Music

Bringing the Background to the foreground- Abzee’s note on and list of Background Scores

I was watching The Shawshank Redemption for the umpteenth time yesterday. It is, after all, one of my all-time favourite films and inarguably one of the best American movies ever…right up there with Citizen Kane andThe Godfather. Anyway, as Andy Dufresne turns up missing in his cell at the end of the movie and the warden throws one of Andy’s stone miniatures angrily at the Raquel Welch poster…we are revealed the biggest payoff in cinematic history as the poster is torn aside to uncover a man-sized tunnel chiseled away at for over 18 years! The thing is…I know how this movie ends, and yet every single time this moment arrives, it gives me the goose bumps. As I wondered, I realized that part of that sensory reaction was in no less measure thanks to Thomas Newman’s fabulous score that accompanies the scene…underlining the situation and guiding our emotions, as it does throughout the film. And though I’d always known it, I ruminated yet again yesterday on just how important a background score is to a film…to its overall appreciation, as well as to its smaller individual moments.

So I got thinking. Isn’t it strange and kind of absurd, that for an industry that has always expressed itself in the cinematic medium by way of song and dance…Bollywood has rarely given much importance to background scores? There have been a few exceptions, but these have been few and far in between. I remember reading an interview of the son of the late musical maestro Salil Choudhary, background score composer Sanjay Choudhary about how he felt sad that very few Bollywood filmmakers understood the role of background music and didn’t give it the due or respect that it deserves. Even at our award functions, the background score award is handed out with the other shoddily presented technical awards. The music composer is the star though. And yet, our greatest musical talent A.R. Rahman received an Oscar for what was primarily an album of theme music, original score and background compositions.

The rest of the cinematic world on the other hand has always used background music to great effect, be it in themes or scores. The aforementioned Newman piece is just one among a roster of some amazing background scores. So why has Bollywood, and by extension Indian cinema, never really woken up to or employed background score?

A background score to me is one of the most vital aspects of the collective experience that a movie offers you. Knowing how a film is made from concept to creation, I can attest that a film without a background score is like a life without an emotional anchor. It is like being in love without experiencing the rush, or being extremely happy but unable to cry tears of joy! A background score is an accompaniment to every scene, touching us in a way that no words can do. When everything else is exhausted, it is a musical composition that speaks to us.

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Exclusive: Geeta Dutt presenting Jaimala program in her own voice..

Jaimala is a program that has been aired on the Vividh Bharti station of All India Radio since it’s early days. It is a one hour program that exclusively plays requests from soldiers posted at the front. Once a week they have a special where a celebrity associated with the film world plays his/her own selection. Over the years a number of prominent personalities have hosted this program and these programs are a fascinating archive of their thoughts, ideas and musical selection.

Playback singer Geeta Dutt (nee Roy) presented this program in the year 1969, just three years before her untimely death on 20th July 1972.

Earlier we presented the text of this program and the songs played in this post. Now we are presenting the complete audio of this program where one can listen to the speaking voice of Geeta Dutt. Please bear with the little disturbance in the audio recording.

Mere pyare fauji bhaiyon, aaj aapse baaten karte huye mujhe bahut prasannata ho rahi hai. Pehla geet phool maine mahaan kalakar K L Saigal ke awaaz mein chuna hai.

Song: Karoon kya aas niraas bhayi (Dushman)

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SOTD: Lag gayi ankhiyaa…

A melodious song from the Film ” Jeevan Jyoti” released in the year 1953. The MD is S. D. Burman and the lyricist is Sahir Ludhianvi. The song is sung by Mohd.Rafi & Geeta Dutt. It is filmed on … Read More

A tribute to a legend : Geeta Dutt (nee Roy)

23rd November is the birth anniversary of legendary playback singer late Geeta Dutt (nee Roy). Here is a tribute to her from NG.

Geeta Dutt was blessed with a rich voice that was like an interacting instrument that at once mesmerized her listeners. She had such magic in her voice that charmed her listeners like a snake is charmed to the music of a been. She rendered songs from her heart making them so endearingly heart rendering. When she sang “Thandi Hawaa Kaali Ghata” you can feel the cool breeze of an overcast day. When she sang “Koi Door Se Awaaz De” you can sense the feelings of a hauntingly disturbed soul celebrating the resplendence of life on one side and yet lamenting setbacks on the other. As critic Subhash K. Jha puts it aptly “Geta Dutt’s voice conveys the sweetness of honey and the pain of the bee sting.”

