Music of Hindi Cinema in 1940s

Hindi Film Music in 40s was changing,new experiments and modern techniques were tried.In this decade playback singing started.This brought in great new talented singers.On the otherhand few most talented singers like Noorjahaan and composer like Ghulam Haider had to move away to Pakistan because of partition.This decade gave us  the exceptional singers like Geeta Roy-Dutt, Suraiya, Shamshad Begum, Rajkumari, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh,Talat Mahmood, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar and Kishore Kumar . Superlative composers like Anil Biswas, Naushad, C.Ramchandra, S.D.Burman and Vasant Desai were there now to compose masterly tunes for these golden voices.

1941. This year a movie called KHAJANCHI  directed by Moti B. Gidwani, starring M. Ismail, S.D. Narang, Ramola Devi and Durga Mota in lead roles was a major success.The music of this movie made the movie hit.The music director Ghulam Haider made an experiment by combining popular Raags of Indian classical music with Punjabi folk music and revolutionalized  the film music industry. The music songs were a hit. The playback includes Shamshad Begum, Noor Jehan .

This year another film JHOOLA  It was produced by Sashadhar Mukherjee under the banner of Bombay Talkies. The film starred Ashok Kumar, Leela Chitnis, Rajkumari Shukla, V. H. Desai, Mumtaz Ali, Shah Nawaz, and Jyoti. The music was composed by Saraswati Devi with lyrics by Kavi Pradeep.The song na jaane kidhar aaj meri naav chali re (I know not where my boat is heading) sung by Ashok Kumar was an immensely popular song in the 40s.

Another song from the movie, Dilli se aayi meri Dulhan too was extremely popular. Dance master Mumtaz Ali capitalised on the success of that song to start his own dance troupe.

1942 hindi film BASANT directed by Amiya Chakrabarty. Music for the film was composed by Indian flute maestro and music director Pannalal Ghosh. The film starred Mumtaz Shanti,Ulhas and Madhubala as Child Artist I am posting a song acted by Baby Madhubala from this film.The songs sung by Panna Lal Ghosh in this film were very popular "Ummeed Unse Kya Thi" and "Kanta Lago Re Sajanwa Mose" were few of them.

Same year another film Khandaan was released.It was a pre-partition Urdu film directed by Shaukat Hussain Rizvi and produced by D.M. Pancholi, starring Pran Krishana ( PRAN) , Noor Jehan, Ghulam Mohammed and M. Ajma.The music was composed by Ghulam Haider and  playback singers include Noor Jehan, Shamshad Begum,Ghulam Haider and Nasim Akhtar.
This film was a landmark movie for Ghulam Haider and Noor Jehan as well as the film director Shaukat Hussain Rizvi.All 3 ended up becoming well-sought-after persons, when this film became a Mega Hit Musical Movie The film had 9 songs all the songs were popular. Noorjahan sang 6 songs and Shamshad Begum sang 3 songs.Noor Jehan in her very first film as a lead actor-singer sang this song beautifully with her teenager’s voice.Here is one of those songs

1943 was the year when "Kismet"starring Ashok Kumar and Mumtaz Shanti.The movie was the first blockbuster movie of Indian cinema,written and directed by Gyan Mukherjee and produced by Bombay Talkies during the second world war period, while it was in a succession battle between Devika Rani and Sashadhar Mukherjee after owner Himanshu Rai's death. 

The film came with some bold themes for the first time in Indian Cinema showing an anti-hero character, double role and an unmarried girl getting pregnant.The unprecedented success of Kismet established Ashok Kumar as the first ever superstar of Hindi cinema. He remained the most popular actor in Hindi cinema until the early 50s.The music of the film by Anil Biswas introduced 'full chorus' for the first time in Hindi cinema. The film gave memorable hits like the patriotic, Door Hato O Duniyawalon Hindustan Hamara hay, the sad Ghar Ghar Mein Diwali and a soothing lullaby, Dheere Dheere Aa. The last was a duet between Amirbai Karnataki and Ashok Kumar, which added to the success of the film that is still known as one of his finest works, All the Lyrics were written by Kavi Pradeep.Amirbai Karnataki who sang film songs in earlier fims but she achieved popularity only after the songs of Kismet became a rage and Amirbai became famous. The man behind the success was the composer Anil Biswas.Amirbai was a talented singer and actress who was fluent in Kannada (mother tongue) and Gujarati languages. 'Mahre te gamray ek baar aawjo' is one of her famous Gujarati songs from the film 'Ranrakdevi' with music composer Avinash Vyas.She  was famous as Kannada Kokila. Mahatma Gandhi was an ardent fan of her song Vaishnav Jan To.

