{"id":2424,"date":"2015-11-23T09:10:39","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T03:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=2424"},"modified":"2020-12-01T18:37:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T13:07:50","slug":"geeta-dutt-sings-for-four-music-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/geeta-dutt-sings-for-four-music-directors\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Aces and A Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FourAcesAndAQueen\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mid-forties to the late fifties are generally considered to be the golden era of Hindi film music. It was during this time when the melody was queen. Majority of the composers, lyricists and singers were at their prime.<\/p>\n

\"Geeta<\/a>

Geeta Dutt and Guru Dutt in a shot from the Vijay Anand-directed film Kala Bazar<\/p><\/div>\n

The big family of composers had illustrious names like Madan Mohan, S D Burman, Roshan, Anil Biswas, Naushad, Shankar Jaikishen, Hemant Kumar, O P Nayyar to name a few prominent ones. Some of the big production houses\/stars had strong relationships with specific composers. Raj Kapoor with Shankar Jaikishen, Dev Anand with S D Burman and Dilip Kumar with Naushad are some of the most famous pairings. \u00a0Additionally there were certain production houses, which had strong tie-ups with specific artists like Amiya Chakravarty with Shankar Jaikishen for example.<\/p>\n

A world slightly away from mainstream films was the world of action, stunt, thriller, religious, costume drama, fantasy, historical films. These used to have not so great production values, B grade star cast and generally a different section of viewership. Such films, though low on star power, typically used to have melodious music. A certain set of composers used to compose music in these films. These composers did occasionally do a regular social, family or romance films under bigger banners and bigger stars.\u00a0 List of such composers includes some of the most talented composers like Pandit S N Tripathi, Chitragupt, Avinash Vyas, Hansraj Behl, Bulo C Rani etc. Occasionally N Dutta, Vinod, S Mohinder, Sardul Kwatra also composed music for such films.<\/p>\n

\"Geeta<\/a>

Geeta Dutt<\/p><\/div>\n

Geeta Dutt nee Roy was amongst the favorite singers of many of these composers and from 1945 till early sixties, she sang some amazingly melodious and sweet songs for these composers. Today, let us take a look at four composers who gave some of their best songs to her and she moulded her voice to suit these songs with a wide range of variety.<\/p>\n

The primary focus is on four stalwart composers, namely Avinash Vyas, Bulo C Rani, Chitragupt and Hansraj Behl. \u00a0They came from totally different backgrounds\/states (Gujarat, Sindh, Bihar and Punjab respectively). When Geeta had landed in Mumbai from east Bengal, she did not even know Hindi, forget about Gujarati. It was the sheer talent with which she picked up not only Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi but also finer nuances\/dialects of Awadhi, Braj and even Punjabi.<\/p>\n

Geeta sang for close to a hundred and fifty composers during her career. It will be surprising for many to know that between the above four MDs, Geeta sang a total of approximately 375\u00a0songs, which is about a fourth of her total singing output. Since many of these songs are from low budget films, they do not get the attention and love they deserve, and hence this is an effort to unearth some rare diamonds from these MD-Singer collaborations.<\/p>\n

\"Geeta

Geeta Dutt and Guru Dutt with their sons<\/p><\/div>\n

Hansraj Behl <\/strong> (19th Nov 1916 \u2013 1984)<\/p>\n

Hansraj Behl, called as MASTERJI with respect is one of the greatest composers of the golden era of Hindi (and Punjabi) film music. In addition to the original Masterji (Ghulam Haider), Hansraj Behl was probably the only composer who was addressed as Masterji by his colleagues and musicians. He composed music for a wide range of films \u2013 social, family, thrillers in addition to fantasy films (Laal Pari, <\/em>1954 Darbaar,\u00a0<\/em>1955) and Muslim social films (Khul ja sim sim,<\/em>\u00a01956, Inquilaab<\/em>, 1957) and religious films (Lanka Dahan,\u00a0<\/em>1952).<\/p>\n

\"Hansraj

Hansraj Behl<\/p><\/div>\n

Hansraj Behl\u00a0was born on 19th Nov 1916 in Ambala District of United Punjab. It is said that Hansraj Behl was born with his heart on right side. He came to Mumbai to try his luck as a music director around 1944. He did a few\u00a0films in 1946 like Pujaari, Phulwaari <\/em>and Gwaalan<\/em> before he got the big assignment for the film Chunariya<\/em> (1948).<\/p>\n

Young Geeta Roy, a popular singer by now (after the huge success of Do Bhai<\/em>) was a natural choice of singer for Hansraj Behl for this film. Geeta sang four solos, one duet and one trio for this film. Her association with this great composer from Punjab lasted for fourteen years resulting in about 75 songs. When one thinks of Geeta Dutt songs, there is rarely any mention of any of these songs.<\/p>\n

Let us try to take a closer look at some of these largely forgotten but melodious songs. In Chunariya<\/em> itself, Geeta sang two wonderful pensive melodies \u2013 Daaman se bandh gayi choli re<\/em> and Koi nain milaake chalaa gayaa<\/em>. The peppy number Oh motorwaale baabu milne aa jaa re<\/em> showcases the perfectly synchronous Punjabi theka and sweet voice. It was this film for which Asha Bhonsle sang her first song (Saawan aaya re<\/em>) as a trio with Geeta and Zohrabai Ambalewali.<\/p>\n

The next year 1949 saw release of Hansraj Behl\u2019s musical scores for the films Chakori, Kaneez, Karwat, Raat ki Raani<\/em> and Zevraat.<\/em> Each had wonderful songs by Geeta, most of them solo songs.<\/p>\n

\"Dost

The song Sharaab-e-ishq jaati hain pilaayi pee nahin jaati was re-used in the Hindi film Dost (1954)<\/p><\/div>\n

Kaneez<\/em> (1949) had music by the original Masterji, Ghulam Haider who migrated to Pakistan halfway. Hansraj Behl scored the remaining two songs, both solos by Geeta. Paake nazron ka ishaara<\/em>\u00a0is a dreamy song filmed on Kuldeep Kaur on piano seducing handsome Shyam. Jiya mora haale dole ho<\/em>\u00a0is another cheerful dance number filmed on Kuldeep Kaur as a club song with signature Punjabi rhythm. One can feel the swing in her voice and the expression of the feelings of the character. Hansraj Behl composed music for the Punjabi film Lachhi<\/em> this year and he created a Hindi song for this Punjabi film in the voices of two koyals, Lata and Geeta. The song is Sharaab-e-ishq jaati hain pilaayi pee nahin jaati<\/em>. It was re-used in the Hindi film Dost<\/em> (1954).<\/p>\n

The film Chakori<\/em> (1949) was produced and directed by lyricist Mulkraj Bhakri He was\u00a0 a close friend of Hansraj Behl and had penned songs for Chunariya<\/em> and now for Chakori<\/em> as well. The film was co-produced by actress Nalini Jaywant and she even sang a song Humse Mil Gaye Nahin Hamare Saiyan<\/em>. Lata\u2019s Haaye chandaa gaye pardes<\/em>\u00a0from this film got huge accolades from the music lovers. Geeta had three sad solos and one happy song Nainon mein jhoola daala<\/em> in this film.<\/p>\n

Nainon mein jhoola daala<\/strong><\/em> (Chakori<\/em>, 1949) – Hansraj Behl \/ Mulkraj Bhakri \/ Geeta Dutt<\/span><\/p>\n