FLASHBACK - A SPEAIAL SERIES CELEBRATING THE COMPLETION OF 75 YEARS
OF HFM

(Presented by Prabha Joshi on Vividh Bharati Pune)

EPISODE 4 (16/07/2006)
----------------------

Good morning listeners,

Film Music is a commercial commodity but at the same time it is an
art-form as well. Over the years, this field of entertaining art has
undergone astronomical progress in every possible way. Let us begin
tioday's episode of Flashback!

1943 saw the release of 3 big films, namely Kismet, Tansen and
Shakuntala. With these, Bombay started becoming the main center of
film-making in the country leaving Calcutta behind. After leaving
Prabhat and founding Rajkamal Kalamandir last year, V. Shantaram
released the first film of this banner. Based on Kalidasa's famous
play Abhigyan Shakuntalam, Shankuntala was a runaway hit and became
the first film from India to be commercially released abroad. Highly
successful with the Indian audience, it ran in Bombay for two years
at a stretch. Vasant Desai, who was in touch of Shantaram since his
Kolhapur days, was very dear to him and their mutual tuning was so
fine that Desai followed Shantaram to Prabhat in Pune and then to
Rajkamal in Bombay. Though Desai was working as an actor and
assistant in various fields of filmmaking in Prabhat, Shantaram gave
him break in Shakuntala when he was offered to independently score
its music. Starring Jayashree and Chandramohan, two songs of this
film by Jayshree that became hugely popular are "jhooloongi
jhooloongi jeevan bhar yeh jeevan jhoola" and "Jeevan ki naao na
dole haan yeh hai tere hawaale".

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Song: jeevan ki naao na Dole (Shakuntala)
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Prakash Pictures' Ram Rajya is the only Hindi film that Father of
the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had watched in his lifetime. Directed by
Vijay Bhatt and starring Prem Adeeb and Shobhna Samarth, Shankar Rao
Vyas composed the music for it. Based on Raag Bhimpalasi, "Beena
madhur madhur kachhu bol" by Saraswati Rane shows the tight grip of
both Vyas and Rane over classical music. Vishnupati Pagnis and
chorus describe the painful story of Seeta in "Bharat ki ek sannari
ki hum katha sunaate hain". Despite being a mythological film, the
songs of Ram Rajya appealed to the masses in a big way. A number of
composers have worked in mythological films, but Shankar Rao Vyas
was always out of the crowd in such films. Manna Dey had sung his
first song in this film. Let us listen here the Saraswati Rane
rendered number.

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Song: beena madhur madhur kachhu bol (Ram Rajya)
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Bombay Talkies released two films in 1943 – Hamari Baat and Kismet.
Hamari Baat, starring Devika Rani and Jairaj, was the first official
film of composer Anil Biswas for the company. With compositions of a
very superior quality that are beautifully sung by his sister, Parul
Ghosh, the songs of this film brought great applause to both the
singer and the composer. Hamari Baat was the last film of Devika
Rani as an actress. This film also had Suraiyya as a singing actress
and it was her singing and dancing in this film that had actually
brought her to limelight. "Ghar humne le liya hai" was her popular
number in this film. Here is the Parul Ghosh rendered number.

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Song: main unki ban jaayun (Hamari Baat)
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The other film of Bombay Talkies, Kismet, proved enormously
successful both as a film and in terms of its music. The film,
starring Ashok Kumar and Mumtaz Shanti, broke all previous box
office records and, besides celebrating many jubilees all over
India, ran continuously in regular shows for 3 years (196 weeks) in
a single theatre (Chitra Plaza) in Calcutta — a record that has been
broken only by Ramesh Sippy's Sholay in the seventies. This film
also started the trend of `lost and found formula' theme.

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Song: meraa bulbul so raha hai (Kismet)
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Musically, Kismet can be considered as the biggest success of Anil
Biswas at Bombay Talkies. By now playback singing had started taking
momentum and trained singers were entering the Film Industry
allowing Music Directors to try out advanced compositions. Among the
female singers, Amirbai Karnataki has always been Biswas's first
choice and in this film too, he made immense use of Amirbai's full-
throated voice with 6 out of 8 songs in her voice. The patriotic
number "Aaj Himalaya ki choti se phir humne lalkaara hai, door hato
ae duniyawaalon Hindustan hamara hai" sung by Amirbai and chorus,
can be considered the first popular film patriotic song that became
highly popular and contributed substantially in boosting the spirits
of freedom movement among the countrymen. To bypass the Censor
Board, kavi Pradeep used the words "door hato ae duniyawaalon"
for "German ho yaa Japani", but the target was the British.

