Presenting Naushad : Part 9
As the research moves on...
9. Umariya ghatati jaae re (Mother India) This is a rare, a very rare gem of a song sung by Manna Dey, singing to the tune of Naushad-Sahab. There are several reasons that make this song exemplary; first, it is the excellent string of words penned by Shakeel. The words are poignant, simple and deeply meaningful, describing the hardship and trouble of rural India to the most accurate possible way. I cannot remember of another song that depicts the same picture in a better way than this song does. Next, it is the quite extraordinary rendition by the legendary Manna Dey; he pours his heart out to give a soulful feel to this song, which takes the narrative of the movie forward. Here I would like to take a short pause and state that even though we have come a long way to achieve the bare minimum necessities of life, but, some basics are still far from reach of some marginal sections of society. The words in this song still feel true - question is, is this intended? Such stark rural stress should have been, by now, a thing of the past!
Iconic Mother India song by Manna Dey
10. Mohe panghat pe nandlal (Mughal-E-Azam) While trying to do some kind of research on Mughal-E-Azam, I happened to come across several anecdotes. Few of those are related to the creation and picturization of this one particular song. The song is borrowed from a very old bhajan sung by Indubala. Naushad-Sahab was deeply inspired by the tune and thought of bringing this gem into the mainstream. He had a pretty hard time to convince K.Asif, the director, to take this song into the scheme of things. The fact that he wanted this song to be the introductory song of Anarkali was an idea that was not quite liked by Asif-Sahab. The reason was - Asif-Sahab did not find it worthy that a Hindu courtesan should sing a bhajan in the court of arguably the greatest Muslim ruler of India. Naushad said since the movie was not just about Salim and Anarkali, rather, there was a separate track to depict the layered emotions of Akbar and Jodhabai, it would be good to open Anarkali's scene with a Hindu religious song. After this, there was another issue to solve - how will Madhubaala be trained to perform in this song. Naushad-Sahab had the idea that this performance should not be choreographed by a trained dancer, rather it should be done by someone new and with fresh ideas. So, he thought of Lachchu Maharaj who was called from Lucknow. On the day of shooting, while meeting all the crew members of the film and after listening to the composition, Lachchu Maharaj started crying. On being asked about the reason, the humble man confessed that this was the same song on which his uncle used to perform in the court of the Nawab of Awadh. With a bit of a heavy heart, he started to teach Madhubaala how to dance and after several days of hard work, she could pick up the right steps and the end product was sparkling to say the least. Give it a watch!
11. Ankhiyan milake jiya bharmaake (Rattan)- While I like all the songs of this movie, "Ankhiyan milake.." stands out a notch higher than all the rest simply because of the heart-warming melody that is mingled with the folk base of the song. The base was borrowed from a North Indian style folk tune and then Naushad-sahab adapted it to fit into the groove of the Hindi film music. The playback was done by Zohrabai Ambalewali, who was an eminent female singer in those, days much before the likes of Lata and Asha. She had a somewhat rustic, yet, very melodious voice, which was exactly what the song demanded. It is noteworthy that Rattan, and especially this song became a raging hit in those days. There is an interesting story that is worth mentioning in the context of this song. I heard it from Naushad-Sahab himself in one of his interviews - this song was being played during his marriage and his father-in-law did not quite like it since that kind of tune was considered too modern for those days.
12. Tu mera chand main teri chandni (Dulari) The enigmatic beauty of Suraiya, her incomparably sweat voice and extremely melodious tune by Naushad-Sahab create an immortal gem of a song. The single most beautiful aspect of this song is the lilting rhythm that creates an immediately soothing feel on the heart of its listeners. The amateur male singer in this song was named Shyam, who later on played the role of villain in movies. It was Naushad-Sahab who insisted Shyam to sing this song and he indeed did a good job. The tune was based on a very uncommon raga called "Brindavani Sarang" and the simple yet deep love between the lead characters were very well expressed through the notes of this raga, well used by Naushad-Sahab. Of course, the tune was very well gelled together with a very nice flute piece and a simple string of tabla beats.
Tu mera chand main teri chandni
[To be continued]
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