Dadar Kirti
Afzal A. Khan
Today, I suddenly remembered this Bengali film, which I had seen
on TV about 16/17 years back, when it was telecast by Doordarshan.
The title probably means "Brother's Tale", or perhaps more correctly
"Elder Brother's Tale". The film had an appealing storyline ---
a simple village boy who comes to the big city and is bewildered and
overwhelmed by a completely different value system. The role was
played to perfection by Tapas Pal. The leading lady opposite
him was a petite young Bengali girl (Mahuwa Roy Choudhary ?).
Right now, I can recall only two of its songs -- both Tagore
compositions :
Chorono dhoritay dyo go aamaaray : A soulful rendition by Hemant K.
Bondhu kone aalo laaglo chokhey : Sung by Arundhati Choudhary.
{Please excuse my spelling of these Bengali lines}
Fortunately, both songs are available online and, occasionally,
I do listen to them. Arundhati has a wondrous voice. I don't
think she has sung extensively in films, which is a definite
loss for music lovers.
And now for a request to our Bengali-knowing RMIMers : Can any of
you furnish the full Bengali lyrics of the two songs and also
a rough English translation. Thanks in advance.
Afzal
jyotiprakasguha
kanandevi.com
Arundhati Hom Choudhury has sung for another Tarun Majumdar film ALO.
These songs (also by Tagore) have become popular but I did not quite enjoy
them.
Regards,
Jyoti Prakash Guha.
Afzal A. Khan
I am sorry but somehow I couldn't locate your e-mail id there.
My e-mail is "il" followed by "underscore" and then "khan" at
yahoo dot com. Thanks
Afzal
Prithviraj Dasgupta
(rest snipped)
>Arundhati has a wondrous voice. I don't
>think she has sung extensively in films, which is a definite
>loss for music lovers.
Actually, Arundhati Chatterjee (nee Holme Chowdhury) has quite
a substantial body of work spanning from the mid 70s to the present
day and covering Tagore, Bengali non-film and film songs. Her
earliest hit IIRC was a non-film song "aa.Nkhi jale tomaari naam
likhe shudhu jaa_i" around 1975-76. This song used to get a
fair no. of requests on radio-listener's choice programs for over
a decade. Can't recall anymore stats for the song. Around the
same time she had another hit for a Bengali film named
"Swati",(1976-77) song was "jete jete kichhu kathaa". This song began
her association with MD Hemant Kumar and she became the female
voice in Hemant movies in the early 80's (replacing Lata and Arti M.)
and also recorded a duet Tagore album with him in 1983 (which IMO
was a prestigious feat for her). She has sung for other MD-s
including SalilC. Informally, she can be considered
the Bengali female voice on screen and off in the '80s.
She is married to singer Shivaji Chatterjee who as you know sang
the 'ye safar bahut kaThin hai magar' song in RDB's 1942-ALS.
-Prithviraj
Archisman
nithuro he' which is the climax of the film. Sung by Hemanta Mukherjee.
Though bengali films (especially the well produced ones) have quite a
liberal sprinkling of rabindrasangeets in them, these two songs of
'Dadaar Keerti' by Hemanta Mukherjee fit the situatuation & storyline
of the movie perfectly and not hang out like a necklace. Credit, I
think ought to go to the director Tarun Majumdar, who can be safely
called the Hrishikesh Mukherjee of Bengal with his simple, feel-good,
song oriented & thoughtful movies.
The lead actress, Mahua Roychowdhury had all the makings of a top notch
actress in Bengal till she tragically died of burns in a fire-accident.
Some murky murmurs did emanate about her death but fizzled out after a
few months.
Hemanta Mukherjee's voice sounded a tad jaded (post 1970, for me, all
his good songs were on a case by case basis) but both his
rabindrasangeets for this movie were huge hits. Hemanta-babu was
perhaps the only artist (after Pankaj Mallick) who straddled the world
of rabindrasangeets & film/modern songs with equal dexterity.
I remember attending a rabindrasangeet concert of his in the early 80's
where he was requested by a member of the audience to sing those
'daadar keerti' songs, wherein Hemanta-babu animatedly emphasised they
these songs were Rabindra Sangeets first & film songs later (chuckle!).
But then, that's the power of movies for you.
'Dadaar Keerti' can take credit for launching the careers of Tapas Pal,
Preasenjit, Mahua Roychowdhury & Debashree Roy, all of whom tasted a
lot of success in the years that followed.
Regards-Archisman.
