Hindi songs of Emotional Impact - nostalgic, favorites etc

[gaddeswarup]

Both wonderful but I seem to prefer Amirbai's version. I do not know the exact word but there seem to more life and spirit in it through out, Shamsad Begum's is a bit flat in a few places. Thanks for a wonderful song.
Has anybody posted Lata's ' eri maito prem divani' from Nau bahar. I like it more than Geeta Roy's version from Jogan though I normally like Geeta Roy's songs more than Lata's

[Sunil_M88]

Taxi Driver - Jeye To Jaye Kahan - Talat Mehmood

Music Director: S.D Burman

Raga Jounpuri

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9XLhptDlJN0

Thanks to Vinatha man for reminding me of such gem

[rajraj]

............of course, you like Malkauns! Here is a song from Opera House(1961) to dance to:

[gaddeswarup]

I made a quick and rough post linking to some articles un Upperstall covering the evolution of Hindi film music from thirties to fifties. I have no expertise in this area, do not even know Hindi except for a few words, but immensely enjoy sons of this period partly because my mother used to sing them. Here is the link
http://gaddeswarup.blogspot.com.au/2...steryears.html

[V_S]

raj sir,
Thank you for Naghma song; kaahe jade kiya. Both versions were good. Sorry, I don't understand why you said 'lyricist did not like Amirbai's version'. Those days, lyricist chose the singers too? Please enlighten us. Also thanks for Chitragupt classic from Opera House. I have not heard much of Chitragupt, except Alibaba aur chalis chor, mien ladki and few more. He has a different style. This classical song definitely is different from other of his period.

Apart from that, I wanted to convey and understand the 'sandham' part in hindi songs. Many times I see (even the old hindi songs to today), based on the tune and sandham they try to fit in the lyrics, even if it does not fit exactly. Like for example this song, there a line 'jadugar balma'. But she sings 'jadu' as a separate word and 'gar' as a separate word. Similarly 'baalma' is a word. But they break it into 'baalu' and 'ma'. There are many such examples. Another one that comes to my mind is 'Aap ki nazron ne samjha'. But when they sing, they sing like 'aapu ki nazuron ne samjha'. They add a 'u' extra whenever the sandham does not fit into the tune. It does not sound glaring when we just dissolve in the tune, but when we closely hear the lyrics, sometimes I get distracted by these and looks awkward. But when we speak like that colloquially adding 'u', it clearly sounds that we are not from North and alien to that language. But it is fine when you sing that way. There are lot more like this. I have not seen much like this in our lyrics, except in recent times. Just wanted to convey this since I was having this doubt for a long time.

Sunil,
Terrific selection from SDB; Jeye To Jaye Kahan. My favorite. I used to also listen to Lata's version of it. Thank you. All songs in Taxi driver is masterpiece.

Swarup,
Thanks for 40's classic; Inhen logon ne. Great song by Shamsad Begum.

[rajraj]

Here is a song from Mirza Ghalib(1954) by Suraiya:

Yeh na thi hamari qismat............



This is a popular ghazal sung at a faster pace.

Here are a few singers at slow pace:

Tina Sani, a Pakistani singer in Darbari kanada:



Habib Wali Muhammad, another Pakistani singer:



Farida Khanum, another Pakistani singer in Bageshri:



Begum Akhtar:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Oh2KBWWcI1s

Rafi:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g7T_8fvZjYs

Noor Jahan:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZKect_7OrTg

There are a few other singers. I will post their renditions later.

Have a ghazal filled (Memorial Day) weekend!


V_S: Adding vowels at the end of a word or between adjacent consonants is permitted in Hindustani classical and Hindi movie songs to fit the tune/ragam and thaalam. Long time back I discussed this with a linguist. He said that it was bacause they had difficulty with double consonants. They have a name for it, I forgot. That is why swarna (Sanskrit) became swaran. He gave me some other examples. Splitting words is also permitted. In fact, something similar happens in carnatic music. There is a Harikambhoji composition - dinamani vamsa tilaka......lavanya. They will sing it as 'dinamani vamsa...........tilaka lavanya'. In spoken language it is unacceptable. In singing it is fine. In the composition 'samaja vara gamana...' saama nigamaja sudhaa maya becomes saamani gamaja.... These are not that bad. Current crop of singers mutilate words. I won't go into that. What is worse than changing 'bhagyadha lakshmi baarammaa', a Purandara Dasa compostion to 'bhagyadha lakshmi paarammaa'! More later.
Enjoy the ghazals! I like them!

