Stellar Soundtracks: Aaye Din Bahar Ke

Winter is over for another year. Spring weather has the trees blooming with urgency and temperatures soaring. Yesterday we hit 31 C. Tomorrow it will rain and barely hit a dozen degrees.  But the change of season is always a soulful time and so the Washerman’s Dog shares another stellar soundtrack from the Maestros of Mumbai : Aaye Din Bahar Ke (Days of Spring).

Made in 1966 right smack dab in the middle of the Golden Period of Indian popular cinema the film was a hit for the studly action man, Dharmendra and the classy Asha Parekh. The film tells the story of Ravi, (Dharmendra) an eligible bachelor who lives with his mother. The whereabouts of his father are unknown. He meets with beautiful Kanchan (Asha Parekh) and both fall in love. But fate has other plans for them as Ravi soon finds out that Kanchan is already married and has a child.

Filmed in the lush tea fields of West Bengal the mountain scenery provides a fresh atmosphere in more ways than one. Kanchan, of course, at first is not very friendly and Ravi has his work cut out for him but of course, such difficulties only mark an occasion to cavort amongst the tea plantations and beautiful flower beds whilst tugging on Kanchan’s sari!

The playback singers are also at their peak. Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi are at the summit of their popularity, with the latter in particular contributing one of his most powerful performances in Mere Dushman (My Enemies).  Lata’s younger sister, Asha Bhosle, was still a few years from breaking out of her sister’s shadow and claiming top spot for herself but the two sing a nice duet in Ai Kaash Kisi Diwane Ko.  

The films music was composed by the venerable duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal who not only composed specially for Lata, but had her to thank for their entry into the film music world. She picked them out of an orchestra and recommended them to Naushad, at the time the King of Composer, who gave them places in his own ensemble.  The relationship between playback singer and composers remained close throughout their careers with Lata performing their songs more than any other composer/s; she named one of their songs in her personal 10 most favourite.  Lata’s solo Suno Sajna, for this film ranks as one of their outstanding contributions to Hindi song.

Lyricist Anand Bakshi it is claimed wrote more than 4500 film songs in his long Bollywood career, most of them for Laxmikant-Pyarelal. With his inclusion, Aaye Din Bahar Ke boasted the A-Team of Bombay music.   My favourite song in this soundtrack is the Mohammad Rafi number Mere Dushman. Indian film songs are famous for extolling the ways and attributes of love and the beloved in a thousand different ways. But this song, set in a nightclub, seethes with bitter anger and vengeful longings against the singer’s supposed enemies, including the shocked Kanchan.  ‘My enemies, you’re going to long for my friendship/ You who’ve hurt me will long for happiness.’  Every bit as bitter and spiteful as Bob Dylan’s famous put down in Positively 4^th Street.  The mighty soaring strings ramp up the emotions to unbelieveable heights, and yet Rafi never loses control, indeed spitting the hurt out with style and even grace!  A stunning performance.

            Track Listing:

        01 Ai Kaash Kisi Diwane Ko

02 Khat Likh De

03 Suno Sajna

04 Ye Kali

05 Mera Mehboob Hai Bemisal

06 Mere Dushman

07 Khudya Khair

here

A Bet Both Ways: Ghulam Ali and Asha Bhosle

It is hard to name two bigger and influential stars in sub continental music than Asha Bhosle and Ghulam Ali. 

Asha Bhosle

The former, along with her sister, Lata Mangeshkar, one of the two incontestable Empresses of Indian film music, has recorded over 12,000 songs and acknowledged as the ‘Most Recorded Singer’ by the geniuses at Guinness Book of World Records.  But her contribution is measured by far more than the sheer quantity of her output. In an extraordinary career she has not only recorded some of the most memorable film songs but made records of pop, ghazal and avant garde disco (see an earlier post) and jazz with some of the world’s finest ensembles and artists.

Ghulam Ali

For his part, Ghulam Ali, has for more than a generation, occupied the summit of his chosen profession.  Though classically trained and an outstanding vocalist he has arguably done more to create one of the most commercially successful and widely loved styles of music, the popular ghazal than any other single person.  While Mehdi Hassan is probably better regarded by the cognoscenti Ghulam Ali’s place in the hearts of critics and the people is unassailable. Making a definitive count of the number of outstanding and timeless ghazals he’s gifted to the world would trouble a maths professor.  

You could say the place these two have carved for themselves in South Asian music is akin to that of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra in the American popular music.

