About Hari Om Sharan
ned2468
through Deja to find the listing of the posts. If something is being repeated,
my apologies... I didn't read through all the postings.
Hari Om Sharan is actually from Lahore and did his studying over there in the
Dayananda Anglo-Vedic College with the hopes of being a painter. He said in an
interview of 30 mins that I heard onn the Internet that he just developed
singing when he was a kid as a side hobby that came from listening to sadhus
and fakirs who would sing devotional music in the morning as they made their
daily rounds. A lot of his spiritual guidance -- according to what he has said
-- was due to the time he spent travelling and visiting with various gurus and
swamis.But, he actually never had any formal training in classical music or
under any guru in music.
He has never said how he got discovered by HMV in the early 70s. That is when
he cut his first recording called "Pushpanjali" under the music direction of
Murli Manohar Swaroop. Swaroop did music for Manna Dey (Ramayana and
Satyanarayana Vrat Katha), Vani Jairam (her ghazal recording called "Parvaz"),
Mukesh (Tulsi Ramayana) and, of course, Begum Akhtar. MMS and Hari Om Sharan
did HOS' three classic recordings; Pushpanjali (Shri Radhe Govinda, Maili
Chadar, etc.. ) Premanjali (Sai Teri Yaad Mahasukhdai, etc..) and the still
ever wonderful "Jai Shri Hanuman" which contains the Hanuma Chalisa recording.
HOS in all of these recordings either sang traditional lyrics or wrote his own.
The music, however, was the work of MMS.
I am not sure what happened but the Murli Manohar Swaroop - HOS collaboration
fell apart. The producer of a lot of these recordings at HMV -- Vijay Kishore
Dube -- told me that things changed when Hari Om Sharan got married. His wife,
Nandini, insisted that HOS not only write his lyrics but also compose his own
music. This signalled the end of HOS's career with HMV.Nandini's insistence
over controlling her husband's career to the point of even wanting him to sing
ghazals ended their relatioship with HMV.
I think that the information I recieved from Dube was right. HOS' first two
albums as music director and lyricist were pretty good. "Sumiran" and
"Aaradhan" really were lovely albums with some nice compositions and some
really great lyrics. Some of them were classically based, but HOS has never
really lied about the fact that a lot of the tunes he uses are inspired or
based on traditional melodies he would here at Satsangs while travelling in
India visiting with various holy men.
The rest of the HMV recordings he did just were not good and after "Aaradhan"
the only really tolerable recording he did for HMV was "Aarti Archan". The rest
were just horrid.
I don't think he ever really recorded a good decent set of bhajans after the
80s. He has record for Venus, T-Series, Baba, Weston and maybe only two or
three have been worth listening to ("Deepanjali", "Kabir Vani", and "Prabhupada
Kripa"). The rest have not been great despite the fact he has recorded and
re-recorded his earlier bhajans and "Hanuman Chalisa" for T-Series.
His earliest recordings for HMV ("Pushpanjali", "Premanjali", "Jai Shri
Hanuman", "Shri Krishna Charit Manas", "Sumiran", and some isolated bhajans he
recorded for HMV really stand out as his most wonderful work. The music was
simple, the lyrics really quite lovely and direct, and his voice was just full
of warmth. No Anup Jalota music gimmicks and just an emphasis on slow to medium
tempo renditions of compositions set to music and loosely based on ragas by
MMS. I really have to say that in those recordings he displayed real emotion
and devotion that was not forced, but genuine.
The later recordings that he has been doing have been really disappointing and
those who say that he sang 'besura' are correct and that I can only attribute
to age. The music has gotten better because he is letting other music directors
compose for him, notably Triveni-Bhavani. One, however, would hope that his
wife would stop singing. She is an ok singer but I have seen her in concert and
the woman acts like a spoiled brat who insists that every bhajan her husband
sings be done at lightening fast speeds. The fact she is not much of a music
composer has not done much to help her husband's career.
In short, I think he had a really warm, wonderful voice and his bhajans were
popular because they were simple, direct, and were devoid of gimmickry. Things
changed after the 80. The rhythms became super fast, the lyrics passable, the
music commercial and the voice quality poor. I really feel he has never
portrayed himself as a sadhu. He wears the mala and what not, but he has been
quite open about his musical background, he has never considered himself a
great musician, and he certainly does not hide the fact he is married.
His early recordings under MMS are easily available on tape and on CDs as are
"Aaradhan" and "Sumiran" all of which he did for HMV. The rest of the HMV
recordings (and rightly so) have not been released on CD probably because they
really were bad. He has re-recorded the HMV recordings for T-Series. They are
just downright awful !!!
I personally love his early recordings and listen to them a lot at home., I
think his "Jai Shri Hanuman" for HMV will always be the best recording of
Hanuman Bhajans ever. Despite the decline in his singing, I will always have a
special love for him since it were his recordings and the recordings of M.S.
Subbulakshmi that got me interseted in Indian music as a teen.
I was after many years, by the way, listening to Vani Jairam's recording of
ghazals did under the baton of Murli Manohar Swaroop. He has worked with so
many artists (Vani Jairam, Mukesh, Manna Dey, HOS, Ambar Kumar, Lakshmi
Shankar, Sudha Malhotra, Begum Akhtar) in so many different settings (ghazals,
thumris, bhajans, etc..) that any other info. on this man would be welcome at
least to me. All I know is that he was hired by HMV as an "in-house" (for lack
of a better word) composer.
So ends my long, rambling 2 cents worth on HOS.
Yours,
Sandip.
bh.sr...@gmail.com
If I get any info on MMS I will write here.
Srinath