Films with Less Famous Singers
Sydney Assbasket
Maybe they were famous in their own right, but I wouldn't know it because most
of my exposure to old Hindi films is mainstream stuff. What are some good
films soundtracks with many lesser known singers?
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Surajit A. Bose
drag...@aol.combination (Sydney Assbasket ) wrote:
> I recently saw "Bhumika," and I hadn't heard of most of the playback singers.
> Maybe they were famous in their own right, but I wouldn't know it because most
> of my exposure to old Hindi films is mainstream stuff. What are some good
> films soundtracks with many lesser known singers?
The singers of BHUMIKA aren't exactly obscure. Firoz Dastur ("ghaT ghaT
me.n raam ramaiyyaa" in Lalit) and Saraswati Rane ("mandar baajo re" in
Shudh Kalyan) are both Kirana gharana stalwarts. In addition, each has
an association with Hindi film music going back to the 1940s, if not
earlier. Firoz Dastur was an actor and singer in the early days of the
talkies. And Saraswati Rane's "biinaa madhur madhur kachhu bol" is a
classic. She also has a couple of duets with Lata in C Ramchandra's
SARGAM: the title song, "jab dil ko sataaye Gam, tuu chhe.D sakhii
saragam" (what raag is this in? It sounds like a variant of Jaunpuri),
and the wonderful Bhairavi "saa re ga re saa nii, tinak tin taanii".
Preeti Sagar ("tumhaare bin jii naa lage ghar me.n" in Tilak Kamod) was
relatively successful in the 1970s. In particular she had quite a long
association with the BHUMIKA MD Vanraj Bhatia. IIRC her lone Filmfare
award was for a song under his baton, "maaro gaam kaaThaa paare" from
MANTHAN. She sang for him in several other movies--NISHANT and KALYUG
come to mind. Perhaps her best known song is that pleasant if thoroughly
silly "My heart is beating" number from JULIE.
As for Bhupinder ("saavan ke din aaye, sajanavaa aan milo"), he's the
best known of the bunch.
Chandru Atma ("merii zindagii kii kashtii tere pyaar kaa sahaaraa") is
the son of C H Atma of "priitam aan milo" fame. C H Atma was a Saigal
wannabe who did achieve a fair degree of success in the 1940s; even as
late as the 1960s he had a couple of songs in GEET GAAYAA PATTHARON NE
("manDave tale Gariib ke do phuul khil rahe.n hai.n"). Chandru Atma
made a career of singing his father's songs on Bombay Doordarshan in the
1970s. This is the only film song of his I know. There must be
others....anybody?
Uttara Kelkar (one of the singers of one of the versions of "mondar
baajo re") is a bit obscure to non-ghaaTs, I guess, but she too was a
relatively familiar face on Bombay Doordarshan in the 1970s. She would
appear with Hridaynath Mangeshkar's troupe on various music programmes.
I don't really know what happened to her, though. And I'll admit I've
not heard of Meena Patharpekhar (another version of "mondar baajo baajo
re") before or since BHUMIKA.
I've said this before, in one of my first posts on RMIM: the soundtrack
of BHUMIKA encapsulates the history of Hindi film music. If I had to
pick just one film's score to take to a desert island, BHUMIKA might be
one way to get the best of all worlds. The classical compositions like
"ghaT ghaT me.n" recall the earliest days of the talkies, when film
music hadn't developed an idiom of its own and was still reliant on
classical forms. (Listen to Govindrao Tembe's "chho.D aakaash ko
sitaare", from 1942's MAYA MACHHINDAR, for example.) The presence of
Firoz Dastur and Saraswati Rane underlines the historical associations
with the earliest days of Hindi film music. "merii zindagii kii kashtii"
sounds very like a Saigal-era song, when film music had developed its
own idiom, along romantic rather than classical lines. "saavan ke din
aaye" is excellent; deliberately old-fashioned, it could easily be a
1950s song rather than a late 1970s one. And "tumhaare bin jii naa
lage", equally excellent, is nonetheless unmistakably
contemporary--anybody could identify it as belonging to the 1970s just
from the orchestration.
What's really fascinating, though, is that "Sydney Assbasket" is right:
BHUMIKA is a first-rate soundtrack while completely bypassing the
singers you'd expect to find on a first-rate soundtrack from the 1970s.
