Three Of A Kind

Thank you very much Romesh.

Viraj

you are welcome viraj & sp

romesh

Uran Khatola (1955)

This movie was loosely based on Frank Capra’s 1937 classic film “Lost Horizon.” The story of which was based on James Hilton’s best selling 1933 novel of the same name that was inspired by the real-life mountaineer George Leigh-Mallory who lost his life during a fatal climb of Mount Everest in 1924. The film also had some similarities with another English movie made in 1935 called “She” an adventure tale about a lost land.

The Hindi version of the movie had all the ingredients to make it a huge success. It was embellished by Naushadji’s great score and some spirited singing by Lataji and Rafi Saab. But what made this movie apart from others was the casting of T. Surya Kumari in the role of the queen. Surya Kumari, who bore the famous family name of Tanguturi was a Telugu-speaking lady, who came from a rich and politically active and influential background.

Surya Kumari was a lady of elegance and style and stood tall with a very slender figure. She was bestowed with a beautiful voice and became popular singing patriotic songs even before she was 10 years old. Prakasam Pantulu, her uncle, was a a freedom fighter who defied British troops during the Indian independence struggle. She accompanied him to many political rallies where her singing was a major draw than the speeches given by the seasoned politicians. (See her pictures below.)

She acted in her first movie when she was only 12 years, in a special part especially written for her to accommodate her singing talent. Altogether she acted in about 25 movies. In 1947, Shantaram who heard her voice on a gramophone record, offered her to sing for the heroine of his film “Apna Desh.” Later she acted in the Hindi movie “Watan (1954).” By this time, she was crowned as Miss Madras and grown up to be a beautiful woman. Soon she was offered the role of the queen in “Uran Khatola.” The movie was a huge hit. It even fetched her a nomination for the Best Supporting Actress Award from Filmfare. However, she lost to Nirupa Roy for her performance in ”Munimji.”

Surya Kumari spoke several languages including Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, English, Gujarati, and Sanskrit. Even with the success she enjoyed with “Uran Khatola”, she acted in only another Hindi movie (also made in English) called “Bombay Might 417”. That was the last of her movies. She did remain active participating and promoting Indian culture abroad. When in US as a member of a cultural organization, she met famous Hollywood producer and director Alfred Hitchcock. Fairly impressed with her varied skills and her rich resume, Hitchcock offered her to work with him. She spent several years in US, working in background and assisting Hitchcock in production, and collaborated in producing several episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents …”. She also taught in New York city at Columbia University.

Later she moved to UK and met and married Harold Elvin, a poet, painter, and potter. She lived rest of her life in UK until she passed away in 2005. A truly remarkable lady in every sense of the word.

I am uploading songs from this film in three back-to-back posts. The first two posts contain songs from the film and the third post has some extended versions.

Now for a description of the songs in the first post and the songs themselves …

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Aug 23 2010, 12:08 AM

Continuing Songs from "Uran Khatola (1955)" ...

Here are the rest of the songs from this fine album ...

Concluding Songs from "Uran Khatola (1955)" ...

I am uploading here few extended versions of the songs here ...

Hi,

There is Lata version of "O doorke musafir" at the end of this movie. It's not available on disc. Can somebody upload it please?

Viraj

Thank you Swarapriya for uploading the songs of Udan Khatola particularly the extended versions. I also enjoyed reading your nice write up and interesting information about Surya Kumari.

rpnawani

Thank you very much for your nice and encouraging words RP.

I do wonder sometimes does anyone care to read these things. However, that doesn't stop me to say my two bits. Especially when I have strong feelings about something. That emotion does spill into what I share.

Surya Kumari was a great lady. I only touched glimpses of her rich life. She was an extraordinary woman and her brilliance reflected in every facet of the work she touched.

Cheers,
Swarapriya

Viraj,

I have 2 such snippets (courtesy Venkat and youtube). Both have Lata and Rafi.




Aditya

Thanks for both the snippets, Aditya. Cheers. -S

Thanks Aditya for the snippets.

Viraj

(Kishore) Paisa Hi Paisa (1956)

Here is pretty nice offering from Anilda. All songs by the courtesy of the Forum members. Quality of some of the songs is poor but tolerable. I indicated this along with the song name in the table below.

Here are the songs ...