Another hit movie of 1943 was TANSEN directed by Jayant Desai and featuring K. L. Saigal and Khursheed Bano in the lead roles. The film was based on Tansen, the 16th century musician in the court of Mughal emperor, Akbar.The film featured 13 hit songs, performed by the leads, including More Balapan Ke Saathi, Rum Jhum Rum Jhum Chal Tihari, Kahe Guman Kare Gori, Bina Pankh Ka Panchhi, Sapt Suran Teen Gram, Diya Jalao and Baag Laga Doon Sajni. It was the second highest grossing Indian film of 1943.

1944 was the year when NAUSHAAD established himself the leading Music Director for the years to come.Rattan is a 1944 Indian Bollywood film starring Swaran Lata, Karan Dewan and Amir Bano. It was a highly successful movie of 1944. The film is noted as the film which made Naushad one of the top contributors to music in Indian films and enabled him to demand a fee of Rs 25000 a film.

This film gave success to the singer Zohrabai Ambalawali.She is best known for her contralto or low voice range singing in the film songs, "Ankhiyan Milake Jiyaa Bharmaake" and "Aai Diwali, Aai Diwali" in 1944 hit Rattan The song "Ankhiyan Milake Jiyaa Bharmaake" is a landmark song from a this movie. “It was the first movie that drew upon folk music for its songs.The song was picturised on Swarnlata and Karan Deewan. And it was a “Tonga” song.

1945 Indian Muslim social melodrama film ZEENAT directed by Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi and starring Noor Jehan, Yakub, Majid, Himalayawala, and Karan Dewan. It was produced by Shirazali Hakim and Ramzanali S. Lakhani. The film’s story and dialogue was written by Wajahat Mirza Changezi. The music was composed by Meer Saheb and Hafiz Khan while the background music was provided by Rafique Ghaznavi.The highlight of the film was its Qawwali. It was the first all-female qawwali and picturised on the then very young Shashikala, Baby Khurshid (Shyama), Rehana, Zohrabai, Zebunnissa, Yasmin and the singer Kalyani herself. The qawwali was written by Nakshab Zarachvi and music was composed by Hafiz Khan.

1946 Anmol Ghadi directed by Mehboob Khan was the No 1 Super Hit movie of that year.The film was musical hit and still remembered for its music by Naushad, which have hits like, Aawaaz De Kahaan Hai, Jawaan Hai Mohabbat Haseen Hai Zamana and Mere Bachpan Ke Saathi Mujhe Bhool Na Jaana. The film also featured playback singer, Mohd. Rafi first notable song, Tera Khilauna Toota, This movie has so many timeless classics that one can only be amazed at the genius of the persons involved in creating the music of this movie.Here is a timeless classic from this song. “Jawaan hai muhabbat haseen hai zamaanaa” is sung by Noorjehaan and it is picturised on herself 

Another movie that year with immortal music was SHAHAJEHAN The film was directed by Abdul Rashid Kardar and written by Kamal Amrohi. It starredK. L. Saigal, Ragini, Kanwar, Nasreen and P. Jairaj. The music was composed by Naushad with Majrooh Sultanpuri making his debut as a lyricist in this film.JAB DIL HI TOOT GAYA and another song GAM DIYE MUSTAKIL ITNA NAAZUK HAI DIL both sung by K L SEHGAL are still liked.It was KL SEHGAL's Last Movie he died soon after the release of this movie. Here i am submitting a song,I think this song is quite a special song. which has the voice of the great Mohammad Rafi, listen to the last portions of the song, and one can recognise the  voice of Rafi in the song. This song could well be regarded as a song where one legend passed on the baton of male playback singing to another (would be) legend.