Where are Lata, Asha, Rafi, Kishore? Elsewhere. "Nanha Farishtaa / Surma
Bhopali" wrote recently that even if Sharada and Amitabh Bachchan are
lousy singers, one is grateful just for variety. His point is well
taken, and to top it, none of the singers on the BHUMIKA soundtrack are
lousy. The score presents tantalizing possibilities; if we weren't so
besotted (or at least constrained) by a very specific idiom and a very
specific set of singers, what might post-1960s Hindi film music have
been like? If the answer is "like BHUMIKA", then ... we would not have
been badly off at all, would we? Just a thought.
But to answer Mr Sydney Assbasket's particular question: I guess it
depends on your definition of "lesser known singers." Suresh Wadkar and
Hariharan are well known now, but when GAMAN was released in the late
1970s, it was another first-rate soundtrack with complete unknowns as
the singers. Chhaya Ganguli won the President's award for "aap kii yaad
aatii rahii raat bhar". Wadkar's "siine me.n jalan" and Hariharan's
"ajiib saanahaa mujhapar guzar gayaa yaaro" are great too. And then
there's the thumri singer Hiradevi Mishra, who contributes a great
Bhairavi dadra, "ras ke bhare tore nain", and a marriage song, "naushaa
amiiro.n kaa". Hariharan languished for a long time after GAMAN.
There's a 1980s movie AAKROSH, with music by Ajit Varman. I can't
remember the singers' names, but the songs are excellent.
Your question would be easier to answer if you'd asked for just
excellent songs by obscure singers. To stretch that condition out over
an entire soundtrack is difficult....
-s
SKalra902
...snipped...
>Chandru Atma ("merii zindagii kii kashtii tere pyaar kaa sahaaraa") is
>the son of C H Atma of "priitam aan milo" fame. C H Atma was a Saigal
>wannabe who did achieve a fair degree of success in the 1940s; even as
>late as the 1960s he had a couple of songs in GEET GAAYAA PATTHARON NE
>("manDave tale Gariib ke do phuul khil rahe.n hai.n"). Chandru Atma
>made a career of singing his father's songs on Bombay Doordarshan in the
>1970s. This is the only film song of his I know. There must be
>others....anybody?
I was given to believe that Chandru Atma and C.H. Atma were brothers.
Anyone with definitive information in this regard
?
Happy listenings.
Satish Kalra
Ashok
Great article, Surajit--especially the part about the soundtrack of
'Bhumika' being a microcosm of Hindi film music. I hope you keep
it up.
>There's a 1980s movie AAKROSH, with music by Ajit Varman. I can't
>remember the singers' names, but the songs are excellent.
Madhuri Purandare ("saa.nso.n me.n dard, dard me.n saa.nse basee huee")
and Vandana Khandekar ("kaanhaa re, peer sahee na jaae"). Two
exquisitely beautiful songs. Lyrics, respectively by Suryabhanu Gupt
and Vasant Dev. Music by perhaps the most talented Varman of them
all--Ajit Varman.
>
>-s
Ashok
Abhay Phadnis
news:sbose-B48CA5....@news.fu-berlin.de...
.
> I don't really know what happened to her, though. And I'll admit I've
> not heard of Meena Patharpekhar (another version of "mondar baajo baajo
> re") before or since BHUMIKA.
Meena Phatarpekar is Saraswatibai Rane's granddaugther. I have heard them
sing together a couple of times on Doordarshan (late 70s/early 80s). She
used to sound quite good.
Warm regards,
Abhay
vsr...@mailandnews.com
>
> There's a 1980s movie AAKROSH, with music by Ajit Varman. I can't
> remember the singers' names, but the songs are excellent.
>
The one by Shashi Kapoor, having Rekha as the mom of Shashi's army-guy
son?
I don't remember any song from this, except one bhajan or classical song
shot on rekha. Were their more songs? Which ones?
>
> -s
-Rawat
Chetan Vinchhi
>
>The singers of BHUMIKA aren't exactly obscure. Firoz Dastur ("ghaT ghaT
>me.n raam ramaiyyaa" in Lalit) and Saraswati Rane ("mandar baajo re" in
>Shudh Kalyan) are both Kirana gharana stalwarts.
