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 taal 
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 One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
Madan Mohan
| Madan Mohan has created for us a treasure of songs sung by Lata. He was greatly known for his ghazals and also brought classical touch of his own to many songs. |
Madan Mohan : In The Name Of The Father
Source: Filmfare, December 1997
(By Sanjeev Kohli, Son of Madan Mohan and
Senior Marketing Consultant of HMV)
To be honest, I remember Madan Mohan more as a father than as a composer. He kept us far away from the recording studios. Perhaps because he was disillusioned by the music industry. He was a very affectionate father, but strict. He wanted his children to have a normal childhood. He wouldn't allow my brothers or me to hang around the music sessions. But we did cheat a bit. On holidays, we'd insist that nothing would keep us from the recordings. Today, I feel he craved much more appreciation than he actually got. I can't help feeling bitter about the frustrations that my father had to go through, hiding his hurt behind a smile. Since I've been a part of the music business for 20 years myself, I find more and more people returning to Madan Mohan's music. In Meri Pasand, the TV programme which I produce featuring the favourite songs of celebrities, one of the seven songs is always a Madan Mohan composition. The invitees select the song of their own choice, and not because Madan Mohan was the producer's dad. It has even become fashionable for music directors to associate themselves with the name of Madan Mohan. Whenever Khayyam or Naushad give an interview, they make it a point to mention his name. O.P.Nayyar has gone on record to state that the Lata Mangeshkar-Madan Mohan combination remains unparalled. For young composers like Jatin-Lalit, it's the in thing to say Madan Mohan was one of the greatest composers. In Meri Awaz Suno, the participants often want to render Madan Mohan songs. And I wonder why people didn't express their appreciation when my father was alive. He would tell my mother that he didn't get his dues from the film industry. The biggest banners never came his way. All the hotshot stars and directors like Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand were his close friends... Raj Kapoor had offered him Satyam Shivam Sundaram. But I don't know what happened. What I do know is that my father had an ego. Maybe that came in the way. Jaikishen had died and Mera Naam Joker had flopped. Raj Kapoor was making Bobby. After that, he wanted my father to do Satyam Shivam Sundaram. My father probably died before the deal could be finalised. Raj Kapoor, Suraiya and my father were childhood friends. Suraiya and my father would sing together on All India Radio. My father would feel very hurt when his songs would become hits but the films would flop. If he had done better films with better film-makers, his compositions wouldn't have been underrated. Today everyone loves his songs but they don't feature in any of the lists of the 50 musical movie hits of all time. Some of the best songs of my father were picturised on second-rung heroines. Like Woh bhooli dastaan on Anita Guha in Sanjog. Or on Priya Rajvansh, who was considered a bad actress. Though Chetan Anand was one of my father's best friends and loyal supporters, I don't think the songs of Heer Ranjha and Hanste Zakhm in a Chitrahaar would stand a fair chance against lesser songs filmed on better actresses. Many of my father's song were also filmed on Mala Sinha who wasn't considered one of the greats of her generation. He didn't get too many Waheeda Rehman songs. He did get a Nutan film -- Dulhan Ek Raat Ki. And he composed the lovely number Sapnon mein agar mere for it. But the film ran for just seven days. Jahan Ara, which had some of his best compositions ever, was removed from theatres in four days. It broke his heart. There were several music camps in those days and they were all so good. Even my father couldn't deny that. Navketan had the Burmans. The R.K. banner hand Shankar-Jaikishen. They were all so comfortable working together that no one was interested in breaking up the teams. Today, film-makers are more open to change. Subhash Ghai worked extensively with Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He then dropped them for A.R. Rahman. He then dropped Rahman for Nadeem-Shravan. We don't know what he'll do next. Once, the working environment was of the essence. My father had to feel comfortable with the film-makers he worked with. He worked a lot with Chetan Anand and Om Prakash, the character actor who produced Sanjog, Jahan Ara, Gateway Of India and Chacha Zindabad... none of them were hits. My father worked closely with Raj Khosla. They would plan the films together. My father's first silver jubilee hit was Raj Khosla's Woh Kaun Thi. There's an interesting story about Mera Saaya. The film was originally called Saaya. My father had a huge spool tape-recorder. After he had recorded the title song Tu jahan jahan chalega mera saaya saath hoga, he cooked dinner and listened to the song with Raj Khosla and other close friends over drinks. And they all agreed that the film's title should be changed to Mera Saaya. Back then, there was a constant give-and-take. Now there's just take. I don't know why Raj Khosla switched to Laxmikant-Pyarelal after Woh Kaun Thi and Mera Saaya. My father was hot-headed... maybe there was some misunderstanding between them. Raj Khosla had his own ups and down. Chetan Anand was the most important film-maker in the latter part of my father's life. Chetan Anand was planning a small film, Aakhri Khat, at the same time as Haqeeqat. He wanted my dad to score music for both the films. But my dad said, "Why don't you give Aakhri Khat to my friend Khayyam?" And the film went on to revive Khayyam's career. Chetan Anand, Kaifi Azmi and Priya would often drop in at our house. Priya would come into our room where we kids would have our dinner separately. She played carrom with us. My father almost died at Chetan Anand's house while working on the music of Salim Anarkali which was eventually shelved. He collapsed in Chetan Anand's house. When we went on long car drives, dad would tell us to sing a song. Small and unfeeling that we were, we would start singing the songs composed by other music directors. He'd turn around and say, "Hey, even you!" At that time, we couldn't understand what he meant. We wouldn't sing his songs because they weren't easy to sing. That used to hurt him. Even his failmy didn't appreciate him. He started drinking heavily. He died of cirrhosis of the lever. It's not something I'm ashamed of at all. I don't allow this fact to disturb me at all. When my father died, I had to get out of his shadow. I was very keen to become a music composer. But he had gone out of his way to keep me away from music. He felt he hadn't made it... he didn't want his son to go through hard times. After he died, I tried to learn the sitar. But nothing came of it. Memories linger on though. By the time dad got his first major award for Dastak, he'd become very bitter. He pretended not to be happy with the honour. But he was happy because Sanjeev Kumar and Rehana Sultan also got National Awards for the same film. So they all went together to Delhi for the function. The National Award wasn't widely understood then. It was not getting the Filmfare Award that really bothered my father. In the year when Mera Saaya was in the reckoning, he told us that all the issues of Filmfare had been bought. I'm not saying there was any cheating but when consumers had to fill in the coupons about their choices, it was so easy to manipulate the awards. I think my father lost out because he couldn't play such games. My father was very sentimental. He cried easily. There was a very good arranger called Sonik who later became a composing duo with his nephew, Sonik-Omi. Sonik would arrange the songs for my father. Omi, who was the spokesperson of the two, said in an interview after my father died, that most of Madan Mohan's tunes were composed by Sonik. My question to them is--why didn't Sonik-Omi come up with one memorable tune when they were on their own? My father's favourite sitar player was the renowned Rais Khan. If you've heard the Madan Mohan compositions carefully, you'd know that the sitar base is very crucial. Rais Khan claimed that he had composed all the sitar interludes. It's possible that he did. The point is, they sat together and worked in a room. My father was so fond of Rais Khan that when there was a musical soiree at our home, he would invite Rais Khan to play the sitar. My father was too embarrassed to discuss money with his friend, so he told his manager to ask Rais Khan what kind of money he should be paid. Rais Khan took tremendous umbrage. A few days later, he called up my father and said there's a wedding at a friend's house and would my father like to sing there. If yes, how much money would he charge? My father was very, very hurt. He decided that Rais Khan would never again play in his songs. From that day onwards, in 1972 to the day he died, the sitar disappeared from Madan Mohan's tunes. He was a Sagittarian and completely emotional. My father never used the ghazal