A few years
back, I had the privilege of viewing a musical concert on "Trends in Hindi
Film Music" presented by one Mr. Purushottam Berde. The program was
a tribute to the music trendsetters, starting from Anil Biswas (1945) till AR
Rehman (2005).
These included music directors like Naushad, Ravi (who is supposed to be the pioneer in marriage songs and bidaaai-type songs... a trend which was continued later by Ram-Laxman in Rajshree films), Shankar Jaikishen (who introduced the orchestra in Hindi film music), and OP Nayyar & Chitragupta (who introduced fun-based songs). Vasant Desai (I think he was the music director for V Shantaram's hit movie Do Ankhen Baara Haath in 1958) created Hindi film's first meaningless word in the song, "Thaka thaka dum dum"... a trend which continued later on with the popular songs, “Yahoo” and “Aie aie ya suku suku” from Junglee (1960), , and “Oye Oye” in Tridev (1988).
Ashok Kumar was credited for singing the first Hindi rap song, “Rail gaadi” from Ashirwaad (1968). Madan Mohan was the pioneer in popularizing ghazal-based songs including the evergreen “Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil” and my favourite “Jaanam Dekh lo” from Veer Zaara (2003).
The presenter also lamented of magic-that-would-have-been, had noted music directors worked outside their preferred productions. If Shankar Jaikishen had provided music for a Dev Anand movie, or had SD Burman worked with Raj Kapoor. Kalyandji-Anandji is credited to be the first musician to provide music to superstars across generations... from a Raj Kapoor/Dilip Kumar to Rajesh Khanna and then to Amitabh Bacchan.
The first "item" song in movies was traced back to a Marathi movie in the 40s titled Maanus. Raj Kapoor started the item song trend in Hindi movies with the song, “Budda mil gaya” from Sangam (1960). Bappi Lahiri is credited with introducing the disco culture.
The concert also introduced a promising trend of non-filmi classical based musicians lending their services to film music. Like the case in Mughal-e-Azam where Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sang the Tansen-like rendition, a trend which never got popular although it stretches right down to Birju Maharaj choreographing Madhuri Dixit in Devdas (2002).
The 3-hour long concert was definitely worth very minute and concluded with the rendition of the AR Rehman hit, “Bharat Humko Jaan se bhi pyaara hain” from Roja (1993).
These included music directors like Naushad, Ravi (who is supposed to be the pioneer in marriage songs and bidaaai-type songs... a trend which was continued later by Ram-Laxman in Rajshree films), Shankar Jaikishen (who introduced the orchestra in Hindi film music), and OP Nayyar & Chitragupta (who introduced fun-based songs). Vasant Desai (I think he was the music director for V Shantaram's hit movie Do Ankhen Baara Haath in 1958) created Hindi film's first meaningless word in the song, "Thaka thaka dum dum"... a trend which continued later on with the popular songs, “Yahoo” and “Aie aie ya suku suku” from Junglee (1960), , and “Oye Oye” in Tridev (1988).
Ashok Kumar was credited for singing the first Hindi rap song, “Rail gaadi” from Ashirwaad (1968). Madan Mohan was the pioneer in popularizing ghazal-based songs including the evergreen “Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehfil” and my favourite “Jaanam Dekh lo” from Veer Zaara (2003).
The presenter also lamented of magic-that-would-have-been, had noted music directors worked outside their preferred productions. If Shankar Jaikishen had provided music for a Dev Anand movie, or had SD Burman worked with Raj Kapoor. Kalyandji-Anandji is credited to be the first musician to provide music to superstars across generations... from a Raj Kapoor/Dilip Kumar to Rajesh Khanna and then to Amitabh Bacchan.
The first "item" song in movies was traced back to a Marathi movie in the 40s titled Maanus. Raj Kapoor started the item song trend in Hindi movies with the song, “Budda mil gaya” from Sangam (1960). Bappi Lahiri is credited with introducing the disco culture.
The concert also introduced a promising trend of non-filmi classical based musicians lending their services to film music. Like the case in Mughal-e-Azam where Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sang the Tansen-like rendition, a trend which never got popular although it stretches right down to Birju Maharaj choreographing Madhuri Dixit in Devdas (2002).
The 3-hour long concert was definitely worth very minute and concluded with the rendition of the AR Rehman hit, “Bharat Humko Jaan se bhi pyaara hain” from Roja (1993).
3 comments:
Thanks for the informative article. Would be interesting to know about the first item song. Do you have any more details?
No Vishakh. I do not have any details. :-)
It is a V. Shantaram movie released in 1939.
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