The Immortal Songs of C Arjun

C. Arjun( Born on September 1, 1933, Died on 30th April 1992) is among one of the most talented film music composers in the Hindi film industry. He gave music to 17 Hindi films, besides films in Gujarati, Sindhi and Haryanvi languages. Some of his films were, Main Aur Mera Bhai, Punarmilan, Ek Saal Pehle, Jai Santoshi Maa, Ustad Pedro and Mangu Dada. 
His film Susheela-1966, which was incomplete, was completed and released as Subah Zaroor Aayegi in 1977 in which ‘Bemurawwat Bewafa’ song sung by Mubarak Begum and ‘Gham Ki Andheri Raat Mein sang by Talat and Rafi became very popular. One song of his – Paas baitho tabiyat bahal jayegi sung by Rafi is enough to give him immortality. He will always be remembered for the  songs of Jai Santoshi Maa 
He inherited his musical talent from his father who was a singer. He became assistant to another Sindhi music director Bulo C Rani. He started his career with composing for a Sindhi film Abana. His first Hindi film was Road no 303 (1960). Off and on he got films under nondescript banners with B/C grade cast. That he created memorable music nevertheless did not do much to change his fortunes. His teaming with the lyricist Jaan Nisar Akhtar would rank at par with the best of Sahir Ludhiyanvi’s composed by SD Burman or Roshan. He also composed a number of non-film songs. He died at a relatively young age of 59 of a heart attack he suffered at a recording studio. 

Song of Punarmilan 1964

Song of Punarmilan 1964

Song of Susheela (1966)

Song of Susheela (1966)

Song of Chale Hain Sasural (1966)

Song of Jai Santoshi Maa  1975

Interesting Hindi Film Songs With Question and Answer

Have you ever noticed that there are some Hindi songs which ask questions and the answer is given by the hero or heroine?. This theme came into my mind when I was watching the old movie Chori Chori. The song Jahan Main Jaati Hoon...Yeh To Batao Ki Tum Mere Kaun Ho from this film made me think of writing this blog on this theme.
Songs based on ‘Riddles’ (Paheli in Hindi) used to be quite popular in the Golden Era of Hindi Film Music and a few of them are still played in children programs in schools.
The oldest hit song in this theme came into my mind from the film Anmol Ghadi "Awaaz De Kahan Hai, Duniya Meri. Jawaan Hai sung by Noorjehan and Surendra. Another hit song "Ichak Dana Bichak Dana, Dane Upar Dana from Shri 420 also fit in this theme.
Here are many such hit songs in this post.

Song of Anmol Ghadi 1946

Song of Shri 420 (1955)

Song of Chori Chori 1956

Song of NAU DO GYARAH 1957

Song of Pyaasa 1957

Song of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958)

Song of Sasural - 1961

Song of Sangam 1964

Song of Milan 1967

Song of Aradhana 1969

Song of Aan Milo Sajna 1970

Song of Sachaa Jhutha 1970

Song of Kal Aaj Aur Kal 1971

Song of Kathputli 1971

Song of Mera Naam Joker - 1972

Song of Apradh 1972

Feroz Khan- A Successful Journey from Third Grade films to Top Banners

Feroz Khan made his debut in Homi Wadia’s low-budget flop, Reporter Raju (1962), With no godfathers to back him, Feroz worked in a bunch of low-brow flicks through the mid-1960s to survive. That included playing second fiddle to Dara Singh in Samson.
In side roles he always managed to hold his own against more famous co-stars: Raj Kumar (Oonche Log, a moderate success), Rajendra Kumar (Arzoo), Rajesh Khanna (Safar), Dharmendra (Aadmi Aur Insaan, for which he got Filmfare’s Best Supporting Actor award) and Sunil Dutt (Pyaasi Shaam).
In his role as the wayward younger brother of Raj Kumar, he was noticed in the black and white  film Oonche Log (1965), Feroz Khan comes across as a young, vulnerable and charming youth in Mohammed Rafi numbers “Haye re tere chanchal nainwa , kuchh baat karein ruk jaayein” and “Jaag Dil-e-Deewana, Rut jaagi wasl-e-yaar ki”.

After this film came Arzoo, in which he had a chunky role, one could see Feroz Khan at his romantic and emotional best. He had some beautiful scenes in Kashmir opposite the exceptionally pretty heroine, Sadhana.  With this, Khan started to receive A-list second leads. With the film Aadmi Aur Insaan (1969), Khan won his first Filmfare award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
In 1970 released Safar, in this film the Hero was Rajesh Khanna but Feroz Khan played an important role in this film. In 1971 he appeared in 2 films as the 2nd lead to his younger brother Sanjay Khan( Mela and Upasana).

