The First Generation Composers of Bollywood

The first few songs to hit the nation as a whole may well have been from ACHHUT KANYAA and some contemporary Sagar Movietone productions. The time was 1935-36, and if this is where it started, we might have a candidate here for bringing in the Golden Age.
Hindi Film Music in the 40s was changing, new experiments and modern techniques were tried. In this decade playback singing started. The 1940s were the years of flux. A new order came into existence. More robust Punjabi style of music pushed back the soft Bangla style. Playback singers replaced the genre of singing stars.
The technique of recording song was rudimentary, The studios at that time only had two microphones. It would usually take around four to eight hours to make a song, but the preparations for a few difficult compositions would go on for a month. in spite of that many immortal songs were created by our first generation Composers. In this blog, I take four composers who gave the film songs, still in its infancy, a distinct identity.

Saraswati Devi,(1912 – 1980), was an Indian director of music and score composer who worked in Hindi cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. She was the first female composer, working with Bombay Talkies, and is most noted for her score, Mein Ban ki Chiriyra Banke Bun Bun Bolun Re (Achut Kanya 1936). 
Also in 1936, she gave the music for the film, Janmabhoomi, it was released during the Indian independence movement, and featured one of the first explicit nationalistic songs of Hindi cinema, "Jai Jai Janani Janmabhoomi" written by J. S. Kashyap.  Subsequently, a tune from the chorus of this song was used by the BBC as a signature tune for its Indian News Service.

Song of Jeevan Naiya (1936)

She composed the song Koi Humdum Na Raha originally sung by Ashok Kumar in the film Jeevan Naiya (1936) and later sung by Kishore Kumar in Jhumroo (1961). She was also the original composer of the famous song "Ek Chatur Naar" originally sung by Ashok Kumar in film Jhoola (1941) later sung by Manna Dey and Kishor Kumar in film Padosan.

Pankaj Mullick (10 May 1905 – 19 February 1978), he introduced Rabindra Sangeet to Hindi film industry. He contributed in various capacities to Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Tamil language films for 38 years, starting in 1931. He worked as music director to artists like K.L. Saigal, S.D. Burman, Hemanta Mukherjee, Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle. He acted with famous film actors like K L Saigal, P.C. Barua and Kanan Devi. Along with Nitin Bose and his renowned sound engineer brother Mukul Bose, Mullick introduced playback singing in Indian cinema.
In 1933, he made his debut as an independent music director for a Hindi/Urdu film Yahudi Ka Ladki, a New Theatres costume drama directed by Premankur Atorthi. Pankajbabu was one of the first music-arrangers and orchestra conductors to extensively use western musical forms and instruments like the piano and the accordion in composing music for Indian films. The imaginative use of background music to emphasise the mood, action and tempo of the film scenes is one of Pankaj Mullick’s great contributions to music in Indian cinema.
Pankaj Mullick along with RC Boral  composed music for some of the most memorable films – many of these had Bengali and Hindi/Urdu versions – such as Hem Chandra’s Krorepati/The Millionaire (1936), Nitin Bose’s Didi/President (1937), PC Barua’s Grihadaha/Manzil (1936), Maya (1936), both Hindi & Bengali, 1936 and the classic Devdas (1935) in Hindi which had KL Saigal singing the immortal Balam Aaye Baso Mere Man Mein and Dukh Ke Din Ab Beete Nahin 

Song of Zindagi (1940).

Pankaj Mullick was successful in persuading  Saigal to bring down his high pitch in order to control his nasal twang and the result was evergreen songs like the lullaby So Ja Rajkumari So Ja in PC Barua’s Hindi film, Zindagi (1940).

Anil Biswas (7 July 1914 – 31 May 2003), an Indian film playback singer and music composer from 1935 to 1965, who apart from being one of the pioneers of playback singing, is also credited for the first Indian orchestra of twelve pieces and introducing orchestral music and full-blooded choral effects, into Indian cinema. 
He also worked as a singer, lyricist and composer, with the 'Hindustan Recording Company', where Kundan Lal Saigal and Sachin Dev Burman, before migrating to Bombay themselves.
Mehboob Khan's Jagirdar (1937), a commercially hit, established him as a musical force in the film industry. Soon many more independent assignments came his way, most notably, 300 Days and After, Gramophone Singer, Hum Tum Aur Woh, Ek Hi Raasta, and Mehboob Khan's Watan (1938), Alibaba (1940), the classic, Aurat(1940), Bahen (1941), before working with him again, in Roti (1942), for which he also credited with the story and concept,and which featured many songs by film's actress, Akhtaribai Faizabadi(Begum Akhtar)

Song of Kismet(1943).

A master in western symphonic music was known for the Indian classical or folk elements, especially Baul and Bhatiyali in his music. Out of his over 90 films, most memorable were, Roti (1942), Kismet (1943), Anokha Pyaar (1948), Taraana(1951), Waaris (1954), Pardesi (1957) and Char Dil Char Rahen (1959).

Khemchand Prakash ( 12 December 1907 - 10 August 1949), was assistant to composer Timir Baran in Devdas (1935 film), and he sang a comedy song 'lo kha lo madam khaana'  in Street Singer (1938). He then moved to Mumbai and made his debut as music director in 1939 with Supreme Pictures' films Meri Aankhein and Gazi Salauddin, and was soon signed up by Ranjit Movietone Film Studio.
 His biggest hit with Ranjit Studio was the film Tansen in 1943. Songs like "Diya jalaao jagmag jagmag", "Rumjhum rumjhum chal tihari", "More balpan ke saathi", "Sapt suran teen gram", "Hath sine pe jo rakh do to karara aa jaaye" were big hits.

1948 marked yet another significant film of his career, Bombay Talkies’s Ziddi. He gave the first major break to Kishore Kumar as a singer for the song “Marne ki duaaen kyun maangu”.Ziddi featured a beautiful song of Lata Mangeshkar "Chanda re ja re ja re".

But what followed Ziddi was another hit film Mahal (1949 film). the song “Aayega aane wala”Mahal made Lata Mangeshkar a popular name. 

Song of Mahal 1949

Master Ghulam Haider (1908 – 9 November 1953) was a well-known music composer who worked both in India and later in Pakistan after independence. He changed the face of film songs by combining the popular Raags with the verve and rhythm of Punjabi music, He is also known for giving a break to the well-known playback singer, Lata Mangeshkar.he got his first big breakthrough with D.M. Pancholi's Punjabi film, Gul-E-Bakavali (1939) starring Noor Jehan. This was followed by film Yamla Jat (1940). His first big hit song came with Khazanchi in 1941, which helped cause a revolution in the music industry. The music of the film Khazanchi (1941), in particular, the song Sawan Ke Nazare Hain sung by Shamshad Begum and Ghulam Haider himself caused a revolution in music composing. Other significant films were Khandan in 1942, Humayun (1945) and Majboor (1948 film), Shaheed (1948) and Kaneez (1949 film)are his other big hits.

Song of Khazanchi 1941