SurYatra had its 31st meeting at the office premises of adult education association on 27th September 2009.

The meeting marked joining of two new Hamrahi’s the caravan namely Shri Dheerendra Rahul, a senior journo and Shri Naval Kishore Sharma, an HFM collector and writer.

For SurYatra, this 31st meeting turned out to be very special as the popular playback singer of Hindi films of sixties and seventies, Sharda agreed to be the chief guest. Sharda who arrived at HFM scene in 1966 with two of her ever green songs, Titali Udee and Dekho mera dil machal gaya composed by great Shankar-Jaikishan for film Suraj certainly made waves in Hindi playback singing. Both the songs were hit and liked by HFM lovers for long. She had a youngish sweet and supple voice with a new timbre which made her quite popular in that cut throat competitive era of HFM. She was nominated for the best female singer from 1968 to 1971 for film fare awards and won the same in 1969 for her song ‘Baat jara hai aapas ki’ in ‘Jahaan Pyar Mile’. Though most of her songs, 72 out of 100 were sung for Shankar-Jaikishan, she also sang for Ravi and Usha Khanna. She also composed music for eight films and all the leading singers of the time sang for her. Rafi saab sang one of his ever green ‘Achha hi hua di toot gayaa’ in the film Maa Bahan Biwi under her baton.

Dr. R.K. Java welcomed Sharda with a bouquet of flowers. Dr. Java, a Sharda fan had 12 letters written to him by Sharda during 1966-1967 and four of her autographed photographs. When Dr. Java showed these letters to Sharda, she was emotionally moved and expressed her emotions by saying that she never knew that she had such die-hard fans. She said that such fans are the strength which keeps her singing despite many hurdles and obstacles.

Shri M.D.Soni, one of the founders of Suryatra introduced the hamrahi’s to Sharda in details by telling about their choices and special areas of interest and requested Sharda to address the hamrahis.

Sharda in her opening address reminisces that how she was spotted by the great Raj Kapoor while she was singing a song from Barsat, ‘bichhde hue pardesi’ in a party organized by Hindujas in Tehran. Raj Kapoor, she said instantly liked her voice and invited her to Bombay to sing in Hindi films. She took the chance and arrived at Bombay. She fondly recollected that how promptly she was called in by Raj Kapoor. An audition was held in R.K. studio the same day. Raj Kapoor immensly liked her voice and she was sent to Shankar-Jaikishan for training. There she was trained by Shri Jagnnath Prasad Jaipur-wale and Shri Laxaman Prasad Jaipur-wale. The classical singer Smt. Nirmala Devi (actor Govinda’s mother) gave her lessons in voice modulation in her early days.

When her songs for Suraj, ‘Titali Udee’ and ‘Dekho mera man machal gaya’ were released they became instant hits. She told that her instant success and popularity was not taken very kindly by the dominant female singers of that time and a systematic conspiracy was set in motion to keep other music directors away from her. Resulting in her limited singing mainly for Shankar-Jaikishan films. She complained that even today how her songs are being removed from DVDs at the instance of these forces.

Responding to hamrahi Shri Rajendra Bora’s query about the differences between Shankar-Jaikishan, which led them to compose separately internally though, she said as such there were no differences. This was kind of a business strategy as some producers were more comfortable with Shankar and some others with Jaikishan. Shri Bora also asked about the songs which listeners demand these days in her programmes to which she told that most of the time the demand is for the golden oldies. She also added that the noisy trend in HFM will not last long as the current younger generation is quite discerning and will soon return to the roots.

But all her panting anger came out when I asked her about the songs she recorded for Mera Naam Joker. She told that her three songs one solo and tow duets were recorded for Mera Naam Joker. The songs were good and liked by Raj Kapoor who spend a hell lot of money for recording the songs but due to the immense pressure of her rivals for not including any other female singer in the film Raj Kapoor dropped all the three songs. When I further quizzed her about rivals she forthrightly said ‘Aashaji ke gane the naa us film main’. She carried on by saying that though all through her singing carrier she faced this but when her songs were dropped from Mera Naam Joker, it was too much for her, it really hurt her hard and she was depressed for a long time. But after some time as always she decided to fight back and continued to work.

M.D. Soni ,when credited her for a unique feast of HFM i.e. of composing of first Sanskrit cabaret for the film ‘Kshitij’, she delightedly told that how the producers of film wanted it to be based on the immortal Sanskrit play ‘Kumar Sambhavam’ by Kalidas so she took some verse from ‘Kumar Sambhavam’ and the hindi portion of the song ‘Pyar hi ishvaram, pyar hi mandiram’ was written by famous hindi poet Balkavi Bairagi. Responding to another query by Shri Soni, she dwelt upon in great detail about the difference in the recording room atmosphere in those days. She told that those days there used to be a lot of people present in the recording room at the time of recording of a song. Producers, financers, lyricist and hero and heroine of the film were there not only to listen the song recording but also to suggest about the ‘adaygee’ of a few words of the song in a particular tone to match the expression in the song picturisation. Also at times the man from rhythm or bass section of orchestra would come out and tell about a sequence or a pause. After a lot of rehearsal and improvisations the recording would be completed.