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Song: door haTo ae duniyawaalon (Kismet)
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Apart from Anil Biswas, few more music directors created history
this year with their musical masterpieces. One of them was Khemchand
Prakash, who generated waves in the world of film music in Tansen.
Made by Ranjit Cinetone and starring K.L. Saigal and Khursheed, the
music of Tansen not only brought forward the genius in Khemchand but
also did full justice in portraying the Sangeet Samrat effectively.
Khemchand utilized both his Dhrupad style of singing and Rajasthani
folk music, and composed the songs full of `Raag-Raaginis' including
Raag Shankara, Megh Malhar, Deepak, Sarang, Darbari, Tilak Kamod and
Mia Malhar.

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Song: rumjhum rumjhum chaal tihaari (Tansen)
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The extra-ordinary trio of Khemchand, Saigal and Khursheed created
magic in Tansen. Here is a duet based on Raag Tilak Kamod.

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Song: more baalpan ke saathi (Tansen)
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"Sapta suran teen graam" based on the `bandishen' of Ustad Allahdiya
Khan's Dhrupad was fantastically expressed by Saigal in this film.

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Song: Sapta suran teen graam (Tansen)
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Both Saigal and Khursheed have done a marvellous job in Tansen. It
is indeed difficult to say who performed better.

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Song: ghaTa ghanghhor ghor mor machaave shor (Tansen)
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Lakhs of the Indian audience had experienced the magic of the Indian
Classical music in this film with the expertise of Khemchand Prakash
and K L Saigal.

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Song: diya jalaao jagamaga jagamaga (Tansen)
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Mehboob Khan left National Studios and founded his independent
Mehboob Productions and released two films this year – Najma and
Taqdeer. Rafiq Ghaznavi was given the responsibility of music in
both these films. A R Kardar Productions released three films in
1943, namely, Kanoon, Namaste and Sanjog, all of whose music was
directed by Naushad. Though "Aaye bhi woh gaye bhi woh" by Parul
Ghosh in Namaste got some notice, in general, songs of these films
could not draw much attention of the audience.

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Song: aaye bhi woh gaye bhi woh (Namaste)
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Motivated from the success of Punjabi style films like Khazanchi and
Khandaan, Prabhat Film Company signed composer Shyam Sundar to
compose songs in the Punjabi folksy style in Nai Kahani. Written by
Wali Saheb, here is a nice song sung by G M Durrani.

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Song: neend hamari khwaab tumhaare (Nai Kahani)
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The Indian People's Theatre Association was formed during the Quit
India Movement in 1942. Upon its formal inauguration in 1943-44,
IPTA took upon itself the challenge to bring theatre to the people
with the objective of building awareness about social responsibility
and national integration. IPTA soon became a movement and swept the
length and breadth of India with its socialistic and nationalistic
fervour. IPTA was founded by stalwarts like KA Abbas, Dr. Bhabha,
Anil de Silva, Ali Sardar Jafri and Dada Sharmalkar. Over the last
six decades many prominent artistes, writers, musicians, directors,
dancers and singers have been a part of IPTA. These include Kaifi
Azmi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Balraj Sahni, Shailendra,
Prem Dhawan, and many many more.

In 1944, Pune's Prabhat Film Company released its ambitious and
highly expensive historical film Ramshastri, based on the biography
of Ramshastri Prabhune, the Chief Justice at the Court of Mashavrao
and a major figure in the development of an indigenous legal code.
Gajanan Jagirdar was the director of this film with V.G. Damle as
the music director and Qamar Jalalabadi as the lyricist. To remind
the readers, V.G. Damle was one of those partners of V. Shantaram
who laid the foundation of Prabhat in Kolhapur. Ramshastri was the
last major film of Prabhat. The year 1944 is also memorable for the
fact that the concept of `Music Director Duo' had come into effect
for the first time with Husnlal Bhagatram flagging off their musical
career working as a pair in the film Chand made by Prabhat Film
Company. One song of this film, "do dilon ko yeh duniya milne hi
naheen deti" sung by Manju is considered to be the first hit song of
Husnlal Bhagatram.

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Song: do dilon ko yeh duniya milne hi naheen deti (Chand)
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1944 was the `turning point' year for composer Naushad. His songs in
Gemini Pictures' Rattan became the most popular songs of the day and
after this he did not have to `turn' back again. He made Zohrabai
Ambalewali sing "Akhiyaan milaake jiya bharmaake chale naheen jaana"
that had reached the height of popularity and proved to be a
trendsetter song.

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Song: Akhiyaan milaake jiya bharmaake (Rattan)
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Directed by M. Sadiq and starring Swarnlata and Karan Diwan, Rattan
was a massive hit across the country. The duet by Zohrabai and Karan
Diwan, "Saawan ke baadalon, unse yeh jaa kaho, taqdeer mein yahi tha
saajan mere naa ro", was another highly successful number of the
film.

