Monday, 22 October 2007
Sweet Baby by George Duke
SWEET BABY-George Duke
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When I think about your lovin'
The Sunday evenings, the fun we used to share
Looking through the memories in my mind
Since I've laughed and cried and thought it over
Now I realize that it's never over, it's only set aside
Oh, it's you, sweet baby
I will never be free from your embrace, sweet baby
Only hoping it's not too late to try again It's true, sweet baby
Ever lost and captured by your smile, sweet baby
I will always be right there by your side
Right by your side
Lying here alone
I'm dreaming
My mind keeps wandering, my thoughts are only you
Wandering through the memories in my mind
How could love so real have turned so empty
I just keep wondering why
Will I ever find the love we shared together, you and I
Oh, it's you, sweet baby
Though we had such a long hard road to climb, sweet baby
Only hoping it's not too late to try again
It's you, sweet baby
Won't u try belivin wat i say, sweet baby
I will always be right there by your side
Right by your side
Oh, it's you, sweet baby
I will never be free from your embrace, sweet baby
Only hoping it's not too late to try again
It's you, sweet baby
Ever lost and captured by your smile, sweet baby
I will always be right there by your side
Right by your side
Friday, 19 October 2007
My Heart Will Go On
Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you,
That is how I know you go on
Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And youre here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
Love can touch us one time
And last for a lifetime
And never let go till were gone
Love was when I loved you
One true time I hold to
In my life well always go on
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And youre here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
Youre here, theres nothing I fear,
And I know that my heart will go on
Well stay forever this way
You are safe in my heart
And my heart will go on and on
My Heart Will Go On
Every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you.
That is how I know you go on.
Far across the distance and spaces between us,
you have come to show you go on.
Near, far, wherever you are,
I believe that the heart does go on.
Once more you open the door and you're
here in my heart and my heart will go on and on.
Love can touch us one time and last for a
lifetime and never let go till we're gone.
Love, was when I loved you, one true time
I had to, in my life we'll always go on.
Near, far, wherever you are,
I believe that the heart does go on.
Once more you open the door and you're
here in my heart and my heart will go on and on.
You're here, there's nothing I fear, and I know
that my heart will go on.
We'll stay forever this way,
you are safe in my heart and my heart will go on
and on.
My Heart Will Go On
Video clip: Celine Dion-My heart will go on
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You are doing an easy thing, yet the thing you think that is so hard to say, it is to Love! Why keep things in your heart unrevealed? why not try to show your loved ones how much you care for them? and you’ll learn, that you are loved too, so do it, before it is late… Listen, the lyric says it all!
"If Tomorrow Never Comes"
RONAN KEATING
Sometimes late at night
I lie awake and watch her sleeping
She's lost in peaceful dreams
So I turn out the lights and lay there in the dark
And the thought crosses my mind
If I never wake up in the morning
Would she ever doubt the way I feel
About her in my heart
If tomorrow never comes
Will she know how much I loved her
Did I try in every way to show her every day
That she's my only one
And if my time on earth were through
And she must face this world without me
Is the love I gave her in the past
Gonna be enough to last
If tomorrow never comes '
Cause I've lost loved ones in my life
Who never knew how much I loved them
Now I live with the regret
That my true feelings for them never were revealed
So I made a promise to myself
To say each day how much she means to me
And avoid that circumstance
Where there's no second chance to tell her how I feel
If tomorrow never comes
Will she know how much I loved her
Did I try in every way to show her every day
That she's my only one
And if my time on earth were through
And she must face this world without me
Is the love I gave her in the past
Gonna be enough to last
If tomorrow never comes
So tell that someone that you love
Just what you're thinking of
If tomorrow never comes
"Nếu ngày mai không bao giờ tới"
Ronan Keating
Có những lúc về khuya, tôi nằm đó và ngắm em ngủ,
Khi em đã chìm vào những giấc mơ bình yên, là lúc tôi tắt đèn và trằn trọc trong bóng đêm
Rồi một ý nghĩ chợt vụt qua
Lỡ như sáng mai tôi sẽ không bao giờ tỉnh dậy nữa
Có khi nào em nghi ngờ tình yêu tôi dành cho em
Từ trái tim này?
Nếu như ngày mai sẽ không bao giờ tới
Có bao giờ em biết được tôi yêu em đến thế nào không?
