Christmas Mehfil in Mumbai

We all have heard the term "baptism by fire" but how many have experienced it ?Hrushikesh Paranjape just did that having walked in to a lush green Kandivili pitch.

 He was tested with a barrage of bouncers by Archisman Mazumdar in the form of quiz questions, starting with a 1937 Bengali song "Janitey jodi go tumi".Hrushi had to identify the singer and Archie gave the hint that this was the first ever song of this singer. It wasn't very straight forward as the early voice of the singer was different from what we are familar with. Archie followed with more songs including the heavenly "Rajanigandha ghumao ghumao" and it took a few more deliveries before Hrushi opened his account.

By the time Hrushi arrived to the crease with his friend Piyush, several familiar faces; Anand Juvekar, Nishant Shah, Archisman, Sandhya Ramesh and the curator Shankar Iyer; had made their mark. I asked my friend Prakash Jha, who has been keenly following the mehfils, to get a taste of them. 

The thoughts of having a match of this nature first came up last Sunday  and within a few hours, Shankar zeroed in on the track and started preparing it. The track was watered, bacardi'ed and old monk'ed. By Wednesday there was enough buzz in the air and enough fizz on the pitch for ten people to play and party.

 Shankar delivered the first ball with an Illayaraja duet "Pon oviyam" fromKazhugu sung beautifully by Janaki and Yesudas ?

Shankar and Archisman alternately picked up the compering duties and treated us to a seriesof regional songs. Illayaraja's Tamil compostions were followed with Hemant Kumar's early Bengali works.After warming up with Hemant Kumar,  Archisman then moved to Sachin Karta's Bangla works and played 'phirey gechhi baare baare'and asked us to identify its similarity with a Hindi number. Anand instantly came up with "bichDe sabhi baari baari". A few other songs followed including "ghuum bhulechi". 

Anil Hingorani was next to arrive and Hrushi was very keen that Anil be given the same kind of bouncy welcome that he experienced. Anil drew all his experience and scored of the very first ball by correctly identifying the singer as Hemant Kumar with the very first clue. As Anil was introduced to Archisman he exclaimed "So you are the expert". Archisman tried to downplay it and dodge the question but Anil retorted "That wasn't a question but a statement".

We continued the Bengali numbers with 'aami nei, aami nei' composed by Lata for Kishore. With so many classical aficionado's around conversations were like "Have you heard the reverse - Kishore's bihag based composition for Lata" and half the crowd would just buzz back with the right song; 'bhaalobashar aagun jele keno choley jaao'  being the one in question.

We then moved onto Sali Chowdhury and alternated between his Bangla and Hindi numbers.The Hindi number from Aawaaz "jhun jhun jhuna" was followed by Dhananjay Bhattacharya's Kalavati based "jhanana jhananna".  

Hrushi and Piyush got "namkeen" that went quite well with the assortment of drinks Shankar had assembled. Its debatable if the ocassional kicks Shankar got were due to the drinks. I would just blame that on the electric atmoshphere that let him drop one line quizzes on an unsuspecting audience. Shankar started with his stock outswinger - "Father or Son. Pick your favorite". He was expecting a straight forward reply but people had other ideas. 

Nishant replied "Fun", Anand Juvekar said "Shall we toss a coin to decide the outcome" and added"Lets hope its not the coin that was used in Sholay" which got drowned in laughter.

Hrushi shared his experineces of learning music from Shrinivas Khale among other things. Anand then played couple of Khale's composions including Lata's Tukaram Abhang'kaamodini kamodini kaay jaane' We also discussed how this song was based on raag Aarbhi  & played Abdul Karim's 'chandrika hi' & a marathi natyageet in the same raag by Hirabai & Suhasini Moolgaonkar - 'paandu nrupati. Anand also played an audio interview of Hridaynath Mangeshkar and we talked about a few songs like "sanvarare sanvarare".

When a song from Hridaynath - Lata Ghalib album was played and it was pointed out that the album was Ghost composed by Sultan Khan. We also discussed Hridaynath-Lata Meera bhajans.

We then turned to HFM and several Lata favorites were played. "o aasmaan ke vaasi" by Roshan; "jal ke dil khaak hua" by Shailesh; "tuu kyuun mujhko pukaare" by S-J just to name a few started a debate on Lata's best songs and Archie referred to an earlier meet when we listed movies with 4 or more outstanding songs by a particular singer. Archisman also mentioned that in his opinion the most complete classical number in HFM is "jaa main tose nahin bolun" composed by Anil Biswas and Shankar enjoyed that number so much thathe commented; "that's like Viv Richards hitting a front foot boundary to a thompson delivery".

It was time for a Shankar Yorker and he asked "1,2,3 name your three favorite composers". Although this is very subjective, the responses still led to a heated debate.We then played several OPN numbers including an Asha number from Mangu where she sounds very much like Geeta. A controversial topic of whether Asha sang better than Rafi in some of the duets didn't lead to any consensus.

 A mostly quiet Prakash then requested a few Mukesh songs and was obliged with a few including the song from the unlrelease movie "Chand Grahan".That reminds me of an interesting discussion about another song which was included in different movies as seperate versions but never saw the light of the day. I can't place the words of the song.

Shankar also played some Saxophone pieces by Manohari Singh and were asked to guess the numbers. These included "mujhko is raat ki tanhai men"and "gaa mere man gaa".

