Muse & Music, Music of the Golden Age Options

[swarapriya]

Swarapriya,

You are absoluteley right about the two solos by Mukeshji. They are both sad in differnt ways.
Baharone mera chaman .. he seems just angry and betryed.
Aaya he muje yaad .. there is felling of so much anguish

It is almost impossible to decide which one is better. Of course they are both out of this world.

I share your feelings about these songs, Ramesh. Love'm.

[swarapriya]

(Vyjayanti) Sangham (1953) - A Telugu Film

Vyjayanti Mala was introduced by AVM in 1949 in the Tamil version of the film "Bahaar (1951)". That movie was also made in Telugu. In their next venture Vyjayanti Mala starred again. This Tamil film was remade as "Ladki (1953)" in Hindi. It also was remade in Telugu as "Sangham" in 1953. The Telugu starred a young handsome hero, N.T. Ram Rao who went on to make movie and political history in Andhra Pradesh. This was not Rao's first movie however. He was introduced in late 40's by the famous L.V. Prasad in a movie called "Mana Desham".

There are many songs in this album. Inspite of the fact that they are 56+ years old, their quality and appeal haven't diminished a bit. I will upload them in back-to-back two posts. Here is the first set of songs ...

[swarapriya]

Songs of "Sangham (1953) - A Telugu Film" Continued ...

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

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Jul 15 2009, 12:20 PM

[ayyagari]

Songs of "Sangham (1953) - A Telugu Film" Continued ...

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

Swarapriyaji,

A million thanks for 'Sangham' album.

The song 'Pelli Pelli Pelli Pelli' is sung by Pithapuram Nageswara Rao, a contemporary and close friend of Madhavapeddi Satyam. As a pair, whatever they sang used to be a big hit ("Ayyayyo, chetilo dabbulu poyene", "chebite vintiva guroo guroo", "chavatayanu nenu" "era mana thoti gelche dheerulevvaruraa" are a few examples)

This is telugu version of 'Shadi Shadi Shadi" uploaded by you a few days earlier


Madhu

This post has been edited by ayyagari: Jul 15 2009, 12:24 PM

[swarapriya]

Swarapriyaji,

A million thanks for 'Sangham' album.

The song 'Pelli Pelli Pelli Pelli' is sung by Pithapuram Nageswara Rao, a contemporary and close friend of Madhavapeddi Satyam. As a pair, whatever they song used to be a big hit ("Ayyayyo, chetilo dabbulu poyene", "chebite vintiva guroo guroo", "chavatayanu nenu" "era mana thoti gelche dheerulevvaruraa" are a few examples)

This is telugu version of 'Shadi Shadi Shadi" uploaded by you a few days earlier


Madhu

Thanks Madhu for pointing out the error. Since then I have rectified the error and updated the table appropriately. By the way, Madhu, you can drop "ji" when addressing me. Thanks again.

Cheers,
Swarapriya

[swarapriya]

(Waheeda) Pyaasa (1957)

This probably is one of the most profoundly affecting movie ever made in India. Appropriately titled “Pyaasa”, it tells the story of a young poet’s thirst for love, recognition, and spiritual fulfillment. Based on a story written in 1947 called “Kashmakash”, writer Abrar Alvi comes up with a gem of a screenplay. Guru Dutt who acted, produced, and directed the movie changed the story on the very first day when the shooting began. Originally the story was about a painter. Guru changed the hero from the painter to a poet. A perfectionist, this was how apparently Guru Dutt worked. He never hesitated to make changes at the last minute.

The movie originally was to star Nargis, Madhubala, and Dilip Kumar. Nargis backed out because she was unhappy with Guru Dutt because Sunil Dutt, her husband, was dropped from a movie Guru was producing and directing. The movie progressed well and canned even few reels but suddenly Guru decided to scrap the project quietly and didn’t even bother to inform Sunil Dutt about it. Madhubala backed out because she felt her experience with Guru Dutt from “Mr. & Mrs. ‘55” showed that he could be overpoweringly demanding and not easily satisfied. When both the heroines backed out, Mala Sinha was selected to play Nargis’ role and Waheeda was given the role that would have gone to Madhubala. For the first day of shooting when Dilip Kumar didn’t show up, Guru Dutt learned that Dilip didn’t want play the role because he thought it was going to be another “Devdas”. Guru then decided to cast himself in the role of the poet.

