#385

        Song:   Muskuraati huii chaandni, jagmagaata huaa aasmaan
                Le chaley ho mujhe tum kahaan

        Film:   Albeli (1955)
        Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Hemant Kumar
        Music:  Ravi
        Lyrics: Ravi
        *ing:   ?

Wonder why all these penned-by-Ravi-composed-by-Ravi  songs  keep
popping  up  in  my  head.  Here's  another one that's similar in
spirit to the previous one ("ulajh gaye do  naina...").  A  soft,
uncomplicated  melody  adorned  by  not  much  more than Lata and
Hemantda's gentle voices, and some warm,  simple,  straight-from-
the-heart lyrics.

Songs like these make me  feel  that  background  instrumentation
sometimes undermines the expressiveness and emotional appeal of a
song.  All you hear in this tune by  way  of  orchestration,  for
instance,  are  some  whispered  flute  interludes  and a subdued
rhythm. The real instruments are the words and  the  voices  that
sing  them  ; and the emotive power of these completely precludes
the need for any instrumental  aid.  Of  course  you  would  need
singers,  composers  and  poets  of  that calibre to pull it off,
which is probably why this art died with the Golden  Age.  Rather
unfortunate, IMO.

Another precious song comes to mind while on this topic, but I'll
defer it till the next post.



Guest Author: Hrishi Dixit