And the Songs of Yore Award for the Best Male Playback singer goes to?

As I go down the list of 117/119 memorable songs (two songs had double versions) in my overview post on the best songs of 1947, the most striking thing is the rarity of male solos. I could count only 19 male solos, 50% of which are accounted for by two singers – KL Saigal (5 songs from a single film Parwana) and Mukesh (4 songs). Female solos outnumber male solos by about 4 to 1, and the rest is taken up by duets (male-female as well as other combinations and songs by three or more singers). That does not leave much room for other singers to have any significant number of songs. Surendra, Rafi had Shyam Sundar had two each. This Shyam Sundar was different from the famous music director. He was a comedian who sang four songs in Raj Kapoor-starrer Dil Ki Rani. Four other singers had a song each in my overview post. Thus, the male solos were distributed as follows:

KL Saigal            –  5
Mukesh               –  4
Rafi                      –  2
Surendra             –  2
Shyam Sundar   –  2
Balakraam          –  1
Manna Dey         –  1
GM Durrani        –  1
Raj Kapoor          –  1
Total     19

Besides Shyam Sundar mentioned above, Balakram is another unfamiliar name. His song Man prem ki gaanthon mein baandh liyo from the film Krishna Sudama was extremely melodious. He was trained in classical music and was actor-singer in theatre and several Hindi/Marathi films.

Male solos being a fraction of female solos follows the long-term average distribution as has been brought out by our Master statistician N Venkaraman several times. But in 1947, this seems to be even more skewed. The above table shows two things. KL Saigal in his swan song was as great as ever. We often measure the quality of a singer by the proportion of his memorable songs out of the total songs. It is useful to remember that KL Saigal sang just 185 songs in his career including film and non-film songs in all languages. His Hindi film songs number only 110 and non-film songs 37. He hardly sang a song that was forgettable. That holds good for his last film Parwana, too, which was released posthumously.

The other striking feature is that among the great playback singers of the 1950s and 60s, only Mukesh had established a name for himself, thanks to the iconic song Dil jalta hai to jalne de (Pehli Nazar, 1945), composed by Anil Biswas a couple of years earlier. Rafi was just beginning to have hit songs from this year. Talat Mahmood was yet to hit it big as a playback singer. Manna Dey and Hemant Kumar had been around for a few years, but they, too, would have to wait for a few years before they were counted in the big league. In contrast, the great vintage female singers were in full flow as we shall see in the next wrap-up.

In this narrow field, Ashok Vaishnav has dredged deeper on his blog in parallel, and posted four articles on the male solos of 1947 singer-wise. Some of the songs discovered by him are quite notable, and I would include them in ‘Special songs’. He has also written his own wrap up 1 some days back, in which he declared KL Saigal as the best singer and his Toot gaye sab sapne mere from Parwana. Read on for the SoY Award.

Special songs

1. Balam to pe sabar pade mora maika chhudaye dino Ram by KL Saigal from Parwana (1947), lyrics DN Madhok, music Khursheed Anwar

Everyone knows KL Saigal’s iconic Bhairavi thumri Babul mora naihar chhutal jaye from Street Singer (1938). Tucked in the film Parwana is an equally mesmerising Bhairavi thumri by him. This is not listed as a song in the HFGK as it was only half-recorded and pictursed as a background song in the film. This was never heard on the radio either. Sudhir Kapur has written a nice post on this song on Atul Song A Day. A rare gem of KL Saigal which, too, conveys the same pathos of final parting from ‘maika’ or ‘babul’.

2. Man prem ki gaanthon mein bandh liyo jab Shyam mora Ghanshyam by Balakram from Krishna Sudama (1947), lyrics Kamalnayan, music Shyam Babu (Pathak?)

I mentioned Balakram in the introductory part. Here is a charming bhajan in Kafi which evokes memories of vintage songs in Raga Kafi by Saigal and KC Dey. It is the discovery of such songs that makes the laborious year-wise reviews worthwhile. Sadanand Kamath has written a very nice post on this song and about Balakram here.

3. Shri Kamal netra stotram by Mukesh from Neel Kamal (1947), music B Vasudev (Snehal Bhatkar)

Mukesh had a natural devotional side. In this stotram his voice is full of piety.

