Meeting with Ravi Ji - Part 1
Pavan Jha
When I entered the room, I found Ravi saab sitting at the study table
and writing something in a copy in just the dim light of a table lamp..
At that time, I had a very little idea that the legendary music
director is trying to recover from a huge loss incurred during the
recent bombay rains washout..
Next four hours we spent discussing on his kissa's, his films and
songs, current trends, his stint in malayalam films, future plans and
lots more.. Only at the end of the meeting, Ravi saab told us about the
losses he incurred during the recent floods. He told us that his home
had about 5ft of floods and he was away.. He has lost a a big chunk of
his anmol khazana including lot of tapes and notebooks of his dhun's
notations.. and now he is trying to write almost anything that he could
recall whenever he gets a few minutes..
One good news is that he has a fantastic memory, we realized this
during his kissa's. Even at the age of 80, he could remember and tell
us each and every important incident of his life with great details.. I
am sure with such a great memory, he would be able to recover a lot...
The meeting went for quite long and it would be a difficult task for me
to prepare and post the transcript so soon.. Here are some of the
anecdotes... Will try to complete a complete transcript soon..
1. Master Madan was a classmate of Ravi Ji. After finishing schools,
Ravi ji went to attend a lohdi function where Master Madan was
performing and found him to be an old classmate.
2. Two most challanging works for him were Gurudutt's "Chaudahanvi Ka
Chaand" and Malayalayam film "Vaishali".
3. "Raha gardishon me hardam" was recorded for the film "Ghoonghat" in
the voice of Mukesh Ji. During the final editing just before the
release of the film, Producer Waasan found that the song is not placed
in context with the story, so he asked Ravi Ji's permission to remove
the song.. Later Ravi Ji recorded it for Do Badan in the voice of Rafi
saab.
4. Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam was first offered to him.. but since the
subject had a bangali setup, Hemant da was chosen later.
5. In his first film Vachan, he shared the credits for music with a
nephew of Devendra Goel, Kailash Chandra (as music director duo
Ravi-Chandra). Later when Devendra Goel came to know about Chandra is
good for nothing and his name is there only because of his relations,
he asked to remove chandra's name from the records.
6. He was singing for AnandMath in the chorus and when he helped Hemant
da with some urdu words on the recordings, Hemant da asked him to join
as an assistant.
7. He has a tendency to create many tunes for each song on the basis of
the meter of the lines. He always prefers the lyrics to be written
first and then he compose tunes on the basis of the words. He follows
the same rule in Malayalam too, where he first analyse the meter of the
lines and then tune them accordingly.
8. In Nikaah, originally he had a different composition for 'Dil ke
armaan' but when Salma Agha failed to sing that, Ravi ji suggested
Asha's voice for the song. But BR Chopra asked him to compose a simple
tune for Salma to sing (as Salma had already shot for the film as
leading lady). The original composition was later used by Ravi ji in
Tawaif for "Ai khuda e paq"
9. Later he refused to do an offer of Ramanand Sagar, as Saagar saab
wanted Salma's voice for a few songs.
10. He was an electrician by profession. Arrived in Mumbai to become a
singer and sung in chorus for a few Filmistan films before Anandmath.
11. He himself is a big fan of C Ramchandra's music.
12. He was once interrogated for his involvement in Gandhi ji's murder
in 48 when he was working for P&T Department in Delhi, as someone
reported the police that He had a strong RSS Connection and his office
room was searched and Police found the RSS signifies Ravi Shankar
Sharma.
13. When Hemant da was composing Zindagi ke dene wale for Nagin, Ravi
ji suggested the Adivasi words and created a few pieces "hakuwala
jugumala ho ya " (nonsensical words).. And these nonsensical words were
objected as on of the randomly created words sounds as "Karbalaa".
Mehmood was a struggler those days and he too was one on the chorus
persons singing this..
14. It was during the sittings of "Ek Hi Rasta", He came close to BR
Chopra, as BR Chopra felt communicating with him more comfortable than
hemant da..
15. His first compilation of bhajans was published in 1943 as a small
bhajan book..
16. On Kishore Kumar, Ravi ji ranked him a great singer with a
fantastic range, still he found him unsuitable for some "naazuk" songs
like "door rah kar na karo baat".. For Ek mahal ho sapno ka, he
re-recorded the title in the voice of Rafi saab, even though it was
recorded in Kishore da's voice..