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Song: Saawan ke baadalon, unse yeh jaa kaho (Rattan)
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In 1942, Ashok Kumar, S. Mukherjee, Rai Bahadur Chunnilal and Kavi
Pradeep had left Bombay Talkies and formed Filmistan. The first film
of this banner, Chal Chal Re Naujawan, got released in 1944.
Directed by Gyan Mukherjee and starring Ashok Kumar and Naseem Bano,
Ghulam Haider was signed up for the music direction. It was also the
first film of Haider in Bombay.

In 1944, one actor appeared on the silver screen and ruled the
industry as one of the topmost heroes. Dilip Kumar was the discovery
of Devika Rani. She met him in Nainital and advised him to come down
to Bombay and meet her. Md. Yusuf Khan obeyed her and she turned him
into Dilip Kumar by giving him lead role in Bombay Talkies' Jwar
Bhata. Anil Biswas's outstanding music once again enthralled the
listeners with numbers such as "Saanjh ki bela panchhi akela" sung
by Arun Kumar.

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Song: saanjh ki bela panchhi akela (Jwar Bhata)
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Though Prithviraj Kapoor has been associated with the films since
Alam Ara, his first love has always been the theatre. As a result of
this love, he founded Prithvi Theatres in 1944 and started
experimenting on Hindi plays.

In 1944, Ranjit Movietone came with Bhartruhari and Bhanwra. The
thumri based "Chanda des piya ke jaa, saajan humre bhoole humko unhe
manaakar laa" from Bhartruhari is considered as one of the most
popular tracks of both Amirbai and Khemchand.

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Song: Chanda des piya ke jaa (Bhartruhari)
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Kidar Sharma, after leaving New Theatres, joined Ranjit and directed
Bhanwara. Composed by Khemchand Prakash, here is a duet by Saigal
and Amirbai Karnataki.

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Song: kya humne bigaaDa hai (Bhanwara)
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1944 saw the debut of music director Sajjad Hussain. He got the
opportunity to work with composer Pt Hanuman Prasad and scored music
with him in N.R. Desai Productions' Gaali. The two songs that Sajjad
had composed in this film are "Aag lage saawan mein" and "Ab aaja
dil na lage", both rendered by Nirmala Devi. Hanuman Prasad had once
said that Sajjad was a one-man orchestra. Anil Biswas too honored
Sajjad with the title of `the only original music director'.
According to him, everybody else, including himself, had some source
of inspiration or the other but Sajjad always believed in
fundamentals. After Gaali, in the same year, Shaukat Hussain gave
him chance in his film Dost in which he proved his excellence with
the Urdu poetic Shams Lucknowi written Noorjehan number "Badnaam
mohabbat kaun kare aur ishq ko ruswa kaun kare". This song turned
out to be one of the memorable songs of Noorjehan.

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Song: badnaam mohabbat kaun kare (Dost)
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New Theatres's My Sister (Meri Bahan) was the last film in which
Saigal worked. Saigal went back to Calcutta to work in My Sister,
whose success at the box office is largely due to Saigal's songs.
Written by Pandit Bhushan and composed by Pankaj Mullick, the songs
of this film can be considered as one of the most popular albums of
Saigal.

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Song: chhupo na chhupo na ho pyaari sajaniya (My Sister)
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You might remember the song "main kyaa jaanoo kya jaadoo hai" based
on Raag Yaman in the film Zindagi. In My Sister also, a Yaman based
song was included, here is it.

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Song: do naina matwaale tihaare hum par julum kare (My Sister)
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Though 1944 was yet another memorable year in terms of film music,
the year had begun with the demise of the Father of Indian Cinema,
Dada Saheb Phalke on 16 February. He struggled throughout his life
but could not get much attention. But today, his contribution is
recognized by all. The first full-length story film of India, Raja
Harishchandra, was also made by him, that had released at the
Coronation cinema, Bombay on 21 April 1913. His other memorable
films are Lanka Dahan (1916), How Films Are Made (1917), Shri
Krishna Janam (1918), Kalia Daman (1919), and Bhakt Prahlad (1926).
In his memory, the highly prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award has
been instituted under the National Awards in the year 1970, which is
given to one film personality every year for his/her outstanding
contribution to Indian cinema.

Dear listeners, now we come to an end of today's episode. We end
this programme with this immortal bhairavi from My Sister sung by
non other than K L Saigal. Good-bye!

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Song: ae qaatib-e-taqdeer mujhe itnaa bataa de (My Sister)
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END OF EPISODE 4