Proaudience - I shall admire you, my audience!RD Burman

Hindi Movie Songs About Life (Zindagi)

admin — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:48:40 +0000

This is 4th of August, 2010 – Kishoreda’s 81st birth anniversary! Time to be reflective, joyous and sentimental! And since I’ve not been able to write and publish about other stalwarts from Hindi cinema music in the recent months, I shall dedicate this particular day to all past playback greats by compiling a list of Hindi movie songs about life (Zindagi). This shall be a work in progress and open to more additions later. So here we go again…Aaj kee shaam, Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi tathaa sabhee anya diggajon ke naam!

More Of Asha Bhonsle Duets

admin — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:06:07 +0000

I have been away from blogging for a while now, but hope to catch up with the lost writing soon. Let us listen more of Asha Bhonsle’s magic, this time her duets with voices other than Kishore and Rafi.

Kishore Rafi Male Duets

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:15:14 +0000

Some popular male duets and chorus songs sung by Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, RD Burman, Amit Kumar, Shailendra, Anwar, Nitin Mukesh and Kamlesh Avasthi.

Did Studio Generated Sounds Make Kishoreda The Great Singer He Was?

admin — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:01:21 +0000

Of Course Not! And Be Assured, No Sensible Music Listener Will Entertain This Line Of Argument Ever!

I have often seen Rafi fans making this accusation in debates, it hardly bothers the Kishoreda fans though. However, let us examine today whether it was possible to technically enhance some songs more compared to others, just to develop a better knowhow about the way music might be functioning.

The allegations by Rafi fans notwithstanding, I had myself began noticing the so-called studio effects in KK songs way ago, and was eager to know more about the science and logic involved in producing them. Most of these songs that caught my attention were from the early and mid-70, when Kaka was riding on a roller coaster, and the industry was witnessing a fresh bout of green, purple an blue romance, unlike the black and white of the bygone era. Listen to and watch a few of them here:

And a couple of audio tracks to listen now. Check later, if the site appears down or broken (it sometimes does) :

Yeh laal rang kab mujhe chhodega

Jaa mujhe naa ab yaad aa

Did you notice the studio generated echo sounds there? These were not to be heard so explicitly during Rafi’s heydays in the 50s and 60s, (even though they were existent at that time), and subsequently more advanced inline mixing techniques came in the later periods, so we can’t listen even these sounds anymore.

Let me quote from Wikipedia, why echo chambers were needed in the music industry and how they helped the experience of music to grow further:

“The development of artificial echo chambers was important for sound recording because of the limitations of early recording systems. Except in the case of live performances, the majority of commercial popular recordings were made in specially constructed studios. These rooms were both heavily insulated to exclude external noises and they were internally anechoic — that is, they were designed not to produce any internal echoes or reverberation of sound at all.

Because virtually every sound we hear in everyday life is a complex mixture of both the source sound and its echoes and reverberations, audiences not surprisingly found the totally “dry” and echo-free sound of early recordings unappealing. Consequently, record producers and engineers quickly came up with a very effective method of adding “artificial” echo which could, in the hands of experts, be controlled with a remarkable degree of accuracy.”

Coming back to the 70s, these were also the times, when the Indian cinema was experiencing its first techno-cultural overhaul, with cinema scope, slow motion filming, multi track sound effects and shades of Hollywood and Western music making their first noticeable presence felt across the Indian movie halls. The Indian way of storytelling romance, depicting action and performing playback was also getting influenced by them. I think the making of Sholay, Dum Maaro Dum, Bobby and the creation of enticing numbers like Jai Jai Shiv Shankar and Khullam Khullaa Pyaar Karenge were no mere coincidences during that period. Neither was the fact that Amitabh Bachchan, the first Indian mega and action star (apart from Kaka’s brief romantic tenure), was introduced in the same era.

These were also the times of many socio-political and spiritual changes taking place across the world. India had to pass through the agony of Emergency, the first major challenge to its democratic functioning. The subsequent elections also saw how India could throw the perpetrators out of power and head back to the same orderly way of living and governance (the Indian way of orderliness, of course ). These were also the days, which came soon after the stirring influence of the wandering hippies and the mega success of The Beatles across the West during the 60s. And finally, India’s own answer to many of the Western influences was also taking shape during this period, in the form of Bhagwan Rajneesh – the unparalleled preacher, counselor, philosopher and guru from Pune. Gandhi was weakening, no doubt, and so was the usual Indian conservatism.

