The Three Reigning Queens, Albums of Madhubala, Meena Kumari & Nargis Options

[swarapriya]

dear SP

here are two missing songs

jai deva ho humpe--160kbps--2.59mts
2--jati hai jati hai aaj naiya mori--192kbps--2.52mts

romesh

Thank you very much Romesh for the songs. Appreciate it. -S

[swarapriya]

(Nargis) Awara (1951)

K.A. Abbas had a tremendous influence over the movies Raj Kapoor made early in his career. He was responsible for the proletarian ethos of the Raj’s early films. The culmination of coming together of Abbas ji and Raj was professionally strange, to speak the least. Raj was a deeply religious person. Abbas ji on the other hand was probably an agnostic but a definite rationalist. If Raj was progressive, that was veiled and became some what clearer only through his films. He didn’t adhere to any ideology and definitely was apolitical. In contrast Abbas ji was a hard core and avowed, die hard Marxist.

(See the attached photographs of Abbas Saab. The bottom three pictures need some explanation. The left one has Abbas ji with Vijaya Mulay and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Mulay, also known as "Akka", is a distinguished film personality with her traits including writing, education, research, documentary filmmaking, and film history. The middle picture made on September 17, 1944, has Abbas ji with Mahatma Gandhi where Gandhiji was appraising the progress with reporters of his talks with Mohaamad Ali Jinnah near Birla House in Bombay walking briskly on Mount Pleasant Road. The third piture, one on the bottom right, has Abbas ji discussing a point with Raj Kapoor while the journalist V.P. Sathe looks on.)

Abbas ji wrote either stories, dialogues, or screenplays for some of Raj’s best movies. These include “Awara” (1951 - screenplay and dialogue), “Shri 420” (1955 - story, screenplay, and dialogue), “Jagte Raho” (1956 - screenplay), “Mera Naam Joker” (1970 - story and screenplay), “Bobby” (1973 - story and screenplay), and “Henna” (1991 - story). Almost all these movies were smashing successes except for “Jagte Raho” and “Mera Naam Joker”. Even these two became kind of cult classics many years after their releases.

Abbas ji came from a distinguished family background. One of his forefathers was a student of Mirza Ghalib. His grandfather was one of the chief rebels of the 1857 Rebellion movement. His father was also educated and practiced Unani medicine.

After graduating Abbas ji worked as a contributing editor for various magazines. He came to Bombay as a film critic for a magazine and during this time got an opportunity to know film folks. He started writing screenplays and submitted them to various directors. Chetan Anand made “Neecha Nagar” based on one of his scripts. This movie won the prestigious Golden Palm award at the Cannes Film Festival. To date this is the only Indian movie to achieve such a distinction. Shantaram’s “Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani”, a true story, was also based on Abbas ji’s screenplay.

Later Abbas ji found his own company to make social dramas that were close to his heart. One of his films “Munna” won wide acclaim. His “Shehar Aur Sapna” won the National Film Award. Abbas ji directed well over 30 movies.

Abbas ji was a prodigal when it came to writing. He published over 70 books in Hindi, Urdu, and English. He also published several short stories. “Inquilaab” was one of his best known fictions that drew its story from communal violence. His books were translated into several Indian as well as foreign languages such as Arabic, French, German, Italic, and Russian.

Apart from writing stories and books and making movies, Abbas ji was also a weekly contributor to the Blitz magazine. He wrote the column “The Last Page” week after week for nearly 25 years. A collection of these writings were published as books.

In a lifetime that was rich with so many accomplishments to his credit, Abbas ji was showered with numerous awards throughout his distinguished career. Among them was the honor of Padma Shri that was bestowed on him by The Government of India.

Abbas ji in an interview fondly recalled his association with Raj Kapoor as follows: "While Raj Kapoor is no great ideologue, he is not allergic to ideas. Indeed, with his basic sympathy for the common man, he is more than amenable to socially progressive ideas and humanist ideals, so long as their presentation does not interfere with the popularity potential of his film".

What did Raj Kapoor thought of Abbas ji? Here is what Raj said in one interview: “Fortunately, I have from the very start been happy in my professional associations and it was quite early in my film career, when I was scarcely a film and a half old, that my association with K.A. Abbas began. That was ‘Awara’, an exciting intellectual adventure, which set off an exchange of ideas and a way of working between Abbas sahib and myself that continues to this day. ‘Awara’ embodies my earliest fashioning of the sort of universal humanity symbol which was to go on taking finer shape through a succession of films until ‘Mera Naam Joker’, where it emerged as the crystallization of my entire philosophy of life.”

