Salil Chowdhury - Page 2

Not sure if these have been posted before, but these articles, I had saved for the movies, but the discussion on Salil Choudry is relevant here.

Synopsis

The film looks at the havoc caused in a village by a cheque for Rs 5 lakh sent to the postmaster (Nasir Hussain) by Sir J.C. Roy to be given to the most honest man in the village to improve the village. Not knowing what to do, the postmaster calls a meeting of the 5 so called prominent men in the village - the zamindar Thandav Tarafdar (Jayant) who rules with an iron thumb, the doctor Hari (Rashid Khan) who only treats those who can pay him, the contractor Bhans (Asit Sen), the head priest Tarkalekar (Kanhaiyalal) who misuses religion and the honest village schoolmaster Rajat (Vasant Choudhury) who is love with Seema (Sadhana), the postmaster's daughter. Unable to decide among themselves who should get the cheque, they decide on having an election. The peaceful life in the village is turned inside out as the 4 apart from the schoolmaster do everything to ensure their popularity. In a complete turn about the zamindar forgives what is due to him from the farmers, the doctor starts to give the people free treatment, the contractor has handpumps and walls dug, the pandit organizes a pooja where the goddess Lakhsmi appears. To get the schoolmaster out of the way, rumours are spread about him and Seema. On the day of election the zamindar and his men resort to booth-capturing but the postmaster's lame assistant Haradhan (Motilal) revels himself to be Sir J.C. Roy and exposes the others for what they were and decides that the most honest man in the village is the postmaster as he could have kept the cheque if he wanted to. He also reunites Seema and Rajat in the process.

The film

Following the super success of entertainers Madhumati and Yahudi in 1958 and then the sensitive love story Sujata in 1959, Bimal Roy surprised all when his next film was a small little satirical film with no big stars. But Bimal Roy was vindicated when the film opened to great critical acclaim. The film was Parakh.

The film once again establishes what a fine and sensitive filmmaker Bimalda was. Parakh sees Bimal Roy venture into satire territory, something not really associated with the realistic filmmaker of Do Bigha Zameen (1953), Sujata and Bandini (1963). However, Parakh is a witty, perceptive film and looks at how greed and money affect the behaviour of people. The film finds Bimal Roy truly enjoying himself as he blows the lid off so called respectable people and shows to what levels people can stoop to for money. Unusually for a film, the music department is in charge of the writing of this film. The film is based on a story by Salil Choudhury with dialogues by Shailendra and dialogue direction by Paul Mahindra.

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In terms of cast the film is more of an ensemble piece with well sketched out characters rather than lead roles and supporting roles. Sadhana, billed as Sadhana Shivdasani, for the only time in her filmi career gives perhaps her best ever performance in just the second film of her career. She plays a simple girl in the film a far cry from the glamour of Love in Simla, her first film released earlier the same year. Bimal Roy while taking Sadhana in the film said she reminded him of a young Nutan who incidentally was Sadhana's favourite actress. Ironically after Love in Simla, when Sadhana reported for the shooting of Parakh, Bimalda almost dropped her as he now found her too glamorous. Sadhana pushed back her fringe, sprayed gel on it to make it stay and convinced Bimalda she could look simple as well. Shorn of her glamour and trademark fringe, Sadhana lets the focus be on her performance & gives a sincere, simple and understated performance. It is one of life's biggest tragedies that Sadhana the first real fashion icon among filmstars with her Sadhana cut and churidar kurtas was known as the epitome of glamour of the swinging 60s whereas Parakh and some of her other early films like Hum Dono (1961), Asli Naqli (1962) and Man Mauji (1962) reveal an actress of considerable depth and substance but post Mere Mehboob (1963) only the glamour side of her was exploited by our filmmakers. Motilal is his usual ebullient self as post assistant Haradhan who is actually the great Sir J.C. Roy coming up with yet another impeccable and thoroughly natural performance winning the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor for the same. The rest of the supporting cast do full justice to their roles. However Vasant Chowdhury as the idealist schoolmaster is just about adequate.

