Runa Laila - A Legend Forever

 

She was born in East Pakistan, was educated in Pakistan, settled down in Bangladesh after the creation of the state in 1971, has worked in India and travels the world with her shows. Where does she really belong? 

The colourful journey of her career has taken her all over the world. From Madison Square Garden to Sydney Opera House, from Europe to Africa – the veteran has stepped on proudly carrying the legacy of Bangladesh and mesmerized her audience in India and Pakistan. She has lent her melodious voice to over 10,000 recordings, in 18 languages.

In her decorated career, Runa Laila has achieved such height of fame and recognition that most artists can only dream of. She has voiced the magical lyrics of some of the globally renowned lyricists and performed the duet with singers at the similar altitudes of success.

She was born (17 th Nov 1952) in Sylhet to Syed Mohammed Imdad Ali, a civil servant posted in Karachi, and Amina Laila. In 1966, she made her breakthrough with the song Unki Nazron Sey Mohabbat Ka Jo Paigham Mila for the Urdu film Hum Dono. She used to perform on PTV In a show called Bazm E Laila.

Her tryst with Indian films came about after a chance meeting with music director Jaidev in Delhi, at a party hosted by businessman and music connoisseur Ashok Khanna. He gave her a chance to sing at the inauguration of Doordarshan. For a few years, she used to sing in Doordarshan. She became famous among viewers by her song Damadam Mast Kalandar. Her first recording was with Kalyanji-Anandji for the title song of Ek Se Badhkar Ek. She gained popularity in India with the songs O Mera Babu Chail Chabila and Dama Dam Mast Qalandar . After that, she sang two songs for Gharonda"Tumhe ho na ho" and "Do deewane shaher mein " composed by Jaidev.
She shares a close association with Bappi Lahiri too. In fact, Bappida recorded a pop album in her voice called Superuna in London. The singer remembers it all fondly. “We recorded at the Abbey Road Studios, made famous by The Beatles and I think we were the first people from the subcontinent to have done so. It was a spectacular experience. The songs are still popular and I perform them at my shows even now.” The songs were indeed so popular that Bappida used the hit single, De De Pyar De in the film Sharaabi (1984). 
Her name has been written on the Guinness World Records for recording 30 songs within 3 days. In 1982, she won Golden Disk Award as her album Superuna composed by Bappi Lahiri was sold over 1 lakh copies on the first day of its release.

Runa has also sung versions of Mehdi Hassan’s ghazals, which became quite famous. In October 2009, she released Kala Sha Kala, a collection of Punjabi wedding songs, in India. In 2012, Laila served as a judge on the show Sur Kshetra, an Indian television contest show for amateur singers. She described her relationship with fellow judge Asha Bhosle as that of sisters. In 2014, she collaborated with Sabina Yasmin on a song for a television play "Dalchhut Projapoti", the first time they worked on a song together.

Runa has sung in seventeen languages including her native Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Pashto, Baluchi, Arabic, Persian, Malay, Nepalese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French and English.

Song of Ek Se Badkaar Ek 1976

Song of Gharonda 1977

Song of Yaadgaar (1984)

Mera Babu Chhail Chhabila Mai To Naachu re

Song of The Rain 1976  Bangaladesh

Ghazal  of Runa Laila

Superuna composed by Bappi Lahiri 

Chitragupt- A Forgotten Genius

 

Chitragupt (16 November 1917 – 14 January 1991) the forgotten music director of the Golden Era, gave us some of the most memorable songs. "Laagi Chhoote Na" sung by Mohammed Rafi & Lata Mangeshkar is one of these songs. He became a household name after the 1962 release of Main Chup Rahungi starring Meena Kumari and Sunil Dutt. 

Chitragupt composed music for 150 films spanning from 1946 to 1998. Lata Mangeshkar sang many hit songs under his direction.He made Kishore Kumar sing the classical song "Payalwaali dekh na" and the popular song "Agar sun le koi nagma 

He was a very learned man, was a postgraduate in two subjects,  a master’s degree in Economics, following it up with an MA in Journalism. He was a professor in Patna University for some time. He also had a love for music besides academics. He had a good grounding in classical music, he used to play the Tabla and had good singing skills. He had  a secret desire of becoming a professional singer which was known to his friend only.

One day his friend Madan Sinha (who later became a well-known cinematographer and also directed the Vinod Khanna-starrer Imtihaan in 1974) suggested they go to Bombay to try their luck in the films, Chitragupta agreed. 

When they arrived in Bombay, Chitragupt managed an introduction to the legendary Nitin Bose who gave him a chance to sing in the chorus. One thing led to another and Chitragupta soon found himself as the assistant of composer S NTripathi.

He got his break as an independent Music director with Fighting Hero (1946). After that he gave music in many B grade movies but his first hit song was a duet by Shamshad Begum and Mohammad Rafi in Sindbad The Sailor (1952).

His first big banner was AVM Shiv Bhakta (1955), AVM’s backing also meant the music director finally got Lata Mangeshkar to sing for him. This was the beginning of a long and fruitful association for both.