as a ghazal per se. He used it as a love song, a sad song etc. Like Zameen se hamen aasman par in Adalat and Aapko pyar chhupane ki buri aadat hai in Neela Aakash. At times, he even copied Western tunes. Like Dil dil se milakar dekho in Memsaab. But because the ghazal was his forte he became typecast. Naushad goes on and on about the two ghazals from Anpadh -- Aap ki nazron ne samjha and Hai isi mein pyar ki abroo being equal to his entire oeuvre. I don't remember him saying that when my father was alive. I'll tell you something about Naushad sa'ab. My father used to take us to his house for dinner every two or three months. I remember hearing the songs of K Asif's Love And God at Naushad sa'ab's house. On our way home my father praised his songs wholeheartedly. I vividly remember attending a recording for the song Chhayee barkha bahaar in Chirag. While Lataji was at the mike, my father said, "See how I'm going to make her say chhayee." The word actually spreads itself out when she sings it. It was a very tough song to put together. The musicians were making a lot of mistakes. Lataji had to sing it about 15 times to get it right in one take. I remember asking her if she was exhausted. She said, "What to do? Most of my biggest hits have been sung at my tired worst". Today, of course, it isn't like that. Everything is dubbed. For the doli song in Heer Ranjha, the main theme was derived from traditional sources. But all the antaras were my father's, I remember everyone was crying at the end of the recording. Kaifi Azmi, his wife Shaukat, Chetan Anand. They all went up to Lataji and my father to say, "You made us cry." The song Aapki nazron ne samjha (Anpadh) was composed by my father in two minutes during the lift journey from the ground floor to the fifth floor of our building. I remember the moment when my father almost in a trance, shut his eyes and started singing to himself. When the lift reached our apartment, he rushed to the harmonium to complete the tune. The song Naina barse in Woh Kaun Thi was composed in the early '50s. But it wasn't found suitable for any film until Woh Kaun Thi. Raj Khosla and my father mutually agreed that it would be right for the ghost story. At the time of the recording, Lataji was unwell. So the song was filmed on Sadhana in my father's voice, and redubbed later. My father's first big commercial break was Bhai Bhai in 1956. I remember my mother telling me that I was lucky for him since it was the year I was born. He was particularly fond of the song Yeh duniya yeh mehfil in Heer Ranjha because of the variety in arrangement. His own favourite composition was Sawan ke mahine main from Sharabi. He would sing the song for his friends at private gatherings. Perhaps he identified with the lyrics. Lataji was the last word for him. I remember Asha Bhosle came for a recording of a cabaret song. She asked my father in front of me, "Madan bhaiyya, this song is nice but who's singing the other songs?" When my father told her that it was Lataji, Ashaji bluntly asked, "Why can't I sing them?" And my father replied, "Jab tak Lata hai Lata hi gayegi." That didn't make Ashaji very happy. The point is, he was very honest. Lataji and my father had no other relationship except that of a brother and sister. When he would be asked why he was besotted with Lata Mangeshkar, my father would reply, "Why only me? S.D. Burman, Naushad, C.Ramachandra, Roshan, Shankar-Jaikishen are all besotted with her. Are they all mad?" To make the world believe that Sharda was a better singer than Lataji and Ashaji required a lot of guts. The joke in those days was, love isn't only blind, it's also deaf. It wasn't just my father who said that Lataji was the best. It was the world. O.P. Nayyar said his style of composing suited Shamshad Begum, Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle. Possibly he changed his style. Because the fact remains that for the first film he ever signed he wanted Lataji to sing. But something obviously went wrong and he swore that he would become successful without Lataji. That was wonderful. I respect and admire O.P. Nayyar's achievements. What I can never forget about Lataji is that after my father died, she became closer to us than before, even though she had nothing to gain from us. She looked after us children completely after my mother died. When I got married, she sent the invitation cards out in her name. Today, I want to be there for her if she needs my help. Coming back to my father, he scored his biggest hit, Laila Majnu, after his death. It was probably his weakest score though. Lataji tells us that he was often off-colour since he had too much to drink during the recordings. Lataji did tell him to get a grip on himself. But dad's frustrations in the last couple of years of his life had become too much to bear. Ironically, his best- remembered songs are from films released after his death -- Mausam and Laila Majnu. I discovered my father's genius at the age of 16 when I accidentally found tapes of his songs in the cupboard. I heard all his released and unreleased songs on master tapes. I realised his worth. I discovered in the tapes that he had composed ten different tunes for the same song. For example, there were literally ten tunes for Dil dhoondta hai in Mausam. I realised there was still so much more to his genius than what the world had heard. Today we're no longer called the Madan Mohan family. I never tell anyone I'm his son. One has to come into one's own. |
____________ Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic. (Jean Sibelius)
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#1 22 Feb 2007 15:48
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| Thanks for the useful Topic taal : |
| sur (16 June), |
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taal
Joined: December 2006
Posts: 863
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
This Article is taken from the Telegraph ...
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050715/asp/etc/story_4980498. asp
Woh bhooli daastaan?
Exactly 30 years ago, we lost Madan Mohan. But considering the staying power of Veer-Zaara, did we really? By Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Srijit Mukherji
As the strains of Do pal rukaa from Veer-Zaara (2004) filtered through the transom of contemporary Hindi film music onto the eager ears, one could feel the strong sense of musical deja vu. Been here, heard that. The voice, having weathered almost a half century, was now paying one last tribute. The composition, not to be left behind, was acknowledging their historic collusion. And while Madan Mohan-Lata Mangeshkar weaved one more strand of their magical fabric, the goose bumps stood up in rapturous applause.
Like .P. Nayyar once famously said, it is difficult to figure out whether Madan Mohan was made for Lata Mangeshkar or vice versa. But, he added, there has never been a composer like Madan Mohan or a singer like Lata. Naushad went on record saying he was ready to exchange all his compositions for the twin gems of Hai isi mein pyaar ki aabroo and Aap ki nazron ne samjha from Anpadh (1962). S.D. Burman marvelled at his use of Lata’s vocals in tandem with folk instruments in Heer Ranjha (1970). Singers like Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey waxed eloquent on the Lata-Madan combine. However, unfortunately, most of this adulation was truly Van Goghesque in nature. Madan Mohan couldn’t witness most of it in his lifetime.
The finest work, from Devendra Goel’s Aankhen (1950) to Hari Mehra’s jinxed Chaalbaaz released five years after the maestro’s death, of this vintage combination transcends time. Notwithstanding the phoenix of Veer-Zaara (2004), Madan Mohan scored music for about 90 films and collaborated 210 times with Lata Mangeshkar, primarily for solos. For a man who thought Lata was the nearest thing to vocal perfection he has heard, each of those 210 times must have been ecstasy..
Moving away from mere statistics, there is an obvious query which would plague most minds. That among the innumerable unforgettable partnerships the Nightingale had forged with the entire pantheon from Anil Biswas to A.R. Rahman, what makes this combination supreme? That, too, with a composer who was hardly a ‘commercial’ success? The answer exists at various levels. His compositional techniques and eventually the output were vastly different from most of his contemporaries, and even later composers. As Lata Mangeshkar reminisces, he used to croon various taans during the creation of a song. And his genius lay in etching out the final composition from the surfeit of these taans with the assured competency of a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat.
Though primarily popular as the Ultimate Ghazalsmith, he fashioned an incredible range for the vocals of Lata, where the output was more than simply a ghazal. Furthermore, Lata also sounded different under Madan Mohan. One reason was that his composition often broke away from the usual paradigm of Hindi songs of a low octave mukhda followed by an antara at a higher octave. His compositions often started at a high pitch, followed either by an antara in low octave (for example, Jee humen manzoor hain from Aap ki nazron ne samjha) or a even higher pitched antara.
