RMIM Archive Article "56".


From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian

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# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Lata & Noorjehan - Parallel Lines Meet
#	   Part 3 - Mehboob and Beyond 
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# Posted by: vishk@cup.hp.com (Vish Krishnan)
# Author: vishk@cup.hp.com (Vish Krishnan)
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Lata and Noor Jehan - Parallel Lines Meet ----------------------------------------- Part 3 - Mehboob and Beyond --------------------------- Another phenomenon was now in the works. Ramjankhan Mehboob Khan, the little man from the Cutch area of Gujarat, was riding high with his own personal banner of Mehboob Studios. Already, his NAJMA, TAQDEER, and above all, the grand epic HUMAYUN were the talk of the industry. He had been watching the two singing- acting talents of Noorjehan and Suraiyya Jamal Sheikh. And after a little break, he was ready to recall Surendra, his own discovery from his Sagar Movietone days. Mehboob had been experimenting with music directors like Rafique Ghaznavi and Ghulam Haider, but he missed the stability of an Anil Biswas, his permanent musical companion from Sagar and Na- tional Studios. A new partnership was to be forged. This one would stay until Mehboob's dying day - May 28 1964. As great as her successes had been so far, Noorjehan herself could not predict her own next conquest. Unparalled to this day in her movie world stands ANMOL GHADI, a 1946 Mehboob Khan clas- sic. It marked the beginning of his A-movies (ANMOL GHADI, AILAAN, ANOKHI ADA, ANDAAZ, AAN, AMAR) - I do take some liberty with spelling AILAAN in my own way. Of all of Noorjehan's hits, not just in Bombay cinema but overall, ANMOL GHADI was the biggest name. It started and per- petuated the Mehboob-Naushad partnership. With a couple of under- standable exceptions, all Mehboob movies would now feature Naushad Ali. ANMOL GHADI also rejuvenated the languishing career of actor-singer Surendranath B.A. LL.B. This was NOT his first movie with Noorjehan. They had starred together in Mir Saheb's LAL HAVELI. He would go on to make AILAAN and ANOKHI ADA, both with Mehboob Khan, his Bombay godfather. But for Noorjehan, this would be the first and last Mehboob movie. ANMOL GHADI was also a great hit for Suraiyya Jamal Sheikh. We forget but Suraiyya has 3 good songs including "Main Dil Mein Dard Basaa Laayee". But they were surrounded by the overpowering Noorjehan aura. There really was no match for "Kya Mil Gya Bhagwan", "Mere Bachpan Ke Saathi", "Jawaan Hai Mohabbat" and above all, "Aawaaz De Kahaan Hai" - all of them among the best remembered Noorjehan creations. Above all, the runaway success of ANMOL GHADI got the Shauqat Hussain-Noorjehan team convinced of one thing. They could do it on their own. This was really just their fourth year in Bombay, and just about every Noorjehan movie had been a gold mine. The idea of a Shauqat Hussain movie banner had been brewing for a while. It was really after ANMOL GHADI that they gained the kind of confidence and financial capital they needed for the jumpstart. Noorjehan was still on contract to finish S. F. Hasnain's DIL and Ismail Memon's HUMJOLI. The time was 1946. Things were slowing down a bit for Master Vinayak. He had just turned 40. It had been a busy life. From Prabhat to Huns to Nav- yug to the present financial mess of Prafulla Pictures, he had seen a lot of the good and bad times. In parallel, he was play- ing family man, and almost single-handedly managed the upbringing of the Mangeshkar siblings. His biggest achievement, as history would bear out, was not Lata Mangeshkar the teenage actress, but Lata, the upcoming master singer whose first recording had al- ready been released under the auspices of Prafulla Pictures. And now he was tired. BADI MAA had kicked off the Hindi production sequence for Vinayak. In 1946, he would direct his second Hindi movie. SUBHADRA is notable for a couple of reasons. First, it intro- duced Lata Mangeshkar to Vasant Desai, a mainstream MD already on the payroll of Shantaram's Rajkamal Kalamandir. And more in- terestingly, singer-actress Shanta Apte sings a beautiful duet with Lata. I am still trying hard to locate "Main Khili Khili Phulwaari". In the same year, Master Vinayak finished the last movie of his life. It was only appropriate for him to end his career with V. Shantaram, the