Remembering Anil Biswas : 31st May - Page 3

Originally posted by: Barnali

He gave music for memorable films such as Roti (1942), Kismet (1943), Anokha Pyaar (1948), Waaris (1954), Pardesi (1957) and Char Dil Char Raahein (1959).His last compositions were heard in a film called Choti Choti Baatein in 1965. He literally gave it all up at the peak of his glory in the Hindi film industry and accepted a low profile job in All India Radio, Delhi. He wanted lead a quiet faceless life away from the cacophony that is today applauded as music.

Roti, btw, starred Akhtari Faizabadi, better known as Begum Akhtar in her (i think) maiden appearance in a movie. There were some disagreements between her and the producer/director and as a result, some songs were deleted from the final edited version of the film.

Reagarding his move to Delhi, he has mentioned in an interview that they moved because the music was changing and they preferred a fixed salary rather than waiting for someone who might come with a proposal for a movie. Also, his son had expired sometime in the early 60s and they wanted to move away from Mumbai...

Thanks didi and adi for this thread..

From

On BISWAS: book—


The music Anil Biswas has composed for films is a reflection of his active and eventful life. Born at a time when a wave of patriotism was sweeping the country, young Biswas became an active underground worker and a revolutionary. This patriotic militancy and stirring optimism came to be manifested in the music that he composed for Hindi films.

Biswas began composing film music in 1931, but the first film in which he was credited with composing the entire score is the 1935Dharam Ki Devi. The memorable scores that followed bore ample testimony not only to a wide variety of songs but to an element of orchestration that accompanied each composition. By then, he had formed an orchestra of 12 musicians, a number considered "extraordinary" by the industry. Orchestration had always fascinated him, particularly the adaptation of Indian ragas within a Western discipline. When Biswas began work with the Bombay film industry, music-recording was in its infancy. Once when Biswas, an accomplished singer, played the role of a blind performer, the camera, mike, and orchestra had to be moved down the road with him as he sang.

Biswas's immense popularity is due not only to the songs that he composed but also to his background scores. He paid careful attention to instrumental scores for creating mood and ambiance. He also pioneered the adaptation of folk and classical forms within modern film music. He felt that only the "temple" and the "field," symbolizing the Indian classical and folk traditions respectively, could salvage contemporary Indian music from colonial fetters. His fame also rests on his ability to create music with which ordinary Indians can identify.

Edited by *dolly* - 16 years ago