To improve his career opportunities as a leading man he started his own Production Company.He became a successful producer and director with the 1972 film Apradh, Mumtaaz was his co-star in this film. Apradh was the first Indian movie showing auto racing in Germany,it was a moderate success at the box office. After that, he produced, directed and starred in the 1975 film Dharmatma, which was the first Indian film to be shot in Afghanistan and was also his first blockbuster hit as a producer, director and star and marked the appearance of actress Hema Malini in a glamorous avatar. This movie was inspired by the Hollywood film The Godfather. 

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, he was a leading Bollywood star, directing and starring in many of his films. He also starred in the Punjabi film Bhagat Dhanna Jat (1974). The 1980 film Qurbani, with Zeenat Aman, was the biggest hit of his career and launched the singing career of iconic Pakistani pop singer Nazia Hassan, with her memorable track "Aap Jaisa Koi". In 1986, he directed and starred in Janbaaz, a box office hit, In 1988, he directed and starred in Dayavan, which was a remake of an Indian Tamil film titled Nayakan. After directing and starring in Yalgaar (1992),
He launched his son Fardeen Khan's career with the 1998 film Prem Aggan, which, however, was a box office bomb.  he took a long break from acting for 11 years.
His last film as an actor was "Welcome" was a roaring hit in 2007. He died from lung cancer on 27 April 2009 at the age of 69. He was buried in Bangalore near to his mother's grave at Hosur Road Shia Kabristan.
He appeared in over 51 films in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and became one of Bollywood's popular style icons 

Song of Unche Log

Song from CID 909 1967

Song from Safar1970

Song from Apradh 1972

Song from Khote Sikkey 1973

Song from Dharmatma 1974

Song from Qurbani 1980

Song from Jaanbaz 1986

Dev Anand's Association with Shankar Jaikishan

Shankar Jaikishan were associated with Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor but they also composed for Dev Anand in 8 films with 63 scores. The first film they worked together was the 1953 film Patita. But when producers and directors approached Shankar Jaikishan for composing music in Dev Anand’s film, he took Hemant Kumar for Dev Anand. The song Yaad Kiya Dil Ne Kahan Ho Tum was super hit. Another song for Dev Anand was Talat Mahmood.
The combination of SJ and Dev Anand stormed Bollywood from the time he used Rafi for almost all the songs in the film Love Marriage in 1959.Rafi’s songs included “kahan ja rahe the“, “dheere dheere chal“, This combination created storms in the film Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai.
Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai was a musical film with Asha Parekh and all the songs became super hit in the early 60s. Some of them included “jiya ho, jiya ho jiya kuch bol do“, “sau saal pehele hume tumse pyar tha“, “yeh aankhe uff yummma“, “teri zulfonki“, to name a few. The success of the film Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai was followed up in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film Asli Nakli. All the songs of this film were hit especially “tera mera pyara amar“, “tujhe jeevan ki dor se bandh liya hai“, “ek buth banayunga“, “asli nakli chehera“ 
After this released Dev Anand Saira Bano starrer Pyar Mohabbat in 1966. The songs in the film Pyar Mohabbat, like “dil ki awaaz khuda khair Karen“, “pyar muhobbat” and duet songs with Sharda like “sun sun, sun re balam, dil tujhko pukare” were hits.
After this film SJ did 2 films with Dev Saab both released in 1968,Duniya and Kahin Aur Chal The songs of Duniya were popular in this film SJ used Kishore Kumar for Dev Anand.

Song of Patita 1953

Song of Love Marriage 1959

Song of Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1961) 

Song of Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai (1961)

Song of Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai (1961)

Song of Asli Naqli (1962) 

Song of Asli Naqli (1962) 

Song of Pyar Mohabbat 1966

Song of Duniya 1968

Song of Duniya 1968

Murad- An Important Character Actor of Golden Era of Bollywood

Today's generation may not know him but the lovers of the Golden Era can't forget him. His usual roles were that of a father, judge, emperor, zamindar or police commissioner. Some of his well known films include Andaz (1949), Deedar (1951), Aan(1952), Do Bigha Zameen (1953), Mirza Ghalib(1954) , Amar(1954) , Devdas(1955) and K Asif’s magnum opus Mughal-E-Azam where he played the role of Raja Mann Singh. His unique voice and dialogue delivery were his assets.
He started his career with Najma (1943) and worked in over 100 films over the next five decades. In his first film, he played the role of Ashok Kumar's father. He was then offered the roles of Heroe's or Heroine's father. He played the role of Deputy saheb – the girl's father in Mehboob Khan’s Anmol Ghadi (1946) which was a musical hit starring Surendra, Noor Jahan and Suraiya.

He was a favourite character artist of the filmmaker Mehboob Khan. In fact, Mehboob Khan took him in his film Najma in 1943 which happened to be his debut film. After that, he appeared in his Anmol Ghadi (1946), Andaj (1949), Aan (1952), Amar(1954) and Son of India(1962).