Although Sandhya Ramesh as well as Shankar's wife didn't take part in the heated debates, they showed their musical knowledge by cracking some of the Sax based quiz questions.

Shankar then ordered dinner and we enjoyed a delicious meal and folks started leaving. Anand, Nishant and myself stayed till 11:00 pm and duringthis time some of Shankar's non-music friends also joined us whichlead to some amusing conversations. As we were about to leave I askedShankar to play " jaa re chandr" and we left on a high.

Its interesting to note that Hrushi was "not out" at the end of the day and has been calling up people to narrate his experience. Prakash has also warmed up and has been asked to come to the crease with a list of his favorite Mukesh songs with reasons for liking them. We are all just waiting for the next "pitch" to be prepared :)

Celebrating music of Roshan Lal Nagrath

As Pavan Jha announced about the plans of a mini-meet in Jaipur during the mehfil,

Sundeep ji said" ek gaaDi dilli se niklegi" and before everyone could catch their breath Preeti said "Have you started taking the bookings ?"

Professor saab has given us so many gems over the years that I said to myself "How could I think of not inviting Preeti to the meet in the first place ?".

But when thoughts of this meet started 2 months back it was supposed to be just a very limited gathering. A few of us got together in CP for Lata ji's birthday, and I casually asked Anand the next time weekend was going to be in town. When Anand replied with Nov 16, I realized that it coincided with Roshan Sahab's death anniversary and we decided to meet again.

Anand, '"Do you time your week end NCR stay's with Birth and Death days of your favorite artists ? If so you should stay back on Jan 5 ! Even Jan 12 will do "

Brainstorming with Pavan and Naresh and Pavan's visit to my place earlier this week made me realise that with a little bit of re-arrangement I can easily host a much bigger gathering and the invite list grew by the day and reached climax on the day of the meet.

Sundeep ji had just liked my post in sks and I added him as a fb friend, realised he is from Delhi and sent him a message saying there's a mehfil in a few hours and pat came his reply that he will come. Of course Sundeep ji is no stranger, is well know in Delhi music circles and has been to Naresh's place.

Meanwhile Pavan was juggling with his weekend work and called me to say that he will come late to the mehfil but will help me with some last minute shopping.

So I made a quick trip to Pavan's office and he came down with a huge bag !!

Namkeen and Samosas were next on the agenda but it was already 2:30 pm. We went to the narest shop and Pavan couldn't find Sprite there. In his usual style he said " thoDa aage chalte hain. aur kuchh options milenge" and by now I was in scrambling

mode. Pavan almost got onto my nerves "Log thoDi hi bolenge ki ganTi hamen ghar bulaake bhaag gaya" and added " We are walking in the direction of your house !".With the last purchases now finished, Pavan handed me that huge bag saying it has "WiFi speakers, mike, recorder, and GAJAK's" and went back to work.

I should count myself very lucky that Pavan comes to Noida often and his office is a stone's throw from my place. Of course its not the easiest of jobs to control the way the "wind" blows, so I will try to make the most of it as long as it has a natural drift

towards Noida Naresh also called me saying he will be getting "Rewari" and other snacks. By the time I reached home it was almost 3 pm and the phone started ringing.

A saying goes " duur vaale sab se pehle pahunch jaate hain" but Aditya pant who is closest to my place came first shortly followed by Bakshi ji. Sandeep Pahwa and Preeti Ranjan joined soon after.

While introducing himself Sundeep ji mentioned that his father produced a couple of films and "Bahu (1955)" was among them. For years the only memorabilia from the film his family had were the two Talat-Geeta duets. of course they eventually got the other songs including "ang ang men umang" but Sundeep ji's prized possession was a booklet of the film which he ordered for a handsome price of $100 and was delighted to find some pictures from the film in it.

Meanwhile Anand Juvekar called and mentioned that he was near the Sagar Ratna hotel and has entered D block. I wondered why he was coming from that side but gave him the directions.

I prepared a playlist of Roshan songs taken mostly from his earlier films and started playing while we started talking about his music. "kyun ji scent lagaya hai" from Neki Aur Badi kicked off the proceedings and Bakshish Singh ji pointed out that there is a third singer who joins the song right at the end and its Mukesh. All of us including Aditya were stumped ! Baksish ji also pointed out that Kidar Sharma found Roshan to be a lacking confidence and asked the famous classical singer and composer of Alam Ara, Feroz Datoor, to help Roshan. Feroz was responsible for introducing the "aiii~~~" refrain.

Anand Juvekar walked in and told me that he was able to locate the place easily and we left it at that.

Sundeep Ji circulated a news paper article on Roshan and an old outlook magazine which had a poll conducted on the all time best HFM songs. Roshan's "man re tuu kaahe na dhiir dhare" was picked as the all the time best song..

Soon Pradeep arrived and we also got the message that Naresh will be reaching shortly. My first instinct was to give Naresh a call but everyone said "he must have just started" !!

We enjoyed several other Roshan numbers from my playlist including "chun chun chun baaje payal mori", "dhiire dhiire chhaD gaya nadi men paani", "falak milega tujhe kya hamen miTaane se". I also included a few samples of Vish Krishnan's commentary from 1998 RMIM West Coast commemorative and pointed out that Dr.Preeti Ranjan was present at that meet. Baksish Singh ji as well as Anand Juvekar have been reading RMIM for a long time and Anand Juvekar mentioned that he almost made it to the 2003 east coast meet and had spoken to Arun Sampath at that time!

