This BLOG is about the Past of Hindi Films Specially Black and White Cinema We will refresh your memories by bringing out forgotten or unseen songs and clippings of film scenes We will try to give you as much information as we gather from our research.
This Blog was started as a one-man’s passion for film history but has now become an addiction for many music lovers who are equally passionate about Hindi films
I must appreciate the Musicologist and bureaucrat KL Pande who compiled 14000 Raga based Hindi film songs in a book in 7 volumes. The most interesting thing he noticed that The use of ragas in Indian cinema kept changing with films and composers. “In the ’30s and ’40s, there was extensive use of Raag Kafi and Khamaj as these correspond to serious moods of mythological films. You won’t see a lot of sweet-sounding ragas such as Bhairavi and Pahadi. They appeared in the ’50s and ’60s with the advent of composers like Shankar-Jaikishan and Lakshmikant-Pyarelal,
In this blog I have selected a few songs based on Raga Pahari. This Raga is the most popular Raga used in Hindi film songs.
Shayar is a 1949 film. It is a triangle love story between Dev Anand, Suriya and Kamini Kaushal. In the same year, another triangle love story film Andaz was released but the difference was the triangle was between two heroes and a heroine. The film was written & directed by M S Chawla and produced under the banner of Jagat Pictures. Dev Anand plays a poet who is caught between his childhood sweetheart and a girl from the city who sings his poems on the radio. spends an inordinate amount of time with light comedy in-between by Agha, contrived even by the standards of missed identity farce. would probably rate this higher, just in light of the charming cast and very good music. There are 10 songs in this film, all composed by Ghulam Mohammad and written by Shakeel Badyuni.
There is a duet sung by Mukesh for Dev Anand.and Lata for Kamini Kaushal
Mahendra Kapoor's voice has always been associated with Manoj Kumar. His many songs filmed on Manoj Kumar, most of them are patriotic.He won a National Award in 1968 for the patriotic song Mere Desh Ki Dharti in the film Upkaar, thetopmost playing song in All India Radio. He was one of the golden era singers when Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh and Manna Dey was ruling the main platform of playback singers of the Bollywood. He remained as one of the most popular singer in the Bollywood who has given his voice to almost all of the popular heroes like Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shashi Kapoor, Biswajeet, Raj Kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bahchcan, Manoj Kumar, Jeetendra, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha and many more. He was born in Amritsar, on 9th Jan 1934. He was a fan of Mohammad Rafi and created a style of his own moulded largely on Rafi, and won the Metro Murphy All-India singing competition, which led to his debut as a playback singer in V. Shantaram's Navrang in 1958, singing Aadha Hai Chandrama Raat Aadhi, under the musical direction of C. Ramchandra. In a career spanning five decades, he sang more than 25,000 songs in various regional languages, including memorable hits like ‘Chalo ek baar chalo’ (Gumrah), ‘Neele gagan ke taale’ (Hamraaz), and in various language. He got 3 filmfare awards and one National Award as best singer, he was also awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India. He had three daughters and also one son. His son Rohan Kapoor is an actor and singer, who acted in a few films in the 1980s such as Yash Chopra's Faasle (1985) and Love 86(1986), and Prakash Mehra's Imandaar, and later did stage shows together with his father. He died on 27th September 2008, following a cardiac failure at his home in Mumbai, aged 74.
Generally, a Hindi film song is of 3 to 4-minute duration but there are many songs which are more than 6-7 minutes long. The title song in the movie 'Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon' (by the same name) is one of the longest Hindi film songs. The song is around 15 minutes and is shown in a couple of instalments (sung by various singers) in the film. The most obvious category where most of the songs are typically long is the qawwali. Probably the most famous, and my most favourite, qawwali of all time is the one from Barsaat Ki Raat (1960) - the mother of all filmi qawwalis. Running for more than 12 minutes, the words, the music and the singing all come together brilliantly. Another Qawwalli, Humein to loot liya mil ke husn waalon ne from the film Al Hilal (1958) was of 11 minutes.
