Friday, November 6, 2015

Gayatri Bose songs had not lost their appeal.


Romantic Singer Gayatri Bose sang many romantic songs during 1950s and 1960s. Some of the songs were for children also. Her song “amar sondhya pradip jolbe angina” composed by Robin Chatterjee was one of the successful songs. Her song “shuktara akashero konete” was one of the other songs. One of her other songs was “ei phalgun hok obosan” which was composed by Shyamal Mitra. There was another song “amar jibone pradeep jalate” which became very popular in the 1950s. Gayatri Bose showed her immense romantic andaz in the song “poddokoli sakal khoje” which was very melodious. Some of her other notable songs included “oi baaje kini rini rini”, “gun gun gun bhramara”, “aakash kandey baatash kaande”, “e mon kemon kore jeneche”, “dure pahar jeno koto”, to mention a few. Gayatri Bose sang many melodious songs in the 1950s. They included “aaj malonche moushami howa”, “andhare prodip mor”, “swapnabhara ei banatal”, “prothom mukul tumi jhorona”, “dekho dekho krishnachura”, “o meghe meghe”, etc. There was strong competition between a number of female singers during the golden age including Sandhya Mukherjee, Geeta Dutt, Alpona Banerjee, Pratima Banerjee, Ila Bose, Shipra Bose, Nirmala Mishra and others. That was one of the reason Gayatri Bose could not dominate the music arena but she had her own identity and singing style which was appreciated by the audience. She had also sang in Uttam Kumar’s films like Bidhilipi where Sandharani acted opposite Uttam Kumar. The music of the film was composed by Kalipada Sen. There were four songs in the film which were sung by Gayatri Bose, Mrinal Chakravarty and Alpona Banerjee. All the songs were very successful. Sandhya Mukherjee and Geeta Dutt sang majority of songs of actress Suchitra Sen. So in the film arena Gayatri Bose’s talent was not exploited to that extent. But she sang brilliant songs in the modern song arena and for those reasons the songs should be preserved.

Nirmala Mishra informed about inside stories of different songs.


Nirmala Mishra said Carribean humming gave her song “emon ekta jhinuk”. Eminent singer Nirmala Mishra gave an exclusive interview in Anandabazar Patrika on 16th October, 2011. At an age of 73 years she talked about many unknown facts. She disclosed that her father Mohinimohan Mishra was Pandit, Sangeet Ratna and Sangeet Nayak. He went to Benaras to get those degrees in music. Nirmala Mishra’s second brother who was also a great talented singer was given poison and did not survive, otherwise would have been a great singer. She was very mischievous during childhood, that was the reason she was called “jhamela”. She got typhoid 6 times, for that reason her eyesight was affected. Everyone prescribed her to sing light songs, but her father was upset as he was an eminent classical singer. Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan had many times given her medicine for voice. Eminent singer Dhananjoy Bhattacharya had helped her in her initial days of career. When composer Nochiketa Ghosh composed a song and asked her whether she could do Carribean humming, she said yes. Nochiketa Ghosh thought about Lata Mangeshkar for the song. But she did the humming, and got the song “emon ekta jhinuk khuje pellam na”. It became super hit. In the same way she got the song “o tota pakhire” from the brilliant composer Prabir Mojumdar. She was called by superstar Uttam Kumar a number of times in his own house whenever Supriya Debi cooked a delicacy of prawns. She was asked to sing songs many times. She talked about her husband also who wrote the song “ami je tomar chirodiner hasi kannar saathi” which was later recorded and became a big hit. Nirmala Mishra said that just as Lata Mangeshkar was called the melody queen of Mumbai, Sandhya Mukherjee the melody queen of Kolkata, similarly she was considered the melody queen of Orissa. She had sung many Oriya songs and majority of them had become hits.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Happy birthday to Bappi Lahiri.


Happy birthday to Bappi Lahiri. The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to Bappi Lahiri on 25th November, 2015. He had huge contribution in bollywood music during the 70s and 80s and his compositions are remembered even today. He is the son of famous Bengali singer and composer Aparesh Lahiri. Aparesh Lahiri had very impressive basic discs and the songs like “takka tare”, “jhar” stormed the Bengali audience in the 50s. His composition for Lata Mangeshkar, titled “ekbar bidae de ma” in Bengali films should his capability of using powerful resources successfully. Bappi Lahiri emerged in the bollywood film arena, when composers like Shankar Jaikishan, Roshan, Madan Mohan, SD Burman, died and composers like Laxmikant Pyarellal, RD Burman, Kalyanji Anandji were the main competitors in the late 70s. Bappi created an impression before the audience with his compositions for the film Zakhmee where Sunil Dutt and Asha Parekh were the main performers. The music of his film Namakhalal became super hit. Big B’s lips and Kishore Kumar’s song “ki pag ghungru”, made Bappi Lahiri a big star in the early 80s. He also gave ppular music in the film Sharabi, where again the Big B, KK combination stormed bollywood. The song “imtehan ho gayi intezr ki” became super hit. Bappi Lahiri and KK combination did work also in the films of Mithun Chakravarthy. All the songs of the film Disco Dancer became super hit where Bappi Lahiri himself sang hit songs like “yaad aa rahai”, etc. The other hit films where Bappi Lahiri contributed well include Thanedaar, with Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit, where the song “tama tama loge” became very popular. Bappi Lahiri was very successful in his composition of music for Bengali films as well. His music in Uttam Kumar’s last film Ogo Bodhu Sundari became super hit. KK’s songs “ami ekjon santoshito”, “shikte tomai hobe”, etc., became very successful. The other hit Bengali films where Bappi Lahiri made valuable contribution include Guru Dakhina and Amar Sangi. The hit songs include “o amar gurudakhina”, “prithibi hariye geche”, “sangi, sangi”, “jekhanei thako”, etc. He sang the song “u lala u lala” in the film Dirty Picture. The film had reciprocated the great music trend of 1980s when Bappi himself composed music in films like Himmatwala. Bappi Lahiri had been often criticized for copying music from international films and other sources, as his tunes were very similar to others tunes. But that controversy is faced by lot of modern composers as well. The big thing is Bappi Lahiri had entertained audience of bollywood films for more than 15 years. His admirers expect him to compose innovative tunes in more films in future.