Có biết được từng giờ phút, tôi đã luôn muốn cho em thấy
Rằng em là người duy nhất
Và nếu thời gian của tôi trên trái đất này không còn nữa
Em sẽ phải đối mặt với cả thế gian này mà không có tôi…
Liệu tình yêu tôi đã từng dành cho em
Sẽ che chở cho em được đến hết cuộc đời này?
Nếu như ngày mai sẽ không bao giờ tới….
Bởi tôi đã từng mất đi những người yêu thương của cuộc đời mình
Những người đã không bao giờ biết được tôi yêu họ đến thế nào
Giờ đây tôi đang sống trong sự hối tiếc
Vì những tình yêu ấy họ đã không bao giờ được biết
Và tôi đã tự hứa với lòng mình
Mỗi ngày qua đi sẽ nói với em rằng,
Em có ý nghĩa như thế nào đối với tôi
Và tôi sẽ mãi làm thế, bởi có thể sẽ không có được cơ hội thứ hai
Để cho em biết những tình cảm của tôi
Bạn hãy nói với ai đó yêu thương của mình rằng
Bạn yêu họ,
Bởi vì,
Có thể ngày mai sẽ không bao giờ tới…
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
梅艷芳 Anita Mui - Song of Sunset 夕陽之歌
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sunset Song is a 1932 novel by the Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon. It is widely regarded as one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century, if not the most important. It is the first part of a trilogy A Scots Quair.
Plot introduction
The central character is a young woman, Chris Guthrie, growing up in a farming family in the fictional Estate of Kinraddie in "The Mearns" (Kincardineshire) in the north east of Scotland at the start of the 20th century. Life is hard, and her family is dysfunctional.
Plot summary
Her mother, broken by repeated childbirths, commits suicide and poisons two young twins she has. Two younger children go to live with relatives, leaving Chris, her older brother Will and her father to run the farm on their own. Will and her father have a stormy relationship and Will emigrates to Argentina with his young bride. Chris is left to do all the work around the house. Soon after this, her father suffers a stroke, leaving him bedridden. For a time he tries to persuade her to commit incest with him, but as he is badly hurt he is not able to force her. He dies shortly afterwards. At his funeral, Chris realises what happened to her father and breaks down in tears as she never knew the hardship he has endured for them.
Chris, who has had some education, considers leaving for a job as a teacher in the towns, but realises she loves the land and cannot leave it, instead marries a young farmer called Ewan Tavendale and carries on farming. For a time they are happily married, and they have a son, who they also call Ewan. However when the First Wold War breaks out Ewan senior and many other young men join up. When he comes home on leave he treats Chris badly, evidently brutalised by his experiences in the army. Later she hears that he was killed in the war. Shortly after this she finds out the true story from another soldier from the area on leave: Ewan was shot as a deserter, but he died thinking of her. She begins a relationship with the new minister and she watches as he dedicated the War Memorial at the Standing Stones above her home. The Sun sets to the Flowers of the Forest, bringing an end to their way of life, forever.
Major themes
The novel touches on several issues, including the nature of Scottish national identity, and the "peasant crisis" i.e. the coming of modernisation to traditional farming communities. The author also has some political opinions reflected in the characters of Chae Strachan, the Socialist, and Long Rob, the pacifist, and he shows how they react to the coming of the war. The dilemma Chris faces over whether to continue her education or commit to a life in the land is also featured.
Literary significance & criticism
When it was first published, some readers were shocked by its realistic treatment of sex and childbirth, and its sometimes negative portrayals of family life. Some wondered if it had been written by a woman using a male pseudonym. Even now, some women have been known to refuse to believe that the description of childbirth at one point was written by a man.
The novel is written in an essentially artificial form of Scots intended to capture the colloquial speech of the Mearns peasants without being inaccessible to English speakers. Many readers find it strange at first, but get into it after a few pages.
It is told in the form of flashbacks.
Friday, 12 October 2007
Donna donna
Tiec Thuong(Donna Donna)
Ánh đèn vàng hiu hắt
Khói trần cay đôi mắt
Em nằm đó sao không cười không nói?
