N. Dutta

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N. Dutta

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Datta Naik alias N. Datta was born in 1930 in Oroba, a small village in Goa. At the age of 12, he ran away from his family and came to Mumbai. There he learnt classical music and later worked as an assistant to Ghulam Haider. He also used to participate in street music programs, where Sachin Dev Burman spotted his talent. The maestro employed him as his assistant and while working there, N. Datta also developed a notable career as an independent composer. His compositions showed a fine sense of melody and orchestration. His close association with lyricist Sahir also ensured that his songs were always blessed by meaningful poetic lyrics.

Noted Marathi writer and music aficionado P.L. Deshpande had once famously written that whenever he listened to Lata’s emotional Dhool Ka Phool title song ‘Too Mere Pyaar Kaa Phool Hai’ (composed by N. Datta), he got the impression that each word, each note was rendered as if a tender flower petal was gently placed in flowing water! Lata and Mahendra Kapoor’s qawwali ‘Tere Pyaar Ka Aasraa Chaahataa Hoon’ from the same soundtrack was a huge hit and has remained popular till date. In Naach Ghar, Lata’s silken rendition of N. Datta’s waltz based club song ‘Aye Dil Zubaan Naa Khol’ subtly exposed this materialist world’s duplicity in Sahir’s sarcastic socialist lingo.

N. Datta’s later years were spent fighting ill health and commercial failure. The 1980 film Chehre Pe Chehra was his last Hindi film and on December 30, 1987 he breathed his last (Dr. Mandar V. Bichu)

Snehal Bhatkar

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Snehal Bhatkar

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Snehal Bhatkar was from Maharashtra and his real name was Vasudev Bhatkar. While officially working for HMV, he used to secretly work as a composer under various pseudonyms like ‘B. Vasudev’, ‘Snehal’ and ‘Snehal Bhatkar’ – out of which the last one seems to have stuck forever! By the way, this pseudonym was a shorter version of his daughter’s name – Snehlata!

Bhatkar and lyricist Kidar Nath Sharma shared a special bond. Bhatkar’s main claim to fame remains Mubarak Begum’s ‘Kabhee Tanhaaiyon Mein Yoon’ – the immortal title song for film maker Kedar Sharma’s Hamari Yaad Aayegi (1961). Actually Bhatkar had originally composed this song for Lata. She had earlier recorded two duets (‘Sochtaa Hoon Yeh Kyaa Kiyaa Maine’ and ‘Jawaan Mohabbat’ with Mukesh) for the film but later in her busy schedule, she could not fit in the new recording. She then suggested that Bhatkar use Asha for this song, but Kedar Sharma opted for Mubarak Begum instead. Mubarak’s distinctive voice and Bhatkar’s exquisite tune then combined to produce an all-time classic!

Other melodious songs to his credit include ‘Ham Par Jaadoo Daal Gaye’ (Gunaah), ‘Raadhaa Ke Man Kee Muraliyaa Pukaare’ (Nand Kishore), ‘Dil Kaa Milnaa Mushkil Hai’ (Hamari Beti), ‘Woh Chalee Gham Kee Hawaa’ (Aaj Ki Baat) and ‘Lehroun pe Lehar’ (Chhabili). The last-mentioned song is perhaps Bhatkar’s best Hindi collaboration with Lata Mangeshkar. Right from the opening couplet ‘Mohabbat mein kaheen do dil hasenge, geet gaayenge/Magar ham gham ke maare raat bhar aansoo bahaayenge’, the song immerses the listener in a moody melancholy!

On May 29, 2007 Bhatkar left this world at the ripe old age of 88 at his residence in South Mumbai. He is survived by two sons, including noted Marathi actor Ramesh Bhatkar and a daughter. His funeral was held at Dadar in Central Mumbai. (Dr. Mandar V. Biuchu)

Meena Shorey in Akhari Nishan (1958)

Akhari Nishan was Meena Shorey’s last hit film in Pakistan as a leading lady. After Akhari Nishan, her films started to flop and she was demoted to supporting/negative roles. Akhari Nishan was an action film, where Meena played the lead opposite Pakistan’s first action hero Sudhir (Shah Zaman Khan).

The music of this film was composed by Rehman Verma. Rehman Verma made his debut with the music director Khaiyyam as Vermaji-Sharmaji composer duo in the Indian Hindi film Heer Ranjha in 1948. Later, he left for Pakistan and composed the music of Baaghi (1956) followed by Akhari Nishan (1958). Almost all songs from this film were melodious including Rut hai suhani, Hum bhi awaara panchi etc.

