Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Songs of the "black & white" era

Mom loves listening to the radio.

Not FM. Radio. For her, that means Vividh Bharti.

I credit my love for old (and when I say old, I mean OLD... as in, '40s and '50s stuff) Hindi songs to Mom's habit of listening to 'radio' before going off to sleep each night. It is this habit of hers which made me fall in love with the golden voices of Rafi, Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar long before I knew who they were.

For a generation which will grow up to Himesh singing 'Tera suroor' (Aapka Suroor) there was one which grew up listening to Hemant Kumar sing 'Bekarar karke hamein yun na jaiye' (Bees Saal Baad); today we think Mika's 'Main tennu love karda' (Desi Boyz) is fun.. some of us thought nothing could beat Kishore's madness in 'Jhoom jhoom kauva bhi dholak bajaaye' (Half Ticket).

This post is not to ridicule or challenge the 'like' factor of today's songs. Just to remind myself that the kind of music that I will hum ten years from now will most probably not be the ones that are recorded today.

Here are the top 20 of the most played songs from my 'Hindi B&W' playlist on my iPod:

1. Khoya khoya chand - Kala Bazaar (1960)
2. Chalat musafir moh liya re - Teesri Kasam (1967)
3. Yeh hai Bombay meri jaan - CID (1956)
4. Haal kaisa hai janaab ka - Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958)
5. Bekaraar karke hamein yun na jaiye - Bees Saal Baad (1962)
6. Aaiye meherban - Howrah Bridge (1958)
7. Honton pe sacchai rehti hai - Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960)
8. Gore gore o baanke chhore - Samadhi (1950)
9. Dil deke dekho - Dil Deke Dekho (1959)
10. Maana janaab ne pukara nahin - Paying Guest (1957)
11. Tadbeer se bigdi hui - Baazi (1951)
12. Ek ladki bheegi bhaagi si - Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958)
13. Jiya bekaraar hai - Barsaat (1949)
14. Cat maane billi - Dilli Ka Thug (1958)
15. Hum to mohabbat karega - Dilli Ka Thug (1958)
16. Hum bhi hain tum bhi ho - Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960)
17. Chhod do aanchal - Paying Guest (1957)
18. Dil ka haal sune dilwaala - Shree 420 (1955)
19. Babuji dheere chalna - Aar Paar (1954)
20. Jaane kahaan mera jigar gaya ji - Mr. & Mrs. 55 (1955)

8 comments:

Naishadh Vyas said...

I have collection of hundreds of songs, right from alamara days.

Diptakirti Chaudhuri said...

The mystery element can really be played up on B&W. So, most of my fav B&W songs are ghost-related... Mahal, Bees Saal Baad, Woh Kaun Thi, Kohraa, Madhumati.

Shekhar said...

@Naishad Sir: Oh it must be such a joy to listen to those, especially in the winter evenings now.

@Diptakirti: Dada, first of all, thanks for visiting the blog. Yep, the mystery/horror/suspense element really does kick in with those grainy images. No wonder we can't get rid of those haunting tunes.

Prateek Chaturvedi said...

Can't agree with you more...
I see the wonderful songs of the Dev Anand starrer "Tere ghar ke samne" missing from you top 20. Personally, they would be in my top5 anyday...if only for the memory of the great Dev sahab...

Shekhar said...

Prateek: They're pretty much there in the playlist though. :) Especially love the title track of that film.

Mish said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mish said...

As recommended, spent a sub zero afternoon wrapped in a blanket wid a steaming cuppa listening to all these melodies.... made my day :-)

Shekhar said...

mish: You make me envious. :)