Guru Dutt also changed the ending from what Abrar Alvi wrote. In the original story, the movie would have ended with Vijay (Guru) meeting Meena (Mala Sinha) for the last time. But when the distributors saw this, they felt that it was too gloomy. Guru shot the last scene with he and Waheeda in each others arms started going towards the distant sunset in search of a better life.

Johnny Walker was originally cast to play Guru Dutt’s roommate (in the role of Shyam), kind of a negative role for Johnny. After several days of shooting, Guru changed his mind and cast Johnny as Sattar and took one of his assistant friends, Shyam Kumar, to play the role of Shyam.

The movie was dedicated to Gyan Mukherjee whom Guru Dutt admired immensely. Mehmood played the role of young Ashok Kumar in “Kismat” that was directed by Mukherjee. That is where Guru Dutt met Mehmood. Guru offered Mehmood to play his older brother’s role in “Pyaasa”. Mehmood also appeared in Guru’s previous film C.I.D. These were before Mehmood found his groove as a comedian.

For the important role of the publisher, Guru went back to his old friend Rehman. A fine actor, Rehman was not getting any decent offers. “Pyaasa” revived his career.

For Guru’s previous four films (“Baaz”, “Aar Paar”, “Mr. & Mrs. ‘55”, and “C.I.D.”) O.P. Nayyar composed music. This time because of the backdrop of Calcutta, Guru Dutt decided to go with S.D. Burman as the music director. He worked with Burman before in “Baazi” and “Jaal” and as a team they were terrific together.

S.D. was brilliant in capturing the magic of Bengal with gently lilting tunes and great background score that helped create the subtle atmosphere demanded by so many scenes. The background score was the same for each principal character in the movie. For example, in Meena’s (Mala Sinha) case, whenever she appeared on the screen, a harmonica was used to play a beautifully haunting tune. Incidentally the harmonica player was R.D. Burman. Sattar’s song “Sar Jo Tera Chakraaye” in “Pyaasa” was also composed by the young Burman, R.D. Recognizing the promise and talent, Guru offered R.D. his first job as a music director for his next project. After the completion of “Pyaasa”, Guru did start this project with R.D. as the music director, but after shooting few reels the movie was scrapped. R.D. used those recorded but unused songs for Mehmood’s fisrt own production “Chhote Nawab”. By default it also became the first movie for which R.D. was the music director.

Sahir Ludhianvi was selected to write lyrics. Much of the credit for the success the movie enjoyed goes to the immensely rich lyrics written by Sahir. Articulating political commentary with humanitarian compassion and blending it with the experience of tragedy was the undercurrent of many of the songs written for this movie. Many people believe that Sahir’s own unhappy romances set a pattern of expression for these songs. Sahir never forgot what “Pyaasa” and Guru Dutt did for his writing career. Many a times he acknowledged Guru to be the principal reason for opening up the emphasis on content rather than on form in creating songs for the movies.

One of the things that made movie so great was the voices of Geeta Dutt, Hemant Kumar, and Mohd. Rafi. Every song they sang still lingers in your thoughts. But the song that symbolizes this movie is that atmospheric stunner, “Aaj Sajan Mohe Ang Laga Lo”. This probably is one of the greatest romantic moments ever filmed for a movie. Its sensuality is heightened by Geetaji’s mesmerizing voice that seem to oscillate by taking the listener between the earth and the heavens. A lovely interpretation of earthly divine love.

Mala Sinha was a relatively newcomer to Hindi films but already acted in many Bengali movies. However, for Waheeda, this was the first movie which demanded her to exhibit her histrionics and emotional skills. Guru was very patient with her. Encouraging and assisting. Instilling confidence. The end result is that a real star was born with this movie. Restrained and understated performances became her trademarks for most of her career.