[gaddeswarup]

Classical music competetion from a Pakistani film

[V_S]

Priceless gems! Thanks raj sir for Ye na thi hamara qismat. I liked Suraiya and Noor jehan's version very much. Can't believe one single Mirza Ghalib's composition can be sung in different raagas like these. How flexible it should have been. Thanks for explaining about the consonants aspects in detail.

Back to Pankaj Mullick and K L Saigal. From the film My Sister (1944). Some peerless and timeless ghazals in this film. The youtube audio quality is not quite good, but mp3 versions online are quite good.
First one, Aye Qatib E-Taqdeer Mujhe. It seems this ghazals was hugely popular and celebrated. One of K L Saigal's best. Hear how the melody was constructed by one and only Pankaj Mullick. Brilliant! The melancholy is transported from KLS to us instantly.


(little clear version: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hn4jQ9WqaJM)

Next one, Do Naina Matware from the same film. The beginning sitar tugs our heart strings. While the former is about pain, this one is very light to our hearts. Hear how baritone K L Saigal goes and within seconds goes high. Just the beginning tune for the first line is enough to rewind, it is that sweet. There is also Pankaj Mullick's (singing) version in youtube.


Listening to these compositions is itself a big gift. These compositions does not only belong to earth, but also to heaven, which is very rare of todays' songs.

[rajraj]

Another song from Mirza Ghalib:

nukta cheen hai gham e dil........



By K.L.Saigal in Yahudi ki Ladki



By Noor Jahan in another movie



I chose a song from 1954 because it is a special year for me. 1953-54 was a memorable academic year for me. That was my final year in high school. I sat for the statewide school final known as Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination with a letter from a doctor certifying that it would not affect my health adversely because I was underage (avasara kudukkai ). In that examination I came first in the school, first in five of the seven subjects including Tamil for which I won a gold medal, one sovereign worth (called savaran or pavun for pound in Tamilnadu). If I remember correctly a British sovereign sold for Rs75 those days. I hear it is about Rs20000 now. I still have that gold medal. It will be a heirloom.

Avvaiyar, a Tamil movie with K.B.Sundarambal in the lead, was released that year (1953). That was the only movie my father accompanied me to the theater. He left at the interval asking his clerk accompanying us to take me home after the movie. I also attended my first carnatic vocal concert by K.B.Sundarambal. I still remember the main piece- Rama nannu brovara. She repeated the line 'neppulakai kanna thaavu ...' several times. Next day I sang that line to the amusement of my classmates! Avan, dubbed version of AAH was released that year. That is my most favourite Hindi movie ( for the songs). Another memorable event was watching the drama 'KaLvanin kaadhali' by T.K.Shanmugam brothers. It was made into a movie later with Sivaji Ganesan in the lead.

I acted in a Hindi skit ( Don't laugh ! )

Above all my first story was published by KalkaNdu, edited by Tamilvanan. I sent (posted) the story and told my friends about it. They started laughing uncontrollably. I did not know why? Then one of them explained that people who wrote for KalkaNdu were twice or thrice my age and there was no chance of my story being accepted. But, to my surprise, the story appeared in KalkaNdu a few issues later. It was time to rejoice with the three rupees reward promised by Tamilvanan. I waited for two weeks for the money order for three rupees.
It never came. Then I wrote to Tamilvanan, with no response! Next time I visit India I will stop by KalkaNdu office and demand that three rupees with interest for nearly sixt years!

Will somebody do the calculation and let me know how much I should ask for?

( I am sure all of you have memorable years. Time to record it for your children and grandchildren! )

Have a good weekend!

[gaddeswarup]

Rajraj,
What a coincidence. I too passed S.S.L.C. at the same time, underage and first in the class. I too used to sing songs from Premalekhalu (Telugu version of Aah). But the rest of the story is tragic. One of my older cousins told me that I should sing in private and killed my singing career. I got gold medals later but they turned out to be plated. Anyway, here us a song which I heard much later. about 1970, and which I have been listening to recently. Apparently, it was a private song ( with her husband Kamal Dasgupta composing the music) and was used in a film in the fifties. I cannot find it but there is a morphed version:

Kaml Dasgupta himself was good singer, there is very nice Bengali song from 1942 'Katodin dekhini tomay' on YouTube.