(First, welcome back to RMIM! And thanks for a nice article.)
Saraswati Rane (lineage, anyone? I keep getting a vague feeling
of having read somewhere that she is a sister of Hirabai Barodekar).
was a good singer, but remained in the shadows of her contemporary
or slighly senior female musicians from Kirana - Hirabai, Roshanara,
Gangubai - as far as the classical world is concerned. She did cut a
few 78rpms of classical - a couple are now available on tape thanks
to HMV.
>In addition, each has
>an association with Hindi film music going back to the 1940s, if not
>earlier.
Dastur's (who, incidentally, also remained in the shadows, relative
to Bhimsen or Gangubai) association certainly predates 1940 and
most likely it did not continue into the '40s.
>And Saraswati Rane's "biinaa madhur madhur kachhu bol" is a
>classic.
What a lovely song!
>She also has a couple of duets with Lata in C Ramchandra's
>SARGAM: the title song, "jab dil ko sataaye Gam, tuu chhe.D sakhii
>saragam" (what raag is this in? It sounds like a variant of Jaunpuri)
Devgandhar, I think.
>In particular she had quite a long
>association with the BHUMIKA MD Vanraj Bhatia. IIRC her lone Filmfare
>award was for a song under his baton, "maaro gaam kaaThaa paare" from
>MANTHAN.
That was probably her first film song. It gave her some critical
acclaim but her fame came more from the Julie song, I suppose.
I am not too fond of her singing. She has a certain way of trying to
sound sweet (especially in some of her later work) but ending up
sounding silly or even irritating. That said, I do like some of her
songs (including the Manthan song).
>Chandru Atma ("merii zindagii kii kashtii tere pyaar kaa sahaaraa") is
>the son of C H Atma of "priitam aan milo" fame. C H Atma was a Saigal
>wannabe who did achieve a fair degree of success in the 1940s;
Once again, the dates may be slightly off. I think Atma burst
onto the scene with "priitam aan milo", which must have come
around 1950 or so. He had a brief stint in the early 50s with
some big-name MDs using him - OP ("priitam...", which was
originally a non-film song, re-used in Mr&Mrs55), SJ (Nagina
- "saagar roye", "ek sitaaraa" or something similar). But he
remained a niche singer, perhaps best-known for his non-film
geets in a Saigal-like voice.
C
Ket...@att.net
>Madhuri Purandare ("saa.nso.n me.n dard, dard me.n saa.nse basee huee")
>and Vandana Khandekar ("kaanhaa re, peer sahee na jaae"). Two
>exquisitely beautiful songs. Lyrics, respectively by Suryabhanu Gupt
>and Vasant Dev. Music by perhaps the most talented Varman of them
>all--Ajit Varman.
Are there any other movies with Ajit Varman as MD? Or was he a 'one-hit wonder'?
Is "man anand anand chhayo" by him?
Ketan
Anand Tiwari
> drag...@aol.combination (Sydney Assbasket ) wrote:
>
>
> Chandru Atma ("merii zindagii kii kashtii tere pyaar kaa sahaaraa") is
> the son of C H Atma of "priitam aan milo" fame. C H Atma was a Saigal
> wannabe who did achieve a fair degree of success in the 1940s; even as
> late as the 1960s he had a couple of songs in GEET GAAYAA PATTHARON NE
> ("manDave tale Gariib ke do phuul khil rahe.n hai.n"). Chandru Atma
> made a career of singing his father's songs on Bombay Doordarshan in the
> 1970s. This is the only film song of his I know. There must be
> others....anybody?
>
Surajit,
Chandru Atma has at least one more film song to his credit. He sang a
version of "Tumse Badhkar duniya mein....." in FilmKraft's "Kaamchor"
starring Rakesh Roshan and Jayaprada. The other version of the song is
by Kishore & Alka Yagnik.
Anand
Surajit A. Bose
wrote:
> "Surajit A. Bose" wrote:
> >
> > There's a 1980s movie AAKROSH, with music by Ajit Varman. I can't
> > remember the singers' names, but the songs are excellent.
> >
>
> The one by Shashi Kapoor, having Rekha as the mom of Shashi's army-guy
> son?