P.S. Two of Arundhati Holmechowdhury's finest bengali modern songs were
under the baton of Salil Chowdhury: 'phaagun-ke daaklaam, phaagun bollo
aashchhi' (bengali version of Mukesh's 'yeh din kya aaye' from Chhoti
Si Baat) & 'chole je jaaye din din din' (bengali version of 'guzar
jaaye din din din'). In the latter, she transits from the mukhda to the
antara beautifully without the guiding interlude music.
Prithviraj Dasgupta
(snipped)
>
> 'Dadaar Keerti' can take credit for launching the careers of Tapas Pal,
> Preasenjit, Mahua Roychowdhury & Debashree Roy, all of whom tasted a
> lot of success in the years that followed.
What role did Prasenjit play in the movie?
> 'chole je jaaye din din din' (bengali version of 'guzar
> jaaye din din din'). In the latter, she transits from the mukhda to the
> antara beautifully without the guiding interlude music.
Shyamal Mitra recorded this song (AIR studio recording/ramyageeti)
in 1970. Reportedly, he too did not require the guiding interlude.
AFAIR(read on RMIM), the interlude was composed only to prevent KK from
veering off from the correct starting note of the antara.
-Prithviraj
Archisman
Prithviraj Dasgupta wrote:
>
> What role did Prasenjit play in the movie?
Sorry, a slip-up. Mixed up with Ayan. (Wonder what happened of him
later?)
>
> > 'chole je jaaye din din din' (bengali version of 'guzar
> > jaaye din din din'). In the latter, she transits from the mukhda to the
> > antara beautifully without the guiding interlude music.
>
> Shyamal Mitra recorded this song (AIR studio recording/ramyageeti)
> in 1970. Reportedly, he too did not require the guiding interlude.
> AFAIR(read on RMIM), the interlude was composed only to prevent KK from
> veering off from the correct starting note of the antara.
I have not heard Shyamal Mitra's version and have hunted for the song
for a long time in vain.
Even I've heard about the theory of the interlude of 'guzar jaaye din'
and how 'sought' to guide Kishore Kumar. In my opinion, Kishore Kumar's
spontaenity in playback singing was of such high standards that this
theory of 'veering off' just does not hold water. For a singer who
could effortlessly change chords in 'hum the woh thi aur sama rangeen
samajh gaye naa' or effortlessly alternate between octaves in songs
like 'aa-ke seedhi lagi jaise dil mein katariya' (half ticket) or 'aye
bhi hakka, hakka bakka' (jaalsaaz), 'veering off' is just not possible.
He is the only singer who could break into a dialogue in a song &
revert back to the song in perfect tune without batting an eyelid. Just
listen to his bengali version of 'cham chike bam chike' to understand
how good his grasp on tunefulness was.
>
> -Prithviraj
Regards-Archisman.
Prithviraj Dasgupta
> Prithviraj Dasgupta wrote:
>
> Even I've heard about the theory of the interlude of 'guzar jaaye din'
> and how 'sought' to guide Kishore Kumar. In my opinion, Kishore Kumar's
> spontaenity in playback singing was of such high standards that this
> theory of 'veering off' just does not hold water. For a singer who
> could effortlessly change chords in 'hum the woh thi aur sama rangeen
> samajh gaye naa' or effortlessly alternate between octaves in songs
> like 'aa-ke seedhi lagi jaise dil mein katariya' (half ticket) or 'aye
> bhi hakka, hakka bakka' (jaalsaaz), 'veering off' is just not possible.
> He is the only singer who could break into a dialogue in a song &
> revert back to the song in perfect tune without batting an eyelid. Just
> listen to his bengali version of 'cham chike bam chike' to understand
> how good his grasp on tunefulness was.
>
> >
> > -Prithviraj
>
> Regards-Archisman.
Whatever it was, 'guzar jaye' is a better song than 'chale je jaay'.
And IMO,(likes of) KK's 1966 song 'chaam chika chika bam bam'(horrible
song, is it even a song? it's a nonsense recitation, MD is RDB?) is
what
started the downfall of Indian music+lyrics.
I heard it once on radio many years ago. IIRC, the antara went:
(English translations in brackets)
boudi boudi bolo boudi boudi bolo (Chant "boudi boudi")
lag-lage shambhu roga bete shambu - (shambhu is lanky, short)
chaay chini kom kom - (less sugar in tea)
paa pichhle alur dam - (injury caused by losing foothold)
-------------
Also, I have never seen such wide discrepancy in quality of
the songs on two sides of a 78 disc.