While the music department took over the writing of the film, they still did their respective work in the music department as well. Parakh sees at least two extraordinary numbers both rendered by Lata Mangeshkar. The first of these is the Mila Hai Kisika Jhumka. In this beautifully picturized scene, the village post- master's daughter, who is waiting by the riverside for the arrival of the village schoolmaster, picks up a hibiscus flower under a neem tree and imagines it to be someone's jhumkaa. But the icing on the cake really is that all time great - O Sajna Barkha Bahar Aayi, a song which even Lata Mangeshkar rates as among her best ever. The song is also poetically picturised by Bimalda with Seema inside the hut and the rain falling outside. It is said that Salil Choudhury got the inspitarion for the song while driving his car in the rain as he listen to the swish of the wipers and the patter of the raindrops on his windshield. Salilda makes splendid use of sounds and orchestrates the song beautifully with the sitar pieces enhancing Lata Mangeshkar's brilliant singing. The song was equally popular in its Bengali avtaar as well as Na Jeo Na. The other songs are more situational and go well with the mood of the film be it Kya Hawa Chali Rut Badli - extremely well written by Shailendra, Yeh Bansi Kyon Gaye, Teri Leela Sabse Pyari Lakshmi Maiya or Mere Man ke Diye.

Released in 1960, Parakh went on to win for Bimal Roy yet another Filmfare Award for Best Director making it a hat-trick following Madhumati and Sujata the previous two years. Parakh proves that a small well made film can be equally good if not better than the big budget film with big stars because it is the content that ultimately counts. It is a shame that a small gem like this is often never considered or brought into discussions on Bimal Roy's cinema because Parakh is a fine film in its own right and is in fact a film extremely relevant for today's mercenary times.

I have Parakh's VCD. It is indeed a wonderful movie. Wonderful story, wonderful acting, direction and above all fantastic music. Even after so many years, the movie is as fresh as ever. Highly relevant and thought-provoking.

Priya, do you have any article on Madhumati? Just like Parakh, it is a good movie with gems of songs. Every song is a masterpiece in terms of melody, lyrics and picturisation.

madhumati (1958)
Starring	Dilip Kumar, Vyjayantimala, Johnny Walker, Jayant, Tarun Bose and Pran
Story and Screenplay	Ritwik Ghatak
Dialogue	Rajinder Singh Bedi
Cinematography	Dilip Gupta
Editing	Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Lyrics	Shailendra
Music	Salil Choudhury
Produced and Directed by	Bimal Roy

Synopsis

On a stormy night, Devendra (Dilip Kumar), an engineer, drives down a hill road with his friend, to fetch his wife and child from the railway station. A landslide blocks their path and the friends take shelter in an old mansion just off the road. Devendra finds the house uncannily familiar. In the large front room he finds an old portrait which he recognizes. His friend and the old caretaker join him, and Devendra, amidst flashes of memory from another life, sits down to tell his story while the storm rages outside. Anand (Dilip Kumar) had come to Shyamnagar Timber Estate as its new manager. An artist in his spare time, he roamed the hills and forests with his sketching pad and fell in love with Madhumati (Vyjayantimala), a tribal girl whose songs have haunted him from a distance. Soon Anand meets his employer, Ugranarayan (Pran), a ruthless and arrogant man. Anand refuses to bend down to him like the others, and incurs his wrath. Anand also has enemies among his staff who have been fudging the accounts till his arrival. Sent away on an errand suddenly, he returns to find that Madhumati has disappeared. Anand learns from Charandas how Madhumati had been taken to Ugranarayan in his absence. He confronts Ugranarayan whose men beat him unconscious. Anand's life is saved, but his mind wanders. One day in the forest he meets a girl who looks exactly like Madhumati. She says she is Madhavi (Vyjayantimala), but Anand refuses to believe her, and is beaten up by her companions when he tries to plead with her. Madhavi finds a sketch of Madhumati in the forest and realizes he was speaking the truth. She takes the sketch to the rest house where Anand now stays, and learns his story from Charandas. Meanwhile Anand is haunted by the spirit of Madhumati who tells him that Ugranarayan is her killer. Seeing Madhavi at a dance recital where she dresses as a tribal girl, he appeals to her to pose as Madhumati and appear before Ugranarayan and help him get a confession out of him. She agrees. Returning to Ugranarayan's palace, Anand begs permission to do a portrait of him. Next evening with a storm brewing outside Anand paints Ugranarayan. At the stroke of eight, Ugranarayan sees Madhumati in front of him. Shaken, and goaded by Madhumati, he confesses the truth. The police who have been waiting outside the room now come and take him away. Anand suddenly realizes that the questions the false Madhumati asked were on matters unknown to him. How did Madhavi know where Madhumati was buried? The girl just smiles, and moves towards the stairs. Madhavi dressed as Madhumati rushes into the room. She is late, for the car failed on the way. Anand realizes that Madhumati herself had come and runs up to the terrace where her ghost beckons him. She had fallen from the same terrace trying to escape Ugranarayan. Anand follows her falling to his death. Devendra's story is over. "But," he says "I finally did have Madhumati as my wife. In this life - Radha." Just then news comes that the train in which his wife was travelling has met with an accident. The road has been cleared, and the two friends rush to the station. From one of the coaches, Devendra's wife Radha (Vyjayantimala) appears unhurt with her baby...

