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
Madan Mohan is the only composer whose compositions were used after two decades of his death. It was in the 2004 film Veer Zara his compositions were used. Once an assistant to S D Burman, he made few tunes for him but those were not used. S. D. Burman used a tune very late in 1956. This was the song 'Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya'(Do Bhai)originally composed by Madan Mohan. It is also believed that the song 'Jeevan Ke Safar Mein Rahi' (Munimji) was a Madan Mohan composition as he was an assistant for Munimji. He was so creative that he composed different tunes for antras in the same song very often. Recall the song 'Tum jo mil gaye ho' and 'Betaab dil ki tamanna' (Hanste Zakhm) or Ek haseem shaam ko'l'(Dulhan Ek Raat Ki) and almost all songs from Heer Ranjha... 'Do Dil Toote', 'Tere kolache Mein','Milo na tum to' and 'Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil'.
In the film "Chandan", the song "Ye Khule Khule Se Gesoo, Ye Udee Udee Si Rangat...Log Kahe Mere Nain Baaware", has all the three stanzas composed in different tunes. There are three heroines in this film viz. Nutan, Shyama, and Mala Sinha. Possibly, each stanza is picturized on a different actress.
Madan Mohan & Lata Mangeshkar
Madan Mohan & Rafi
The first film of Madan Mohan
Madan Mohan had a habit of making many tunes well in advance, one of such tune of the hit song, Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil was composed by Madanji in the 50s, but found a place in a film only when it was recorded for Chetan Anand's HEER RANJHA (released in 1970). another tune of "Naina Barse" was made in 1952.It was used in Woh Kaun Thi Madan Mohan was also a good singer. He had a fascination for K L Saigal. He gave playback for a few films in his films. Aankhen 1950 was his first film as an independent composer, he sang a duet with Shamshad Begum " Humse Na Dil Ko Lagana".
There is an official site of Madan Mohan Ji https://www.madanmohan.in/ in this site 2 categories of unreleased songs are mentioned. We can visit this site and listen to these rare songs.
Rehman (23 June 1921- 5 Nov 1984), was an integral part of the Guru Dutt team, and most known for his roles in films such as Pyar ki Jeet, Badi Behen, Pyaasa, Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, like Guru Dutt he was also signed by Prabhat Studios as 3rd assistant director to Vishram Bedekar during the shooting of Lakharani (1945). He appeared as one of the heroes with Dev Anand in PL Santoshi’s Hum Ek Hain (1946), The movie was a success and Rehman never had to look back. Initially, he played lead roles, but as time passed, he accepted supporting roles and made his mark in some hit films. He will be remembered as the Mr.Ghosh, the publisher of Pyaasa; the insensitive Zamindar (Chhote Sarkar) of Sahib Bibi AurGulam or Nawab of Chaudvin ka Chaand, and Chinoy Seth of Waqt. After college (1942), he joined the Royal Indian Air Force and trained at Poona as a pilot. The Air Force didn't appeal to him and soon left for a career in films at Bombay. His first brush with acting happened almost by chance. Director D.D. Kashyap, whom Rehman was assisting at that time, urgently required someone to play the role of a Pathan in his film ‘Chand’ (1944). Since Rehman was the only one on the sets who could tie a turban the Pathani way, he got this role, for this role he had to speak one dialogue, he had to give 50 takes for this dialogue. The next film was Hum Ek Hain followed by Pyar Ki Jeet(1948) and Badi Behan(1949) as hero opposite Suraiya. Both films were hit but after these films, none of his films as hero clicked. It was Guru Dutt who offered him the character role in Pyasa Rehman also did key roles in ‘Waqt’, ‘Baharon Ki Manzil’, ‘Gomti ke Kinare’, ‘Dushman’, ‘Holi Ayi Re’. Rehman received four Filmfare nominations as Best Supporting Actor for: Choti Bahen (1958), Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya (1966). In 1977, he suffered heart attacks after which he got throat cancer and died after a prolonged and painful illness in 1979. The song in which he appeared with Suraiya in Badi Behan will be remembered forever. “Chup Chup Khade ho, Zaroor koi Baat hai”, will always be in our memories.
