And the Award for the Best Female Playback Singer goes to?

When Noorjehan visited India in 1982 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Indian talkie movies, one of the songs she chose to sing was Baithi hun teri yaad ka lekar ke sahara from Village Girl (1945), composed by Shyam Sundar, to a deafening applause. She was the dominant female playback singer of the year, having memorable songs from Badi Ma, Village Girl and Zeenat. Her first superhit Hindi film was Khandan (1942), followed by some more successful films in which she was the lead actor-singer, such as Naadan (1943), Dost and Lal Haveli (1944). Thus by 1945 she was among the leading actor-singers of the era.

This was also the year of tentative entry of Lata Mangeshkar in Hindi film world in a tiny role as actor-singer in Badi Ma. It is understandable that she would be in awe of the Malika-e-Tarannum, Noorjehan who forever remained her ‘Didi’. By the time Lata Mangeshkar swept away everyone and, later, herself became the Big Didi, Noorjehan had migrated to Pakistan. Therefore, Noorjehan versus Lata Mangeshkar question was never tested, but the romance for Noorjehan remained behind her in India.

Amirbai Katnataki was one singer who always sounded supremely melodious. Khursheed belonged to the other end of the spectrum with full-throated courtesan-style singing. Both the singers had major presence in the year. If you consider the two being representatives of two different styles, you can put Suraiya, Rajkumari in the camp of the former, and Shamshad Begum and Zohrabai Ambalewali to the latter. You can never miss their singing. There were several other singers figuring in my list of the Memorable Songs in my Overview post of 1945.

Number of Female solos and singers in the list of Memorable Songs

The list of Memorable Songs includes 26 female solos divided as follows:

Noorjehan                       8
Amirbai Karnataki        4
Khursheed                      4
Naseem Akhtar              3
Shamshad Begum         2
Zohrabai Ambalewali   2
Jyoti                                 1
Rajkumari                       1
Suraiya                             1
TOTAL         26

Addition by the readers

The additions the readers make to my list of Memorable Song has been a valuable feature of the year-wise reviews. This year has been special for several reasons. One, it shows there is a deep romance for vintage songs among the Music lovers, even among some young persons who belong to the post-Aradhana era when the Golden and Vintage style of music was a thing of the remote past, and the main source of access to vintage music, the radio, was being replaced by television. Two, some of the additions are extremely melodious which I either heard for the first time, or had not taken much notice of. Three, the number of ‘new’ female solos the readers have added are almost as many as the number I had included in my ‘long list’. I should mention here that male solos and duets added by them are very few compared to the female solos. This vindicates my fascination for vintage female singers who made a beautiful kaleidoscope of different styles of singing and timbre of voices. In Lata Mangeshkar era, this became monochromatic, while male singing became more varied.

Anup (Mehfil Mein Meri) added songs by Amirbai Karnataki from Amrapali, Munawwar Sultana and Zeenat Begum from Dhamki, and a Zeenat Begum song from Bhai Jaan. Gaddeswarupji added a Begum Akhtar song, Main raja ko apne rijha ke rahungi, from Panna Dai. Canasya added Amirbai Karnataki’s Jhanan jhana mori baaje payaliya from Chaand Tara. N Venkataraman added Snehprabha Pradhan’s Hansnewaalon ko rulaaoge ye maaloom na tha from Din Raat, and an uncredited song Man ke meet mere sun le geet mere from Shri Krishna Yuddh, which, he guessed, could be sung by Bela Mukherjee. He also added a song by Renuka Devi from the film Ghulami.

Neeruahaf has a made a mark for herself for being deeply into the vintage era music. She has added a Zeenat Begum song from Champa, and Amirbai Karnataki’s Ro ro ke sunaati hain aankhen mera fasana from Chaand Tara. She also mentioned Snehprabha Pradhan’s Hansnewaalon ko rulaaoge ye maaloom na tha with a great deal of respect and said it deserves Honourable Mention. She added Snehprabha Pradan’s another song, Naina bhaye more baawre, from Preet for Honourable Mention.

