Muse & Music, Music of the Golden Age Options

[swarapriya]

(Mumtaz) Rustom Sohrab (1963)

I am re-uploading songs from this album on request. Here is this beauty from the creative genius mind of the composer Sajjad Hussain Saab...

[coolkee]

(Mumtaz) Rustom Sohrab (1963)

I am re-uploading songs from this album on request. Here is this beauty from the creative genius mind of the composer Sajjad Hussain Saab...

Thank you so much Swarapriya

[swarapriya]

(Mumtaz) Rustom Sohrab (1963)

I am re-uploading songs from this album on request. Here is this beauty from the creative genius mind of the composer Sajjad Hussain Saab...

Thank you so much Swarapriya

You're very welcome. Cheers. -S

[swarapriya]

(Waheeda) Pyaasa (1957)

I am re-uploading these songs from one of my favorite movies of all time on request...

(Note: The following write up appeared in one of my earlier postings.)

This probably is one of the most profoundly affecting movie ever made in India. Appropriately titled “Pyaasa”, it tells the story of a young poet’s thirst for love, recognition, and spiritual fulfillment. The movie portrays an artist’s isolation and craving for recognition through dappled imagery and some magnificent picturization of beautiful songs with literary rich lyrics.

Based on a story written in 1947 called “Kashmakash”, writer Abrar Alvi comes up with a gem of a screenplay. Guru Dutt who acted, produced, and directed the movie changed the story on the very first day when the shooting began. Originally the story was about a painter. Guru changed the hero from the painter to a poet. A perfectionist, this was how apparently Guru Dutt worked. He never hesitated to make changes at the last minute.

The movie originally was to star Nargis, Madhubala, and Dilip Kumar. Nargis backed out because she was unhappy with Guru Dutt who dropped her husband Sunil Dutt from a movie that Guru was producing and directing. The movie apparently progressed well and canned even few reels but suddenly Guru decided to scrap the project quietly and didn’t even bother to inform Sunil Dutt about it. Madhubala backed out because she felt her experience with Guru Dutt from “Mr. & Mrs. ‘55” showed that he could be overpoweringly demanding and not easily satisfied. When both the heroines backed out, Mala Sinha was selected to play Nargis’ role and Waheeda was given the role that would have gone to Madhubala. For the first day of shooting when Dilip Kumar didn’t show up, Guru Dutt learned that Dilip didn’t want play the role because he thought it was going to be another “Devdas”. Guru then decided to cast himself in the role of the poet.

Guru Dutt also changed the ending from what Abrar Alvi wrote. In the original story, the movie would have ended with Vijay (Guru) meeting Meena (Mala Sinha) for the last time. But when the distributors saw this, they felt that it was too gloomy. Guru shot the last scene with he and Waheeda in each others arms started going towards the distant sunset in search of a better life.

Johnny Walker was originally cast to play Guru Dutt’s roommate (in the role of Shyam), kind of a negative role for Johnny. After several days of shooting, Guru changed his mind and cast Johnny as Sattar and took one of his assistant friends, Shyam Kumar, to play the role of Shyam.

The movie was dedicated to Gyan Mukherjee whom Guru Dutt admired immensely. Mahmood played the role of young Ashok Kumar in “Kismat” that was directed by Mukherjee. That is where Guru Dutt initially met Mahmood. Guru offered Mahmood to play his older brother’s role in “Pyaasa”. Mahmood also appeared in Guru’s previous film C.I.D. These were before Mahmood found his groove as a comedian.

For the important role of the publisher, Guru went back to his old friend Rehman. A fine actor, Rehman was not getting any decent offers. “Pyaasa” revived his career.

For Guru’s previous four films (“Baaz”, “Aar Paar”, “Mr. & Mrs. ‘55”, and “C.I.D.”) O.P. Nayyar composed music. This time because of the backdrop of Calcutta, Guru Dutt decided to go with S.D. Burman as the music director. He worked with Burman before in “Baazi” and “Jaal” and as a team they were terrific together.

S.D. was brilliant in capturing the magic of Bengal with gently lilting tunes and great background score that helped create the subtle atmosphere demanded by so many scenes. The background score was the same for each principal character in the movie. For example, in Meena’s (Mala Sinha) case, whenever she appeared on the screen, a harmonica was used to play a beautifully haunting tune. Incidentally the harmonica player was R.D. Burman. Sattar’s song “Sar Jo Tera Chakraaye” in “Pyaasa” was also composed by the young Burman, R.D. Recognizing the promise and talent, Guru offered R.D. his first job as a music director for his next project. After the completion of “Pyaasa”, Guru did start this project with R.D. as the music director, but after shooting few reels the movie was scrapped. R.D. used those recorded but unused songs for Mahmood’s first own production “Chhote Nawab”. By default it also became the first movie for which R.D. was the music director.

