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

[swarapriya]

(Rajinder Krishan) Padosan (1968)

I am uploading these songs breaking the chronological order to cater for a request...

Until late 40’s most South Indian language films were made in Calcutta because there were no studios anywhere in the south. But things started changing soon as studios like Gemini, Bharani, Vauhini and others started sprouting up in Madras. Because of the Bengali connection, there was always a fascination for Bengali stories in the South.

It all started with a comedy called “Pakka Inti Ammaayi” in 1953. This Telugu film was actually made in Calcutta by its producers, East India Company. The main reason was that the company was from Calcutta. Also, the film was based on a Bengali story. A year before, Sudhir Mukherjee made a movie based on this story called “Pasher Bari”. The Telugu version starred Telugu comedian Relangi Venkata Ramayya (Sunil Dutt in the Hindi version) and Anjali Devi (Saira in Hindi) as his love interest. The playback singer A.M. Raja starred in the role Kishoreda played in the Hindi version. This was the first for A.M. Raja as an actor. The movie was a hit. Years later, in 1960, it was remade in Tamil as “Adutha Veettu Penn”. The Tamil version had T. Ramchandran as the hero, Anjali Devi again was the love interest, and also starred Tangavelu. Based on this very story, with very little changed, Mahmood made “Padosan” in 1968. This was remade again in Telugu in 1980 with Chandra Mohan as the simpleton hero, Jaya Sudha as his love interest, music director Chakravarti in Mahmood’s role, and the famous singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam (affectionately known as Balu) in Kihsoreda’s role.

“Padosan” was a great comedy and its songs are an absolute delight. The jugalbandi between Manna Dey and Kishoreda was the highlight of the film. I read a column that stated that Mannada wasn’t too happy about the fact that in the movie he loses to Kishoreda because he felt that in private life being a trained classical singer that he is losing albeit in a movie to Kishoreda who had no such training wasn’t really fair. I don’t know how far this story is true but this was just a movie and not the real thing. Mannada also is a great professional to have expressed those feelings related to the song in the movie.

I read an article where Sunil Dutt confides that he was ill at ease acting in a comedy role. He almost backed off, but both Mahmood and Kishoreda encouraged him not to worry. While shooting Sunil Dutt admitted to have many retakes done, especially those in which he and Kishoreda were together. While shooting these scenes Sunil couldn’t help himself but used to crack up with Kishoreda’s antics. Each time something like that happened it took some time for him to get his composure back and ready for the next retake.

I am uploading all songs, a few specials including version songs, and several instrumentals in six back-to-back posts. The first two posts contain all of the songs from the film. The third post contains a mostly version songs. The fourth post contains instrumentals of the song “Mere Saamne Waali”, all from various CDs. Finally the last two posts contain more instrumentals, all from videos.

Incidentally the second version of the song “Mere Saamne Waali” is not in the DVD I watched.

Here are the songs starting in the next post…

[swarapriya]

Songs from "Padosan (1968)"...

Here are the first part of the songs from this musical hit...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Padosan (1968)"...

Here are the rest of the songs from RD's musical bonanza...

[swarapriya]

Version Songs from "Padosan (1968)"...

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

[swarapriya]

Padosan (1968) - Instrumentals-1

Here are a few instrumentals of the songs from the film, all from various CDs...

[swarapriya]

Padosan (1968) - Instrumentals-2

Here are a few more instrumentals of the songs from the film, all from various videos...

[swarapriya]

Padosan (1968) - Instrumentals-3

Here is the final set of instrumentals of the songs from the film, all from various videos...

[swarapriya]

(Anand Bakshi) Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971)

Up and coming Vinod Khanna played a villain in this film that must have inspired the future blockbuster of 1975, “Sholay”. Khanna played a dacoit whose name in the film was “Jabbar Singh”. Many people are of the opinion that this was probably one of the best roles played by Khanna. May be. But it pales in comparison to Amjad Khan’s “Gabbar Singh” which was a monumental achievement in the history of Indian Cinema. Incidentally, Dharmendra appeared in both the films.

There are only five songs in the film and most of them became popular. Here the music directors LP in spite of the success of the songs, were using some of the tunes from their older hits. This is more evident in the song “Sona Lei Jaa Re” than in any other song. It reminds one immediately the 1969 hit from their composition in “Do Raaste”, “Bindiya Chamkegi”.