Raunak Joy turns out to be another great lover of vintage era music. He forces us to look at Hamrahi’s music as more than the trivia that it was the first film which featured Jana Gana Mana. He has posted four superb female solos from the film – three by Binota Bose (including a ‘ghazal’) and one by Rekha Mullick. Raunak also draws our attention to some more songs from Waseeyatnama besides the two I have included in my list in the overview post. These include two solos by Utpala Sen (including a ‘ghazal’) and another ghazal by Ila Ghosh. R C Boral was the music director for both these films. With these additions Raunak joins the bandwagon of New Theatres-romantics.

Besides the above R C Boral tracks, Raunak has added a Suraiya solo from Phool, Begum Akhtar’s Fasl-e-gul ayi humein yaad teri sataane lagi from Panna Dai and Snehprabha Pradhan’s Mori galiyon ki peepal nishani from Preet. That makes third Snehprabha Pradhan song added by the readers.

Overall perspective of female solos in 1945

Thanks to the readers’ contributions now we have much better perspective of the female solos of 1945. My initial remarks give the impression that Noorjehan was the clear front-runner by miles. I am inclined to modify my views. I have always been a great fan of Amirbai Karnataki. The four songs I had included in my list of Memorable Songs are some of her overall best and match in sweetness and melody with any of the songs of the year. Yet I had completely missed to include songs from Chaand Tara in which she was the lead singer and sang eight songs. With the readers filling up this gap and adding from some other films, now my view is that as far as ‘music’ is concerned she is as tall as Noorjehan, or, I dare say, even taller. Noorjehan’s aura was to a great deal due to her stardom.

My view of Zeenat Begum is that with any addition we get more of the same. It may be my perception, but I can’t think of her any song which is my eternal favourite. The real find was Binota Bose’s songs added by Raunak. I was very well familiar with her songs, but in New Theatres female singers I stopped at Kanan Devi and Uma Shashi. It was a coincidence that during the last few weeks Vividh Bharti in its Bhoole Bisre Geet played Binota Bose’s Din hain bahar ke aye (Hamrahi) a couple of times. I was struck by its charm, and then I realised how powerful radio has been in impacting our memory and shaping our favourites.

I was pleasantly surprised to find three songs of Snehprabha Pradhan added by the readers. I had included none. Her first song I had heard courtesy Doordarshan’s 4-part programme Gata Jaaye Banjara, produced by Sidharth Kak and anchored by Poonam Dhillon, and HMV’s compilation of Vintage songs, has held me spellbound forever. The song was Naacho nacho pyare man ke more from the film Punarmilan (1940). I was looking for the same magic. The songs started very promisingly, but soon there was a big let-down. All the three songs suffered from the same technical shortcoming which I will mention in the ‘Special Songs’. While talking of ‘Special Songs’, 1945 turns out to be a very special year. In other years I ‘looked for’ special songs. This year special songs have poured into my basket. The regulars readers are aware of the significance of this section; for new visitors ‘Special Songs’ are meant to cover some unique songs which may not make it to the main list, some of which are new discoveries, yet as good as any other well-known song.

Special songs

There are situations when you want to do several things at once. So many outstanding songs have been added by the readers, but I have to start somewhere.

1. Ro ro ke sunati hain aankhen meri afsana by Amirbai Karnataki from Chaand Tara (1945), lyrics Swami Ramanand, music Gyan Dutt

This is Neeruahaf’s choice for the best female solo of the year. I had completely missed it. This song starts off with a long prelude, Main tujhse poochhti hun O unche shaanwaale, aise banaye tune zaalim jahaanwaale/ Naashad kar ke humko tum shad ho rahe ho, barbaad karke humko aabad ho rahe ho, as a remonstration to the Almighty, and then the sad song of complaint of helplessness starts. An excellent song. Thank you Neeruahaf.

2. Jhanana jhanann mori baaje payaliya by Amirbai Karnataki from Chaand Tara (1945), lyrics Swami Ramanand, music Gyan Dutt

Continuing with Amribai Karnataki, Canasya has added this nice song also from Chaand Tara.