That movie is VIJETA. It too had music by Ajit Varman. The song you're
thinking of is the song Ketan mentions, viz. "man aanand aanand
chhaayo", sung by Asha and Satyasheel Deshpande. Yup, the same pair that
sang "jhuuThe nainaa bole" in LEKIN.
I'm afraid I don't remember much more of Varman's work; there were other
good songs by him in the 1980s, but memory fails me. He was definitely
not a one-film wonder, though. There are other films besides these two.
Since Ashok seems to be an admirer, maybe he can fill out the details?
And thanks for welcoming me back to RMIM, Chetan. Yes, my dates are off.
Nani too informed me that Dastur was active in the 1930s film industry,
not the 1940s. My giit kosh vols are still packed away in a box
somewhere, so I couldn't double-check any of my information.
I'm glad to see Anand Tiwari is back too. Thanks for the info on the
other Chandru Atma song, Anand.
-s
Abhay Phadnis
> I'm afraid I don't remember much more of Varman's work; there were other
> good songs by him in the 1980s, but memory fails me. He was definitely
> not a one-film wonder, though. There are other films besides these two.
He MD-ed "Saaraansh" too - I remember him making a big hue and cry because
Vasant Dev got the National Award for best lyrist for the song "a.ndhiyaaraa
gaharaayaa": Varman's point was, IIRC, that he should have got the MD award
for that song and that, since he did not get, neither should the lyrist have
got an award, because the words have no relevance without the music! As
skewed a bit of reasoning as I ever heard.
Warm regards,
Abhay
Ket...@att.net
>I'm afraid I don't remember much more of Varman's work; there were other
>good songs by him in the 1980s, but memory fails me. He was definitely
>not a one-film wonder, though. There are other films besides these two.
>Since Ashok seems to be an admirer, maybe he can fill out the details?
Is Ashok an admirer of A.Varman, or did he just make that crack to put-down some
other people whom he erroneously thinks are 'Varman'? :)
Ketan
J. K. Mohana Rao
> "Surajit A. Bose" <sb...@saintmarys.edu> wrote in message
> news:sbose-B48CA5....@news.fu-berlin.de...
> .
> > I don't really know what happened to her, though. And I'll admit I've
> > not heard of Meena Patharpekhar (another version of "mondar baajo baajo
> > re") before or since BHUMIKA.
>
Is there any place on the net where one can hear the songs
of Bhumika? Thanks. - J K Mohana Rao
Surajit A. Bose
"Abhay Phadnis" <apha...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Too bad about the ego problem. "andhiyaaraa gaharaayaa suunaapan ghir
aayaa" is indeed a lovely song (lyrics and composition), beautifully
rendered by Bhupinder. The other song in SAARANSH, "har gha.Dii mumble
mumble zindagii" sung by Amit Kumar, is quite boring.
-s
Ket...@att.net
>> He MD-ed "Saaraansh" too - I remember him making a big hue and cry because
>> Vasant Dev got the National Award for best lyrist for the song "a.ndhiyaaraa
>> gaharaayaa": Varman's point was, IIRC, that he should have got the MD award
>> for that song and that, since he did not get, neither should the lyrist have
>> got an award, because the words have no relevance without the music! As
>> skewed a bit of reasoning as I ever heard.
>
>Too bad about the ego problem. "andhiyaaraa gaharaayaa suunaapan ghir
>aayaa" is indeed a lovely song (lyrics and composition), beautifully
>rendered by Bhupinder. The other song in SAARANSH, "har gha.Dii mumble
>mumble zindagii" sung by Amit Kumar, is quite boring.
The only other instance I know of the lyricist getting the award but not the MD
was in Ijaazat. Gulzar got it for 'Katra Katra'(please don't tell me it was for
Mera kuch samaan) and Asha for her rendition of 'Mera kuch samaan' and RDB was
left stone cold. Bunch of jokers *&&^%^%&!!!!
Any other instances like these?
Ketan
Srinivas Ganti
>Ketan wrote:
> The only other instance I know of the lyricist getting the award but not
the MD
> was in Ijaazat. Gulzar got it for 'Katra Katra'(please don't tell me it
was for
> Mera kuch samaan) and Asha for her rendition of 'Mera kuch samaan' and RDB
was
> left stone cold. Bunch of jokers *&&^%^%&!!!!
>
> Any other instances like these?