The film

Madhumati has often been criticized as one of Bimal Roy's lightweight formulaic films and formulaic it is in its choice of theme and content but Bimalda's sheer skill as a filmmaker transcends above everything to give us an extremely engrossing tale of reincarnation and revenge, which is further boosted by the fine performances, cinematography, editing and above all its scintillating musical score by Salil Choudhury. True, coming after sensitive masterpieces like Do Bhiga Zameen (1953), Biraj Bahu (1954) and Devdas (1955) it does appear odd that Bimalda took up such a conventional story but the final film remains one of his most enduring cinematic efforts. In fact that very year Bimalda came up with another lightweight film again starring Dilip Kumar, Yahudi (1958), which incidentally was also a huge success at the box-office.

Madhumati had all the elements of a typical Hindi Film Potboiler - The Haveli in which the hero experiences a sense of dja vu leading to his flashback, the naive and innocent village belle, the pardesi babu and the lecherous zamindar lusting after the belle but Bimal Roy uses these elements to advantage rather than be hampered by them. Madhumati has all the right qualities of an eerie romantic film that hooks the viewer right from the beginning as Dilip Kumar takes shelter from the storm and enters the old haveli.

Bimalda's ability to recreate mood and ambiance is again displayed throughout the film be it the luscious romantic interludes outdoors or the swinging chandeliers and dark shadows within the haveli but none better than in the scene of the Mela where the several documentary like establishing shots beautifully capture the sheer rustic flavour of the Mela. But even here the mastery of the filmmaker is seen as it isn't merely coverage but small human touches in these shots like a young boy hungrily eyeing a food stall or the various times that both Dilip Kumar and Vyjayantimala cross each other's paths without noticing the other (they do so finally at the end of the sequence) - a good 37 years before the much talked about crossing of paths of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). This eye for detail in capturing a flavour is seen once again in Images of Kumbh, a film put together by Bimalda's son Joy Roy from footage that Bimalda shot of the Kumbh Mela to be used as part of a feature film Amar Kumbh ki Khoj which sadly never got made. Incidentally the ambiance of the crowd in the Kumbh film is the ambiance sound from the Mela scene of Madhumati! Another masterful touch is the shot of Dilip Kumar's hands holding up the painting of Madhumati in the foreground and when he brings down his hands in the background we see Madhavi standing there. We are as shocked as he is to see her.

Admittedly on the fall side there are elements catering to the commercial requirements of mainstream Hindi Cinema that do stick out and take a toll on the story for example the entire lengthy 'comic' sequence with Johnny Walker and the exorcist which adds nothing of value to the film and slows down the otherwise engaging film.

