PIYUSH ROY
Last week I discussed my list of the finest Bollywood music albums of all time until the 1950s. This week’s concluding piece looks from the second half of the ‘Golden Era of Indian film music’, the 1960s, until the end of the 20th Century. Once again, the decisive factor,along with a score’s path-breaking musical impact at the time of release is their continuing melodic legacy as an ‘entire album achievement’!
Guide (1965) Music – SD Burman; Lyrics – Shailendra
The complete soundtrack of Guide, or some of its iconic songs have collectively and individually featured in every major Hindi film music themed poll on ‘All-Time Best Film Scores/Songs’ in recent years. A spectacular dance number featuring a bevy of dancers – Piya tose naina lage celebrating all the major Indian festivals with as many region-specific dance and costume changes; a philosophical –Wahan kaun hai tera; the eternal lament of a pining lover – Din dhal jaaye; a moving prayer plea – Allah megh de, and the most memorable musical moment to capture ‘freedom on the celluloid’ – Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna haiand more… Guide is one of those rare musical gems that’s an uncontested achievement in every aspect of film music making. It celebrates a rich diversity of Indian music sources (folk to classical), articulates profound life notes in its lyrics, features grandiosechoreography moments (by choreographers Hiralal and Sohanlal) and showcases unforgettable expressive emoting by its lead dancer-actress Waheeda Rehman (including a mesmerising instrumental snake dance piece). In the rich repertoire of music director SD Burman, hailing from the royal family of Tripura,Guide perhaps stands out at his most regal composition.
Teesri Manzil (1966) Music – RD Burman; Lyrics – Majrooh Sultanpuri
From being limited to one or two song experiments in the predominantly ragas and folk tunes based Hindi film scores before Teesri Manzil, fusion came to the fore with this RD Burman establishing album. Its many experimentations in sound choreography, easily made it one of the most revolutionary soundtracksof its times. With three vigorous dance numbers in a Western style pub/hotel space – Tumen mujhe dekha, O haseena zulfonwali and Aaja aaja main hoon pyar tera… Teesri Manzil’s robust ‘western score with a distinct Indian flavour’ ensured that its music director was to stay as a driver shaper of most of the then trends in music for nearly two more decades. To date, Teesri Manzil, remains the most important talent establisher for Asha Bhonsle, who finally got to sing all the songs picturised on both the vamp and the heroine (in a single A-lister film), while Mohammad Rafi reaffirmed once again that classical or western, he could pull of any challenge with aplomb. Indian cinema also got its first dancing superstar with a signature style of his own in Shammi Kapoor.
Bobby (1972) Music – Laxmikant Pyarelal; Lyrics – Anand Bakshi, Vithalbhai Patel & Inderjeet Singh Tulsi
Inflation adjusted box-office data for the last millennium ranks Bobby as the 20th century’s second highest all-time high box-office earner after Sholay. It also was Indian cinema’s second biggest global success since Awaara with 60 million plus viewers in the Soviet Union alone. For just another love story, the edge of appeal lays in its freshness – fresh voices, youthful energy, teenaged acting leads… and an equally important ‘fresh music’! Hindi cinema’s most successful director-musician team of Raj Kapoor and Shankar Jaikishan broke up, with Kapoor joining creativity with new arrivals Laxmikant Pyarelal, to give the ‘Showman’ his career’s biggest directorial success. With Mujhe kuch kehna hai, Main shayar to nahin, Akhiyon ko rehne do and the charts busting Hum tum ek kamre me band ho… Anand Bakshi became the go-to song writer of the 1970s, for hummable romantic songs with simple, deep lyricism. However, it was the unusual sounding one-film voice wonder Narendra Chanchal with his still relevant pensive plea for humanism and empathy, Beshak Mandir Masjid todo, par pyaar bhara dil kabhi na todo…who swept the popular singing awards for the year. His success in a way also popularised the trend of having traditional or folk singers to articulate the unstated emotions in a film’s most impactful drama moments.
Aashiqui (1990)Music – Nadeem Shravan; Lyrics – Sameer
Nadeem Shravan’s spectacular burst into the music scene of the 1990s with Aashiqui, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin and Saajan ensured that its signature orchestration remained the most popularly identifiable template for music making in the 1990s. With easily hummable melodies like Jaane jigar jaaneman, Main duniya bhula dunga, Nazar ke saamne, Ab tere bin, Dheere dheere se…Anuradha Paudwal along with Kumar Sanu and his clones became the voice of the 1990s in similar sounding songs and song situations. Simultaneously, lyricist Sameer’sprolific use of simple Urdu words like ‘dil, jigar, nazarand the like…’ made them a frequently recurring verse words to articulate any romantic emotion. Aashiqui’s biggest contribution however was to bring back an ear and a market for soft desi melodies to the fore in an increasingly getting noisy, and gimmicky aping of Westernmusic that peaked in the 1980s.
Bombay (1995)Music – AR Rahman; Lyrics – Mehboob
Feted by The Guardian as the “1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die’, Bombay has not only inspired many desi and international cover versions since, but is that rare film album, whose instrumental ‘theme’ piece has been officially featured in global film scores like, Denti (Italian 2000), Divine Intervention (Palestinian 2002), Lord of War (English 2005) and Miral (English 2010). Rahman made a distinct mark in the Indian film music scene with his debut score for Roja, South India’s first pan-Indian cross-over film. However, the range of his genius and firm ascendance as perhaps the last legend in India’s film music scene happened with the rich, yet layered melodic score of Bombay with a range of songs from a pensively reflective (Tu hi re) to a foot stomping (Humma humma), an innocent love ballad (Kehna hi kya) to an infectiously naughty ode from childhood (Kuchi kuchi rakamma). Featuring 20 playback singers for his eight songs score, Rahman deflected the focus from a star playback singer to the composer, once again as the biggest star in a film’s music team while also repeating an SD Burmanesque style of lending his own voice to the most distinct or important song articulating the philosophy of a film.