music directors rated for all round musicality

Hi Sharad,

A brilliant post there. I agree with your list.

Good to see someone mention unsung music directors like "Vanraj Bhatia".

Regards,
Prasad Redkar.

Hi,

I would write about Shankar Jaikishan and others later.

O P Nayyar was stereo typed in his image, so some of his great work is never discussed. Music composer Tushar Bhatia is his greatest fan. So I have requested him to enlighten us about Nayyar ji, in this thread. I hope he would accept my request to join this forum, and take our petty discussion to the next level.

Wow, what a thread to come back to after a long hiatus!

I am from the south, so most of my musical intake is from Ilayaraaja..

But not deviating from the topics, i would rate shankar ehsaan loy and their arrangers for pretty good music arrangement ( purely the tech part), so would also be AR Rehman. I also like Saawriya's music arranger. (Monty sharma)

Coming back to songs melodies not arrangement. These are the songs most of us would have heard them.. but a recompilation of a musically nostalgic journey.

I would like to list those not so popular gems and some really popular gems.

The idea is not that they are the very best, but they could as well provide a nice starting point to explore the composer's works.

Each of the listed songs are different and they have a special mood to them. and thats why i have included them in this list.

1. Hindi-> Ilayaraaja : Dheemi dheemi (Shiva-Shreya Ghoshal); Rim jhim jalve gire (Mahadev- Suresh wadkar -amazing rain mood.); Saara yeh aalam(cheeni kum)

2) Hindi - Salil->Tasveer tere dil mein (Md rafi/Lata, Maya(1961); salil choudhary); Khilte hi gul yehan(

3) Hindi - SDB>(Wahan kaun hi tera)

4) Hindi->RDB-> Pyaar ke mode pe (Parinda)

5)Hindi-> Anand Milind (90% are Ilaiyaraaja's songs. But QSQT among his originals stand out)

6) Hindi-> Vishal Bharadwaj( Chappa chappa charka - Maachis.. Amazing)

7) Hindi -> Jhanak jhanak tori baaje paayaliya- mannadey (not sure of the music director)

8) Hindi->Nadeem shravan-> Damini - Jabse tumko dekha hi

9) Hindi -> Anu malik (Tere darr pe sanaam chale aaye- Pooja bhatt's movie)

10) Hindi ->Himesh R Pyaar dilonka mela hi ( dulhan hum le jaayenge)

11) Hindi-> Jatin Lalit (Kehti hi dil ki lagi- raju bann gaya gentleman and khamoshi songs)

12) Hindi -> Biddu ( Laila main laila;Qurbaani)

11) Kannada-> Hamsalekha(Ranadheera- Preeti yalli iro sukha gotte iralilla)

12) Kannada-> Rajan Nagendra (Aaaseya Bhaava olavina jeeva)

13) Kannada -> G K venkatesh (Chinnada mallige hoove-Huliya haalina mevu)

14)Telugu ->Ilayaraaja ( ne meeda naaku idammo- Raakshasudu - 1997)

15) Hindi ->Bappi lahiri (Yaad aara ha hi- Disco dancer)

16) Hindi-> Kalyanji Anandji ( Chandan sa badan- Saraswati chandra)

17) Hindi->khayyam ( Tere chehre se nazar nahin hatti - Silsila)

18) Hindi-> C Ramachandra -> Dhhere se aaja rey ankhiyon mein (Albela)

19) Hindi -> Ismail darbar (Dholi taro dhol baaje - Hum dil de chuke sanam)

Hi realactivex,

I agree with you on Shankar Ehsaan Loy, AR Rahman and Monty sharma, being some of the best arrangers today. I wish Rahman starts collaborating with someone who has a better feel for melody, or he could an assistant who complements him. Rahman is a great arranger and sound engineer, the only time he went wrong was with the ghazals from a movie called Tehzeeb. I would give him 10/10 for the experimentation, even if it failed in this case.

Have you heard a master piece by Salil Choudhury from film : Mere Apne मेरे अपने (1971)’


The movie- 'MERE-APNEमेरे अपने (1971)', starring Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughna Sinha and Asrani, Paintal, Danny Denzongpa, AK Hangal and others.

This movie narrates a story of unemployment, vigilante justice, failure of idealism, moralities and nonviolence, wily politicians, manipulative family members, corruption, Youth frustration, anger and discontent .

A young director, Gulzarji, who identifies with what was prevalent, captures the essence of unrest in the nation. He brings out the best in Shatrughan Sinha and Vinod Khanna. While Meena Kumari. Danny, Mehmood and the rest of the crew did their part to perfection. Shatru will keep you on the edge, Vinod Khanna will give you your money’s worth and Meena Kumari will steal your heart with her performace, Danny will leave you teary eyed. No melodrama, no histrionics.

The films music is by Salil Choudhury. It is a classic by Gulzar, it was with its time but still years ahead of it,you can still connect with issues raised by it more than 39 years ago.

(the above text is from: Mere Apne ? PassionForCinema)

And now my own review of the song: कोई होता जिसको अपना

The song ‘कोई होता koi hota’ is an all time favorite. And why not?


Salilji used 3 octaves in just one line of this song!! Have you heard anything like this any before?