Tu meri rani mein tera raja is a ghoda-ghadi song [ ghoda-ghadi songs were quite popular in those days ] and was picturized on Neelo and comedian Nazar. The male singer in this song remained a mystery till Nahid Niazi confirmed that it is S.D. Batish from India.

The second song was sung by Nahid Niazi and chorus for Meena Shorey and Neelo.

Anokha Pyar (1948) - Beqasoor (1950) CD

Anokha Pyar (1948) - Beqasoor (1950) CD credits

Listen to Meena Kapoor – Lata Mangeshkar version (Film Version) incorrectly attributed to Lata-Ira Nagrath by EMI and released on the above CD -

Listen to Lata Mangeshkar – Ira Nagrath version (Rare Record Version available with few collectors only) -

Yasmin in Humsafar (1960)

Very few people know that Sandhya Mukherjee sang 2 solos for Pakistani Film Humsafar (1960). Humsafar was West Pakistani film with Aslam Pervaiz and Yasmin in the lead supported by Nazar, Jaffrey and Nighat Sultana. The shooting of this was done in East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) and its music was scored by Bengali music director Muslehuddin (Pakistani singer Nahid Niazi’s husband). Muslehuddin used two legendary singers from Indian Bengal to sing for this film i.e. Sandhya Mukherjee and Hemant Kumar. Two solos of Sandhya Mukherjee “Akhiyan Chalke” and “Sanware aao re” presented below didn’t gain much popularity, however, Hemant Kumar solo from this film “Raat suhani hai” became very popular”.

Sandhya Mukherjee sings Ankhiyan Chalke for Muslehuddin in Humsafar (1960).

Sandhya Mukherjee sings Sanware Aao re for Muslehuddin in Humsafar (1960).

Nazir Begum with Mala - contributed by Dr. Asad Minhas

Nazir Begum was a Pakistani playback singer active from mid-50s to 60s in Urdu and Punjabi films. She sang two of her earliest duets with Mehdi Hassan for Miss 1956 (1956) and remained middle-of-the-range singer throughout the late 50s and 60s singing for many Urdu and Punjabi films including Hasrat, Saperan, Chaudhary etc

1963 was an important year in Nazir Begum’s career because she sang some of the biggest hits of her career that year including Sama jab payara pyara ho, Suno ji baat (both were duets with Ahmed Rushdi) for Maa Ke Aansoo and Nimbhuan da jora for Punjabi film Tees Maar Khan.

With the increasing popularity of Noor Jehan as a playback singer in the early 60s, Nazir Begum along with many other playback singers took back seats and their careers started to go downhill. However, Nazir continued to sing in films like Neelam, Hath Jodi, Naghma-e-Sehra, Chattan, Samunder, Neela Parbat etc before she disappeared into oblivion with the arrival of the 70s.

Hindi Playback Singers

I filtered my master Hindi Film Database from 1931 – 2010 (excluding the silents from 1931 – 1935) and I came out with the following numbers -

Total Number of Hindi Films Produced – 9418 (approx)

If each film had an average of 7 songs, then approximate number of Hindi film songs composed so far – greater than 65000

Playback singers from the Golden Era who sang more than 1000 songs in Hindi Films -

Other well known singers from the Golden Era who sang less then 1000 songs in Hindi Films -

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Please Note – By conservative estimates, Noor Jehan’s song output in Pakistan is somewhere around 3000 songs in Urdu AND Punjabi films. However, I am not sure of her approximate output in Urdu/Hindi films. Therefore, she is not included in the list until further details are available.

Ghulam Mustafa Durrani and Lata Mangeshkar

One of the reasons that might have contributed to the downfall of G.M. Durrani was this incident which Lata mentions in the book “Lata Mangeshkar… in her own voice”.

“The first song I sang for Naushad was a duet with G.M. Durrani,- `Haye chhore ki jaat badi bewafa’ for Chandni Raat (1949). Durrani Sahib made a personal comment I didn’t like, about a necklace I was wearing and I mentioned this exchange to Naushad Sahib. He understood I was a sensitive person and didn’t want my feelings hurt. So he asked a young singer, Sadat Khan, to record another Chandni Raat (1949) duet with me — but this was edited out of the film. I believe a disc of the duet existed.”

This incident created the rift between G.M. Durrani and Lata Mangeshkar and that explains why they sang only 11 duets together.