"Piya Tose" the song from Guide was composed by Dada Burman using Roopak Taal (7 Beats) which was Dada's most favorite Taal. Waheeda Rehman looked extremely charming with her Gentle Dance Steps while singing "Piya Tose".If you notice carefully this song starts without any prelude which was Dada's typical style. Alaaps within this song were very carefully composed. This is one of the best dances of Waheeda Rehman in films. Waheeda Rehman in an interview once said that Since this was a very long dance sequence, there was a possibility in final editing, part of this song would have been cut. Realizing this, Waheeda Rehman took a promise from Dev Anand that in the final editing he will cut something else from the movie but will not touch this dance song. And guess what, Dev Kept up that promise and this dance sequence was kept intact and no cuts were made.
This dance song was very long nearly 8 minutes. There are 4 stanzas and each stanza of 5 or 6 lines. It took 21 days to picturize this song. The specialty of this song, it presented a new dance aesthetics that blended Kathak, Bharatnatyam, and different folk dances from across India as also a celebration of different festivals. This dance was choreographed by Master Sohan Lal and his younger brother Hira Lal B, under the guidance of Vijay Anand. The choreography of the song and the picturization by the Cameraman Fali Mistry is simply superb. Vijay Anand is known for the excellence of picturizing a song.
The striking stage sets that accompany the song and dance sequence mapped the different stages of Rosie's success as a professional dancer. Beginning from a simple theatrical setting in a rural environment to a further grand scale. The costumes in this song according to the stanzas. Each stanza unfolded a different setting, dance style, music, and background. The innovative cinematography showed the backup dancers in novel ways. First, the camera only caught their moving feet but then their bodies filled the stage in various visual designs. The camera angles also enhanced the dance sequence. The sheer grace and beauty of Waheeda Rehman's dancing, her restrictive movements, and energy made the scene memorable.
Watch carefully the last stanza "Raat Ko Jab Chaand Chamake Jal Uthe Tan Mera" is a turning point of this song, where our soul is lost in the beautiful scene of moonlight of Raag Khamaj and the same in the second stanza about morning sunrise "Bhor Kii Bela" just observe the sound of a flute, what a composition by Dada Burman. The interludes in "Piya Tose" are very rich and composed very intrinsically. Dada used a wide variety of musical instruments in this song such as Sarangi, Harmonium, Tabla, Ghungroos, and North Eastern Drums. There is also a piece of very interesting information to the readers that the world's best Santoor Player Pt. Shivkumar Sharma played Tabla for this song and flute by Hariprasad Chaurasia. There is a story that this song was sung and recorded by S.D.Burman himself before he recorded Lata's song. It was a usual practice of Dada to sing the song himself first then tell his singers to sing like him. There is one more story about this song that this song was already composed 10 years ago for the movie Devdas of Dilip Kumar. It was picturized on Dilip Kumar and Suchitra Sen as a background song.The wordings of the song were a little different. Even music was a little different. Whereas a tabla piece replaced original sitar piece.
This legendary tale of love, written in the 16th century by Warris Shah in poetry. Chetan Anand chose to make this film in that form only. He selected the great poet of that time Kaifi Azmi. He created lines not only for the leads, played by Raaj Kumar and Priya Rajvansh but for the rest of the ensemble cast which included Pran, Prithviraj Kapoor, Ajit, Jayant, etc. A unique film told in verse, written by Kaifi Azmi and directed by Chetan Anand. Poetry on celluloid never attempted before and after. The film has immortal music by Madan Mohan, another beauty of the film was its photography.inspired by the paintings of Sobha Singh, a legendary painter from Punjab, the imagery of the film is wonderful. thanks to the cinematic genius of cinematographer Jal Mistry. Told in a Romeo and Juliet style, the story concerns relative differences that rip apart childhood darlings Heer and Deedho, so Heer goes away to exist an unspecified life as a laborer.
Priya Rajvansh and Raaj Kumar both gave good performances in their respective parts as the title characters Heer and Raanja, Beside them, there are fine performances to be had from Pran, Ajit and Prithviraj Kapoor in their respective parts as Chhote Chaudhary, Saida, and the King.
