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

[swarapriya]

(Rajinder Krishan) Gauri (1968)

This movie was a remake of the 1965 Tamil hit “Shanti”. This family drama was so bad that it should have been never remade in Hindi. The story revolves around Nutan, who played the title character, portraying a noble and faithful “Bharat Naari” in spite of all the hardships she faces. It also starred Mumtaz opposite Sunil Dutt which turned out to be a mismatch with Dutt looking too old for spritely Mumtaz. But again Mumtaz had hardly any role.

In otherwise these drab proceedings couple of songs stand out. Lataji’s “Mor Bole” which goes occasionally “besur” when the sound is at higher pitch and Asha’s lovely “Baaj Ri”. It seems like with Rajinder Krishan writing lyrics, Ravi composing songs, every southern movie they collaborated has a song similar to “Log Toh”. Incidentally, I have in my songs library an abbreviated version of this song that apparently was sung by Ravi himself. I am not uploading it here for two reasons. First, the audio is very bad. Second, even though the singer is labelled as Ravi, it does not sound like him. Ravi has sang in few films, may be around 10. Some of these include “Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka (1975)”, “Lagan (1955)”, “Khamosh Nigahen (1986)” and others. The voice of these songs and that in “Gauri”, in my opinion, do not match.

Here are the songs from the film…

[swarapriya]

(Shailendra) Poonam ki Raat (1965)

Kishore Sahu made a few good movies like “Mayur Pankh (1954)”, “Hamlet (1954)”, “Dil Apna aur Preet Parai (1960)”, “Grahasti (1963)” etc. He also made many bad ones. Take for example this movie. Instead of great music by Salilda, the movie had not much going for it. For this film Sahuji might have taken too many responsibilities. He wrote its story, screenplay, dialogues, produced and directed. He also played a key role in the film. He is famous for introducing new talent. One of his finds was late actress Bina Rai in the 1951 film “Kali Ghata”. In this film he introduced several new faces. The two leading ladies of the film, Nandini and Kumud Chhugani were couple of these. He also introduced two or three other actors in supporting roles. Apart from Chhugani who appeared in few movies none of them survived in the film field.

This movie is remembered for its beautiful songs. Almost all songs became popular. Of course Lataji’s haunting melody “Saathi Re” takes the cake. Absolutely riveting. Interestingly Salilda also composed the song “Aa Jaa Re Pardesi”, another haunting melody by Lataji, for late Bimal Roy’s 1958 hit “Madhumati”.

I am uploading all songs and a couple of instrumentals in two back-to-back posts. Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Poonam ki Raat (1965)"...

Here are the rest of the songs and a few music clips from the film...

[swarapriya]

(Anand Bakshi) Gora aur Kala (1972)

This movie was based on the Tamil hit “Neerum Neruppam (1971)”. But that movie itself was adapted from Alexander Dumas’ 1844 famous French novel “Corsican Brothers”. This movie with Rajendra Kumar playing twin brothers, one “Gora” and another “Kala” is so bad that I felt like not watching it at all. Intentionally or unintentionally the movie seemed to suggest that “gora” is better than “kala”. That threw me off completely.

Rekha had a smaller role compared to Hema’s but she sparkled in each scene she was present.

Couple of songs are worth listening to, “Dheere Dheere” and “Tu Mere”. Otherwise rest of the songs were stale and labored. LP as well as Bakshi Saab disappoint.

I am uploading all songs in two back-to-back posts. Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Gora aur Kala (1972)"...

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

[swarapriya]

(Hasrat Jaipuri) Around the World (1967)

This movie was shot extensively around the world at a great expense. Most locations were shown as quick sightseeing episodes but there was not much of a story adhering to them. On the top of it Raj Kapoor looked tired, old, fat, and disinterested in the proceedings. He was paired opposite Rajshree who probably was third of his age. Then in the middle of all this the producer and director of the film, Pachhi, had a role that was simply boring. He took a lot of screen time. Then there were appearances by Mahmood and Om Prakash which did not add any value to the story. Even the presence of Pran, who saw only limited duty, was wasted.

Amidst all of this one thing that tried to lift the movie was its music by S&J. In spite of the extensive use of Sharda as a singer, the movie did have several good songs. Also, the locations around the world gave them opportunity to score beautiful background music. I am uploading all songs and several music clips in four back-to-back posts. The first two posts contain the songs from the film. The last two contain music clips.

A note about the song “Chale Jaana.” This song appeared only as a duet in the film. But I have a CD album that also has a solo version of this song. It turns out that the solo is the portion that was separated out from the duet that Sharda sang. I am uploading it here.

Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Around the World (1967)"...

Here are the rest of the songs and a couple of instrumentals of the songs from the film...

[swarapriya]

Few Music Clips from "Around the World (1967)"...

Here are a few music clips from the film...

[swarapriya]

Few More Music Clips from "Around the World (1967)"...

Here are a few more music clips from the film...

[swarapriya]

(Majrooh) Caravan (1971)

This 1971 musical hit from Nasir Hussain was loosely based on the 1953 Hollywood film “Girl on the Run”. As most Hussain’s films are, this one also had emphasis on entertaining the audience with catchy music. RD easily was up to the task and composed all chartbusters.

I am uploading all songs from the film, few music clips, some specials and version songs, and several instrumentals in five back-to-back posts. Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Caravan (1971)"...

Here are the rest of the songs and a few music clips from the film...

[swarapriya]

A Few Specials of Songs from "Caravan (1971)"...

Here are a few specials related to the songs from the film...

[swarapriya]

Few Instrumentals of the Songs from "Caravan (1971)"...

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

[swarapriya]

Instrumentals of the Song "Piya Tu" from "Caravan (1971)"...

Here are a few instrumentals of the song "Piya Tu" from the film...

[swarapriya]

(Rajinder Krishan) Man Ka Meet (1968)

This utterly lackluster film was produced by Sunil Dutt. He introduced four new actors in this film. Som Dutt, his own younger brother was the hero. Leena Chandavarkar was introduced as heroine opposite Som. Vinod Khanna, who went onto become a big star, was introduced as a villain. The fourth person was Sandhya Rani, who earlier appeared in a few Telugu films.

The downfall was that the story was weak or retread and thus had not much going for it. On the top of it the direction was haphazard. Ravi composed the music with Asha and Mahendra sharing all the songs. Few songs are appealing, especially Mahendra’s “Maikhaane” and Asha’s “Tere Jaise”. The latter song had shades of Hemantda’s 1962 hit song “Saaqiya” from “Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam”.

I am uploading all the songs from this film in two back-to-back posts. Here are the songs in the first post…