Geeta Dutt was born into a rich zamindaar’s family as Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri in Faridpur, East Bengal in the year 1930 on 23rd November. When Geeta was 12 years old, the family decided to move from their home in Faridpur District in East Bengal to Bombay (now Mumbai). Even though she was growing up in rich surroundings, when moved to Bombay, her family had to start all over again. They took up a modest apartment in Dadar area.

In the ensuring months one day when she was singing a song in her flat, music director Pandit Hanuman Prasad heard her voice. He persuaded her parents to have her try to sing in movies. He took Geeta under his wings and trained her in singing and later launched her into singing in the films. In the year 1946, she got the first break when she got an opportunity to sing in the film “Bhakta Prahlad” for which Hanuman Prasad was the music director. She was given only two lines to sing in the movie in a few songs for this film.She was barely sixteen year old at this time. But those two lines caught the attention of everyone in the recording studio.

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Karthik reviews the music of Paa and 3 Idiots

Mudhi mudhi (and Udhi udhi) is one of the trendiest songs of the year; zingy, superbly sung by Shilpa Rao and exceptionally orchestrated!

More HERE

3 Idiots

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Did the MP3 of this ever release?

Want the MP3! Love the song…

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Ud pud jaaniya.. Punjab ke mitti ki khushboo…

The love story of Heer and Ranjha must have been attracting the film makers over and over again. A quick glance on IMDB shows that it must have been made at least ten times by now. There was a film made in the year 1948 starring Ghulam Mohammed and Mumtaz Shanti. Composer duo Khayyam and Reheman Verma gave the music for this film under the name of Sharmaji-Vermaji. Geeta Roy had made her debut on the playback scene in the year 1946 and had risen to the top spot with the success of her songs in the film Do Bhai (1947). She was the natural choice of the lead singer for this film and sang as many as six songs for this film. One wonders how this 17-18 year old girl from East Bengal was singing Punjabi songs with such a great fluency. (The fact not known to many is that she did not know any language other than her mother tongue Bengali till as late as 1949, when she mastered Hindi and Urdu.)

Here is a song that will bring back the fragrance of the land of Punjab. Here is an interesting and nice appreciative comment from our friend “Vipin ji” about this lovely song sung by Geeta Dutt (nee Roy):

I never thought I would say this,but Geeta Dutt’s Punjabi accent sounds more firmly rooted in Punjabi soil than that of the other non-Punjabi vocalists– as great as the rest are. I love them all, but this Bengali lady’s Punjabi is so native it’s a killer! She could truly give native Punjabi singers a run for their money. What a joy to listen to her!! The rhythm and fast tempo of this song are of course quintessential features of celebratory Punjabi folk songs. Geeta Dutt’s voice was well suited to such songs. To borrow a sports metaphor,she shot this one out of the ball park– a home run in music.

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SOTD: A Meera bhajan in a Bengali film…”Barse badariya saawan ki”

Suchitra Sen (born April 6, 1931) (original name : Roma Dasgupta) is a popular Indian actress of the yesteryears who has attained legendary status because of her performances in Bengali cinema. In particular, the movies in which she paired opposite another legend in Bangla films, Uttam Kumar, are all-time classics in Bengali cinema. She now lives a life of a recluse rarely making any public appearances. She is the first Indian actress to be awarded in an international film festival (Best Actress award for the movie Saat Paake Bandha in 1963 Moscow film festival). Her films with Uttam Kumar are still shown as re-runs on Bengali TV channels. Notably, she allegedly refused the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (the Indian equivalent of a lifetime Oscar) in 2005, preferring to live in seclusion out of the public eye.

Here is a song from a Suchitra Sen starrer Bengali film “Grihaprabesh” released in the year 1954. This is a famous Meerabai bhajan (devotional song) in Hindi filmed on Suchitra Sen. Geeta Dutt sings for Suchitra Sen while co-singer Krishna Banerjee sings for the child artist.
The song has some dialogues by Uttam Kumar in between as well.

The music of this film was composed by Mukul Roy (Geeta Dutt’s composer brother). More details about him can be found here.

This is a very melodious, meaningful and soothing bhajan by Meerabai. It has been sung by several singers in the past.

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SOTD: Mere tum ho, phir kya hain….