The film released on 19th June 1970 was a moderate success in the Box office. The film starts with an introductory Nazm by Kaifi Azmi, recited by Films Director "Chetan Anand : "Dard Punjab ke seene se chura laya Hun
Chand tukde tere waris ke utha laya hun
Aag meri na sahi iska dhuan mera hai
Heer Ranjha ki kahani hai bayan mera hai .... Chetan Anand screen-tested Zeenat Aman for a supporting role in the film. But during the audition, Zeenat's Urdu was very terrible. Chetan ended up not signing Zeenat. It was the first time that Chetan Anand worked with Raj Kumar, who was known for his dialogue delivery Songs of Heer Ranjha
Motilal (4 December 1910 – 17 June 1965 ) is credited with being among Hindi cinema's first natural actors. He was offered the hero's role in Shaher Ka Jadoo (1934) . He is most remembered for his role as "Chunni Babu" in Bimal Roy's Devdas (1955), He produced and directed "Chhoti Chhoti Batein " died before its release in 1965. He introduced Mukesh to the Hindi Film industry. Mukesh became his voice before Raj Kapoor. The first song he sang for him became an immortal "Dil Jalta Hai To Jalne Do" of Pehli Nazar(1945). 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" Motilal acted in 60 films only, he played all types of roles, also sung few songs. In this blog, I am posting a few songs picturized on him.
Every distinguished creative artiste is born with one gift, but, Hemantda was born with several gifts. As a singer, he reigned supreme in Calcutta and Bombay. From "Naagin", "Jaal" to "Bees Saal Baad" and the '50s and '60s were decades that 'belonged' prominently to the unique talents of Hemant Kumar. He started in Bollywood as a singer, turned into a composer, and later a producer and director. His first Hindi film as a composer was the 1952 film "Anand Math". The music of Anand Math (1952) was a moderate success. Perhaps, the most notable song from this movie is 'Vande Mataram' sung by Lata Mangeshkar, which Hemanta set to a marching tune. Hemanta Kumar gained popularity in Mumbai as a playback singer. His songs play backed for Dev Anand under music director S D Burman in movies like Jaal ("Yeh raat, yeh chandni phir kahan ... "), House No. 44 ("Chup hai dharti, chup hai chand sitare... "), Solva Saal ("Hai apna dil to awara ..... "), Funtoosh ("Teri duniya mein jeene se ... "), and Baat ek raat ki ("Na tum hame jaano ..... "), became very popular. He became popular as a composer after the release of "Nagin" in 1954 which became a major success owing largely to its music. He received the prestigious Filmfare Best Music Director Award for this film in 1955.. his classic ‘been’ music in the song “Man Dole Mera Tan Dole" is now immortal.
In the late 1950s, Hemanta ventured into movie production under his own banner: Hemanta-Bela productions. The first movie under this banner was a Bengali film directed by Mrinal Sen, titled Neel Akasher Neechey (1959). Latter he made films in Hindi, his production company was renamed Geetanjali productions and it produced several Hindi movies such as Bees Saal Baad, Kohara, Biwi Aur Makaan, Faraar, Rahgir, and Khamoshi — all of which had music by Hemanta Da. Only Bees Saal Baad and Khamoshi were major commercial successes. 1962 was a special year for him, The music of Bees Saal Baad and Saheb Biwi aur Ghulam became very popular. Hemanta Da pulled out all stops for a score that ranks as one of the ten best ever composed for the Hindi cinema. Between them, Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle created a universe of pain and romance in Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam. From Geeta Dutt's 'Na Jao Saiyyan..' to Asha'a 'Bhanwara Bada Naadan Hai..', each song stuns each note cuts deeply in Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam.