Tonight’s selection is a cassette I picked up in the crowded streets of Calcutta before it was known as Kolkatta.  Herein each sings a couple of their more famous ghazals and then come together for some very nice vocal jugalbandi-ing.

In a region where citizens rarely mix with their cousins across the border (yet can be the closest of friends when they are in a third country) both Asha and Ghulam Ali have huge and loyal fan bases in each other’s country.   Makes you wonder what the world would be like if singers, instead of politicans, ran the show. But obviously the manufacturers were just looking to appeal to two markets with one product!

            Track Listing:

            01 Dayar-e-dil ki raat mein charagh sa jala gaya

02 Hangama Hai Kyon Barpa

03 Dard Jab Teri Atat Hai To Gila Kis Se Karen

04 Phir Sawan Rut ki Pawan Chali Tum Yaad Aaya

05 Gaye Dinon ka suragh Lekar kidhar se aaya kidhar gaya woh

06 Awargi

07 Dil Dharakne ka sabab yaaad aaya

08 Nainan Tose Lage

Listen here.

Musical Adventurer: Asha Bhosle

"Film music is good," Asha Bhosle once said. "But only [non filmi] albums give you enough of an outlet for your own creativity."

Asha Bhosle, more than any other major Indian film singer has searched for opportunities to give her silvery voice non-filmi settings. She’s sung with Michael Stipe of REM, been the subject of a Top Forty hit (Brimful of Asha), recorded with America’s premier and most innovative classical string ensembles, the Kronos Quartet ,as well as sung with many Pakistani artists.

In 1984 when she was still almost unknown outside of India and the South Asian diaspora Asha hooked up with a couple of English pop musicians and made a record of startling originality.  Even with the passage of thirty years its creativeness still stands.

The name of the group was West India Company. It comprised Stephen Luscombe, a synth-pop musician with a series of hits under his belt with his group Blancmange, and an early pioneer of the British Asian pop underground, percussionist Pandit Dinesh. The music was classic 1980’s pop with swirling layers of voices, agitated electro beats, drum programs, hopping bongos overlaid with Asha Bhosle’s voice.

The songs mixed religious chants (Ave Maria/Om Ganesha) with spiritual disco (Thieves of Our Lovers Life). The music, as one wag described it, was ‘Catholic, Hindu, latin, dance music.’

Asha Bhosle

When Stephen Luscombe was 11 years old he would regularly tune into Radio 4 and listen to a programme called “Make Yourself at Home” where requests were  played invariably for the UK’s Indian community.

It was on this programme that Stephen first heard the voice of Asha Bhosle. Intrigued by the singer’s tender passion when singing Indian love songs and impressed by Asha’s vocal gymnastics on more contemporary tunes, Stephen was immediately hooked on a form of music rarely heard at the time in England.

Stephen Luscombe’s avid interest in Indian music was to stay with him even when he formed Blancmange in 1980. When the band recorded Living on the Ceiling in 1982 Blanmange introduced the talents of Pandit Dinesh  to the world when he joined the band on a UK tour.

Born in 1955 in Calcutta, Pandit Dinesh first learnt music from his father—a well known classical singer. By the time he was 17 he took up a two year residency as a percussionist with his brother’s group in Bangalore, eventually leaving the group to play more ‘popular’ music in the film industry in Bombay where he worked with Asha Bhosle on many film soundtracks.

By 1978 he had become an in demand session musician in India embarking on a world tour that year with Kishore Kumar. When he returned he was persuaded to join Osibisa for another world tour.

He settled in England in 1982 where his talents did not go unnoticed by other musicians. Apart from countless sessions with Asian radio and TV programmes, Dinesh played for Billy Ocean, Monsoon, Galaxy, Thomson Twins, Nick Kershaw and others including working on the soundtrack of the film Gandhi.

When Stephen found out that Dinesh had worked with and knew Asha Bhosle personally, it fired his imagination that one day if she ever came to England, he might get a chance to meet her or better still work with his favourite singer.

 That day came after Asha’s sell out concert at Wembley Stadium in 1984. With a few days of ‘holiday’ Dinesh convinced her to meet Stephen and West India Company was born. (liner notes)

This is devotional music with a twist. Indeed, it is devotional music you could twist to. It is like nothing else Asha ever did and she deserves 5 big gold stars for pushing the envelope so far out of the Bollywood cage.

Track Listing:

01.     Ave Maria/Om Ganesha

02.     Calling You

03.     Thieves of Our Lovers Life

04.     Vishnu Shlokas

Listen here.