Presenting Naushad : Part 1

Shri Naushad Ali. Naushad Saheb. An uncompromising and unflinching music composer of Indian Cinema. He utilized the semi-classical and classical roots of Indian music and mingled it with the very authentic folk music.

Naushad never changed his style, mood and approach towards his music creation. He believed in his own style, and created several different compositions which stood apart from all his contemporaries. His songs became very popular among the common people (films became silver jubilee and golden jubilee hits). 

In this multi-part series I will try to take the readers into the world of Naushad's music.

Mixing Classical and Folk genres...

Naushad was a genius who popularized three aspects - playback singing, classical music and folk tunes. He had tremendous belief in himself that he could do this. With great success, he blended thousand-year-old raagas and raaginis, rustic folk tunes of North India (coming from his own roots in Lucknow) and added his own touches. Not to forget the difficult task of putting this blend into a certain situation in a film. Because, after all, film music composers had to work for a film sequence. So, a certain song had to fit into a given point in the story. The playback singer also had a big role to play. He had to understand the mood of the song and deliver it for the on-screen actor. We must remember that Naushad was also one of the artists who had shaped the art of playback singing when the rest of the world was totally unaware of it.

Enter into the world of Naushad - songs like "Mohe bhool gaye saawariya...." from the film Baiju Bawra (1952) or "Madhuban mein radhika...." from Kohinoor (1960) or "Koi saagar dil ko behalata nehin...." from Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966) - and one gets a feeling that the composer is absorbed in a world of raaga-s, bandish-es, taan-s, sargam-s, aaroh-s and abroh-s (source, form, syntax and semantics of Indian classical music). Songs like "Do sitaron ka zameen par..." (Kohinoor 1960) or "Chalo dildar chalo...." (Pakeeza 1972) or "Aaj ki raat mere..." (Ram Aur Shyam 1967) are all tightly designed on classical notes.  

Next, make another step forward - Ustad Aamir Khan and Pandit D B Paluskar singing the masterpiece "Aaj gawat man mero jhoom ke....", from the film Baiju Bawra (1952) - it is a heavenly world! The listener is speechless. Is this the so-called "asli" (true) Indian music? Can there be anything higher than this? Or is this the highest point reached? 

In between he had composed "Uthaye ja unke sitam..." from Andaz (1949) which is kind of semi-classical and then had gone over to the immortal "Oh duniya ke rakhwale....." from the film Baiju Bawra (1952) which is again a seminal classical composition. 

This is where the doubt arises. A composer of Naushad's stature and knowledge could easily spend his whole life composing tunes based on Indian classical music. If we look at world music, especially the Western classical music, it is primarily separated from Western folk music, or other popular traditional music. Then why did he not do it? Naushad had a love and admiration for Indian folk genre as well. And he wanted to promote that through his works.

He was attracted to folk themes and rural India. His compositions "Tu ganga ki mauj main...." and "Jhoole mein pawan ki...." from the Baiju Bawra (1952) are jewels in his crown. These are coming from the soil of India. An India which is diverse, unpredictable, rich and always connected to its rural base. I will mention several examples of this rural influence on Naushad's music later on. 

Staying true to his craft....

Actually Naushad was a master of his craft who would start on a self-made classical framework. In his interviews he had mentioned that mood, sequence, story, presentation, dialogue all played a role in his selection of a certain raaga (template for a song or the actual foundation of any tune of Indian music). This selection was the first key stage of the process. He further said that he would start with this initial structure and continue adding melody to it. Subsequently, a path would be created which would lead to a complete composition in the end. Words were also vital, I will talk more about it.

Then comes the folk numbers. Here it was simple for him - it was the mood that was required. His craft included his deep sense of understanding of a particular mood in which the song should work. Songs of Gunga Jumna (1961) and Sunghursh (1968), especially "Do hanson ka joda....", "Dhoondo dhoondo re sajna...", "Nain ladh jai hai...." and the witty "Mere pairon mein ghoongroo...." are example of how well the great composer could understand the right temperament and mood and create music based on that. 

But with all said and done, he never missed to add his own touches and inputs. If one takes a closer look at these folk tunes, one can find some little deviating notes. Some melody inserted in between the rustic flow of the tunes. There were preludes to some of these songs, sometimes some alaap-s (variations done purely by vocal rendition) were introduced. These were like ornaments to the orginal folk based tunes and would make the song extremely sweet.

[To be continued]