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Cinema still has tremendous powers to mobilize sentiments and mass emotions. Films can still offer an alternative vision, of being socially relevant and meaningful. Popular cinema, despite being high on entertainment quotient, still gives expression to myriad contradictions and conflicts.
Cinema still has tremendous powers to mobilize sentiments and mass emotions. Films can still offer an alternative vision, of being socially relevant and meaningful. Popular cinema, despite being high on entertainment quotient, still gives expression to myriad contradictions and conflicts.
Cinema still has tremendous powers to mobilize sentiments and mass emotions. Films can still offer an alternative vision, of being socially relevant and meaningful. Popular cinema, despite being high on entertainment quotient, still gives expression to myriad contradictions and conflicts.
Cinema can be a powerful tool for social change. It still has
tremendous powers to mobilize sentiments and mass emotions. Despite the phenomenal growth and spread of television and increasing access to other means of entertainment or infotainment, including internet and social media like Facebook, films continue to remain the most popular medium of entertainment, and if harnessed properly, could perform useful social function of providing information and education for the masses, for them to form opinion and judgement. Need we say that cinema as a medium should be used creatively and constructively, and for a larger social purpose? Films can still offer an alternative vision, of being socially relevant and meaningful. Of all the performing arts, cinema is unique in the sense that it incorporates and absorbs all forms and means of creativity, of literature, music, poetry, dance and painting and could combine the best of these art forms. It has powers to influence the public opinion and in turn be influenced by it; cinema as a catalyst for social change still remain relevant and contemporaneous.
Popular cinema, despite being high on entertainment quotient,
still gives expression to myriad contradictions and conflicts which the society faces. We may scoff at the phenomenon of mass adulation for superstars, but it at one time gave expression to the rising aspirations of our teeming millions of youth cutting across all barriers of class and caste, like what Raj Kapoor did, as a tramp and a common man personified, his imitating Chaplin and Chaplinesque acts notwithstanding, that appeared jarring and irritating to many but popular nevertheless, as his on-screen image of an ordinary, simple man, trifle nave, wronged by the society and who does not understand the guiles, machinations and intrigues of the big bad world of business, came with a serious message and appealed to every section of the society. Dilip Kumar had his tragic persona and Dev Anand remained the eternal romantic, flamboyant and suave, appealed to a cross section of our audience, bestowing a mass appeal to what still remained essentially the mainstream commercial and popular cinema, even if clichd, contrived, hackneyed and appeared maudlin to many.
The cinema of those days of the fifties, despite being
commercial and formulaic, still evoked of higher ideals of bringing social change and creating social awareness, and had not turned into Bollywood, which was to come later. The films crafted so sensitively like Bimal Roys Do Bigha Zameen, on the theme of land alienation and the need for land reforms, with an unforgettable performance by Balraj Sahni, IPTAs Dharti Ke Lal on the devastating Bengal famine of the forties in which more than three million perished, captured the misery, distress and tragedy of the impoverished peasant, racked by feudal landlordism, so poignantly and tellingly. The high point of popular cinema of the fifties and early sixties was its music, considered an essential element of mass appeal and fascination for films and for spreading social message effectively to an audience which was still largely unlettered. No wonder, the
fifties was famously referred to as the golden era of Hindi film
music. Sensitive and progressive poets and lyricists like Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Prem Dhawan, Shailendra, Kaifi Azmi were associated with the IPTA, so also well-known music directors that included Anil Biswas, Salil Choudhury, Hemant Kumar and Ravi Shankar. And there was the exceptionally talented quartet of music composers - Roshan, Madan Mohan, Khayyam and Jaidev - who emerged in the fifties and sixties to create some sublime cinematic music. This piece is on the musical odyssey of one of the most underrated but supremely talented composers Hindi cinema has witnessed, Khayyam. His unique and rich legacy of some of the most memorable music he created continues to enchant and enthrall countless admirers. Of the supremely gifted quartet of Hindi film music composers Madan Mohan, Jaidev, Khayyam and Roshan it was Khayyam, with his classical approach, who created some of the most sublime music from Phir Subah Hogi in the fifties to Umran Jaan in the eighties. Commercial success, though, largely eluded him and he did not attain the same name and fame which some of his contemporaries achieved, who were much less talented. Born in Nawashahar