Dáng buồn còn vương nét
Mắt huyền giờ đã khépEm nào đó như đang mơ mộng gì
Em theo mây mây bay quên cuộc đời
Đời đầy nghĩa thương đauMây đưa em bay đi tìm trời
Và nơi đó em có nhớ tôi
Em ơi em ơi! em hỡi người yêu dấu
Sao em yêu vội sớm ra đi
Em ơi em ơi! em hỡi người yêu dấu
Đau lòng thay phút giây chia lìa
Tiếng đàn ai buông lơi
Tiếng đàn như tiếng khóc
Ru từng phím tơ não nùng ai oán
Khiến lòng tôi thổn thức
Khiến lòng tôi ray rứt
Môi mặn đắng nước mắt thơ tiếng kèn
Em theo mây bay quên tình người
Người đầy những dối gian
Mây đưa em bay đi về trờiVà nơi đó em có nhớ tôi
Em ơi em ơi! em hỡi người yêu dấuS
ao đôi ta vội sờm chia lyEm ơi em ơi! em hỡi người yêu dấu
Biết rồi tôi mất em suốt đời
DONNA DONNA
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Il était une fois un petit garçon
Qui vivait dans une grande maison
Sa vie n’était que joie et bonheur
Et pourtant au fond de son cœur
Il voulait devenir grand
Rêvait d’être un homme.
Chaque soir il y pensait
Quand sa maman le berçait
Chorus :Donna Donna Donna Donna
Tu regretteras le temps
Donna Donna Donna Donna
Où tu étais un enfant
Puis il a grandi, puis il est parti
Et il a découvert la vie
Les amours déçues, la faim et la peur
Et souvent au fond de son cœur
Il revoyait son enfance
Rêvait d’autrefois
Tristement il y pensait
Et il se souvenai
Thursday, 11 October 2007
El Bimbo (Claude Ciari)
Claude Ciari Biography
French guitarist Claude Ciari has the rare distinction of being the first Caucasian to run for a seat in the upper house of the government of Japan. While he was not elected, he used the opportunity to publicly challenge what he felt was a stupid law for foreigners, a stance that only furthered his popularity in Japan. Ciari was born in Nice on the French Riviera in 1944. He started to play guitar when he was 11, and by 16 he was proficient enough to join a rock group, Les Champions, featuring himself on lead guitar along with Jean-Claude Chane (singer), Alain Santamaria (guitar), Daniel Kaufman (bass guitar), and Willy Lewis (drums). Les Champions, with a sound closer to the Jordanaires than the more popular instrumental groups of the era, recorded several singles, and even toured France with Gene Vincent in October 1962. Les Champions were not very original, and Ciari became frustrated when the band decided to become the support band for French singer Danyel Gerard.
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Ciari left the group in 1964, and began his career as a solo artist. Solo success was immediate -- his first album included an instrumental rhumba, "La Playa," which caught on in the bossa nova fervor of the time and became a big hit in France and over 40 other countries. At 20 years old, Ciari had sold several million records, and began a prolific and acclaimed career. The first Batacuda's Seven LP, recorded in 1970, was his first dedicated to exploring Latin music, and gained him many more devoted followers in Latin America. He recorded many charting albums and singles, and toured extensively. In 1974 he decided to move to Tahiti, exploring Polynesian music while performing throughout Southeast Asia. Ciari fell in love with a fashion model while touring Japan, and subsequently moved to that country and married her. Ciari and his new wife started a family immediately, having two children within a few years of their wedding.
Japanese law at the time stipulated that children of a Japanese father automatically became Japanese citizens, while children of a foreign father were deemed foreign nationals. This archaic rule and the labyrinthine Japanese bureaucracy regarding children's rights outraged Ciari, and he decided the best way he could change things was to run for political office. He took Japanese citizenship, then campaigned to enter the upper house of government -- somewhat akin to running for the U.S. Senate -- and used the opportunity to, in his words, "make a big fuss using newspaper, magazines, radio, and TV." He received a solid 300,000 votes, but did not win the seat; however, his case became a cause célèbre, and eventually the offending law was removed. Claude Ciari has recorded more than 50 albums, and has contributed to many film and television soundtracks, working multiple times with composers Francis Lai and Bernard Gérard, and he continues to appear on television shows in Japan. He has not performed in France in almost 30 years, but hopes to return in the near future. ~ Laurie Mercer, All Music Guide
© Copyright 2007 AOL, LLC All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
Love Story
Love Story (1970) is a sentimental, romantic tearjerker film from director Arthur Hiller about a tragic couple. [Hiller had passed up the opportunity to work on The Godfather(1972) to make this film.] The melodramatic soap-opera, tremendously popular and a financial success (the top-earning film of the year) but panned by critics for its sappy content, was based upon Erich Segal's best-selling short novel of the same name. The film's tagline, "Love means never having to say you're sorry," appeared slightly differently in Segal's novelization: "Love means not ever having to say you're sorry."