Hemant Kumar was also remained connected with Bangla Films throughout his career, in fact, he was very busy there in the late 60s and 70s. He remained the foremost exponent of Rabindra Sangeet, film and non-film songs. His output continued to be popular for most of the decade. Some of them are Jodi jante chao tumi... (1972), Ek gochha rajanigandha , Aamay prasno kore nil dhrubatara..., Sedin tomay dekhechilam... (1974), Khirki theke singho duar... (Stree, 1971), Ke jane ko ghonta... ( Sonar Khancha, 1974), Jeona daraon bandhu... ( Phuleswari, 1975 ) and popularised Rabindra sangeet using them beautifully in films as per situations. A very popular and classic example is the song Chorono dhorite diyogo amare.. in Dadar Kirti(1980). In 1980, Hemanta had a heart attack that severely affected his vocal capabilities, especially his breath control. After that, he composed music for a handful of Bengali movies and one Bengali and one Hindi tele-series.In 1987, he was nominated for Padmabhushan which he refused politely.
In September 1989 he traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh to receive the Michael Madhusudan Award, as well as to perform a concert. Immediately after returning from this trip he suffered another heart attack on 26 September and died at 11:15 pm in a nursing home in South Calcutta.
With him, an era ended, but Hemant Kumar can never be forgotten. His music will live on for another 100 years. “Beqaraar Karke Humein Yun Na Jaaiye, Aap Ko Hamari Kasam, Laut Aiye"
Depression is alarmingly rising in the youth and adults in India making it a major cause of concern. Bad relationships, anxiety, and low self-worth; leading to suicide in many cases. In Bollywood, for the last few years, many actors have killed themself by this act. Yesterday Sushant Singh Rajput was found hanging at his Bandra apartment Its high time for Bollywood to stop trivializing suicide & make films to prevent suicides A short movie titled ‘The Suicide Company Pvt. Ltd,’ is based on an innovative subject to combat and address this concern. This subject, I think is considered taboo. Suicide and depression are rarely the themes of films in Bollywood. Last year I saw the above-mentioned film. This is a short film of 20 minutes, directed by Indian filmmaker Jehangir Irroni. It is produced by Shaleen V Vaid under the banner of Vistree. Featuring Bollywood stars Jay Bhanushali and actress Swara Bhaskar in the lead roles, the film’s theme is based on “Suicide and Depression” which is written by Pragnya Tripathi, also a Clinical Psychologist by profession like Jehangir Irroni. This film got an official entry at the prestigious Los Angeles Film Awards.has won awards and nominations internationally and nationally. The film won the Best Film in the Drama category award in Toronto at the "Alternative Film Festival (ALTFF)", Best Screenplay at Indian Film & Television Directors' Association Film awards (IFTDA SHORTIES), and an "Honourable Mention Award" at Asia South East-Short Film festival.
Jay Bhanushali is a journalist in this film, he is in severe depression, his girlfriend leaves him for his best friend. He tries numerous attempts at Suicide which fail. Until one day he finds the solution “THE SUICIDE COMPANY PVT. LTD.” A company that plans and helps people in committing suicide. He hires a Suicide Planner (Swara Bhaskar) from the company to help him die. A brilliantly directed film, Bollywood filmmakers should make films on this subject. Sushant Singh Rajput worked last in a film Chichore where he showed that suicide is not a solution, instead, we should fight and live.
