Prologue: " Is Surjit Singh the founder of RMIM? " was an innocent query that came up at Chetan's place on Friday. Kalyan had us in splits with " This is like saying Usha Khanna is the first female composer of HFM ". At that very moment, Ashok started descending the stairs from smoker’s lobby, and a chorus enveloped the room "Samrat Ashoka, padhaar rahe hain".
It is during such informal settings that formal events are planned and executed, giving vibrancy and shelf life to RMIM. The stage was already set; and each of the hosts started dropping by and providing the updates on the preparations. Kalyan and Shailendra went to pick up Sudha Malhotra ji from the airport and dropped at her hotel; Gajendra and Shailendra checked the sound system at the venue. Newspaper clippings of the event in Deccan Herald and The Hindu were shared.
One missing task was to make copies of Sudha Malhotra songs, which was assigned to Anup. Kalyan declared that among the core group, Anup is the only person who is less reliable than him 😊Anup arrived with a bunch of laptops and no CD’s. His expectation was that they would be there at Chetan’s place. True to his wish, Chetan came up with an empty bundle and the rest of the evening was spent burning CD’s while the usual banter continued.
Saturday:
Gajendra played a few favorites of Chitrgupt and it was time for quick introductions. Each participant was asked to announce their name, place of residence and favorite song of Chitragupt or Shamshad.
The choices for Chitragupt ranged from "Jaag dil e diwana " to "muskuraao ke jii nahiin lagta" with no clear favorite. Favorites of Shamshad covered wide spectrum too with “o leke pehla pehla pyaar” and "kabhi aar kabhi paar” picked by more than 1 member.
It was time to listen to songs of Sudha ji and Gajendra asked everyone to name favorite songs of her. Tum mujhe bhool bhi Jaao was the favorite for most followed by “na main dhan chahuun” and “salaam-e-hasrat”.
Meanwhile Shailendra was calling me to update on Sudhaji’s arrival and I was communicating to other hosts. Arunabha came with a good stock of water and soft drinks, which kept us cool throughout the balmy afternoon.
Sudha ji arrived, and was greeted with a bouquet and welcome speech by Chiranjeev ji. She lit the lamp and inaugurated the meet. This was followed by Kanchan's Saraswati Vandana.
Sudha ji recalled childhood memories and an opportunity to sing before Master Ghulam Haider.
She recounted many anecdotes including the recording of Kabhi kabhi mere dil me. This was initially recorded as a duet of her and Geeta Dutt for a Chetan Anand film which was never released. She also sang a few lines of the song as well as " tum mujhe bhool bhi Jaao ".
Sudha ji was pleasantly surprised to see some of her rare pictures. She was curious to know the source and when we pointed to Kaustubh Pingle, she was quite happy. Seeing one picture she recalled that it was at the mandir in her house. Purushottam Jalota and Manna Dey also sang Bhajans at the mandir.
She talked about various composers including Roshan. The composer reflected in his voice and facial expressions what he wanted to convey to the singers.
She was equally fascinated to hear some of her lesser known songs like "Aawaaz de" from Gauhar. She also talked about her song in Prem Rog. Raj Kapoor heard her Ghazal composer by Jagjit Singh “aashna hokar agar na aashna ho jaayega” and approached her family. Sudha Ji's husband had high regard for Raj Kapoor and agreed.
After a scrumptious lunch, Sudha ji released the Shamshad commemorative. We presented Sudha ji her a CD of her songs. We also gave her a Saraswati Murti made of Sandalwood as a token of gratitude.
Sunny Matthew’s session:
We then had a documentary on Sunny Mathew ji’s record museum in Kottayam. The museum has a huge collection of records as well as instruments. After the documentary, Sunny ji played some recordings in his collection. We could readily recognize some Malayalam songs as they had hindi versions. In addition to songs, his collection includes some historic pieces that have been preserved for posterity.
Kushal Gopalka on his seminar: Kushal is one of the music connections I had made when I used to do monthly mehfils in Delhi. He organises “Cine Music Beyond Entertainment in Mumbai every year and incidentally Sudha Malhotra ji was the chief guest for the event last year. Infact the Kushal connection also played a role in Sudha ji attending the meet. Kushal presented highlights of his previous seminars and invited use to his upcoming one. DVD’s of his sessions are also available.
Quiz time:
It was now the turn of quizzes. Kalyan's spicy quiz was missing, and even the food courtesy Kalyan's regular caterer was mild.