man who gave Vinayak his first break in the 1932 Marathi production AYODHYECHA RAJA. But our movie here is JEEVAN YATRA, a Rajkamal production directed by Master Vinayak, set to music by Vasant Desai, and enacted by an ensemble of big names like Nayantara, Yakub, Pratima Devi and of course, one small name - Lata Mangeshkar. Her solo "Chidiya Bole Choo Choo" is now an antique - a rare gem that would make any collector proud. The big war in Europe was now over. The Firangi had announced their intent. They would leave soon. But somewhere in the hal- lowed government buildings of Whitehall and Downing Street, Rt. Honourable Sir Cyril Radcliffe was at work with his scalpel over a drawing that looked roughly like the map of 1946 India. He looked for easy boundaries like rivers and mountains, but nature was not helpful. It would force him to use his judgment. Noor- jehan had seen both sides of the new border, Lata had had just the Bombay view of it, and Judge Radcliffe had never set foot on the subcontinent. So as Noorjehan was savouring her success with ANMOL GHADI and Lata was not quite over the euphoria of her first recording, In- dia was being split in two. Master Ghulam Haider had left Panchholi Arts in 1943 after some great box- office successes like KHAZANCHI, ZAMINDAR and POONJI. His Noorjehan movies were also done for Panchholi. Starting with the Punjabi creations GUL-E-BAKAVLI, YAMLA JAAT and CHOUDHURY, he takes the credit for KHAANDAAN, Noorjehan's first Hindi movie in a lead role, and a great one. In 1944, Master Haider left Lahore and came to Bombay. It was only a year after Noorjehan and Shauqat Hussain had made their move. In Master Haider's case, the sponsor was the newly formed Filmistan - a breakaway enterprise from the parent Bombay Talkie. The break was engineered by heavyweights like Ashok Kumar, direc- tor Gyan Mukherji, producer-director Sashadhar (S) Mukherjee and the money-man Rai Bahadur Chunnilal Kohli, whose 20-year old son Madan Mohan was still at war somewhere in Europe. The first Fil- mistan movie CHAL CHAL RE NAUJAWAAN was set to music by veteran Ghulam Haider, and perhaps its most memorable contribution is the patriotic Ashok Kumar song "Bolo Har Har Mahadev Allah-O- Akbar". Master Haider would stay on in the hope of finding his place in Bombay cinema. Mehboob's last pre-Naushad movie HUMAYUN was a big hit, but not so much because of Ghulam Haider's music. He was looking for that something that would make him stay. And we can be sure he longed for that one movie that would partner him again with that voice - one that caused him to leave Lahore in the first place. It was not to be. Noorjehan and husband Shauqat Hussain had al- ready started Shauqat Art Productions in Bombay, and rumour had it that they had started work on their first film. It was also discovered that they had recruited the little-known 24-year old Yusuf Khan to play the lead role opposite Noorjehan. Maestro Feroze Nizami was recruited to score the music. The movie was JUGNU, and looking back now, it was almost as big a hit as ANMOL GHADI. While the Rafi-Noorjehan duet "Yahan Badla Wafaa Ka" be- came synonymous with JUGNU's success, Noorjehan's 3 solos de- fined its very soul. The song "Umangen Dil Ki Machlin, Muskurayee Zindagi Apni" comes from vintage stock. And as for the other two ("Aaj Ki Raat Saaz-E-Dil-E-Purdard Na Chhed" and "Tum Bhi Bhula Do, Hum Bhi Bhula Dein"), together, they consti- tute the hard-hitting realization that Lata Mangeshkar's early influence was rooted in Noorjehan's voice. This is especially true for "Tum Bhi Bhula Do...". Close your eyes and listen carefully. This could be Lata Mangeshkar singing for Feroze Nizami. JUGNU was released in 1947. But already, the Lahore immigrants (Master Haider and Noorjehan) were starting to have second thoughts. The British plans for India's future were no big secret. Dalsukh M. Panchholi, the grand film distributor of Lahore was seeing the writing on the wall. He had given both Noorjehan and Ghulam Haider their first major break in Lahore cinema. In 1946- 47, he too packed his bags and came to Bombay, leaving the gi- ant Panchholi Art Pictures to its Lahore fate. It must have hurt to just walk away from an Empire, possibly the most modernized studio in all of South Asia. Panchholi never got over the depres- sion. India was free. The key Noorjehan protagonists, Panchholi, Ghulam Haider, Shauqat Hussain, and Noorjehan herself, were now all