The performances are right on-key. While their roles are none too demanding both Dilip Kumar and Vyjayantimala turn in capable performances. For the latter the film showcases both her acting as well as dancing abilities and the dizzying success of Madhumati took Vyjayantimala to the highest rungs of stardom. Sadhana (1958) coming the same year saw a remarkable and sensitive in-depth performance from her (She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for the same) to cap off an extremely successful year for her. Both, as an actress of considerable dramatic merit and as a star. Pran in particular scores heavily as the lecherous zamindar reinforcing his status as perhaps the greatest villain ever to grace the Indian Screen. (Such was his impact on moviegoers that an unofficial survey of schools in the 1970s revealed that not a single child had been named Pran for as many as 10 years!)

The film, Bimalda's biggest commercial success, was scripted by Ritwik Ghatak. In fact, many of the people involved in this film had worked together on Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Musafir (1957), also based on a Ghatak story. The film is stunningly shot by Dilip Gupta and much of it is actually shot outdoors on location unlike most ghost stories. The evocative song picturizations further help elevate the film.

his best and most popular musical score ever. Each song be it the haunting Aaja Re Pardesi, the folksy Bichua or Zulmi se Aankh Ladi, Toote Hue Khwabon ne or Suhana Safar or the romantic Ghadi Ghadi Mera Dil Dhadke or Dil Tadap Tadap ke Keh Raha Hai Aa Bhi Jaa or even the comic Jungle Mein Mor Naacha is tuned to perfection. In fact Lata Mangeshkar counts Aaja Re Pardesi from Madhumati as among her ten best songs ever. To quote her,

"I love all the songs of Madhumati," she confessed and remembered how happy everyone was on the day Aaja Re Pardesi was recorded. "Lyricist Shailendra gave me flowers. The director Bimal Roy came forward to congratulate me. The song was beautiful and it was such a big hit too."

In Madhumati Salil Choudhury seems inspired by the verdant hillsides of Assam where as a child he had roamed with his forest- officer father. When the songs of Madhumati were composed, the tweeting of birds, the flight of an eagle, and the patter of rain all seemed to seep into the melody. And as always Salilda's background score is right on target lifting the film several notches.

Though some critics slighted the film, Madhumati walked away with nine Filmfare Awards including Best Film, Director, Music, Best Playback Male (Mukesh) and Best Playback Female (Lata Mangeshkar).

Thanks Anol for the post.

Punjini ji, Madhumati is one of my favourites. Every scene of the movie is just so wonderfully scripted, not a stone out of place.

chemmeen (1965)
Starring	Sheela, Sathyan, Madhu, Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair
Written by	Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai (also novel)
Dialogue	S.L. Puram Sadanandan
Cinematography	Marcus Bartley, U Rajagopal
Editing	Hrishikesh Mukherjee, KD George
Lyrics	Valyalar Rama Varma
Produced by	Babu Ismail
Directed by	Ramu Kariat

Synopsis

Chembankunju's (Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair) only aim in life is to own a boat and a net. He finally succeeds in buying both with the help of Pareekutty (Madhu), a young Muslim trader, on condition that the fish hauled by the boat will be sold to him. Chembankunju's pretty daughter Karuthamma (Sheela) and Pareekutty love each other. Karuthamma's mother, Chakki, knows about it and reminds her daughter about the life they lead within the boundaries of strict social tradition. Karuthamma sacrifices her love for Pareekutty and marries Palani (Satyen), an orphan discovered by Chembankunju in the course of one of his fishing expeditions. Following the marriage, Karuthamma accompanies her husband to his village, despite her mother's sudden illness and her father's requests to stay. In his fury, Chembankunju disowns her. On acquiring a boat and a net and subsequently adding one more, Chembankunju becomes more greedy and heartless. With his dishonesty, he drives Pareekutty to bankruptcy. After the death of his wife, Chembankunju marries Pappikunju, the widow of the man from he had bought his first boat. Panchami, Chembankunju's younger daughter, leaves home to join Karuthama, on arrival of her step mother. Meanwhile, Karuthamma has endeavoured to be a good wife and mother. But scandal about her old love for Pareekutty spreads in the village. Palani's friends ostracize him and refuse to take him fishing with them. By a stroke of fate, Karuthamma and Pareekutty meet one night and their old love is awakened… Palani, at sea alone and baiting a shark, is caught in a huge whirlpool and is swallowed by the sea. Next morning, Karuthamma and Parekutty, are also found dead hand in hand, washed ashore. At a distance, there lies a baited dead shark.