The photography of “Pyaasa” adds another dimension to the movie’s unprecedented achievements. Guru Dutt and the cameraman V.K. Murty use black and white light effects and shadows so effectively that they leave their alluring imprints in heart forever. Imagery of Christ is used as a symbolic narrative, an allegory, of Vijay’s sufferings. When Rehman is reading the story in the newspaper about the death of Vijay, Meena is holding an issue of the Life magazine whose cover is adorned by Jesus Christ on the cross. Like Jesus himself, Vijay resurrects. When he appears for his own commemoration meeting, he stands at the doorway hands stretched much like Jesus on the cross.

In 2005, Time magazine voted “Pyaasa” as one of the 100 greatest movies in the world. A London-based magazine voted in 2007 Guru Dutt as one of the top 67 directors in the world. Quite a tribute to one of the great cinematic geniuses of Indian cinema.

In 1977, exactly 20 years after “Pyaasa” was released, it was remade in Telugu as “Malle Puvvu”. I will post songs from this movie right after those of “Pyaasa”.

Because of the number of songs, nazms, and verses this movie has, I will post them in three separate posts, one following the other. To start, here is the first set of songs …

[swarapriya]

Songs of "Pyaasa (1957)" Continued ...

Here are more songs from this album, one of the all time classics of Indian cinema ...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs from "Pyaasa (1957)"

Concluding songs from one of the greatest Hindi movies ever made ...

I am including here four extended version songs. Also, I am including "Aaj Sajan" with commentary. So, here is the final set of songs ...

[jigri1]

Thanks swarapriya !!!! Great movie... Great songs.... What more could one ask for .....

This post has been edited by jigri1: Jul 16 2009, 03:24 AM

[swarapriya]

Malle Puvvu (1977) - A Telugu Movie

This Telugu movie is a remake of that great Indian classic "Pyaasa (1957)". Here are the songs from this movie ...

[swarapriya]

Great movie... Great songs.... What more could one ask for .....

Ditto.

[swarapriya]

(Zeenat) Dhund (1973)

Here is a beautiful album. Over the years, Sahir and Ravi combined their talents to give us many unforgettable songs. This movie has only few songs, but most of them are unforgettable. I am also including an extended version of "Jo Yahan". Its quality is not up to par. It was ripped from a DVD that had poor quality audio.

Now for the songs of this nice album ...

[swarapriya]

(Asha Parekh) Ustad (1957)

All the songs of this O.P. Nayyar musical, in good quality, are hard to find. I am uploading here five of them. They came from various sources including the Forum members. Some of these songs are of average quality. I am also missing two songs shown in red italics in the table below. If anyone of you have, please kindly share.

Geetaji's song "Chor Lutere Daaku" from this movie adorns many of her CD collections. It is a real beauty. Her voice is just mesmerizing in this song. She also has a beautiful duet with Rafi Saab.

Here are the songs ...

[suhana_safar]

Songs of "Pyaasa (1957)" Continued ...

Here are more songs from this album, one of the all time classics of Indian cinema ...

Guru dutt was a genius, so was Sahir and SD Burman. This is probably the best hindi film made. The best Geeta duet and solo is in this film and my favorite Hemant Kumat song is in the film and my favorite comedian Johny is in this film but all this would be of less signifiance if Rafisaab wold have not sang the majority of songs of this film. As an avid listener, i can say without any hesitation that Guru dutts payasa would not be the same without the monumental singing and vocals of the undisputed king of singing, the one and only Rafisaab. Rafisaab has not only sung like Guru dutt but also spoken like him, this is simply unbelievabe and un achievable.

Salute to these legends.

This post has been edited by suhana_safar: Jul 18 2009, 05:22 AM

[madsur]

Concluding Songs from "Pyaasa (1957)"

Concluding songs from one of the greatest Hindi movies ever made ...

I am including here four extended version songs. Also, I am including "Aaj Sajan" with commentary. So, here is the final set of songs ...

Dear SPji,

You have excelled yourself.
I have always considered Pyaasa to be a milestone among Indian films.
You have packed your write-up, with amazing details.
This is perhaps one of the most informative write-ups about the film, that I have read.
The song compilation, as usual, is top class.
Every song is to be treasured.

Posting this film's songs close to Geetaji's death anniversary is also a very good coincidence.

Looking forward to more.

With best wishes,
suresh