(IIRC, flip side of "chaam chika" was "aakaash keno Daake").
-pdg/
Ketan
says...
>
>
>Prithviraj Dasgupta wrote:
> >
>> What role did Prasenjit play in the movie?
>
>Sorry, a slip-up. Mixed up with Ayan. (Wonder what happened of him
>later?)
>>
>> > 'chole je jaaye din din din' (bengali version of 'guzar
>> > jaaye din din din'). In the latter, she transits from the mukhda to the
>> > antara beautifully without the guiding interlude music.
>>
>> Shyamal Mitra recorded this song (AIR studio recording/ramyageeti)
>> in 1970. Reportedly, he too did not require the guiding interlude.
>> AFAIR(read on RMIM), the interlude was composed only to prevent KK from
>> veering off from the correct starting note of the antara.
I believe the interlude wasn't necessary for even Kishore to move from mukhda to
antara. It was the other way around. To come back to the mukhda at the
conclusion of the antara. That's where Salil added that 2 second filler to give
him the scale of the note he was supposed to start the mukhda on. That's what I
have from a Salil interview/article that was published soon after his passing
away. Don't remember if the AH-C and SM versions in Bengali have the same
filler.
Ketan
Ketan
Dasgupta says...
>And IMO,(likes of) KK's 1966 song 'chaam chika chika bam bam'(horrible
>song, is it even a song? it's a nonsense recitation, MD is RDB?) is
>what
>started the downfall of Indian music+lyrics.
Aren't you trying to have it both ways? On the one hand, you call it a
recitation and not a song and then simultaneously also trash the lyrics and hold
this as the start of the downfall of lyrics. There might be other Kishore songs
responsible for the start of the downfall such as "Ina Mina Dika", "C-A-T,
CAT..." etc but this one just reminds me of the Beatles White Album
number--"Revolution 9". What was that? Just a bunch of goobledygook there too.
Well atleast Harvey Keitel seems to have liked it enough to put it in one of his
movies. Supposedly he credited the singer--Kishore but not the MD--RDB.
(Got that bit of trivia from the RDB Yahoogroup)
Ketan
kcp
> And IMO,(likes of) KK's 1966 song 'chaam chika chika bam bam'(horrible
> song, is it even a song?
Call it whatever you like :)
> it's a nonsense recitation, MD is RDB?) is
> what
> started the downfall of Indian music+lyrics.
Super rendition !!!!
What would you respond if I say the GREAT BHARAT VYAS and Manna Dey was
responsible for this act, around 14 years before "Chaam Chika" was done
: Khaali Peeli Kahe Ko Akkha Din - Tamasha
Tension kayko leneka !!! Enjoy life !!!
:)
KCP
Archisman
Ketan wrote:
> >> > 'chole je jaaye din din din' (bengali version of 'guzar
> >> > jaaye din din din'). In the latter, she transits from the mukhda to the
> >> > antara beautifully without the guiding interlude music.
> >>
> >> Shyamal Mitra recorded this song (AIR studio recording/ramyageeti)
> >> in 1970. Reportedly, he too did not require the guiding interlude.
> >> AFAIR(read on RMIM), the interlude was composed only to prevent KK from
> >> veering off from the correct starting note of the antara.
>
> I believe the interlude wasn't necessary for even Kishore to move from mukhda to
> antara. It was the other way around. To come back to the mukhda at the
> conclusion of the antara. That's where Salil added that 2 second filler to give
> him the scale of the note he was supposed to start the mukhda on. That's what I
> have from a Salil interview/article that was published soon after his passing
> away. Don't remember if the AH-C and SM versions in Bengali have the same
> filler.
>
The antara to mukhda transition is even easier. 'naata nahin toote yeh
haay....ah! guzar jaaye din...'. The 2 notes in the word 'haay' are
sa-pa. Then 'guzar' starts with the komal dha, the immediate-next note
after pa. Extremely easy to latch on to - no guiding filler required.
No singer worth his/her salt needs it. Do not recall Arundhati Holme
Chowdhury's version now to comment on.
Wonder what the fuss was all about! By the way, have you noticed how
beautifully some strains of Bhairavi appear fleetingly in the song? A
really beautiful composition & an equally awesome rendition.
> Ketan
Regards-Archisman.
Archisman
Prithviraj Dasgupta wrote:
> And IMO,(likes of) KK's 1966 song 'chaam chika chika bam bam'(horrible
> song, is it even a song? it's a nonsense recitation, MD is RDB?) is
> what
> started the downfall of Indian music+lyrics.