The catchy, haunting, piano-plinking score won the Best Original Score Oscar (the film's sole award) for Francis Lai from its seven Academy Awards nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Ryan O'Neal), Best Supporting Actor (John Marley), Best Actress (Ali MacGraw), Best Director (Arthur Hiller), and Best Original Story and Screenplay (Erich Segal). Beau Bridges, Michael York, Michael Douglas, Jon Voight, Michael Sarrazin and Peter Fonda all turned down the part of Oliver - which ultimately went to Ryan O'Neal.
This film rescued Paramount from total bankruptcy (it was the 9th most profitable studio at the time), and began an incredible streak of major successes under Paramount VP of development Robert Evans' stewardship, including Harold and Maude (1971), The Godfather (1972), Play it again, Sam (1972), The Getaway (1972), Serpico (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), Chinatown (1974), Marathon Man (1976) and Black Sunday (1977). An inferior sequel was produced later in the decade - Oliver's Story (1978) pairing a still-grieving Ryan O'Neal with Candice Bergen.
Told as a flashback, this is an uncomplicated love story between two star-crossed lovers-students, Harvard pre-law hockey player Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) and Radcliffe music student Jenny Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw). Oliver narrates the opening line of the film, looking back:
What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved Mozart and Bach, the Beatles, and me?
Their love triumphs over different economic-class backgrounds (he is a "preppie millionaire," she a smart-mouthed "social zero" from a blue-collar Italian/American family). Their main obstacle to romance is that his rich, powerful and snobbish father, Oliver Barrett III (Ray Milland) objects and threatens to cut off funding: "Oliver, if you marry her now, I'll not give you the time of day." To which the younger, bull-headed Oliver defiantly asks: "What offends you more, Father, that she's Catholic, or poor?" He ultimately responds: "Father, you don't know the time of day." The two young lovers marry anyway and first move into a small apartment in Cambridge before Oliver is hired by a New York law firm and they move to the city.
The film's two most touching and remembered scenes are their prolonged kissing scene and the montage of the couple tossing snowballs at each other. After meeting many obstacles and making sacrifices, she is diagnosed as terminally ill when she is tested for pregnancy, and dies in his arms at the hospital in a tear-inducing closing. She makes a last request of him: "You, after all - you're going to be a merry widower." "I won't be merry," he responds. She replies: "Yes, you will be. I want you to be merry. You'll be merry, okay?"
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In the final scene, Oliver quotes his late wife, when speaking to his father about their past misunderstandings. After his father tells him he's sorry that she has died, Oliver responds in the last memorable line of the film, quoting an earlier remark of Jenny's:
Love means never having to say you're sorry.
He then walks out into a snowy Central Park to contemplate what life might have been in a touching finale, as the award-winning musical score builds in the background.
