Naushad Ali was one of the only Music Directors who composed maximum classical songs for Hindi Films during his time.  Perhaps, he was the only choice as a Music Director for most historic movies. Naushad Ali learned classical music during his young age from Ustad Ghurbat Ali, Ustad Yusuf Ali in Lucknow and moved to Mumbai later with an aspiration to become a Music Director. He also learned to play the Piano and worked as a musician initially for a studio orchestra. He started his career as a Music Arranger for Khemchand Prakash and eventually became a Music Director in 1940s. By 1960 he was one of the most popular Music Director. Some of his memorable films are Rattan, Shahjehan, Baiju Bawra, Mother India, Mughal-E-Azam, Pakeezah, Ganga Jamuna, Mere Mehboob.

The speciality of Naushad Ali’s music was that he created raga based music and tried to keep his compositions in pure raga form. For eg: the song ‘Mana tarpat hari darshan ko aaj’ is based on raag Malkauns, the song ‘Madhuban mein radhika nache re’ is based on raga Hameer, the song ‘Aye Duniya ke rakhwale’ is based on raga Darbari Kanada & the song ‘Ek Shahenshah ne banwa ke hasin tajmahal’ is based on Raga Lalit.  He also used some of the distinguished classical singers like Ustad Amir Khan & Pt. D. V. Paluskar for his film ‘Baiju Bawra’ and Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan in ‘Mughal-E-Azam’.

Apart from raga based music he also composed very rich romantic numbers like ‘Suhani Raat Dhal Chuki’, ‘Aaj ki raat mere dil ki salami le le’, ‘Tasvir banata hon teri khun e jigar se’, (All sung by Rafi) ‘Gam diye mushtaqil’ (sung by Sehegal), ‘Jane wale se mulaqat na hone payi hai’ (by Lata), Mere Mehboob tujhe meri mohabbat ki kasam (sung by both Lata & Rafi) & many more.

Naushad was a perfectionist. He used to spend several weeks at times, recording a single song, until he was satisfied with all the aspects of music. He composed music for only 66 films in his 60 years of music career, which means 1-2 films per year.

Though Naushad used western instruments in some of his songs but he could not adapt to creation or development of songs with a combination of Indian & Western music. Music Directors like O. P. Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishan, S.D. Burman became more popular with the new trend of Indian folk music blended with Western style & approach. Naushad could not compete with them as he probably could not compromise on his approach on maintaining pure form of Indian music in his compositions.

I was lucky to meet Naushad Sahab on a flight from US to India on 9th October 2001. Nobody recognised him on the flight. I went to him and just mentioned that I like his music & adore some of his songs. He just said ‘Shukriya’ & ‘Allah aapko salamat rakhe’! I will never forget his words. Few years later, during May 2006 he passed away.

I would like to end this post with a mukhda of one of his best compositions (Raga Kalawati), which I like the most. Rafi Sahab has sung this beautifully.

‘Koi Sagar Dil ko behlata nahin…bekhudi mein bhi karar aata nahin…’

Monsoon is here and for last few days I have been listening to some of the most melodious monsoon songs – O sajana barakha bahar aayi..rasa ki puhar layi akhiyon mein pyar layi; aha rimjhim ke ye pyare pyare geet liye..Wow, what pleasant songs! And the music composer of these songs is Salil Chowdhary, one of my favourite musicians. Salilda has been a great composer, poet, arranger & an intelligent musician. It clearly shows from his compositions that he has done indepth study of both Indian folk & classical music and western classical music. From childhood he has been listening to compositions of Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin etc. that inspired him and has reflected in his music. He started his career in Bengali films as lyricist & Music Director. But he became popular in India when he gave music for classics like Do bigha Jameen, Parakh, Jagte Raho & Madhumati. Salilda could play many instruments like piano, flute, sitar, tabla. Every song that he composed he experimented in a variety of instruments, chorus in background, harmony blended with perfect orchestration.  The sitar pieces in ‘O sajana’ from film Parakh are exceptional. The saxophone played in ‘Zindagi kaisi hai paheli’ from movie Anand is very profound. The flute pieces in ‘Dil tadap tadap ke kah raha hai’ from film Madhumati are very nicely rendered. He has used chorus very effectively in the entire song ’Na Jaane kyun’ from film Chhoti si baat. Some of his classical based songs like Jago mohan pyare(Jagte Raho), Aaja re paradesi(Madhumati), Na Jiya lage na (Anand) are very subtle & beautiful. Other songs like Baag mein kali khili (sung by Asha Bhosle), Itna na mujhse tu pyar badha (sung by Lata & Talat Mehmood), Chandani Raat tum ho sath (sung by Kishore & Lata) are some of his difficult numbers that are very rich in harmony & overall orchestration.  Salilda was a great composer by all standards & in all dimensions of music. He created a unique style in his compositions that cannot be repeated, remixed or representated by anybody else ever.

