Tere Bagair...

Madan Mohan, one of India's legendary composers, passed away at the young age of 51, on July 14, 1975.

In his composing career of 25 years, he created the music scores of over 100 films. These included AASHIANA, ADALAT, ANPADH, MERA SAAYA, WOH KAUN THI, BHAI BHAI, MANMAUJI, SANJOG, DEKH KABIRA ROYA, SHARABI, HAQEEQAT, GHAZAL, JAHANARA, HEER RANJHA, HANSTE ZAKHM, CHIRAG, DASTAK, MAUSAM, and LAILA MAJNU. Some additional films may have been forgotten but their songs are remembered by music lovers till this day, as his music always transcended the film.

Due to his untimely demise, various tunes composed by him remained unrecorded. These compositions he had hummed as they struck him and left behind on tapes, to be used at some time in the future for an appropriate film. They remained unused, till 30 years later Yash Chopra decided to use some of them to form the soundtrack of his film, VEER-ZAARA. This historical attempt met with resounding success and won him various posthumous awards.

Additionally, there were some recorded songs from films that remained incomplete - films that were shelved for various reasons. And thus these songs, though recorded by Madanji in his lifetime, remained unheard and unused.

Soon after his demise, some of these songs were released on an album, A TREASURE REVEALED, for limited circulation, and some of his ardent fans may have heard a few of them.

TERE BAGAIR features 15 such rare treasures, of which 5 have never been ever heard before as they have been exclusively excavated for this unique album. These are songs found from his master tapes, which had been preserved by his family. These 15 songs were recorded by Madanji in his peak years, in his characteristic style, with his unmistakable use of the sitar and violins in the orchestra, and set to the lyrics of his favorite poets. These songs, recorded from 1964 to 1972, were sung by the legendary singers of India, and his own favorite singers, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi, Talat Mahmood, and Kishore Kumar in their inimitable styles.

These 15 songs are of various moods - songs of pathos, ghazals, naghmas, romantic ditties, ballads, and even dance 'item' songs.

The tapes over the years have suffered a little damage but all efforts have been made to smoothen all the rough edges to make the songs sound as technically perfect as possible.

An attempt has also been made to add supportive music selectively to the original song, so as to enhance the audio quality. This has been done through selective addition of the tabla, side rhythms, and acoustic western rhythms, apart from subtle supportive melodic enhancements. This has been done only for technical purposes, leaving the original recording untarnished.

This rare treasure is indeed yet another novel project for Madanji fans, after VEER-ZAARA. While this memorable film had his unused tunes recreated to suit today's times, TERE BAGAIR is Madanji's music as recorded by him in his lifetime.

With 3 songs each by Lataji and Ashaji, 1 each by Talatsaheb and Kishoreda, this album has 7 nuggets by Rafisaheb - and if it is a rare treasure for a Madanji fan, it is an unexpected treasure as well for all fans of these great singers, as some of these songs have never been heard before.

This album has been aptly titled TERE BAGAIR, which is the haunting refrain of its opening song, KAISE KATEGI ZINDAGI - it is a refrain oft heard from all lovers of Madanji's music, who have made his music a part of their lives even after over three decades of his having left us.

TERE BAGAIR is being released to commemorate Madanji's 85th birth anniversary on June 25, 2009.

This website - www.madanmohan.in - dedicated to Madanji is a veritable treasure for a Madan Mohan fan... and was also launched on the same occasion.