Sandeep Pahwa casually asked if we knew Sanjeev Ramabhadran and the answer was of course an overwhelming yes. We all narrated our experiences and Sandeep ji as the an organizer of a show in Delhi recounted his experience ; standing with a red rose (in filmi style) so that Sanjeev could identify him.

Soon a gentleman with a suitcase and a bag walked in, and Sundeep ji gazed at him as if he recognised the person. On asking his name the gentleman said "naam se kya lena dena hai"and when Sundeep ji insisted he mentioned " I am Ripudaman from Jaipur". Ofcourse that was Pavan trying some old RMIM tricks.

Pavan's arrival also meant that everyone started recounting their experiences of visiting Jaipur. A common experience shared was the watching of movies at Raj Mandir theatre. Several people expressed surprise that even flop movies got an extended run there and some used to play for months together. "Bin Phere Hum Tere" was one of the movies discussed.

Since no one was in a mood to eat and I cudn't eat without feeding the guests I thought I will get Pavan to accompany me so that the others will be enticed to join. But Pavan had better ideas and went straight to the kitchen and said "lets make Chaa".

I thought to myself "chaa ka chahne waale abhi tak nahiin aaye" (thinking of Naresh). I stepped out of the Kitchen and asked "sugar kitno ko" and practically everyone raised their hands and it took time for me to realize that they all have "sugar" while I meant to ask "how many want sugar in the tea" ! The adrak + elachi tea

rocked and the Samosa's, Namkeen and Gajaks were grabbed with glee.

We went back to the Roshan play list and as "jhoom jhoom ke jaam choom ke aa dil ki mehfil men aa" from Coffe House was being enjoyed Naresh comes in ! What a perfect timing on more than one count as Sundeep ji was about to leave and wanted to take a group picture.

Soon Naresh narrated his adventure of how a 5 min walk to my place turned into 30 minutes ! Naresh got "chikki", "Rewri" and "Groundnuts" and we soon got ready for a second serving.

By now the Roshan playlist came to an end and discussion moved to arrangers. We recalled several names including Sebastian, Chic Cholate, The Lords, Sonik, Anothny Gonsalves and Babla. For no particular reason focus turned to Babla and it was pointed out that his arrangement in "Johny Mera Naam" was a turning point for Kalyanji Anandji. We ended up recalling several KA scores like Don, Mohra, Tridev. We briefly talked about the songs of Gupt and Pradeep Sharma mentioned how a vendor he knew used to sell music systems by playing songs of Gupt !

A few controversial topics including how SJ allegedly played politics to ensure some other composers wouldn't get work were discussed.

It was now time for the music session and Pradeep Sharma cast a magic spell with "hamen ai dil kahin le chal baDa tera karam hoga". We are very lucky to have him in NCR. Preeti Ranjan showed that just like his sense of humor his singing is as fresh as his california days with "Woh Chand Chamka Woh Noor Chhalka". It was Pradeep's turn again and he sang "bahut diya dene waale ne". We then digressed awat from Roshan as Pavan chipped in with a few Rajasthani folk songs followed by "ye dil na hota bechara". Pradeep sang "ye mera diwana pan hai" and "kaise manauun piyava" and they were extremely well rendered. Preeti then sang a non-filmi malkauns piece which impressed Pradeep so much that he asked for Preeti's contact information and Preeti pointed to me. A witty Pradeep retorted "Is he your manager" and after a host of back and forth tradeoffs and the utterance of the word mafia it was concluded that we are not the "sand mafia" but the "song mafia" ! Pradeep then sang the

swan song of Roshan "oh re taal mile nadi ke jal men" and we decided to take a break.

A cd of 1000 rare songs courtesy Surinder Dhall, was presented to the attendees. Although he had to cancel coming to the mehfil at the last minute, Pradeep Sharma ensured that the CD's are handed over to everyone.

Pradeep and Bakshish ji had to leave and the rest of us decided to accompany them on the way to Sagar Ratna. Although both were in opposite directions I thought it will be a good idea for everyone to know both the gates from which our sector can be reached. This was the perfect time to debate about why my directions misled Naresh we concluded that a mehfil isn't fun without some adventure

Anand, Naresh, Pavan and Preeti joined me for Dinner and we enjoyed Uttappam and Dosa at Sagar Ratna. Naresh and Preeti then left and Anand, Pavan came back to my place.

We had another listening session of Roshan and as I was playing "kahaan kho gaii hai

bahaar aate aate" Anand pointed out how "kabhi to milegi kahin to milegi" has a similarity to it. We heard several other Roshan numbers including "ye surkhi aur ye shaam", "batado koi kaun gali gaye shaam", "geet mera jagaaye sulaye tujhe" and "prem lagan man men basaale".

It was quite a memorable evening and I hope everyone enjoyed as much as I did.

Thanks friends for coming and I look forward to having all of you over for another mehfil very soon!

