Golden Era of Bollywood: Remembering Madan Mohan on his 93rd Birth Anniversary

The man, who was acknowledged as a genius by people who understood and appreciated music, was never at the top rung in the hit parades or with the big banners or the big stars.He had very few Hit Films but His Music was always Hit. His first silver jubilee hit came 8 years later with "Woh Kaun Thi" in 1964.
Many tunes composed by him remained unused... many songs remained unreleased... some recorded but unreleased songs have now been released on the album TERE BAGAIR... while others have just been lost! Some unused tunes were used in Veer-Zaara, while various others remain well preserved with his family.
Madan Mohan composed music for 95 released Hindi films and 12 shelved films. These 100 plus films featured almost 700 songs, many of which are remembered to this day while some have been lost over the years. He was extremely versatile, but he is best remembered for his ghazals, pathos-laden songs and classical based songs
Madan Mohan was born on 25th June 1924.He spent the early years of his life in the Middle East. After 1932, his family returned to their home town of Chakwal, then in Jhelum district of Punjab, British India. In 1946, he joined the All India Radio, Lucknow as Programme Assistant, where he came in contact with various artists such as Ustad Faiyaz Khan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Begum Akhtar, and Talat Mahmood. During these days he would also compose music for programmes to be broadcast on All India Radio. In 1947, he was transferred to All India Radio, Delhi where he worked for a short period.
He started his film career as a singer, In 1948, he got his first opportunity to sing a film duet Pinjare Mein Bulbul Bole and Mera Chhotasa Dil Dole with Lata Mangeshkar under composer Ghulam Haider (composer) for the film Shaheed (1948 film), though these songs were never released or used in the film. Between 1948 and 1949, he assisted music composers S.D. Burman for Do Bhai, and Shyam Sundar in Actress and Nirdosh.
He got his first big break as composer with the film Aankhen in 1950.His association with Lata ji though started as a singer before he became composer but the long lasting collaboration with Lata Mangeshkar started with his 2nd film Adaa in 1951.Lata ji gave some of her best solo songs under his direction.In this Blog I have selected some the great songs of this duo.