Created in 1996-2007 © by Tim Dirks
Love Story by Fan Yi Chen
爱的故事有很多 你一定听过
ai de gu shi you hen duo ni yi ding ting guo
她们说 最美的爱情像湖泊
ta men shuo zui mei de ai qing xiang hu bo
美的忍不住停留 而任性的风
mei de ren bu zhu ting liu er ren xing de feng
吹过了 却飘下一片片叶落
chui guo le que piao xia yi pian pian ye luo
放~开手往北方走留下伤心的树独自忍受
fang~kai shou wang bei fang zou liu xia shang xin de shu du zi ren shou
你离开我连一句话都不说
ni li kai wo lian yi ju hua duo bu shuo
只默默看着今晚天空星光闪烁
zhi mo mo kan zhe jin wan xing guang shan shuo
看今夜的流星 划过了天际 笑我的心
kan jin yeh de liu xin hua guo le tian ji xiao wo de xin
我无法再冷静请你要倾听你是我的唯一
wo wu fa zai leng jing qing ni yao qing ting ni shi wo de wei yi
我不愿去相信我们之间隔著海洋的距离
wo bu yuan qu xiang xin wo men zhi jian ge zhe hai yang de ju li
我的爱 已融化在空气里
wo de ai yi rong hua zai kong qi li
爱的故事有很多 你一定听过
ai de gu shi you hen duo ni yi ding ting guo
她们说 最美的爱情像湖泊
ta men shuo zui mei de ai qing xiang hu bo
美的忍不住停留 而任性的风
mei de ren bu zhu ting liu er ren xing de feng
吹过了 却飘下一片片叶落
chui guo le que piao xia yi pian pian ye luo
放~开手往北方走留下伤心的树独自忍受
fang~kai shou wang bei fang zou liu xia shang xin de shu du zi ren shou
你离开我连一句话都不说
ni li kai wo lian yi ju hua duo bu shuo
只默默看着今晚天空星光闪烁
zhi mo mo kan zhe jin wan xing guang shan shuo
看今夜的流星 划过了天际 笑我的心
kan jin yeh de liu xin hua guo le tian ji xiao wo de xin
我无法再冷静请你要倾听你是我的唯一
wo wu fa zai leng jing qing ni yao qing ting ni shi wo de wei yi
我不愿去相信我们之间隔著海洋的距离
wo bu yuan qu xiang xin wo men zhi jian ge zhe hai yang de ju li
我的爱 已融化在空气里
wo de ai yi rong hua zai kong qi li
Hindi song - Dholna
The Talkie Era (Until 1935)
The year 1931 not only marked the beginning of the "talkie" age, but it also naturally became the starting point for movie composers and singers. The playing field became instantly dominated by a handful of strong production studios most of which had their legacy firmly rooted in the silent era. Ardeshir Irani and R.S. Choudhury (Mehboob Khan's mentors) carried forward the Imperial Studios banner. Himansu Rai, the consummate English nobleman leveraged his experience with British and German moviemakers, Shantaram and Master Vinayak joined forces to further foster Prabhat Films, B.N. Sarkar moved his silent movie gear to South Calcutta where New Theatres was founded, Homi Wadia instituted Wadia Movietone, Sohrab Modi joined his mentors at Minerva, and Chandulal Shah deftly moved his Ranjit Studios banner into the age of sound. There were others like Madan Theatres (also Calcutta), but the names mentioned here would provide the bedrock foundation on which the future would grow and prosper.
The attitudes of that age were interesting. Capital was tight and only a handful of privileged and monied gentry could invest in movie studios. Most of them were carryovers from the silent era anyway. Movie-watchers were still the upper echelons of society. The production studio was the feudal lord. Employees of the company would not dream of quitting or moonlighting. And girls from "good families" would not even dream of having anything to do with the performing arts, least of all the cinema.
All that changed when two daring and beautiful young ladies broke the rules. Devika Rani Choudhury married Himansu Rai and stepped firmly in to moviedom. Not far away, a charming Durga Khote joined Shantaram's Prabhat Films in AYODHYECHA RAAJA, their first sound venture. These were still the exception to a rule deeply entrenched in a male-dominated tradition. But a beachhead was now created. Others would follow. Durga Khote can be credited with another first. She could well have been the first freelance heroine of that age. As committed as she was to Prabhat, she also spent some time working with the New Theatres contingent.
Musical tastes round the country were still dominated by the Indian motif - one-dimensional melody that drew almost entirely on classical and folk structures. The performance of music was simple at best. Most of the singers were either from "singing families" with delivery styles set in the tradition of their "gharaana" OR were theatre performers trying hard to get by with simple straight-line approximations of the stated melody. Playback technology was available, but there was no implementation handy for scalable reuse. Out in Bengal, New Theatres tried their first playback experiment as early as 1933. It did not go unnoticed.