Yesterday I watched the latest released "Gulabo Sitabo" on Prime Video. The film is based on the landlord and tenant relationship. On this subject, many memorable films were made earlier also. A very interesting film released in 1956 "New Delhi". Kishore Kumar plays a Punjabi boy. He comes from Jalandhar to Delhi but is unable to find a place to stay, as everywhere he goes people want to give room only to a person of their region. Desperate, Anand masquerades as a Tamilian, Anand Kumaraswamy, and finds a place to stay with a Tamilian family. In 1957, two films on this subject were released. Dev Anand and Nutan starrer Paying Guest and Dilip Kumar starrer Musafir. In Paying Guest Dev Anand looks for a house in the guise of an old man. Another Landlord-tenant story was Anari released in 1959. Here Raj Kapoor was the tenant and Lalita Pawar was the landlady. Here the relationship was of a mother and son. Quite a few Hindi movies have explored different shades of this relationship Here are a few of these films. Paying Guest(1957)
Ramesh (Dev Anand) keeps on getting evicted as a tenant due to failure to pay rent, then dons the guise of an old man to gain entry in a house as a tenant, He falls for the landlord's daughter Shanti (Nutan),Ramesh is unable to pay the house rent and Shanti gives him the money her father had given her for monthly expenditure. Biwi Aur Makan (1966)
It is one of the masterpieces of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and remade in different languages It centers around five young men, bosom buddies from their college days, The five friends, therefore, go out looking for other accommodation—and keep drawing a blank wherever they go. There seems to be no place available. one evening, Suresh comes bearing news. He has found a place. Three rooms, a rent of a mere Rs 100, no advance but the landlord Mr. Mishra, wants to rent his house only to married couples; no bachelor allowed. Frustrated at this, two of them disguise themselves as women and pose as wives for the other two males. They are able to secure accommodation with the Mishra family. Complications arise when the two "women" fall in love with Mishra's two lovely daughters Woh Saat Din(1983)
It is Anil Kapoor's first hit film, in this film he is a tenant and the heroine Padmini Kolhapuri is the landlord's daughter. It is love at first sight for Maya as she falls for the naive, innocent Prem. However, Prem, aspiring to be a true musician, rejects Maya's advances. Furthermore, Prem is in love with Maya but believes that he isn't worthy of her. They declare their love for each other and plan to elope, but destiny has other plans in store for Maya and Prem. On the day of their elopement, the lovers are caught by Maya's parents. As a result, Prem and his sidekick are kicked out of the house Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho(1984)
The film is a comic satire on a judicial system, where cases drag on for decades. An elderly couple, Mohan Joshi (Bhisham Sahni) and his wife (Dina Pathak), sues their landlord (Amjad Khan) for not maintaining their 'collapsing' apartment building. For this, they hire two cunning lawyers Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah, the lawyers milk the old couple dry, while they become rich. Back home in the society, the old couple is ridiculed for fighting the landlord, but they fight on nevertheless. Saaransh(1984)
An old couple played by Anupam Kher and Rohini Hattangadi has no source of income, so they rent out a room of their Shivaji Park (Mumbai) apartment to a budding Bollywood actress, Sujata Suman (Soni Razdan).The latter's intimidation at the hands of an influential politician after she gets pregnant by his son compels her aged landlord/lady to step up and support her in whatever way they can. Kirayadar (1986)
Basu Chatterjee's Kirayadar chronicles the legal woes of a father-son duo forced to reside in a tiny room after the tenants refuse to vacate their flat in Mumbai. They file a complaint in the local court to arrange to evict the tenants, who have also sworn to fight this matter right to the very end. Watch as lawyers take over their respective lives, get their fees, and get adjournment after adjournment Mr. India(1987)
In this film, Sridevi is a journalist and rent a floor of Anil Kapoor's huge house overlooking the sea with the hope of peacefully filing her news reports.
Only to realize the one and only condition she placed -- no kids -- popping out from every corner in abundance.
Hera Pheri (2000)
Landlord Paresh Rawal shares a comic camaraderie with his tenants, Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty. The troika's constant wrangling and wishful thinking is set aside after they receive a callfrom a kidnapper and a hilarious scheme to exploit a 'wrong number' is set in motion.
Yeh Teraa Ghar Yeh Meraa Ghar(2001)
The age-old tenant-landlord tussle is once again reiterated between Suniel Shetty and Mahima Chaudhary in this film. Sunil Shetty arranges the marriage of his two sisters. In debt, he goes to the city to ask the tenants to leave his house, as he intends to sell it and repay his debts. A Maharashtrian woman, her two daughters, Jyoti, Saraswati (Mahima Chaudhry), and one son, Chotu (Master Aditi) are living there. When Dayashankar asks them to vacate, they refuse. What results is Dayashankar's hilarious attempts to force them to vacate
Dear Zindagi (2016)
Alia Bhatt is a promising cinematographer who wishes to direct her own films. She lives in a rented apartment in Mumbai. Her life takes a downturn when Raghuvendra (Kunal Kapoor), a film producer for whom she breaks up with her childhood sweetheart, gets engaged to someone else. Her landlord turns her out of her apartment because the building association wants to rent apartments only to married couples. Her sudden expulsion from her apartment forces her to move back home in Goa and address her acute anxiety to an incredibly wise therapist.
