Well, I never got around to telling Ravi that, even when he visited close friends of mine on an evening at their apartment in Bombay some odd years ago-I was on the other side of the world. One good thing about memories, though~you can always bring back the past.....this time, in tribute to a track from Filmfare's Best Music Award winning score.
****
Of all the film personalities we have known in our time, music directors and lyricists deserve our utmost respect because despite what went on in the other departments of film making, including the silliness on the screen, it was often the composer and his right hand, the lyricist, who salvaged a film from the trashcans and led it, often in those days, to the coveted 25th Silver Jubilee Week. It was mainly thanks to them that we music lovers remember our films, today.
Ravi Shankar Sharma (or Ravi as he was popularly known to us) who died the other day at a hospital in Bombay, was one such composer: a consistently dependable creator of hits who led films to success with simple but immensely melodious tunes, with uncomplicated arrangements. Not for him the 100-piece orchestra: just a telling display of the flute's virtuosity and the flourish of the sitar accompanying our singers was enough. He was, like C. Ramchandra, Hemant Kumar himself (his mentor) and a few others of that generation, a minimalist.
Did he compose better duets than this one during his long career? Immeasurably, both before and after it. For, long before he did Gharana, Ravi had already established himself as a composer of considerable stature since 1955, when he branched off from being Hemant Kumar's assistant (indeed, the cognisanti have often credited Ravi for the colossal success of the tracks from Filmistan's 'Nagin' ) and, encouraged by his mentor, became an independent music director with Devendra Goel's 'Vachan' and 'Albeli'. The first was a huge success musically speaking and we still remember that eternal tear jerker, the ultimate beggar's song, 'O babu, O babu, O janewale babu, ek paisa de de, penned by Prem Dhawan (with whom he would do more memorable work, later), and the lighter 'Jab liya haathmein haath, nibhana saath more sajna....' both in the joint voices of Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhonsle, the latter now firmly in the saddle thanks to OP Nayyar and his Mangu, the year before. Indeed, right upto the mid-60s and beyond, Asha would go on to record some of her best songs for Ravi, along with her phenomenal work for OP Nayyar! Her solo for Ravi in Vachan, 'Chandamama door ke....', can still be a treat for the kids......if one can find the track, that is, or the voice to sing it!
'Albeli' boasted a couple of charming but now forgotten tracks: among them Hemant Kumar's rendering of 'Gori tujhe aana padega....' and the Hemant-Lata duet 'Muskurati hui chandani...' They still echo in the mind and reveal Ravi's penchant for poetry: he penned both the lyrics himself.
In 1957 he teamed up again with Devendra Goel in the Ashok Kumar-Madhubala starrer 'Ek Saal', and I believe this was the first rung in his steady climb to success. That very touching Lata-Talat tandem, 'Sab kucchh luta ke hoshmein aaye to kya kiya....' has remained a favourite down the years, as have the Lata solos 'chale bhi aao' and 'chhum-chhum chali piya ki gali...', and her never-never duet with Hemant-da 'ulajh gaye do naina....' However, the song that stops your heartbeat in its tracks is Rafi-saab's iconic rendering of Prem Dhawan's 'kiske liye ruqa hai, kiske liye rukega, karna hai jo bhi karle yeh waqt jaa raha hai, yeh waqt jaa raha hai,' which talks about the relentless passage of Time.
Years later (in 1965), both composer and singer would come together in a more powerful composition for Sahir's 'waqt se kal aur aaj, waqt se din aur raat, waqt ki har shai ghulam, waqt ka har shai pe raaj....' driving home the vagaries of Time with a deep emotional impact, in BR Chopra's fatalistic 'Waqt'. While the rest of the tracks in that film were, unfortunately, below par, this theme song would sway our minds and soul forever.