For the latter, sample the three beauties from Raj Khosla’s ghost saga Woh Kaun Thi? (1964) — Lag ja gale, Naina barse rimjhim and Jo hum ne daastaan. We find the extra intensity, that added involvement with the soul of the numbers which Lata had to eke out. His numbers often created a feel of tearful craving, simply by using one special note or line at an opportune moment. As in the use of one Lata stanza in Tum jo mil gaye ho (Hanste Zakhm). Or the dulcet caress of the ephemeral in Khelo na mere dil se (Haqeeqat, 1964) by using the very unconventional Teevra Madhyam note as the first note of the number, and restricting its use to only once in this number that lingers in raga Charukeshi.
Another aspect of his style which makes this collaboration stand out is the fusion of Western elements of orchestration with Indian sensibilities, a trait which received an initial fillip under masters like C. Ramachandra, .P. Nayyar and Shankar-Jaikishan, and finally reached the zenith of unimaginable brilliance under Salil Choudhury and R.D. Burman.
While Salil could cast a spell with his juggling of the seven notes or RD could marry off unthinkable rhythms with smooth flowing tunes, Madan Mohan could play around with the soul of the number. His compositions were heavy, cavernous, resonant, yet razor-sharp. Though arrangement was never his strongest point, he was a perfectionist and ensured that his musicians always gave their best.
One incident which probably affirms this to the hilt is a part of film folklore by now. During the recording of Nainon mein badra chhaaye (Mera Saaya, 1966) when a musician hit a wrong note, true to his military background, his fragile temperament and his utter contempt for anything musically incompetent, he broke the glass pane of the recording room!
Madan Mohan was not an assemblyline composer, and most of his songs with Lata might not be instantly hummable. To fathom the intensity of his compositions, one has to give more than just a casual hearing. And this is probably what the last three decades of music lovers have increasingly realised; because the combination which once failed to set the popular imagination on fire is now a sure-shot for the music companies. Along with Lata-Salil, RD-Kishore and Asha-OP, Lata -Madan remains one of the best musical collusions of Hindi film music.
Best of...
Madan Mohan - Lata
1 Lag ja gale
(Woh Kaun Thi?, 1964)
2 Betaab dil ki tamanna
(Hanste Zakhm, 1973)
3 Yoon hasraton ke daag
(Adalat, 1958)
4 Woh bhooli daastaan
(Sanjog, 1961)
5 Baiyyaan na dharo
(Dastak, 1970)
6 Khelo na mere dil se
(Haqeeqat, 1964)
7 Nainon mein badra chhaaye (Mera Saaya, 1966)
8 Na tum bewafa ho
(Ek Kali Muskayi, 1968)
9 Hai isi mein pyaar ki aabroo (Anpadh, 1962)
10 Raat ujiyari din andhera hai (Chalbaaz, 1980)
____________
Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic. (Jean Sibelius)
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#2 22 Feb 2007 15:59
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taal
Joined: December 2006
Posts: 863
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
Madan Mohan lives on
Dinesh Raheja | October 05, 2004 |  Yash Chopra's latest film Veer-Zaara makes a radical departure from the norm -- the movie's music is composed by Madan Mohan, who passed away in 1975. Chopra has had some of the maestro's unused compositions re-recorded under the aegis of the composer's son, Sanjeev Kohli.
It is a thumping testimony to Madan Mohan Kohli's genius that a filmmaker with Chopra's knack for second-guessing the audience feels his music is still relevant, decades after his heyday. Recent revisits to the past like Dil Vil Pyar Vyar and Jhankaar Beats have paid homage to R D Burman, but never has the entire score of an A-list film been derived from a deceased composer's virgin works. What is piquantly ironic, however, is the thought that during his lifetime (he died aged just 51 in 1975) Madan Mohan never got the multiple awards or the commercial frontline that his talent so richly deserved. The 1950s: Sparkling despite the struggle Madan Mohan was born to privilege as the son of Rai Bahadur Chunilal who helped helm the affairs of such famous studios as Bombay Talkies and Filmistan. He was always musically inclined and started composing with Devendra Goel's debut directorial venture, Aankhen (1950) in which both Bharat Bhushan and Shekhar yearned for Nalini Jaywant's affections. The film was a success, Meena Kapoor's song Mori atarwa pe kaga bole, mora jiya dole was very popular (there was no Lata Mangeshkar on this soundtrack) and subsequently, a fair amount of work came Madan Mohan's way. Among Madan Mohan's early 1950s films was a trio of films starring his childhood friend, Raj Kapoor: Aashiana, Dhun and Paapi. But despite gems like Mera qarar leja, Main pagal mera manwa pagal and Badi barbadiyan lekar, Madan Mohan's work failed to create much impact. It was with the Ashok Kumar-Kishore Kumar tandem, Bhai Bhai (1956) that the young composer tasted a modicum of success. The score had Kishore's typical Mera naam Abdul Rehman, Lata's Kadar jaane na but the most successful was Geeta Dutt's Aye dil mujhe bata de picturised on seductress Shyama who entices Ashok Kumar away from the homely charms of wife Nirupa Roy. Unfortunately for Madan, though he became well-known for his felicity in weaving many a gossamer melody like Chaand madhyam (Railway Platform), Aaja kahin se aaja (Samundar), Do ghadi woh jo paas aa baithe (Gateway Of India) and Hamsafar saath apna chhod chale (Aakhri Dao), the films were not commercial blockbusters. To Madan Mohan's consternation, he found that the topmost heroes and banners had already settled into comfortable grooves with their favourite composers (Raj Kapoor-Shankar Jaikishen, Dilip Kumar-Naushad, Dev Anand-S D Burman) leaving little room for a newcomer, however talented, to elbow his way in. He may have missed out on providing the music for any of the golden age classics, but two outstanding Madan Mohan scores -- Dekh Kabira Roya (1957) and Adalat (1958) -- established that whatever may be the rat race positioning, Madan Mohan had to be noted as a special prodigy. The special rapport with Lata | Best songs with Lata | Film | Kadar jaane na | Bhai Bhai | | Meri beena tum roye | Dekh Kabira Roye | | Hum pyar mein jalne walo ko | Jailor | | Yun hasraton ke daag | Adalat | | Woh bhooli daastaan | Sanjog | | Aapki nazron ne samjha | Anpadh | | Naina barse rimjhim | Woh Kaun Thi | | Tu jahan jahan chalega | Mera Saaya | | Baiyan na dharo | Dastak | | Milo na tum toh | Heer Ranjha | | Rasm-e-ulfat ko nibhaye | Dil Ki Raahein | | Husn haazir hai mohabbat ki sazaa | Laila Majnu |
The legendary jugalbandi between Madan Mohan and his eternal muse Lata Mangeshkar began early in his career – with 1951's plaintive Preetam meri duniya mein do din to rahe hote from Ada. Madan Mohan had this special ability to highlight the tenderness in Lata's voice, which even his elaborate orchestrations could never subdue. And while they have justifiably earned a reputation for highly emotional scorchers, not all their together numbers were lugubrious litanies. Lata could sound upbeat in Bahana's Jaa re badra bairi jaa, seductive in Sanjog's Chala hai kahan, jaunty in Neela Akash's Aapko pyar chhupane ki buri aadat hai and perky in Mera Saaya's Nainowali ne and be as easy on the ears as she was in the sombre numbers like Chacha Zindabad's Bairan neend na aaye, Jahan Ara's Woh chup rahe mere dil ke daag jalte hai or Ek Kali Muskayee's Na tum bewafaa ho. Hitting a high note By the turn of the sixties, Madan Mohan had acquired a reputation as a composer with class. His successful streak began after his Anpadh (1962) songs like Aapki nazron ne samjha (picturised on Mala Sinha) and Jiya le gayo re mora sanwariya (picturised on Bindu) became the rage. Significantly, Anpadh's ghazals, Aapki nazron ne samjha and Hai issi mein pyar ki aabroo gave Madan Mohan the sobriquet of King of Ghazals. He had already laid the foundation with Adalat some years earlier through songs like Yun hasraton ke daag, Unko yeh shikayat hai ke ham and the goosebump-evoking Jaana tha hamse door bahane bana diye. Madan Mohan's famous songs | Song | Film | Singers | Aye dil mujhe bata de | Bhai Bhai | Geeta Dutt | Phir wohi shaam | Jahan Ara | Talat Mehmood | Rang aur noor ki baraat | Ghazal | Mohammed Rafi | Kar chale hum fidaa | Haqeequat | Mohammed Rafi | Jhumka gira re | Mera Saaya | Asha Bholse | Teri aankhon ke siwa | Chirag | Mohammed Rafi | Tum jo mil gaye ho toh | Hanste Zakham | Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar | Dil dhoondta hai phir wohi | Mausam | Bhupendra | Main tere dar pe aaya hoon | Laila Majnu | Mohammed Rafi |