Murad in Baraat

From the 1960s through to the end of the 1980s he appeared mostly as a judge or police commissioner. He was last seen in Amitabh Bachchan's Shehanshah released in 1988. He died in his birthplace in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh in 1997. His son Raza Murad is also a character actor of Bollywood.

Ameeta - A Forgotten Actress

She was the heroine of 1957 hit film Tumsa Nahin Dekha which made Shammi Kapoor a Star but the luck did not favour Ameeta.In 1959 Goonj Uthi Shahnai, her another big hit film as heroine released. Rajendra Kumar was the hero.  Here despite a mature and sensitive performance, Ameeta was overlooked and Kumar was given credit for the film's emphatic success.
Although she fired up the careers of Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar with these hits, Ameeta could never capitalise on them and stardom never materialised. She later switched to character roles.

Her  roles in multi-star films like Raakhi (1962) and the blockbuster Mere Mehboob (1963) did not help her career graph, even though she was nominated for a Filmfare award for the latter as Best Supporting Actress, and she now dropped to playing lead grade-B movies which though successful at the box office did not do much for her star status. However, her romance opposite Kishore Kumar in Hum Sab Ustad Hai in 1965 was appreciated by the audience. By 1965 she was playing negative and villainous characters in films like Rishte Naate (1965), and Aasra (1966). Worse still, she was seen in supporting roles to starlets Rajshree and Babita, in films like Around the World (1967) and Haseena Maan Jayegi (1968). After filming Haseena Maan Jayegi (1968), a disillusioned Ameeta left the film industry as she was not getting leading roles and settled into matrimony.

A fan of Madhubala, Ameeta was enacting her idol's sword fight from the movie Baadal when she caught the eye of Lekhraj Bhakhri, who signed her for his movie Thokar. This was her debut film in a side role where she was credited as Jayjaywanti. Qamar's debut movie as the heroine was a 1953 release, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1954), directed by Vijay Bhatt. The screen name Ameeta made its appearance in this movie. The film failed, but Ameeta kept on working in films like Amar Kirtan, Badal Aur Bijli, Baaghi Sardar and Indrasabha. But her career took a positive turn when she worked with her idol Madhubala in Shirin Farhad (1956). She was then chosen for lead roles in Abhimaan and Zamana.
She was born on  11 April 1940. Her real name was Qamar Sultana, She started her career with producer-director Lekhraj Bhakhri,s Thokar in 1953. The main lead hero was Shammi Kapoor, that time he was a flop actor. Her next film was Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu starring with Bharat Bhushan. Her screen name was given by Vijay Bhatt the director of this film. This film flopped and her career was in jeopardy She had to accept heroines roles in B grade films until she got Tumsa Nahi Dekha.
Ameeta was nominated for a Filmfare Award as Best Supporting Actress for Mere Mehboob (1962) but lost out to Shashikala for Gumrah(1963)

Song of Tumsa Nahin Dekha 1957

Song of Tumsa Nahin Dekha 1957

Song of Goonj Uthi Shehnai 1959

Song of Goonj Uthi Shehnai 1959

Song of Chhote Nawab 1961

Song of Mere Mehboob 1963

Song of Hum Sab Ustad Hain 1965

The Story Behind the Song "Dum Maro Dum"

This super hit song was once an anthem of the Indian young generation. To hear ‘Dum Maro Dum’ blaring over loudspeakers was a part of growing up in the 1970s. The job of composing music for ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ was first offered to Sachin Dev Burman but he hated hippie culture and turned down the offer. But his son R. D. Burman was of a different opinion and decide to grab this opportunity. After this song, R. D. Burman became the new mega-composer of Bollywood.
Actually ‘Dum Maro Dum’ was supposed to be a duet between Usha Uthup (singing for the bad girl) and Lata Mangeshkar (singing for the good girl). But at the end, they were both checked off the list and Asha Bhosle ended up singing the song solo.
The song topped the Binaca Geetmala annual list 1972. In Binaca Geetmala, a song could appear for a maximum of 18 weeks, after which it was called a Sartaj Geet. On 15 March 1972, Dum Maro Dum became a Sartaj Geet while it was at #1 payddan (position). It had remained at #1 position for 12 weeks.
Dev Anand wanted some peppy music before his song "Ram Ka Naam Badnam Na Karo" R D Burman sat with Anand Bakshi and asked him to give him few words before starting the song Ram Ka Naam Badnam No Karo. It was Anand Bakshi who used the old phrase Dum Maro Dum Mit Jaye Gum as Mukhda for this song, R D Burman immediately made a tune which was liked by all his musicians. So he asked Anand Bakshi to complete the full song on this tune.