I would like to end this post by remembering one of his great songs wonderfully sung (especially the zamzama) by Manna Dey – Aye mere pyare vatan, Aye mere bichhade chaman…tujhpe dil qurban..Amazing!!!

Kumar Gandharva (Real Name: Shivputra Komkali) was an outstanding classical singer with a unique style of singing that was not confined to any particular gharana of hindustani music. He was a child prodigy and attained the Gandharva title (It is said that in Heaven there are Gadharvas (Singers) who sing for the King of Gods – Lord Indra Dev) and was named Kumar Gandharva at a very early age.  He lost one lung in young age due to illness, but continued  to learn music and developed his own style of singing which became very popular, though he got criticism from people who were followers of the traditional form (gharana) of music. He received initial training in music from Professor B. R. Deodhar. After his lung surgery, he could not sing for few years, but during this time he studied music and tried to attain the best from all the gharanas and gradually developed his own style of singing where by he managed with short but crisp bursts of music rather than deep and slow approach of traditional singing.

It is a delightful experience to hear Kumarji’s compositions or Ragas. When he starts singing you feel as if he is singing for himself, as if he is practicing alone. But soon his singing catches the audience and takes them into a divine feeling. He is able to deliver the entire Raag form within few minutes with great variations that takes one on a joyful ride. The most important asset that Kumarji had was tremendous control over the notes (Sur). He could reach from lower notes to higher notes or vice versa in fraction of a second. He could deliver taans (variations in faster speed) most effectively and in a focused manner than getting into longer variation cycles & then manage to reach to the ‘sam’ (the first beat of the taal cycle) like most traditional artisits do. The best I like about him are his nirguni bhajans (by Sant Kabir, Surdas). Most of his compositions have essence of folk music of north India. He has sung every bhajan from the bottom of his heart, giving great impotance to the words and without getting into too much variation to prove his classical skills like most classical singers tend to do. All his bhajan compositions look simple but are most difficult to sing. He has also sung a few marathi natyageet (semi-classical songs) beautifully.

Kumarji is no more with us, but his sweet voice & great singing will be definitely preserved by his disciples, fans and well wishers for the next generations to be able to follow & understand the high quality of Indian music that he discovered for the music lovers of his time.

Some of his fans have posted his recordings on YouTube (http://youtube.com/results?search_query=kumar+gandharva&search=Search). Please listen to these recordings and you will admire the music by Pt. Kumar Gandharva.

Om Prasad Nayyar was the most lively music composer ever. When I say lively it means peppy, bubbly, sparkly..he was amazing. Surprisingly, he was not a trained musician like S. D. Burman, Madan Mohan, but his compositions were far great in terms of melody, rhythm and overall orchestration. The use of some instruements in his songs has made the songs rich and more popular. For example: the percussion instruement ‘dholak’ played in the song ‘bahut shukriya badee meherbani meri zindagi mein hujoor aap aaye’ or the piano played in the song ‘Jaiye aap kahan jayenge’ or the sarangi played in the song ‘Deewana hua badal savan ki ghata chhayi’.  O P sahab is the only music director who has given the most ‘happy & romantic’ numbers that are evergreen. Songs like ‘Isharon Isharon mein’, ‘Pukarta Chala hun main’, ‘Aapke haseen rukh pe aaj naya noor hai’, ‘Phir miloge kabhi is baat ka vada kar lo’, ‘Thandi hawa kali ghata’, Piya Piya Piya mora jiya’..the list is too long. Some of his songs became very popular & trendy because of the ‘horse’ rhythm.  Songs like ‘Mang ke saath tumhara’ (Film: Naya Daur), ’Yun to humne lakh haseen dekhe hai’ (Film: Tumsa nahi dekha), ‘Piya Piya Piya Mora Jiya Pukare’ (Film:Bap re Bap) are some of the best examples of the ‘horse’ rhythm. He gave some of the cutest ‘bhangra’ (Punjabi folk) songs like ‘Ude jab jab julfe teri’, ‘Sar pe topi lal hath mein resham ka rumal’, ‘Meri jaan Balle Balle’. The cabaret songs sung by Asha Bhosle like ‘Aao huzoor tumko’, ‘Yeh reshami julfon ka andhera’, ‘Aaeye Mehrbaan’ and ‘Babuji dhire chalna sung by Geeta Dutta were magnificent. O P Nayyar composed some of the most beautiful duets. ‘Isharon Isharon mein’ by Mohmd Rafi /Asha Bhosle, ‘Aakhon hi Aakhon mein ishara’ by Geeta Dutta / Rafi, ‘Aap yuhin agar humse milte rahen’ by Mohmd Rafi / Asha Bhosle are some of the great numbers.  The only missing thing in O P Nayyar’s songs is Lata Mangeshkar’s voice. He did not record a single song with Lata bai, yet all his songs sung by Geeta Dutta & Asha Bhosle became very popular. I remember his pleasant appearance as a Judge in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, a popular show on Zee TV. He was a great character, but looked to be a aloof person.  He is no longer with us but his songs will make us remember him for ever!