Further commercial success came the composer's way with two Sadhana-Raj Khosla mystery thrillers -- Woh Kaun Thi (1964) and Mera Saaya (1966). Madan Mohla's third outing with Khosla, Chiraag (1969), however, didn't break the bank despite some exquisite tunes. The sixties also saw Madan Mohan begin his long association with Chetan Anand after the success of Haqeequat (1965) and it continued with Heer Ranjha, Hanste Zakham and Hindustan Ki Kasam. Madan Mohan's Haqeequat composition, Ab tumhare hawale watan saathiyon, was immortalised by Rafi and finds an echo in a new multistarrer of the same name. A question of aesthetics Though he never won a Filmfare award, Madan Mohan bagged the National Award for the Sanjeev Kumar-Rehana Sultan starrer, Dastak (1971) which was embellished with glittering triumphs like Maai ri, Baiyan na dharo and Hum hain mataye kuchao. Madan Mohan's keen sense of aesthetics was widely acknowledged and in the 1970s it was sensitive filmmakers like Chetan Anand, Rajinder Singh Bedi (Dastak), Hrishikesh Mukherji (Bawarchi) and Gulzar (Mausam) who collaborated with him. And Madan Mohan continued to dish out raag-based Indian music at the time when Dum maro dum was already ruling the airwaves. It is to Madan Mohan's credit that he remained in demand with discerning filmmakers right up to the end. And it was a fitting irony to this composer's life that the two films that released soon after his death -- Mausam and Laila Majnu -- became resounding musical successes. ____________ Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic. (Jean Sibelius)
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#3 22 Feb 2007 16:03
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 sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10620
Location: Virginia
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
Article: The Alluring Music of Madan Mohan By Ravindra Bivalkar | | | | | | | The music of Madan Mohan evokes a deep sense of amazement. Long after his death, the music continues to haunt you. Once you have listened to his compositions, you possibly cannot have any taste for the music created by the other doyens. Although I am only an avid fan of old Hindi film songs, I think that the secret of his everlasting appeal might probably rest with the firm grounding he had in Hindustani Classical Music and the care he took in setting the lyrics to tune and not vice-versa. Madan Mohan excelled in composing tunes based on classical ragas and for the sad and melancholy Ghazals. He also composed unparalleled tunes depicting the anguished pleas of a tormented soul. Much though would I like to expound on the various facets of Madan Mohan's music, I will put my feelings in respect of his memorable score for the film "Jahan Ara ", which in my opinion epitomizes all the qualities I had briefly referred to in preceding lines. The official soundtrack recording (HMV SPHO 4426) contains nine gems of unprecedented originality. The lyrics of Rajinder Kishen and the music of Madan Mohan are so well meshed that words fail to convey how vividly has Madan Mohan succeeded in portraying the subtle nuances and shades expressed in the lyrics. My personal favourites amongst these happen to be the Lata -Asha number, all the Talat Mahmood numbers, the Talat-Lata duet, two Lata solos, the Rafi solo and the Rafi- Suman duet in that order. This being my personal preference, the other fans of Madan Mohan(and whose number is legion) may find fault with it. I can only submit that I respect their sentiments and in no way is this brief excursion meant to disturb the status-quo of personal likings. The film as per my knowledge did not fare well commercially. However, the songs continue to captivate you nearly after three decades. To begin with let us consider the bewitching "Mujra," "Jab Jab Tumhe Bhulaya." The song begins with a soft rendition by Lata of the Talat solo " Main Teri Nazar Ka Suroor Hoon" (partially). Then the wailings of a lonely heart are so exquisitely etched in three stanzas that except for a stone hearted person, any person who has stayed away and / or strayed from his or her dearest one - is bound to find his eyes misty. The last stanza particularly might be a ghastly precursor to the last tragic days of Madan Mohan. "Marne ki aarzoo mein hum jee rahe hain aise Jaise ki laash aapni khud koi le chala hain" (In the fond wish of death embracing my body,I am trudging the lonely furrow of this aimless life as if carrying my own mortal remains with me). The perennial favourite Talat solos "Phir wahi sham","Teri aankh ke aasoon pee jaaon" and of course"Main teri nazar ka suroor hoon" have been perfectly tuned to convey the pathos of the lovers who cannot fulfill their cherished desire, particularly the "Phir wohi sham " number. Unless one has experienced the empty evenings and the gut wrenching pain of separation, one cannot empathize with the feelings expressed in the silken voice of Talat Mahmood. The Talat-Lata duet perfectly captures the ebullience of young love with all the unrealistic notions of what love can do. The opening music impeccably connotes the "Joie de vivre" of the young lovers. The much abused dancing around the trees and in the fields is immediately elevated to dreamy level not achieved by many. Instead of choosing Rafi, Madan Mohan had opted for Talat for all the important songs in the film. It is said that this led to a serious misunderstanding with the director of the film. However, Madan Mohan, as was his wont, did not yield ground and at the cost of opting out of the assignment, insisted for Talat's voice. The rest, to use a cliche, is history. However, Madan Mohan gave one unforgettable gem to Rafi in " Kisike yaad mein . . . " The Lata solos " Woh chup rahe to mere dil ke daag" and "Hal-e- dil unko yun sunaya gaya " perfectly bring to the fore the suppressed emotions and the fervent pleas of separated lovers. Although the words, tune and the singer provide a smooth blend of melancholy, my favourite Lata numbers happen to be from the other films. The young film goer who might not be familiar with the bygone era in the Hindi film music might very well ask a pertinent question: If the plethora of superlatives that has been used to describe the genius of Madan Mohan is to be taken at face value then Madan Mohan must have been a very successful music-director. To this- I would like to submit that Madan Mohan was indeed a successful music-director of commercially unsuccessful films. To cite some examples,"Aashiana,""Dekh Kabira Roya","Hanste Zakhm","Parawana (starring Yogita Bali, Navin Nischal and Amitabh ),"Mausam,""Heer Ranza" etc.In the eighty odd movies that had the distinction of having their music composed by Madan Mohan, only four movies were commercially successful "Bhai Bhai","Mastana","Woh kaun thi"and "Mera saya." What could have gone wrong? Probabaly, the uncompromising attitude of Madan towards the quality of his music and his culture that made him totally unfit to survive in the ghoulish world of "modern music." Arvind Gokhale, a renowned Marathi writer in one of his articles that appeared in "Maharashtra Times" had vividly portrayed the last sad days of Madan Mohan's life. He had apparently lost interest in everything and had become overtly sentimental. What can a gifted person do when there are no assignments and the cut-throat competition (literally) from others poses a series of obstacles in completing whatever assignments he has in hand ? Madan Mohan was a disillusioned man in his last days and the void of emptiness on the professional front must have led him to his sad and untimely death. I consider him as one of the last titans who has given immense pleasure to his listeners over the years through his songs like
1) Lag ja gale (Woh kaun thi)
