Shair Aur Sargam

(Hasrat Jaipuri) Badnam (1952)

Songs from this album were upload recently in this very thread. They are available starting at the following location...

http://www.hamaraforums.com/index.php?show...4658&st=170

(Javed Akhtar) Sholay (1975)

Most of the following write up appeared in one of my earlier postings of this epic fun film...

This movie became a phenomenon throughout India as it went on to establish record after record at the box office. It ran successfully for over five years. It grossed an astounding figure of nearly 800 crores of Rupees. It celebrated the golden jubilee in over 60 theatres. It ran over 25 weeks in more than 100 theatres. BBC declared it as the “Film of the Millennium”. Even though “Sholay” snubbed originally by the influential Filmfare magazine, it gave recently the award for it as the Best Film in 50 Years.

The movie was based on a simple idea. It was a story of revenge molded after several successful westerns. Yet it is surprising why this movie became such an unprecedented rage among filmgoers. The biggest answer lies in the character Gabbar Singh as played by the late great Amjad Khan. This person was molded after a real life dacoit of the same name. Khan Saab (son of the great actor, Jayant) debuted as a child artiste in Raj Kapoor’s “Ab Dilli Door Nahin” in 1957. His first adult role as an actor was in “Hindustan ki Kasam” released in 1973. But “Sholay” was the movie that brought him instant fame and recognition. A villain in an Indian film never looked meaner and his deeds scarier than Khan’s were from this movie. He gave an unforgettable performance that would be envious of any veteran actor. Simply put, his performance was phenomenal. Apparently he prepared for the role by reading Taroon Bhaduri’s book “Abhishapth Chambal” which chronicled the doings of dacoits of Chambal valley. Taroonji was the father of Jaya Bhaduri, who also starred in this film. Interestingly Khan Saab was not the original choice of the producers. They wanted Danny Denzongpa for the role. But Danny was away in Afghanistan shooting for Feroze Khan’s “Dharmatma (1975)” and was not immediately available. Later on after many years when a film journalist asked Danny whether he regrets missing out to play Gabbar Sing, he retorted more or less in this vein: “You can get many Danny’s every day. But how many times you will get an Amjad Khan the way he portrayed the role.”

I think the song “Mehbooba O Mehbooba” by RD was another chief contributor to the success this movie enjoyed. RD did such a splendid job with his vocals and the music he composed for the film fuses Indian sounds with elements of Afro-Cuban, Arabic, and Latin reflecting his musical genius. Especially the background score where Gabbar Singh is located in a desolate rocky terrain gives such an eerie feeling.

Both the romantic pairs got hitched while preparations to make this movie were going on. Few months before the movie was to be launched, Jaya and Amitabh were married. Soon after that Jaya got pregnant delaying the shooting of the movie. Also, besides being already married and with children, garam Dharam was after Hema’s affections. Originally Dharam wanted to play the role of Thakur (eventually played by Sanjeev Kumar). He was informed that then Sanjeev will get the role of Veeru. When he learned that Veeru will get the girl in the movie, as Sanjeev proposed to Hema only a few months back, Dharam changed his mind quickly and took Veeru’s role. Apparently Dharam used to bribe the light boys while shooting so that he can have several retakes with Hema. Incidentally, Hema does not appear with Sanjeev in any scenes in the movie. This was done at her request because she did not want to be near him.

Shatrughan Sinha was considered for the role of Jai, but Dharmendra persuaded the director to have Amitabh play the role. Amitabh also went to the director to convince him that he would be the right choice to play Jai.

The movie was shot near Bangalore. The rocky terrain, called Ramanagaram, where the movie was shot is now a tourist attraction. Parts of Ramanagaram were renamed as “Sippy Nagar”. The village that was built for the movie was left intact by the producers.

“Sholay” was the first Hindi movie to be shot in stereophonic sound. It was also presented in the 70mm widescreen format. The song “Chaand Sa Koi” is not in the movie. After the song was recorded, director Ramesh Sippy decided to not include it in the movie. So the song was never picturized. Anand Bakshi Saab, the lyricist, was one of the co-singers of the song.

I am uploading songs from this film in four back-to-back posts. These include all songs from the film, several music clips, some instrumentals, and few extended versions. Here is a description of the songs in the first post and the songs themselves …

Some Music Clips from "Sholay (1975)"...

With its outstanding background music given by RD, there is an opportunity to capture this with many music clips. Here are some of these...

Some Specials & Instrumentals of "Sholay (1975)"...

Here are some specials and instrumentals of the songs from "Sholay"...

Some Extended Version Songs from "Sholay (1975)"...

Here are some of the extended version songs from this film...

(Majrooh) Pyar Ki Baaten (1951)

I am uploading songs from this album in two back-to-back posts. Quality of the songs in the first post is very good. I have set aside the second post for a few poor quality songs at a lower bit rate.

Here are the songs in the first post...

Concluding Songs from "Pyar Ki Baaten (1951)"...

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

(Rajinder Krishan) Khilari (1950)

Here are the songs from this album...

Thank you Swarapriya.

You're very welcome Kingji. Cheers. -S

(Shailendra) Nau Bahar (1952)

I am uploading songs from this album in two back-to-back posts. The songs in the first post are from a CD and are of better quality. But the songs in the second post are of poor to fair quality. They are from a DVD. I am uploading them at a lower bit rate.

Here are the songs in the first post...

Concluding Songs from "Nau Bahar (1952)"...

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

(Shakeel) Shair (1949)

Here are the songs from this album...

This might be a better copy of the song O more baalma! I haven't listened to your copy of the song, but this one doesn't seem to have any noise throughout the song!

Details of the song are the same as in the above post.

Thanks for the song Achyntu. Cheers, S.