Interesting facts about bollywood MD's

All music lovers of Hindi Film songs should be highly indebted to the Great Music Directors of the Golden Era of 1950s and 1960s. Most of these music directors left a treasure of melodious songs behind them, which we still want to listen and enjoy even after 50 years. Many movies of the golden era have been long forgotten, yet the songs of these old movies still linger on to entertain us over and over again. There are lots of inside stories associated with these old music directors.

This article is based on what I read in various magazines on film music, various radio and TV interviews.

Shankar - Jaikishen

Popularly known as SJ, they were considered to be the magicians of swaras. They were the most prolific in composing variety of songs with almost no repetition. Almost every song of every movie, which was composed by this duo, was a super hit. SJ were responsible for bringing in more than 200 instrumentalists to support a song. In the 1940s, before SJ arrived on the scene, there used to be only 4 to 5 musicians to accompany a song. SJ were the trendsetters, and most of the time, other music directors had to follow this SJ trend or opt out from music industry.

When the song 'Kahan jaa raha hai' from Film Seema was recorded in Rafi's voice, in the final antara of the song '…Vo kyun tod daale', his voice cracked while rendering the word 'tod'. Normally, any such discrepancy would be removed and the song re-recorded. Shankar ordered that this song be re-recorded. But Jaikishen intervened and told Shankar to retain this song with the cracked voice at the word 'tod'. Since this song was being picturized for a tragic sequence, it would be very effective if this cracked voice was retained, Jaikishen reasoned. This was finally accepted by Shankar and this song with the discrepancy was retained as the final version. Those who saw this movie can see for themselves how effective Jaikishen's decision was.

At the time of recording of 'Pyar huwa, ikraar huwa' (Film: Shri 420), sthaayi (beginning piece) of this song was composed by Shankar and antara (middle piece) was composed by Jaikishen. Later, Shankar wanted to change the antara composed by Jaikishen, which Jaikishen vehemently opposed. Finally, this confrontation led to fist fight between the two greats. Only the timely intervention by other musicians calmed down both of them and finally Shankar agreed to retain Jaikishen's composition of antara 'as is'. We all know this song is very popular even today and the best rain song composed ever.

When the song 'Mujhe tumse kuch bhi na chaahiye' from Film Kanhaiyaa was being composed, one of Jaikishen's beloved uncles had just died. Jaikishen was in a very sad mood. He instructed lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri to write the lyrics that will express Jaikishen's sad feelings at the time. Hasrat Jaipuri did justice by penning down appropriate sad words. Jaikishen set the tune in raga Darbari. And all of us know how sad we get when we listen to this song, especially when we listen to the lyrics 'Mujhe mere haal pe chod do'. In reality, this song represents the sadness Jaikishen felt at the time of composing this song.

When film Sangam was released, in the beginning, the song 'Dost dost na raha' composed by Shankar topped the music popularity charts far ahead of another song 'Ye mera prempatra padhkar' composed by Jaikishen. At a weekend music party hosted by Raj Kapoor to celebrate the success of Sangam, one of the guests asked Jaikishen why his song was lagging far behind Shankar's in the popularity charts. Jaikishen told him to wait for few more weeks and check the charts again. Later, the same guest approached Shankar and told him what Jaikishen had just said. Shankar was furious at Jaikishen's remark. This was really a battle royal of Shankar vs Jaikishen. Few weeks later, as Jaikishen had predicted, his song 'Ye mera prempatra padhkar' topped the popularity charts far ahead of Shankar's 'Dost dost na raha'. Personally, I like both the songs.

Once, in early 1950s, Lata had refused to sing the song 'Main baharon ki natkhat rani' (Film: Boot Polish), because initially the lyrics were 'bazaron ki', which was objectionable to Lata. So it was changed to 'baharon ki' for Lata's sake. Even then Lata would not budge and continued her refusal to sing the song, and finally SJ had to record this song using Asha's voice.