Here is longer version of "Pyar kiya Jhak mari"
Song-Pyar kiya jhak mari--Kishore Kumar
Film-Paisa Hi Paisa (1956)
MD-Anil Biswas
Lyrics-Majrooh
Duration-2.55 mins
128kbps/rar/mp3

missing?
lad gayi ankhiyaan jaane na balam - Lata mangeshkar
uf na karna ki muhabbat meri badnaam na ho - asha - rafi
is duniya ka ulta charkha - kishore

(Dev) Aandhiyan (1952)

This film was produced by Dev Anand and had the music by the great master of Sarod Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (see his picture below). I recently posted an extensive article on the Ustad, who was called the Swara Samrat, in the "Anmol Fankaar" web site. The entire artcle can be accessed at the following link ...

http://www.anmolfankaar.com/specials/ek-fa...-ali-akbar-khan

The following are excerpts from that article ...

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was born on April 14, 1922 in a family with a deep rooted pedigree in music. Like himself, his father Baba Allauddin Khan was a multi-instrumentalist. Baba Saab is generally believed to be the founder of Maihar Gharana that is considered to be very similar to Hindustani classical music. The sarodist Timir Baron, the flutist Pannalal Gosh, Pandit Ravi Shankar and Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, both prominent sitarists, were schooled in Maihar Gharana discipline.

Khan Saab was a virtuoso when it came to playing the sarod musical instrument. He was a musician, a composer of several new classical ragas, he wrote music for a few films, he was a worldwide performer, and he was also an educator. Khan Saab was bestowed with several honors during his brilliant career. The Indian government named him a national treasure and honored him with Padma Vibhushan for his many achievements that enriched the field of classical music.

Khan Saab was the court musician for the Maharaja in Jodhpur from 1943 to 1948. In this court he started educating students in music and was bestowed with the title of Ustad by the Maharaja. When the Maharaja passed away in an airline crash, Ustad decided to move to Bombay.

Encouraged by the results he got from educating aspiring musicians, Ustad founded Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta in 1956. Later, in 1967, he established another school in Berkeley, California, USA. That school is now located in San Rafael, California. In 1985, Ustad opened yet another branch in Basel, Switzerland. He also taught music lessons at Montreal and McGill Universities in Canada. When it came to instructing, though Khan Saab was a warm hearted generous man, he was a didactic teacher and stern disciplinarian.

Khan Saab, known for his innovation, was never willing to compromise his music. Based on the traditional ragas, a system of varying degrees of scales, he created his unusual melodies. This unwillingness to make compromises made him endearing to music connoisseurs around the world. His initial concerts mostly consisted of alaps but by the mid-60’s he became very bold and experimental. He worked with several Western artists during this period, resulting in many noteworthy albums, such as, “Flowers of Evil: Six Poems of Baudelaire” in 1968 with Yvette Mimieux, and Indo-Jazz fusion albums with saxophonist John Handy, including, “Karuna Supreme” in 1975 and “Rainbow” in 1981.

Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, the noted maestro of santoor, has this to say in an interview talking about Khan Saab. "… something that I find truly admirable in him is that he dedicated the last 40 years of his life teaching." He continued to add that "… teaching the sarod to a novice when you are a master can be excruciatingly boring. But Ustadji did this tough job for 40 years …"

Perhaps the greatest tribute that was ever given to him was by none other than his father. He told his son that he was so proud of him that he has no hesitation in saying these words. “… I am so pleased with your work in music that I will do something which is very rare. As your Guru and father, I am giving you a title, ‘Swara Samrat’, loosely translated to mean the king of music, …”.

In the end, Khan Saab’s work touched upon several facets of Hindustani music. He was a court musician, a radio broadcaster, a composer who worked with notable film personalities, and he also built a rich legacy of student with his instruction that will continue for years to come. Khan Saab brought people all over the world a little closer together through his abundantly rich music in a time when the internet did not exist. We are left with his legacy to listen and to treasure. And, in fact, his legacy continues through his three sons, Aashish, Alam-E-Aftabuddin, and Manik. All three are now considered to be expert sarodists.

The Swara Samrat once said that “ … music is the only thing that you can share with a million people and you don’t lose, you gain. …” He once wrote of the sarod, "If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after 20 years you may become a performer and please the audience, after 30 years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist -- then you may please even God."

There is also a thread going on in the Forum in the "Raag Rang" directory on the Ustad. Several people have contributed some of Ustad's music in this thread including r&d and Nandi. Here is the link to this thread ...

http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?showtopic=46037

I am including below a musical piece that Ustad worked with Zakir Hussain, the Tabla maestro. Here are its details ...

Title: Raga Ahir Bhairav- Teen Taal
Album: The Versatile Genius Ustad Zakir Hussain & The Maestros (Vol.1)
Time: 10 min 44 sec
Bit Rate: 192 kbps
Year: 1999
Sarod: Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
Tabla: Ustad Zakir Hussain

Now for the raag ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Sep 8 2010, 11:08 AM