Monday, July 14, 2008

SSMURTHY writes for this blog about CHORI-CHORI

A nostalgic recaptulation of the great musical film Chori-Chori.

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A breezy romantic film Chori Chori had shades of "The Taming of The Shrew" by the legendary Holywood pair Richard Burton and Liz Taylor.
Ironically for Rajkapoor and Nargis it was their last movie together as the romantic pair and for SJ their maiden Filmfare award.

Inspite of having established themselves as the leading commercially viable musical giants in this field with a string of outstanding hits to their credit,
and becoming the cynosure of all eyes, that mattered in filmdom,with their uncanny blend of class and mass at their command, had to wait uptil 1956 for being bestowed on them, the coveted filmfare award, a very prestigeous extravaganza, since its inception in 1953.

And what a dream score they gave, each piece an orchestral marvel, sculpted from the nectar like mould and chiselled to perfection

Strangely SJ's first filmfare award sucess was an RK starrer sans Mukesh.
The arrestingly electrifying accordion beats of "Aaaja sanam .." with the deep sonorous elongation by Mannadey with Lata's pristine voice captures the listener to an outer world of boundless joy highlighting the ecstasy a well orchestrated number can take you to.
The "Panchi banoo...." number truly depicts the spirit of gay abandon ,an unfettered freedom loving Nargis to perfection and reverberates into the vista of the open sky permeating the joy of this freedom which Hasrat has so rapturously captured.

The "Man bhavan ke ghar jaaye gori....is another gem of a beauty which went on to become a trendsetter for the bidai type of songs, excellently narrated by Shailendra,
the saga of womanhood in its critical phases, immaculately composed by SJ that just recall the tune and the lyrics will just follow, a real hallmarkof a great composition.
The pathos filled heart wrenching "Rasik Balma..." number for once tends to prove that Hasrat and Jai can tune as serious a melody as this, countering the Shailendra Shankar combo myth which had become synonymous with such pathos filled numbers. It's well known by now that Mehboob while recuperating at a NewYork Hospital craved for this tune to be crooned by Lata on telephone as a soothing balm to his agonised soul.
The "Us paar saajan.....boat song has this "Timba timba timba..... from Telugu folklore incorporated so daintily by Shankar that it aptly fits into the scenic backdrop, producing a heavenly audio-visual impact on the audience and keeps the listener wondering at the novel improvisation.
The sawa lakh ki lottery....is a lovely rendering by Rafi and Lata with Shailendra venting his leftist leanings, portrayed through the impoverished aspirations of the common man in anticipation of the sawa lakh. Truly Shailendra stands out in such situations as these and thereis that spark of suffering he can so well convey to the listener.
All line clear is all fun and gaitey regaling the audience into alighter vein.
The "Jahan main jaati..hoon ".. kathputli number by all ways was a novel presentation and the lyrics and composition is extraordinaryand just brilliant symbolising the romance through the kathputli ballet.
Amiya Chakravarthy I'm told was so inspired by this number and its novel presentation that had promised to himself to make a movie with Kathputli as the base and called Shailendra and Shankar and hinted them the possibility. Was the film Kathputli the outcome of this ?
Then the Thillana number of M.L.Vasanthakumari fame fitted into the frame more because of the producers fascination to have an SJ's thillana into his film.

"Woh chaand muskuraaya sitaren sharmaaye...was composed by MadanMohan, and when told how much this number resembles SJ's "Yeh raat bheegi bheegi..."wistfully acknowledges, "It is my token of paying tribute to that great compositionof Shankar" And therefore last but not the least "Yeh raat bheegi bheegi...Like in the great epic of life, there is everything that one can wish for in this masterpiece, lyrics, melody, philosophy, deep sonorous male and femalevoices, the unision of fusion of the night's scenario,the shadows of the> trees under the moon's luminence, the bristle of its leaves, andthe romance of anxiety filled lovers.... " Again Shailendra at his simple, lofty and profoundly thought provoking expression of lyrics as they are voiced "Aise me bhi kyoun bechain hai dil, jeewan me na jaane kya hai kamin.... Is raat ki jag mag me doobi, main dhoond rahi hun apne ko.." have ever baffled me from the time I became conscious of the depth of those words and the impact they had on me .
and in a continious search for its full meaning,
stand in desolate awe of the abyss, like a little boy before the bay
at a truth with an unfathomable depth
and a relentless search
only rendering it still unfathomable.