First on agenda was Shekar’s Badalte Saathi, with a twist. Instead of singers; the actors on whom the song is picturised were changing. Considering this was Shekhar’s golden era, there were enough KA and RD song to pump up Anirudha and myself. Before the meet, I told Arunabha that I was going to be very quiet and happy to occupy the back benches with him. He wanted one “Jai Santoshi Ma” movement and it came thanks to “Gentle man gentle man” from Gopi. Consequently, our team made a lot of noise but Anil Hingorani and team were the silent killers who beat us to second place.
The next quiz by Abhay Phadnis need us to pick the common theme among a set of questions. Once again Arunabha and Anirudha, were going steady only to be denied by Ashok with a six of the last question.
I couldn’t pay much attention to Guri’s quiz as was busy setting up the hangout. We could see Anup Ray and Aditya Pant join briefly. It was the usual audio and video clues one, with the wrong audios associated with the videos. The quiz has now been posted on facebook.
Dosa and Bisibelle Bath was dinner menu and I soon left the venue.
Sunday:
Gajendra started the proceedings by presenting summary of Chitragupt’s career taken from the book Dhuno Ki Yatra.
Suresh Ji's session on Manna Dey was next on agenda. The highlights included the Amar Bhoopali number “ghana shyama sundaro” in Bengali and “Hey Namrata ke Samrat” written by Gandhi ji. Dr. Chandvankar had extensively talked about the making of “hey Namrata ke samrat” at an earlier RMIM meet and briefly explained the history behind this Vasant Desai composition.
Gajendra’s memories of Shamshad Begum:
He had visited her in 2012 and what was planned to be a brief meeting got extended. Insights into her personality, her beliefs in many faiths and her sense of humor were shared. Even though she was 93, her memory was quite sharp and she recalled even about her childhood days. Her uncle Amiruddin took her to an audition with master Ghulam Haider and she was asked to sign a contract the same day. That was the beginning of her long career and the entire interview is available online.
One interesting aspect was her opinion on remixes. To Gajendra’s surprise, Shamshad ji believed remixes kept her songs alive and she was in favor of them.
Post lunch we got to meet family members of 2 film personalities.
Rakesh Solomon, Composer Vinod’s Grandson, came with his family. He brought an antique piece, the harmonium that Vinod had used, as well as some rare pictures.
Ranjan Sain, nephew of producer director K. Amarnath, was another guest connected to film world. He mentioned about a forthcoming book written by him on his uncle.
Panel discussion:
We then had a panel discussion on the impact of Social media on music and films. Anil Hingorani, Guri and Sushrut Vaidya were the members and Abhay Phadnis moderated the discussion. Anil pointed out that social media has given rise to forums like RMIM which started as a Usenent group 27 years back. While the panel agreed that youtube was a boon, a concern was expressed on morphed and fake videos circulating there. Dr. Chandvankar said that it is our responsibility to add comments under such videos to ensure that incorrect information is not circulated. Colorization of black and white films was a controversial topic and the panel debated on its aesthetics.
Anil recalled that collectors charged him Rs. 2000 for a single song in the 80’s and recalled how we shared rare songs on RMIM. Sharing was not always welcome though and the episode of publicly sharing a prized possession of one RMIMer and the ensuing reaction, seemed to be fresh even 2 decades after the incident.
Kushal Gopalka on Shamshad:
Kushal had a close association with Shamshad during her later years. Kushal added a few points that Gajendra didn’t cover. OP Nayyar had sung in the chorus for a Shamshad Begum song and wanted her to sing for him when he became a composer. Shamshad ji said that she will definitely sing and whatever she sang for him became a hit; “kabhi aar kabhi paar”; “leke pehla pehla pyaar” and “Kajra mohabbat waala” are song examples where she sang just a single song for the film but that became iconic.
Singing session:
The singing session was started by local professional singer Nagraj. He regaled us with a wonderful rendition of “tere mandir ka huun jal rahaa”. Kushal sang “kahiin duur jab din dhal jaaye”. As a tribute to Chitragupt ji, Gauri Diwan sang “na to dard gayaa”. Kanchan then joined with " bachpan ke din bhulaa na dena"
Kalyan was prompted to sing and Anup shared their experiences of learning music in bay area. Apparently, the music teacher first used to ask Kalyan if he understood, implying that if Kalyan gets it then everyone else have understood. This prompted a question as to whether Kalyan sings in Ashuddh Kalyan.
The singing finale had Guri with “yeh ishq ishq” accompanied by Sushruth and we signed off by accompanying Guri in “ye raaten ye mausam, ye hasna hasaana”.
The meet concluded with a vote of thanks. While all the organizers played their part; Shailendra and his family deserved special mention. Shailendra was the coordinator and silently worked in the background to ensure that it all went smoothly.
We also expressed our thanks to all the attendees for making it a grand success. Till we meet again in Chennai, so long ...
