29 January, 2007

Jaaeye aap kahaan jaaenge Nayyarsaab

Hindi film industry lost one of its most charismatic and enigmatic composers when Shri O P Nayyar breathed his last on the night intervening between January 27th and 28th. If Asha Bhosale could come out of the shadows of her elder sibling, the credit entirely should go to Nayyarsaab. It was he alone who detected the sensuous quality in Asha's voice and the rest as they say, is history. Nayyarsaab's music had the earthly quality of the soil of Punjab, yet at the same time he could infuse a soft romantic quality to his music too. He could compose heavy tragic music also, as is evidenced by "Chain se humko kabhi...." or "Chal akela, chal akela.....".
My personal favourites include:-
1. Udein jab jab zulfein teri- Nya Daur (1957)
2. Mera naam chin chin chu -Howrah bridge (1958)
3. Jaaeye aap kahaan jaaenge- Mere sanam (1965)
4. Pukarta chalaa hoon main - Mere sanam
5.Chal akela - Sambandh(1974)
6. Chain se humko kabhi aapne - Praan jaye par vachan na jaaye (1974)
7. Yeh chaand sa roshan chehra - Kashmir ki kali (1964)
8. Kajra mohabbatwala - Kismet (1968)
9.Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahaan - Mr & Mrs 55 (1959)
10. Laakhon hain nigaah main - Phir wohi dil laaya hoon (1967)
It was rather shocking to learn that in the twilight of his life he had to be cared for by a poor family in Thane, Maharashtra. It is understood that his wife and son had filed a suit against him. We all stand humbled before the genius of Nayyarsaab and pray to the Almighty that his oul may rest in peace. Adieu Nayyarsaab!

18 January, 2007

Everlasting classical old songs

Why the old songs/compositions are everlasting, I realized when my 7 year old daughter took a fancy to the song "Laaga chunari main daag", sung by Mana Dey from the film - Dil hi to hai. It so happened that I selected this particular song for singing in our annual college gathering. When I first switched on the CD player and the opening bars were played, my daughter wrinkled her nose in disgust at my selection. She probably expected me to sing some of those God awful "Reshammiyasque" songs. However, my daughter is a keen listener and was playing nearby in the adjacent room, when the famous Taraana at the end began. Now my daughter is undergoing training for Bharatnatyam dance and therefore just could'nt resist the furious Teen taal and came into the room and started dancing wildly to the rhythm. As soon as the song ended, she then immediately went away and I too did not reflect too much over the incident.
Next day when I started to practice the song along with the CD track, she was present in the room with me and somehow sat through the entire song. Thus ended the 2nd day. Now on the 3rd day, my daughter paid more attention and began to sing snatches of the song along with me. This forced me to pay more attention to the entire scenario as 7 year old kids showing undue attention to a 50 year old song is quite unusul to me at least! After that day, there was no stopping her and she used to pester me to practice the song every day, and was the one, most wildly cheering me during the entire performance on the college day. Things have come to such a pass now, that she has forced me to download the entire song into my Cell's mp3 player and she's listening to it whenever we go out on a drive (I don't have a cassette/CD deck in my car).
There's more to come ! After having once "tasted" this song, my daughter's now turned her attention to Manna Dey's another classic(al) "Jhanak jhanak tori baaje paayaliya", from the film - Mere huzoor!!! This song too has been downloaded into my cell's mp3 player and I'm being forced to listen to the song as well as her vocal exertions along with it. Not that I am complaining !!!