This was the state of the early to mid '30s. The alliances were interesting. The East and West were ruled by their respective Holy Trinities. Prabhat was led by Master Govindrao Tembe and his two disciples Keshavrao Bhole and Krishnarao Phulambrikar (with a young Vasant Shantaram Desai still in the pen). Bengal's New Theatres had their answer in Raichand Boral, Pankaj Mullick and later, Timirbaran Bhattacharya. Imperial Studios leaned on their Parsee patrons. Himansu Rai, with his British Production Company, was still dependent on European craftspersons for music among other things. Bombay Talkie, created in the mid-'30s would hire Khorshed Homji and Ramchandra Pal as their constant composers, but that was a few years away. Funded to a degree by Ram Daryani, Sagar and National Studios brought in maestros Pransukh Nayak and Ashok Ghosh. Chandulal Shah's Ranjit Studios flexed its musical muscle through classicists like Jhande Khan, Banne Khan and protege Rewashankar Marwari.
The somewhat negative perception of cinema's musical occupants, pervasive as it was, never quite influenced the classicists of any age, really. In the mid-'30s, grandmasters like Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam sought to use the movie medium to further the cause of literature, music, national integration, the independence movement, and on and on.
Emergence of Hindi movie song (Late 30's )
And then it happened. Ram Daryani, a visionary financier, brought a 20 year old tabla player from Calcutta to work with the Sagar Movietone orchestra. It is to the credit of composer Ashok Ghosh that he took young Anil Biswas under his tutelage, and further, gave him enough freedom to create the first real orchestra for a Hindi movie song. In parallel, the Himansu Rai-Devika Rani team launched Bombay Talkie, hired the orchestra-minded Saraswati Devi as their composer, and further strengthened the foundation of a Western outlook, however simplistic it might have been at that time. The groundwork was launched for the Hindi movie song.
The first few songs to hit the nation as a whole may well have been from ACHHUT KANYAA and some contemporary Sagar Movietone productions. The time was 1935-36, and if this is where it started, we might have a candidate here for bringing in the Golden Age.
In the meantime, just out of the blue, New Theatres hit a home run. They augmented their singing talent through Sehgal's voice. A Punjabi singer far away from his native ambience seemed well at home in Tollygunge, South Calcutta.
With all the busy ins and out, Bombay had its weather eye cocked on an already well-established studio out to the North somewhere. Dalsukh Panchholi was an astute businessman. What did this business-oriented Lahori know of music, anyway? Some of life's happiest events hang together by threads of serendipity. Had Panchholi not created GUL-E-BAKAAVLI (1939), Baby Noorjehan may never have become known to the world at large. Had he not hired Master Ghulam Haider to do the very traditional, staid and Punjabi music for it, the songs may never have hit the headlines. And Panchholi might never have hired Master Haider to do KHAZAANCHI in 1941, but for a string of such chance events. And where would the Hindi movie song be today without the pioneering framework provided by KHAZAANCHI? We have fast-forwarded through the latter part of the '30s here, but let us get to 1941 and KHAZAANCHI. Master Haider consciously broke away from the dull and monotonous delivery of the '30s song. It was not without pain or criticism. Every generation has had its maverick. That he was, and knowingly so. KHAZAANCHI has gone down in history as the movie that defined the very structure of the modern Hindi song, much in the style of Von Neumann who, only 5 years later, defined the essence of stored program execution. Neither the structure of the Hindi song, nor the essential sequencial program execution model have changed much or at all since their inception. In that respect, Ghulam Haider hailed the age of modern Hindi music.
To summarize the '30s, the professional scene consisted of salaried employees in a handful of movie studios the vast majority of which were brought forward through profits from the silent age. Noorjehan, Ghulam Haider,and Anil Biswas were the frontline names. Looking at the content, we must examine the constituents - the melody, the orchestration, the singing style and ability, the lyrics, and in some ways also the picturization. The dominant singers of the age were KC Dey, Pankaj Mullick, Shanta Apte, Govindrao Tembe, Ashok Kumar, Devika Rani, Surendra, Wahidan Bai and sister Jyoti, Bibbo, Manju and a few more. In a category all by himself stood the theatrical and Sufiana singer Kundanlal Sehgal. Some of his most famous songs had already been created, and he was just warming up.