See how it goes:

Kishor opens the song (by the way, it is a solo from Kishor) … कोई होता on higher note til कोई but in just two word of ‘होता ‘ Kishor reaches almost a half octave below when he hits the ‘ता’ that too with a fine ‘mind (Glissando)’

Kishor continues with that pitch till the end of जिसको अपना. Now there is brief pause very precisely timed (such delicate task only Lata can do but Kishor did this with utmost precision) , now Kishor starts gliding down further in pitch to hit the lower octave हम अपना कह लेतें यारों.. and he achieves it. Watch the extended notes at ‘ना’ of अपना and again the precise nano pause between अपना and कह and also between लेतें and यारों, now with a gymnast’s feet Kishor has to move on to next part , (no stopping, keep going down) to hit one more octave below पास नहीं तो दूर ही होता , again watch the fine mind blowing ‘mind (Glissando)’ at दूर and the weight on ‘होता’, this is required as Kishor has to go further one octave down!!

लेकिन कोई मेरा अपना. Now Kishor has reached almost at the rock bottom , can't go below that ,(Interesting to check what your woofer/sub woofer is doing at this very moment). What you hear is Kishor's real voice, his voice box is now paining and you could hear the air pushing through it .

At this ground zero what is left is pure emptiness coupled by a very deep and painful grief, I think that’s the limit, you can't take any more! Song literally stop here for a moment or two till the mendolin, flute and violins kick in.

Again in the next stanza Kishor starts with one octave up than what he stopped at लेकिन कोई मेरा अपना. He opens with आखोंमें में निंद न होती and again with a brief pause continues on the same pitch with आसूं ही तैरते रह्ते , Kishor has sung this last आसूं ही तैरते रह्ते in such a way that it literally create the feeling of तैरते रह्ते. Then on while at next खॉबोंमें जागते हम रातपर Kishor again goes down to half octave.

Exactly at this point the whole things becomes unbearably emotional, I mean it. And final कहीं तो गम अपनाता कोई तो साथी होता just cements it. Watch that prolonged ‘ना‘ in the ‘अपनाता ‘ That feeling of loneliness will thrust into your heart like a sword! After a short burst of violins Kishor has to go back to repeat ‘कोई होता ..’


This single song alone is enough to demonstrate the caliber of this music genius of Salil Choudhury!

However despite of his best possible efforts Kishor couln’t do justice to this song. The song was filmed on Vinod Khanna so Kishor was the natural choice as a playback singer but Moh. Rafi could have done a far better job here.

कोई होता जिसको अपना , हम अपना कह लेतें यारों
पास नहीं तो दूर ही होता, लेकिन कोई मेरा अपना

आखोंमें में निंद न होती , आसूं ही तैरते रह्ते
खॉबोंमें जागते हम रातपर
कहीं तो गम अपनाता कोई तो साथी होता

पुलां हुआ कोई वादा बिती हुई कुछ यादें
तनहाई दोहरातीं है रातपर
कोई दिलासा होता कोई तो अपना होता

मेरे अपने (1971१)

गीतः गुलझार संगीतः सलिल चौध्ररी गायकः किशोर कुमार

Please try to get this song at least on MP3 and listen , I am sure you will like it.

Regards

SUhas

Thanks Suhas for a lovely post. One of my favourite songs from what surely has to be one of my favourite films.

Ghulam Ali often says, 'Sur wohi jo lafz ijaazat dein' (notes should be chosen keeping the lyrics in mind). So true: the descent across three octaves captures the pathos and despondency of the lyrics perfectly.

A word on the instrumentation: the flute in particular is very effective in underlining the mood of the song.

Lovely review of an equally lovely Kishore song, Suhas.

If you liked this, then I think you might love 'Jin Raaton Ki Bhor Nahin Hain'. The music was composed by Kishore himself. This is a pretty rare song, but I think I picked this up in one of his golden collections.

There is very little to absolutely no background music in this song when Kishore's voice comes on. As far as songs soaked in grief are concerned, this is one of the best.

As far as this thread goes, some of the very best music directors have been the famed and hallowed S.D.Burman and R.D.Burman, the inimitable Ilayaraja and the precociously talented A.R.Rahman. M.S.Viswanathan-Ramamurthy too have composed some absolute gems for the Tamil Music industry.

SUhas,
Great review!

I agree to the fact that Kishore went beyond his limitations in this song, and it would have been easier for Rafi. If I continue on the hypothetical tangent, I know of just two singers capable traversing more than two octaves, and still sounding great:

• K L Sehgal
• Al Hibbler

While this need not spark controversy, it is my opinion that Rafi - while a brilliant and peerless practitioner of classical music - was quite limited in terms of the genres of music he could deliver.

Kishore Kumar - not classically trained he very well might be - could deliver on any type of song. The classical to the maudlin, the raunchy to the romantic, loving to the lonely. He was a singer for every mood. In a word he was far more versatile than any other singer of his age.

Which is why I rate Kishore higher than Rafi.

Somebody who did not know the fact that Kishore was not classically trained could hear 'Tum Bin Jaaoon Kahaan' or 'Mere Naina' and return back with the impression that they heard a fantastic classical singer in action.

Another singer with the same kind of versatility is S.P.Balasubramaniam.

Hi thevortex,

I spawned a separate thread on Kishore vs Rafi

Enjoy...