She also recalled the funny atmosphere during the recording of the ‘Shatranj’ song Batkamma with Rafi and inimitable Mehmood. At the time of recording one of the three microphones went burst so she was told to share her microphone with Mehmood, and Mehmood as usual kept on making funny sounds during the recording and it was quite difficult to sing her part with cheek to cheek with Mehnood. Mehmood continued to make fun and shouting even after musicians stopped playing. It was a real fun to work those days, she said.

This enlightening discussion was followed by a ‘Sureela’ lunch and a group photograph with all the hamrahis. Before calling it a day, Suryatra again thanked Sharda for the privilege of sharing such memorable moments with her.

-Arun Mudgal

Thanks to Suryatri Dr. DP Agrawal, who captured this video and posted it on YouTube so that it can be shared at the earliest..

Here is Sharda ji interacting with Suryatri’s in the morning meet and sharing a lot of anecdotes..

Suryatra crosses 30th milestone

July 12 was a special day for Suryatris. The dedicated group of Hindustani Film Music (HFM) buffs were attending the 30th quarterly meeting of Suryatra at Rajasthan Adult Education Association premises in picturesque Jhalana Institutional Area in Jaipur.

Journalist and film historian M.D.Soni and die hard HFM collector Arun Agrawal, who jointly started the Suryatra caravan on December 9, 2001, were, as usual, reached the venue before time to receive others. Senior hamrahi Mukut Singh Naruka too was the early arriver.

By the schedule time of 10.30 am most of the members had already gathered to share their love for HFM. The proceeding of the day began with Soni ji welcoming all by presenting a brief overview of the past journey of Suryatra Caravan. He welcomed and introduced a new hamrahi Arun Mudgal into Suryatra fold. Mudgal is a former Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) officer and a true music connoisseur.

The tone of the meeting was set by Mudgal who, while telling about himself and his hobbies, dwelled upon intricacies of HFM discussing rare qualities of music directors and singers of the past and the present.

The discussion strayed into the songs inspired by Indian or other music compositions. The discussion was intense and passionate.

The absence of Pavan Jha , the great strength to Suryatra was being felt by every one and a SMS message flashed to him quoting mukhda of Anarkali song “Aaja ab to aaja…” and to the pleasant surprise of all he was there within few minutes.

Pavan quickly joined the discussion. He later shared with Suryatris his experience of the RMIMers’ meeting at Bangalore he had attended recently. The way he narrated the entire proceedings of the Bangalore meet and deliberations held there the Suryatris felt as if they had been in Bangalore personally.

He brought with him the new CD album produced by Yasraj Films ‘Tere Bagair’ containing unreleased and unused song tracks composed by great Madan Mohan. Although all Suryatris already had in their possession the LP and the cassette, issued by HMV long back, containing unreleased song tracks of MM. Pavan informed that the CD album released now had four additional tracks taken from the recordings available with the MM family.

The discussion naturally swerved on film songs remaining unreleased or unused. Soni ji played a song ‘Aayee Mohan Milan Ki Bela’ which was recorded for film ‘Janam Janam Ke Phere (1957) by music director S.N Tripathi on the lyrics of Bharat Vyas. The Shamshad Begum- Rafi chorus song was not picturised and included in the film but was released on 78 rpm record as JJKP song. However, the producer Rattan Kumar used the same song in his film Banjarin (1960). The film had music by Pardesi (who later scored music using name as Chand Pardesi) but no mention was made of the fact that the composer of the said song was S.N. Tripathi.

Similarly, Soni ji informed, it happened again when the song ‘Maana Teri Nazar Men…’ written by Naqsh Layalpuri under the musical score of Khayyam was recorded for film Khandan (1979) and released on disc but not used in the film. The same song was used in film ‘Aahista-Aahista’ (1981). The music director of the film was Khayyam in both the pictures.

The discussion also shifted to inspiration of certain film songs from other songs, both from Hindustani and other languages, and also from music of far off countries including western pieces.

Thrilling all a song ‘Aayee Gori Radhika Brij Men Bal Khaati…’ from 1948 film ‘Gopinath’ with music by Ninu Majumdar was played which was recreated with same tune by Laxmikant Pyarelal in Raj Kapoor’s ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram.’ Pt. Narendra Sharma wrote somewhat similar wordings for the SSS song ‘Yashomati Maiya Se Bole Nandlala…’ tinkering a little with the ‘Gopinath’ song that used traditional bhajan of Surdas.

