One song at a time - 1. Ghata gana ghor ghor

In my rather muted BTech classmates discussion forum, a link to Illayaraja's program aired by a radio station in US, provoked discussions regarding music. I have long been contemplating writing about some of the amazing songs of Indian film music that I have heard. My friend Sachin urged me that I should start now and so here goes the series which I have titled 'One song at a time'. I mean, in this very hurried world, people may not have time to listen to more than one song at a time!!!

(In case you are interested, here is the link to Illayaraja Radio program, a nice one which came about due to the efforts of one Mr. Madhan, whom the presenter thanks in the program. (http://dvdverdictpresents.com/)

My intention in this series is twofold. One, to try and showcase some of the lost / forgotten or 'unheard by many' gems. Second, to showcase some well known gems in languages which are probably alien to many of those who read my blog. (Honestly, I don't have much of a clue as to who reads my blog!!!) So you will probably see a mix of some well known songs as well as some not so well known numbers here. I listen to songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, some Bengali and ofcourse, Hindi. If you have links to songs in other languages like which you want me to have a look at, please do leave behind a comment. I will listen to them and include them in my series.

Most of my 'education' about old Hindi and Telugu songs came during my hostel days when I was doing my post graduation. I must thank my then roommate and my 'always' friend, Siva a lot for that education. He had more knowledge of old Hindi and Telugu songs than me and he would point out to some good numbers. We used to play music in our room continuously, switching from one station to another and one language to another. We also sat in our college gym where songs used to be played in the night and ofcourse, there was the 'Chitrahaar' program. All this led to some healthy debate: which songs were good, which music directors were inventive, who were highly overrated etc. To a certain extent, I developed my aesthetics and understanding of film music during my stay in the IISc hostel.

Enough of the autobiography. Let us proceed to the first song of this series. I have chosen to open the account with Kemchand Prakash's outstanding composition, 'ghata gana ghor ghor' from the film 'Tansen'. The song is sung by Kursheed. I still vividly recall the first time I heard this song. Siva and I had gone to out batchmate, Krishnamohan's room. Now, Krishnamohan loved old Hindi song and old means old. Even older than what we used to hear. So we were always pulling his leg. We saw that he had bought a new tape of very very old songs and the leg pulling started. We asked him to play the tape and as usual passed some comments. After a couple of songs were played, started this song. The first strum of the strings, the lovely flute joining in for that prelude and then Kursheed's entry. It was as if Mohammed Ali had landed a left hook on my chin. So stunning was the impact of this melody on me that I searched for and got that tape (I think it was titled 'Immortal Melodies'.) Later I have heard many other songs of Kursheed and I have been very impressed by her singing. This is straight from the heart singing without too much of modulation. ( Kursheed, who was a famous actor and singer, left India for Pakistan after partition.) Kemchand Prakash was a master tunesmith. Lot of people know him as the person who gave Lata, 'Ayega Ayega'. He had lot more songs to his credit. So here we go with 'ghata gan ghor ghor'. As we say in Bangalore, 'enjoy maadi'.

To those interested, 'Tansen' has some lovely songs. Try 'more balpan ke saathi'. More such numbers will follow in this series. You have been warned !!!!