Back in 1957, Ravi had one more collaboration with Devendra Goel, this time in the mythological 'Narsi Bhagat' starring Shahu Modak and Nirupa Roy. Like all films with religious myth at the core this opus too was, well, unbelievable in a different way if you get the drift but also, like all mythologicals, it challenged both composer and his lyricist, Gopal Singh 'Nepali', to give of their best. The result was a film that gave us 'bhajans' we still remember in the voices of Hemant and Asha and Sudha and Rafi, with the virtuoso we know as Manna Dey doing a reverberating solo version of 'Darshan do Ghanshyam....'
We all remember the charmers from 1958~films like 'Ghar Sansar' (bhala karnewale bhalai kiye ja and yeh hawa yeh nadi ka kinara)....a very young Rajendra Kumar and Kum Kum....
....and 'Dilli Ka Thug' with its 'yeh raatein, yeh mausam nadi ka kinara, yeh chanchal hawa, penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri and sung by Asha Bhonsle & Kishore Kumar.
However, it was Ravi's contribution in Pushpa Pictures and A.A. Nadiadwala's Ajit-Jayashree-Veena starrer 'Mehndi' (that same year) which opened new doors for him to a wider, more varied musical career. With this film he finally began to move from situational composing to mood composing. The film was a dated Muslim social, rich in poetry and the cultural nuances of the courtesan and Ravi came up with a subtle musical score evocative of a bygone era. The poets Khumar Barabanqvi and S.H. Bihari, the latter now a frequent collaborator, came up with striking ghazals and we remember poignant numbers like 'apne kiye pe koi pashemaan ho gaya' and the very wistful, lonely 'pyarki duniya lutegi hamein maloom na tha' with a gentle sitar as the lead in, both rendered by Lata as only she could have.
The piece de resistance, however, in my book is the Lata-Hemant duet 'bedard zamana tera dushman hai to kya hai, duniyamein nahin jiska koi, uska khuda hai....' so exquisitely rendered by both artistes it defies description. S H Bihari came up with a gentle lyric that preaches without prating. Indeed, a bard can drive home the point of the Almighty's existence in two lines: something that a professed man of God submerged in his own scriptural theories may not succeed in, in a lifetime. In this day and age we need gentle nudges of this type: religious philosophy more than religious dogmas....While Lata is extremely melodious, Hemant-da carries the ditty. It was this type of rendering that prompted Lata-ji to liken his singing to that of a pujari chanting to his God at eventide!
It was, perhaps, his work in 'Mehndi' that drew Guru Dutt's attention to Ravi. That film maker was still reeling from the commercial disaster that was his 'Kaagaz Ke Phool' (1959) and launched his own Muslim social in 'Chaudhvin Ka Chand' (1960)--a sterling achievent in every way, with Ravi's new found lyricist, Shakeel Badayuni, walking away with top honours at the Filmfare Awards soiree for the best lyric, and Rafi as top singer for his rendering of the title song. (Psstt-The award for best music direction that year went to Shankar-Jaikishan for their totally undeserving (for once) score in Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai. Along with Ravi for 'Chaudhvin Ka Chand', there were better contenders for the award that year: Naushad-saab with his Mughal-e-Azam, for instance!
Anyway, Ravi came back the following year--winner of the Filmfare statuette for his music in Gemini's 'Gharana', along with Shakeel Badayuni who was voted once again best lyricist for 'Husnwale Tera Jawab Nahin', with Mohammad Rafi carrying off his own trophy for the same song. (PS: In all fairness, one does feel that Jaidev-ji deserved the award that year for his fine scoring of Navketan's 'Hum Dono'). Poet and composer went on to form a fine team and did good work together in films like 'Ghunghat' (1960), 'Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya' and Nartaki (1963), 'Door Ki Aawaz' (1964) and 'Do Badan' (1965) among others.
A very haunting song from the film 'Ghunghat' begs to be remembered at this point.....
