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Best songs of 1944: Final Wrap Up 4

And the Award for the Best Music Director goes to?

When you think of the year 1944, you think of Naushad. That was the beginning of Naushad phenomenon with his Jewel in the crown, Rattan. This was his 13th movie, having debuted in 1940 as an independent music director, he already had five Silver Jubilees under his belt. But the songs of Rattan are remembered even today. That film became a Diamond Jubilee, first of his three Diamond Jubilees. In the year he gave music to three more films; the list of 80/81 Memorable Songs in the Overview Post includes his songs from all the films. His Pahle Aap, too, in the year had some everlasting songs, rightly making the film a Silver Jubilee hit.

But it was still not a one-horse race, as it would become in some later years during Naushad’s dominance. Khemchand Prakash, Naushad’s mentor, is remembered with great respect as one of the doyens of film music. His Bhanwra with KL Saigal as the lead actor-singer naturally had several immortal songs. Bhartrihari had some superb songs by Surendra, aspiring to be another Saigal, and Amirbai Karnataki sang some absolutely melodious songs. The overview post also includes his songs from Mumtaz Mahal and Shahenshah Babar.

KL Saigal had another film in the year, My Sister, for which Pankaj Mullick gave music. Two of the greatest from the New Theatres are bound to create gold.

Some other music directors are also noteworthy even at this distance of time. Anil Biswas was the Bhishm Pitamah of Hindi film music, but his Jwaar Bhata (debut film of the thespian Dilip Kumar) was overshadowed by the glitter of Nuashad. It had some good songs by the Old Horse. Lal Haveli had the top actor-singers of the era in the lead role. The result was some everlasting songs composed by Mir Saheb for Surendra and Noorjehan. Husnlal-Bhagatram in Chaand (their debut film), Sajjad Hussain in Dost and Gaali, SK Pal in Man Ki Jeet gave us some memorable songs.

In most years I have given a consolidated Table of the ten best songs in each of the three categories: Best Male Solos (Wrap Up 1), Best Female Solos (Wrap Up 2) and Best Duets of the year (Wrap Up 3). This gives a quantitative picture of the songs that made the most impact and are remembered till today, with their respective music directors. Let us see how this picture looks.

Consolidated list of the Best Male Solos, Female Solos and Duets of 1944

Rank Best male solos

Best female solos

Best duets

1-3

Ae qatibe-e-taqdeer mujhe itana bata de (Pankaj Mullick)

1. Chanda des piya ke ja (Khemchand Prakash)

1-3. Saawan ke baadalo unse ye ja kaho (Naushad)

 

1-3

Do naina matware tihare hum par zulum karein  (Pankaj Mullick)

2. Holi main khelungi un sang dat ke (Hanuman Prasad)

1-3. Kya humne bigada hai kyun humko sataate ho (Khemchand  Prakash)

 

1-3

Chhupo na chhupo na (Pankaj Mullick)

3, Sooni padi hai pyar ki duniya tere bagair (Bulo C Rani)

1-3. O jaanewale baalamwa (Naushad)

 

4

Muskuraate huye yun aankh churaya na karo (Khemchand Prakash)

Koi prem ka de ke sandesa  (Sajjad Hussain)

Bhiksha de de maiya Pingala (Khemchand Prakash)

 

5

Hum apna unhein bana na sake (Khemchand Prakash)

Kookat koeliya kunjan mein (Khemchand Prakash)

Kuchh hansi hai subah-o-sham (Subal Dasgupta)

 

6

Jab tum hi chale pardes (Naushad)

Sanwariya re kaahe maare nazariya (Amir Ali)

Mohe le chal balam mele mein (Mir Saheb)

 

7

Madhuban mein mat ja re bhanwra(Khemchand Prakash)

Mora dheere se ghunghata hataye piya (Khemchand Prakash)

Humein bhool mat jaiyo rajaji (Khemchand Prakash)

 