3. Din hain bahar ke aye by Binota Bose from Hamrahi, lyrics Munshi Zakir Hussain, music R C Boral

This beautiful song by Binota Bose has been added by Raunak Joy. Let me quote his fond observation about this song: “..R C Boral was the king of preludes and here he comes up with such a modern stylised prelude that he seems to have had a clear influence on O P Nayyar and to an extent on C Ramchandra. The tune is so delectable that it comes as no surprise that this was a favourite with none other than Anil Biswas, who chose this song as one of the three best songs of R C Boral in his Rasikeshu programme with Tushar Bhatia. At a personal level, I rate this song as the second best female solo of the year 1945 after Noorjehan’s ‘Aa intezar hai tera’.

4. Payam-e-mohabbat saba la rahi hai by Utpala Dutt from Waseeyatnama, lyrics Zakir Hussain, music R C Boral

Raunak adds this excellent ghazal from another film composed by R C Boral in the year, Waseeyatnama. I have included a couple of songs from this film in my master list, but missed this one. I can’t help observing that some of the Bengali female singers retained their Bengali tinge in ghazals. The contrast would be obvious if you listen to a ghazal by Begum Akhtar from Panna Dai. But I should make it clear, Payam-e-mohabbat has stuck with me, but Fasl-e-gul figures nowhere among Begum Akhtar’s best ghazals.

5. Fasl-e-gul aayi, humein yaad teri aane lagi by Begum Akhtar from Panna Dai, lyrics D N Madhok, music Gyan Dutt

Begum Akhtar’s film songs are a rarity, her enormous fame rests entirely on her non-film ghazals, light classical and folk songs. Therefore, I did not take much notice of her film songs. Here is a ghazal from the film Panna Dai. Her name is not mentioned in the cast, therefore, she might have sung it playback for another actor. This also has a version by Zohrabai Ambalewali.

6. Main raja ko apne rijha ke rahungi by Begum Akhtar from Panna Dai, lyrics D N Madhok, music Gyan Dutt

Gaddeswarupji has added a another Begum Akhtar song from this film of a very different style.

7. Is duniya ki pagdandi par tumhin ho mere saathi by Amribai Karnataki from Amrapali, lyrics Miss Kamal (Pradeep), music Saraswati Devi

The year is full of Amirbai Karnataki. Here is a very nice song added by Anup.

8. Pardes mein jaanewale saajan yaad teri phir aayi by Amirbai Karnataki from Chaand Tara (1945), lyrics DN Madhok, music Gyan Dutt

As I got on into Chaand Tara, courtesy the readers, I discovered this absolutely melodious song which I cannot miss to post here.

9. Madhuban mein Radha jhoole hindole by Khursheed from Prabhu Ka Ghar (1945), lyrics Pt. Indra, music Khemchand Prakash

This beautiful song of Krishna swinging Radha on the swing I heard recently on the radio. I have included some songs from Prabhu Ka Ghar, but I had missed this in my overview post. This is the type of Khursheed song which I never miss. I have to again give credit to the radio, its impact is much more than listening to the same song on the Internet.

10. Hansnewaalon ko rula doge ye maaloom na tha by Snehprabha Pradhan from Din Raat (1945), lyrics Nadeem Santokh, music Datta Chandekar

This song has been added by Venkataramanji and strongly endorsed by Neeruahaf for Honourable Mention. This probably is the first appearance of Snehprabha Pradhan on SOY. I have written about my fascination for Snehprabha Pradhan ever since I heard her first song, from a 1940-film. Therefore, I added Hansnewaalon ko rula doge with high expectations. The song starts very well at a medium scale which is her natural scale. But when she comes to antara (listen to 1.35 to 1.55), she moves to higher notes much beyond her natural scale which sounds discordant.

11. Naina bhaye more baawre man mein peeda hoye by Snehprabha Pradhan from Preet (1945), lyrics D N Madhok, music Bulo C Rani

I looked up another song added by Neeruahaf. This song starts absolutely melodiously, but at antaras (1.25 to 1.55; 2.24-2.57) Snehprabha again flies off in a higher orbit which is not her comfortable domain. This just needed small guidance from her music teacher or the music director to keep to her scale.