The likes of RD Burman, Kishoreda and Asha Bhonsle were among those who could rise to the occasion in the Indian music industry in those days. It wasn’t merely the Indian cinema, but also an entire generation needed them to have a new vision…an entirely new experience. If you listened to the above songs, you might notice, it wasn’t merely the electronic and echo sounds, but also the clever way of enhancing them together with other sounds by RDB, that coupled with KK’s own timing and instincts, which resulted into the fascinating experience of music we just spoke about.

In short, KK had a better grasp of the nuances of the 70s, so he succeeded over Rafi. Difficult to say, how the latter’s combo with RDB might have proved, had it taken place during KK’s time, but one should pay more respect to Mukesh and Rafi anyway, for they were unable to see during the 50s and 60s, the kind of advancement KK was able to muster from the recording studios later.

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PS - The technical advancements might have been one reason, I enjoyed listening to Rafi and Mukesh from the 70s more compared to their earlier numbers.

For example, here is one Rafi song from the 60s. And listen to him from the 70s now. See the overall change in the depth of sound as the 70s came. The same about Mukesh in the 50s, and subsequently from the 70s….and yet more from the same era.

Also Do Note: A lot of guess work has gone behind this story, so you might be noticing factual errors, if you were better informed on this subject (e.g echo sounds were in use well before the 70s, there are some Hindi songs from the 50s and 60s as well studded with echo generations, so my guess is, it was extensively used only after KK and RDB came together, which might be factually incorrect). Please, get the gist of my article and do not read much from its minute details.

Asha Bhonsle Gave Kishoreda A Run For His Money

admin — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:48:05 +0000

Asha Bhonsle – The Heavenly Female Voice!

Something common ran through the trio of Kishore Kumar, RD Burman and Asha Bhonsle. What was this common factor? Was it the ability to break norms, leave aside classical rules and sing without any hesitation? Was it their fondness for the alien music styles, mostly the western ones, to which they would often fuse in with the Indian sounds? Or were they simply genetically coded to give each other run for their money, whenever it came to performing together? If they sang of love, they did so full throttle and not hiding behind the usual veils of Indian-ness that you might experience while listening to Rafi and Lata, the other two stalwarts of the Indian playback arena. Though, this Indian-ness and the two dazzling names in Rafi and Lata had its own charm and romance, which even the hardcore KK, RDB and AB fans like me will not deny about or choose to part away with.

KK, RDB and Asha gave together some of the best duets, that my generation would vouch for. Songs like Jaane jaan, dhoondhta fir rahaa hun tumhein and Aapke kamrei mein koee rahetaa hai (even RDB could be listened to in this one) are a couple such in many. They enjoyed a very great chemistry among them indeed. At the same time, it was only Asha who could give KK a run for his money in the duets she sang along with him. At times she seemed to edge ahead of KK, the way Ganguly at his best would overshadow Sachin on occasions, with his maverick stroke-making. “Did any healthy rivalry run among this Bollywood trio?” I forwarded this question to somebody who is trying to produce a new documentary on Kishoreda. I may or may not succeed in getting its answer, but the fact is Kishore Kumar, Rahul Dev Burman and Asha Bhonsle were several notches above the rest in entertaining the Indian audiences, once they formed up as a team in the post-1970 era.

Kishore Kumar – The Undisputed King!

admin — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:17:48 +0000

Image courtesy of IndianExpress.com

A well-contested argument between Kishoreda and Rafi fans is always on cards whenever somebody speaks their heart out with respect to one of these two Indian greats – I have myself previously spoken on this subject. Recently, I discovered the following article by Sandipan Deb in The Indian Express, which declares Kishoreda as the numero uno without any leverage for Rafi fans.

Sandipan says, “his (Kishore’s) voice could transport you, and he had many voices, depending on which actor he was singing for, but all of them maintained a virility and a realness that I have always found missing in singers like Mohammad Rafi: even Rafi’s happy songs have always sounded a tad mournful to me and — sorry — a bit effeminate, and there’s too much training, too much technique behind those high pitched notes. In contrast, Kishore Kumar’s voice and his singing are guileless and straight from the heart. But he was much more than the voice. If ever there was a man who was living life to the full without making any concessions to any perceived wisdom, it was him. And it showed in his best songs, whether joyous or melancholy.”

A bit harsh for devoted Rafi listeners, one has to say, but the author backs himself up with some good observations. An overall thoughtful analysis, I’d say. Specially, if you recall how Rafi’s classical mold gave away to KK’s all-round performance post 1970. Hindi Cinema was, no doubt, bracing through a major transformation, which required more versatile singers and composers like Kishoreda, RD Burman and Asha Bhonsle. These three gave us some of the best music from that era, we know today.

While Gujarat and West Bengal may stand poles apart in many areas including their political beliefs, Kishoreda’s virtuosity is something nobody can dispute about!