When superhit song 'Main kya karoon ram mujhe buddha mil gaya' was being composed at the behest of Raj Kapoor, because of the earlier incidence, SJ were worried that Lata would refuse to sing this song because of the lyrics. Lata always used to be very particular about the lyrics of the songs before recording. And Raj Kapoor wanted SJ to record this song as quickly as possible with Lata as the singer. SJ decided to trick Lata. So, SJ telephoned Lata and told her that a quick picturization of a song for Sangam had to be done at RK studios, and that she should come immediately and record the song without much rehearsal. So Lata came hurriedly and the song was quickly recorded before giving any time to Lata to grasp the meaning of the lyrics. We all know how much fun this song brought to the audience when beautiful Vyjayantimala danced to the tune, teasing aging Raj Kapoor.

Song 'Rasik Balma' (Film: Chori Chori) was so much liked by famous producer Mehboob Khan that when he was hospitalized in Los Angeles, since the record was not available in the US at that time, he telephoned Lata in Mumbai and asked her to sing this song over the telephone. Listening to this song brought Mehboob Khan a great solace while he was still recuperating in the hospital. And thereafter, Lata sang this song for him over the telephone for many more days. Hats off to Jaikishen who composed such a great tune.

In the late 1960s, Shankar and Jaikishen were breaking apart because of Shankar's excessive insistence to take singer Sharda in place of Lata, which Jaikishen never liked. Although SJ continued to give music together, they were really competing against each other. Finally, differences grew up so much that Raj Kapoor literally had to pull both of them together to compose music for his film Mera Naam Joker of 1970. Later, Shankar and Jaikishen took independent contracts as music directors although they still continued to give combined SJ name. For instance, in film Andaz of 1971, music was completely composed by Jaikishen, yet in the film credit, the name Shankar-Jaikishen was retained. Film Andaaz was Jaikishen's last film. Jaikishen died on 12th Sept.1971.

After the death of Jaikishen, Shankar continued to compose music under the banner name Shankar-Jaikishen, but with the exception of his music for the film Lal Pathar (1976), Shankar's music failed miserably. Maybe after Shankar lost his soulmate Jaikishen, he could not compose properly. Shankar died later in 1987.

S D Burman & R D Burman

S.D. Burman: S.D. Burman was one of the most brilliant music directors of 1950s through mid 1970s. He was the only music director who continued to give very melodious music until his last film Abhimaan (1973). His frail health did not allow him to take too many music contracts. So he composed music for fewer films per year. He never depended on any one particular singer. On the contrary, he kept on experimenting with a variety of singers. It was one particular folk tune sung by tribal people in the forests of Tripura (which many years later he used it for the song 'O re maazhi' in the film Bandini) that SDB used to listen to during his childhood, which inspired him to become a composer. Later, SDB himself sang this song for the film Bandini.

His son R.D. Burman assisted him most of the time until RDB himself became an independent music director in his own right. Most of the mouth organ pieces in SDB films were played by RDB. RDB was a great mouth organ player. In 1956, when SDB composed music for Dev Anand's film Funtoosh, after the release of this film, RDB discovered that his father had stolen one of his tunes for the song 'Ai meri topi palatake aa'. When RDB questioned his father the reason for this, SDB, in his characteristic Style, replied that he purposely did it so that he could test RDB's composition skills in public domain. Everyone knows this song became very popular.

When RDB started composing music independently, one day he noticed SDB returned from his morning walk in a very good mood, which was very unusual. So RDB asked his father the reason. SDB replied that while he was taking his morning walk, he came across two people who were talking to each other. One person told his companion, "Look, R.D. Burman's father just walked by." This statement assured SDB that RDB had finally arrived in music world. Earlier, RDB was known as SDB's son. Now on, people will recognize SDB as RDB's father.

SDB gave new lease of life to Kishore Kumar. In 1968, after singing for RDB's 'Padosan', KK was not getting any assignments and, out of frustration, decided to go back permanently to his native place Khandwa in MP. KK's song 'Kehna hai, kehna hai' in the film was supposed to be his career's last song. At this time, it was RDB who requested KK to stay back in Mumbai for few more weeks and assured KK that his father SDB was in the process of composing specially tailored songs for KK in Aradhana (1969), which could change KK's fortunes. KK roared back with the song 'Mere sapnon ki rani kab aayegi tu' and never looked back until his death in 1987.