8

Ae dil mujhe rone de (Husnlal- Bhagatram)

Rumjhum barse baadarwa (Naushad)

Aja kahin door chalein (Naushad)

 

9

Yahi fikr hai sham pichhle savre (Mir Saheb)

Ankhiya mila ke jiya bharma ke chale nahin jana   (Naushad)

Mohaniya sundar mukhada khol  (Mir Saheb)

 

10

Hain kaun dil nahin jo pareshan-e-arzoo (Subal Dasgupta)

Chale gaye chale gaye, dil mein aag lagaanewale chale gaye (Naushad)

Madhur suron mein gaaye chaandni (AR Qureshi)

We can now present the same table music director-wise as follows:

Music directors of 1944 having most number of Memorable Songs

Sl No. Music Director  Male solos Female solos Duets  Total
1 Khemchand Prakash 3 3 3 9
2 Naushad 1 3 3 7
3 Pankaj Mullick 3   3
4 Mir Saheb 1 2 3
5 Subal Dasgupta 1 1 2
6 Sajjad Hussain 1 1

7

Bulo C Rani 1 1
8   Husnlal-Bhagatram 1 1
9 AR Qureshi 1 1
10 Hanuman Prasad 1 1
11 Amir Ali 1 1
Total     10         10       10 30

The above Table shows the hierarchy of music directors in terms of their songs in the three best lists:

Khemchand Prakash:    9
Naushad:                          7
Pankaj Mullick:               3
Mir Saheb:                       3

Next in the list is unexpectedly Subal Dasgupta with 2 songs. Six other music directors make the tail with a song each. Thus this year has in all 11 music directors sharing the 30 best songs in the three categories: best male solos, best female solos and best duets.

Music is more emotion than data. Therefore, let us see how the readers view the top music directors of the year. Arunkumar Deshmukh, first off the block, chooses Naushad as the best music director for Rattan. For Canasya, the best music director is Pankaj Mullick for My Sister (Meri Bahen). Anup Phadke endorses Naushad for Rattan. N Venkataraman mentions three music directors: Naushad, Pankaj Mullick and Khemchand Prakash in that order.

Raunak has a great insight into the music of the Vintage Era, and has special fascination for the New Theatres stalwarts. He starts with a caveat that because of the chaos all around due to the pandemic, he has not been able to do as minute a study for 1944, as he did for 1945; nevertheless he has penned very detailed and perceptive comments. Expectedly, he is mesmerised by the soundtrack of Pankaj Mullick’s My Sister. But instead of KL Saigal’s, he chooses a song of Utpala Sen and another of Suprova Sarkar for special mention. He also does deep analysis of Khemchand Prakash’s music. Finally, instead of naming the best music director of the year, he mentions three best ‘albums’: My Sister by Pankaj Mullick, Rattan by Naushad, and Bhartrihari by Khemchand Prakash.

Neeruahaf does not tread the beaten path. She chooses Bulo C Rani as the best music director for Caravan.

The above discussion shows the general consensus that the three top music directors of the year were Naushad, Khemchand Prakash and Pankaj Mullick. This matches with the data in the Table. The best among these three is a mater of personal preference. Naushad seems to be the general favourite, as he is also mine. But it is difficult to ignore the numbers, by which Khemchand Prakash overtakes him. Pankaj Mullick evokes such admiration that for him the numbers cannot be the determining criteria.

I think the fairest outcome seems to be:

And the SOY Award for the Best Music Director of 1944 goes jointly to:
1-3. Naushad
1-3. Khemchand Prakash
1-3. Pankaj Mullick

As the year-wise review for 1944 comes to an end, it is time to thank all the readers for their participation, and special thanks again to Arunji for his notes about the year.

The post Best songs of 1944: Final Wrap Up 4 first appeared on Songs Of Yore.


This post first appeared on Songs Of Yore - Old Hindi Film Songs, please read the originial post: here

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Best songs of 1944: Final Wrap Up 4

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