in Bombay. Master Vinayak was no more. His last project was conceived as the movie MANDIR. Lata would act in it and sing as well. Vasant Desai would score the music for it, but Master Vinayak would not be part of it. Long term Navyug associate D.D. Patil completed the movie. What would be Vinayak's last turned out to be Patil's first. The new guard had arrived. Dinkar Dattajirao Patil, an 80-year old grand master today, wrote Master Vinayak's biography in the early '70s. A well-deserved tribute that is. Vinayak was a great man. Amidst controversy, he kept all his family promises without compromising his profession- al zeal and output. Through his life, there was innuendo to the effect that he had secretly married Lata's mother after friend Dinanath passed on. We will never really know. All that mat- tered in 1947-48 was that with a handful of bit parts and less than a dozen songs in her resume, 18-year old Lata Mangeshkar was an orphan all over again. Life was also in a state of turmoil for Noorjehan and Shauqat Hussain, although their battle was on a different front. Even with her raging successes of the last 5 years, Bombay seemed liked a strange land. With Shauqat Arts still in its infancy (albeit with one success), they decided to move again, this time back to Lahore. There was one more movie to finish. Offering yet another musical treat from Pandit Amarnath and Husnlal-Bhagatram, MIRZA SAHEBAAN marked the end of what V.M. Vyas's DUHAAI had started - Noorjehan's glorious Bombay years. Once again, MIRZA SAHEBAAN was a popular hit. Noorjehan's solos like "Kya Yehi Tera Pyaar Tha, Mujhko To Intezaar Tha" and "Aa Ja Tujhe Afsaana Judaai Ka Sunnayen, Jo Dil Pe Guzarti Hai, Woh Aan- khon Se Bataayen" were sweet. But for a change, the most popular songs of the movie were sung by the happy trio of Noorjehan, Shamshad Begum and Zohrabai Ambalewali. It was now 1947-48. At the musical helm of Bombay cinema were stalwarts Datta Koregaonkar, Sajjad Husain, Naushad Ali, Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash, and the Lahori Filmistan recruit Mas- ter Ghulam Haider. And not far away, a 29-year old Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar was already creating trouble with his quest for the new swing sound. The classicists would frown first, and then give in. But for now, they were all united in the quest for the next generation female voice. Lata's Vasant Desai movies, her K. Datta connection and her expo- sure to Rajkamal Kalamandir had all collectively made an impact. She was known in some circles as the little girl with some prom- ise, but none were willing to take a chance, EXCEPT Ghulam Haid- er. It was in 1948 when Master Haider, perhaps with a nostagia for Noorjehan's voice, worked hard to get Lata her first few breaks in the post-Partition, post-Vinayak age. Three movies are notable in this range - MAJBOOR, PADMINI and for the record, Filmistan's SHAHEED. I believe that MAJBOOR ranks as Lata's first breakaway from the Master Vinayak cocoon. The song "Dil Mere Todaa, Hai Mujhe Kisi Ka Na Chhoda" is clearly a take-off on the Noorjehan style. It was also Lata's first choice in her 1985 MY FAVOURITES release a 4-cassette collection with songs span- ning the 1948-1981 period. Also in 1948, the Padmini song "Bedard Tere Dard Ko Seene Se Lagaa Ke" became popular. And the Noorjehan-soundalike package started to become known. Ghulam Haider was elated at the result. It was part of his nos- talgia. It was also the last straw. He would some day go back to the real thing. But for now, he was infatuated with this new voice. Ghulam Haider had a few new projects. One was PATJHAD, a movie that Panchholi, his old benefactor, had salvaged while essential- ly on the run from Lahore. Together, they finished it in the same year (1948). The other movie was Filmistan's SHAHEED. The studio had already employed Kumar Sachin Varman (as the titles of those movies used to state) as their music director starting with AATH DIN, but had not forgotten the pioneering start they had received from Master Haider. After a brief hiatus, they recalled him, this time to do the music for SHAHEED. In an interesting incident that Lata herself narrates in her "I remember Madanmohan release" (1993), Master Haider insisted on recording a SHAHEED song featuring Lata's voice. It was to be a brother-sister song that went "Pinjre Mein Bulbul Bole, Mere Chhota Sa Dil Dole". To the utter rage of Filmistan's boss-man Rai