Lata Mangeshkar sang “240 songs (no fewer than 151 solos)” under Chitragupta’s baton. Recall the songs of Mein Chup Rahongi(1962) and Bhabhi (1957). In fact, it was AVM films that made him popular as a composer.

He also gave music in Bhojpuri films. In fact. he gave music in the first Bhojpuri film Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo (1963). The Lyrics of this film were written by Shailendra, who lived near him and was his good friend. 

The lyricist Prem Dhawan, a frequent collaborator, was also a dear friend. “They would often drive off to Aarey Colony where they would find a place to sit down and that’s where they would make the songs.”

Chitragupta died on January 14, 1991, The music director duo Anand-Milind are his 2 sons, who gave the music of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, 

Songs of Chitragupt

Song of Bhabhi (1957)

Song of Barkha (1959)

Song of Kali Topi Lal Rumal (1959)

Song of Main Chup Rahungi (1962)

Song of Ganga Ki Lahren (1964)

Song of Oonche Log (1965)

Song of Vaasna (1968)

Bollywood.s Obsession of Festival Releases

 

It is a usual practice of all the big banners and big stars to release their films during festival seasons. They keep & announce the release dates well in advance. Sometimes we have seen a clash of their films on these dates. 

Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Independence Day or Republic Day are few of the festivals which are booked well in advance by these stars. It has been observed that Yash Raj and Shahrukh Khan release their films during Diwali season, Eid is favourite for Salman Khan and Christmas is fixed for Aamir Khan.

In this blog, I look into the release of films during Diwali Season and see their Box Office performance. It is surprising that not all films fared well, there were some disasters also. Perhaps this is the first Diwali season when no film is releasing in Big Screens.

The Bollywood Diwali release is rather more solidly rooted in the Yash Chopra films of the 1990s. Starting with Lamhe (1991), almost every major Chopra production, such as Dil Toh Pagal Hai(1997), Veer-Zaara (2004), and Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012 —even those which were directed by his son, Aditya, and produced by him, such as DDLJ(1995) and Mohabbatein(2000)—were Diwali releases. 

Shah Rukh Khan is the name that comes to mind when we think of a Diwali release. And, indeed, blockbusters such as DDLJ, Dil Toh Pagal Hai (1997) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), which established him as the “king of romance", were Diwali releases.

Let's look into the Diwali releases of Bollywood Films for the last 15 years

In 2006, there was a clash of 2 big films  Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar’s ‘Jaan-e-mann’ released alongside Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Don – The Chase Begins’, Don became a hit while Jaan e mann was a flop.

In 2007 also, there was a clash of 2 big films.Shah Rukh’s Om Shanti Om and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Saawariya’, which introduced us to Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. Once again Shah Rukh Khan's Om Shanti Om was a hit while Saanwariya was a flop.

2008 again had two films clashing during the Diwali Day and for the first time in a very long time, both films did well at the box office.  Madhur Bhandarkar released his film ‘Fashion’ starring Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut, Golmaal Returns was the other film, both the films were hit.

2009 saw as many as 3 films releasing on the same day. 'All The Best', 'Blue' and 'Main Aur Mrs Khanna' clashed during this period.None of them was a hit.

2010 witnessed yet another big clash. Akshay Kumar's Action Replay and Ajay Devgn's Golmal 3, of these two Golmal 3 was a blockbuster while Action Replay was a flop.

In 2011, Shah Rukh Khan was back to his Diwali releases after a gap of 4 years. It was the hugely-hyped 'Ra One',A big flop.

The 2012 Diwali weekend was filled with controversies. This year saw Yash Chopra’s last directorial venture ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ featuring his favourite Shah Rukh Khan, releasing on the same day as Ajay Devgn’s home production ‘Son Of Sardaar’. Both the films were hit

In 2013, only one film 'Krrish 3,' released, it was a blockbuster.

2014 saw Shah Rukh’s 5th Diwali release in 9 years.'Happy New Year' a blockbuster

2015 – After quite a long time we saw Salman Khan getting a Diwali release.; Sooraj Barjatya's Prem Rattan Dhan Payo' a blockbuster.

In 2016 there was once again a clash of 2 films s Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil takes on Ajay Devgn’s Shivaay. and both emerge victorious at the box office.

In 2017 once again 2 films released both were hit. Rohit Shetty's multi-starrer 'Golmal Again' and 'Secret Superstar' a low budget film by Aamir Khan. Secret Superstar had an average opening but went on to collect Rs 62.63 crore at the domestic box-office

In 2018, Yash Raj Films' Thugs of Hindostan got released. The film broke all the records of the first-day collection because of its star cast Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. The film was a disaster overall.

In 2019 two films released, Akshay starter Houseful 4 and a small budget film Saand Ki Aankh both the films did average business.

In 2020, no film released on Cinema screen due to Corona Virus. There is a release on OTT platform Akshay Kumar;s 'Laxmi Bomb'