InDepth

Last few days have been hectic. Travels, work and duties - they were with me. So, in essence I was not bored, but I could not find time to pen down some thoughts to share with you all. What has happened with me in the past few days? Well, as stated, some travels, I was at the shores of the Baltic Ocean and spent a lot of time to drink the beautiful moist air, to listen to the near-silent waves of the sea and to hum a few lines. Visiting the seashores of southern Scandinavia brings several emotional highpoints - The Baltic Ocean is blue and obedient. It is relatively calm, almost like a river. But a sea cannot be a river. A river meets a sea, and not the other way around. So, the sea is hierarchically higher placed. Therefore, Baltic sometimes shows its higher status - it soars and disturbs its own serenity. This interplay of emotions of a sea is wonderful. The neat and clean surroundings of the Ocean is exemplary. Any beach you visit in Sweden, like, Malmö, Lomma, Simrishamn - there is...

Before starting today's blog post, I want to lay down a few beliefs with regards to films and filmmakers. First, films reflect society and cannot essentially change the norms of a society. It can put a mirror to the society and thereby we can see the evils, the darkness, the prejudices, but when it comes to correcting those problems in the society, films fall short. I am not a firm believer of this argument. Second, a film is a portrayal of a filmmaker's own views, ideas and ideologies. The storytelling, the scenarios and dialogues, together with the overall treatment of a film, is very much a projection of his or her way of thinking about life. I partially agree to this, I think a filmmaker might "learn" to say few things differently, but predominantly, he or she stays true to his or her version of how life flows. Third, a film is edited reality. A film cannot depict all, but it can reveal a big deal of what happens in real lives. Not just in the context of the overa...

[Concluding part]                             So, how can one assess Naushad-Sahab's work and what were the aspects that were his trademarks? Well, to start with, it was his knowledge about the various Indian traditional instruments. His orchestration inevitably contained flavours from these different instruments. While using these, he kept in mind the situational demand as well as the overall musicality of the song. To elaborate more on this, he never composed any song that had a musical instrument that felt out of place with the situation of the song. He never composed any song, the orchestration for which became over-the-top and killed the subtleness of its melody. Next, he had a terrific knowledge and conception on the Indian classical music. The fact that he understood the semantics of various raga- s was beyond any doubt but what strikes me more is the fact that he understood the mood, feel and complexity of the...

At the onset, I must say that Dharmendra has been one of my most favourite actors. So, when I now write a memoir, it would turn out to be a fanboy account. But then, can we find at least one follower of Indian Cinema who has not liked his art! Such has been his effect and contribution. I begin with Bandini , a movie made by Bimal Roy, based on a story by famous Bengali writer Jarashandha. He was new, young, a bit lean, but excellent in his projection. He had a side-role, but whenever he would come to the screen, he would infuse dream in the life of Kalyani, the protagonist. More I would not write, but I would recommend the readers to take some hours off on a lazy afternoon and watch the film, only for Dharmendra. In a later interview, he said, he was groomed by Bimal Roy and was personally praised by S D Burman, who was the music composer of Bandini. Dharmendra did a great part in a film by the name Satyakam. The story was written by Narayan Sanyal, who was a civil engineer by professi...

Rise to fame and self-confidence Naushad was a taskmaster. He took his assignments very seriously. For his early films he would study the script, understand the genre and compose according to the mood of the film. Often he would travel to the exact part of India where the story was based and find out more about the local dialect, the folk music prevalent in that area and then set his tunes accordingly.  He was an artist who grew in confidence. He developed his craft in steps and ventured into areas never seen in Indian films. The orchestration was completely overhauled under his direction. Naushad's early struggle and pains are reflected in many of his songs, of course through their tunes. But I have a feeling that the grandeur and opulent use of bandishes (Indian classical music composition) and musical instruments in some of his songs might have been a testimonial of his ambition to display something very huge so that it fitted in contrast to the struggles that he had...

Struggle and Early Years in Bombay.... Naushad had quite a struggling start to his career in Hindi Film Industry. The early displeasure from his father notwithstanding, Naushad made a decision to come to Bombay to start his career as musician. The early days were tough as he had neither any prior experience in films nor he knew anyone in the music fraternity. It was 1937. As his very first assignment, he got a chance to play Piano with music composer Ustaad Jhande Khan. It is important to note that Naushad used to play Piano in his early days and knew about Western Classical Music. Bach, Beethoven were names he would admire! So much talent and skill at such an early age! This broad knowledge of music helped him - he had acquired the music of dehat (rural India) through his travels, had learnt Hindustani Classical Music and now could also play Western instruments. One of the biggest movie making houses of pre-independent India was called Film City . For records, before the Indian Film I...

Early life in Lucknow...... Naushad had quite a struggling start to his career in Mumbai. He had to spend many days and nights out in the open, sleeping on the footpath. But before traveling to Bombay (Mumbai these days), we must find out his childhood and boyhood. Let us try to divide his early life into some parts.  Naushad was born in Lucknow. Lucknow has been a city of culture, ethos, passion, craft and most importantly, of art. Even today, there is art in the air. The famous lawyer cum author A.P. Sen thrived in his pursuit of art and literature in the city of Lucknow. Like him, many have heaped praises on the beauty and auspicious nature of the city.  Naushad described some glimpses of his childhood in one of his interviews. It would be a house full of friends and relatives flocking every day. His father was a clerk and had good connections in the society - the family was a well-known one. The most beautiful part was the idea of assimilation of different cultures, faiths...