17. Suman Kalyanpur sung for him in Ek saal and Modern Girl, but later
one day when Producer Devendra Goel wanted a duet song to be recorded
by the evening on any cost, Ravi ji called her to record the duet song
with rafi saab(first lata was contacted and later Asha, and both of
them were unavailable), she said she will come but could make it a bit
late as she has a few guests... so Ravi Ji and his team with Rafi saab
waited the whole night and she didn't turned up.. (it seems she came to
know that the song was first offered to lata, and she didn't come)..
Raviji told us, that day and I haven't seen her face.. The song was
later recorded in the voice of Asha and the song was "Mujhe pyar ki
zindagi dene wale" from Pyar Ka Sagar
18. He also narrated the BR Chopra-Rafi rift in details.. During the
recording of a qawwali for Dhool Ka Phool, BR Chopra wanted both Rafi
saab and Mahendra Kapoor to compete in the qawwali.. Rafi saab told him
either take Mahendra or me as both of us have similar kind of voices
and take another singer as second vpice.. BR Chopra persisted with
Mahendra Kapoor..
Some more to come soon..
Pavan
Abhay Jain
"Pavan Jha" <pava...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1129361157....@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> October 2, Morning 10 AM..
>
> When I entered the room, I found Ravi saab sitting at the study table
> and writing something in a copy in just the dim light of a table lamp..
> At that time, I had a very little idea that the legendary music
> director is trying to recover from a huge loss incurred during the
> recent bombay rains washout..
>
>
> The meeting went for quite long and it would be a difficult task for me
> to prepare and post the transcript so soon.. Here are some of the
> anecdotes... Will try to complete a complete transcript soon..
>
>
> 1. Master Madan was a classmate of Ravi Ji. After finishing schools,
> Ravi ji went to attend a lohdi function where Master Madan was
> performing and found him to be an old classmate.
>
> 2. Two most challanging works for him were Gurudutt's "Chaudahanvi Ka
> Chaand" and Malayalayam film "Vaishali".
>
> 3. "Raha gardishon me hardam" was recorded for the film "Ghoonghat" in
> the voice of Mukesh Ji. During the final editing just before the
> release of the film, Producer Waasan found that the song is not placed
> in context with the story, so he asked Ravi Ji's permission to remove
> the song.. Later Ravi Ji recorded it for Do Badan in the voice of Rafi
> saab.
Did you ask him if he has the Mukesh version with him?
>
>
> 8. In Nikaah, originally he had a different composition for 'Dil ke
> armaan' but when Salma Agha failed to sing that, Ravi ji suggested
> Asha's voice for the song. But BR Chopra asked him to compose a simple
> tune for Salma to sing (as Salma had already shot for the film as
> leading lady). The original composition was later used by Ravi ji in
> Tawaif for "Ai khuda e paq"
>
I recall the following from Ravi's interview broadcast on local TV
program about this song.
"I had composed 16 different tunes for "Dil Ke Arman" but Salma Agha
was just not able to sing. It had taken over two months. I called
Chopraji and told him to get Ashaji to sing the song. Chopraji told me,
she is new and let us give her a chance, try one more time and if
she does not work out, we will have Asha sing it. Seventeenth tune turned
out to be the final one and that is what what was released."
> 9. Later he refused to do an offer of Ramanand Sagar, as Saagar saab
> wanted Salma's voice for a few songs.
>
>
>
> 16. On Kishore Kumar, Ravi ji ranked him a great singer with a
> fantastic range, still he found him unsuitable for some "naazuk" songs
> like "door rah kar na karo baat".. For Ek mahal ho sapno ka, he
> re-recorded the title in the voice of Rafi saab, even though it was
> recorded in Kishore da's voice..
>
Does Ravi still have KK versions with him?
>
> 17. Suman Kalyanpur sung for him in Ek saal and Modern Girl, but later
> one day when Producer Devendra Goel wanted a duet song to be recorded
> by the evening on any cost, Ravi ji called her to record the duet song
> with rafi saab(first lata was contacted and later Asha, and both of
> them were unavailable), she said she will come but could make it a bit
> late as she has a few guests... so Ravi Ji and his team with Rafi saab
> waited the whole night and she didn't turned up.. (it seems she came to
> know that the song was first offered to lata, and she didn't come)..
> Raviji told us, that day and I haven't seen her face.. The song was
> later recorded in the voice of Asha and the song was "Mujhe pyar ki
> zindagi dene wale" from Pyar Ka Sagar
With attitude like this, who can succeed and Suman did pay a price.
