Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc
From: preetham@eng.umd.edu (Preetham Gopalaswamy)
Organization: Neural Systems Laboratory, University of Maryland, College Park
Subject: Re: Article on Asha Bhonsle from the "Illustrated Weekly"


First I must confess that this article turned out to be much longer than I had
originally intended.   But this is what happens when I start talking music, I
get very verbose, and hopefully not long-winded and boring.

In article <27sobaINNse4@mojo.eng.umd.edu>, vinchhi@eng.umd.edu (Chetan K.
Vinchhi) writes:
>
> I could not resist commenting on Asha-OP here.
>
> Agreed : Asha is a GREAT singer.

I have ABSOLUTELY ABSOLUTELY no objections here and anybody who half way knows
me and has discussed Hindi music with me knows my strong bias towards Asha.


> OP, however, has always seemed to be a mediocre music director to me.
> (Mind you, I am comparing him to greats like SD, Salil, Naushad, Roshan, MM,
> RD....not to LP, Bappi.....) [ oops, I can already feel the heat of flames :-)

Now I start disagreeing :-)    I am not a huge Nayyar fan but I think he has
made some incredible compositions that really put him in the same class as some
of the other greats that you mention.  His earlier compositions like in
"Sone ki Chidiya" (which is my personal favorite) or "Phagun" or "Howrah Bridge"
are exceptional.   Towards the 60s, he resorted to more standard, repetitive
fare but even there he would throw in the occassional googly and have an
exceptional song.   For example in "Kashmir ki Kali", there is "Deewana hua
baadal" and the divine "Balma khuli hawaa me mehki hua phiza me".   Of course,
the entire film had a strong soundtrack too.   Nayyar never seemed to be able to
resist repeating a tune that worked like he re-used "Deewana hua baadal" in yet
another Rafi-Asha duet (just cannot remember the film).   Going back to "Sone
ki Chidiya", consider the 2 version song "Pyaar par bas to nahi hai mera lekin
phir bhi", a very very delicately composed song (I coin this phrase for lack
of better way to express myself), or the chirpy duet "Sach bata tu mujhpe phida
kyooN hua aur kaise hua"  or the powerful "Bekas ki tabaahi ke saaman hazaaroN
haiN, deepak to akela hai, toofan hazaaroN haiN".   These are not compositions
that can possibly arise out of mediocrity.


> I maintain that the best of Asha's songs are with RD (umpteen
> number of them) and her efforts with Khayyam (Umrao Jaan),
> Shankar Jaikishen (`paan khaye' in Teesri Kasam), SD (`oh panchhi
> pyaare' in Bandini) and others are better than those with OP.
> Somehow, OP's numbers never had that magical special something
> that the above-mentioned MDs could produce. In fact, I have a
> strong feeling that the "good" songs of OP-Asha are due to the
> sheer genius of Asha's singing, not to OP's composing.

Perhaps Asha's best songs are not with Nayyar (although that call is of course
purely subjective), but a vast majority of her "good" songs are under Nayyar's
music direction.   One of her most beautiful songs "Chain se humko kabhi" is
composed by him (sadly as the duo's swansong number).   She has added her own
personal beautiful touch to several of his tunes which would have flopped had
they been sung by lesser singers (I shall not name them for fear of hurting
somebody's feelings).   An example of this is the song "Jhuka jhukake nigaaheN
milaaye" from "Miss CocaCola" sung by Mukesh and Asha, not a bad tune but not
quite tuneful in parts either.  Asha makes the song into quite a lovely number.
But coming back to the original discussion, it was Nayyar who caused the country
to sit up and take notice of Asha Bhonsle.   All the other music directors of
the period had typecast Asha into the singer for nightclub numbers and "tawaaif"
songs, and Nayyar was able to change that.   Primarily because of his dispute
with Lata, songs that would have normally been given to her sister were sung by
Asha herself and she exhibited supreme talent in all kinds of songs giving her
the opportunity to be called one of the most versatile singers of her time.


> OP was not an imaginative composer. What is often mistaken for a distinct
> style is actually the use of the same set of instruments, the
> same "OP" beat and the same background music (check out any of
> the umpteen OP hits collections). OP rose to almost the acme of
> success and popularity the same way Bappi did or LP did.
> I said "almost the acme" because OP was never at the top. It was
> always SD or SJ or Roshan or RD or HK who topped the `Binaca Geet
> Mala' list.  Never OP.

To say Nayyar's most popular songs have a similar flavor to them is completely
justified, but to say that he lacked imagination, that is simply not true.
Consider the song "Mai soya akhiyaN meeche, teri zulphoN ke neeche" from
Phagun, a minimal number of instruments, a soothing composition.
Nayyar's compostions ranged from
1] the most popular "taanga" songs ("Maangke saath tumhara" from "Naya Daur") to
2] classical gems ("Tu hai mera prem devta" from "Kalpana"  or "Dekho bijli dole
   bin baadal ki" from "Phir wohi dil laaya hooN") to
3] romantic classics ("Aapse maine meri jaan muhabbat ki hai" from "Yeh raat
   phir na ayegi" and "Mai pyaar ki raahi hooN" from "Ek Musafi Ek Haseena") to
4] simply ridiculous foot-tappers ("O mister banjo ishaara to samjho, o you
   Miss Tango kuch tum bhi to samjho" from "Hum sab chor haiN" or "Mera naam
   chin chin chu" from "Howrah Bridge") to
5] Ethereal numbers ("Chain se hamko kabhi" from "Pran Jaye par Vachan na jaye"
   or "Ja ja ja ja bewafa kaisa pyaar kaise preet re" from "Aar Paar" or
   "Preetam aan milo" from "Mr. and Mrs. 55")

The same lack of imagination or repetitiveness that you attribute to Nayyar
was true of RD Burman and Roshan too.   RD songs have a very similar flavor
to them, a similar chord progression (in terms of alternating major and minor
chords, a more knowledgeable music person can confirm)   and Roshan at times
seems to have composed one tune and used small variations of it several
times.    Do not consider this to be a refutation of either RD's or Roshan's
immense talent, just a pointing out of their occassional constipation of ideas.

> There, I have said. The above, as usual, are MY opinions and I do
> not wish to impose them on anyone. But do give it a thought and
> direct any flames here :-)

I have tried not to scald, just turn up the heat a little.   It is amusing that
I am defending Nayyar since it is not as if he is my #1 favorite composer (as
a lot of people rate him) but I think his contribution to Hindi film music is
immense and felt that to downplay his talents/imagination would be a crime.


> Ciao.
> Chetan
(Hey Chetan, we ought to discuss this in person seeing that we are on the same
 floor :-) :-) )


                                                        Preetham