Wasn't it 1967? RDB-s 2nd venture after Lata's beautiful 'amaar
malatilata' & 'aami boli tomaay', 3 years ago.
>
> I heard it once on radio many years ago. IIRC, the antara went:
> (English translations in brackets)
>
> boudi boudi bolo boudi boudi bolo (Chant "boudi boudi")
> lag-lage shambhu roga bete shambu - (shambhu is lanky, short)
> chaay chini kom kom - (less sugar in tea)
> paa pichhle alur dam - (injury caused by losing foothold)
I just adore this song (or shall it call it just rendition?). Kishore's
breath control and ability to rattle off tongue-twisters at a fast
speed are remarkable. Also, as mentioned by me before, his uncanny
ability to keep the base tune at the back of his mind and come back to
it unerringly at the mukhda.
Can this song be called a rap number in today's context?
>
> -------------
> Also, I have never seen such wide discrepancy in quality of
> the songs on two sides of a 78 disc.
> (IIRC, flip side of "chaam chika" was "aakaash keno Daake").
I wouldn't use the word 'quality'. Yes, but the contrast is really
startling. As was the next year release of 'ekdin paakhi ude' &
'baba-khoka' in 1968. Some parity in 1969 with 'e jhumri re - cholechhi
eka' & 'shey to elo na'. And then, this team just disappeared from the
bengali modern music firmament, much to my intense disappointment.
>
> -pdg/
Regards-Archisman.
Prithviraj Dasgupta
> In article <1129718006.4...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>, Prithviraj
> Dasgupta says...
>
> >And IMO,(likes of) KK's 1966 song 'chaam chika chika bam bam'(horrible
> >song, is it even a song? it's a nonsense recitation, MD is RDB?) is
> >what
> >started the downfall of Indian music+lyrics.
>
> Aren't you trying to have it both ways? On the one hand, you call it a
> recitation and not a song and then simultaneously also trash the lyrics and hold
> this as the start of the downfall of lyrics.
> There might be other Kishore songs
> responsible for the start of the downfall such as "Ina Mina Dika", "C-A-T,
> CAT..." etc but this one just reminds me of the Beatles White Album
> number--"Revolution 9". What was that? Just a bunch of goobledygook there too.
Appreciate your point. Besides C-A-T, Ina-mina another comparable
non-sense
song by KK is "shing nei tobu" which preceded "cham chik" by about
9-10 years. However, an essential difference between C-A-T, shing nei,
and other non-sense film songs, and, "cham chika" is that the former
are
_film songs_ and make sense in the movie's context while "cham chika"
is non-film. For e.g. KK has to sing "shing nei" in Lukochuri when
movie producers reject his twin brother's romantic songs.
(Interestingly,
at the end of the song KK goes over to a photo of Tagore and apologizes
for singing such nonsense). The situation of such songs might be
contrived,
but still one can justify some reason, albeit sometimes far-fetched,
for
the song. (I am referring to songs in pre-80's movies, post-80 I
haven't
watched much, so cannot comment about a song's reason).
For years non-film songs have had a strong association with poetry,
usually conveying an emotion, events, character, or at least something
comprehensible/that can be related to. To the best of my knowledge,
"cham chika" was the first non-film nonsense song in Bengali or Hindi,
that broke this association between comprehensiblity and non-film
songs.
This was the reason for my earlier comment on "cham chika"'s
music/lyrics.
-Prithviraj
PS: Regarding Beatles' Rev 9 - can't recall it right now, will listen
to it later today. I have some Danny Kaye nonsense non-film songs from
around 1940s. So, there was at least some instance earlier than Beatles.
Ketan
Dasgupta says...
>However, an essential difference between C-A-T, shing nei,
>and other non-sense film songs, and, "cham chika" is that the former
>are film songs_ and make sense in the movie's context
>For years non-film songs have had a strong association with poetry,
>usually conveying an emotion, events, character, or at least something
>comprehensible/that can be related to. To the best of my knowledge,
>"cham chika" was the first non-film nonsense song in Bengali or Hindi,
>that broke this association between comprehensiblity and non-film
>songs.
You are not wrong in your statement. However, to enforce a requirement that
lyrics tie in to a context is self-limiting. "Cham chika" was not the last of
its kind. For example, the SPB song "Mere jeevan saathi.." from "Ek Duke Ke
Liye" has no lyrics as such. Just a bunch of random movie names strung together.
