Golden Era of Bollywood: A MUSICAL JOURNEY WITH DEV ANAND

Wednesday 6 September 2017

A MUSICAL JOURNEY WITH DEV ANAND

When you talk of Dev Anand, music cannot be left behind. All his films had that in common - melodious songs that were joyous and boisterous, soft and romantic.The charismatic, evergreen star of Bollywood had as much of romance in his style as swagger in his mannerisms.I being the admirer of him explore the different moods (flirtatious to romantic, playful or sad ) of Dev Anand in his songs..A unique collection of Songs

In this musical journey of Dev Anand S D Burman played a key role.His melodies and Lyrics of Sahir Ludhianvi and face of Dev Anand created euphoria in the 1950s and 60s.It was always said that Kishore was Burmanda’s first choice for Dev Anand but Mohammad Rafi with S D Burman gave many immortal songs for Dev Anand.It is an established truth that Rafi had a peerless skill to twist his voice according to the Hero, so he did perfectly for Dev Anand also emerging Dev’s image more romantic. Burmanda once agreed that he tried Talat, Manna Dey and Hemant Kumar for Dev Anand, but Rafi was perfect match for Dev Anand.
if you look back to the Golden Era of Hindi film music, you will find that other music directors kept Kishore away & preferred Rafi for Dev Anand.
The begining of the journey started with Navketan’s first film "Afsar" in 1950.This film had two evergreen songs of Suraiya – “Man mor hua matwala” and “Nain diwane ek nahi mane”.The year 1951 saw the release of Baazi. It was Navketan Films’ first hit film. This film gave Bollywood its all-time great director Guru Dutt. It was Guru Dutt’s directorial debut. Music was again composed by S.D.Burman. It had some hit songs of Geeta Dutt viz. "Suno gajar kya gaye”, "Tadbeer se bigdi hui", "Aaj ki raat piya", "Tum bhi na bhulo balam" and a peppy number by Shamshaad Begum "Sharmaye kahe ghabraye kahe”.
Dev Anand’s second movie with Guru Dutt was Jaal(1952). It was also a box-office hit. It marked the rise of a stylish superstar. Jaal featured a beautiful solo by Lata Mangeshkar “Chori chori meri gaali ana hai bura”. Other memorable melodies from this film were “Yeh raat yeh chandani phir kahan”, a solo by Hemant Kumar and a duet with the same mukhda by Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar.
In the year 1954 came Taxi Driver,It had a comic song “Chahe koi khush ho” by Kishore Kumar and a tragic song Talat Mehmood’s “Jaye to jaye kahan”.
Almost all films of Dev Anand are a treat for music lovers. All of them cannot be mentioned here. But Dev Anand will always be remembered for his style, his romantic image and the evergreen music from his films. In this blog I am taking songs of Dev Anand in different moods.
Romance-