Ravi's association with Rajendra Krishan was also memorable and as a team they were great together in films like 'Nazrana' (1961) 'Rakhi' (1962), 'Yeh Raaste Hain Pyarke' (1963-Sunil Dutt's disgusting take on the Nanavati trial of the time) and 'Khandan' (1965), the last earning him another award for Best Music Direction with Lata romping in with her very gentle 'Tumhi Meri Manzil', from that film. Among the other tracks in the film this Rafi-Asha duet is a standout....both of them in top form....
After the debacle of 'Dharmaputra', composer N. Dutta left the BR Films camp and Ravi was invited to replace him. Thus began a momentous association with that banner which commenced with 'Gumrah' (1963) and ended, I believe, with 'Niqah' (1982). Ravi thus began with Sahir Ludhianvi, that maverick amongst our film poets and resident poet of BR Films, a relationship that would remain the longest in our filmdom with the possible exception of the Naushad-Shakeel tandem and the SJ-Shailendra-Hasrat powerhouse.
'Gumrah' told the story of love gone wrong, a triangle that left us all guessing and debating who, among Sunil Dutt, Mala Sinha and Ashok Kumar, was the real odd man out! Sahir Ludhianvi came in with some of his most overpowering and searing lyrics and Mahendra Kapoor's rendering of that poet's 'chalo ek baar phirse ajnabi ban jayen hum dono', finally brought recognition to him and he earned the first of two Filmfare awards that he would under Ravi's baton, the second being 'e neele gaganke tale', also penned by Sahir for BR's 'Hamraaz' (1967).
But as great and powerful as 'chalo ek baar' is as a lyric the tuning of that other fine ghazal from 'Gumrah', 'aap aye to khayal-e-dil-e-nashad-aya', remains a superior achievement, the unspoken fury of that other song being spent, and each of the three characters muses upon the affair: perhaps it was nobody's fault after all.....
After the critical and popular acclaim for 'Gumrah', Ravi and Sahir teamed up in Vasant Joglekar's 'Aaj Aur Kal' in that same year and went on to earn more plaudits in films like 'Kaajal', 'Waqt' and 'Bahu Beti' (1965), 'Neel Kamal' and 'Do Kaliyan' (1968), 'Aadmi Aur Insaan' (1969), 'Dhund' (1973) and finally 'Amanat' (1975).
During this period Ravi continued his association with old faithfuls like Prem Dhawan in films like 'Pyar Ka Sagar' and Ek Phool Do Mali (1961 & 1969), Asad Bhopali in films like 'Tower House' (1962) and 'Ustadon Ke Ustad' (1963), S.H. Bihari in 'Apna Banake Dekho' (1962), Rajendra Krishan and Gulshan Bawra in 'Modern Girl' (also in 1961) etc.
The decade was drawing to a close and along with it the trends in film making that the old world knew and always craved for. However, Ravi's career was by no means over. He moved to the south where the realtionships that he had fostered in the 60s with studios like Gemini and AVM stood him in good stead. There, from what one hears, in the backwaters of filmdom where family themes still rule he did well, setting to music lyrics written in languages he was not familiar with, very much like his mentor, the great Hemant Kumar Mukherjee, had once done....history had drawn another full circle.
R.I.P.
*******
Finally, there was a time when we often despaired of ever being able to listen to beloved music like this, as the songs aged and began to fade from memory. We music lovers have to thank the various DVD companies like Shemaroo, Time, Ultra and Rafiology and others for uploading these songs for us in cyberspace and facilitating our own individual attempts to keep alive the songs for posterity.
