This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Indian film industry is one of the biggest film industries of the world-by way of number of films produced(together in all languages) and the number of people involved in this industry. There was some kind of a survey data published on an Internet site ( now defunct)a few years ago, which published a list of 7000+ names of actors and actresses in Hindi films from 1931 to 2000 AD. Dr Surjit singh ji put the list on RMIM forum and I copied it from there.
Come to think of it, if only the actors’ list contained more than 7000 names, how many more names would have been there if names from other departments like singers, composers,lyricists,story and screenplay writers, cinematographers and other technical staffs was also added to it ? Just think, Music Directors alone were more than 2000 for the period of 1931 to 2010 ( as per Harmandir ji). The figure may run into Lakhs, I suppose. Of course not all the names will be known to all the people. Just try writing down the names of Music Directors you remember, on a paper. I bet that most people would not go beyond the number 50 ! Some will be the case with actors or actresses. Directors names would be even less.
At any given point of time, there were about 10 to 20 major composers operating at a time period. A bigger number was of less known composers or composers who did just 3 or 4 films or even one film. Amongst these composers, there were some pairs of two composers. There have always been pairs of composers operating in the Hindi films from the beginning of Talkie films. Of course there were more pairs who did just one or two films and then disappeared.
It is generally believed that Husnlal- Bhagatram was the first pair of composers or at least they started the trend. However, it is NOT really true. In the early era, when the Talkie films started in 1931, as early as 1932 itself a pair of 2 composers worked for a film- Indrasabha-1932, which had a record 71 songs. Composer Vazir Khan made the tunes and composer Nagardas Nayak played them on Harmonium. Though only Nagardas Nayak’s name is mentioned as its Music Director, HFGK has put up a footnote giving this information, quoting the name of composer Fida Hussain. OK, forget them.
Rewashankar Marwadi and Gangaprasad Pathak gave music together for Gunsundari- 1934 as well as film Raat ki Raani-35. Forget them also. Rewashankar Marwadi then made a pucca pair with composer Banne Khan and this pair gave music to 12 films as a pair. ( Barrister’s wife-35, College girl-35, Qeemati aansoo-35, Noor-e-watan-35, Chalaak chor-36, Raj Ramani-36, Dil ka daaku-36, Sipahi ki sajani-36, Matalabi Duniya-36, Lehri lala-36, Gaazi Diler-36 and Mitti ka putla-37 ). In my opinion, they, and not Husnlal Bhagatram, should be considered the first pair of Music Directors as well as Trend setters. Of course the number of films that Husnlal Bhagatram team did was more ( 52), but that is because the speed of making films increased after 1935. More films were made in the 40s and the 50s than in the 30s. Moreover many composers left for Pakistan in late 40s, so more films were available for less composers.
Numbers aside, lack of enough knowledge about the early films and artistes has led to much injustice to the Pioneers, for sure !
Pairs of composers kept on appearing on and off with lot of variations and different periods of sustenance in the competition. There was even one Trio of composers comprising of Lala- Asar- Sattar, but it lasted just one film- Sangram-65. One member dropped out and the remaining pair of Lala-Sattar continued to give music in about 10 films.
Today’s song is from a film Chaubees Ghante-58, which too had a pair of composers called BIPIN-BABUL.
Bipin Dutta ( born 17-8-1930) and Babul ( born 22-1-1923) worked as a pair and gave music to 12 films. Bipin Dutta had started working as an assistant first to Khayyam and then to Madan Mohan, where he met Babul, who too was assistant to Madan Mohan for quite some time. In 1955 they decided to separate from Madan Mohan and became a composer team for film Salaam E Mohabbat ( original name Diler ). This Costume film made by Kohinoor Films, Bombay was not completed. Its 4 songs were recorded in 1955. The singers were Talat Mehmood, Sudha Malhotra, Shamshad Begum and Madhubala Jhaveri.
After this inauspicious beginning, they gave music to another 11 films….Shahi mehmaan-55, Sultana Daku-56, Baadal aur Bijli-56, Taaj Poshi-57, Silver King-57, Chandu-58, Chaubees Ghante-58, Jungle King-59, Raat ke Raahi-59, Bus Conductor-59 and Daawat-74. Film Jungle King, though censored in 1959 was released in 1969 and film Daawat was Censored and released in 1974. By this time, not only had the pair separated but Babul had already migrated to Pakistan in 1963 itself.
After splitting they did not have any better luck as independent composers. Bipin Dutt gave music to ‘Kya ye Bambai hai’-59, Alam Ara ki beti-60, Diamond king-61 and Baghi Shehzada-64.
Babul gave music to Forty days-59, Reshmi Roomal-61, Sara jahan hamara-61, Naqli Nawab-62 and Mujrim kaun khooni kaun-65.
As one can see, from the 30s to the latest era of films so many pairs of composers came and went. Only few were successful, only few remained together for long times and few split halfway- either overly or covertly !
When I loo at these pairs, my heart goes to Shanker- Jaikishen and Husnlal-Bhagatram for quality, melody and sheer entertainment and I look in awe at Laxmikant- Pyarelal for a long and quantitative team effort. I also pity and feel sorry at Roy-Frank- the most unfit and most unlikely combination pair of composers. Frank was from music industry and Roy ( Mukund Rai Trivedi) was a partner in a Mining family of Madhya Pradesh, having only a passion for music but no knowledge. They did only one film Gogolaa- 66 and disappeared in thin air !
Today’s song sounds like a song that Rafi would sing for Johnny Walker in that period, but Johnny Walker was not in the film. Since I have not seen this film, I do not know on whom the song has been filmed. Nevertheless, it is a reasonably good song, and let us enjoy it.
Song-Ik dil hamaare paas hai neelaam karega(Chaubees Ghante)(1958) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, MD-Bipin Baabul
Lyrics
ik dil
ek dil hamaare paas hai
neelam karega
phir apne ghar mein baithh ke aaraam karega
ik dil hamaare paas hai
neelaam karega
phir apne ghar mein baithh ke aaraam karega
samjha raha hoon pyaar se
isko maheenon se
phir bhi ye naadaan
phir bhi ye naadaan jaa ulajhta hai haseenon se
hum abhi abhi
hum abhi abhi iska intezaam karega
phir apne ghar mein baithh ke aaraam karega
ik dil hamaare paas hai
neelaam karega
phir apne ghar mein baithh ke aaraam karega
achcha nahin hai
dil kisi ka le ke mukarna aa
hamre galey mein hans ke baahen daal do warna aa aa
achha nahin hai
dil kisi ka le ke mukarna aa
hamre galey mein
hey
hanske baahen daal do warna
haaye
ham gali gali
ham gali gali aap ko badnaam karega
phir apne ghar mein baithh ke aaraam karega
ik dil hamaare paas hai
neelaam karega
phir apne ghar mein baithh ke aaraam karega
ye dil mohabbat waala hai
ye dil to bhola bhaala hai
ye dil do hi ka gaala(?) hai
ye dil to sabse aala hai
le lo
ye jaane waala hai
jaane waala hai
jaane waala hai
haa
haa
haa
haa
jo lega ise dunia mein naam karega
phir apne ghar mein baithh ke aaraam karega
ik dil hamaare paas hai
neelaam karega
phir apne ghar mein baith ke aaraam karega
ik dil
ik dil
ik dil
dil
dil
dil