4. O duniya ke rahnewaale bata kahan gaya chitchor by Raj Kapoor from Dil Ki Rani (1947), lyrics Yashodanandan Joshi, music SD Burman

We all know Raj Kapoor had a great musical sense. His musical orientation goes back to the days when Prithviraj Kapoor used to go to Pt. Narayanrao Vyas to learn music from him, and Raj Kapoor and his younger brother, Shammi Kapoor, tagged along.  Raj himself formally learnt classical music, and he  could play several instruments, and it is said that he took keen part in the discussion on song compositions in his films. Here we see that he was an excellent singer, too. Alas, by the time he flourished, the era of actor-singer was over, and he got his voice in Mukesh. I wish he had continued singing seriously.

5. Mohabbat ki khana kabhi na mithai by Shyam Sundar from Dil Ki Rani (1947), music SD Burman

But this film had four songs by the hero’s comic friend, the actor-singer Shyam Sundar (different from the famous music director of the same name). Here he is cautioning Raj Kapoor against being tempted by the sweets of love.

6. Ishare ishare mein duniya bana li by Hemant Kumar from Manmani (1947), music Kamal Dasgupta

We know that Hemant Kumar’s singing career started quite early, but his Hindi film songs acquired fame only Anandmath (1952) onwards. Here is a pre-fame song in which he sounds quite different from his voice we are familiar with. This song is courtesy Ashokji.

7. Ashiyan apna luta apni nazar ke saamne by SD Batish from Aarsi (1947), lyrics Sarshar Sailani, music Lachchiram and Shyam Sundar

This excellent song deserved to be in the main list. This is also courtesy Ashokji. An outstanding song, I compensate for its omission by including it in the list of ‘Special songs’.

BEST SONGS

To be honest, my pick of the best male solos for 1947 are the two songs at No.1 and 2 above that I have discovered while doing this review. Some male solos were also posted in the overview article under ‘Special songs’, such as Manna Dey’s Jhan jhan jhan jhan payaliya baaje (Geet Govind, Gyan Dutt), Rafi’s Wo apni yaad dilaane ko (Jugnu, Firoz Nizami), GM Durrani’s Tumhein sitaaron ne beakhtiyar dekha hai (Romeo and Juliet, Husnlal-Bhagatram).  But as a convention, I have been keeping the ‘Special songs’ out from the main competition section. The narrow field now covers familiar territory and all the well-known songs select themselves in the final ten. If you go by radio popularity, KL Saigal’s four songs from Parwana were, as usual, heard regularly. My favourite from this lot is Ae phool hans ke baagh mein kaliyan khilaye ja, followed by Us mast nazar par padi jo nazar. While the former is philosophical, the latter is light-hearted. Rafi’s Humko tumhara hi aasra is a landmark in his career, being his first great hit. This also had a duet version with Lalita Deulkar. I have a weakness for early songs of Mukesh. His three songs I am including – Kahan tak jafa husnwalon ki sahte, Kisne chheda man ka taar and Arshon pe sitara hai wo – are quintessential Mukesh, and I have to admit sheepishly that I am moved by them more than Humko tumhara hi aasra. The remaining two are made up by Surendra’s Ek baar phir se aa ja and Tera jahan aabad hai mera jahan barbaad hai. Surendra was another singer who rarely sang a song that was not hummable. The following list is in the alphabetical order of singers’ names.

KL Saigal
1. Toot gaye sab sapne mere
2. Ae phool hans ke baag mein kaliyan khilaye ja
3. Us mast nazar par padi jo nazar
4. Mohabbat mein kabhi aisi bhi haalat paayi jati hai
Mukesh
5. Kahan tak jafa husnwaalon ki sahte
6. Kisne chheda man ka taar
7. Arshon pe sitara hai wo
Rafi
8. Humko tumhara hi aasra
Surendra
9. Ek baar phir se aa ja
10. Tera jahan aabad hai mera jahan barbaad hai

Arunkumar Deshmukh’s choice for the best singer is Rafi for Humko tumhara hi aasra. Arunji has always been quick and unambiguous about his choices. However, Canasya and KM Ashraf chose KL Saigal. Shalan Lal made an intriguing choice of Raj Kapoor as the best playback singer (!) for Dil Ki Rani. I have already observed in the Special song #5 that the song was extremely melodious and Raj Kapoor was good enough to have a long singing career, but the times had changed. Shalan explained that KL Saigal was Gold Standard whose reputation could never be downgraded. I would take that as endorsement of Saigal being supreme in Parwana too, and a class apart.

