A tribute to musical genius Madan Mohan : Bollywood News

Madan Mohans unsuccessful success

My father suffered from one aspect. He didnt have too many successful films. He was a super successful song maker but the films didnt do too well. Maybe he didnt have any big banner films, he didnt have any big stars acting in his films too. But today, when you talk of great classic films, you talk of Dilip Kumar starrer Mughal-E-Azam, Amitabh Bachchan starrer Sholay, SRK starrer DDLJ, Raj Kapoors film Sangam, etc. My father had heroes like Bharat Bhushan and Pradeep Kumar. He also had one or two Dev Anand starrer films that flopped, one or two Raj Kapoor films that were complete disaster and had not a single Dilip Kumar film. It were only his songs which worked in films. You can call it destiny. There were so many of his songs people dont even know who they were picturised on. There was a song called Woh Bhulee Dastaan from Sanjog which was a huge hit. In the same film there was a song sung by Mukesh titled Bhulee Huyee Yaadon which went unnoticed. His best songs were picturised on Priya Rajvansh in Chetan Anands films. Dharmendra starrer and the first war film Haqeeqat directed by Chetan Anand was a big hit with his song Kar Chale Fida Jaan Watan Saathiyo is still remembered. Thats what a hit film does to you.

Madan Mohan - an inspiration

Late Mr. Madan Mohan started his career in the year 1950. He was the junior most among that magical generation of music directors which had seniors who started their career in 1948 like Naushad, Roshan, Shankar Jaikishen, etc. Then some of them passed away and he became the only survivors of that generation into the 1970s. S.D.Burman was the only one alive but was too ill to do any work. He too passed away in the same year as my father did, in 1975. R.D.Burman completed S.D.Burmans film Aradhana. The next generation was R.D.Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji who started the commercial music. Society had changed in the 1970s, our exposure to the West increased, the films were different too, and along with the films, the music changed too. There was no place for a classical song. A little bit of cabaret and rock and roll began too. My father tried to sail with the tide but his songs were out of place. I must say this, when my father died in 1975 he thought that he did not get enough success what his calibre deserved. Everybody in his fraternity spoke about Madan Mohan being superior to them. Naushadji came to Madan Mohan when his songs from the film Anpadh were released and said, The score of these two songs in the film are equal to everything that Ive done in the past. When my father gave music for Heer Ranjha, S.D.Burman came up to him, hugged him and said, Youve surpassed everything that Ive done.