in Punjab, Khayyam came into limelight with the soul stirring and haunting music of Phir Subah Hogi, made in 1958, which starred Raj Kapoor and Mala Sinha, the story loosely based on Dostoevskys abiding classic Crime and Punishment. The films sublime music is still talked about. Other than the legendary who subah kabhi to aayegi, some of the brilliant lyrics included Chin-o-Arab hamara, Hindustan hamara, rahne ko ghar nahin hai, sara jahan hamara, Aasman pe hai Khuda aur zameen per hum, aaj kal woh is taraf dekhta hai kam. There is an anecdote behind Khayyam becoming the music director. It was the poet and lyricist, Sahir, who insisted that he would write lyrics only if someone who has not only read but also understood Dostoyevskys classic, composes the music. And, he named Khayyam. Raj Kapoor, whose first choice would have been Shankar Jaikishan, but who had an extremely
good sense of music, put Khayyam through a gruelling test, and
at the end Raj was so overwhelmed with Khayyams creations that he said that he had never heard that kind of poetry or music. The haunting woh subah kabhie to aayegi penned by Sahir, rendered in his inimitable voice by Mukesh, was deeply evocative of the struggle of the underprivileged even for their basic existence and of the unfulfilled promise for a better society. The powerful words evoke of pathos, sufferings and hopelessness, but end with a ray of hope for humanity; despair, melancholy, disgust, disillusionment spill over in one of the most powerful lyrics ever written, acknowledged as the ultimate song of hope and sunshine. In his glorious musical career, Khayyams other memorable scores were in films like Heer Ranjha, Footpath, Shagun, Shola Aur Shabnam, Aakhri Khat, Kabhi Kabhi, Razia Sultan, Shankar Hussain, Bazaar, Thodi si Bewafai, Umrao Jaan. Recipient of Sangeet Natak Academi Award and Padma Bhushan, Khayyams melodious music, rich in classical music and poetic compositions, remain evergreen and meaningful. Starting with Sham e gham ki kasam from the film Footpath in 1953, with ghazal king Talat magic in his dulcet, velvety voice, Khayyam reputation as a great composer soared with the film Shola Aur Shabnam, where Kaifi Azmis lyrics still ring in our ears, Jaane kya dhhonti rehti hein ye aanken mujhmen sung by Rafi and Jeet Hi lenge Baazi Hum tum sung by Lata and Rafi. Just listen to the track "Jane Kya Dhoondti Rahti hain ye aankhen mujhmein raakh ke dher mein sholaa hai na chingaari hai jaane kyaa dhoondhti rahti hain ye aankhen mujhmein raakh ke dher mein sholaa hai na chingaari hai ", with memorable lyrics by Kaifi, highly regarded as one of the best works in the whole career of Khayyam and considered as one of the best songs of Rafi. Another memorable number was in the Chetan Anand directed Aakhri Khat Baharon mera jeevan bhi Sawaron by Lata, again great poetry from Kaifi. More was to follow, of singer Jagjit Kaurs, whom Khayyam married, Tum apna ranjh-o- gham, which was a great piece.
Khayyams versatility was apparent during the seventies when
he teamed up with Sahir to the great evergreen poetry, Kabhi Kabhi mere dil mein Khayal ata hai. Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai.. Ke zindagi teri zulfon ki narm chhaon mein Guzarane paati to shaadaab ho bhi sakati thi........ Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai... The film Shankar Hussain had Rafi sing "Kahin ek Masum Nazuk si Lardki" and Lata render "Aaap yun Faaslon Se", both classic Khayyam songs. Aap Yun Faaslon Se Guzarte Rahe dil Se Qadmon Ki Aavaaz Aati Rahi , aahaton Se Andhere Chamakte Rahe, raat Aati Rahi Raat Jaati Rahi ho, beautiful poetry by Jaan Nishar Akhtar, epitomized Khayyams genre of simple, soulful, melodious and touching music, poetic and lyrical. Who can forget Lata Mangeshkars unforgettable song from Razia Sultan aye dila-ye-naadaan aye dila-ye-naadaan aarajoo kyaa hain, justajoo kyaa hain, hum bhatakate hain, kyon bhatakate hain dashta-o-seharaa mein ayesaa lagataa hain, mauj pyaasee hain apane dareeyaa mein kaisee ulazan hain, kyon ye ulazan hain, yek saayaa saa, rubaru kyaa hain? The film Bazaar in the early eighties saw some socially meaningful poetry from Shahryar and Mir Taqi Mir like Dikhaiyi Diye Kyun ke Bewas kiya and Khayyam reputation as a sensitive composer, preferring to work with the poets having strong background of poetry, was confirmed. But his best was reserved for Muzaffar Alis Umrao Jaan in 1981, where he made Asha Bhonsle sing songs which are indisputably her best; In Aankhon ki masti ke, Ye Kya Jagah hai doston and Dil Cheez kya hai are evergreen and remain perennial favourites of the young and old alike. The lyrics were essentially by Shahrayar and Rekha gave her career's finest performance.
Khayyams musical journey has been quite amazing, though he
was in and out of films all through the sixties and seventies and was never prolific. Perhaps, that was the reason he did not have to plagiarise or pilfer tunes. He remains a very humble man, unassuming and unpretentious, not taking credit even once for the fabulous songs he composed in his critically acclaimed career. To him all contemporary music is not cacophony, though he shows his displeasure about todays remixes. Last heard, he was planning to come up with an album with his singer wife, Jagjit Kaur.