2) Jo hamne dastaan aapni sunayee (Woh kaun thi)
3) Chanda jaa (Manamauji)
4) Main to tumsang (Manamauji)
5) Baiyaan na dharo (Dastak)
6) Hum hain mata-e-kucha (Dastak)
7) Mai re main kase (Dastak)
8) Main to peeke nagariya gati chali (Ek kali muskayee)
9) Maine rang li aaj chunariya (Dulhan ek raatki)
10) Piya le gayo ji mera sawariya (Anpadh)
11) Aap ki nazaron ne samza (Anpadh)
12) Hain isi me pyar ki aabroo (Anpadh)
13) Ja re badra bairi jaa (Bahana)
14) Sapne me sajan se do bate (Gateway of India)
15) Wo bhuli dastan (Sanjog)
16) Bhuli hui yadon (Sanjog)
17) Hoke majbur muze (Haqueekat) This is only a representative selection and many personal favourites are not mentioned for the obvious reason - space limitation. The main intention is to rekindle the interest of the modern connoisseur of Hindi film music. The fact that Madan Mohan did not get the recognition and accolades he deserved in his lifetime need not necessarily mean that his genius should go unrecognized long after his death. Madan Mohan left this world for his heavenly abode on July14 , 1975 after realizing that "Yeh duniya,Yeh mehfil mere kamki nahin". The Gods must have been woefully short of musical talent of the calibre of Madan Mohan to have him recalled in the prime of his life and without allowing him to complete his concert. | | |
____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#4 09 Mar 2007 01:12
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10620
Location: Virginia
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
A son remembers ``I REMEMBER him telling me that his biggest hit song, Naina barse, was composed by him in the early 1950s. But no producer ever liked it or thought it worth using. He had to wait almost ten years for Raj Khosla to find it apt for a haunting situation. There are so many more such tunes that died with him some I have had the fortune of finding on some rare tapes... ``Whenever my father would ask us to sing at a small family get together, even we would end up singing a Baharon Phool Barsao or Kaun Hain Jo Sapnon Mein Aaya - not realising his songs weren't the easiest to sing and also that we were so worried that we had to sing a popular song to get the attention of those present. My father would feel let down. I feel it now, because he would jokingly tease us... ``He used to take us kids for swimming on weekends and would leave us to swim in the shallow while he swam across to the deep. I remember one day when we were 8 or 10, one of our friends in the pool telling us that our father was badly behaved as he was busy singing aloud to himself in the pool. It is only now that I understand that some tunes were striking him and he was itching to get to his harmonium to complete them...I think it was one of the songs in the early 60s...possibly a Woh Kaun Thi or Mera Saaya number. ``It was only when we matured that we realised that our father had made a difference to the lives of people on my first day at work, at Polydor, (now Universal), I was asked to establish contact with Mohd. Rafi to persuade him to cross over from HMV. I tried various calls to fix an appointment, but naturally never got Rafi Saheb on the line. I finally decided to become adventurous and landed up at Film Centre where he was recording, hoping to meet him face-to-face. I was accosted, rightly so, by his secretary, who berated me for daring to land up without an appointment. ``Very dejected, I just stood in a corner, and as I was ready to leave, out came the composer of the day, R. D. Burman, very delighted to see me. I was surprised he even recognised me since it had been four years since my father had died. Pancham took me into the control room, introduced me to the recordist, Kaushik, who told me my father was his favourite music director, to Raj Kapoor, the producer of that film, Biwi o Biwi, and to Rafi Saheb's secretary, who when he realised who I was apologised, profusely and took me to meet him. The way Rafi Saheb greeted me! And the reason was not that I represented Polydor but that I was Madan Mohan's son... ``On July 30, 1980, the day before he passed away, I spent over five hours at Rafi Saheb's residence for a photo shoot. Whenever we asked him to pose with the harmonium for a photograph, he would play and sing the song Tumhari zulf key saaye mein from Naunihal and keep telling me that this was his favourite and why it was such a brilliant composition. It was my first encounter at being told by somebody I worshipped, that my father was way above the others. He also told me that MM had given him a new lease of life with Laila Majnu. ``At the time, everybody, including the hero of the film, wanted Kishore Kumar to be the male lead singer for the film. Rafi Saheb was not at the peak of his performing career, yet my father put his foot down, adamant that only Rafi should sing the songs or he would leave the film.. Of course, after Laila Majnu, Rafi became Rishi Kapoor's voice in films like Karz., Amar Akbar Antony, etc., etc. ``And yet it was Madan Mohan who fought for Talat over Rafi in Jahanara. Talat sang four songs in the film, Rafi two less important ones. My dad strongly felt he had conceived the tunes for the three solos with Talat's timbre in mind. Secondly, Rafi in those days was singing everywhere, specially the frivolous hits and my father wanted more attention, more rehearsal and exclusivity for the songs like Phir wohi shaam, Teri aankh ke aansoo, Main teri nazar ka suroor and so stuck to his guns - possibly upsetting Rafi in the bargain... In my earlier years at HMV, having conditioned myself to believe that my dad was a class composer I would exclude his songs, till a lot of hate mail came HMV's way because of this. In fact R. P. Goenka, once called me to Calcutta to tell me that we were doing a lot of injustice to the Lata Mangeshkar compilations in particular by not putting many of Madan Mohan songs in them ``Mohan Kumar, director of Anpadh, remembers that a song, the most important part of the film, had been rehearsed for almost a month. Everybody assembled for the recording including Lata Mangeshkar when my father heard a chance remark from Mohan Kumar that ``woh baat nahin ban rahi hai''. He asked everybody to give him 10 minutes, went to a quiet corner and along with Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, came up with completely new lyrics, new tune and new music arrangements. An aghast singer waited silently to be told that the song was being redone completely and it was recorded within two hours from scratch... no wonder Aapki nazron ne samjha had to become a big hit! The song, Nainon mein badra chhaye almost never got recorded. The entire unit of Mera Saaya was at the Lake Palace, Udaipur, waiting to shoot this song which was delayed by a few months because of no dates from Lata Mangeshkar. My father was upset with the delay and his inability to deliver the song on time. So, he went to her house one day before and got her assurance that she would record the next day. ``It was a very musician based song as the santoor and the sitar were predominant and Shivkumar Sharma and Rais Khan had to literally compete with each other. ``Added to this was the fact that in those days no recording could take place without the singer also singing simultaneously. Everything was ready at 11 a.m when the ever-punctual Lata Mangeshkar did not arrive and sent a message that she was not feeling too well. My father sent back a message (though some people tell me he drove to her house) that he would drop the song if she did not record it that day. She reached and though she was not well a masterpiece was created ____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#5 10 Mar 2007 00:57
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10620
Location: Virginia
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
The king of melody 