In Memory of Begum Akhtar

As the Chief Guest Sheila Dikshit came and went, the compere Mirza Arif remarked, "ek zalzala sa aaya aur gaya." A few other luminaries came in as Sheila ji was walking out prompting him to say "chaand baadal ke piiche chhip gaya lekin sitare nazar aane lage". This was just an intersting sidelight of thethe curtain raiser to centenary celebrations of Mallika-e-ghazal Begum Akhtar.

The evening started with Shiela ji presenting BAAG (Begum Akhtar Academy of Ghazal) awards to shayar Rajesh Reddy, Photographer Avinash Pasricha. Lifetime BAAG award was presented to Ahmed Hussain and Mohammad Hussain.

This was followed by a 20 minute video on Begum Akhtar that was conceived by Rita Ganguly. It went into the intricate details of her childhood, how she escaped an attempt on her life at the age of 3 when her food was poisoned, the burning down of her house and all the trials and tribulations she had as a kid.

The documentary was extremely well made and was laced with Akhtari Bai's Ghazal excerptsas well as her spoken voice. The different phases of Akhatri Bai's life, including the 8 years after marriage when she didn't sing, the personal tragedies, the near death experience after which she came back to sing on Radio after advise from doctors were all highlighted.

Rita ji then talked a bit about how she became Akhtari Bai's disciple. Rita ji was a disciple of Siddheswari Devi when Begum Akhtar heard her sing in a concert. Akhtari Bai wanted to make Rita her disciple and approached her, but Rita cudn't as she was disciple of Siddhewari Devi. On top of that Begum Akhtar and Siddhewari were not on very good terms.Akhtari Bai went to Siddheswari's house to ask for Rita and that very same day the "ganda bandh" was done. Two of Rita ji's Guru-behan; Savita Devi (daughter of Siddheswari Devi) and Shanti Hiranand (discple of Begum Akhtar) were present on the ocassion.Rita ji also fondly recalled her days as a disciple of Siddheshwari Devi.

The other celebrity present on the occasion was Jackie Shroff. Rita ji announced that she is going to make a picture on the life of Begum Akhtar with the support of Jackie Shroff.

This was followed by Rajesh Reddy's shayri recital. Rajesh Reddy regaled the audience with sher's presented in tarannum style. Here is one that caught the imagination of everyone.
"yahaaN har shaks har pal haadsa hone se darta hai, khilona hai jo miTTi ka fanaa hone se darta hai;
mere dil ke kisii kone men ek maasuum sa baccha, baDon ki dekh kar duniya, baDaa hone se darta hai;
ajab ye zindagi ki qaid hai, duniyaa ka har insaan rehaai maangta hai aur rehaa hone se darta hai"

And finally we had a Ghazal session with Ahmed Hussain and Mohammad Hussain. They first presented a lovely number weaving the names of all popular ragas and then Hasrat Jaipuri's "ishq agar ek tarfa ho to sazaa deta hai aur agar dono.n taraf ho to mazaa detaa hai". Their next number "mausam aayenge jaayenge" was very well received and they closed with a Ghalib Ghazal.

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the evening came when Rita ji said that just like all humans artists also have flaws. So when you enjoy the artists don't talk about the drawbacks in their personal lives. If you want to say something, do it after proper research. And research does not mean looking up google. That last line had the audience in splits but the message was well received.

It was quite a memorable evening and I am looking forward to many more of these.

An evening with Savita Devi

As I was stepping into the India Habitat Center theater, I saw an elderly lady walk by. She was in her 70's but there was so much grace in the face that I told to myself, "Perhaps she is Savita Devi". I have never seen her in a performance before and the pictures I could recall were of her younger days.

As I was collecting my thoughts, I heard a voice from behind " aap hi ko sun ne aaye hain". Allright ! That was Vidushi Savita Devi herself and I hoped that her voice has also sustained the ravages of time.
I settled down into a spot that gave a good view of the stage. A group of artistes from the Siddheswari Devi Academy of Music took center stage. They began with Guru Vandana, followed by "jao jao tose nahin boluun" in raag Janasamohini. Their Kajiri, "arey raama saavan maas shuvan" was very well received and it was a great demonstrationof chorus singing. The last item presented by the ensemble was the bhajan "chait re ghumani".
An announcement soon followed that Padmashree Rita Ganguly has graced the occasion. Rita ji proudly spoke of the sanctity of Benares, and her Guru, Vidhusi Siddheswari Devi. She went on say that her Guru loved her disciples as much as she loved her daughter Savita. An entertaining wordplay between the two Guru-behan followed.
Savita ji then took stage and talked a little about Purab ang thumri. She then started with 3 of her disciples accompanying her on the vocals. A thumri in mishra khamaj, "bin chuvo baiyan hamari,dekho shyaam vihaari re" was the first number. She mentioned that she grew up on a staple diet of Thumris of her mother and the dominance of the Krishna motif in her selections was obvious.
Savita ji then talked about a bandish that was very dear to her mother and invited Rita ji to join but Rita ji politely refused.It was "piya re aao aao nagariya hamari".This was followed by the mostwell received number of the evening"rang darungi re, nand ke lalan par". Every murki of this "hori" was lapped up by the audience with claps and appreciative nods. Savita ji said that although we are past the season for Hori, she wanted to present it for the sake of completeness.
She then talked about Bhojpuri dialect and presented a Kajri "tarasava jiyara hamar naihar men" and explained that this represents the waiting of a lady for her beloved. The final presentation was a nirgun of Kabir," pad gaii ... daag chunariya" which was a fitting way to end a magical evening on a sublime note.
Here’s one of her earlier recordings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP7dmRB8qeM

