Shair Aur Sargam, Songs From Movies of 7 Great Lyricists Options

[swarapriya]

(Hasrat Jaipuri) Geet Gaaya Pattharon Ne (1964)

This film was produced and directed by the brilliant film maker V. Shantaram. He also wrote its screenplay and was its editor. He introduced his daughter Rajshree as the leading lady of the film. Jeetendra, who appeared in his earlier super hit classic “Navrang (1958)” as a double in a dance sequence to its heroine (!) Sandhya, was given the male lead for the first time. The movie also has the great crooner C.H. Atma in a pivotal role.

The movie itself was alternatively beautiful to watch and other times bogged down in domestic problems of the leading couple. The story itself was credited to K.A. Narayan. However it was inspired on the life of the legendary 12th century sculptor from Karnataka named Jakkanacharya. The very same year Shantaramji’s movie was released a film based on the life of the sculptor was released both in Kannada and Telugu with the name “Amara Shilpi Jakkanna”. “Geet” however was updated to reflect urban times.

Shantaram utilized the talents of Ramlal as its music director for the second time in a row. He was so good in his earlier film the 1963 “Sehra” so it was not a surprise that he was hired to score music for this film. Ramlalji did not disappoint. He was absolutely brilliant. Each song became a chartbuster except for possibly “Raat Naujawaan”. Ahsaji, Kishori, Mahendra were all very good. But C.H. Atma with three songs easily stole the show. The CD version of the film has combined the song “Likh Deta” with “Ek Pal”. I am including it here for completeness sake but also uploading the DVD version of “Likh Deta” which is more elaborate with lots of mandolin music following it.

The fabulous Hasrat Saab wrote lyrics for all songs except for one. The one song Vishwamitra Adil wrote is “Aaiye Padhaariye”. His name was not listed as a lyricist even though he was responsible for the dialogues. Incidentally Vasant Desai, who was a regular with Shantaramji, scored the background music for the film. Someone told me that Desaiji helped Ramlalji in scoring both title tracks. I cannot substantiate it.

I am uploading all songs, a few music clips, and some instrumentals in three back-to-back posts. Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Geet Gaaya Pattharon Ne (1964)"...

Here are the rest of the songs and a few music clips from this beautiful musical...

[swarapriya]

Few Instrumentals of the song "Tere Khayaalon" frpm "Geet Gaaya Pattharon Ne (1964)"...

Here are a few instrumentals of the song "Tere Khayaalon Mein Hum" from this film...

[swarapriya]

(Majrooh) Teesri Manzil (1966)

This is one of my favorite movies. Everything comes together in this movie like a well-organized and well executed musical concert. The story, the songs, the music, the performances, they all add up to make “Teesri Manzil” a thoroughly enjoyable entertainer.

Nasir Husain, who produced the film, was busily getting ready with "Baharon Ke Sapne" and approached Vijay Anand to direct this movie. One of the reasons was that originally Vijay’s older brother Dev Anand was to star in it. But Dev was enjoying his new found success and recognition from making "Guide" and was not immediately available. Instead the role went to Shammi who was the hero of two of his previous blockbusters, "Tumsa Nahin Dekha" in 1957 and "Dil Deke Dekho" in 1959. Husain Saab wrote the story of the film, its screenplay, and dialogues as well.

Nasir Husain was looking for someone to compose the music and Shammi recommended his good friends Shankar and Jaikishan. Majrooh Sultanpuri, who wrote lyrics for every Nasir Husain movie and a close friend of Husain, suggested R.D. Burman’s name. R.D. was new to the game and had only "Chhote Nawab" behind him. However, Husain went along with the idea. Vijay Anand knew R.D. well (being son as well assistant of S.D. Burman), and liked the idea. But Shammi wouldn't budge. R.D. composed a couple of songs to convince Shammi that he will be able to do the justice and when Shammi heard them he had no problem.

R.D. became a regular with Nasir Husain for many of his future films. Together the tandem of Husain-Burman-Majrooh collaborated in churning out many memorable musical hits that are remembered even today after this many many years passed away.

The music of “Teesri Manzil” was a standout. It had breakaway music and sounds that were never heard on an Indian screen before. An excellent example of this is the duet Asha and Rafi Saab sang “Aa Jaa Aa Jaa Main Hoon Pyaar Tera”. It was a clever juxtaposition of Eastern and Western music, picturized with a touch of eroticism that was at once appealing to ears as well as hearts. Asha Bhosle and Rafi Saab sang all of the songs in the movie. Apart from the song already mentioned, the other standout songs are the beautiful duet of Asha and Rafi Saab, “O Mera Sona Re Sona Re” and the romantic solo of Rafi Saab “Deewaana Mujh Sa Nahin”. It turns out that this was the last Nasir Husain movie where Rafi Saab sang all of the male songs. He did return with a bang in Hussain's "Hum Kisise Kum Nahin (1977)" where he sang that memorable National Award winning song "Kya Hua Tera Vaada".