ssmurthy

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Raju Bharatan in Hindusthan Times (17/12/2007 issue) writes about music of CHORI-CHORI (Link - http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=3df288aa-d674-4c58-9486-9c57422736a7&&Headline=Those+EMGeetmala%2fEM+days+&strParent=strParentID)

The happening pair of Nargis-Raj Kapoor fetched Messrs Shanker-Jaikishan their first-and-last genuinely earned Filmfare Best Music Award - for Chori Chori in 1956. A Chori Chori.. seeing SJ compulsively having to go without Mukesh on Raj.

This opened a lifetime's opportunity for Manna Dey. Whether it be Shanker's Yeh raat bheegee bheegee or Jaikishan's Aa jaa sanam, Manna never sounded so fluidly romantic on Raj - opposite Lata on Nargis.

Winner takes all

The Binaca Geetmala competition, as Shanker then emphatically told Ameen Sayani, was euphoniously between his own Yeh raat and Jai's Aa jaa sanam. Not so much between Shanker's Jahaan main jaatee hoon and Jai's Panchchee banoon udtee phiroon.
But Ameen played Geetmala favourites here by according pride of place to Jai's Raag Pahadi-based Panchchee banoon on Nargis – a duet in which Manna intriguingly chipped in with just Gilloree! This is what set the tone for Shanker, ultimately, to challenge Binaca Geetmala's credentials.
Clearly Shanker's pathbreaking Jahaan main jaatee hoon, as compared to Jai's Panchchee banoon, was the superior duet with its Czech-puppeteering folk-motif. But Shanker identified Jahaan main as Punjabi folk!Likewise Punjabi folk in spirit was Jai's O tamkaa timbaa timbaa, so well-crafted for Lata in Raag Gaara.

Favourite pick

Staying with Chori Chori, which lighter number do you prefer - Lata-Rafi's Tum arabon kaa her fer (on Raja Sulochana and Bhagwan), as tuned by Shanker, or Rafi's All line clear on Johnny Walker - as composed by Jai?
If it's for Jai you always go, Chori Chori plump, straightaway, for this composer's Rasik balamaa, in all-time Shudhdh Kalyan, as it unfolded on Nargis. This was the Chori Chori classic that Jaikishan so wanted his heart-throb Lata personally to render at the Filmfare Awards ceremony.
When Lata refused, on the ground that there was no Filmfare Best Singer award forthcoming yet, some lovers' tiff there was! It was Shanker who smoothed ruffled feathers by noting that Lata had an award point to press.
In Chori Chori, the same Shanker had Lata and Asha collaborating, tellingly, on Manbhaavan ke ghar jaaye goree, going on the Apalam chapalam pair of Sai-Subbulaxmi.

One up

Yet Shanker's Manbhaavan ke ghar couldn't make even a fraction of the impression C Ramchandra had left, on the electric-heeled Sai-Subbulaxmi, with Lata-Usha Mangeshkar's Apalam chapalam and O baliye o baliye in Sriramulu Naidu's Azaad.
For all that, O P Nayyar's C.I.D. (Shakila, Dev Anand) lost out to SJ's Chori Chori (Nargis-Raj Kapoor) in the 1956 Filmfare Awards.
Chori Chori is the film with which SJ's musical sway began. Or so we felt – until OP Nayyar robustly materialised to lift the 1957 Filmfare Best Music Award for heralding, with the good old Punjabi beat, a Naya Daur in Hindustani cinema.

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