Thursday, January 1, 2009

RAAGMALIKA IN HINDI FILM : HUMDARD (1953)

    गणेशं एक दंतश्च, हेरम्बम विघ्न नायकम ।
                 लम्बोदरं सुर्प करणं, गजवक्त्रं गुहाग्रजम ।।

PREM DHAWAN
Manna Dey
Lata Mangeshkar
MUSIC DIRECTOR - ANIL BISWAS

                                                                         
LP RECORD COVER


                          In our'Saamved' and Sangeet Shastra,music has been described as the confluence of  the three Singing songs ,Playing on musical-instruments and Dancing.

                "।।गीतं वाद्यम च नृत्यं च त्रयं संगीत मुच्च्यते।।"


Dear friends! you may not be knowing that Hindi film music has been doing a great job of making our classical music popular among the masses, in a linear way . Many learned music –directors have tried to compose beautiful classical raaga based songs in movies whenever they got a proper situation in the film. Apart from songs , one of the most typical composition is a Ragmalika: a string of at least four different ragas composed in a sequence. In films it is rare to search for a रागमालिका .Very few such Raagmalika compositions have come to my knowledge so far.I will keep on writing about them in details, one by one. First of all I am talking about a raagmalika presented in the film ‘हमदर्द ’(1953) for which music was composed by Late श्री अनिल बिस्वास . Singers were लता मंगेशकर and मन्ना डे .
The Ragmalika begins with a melodious recital of the song: 

"ॐ आ आ ...... ।
  ऋतु आये ऋतु जाए सखी री
  मन के मीत न आये।।
  जेठ महीना जिया घबराये,
  पल पल सूरज आग लगाये। 
  दूजे बिरहा अगन जलाये,
  करूँ मैं कौन उपाय ।।
  ऋतु आये ऋतु जाए सखी री ....",
  in the voice of मन्ना डे followed by लता मंगेशकर , composed in राग  गौड़ -सारंग ( a day time raaga ).
The second song of Raagmalika is:
 "बरखा ऋतु बैरी हमार,
   जैसे सासु ननदिया ।
   बरखा ऋतु बैरी हमार...।।
   पी दर्शन को जियरा तरसे ,
   अंखियन से नित सावन बरसे ।
   रोवत है कजरा नैनन का,
   बिंदिया करे पुकार ।।
   बरखा ऋतु बैरी हमार....",
 composed in राग गौड़ -मल्हार ( a seasonal raga to be sung in the   early part of  the night).
 रागमालिका  continues with the next very impressive composition,
 "पी बिन सूना री...।।
   पतझड़ जैसा जीवन मेरा,
   पी बिन सूना री।।
   मन बिन तन ,
   ज्यों जल बिन नदिया।
   त्यों मैं सूनी बिना सांवरिया ।
   औरों की तो रैन अंधेरी,
   अब है मेरा दिन भी अन्धेरा ।।
   पी बिन सूना री  …।
   ध म ग म प् ग रे सा .....।
   पी बिन सूना री ।।" 
  in राग  जोगिया ( an early morning raaga).
 The last song of  the Raagmalika was:
  "आयी मधु ऋतु बसंत बहार रे।।
    फूल फूल पर भ्रमर गुंजत,
    सखी आये नहीं भंवर हमार रे ।
    आयी मधु ऋतु  बसंत बहार रे ।।
    कब लग नैनन द्वार सजाऊँ ,
    दीप जलाऊ दीप बुझाऊँ,
    कब लग करूँ सिंगार रे ।।
    आयी मधु ऋतु बसंत बहार रे || .....,"
 in राग बहार , presented in the ending part of the film , reflecting a happy mood.
 This raagmalika was picturized on निम्मी and शेखर . In which Shekhar acted as a popular singer who is blind and is teaching music to a girl who is posing to be blind, played by Nimmi. 
I hope listening to these melodies will keep anyone spell bound with its hypnotic effect.The lyrics of these songs were written by Prem Dhawan.
 Many  of the music lovers may not be knowing that music director अनिल बिस्वास wrote his आत्मकथा , which had the title ' ऋतु आये ऋतु जाए '. One can very easily understand the composer's affinity to this raagmalika.

4 comments:

Dr.R.C.Mishra said...

Dear Ramesh Uncle,
great information on raagas,I always liked classical music in movies or otherwise but there is not much information available about it and specially 'Raagmalikas'.It's nice to see your blog on classical music elements in music of Hindi movies.
RITU(U.S.A.)

Anonymous said...

dearest papa,
I know that you have loads and loads of info on classical and film music and you are so good at putting them in words. These blogs of yours are definitely going to help many genuine music lovers in getting rare and interesting information on music. All my best wishes are with you.
love-ajita

gulab said...

Dear Dr. Mishra,

I have enjoyed your blogs immensely and learnt a lot of information too. Thank you very much for detailed descriptions of each of these wonderful songs. Recently, I have started a blog that pairs such beautiful songs from Indian and Pakistani films. You may check it out at http://www.mishraraag.blogspot.com/
I have referred to your blog wherever I have indicated the Raags. Thank you,

Gulab

gulab said...

I am sorry the url I meant to give in the earlier comment was

http://gulab-musings.blogspot.com/

Thank you. Gulab