Shalini Ved's Concert review

As Dr. Shalini Ved Tripathi sang "Mere Daag-e-Dil Se Hai Roshni" the lights went off at the India Habitat Center. This divine intervention was one of the many highlights of this weekends concert. After having such a great experience last weekend I headed out to a Thumri, Dadra and Ghazal concert, "Rimjhim-Phuhaaren" by Dr. Shalini, a disciple of Girija Devi. Unlike last week's feature which was in the Stein Audiotirum this was in the basement auditorium and the audince was also fewer. I wanted to get a front seat but realised that several of the artists families and friends were occupying the front rows. So I eased into the third row and a well dressed gentleman walked in and sat next to me. It was still a few minutes to the beginning and the front benches started glancing backwards to spot their friends. Their ogles were responded by Aadabs by my neighbour and before I could introduce myself to him, he was invited to sit in the front row.

The concert began with Shalini ji's children giving introduction and explaining the various forms like Dadra, Kajri etc.. Shalini ji then introduced her parents, husband and all the artists; Murad Ali Khan on Sarangi, Pandit Mishra on harmonium and Mithilesh Jha on the table.

Shalini ji began with a Thumri in Raag Khamaj set to Kherawa "bheji jaauun main" and explained that Thumri's use the Awadi and Brij Basha dialects. She then talked about her Guru Girija Devi and presented her Dadra 'tum saanchi kaho".

The next section was devoted to Ghazals and Shalini ji mentioned that she was going to sing a number penned by Shakeel Badyuni "mere humnfas mere humnava, mujhe dost banke daga na de". As she came to "mere daag-e-dil se hai roshni" the lights went off but she continued as the audience started promting "aap ki aawaaz se hi roshni" The singing continued and when the lights came back, she had come to the line "mujhe ai chhoD de mere haal par" promting Mishra ji to point upwards towards the lights to say " the lights want to be left alone". This was followed by a Khumar Bharabankvi Ghazal "Ek Pal Men ek Sadi Ka maza hum Se puchhhiye, Do din ki zindagi Ka maza hum Se puchhhiye".

The best received item of the day was the next number "kuchh to duniyaa ki inaayaat ne dil to.D diyaa" As Shalini ji sang " ham to samajhe the ke barsaat me.n barasegii sharaab, aayii barsaat to barsaat ne dil to.D diyaa" the whole audience hummed along. And every time the punch words like Rawayat, Khayalat, Sawalaat were utterred, the adience echoed with "kyaa baat hai".As Shalini ji was preparing
to end the concert the inevitable happenned. A voice came from the back, "aaj jaane ki zid na karo" gaaiye and she obliged.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable performance in which the singer established good rapport with the audience.