The film

Chemmeen is based on a highly acclaimed novel by Gyanpith Award Winner Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. Since its initial publication in Malayalam in 1956, the novel has run into several editions in quick succession, setting an all India record for all time and is perhaps the most well known literary work in Kerala. It has also been translated in various Indian Languages and also in English, Russian, German, Italian, French, Czech, Spanish and Polish among others. Hence when the film was being made, expectations were sky high. The film, needless to say, firmly delivers and has subsequently acquired cult status in the history of Malayalam Cinema besides being the film that put Malayalam Cinema on the National Map as it was the first South Indian film to win the coveted President's Gold Medal for Best film. Malayalam Cinema has never looked back since.

Chemeen's tale is multilayered. On one level while it is a tragic love story of forbidden love. On the other hand it proves that true love recognizes no religious, cultural or geographical boundaries. If the film reaffirms the required commitment to relationships, it also shows how deep, passionate love can both save and destroy man. It tells you how people can change with greed and jealousy and it illustrates the deeply rooted nature of superstition in the Hindu psyche while looking at the life of a typical Kerala fishing community of Allapuzha. While its grandeur flows from the wild and powerful ocean that rules the fishing community, its poetic beauty lies in its depiction of those small moments that can make or mar our lives.

At the core of the film are the three central performances of Sheela, Sathyan and Madhu. The film offers all three of them their career-defining roles with Sheela being known as 'Chemmeen Sheela' even today! Needless to say, the trio responds with their career-best performances. Incidentally, Madhu introduced to films through Kariat's Moodupadam (1963), was one of the ensemble cast in KA Abbas's Saat Hindustani (1969), Amitabh Bachchan's debut film. The three are strongly supported by Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair bringing alive the wily and greedy Chembankunju.

Another major strength of the film is its superb musical score by Salil Choudhury. It is said that Choudhury composed the tunes first and then the lyrics were added in. The most well-known number of the film is the haunting - Manasa Maine Varu rendered brilliantly with great pathos by the great Manna Dey. His Hindi and Bengali songs notwithstanding, this is one of Mannada's best ever songs and he was praised by one and all for his outstanding Malayalam Diction. Of course it helped that he was married to a Malayalee woman, Sulochana! Other songs, all extremely popular, include Pennale Pennale sung by KJ Yesudas and P.Leela, Puthan Valakkare by KJ Yesudas, P Leela, KP Udaybhanu and Shantha P Nair ('inspired' by Choudhury's own Baag Mein Kali Khili from Chand aur Suraj (1965)) and Kadalinakkara by KJ Yesudas. In fact, the songs were dubbed into Hindi as well under the collective title Chemmeen Lehren. Chemeen is Salilda's first film in Malayalam and would lead him to composing music in several more Malayalam films especially in tandem with lyricist Valyalar.

Besides 'importing' Choudhury and Dey, the film also has the expertise of Hrishikesh Mukherjee in the Editing Department. Hrishida does speak about how he had to 'salvage' what was shot by altering the structure of the film compared to what Kariat had in mind but since it helped the film overall, no one is complaining today! Mention must be made of cinematographer Marcus Bartley's and U Rajagopal's evocative cinematography of the sea front with good use of the technicolour format. (Chemmeen was the first ever colour film in Malayalam.)

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Perhaps the high regard for the film particularly in Kerala is best summed up by Malayalee superstar of today, Mohanlal. To quote him…

"It is an exceptional film. I don't think there will be another like it in Malayalam. All those who worked in Chemmeen were so great. I don't think such a combination has happened again or will happen again."

