O(pi)nion Utthappa

When writing about Khemchand Prakash, one question is hard to escape. Most people will name him as one of the pioneers, one of the giants of the golden era of the Hindi Film Music. Yet most lay listeners will have heard very little of what he actually composed, save आयेगा आनेवाला from Mahal and perhaps दिया जलाओ from Tansen.  The question therefore is, ‘Why do people hold Khemchand Prakash in such a high regard as a composer?’  Mortal Men Immortal Women In 1982 Noorjehan visited India, first time in 35 years after the Partition. Who’s who of the Hindi Film Industry had gathered to celebrate this great re-union and to roll out a red carpet to this beloved singer. The program was wonderfully conceived. It was a retrospect of the journey of the Hindi Film Music. The program had many high points, but for me, two of them stood out the most prominently. The first was of course, Noorjehan’s appearance on the stage and her rendition of 'आवाज दे कहा है'. It made a mockery of the artifi...

Prologue On 5th May 2006 the grand old man of Hindi Film Music, Naushad, passed away. It was the end of an era for the Indian Film Music. He wasn’t the oldest composer or the first one. Anil Biswas is often called the ‘father of Hindi film music’ (although the ever so modest Anil Biswas always declined that title saying, “Rai Chand Boral was the father. I am only an uncle!”). Naushad arrived on the scene later than both of them. In fact, there was a string of illustrious composers already on the scene. Pankaj Malik, Keshavrao Bhole, Govindrao Tembe, Saraswati Devi, Timir-Baran, Gyaandutt, Khurshid Anwar, Kamal Dasgupta, Ghulam Haider to name a few. This list only grew longer and more illustrious in his generation with the addition of C. Ramchandra, Sajjad Hussain,  Sachin Dev Burman,  Vasant Desai,  and later with the arrival of the likes of  Salil Chowdhury, Madan Mohan, Roshan and others.  He was never considered the most gifted, in fact he was often accused...