Nuggets from Nagpur - Part 2

Here’s another attempt at providing temporarily relief to people suffering from “Mundane Existence Syndrome”  
Arunabha arrived in Nagpur on Friday morning. Soon Ajay and Arunabha were lost in “ hamari pehli mulaqat” saga. Arunabha almost made it to Nagpur last year and I was glad that it worked out this time. I had my own Saga going on with Arunabha, which had the opposite flavor: “ham kahaan kahaan mile the”. After recently covering London and Toronto, we were adding another chapter in Nagpur.
The focus of the day was Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed’s talk on the partition of Punjab. However we found time to discuss a variety of topics. Saee’s scrumptious recipes were dissected over lunch and regional food preferences were debated. I was wondering how Saee managed to cook the Brinjal Sabzi without the bitter taste that’s usually associated with them and she promptly explained that it had more to do with the selection of the vegetables from the market. “Til Ka Laddu” was a popular dish. When Prof. Ahmed asked if Kachnaar ki Sabzi is made in this part of the world, Arunabha replied with “Kachi Kali Kachnaar ki hai “ We inferred that its available in this region based its usage in a bollywood song. Ajay’s fascination for Lata and Lahore was debated. While the fascination for Lata can be explained, the one for Lahore seems a little out of the ordinary. I narrated my own theory to Ajay “If you travel back in history, Lahore was just your neighboring province. Aur hum puraane khayalaat ke log hain”
Prof. Ahmed’s seminar was in the evening. It was extremely well received by an audience of about 300. One of the topics that Prof. Ahmed didn’t get time to cover was about the Lahore Film Industry. We managed to draw attention to that topic over dinner. Given that the most prominent contributors to Hindi Films and Music were from Punjab, we were curious as to which part of the state they hailed from.
We also recounted a few Ajay narrated a fascinating anecdote he heard from his father “ When Bahareni Phir Bhii Aayengi magar ham tum judaa honge” was heard on the streets in Hyderabad, traffic halted to listen to it”
We started belting names one by one; OP Nayyar, Kurshid Anwar, Roshan, Dilip Kumar, Shyam Sundar, Rajinder Kumar and so forth and to our astonishment all of them were born in and around Lahore. The actors and composers from East Punjab paled in comparison.
Saturday stared with a feast of Methi ki Kachori. Ajay and Saee keept serving them liberaly till we got completely stuffed  The kachoris were so good that we just cudn’t resist the extra servings and ended up skipping lunch. We then dropped Prof. Ahmed in the airport but not before coming to know of his singing skills. He sang a couple of Saigal songs during the drive and mentioned that he sings Mukesh during college reunions.
The big mehfil was in the evening. Ajay started by playing few of Lata’s earliest songs that included “ chidiya bole chhu, chuu chuu”, “ Piya aayega” and “paanv laaguun kar jorii re”. He also pointed out that the chronological sequence sometimes doesn’t match with the RPM record label numbers. He shared a fascinating anecdote where one of his record collector friends presented Lata with an RPM record of one her earliest songs at a function in Nagpur.
The next song had a long prelude but a few bars were enough before Arunabha nailed it as “sabze ki durfishani, phuulon ka shamiyana”. Ajay then pointed out that at the age of 18 Lata could sing such difficult songs with such maturity. “duur jaaye re” from the same year is another valid example.
Ajay then had a theme for us in which he was going to play songs from 1952 (and occasionally the ones before). Our task was to hear songs of 1953 when we go back home and come back with any differences. As per Ajay 1952 is the first cut off. The cut off on his fancy phone is 1957 although it’s not a hard stop and he does enjoy several songs even from the 70’s.
Ajay had a few songs in mind for his theme and one of the first was “Dukhiyaare naina dhuunde piyaa ko” We discussed the other songs of Nirmohi including “ ab gam ko banalengi jiine ka sahaara”.
I started requesting some of my favorites from 1952 including the following Anil Biswas ones. Ek mera dil ek unka dil and Idhar kho gaya. When the latter was being played we were reminded of the other “sitaara” from Do Sitaare which we promptly played. I am of course referring to “Meri aasmani ghodi”.
Sajjad was the next composer Ajay had in mind. He chose “wo to chale gaye ai dil” and pointed out that once the initial prelude music starts the table beats have a pause and we get the feeling that the song is going to start. However the music starts again. With Sangdil in the air how can Saiyyan be far behind. We picked “Kaali kaali raat re” from that treasure trove.
I suddenly said “Hyderabad Ki Nazneen” and walked towards Ajay who stood up and shook my hands. 1952 is incomplete without this Vasant Desai album. Jaao chamka subah ka sitara and kya kya na log chal base were thoroughly enjoyed. Inspite of our Nizam connections, we never spoke in Hyderabadi but I did recommend him to watch Farooq Sheik in the movie Lahore. ‘karna padta babu, ye bhi karna padta”. Being named after a place he is fascinated with, must be a good enough reason! Incidentally Ajay speaks flawless Hindi and chaste Urdu.
Saee now joined us and Ajay posed a quiz to all the three of us. He played a CR song and mentioned that its from 1952 and stars Madhubala and asked us to name the movie. When we all failed, Saee walked inside and immediately came back with the answer. Radha had nailed it with ease. That’s not surprising as a recent blood test revealed that Deshpande’s have 35 % Haemoglobin and 65% Lataglobin 

By now Arunabha started flexing his muscles and nailed both Chakori ka chanda se pyaar (Daman) and Kaise tum bin kategi umariya (Gumasta) while the prelude music was playing. Ajay next mentioned about a lesser known song of Bhola Shresta and the moment Lata started, I was able to identify it as “Mujhko hai tumse hi pyaar kyuun”. I said to myself “Chalo, ab Ajay mujhe ghar se nahiin bhaga sakta aur blood exam ka bhi zaruurat nahiin” LOL ! (When Ajay started collecting, he had tough times with a few collectors. They used to think that some other collector must have sent him and wudn’t entertain him). The next set of songs we enjoyed were “aaj mere nassib ne” from Hulchul and “Jhulmi naina balam ke maar gaye” from Baawra.
If you make a list of the composers of the above songs, it reads K.Datta, Bhola Shreshta, Mohd. Shafi, Krishna Dayal. What’s common to them? They are lesser known composers with outstanding Lata songs. Taking nothing away from the composers, its remarkable to note this ability of Lata to take compositions to the next level. As Arunabha rightly pointed out, outstanding Lata solos by lesser known composers could be another aspect that leads credence to the 1952 cutoff.