An intellectual who could understand the art of filmmaking... The study of Naushad's work should include some more aspects other than his sheer talent to experiment with ragas and folk ballads. He understood situations in a movie and had deep intellectual pursuit. However, he was simple in his thoughts and effective in his execution choices. And never biased or pre-meditated. He changed as per the demand of a film sequence. Furthermore, he understood many other details of filmmaking in general. For example, the personality of an actor, his diction, his way of presenting the character on screen and such things. Talking about actresses, he could make out what the role of a female character is trying to convey and most importantly, how.  I once heard Rajinder Kumar say that H S Rawail, the famous filmmaker, was not very pleased with the minimal orchestration of the fresh and breezy ghazal " Mere mehboob tujhe " (Mere Mehboob, 1963) . Rajinder Kumar was the lead actor in the...

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 for...

The day of shooting starts We started the day at 7, I still remember. It was drizzling and it was dark. Month of August and forecast was light showers all day.  Director friend Saikat had just come with the camera unit led by Ashish-da and they were checking different angles with light and sound. Surajit, the lead actor, playing the role of Abhi came shortly after and he was as much eager as we were. My first experience of a movie shooting! Excitement on one hand, I was more curious to know how everything will play out. I had read the screenplay written by the Director himself. But, it was hard for me to grasp the whole thing. Anyway, I was just the story-writer. I had written the "whats" and it is Saikat who was scripting all the "hows"! I looked at the old building, did I know it from earlier? It looked familiar. A little flash-back Finding this house had not been easy. Atin, Abhi, Hari and Ipsi - these were the 4 characters we had for the film. But that was not a...

The final words....           So, as a music lover, how can we finish the composition named "O P Nayyar"? Well, tough act! Before coming to the conclusion, here are some questions that occur to our minds. He had been such a successful composer, why then did he have to vanish from the scene? Was not there more music left in him? How can it be that he had such a meteoric rise? And how can it be that he got forgotten and went into oblivion so soon?                                I do not think we have answers to these questions apart from a few points that we mentioned earlier. First, he was a musician with profound knowledge of music and singing style. He was a singer himself, and all those small brushes of improvisations, all those gentle movements of tunes, all those variations in tempo, speed and beats were his own -  very much his own.           ...

The Research....Comes To An End..... 18 "Lakhon hain nigahon mein..." - A sitar , a mouth organ, a santoor , and a foot-tapping tune - only O P can ever think of a combination like this. And who does he bring along as his companion? Once again the great Majrooh, who fills his dream with simple and charismatic Urdu words like "Mahajabeen". The name of the film is  Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon . Incidentally, it was this same movie where apart from this hit, Rafi voiced another gem called "Banda Parvar, tham lo jigar" . Not many know that the word "Banda Parvar" was first used in Hindi movies thanks to Majrooh. In this particular song, Rafi is exactly to the point with as much romanticism as possible. The frolic and the youthfulness are taken care of by the design of the song. Besides, wherever he finds some cracks and gaps, he puts in some tiny nuances to make the song a memorable experience. For the ones listening to this song for the first time, ...

The Research Continues... 12 "Aao huzoor tumko..." - When someone writes the history of Hindi film music, there will definitely be a mention of this particular song from the film Kismat . The sheer brilliance of this song lies in the singing. This is one of the rarest of the rare songs that exploits Asha Bhonsle's voice to its limit. A great vocal prelude, soul-stirring music throughout the depth and breadth of the song is all rendered by Ashaji in her unique style. There is a fine piece in the song where the vocals try to follow or rather exactly follows the saxophone - that is purely divine. Any singer who wants to learn music will worship this song!                                      13 "Yehi woh jagah hai..." - Hindi film music has offered several haunting melodies over the years. We can mention films like Bees Saal Baad, Woh Kaun Thi, Gumnam or Mahal. But those were not O P's...

The Research Continues... 7 "Oh Mr Benjo...." - A sheer gem of a song from an almost unknown movie " Hum sab chor hain ". This is a duet by Rafi and Asha and picturized on Shammi Kapoor and Nalini Jaywant. The brilliance of the song is created by O P Nayyar's innovative effort to gel fun and frolic with a lilting melody. Of course there is his trademark beat structure. Rafi sings his heart out with the best emotions possible and Asha is just as perfect as it can get. Want to do away with monotonic life ? Just listen to this song and you will enliven your mind! 8 "Piya piya piya mera jiya..." - This is a Kishore-Asha duet from the film " Baap Re Baap " penned by Jan Nisar Akhtar, composed with the rhythm of the horse-shoe beats. This song starts with a rich prelude and the vocals start a little later. If one starts listening once, it is guaranteed that he or she will only stop listening when the song has ended - such is its beautiful and...