One song at a time - 3. Dheere Dheere Baadal

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(Anil Biswas)

'Midnight masala' is the only thing you get on various TV channels nowadays late in the night. During 80s and early 90s, when Doordarshan was the only channel, we used to get some classic movies during the late night hours. One such movie which I watched during one of my innumerable trips to Calcutta was 'Kismet'. One aspect which ensured that I watched the movie were the songs. (As it is, the movie is a nice one.) 'ab tere siva kaun mera' was a song I had heard earlier and liked. Added to it, I was taken in by the charm of 'Dheere Dheere Badal' tune as well as its picturization.

Anil Biswas was the music directors who provided us with these gems. I later read in RMIM newsgroup that Anil Biswas was one of the pioneers in 'modernizing' Hindi film music. If you listen to this song you will understand how true that statement is. I was surprised to learn that this was a 1943 movie. The tune does not sound like that at all!! For one, the delivery is very stylized and there is importance given to voice modulation. It is not a very direct open throated singing style of those time. Secondly, observe how the tune moves, especially in the charanams. It is a very free flowing, changing direction every once in a while type of structure. That is in contrast to the rather rigid formats MDs adopted for the charanam. I especially love the way Amirbai Karnataki enters the song. As well as the interlude where the singer whistles. Nice singing by both the singers, Arun Kumar and Amirbai Karnataki. Anil Biswas, Anilda as he was fondly called, had produced superb melodies in large numbers. We will definitely be featuring more of his songs in this series.

Now, relax and listen to this charming song:

Comments

Aakarsh said…
This is one of my favourite songs.Anil Biswas is one of my all time favourite composers. His compositions were very sensitive, like some of Madan Mohan's songs or Jaidev's songs. Amazing ones.

Infact, this song was the inspiration for S.Rajeswara Rao, the legendary composer, when he composed "Oho Meghamaala". Similarities are easily discernible.

Thanks for pulling out a rare classic gem.
May 27, 2010 at 1:34 AM
Suresh S said…
Thanks Kamal for the comment.

Didn't know Rajeshwar Rao's "O Meghamala' was inspired by this. That song is a beauty in its own right and I will probably feature that sometime in the future.
May 27, 2010 at 1:47 AM
Raj said…
Oh...You took me on a nostalgic trip!The Good old days of DD.
They used to air some of the immortal classics of the legends.Friday nights were reserved for Indian films.Once in a month, they would also show a foreign language film.

In fact,DD was instrumental in developing my taste for good movies..

Enter the cable era..and everything went for a six(it should have actually been the other way around!.....).

And what a great song this is.Romance at its best!

I feel 'Oh Rasikkum seemane' in Parasakti was also influenced by this song..
June 28, 2010 at 5:53 AM
Suresh S said…
Thanks Raj. As you rightly say the overall quality of programming on TV has gone down tremendously. No such discoveries nowadays.
June 28, 2010 at 9:34 AM
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