As the next song was being played, a usually restrained Arunabha shouted “Waffaa !”. There was a point of time when I was obsessed with the songs of this movie and he was reminding me of that phase. We enjoyed “Apni apni qismat hai” and I pointed the similarity in its lyrics to “is dil ki haalat kya kahiye”
We briefly turned beyond the cutoff. The Shankar Jaikishan stunner “Hamko chheta hai dil” from Aas was handpicked by Ajay to highlight the accordion pieces. It was past 1 am and we finally broke for dinner ! This time around I made sure not to miss out on the delicious Kichdi !
Post dinner we had a singing session. Everyone was reluctant to begin and I promptly jumped in with “tum pukaar lo, tumhara intezaar hai”. Arunabha then sang “dekho vo chaand chup ke se kehta hai ye ishaare” followed by Ajay with a Talat number that is now evading me.
Finally it was Saee’s turn and she went inside and got her lyrics book. She then asked us if we like “tuu hamko dekh aur hamari nazar se dekh” and Arunabha started reeling off the lyrics. I grabbed whatever was left behind, i.e the stats and said to myself “Arunabha ke saamne izzat bachane ke liye aakhir kuchh to karna paDegaa !” ROTFL ! (My Lata bhakti has always been there but was more or less steady but Arunabha’s graph started the ascent ever since he switched camps from Asha. The turning point was when he was finishing his Phd dissertation about a decade back. I had given him the RMIM commemorative on Anil Biswas and that influenced him so much that both Anil Biswas and myself found a place in the acknowledgements. Ever since then, his presence makes me feel proud and attentive at the same time 
I mentioned how I used to ask my family members to record songs for me from Vividh Bharati when I went to college and then used to consulate them and throw away old tapes which were repeatedly re-recorded. During one such session that I had discovered “tuu hamko ko dekh” in a old tape which I was about to junk.
“Zindagi Aur Hum Roshan” sach much Roshan ho gaye.
Mohabbat ek shoal hai followed and I then requested “aa phir se mere pyaar ki qismat sanvaar de”. It was Arunabha’s turn now but we all joined to sing “aa jaayen jaane waale, laut aai bahaare” . Meena Kumari was singing it for Sekhar in Chandni Chowk, but for us the “jaane waale” was Roshan. Ajay and Saee mentioned that their kids also watched this movie and we discussed a few other songs from the film before Arunabha looked at me “tumhara dialogue to suano” and I promptly got up and said “main vo balaa huun jo shiishe se patthat ko tod duun” . Jeevan keeps repeating this dialogue in the movie.
By now it was past 3 am and we decided to call it a day.
Sundays was set aside for meeting Vishwanath Chaterjee. We weren’t planning to stay for more than an hour but he regaled us with several anecdotes which made us sit for a while. The people he met and the efforts he put in the Geet Kosh compilations is remarkable. What amazed me was his incredible memory. Vishwanat ji has an uncanny ability to remember dates of events along with the day of the week. That last part was mindboggling.
It was evening by now and we had to leave soon to the train station. Saee made sure that we didn’t have to bother about dinner by packing “Pav Bhaji” for us. That along with boxes of sweets made us bring “deshpande hospitality” enroute and into our own homes.
We also had the good fortune of meeting Kalyan at the train station. I am a big fan of his sense of humor and he didn’t disappoint. We wanted to catch up over tea but figured that they weren’t going to allow us into the canteen without a train ticket. The canteen’s kitchen was facing the parking lot and Kalyan retorted “ If you want some excitement, jump through the kitchen. And if you want a ticket, I can just forward my sms ”.
That’s it folks. I hope that sookha bhelpuri tastes better now !

Nuggets from Nagpur - Part 1

The thought of Nagpur conjures myriad images of music, political science, food and fun delicately weaved together by threads of “Deshpande hospitality”. It’s hard to capture that last phrase in words. So friends, if you get their invite, lap it up and experience it for yourselves. For the uninitiated, here’s an attempt to capture some magic. 
The Deshpande residence is always abuzz with the presence of distinguished personalities from various walks of life. Abuzz is perhaps the wrong word as being in the mix of things has been the norm right from Ajay's father’s days in Hyderabad. So playing host comes naturally to them. Such an ambience provides the perfect breeding ground for intellectually inspiring discussions. Thursday evening was no exception as their residence was graced by the likes of noted political scientist Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed and celebrated playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar.
It was my privilege to be in such distinguished company. After the initial introductions we hit upon a common chord with Lata Mangeshkar. Ajay asked us to request Lata classics and he was going to play for us. Mahesh ji started with an all time favorite “Subha ka Intezaar kaun kare”. At this point I was very happy, more so for Arunabha (who was going to join us on Friday), as the evening was going to begin with a Jaidev song. But in a gentle twist of fate the conversation drifted and the song was usurped by “Phaili huii hai sapnon ki baahen”. Now it was time to just feel happy for myself.
CR was the next composer of honor. “tum kya jaano” and “kaali kaali ratiyaan” followed and we all agreed that these are among our favorite Lata songs. Mahesh ji mentioned that liking for these kind of songs separates the true Lata fan from the pretender. We can endlessly debate about this topic, and even gloat about our self-imposed cut off years beyond which we occasionally foray. While we are at it, I just wanted to bring forward a good point raised by Saae (this was during lunch on Saturday when Arunabha also echoed similar thoughts) about not diluting the pleasure of listening to music by an obsession for song stats. My view is that stats by itself won’t enhance listening pleasure but can be used in conjunction to appreciate the finer nuances of the song.
Prof. Ahmed said that that he conisidered “sitaron ki mehfil sajii tum na aaye” among all time best Lata songs and we talked a little about Naushad’s music before listening to the stunner. I pointed out that its hard for me to decide if it’s the best song of Udan Khatola and “hamare dil se na jaana” is a strong contender for the same. We all agreed that Naushad’s best work was before mid 50’s. Saee mentioned that she had a special liking for “mohe bhool gaye saanvariya” and we heard that next. We were feasting over a variety of snacks during this time, and my favorite tasted like Bakarwadi although it was shaped like a “ball”. The other favorite looked like Macaroni Cheese (but tasted differently) which we had with forks. Saee meanwhile was multitasking and making sure that all the guests are well fed. Discussion then moved to Naushad’s best tracks and I mentioned that we should not forget Amar. Ajay went out for a moment and announced “andar se ek farmaish aai hai”. The Deshpande household being full of Lata bhakts, its hard to guess who requested it. I have a hunch its Saee given that it’s another Naushad number from the same time frame: “jo main jaanti bisrat saiyyan”.
Lyrics of Rajinder Krishan was next on agenda. I mentioned that he is underrated and hasn’t been ranked along with the likes of Sahir, Shailendra and Majrooh. We agreed that his work with a variety of composers from CR, Husnlal Bhagatram, Shyam Sundar to Madan Mohan and Hemant Kumar is top notch, especially with the Lata solo. We parsed the lyrics of both versions of “ye zindagi usiki hai” with an exclamation mark on “phir kahaan yeh fursaten, phir kahaan ye raat din”. The use of sitar in the happy version and clarinet in the sad verison was also noted. Ajay pointed out that its hard to find songs of this great lyricist in the 70’s as his works became sparse after he won a huge lottery.
We then enjoyed Prof. Ahmed’s farmsih, “priitam meri duniya men do din to rahe hote”. Mahesh ji had to leave early. Once he left we realized that we never got around to “subah ka intezaar kaun kare” and promptly played it.
We soon changed gears and discussed about a wide range of political and social issues with Prof. Ahmed. It continued over a scrumptious dinner of Roti, Aalu Gobi Sabzi, Dahi Wada and Rasmalai. They were so filling that I had to skip Kichdi  Coming back to music, Thursday evening was just an appetizer for what was to follow on Saturday evening. Arunabh’s arrival on Friday would set the tone for that. More on that later..