The history making songs of the film next ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Jan 30 2010, 12:31 AM

[swarapriya]

Songs of "Awara (1951)"

There is a saying in English that goes "like father, like son". How far this adage can be true? This movie, bold in its theme when it was first released, tests this statement to its ultimate and unexpected but its eventual result. Raj Kapoor was not simply a master showman (take the stunning dream sequence from this movie), but was making a social commentary through these movies in his own entertaining way.

This is a great movie with sparkling songs. I will post these in three back-to-back posts. Here is the first set of songs ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Jan 28 2010, 06:28 AM

[swarapriya]

Songs of "Awara (1951)" Continued ...

Here is the next set of songs from this great musical. I am also including a couple of specials here. These are the songs "Awara Hoon" and "Hanste Bhi Rahe". Both of these had introductions by Raj Kapoor himself and are from the album, "Legends: Raj Kapoor - The Showman (CD1)".

Now for the songs ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Jan 28 2010, 06:39 AM

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs of "Awara (1951)"

Here are a couple of extended version songs from this film ...

[swarapriya]

(Madhubala) Armaan (1953)

Here is an early album of Burmanda with his brand of melodious songs ...

This post has been edited by swarapriya: Feb 2 2010, 04:16 AM

[swarapriya]

(Meena) Chandni Chowk (1954)

Here is an early album by Roshan Saab. It has some very good songs. My favorite is Mukesh's "Humein Aye Dil Kahin Le Chal". I am uploadng these songs in two back-to-back posts. Here is the first set of songs ...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs of "Chandni Chowk (1954)" ...

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

[swarapriya]

(Nargis) Deedar (1951)

Here is a weeper that was a runaway hit when it was originally released. Dilip became famous for playing these type of roles. There is so much tragedy in his life that it is just hard to swallow. It has some great music by Naushadji. Every song is just hummably good. I will upload these in two back-to-back posts.

This movie was remade in Telugu as "Chiiranjeevulu" in 1956. I will post songs from this album in this thread right after I am done with "Deedar" postings.

Here is the first set of songs ...

[swarapriya]

Concluding Songs of "Deedar (1951)" ...

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

[swarapriya]

Chiranjeevulu (1956) - A Telugu Movie

This was a remake of "Deedar". The folks who earlier made the Telugu classic "Devadasu" made this movie. In fact, the hero's role was originally offered to the hero of Telugu "Devadasu", Nageshwara Rao (ANR). But ANR politely declined the offer stating that Telugu audience may not be ready to see him in back-to-back tragedies. Instead Rama Rao reprised the role of Dilip in Hindi. But in a way ANR's prophecy came true. The Telugu version failed at the box office.

There are some beautiful songs in this movie. My favorite is Leelaji's "Tella Vaaraga Vachhe". Leelaji was an absolute smash the way she sings this song in her melodious and very distinctive voice.

Here are the songs from this movie ...

[suhana_safar]

(Nargis) Deedar (1951)

Here is a weeper that was a runaway hit when it was originally released. Dilip became famous for playing these type of roles. There is so much tragedy in his life that it is just hard to swallow. It has some great music by Naushadji. Every song is just hummably good. I will upload these in two back-to-back posts.

This movie was remade in Telugu as "Chiiranjeevulu" in 1956. I will post songs from this album in this thread right after I am done with "Deedar" postings.

Here is the first set of songs ...

Shear Melody and unmatched vocals of Rafisaab. Nasseb dar pe tere is a larger than life rendition.

[suhana_safar]

(Madhubala) Saqi (1952)

Here is a nice album from C. Ramchandra. Apart from all the songs from this album, I am uploading a whole bunch of music clips from this album in the second posting. Here are the songs in the first posting ...

Mira Mijaz Ladak pan is an awaesome song, my all time favorite.

[venkat]

Chiranjeevulu (1956) - A Telugu Movie

This was a remake of "Deedar". The folks who earlier made the Telugu classic "Devadasu" made this movie. In fact, the hero's role was originally offered to the hero of Telugu "Devadasu", Nageshwara Rao (ANR). But ANR politely declined the offer stating that Telugu audience may not be ready to see him in back-to-back tragedies. Instead Rama Rao reprised the role of Dilip in Hindi. But in a way ANR's prophecy came true. The Telugu version failed at the box office.

There are some beautiful songs in this movie. My favorite is Leelaji's "Tella Vaaraga Vachhe". Leelaji was an absolute smash the way she sings this song in her melodious and very distinctive voice.

Here are the songs from this movie ...

The lyricist, Malladi Ramakrishna Sastry, from Machilipatnam, is the grand-uncle of my wife!!!!

Venkat

[swarapriya]

(Nargis) Deedar (1951)

Shear Melody and unmatched vocals of Rafisaab. Nasseb dar pe tere is a larger than life rendition.

As a matter of fact all three solos by Rafi Saab are marvelous. Cheers. -S