If this song had also been released as a non-film song, you would be questioning
the lyrics with a "where's the context" too. That isn't clear till you see the
picturization.
Similarly if "cham chika" had been put in say Half-Ticket when Kishore is in the
midst of his antics as a mentally deficient child, it would make complete sense
there too. Kids don't sing complete lyrics as they show in films. It's more
natural for them to string together nonsensical words.
>PS: Regarding Beatles' Rev 9 - can't recall it right now, will listen
>to it later today. I have some Danny Kaye nonsense non-film songs from
>around 1940s. So, there was at least some instance earlier than Beatles.
Well in that case it makes more sense. Kishore has always said that he was
influenced by Danny Kaye to a large extent. Now you can see where he got the
idea from. Good luck on the Rev Number 9. I think the foursome got a bit too
much of the sun while at Rishikesh in 1968. Maybe Satishji can tell us if there
was any unusual weather activity out there during that time :)
Ketan
Ketan
says...
>The antara to mukhda transition is even easier. 'naata nahin toote yeh
>haay....ah! guzar jaaye din...'. The 2 notes in the word 'haay' are
>sa-pa. Then 'guzar' starts with the komal dha, the immediate-next note
>after pa. Extremely easy to latch on to - no guiding filler required.
>No singer worth his/her salt needs it. Do not recall Arundhati Holme
>Chowdhury's version now to comment on.
Refer to Gautam da's post posted below from Sept 26 2004:
{
Interesting question although I couldn't locate the original thread by
Sekhar. Here's my 2 euro cent.
"Guzar jaaye din" is in the key of Fm (F-minor). Yes it does use some
"uncommon" arpeggios in Eb-Major, C-Major and G-Major etc but it always
comes come back to F-Minor. Thats typical Salilda.
Once you understand the chord progression its not that difficult.
Although the song starts in F-Minor, the antara starts in the key of
Eb-Major and the notes are quite simple really with the last word "ye"
ending on "pa" like this :
Kishore begins the antara with
" rahe naa to bas me ye, na maane koi ras me ye"
( pa..............ga sa pa, pa................. ga sa pa) - high "pa"
to low "pa" - remember - in the key of Eb Major.
The next line (ke khaan.u main to kasme ye) "ke" starts with the note "D"
of the Eb key (komal-ga) which is also the "pa" or the fifth note of the
G-Major key and Kishore is now in G-Major with "ke khaau,n main to kasme
ye". Basically Kishore was having trouble hitting that note "D" or
"komal-ga" of Eb key straight from the "pa" (the previous note "ye") one
octave below.
The accordion arpeggio leads him to that note.
If this sounds confusing or rubbish to you, just try to hum the song without
any instrument and you may be surprised to find that it does take a while
before you can hit that "D".
Here's the sample for you to hear :
http://www.salilda.com/songs/guzar_sample.mp3
Finally, there are all kinds of write-ups and articles on this song and how
it took Kishore many takes etc. Majority of these articles are copies of the
copis of the same story which nobody really tried to verify or even test.
Lets face it, most of these reviewers wouldn't know the difference between
a major and a minor key.
I think Kishore did a fantastic job and I can't really think of anybody else
who would have done a better job.
After singing the antara when he returns to the mukhDa, he starts with an
off-beat "aha" and sings "aha - guzar jaay din". I found the timing of that
"aha" really amazing.
Gautam
}
There was an earlier discussion on this in October 1997.
Gautam-da and Rajan Parrikar's comments can be seen starting around October 17,
1997.
Actually I would take up Gautam-da's suggestion to HUM, and NOT SING the song.
That's how I realized where the problem part is. It is navigable but it takes
practice.
Ketan
Ketan
>Actually I would take up Gautam-da's suggestion to HUM, and NOT SING the song.
>That's how I realized where the problem part is. It is navigable but it takes
>practice.
Forgot to add: While humming the part 'naata nahin toote yeh
haay....ah! guzar jaaye din', try humming the lines without the 'ah!' part. You
will see the importance of the "ah!"
Ketan
Archisman
Thanks for the clarifications & Gautam-da's illustrative post. Yes, the
most tricky part is to latching on to the right note of 'ke' in the
line 'ke khaauun main to kasme yeh'. Equally tricky was Hemanta-babu's
latching on to the right note of 'mo..' in the line 'mone holo mor
dukho-raate' in the bengali song 'shono kono ekdin'.
And as for the 'aha!' is Guzar Jaaye Din, it's worth it's weight in
titanium for its timing & expressiveness.
Regards-Archisman.