12. Ae gham-e-dil kyan karun, ae wahshat-e-dil kya karun by Masood Parvez and Renuka Devi from Ghulami, lyrics Majaz, music S K Pal

This year has become exceptionally special. I end this section of ‘Special Songs’ with the eternal Majaz nazm, Ae gham-e-dil kyan karun, which we have all heard a million times in the voice of Talat Mahmood from the film Thokar (1953), composed by Sardar Malik. You may ask what this song is doing here. Shekhar Gupta (based in Singapore), who writes to me more often that he comments on SOY, informs that this nazm first appeared in a film in Ghulami (1945).

Shekhar gives some more information on Ae gham-e-dil kya karun – the nazm had 15 stanzas of which Thokar used only two, whereas the song in Ghulami used four stanzas, as a duet between Masood Parvez and Renuka Devi. Since both are in the star cast of the film, it must have been picturised on them. Here is the full nazm in Devanagari script. You can also find the full nazm in Roman script here.

The above link also has a bonus track: the original of Saawan aaye ya na aaye piya ghar aaye saawan hai from the film Sadhana (1939), written by Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi, composed by Aunupam Ghatak. I would not like to speculate whether Shakeel Badayuni and Naushad (Dil Diya Dard Liya, 1966) were ‘inspired’ by this song. The similarity may be coincidental. In Shakeel Badayuni’s lyrics the original ‘…piya ghar aaye saawan hai’ has become ‘…jiya jab jhoome saawan hai’. And since every music director has to work with 12 notes, there are greater chances of coincidence.

Shortlisting best ten female solos

I have included the readers’ best additions in the ‘Special songs’, I would confine the selection of the Best Ten of the year from the 26 female solos in my list of Memorable Songs. Since this was a year of duopoly, first I will include the songs by ‘other’ singers, so that we don’t miss them.

Naina bhar aaye neer by Shamshad Begum from Humayun is a landmark song. She has sung very few songs which are as melodious. This song makes automatic entry. The same film also had Rajkumari’s Rasm-e-ulfat kisi surat se nibhaye na bane. As we go down the list we find a great song, Aaj hans hans ke do do baatein ki hain sanam ne hamaare, which has a Suraiya solo version as well as a female duet version by her with Hamida Bano. Khursheed is endowed with a very unique vintage era voice. I cannot let go of Itana bhi na wo samajha ke gaye kyun shama bechaari jalti hai (Moorti). This is already four slots. There are some more songs by Khursheed, Zohrabai Ambalewali and Naseem Akhtar which are favourites of music lovers. But we need at least six slots for the two leading singers of the year: Noorjehan and Amirbai Karnataki.

Many readers have mentioned Noorjehan’s Aa intezaar hai tera and Diya jalakar aap bujhaya from Badi Ma as their top favourites. But Baithi hun teri yaad ka lekar ke sahara (Village Girl) is a great favourite with everyone. This film had another memorable song Kis tarah bhoolega dil unka khayal aya hua. Two songs from Zeenat – Andhiyan gham ki yu chalin and Bulbulo mat ro yahan – are remembered with a great deal of respect by Noorjehan fans. That is six of her songs. We would need to do some pruning to accommodate Amirbai Karnataki whose all songs in my list of Memorable Songs are absolutely gorgeous.

I would specially mention Amirbai’s Jogan bana ke piya chhod gaye galiyon mein (Chaand Chakori), Bairan ban gayi nindiya ho koi jaye kaho (Chhamia) and Ye hawaayein salaam kahti hain (Ghar).

If we prune Noorjehan to three songs, we get ten. For getting their order we can quickly review the readers’ choices.

Readers’ choices

Arunji (Arunkumar Deshmukh) is always very prompt with his choices for the best. He is unambiguously for Baithi hun teri yaad ka lekar ke sahara. Anup chooses two Noorjehan songs as the joint best – Baithi hun teri yaad ka and Diya jalakar aap bujhaya. Mumabikar8 makes a general point that Badi Ma, Village Girl and Zeenat are three notable albums of the year. We an presume that her choice for the best female solo song would be one of the Noorjehan songs from the above movies.