Yes! It happenned to Ravi atleast 4 times !
1) Chaudavi ka chand ho
Rafi & Shakeel Badayuni got the awards
2)chalo ik baar phir se
Mahendra Kapoor & Sahir got the awards
3)Tumhi meri mandir
Lata & Rajinder Krishan got the awards
4)dil ke armaan aasuon me bah gaye
Salma Agha and Hasan Kamal got the awards
SG.
Ashok
Looks like you haven't watched 'Vidya' carefully, or at all.
Check the titles for music director credits.
Ashok
vsr...@mailandnews.com
>
> >Ketan wrote:
> > The only other instance I know of the lyricist getting the award but not
> the MD
> > was in Ijaazat. Gulzar got it for 'Katra Katra'(please don't tell me it
> was for
> > Mera kuch samaan) and Asha for her rendition of 'Mera kuch samaan' and RDB
> was
> > left stone cold. Bunch of jokers *&&^%^%&!!!!
> >
> > Any other instances like these?
>
> Yes! It happenned to Ravi atleast 4 times !
>
> 1) Chaudavi ka chand ho
> Rafi & Shakeel Badayuni got the awards
> 2)chalo ik baar phir se
> Mahendra Kapoor & Sahir got the awards
> 3)Tumhi meri mandir
"mere".
I thought you were marathi, but the above mistake suggests that you are
tamilian. :)
-Rawat
PS: Also the missing h in Shrinivas. :)
Ket...@att.net
>>Is Ashok an admirer of A.Varman, or did he just make that crack to put-down
>some
>>other people whom he erroneously thinks are 'Varman'? :)
>>
>>
>>Ketan
>
>Looks like you haven't watched 'Vidya' carefully, or at all.
>Check the titles for music director credits.
Oh I have...a long time ago. And also 'Ek Nazar' which too spells his name as
'Varman'. I expected YOU to know better though. Let me explain :
When the British first invaded N.E.India and present day Myanmar, they came
across many tribes--Kachens, Shans etc. The most dominant tribe in what is
present-day Tripura and surrounding areas was a tribe called Burmans. From there
they named the country/region as "Burma".
It seems to me that the Bombay movie industry at some point "wisely"
thought..oh, since all Bongs make the 'V' sound into a 'B', and since this guy
comes from Calcutta, this guy's name must actually be 'Varman' instead of
'Barman/Burman'. So let's all spell it that way. Apparently at some point, SDB
seems to have prevailed because around 1954 or so, we start seeing 'Burman' in
the credits.
Now whether Ajit Varman is actually a non-Bong Varman or a 'Burman' spelling his
name as 'Varman' is not known to me.
Ketan
Srinivas Ganti
<Ket...@att.net> wrote:
> Oh I have...a long time ago. And also 'Ek Nazar' which too spells his name
as
> 'Varman'. I expected YOU to know better though.
IIRC it was Varman in Shabnam and Bahaar too.
> When the British first invaded N.E.India and present day Myanmar, they
came
> across many tribes--Kachens, Shans etc. The most dominant tribe in what is
> present-day Tripura and surrounding areas was a tribe called Burmans. From
there
> they named the country/region as "Burma".
This Burmans tribe shud be different from the 'Dev Burmans' tribe, right ?
> It seems to me that the Bombay movie industry at some point "wisely"
> thought..oh, since all Bongs make the 'V' sound into a 'B', and since this
guy
> comes from Calcutta, this guy's name must actually be 'Varman' instead of
> 'Barman/Burman'. So let's all spell it that way. Apparently at some point,
SDB
> seems to have prevailed because around 1954 or so, we start seeing
'Burman' in
> the credits.
IIRC in Baazi and Jaal his name appears as Burman.
SG.
ps:I recently found this at http://www.bheemsinh.8m.com/sdburman.html
'His brother conspired to kill him, and Sachin left home, roaming for years
in the forests of Assam and Tripura from where he gained his formidable
knowledge and rich repertoire of the rich folk of that region and Bengal.'
rvar...@gmail.com
He is half Bengali and half Punjabi, definitely not a Burman and the surname is VArman for all those who asked. Ajit Varman does not have a prolific number of films but his work has usually been acclaimed.
Your comments and posts are appreciated and thank you for being frank.
Rekha Varman