Police (1958) is a suspense thriller film produced by Deep & Pradeep Productions (most likely actor Pradeep Kumar’s own film company). It starred Pradeep Kumar with “Venus of Indian cinema” Madhubala. The film’s music was composed by Hemant Kumar and the lyrics were penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri. It was directed by Kalidas (who had earlier directed Pradeep Kumar for the film “Ek Jhalak” , again which had memorable music by Hemant Kumar). It seems like the team of “Ek Jhalak” repeated with Police, with one change being Madhubala in place of Vyjantimala. It is rumoured that Hemantda had some legal troubles due to the copyright issue over the song “Oh oh oh baby” (Hemant and Geeta Dutt) from this film.

The film Police has one of the sweetest and loveliest romantic duet in the voices of Hemantda and Geeta Dutt “Chale hum kahan” filmed on Pradeep Kumar and Madhubala. This song was Hindi re-make of Hemantda’s original tune “Tumi je amaar” from the Bengali from Harano Sur released one year ago, sung by Geeta Dutt with her magic touch.

The song we are seeing today is filmed on vivacious Nadira and is a theater song at the end of which some precious necklace gets stolen.
Nadira and the chorus dancers slowly waltz on the stage while Geeta Dutt and her chorus singers glide through the tune. The song begins with the words “Mini mini chik chik…”. Hemantda has composed highly westernized yet a soulful tune for this song. The song also has that sweet humming of Hemant Kumar in between, he does not sing any lines in this song.

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SOTD: A sweet lullaby : Chanda dhale pankha jhale..

Hindi films have always had beautiful, hummable and soothing lullaby (Lori) songs right from the thirties and forties. K L Saighal’s “Soja rajkumari sojaa” is one of the foremost popular filmi lori.

Geeta Dutt also sang some lori songs in her career, one of them being quite popular (“Nanhi kali sone chali , hawaa dheere aana” from Sujata). Today we will be discovering a sweet lori composed by Vasant Desai for the film Pyar Ki Pyaas (1961). The film was made in color and the lyrics are penned by Bharat Vyas. The same lori is sung by Lata Mangeshkar as well in the film. Geeta’s lori is in 2 parts:

Here is the first part:

Chanda dhale pankha jhale (part-1)
Film – Pyaar Ki Pyaas 1961, MD – Vasant Desai, Lyricist – Bharat Vyas, Singer – Geeta Dutt

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SOTD: Jaata kahaan hain diwane..(A song censors found too hot)

Guru Dutt produced the film CID in the year 1956 which was directed by his assistant Raj Khosla (debut as director). Dev Anand and Shakila were the leading stars of the film. The music was provided by Rhythmking O P Nayyar and veteran Majrooh Sultanpuri penned the lyrics. Almost all the songs of the film were runaway success. “Aye dil hain mushkil” and “Aankhon hi aankhon mein ishaara ho gaya” (both Rafi, Geeta), “Le ke pehla pehla pyaar” (Rafi, Shamshad), “Kahin pe nigahen kahi pe nishana”, “Boojh mera kya naav re” (both Shamshad) were chartbusters. Among these, one song was deleted by the censors who objected to the word “Fiffi”. The song was deleted from the film but still continues to enthrall the music lovers till date.

The song is none other than “Jaata kahan hain deewane, sab kuchh yahaan hain sanam” sung effortlessly and seductively by Geeta Dutt.

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Zoobi Doobi – 3 Idiots

Updated with new extended official promo.

 

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Jaimala Program presented by Geeta Dutt in the year 1969

Jaimala is a program that has been aired on the Vividh Bharti station of All India Radio since it’s early days. It is a one hour program that exclusively plays requests from soldiers posted at the front. Once a week they have a special where a celebrity associated with the film world plays his/her own selection. Over the years a number of prominent personalities have hosted this program and these programs are a fascinating archive of their thoughts, ideas and musical selection.

Playback singer Geeta Dutt (nee Roy) presented this program in the year 1969, just three years before her untimely death.

Mere pyare fauji bhaiyon, aaj aapse baaten karte huye mujhe bahut prasannata ho rahi hai. Pehla geet phool maine mahaan kalakar K L Saigal ke awaaz mein chuna hai.

Song: Karoon kya aas niraas bhayi (Dushman)

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SOTD: Aag lagana kya mushkil hain…

Here is a lovely song composed by the (very talented but unfortunately almost forgotten) Chitragupt for the film Kangan (1959). The film had a decent star cast of Dadamuni Ashok Kumar and Nirupa Roy. The film nor its music created big waves at the box office, yet it has some charming numbers by Geeta Dutt.

No other female playback singer would have sung songs with such a wide range of variety of emotions for the same film.