Beside the National Award, Chemmeen also won a Certificate of Merit at the Chicago Film Festival and the film was also screened at the 2005 Brisbane International Film Festival as part of a retrospective on 50 years of Malayalam Cinema.

films

It's widely believed that Salil's first bengali film was 'Poribartan'. This is why I was quite surprised to find out recently that he first appeared as an assistant music director in the film 'Putul naacher itikatha' under Jotirindra Moitra. That was most probably in the late forties just before he was asked to compose for 'Poribartan'. Although Salil has composed for over 40 bengali films, several of them were never completed or the producer ran out of money or just died a death in the planning phase. ! Film# 35 to 40 for example. Here and there one finds a song or two, but the films either disappeared or never released. Strangely, the film 'Haraaner Naatjamaai' has a cassette and has the only Anuradha Paudwal's song she sang for Salil, but nobody has ever heard of the film. Similarly, films like 'Sei Samoy' - three wonderful songs but was never made. The story goes on.....

Year	Film
1949	Poribartan
1951	Barjaatri
1952	Paasher Baari
1953	Baansher Kella
1953	Bhor Hoye Elo
1954	Aaj Sondhaay
1954	Mohila Mahal
1955	Rickshawaala
1956	Raat Bhore
1956	Ak din Raatre
1959	Baadi Thekey Paaliye
1960	Ganga
1961	Rai Bahadur
1964	Kinu Goalaar Goli
1964	Ayanaanto
1964	Laal Paathor
1966	Paari
1972	Marjina Aabdullah
1977	Kobita
1977	Sister
1979	Jibon Je Rakam
1979	Srikaanter Will
1980	Byapika Bidaay
1980	Parabesh
1980	Akaler Sandhaney
1980	Antarghaat
1982	Artap
1985	Protiggya
1985	Debikaa
1985	Mowchor
1986	Jibon
1989	Swarnatrishaa
1990/91	Aashrita **(background: Salil) (MD:Hridaynath Mangeskar)
1994	Mahabharoti
19??	Komol Gandhaar
19??	Haraaner Naatjamaai
19??	Ei Ritur Akdin
19??	Chalo Kolkataa
19??	Obhisake
19??	Aswamedher Ghoraa
19??	Sei Samoy
19??	Raktaakto Baangla (made in Bangla Desh)

** The film 'Aashrita' - It was released in 1990 or 91, Music by Hridaynath Mangeskar. The lyrics are by Mukul Datta and Salil. Salil wrote the lyrics for two songs and composed the films background music. Originally the film was being made as 'Raanga Bhaanga Chaand' based on a book by Bani Basu. Later the production stopped and restarted as 'Aashrita'. A 45 LP was released under the original film name. Songs were later added to the film which do not appear in the record.

The Sound of Silence
Source: Filmfare, October 1995
(By Sathya Saran)

Raju, I am sending herewith a set of Annadata records for your valuable opinion. You will find in them the style and approach which are typically my own. I will very much value your sincere opinion about these compositions, especially Latas Nis din nis din mera zulmi sajan and Raaton ke saaye ghane, which is a breakaway from the usual norm of film music

Nis din nis din and Raaton ke saaye ghane were excellent compositions. In fact Annadata too had all beautiful songs."Nain hamare"(Mukesh),"Champavati tu aaja"(Kishore+Sabita Chaudhaury), "Yahaan ab kya rehna"(Manna Dey), "Guzar jaaye din" (Kishore). Rarely have I found Salilda's music not beautiful.

Originally posted by: jhsurti

Nis din nis din and Raaton ke saaye ghane were excellent compositions. In fact Annadata too had all beautiful songs."Nain hamare"(Mukesh),"Champavati tu aaja"(Kishore+Sabita Chaudhaury), "Yahaan ab kya rehna"(Manna Dey), "Guzar jaaye din" (Kishore). Rarely have I found Salilda's music not beautiful.

Put it very well Apni ki Bangali. Yes you are so right he did contribute a lot to the Indian Music.