The picturization of the songs from this movie is still talked about. Vijay Anand used some unusual camera angles to film the songs, like a dance seen from an eye or a guitar hole. Incidentally Salim, who would later become part of the famous Salim-Javed writing team, played a bit role in the movie. He plays drums to Helen's song and the dance number "O Haseena Zulfon Waali". Salim, father of actor Salman Khan, later married Helen.

During the filming of this movie Shammi lost his actress wife Geeta Bali succumbed to a tragic illness. Vijay Anand helped Shammi overcome the grief by being supportive whenever it was necessary.

The songs from this film became so popular that they inspired many musicians to come up with instrumentals of them. I am uploading these along with songs from the film in eight back-to-back posts. The first two posts contain songs from the film. The third post contains a few specials. The fourth post contains instrumentals of the songs “Aa Jaa Aa Jaa”. The fifth post has a few instrumentals of “Deewaana Mujh Sa Nahin”. Instrumentals of the song “O Haseena” are in the sixth post. “O Mere Sona Re” instrumentals are in the seventh post. Finally, the eight and the last post consists of instrumentals of the song “Tum Ne Mujhe Dekha”.

The songs of the film start in the next post...

[swarapriya]

Songs from the Film "Teesri Manzil (1966)"...

Here is the first set of songs from the film...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from the Film "Teesri Manzil (1966)"...

Here are the rest of the songs from the film and a couple of version songs...

[swarapriya]

A Few Specials of the Songs from the Film "Teesri Manzil (1966)"...

Here are a few specials of the songs from the film...

[swarapriya]

Instrumentals of the Song "Aa Jaa" from the Film "Teesri Manzil (1966)"...

Here are a few instrumentals of the song "Aa Jaa Aa Jaa"...

[swarapriya]

Instrumentals of the Song "Deewaana" from the Film "Teesri Manzil (1966)"...

Following are few instrumentals of the song "Deewaana" from the film...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Jun 18 2017, 11:04 PM

[swarapriya]

Instrumentals of the Song "O Haseena" from the Film "Teesri Manzil (1966)"...

Here are a few instrumentals of the song "O Haseena" from the film...

[swarapriya]

Instrumentals of the Song "O Mere Sona" from the Film "Teesri Manzil (1966)"...

The following post contains several instrumentals of the song "O Mere Sona Re"...

[swarapriya]

Instrumentals of the Song "Tum Ne" from the Film "Teesri Manzil (1966)"...

Instrumentals of the song "Tum Ne Mujhe" follow...

[swarapriya]

(Rajinder Krishan) Shaadi (1962)

This was Saira Banu’s second movie. This followed her blockbuster from previous year, “Junglee”. Unfortunately the movie was a big disappointment. It had a dull, drab, and hackneyed plot with one dimensional caricature people. The only saving grace for the film was its music. Most of the songs are fair to good. I am uploading these in the following post…

[swarapriya]

(Shailendra) Sangeet Samrat Tansen (1962)

This film probably was the greatest achievement of the classical music maestro S.N. Tripathiji (his photo attached below). He composed music for nearly 100 films, yet he never got his due for the songs he composed. This was mainly because almost all of his movies were either mythologies or a few were fantasies. These movies were considered to be B grade and he remained throughout his career as a B-movie music director.

Tripathiji’s career spanned over fifty years in the film industry. After assisting several music directors of the early film industry, he made his debut as an independent music director with 1942 “Chandan”. He was a multifaceted individual who also acted in 54 films (he was famous for portraying the role of Hanuman in many films), directed 17, wrote stories for another 7. He expertly mixed classical ragas with sounds of mandolin, shehnai, and violin that appealed to several followers of his music. Many music experts believe that as far as the classical music understanding goes he probably was in par with Naushadji and Vasant Desai Saab.

All songs from this film are simply gems. It is much to his credit of music sense, for example, the song “Raag Bhairav” consists of six separate raagas. I am ignorant of what these ragas are but I read some place that the ragas in this song are Bhairav, Malkauns, Hindol, Shree, Deepak, and Megh Malhaar. Mannada mentions these as he sang the song.

It appears that I may be missing three songs shown in red italics in the table given in the second post. I am requesting members to share these if they can. Thanks.

I am presenting all songs from this unforgettable album in two back-to-back posts. Here are the songs starting in the next post…

[swarapriya]

Songs from "Sangeet Samrat Tansen (1962)"...

Here are the first set of songs from this mellifluous album...