Non Film Songs Of Great Singers

Preference in music is so subjective. What I like, might not be liked by you. I like some songs due to their lyrics, some due to the singer, some due to the music, One could dislike these very songs because they don't like the lyrics, or the beats, or the singer. Similarly many of us like Film songs but many of us who like Non-film songs.
Regarding the Non Film songs, we must know that much before Films started Talking and singing, the Non-Film Songs were famous in many forms. Bhajans and Classical songs were the most popular Non-Film Songs during silent films. The first recorded song was in 1902 which was manufactured in Germany and shipped to India in April 1903. It was sung by Gauhar Jaan 
In 1930, All India Radio started and in 1931 the films started talking. However, records of film songs were in general not made those days, though the first film song record came in 1932. Till about 1939-40, records of film songs were not made from every film. So, people continued to enjoy the NON FILM SONGS by famous singers. This trend of making records of NFS was so popular that most Film singers started their careers by recording NFS. Examples are Talat Mehmood, Hemant Kumar, S D Burman, Lata, Asha, Mukesh, Rafi etc.
 In this Blog I have taken many of those Non-film songs of great singers of their time.

A Rare Non Film Song recorded in 1914,Song-Kaho guinyya kaise kate saari raat (Baby Amirjan NFS)(1914) Singer-Amirbai Karnataki

D V Paluskar was a Hindustani classical vocalist. He was considered a child prodigy. He cut his first disc in 1944.. He was a master at presenting an attractive and comprehensive picture of a raga in a very short duration. Besides pure classical music, he was also a great Bhajan singer. 

K L Saigal The immortal Singer K L Saigal rendered 185 songs which include 142 film songs and 43 non-film songs. His non-film songs comprise bhajans, ghazals and hori. 

                               Mein Jo Dinan Ki Thhori Hori Geet by KL Saigal

Pankaj Mullick, 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 His voice best suited for philosophical and sentimental songs. He sang many such genresmaster madan of songs both filmy and non-filmy.

                                           Na Kar Itna Pyar... Pankhaj Mallick

Master Madan was a child prodigy, unfortunately, he died at the age of 15. The child prodigy started singing at the tender age of three and quickly became a craze all over India. His astonishingly mature voice left a deep impression on the listeners. Anyone with even a passing interest in music is familiar with these two Sagar Nizami's ghazals,

Yun naa reh reh kar hamein tarsaaiye

Hairat se tak rahaa hei jahane wafa mujhe

Noorjehan was the female singing superstar in the 40s. She shifted to Pakistan during the partition. She may have sung many NFS in Pakistan but in India, she sang only a few one of those is given here.

Jogan ki jholi bhar de o shah madeene waale

C.H. Atma  His evergreen song is 'Preetam Aan Milo', which he sang in 1945 for a private album. In 1955, the same song was sung by Geeta Dutt for the film, Mr. & Mrs. '55 for composer O. P. Nayyar, who was a great fan of his singing.^[2] His voice was quite similar to K. L. Saigal. But he had his own unique style which he implied to become one of the fewest singers to become extensively popular both in film and non-film music. 

Begum Akhtar  a well known Indian singer of Ghazal, Dadra, and Thumrigenres of Hindustani classical music. She was given the title of Mallika-e-Ghazal .She was among the early female singers to give a public concert. Her first public performance was at the age of fifteen.She has nearly four hundred songs to her credit. She was a regular performer on All India Radio. She usually composed her own ghazals and most of her compositions were raag based.Her ghazal ‘ae mohabbat tere anjaam pe ronaa aayaa’ and Begum Akhtar are inseparable. 

Geeta Dutt -It was in the year 1946 that Geeta Roy sang for Pandit Hanuman Prasad in a mythological movie, Bhakt Prahlad. In 1947 S D Burman took her for Do Bhai. The success of the music of Do Bhai (especially the song "Mera sundar sapna beet gaya") catapulted Geeta to the top bracket of female playback singers. 