Some are destined to be on earth much before their time, their glory to be sung many years after they are gone. Madan Mohan is one such, ruminates RATNA RAJAIAH. ``A great musical warrior of all times. The pretty soldiers of film industry, who could not match musical notes with him, defeated him by politics. But today they swear by his melody.'' A fan on the Internet THERE ARE fans and there are fans. Those who pray in the sanctum sanctorum, so steeped in the lore about the object of their adoration, seeking to know every tiny mote, every shade so much so that they, very often, know more about their idol than perhaps the deity itself. I, not one of those, sat outside the temple, on the edges along with millions of other such devotees, not knowing why or how this man touched my untutored heart, not understanding which soaring note, which shade of his musical genius softly played my soul, just knowing that each time I listened to his music, some strange, wonderful magic made something inside me stir, then soar and take wing... And that was enough. The first time I came across Madan Mohan was in a college in Calcutta, three years after his death. As I sat in a friend's room one day, a beautiful song played from the little tape recorder that today we would have scornfully called a dabba. Not even the tinny, mono playback of that dabba (though we didn't think so at the time!) could ruin the sweet, sensuous beauty of that song... ``Ek haseen shyam ko dil mera kho gaya. Pehle apna hua karta tha, ab kisi ka ho gaya.'' It was a time when the first generation of yuppies was being made, amongst whom it was becoming unfashionable to be a Hindi film fan but I recognised a few things about the song. Mainly that the velvet voice that could melt your bones was Rafi's. More than that? I knew my friend's father was a well-known music director in Hindi films called Madan Mohan. Did I connect him with the song? Dimly, maybe. And so, in the space of those two years, knowingly but unknowingly I stumbled on Madan Mohan again... And once again, when the lonely, golden aching of a saxophone poured into the stillness of the night and I wondered what it would be like to love someone like that... ``Tum jo mil gaye ho, toh yeh lagta hai ke jahan mil gaya Ek bhatke hue rahi ko caravan mil gaya...``(Hanste Zakhm'' 1973) The songs stayed with me like memories, bobbing up every now and then like an unexpected bonus down the river of life that had now quickened to head towards the falls... The next time Madan Mohan touched my life was many, many years later, when I had the privilege to work on a television show called Meri Awaz Suno, (produced by his son, Sanjeev Kohli), a show that was a search for future playback singing talent. It ran for three years and in those three years, whenever we worked in the editing studio to ``embellish'' the songs with photographs of the original singers and music composers, time and time again I would come across a face that could have easily been that of a matinee idol, with a quirky smile that mocked the world, as if to say, ``jab unhe humse pyar hi na raha, roye kya, intezaar hi na raha.'' If one went purely by the number of singers who, in the 160-odd episodes that we shot, chose to sing Madan Mohan's songs, you'd think that he had been one of the most successful composers of his time. Alas, the facts pointed to something very different. Madan Mohan's career as a music composer spanned a quarter of a century, from 1950 to 1975. During those 25 years, he composed close to 700 songs for over 100 films, which works out to an average of about four films a year, making him one of the most prolific composers of Hindi cinema. (In 1959 and 1964, he composed for eight films in each year!) Madan Mohan died on July 14, 1975. His son Sanjeev Kohli recalls that his body was carried on the shoulders of Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna and Rajendra Kumar and when a photograph of this hit the newspapers the next morning, he says that he became more popular in college than he had ever been when his father was alive - because they suddenly realised the worth of the dead man by the men who were his pallbearers... All of which makes all tributes and accolades including this one, the ultimate, painful irony. But some of us - and there are many such in the history of great men and women - are called to be on this earth much before our times, our glory to blaze many, many years after we are gone. Madan Mohan was one such and I write this tribute as perhaps a tiny attempt to make amends... And I should thank Sanjeev Kohli without whose help this would not have been possible. A strange thing happens when you mention Madan Mohan's compositions - you almost never need to mention the films or the stars. For two reasons. One, because the films are often so obscure that it doesn't matter. Madan Mohan never worked on a Dilip Kumar film, his two films with Dev Anand - ``Pocketmaar'' and ``Sharabi'' - were both flops, so too with Raj kapoor in ``Ashiana'' and ``Dhoon'' and Rajesh Khanna in ``Bawarchi''. When he did get some of the other ``big names'' - Meena kumari (``Memsaab''), Nutan (``Aakhri Dao,'' ``Dulhan ek Raat ki''), Nargis (``Adalat''), Dharmendra - (``Neela Akash'', ``Anpadh'', ``Aap ki Parchaiyan'', ``Pooja ke Phool''), even Amitabh Bachchan in his second film ``Parwana'' (where he played villain to Navin Nischol's hero!) - it was either before they became stars or the films themselves flopped. But there is a second more important reason why the credits of the film are unnecessary. Because the songs themselves are so well-known, standing on their own as immortal compositions, that nothing else matters. In Hindi cinema, in the triumvirate of music composer, singer and lyricist, the norm is that the composer and his tune are paramount. Except in the case of Madan Mohan. For whom it was the final song and what it sought to convey that was paramount and which he created and nurtured like one does a child, suffering as much heartbreak and agony as parenthood brings. Innumerable stories abound about how he toiled at perfecting a song, how he made the singer (including his beloved Lata) sing again and again, how he railed at the musicians (smashing a studio glass partition once, shouting, ``Besharmon, besura bajate ho!'), working with the lyricist to write and rewrite till he was perfectly satisfied with the song. (He composed ten tunes for ``Dil dhoondta hai'' in Mausam before he was satisfied with the final one.) Which is why it's almost never that you'll find a Madan Mohan song where the music and the instrumentation do not mesh perfectly. Listen carefully to ``Nainon mein pyar dole'' (Lata - Sheroo - 1957) and you will find that underlining the delightful melody are little trilling pieces of flute with which you can almost imagine the heroine's feet skipping happily as she thinks ``tumhe jab dekhoon piya, mera sansaar dole...'' Madan Mohan songs have some of the most exquisite pieces of sitar (from ``Meri yaad mein tum na'' Talat-Madhosh-1951 to ``Jaiye humse khafa ho gaye'' Lata - ``Chalbaaz'' - 1980), but not once is it ever out of the emotional context of the song. Even when, later on, he dared to use western instrumentation (the exquisite saxophone interludes in ``Mushkil hai jeena Lata-``Sahib Bahadur'' 1977), even western rhythms in ghazals and nagmas, (Chirag dil ka jaalao, Woh bhuli dastaan and Betaab dil ki in which he used only western rhythms and no tabla!), it seemed the most natural thing to do, never jarring, out of place or even remotely self- conscious. And which is why it is such agony to mention a Madan Mohan song the way it is done usually, by quoting the first line. Because you cannot just stop at that, but want to go on the next and next and the next... till you find that it is the entire song. You are awestruck not just at the originality of expression, but at the way the words have been crafted so that the singer and the song flow across them like a river, never once stumbling or tripping... Across his 700 songs, Madan Mohan worked mainly with just two lyricists - Rajinder Krishan, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan - both his friends and with whom he composed not tunes to which words were written but seamless song entities where you could not make out which came first - the words or the music. (Majrooh Sultanpuri and Kaifi Azmi were the other two lyricists who worked with Madan Mohan, largely in the later years, Kaifi Azmi for all Chetan Anand films. Sahir Ludhianvi worked with Madan Mohan in just three films, including Laila Majnu). And so it would not be too much to say that