Naushadji & Dilip Kumar, Simple & Sweet Options

[swarapriya]

Naushad Ali-Dilip Kumar Filmography

If simiplicity is charm, then we can describe Naushadji’s music as very charming. It seems like he has done so much with so few instruments. An exponent of Hindustani music, his compositions always tapped the huge reservoir of the traditional music resources. From his struggling days in Bombay to a major music maestro he maintained that simiplicity in approach to music all his life. He never deviated from this path.

In a span of 65 or so years in the film industry, he composed roughly 70 films. By any yardstick this is not a huge number. But each one of those films were a work of art and charm. In an interview circa 1982, Naushadji said, "In my 62 years in the film industry, I composed music for 66 films. These days, you come across people who have done the music 200 films in two years. What I'm saying is that, we used to agonise over every tune and phrase in music, spend sleepless nights over a song, and work on it until it was perfected. And I am still looking for perfection." That commitment to perfection, that devotion to creating a lasting melodious tune were Naushadji’s drivers in his professional career.

Naushadji was recognized with several awards during his lifetime. These include Padma Bhushan, Filmfare award for Baiju Bawra (1952), Dadasaheb Phalke award, and Sangeet Natya Academy award.

Naushadji had a special relationship with Dilip Kumar saab. Professionally he composed for 15 films in which Dilip Kumar starred. Most of them were blockbusters. All of them had that charming music that was hallmark of Naushadji.

I happen to have the CD collection of all these films with Naushadji as composer and Dilip Saab as the actor. As time permits, in the coming weeks, I will try to share this music with the Forum membership.

The filmography of Naushadji and Dilip Kumar Saab is given in the following table. I will try to upload albums in the chronological order as they appear in the table below.

[swarapriya]

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-Malloory 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 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 bcame 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 singing of songs by her were a major draw than the speeches given by politicians. 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.

All in all she acted in about 25 movies. In 1947, Shantaram who heard 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 best supporting actress 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. She acted in only another Hindi movie (also made in English) called “Bombay Might 417” after “Uran Khatola.” 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 Alfred Hitchcock. Fairly impressed, 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, poet, painter, and potter. She lived rest of her life in UK until she passed away in 2005. A truly remarkable lady in very respect of the word.

All songs in this were derived from a CD except as described here. All extended versions were from a DVD. Also the song “Duba Taara.” I tried to clean up their noise. Most of these songs came out pretty good. I am also missing one more song from this album. This is shown in the table below in red italics. Apparently there are some versions of this song floating around. If anyone of you have it, please kindly share with us.

Now for a description of these songs and the songs themselves …

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Jun 17 2008, 04:09 AM

[Erum Hashmi]

Uran Khatola (1955)

The missing song is uploaded here:



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