Anyway, here is this and other songs from the film…

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Apr 1 2018, 05:45 AM

[swarapriya]

(Hasrat Jaipuri) Janwar (1965)

This movie as with most of his earlier films was dominated by Shammi’s presence. He goes through numerous disguises for various situations. They are antics very familiar from his earlier movies.

There are seven fine songs in the film. Of these Shammi is in six of them. In this film, he is supposed to be playing a young college student. This is difficult to comprehend. Also, he started gaining weight that is obvious in many scenes. Rajshree, who played the heroine in the film, is supposed to be from a very poor family. She wears gorgeous clothes and has lovely jewelry to go with it. She even travels in shikaras in Kashmir. Later on in a scene she tells Shammi that she borrowed all those belonging from her friends. Simply unbelievable.

I am not sure what the title is about. I think to go along with other popular titles Shammi had, like “Junglee”, the movie probably was named thus. Rehman in an unsympathetic smaller role was disappointing. Then there was senior Kapoor. Even when there is not much action called for, in his hardly understandable diction, Prithvirajji displays theatrical histrionics.

From all this disappointment, the only thing worth remembering is its music. Shankar & Jaikishan are at again and do it again. Almost every song was a chartbuster. They even borrowed a Beatles tune from their hit song “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” for the composition of “Dekho Ab Toh”.

I am uploading all songs from the film, a couple of version songs, and a couple of instrumentals in two back-to-back posts. Here are the songs in the first post…

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Apr 1 2018, 05:29 AM

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Janwar (1965)"...

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

[swarapriya]

(Majrooh) Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke (1969)

This movie presents a story about three brothers, two who stay in the village to look after their farms and the other who goes to city to get educated. Then there is a village chief who loans money to the hapless farmers with collateral of their lands. Such a story has been told many times in various movies. The director does not offer any new ideas and the whole thing proceeds with a predictable mess.

Interestingly the movie was presented by Dharmendra. I am not sure what the connection was. One nice about the producers of the film was they dedicated it to the memory of the poet Shailendraji, who passed away in 1966 at a young age of 43.

Kanhaiyalal shines as the oldest of the three brothers. His younger brothers were played by Sanjeev Kumar (goes to city for education) and Jeetendra.

There are only handful of songs in the film. Here they are…

[swarapriya]

(Rajinder Krishan) Bombay Race Course (1965)

This film was originally released under the name of “Race Course”. In English, this is one word but the posters of this film spelled it out as two separate words. The movie was later released under the title “Bombay Race Course”.

There are only few songs in the film. Madan Mohanji worked here without Lataji. This may be because most songs have a touch of western music tunes and Asha was supposed to be adept in singing those type of songs. Asha has three beautiful solos. Incidentally, the lyricist Rajinder Krishanji, who was a favorite of Mohan Saab, in real life was a bigtime horse race enthusiast.

The pictures of Nalini Jaywant at the bottom of table are all from different films.

Here are the songs from the film…

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Apr 1 2018, 05:30 AM

[swarapriya]

(Shailendra) Door Gagan ki Chhaon Mein (1964)

If there is any doubt about the real genius of Kishore Kumar then show someone this film, “Door Gagan ki Chhaon Mein”. His ubiquitous presence can be felt in every frame of the picture. Besides acting and singing in the film, he also wrote its story (influenced by the 1958 Hollywood Western “The Proud Rebel”), screenplay, and couple of songs, composed music, produced, and directed. That is eight faces of this eccentric comic but serious minded genius. An amazing accomplishment anyway one looks at it.

The credits give Shailendraji as the only lyricist. But Kishoreda indeed wrote a couple of songs. Interestingly, in a live show Kishoreda before singing the hit song “Aa Chal Ke Tujhe” casually mentioned that he produced and directed this film besides writing its songs. Kishoreda did forget to mention Shailendraji’s name altogether.

One of the assistant music director of the film was Sebastian D’Souza, who assisted Shankar & Jaikishan in many of their movies.

This movie later was remade in Tamil, in 1966 as “Ramu” and in 1968 in Telugu, also as “Ramu”. Both films in these languages were hits.

I am uploading songs from this album including some specials and a few instrumentals in five back-to-back posts. The first two posts contain all the songs from the film. The third post contains a few specials. The fourth and fifth posts contain a few instrumentals.

Here are the songs in the first post…

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Door Gagan ki Chhaon Mein (1964)"...

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

[swarapriya]

Door Gagan ki Chhaon Mein (1964) - Specials

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