*******
Part I
ReplyDeleteLooking back at Ravi's career filmography, I felt that he was a steady, dependable music director who could be depended upon to provide good quality music which would carry a film's story along. He did compose several memorable melodious songs, very much soothing on the nerves. But I would hesitate to call him a brilliant composer. Even in 60s when he was at the peak of his career, he had to content with Shankar Jaikishin, Roshan, Madan Mohan, Kalyanji Anandji and later Laxmikant Pyarelal to be placed among top 5 music directors of the decade, despite his two filmfare awards and a couple more nominations. There is of course no denying the fact that in each of his movies there were at least a couple, sometime three, sometime four, memorable songs which remain etched in the memory even today. Yet I can't think of any movie of his, Gharana and Khandan included, which I can consider as an outstanding musical score, where all the songs were gems. Ek Saal, Chaudhavi Ka Chand, Ghunghat, Pyar Ka Sagar, Do Badan, in addition to Gumrah and Hamraaz; can be counted among those movies where most songs were of high quality. In fact I would like to pick on Narsi Bhagat as one movie where he came pretty close to giving an excellent musical score, composing several melodious songs of the bhajan genre of course. In addition to the Manna Dey solo that you have singled out, the trio दर्शन दो घनश्याम along with Manna Dey's वैष्णव जन तो तेने कहिये and मेरी हुण्डी सकारो महाराज रे, Manna - Asha duet, सब की नैया पार लगैया, Rafi solo जय गोविंदा गोपाला and a couple of songs of Sudha Malhotra were all outstanding compositions.
Melody was Ravi's forte and there is unmistakable stamp of his mentor, Hemant Kumar, in his compositions. This is not surprising since Ravi was assistant to Hemant Kumar in as many as 17 to 18 movies between 1954 and 1957. In fact he continued to assist Hemant Kumar, even after he had established himself as an independent music director by 1955. Several movies with Hemant Kumat as music composer, released in 1956 and 1957, such as Anjaan, Arab Ka Saudagar, Champakali, Durgesh Nandini, Ek Hi Rasta, Ek Jhalak, Hamara Watan, Inspector and Taaj have Ravi as the assistant to HK. Shows his humility and his commitment to his mentor. The filip side to it was that Ravi's personal contribution to the wonderful music in many of those movies has gone unrecognised. You have rightly pointed out to Ravi's contribution to the phenomenal success of Nagin's music. Poet Pradeep who wrote हम लाये हैं तूफ़ान से किश्ती निकाल के has gone on record to suggest that this immortal song was set to tune by Ravi. Also as mentioned by you, like Hemant, Ravi too was a minimalist as far as the number of pieces in the orchestra goes.
Part II (concluding part)
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more about that disgusting choice of Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai for the fimfare award for the musical score of 1960 when Mughal - e - Azam and Chaudhavi Ka Chand were ignored. I mean to find that movie nominated among the three itself was outright injustice if you consider that Barsaat Ki Raat, Ghunghat, Hum Hindustani, Kala Bazaar and Kohinoor were not among the nominations. Personally I found even Sardar Mallik's music in Saranga of far superior quality than Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai. But I must add that I do not agree with the choice of Gharana in 1961 either, compared with Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai and Ganga Jamuna, the two other nominations during the year. Of course from my perspective none of them deserved the award. It should have gone to Hum Dono for its six fantastic songs, each of them deserving to be nominated as an award winning song by itself. I don't believe that Shakeel's हुस्न वाले तेरा जवाब नही was superior to Sahir's poetry's in मैं ज़िन्दगी का साथ निभाता चला गया or कभी खुद पे कभी हालात पे रोना आया or the duet जब से तुम्हे देखा है was in any way better than अभी न जाओ छोड़ कर. Could any song in that year surpass Narendra Sharma's ज्योति कलश छलके and तुम से ही दर दर कहलाया. There were other better musical scores in 1961 such as Chhaya and Maya of Salil Choudhary, Sanjog of Madan Mohan, or even SJ's Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai in popular category and from my own perspective, Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan of Sudhir Phadke, Ghulam Mohammed's Shama and Khaiyam's Shola Aur Shabnam. Anyway, the manipulations that were the order of the day in selection of filmfare award winners in those days are common knowledge but that's a topic for another day or another blog article, if you wish to choose. Actually this will not a bad idea. May be somewhat controversial. What you say?