Bahadur Chunnilal Kohli, the brother's voice was to be sup- plied by his own 24-year old son Madan whose good-for-nothing playboyish ways around the studio were getting on daddy's nerves. Both parties had it their way. Master Haider completed the recording of the Lata-Madan duet, and Rai Bahadur dropped it from the movie and from the album. The question is: who won? I know I did. But for that meeting, my growing days would have been without the wonderful gift of ADAALAT songs, among a host of other beauties. On balance, the Lata-Ghulam Haider partnership did not produce too many songs. That was not its purpose anyway. Strongmen Anil Biswas, Khemchand Prakash, and soon after, Naushad and Chitalkar picked up on this voice. And she had already met her future brother Madanmohan. Lata needed no more help. Ghulam Haider's job was done. He had picked up where Master Vinayak left. He would do a few more movies for Bombay cinema. Notable among them was KANEEZ, a Munawwar Sultana hit with songs mainly by Shamshad and Geeta Roy. But the background music for the movie was com- posed and conducted by a new Panchholi associate - Omkar Prasad Nayyar. That was OP's first musical opportunity for Hindi movies. For now, Master Haider must have felt a great sense of achieve- ment. With that, he quietly began folding up his belongings and by 1950, he was back in Lahore. For Lata Mangeshkar, the rest of history is on record. For the most part, anyway. Back in 1947-48, Noorjehan and Shauqat Hussain finished MIRZA SAHEBAAN, their last Bombay project, and left for what was now Pakistan. For the next 4 years, there was nothing for her to do. Big fans like K. Datta were Sajjad H. were languishing on this side of the border waiting for a miracle about to happen. Other MDs like Ghulam Ahmed Chishti, Khurshid Anwar, Rashid Attre, Firoz Nizami and Master Haider were all somewhere in transit. In 1951, she co-produced and acted in CHANWAY, a Punjabi movie under the Shauqat Arts banner. But the music was just not there. In retrospect, the Lata years took a long time to shape up. When they did, they stayed. For Noorjehan, the Partition was a big blow. It would be a couple of years before she would get back in the groove. In 1952, the new Lahore studio Film Asia produced DUPATTA, and once again, Feroze Nizami delighted the world with Noorjehan songs like Saanwariya Tohe Koi Pukaare Aa Ja Re Soye Chaand Sitaare This one makes my top-10 list for Noorjehan. By this time, Master Haider was back in the swing of things. He started his own production company along with some friends, and made one movie there. I lose track of Ghulam Haider's work at this point, but the story has a good ending. He was finally reunited with his GUL-E-BAKAVLI. It had been 10 years since KHANDAAN, Noorjehan's first Hindi movie in a lead role, and her last Ghulam Haider movie of the '40s. In 1953, Noorjehan would star in GULENAR and LAILA. The script and direction for GULENAR was undertaken by intellectual movie-man Imtiaz Ali Taj who, along with Sadat Hasan Manto and a host of others had also moved to Lahore after the Partition. The other movie (LAILA) was scripted and directed by husband Shauqat Hussain. Both movies were scored by Master Haider. They were also his last. The 45-year old master music composer died in 1953. With everything in the world going her way starting 1948, there was no stopping Lata Mangeshkar. And with all the job offers coming in from the most unpredictable sources, she found the time for a couple of new activities. In 1950, she would team up again with Dinkar Patil and actually score the music for his movie RAM RAM PAHUNE. She would team up again with Dinkar Patil to found Surel Productions in 1952. So, a couple of years after Noorjehan's production CHANWAY, Lata produced WADAL (1953). And as Ghulam Haider was preparing deliver his last few Noorjehan movies in the 51-53 period, Datta Koregaonkar, the old Noorjehan fanatic was creating 3 musical gifts (DAAMAN, GUMASTA and RISHTA), all to be sung largely by his new love - the voice of Lata Mangeshkar. And again, just as Noorjehan's DUPATTA was hitting the scene in Pakistan, Lata would do her last acting role in the Hindi-Marathi dual release, the C.Ramchandra-scored CHHATRAPATI SHIVAJI. She would never act again, or score music under her original name. Noorjehan, to the best of my knowledge, never took credit for any musical scores. --
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian