The King of Melody

"A great musical warrior of all times. The pretty soldiers of film industry, who could not match musical notes with him, defeated him by politics. But today they swear by his melody"
- A fan on the Internet

There are fans and there are fans. Those who pray in the sanctum sanctorum, so steeped in the lore about the object of their adoration, so that they, very often, know more about their idol outside the temple, on the edges along with millions of other such devotees, not knowing why or how this man touched my untutored heart, not understanding which soaring note, which shade of his musical genius softly played my soul, just knowing that each magic made something inside me stir, then soar and take wing... And that was enough.

The first time I met Madan Mohan was in a college in Calcutta, there years after his death. As I sat in a friend's room one day, a beautiful song played from the little tape recorder that today we would have scornfully called a "dabba" Not even the tinny, mono playback of that "dabba" (though we didn't think so at the time!) could ruin the sweet, sensuous beauty of that song.

"Ek haseen shaam Ko dil mera kho gaya pehle apna hua karta tha, ab kisi ka ho gaya"

It was a time when the first generations of yuppies were being made, amongst who it was becoming unfashionable to be a Hindi film fan but I recognized a few things about the song. Mainly that the velvet voice that could melt your bones was Rafi's. More than that? I separately knew my friend's father was a well known music director in Hindi films called Madan Mohan. Did I connect him with the song? Dimly, maybe. And so, in the space of those two years, I knowingly but unknowingly stumbled on Madan Mohan again....

"Sawan Ke Mahine ne mein, ek aag se seene mein
Lagti hai toh pee leta hoon, doh char ghadi jee leta hoon"
(Sharabi 1964).


And again.

"Tu mere saamne hai, teri zulfein hain khuli, tera aanchal hai dhala
Main bhala hosh mein kaise rahoo...." (Suhagan 1964)

You didn't need to see the movie to sense the urgent sensuousness of this number but much later when I saw the smouldering eyed Guru Dutt desperately denying himself an equally inflamed Mala Sinha appropriately draped in a wet saree, I remember thinking what a perfect fit the song was!

And once again, when the lonely golden aching of a sexophone poured into the stillness of the night and I wondered what it would be like to love someone like that...

"Tum Jo mil gaye ho, toh yeh lagta hai ke jahan mil gaya
Ek bhatke hue rahi ko caravan mil gaya..."
(Hanste Zakhm - 1973)

The songs stayed with me like memories, bobbing up every now and then like an unexpected bonus down the river of life that had now quickened to head towards the falls...The next time I met Madan Mohan was many many years later, when I had the privilege to work on a television show called "Meri Awaz Suno" (produced by that very same son, Sanjeev Kohli) a show that was a search for future playback singing talent. It ran for three years and in those three years, whenever we worked in the editing studio to "embellish" the songs with photographs of the original singers and music composers, time and again I would come across a face that could have easily been that of a matinee idol, with a quirky smile that mocked the world, as if to say, "Jab unhe humse pyar hi na raha kya, intezaar hi na raha"

If one went purely by the number of singers who, in the 160 odd episodes that we shot, chose to sing Madan Mohan's songs, you'd think that he had been one of the most successful composers of his time. Alas, the facts pointed to something very different. Madan Mohan's career as a music composer spanned a quarter of a century, from 1950 to 1975. During those 25 years, he composed around 700 songs for around 100 films, which works out to an average of about four films a year, making him one of the most prolific composers of Hindi cinema. (In 1959 and 1964, he composed for 8 films in each year) Of those 100 odd films, a grand total of 9 films were successful, two of them, Mausam and Laila Majnu, after his death. The rest sank without a trace, some of them not even lasting in the theatres till the next Friday after its release ("Jahanara" which features some of Madanji's most exquisite compositions, ran for four days).

Madan Mohan died on July 14th 1975. His son Sanjeev recalls that his body was carried on the shoulders of Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna and Rajendra Kumar and when a photograph of this hit the newspapers the next morning, he says that he became more popular in college than he had ever been when his father was alive - because they suddenly realized the worth of the dead man by the men who were his pallbearers.

All of which makes all tributes and accolades including this one, the ultimate, painful irony. But some of us - and there are many such in the history of great men and women - are called to be on this earth much before our times, our glory to blaze many, many years after we are gone. Madan Mohan was one such and I write this tribute as perhaps a tiny attempt to make amends...

The true music director.

"Main yeh samajhta hoon ki har fankar ka jazbaati hona bahut zaroori hai, kyonki agar us me insaaniyat ka jazba nahi hai toh woh sahi fankar nahi ho sakta..." Madan Mohan

It's a strange thing that happens when you mention Madan Mohan's compositions - you almost never need to mention the films or the stars. For two reasons. One because the films were often so obsure that it doesn't matter. Madan Mohan never worked on a Dilip Kumar film, his two films with Dev Anand - Pocketmaar and Sharabi were both flops, so too with Raj Kapoor in Ashiana and Dhoon. The lone film with Rajesh Khanna - Bawarchi was a moderate success. When he did get some of the other "bit names" Meena Kumari (Memsaab), Nutan (Aakhri Dao, Dulhan Ek Raat Ki), Dharmendra (Neela Aakash, Anpadh, Aap Ki Parchhaiyan, Pooja Ke Phool), even Amitabh Bachchan in Parwana (where he played villain to Navin Nischol's hero) working with the lyricist to write and rewrite till he was perfectly satisfied with the song. (He composed ten tunes for "Dil Dhoondta Hai" in Mausam before he was satisfied with the final one)

Which is why it's almost never that you'll find a Madan Mohan song whee the music and the instrumentation don't mesh perfectly. Listen carefully to "Nainon Mein Pyar Dole" (Lata - Sheroo - 1957) and you will find that underlining the delightful melody are little trilling pieces of flute with which you can almost imaging the heroine's feet skipping happily as she thinks "tumhe jab dekhoon piya, mera sansaar dole..."

Madan Mohan songs have some of the most exquisite pieces of sitar (from "Meri Yaad Mein Tum Na", Talat - Madhosh - 1951 to "Rasm-E-Ulfat", Lata - Dil Ki Rahen - 1973), but not once is it ever out of the emotional context of the son. Even when, later on, he dared to use western instrumentation (the exquisite saxophone interludes in "Mushkil Hai Jeena" Lata - Sahib Bahadur - 1077), even western rhythms in ghazals and nagmas (Chirag Dil Ka Jalao, Woh Bhuli Dastaan and Betaab Dil Ki in which he used only western rythms and no tabla!) it seemed the most natural thing to do, never jarring, out of place or even remotely self-conscious.

And which is why it is such agony to mention a Madan Mohan song the way it is done usually, but quoting the first line. Because you cannot just stop at that, but want to go on the next and next and the next... till you find that it's the entire song. You are awestruck not just at the originality of expression, but at the way the words have been crafted so that the singer and the song flow across them like a river, never once stumbling or tripping...

"Thokar Jahan maine khayi, inhone pukara mujhe
Yeh humsafar hai to kafi hai inka sahara mujhe
Yeh uthe subah chale, yeh jhuke shaam dhale
Mera Jeena mera marna inhi palkon ke tale
Teri ankhon ke siwa....
(Chirag - Majrooh Sultanpuri - 1969)

Thousands of love songs have been written to the beloved's eyes, but few as unusual as this one. If the poetry doesn't take your breath away, the way Lataji sweetly effortlessly glides from one phrase to another will make you weep.

"Paas aaiye ke hum nahi aayenge baar baar
Baahen gale mein daal ke, hum ro len zaar zaar
Aankhon se phir yeh pyaar ki barsaat ho na ho
Shayad phir is janam mein, mulakat ho na ho... Lag Ja Gale..."
(Woh Kaun Thi - Raja Mehdi Ali Khan - 1964)

It would have been so easy for the lyricist to just repeat "baar baar" in the second line. Instead he decides to use the unusual "Zaar Zaar" meaning the same thing, but so much more beautifully I'd like to Saaya was just "Saaya". But when Madan Mohan composed the title song, "Saaya" could not stand alone, he needed another word with it. So he added "mera", so thrilled was Raj Khosla, the director of the film, with the result, he changed the title of the film to "Mera Saaya".

Across his 700 songs, Madan Mohan initially worked with mainly two lyricists - Rajinder Krishan, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan - both his friends and with whom he composed not tunes to which words were written, but seamless song entitles where you couldn't make out which came first - the words or the music (Majrooh Sultanpuri and Kaifi Azmi were the other two lyricists who worked with Madan Mohan, largely in the later years. Kaifi Azmi for all Chetan Anand films, Sahir Ludhianvi worked with Madan Mohan in just 3 films, including Laila Majnu) And so it would not be too much to say that perhaps to no one more than to Madan Mohan fits the title of "music director", because his baton brought together the melody, the singer and the words in one perfect moment of harmony...

Just a Ghazal King?
"What do you mean Madan was only good at composing ghazals? Madan was good at every single thing he composed.... Madan's light compositions have the same individualistic quality as his serious songs. What's more, I don't think any one of us had his knack of picking the right instruments for the right song" - C. Ramchandra.

Ghazal King. A title befittingly bestowed upon someone who ruled a genre where few have managed to take the intricate craft of a ghazal and infuse it with the sweet intensity of emotion the way Madan Mohan did. (In fact, very often you realize that a Madan Mohan song is a ghazal much later on, knowing it initially as a sad or happy song). But when you examine Madan Mohan's body of work beyond the ghazals, there emerges an astonishing breadth of musical expression. For example, he was one of the earliest to blend western influences into his work, and that too, well before "Tum jo mil gaye ho" for Hanste Zakhm which he composed in 1973, just 2 years before he died.

