After about the fifth year, I have been approaching each anniversary of the Songs of Yore with some apprehension whether it has been able to hold the readers’ interest and maintain quality. As I look back on the ninth year completing today, I am quite satisfied, and a great deal of the credit goes to the readers who have continued to participate with high-quality comments. Some readers have taken the trouble of writing guest articles which have significantly enhanced the blog. I owe my heartfelt thanks to all the readers.

The very first post of the SoY’s ninth year was a guest article by DP Rangan on Suraiya. He next set off a series on Roshan and Madan Mohan with a unique tandem post on the two great composers. In a novel initiative, this post was annotated by our Music expert Subodh Agrawal. The series came to a grand conclusion with Sangeeta Gupta, Madan Mohan’s daughter, writing a loving article on him. Mr Rangan continued his indefatigable run with excellent articles on Sajjad Hussain and Madhubala.

Shalan Lal’s every article on SoY is a major event for its depth and breadth of research. In the year she came up with an amazing five guest articles. Starting with her two provocative pieces on the October Revolution and Meena Kapoor, she wrote an omnibus series comprising three articles on chorus songs, one each for the decades of 1930s, 40s and 50s, making the just concluded month of May 2019 the month of Shalan Lal. Some energy this at her age. And, not to forget the Master Pun-e-kar, Ashwin Bhandarkar, with whom the SoY swung into the calendar year 2019 with a superb article on swinging songs. I also filled in with usual articles to keep the blog going at the pace of a post about every ten days.

SoY is extremely fortunate to have such great patrons. Let me express my thanks to all of them with some exceptional songs I came across in the year, to celebrate the 9th anniversary of the Songs of Yore.

Nazm in Durga

1. Bahaar ayi to jaise yak baar laut aye hain adam se by Tina Sani (Faiz Ahmaed ‘Faiz’ ghazal)

My romance with Raga Durga is well known, but I could never imagine a ghazal or nazm in this raga. When a friend introduced me to this Faiz nazm sung by the Pakistani singer Tina Sani, I was floored. The left-wing rebel poet Faiz could also be supremely romantic. His great lyrics are matched by the stunningly-beautiful Tina Sani, whose adakari is equally great. And Raga Durga takes you to a different plane which can be surpassed only by a pure classical composition.

बहार आई तो जैसे यक बार
लौट आए हैं फिर अदम से
वो ख़्वाब सारे शबाब सारे
जो तेरे होठों पे मर-मिटे थे
जो मिट के हर बार फिर जिए थे
निखर गए हैं गुलाब सारे
जो तेरी यादों से मुश्कबू हैं
जो तेरे उश्शाक़ का लहू है
बहार आई..

उबल पड़े हैं अज़ाब सारे
मलाल-ए-अहवाल-ए-दोस्ताँ भी
ख़ुमार-ए-आग़ोश-ए-मह-वशां भी
ग़ुबार-ए-ख़ातिर के बाब सारे
तेरे हमारे सवाल सारे जवाब सारे
बहार आई तो खुल गए हैं
नए सिरे से हिसाब सारे
बहार आई.

And here is its beautiful translation by Agha Shahid Ali courtesy this site.

It Is Spring Again

It is spring, And the ledger is opened again.
From the abyss where they were frozen,
those days suddenly return, those days
that passed away from your lips, that died
with all our kisses, unaccounted.
The roses return: they are your fragrance;
they are the blood of your lovers.

Sorrow returns. I go through my pain
and the agony of friends still lost in the memory
of moon-silver arms, the caresses of vanished women.
I go through page after page. There are no answers,
and spring has come once again asking
the same questions, reopening account after account.

Now sing along with Tina Sani and join the audience in this ethereal experience.

Raga Kafi forever

2. Aaj khelo Shyam sang Hori by Pandit Venkatesh Kumar

I have discovered Pt Venkatesh Kumar recently, and he has since become one of my greatest favourites. I can listen to him endlessly and you can never tire of Raga Kafi. It seems he became active on the concert circuit quite late, when he was about 50. A music expert told me an interesting aside about Pt Venkatesh Kumar – he is terribly scared of flying, and that severely restricts his appearance on the concert circuit. Kafi is supposed to be a light raga, but this Hori is nothing less than divine.

Raga Bhimpalasi: The birth of a song

3. Kandan karunei puriyam vadivel by Madurai Mani Iyer (Raga Bhimpalasi)

Something unique has been happening with me. After Durga and Kafi, I could not imagine that the next beauty I would meet with would be Bhimpalasi, another of my known romances. I had mentioned S Gopalakrishnan in the last year’s anniversary post and also posted Kesarbai Kerkar’s Bhairavi, Jaat kahan ho, he had shared with me in his mail. Among many he shared in the year gone by is Kandan karunai puriyam vadivel sung by Madurai Mani Iyer (25 October 1912 – 8 June 1968), regarded as one of the 20th century trinity of Carnatic music (along with his contemporaries Semmangudi Srinivas Iyer and GN Balasubramaniam). The high praise has reference to the classic 18th century trinity of Tyagraj, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Syama Sastri.