Song of Al Hilal (1958)
Song of Barsaat Ki Raat (1960)
Beside Qawwali there are many genres where long songs were created. There have been several instances in Hindi films where a number of songs that appear separately in the audio releases, are filmed as a single unit i.e as a medley of multiple songs. In some cases, such a medley is used to show the simultaneous state of mind of different characters. Nasir Hussain the famous producer-director of the Golden Era who had this fascination of Medleys to show competition between various characters. Remember the songs of Yadon Ki Baarat, Hum Kisi Se Kam Nahin etc.
Song of Yadon Ki Baarat 1973
Song of Hum Kisi Se Kam Nahin 1977
Apart from medleys, single long songs have also been used in films to narrate a story. One the longest songs ever filmed in Hindi films is from Rani Aur Lal Pari (1975). The sequence tells the story of Cinderella in the form of a song running for more than 20 minutes. More often than not, such songs are only meant for watching and have virtually no audio-only appeal.
Song of Rani Aur Lal Pari (1975)
Many films feature really long songs with the primary aim of showcasing the dancing prowess of the lead characters. Such songs typically have long instrumental passages. Here is one song from Raj Tilak (1958) where two exceptional dancers are pitted against each other as a sort of competition.
Song of Raj Tilak (1958)
Similarly, multilingual songs are often used in films to depict national integration and many times, such songs end up being quite long. Like, for example, this song from Pyar Ki Pyaas(1961)…and also fromTeen Batti Chaar Rasta (1953) where family members from various regions of India sing praises of their respective regions through a medley of songlets in different languages.
Song of Pyar Ki Pyaas(1961)
Song of Teen Batti Chaar Rasta (1953)
Song of Bawarchi 1972
Recently in Half Girlfriend a long song was picturised Phir Bhi Tumko Chaahunga sung by Arijit Singh and Shradha Kapoor. Here I am posting a few songs which are over 8 minutes long.
Jaidev is one of those unlucky composers, who, despite being a Genius and highly talented, did not get his dues in the industry. He has a long list of Unreleased films, in which he had composed some gems. The list of such films is as following- 1.Aatish (or Daulat ka nasha featuring Simi and Sohrab modi) 2.Azaadi pachhis baras ki 3.Shaadi kar lo (included songs by Parveen sultana) 4.Ek tha Chander,Ek thi Sudha (starring AB and Jaya) 5 Khunnas 6.Amar Jyoti 7.Footpath 8Annada Didi 9Shagun 10 Chandra Grahan 11Mulaqaat. Humsafar Libaas Rajlakshmi Vandana Sameera
Song of the unreleased film Ek tha Chander,Ek thi Sudha
He was not only a composer but also a singer. He sang some renowned and unforgettable duets with Lata such as Kitna haseen hai mausam in film Azad or Shola Jo bhadke in Albela. Influenced by Benny Goodman, Ramachandra introduced in his compositions the alto sax in combination with guitar and harmonica. An outstanding feature of many of these songs is their intense curiosity about western mores and manners; they often employed western musical idioms in exaggerated fashion either for satire or irony. These songs mirrored the curiosity of the educated, urbanized Indian youth.He did numerous experiments in western/Indian and middle-eastern styles.in 'Meri Jaan..Sunday Ke Sunday..' (Shehnai) he introduced the Benny Goodman style of jazz clarinet in combination with an Indian melody. Other westernized songs e.g. 'Shola Jo Bhadke..' and 'Ye Diwana Ye Parwana..' (Albela) employed cabaret type dance featuring bongo drums, oboes, clarinets, trumpets, saxophones, etc.He sang the title song "Shin Shinaki Boobla Boo" with Lata Mangeshkar, which included rock rhythms. He provided the musical score for the scat song "Ina mina dika" in "Aasha".