1947 the most successful movie of that year was JUGNU directed by Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. The film stars Noor Jehan, Dilip Kumar, Gulam Mohammad, Sulochana (Sr.), Latika, Zia, Jilloo, Agha, Shashikala and the famous playback singer Mohammed Rafi.. This film was the first major hit for Dilip Kumar who went on to become one of Indian film industry's legends.Feroz Nizami provided superb music for this film, film song lyrics were written by the top lyricists of the time including Tanvir Naqvi,Adeeb Saharanpuri,Nakhshab Jarchavi and Asghar Sarhadi. Most of the film songs ended-up being super-hit.This was the last film of Noorjahaan after that she moved to Pakistan.There were 8 songs in it. The most famous song was ‘ yahan badla wafaa ka” by Noorjehan and Rafi, who was yet to become a phenomena in the industry. This film helped Rafi tremendously. Incidentally, Rafi was seen in person,in one of the songs of this film ” Woh apni yaad dilane ko “.This song is described as having been sung by Rafi but there are other voices too that need to be identified. There are at least three other voices in this song excluding the chorus.

1948 this year another would be Legend Dev Anand to be established.With the release of "Ziddi" The film helped establish its stars Dev Anand, Kamini Kaushal and Pran in Hindi films. The playback singers - Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar recorded their first duet - "Ye Kaun Aya Re" together in this 1948 film Ziddi.The music of the film was composed by Khemchand Prakash. The soundtrack featured the first film song sung by playback singer Kishore Kumar, "Marne ki duayen kyon mangu", a solo picturised on Dev Anand.Kishore Kumar, who was a big fan of K L Saigal sings this song is K L Saigal style, though one can see signs of his original voice too, which would come out in his singing in coming years.

 The film also included Lata Mangeshkar's solo, "Chanda re ja re ja re, piya se sandesa mora kahiyo jaa" picturised on Kamini Kaushal,who had another hit film the same year SHAHEED with DILIP KUMAR as Hero. It had lyrics by Qamar Jalalabadi and music by Ghulam Haider. Songs like "Watan ki Raah Men Watan Ke Naujawan Shaheed Ho" and "Badnaam Na Ho Jaaye Mohabbat Ka Fasana" have not lost their appeal even after 68 years of the film's release. it was a very popular song of its time. In fact, this movie was a musical blockbuster. This song is written by Qamar Jalalabadi and its music is composed by Ghulam Haider and sung by the great Surinder Kaur.

Surinder Kaur was a Punjabi singer-songwriter. She sang mainly Punjabi folk songs, where she is credited for pioneering and popularising the genre and later was known as the 'Nightingale of Punjab'

1949 the golden era of hindi film music actually started from here.This year film like Barsaat, Mahal, Andaz, Dillagi, Badi Bahen,Jeet and Patanga, that had "Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon" and picturised on actorGope and lead heroine Nigar Sultana became popular. The playback singers for the song were C. Ramchandra, who also composed the music for the film, and Shamshad Begum

BARSAAT  was a 1949 Bollywood film directed by Raj Kapoor. The film stars the famous duo of Kapoor and Nargis as well as Prem Nath. It was also the introduction of actress Nimmi in her first film role. Barsaat was one of the first major hit films directed by Kapoor. This success allowed Kapoor to buy RK Studios in 1950.The film was the debut for music directors Shankar Jaikishanand established their careers. The famous playback singer Lata Mangeshkar famously sang for both Nargis and Nimmi in Barsaat.All the songs(11) of this film were super hit.I am posting here the iconic song "Hawa Mein Udta Jaye Mora Lal Dupatta" Most funny part of this song that the dupatta the Lady using is white.

The Movie Mahal made Lata Mangeshkar famous and established playback singers as stars in their own right.Produced by Bombay Talkies studio, this Kamal Amrohi's directorial debut launched both playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and the leading lady Madhubala into super-stardom.Its songs, particularly "Aayega Aane Waala" sung by Lata Mangeshkar, are perennial favourites. Rajkumari sang most of the songs. Lata sang only 3 songs two other well-known songs from the film, "Mein woh dulhan hon" and "Yeh raat phir na aayge"Here I am posting the superb song by Rajkumari "Ek Teer Chala Dil Pe Laga"

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