are a few music clips and some instrumentals of "Waadiyaan" from the film...

[swarapriya]

(Rajinder Krishan) Aao Pyar Karen (1964)

As the head of Filmistan, S. Mukherjee was famous for making hit musicals even with thin storylines. Then he started Filmalaya and struck gold with his first movie “Dil Deke Dekho” in 1959. His next big success was with the 1960 hit “Love in Simla” in which he introduced his son Joy Mukherjee. That movie also introduced Sadhana and the director R.K. Nayyar. After these successes it was mostly downhill for him. He could never recapture the glorious days he enjoyed as the head of Filmistan. This movie produced by him also starred his son Joy Mukherjee and was directed by Nayyar. The music for the film was composed by Usha Khanna, who was introduced in “Dil Deke Dekho”.

The problem with this film was that not only it had non-existent story, but awkward screenplay, and ineptitude direction. For example, our hero suddenly finds that he has skills of a matador and participates in a bull fight. He saves his girlfriend from the bull as well as from a bully. No explanation how he magically acquires these powers because it was suggested he grew up in an orphanage.

This film had Sanjeev Kumar in a supporting role. Earlier he appeared in a brief role in “Hum Hindustani (1960)”, another S. Mukherjee vehicle. “Aao Pyar Karen” was his second movie. He appeared in the film under the name “Sanjay”. He went onto win several awards in his career including two National Film Awards as the Best Actor.

Mac Mohan, who also had a supporting role in this film, burst into Hindi films with not one, or two, but three in 1964. He used “Brij Mohan” as his name in all these three films. These were “Cha Cha Cha”, “Haqeeqat”, and this film “Aao Pyar Karen”. He used either Brij Mohan or Mac Mohan in a few subsequent films before he settled down for good with the name “Mac Mohan”. He appeared in 260+ movies. One of his famous roles was as Samba in the 1975 blockbuster “Sholay”.

The only saving grace of the film was its music by the incomparable Usha Khannaji. The movie has a total of 12 songs, mostly sung by either Lataji or Rafi Saab. I am uploading all these in two back-to-back posts. Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Aao Pyar Karen (1964)"...

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

[swarapriya]

(Shailendra) Begaana (1963)

These songs were downloaded from a poor quality (audio as well as video) DVD. For that reason I am uploading them at a lower bit rate. The DVD was missing two songs; “Aaye Gayo” and “Aye Saagar”. There was another “Begaana” movie that was released in 1986 which also starred Dharmendra. I searched that film to see whether these two missing songs could be from that. They are not. So I am uploading these two songs here. My source for both of them was audio only videos.

Here are the songs from the film…