1) Aag lagaana kya mushkil hai – A club song in a highly westernized tune filmed on Nishi
2) Bees baras tak laakh sambhaala – A dance song based on folk music filmed on Helen
3) Javaab nahin gore mukhde par til kaale ka (with Rafi sahab) – Fun-filled romantic song filmed on Shammi
4) Likh padh padh likh likh padh ke – (with Usha Mangeshkar) – A song for loving mother teaching her kid filmed on Nirupa Roy

The lyrics are by Rajinder Krishan, another great artist. Very few music lovers talk about lyricists in general and Rajinder Krishan in particular.

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Geeta Dutt with newer generation of composers

Young Geeta Roy (who later became Geeta Dutt) sang for veteran composers like S D Burman, S N Tripathi, Shyamsunder, Master Ghulam Haider, Bulo C Rani, Gyan Dutt, C Ramchandra, Vasant Desai, Pankaj Mullick, Naushad and many more in the forties and early fifties. By end of the fifties she probably had a lot of personal and marital issues which restricted her career in many ways. Many composers from the newer generation came on the music scene from this time, but very little is known about her musical association with composers like R D Burman, Kalyanaji Anandji, Usha Khanna etc. One of the most successful composer duo Laxmikant Pyarelal made their debut in the sixties by which time (unfortunately) Geeta Dutt had not remained the composer’s first choice singer. Laxmikant Pyarelal were Kalyanji Anandji’s assistants for quite some time but after they made their debut with the film Parasmani (1963) as independent composers, Geeta seems to have never sung for them.

Kalyanji-Anandji are not really “new” music directors in the true sense. Kalyanji composed by himself as Kalyanji Virji Shah for a few films in the late 50s (O tera kya kehna, Ghar ghar ki baat, Bedard zamaana kya jaane) and all these films had one song each in Geeta’s voice. The brothers (Kalyanji and Anandji) started to compose together from the film “Satta bazaar” in the year 1960 which does not have any song by Geeta Dutt. In the same year they composed for a film titled “Dil bhi tera hum bhi tere”. It had a great song “Aadmi gareeb ho..Sambalo dil zaraa” by Geeta Dutt.

There are three wonderful Geeta Dutt solos from Passport(1961), in a rare combination with Kalyanji Anandji.

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Geeta Dutt and Kuldip Kaur : A intoxicating combo..

Kuldip Kaur made quite a name for herself playing the bad girl to perfection in the late forties and the fifties. She will always be remembered for her vampish roles in films like Kaneez (1949), Ek Nazar and Afsana (1951), Baiju Bawra (1952) , Anarkali and Baaz (1953).

Here are some lovely songs sung by Geeta Dutt filmed on Kuldip Kaur.

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The charming Geeta Bali singing : Kaise rokoge aise toofan ko

Geeta Bali is a household name for any fan of golden era of Hindi films. She was one of the most charming and spontaneous actresses gracing the Hindi films.

“Anand Math” is a popular Bengali novel, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay which was later adapted into a film, Anand Math in 1952. The film was directed by Hemen Gupta, starring the great Prithviraj Kapoor, Pradeep Kumar and Geeta Bali. The film’s music was by Hemant Kumar (his debut film as a solo composer). The song “Jai jagdish hare” (Hemant Kumar and Geeta Dutt) and “Vande Mataram” (Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar) are very popular songs from this film.

Today we are looking at a relatively less popular yet very inspiring song from this film. The singer who sang “Jai jagdeesh hare” for the same film is singing this heart-warming song.

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3 new jukeboxes to listen to Geeta Dutt songs online..

With help from music lover friends, we launched the website http://www.geetadutt.com on 23rd November 2008. All these days we have got great responses and feedback from so many music lovers from all over the world. We all are committed to keep this site active and updated with fresh content on regular basis.

We will be celebrating the first birthday of our website along with the birth anniversary of Geeta ji this year on 23rd November 2009. To mark the first birthday of our website we willl be making lots of additions to the website.

To begin with we have added something Geeta fans have been wanting us to do for a long time.

You may recall that we had added a jukebox having over 250 Geeta songs from Hindi films.

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SOTD: A “Nasheela” song from rhythm king O P Nayyar..

