Shair Aur Sargam

Dear Pratul,

It is good to hear from you.

Unless you want them urgently, Pratul, I will upload them around next week under the topic of "Majrooh" in this thread. I just had "Sone Ki Chidiya" uploaded under his topic so would like a week's time.

Cheers,
S

You are very welcome Soumik.

Cheers,
S

(Rajinder Krishan) Bhai-Bhai (1956)

This film from AVM was a huge hit with several popular songs in it. It was directed by M.V. Raman who earlier introduced Vyjayantimala to Hindi audience (in “Bahar (1951)”) and made several hit Tamil films and Hindi films. Kishoreda was his favorite and every Hindi film he made through 1958 starred Kishoreda. These include “Bahar (1951)”, “Ladki (1953)”, “Pehli Jhalak (1954)”, “Asha (1957” and “Chandan (1958)”. Kishoreda also starred in “Payal Ki Jhankar”, a 1968 film directed by Raman.

This was Madan Mohanji’s first assignment for an AVM film. And he came through in flying colors. The movie boasted several hit songs. Even though the movie looks dated now it was a highly popular film. Daisy Irani, who was introduced the previous year in “Bandish”, appeared in this film under the name of Roop Kumar. The titles had her name as the “Wonder Child” Roop Kumar.

Even though Lataji dominated the proceedings, the song of the album is Geetaji’s “Aye Dil Mujhe Bata De”. This song in Geetaji’s mesmerizing voice is transformed into a thing of utter beauty. The honeyed sweetness of her voice, the seductive traces in her tone, the sheer power of richness of its lyrics, these all come together to make a definitive statement about the romance in the air. This is considered to be one of the top songs sung by Geetaji. Interestingly, for Madan Mohanji, who composed so many brilliant songs with Lataji, this song also is considered to be one of his top compositions. Yet, one of our senior members and the man who knows inside out of Geetaji, my friend Parag Sankla tells that the song almost never came about. The problem was that Mohanji for some reason or other did not want to compose the song in the first place. It was the producer of the film who persuaded Madanji to compose it and have Geetaji sing the song. Parag thinks that the music for the song itself is not that great because of its indifferent composition of the tune and the use of relatively indifferent musical pieces in between the stanzas. Irrespective of this background for the song, it is a real tribute to the genius of Geetaji that she could breathe life into the song and glide through it so romantically making it a memorable hit.

I am uploading songs from this film in three back-to-back posts. In the first post I am including a special in which the late great Begum Akhtar talks about Madan Mohanji and the song “Kadar Jaane Naa”. The song “Apna Hai” appears piecemeal four times in the film. I am including all these four parts in the third post. I am also including the full version that includes all these four parts. You can download either the four separate parts or just one complete song. But you don’t need to download both. In this post I am also including a special in which the singer Preeti Sagar talks about Geetaji.

The songs start in the next post…

Songs from "Bhai-Bhai (1956)"

Here are the songs in the first post...

Continuing Songs from "Bhai-Bhai (1956)"...

Here are more songs from this popular album...

Concluding Songs from "Bhai-Bhai (1956)"...

Here are the rest of the songs from this fine album. Please note that the song "Apna Hai" is the same as its separate parts listed here. Please download either the four separate parts or the one whole one. But not both...

Thanks Swarapriya. Will wait for your upload next week.

Its nice to be back. Over the past year I could not participate much in the forum but hopefully I will be able to participate in the discussions here.

(Shailendra) Aji Bas Shukriya (1958)

Eagle Films made many hit movies starring Shammi Kapoor. In this film they have Geeta Bali, Shammi’s wife, playing the lead. The problem with this film was it could not make up its mind whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama. By the time it settles down into one of these genres the movie was finished. Geeta Bai who could be very funny was underutilized because of the aforementioned problem.

There are only few songs in this film but they are good. The seven songs were written by four different lyricists. Usha Khanna, who was to make history making debut as a music director the following year with “Dil Deke Dekho”, was here singing a song with Asha. She also wrote that song.

The standout song of the album is Lataji’s beautiful solo “Saari Saari Raat”. I am uploading this and other songs, some music clips, a version song of “Saari Saari Raat”, and a couple of instrumentals of the same song in two back-to-back posts.

Here are the songs in the first post…

Concluding Songs from "Aji Bas Shukriya (1958)"...