Big chronicler of HFM Sushil Kumar Jain was of the opinion that the lift must have been the handiwork of Raj Kapoor who played lead role in Gopinath and was producer of SSS.

As the rain poured outside the Suryatris were treated with tasteful snacks and tea. Suryatri Rajesh Agrawal shared the joy of wedding of his daughter by serving sweets at the meet.

The members also discussed and agreed to hold an outing in which family members of Suryatris may have get together.

- Rajendra Bora

इस हफ़्ते संगीतकार रवि जी का एक बार फिर से जयपुर आगमन हुआ, और हुई एक और आत्मीय  मुलाकात रवि जी के साथ… फ़िल्म संगीत के स्वर्णिम दौर एक प्रमुख ह्स्ताक्षर रहे रवि जी ने बातचीत के दौर में उस दौर के कई अविस्मरणीय संस्मरणों का जिक्र किया और आज के दौर में फ़िल्म संगीत की क्वालिटी में आई गिरावट पे भी निराशा व्यक्त की। चर्चा चली तो स्लमडॉग मिलिनियर [Slumdog Millionaire] के उस विवाद का का जिक होना स्वाभाविक था, जिसमे गोपाल सिंह नेपाली द्वारा लिखे गये और रवि जी द्वारा संगीतकृत भजन  “दर्शन दो घनश्याम नाथ मोरी अंखियां प्यासी रे” को सूरदास का लिखा बताया गया है।  प्रस्तुत है रवि जी के साथ हुई चर्चा का ब्यौरा, जो 2 अप्रैल के हिन्दुस्तान टाईम्स में जयपुर लाईव में प्रकाशित हुआ है।

Where Slumdog Millionair fails to give correct answer :

JAIPUR. Who wrote the bhajan (song) ‘Darshan Do Ghanshyam Naath Mori Ankhiyan Pyasi Re’ ? asks the quizmaster in Oscar award winning film ‘Slumdog Millionair’. The quizmaster, played by bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, gave three options to protagonist, Jamaal, - Tulsidas, Meera Bai and Surdas. The protagonist picks out Surdas and the quizmaster proclaims the answer as correct one. But on this count the film by Danny Boyle fails miserably. The famous bhajan was not written by the saint Surdas 1500 years back but by fiery poet Gopal Singh Nepali for film ‘Narsi Bhagat’ in 1957.

It is unfortunate that the film failed to give due credit to Nepali, said renowned music director Ravi, who composed Darshan Do song for ‘Narsi Bhagat’. The poet had brought a lengthy poem written with small letters spread on to two sheets of paper out of which I I selected three stanzas for the film song, recalls Ravi, who gave immortal songs like ‘Babul Ki Duayen Leti Jaa, Jaa Tujko Sukhi Sansar Mile’, ‘Aaaj Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai’, ‘Ai Meri Zohra Zabi, Tujhe Maloom Nahi’ and ‘Kisi Patthar Ki Moorat Se’. The bhajan song was great and it still fondly hummed by Hindustani Film Music (HMF) lovers.

The incident also showed how ungrateful we are toward those who made the golden era of HMF shine, commented Ravi talking with film music lovers. He was in the pink city on a personal visit.

It is saddening to see the quality of today’s film music. Today’s film music completely lacks soul. The songs have life of no more than a month or so. Where ever I go in India or abroad people still hum and like to hear songs of bygone era, he said.

To a question why is it so Ravi replied: where are the writers like Sahir Ludhiyanvi or Shakeel Badayuni who penned words which went straight to the heart. I never gave tune to lyricist and always tuned the lyrics written first.

Ravi who received Filmfare nominations for Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), Do Badan (1966), Humraaz (1967), Ankhen (1968), and Nikaah (1982) and won award for Gharana(1961) and Khandaan (1965), quipped : they are writing ‘Main Tujse Pyar Karunga Kapde Phaad Ke’ Is this potry or lyrics? How do you expect godd songs from this type of lyrics?

A big hindustani film music lover Mandar Bichoo, a child specialist from Mumbai working in Sharjah for the last 15 years,who runs two most clicked websites on film music was also present at the meet with Ravi organised by one of the big collectors of hindi film music Arun Agrawal. An IT expert Pavan Jha, who runs most favourite website on Gulzar and a film and film-music historian M.D.Soni too shared their insights into film music.

The Suryatra group decided to create a website dedicated to Ravi for which the legendry music director who is equally revered in south for his music in Malyalam films gave his blessings.

(The piece appeared in Hindustan Times - Jaipur Live - on April 2,2009)

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