Initially, SDB wanted to give the famous song 'Jalte hai jiske liye' (Film: Sujata) to Rafi. It was SDB's assistant Jaidev who strongly recommended taking Talat Mehmood instead of Rafi. By looking at the composition, he insisted that only Talat could do justice to this song and not Rafi. However, SDB would not listen to Jaidev. Finally, SDB bowed down and took Talat to sing the song. We all know that Talat did full justice to this song with his mellow voice.

When RDB was young, SDB was very much worried about whether his son was picking up the composing skills or not. So, whenever lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri visited his house, SDB used to tell Majrooh to talk to RDB and make him pay more attention to composing skills. Majrooh always told SDB that if father could not fix his son then how outsiders like him could do it. Anyway, RDB turned out to be one of the greatest music directors fulfilling the dream of his father. Unfortunately, SDB did not live long enough to see his son's super success.

Once in a while, SDB asked his assistant music directors to compose antara of the song. SDB composed sthaayi of the song 'Piya tose naian lage re' (Film: Guide) on raga Khamaj, and then went out to eat paan (betel leaves). In the meantime, he told his assistant music directors to compose the antara. When he returned to the recording room and listened to the antara composed by his assistants, he immediately realized that it was a very poor composition. He scolded his assistants and discarded this antara and then sat down to compose it himself, and came out with brilliant composition within a short time. His assistant music directors were dazzled to see the brilliance of SDB. We all know how melodious this classical song is.

O P Nayyar

O.P. Nayyar: O.P. Nayyar is also referred to as the king of rhythm. The music director gave the most intoxicating songs and made best use of Punjabi dholak in Hindi film songs. He was also responsible for creating the 'Tonga' beat or 'Horse Hoof' beat which was used by other music directors as well. OPN was the only music director who made his songs popular without using Lata Mangeshkar.

Roshan

Music Director Roshan was a family friend of SDB. Once Roshan came to SDB's house and asked his permission to use his tune 'Thandi Hawaayen' (Film: Naujawaan) for his forthcoming composition for the song 'Rahe na rahe hum' (Film: Mamta). SDB gladly gave him permission and Roshan made some cosmetic changes and composed this song very well. Later, RDB used the same tune and composed 'Saagar kinare' (Film: Saagar). If you listen to all 3 songs, you will notice that all of them have same Bandishi and hence sound similar.

Wow Di, what a nice way to come back....great article...will read in leisure.I think I also have some info to add here. 😃 Was browsing a few days back and had read some interesting tidbits...

Naushad's in-laws were totally against Hindi films and its music, and they considered it to be a social stigma. Naushad's family hid this fact from his would be in-laws before he got married. And the in-laws were not aware that Naushad was a music composer in Hindi films. The songs of his film Ratan had already become a super hit all over India. Ironically, his Baaraat (wedding band) in his native place in UP (far away from Mumbai), played songs from the film Ratan. Naushad got scared. In order to show his innocence, he asked one of the members of his in-laws' wedding party if they liked what the band was playing. And most of them said that they enjoyed the tunes being played by the band and wondered as to who may have composed these tunes originally. Naushad heaved a sigh of relief but did not disclose that he was the composer of those tunes.

CR also gave suggestions to other music directors. He suggested to S.D. Burman to add 'La la la la' in the song 'Thandi hawayen' (Film: Naujawan), which SDB gladly accepted and implemented. With this addition, the song became even more romantic.

Madan Mohan was a close friend of Jaikishen along with other talented composer Murli Manohar Swarup. Murli Manhar Swarup composed some private albums but could never make it big like his two friends.

Madan Mohan

Many interesting facts about Madan Mohan in this article written by his son Sanjeev Kohli

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Lata Mangeshkar (Anandaghana)

Some of you may know that Lata-ji composed music for 5 Marathi films under the name "Anandaghan". All the songs from these movies became super hit and she won state awards.

