Yeh Gul(zar)istan Hamara, Films of Gulzar Options

[swarapriya]

Koshish (1972)

This is one daring movie because the story revolves around two deaf and mute adults and their travails through the lives. Someone told me that it was inspired by a Japanese movie. May be so or may be not so. I am not sure. May be someone can help clarify. However the credits say that Gulzarji wrote the story, screenplay, dialogues, lyrics, and directed the film.

There are only two songs in this film. The music is by the maestro Madan Mohan Saab. Music is not a significant part of the movie for obvious reasons because both of the lead players are deaf and mute.

The film received various awards. Both Jaya Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar in the lead roles received National acting awards for their performances.

Now for a description of the songs and the songs themselves ...

[swarapriya]

Parichay (1972)

This is the second movie Gulzarji directed this year that starred Jaya Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar, albeit Sanjeev had only a small and supporting role. This movie was based on the multiple Oscar winning English musical "Sound of Music" made in 1965 that was based on a true story of the plight of talented family Van Trapps of Salzburg, Austria. Only thing changed in this movie was that the role Julie Andrews played in English was changed to a male person and was played in Hindi by Jeetendra.

The Hindi film had its moments but what one still fondly remembers of it is its beautiful music composed by RD. If I am right this is how the association of Gulzar & RD started. This is the start of a great partnership. Together they were responsible for several beautiful film as well as private albums.

This probably is the second time RD utilized the talents of the singer Bhupinder. Earlier he sang in RD's "Abhilasha (1969)". Bhupinder was part of RD's orchestra team and got a break as a singer thanks to RD. In this film, Bhupinder sings a couple of beautiful songs. Especially his duet with Lata, "Beeti Na Bitaayi Raina" is an absolute beauty. The album also has one of the popular songs of Kishoreda, "Musaafir Hoon Yaaro".

I am uploading songs of this album in back-to-back two posts. The first one contains all the songs from the original soundtrack album. The second post contains some specials.

Now here are the details of the songs from the first post and the songs themselves ...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Parichay (1972)" ...

In this part I am posting a couple of extended version songs. I am also including a special version of "Beeti Na Bitaayi" with Gulzarji's introduction. This is taken from the album "Legends: R.D. Burman - The Versatile Composer (CD 2)". The other is a version song by Amit of "Musaafir Hoon Yaaro".

Here are these songs ...

[swarapriya]

Achanak (1973)

Gulzar directed this songless movie from a story by K.A. Abbas ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Jul 1 2010, 10:59 PM

[swarapriya]

Namak Haraam (1973)

This movie was directed by Hrishida. Even though story is credited to Biresh Chatterjee, it was an adaptation of the famous English movie called "Becket", made in 1964, starring Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. Rajesh played the role of Burton and Amitabh played the role of O'Toole. The English movie was based on a historical fact and was a period drama. The Hindi version was set in the modern times. Hrishida vehemently denied in an interview that his movie was not based on “Becket”. He said that “ … critics insisted that mine was inspired from “Beckett”. “Beckett” is the story of a king who wants to turn his servant into an Archbishop. My film is about an affluent who cannot live without his middle-class friend …”. Whatever the claim Hrishida may have made, this movie is definitely a modernized version of “Beckett”.

But even before the Hindi version came out, there was a movie made in Telugu in mid-60s, just a year or
two later than the English film, called "Praana Snehitulu" with A. Nageshwara Rao and Jaggayya with almost the same backdrop as that of the Hindi version.

This was the second time Rajesh and Amitabh acted together for a Hrishida film. The other movie was "Anand (1971)" also directed by Hrishida. In that movie Amitabh was relatively new and even though gave a fine, restrained and understated performance, it was Rajesh Khanna's movie all the way. In that movie Rajesh played the role of an extrovert whereas Amitabh’s role was that of an introvert. In this movie their roles were reversed with Rajesh playing an introvert to Amitabh’s extrovert. These two films show how contrasting roles these dominating players have easily played and the wonderful rapport they had acting together. Too bad they never came together to act in another movie again. Most of the people attribute this to the fact that the critics thought Amitabh's overpowering performance just overshadowed that of Rajesh and that didn’t sit too well with Rajesh. Also, after this movie Amitabh's fortunes started climbing up while Rajesh's started declining.

It is interesting that Amitabh learnt from Hrishida later on that Rajesh was the hero of the movie because he dies in the end (“heroes die”). Amitabh was apparently unhappy about it as he felt all along that he was the hero. Hrishida says that Amitabh didn’t speak to him for several days. He felt that Hrishida betrayed him. But with critics pouring in rave reviews Amitabh felt vindicated. Hrishida also says that Amitabh was so over critical of himself with his performance in the movie that he thought he could have done better. Per Hrishida, Amitabh always strived for perfection. This was just one example of that. Amitabh received a Filmfare award as the Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal. Interestingly Amitabh paying an introvert in the movie “Anand” also received the Best Supporting Actor Award from Filmfare magazine.

Gulzarji wrote the screenplay and dialogues for the movie. He received the Filmfare Award for the Best Dialogues.

This one is a beauty as far as R.D. Burman's music is concerned. Kishoreda has four solos in it. Out of them three are just outstanding.

Here are the songs from this album ...