Gopalakrishnan never sends a song without an interesting story or his own musings spanning across music, literature and painting. Let us hear the fascinating story of the birth of Kandan karunai puriyam vadivel when Mani Iyer was totally carried away by Saraswati Rane’s iconic Bina madhur madhur kachhu bol:

“Madurai Mani Iyer (1912-1968) once heard the Hindi film song ‘Beena madhur madhur kachhu bol‘ from the 1943 Vijay Bhatt film ‘Ram Rajya’. The song set in the Raga Bhimpalasi, composed by Shankar Rao Vyas, was sung by Saraswati Rane, daughter of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan of the Kirana Gharana. Mani Iyer, the Carnatic maestro, was totally carried away by the song, and wished to have a similar composition in Tamil for his concerts and requested his poet-friend Guhan. Hence the famous Tamil composition ‘Kandan karunai puriyum vadivel‘ in Raga Bhimpalasi was born, and Mani Iyer made it immortal during his last one year in life and music. (Source: Charukesi, The Hindu, November 25, 2010)”

3A. Beena madhur madhur kachhu bol by Saraswati Rane from Ram Rajya (1943), lyrics Ramesh Gupta, music Shankar Rao Vyas

And let us refresh our memory of the eternal favourite again which was the inspiration for Mani Iyer’s Kandan karunai puriyam vadivel.

Raga Kafi/Kapi again: Now a doyenne of Carnatic music is inspired by a vintage Hindi film song.

4. Poonkuyil koovum by DK Pattamal

It is not for nothing that I express my gratitude to the readers for making the blog what it is. As I was soaking in the bliss of Kandan karunai puriyam, inspired by Beena madhur madhur kachhu bol, our respected reader Gaddeswarupji posted an article by S Sriram, from his blog, how Kalki Krishnamurthy was inspired by KL Saigal’s Baalm aye baso more man mein to compose the song Poonkuyil koovum pooncholayil oru naal. This was sung by DK Pattamal, one of the ‘female trinity’ of Carnatic music (along with MS Subbulakshmi and ML Vasanthakumari). Incidentally, this happens to be her birth centenary year and the tenth death anniversary year (19 March 2019 – 16 July 2009); therefore, it is a great honour to pay my tribute to her with this song. Gaddeswaruji posted it on the Open House. I suspect it escaped the readers’ attention, and it deserved to be highlighted.

Tarapad Chakravarty

5. Bone bone papiya bole by Tarapad Chakravarty

I was not aware of Tarapad Chakravarty – at best I might have heard his name – until I came on the mailing list of Gopalakrishnan. Ten years ago, 2009 was his centenary year. This article in The Telegraph on that occasion shows how highly this unheralded master was regarded by the connoisseurs and the great maestros. I have recently received the revised edition of HQ Chowdhury’s “Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman”, and I am now more aware of Tarapad and other music maestros of that era in Bengal. Among his many renderings available on the YT, I especially like Bone bone papiya bole.

The fountain of sweetness Chitragupta

6. Ek baat hai kahne ki aankhon se kahne do by Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar from Samson (1964), lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri, music Chitragupta

On the last few anniversaries I have posted film songs that I heard for the first time in the year and which left me thoroughly mesmerised. Many of these songs came from the stable of SN Tripathi and his protégé Chitragupta. And here is another absolutely melodious Rafi-Lata Mangehskar duet from a perfect ‘C’ grade film, which made me sit up and exclaim where this song was hidden. I don’t think the song has been posted earlier. I have rarely heard this song, but it is the kind of a song which seems to have been with me forever.

7. Ek teer chala ke gori bijli gira ke mohe chhod ke akeli kahan jaye re by Chitragupta and Shamshad Begum from Nav Durga (1953), lyrics Ramesh Chandra Pandey, music SN Tripathi

The fountain of sweetness from SN Tripathi-Chitragupta is unending. Here Chitragupta sings a fabulous duet with Shamshad Begum under the baton of his mentor SN Tripathi. Only the audio of the song is available but it must be a frothy dance number. It seems we missed this song completely in the review of the best songs of 1953.

Some more discoveries

8. Diwana kah ke logon ne aksar mujhe bulaya hai by Mahendra Kapoor and Lata Mangeshkar from Majboor (1964), lyrics Anand Bakhshi, music Kalyanji-Anandji

Kalyanji-Anandji were another synonym for sweetness, in the voices of Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar, especially in the 1950s and 60s. They would go on to compose some superhit songs for Mahendra Kapoor, picturised on Manoj Kumar, later in their career; and further down for Kishore Kumar and other singers, picturised on Amitabh Bachchan and all the leading actors, as they became one of the Big Three, including RD Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. But from their early days here is a superb Mahendra Kapoor-Lata Mangeshkar duet, which has generally remained hidden.

9. Ayo re ayo re ayo re shubh din dekho aaj more angana by Manna Dey and Suman Kalyanpur from Bharat Milap (1965), lyrics Bharat Vyas, music Vasant Desai

From a romantic duet let us move to a classical-based dance duet from a mythological. The dance-song celebrates Ram’s coronation.

Pankaj Mullick discovered

10. Yun dard bhare dil ki awaaz sunayenge by Pankaj Mullick from Kapalkundala (1939), lyrics Arzoo Lakhanavi, music Pankaj Mullcik

We were familiar with only Piya milan ko jana from Kapalkundala. When I thought that I was already familiar with the best of his songs, I come across this beauty for the first time. I guess it might be new for most other readers too.

Disclaimer and Acknowledgement:  The song links have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over these songs, and acknowledges that the copyright rests with the respective owners, such as Saregama India Limited and others.