C Ramchandra with Lata Mangeshkar
He was born on 12th January 1918 in Puntamba, a small town in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra. He joined the film industry playing the lead role in Y. V. Rao's movie, Naganand. He also had some small roles at Minerva Movietone in the movies Said-e-Havas (1936) and Atma Tarang (1937). He was a good singer, he sang for all the topmost heroes of that time like Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand. Ramachandra provided harmonium accompaniment for Minerva composers Bindu Khan and Habib Khan. He debuted as music director in Tamil movies with Jayakkodi and Vana Mohini. He received public notice as a good composer in Bhagwan Dada's "Sukhi Jeevan", and established a long association that culminated with the musical box office hit "Albela". C. Ramachandra's biggest success as a music composer was the 1953 movie Anarkali starring Beena Roy in the title role and Pradeep Kumar. The songs that he composed for this movie are today legendary. Songs of this movie like "Yeh Zindagi Usiki Hai", "Mujhse Mat Poochh Mere Ishq Main Kya Rakha Hai", He gave the hit music of V Shantaram's Navrang.
C.Ramchandra with Kavi Pradeep &Lata-Mangeshkar
He was the composer of the highly popular patriotic song "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo", which was sung by Lata Mangeshkar and penned by poet Pradeep, He died on 5 January 1982 in Mumbai. Some of his great songs
R D Burman has been credited with revolutionizing Bollywood music. He incorporated a wide range of influences from several genres in his scores.The sheer breadth of his music, allied with a unique ability to not only make folk and classical music accessible to the modern listener, but present them in an original, yet contemporary manner for young listeners. While we mostly associate a more western sound with RD, I think of him as a composer who simplified the most complex Hindustani classical music and made it accessible to the masses. Here are some great Raga based songs created by him. The first film R D Burman gave the music was Chhote Nawab released in 1961. The first song he composed in this film was Ghar Aaja Ghir Aayi Badra in Raga Malgunji sung by Lata Mangeshkar.
Chetan Anand (born on 3rd Jan 1921) whose contribution to Hindi cinema is substantial and yet regretfully underrated and not recognised by film critics and movie pundits.Not many are aware that he is the only Indian filmmaker to have won the prestigious Cannes Film Festival ‘Grand Prix’ Award for his socially-conscious, innovative and meaningful movie ‘Neecha Nagar’ (1946). Haqeeqat,’ (1964) was another masterpiece based on the India-China Border Conflict of 1962. Shot on actual locations, ‘Aakhri Khat’ (1966) was another innovative creation of Chetan. For the first time in Indian cinema, lengthy scenes on actual locations were shot with a hand-held camera. Regretfully, most books on Hindi cinema do not discuss his work, or even refer to his classics such as ‘Neecha Nagar’ or ‘Aakhri Khat.’
Neecha Nagar 1946
Aakhri Khat 1966
His ‘Aandhiyan’(1952) explored the uncomplimentary facets of capitalism. Here Dev Anand, as an honest lawyer, fought a lonely battle to bring about a happy ending. Chetan Anand’s Heer Ranjha remains the quintessential interpretation of Waris Shah’s Heer. Screenplay written by Kaifi Azmi, the film is delivered in poetical verse, making it one of the most unique and original pieces of work to come out of Hindi cinema. Written in 1766 by Waris Shah and supposedly based on a true story, ‘Heer Ranjha’ has come to symbolise Panjab and the themes of resistance within it. Ranjha is of course played by the legendary actor Raj Kumar and Heer played effectively by the stunningly beautiful Priya Rajvansh. Chetan Anand kept on acting too occasionally. He appeared in Humsafar made in 1957. In 1957 he directed two movies Arpan and Anjali, in which he played lead roles too. He went on to act in Kala Bazar, Kinare-Kinare, Aman, Kanch Aur Heera and Hindustan Ki Kasam, which he directed too. In the 1960s Chetan Anand started his own production banner called Himalaya films and teamed up with photographer Jal Mistry, music director Madan Mohan, lyrics writer Kaifi Azmi and actress Priya Rajvansh. Together they gave some of most memorable and unique films in Hindi cinema like Haqeeqat, Heer Raanjha, Hanste Zakhm, and Hindustan Ki Kasam.
