The sweetest songs

Nostalgia An old melody can bring romance right back into your life

GOLDEN OLDIES Singer Mukesh with actor Raj Kapoor

I held my husband’s hand all the way back home. It was that kind of an evening. “Thandi havaa, yeh chandi suhaani…” sang Ganesh and everyone was spellbound and transported to a world of romantic songs. Kisho re Kumar’s song from the film Jhumroo turned even the most prosaic amongst us into a quivering heap of mush! An impromptu gathering with mad-about old-Hindi-numbers friends and the presence of a golden-voiced singer triggered off a cache of delightful memories and lots of goosebumps!

Radio magic

“Wednesday evenings and Binaca Geetmala are irrevocably tied up with memories of my childhood”, says Srini.

“We had a big radio, the kind that took some time to warm up before playing. And, it took a lot of twiddling around to hit Radio Ceylon. And then one sat unmoving with fingers frozen on the knob for the entire hour, as the programme would suddenly go off air with the slightest movement.” On her part, Sudha remembers how her dad frowned upon Hindi film songs (the illicit pleasure therefore was even greater). Appa came home only at nine, so she would hear what the sartaaj geet (top of the chart) was, and then switch off the set, not before she tuned the radio to some other station as dad often checked to see what she had b een listening to!

“Do you remember a radio programme called Sangeet Sarita”, asks Sutapa. “I was made to listen to it by my folks, ostensibly to improve my mind with classical music, but invariably it was the filmi song based on the particular raga being discussed that stuck with me. So, all I recall is that Man tadpat hari darshan… from the film Baiju Bawra was based on Raga Malkaus. There is little else I can tell you about the raga.”

“A get together of friends would often turn into scintillating mehfils,” recalls Neelam.

“Babuji dheere chalna (Geeta Dutt in Aar Paar) was usually the catalyst, sung by a friend in her sultriest voice. And suddenly, the atmosphere would be charged. A flute would be whipped out from somewhere, a bucket would be borrowed, and the evening would fill up with old melodies, sung enthusiastically and surprisingly, tunefully.”

This was followed with Kishore Kumar songs like Mere mehboob qayaamat hogi…( Mr. X in Bombay) , Kehna hai, kehna hai (Padosan), Kuch to log kahenge (Amar Prem), Mohammed Rafi’s Chaudhvin ka chaand, Main zin dagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya (Hum Dono)…Mukesh’s Aaja re ab mera dil pukara (Aah) , Hemant Kumar (the wondrous Yeh nayan dare dare from Kohra), Pankaj Mullick and his Piya milan ko jaana (Kapalakundala), Kundan Lal Saigal’s Ik bangle bane nyaara (Meri Bahen) and Soja rajkumari (Zindagi) …each song better than the other. There seems to be a n inexhaustible supply of Hindi songs and it is amazing how many of them one remembers.

Incomparable

Madhukar Hegde takes his fondness for old Hindi songs seriously. He says, “To me music is melody, not the cacophony that passes for music these days. I would rather listen to Saigal’s Babul mora than to Crazy kiya re, Rafi’s Man tadpat than Beedi jalaile or even Mera joota hai japani than Kajra re.”

His wife Mukta is willing to concede that there are a few beautiful songs even today like those from Parineeta, but they are rare.

“Songs like Beedi... may be chartbusters, but will anyone remember them five years from now? Can you compare that to say Kabhi khud pe kabhi halat pe rona aaya from Hum Dono or Kisike muskoorahaton pe ho nissar from Anari.. It is like comparing the sublime to the ridiculous”.

PANKAJA SRINIVASAN

(The Hindu: 28-05-2007)

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