Along with her music lovers also lost out.
>
> 18. He also narrated the BR Chopra-Rafi rift in details.. During the
> recording of a qawwali for Dhool Ka Phool, BR Chopra wanted both Rafi
> saab and Mahendra Kapoor to compete in the qawwali.. Rafi saab told him
> either take Mahendra or me as both of us have similar kind of voices
> and take another singer as second vpice.. BR Chopra persisted with
> Mahendra Kapoor..
>
> Some more to come soon..
>
> Pavan
>
AJ
Sreenivas Paruchuri
With great interest I noted that Ravi considers "vaizaali" (1987/88, a
M.T. Vasudevan Nair's film!) as one of the two most challenging films he
worked for. Incidentally I have been hunting for the complete music
track (or a video copy), ever since I read V.A.K. Rangarao's *long*
glowing review of this film and watched it. Ravi's back ground music is
wonderful and worth highlighting are three of Chitra's solos.
Regards,
Sreenivas
Pavan Jha wrote:
> October 2, Morning 10 AM..
> 4. Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam was first offered to him.. but since the
> subject had a bangali setup, Hemant da was chosen later.
> 7. He has a tendency to create many tunes for each song on the basis of
Surjit Singh
Pavan Jha wrote:
> October 2, Morning 10 AM..
>
>>
>
> 1. Master Madan was a classmate of Ravi Ji. After finishing schools,
> Ravi ji went to attend a lohdi function where Master Madan was
> performing and found him to be an old classmate.
Accoding to another interview I have read, Ravi was born in Delhi March
3, 1926. There is no mention of MM in that one. In fact there is no
mention of this nugget anywhere at all! Thanks for the info.
According to the usual sources, MM was born on December 28, 1927 in
Panjab and went to school in Simla and Delhi. MM was famous and was
written up in newspapers from age 4. It will be good to know which class
and school they overlapped in, definitely.
>
>
> Some more to come soon..
>
> Pavan
>
--
Surjit Singh, a diehard movie fan(atic), period.
http://hindi-movies-songs.com/index.html
Vish
permanent state of delusion by saying things like "..either take
Mahendra or me as both of us have similar kind of voices..."..... and
we innocent bystanders had to suffer thru innumerable *&(^ed up
renditions of OPN's songs that were really composed for you ..(and, of
course, most of Ravi's compositions for BRChopra that he has admitted
were really for you)...
Vishwanath
Pavan Jha wrote:
> October 2, Morning 10 AM..
<snip>
naresh...@gmail.com
films. Elsewhere, with other MDs he was at his shouting best.
Naresh Khattar
Vish
.grunt ...na sar jhuka ke jiyo ... andheri raat ke ..shout shout shout
shout .... etc. ..."
Asif
No he means 'Chalo ik baar phir se' (Gumraah, 1963), 'Aaja aaja re
tujhko mera pyaar pukaare' (Gumraah, 1963), 'Tere pyaar ka aasra
chaahta hoon' (Dhool Ka Phool, 1958), and 'Neele gagan ke tale'
(Hamraaz, 1967). He indeed did a fairly decent job in those BR films.
He sang some of his finest songs for OPN too - 'Mera pyaar wo hai ki'
(Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi, 1965), 'Badal jaaye agar maali' (Bahaaren
Phir Bhi Aayengi, 1966), 'Meri jaan tum pe sadqe' (Sawan Ki Ghata,
1966), 'Laakhon hain yahaan dil waale' (Kismat, 1968), and 'Andhere
mein jo baitthe hain' (Sambandh, 1969). And there were a few for KA
too. Yes, he sounded a bit loud in parts in 'Na munh chhupaake jiyo'
(Hamraaz, 1967), 'Mere desh ki dharti' (Upkaar, 1967), and 'Aur naheen
bas aur naheen' (Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, 1974), but otherwise he fared
well in most of his popular songs.
Asif
pradeep
Not quite so. 'Aaja re mere pyar ke rahi' [Akashdeep; Chitragupta] was
a soft song, well sung. So were all MK's songs for N. Datta (Dhool Ka
Phool, and especially Dharamputra).
But these were far and few in between. What I hated were his Humraaz
amd Roti Kapda Makan songs.
....Pradeep
Manish Wadhane
Lest we forget his 'Purab Aur Paschim' songs "Hai Preet Jahanki Reet
Sada.." and "Dulhan Chali..". I don't mind his shouting there. What
would the songs be without the resounding voice of Mahendra Kapoor?