Among Ravi's reportaire from 60s, my personal five favourites, in addition to your own fine selection, will be:
सौ बार जनम लेंगे सौ बार फना होंगे
ऐ मेरे दिल-ए-नादान तू ग़म से न घबराना
जियो तो ऐसे जियो जैसे सब तुम्हारा है
रात रात भर जाग जाग कर इंतज़ार करते हैं
वफ़ा जिन से की बेवफा हो गए हैं
Talking about Ravi, it was amusing to see that wikipedia (the self proclaimed encyclopedia in the cyberspace has missed out on quite a few movies under Ravi's filmography, Prabhu Ki Maya (1955), Ayodhyapati (1956) and Devar Bhabhi (1958), to name a few.
I noted your views on two of Ravi's movies, Waqt and Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke. I think the Manna Dey solo in Waqt is quite endearing and is still the most preferred choice of those who are not so young in age but still young at heart. As regards YRHPK, I am not quite sure about authenticity of the story of the movie viz a viz the famous Commander Nanavati trial of early 60s but as far as the music is concerned, I quite like some of its songs with Sahir once again coming up with a few romantic and a few searing lyrics as was his wont in that era.
To sum up, as I said earlier, Ravi could be depended upon to provide soothing, melodious music, year after year, movie after movie. He may not be talked about in the same breath as many giants of the vintage music era but he would be definitely up there somewhere, just behind those front runners, pretty contended with his own contribution to the treasure that we all cherish. His mentor, Hemant Kumar, has every reason to feel proud the way his favourite pupil blossomed.
Pradeep
Pradeep: On target, as always. While my omission of 'Hum Dono' was glaring it was unintended. I have actually referred to him in one of my earlier blogs (YSZ, I think) and lamented the fact that he was ignored for the FF award in favour of Ravi in 'Gharana' and of course, Shakeel-saab in the latter was no match for Sahir in 'Hum Dono'! But 'Gharana' still was very melodious. Also, I missed applauding the Manna Dey number from 'Waqt' although it will never find a niche among my favourite Manna Dey solos.
DeleteBut YRHPK did make a brazen fiasco of one man's personal tragedy that had just played itself out with, Sunil Dutt reflecting not an ounce of Commander Nanavati's charisma. My personal favourite in this film is Asha's 'Aaj yeh meri zindagi' with Rajendra Krishan (not Sahir, please note) beautifully capturing the torment of the wife's character listing towards infidelity but Leela Naidu was totally lost as to her next move in interpreting it. Director R K Nayyar failed her at a crucial moment. How somebody like Guru Dutt would have handled it one can only sadly reflect upon. Again, the title song is a rehash of not one but two contemporary western tunes viz the theme from the film 'A Summer Place' and 'April in Paris'. Ravi did not do an original job there although most songs achieved a measure of popularity, spurring the film to its success thanks to fine renderings.
As always, thanks for perking me up!
~Kersi
Thanks for the correction with regards to the lyric writer of YRHPK. Rajendra Krishan, in this movie in particular, excelled himself specially with Aaj Yeh Meri Zindagi and Koi Mujh Se Poochhe Ke Tum Mere Kya Ho.
DeletePradeep
Part II (concluding part)
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more about that disgusting choice of Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai for the fimfare award for the musical score of 1960 when Mughal-e-Azam and Chaudhavi Ka Chand were ignored. I mean to find that movie nominated among the three itself was outright injustice if you consider that Barsaat Ki Raat, Ghunghat, Hum Hindustani, Kala Bazaar and Kohinoor were not among the nominations. Personally I found even Sardar Mallik's music in Saranga of far superior quality than Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai. But I must add that I do not agree with the choice of Gharana in 1961 either, compared with Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai and Ganga Jamuna, the two other nominations during the year. Of course from my perspective none of them deserved the award. It should have gone to Hum Dono for its six fantastic songs, each of them deserving to be nominated as an award winning song by itself. I don't believe that Shakeel's हुस्न वाले तेरा जवाब नही was superior to Sahir's poetry's in मैं ज़िन्दगी का साथ निभाता चला गया or कभी खुद पे कभी हालात पे रोना आया or the duet जब से तुम्हे देखा है was in any way better than अभी न जाओ छोड़ कर. Could any song in that year surpass Narendra Sharma's ज्योति कलश छलके and तुम से ही दर दर कहलाया. There were other better musical scores in 1961 such as Chhaya and Maya of Salil Choudhary, Sanjog of Madan Mohan, or even SJ's Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai in popular category and from my own perspective, Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan of Sudhir Phadke, Ghulam Mohammed's Shama and Khaiyam's Shola Aur Shabnam. Anyway, the manipulations that were the order of the day in selection of filmfare award winners in those days are common knowledge but that's a topic for another day or another blog article, if you wish to choose. Actually this will not a bad idea. May be somewhat controversial. What you say?
