Exactly fifty years ago, in 1975, the long reigning melody in Hindi films lost out to the bloodshed on silver screen.
NT NETWORK analyses the transition that had major impact on the then key source of entertainment in the country
RAMNATH N. PAI RAIKAR NT NETWORK
Fifty years, a half of a century, may not be sufficient period to gauge the quality of any entity, especially the art form. However, one can definitely discuss a creative medium in semi-centennial context. In a country like India, cinema achieved major status as the channel of entertainment right from its birth at the hands of Dadasaheb Phalke in 1913; so much so that it even dethroned the Marathi stage musicals popular in Maharashtra, soon after silent films were replaced by talkies in 1931. The fact that iconic stage singers/ actors like Master Dinanath and Bal Gandharva had to face huge debts and sell their drama companies due to the waning popularity of their musical stage productions, in the face of competition posed by the films, is a proof enough of the magnetism of the silver screen.
Songs became an integral part of Indian films and the performers began to sing in their own voices as soon as sound arrived in the movies. And once the technique of playback singing was introduced in 1935 for the Hindi film, ‘Dhoop Chhaon’ by music directors RC Boral and Pankaj Mullick, there was no looking back. Earlier, ‘Indra Sabha’ released in 1932 had featured an astonishing 71 songs, which underlines the importance of songs in films. After the country became independent from the British rule, melody was the queen and music composers became kings in the world of cinema, more so in the Hindi film industry. ‘Barsat’ and ‘Andaz’ both released in 1949 had 11 and 10 songs, respectively. By the beginning of the 1950s, the golden era of Hindi film music had already arrived. Films like ‘Awaara’ (1951) with 10 songs, and ‘Baiju Bawra’ (1952), ‘Anarkali’ (1953), and ‘Nagin’ (1954) with a dozen songs each, ran to packed houses mainly due to their songs laced with mellifluous tunes. Audiences went crazy with the sound of ‘Been’ music from ‘Nagin’. Even crime thrillers like ‘C.I.D.’ (1955) and ‘Howrah Bridge’ (1958), and dacoit films like ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’ (1960), ‘Gunga Jumna’ (1961) and ‘Mujhe Jeene Do’ (1963) boasted of exceptional melodies.
The decade of 1960s witnessed the magic potion of colour and music rushing through the silver screens around the country. After the grand success of musicals like ‘Sangam’ (1964), ‘Guide’ (1965), ‘Teesri Manzil’ (1966), ‘Jewel Thief’ (1967), and ‘Aradhana’ (1969), one needed no astrologer to predict the bright future for Hindi films with dulcet songs. However, the change was just across
the corner.
The beginning of the 1970s witnessed a violent film, ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’ (1971) that displayed lot of bloodshed. Another film released the same year, ‘Mere Apne’ had comparatively lesser aggression but clearly spoke about the streak of violence running in the younger generation of the time. By 1973, the ‘Superstar of Romance’ Rajesh Khanna was replaced by the ‘Angry Young Man’ Amitabh Bachchan. Although Sunil Dutt and Dilip Kumar had enacted the ‘Angry Young Man’ in ‘Mother India’ (1957) and ‘Gunga Jumna’, respectively, they had done it on a singular occasion. The phenomenal success of ‘Zanjeer’ (1973) made its writers Salim-Javed dish out script after script elevating the status of ‘Angry Young Man’, and delivering various brooding, disillusioned, anti-hero characters as enacted by Bachchan. All such films from ‘Deewaar’ (1975) to ‘Trishul’ (1978) and ‘Kaala Patthar’ (1979) to ‘Shakti’ (1982) ensured that the ‘Angry Young Man’ had limited romance and no songs. That was perhaps the first nail in the coffin of golden era of Hindi film music.