Madan Mohan also created some of the most beautiful light, romantic songs like the early Talat - Lata duets "Yeh nai nai preet hai" (Pocketmaar 1956), "Teri chamakti aankhon ke" (Chhote Babu 1957) or the charming "Dil unko uthake de diya" (Lata - Baap Bete 1959) or Rafi's sweetly drunken "Kabhi na kabhi" (Sharabi 1964) or the perky "Simiti Si Sharmayi Si" (Kishore Kumar - Parwana 1971) or the utterly lilting Lata Manna Dey duet "Bheegi Chandni" (Suhagan 1964) or the two Asha sizzlers; "Thodi Der Ke liye mere ho jaao" (Akeli Mat Jaiyo - 1963) and "Shok Nazar Ki Bijilyan" (Woh Kaun Thi) Somehow these seemed to fade, giving way to maybe the more well known, equally beautiful but often darker brooding shades that dominated his later work. I wonder if this is some way was a reflection of his frustration with not getting the due recognition for his work.

Some of Hindi cinema's best loved classical songs came from Madanji's baton, a result of his love for classical music and close association with the greats of Hindustani classical music like Begum Akhtar. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Alla Rakha, Rais Khan and Vilayat Khan (Perhaps the sitar piece in Maane na was played by Vilayat Khan himself). Influenced particularly by the dadra and the thumri, Madan Mohan's classical repertoire included glorious gems like "Ja re badra bairi ja", "Bairon neend na aaye", "Meri seena tum bin roye", Jiya le gaya jee mora saanwariya", "Kaun aaya" , "Baiyan na Dharo", "Maii Re" and "Nainon Mein Badra Chhaye".

And then of course there was Bawarchi, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Rajesh Khanna's only film with Madan Mohan. But that was not what was unique but the fact that all the songs in the film were completely situational, from the exquisite "More naina bahayen neer" and the classic Manna Dey hit "Tum bin jeevan" to the astounding "Bhor aayi gaya andhiyara" which unfolds like a musical play with everyone from Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar to Govinda's mother Nirmala Devi singing in it.

So Ghazal Ka Shehzada, as Lata Mangeshkar so aptly called him. Madan Mohan definitely was but also a woverign who reigned in many more kingdoms that just one....

The other side of Madan Mohan
Madan Mohan, Lata Mangeshkar. Names that are often considered synonyms for each other. One was a man who said he would not have composed so much of his work if Lata Mangeshkar had not been there to sing it. The other who said, "Other composers gave me "Gaane" while Madan Bhaiyya gave me "Gaana" to sing. Yet, the songs that Madan Mohan composed for all the other singers became some of their greatest hits. No more for anyone else, than Asha Bhosle. With Madan Mohan she sang one of her biggest hits to date "Jhumka Gira Re". But that apart, he gave her a clutch of songs that made her sound her sweetest, most poignant, something that few composers made her do ("Saha se ye keh do", "Humsafar saath". And "Jaane kya haal" where you almost do not recognize her as the usual sensuous, theekhi Asha). Geeta Dutt sang just a handful of numbers with Madan Mohan and yet "Ae dil mujhe bata de" (Bhai Bhai) became one of her all time hits. The best loved Talat numbers were Madan Mohan compositions ("Meri Yaad Mein Tum Na", "Phir wohi shaam", "Hum se aaya na gaya", "Main teri nazar ka suroor hoon") Even Mukesh who rarely sang for Madan Mohan had "Bhooli Hui Yaadon" and the enchanging "Hum chal rahe the" as did Kishore Kumar with the wonderfully comic "Zaroorat Hai".

I met Madan Mohan one more time - when I sat down to write this piece. It was magic revisited. But also agony, as I listened again and again to the fabulous five cassette anthology that Sanjeev Kohli, his son put together on the occasion of his father's 25th death anniversary and to as many of the other Madan Mohan's compositions that I could remember or find. It was agony because I knew that my task would not be to choose what songs to include in this article but to choose what to exclude without diminishing from a body of music so beautiful, they said it was too ahead of its times. But every moment of that "agony" was worth it because I had once again been touched by immortality so, the only and befitting end to this tribute has to be these lines that Kaifi Azmi wrote for one of Madan Mohan's most beautiful compositions, "Meri Awaz Suno" (Naunihal 1967).

"Kyon Sanwari hai yeh chandan ki chita mere liye
Main koi jism nahi hoon ki jalaoge mujhe
Raakh ki saath bikhar jaaoonga main duniya mein
Tum jahan khaaoge thokar wahin paaoge mujhe
Har kadam par hai naya mod ka aagaz suno"