Among Ravi's reportaire from 60s, my personal five favourites, in addition to your own fine selection, will be:
सौ बार जनम लेंगे सौ बार फना होंगे
ऐ मेरे दिल-ए-नादान तू ग़म से न घबराना
जियो तो ऐसे जियो जैसे सब तुम्हारा है
रात रात भर जाग जाग कर इंतज़ार करते हैं
वफ़ा जिन से की बेवफा हो गए हैं
Talking about Ravi, it was amusing to see that wikipedia (the self proclaimed encyclopedia in the cyberspace has missed out on quite a few movies under Ravi's filmography, Prabhu Ki Maya (1955), Ayodhyapati (1956) and Devar Bhabhi (1958), to name a few.
I noted your views on two of Ravi's movies, Waqt and Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke. I think the Manna Dey solo in Waqt is quite endearing and is still the most preferred choice of those who are not so young in age but still young at heart. As regards YRHPK, I am not quite sure about authenticity of the story of the movie viz a viz the famous Commander Nanavati trial of early 60s but as far as the music is concerned, I quite like some of its songs with Sahir once again coming up with a few romantic and a few searing lyrics as was his wont in that era.
To sum up, as I said earlier, Ravi could be depended upon to provide soothing, melodious music, year after year, movie after movie. He may not be talked about in the same breath as many giants of the vintage music era but he would be definitely up there somewhere, just behind those front runners, pretty contended with his own contribution to the treasure that we all cherish. His mentor, Hemant Kumar, has every reason to feel proud the way his favourite pupil blossomed.
Pradeep
Kersi,
ReplyDeleteOf the movies you mention in Ravi's story, I have seen only a counted few, but recall having heard many of the songs and now I know a little about the creator of some of the touching music that I have enjoyed. I really liked the way you tell the story through the theme of how the music is made as a partnership between the composer and the lyricist. To me this process is so counter intuitive, I must salute the composers who can come up with a tune in abstract to which words are then fitted. It shows how little I know about music creation. I recognize that this is not always the order and that often there is likely an interactive interplay between the composer and the writer. Being typically literal, I always thought that the word came first and then the music!
This brings me to Narsi Bhagat which I have not seen but am familiar with its music and clearly some of it was written well before the music was set to it. I was a little puzzled by your characterization of it as "mythological." I hope the movie was an historical portrayal of Narsi Mehata the medieval Gujarati poet starting with whom Gujarati literature essentially came into being (though there was literary writing centuries before him). He is therefore considered the father figure. I don't mean to digress, perhaps the movie was set up as a mythological fantasy...
Best,
-Bhadrayu
Thank you, Bhadrayu, for drawing my attention to the unwitting error I have made in categorizing the film Narsi Bhagat as a 'mythological', rather than a biographical sketch of Narsi Mehta, the poet-saint of Gujarat, who lived in the 15th century. It was my zeal and eagerness to release the blog on composer Ravi that carried me away to the resulting malapropism. I appreciate your pointing out this to me.
DeleteWhile the movie itself was not plotted as a mythological, I have retained memories of at least one sequence of the many, in which a wood burning stove comes alive and 'puries' start to fry over it on their own, lending the movie it's element of fantasy without which a saint's tale can never be complete! Thank you, once again. Kersi.