31 July 1980 - A Day to Remember

I am not sure what do I call this soul..... A god's gift to us, a human being's tribute to god or he himself is a GOD...... !!!

Exactly 29 years back on this day, this soul of Hindi film music left it's body and flew towards the world where there are no footprints.....

So many people imitated him and made name, fame, imitations, irritations, all sorts.......

But no one could even come nearer to him and no one can become like him.....

That's Mohammed Rafi.......

When he died, Doordarshan covered his last journey live... In the background, the which was being played was

क्यूँ संवारी है यह चन्दन की चिता मेरे लिए

में कोई जिस्म नहीं हूँ के जलाओ गे मुझे

राख हो जावुंगा बिखर जावूँगा में दुनिया में

तुम जहां खावोगे टोकर वही पावोगे मुझे........

मेरी आवाज़ सुनो प्यार का राग सुनो

What else do I say about this great soul... There will be no one like Rafi.. All those who are imitating Rafi and imitated Rafi, let them keep trying...

Late Remembrance.....

It was 1987. Life was in full throttle in amateur theatre.... I was heavily into the theatre festivals, acting, singing, working in backstage. It was so much fun.....

Raju, walks into my life during this time. He was studying in National College, Jayanagar. He walked into the festival to work in the festival. I was happy with that addition, as I was aware of the fact that he was the son of legendary singer Mysore Ananthaswamy. I had heard him singing in some of the occassions. I was happy that I got one more friend who was a singer.

The intensity of freindship between me and Raju got quite intense. We used to meet up every evening and used to discuss so much about music. He was a singer, he had completed senior in Tabla through Pt. Seshadri Gawai, he could play quite other instruments. He was an excellent composer... more than anything, he was an excellent human being, fun loving character. We used to loaf around a lot and used eye lot of good looking girls !!!

Some of the days, we all used to sit on the stage at HN Kalakshetra with Raju during some of the afternoons, and Raju used to sing for us with hormonium... what a singing it was !! Mindblowing...

Slowly, life took a different mode for both of us... he got quite busy with his singing, recordings, music composing, studios, mastering, etc... We lost in touch with each other..... After many years, on couple of occassions, we met, but it was not the same Raju whom I had interacted earlier. Raju was totally drunk, he was not himself and he seemed to have been searching for something which he himself could not express. This was some time in 2001. After that he started getting disconnected from his old friends. Later I came to know that he got married and husband and wife did not stay together long.... It was quite sad to him... there were people in the music industry, who according to some sources, prompted him to drink more and get spoilt so that he will not be a competitor for them. I made all efforts to get in touch with him, but I could not... I also heard that he went to US and was trying get de-addict himself from alcohol. By that time, alcohol had damaged his health to a great extent.

18 January 09, my mother was going through severe health conditions and I was taking her to the doctor. I got a call from one of my friend that Raju died suffering kidney failure. I was so shocked that I suddenly applied break in the middle of the road. Even though, I was aware of his health condition, I was optimistic that someday, he will bounce back... but it never happened.. I could not even go to see his face for the last time as the situation at my home was quite tensed.

Raju, a composer, singer, music director, tabla player, a good friend, a good human being, was no longer in this world giving way to all sorts of jokers who were making mockery of light music.

All these I remembered as yesterday evening, my niece, Anupama was singing on stage for a musical evening and there was a display and sale of audio CDs. I picked up a CD containing 32 songs of Raju which had his own compositions, his father Ananthaswamy's compositions. Today morning I was listening to it and I just could not control my tears. I just cried silently to myself.

Jaayen Tho Jaayen Kahan - In Memory of Talat Mahmood

Talat Mahmood with Rafi and Manna De

Photo Courtesy : Tribune India

11 years back, 09 May 1998, Talat Mahmood moved out of this big bad world. May be god might have got bored and he wanted to listen to Talat Mahmood....

Very few people of my generation, would like to listen to Talat Mahmood. I can challenge, some of them have not even heard of his name, forget about listening to him.

.......... Producer-Director-Studio Owner Mehboob Khan of 'Mother India' fame, would always put his finger on Talat's throat and tell him " Khuda ka noor tumhare gale mein hai ! "

Talat Mahmood, who was popular for his ghazal singing, had a very interesting voice which had vibrations and so far, till today, there are huge number of people who could imitate Kishore, Rafi, Mukesh and even Manna De and succeed as well. But none to imitate Talat Mahmood as it is not easy to do so. Such was the voice of Talat Mahmood.

Some of the songs which I remember today are here:

1. sham-e-gham ki kasam
2. Phir wohi shaam wohi gham wohi tanhaayee
3. Aansoo samajh ke kyon mujhe aankh se tumne gira diya
4. Jaayen tho jaayen kahan
5. Meri yaad mein tum na aansoo bahaa na, ne jee ko jalana, mujhe bhool jaana
6. Hum dard ke maaron ka, itna tho phasana hai
7. Aaj ke mulaaqat bas itni, dekho humein tumse hai preet kitni (Sung with Latha Mangeshkar)
8. Dil-e-naadan tujhe hua kya hai, aakhir is dard ki dawa kya hai
9. koi nahin mera is duniya mein aashian barbaad hai
10. Tasveer Banata Hoon, Tasveen nahin banthi
11. Jalte hain jis ke liye (this is one song which I cannot forget and makes me quite emotional)
12. Zindagi Denewaale sun
13. Seene mein sulagthe hain armaan (with Lata Mangeshkar and one of the ever memorable composition of Anil Biswas. You should listen to this song to enjoy those vikrit sur, sharp notes suddenly coming and flying off !!!)
14. Dekh li teri khudaayee

Well, the list goes on......

Talat used to sing Bengali songs in the name of Tapan Kumar

Talat has sung for very few films compared to the thousandwallahs like Rafi and Kishore. Talat is miles behind in terms of number. But, the quality is unmatchable.