Sound of music, reloaded
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Apr132008/books2008041262352.asp
Controversies have been carefully skirted but at the same time this book
has covered a lot of ground.
At a time when glitzy remixes have robbed the melodies of yesteryear of soul
and grace and orchestral cacophony has all but drowned the lyrical content
of songs, the golden era of the Hindi film song remains but a hazy dream.
Ganesh Anantharaman's painstakingly researched Bollywood melodies— A history
of the Hindi film song, travels down memory line to take a nostalgic look at
Hindi film music as it evolved down the ages. Though it is entirely
subjective it sheds a lot of light on an all but forgotten era.
With Mahesh Bhatt's foreword setting the tone, Ganesh pieces together the
history of the Hindi film song. He has divided his treatise into three
parts, discussing the oeuvres of tunesmiths, wordsmiths and the men and
women who imparted life into the compositions: the playback singers.
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While there have been books on this genre like Ashok Da Ranade's Hindi film
songs— Music without boundaries and Manek Premchand's Yesterday's melodies,
today's memories, Ganesh's book is a notch above in terms of coverage, with
the extensive index that contains a wealth of information for music lovers.
The interviews with Lata Mangeshkar, Dev Anand, Gulzar, Manna Dey and
Pyarelal are patchy affairs with the author being clearly overawed by his
subjects and his adulation for Lata emerging rather unabashedly.
Nuggets of information as to how professional jealousy drove Shankar and
Jaikishen apart, how music maestro OP Nayyar's fascination for Asha Bhonsle
led to his ignoring Lata, how Kundan Lal Saigal preferred to render his
lyrics inebriated and the unraveling of the mystery of Manna Dey being
sparingly used by composers despite his prodigious talent— all add grist to
the book.
The identification of the ragas in each number (and there are hundreds of
them) could delight the connoisseur but might leave the lay reader cold.
Among the composers the author has lavished praise on Naushad,
Shankar-Jaikishen, S D and R D Burman and Khayyam while composers of the
present era, barring A R Rahman, have been giving short shrift.
The contributions of lyricists like Majrooh, Shakeel Badayuni, Gulzar and
Anand Bakshi have been extolled and among the singers— Saigal, Lata, Geeta
Dutt, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Udit Narayan and Sonu Nigam have
come in for handsome praise.
Controversies as to who was the better singer, Rafi or Kishore and whether
there were times when Asha eclipsed her more celebrated sister have been
carefully skirted. While the prose gets monotonous at times there is no
denying the fact that Bollywood Melodies— A history of the Hindi film song,
covers a lot of ground. It is to the author's credit that he has not omitted
any of the names that deserve a mention in studies of this type.
C V Aravind
BOLLYWOOD MELODIES A HISTORY OF THE HINDI FILM SONG
GANESH ANANTHARAMAN
PENGUIN BOOKS, pp .261, Rs. 295
--
regards,
Vithur
Whatever God wants to give, no one can deny; Whatever God wants to deny, no
one can give. Be happy always