Sahir Ludhianvi was selected to write lyrics. Much of the credit for the success the movie enjoyed goes to the immensely rich lyrics written by Sahir. Articulating political commentary with humanitarian compassion and blending it with the experience of tragedy was the undercurrent of many of the songs written for this movie. Many people believe that Sahir’s own unhappy romances set a pattern of expression for these songs. Sahir never forgot what “Pyaasa” and Guru Dutt did for his writing career. Many a times he acknowledged Guru to be the principal reason for opening up the emphasis on content rather than on form in creating songs for the movies.

One of the things that made movie so great was the voices of Geeta Dutt, Hemant Kumar, and Mohd. Rafi. Every song they sang still lingers in your thoughts. But the song that symbolizes this movie is that atmospheric stunner, “Aaj Sajan Mohe Ang Laga Lo”. This probably is one of the greatest romantic moments ever filmed for a movie. Its sensuality is heightened by Geetaji’s mesmerizing voice that seem to oscillate by taking the listener between the earth and the heavens. A lovely interpretation of earthly divine love.

Mala Sinha was a relatively newcomer to Hindi films but already acted in many Bengali movies. However, for Waheeda, this was the first movie which demanded her to exhibit her histrionics and emotional skills. Guru was very patient with her. Encouraging and assisting. Instilling confidence. The end result was that a real star was born with this movie. Restrained and understated performances became her trademarks for most of her career.

This was the only second film for Waheeda Rehman. And her performance was simply brilliant as a prostitute with whom the hero finds solace and comfort. In such a demanding role, Waheeda gave an exceptional understated performance with effective emoting. She showed that she could be sultry and at the same time equally radiant.

The photography of “Pyaasa” adds another dimension to the movie’s unprecedented achievements. Guru Dutt and the cameraman V.K. Murty use black and white light effects and shadows so effectively that they leave their alluring imprints in heart forever. Imagery of Christ is used as a symbolic narrative, an allegory, of Vijay’s sufferings. When Rehman is reading the story in the newspaper about the death of Vijay, Meena is holding an issue of the Life magazine whose cover is adorned by Jesus Christ on the cross. Like Jesus himself, Vijay resurrects. When he appears for his own commemoration meeting, he stands at the doorway hands stretched much like Jesus on the cross.

In 2005, Time magazine voted “Pyaasa” as one of the 100 greatest movies in the world. A London-based magazine voted in 2007 Guru Dutt as one of the top 67 directors in the world. Quite a tribute to one of the great cinematic geniuses of Indian cinema.

In 1977, exactly 20 years after “Pyaasa” was released, it was remade in Telugu as “Malle Puvvu”. These songs were posted earlier.

Because of the number of songs, nazms, and verses this movie has, I will post them in four back-to-back separate posts. To start, here is the first set of songs …

[swarapriya]

Continuing Songs from "Pyaasa (1957)"...

Here are more songs from this classic beauty of an album...

[swarapriya]

More Songs from "Pyaasa (1957)"...

Here are more beauties from this great album...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Pyaasa (1957)"...

Here are some of the extended version songs from this one of the finest of the albums...

[coolkee]

Thank you so much Swarapriya

What wonderfull album. Thank you

Coolkee

[swarapriya]

Thank you so much Swarapriya

What wonderfull album. Thank you

Coolkee

You're very welcome Coolkee. Cheers. -S

[swarapriya]

(Rekha) Ladaai (1989)

More than half of this movie parallels another Rekha-Mithun starrer "Jaal" that was released in 1986 whose songs were uploaded earlier in this thread. Incidentally, music for that film was also composed by Anu Malik.

The songs from this movie were ripped from a DVD. Interestingly, the song "Mera Naam Billoo" appears on CDs as "Humra Naam Billoo". They both sound the same but wordings are different. I am also uploading here the CD version.

Here are the songs from this film...

[swarapriya]

(Rekha) Souten ki Beti (1989)

This album has several fine songs. I am uploading these from an original soundtrack album in two back-to-back posts. Here is the first set of songs...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Souten ki Beti (1989)"...

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

[swarapriya]

(Rekha) Aag ka Darya (1990)

Here are the songs from this album...

[swarapriya]

(Rekha) Amiri Garibi (1990)

Here are the songs from this album that includes a beauty "Baabul Bhi Roye" by Kavita Krishnamurthy...

[usrafian]

(Mumtaz) Rustom Sohrab (1963)

I am re-uploading songs from this album on request. Here is this beauty from the creative genius mind of the composer Sajjad Hussain Saab...

SP Ji
Thanks for re uploading the gems, obligated.


USR

[Sorry for delayed answer (out of town)]