Shair Aur Sargam

Dear Swarapriya
Laal Batti contains only 4 songs
the song Jaane Kahan Khoya mera laal is from the Film Jawahar 1960. MD Salil Da.
just correction
taiyab

Thank you very much Taiyab. I made changes to the table to reflect your recommendation. Cheers. -S

(Rajinder Krishan) Ferry (Kashti) (1978)

This is an early album of Hemantda that starred Geeta Bali & Dev Anand, the pair that sizzled the screen in "Jaal (1952)". Here Dev played a much subdued role of a mild mannered and protective father of a child who lost his mother whereas Geeta Bali played a woman running away from her past.

Music director Hemantda utilized talents of some fine singers in this album whose names we don't hear every day (Laxmi Shankar and Ratna Gupta). But the results are the same. Beautiful. Incidentally, Laxmi Shankar’s voice almost sounds like that of Geetaji’s.

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan played sarod (for Dev's character) and Pt. Nikhil Banerjee played sitar (for Geeta Bali's character). Ravi was the assistant music director. There is a beautiful piece of sarod music and a “jugalbandi” in the film. The jugalbandi starts as a sitar solo. It slowly drifts into a sarod solo. Finally it ends up as a jugalbandi between the two players of these respective instruments. Simply awesome.

Many songs from the film are repeated throughout the movie. Hemantda’s beauty “Naav Badha Le” starts as the title song but some of its pieces are repeated throughout the movie, some 7 or 8 times. Laxmi Shankar’s song “Kaisi Laagi” has two parts. The song by Ratna Gupta, “Yehi Hai”, appears in the movie three times. The third part is a repeat of portions of the first, but it appears like may be at a slightly slower pace. Nevertheless I am uploading it here.

Rajinder Krishan who also collaborated with Hemantda the very same year for the history making music of "Nagin" wrote the lyrics.

I am uploading these songs in two back-to-back posts. The first post contains all songs that have several parts. The second post contains the rest.

Here are the songs in the first post…

Concluding Songs from "Ferry (Kashti) (1978)"...

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

(Shailendra) Chori Chori (1956)

Shankar &Jaikishan were introduced by Raj Kapoor in the history making "Barsaat" in 1949. Since then they composed music for a number of films and in the process created many unforgettable songs. Yet they never won any major award for all their accomplishments. Not until this movie, "ChoriChori", came along. This was the first movie for which they got Filmfare award for Best Music.It was the first of eight they got in their brilliant career. Until recently this number seemed unsurpassable with Laxmikant&Pyarelal coming in a close second with seven awards. But recently A.R. Rahman has eclipsed all these numbers. He has swept away every major award any country has offered. He garnered a staggering 25 Filmfare awards (14 regular and 11 South) in a brief period of time!

By the time "ChoriChori" was ready to go into production, Mukesh was firmly entrenched as the voice of Raj Kapoor. Yet Shankar &Jaikishan had Manna Dey sing for Raj in this film. This was a surprising choice. But not surprisingly, Manna da delivers some unforgettable duets with Lataji that are cherished even today.

This movie was based on director Frank Capra's English hit "It Happened One Night" made in 1934 that starred Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. It won five major Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay). Not until 1975 another movie ("One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest") won as many major awards. The feat was repeated only once more with "Silence of the Lambs" in 1991 grabbing all the major Oscars. The movie "It Happened One Night" was also remade in English as a musical, "You Can't Run Away From It" starring June Allyson and Jack Lemmon.

"ChoriChori" was a carbon copy of the English version, “It Happened One Night”. It was remade in Hindi by Mahesh Bhatt in 1991 under the name "DilHaiKe Manta Nahin". This movie was also a success mainly because it had some beautiful music composed by the duo Nadeem&Shravan. The movie was also made in Bengali with SuchitraSen and Uttam Kumar in 1959 under the name "ChaoaPaoa". It wa also made in Kannada under the name "Hudugaata".

The fascination for the English film “It Happened One Night” also yielded at least another two musicals in Hindi. The adaptations include “SolvaSaal (1958)” and “Basant (1960)”. “Saal” had some lilting music by Burmanda and “Basant” had swinging music by OP. But neither one of these movies enjoyed the same success as “ChoriChori”.

It is interesting that Raj Kapoor who played Clark Gable's role in "ChoriChori" was complimented by the Hollywood actress Shirley Maclaine during her visit to India when she told Raj that he looked like Clark Gable unaware that Raj played Gable’s role in “ChoriChori”.

"ChoriChori" has some beautiful music and sweet songs with great compositions. Apart from the three Lata-Manna duets, Lataji's two solos,"PanchhiBanoon" and "RasikBalma" are absolute delights. Lata never sounded this sweet and this better.

Here is one great story reported about the song "RasikBalma". The late great Mehboob Khan was recuperating from a heart problem in a Los Angeles hospital. He heard "RasikBalma" and loved it very much. He wanted to hear the song but no record of the song was available in Los Angeles. He called Lataji in Bombay and she readily obliged by singing the song over the phone. Lataji repeated this gesture many times during his stay in the hospital while Mehboob Khan was recovering. Later after returning to India, a healthier Mehboob Khan thanked Lataji for bringing him solace and comfort by singing the song for him and helping in quick recovery.