The year 1975, today undoubtedly appears to be a watershed year. The year when Emergency was imposed in India, had the younger generation in the country simmering with anger due to skyrocketing inflation, rising unemployment, and poverty-filled existence. The post-independence ‘Planning’ honeymoon and the Nehruvian hegemony ended just as the insurgency which had started in a North Bengal village of Naxalbari in 1967, threatened to engulf the entire country. It was therefore no wonder that the countrywide atmosphere of fury was reflected in the Hindi films released that year. ‘Sholay’, ‘Jai Santoshi Maa’, ‘Dharmatma’, ‘Deewaar’, ‘Sanyasi’, ‘Pratigya’, ‘Khel Khel Mein’, ‘Warrant’, Rafoo Chakkar’, ‘Chori Mera Kaam’, ‘Zakhmee’, ‘Kala Sona’ and ‘Julie’ were the top 12 grossers of that year, in that order. Except for ‘Jai Santoshi Maa’, ‘Khel Khel Mein’, ‘Rafoo Chakkar’, and ‘Julie’, the rest had unprecedented violence, in its most sadistic and brutal form. One can also assume that the trend of such films that had already began in Hollywood few years earlier, had influenced Hindi filmmakers. ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967), ‘The Wild Bunch’ (1969), ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ (1969), ‘Dirty Harry’ (1971), and ‘The Godfather’ (1972) are just some of such gruesome productions.
It is however interesting to see that most of the films that succeeded in 1975, irrespective of their violence quotient, had music – to be read as songs – which went to on become popular and still remembered. At least two to three songs from films such as ‘Sholay’, ‘Dharmatma’, ‘Deewaar’, ‘Sanyasi’, ‘Pratigya’, ‘Zakhmee’ and ‘Kala Sona’ went on to attain various positions in the popular radio programme, Binaca Geetmala, a barometer of popularity for Hindi film songs, at that time. The last film mentioned here even had actor Danny Denzongpa giving playback to himself and singing the popular song, ‘Sun Sun Kasam Se’ with Asha Bhonsle.
The non-violent Hindi films released in 1975, had some of the best songs heard during the particular decade. ‘Julie’ which won the Filmfare Award for Best Music that year has one song better than the other; and it had a variety of songs including a bhajan, a duet and even an English song. The three films by poet-filmmaker, Gulzar released in 1975, ‘Khushboo’, ‘Aandhi’ and ‘Mausam’ had brilliant compositions; R. D. Burman being the composer of the first two films, while Madan Mohan doing the honours for the third. Raj Kapoor produced ‘Dharam Karam’ (R. D. Burman), Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed ‘Chupke Chupke’ and ‘Mili’ (music of both films composed by S. D. Burman), and Basu Chatterjee made ‘Choti si Baat’ (Salil Chowdhury) in the same year. The songs in these films were nothing short of lilting.
Films like ‘Rafoo Chakkar’ based on Billy Wilder’s ‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959) and Rajesh Khanna starrer ‘Prem Kahani’ too came out with many pleasant songs. Ravindra Jain was the surprise package, weaving traditional tunes for ‘Geet Gaata Chal’, and romantic songs in ‘Do Jasoos’, including one influenced by ‘Woyaya’ of the Osibisa rock band. Some odd music composers like Shyamal Mitra (for Shakti Samanta’s ‘Amanush’), Sapan Chakraborty (for B. R. Chopra’s ‘Zameer’), Sonik-Omi (‘Raftaar’), Vanraj Bhatia (for Shyam Benegal’s ‘Nishant’) and Sapan-Jagmohan (for B. R. Ishara’s ‘Kaagaz ki Nao’) also ensured a couple of unforgettable melodies for the respective films that year. Interestingly the songs of ‘Jai Santoshi Maa’ – the second most successful film of 1975 next to only ‘Sholay’ – as composed by C. Arjun became household anthems. The craze of the bhajans from this film penned by Kavi Pradeep namely ‘Karti hun Tumhara Vrat Main’, ‘Yaha Waha Jaha Taha’, ‘Mai toh Aarati Utaru Re,’ and ‘Madad Karo Santoshi Mata’ had to be seen to be believed!
The juxtaposition of violence and melody was the interesting phenomenon which occurred in the 1975 films, like a rare kind of eclipse. The year experienced violence taking over the long-existing melody in the Hindi films, but just about. The process however gained momentum during the next few years and by 1980, the melody – barring few exceptions like the musical ‘Kabhie Kabhie’ (1976), ‘Kinara’ (1977), ‘Ghar’ (1978), ‘Silsila’ (1981) and ‘Umrao Jaan’ (1981) – was out of Hindi films, and totally replaced by violence. A decade later, the melody returned to the Hindi films during the 1990s, before altogether disappearing from the scene. The year 1975 however will remain in the archives of Hindi cinema as the period when melody lost out to the bloodshed.
