The Musical Journey....1

Hi!
In India, music is an integral part of the day to day life of an Indian. When we talk about music in India, class, caste, sex - all the lines of discrimination fall apart. Not a single ceremony, whether child birth, marriage, religious ceremony, is complete without songs! Add to that, even small day to day events call for songs in India. When you are in love, when you are putting your child to sleep, when you are with your beloved, when you are in dumps, when there is nothing to say, when we have much to say - we generally have songs for practically each of these moments! Have you ever thought about the fact that all these songs have a single origin point, and they more or less originate from the Hindi Cinema!
When Hindi cinema music has and is making such an irreversible impact on our lives, it becomes very important for all of us to acknowledge this fact. Hindi cinema music has been for long crying for some respectability and dignity, and the time has come my friends, that we all come together and just do that! Let us go back in our memories and find out what is so beautiful about the Hindi cinema music! Let's dig deep into our history and marvel with pleasure, how a song of an average duration of four minutes can become so integral to our lives.
The musical journey of Hindi cinema started with Alam-Ara in 1931, and that was 77 years back! This journey of Hindi cinema music has been very exciting with all the twists and turns, highs and lows and had it's own ups and downs! In it's initial years, the music scene in Hindi Cinema kept on exploring itself and tried real hard to fit itself in the paradigm of Hindi cinema. This turmoil for Hindi cinema music continued from 1931 till 1949. There were sparks in between this period but nothing came in those years which could have have been followed in the years to come.
In 1949, the showman of the millennium -Raj Kapoor, alongwith a team comprising of music directors - Shankar & Jaikishan, singers - Lata Mangeshkar & Mukesh, and lyricists - Hasrat Jaipuri & Shailendra came together for a movie named "Barsaat", which according to me is the baap of all the music in Hindi cinema! The soundtrack of "Barsaat" has made such an impact that till this date whatever respectability and recognition songs have got in Hindi cinema could be singly attributed to this movie! The soundtrack of this movie was in true sense a trendsetter! The music arrangements, the singing style, the lyrics - all were so defining that till this date the basic pattern for a creation of a song somehow can owe its birth to this movie!
If we can divide the era of Hindi cinema music in two parts - pre Barsaat and post Barsaat, it is not hard to find the difference. The music of Barsaat declared with a bang that mainstream Hindi cinema music cannot be ignored, it cannot be taken for granted, and most of all - it is here to stay! Post Barsaat, Hindi cinema music has evolved to have it's own separate identity from the Hindi cinema itself. Movies are hits or flops, but their songs are treated distinctly. The Hindi cinema music has its own charts, they are hits or flops which has nothing to do with the movie they feature in!
Music in Hindi cinema does not live within the shadows of Hindi cinema, and this is the sole reason which makes Hindi cinema different from the rest of the world cinema! We may be making remakes of English, Korean, Italian movies, but the Indianness in all these movies comes from the music that features in all those movies!

Bye for now!

तुम मुझे यूँ भुला ना पाओगे
जब कभी भी सुनोगे गीत मेरे
संग संग तुम भी गुनगुनाओगे !

आपकी अपनी आवाज़,
Vishal

Mujhe Kisi Se Pyar Ho Gaya from the movie Barsaat (sung by Lata Mangeshkar)


Jiya Bekaraar Haifrom the movie Barsaat (sung by Lata Mangeshkar)