Talat Mahmood   was a very gifted singer in every sense. He was particularly famous for singing soft and sombre semi-classical and non-classical ghazals, He started his career purely as a ghazal singer in 1939. Talat Mahmood began his singing career at the age of 16 in 1939 when he began singing the Ghazals of Daag, Mir, Jigar etc. on All India Radio, Lucknow. In 1944 came the hit Tasveer teri dil mera behela nah sake gi. Its popularity was so phenomenal and unrivalled that even today it remains one of the top-selling non-film discs

Manna Dey, He debuted in the film Tamanna in 1942. After the song "Upar Gagan Bishal" composed by S D Burman he saw success and went on to record more than 4,000 songs. The first song which was broadcasted on the inaugural day of Vividh Bharati was ‘naach re mayuraa’ (1957)which was sung by Manna Dey. The song was penned by Pandit Narendra Sharma especially for the occasion and set to music by Anil Biswas

Hemant Kumar - an Indian playback singer, music directorand film producer, who sang in Bengali, Hindi and other Indian languages. He is also the greatest artist of Rabindra Sangeet. In 1947, Hemanta recorded a non-film song called "Ganyer badhu"  that had music and lyrics by Salil Chowdhury..This song generated an unforeseen popularity for Hemanta 

Hemant Kumar sang nearly 60 NFS of which three-fourth were released in the 40s and 50s. Most of his NFSs of 40s and 50s were composed by music directors like Kamal Dasgupta, Durga Sen, Ravi 

The two most popular NFSs of Hemant Kumar in terms of frequency of them being played on the radio in the 60s were (i) ‘aanchal se kyon baandh liyaa mujhe pardesi kaa pyaar’ and (ii) ‘bhala thhaa kitnaa apnaa bachpan’. 

aanchal se kyon baandh liyaa mujhe pardesi kaa pyaar

Paa kar bhi tumhen ham paa na sakey

Meena Kumari -We all know about her acting but we are not aware of her singing and poetic side.she wrote shayari in the pseudo name of Naaz.Meena Kumari was also a playback singer. She sung as a child artist for films like Bahen till 1945.She sang 3 songs for the film  Duniya Ek Sarai (1946),five songs for Piya Ghar Aaja (1947),6 songs for Bichchade Balam (1948) even ONE song for Pakeezah (1972). However, this song was not used in the film and was later released in the album Pakeezah-Rang Barang (1977).

Poetry was in her blood. Her father Ali Baksh was an Urdu poet and attached with Parsi theatre. Her mother, Iqbal Bano was actually a stage artist,In 1970, an LP was released,The title of the LP – ‘I Write, I Recite’. This LP has nine ghazals written and sung by herself. 

Chaand tanha hai aasmaan tanha 

Malika Pukhraj -  a highly popular Ghazal and folk singer.Sometime in the late 30s, the glamour of films brought her to Bombay (Mumbai) to act in films. However, after doing a couple of day’s shooting for a film, she could not adjust to the atmosphere of film shooting. So she left the film half-way and fled to Lahore feigning illness. 

Like Begum Akhtar, in the later years, Malika Pukhraj mainly concentrated on singing ghazals based on semi-classical music. She also sang and recorded folk songs in Dogri, her native language.She was among the greatest singers of India in the 1940s, and after Partition of India in 1947, she migrated to Lahore, Pakistan, where she received much more fame, through her radio performances

Abhi to main jawaan hoon

Mukesh - is considered to be one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the Hindi film industry.The first song that he sang for a Hindi film was "Dil Jalta Hai To Jalne De".He also sang many non film songs.It is more than 100.

Baharon Se Keh Do ... Mere Ghar Na Aayein

                            Jiyenge Magar Muskura Na Sakenge Ki Ab Zindagi Main...

Mohammed Rafi -one of the greatest singers of the Indian sub continent..Rafi was notable for his voice and versatility; his songs ranged from fast peppy numbers to patriotic songs, sad numbers to highly romantic songs, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans to classical songs. He has sung in many regional Indian languages including Konkani, Assamese, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang songs in many foreign languages including English, Farsi, Arabic, Sinhalese, Creole and Dutch.He recorded many private albums in various genres and languages, many of which are noted as all-time classics today.

                                                 Tum Aao Rumjhum Karti

                                            Ek Hi Baat Zamane Ki- Mohd Rafi Ghazal

Lata Mangeshkar - Lata Mangeshkar had sung many ghazals in Hindi films especially under the baton of Madan Mohan. During 1960-70, Lata Mangeshkar had sung some beautiful non-filmy ghazals. In 1969, a LP of her non-filmy ghazals of Mirza Ghalib composed by her brother Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar was released.Similarly LP of Lata was released in 70s of Meera Bhajan The album's name is actually known as "Chala Wahi Des".Another immortal NFS is "Ae mere watan ke logon” 

                                                    Lata ji Sings Mirza Ghalib...

Ghiri ghataayen aasmaan par( Lata NFS)(1969)

Mukesh-who wanted to be like K L Saigal

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 Similar to the story of Eklavya, Mukesh initiated in music.He started learning music indirectly  from his sister’s Guruji . He would listen from the next room and keep practicing until the day.Those days K L Saigal was the star singer actor.Like every body
KL Saigal was Mukesh’s idol.He wanted to be like him. Mukesh had good looks and his nature was very industrious, thus trying his luck at acting was natural for him.It was the actor Motilal who was his relative attended the marriage of Mukesh's sister at Delhi where he heard Mukesh singing a song.He liked his singing and advised him to come to Bombay and try his luck in films.
After few months Mukesh saw an advertisement in a News Paper from Ranjit Movitone for requirement of Actor cum Singer.He applied for this and was called to Bombay for an interview.It was Chandulal Shah of Ranjit Movietone who selected him and gave him the job.
He got his first project as an actor-singer in a film named Nirdosh in 1941 which has his first song ‘Dil hi ho bujha hua to’.His second film was Adab Arz in 1943.He acted as a hero in the film Mashooka in 1953, opposite Suraiya. During these period he sang and acted in few films but his career was not rising.It was in 1945 when Moti Lal asked Anil Biswas to take Mukesh as his playback singer for the film Pehli Nazar.The song he sang for the film was "Dil Jalta Hai To Jalne De".This song became so popular which opened the door of success for Mukesh.
Mukesh was such a fan of singer K. L. Saigal that in his early years of playback singing he used to imitate his idol. In fact, it is said that when K. L. Saigal first heard the song "Dil Jalta Hai...", he remarked, "That's strange, I don't recall singing that song"
It was  music director Naushad Ali, who helped Mukesh to come out of his Saigal style and create his own style. Naushad gave him songs for the film Andaz. Initially Mukesh was the ghost voice of Dilip Kumar in this movie and Mohammed Rafi sang for Raj Kapoor. He delivered many Hits for Naushad in films like: Anokhi Ada (1948), Mela (1948), Andaz (1949). Other composers who used Mukesh voice for great Dilip Kumar in hit songs like "Jeevan Sapna toot gaya" were Anil Biswas in Anokha Pyar, Ye Mera Diwanapan hai, Shankar-Jaikishan in Yahudi and Suhana Safar and Dil Tadap Tadap ke, Salil Choudhary in Madhumati. However, later Dilip Kumar choose Rafi as his ghost voice and Mukesh became the ghost voice of Raj Kapoor. Mukesh recorded highest number of songs for Shankar Jaikishan ie 133 songs followed by kalyanji Anandji ie 99 songs. Out of 4 Filmfare awards, Mukesh won 3 awards for Shankar Jaikishan songs.

The duo of Raj Kapoor and Mukesh had hell lots of songs among which the most remembered and played is ‘Awara Hoon’. This song has lived almost 65 years yet kids know this song and the song is so stuck in everyone’s mind. Other famous songs were Mera Joota hai Japani, Jeena yahan marna yahan, Dost dost na raha, Jaane kaha gaye vo din, Kisiki muskurahaton pe, Ichak Daana beechak Daana, Sajan re jhoot mat bolo, Ramaiya vastavaiya, Dum Dum Diga Diga, Vo subah kabhi to aayegi, Kehta hai Joker saara jamana, Begaani shaadi me Abdullah deewana.The first song Mukesh sang for Raj kapoor was ‘Zinda hoon is tarah’ in 1948 film Aag, the lifelong partnership started from this song.
Like Talat, Mukesh also had an inherent sadness in his voice. So songs like ‘Woh tere pyar ka gham’, ‘Saranga teri yaad mein’ or ‘Baharon ne mera chaman lootkar’ sounded even more soulful in his voice. But unlike Talat, he could even belt out light numbers with gay abandon. Songs like ‘Ruk jaa o jaanewali ruk jaa’, ‘Aasman pe hai khuda aur zameen pe hum’ or ‘Bina badra ke bijuriya kaise chamke’ confirmed this time and again.
Many critics derided him as an imperfect singer who had a nasal twang and who would often miss a note or a beat and many a time they had a valid point. His limited vocal range also made high-pitched songs difficult for him. Mukesh proved them wrong 
After Shankar Jaikishan Mukesh sang lot of songs for Kalyanji Anandji  "Naina hai jadoo bhare..." Bedard Zamana Kya Jane (1958) composed by Kalyanji alone as Kalyanji Virji Shah, and "Main hoon mast madari..." Madari (1959) as the first Kalyanji-Anandji-Mukesh combo, to "Chahe aaj mujhe napasand karo" Darinda/ 1977, the K-A, Mukesh combination gave numerous popular songs like "Chhalia mera naam...", "Mere toote hue dil se...", "Dum dum diga diga" Chalia(1959), "Mujhko iss raat ki tanhai mein..." Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere(1960), "Hum chhod chale hain mehfil ko..." (Ji Chahta Hai), "Humne tumko pyar kiya hai jitna..." (Dulha Dulhan), "Chal mere dil lehraake chal..." Ishara and "Dheere se chalo..." Johar Mehmood in Goa,"Main to ek khwab hoon..." and "Chand si mehbooba ho..." Himalay Ki Godmein(1965), "Waqt kartaa jo wafaa..." Dil Ne Pukara,"Deewanon se yeh mat poocho..." Upkar, "Khush raho har khushi hai..." Suhaag Raat and "Humsafar ab yeh safar kat jaayega..." Juari, "Chandi ki deewaar..." and "Le chal le chal mere jeevan saathi..." Vishwas (1969), "Koi jab tumhara hriday tod de..." Purab Aur Paschim, "Darpan ko dekha..." Upaasna, "Jo tumko ho pasand..." Safar and "Mujhe nahin poochni tumse beeti baatein..." Anjaan Raahein (1970).
Mukesh died of a heart attack on 27 August 1976 in Detroit, Michigan, US, where he had gone to perform in a concert. That morning, he got up early and went to take a shower. He came out panting and complaining of chest pains. He was rushed to a hospital but was pronounced dead. The rest of the concert was completed by Lata Mangeshkar and surprisingly his son Nitin Mukesh . His body was flown to India by Lata Mangeshkar, where a grand funeral ceremony was held in the presence of several actors, with personalities of the Indian film industry and fans paying tribute. 
Mukesh had the voice that could paint a thousand shades of melancholy. The way he sang, with the perfect tone and diction, he was considered as second to none. The pain that he had in his voice could not be imitated by anyone else.

SONGS THAT WON HIM FILMFARE

• Sab Kuch Seekha Humne(Anari)
• Sabse Bada Naadan(Pehchan)
• Jai Bolo Beimaan Ki(Be-imaan)
• Kabhie kabhie mere dil me(Kabhie Kabhie)
• .SONG THAT WON HIM NATIONAL FILM AWARD
• Kai Baar Yuhi Dekha Hai(Rajnigandha)

Song from Pehli Nazar 1945

Song from Anokha Pyar, 1948

Song from Aag 1948

Song from Mela 1948

Song from Andaz 1949

Song from Awaara 1951

Song from Parvarish 1958

Song from Anari 1959

Song from Kala Aadmi, 1960

Song from Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere(1960)

Song from Bandini, 1963

Song from Sangam (1964)

Song from Himalay Ki Godmein(1965)

Song from Teesri Kasam 1965

Song from Milan 1967

ong from Mera Naam Joker 1970

Song from Safar, 1970

Song from Kabhie Kabhie 1976

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The Other Voices of Raj Kapoor

When you think of Raj Kapur,the name of Mukesh automatically comes in our mind as the voice of Raj Kapoor.  Raj was convinced that only the voice of Mukesh suited him, so in all the films that he produced or directed, he used to try using Mukesh for his songs. However,as a true Professional, if he were to work for some other producer or under a different Director, he followed the policy of strict Non-interference. So, in such films, we see other singers giving playback to Raj Kapoor, depending on the choice of the producer or director.
After Mukesh, Manna Dey was the alternate voice of Raj Kapoor. Remember the songs Pyaar hua ekraar hua, Ye raat bheegi bheegi, A ja sanam madhur chandni mein hum and many more songs.Manna Dey later sang for Raj Kapur in Parvarish (Masti bhara hai sama), Dil Hi To Hai (Laga chunari mein daag), Mera Naam Joker (Ae bhai zara dekh ke chalo). It is creditable that all the Manna Dey songs, though few in number, acquired iconic status.
Mohammad Rafi also sang for Raj Kapoor. I have come across at least five films in which the songs on Raj Kapur are in the voice of Rafi. You will be surprised to know that in Andaz (1949) Mukesh sang for Dilip Kumar and Rafi sang for Raj Kapoor the duet Milnewale kahin ulfat mein juda hote hain. is one of them.Next film was Dastan released in 1950  in which Surraiya starred with Raj Kapoor the famous song Tara Ri Aara Ri  was sung by Rafi.
There was a film Amber (1952) starring Raj Kapur and Nargis music was given by Ghulam Mohammad  a beautiful duet with Lata, which would rank among the best of Ghulam Mohammad and the best of Rafi-Lata duets. The song is" Hum Tum Yeh Bahar" Another film was Paapi released in 1953 remember the song "tera kaam hai jalna parvane".There was a film  Do Ustaad (1959)starring Raj Kapur, Madhubala and Music by OP Nayyar "Dil Ka Makaan"

Song from Andaz (1949)

Song from Dastan (1950)

Song from Amber (1952)

Song from Paapi  (1953)

Song from Do Ustaad (1959)

Song from Do Ustaad (1959)

 Talat sang a total of ten songs for Raj Kapoor in 4 films, as following-

S No.	Song	Movie (Year)	Director	Music Director
1.	Armaan bhare dil ki lagan hai	Jaan Pehchan(1950)	Fali Mistry	Khemchand Prakash
2.	Main hoon dil ek armaan bhara	Anhonee(1952)	K A Abbas	Roshan
3.	Mere dil ki dhadkan kya bole	Anhonee(1952)	K A Abbas	Roshan
4.	Sama ke dil mein hamaare	Anhonee(1952)	K A Abbas	Roshan
5.	Main paagal mera manawa paagal	Ashiana(1952)	B. Trilochan	Madan Mohan
6.	Mera qaraar le jaa	Ashiana(1952)	B. Trilochan	Madan Mohan
7.	Dil matwala lakh sambhala	Bewafa(1952)	M L Anand	A R Qureshi
8.	Kaam hathon ka hai	Bewafa(1952)	M L Anand	A R Qureshi
9.	Tu aaye na aaye	Bewafa(1952)	M L Anand	A R Qureshi
10.	Tum ko fursat ho meri jaan	Bewafa(1952)	M L Anand	A R Qureshi

One can see from the above list that 7 out of the 10 Talat songs had been Hits-that is 70%- in those days and they are Talat lovers’ favourites even today. 

Song from Jaan Pehchan(1950)

Song from Anhonee(1952)

Song from Anhonee(1952)

Song from Ashiana(1952)

Song from Bewafa(1952)

Kishore Kumar has also sung for Raj Kapur. The only film having this distinction is Pyar (1950), lyrics by Rajendra Krishna and composed by who else but SD Burman. Though there were many  songs of Kishore Kumar for Raj Kapoor in the film, only audio is available.

Song from Pyar (1950),