MSV : His Music and his times - Part 10: The trendsetters

(Ghulam Haider)

In this part we will not be talking much about MSV but rather about the trendsetters in Indian film music. I would say that until the arrival of Illayaraja, the trendsetters were all Hindi film music directors. We need to have a look at this because Hindi film music had a great impact on Tamil and Telugu film music. ( I am guessing it may have had an impact on Kannada film music as well but I am not well versed in Kannada film music of those times. Malayalam though took its own route and while there were some Hindi melodies which did get copied there, their music on the whole remained quite consistent with their aesthetics.)

It is well known that both in North and South of our country, film music started initially as a sort of extension of classical music. The tendency was to adhere to the ragas closely and the singing was full throated like the classical musicians. Singers were praised for their resounding voices and for their ability to capture the 'essence' of the raga. Here are two songs from the films of 30s and 40s which will give you an idea of the film music scene of those days.

Here is a song from the film 'Watan' composed by Anil Biswas.



Here is a very famous Saigal song, 'soja rajakumari'. Though the piano gives the western touch, the singing and tune is very much Indian. The music is by Pankaj Mullick



The songs were not lacking in melody but they surely were lacking in energy.

Here is a Tamil song from the 40s. From the super duper hit 'Haridas', we have M K Tyagaraja Bagavathar singing the iconic 'manmadha leelaiyai'. It is a concert class Charukesi song. No one in modern times would think this is a film song !!



Film music experts say that the first film which really defined Indian film music and gave the film music its grammar happened to be Ghulam Haidar's 'Kazanchi'. Ghulam Haider is seen as the first trendsetter who moved the film song away from the classical into the modern era. He was closely followed by his contemporary Anil Biswas. Ghulam Haider gave energy to the film song and he also gave the shape which it would maintain to this day. Here is a song from the film 'Kazanchi' which must have been a sort of revolution in the Saigal era. To our ears the orchestration may sound old but remember this movie was released in 1941. Once you have this fact in mind, you will be amazed by this song.



(By the way, it was Ghulam Haider who first discovered Lata's talent and gave her a break. It is said that when a producer rejected Lata saying her voice was too thin, Ghulam Haider is supposed to have told that Lata's voice would rule India.)

Anil Biswas too had moved from his old mold, which we heard in 'Watan' earlier, to the new mold. Here is a lovely Anil Biswas song from 1943. Inspired by a Pasthun tune, 'dheere dheere badal' was a terrific song from the stupendous hit album 'Kismet'



The next major trend that happened in Hindi films and which had ramifications across India was the trend of Western Rock and Jazz music introduced by C. Ramachandra. It was probably the time people realized that Indian film music an draw various influences into itself and still not lose its character. Here is a paragraph about C.Ramachandra from Wikipeadia which gives an idea of what sort of trend he set in Indian film music.

"Influenced by Benny Goodman, Ramachandra introduced in his compositions the alto sax in combination with guitar and harmonica. He also included whistling in one of his famous songs, Aana meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday in film Shehnai. He used a combination of a bongo, an oboe, a trumpet, a clarinet and a sax for the song Shola Jo Bhadke in film Albela. He sang the title song "Shin Shinaki Boobla Boo" with Lata Mangeshkar, which included rock rhythms. He provided the musical score for the scat song "Ina mina dika" in "Aasha". "

Here is 'aana meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday' from the 1947 movie 'Shehnai', The western rock n roll influence is unmistakable.



Bhagwan's 'Albela' (1951) was a super hit in those times and the music was a great hit as well. Here is another C.Ramachandra tune with the distinct western touch. 'shola jo badke'



(Some of the songs like 'Gore-gore o baanke chhore' from 'Samadhi' (1950) were copies of Western songs.) Overall C.Ramachandra succeeded in bringing in a new western sensibility and rhythm in Hindi film music in the 1950s.

(Ofcourse C.Ramachandra was not only good at Western music. He had given some great melodies which were All India hits. Melodies like 'yeh zindagi usiki hai' and 'adha hai chandrama' amongst others.)

O.P.Nayyar was the next to come up with his own trend and he was the only trendsetter from the time of C Ramachandra (and all the way till Rahman) who did not look too much to the west for his inspiration. Rather he looked at western India and according to experts he brought a lot of Punjabi rhythms with him and mixed it with lilting melodies to produce trendy music.

'babuji dheere chalna' from 'Aar Paar' had an impact across India. In the voice of Geeta Dutt, this song has style and no wonder it was seen as a trendy song in those days.



And who can forget his 'lekhe pehla pehla pyar' in the voices of Samshad Begum and Rafi for the movie 'CID'. It gave rise to many copies and if you listen carefully you will know that you have probably heard the interlude music in some Tamil film song as well. The impact of this song cannot be underestimated.



Among his many hits, 'Kashmir Ki Kali' has a special place in everyone's heart. The music was energetic and melodious at the same time. Shammi Kapoor with his antics, a charming Sharmila and the redoubtable Kashmir scenery made this an everlasting film as far as songs go. I had already linked 'Deewana Hua Badal' earlier. Now let us hear 'isharon isharon mein'



Other than the music of these trendsetting MDs we also saw how Shankar Jaikishen's songs had their influence on MSV's music. Similarly S D Burman's music, especially songs like 'kilte hain gul yahan' had their impact on Tamil film music.

O.P.Nayyar was fading away in the late 60s when another star started slowly raising on the horizon, a man by the name Rahul Dev Burman, who had been assisting his father earlier, turned into a solo music director in 1961 with the movie 'Chote Nawab'. Later he did a few movies including 'Bhoot Bangla' but it was the 1965 Shammi starrer 'Teesri Manzil' which made people take note of him. Rafi sang some nice songs in those but it was when he joined with his soulmate Kishore Kumar for 'Padosan' that the new RD sound truly emerged. The westernized orchestration and his style of tuning needed the neutral voice of Kishore than the classical oriented Rafi. The 70s, especially the first half,  truly belonged to these two giants and they had the whole of India in their grip.

To give you an idea of what difference R D Burman brought in with Padosan, first listen to this song from the film 'Kanyadhan'. 'likhe jo khat thuje' sung by Rafi.



It is a fairly westernized song but there is an Indian touch all throughout both due to the orchestration and due to Rafi's voice. It is a very nice song and fairly typical Shankar Jaikishen song which you can enjoy.

Now cut to this song and the difference is very apparent. Right from the beginning you know that you are listening to a different kind of song and it becomes very evident when the interlude start. The rhythm is very catchy and the use of those Caribbean rhythm instruments like guiro which went 'krr-krr' and the usage of guitar were typical R D Burman style. In this song you can hear the perfected style of R D which would stand him in good stead for a long time. Here is 'mere samne wale kidki mein' which took the Hindi film Industry and the Indian film industry by storm. From the movie 'Padosan' in the voice of Kishore Kumar.



In the next installment, we will expand on this and see how R D Burman posed a threat to all music directors across India and his influence in Tamil Nadu.