Raaj Kumar and Priya Rajvansh in a scene from Heer Raanjha (1970)
Apart from 17 feature films, he is also known for the acclaimed television serial, Param Vir Chakra, which was aired Doordarshan in 1988.He died on 6 July 1997, at the age of 76 in Mumbai.
On the 1st Jan 1969 released Shammi Kapoor's hit film, Prince. It was produced by F. C. Mehra and directed by Lekh Tandon. The film stars Shammi Kapoor with Vyjayanthimala in the lead with Rajendranath, Ajit, Helen, etc. The film grossed around ₹4,00,00,000 with a net of ₹2,00,00,000, thus becoming the fourth highest grossing film of 1969 with a verdict of a hit at Box Office India. The team of producer F. C. Mehra, director Lekh Tandon, actor Shammi Kapoor and musicians Shankar-Jaikishan had earlier worked together on the hit film Professor (1962). The songs of that film are some of the immortal songs of Mohammad Rafi. This is a really fun film, and though Shammi is admittedly towards the end of his career as a hero, he is still the Shammi who made hearts go pitter-patter. The songs are classic Shanker-Jaikishan-Rafi-Shammi, with the dance-off between Helen and Vijayanthimala probably its most well-known feature.
The film is about how wealth and privilege do not guarantee happiness, Shammi Kapoor plays Prince Shamsher Singh, the jaded, bored, arrogant son of the Maharajah of Ramnagar (Ulhas). He is an irresponsible, alcoholic, and womanizing adult, who wants everyone to bow down before him and his princely rank. One priest refuses to do so, and Shamsher pummels him mercilessly, though in vain. Frustrated, he asks the priest what he should do with his mundane life, and the priest tells him that he should repent, sacrifice all his palatial pleasures, and live the life of a simple and ordinary man, and hence learn the true meaning of life, for at least six months. Shamsher agrees to do so and arranges an accident with his car, which plummets down a mountain, explodes and is blown to smithereens. Everyone in the palace believes that Shamsher is dead. He goes to a nearby village, and a blind woman there mistakes him for her long-lost son and starts calling him Sajjan Singh. Shamsher decides to play along as Sajjan. Once two corrupt officials meet him, they find him to be similar to Shamsher so they conspire with him to pose as Shamsher for a hefty sum of money, to which Sajjan agrees. When he accompanies the officials back to the palace, he is shocked to find that his father has remarried a much younger woman, Ratna, and shortly after marrying her, has died, leaving the palace and its management to her and her greedy brother. Shamsher decides to reveal his true identity, but the officials threaten to expose him to his new-found blind mother, and Shamsher knows that he is trapped in the body of Sajjan Singh, forced to pose as none other than himself.
It is a typically a masala film, Shammi Kapoor's fans will enjoy this film.When the movie was released Vyjayantimala was 39 and Shammi Kapoor just 5 years her senior and so and PRINCE doesn’t belong to their prime. The most famous aspect of Prince, for many Indians, is the song “Badan pe Sitaare”. Even today, it is considered one of Shammi’s most popular songs. The story behind it is that Hasrat Jaipuri and Jaikishen went out to a nightclub on a trip to Paris. In the club, with all the glittering costumes around him, Jaikishen began writing the first few lines of this song (Badan pe Sitaare hue, o Jaane Tamanna Kidhar Ja Rahii ho, zara paas aao, to chain aa jaaye = Decked up so in glittering stars, where are you headed, my beloved…here, come to me, that I may get some solace). Hasrat Jaipuri then took it from there and they recorded the song when they got back to Bombay.
