#351

        Song:   Tum ko mubarak ho oonche mahal yeh
                Hum ko hain pyaari hamaari galiyaan
                Hamaari galiyaan

        Film:   Basant (1942)
        Singer: Parul Ghosh, Suresh
        Music:  Pannalal Ghosh
        Lyrics: Pyarelal Santoshi
        *ing:   Ulhas, Mumtaz Shanti


Here's one from the history books.   A  delightfully  sweet  duet
composed  by  flute  maestro  Pannalal  Ghosh  for  one of Bombay
Talkies'  box-office  top  grossers.  The  tune  is  a   charming
confluence  of  deep  classical  strains  and  old-style  musical
patterns : frequent  speed  changes,  background  instrumentation
completely  in sync with the vocals, etc. ; rather reminiscent of
tunes from old Marathi movies from Prabhat Talkies in the  1930s,
which drew heavily from the 'natyasangeet' style of music.

Many people may know this ; in addition to its antiquated rarity,
the song and the movie have another claim to fame : 'Basant' was
the movie through which Devika Rani, and the Indian screen,
discovered Madhubala, as child artiste Baby Mumtaz, playing Ulhas
and Mumtaz Shanti's 9-year-old daughter. (Curious fact that the
same father-daughter pair was brought to the screen again, 12
years later, in Mehboob's 1954 classic 'Amar'). This song was the
first and one of the only two songs Madhubala ever sang on
screen.

All in all, a collectors' item... and a great song too.
Coincidentally, this was also one of the 'farmaishi geet' Satish
Kalra-ji played at the RMIMehfil a couple of days ago in Wash. DC
(which, btw, was a memorable weekend, especially for me, being my
first RMIM meet.)



Guest Author: Hrishi Dixit