Omkar Prasad Nayyar gave memorable music to several films in the fifties and the sixties. Even if the film was not a big budget/big star cast, its music was a runaway success due to OP’s foot tapping and heart-warming music. His music for films like Aasmaan (1952), Baaz (1953), Musafirkhaana (1955), Miss Coca Cola (1955), Mr Lambu (1956), Chhoo Mantar (1956), Qaidi (1957), Maai Baap (1957), Bade Sarkar (1957) and Johny Walker (1957) is an ample proof of this.

Here is a song from the film Bade Sarkar starring Kishor Sahu, Kamini Kaushal, Agha etc. Looking at the situation, it seems like all the characters are in a drunken state with a good helping of “Bhaang”. Agha breaks into this song and takes off to a very melodious and memorable song. The song is penned by Sahir Ludhiyanvi and the vocals are by Mohammed Rafi and Geeta Dutt.

The rest of the songs from this film are sung by Asha Bhonsle, yet Geeta leaves her impact in this “half” song. That is the magic of Geeta Dutt for you!

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SOTD: Har roz kahaa har roz sunaa…

Poet and Lyricist Indeevar didn’t get many opportunities to pen down quality songs. Though his career span is spread over four decades he did not get the recognition he and his talent deserved.

Born in Jhansi, Madhya Pradesh as Shyamalal he came to Mumbai with the clear intention of being a lyricist. He strugglesd for about 5 years or so he got his first big break inthe form of ‘ Malhaar’ (1951). He penned the song ‘Bade Armaan Se Rakha Hai Balam Teri Kasam’, a popular composition that retains a refreshing feel even today. But even this song couldn’t ensure instant success.

Indeevar paired with Roshan and later with Kalyanji-Anandji which gave him some commercial success in the sixties and seventies. His early work in the fifties did not get much recognition due to reasons beyond belief.

Here is a soulful lyric penned by Indivar, composed by the famous composer duo Timir Baran and S K Pal. The song featured in a film titled “Baadbaan” released in the year 1954. The song “Kaise koi jiye” from this film is relatively more popular. It was sung individually by Hemant Kumar and Geeta Dutt as a tandem song.

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SOTD: Oh bedardi kyon tadapaaye.. A lovely song from Godaan (1963)

Pandit Ravi Shankar is a legendary musician-composer from India and needs no introduction. Ravi Shankar, the legendary sitarist and composer is India’s most esteemed musical Ambassador and a singular phenomenon in the classical music worlds of East and West. … Read More

Geeta Dutt – The Skylark : A must read musical biography

Geeta Dutt – The Skylark: The first ever biography of melody queen Geeta Dutt (nee Roy)

“Geeta Dutt – The Skylark” is the very first book published ever on the legendary playback singer Geeta Dutt. Here is a summary of information about the book and the author.

The book:

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SOTD – Huzoor Is Kadar Bhi Na Itrake Chaliye….

Special thanks to a very special friend of mine.

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Mr Lambu (1956) : Magic of OPN and Geeta Dutt

Suraiyya was the second most popular singing star of the golden era of Hindi film music (the first one being Noor Jehan). Millions of music and movie lovers were her fan and the composer rhythm king Omkar Prasad Nayyar was not an exception to this. So when he got a chance to compose music for a Suraiyya starrer film titled Mr Lambu in the year 1956 he was thrilled. The film starred the producer Sheikh Mukhtar and was directed by Nisar Ahmad Ansari who acted in the film as well. It did not create big records at the box office, but remained the only Suraiyya starrer with music by rhythm king O P Nayyar. The lyrics of the film were penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Suraiyya had 3 songs in the film which included a solo and two duets with Mohammad Rafi:

1) Soyi hai kahaan jaakar taqdeer muhabbat ki – Suraiyya

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Music Review: London dreams

Music Review: London Dreams

Genre: Drama
Director: Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Music Director: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Singers: Vishal Dadlani, Roopkumar Rathod, Abhijit Ghoshal, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shankar Mahadevan, Zubeen Garg, Feroz Khan and Mohan
Label: T-Series

EXCLUSIVE REVIEW BY ROHIT KOTHARI

Post Rock On success the terrific trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are back again with yet another rocking composition- London Dreams. Produced and directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the movie stars Ajay Devgn, Salman Khan, Asin, Ranvijay, Adithya Roy Kapoor. The album contains a total of 11 tracks with 8 originals and 3 remixes.

The album bursts open with the electrifying track Barso Yaaron sung by Vishal Dadlani and Roop Kumar Rathod. An exceptionally stunning track full of life, amazingly composed by the trio and beautifully written by Prasoon Joshi. The song strikes the right chord in the first hear.

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