Infact his voice was a perfect fit for Manoj Kumar in his 'Bharat'
movies.
-Manish
Ashok
The music director of 'Dhool Ka Phool' isn't Ravi. Take that as
an indication of who are left out in your list of to use Mahendra
Kapoor well: N. Dutta in this case, who used MK superbly, as did
C. Ramchandra and Chitragupta. I'll leave it as an exercise to
come up with the key songs.
Ashok
Sanjeev Ramabhadran
pradeep wrote:
> naresh...@gmail.com wrote:
> > MK rose to the occassion and did a fairly decent job for Ravi in BRC's
> > films. Elsewhere, with other MDs he was at his shouting best.
> >
> > Naresh Khattar
>
> Not quite so. 'Aaja re mere pyar ke rahi' [Akashdeep; Chitragupta] was
> a soft song, well sung. So were all MK's songs for N. Datta (Dhool Ka
> Phool, and especially Dharamputra).
At least one counterexample - his last stanza of "Tere Pyaar Ka Aasra"
is positively absurd.
Sanjeev
naresh...@gmail.com
Khyaale Dille Naashaad Aaya...(Gumrah - Ravi). I have a great liking
for Waqt Duets like ' Din Hain Bhar Ke..' and ' Hum Jab Simat ke...' I
dont particularily miss Rafi in any of these.
And yeah you were right in mentioning his songs with OPN. . Even with
others like CR he had at least 2 good songs - ' Dil laga kar ham ye
samjhe...' (Zindagi aur Maut) and ' Shyamal Shaymal Baran ( Navrang).
Personally I like " Na Muunh Chuupa ke Jiyo...' also. Though I dont
like Roti Kapda..song.
Naresh Khattar
Manish Wadhane
Asif wrote:
> Yes, he sounded a bit loud in parts in 'Na munh chhupaake jiyo'
> (Hamraaz, 1967), 'Mere desh ki dharti' (Upkaar, 1967), and 'Aur naheen
> bas aur naheen' (Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, 1974), but otherwise he fared
> well in most of his popular songs.
But he needed to be sufficiently loud in "Mere desh ki dharti.." in
which he was successful IMO. I love the song.
Another song of MK which I love is "Jageya jageya jageya .." from
'Kaala Patthar'. Even in this song, the supposed shouting is necessary.
-Manish
Abhay
> Infact his voice was a perfect fit for Manoj Kumar in his 'Bharat'
> movies.
No quarrel there - the former MK's vocal skills and the latter MK's
histrionic skills were perfectly matched. :)
Warm regards,
Abhay
Vish
discussion about MK. We can put that sub-string to bed for now.
OK, then, we are all looking forward to more on the interview with
Ravi_ji. I cant wait for Pavan_Jha to post his 'some more to come soon
..' material.
Vishwanath
Abhijit
skills. :)
[Indeevar's "tiin ra.ng" kii "cholii" beats Gulzar's "chaDDii pahan ke
phuul khilaa" anyday.]
asi...@my-deja.com
Wonderful indeed.
Okay, the only nit I have in this otherwise excellent thread is with
this:
==
Pavan Jha wrote:
> 17. Suman Kalyanpur sung for him in Ek saal and Modern Girl, but later
> one day when Producer Devendra Goel wanted a duet song to be recorded
> by the evening on any cost, Ravi ji called her to record the duet song
> with rafi saab(first lata was contacted and later Asha, and both of
> them were unavailable), she said she will come but could make it a bit
> late as she has a few guests... so Ravi Ji and his team with Rafi saab
> waited the whole night and she didn't turned up.. (it seems she came to
> know that the song was first offered to lata, and she didn't come)..
> Raviji told us, that day and I haven't seen her face.. The song was
> later recorded in the voice of Asha and the song was "Mujhe pyar ki
> zindagi dene wale" from Pyar Ka Sagar
Abhay Jain responded:
With attitude like this, who can succeed and Suman did pay a price.
Along with her music lovers also lost out.
===
Need for a bit of the Rashomon influence, mayhap? [Ergo, consider SK &
Lata's sides of the story before rushing to judge both. :-)]
Cheers
Arun
Manish Wadhane
Agreed that the latter MK's histrionics got irritating from Kranti
onwards. But he needs to be lauded for his films earlier to that.
-Manish