One song at a time - 25. Zulmi Sang Aankh Ladi
My roommate Siva was slowly waking from his afternoon slumber when the announcer on the radio said in Hindi, "The next song is from the film Madhumati. Written by Shailendra and sung by Lata Manageshkar, the song is..", "Aaja re pardesi", I said. "..zulmi sang aankh ladi" said the announcer. I turned to Siva and said loudly, "What?". I thought I knew all the songs of Madhumathi. How could you not since each was a major 'hit' in its own right. The lilting "Suhana Safar" in Mukesh's voice, the poignant "Aaja Re Pardesi", the funny "Paapi Bichuva", the sad "Toote Hue Khwabonein", and very rhythmic "Dil Tadap Tadap" and "Ghadi Ghadi More Dil Dadke". But I had not heard of this "zulmi sang". So I asked Siva, "Why the hell aren't they airing 'aaja re pardesi'? Which song is this?" "The best song in that movie", retorted Siva. "What?" Thus was my first introduction to this lovely song. To a great extent I now agree with Siva's assessment though "Aaja Re Pardesi" still pulls me towards it.
Paradoxically, a great song lies unheard when high quality is delivered!!! The other songs of 'Madhumathi' were such superb hits that this song languished in the background. Similar to this song, the song I had featured earlier from Tajmahal, "jurm-e-ulfat" is not as often heard as the other songs from the same film. 'Madhumathi' delivered so many hits that this gem evaded many ears for many years. (Bad pun, I know). I am sure many music directors would get frustrated when such a thing happens. (I sometimes wonder how someone like Illayaraja takes it. In his case it is not just song from a particular film but whole films with gems that lie hidden.)
The music of 'Madhumathi' was by that genius musician Salil Choudhary, loving known as Salilda. That it took 25 episodes before appearing in my series surprises me, since he is one of my favourite music directors. It also tells me about the depth of Indian Film Music as such. Anyway, Salilda composed some amazing numbers in Bengali, Hindi and Malayalam. His was an extraordinary brain and a very complex one. He had this knack of conjuring up very complex tunes and yet keeping them very melodious. It will very difficult for you to guess how the next line would move in his songs. He was also very interested in Western Classical Music and incorporated a lot of it seamlessly in music. He was one the first music directors to give importance to orchestration in songs and to the background music in films. You can hear his influence in many songs of Illayaraja. Needless to say, you will hear lot more of Salilda in this series.
'zulmi sang aankh ladi' is a folk song. Lata's voice is sweetness personified, with the chorus adding a nice touch. I love the anupallavi in this, 're sakhi ka se kahoon'. The total song has the Salilda touch moving in ways that you cannot anticipate.
(Before you go ahead and hear this lovely song, a bit of shameless self plugging. I recently wrote an article in Tamil for the e-zone Solvanam about K V Mahadevan and his use of Carnatic Music in films. You can read it here, if you know Tamil: http://solvanam.com/?p=11714 )
Comments
Coming to this song... this is a classic example of how a composer can use folk, retaining melody, without getting jarry/wild in the name of folk music.There is something about these bengalis when it comes to presenting folk music through the prism of film music.The Burmans too did a fantastic job in this.If you actually see, among all the yesteryear composers - the ones who 'consistently' used authentic folk music in their compositions are Salilda, both the Burmans and also Naushad (to the extent of using UP folk, in films like Mother India etc). Even C.Ramchandra too, in films like Navrang. The rest gave more emphasis to core cinematic melodies using light or classic music - Roshan,Shankar Jaikishan,Madan Mohan etc. Not that these composers didnt venture into folk music... but the % of usage of folk is lesser compared to the above mentioned ones. And among these, Salilda and S.D.Burman have used it a lot.
Salilda is special because of his eclectic choice - Western classical, Indian Classical & Folk (exactly borrowed by Ilaiyaraaja too).And he created wonderful concoctions out of these.
Another folk-melodious favourite of mine is "Hariyaala Saawan dhol bajaatha" from Do Bhiga Zamin.Salilda rocks bigtime in that as well.
Lookslike my comments are as big as your post!
I will ofcourse be covering a lot more composers in the future. We should consider ourselves lucky that we had such superb composers. Salilda, as you say, was an eclectic composer who ventured into many genres.
I love 'Do Bigha Zamin'. Wonderful songs. Definitely have one song in mind which I need to feature here soon.
A nice intro as well..(my favourite is 'Aaja re..' like you!)
Yup, there are so many songs that we haven't listened to for long, though they remain close to our heart. Blame it on the music directors who left behind such wealth. Or blame it on Illayaraja to whom we have become addicted :)
The list of singers that Salilda lined up in Madhumati almost reads like a who's who - Mukesh, Rafi (who also sang the Johny Walker song "Jungal mein mor naacha kisi ne na dekha" - typical drunken song!), Asha for "Kancha le kanchi lai lajo", Mubarak Begum for "Hum haal-e-dil sunaaenge", Manna Dey in "Chad gayo paapi bichua", Dwijen Mukherjee for "Tan jale man jalta rahe" and of course, Lata - whew! Only someone of his caliber could have got all of them to line up for him.
That is very interesting view point. Yes, almost every sing worth his / her salt is present in this soundtrack (with the exception of Kishoreda). Ofcourse Salilda was a very respected music director and everyone had high regard for him.