How and why did she decide to compose music? Why did she decide to compose under some other name? And why "Anandaghan"? Why did she give up?

Years back I read an article written by her in a Marathi newspaper in which she narrated her brief experience as music composer and answered many of the questions that we had in our minds for years. Here is the translation of that article.

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Anandghan is a small corner in my long journey through the world of music……I never felt that I should compose music….. actually once Hrishida had asked me at the time of 'Anand'. Once Shantaram bapu had also asked me regarding composing music. But everytime I denied the offer. I always felt that I should be away from composing, sitting there, seeing the lyrics etc. But once what happened, ……. Bhalji Pendharkar was making the film, ' Mohityanchi Manjula'. He asked a couple of music directors. But they were busy. And Bhalji was in a hurry. He called up and told me about his problem. He told me the name of a composer and asked me to talk to him regarding the new film. I told him that I doubted that person's ability to give music to a historical movie. He asked me to suggest some other name. I immediately said that I would do the composing. He said that it would not be right. He felt that my name was very big, I was very famous and if the music of his historical movie did not click, the name of Lata Mangeshkar would be spoilt. He said that if the print media would speak ill of me, he would not like it.

As a solution to that I told him that I would compose music with a different name. He suggested the name 'Jatashankar'. But I did not like it. Just then I had finished recording 'Anandavan Bhuvani' of Shri Ramdas. I used to like it a lot. So I suggested the name 'ANANDAGHAN'. He agreed. And I accepted the movie. I sang out the tune of the song 'Neelya aabhali, Katarveli' to Bhalji Pendharkar on the telephone itself. He liked it a lot. But he said that in his movie there was not much importance to music. All his stress was on the story, the dialogues, and Shivaji Maharaj. I said okay, as you wish. He sent two songs. I gave them tunes. I do not compose tunes without lyrics. Around that time, I wanted the help of Hridaynath. But he was in Hyderabad and thus unavailable. I could not wait. So I called Datta Davjekar. I told him the tune. I also laid down a condition, that no body would come to knowtaht I had given the music to those songs. He agreed. He told everyone that there was a young man who had composed the music and that he could not come to the recording as he was working.

After the movie was done, C. Ramchandra, O.P. Nayyar etc had come to Kolhapur to attend my sister's wedding ceremony. C. Ramchandra asked me, "Lata, tell me one thing, who is this musician 'Anandaghan'?" I replied, "May be someone, I do not know." He then said, "Do not speak a lie, okay." I said, "Why don't you ask Datta Davjekar. He would tell you" I tried to avoid. But he kept on asking me. He said , "On listening to those compositions, I feel that someone who understands music well has done that work. It is not possible for any common person." I said, "May be the person understands music. May be Bhalji Pendharkar knows about him." Saying this, I slipped away from there.

After 'Mohityanchi manjula', I gave music for 'Maratha tituka melavava', but still my name was a secret. But after the release of 'Saadhi manasa', this secret came out. That movie was awarded around 8 state government awards. Director, story, music etc. The song 'Airanichya deva tula' got the song award. I accepted it. Then the award for music was declared, but I kept sitting. But someone had told the announcers that I myself had given the music. And the announcer requested that I should accept the award, but still I kept sitting. Then they announced that Latabai should come on to the stage, and Anandaghan was none other than Lata. Then I went and received the award. ……. I gave music for Bhalji Pendharkar's 'Tambdi maati'. That was my last music direction. I never had the interest in giving music to songs, but still once I had thought that myself and Hridaynath should together give music together, similar to Shankar-Jaikishan, I thought we could give it as 'Lata-Hridaynath'. But Hridaynath would not have liked it, so I just dropped the idea…. But I had felt that way.

Barnalidi welcome!! Thank you so much for the nice articles. I already pritned and gave them to my Bhai. I sure will contribute with little input too.

Welcome again!!! Missed you!

Minali🤗