Here are some music clips, instrumentals and a version song...

(Shakeel) Mulzim (1963)

The collaboration between the music director Ravi and the lyricist Shakeel Saab produced many hit songs from several films whether they were successful or not. This movie, very mediocre one, is a prime example. Almost all songs from the film are appealing but an unconvincing story with a silly plot leaves one disappointed. N.A. Ansari, who has some resemblance to the yesteryear actor Bela Lugosi who was famous for playing Count Dracula in many films, directed the film besides having an important role in the film. He played the role of an eye specialist who decides to help a blind woman to restore her sight so that he can find her innocent but fugitive son and get rid of him. This way he was planning to escape from the murder he committed.

The movie has several good songs in it. All solos by Rafi Saab are pleasing to listen to. So is Asha's solo. The duet by Asha and Rafi, "Sang Sang Rahenge" has a catchy tune. Here is this and the rest of the songs from this film...

(Majrooh) Dosti (1964)

I am foregoing my usual chronological order of uploading songs from the films to honor a special request...

LP made their stunning debut as independent music directors only the previous year, in 1963, with “Parasmani”. They followed it with another musical hit the same year, “Harischandra Taramati”. In spite of these early major successes the duo was still not taken for granted and were looking for work. When Rajshri folks approached them to compose music for “Dosti” they jumped at the opportunity even though they were paid a meagerly amount of 10,000 Rupees for their efforts.

One of the main characters in the film was a harmonica player. LP needed someone to play harmonica in the film. Vijayalaxmi, Laxmikant’s sister, knew about R.D. Burman’s skill as a harmonica player. RD, who made his debut as an independent music director with “Chhote Nawab” in 1961 was also looking for work. When LP approached him for help with playing harmonica music he readily agreed.

Pyarelal in many interviews acknowledged that Panchamda was an undisputed king of harmonica. Pyarelal went on to declare that Pancham’s skill was simply unparalleled and he never met with anyone in the industry with that kind of talent. Pyarelal remembered in the interviews that RD played the harmonica in all the songs in the film. He even volunteered to play it for the background score but LP did not want to take this generous gesture from RD. By the way, for the background score, Milon Gupta, a good friend of RD, played the harmonica.

Many experts analyzed songs from “Dosti” to conclude that the best harmonica score was probably for the song “Jaanewaalo”. These people agreed that the harmonica pieces in this song created a mood of sorrow, torment, and anguish that may have paralleled RD’s internal suffering during that time. Incidentally, RD also provided the harmonica music for Kishoreda’s “Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein”, also in 1964, for the song “Raahi Tu Mat Ruk Jaana”.

The film writer late Sachin Bhowmick told in an interview that as early as 1960, Laxmikant was seriously contemplating to partner with RD as a music director duo team. But when RD signed for Mahmood’s “Chhhote Nawab” that idea evaporated. Laxmi then took Pyare as his team. The team made an enduring partnership that lasted until Laxmi’s death in 1998.

“Dosti” won several Filmfare Awards that year. These included the Best Picture, the Best Music (LP), The Best lyrics for “Chaahoonga” (Majrooh), the Best Song “Chaahoonga” (Rafi), the Best Story, and the “Best Dialogues”. The movie beat out Madan Mohanji’s “Woh Kaun Thi?” and Shankar & Jaikishan’s “Sangam” when it won the Best Music Director Award. This was the first of seven Filmfare Awards LP won during their illustrious career. Incidentally, Majrooh Saab was the lyricist only for this movie. The other Award winners all had Anand Bakshi Saab as the lyricist.

Sanjay Khan made his acting debut in this film. For the teenagers Sushil Kumar and Sudhir Kumar who made their debut playing friends in the film, no other opportunities came along.

I am uploading all songs, music clips, version songs, and instrumentals in three back-to-back posts. The first post contains all songs from the film and some music clips. The second post contains several version songs. The third post contains mostly instrumentals of some of the popular songs from the film.

Here are the songs in the first part, starting in the next post…

Songs from "Dosti (1964)"...

Here are all the songs and some music clips from this film...

Version Songs of "Dosti (1964)"...

Here are some of the version songs of the popular songs from the film...

Instrumentals of Some Popular Songs from "Dosti (1964)"...

Here are a couple of specials and instrumentals...