The song came out to be marvellous, everybody was convinced that it will become a craze. In fact, Dev Anand was scared of this song, he was worried that this song will overshadow his song Ram Ka Naam Badnam Na Karo. RDB suggested to him that they will keep this song only on the disc. After a few days, Dev Saab decided to picturise this song on Zeenat Aman but kept a small version of this separately in the film.
The song presented the lyricist Anand Bakshi as a versatile lyricist and shaped his career. It also boosted the composer Rahul Dev Burman's career. Bhupinder played the guitar for the song. Charanjit Singh played the distinctive drone of the transichord that opens the song.
This song has been remixed and sampled by a number of artists. It has also been included in many compilations.British DJ, San-j Sanj has used the infectious guitar hook and created a dance track featuring Natty A called "So Real So Right". DJ Ritu and Bally Sagoo compiled the song for their collection The Rough Guide to Bollywood in 2002. In 2004, the hip-hop artist Method Man sampled the song in his third album Tical 0: The Prequel, for the track "What's Happenin'" featuring Busta Rhymes.
Here is the original song along with many cover  versions of this song

Song of Hare Rama Hare Krishna 1971

Dum Maro Dum by Rowdy Brass Band "What Cheer

Method Man and Busta Rhymes, "What's Happenin'"

The Beatles of Bollywood

Naarghita - Dum maro dum

Robin and The New Revolution

Story Behind the Song "Yeh Aankhen Uff You Maa"

This Iconic song is sung by Rafi and Lata and it is picturised on the lead pair of Dev Saab and Asha Parekh. The film was directed by Nasir Hussain and the song was written by Hasrat Jaipuri and composed by Shankar Jaikishan. The film was a super hit, all the songs were hit.
When this song released everybody was curious to know the meaning of Uff Youmaa.These words became craze after the release of the film.
The story behind these words was that once Music Director Jaikishan along with lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri were attending a party in Bombay where an Arabic lady who was very beautiful said Uff Yumma and Jaikishan immediately took a liking for this very unusual word and there and then asked Hasrat Jaipuri to sit down and write a romantic song using this word for their upcoming film Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai.
The Mukhra of this song was ready in a few minutes. Jaikishan immediately left the party and went to Nasir Hussain's house Initially Nasir Hussain was reluctant to take these words but when the full song was ready he invited Dev Saab to listen to the song. Dev Anand instantly liked these words and approved this song.
This romantic song was picturised on the beautiful hills of Darjeeling. The situation was created for this song by the director for using these words. 

Song of Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai 1961

Please Click the Link Below to know more about Hasrat Jaipuri

https://youtu.be/58O0VJZZ0UU 

Jeetendra - The First Dancing Star of Bollywood

Though Shammi Kapoor invented rock and roll in Bollywood, it was Jeetendra who really gave a new dimension to dancing In Bollywood. With filmmaker Ravikant Nagaich’s bond thriller FARZ, Jeetendra set the ball rolling and became the First Bollywood hero who left his heroines behind in the dance movements.
One can recollect the super hit song Mast Baharon Ka Main Aashiq from the film FARZ, Jeetendra’s fast-paced dance movement in the song is truly breathtaking. That was unique in Hindi films that the hero is dancing in such a way. After the success of this movie and particularly the mega success of this song, the media coined the term Jumping Jack for Jeetendra.
His mass appeal and naughty on-screen persona were what won the heart of the audience. They expected him to dance and songs in every film. There were many films like,Jeene Ki Raah, Jigri Dost, Waris  ‘Caravan’ and ‘Humjoli’, in which Jeetendra had more dance numbers.

In the 80s he was most frequently cast opposite heroines like Sridevi and Jaya Prada, and his career mostly consisted of South Indian film remakes of makers like Rama Rao Tatineni, K Bapayya and K. Raghavendra Rao. Among them, the most noteworthy were: Sanjog, Aulad, Majaal, Justice Chaudhry, Mawaali, Himmatwala, Jaani Dushman and Tohfa.
 Jeetendra was visible flaunting white trousers and a crisp white shirt dancing with his lead heroines. He jollily tossed around heroines in film after film, from ’60sto the ’90s but a willing audience never got tired of his dancing steps. Remember the songs like Kanwarlal Naam Hai Mera from Meri Awaz Suno

Here are some of his Dancing songs.

Song of Farz 1967

Song of Farz 1967

Song of Jeene Ki Raah 1969

Song of Jigri Dost 1969

Song of Waris 1969

Song of Humjoli 1970

Song of Caravan 1971

Song of Anokhi Ada  1973

Song of Aap Ke Diwane 1980

Song of Meri Aawaz Suno 1981

Song of Himmatwala 1983

Song of Mawaali 1983

Song of Tohfa 1984