KS Bhatia mentioned four best songs, including Manna Dey’s Jhan jhan jhan jhan payaliya baaje, and a song each from Rafi, Surendra and Mukesh which happen to be in the best ten above. Some other readers said that they would come back with their choices, but apparently they got attracted more towards other posts and forgot to return.

I hope no one would mind if I place KL Saigal at number 1, followed by Rafi’s Humko tumhara hi aasra. The rest eight I place as per my ranking.

1. Ae phool hans ke baag mein kaliyan khilaye ja…Jeeene ka gham uthaye ja by KL Saigal from Parwana, lyrics DN Madhok, music Khursheed Anwar

Khursheed Anwar was among those talented persons who chose to migrate to Pakistan post-partition, but not before he had the credit of composing last songs of KL Saigal. ‘The greatest actor-singer’ is not a hyperbole. Saigal was great. Period.

2. Humko tumhara hi aasra by Rafi from Saajan, lyrics Moti BA, music C Ramchandra

This song was the first great hit of Rafi, and was stupendously popular in the radio era. It is also steeped in history for another reason. It is said that the film’s hero Ashok Kumar wanted to sing his own songs, as he was used to. But C Ramchandra was very clear that it had to be Rafi, having used him with great success in Safar a year earlier. This story is told with some variations, but the important point is that it marked the beginning of the end of the era of actors-singers.

3. Kahan tak jafa husnwalon ki sahte by Mukesh from Tohfa, lyrics Sakib Lakhanavi, music MA Rauf

Mukesh fans do not need any introduction of this song. For others, the proof of pudding is in the eating. Just listen how leisurely Mukesh conveys the poignant emotion. One of my all-time favourites.

4. Arshon pe sitara hai wo by Mukesh from Beete Din, music A Dinkar Rao

We have discussed some famous Heer tunes on this blog several times, such as Kah ke bhi na aye tum (Safar, 1946), Le ja uski duayein ho (Heer, 1956), Dil de ke daga denge (Naya Daur, 1957) – all by Rafi. Here is Mukesh adding his own sweet touch.

5. Us mast nazar par padi jo nazar….Kahin ulajh na jana by KL Saigal from Parwana, lyrics DN Madhok, music Khursheed Anwar

If Saigal could bring pathos in his voice, he could also bring masti if the song so demanded.

6. Mohabbat mein kabhi aisi bhi haalat payi jati hai by KL Saigal from Parwana, lyrics DN Madhok, music Khursheed Anwar

Another proof that Saigal was never less than likeable.

7. Tera jahan aabad hai mera jahan barbaad hai by Surendra, from Elaan, lyrics Zia Sarhadi, music Naushad

Heartbreak was the common DNA of a ‘Muslim social’, which had greater inhibitions than a normal romantic movie. The love was to be expressed through a veil; the intermixing of genders was a taboo. The result was such sad songs in which Surendra excelled. This is one of the four best songs mentioned by KS Bhatiaji.

8. Ek baar phir se aa ja dl mein mere sama ja by Surendra from Elan, lyrics Zia Sarhadi, music Naushad

But there are happier times, too, in a ‘Muslim social’ where the hero croons a happy love song.

9. Toot gaye sab sapne mere, ye do naina Saawan Bhaado barse saanjh sabere by KL Saigal from Parwana, lyrics DN Madhok, music Khursheed Anwar

Now a pure sad song from the undisputed maestro.

10. Kisne chheda man ka taar by Mukesh from Tohfa, lyrics Shant Arora, music MA Rauf

This was one of the best years of Mukesh’s early songs of the 1940s. He touches the heart-strings with this song. Mukesh had another superb song in the film, Ek aisa geet sunao, tan man mein aag lagao which I had not included in the Master List.

In conclusion,

The Songs of Yore Award for the Best Male Playback Singer for the year 1947 goes to KL Saigal. And the best song is Ae phool hans ke baagh mein kaliyan khilaye ja.

Rafi gets Special SoY Award for the landmark song Humko tumhara hi aasra. Mukesh gets Special Mention for his overall excellence in the year.

Disclaimer: The song links have been taken from YouTube only for the listening pleasure of music lovers. The copyright over the songs belongs to the respective owners.