More coincidence. The rapid and profitable emergence of the movie during the '30s, while remaining the sole property of a few studios, engaged the entire nation. What had started as the entertainment of the upper crust had trickled down to practically all layers of society - deep enough to threaten the legacy social outing. One such example was the Natak Mandali tradition of Maharashtra. Attendance dropped to all time lows. Mass defections occurred, both in the audience and the performers. Families whose wherewithal was the Natya Sangeet medium felt the most pain. Several went bankrupt. Alcoholism, a very natural companion of the performing arts, only aggravated the suffering. None knew this better than Dinanath Mangeshkar. Five children, a young wife, and nowhere to turn to. Once the darling of the Marathi stage, he now had trouble finding familiar faces in the business. In desperation, he accepted his oldest daughter's insistence upon finding a job for herself. In this quest, 12-year old Lata Mangeshkar was introduced to Vinayakrao Karnataki. But there was something else. She also signed up for a National Level Talent contest that had recently been labelled the KHAZAANCHI competition. The Northwestern frontier shuddered as the typhoon hit home. A Marathi-speaking winner of all things! Master Haider, the man whose runaway success had contributed the name to the contest, would stop to take notice. Seven years from the day, he would fight tooth and nail to permanently change the sound of Hindi music. Some milestone this. The writer must submit here that no matter when the Golden Era is said to begin, its life must include this landmark event of Lata Dinanath Mangeshkar winning the KHAZAANCHI competition. This voice has provided even our best composers with the motivation to produce the very best of melodies.
War and to Indian Independence (The Early 40's)
The war in Europe seemed far enough away, and yet, the movie industry felt its impact in a rather indirect fashion. The Indian scene had its own domestic perturbations. Politically, Quit India was significant as were the down and dirty war profiteers. Not all the sinners were blue-eyed blondes as some history books would have us believe. Ashish Rajyadhyaksha speculates that many Indian businessmen profited unabashedly during the early period of the war and the Bengal famine. The movie studio was a popular front for channelling illegal money. No wonder the early '40s saw an explosion in the number of production companies on both sides of what would be the new India-Pakistan border. But Bombay remained the centre of all capital. With the increase in the number of movie productions, the traditional and feudal studio employer of the '30s could see the walls crumbling around the notion of salaried patronage. The spectre of freelance artists started to become real. The emerging studios, eager to get rid of the blood money that they were bulging with, started to outbid each other for the topmost professionals. This led to "freelancing" by composers and singers. Anil Biswas might have been a pioneer in this regard without realizing it.
A few other facts are interesting. Himansu Rai died in the early '40s leaving the fragile management of Bombay Talkie to its fate. Mehboob Khan decided to part company with his Sagar and National patrons. And playback singing gained momentum as cinema music demanded a better deal than the constriction it met at the hands of limited talents. Oddly enough, one of the first few "pioneers" of playback, Suraiyya Jamaal Sheikh, would essentially spend a career singing mainly for songs filmed on herself.
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Anil Biswas, a longtime Mehboob friend, decided to part company, and left Mehboob Studios floundering for a few years in the quest of a stable musical guide and composer. Bombay Talkie stepped into an antithesis phase with a major exodus of some big names. And on a completely different front, Noorjehan, Panchholi, VM Vyas and Ghulam Haider all individually contributed to the invisible skyline connection between the souls of Bombay and Lahore. All of a sudden, the world was smaller, more talented, and utterly competitive.
The '40s witnessed some of the quickest changes in the way the industry operated. Bombay Talkie, once the "big blue" of the industry, could be seen floundering. The days of stable employment were coming to an end. Artists, young and old, high and low profile, from all walks of the industry, were now on their own. New studios emerged notable among them being the one founded by Abdul Rashid Kardar. His musical soulmate, Naushad Ali, injected a new sound into the spirit of the young Indian movie. Mehboob started his productions with a flourish. Bombay Talkie brought in Anil Biswas and brother-in-law Pannalal Ghosh. New singers, better sounding and accomplished than those of the previous decade, suddenly appeared in the recording studio. Parul Ghosh, Kanan Devi, Amirbai Karnataki, Arun Kumar, Snehprabha, Zohrabai Ambaalewaali, and to be complete, Noorjehan, were all household names already.
BASANT and KISMET were big names. The latter is probably still the biggest hit in the history of Indian cinema (normalizing for inflation, population growth etc).
Text by Vish Krishnan, posted on rec.music.indian.misc by Rebala Gopinath (grebal1@umbc.edu)