perhaps to no one more than to Madan Mohan fits the title of ``music director'', because his baton brought together the melody, the singer and the words in one perfect moment of harmony..... Ghazal king. A title befittingly bestowed upon someone who ruled a genre where few have managed to take the intricate craft of a ghazal and infuse it with the sweet intensity of emotion the way Madan Mohan did. (In fact, very often you realise that a Madan Mohan song is a ghazal much later on, knowing it initially as a sad or happy song.) But when you examine Madan Mohan's body of work beyond the ghazals, there emerges an astonishing breadth of musical expression. For example, he was one of the earliest to blend Western influences into his work, and that too, well before ``Tum jo mil gaye ho'' for Hanste Zakhm which he composed just two years before he died in 1973. Listen to his ``Zameen se Hamen Aasman pe'' (Asha Bhosle/ Mohd Rafi - Adalat 1958), actually a ghazal, but enchantingly set to a waltz rhythm or to the fabulous surprises of the saxophone interlude in the exquisitely traditional ``Sapnon mein agar'' (Lata - Dulhan ek raat ki - 1966). Madan Mohan also created some of the most beautiful light, romantic songs like the early Talat-Lata duets ``Yeh nai nai preet hai'' (Pocketmaar 1956), ``Teri chamakti aankhon se'' (Chote Babu 1959) or the charming ``Dil unko uthake de diya'' (Lata-Baap Bete 1959), or Rafi's sweetly drunken ``Kabhi na Kabhi'' (Sharabi 1964) or the perky ``Simti si sharmayi si'' (Kishore Kumar - Parwana - 1971) or the utterly lilting Lata- Manna Dey duet ``Bheegi chandni...'' (Suhagan - 1964) or the two Asha sizzlers, ``Thodi Der Ke Liye Mere Ho Jaao'' (Akeli Mat Jaiyo - 1963) and ``Shokh nazar ki bijliyan'' (Woh Kaun Thi). Somehow these seemed to fade, giving way to maybe the more well- known, equally beautiful but often brooding shades that dominated his later work. I wonder if this in some way was a reflection of his frustration. Some of Hindi cinema's best-loved classical songs came from Madanji's baton, a result of his love for classical music and close association with the greats of Hindustani classical music like Begum Akhtar, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Alla Rakha, Rais Khan and Vilayat Khan. Influenced particularly by the dadra and the thumri, Madan Mohan's classical repertoire included glorious gems like ``Ja re badra bairi ja'', ``Bairon neend na aaye'', ``Meri veena tum bin roye'', ``Jiya le gayo jee mora saanwariya'', ``Kaun aaya'', ``Baiyan na dharo'', ``Maii re'' and ``Nainon mein badra chhaye''. And then of course there was ``Bawarchi''. Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Rajesh Khana's only film with Madan Mohan, but that was not what was unique but the fact that all the songs in the film were completely situational, from the exquisite ``More Naina Bahayen Neer'' and the classic Manna De hit ``Tum bin jeevan'' to the astounding ``Bhor Aayi Gaya Andhiyara'' which unfolds like a musical play with everyone from Manna De, Kishore Kumar to - belive it or not - Govinda's mother, Nirmala Devi, singing in it! Madan Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar. Names that are often considered synonyms for each other. One was a man who said he would not have composed so much if Lata Mangeshkar had not been there to sing it. The other who said, ``Other composers gave me `Gaane' while Madan bhaiyya gave me `Gaana' to sing. The only other singer who sang nearly as often for Madan Mohan was Mohammed Rafi and to a lesser extent, Talat Mohmood. Yet, even with the singers who sang rarely for him, Madan Mohan's compositions for them became some of their greatest hits. No more for anyone else, than Asha Bhosle. With Madan Mohan she sang one of her biggest hits to date, ``Jhumka gira re''. But that apart, he gave her a clutch of songs that made her sound her sweetest, most poignant, something that few composers made her do. (``Saba se yeh keh do'', ``Humsafar saath'', and Jaane kya haal where you almost do not recognise her as the usual sensuous, theeki Asha.) Geeta Dutt sang just a handful of numbers with Madan Mohan and yet ``Ae dil mujhe bata de'' (Fifty-Fifty) became one of her all-time hits. The best-loved Talat numbers were Madan Mohan compositions (``Meri yaad mein tumna'', ``Phir wohi shyam'', ``Humse aaya na gaya'', ``Main teri nazar ka saroor hoon''). Even Mukesh who rarely sang for Madan Mohan had ``Bhooli hui Yaaden'' and the enchanting ``Hum Chal Rahe the'' as did Kishore Kumar with the wonderfully comic ``Zaroorat hai''.
____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#6 24 Mar 2007 00:32
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10620
Location: Virginia
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
Madan Mohan
Woh bhuli dastaan lo phir yaad aa gayee / Nazar ke saamne ghataa si chha gayee...
When was Madan Mohan a Bhuli hui dastaan? Born for greatness, destined for immortality and constantly driven to attain perfection in his creative endeavours, Madan Mohan Kohli was truly one of the most inspired and inspiring music composer of the twentieth century.
His meteoric melody content was unparalleled. Listening today to the shimmering collection of the composer's songsas they spread themselves out in a winged web of radiance, we can only marvel at the compositions, each a musical monument and wonder, "How did he do it?"
It is hard to believe that Madan Mohan had no formal training in music. Every note that fell mellifluently into his melodic orbit was born from sheer instinct!
Born on June 25, 1924, Madan Mohan was the son of the illustrious Rai Bahadur Chunilal, partner of the Bombay Talkies and Filmistan studios in Mumbai (then Bombay). In his youth Madan Mohan joined the army during the World War II. In 1946 he was employed at the All India Radio (AIR) in Lucknow where he came into contact with such vocal geniuses as Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Begum Akhtar. Begum Akhtar once, on hearing a particular Madan Mohan tune, rang him up and made him sing the whole composition over the telephone.
In his sparkling career, Madan Mohan teamed up with several singers, directors and lyricists. One among them was Lata Mangeshkar, The Nightingale and their partnership yielded what's perhaps the most bountiful tresure chest of immortal melodies ever composed and sung.
Once O.P. Nayyar had spontaneously exclaimed, "Its hard to decide whether God created the voice of Lata Mangeshkar for the compositions of Madan Mohan or vice versa." That throwaway statement haunts us when we listen to the scores of Lata-Madan Mohan melodies. Each melody is a Taj Mahal with inbuilt compartments of emotions in perpetual motion.
Lataji first met Madan Mohan at Filmistan studios. It was the year 1947 and the great composer Master Ghulam Haider had summoned the fledgling nightingale to Filmistan to sing a duet with a new singer named Madan Mohan for the film Shaheed. Lataji had never heard or seen this wannabe crooner. All she knew was that he was the son of the studio owner. The song they sang together was recorded. After the recording the handsome young man told Lataji that he was soon going to become a music director. "You must sing in my first film as music director", Madan Mohan made the Nightingale promise.
She was unable to sing in Madan Mohan's first film Aankhen. But Lataji made this sensitive and gentle giant of a composer her brother for life. Together the siblings created more than history. They created scoops of immortality that mankind will hum as long as there is a place for beauty, harmonic creative integrity and existential truth in our galaxy.
Can we ever tire of listening Lataji sing Madan Mohan's Aapki nazaron ne samjha pyaar ke kaabil mujhe? Colleague Naushad was one of the millions of melody enthusiasts who was spellbound after hearing this glorious ghazal. "Give me this Ghazal and take all my compositions in exchange," Naushaad miyaan exclaimed generously after hearing Aapki nazaron ne samjhaa. It is hard to believe that the inspiration for this peerless melody came to Madan Mohan in the lift which took him from the ground floor to his residence in an apartment block. His sons recall how he would be humming tunes constantly.