Canasya chooses Diya jalakar aap bujhaya as the best. Arvind mentions Andhiyan gham ki yun chalin. Raunak’s choice for the best female solo is Noorjehan’s Aa intezaar hai tera. He also gives a list of his choice for the Best Ten, with an Honorary 11th Spot for another Noorjehan song, Bulbulo mat ro yahan (Zeenat). He finally concludes that Noorjehan is “The Female Singer of the Year.”

In the face of such overwhelming support for Noorjehan, it require courage to take a different stand. Neeruahaf’s choice for the best song is Amirbai Karnataki’s Ro ro ke sunaati hain aankhen meri afsana (Chaand Tara) which I have placed at the top spot in ‘Special Songs’.

Best Ten Female Solos of 1945

Armed with the above detailed analysis now we can place the Best Ten female solos of 1945 in an order.

1. Baithi hun teri yaad ka lekar ke sahara by Noorjehan from Village Girl (1945), lyrics Wali Saheb, music Shyam Sundar

2. Diya jalakar aap bujhaya by Noorjehan from Badi Ma, lyrics Zia Sarahadi, music K Datta (Datta Koregaonkar)

3. Aa intezar hai tera by Noorjehan from Badi Ma, lyrics Zia Sarhadi, music K Datta

4.Ye hawaayein salaam kahti hain by Amirbai Karnataki from Ghar (1945), lyrics Rooobani, music AR Qureshi

5. Naina bhar aaye neer mere hatheele raja by Shamshad Begum from Humayun, lyrics Anjum+Kavi Shant (?), music Ghulam Haider

You will rarely find Shamshad Begum singing and Ghulam Haider coming up with this incredibly beautiful classical raga-based song, a complete contrast of their Punjab School of music. Experts to please confirm the raga, Tilak Kamod (?). it is picturised on the lead actress Veena.

6. Bairan ban gayi nindiya ho by Amirbai Karnataki from Chhamia (1945), Music Gyan Dutt

There was some magic in Amirbai Karnataki’s voice which did not need crutches of stardom on the screen. We remember Naushad, C Ramchandra, Anil Biswas and Khemchand Prakash for her songs. But let me refresh the memory of the readers, Gyan Dutt composed most songs for her.

7. Jogan bana ke piya chhod gaye galiyon mein by Amirbai Karnataki from Chaand Chakori, lyrics Pt. Indra, music Bulo C Rani

Now Bulo C Rani creates a charming song for Amirbai Karnataki.

8. Itana bhi na wo samajha keg aye kyun shama bechari jalti hai by Khursheed from Moorti, lyrics Pt. Indra, music Bulo C Rani

Pt. Indra, Bulo C Rani come together again to compose a quintessential Khursheed song. As I mentioned earlier, she belongs to the full-throated courtesan-style singing camp. It was important to include her for the full flavour of vintage era female singing. The YT caption wrongly mentions Suraiya’s name.

9. Aaj hans hans ke do do baatein ki hain sanam ne hamaare by Suraiya from Main Kya Karun, lyrics D N Madhok, music Ninu Majumdar

Frankly, I had not heard the name of this movie, and find here a wonderful song by Suraiya. Its duet version by Suraiya and Hamida Bano is faster and in a happy mood. The duet is perhaps better known.

10. Rasm-e-ulfat kisi surat se nibhaye na bane by Rajkumari from Humayun, lyrics Shams Lakhanavi+Anjum Pilbhiti, music Ghulam Haider

I have included Shamshad Begum’s Naina bhar aaye neer at #5. This solo by Rajkumari, picturised on the second leading lady Nargis is also very good, deserving to be in the list of Top Ten.

To conclude,

The Award for the Best Female Playback Singer of 1945 goes to Noorjehan.

And the Best Female Solo is:

Baithi hun teri yaad ka leker ke sahara

And Amirbai Karnataki is honoured as a Distinguished Female singer of 1945.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer:
The song videos 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 which vests in the respective owners, such as Saregama India Limited and others.

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