[Viraj Padhye]

Namak Haraam (1973)

This movie was directed by Hrishida. Even though story is credited to Biresh Chatterjee, it was an adaptation of the famous English movie called "Becket", made in 1964, starring Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. Rajesh played the role of Burton and Amitabh played the role of O'Toole. The English movie was based on a historical fact and was a period drama. The Hindi version was set in the modern times. Hrishida vehemently denied in an interview that his movie was not based on “Becket”. He said that “ … critics insisted that mine was inspired from “Beckett”. “Beckett” is the story of a king who wants to turn his servant into an Archbishop. My film is about an affluent who cannot live without his middle-class friend …”. Whatever the claim Hrishida may have made, this movie is definitely a modernized version of “Beckett”.

But even before the Hindi version came out, there was a movie made in Telugu in mid-60s, just a year or
two later than the English film, called "Praana Snehitulu" with A. Nageshwara Rao and Jaggayya with almost the same backdrop as that of the Hindi version.

This was the second time Rajesh and Amitabh acted together for a Hrishida film. The other movie was "Anand (1971)" also directed by Hrishida. In that movie Amitabh was relatively new and even though gave a fine, restrained and understated performance, it was Rajesh Khanna's movie all the way. In that movie Rajesh played the role of an extrovert whereas Amitabh’s role was that of an introvert. In this movie their roles were reversed with Rajesh playing an introvert to Amitabh’s extrovert. These two films show how contrasting roles these dominating players have easily played and the wonderful rapport they had acting together. Too bad they never came together to act in another movie again. Most of the people attribute this to the fact that the critics thought Amitabh's overpowering performance just overshadowed that of Rajesh and that didn’t sit too well with Rajesh. Also, after this movie Amitabh's fortunes started climbing up while Rajesh's started declining.

It is interesting that Amitabh learnt from Hrishida later on that Rajesh was the hero of the movie because he dies in the end (“heroes die”). Amitabh was apparently unhappy about it as he felt all along that he was the hero. Hrishida says that Amitabh didn’t speak to him for several days. He felt that Hrishida betrayed him. But with critics pouring in rave reviews Amitabh felt vindicated. Hrishida also says that Amitabh was so over critical of himself with his performance in the movie that he thought he could have done better. Per Hrishida, Amitabh always strived for perfection. This was just one example of that. Amitabh received a Filmfare award as the Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal. Interestingly Amitabh paying an introvert in the movie “Anand” also received the Best Supporting Actor Award from Filmfare magazine.

Gulzarji wrote the screenplay and dialogues for the movie. He received the Filmfare Award for the Best Dialogues.

This one is a beauty as far as R.D. Burman's music is concerned. Kishoreda has four solos in it. Out of them three are just outstanding.

Here are the songs from this album ...

Hi SP,

There is one more song "Holi hai ho saraa raa raa holi ke" by Chorus in this movie. I am looking for the same for a long time now.


Viraj

[Aditya Pant]

Hi SP,

There is one more song "Holi hai ho saraa raa raa holi ke" by Chorus in this movie. I am looking for the same for a long time now.


Viraj

Since this song was never released as audio, the best bet would be to rip it from youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR2uZ_MMZ84

Aditya

This post has been edited by Aditya Pant: Jul 7 2010, 08:12 PM

[swarapriya]

Hi SP,

There is one more song "Holi hai ho saraa raa raa holi ke" by Chorus in this movie. I am looking for the same for a long time now.


Viraj

Since this song was never released as audio, the best bet would be to rip it from youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR2uZ_MMZ84

Aditya

Thank you very much for the pointer, Aditya. Cheers. -S

[Viraj Padhye]

Hi SP,

There is one more song "Holi hai ho saraa raa raa holi ke" by Chorus in this movie. I am looking for the same for a long time now.


Viraj

Since this song was never released as audio, the best bet would be to rip it from youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR2uZ_MMZ84

Aditya

Thank you very much for the pointer, Aditya. Cheers. -S

Thanks Aditya.

Vishwas Nerurkar's RDBurman filmography doesn't mention that. I have ripped & attached the song here.

Viraj

[swarapriya]

Doosri Seeta (1974)

Gulzar Saab wrote lyrics for this movie that has some nice songs composed by RD ...

[yogihit]

Awesome upload SPji !!

many thanks

[Viraj Padhye]

Doosri Seeta (1974)

Gulzar Saab wrote lyrics for this movie that has some nice songs composed by RD ...

Hi,

Does somebody have sad version of "Aayi re aayi re"?

Viraj

[swarapriya]

Awesome upload SPji !!

many thanks

Yogi, many thanks. Please drop "ji" next time you have to correspond. Thanks. -S

[rpnawani]

Thanks Swarapriya for putting so much effort in collecting works of Gulzar ji and putting them at one place in this thread. I very much enjoyed your write-ups which are well researched and give new information unknown to most of us. Although I have a reasonable collection of songs penned by Gulzar ji, I was missing many songs. Thank you very much.

rpnawani

[swarapriya]

Thanks Swarapriya for putting so much effort in collecting works of Gulzar ji and putting them at one place in this thread. I very much enjoyed your write-ups which are well researched and give new information unknown to most of us. Although I have a reasonable collection of songs penned by Gulzar ji, I was missing many songs. Thank you very much.

rpnawani

RP, thank you very mch for such nice words. That makes my day. Cheers. -S