An evening of Ghazals

It was a busy Sunday morning as I was preparing to leave for Afzalgunj. I had promised to accompany my friend Prakash for a tour of the Salarjung Museum. The routine was interrupted by a phone call. The voice said, "I am performing in Ravindrabharati. If you have time do come". The fact that the performing artist had invited me was a good enough reason for me to attend. On top of that this was in Ravindra Bharati, the biggest stage in the twin cities for decades. And above all it was a tribute to Mehdi Hassan and Jagjit Singh. So I said to myself " chalo miyaa, itwaar ko yaadgaar banaaya jaaye".

By the time I reached Nampally I was overcome with excitement. This transcended into a trance when the concert began with "gulon me rang bhare". I started singing along, and happily clicking away snaps paying little attention to the names of the singers. The Mehdi Hassan favorite was followed by one of Jagjit Singh's mst popular numbers"sarakti jaaye rukh se nakaab aahista aahista". "baat karni mujhe mushkil", "Koyi fariyaad tere dil men dabi ho jaise", "nawazish karam shukriya" were some of other songs rendeed with gusto
by the other singers. Every singer was allotted 2 songs, and in most cases it was one Jagjit Singh number and one Mehdi Hassan song.

The compering was also excellent, with a sher read in introduction of every singer. There was one that just stuck in my mind.

" hatheli ki lakeeron ko maanne vaalon
jinke haath nahiin hotii, unke bhii taqdeer hotii hai"

resulting in a resounding "wah wah's from the auidence".

Every concert has a section of "over the top audience" and this was no exception. There was one character who said loudly "vo medhi hassan to main bhi haasan".

It was only during the break when all the artists were felicitated, that my intensity reduced a little and I started registering the names and faces of the performers .

Kejriwal of oriental cements started by saying that he is not a professional singer and he pursues it as a hobby. He rendered "ek baar chale aao" and "apni yaad ko zinda rakhna"prompting the comperer to say " inki aawaz to oriential cements jaise
majbuut hai".

The next singer was Swati whose opening aalaap drew applause from the audience. The Ghazal was "mohabbat karne waale kam na honge" which had lovely ashaar like "tere furqat ke gam na honge" and the audience lapped it up. With the words "Faiz gaane ki zurrat karti huun", Swati then rendered "aaye kuchh abr, kuchh sharaab aaye".

This was followed by Mazhar Khan who also sang 2 lovely Ghazals. By now "the hassan character" had started his parallel show in the back row and started doing counter aalaaps during the renedition. I will have to admit
that he was not besura. It must been an annoyance to the performers but it added to the entertainment value of some backbenchers.

Suresh Babu followed it up wih " zindagi men to sabhi pyaar kiya karte hain"

A fair and well built gentleman with a Shiv Kumar Sharma kind of flocky hair next came forward, prompting the the comperer to comment " Ye jitne sundar dikhte hain, utne hi sundar gaate hain".True to the words Sharad sang "yaad nahiin kya kya dekha tha", "tera chehra kitna suhana lagta hai" very well.

The last singer for the night was Zahiruddin Babar who regaled the audience
with "tere kushbu men bhara khat" and "har taraf har jagah".

The accompanying orchestra was excellent. Table Nawaaz Sadat Khan, who is also the organiser had a field day. Nothing less is expected of Saadat sahab who has accompanied Vithal Rao over the years.It was well into the night by now and I quickly got into an auto. I was in such a good mood that I engaged in small talk with the diver all throughout. He said " Koi tension nahiin lene ka aur bindaas rehne  ka. Ye hyderabad hai aur yahaan raat ko bhi befikr ghum sakte hain".

In all that excitement did I mention that the friend who called me was Swati,  a student of legendary Ghazal performer and teacher Pandit Vithal Rao ?Thank you Swati for inviting me.I was a little dissapointed that Pandit Vithal Rao wasn't there. However it was great to see his legacy being taken forward.