There is this widely reported incident during the recording of the song 'Naino maein badraa chaaye where the perfectionist smashed the glass partition in a studio when a musician played the wrong note. The composition in Raag Bhimpalaasi spreads itself out like a veneer of talcum. Soft, sensitive, gentle, fragrant and health inducing. Despite his unfamiliarity with ragaas ____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#7 01 May 2007 23:12
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taal
Joined: December 2006
Posts: 863
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
In the forties Anil Biswas was a big name among the film music directors. Much to his chagrin, in all his recording sessions one young boy would just barge in to cheekily suggest, "I think that tune needs some change." Once the veteran composer lost his cool and blasted, "If you want to change the tunes, first learn to make them yourself and then do whatever you like!" Little did Anilda know then that destiny had already penned a musical script for the future of that young boy named Madan Mohan Kohli - for music lovers simply 'Madan Mohan'! Born on June 25, 1924 in Baghdad, Madan Mohan grew up in an atmosphere steeped in films. Raibahadur Chunilal- his father was the chief of famous 'Filmistan' studio. Yet thanks to a strange twist of fate, Madan Mohan started off as a soldier with a British Army commission during Second World War. Needless to say this job was not to last long and the magic of music - his first love- soon pulled him away from the mayhem of gun-shots. Although as a composer he was to scale hitherto un-scaled heights, it was as a singer he entered the film music world. Lata Mangeshkar recalls how a twenty-something Madanmohan had met her as a co-singer at a 'Shaheed' song recording. Lata- who herself was a young struggler then- had initially thought him to be just another pretender making it thanks to his paternal connections! She was pleasantly surprised when he sang the song well and complimented him when he just said, "Oh, that's okay. My real ambition is to become a composer." Composer he did become soon. 'Aankhein' (1950) - his first soundtrack immediately proved his mettle with fine songs like Preet laga ke maine (Mukesh) and Mori atariya pe kaaga bole (Meena Kapoor). 'Ada'(1951)- the next venture then confirmed his entry into the hall of fame with a trio of Lata- beauties Ankhon ankhon mein unse pyar ho gaya, Sanwari surat man bhayee re piya and Preetm meri duniya mein. For the next 25 years his music was to set new standards in class and creativity. Commercially it might not have been too successful but qualitatively it certainly represented the best that ever was. Barring some of his forgettable soundtracks in his early career when he was forced to ape the inimitable O.P. Nayyar- style for survival, Madanmohan's music always showed great emotional depth and originality. Mellow, melodious, mature and moving - this music was something special - to be savoured slowly in the serene settings of solitude during those soul-searching, soft moments. Although this quality endeared him to the classy connoisseurs, it also alienated him from the masses that preferred easy listening. His son poignantly remembers the hurt look on his father's face when he would invariably find his children humming someone else's popular tunes. It must have constantly reminded him of his own inability to demystify his music to common listeners. It was not as if he couldn't compose in the lighter vein. Fabulous numbers like Aye dil mujhe bata de (Geeta Dutt), Jhumka gira re ( Asha Bhosle) and Zaroorat hai (Kishore Kumar) amply demonstrated his flair for fast, frothy, foot-tapping numbers. But it was his mastery in creating emotional, soulful classics which really defined his genius. Who else could have conceived such touchingly expressive songs like Beraham aasman (Talat), Kabhie na kabhie ( Rafi), Bhooli hui yaadon ( Mukesh) and Sabah se yeh kah do (Asha)! When it came to ghazals, Madanmohan was the king of all. His compositions in that genre were at a different plane altogether. If one singer more than anyone else made that possible, it was Lata. Theirs was a real dream team - a fact acknowledged even by greats like Naushad and O.P. Nayyar. Hum pyar mein jalnewalon ko( Jailor),Yun hasraton ke daag ( Adalat), Lag jaa gale ( Woh kaun thi), Aap ki nazarone samjha ( Anpadh), Khelo na mere dil se ( Haqeeqat)- so many gems were created through this magical, musical association. Madan's usage of Indian classical music was charmingly innovative. Kaun aaya mere man ke dware ( Raag Raageshree), Jiya le gayo ji mora sawariya ( Raag Yaman- Kalyan), Meri veena tum bin roye ( Raag Ahir-Bhairav), Bairan neend na aaye ( Raag Kaafi) and Haale dil yuun unhein sunaya gaya ( Raag Pahadi) are few examples of how beautifully he used the full range of ragas in film music. So particular was he about sur that when a musician repeatedly missed his notes during the recording of that great Bhimpalasi raag- based song from 'Mera saaya'- Naino mein badara chhaaye, Madan angrily broke the glass-door of the recording room! The only thing he kept on saying then was - "How dare you be disloyal to the sur in my music?" This loyalty to sur helped him in the long run to outlast most of his contemporaries. He was one of the few composers from the Golden Era of fifties who managed to hold their own even after the advent of seventies. 'Dastak', 'Hanste zakhm', ' Hindustan ki kasam', ' Dil ki raahein' and ' Mausam' soundtracks bore ample testimony to his ability to mould his music according to changing trends. Even his latter year songs like 'Maai ri' (Lata), 'Tum jo mil gaye ho' ( Rafi), 'Har taraf ab yehi afsane hain' (Manna Dey), Simti si, sharmaayee si (Kishore) and 'Dil dhoondhata hai' ( Bhupendra) repeatedly confirmed his capability of composing classics even in the cramped, commercial cine-music settings. Over the years his orchestration might have become progressively westernized but his tunes always retained their Indian-ness in tact and that made them stand-outs. It was to his credit that despite his commercial failures he never succumbed to the lure of cheap Westernism unlike many of his contemporaries. On July 14, 1975 he left this world leaving behind a great musical legacy. They don't make music like him any more! In fact, they don't make men like him any more! Courtesy Dr. Mandar ____________ Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic. (Jean Sibelius)
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#8 15 Jun 2007 12:57
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10620
Location: Virginia
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#9 16 Jun 2007 02:53
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10620
Location: Virginia
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
Loved this song what a great song.!!
____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#10 16 Jun 2007 03:01
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squarecut
Joined: April 2008
Posts: 11
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
There are so many Madan Mohan classics that one can listen to again and again.Many of his songs may be described as serious songs, viz ghazals. But if he got an opportunity, he could compose wonderful light music as well. There is a long list of his songs that one can listen to ad infinitum. I have a music blog in which I discuss one classic song every day. I had discussed the "mausam" song "dil dhoondhta hai fir wahi fursat ke raat din." at http://atulsongaday.wordpress.com/2...at-ke-raat-din/ . I hope members will find it interesting.
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#11 26 Jul 2008 23:09
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10620
Location: Virginia
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Re: One Of My Favourite From Golden Era--Madan Mohan
In memory of Madan Mohan
Pankaj Udhas dedicates his festival of ghazals, Khazana, to the music director who was instrumental in making ghazals popular through Bollywood By Kevin Lobo Wednesday, July 22, 2009
|  The stronghold of ghazals might have been vanquished from the electronic landscape Bollywood has become today. But there are people who want to keep the tradition alive. Pankaj Udhas's efforts after seven years have met with some success with his festival, Khazana.
The two-day festival will feature established singers like Rajendra Mehta, Bhupinder, Rita Ganguly, Anup Jalota, Talat Aziz, Pankaj Udhas among others. "Every year we give two to four upcoming singers a platform among the established singers. This year, the festival will feature ex-Indian wicketkeeper, Kiran More's wife, Raavi More who sings very well and two other new artists," says Pankaj Udhas.
The festival also has a tradition of honouring the memory of a famous personality. This year the legendary music director Madan Mohan is honoured on his 85th birth anniversary. A prolific artist, along with Begum Akhtar, he is responsible for popularising the form through his songs for Bollywood.The best of his music has been sung by Mangeshkar. Pankaj says, "I was too young to have met him, but I have colleagues in the industry who have. I remember his son had made a short film, about ten minutes long, on his father's life. A lot of people from the industry were present. After the movie, I saw that everyone's eyes were moist. Bhupinder Singh couldn't control himself, he was crying like a small kid. Bhupinder recorded his first ever track for the Hindi film industry with Madan Mohan."
To celebrate the singer's life, each musician will sing at least one track composed by Madan Mohan in his or her interpretation. The most interesting among the performances promises to be Pt Ajay Pohankar who will be accompanied by his son, Abhijeet Pohankar. With a classical background, the senior musician will present ghazals in the style thumris are sung in.
 The present state of ghazals in pop-culture is a matter of concern. That's probably the reason why Pankaj’s next album will fuse modern sounds with ghazals as its base. "The rise of reality shows has given many talented singers a shorter road to fame. Most people don't want to devote time to exploring the various styles in which ghazals can be sung in. I am not pessimistic about its future though. Maybe, all that Bollywood needs is another Madan Mohan," he smiles.
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____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#12 23 Aug 2009 17:35
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