Wednesday, 24 June 2020

Remembering Madan Mohan in Rafi saab's voice - five dimensions of love

This is the fiftieth post on my blog. As a friend on a music group on Facebook mentioned, today is the 96th birth anniversary of one of the the greatest but relatively unsung composers of music in Hindi films - Madan Mohan Kohli, known better as Madan Mohan. This post is a tribute to him.

Some of the best songs tuned by Madan Mohan have been sung by my favourite singer, Mohammed Rafi. Kohli saab's official website https://www.madanmohan.in/ says he composed a tad less than seven hundred songs and in this blog I shall be posting just five of them. I am not going to tell you much about these songs except to fit them into a story of my own. I am not technically competent to tell you about the instruments used or even the ragas in which these songs were composed and will not even try to do that. As a layman and Hindi film buff, at various times, each of these songs has moved me to either sing or whistle alongside or just to say 'Wah ! Wah!' or just to feel myself on a different plane of enjoyment and reverence. I want to share that feeling with you

The five songs which make my story:

1. A young man gets a glimpse of a beautiful woman, feels a terrific attraction and then sings this lovely number from the film Dulhan ek raat ki, 'Ek haseen shaam ko dil mera kho gaya'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H89315fEZTY

2. He meets her, they both fall in love and he is so smitten by her beauty that he breaks into singing
 'Mai nigahen tere chehre se hataun kaise' . Film: Aap ki Parchaiyyan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHF3sA6B_sA

3. He joins the Army, the stark beauty of the remote landscape reminds him that he is far away from his lady love and .. he sings this lively song from Haqeeqat - 'Masti me chhed ke tarane koi dil ka'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjHqi5XHMbc

4. The course of love isn't always smooth and he feels he has lost his lady love. He laments thus 'Rang aur noor ki baarat kise pesh karun' from Gazal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZmSgtSq9T8

5. Fortunately for the hero, it was a false alarm, He does get to marry his heroine and then, this song from Suhagan expresses what he feels 'Tu mere saamne hai, teri zulfein hain khuli .. '

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ4YKgeZDPA&t=33s


Like most Hindi films and all fairy tales, everyone lived happily ever after !

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