Trivia Tunes: When Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw loved a Hindi film song

By Rajiv Vijayakar -

December 7, 2023 - 4:00 PM IST

Sam Bahadur and a Hindi film song

Trivia Tunes: When Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw loved a Hindi film song

The biopic on Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw is just out and that, interestingly enough, takes me back to a double-spread ad in the film newspaper, Screen, in the late 1970s. Actor and filmmaker N.A. Ansari had produced and directed the film, Jurm Aur Saza, featuring the late Nanda and Vinod Mehra. The film had hit music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Its song, ‘Mere geet hai anaam, anaam shaheedon ke naam’, written by the poet, Pt. Ram Bhardwaj. Interestingly, the late father of Vishal Bhardwaj, was so loved by the Field Marshal that the ad carried a picture of him sharing his sentiments about this patriotic song on the anonymity of a martyred soldier.

When L-P worked with a Shakeel in Naushad-eque way!
This film also had a lovely lullaby that proved to be the late legendary lyricist Shakeel Badayuni’s only song with L-P: ‘Mere dil aaj tu mayoos na ho’, sung by Suman Kalyanpur. Shakeel’s son, Javed Badayuni, has, however, mentioned that his father and the composers were to do at least one more film before his father passed away. L-P had even composed the tune in a very Naushad-esque manner and tenor, as Naushad had been Shakeel’s most frequent associate!

Single associations of major forces
S.D. Burman-Gulzar (‘Mora gora and laile’ from Bandini), R.D. Burman-Sameer (‘Aaja sun le sadaa’ in Guru-Dev), Anu Malik-Yogesh (‘Sabhi andaaze husn pyare hain’ from Ssshhhh!...) and Bappi Lahiri-Rajendra Krishan (‘Suno suno amar kahani’ in Dharam Adhikari) were other examples of major names in music and lyrics coming together only for one song. And Ravi and Anand Bakshi, as per what the late composer had told me, had collaborated on one non-film bhajan.

S.H. Bihari’s unrecorded geet and ghazal
S.H. Bihari, O.P. Nayyar’s top favourite songwriter, who had also worked with many other composers and had made a spectacular comeback with Pyar Jhukta Nahin (1985), also wrote non-film poetry. His daughter, Shaheda, is coming up with a book compilation of his unrecorded and unheard lyrics, geet and ghazals, titled Ishaaro Ishaaro Mein (after the lyricist’s Kashmir Ki Kali hit song) that she plans to release on his death anniversary on February 25.

Generation chasms!Nothing has changed so much in the last 15 years as film music and its teams. Few of the youngest composers, lyricists and singers have worked outside their generation (so to speak), and that is why there are rare cases where music makers of Gen-Y and Gen-Zee have worked with senior associates. Even if they have, it is only for one film or even just one song. Himesh Reshammiya, for example, has recorded just the R.D. Burman re-creation, ‘Mehbooba o mehbooba’ for Aap Kaa Surroor with Asha Bhosle, and was to do a film with Anand Bakshi that never took off.

Sachin-Jigar have done a few songs with Udit Narayan, including the popular ‘Psycho re’ from ABCD (Anybody Can Dance). And perhaps the most extreme example from the millennium is Manna Dey singing for Shamir Tandon in Umar (2006), for this composer born decades after Manna-da began his innings in 1942! Such examples can be called generation chasms instead of generation gaps!

Easily satisfied
It takes dedication and passion to strive for excellence in music and lyrics. Stories abound about how composers, lyricists and singers of yore (as in even just 25 years ago) would be dissatisfied with their own work and keep striving for perfection. Sanjay Leela Bhansali cannot forget how Ismail Darbar made him hear ‘Aankhon ki gustakhiyan maaf ho’ from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam on phone and worked on it and transformed it for the better in the 30 minutes it took the director to reach his composer’s home for the music sitting. But all that is history now.

A music duo boasted to me about their music to come in a modest film, but it was forgotten as soon as it came! Another music entity pounced on me when I asked why their (never popular) music in a big film was not up to the mark and said that “everyone had loved the songs!” A third music entity boasted that it was “trying to raise the standards from whatever listeners were used to in the 1990s and earlier.” The less said about the entity’s subsequent output the better!

Where is the female duet?
Where is the female duet today when even female solos are at a premium? Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum sang with varying frequencies with each other, and so, later, did Anuradha Paudwal, Alka Yagnik and Kavita Krishnamurthi Subramaniam. Usha Mangeshkar with her sisters and Sadhana Sargam with her generation also collaborated. There was some interchange even between the generations, like Lata collaborating with Kavita on the theme track of Ek Nai Paheli.

Today, despite all the hype, there are only two stalwarts among the girls—Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal. And though they have delivered brilliantly in ‘Imaan ka asar from Dor’ (their only full-on duet of any worth!), ‘Gori gori gori gori’ from Main Hoon Na, ‘Deewangee deewangee’ from Om Shanti Om and ‘Hum to aise hai bhaiyya’ from Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, these instances are so rare, with forgettable songs in Chaahat: Ek Nasha, Elaan, Mumbai Xpress, Thugs of Hindostan and more and some medleys and mashups of no consequence. So when will these Divas come together again?

Also Read: Trivia Tunes: From Laxmikant composing 6 hit songs in a single day to Kajol never working with Nadeem-Shravan after her debut