I am posting songs from this film and several instrumentals in five back-to-back posts. The first two posts consist of all songs from the film plus couple of version songs. The third, fourth, and fifth posts containinstrumentals of some of the popular songs from the film

The songs start in the next post...

Chori Chori (1956) - Post 1 (Songs)

This and the next post contains beautiful songs from this film. Here is the first set of songs...

Chori Chori (1956) - Post 2 (Songs)

Here are the rest of the songs fro this melodious album including a version song of "Yeh Raat" by Geetaji and Bhushan...

Chori Chori (1956) - Post 3 (Instrumentals)

Here are some instrumentals of the popular song "Aa Jaa Sanam" from the film "Chori Chori"...

Chori Chori (1956) - Post 4 (Instrumentals)

Here are a few instrumentals of the popular songs "Panchhi Banoon" and "Rasik Balma" from the film "Chori Chori"...

Chori Chori (1956) - Post 5 (Instrumentals)

I am uploading in this final posting instrumentals of the popular song "Yeh Raat Bheegi Bheegi" from the film "Chori Chori"...

(Shakeel) Mother India (1957)

“Mother India” when released in 1957 was a blockbuster. It broke all box office records and remained a champion for the next three years until "Mughal-E-Azam" was released in 1960. This movie was one of the monumental achievements in Indian film history. Even though Mehboob was the architect of this masterpiece, the person who made it amazingly realistic with an unmatched and absolutely brilliant and rustic performance was the great actress Nargis. It is one of those gut wrenching performances that will be remembered for ages to come. This was even more significant if one considers that Nargis hitherto portrayed mostly urban and sophisticated lady roles (Mehboob's "Andaz (1950)" is an example). It was a stroke of genius by Mehboob Saab that he saw what Nargisji can do. He should know. It was Mehboobji who introduced Nargis in his movie "Taqdeer" in 1943.

This movie was a remake of Mehboob's earlier movie "Aurat (1940)". That starred Sardar Akhtar in the mother's role. Surendra (Rajendra's role) and Yaqoob (Sunil Dutt's role) played sons. Arun (father of actor Govinda) played Raaj Kumar's role. Kanhaiyalal played the same role in both the movies. “Aurat” had some magnificent music by Anil Biswas. Many critics are of the opinion that this original version with its rustic backdrop was much more engrossing than Mehboob Khan's this later version.

“Mother India” made stars out of Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, and Raaj Kumar. That is quite an impressive list. It also introduced actress Azra and the child star Sajid. Sajid later was adopted by Mehboob Khan and appeared in his next movie, “Son of India (1962)”. Sajid acted in an English movie called “Maya” in 1966. Later he appeared in several television series in US. The notable of these were “Maya” based on the film and “The Big Valley”. He was last seen in the English film made by Merchant-Ivory films, “Heat and Dust (1983)”. Azra appeared in only few Hindi films.

“Mother India” won all kinds of laurels for Nargisji and many other significant awards too. She won the best actress award for her performance at the Karlovy Vary film festival. The movie fetched Filmfare awards for the Best Picture (Mehboob Khan), the Best Director (Mehboob Khan), the Best Actress (Nargis), the Best Cinematography (Faredoon Irani), and the Best Sound (R. Kaushik). It also has the distinction of being selected as the first Indian movie for Oscars in the Best Foreign film category. It lost by one vote to that famous Italian film by Fredrico Fellini "Nights of Cabiria" on the third count. Not for another 31 years, another Indian film will be nominated for Oscars. That movie was "Salaam Bombay (1988)".

Khan Saab was described by many as Cecille B. DeMille (the maker of "The Ten Commandments") of India. In fact, after watching "Mother India" DeMille contacted Mehboobji to congratulate him for the magnificent job he did.

Nargis broke away with Raj Kapoor during the shooting of this movie. Sunil Dutt, who played her son in the movie, displaying real life heroics, rescued her from the burning fire when the climax was being shot. In the process Dutt himself suffered several burns but Nargis was safe. This bravura act was enough to tilt her Nargis’ heart towards Dutt. They got romantically involved after that incident and within a year were married. Incidentally, Mehboobji considered offering the role Sunil Dutt played to the Hollywood actor Sabu. However it didn't pan out and the role eventually went to Dutt.

This movie was banned in Turkey because Mehboob's banner has hammer and sickle in it. Because this represents communist and social leanings, Turkey did not allow the movie to be screened in that country. When this movie was sent for Oscar competition, Mehboobji made sure that his banner's symbol was cut out.

Naushadji's music didn't win any awards but it was a major part of the success enjoyed by the movie. Here Naushadji used very few and simple instruments but very effectively. Almost all songs are catchy and stayed popular for a long time.

I will upload songs from an original soundtrack album in two back-to-back posts starting in the next post…

Mother India (1957)

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

Concluding Songs from "Mother India (1957)"...

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

thanks Swarapriya for all intrumental musicals. always offer new excuse to download.
one Variant song 1956-chori chori-panchhi banu geetadutt-gettadutt-SJ-hasrat jaipuri-128 br-3.26 mins.
enjoy
taiyab

Thanks for the song Taiyab. It turns out that I have this song in my music bank. Even though I tagged the singer as Geetaji, when I heard it I wasn't sure. Therefore I decided to not upload it.

Anyway, thanks for sharing with us.

Cheers,
S