Sunday, October 25, 2009

The music of Kamal Dasgupta

This post first appeared in the PassionForCinema blog on October 24, 2009.

Kamal Dasgupta (1912-1974)In the Hindi film Jawab (1942), singer-actress Kanan Devi lulls a restless and rather childlike P. C. Barua into sweet sleep. The song is “Ay chand chup na jaana,” and it is great for frayed nerves. Given my own battles with sleep—the activity that consumes nearly a half of our lives—I feel compelled to attest to the wonder of this lullaby by music composer Kamal Prasanna Dasgupta (1912-1974), with lyrics by Pt. Madhur. Here it is: Song 1:



Considering the extraordinary melody of Kamal Dasgupta’s music (he was also a singer), it is surprising that today very few remember this prolific genius who composed nearly 8000 songs that spanned quite a range—from films (Hindi, Bengali, and—most astonishingly—even Tamil, which I have not yet had the luck of encountering) to non-film categories such as Meera bhajans, Nazrul geet, kirtans, and ghazals, to name just a few.

Here is a composer who gave Jagmohan and Juthika Roy some of their best songs ever, a composer who shaped the early careers of Talat Mahmood and Hemant Kumar, much before they got a break in films as playback singers. And yet, woefully, it is not easy to find detailed, authoritative information on—as Sarwat Ali puts it, “the first million copy seller of golden discs in [the] Indian music industry.”

I am guessing that S. M. Shahid’s book (with accompanying CDs) called Kamal Dasgupta: Unforgettable Songs, whose existence I only recently discovered through the Internet, and which I have not seen, should fill the void to some extent. Certainly it is on my buying list now.

And here comes a pleasant discovery I made from the tracks listed in Shahid’s book/CDs—a piece of information that thrilled me indescribably: for many years now, I have been enthralled by singer Jagmohan (or Jaganmoy Mitra, 1918-2003)—another largely forgotten figure—without knowing that many of his gut-wrenchingly beautiful songs were composed by Dasgupta.

Although I knew that Dasgupta had composed Jagmohan’s eponymous “O varsha ke pehle baadal mera sandesa le jaana” for the film Meghdoot (1945), I had no idea that it was the same genius composer behind other Jagmohan numbers (largely non film) such as “Dil dekar dard liya” or “Deewana tumhaara kahta hai afsaana.” (By the way, the lyricist for these songs is yet another forgotten figure—Fayyaz Hashmi, 1920-?)

I wonder why the old HMV audiocassettes of Jagmohan’s songs never ever mentioned the name of the composer. That has been a huge disservice to the legacy of Kamal Dasgupta—and that damage has stayed on: even now, when I look up Jagmohan’s songs, or the more well-known Talat Mahmood’s early songs, on the Internet, usually there is no mention of the music composer. Why does this information have to be so arcane? Why should one have to burrow one’s way through to know the name of the creator of some of the sweetest melodies? It is utterly deplorable.

I will suspend my outrage for a while and return to Jawab (1942), possibly the first Hindi film for which Dasgupta composed music. One of its best-known songs is Kanan Devi’s “Toofan Mail” (in recent times, Lata Mangeshkar sang it for her Shraddhanjali series that celebrated all-time memorable songs), and it certainly ranks as one of the most unforgettable train songs in Indian film music. Lyricist Pt. Madhur sure nailed it when he wrote “Ek hai aata, ek hai jaata, sabhi musaafir, bichhad jaayenge.” Song 2:



From a soothing lullaby to a sprightly train song—and now to a “dulhaniya” song from Jawab: here is Anima Dasgupta (no relation of Kamal Dasgupta) singing “Dulhaniya chhama chham chhama chham chali” for actress Jamuna, who looks on dotingly at the bashful bride-to-be, a charming Kanan Devi in all her bridal finery. Song 3:



In keeping with the grand tradition in Indian films of double versions of the same song—happy versus sad, or fast versus slow, or solo versus duet—here is the second, shorter version of the “Ay chand chup na jaana” lullaby that appears towards the end of the film, when love triumphs. It is sung by, I believe, Kamal Dasgupta himself, along with Kanan Devi. Song 4:



While researching on Dasgupta on the Internet (a very frustrating endeavor), I found a particularly poignant statement by him. An article by Khalid Hasan mentions a line from Dasgupta’s 1971 letter to a friend in Bengali—and I quote the quote: “‘The pictures you see in front, everybody remembers them and praises them. But nobody wants to know the people who work behind the scenes, nor talk about them. That is the nature of the world.’” Guess that sums it up.

Image credit: stationhollywood.blogspot.com

14 comments:

  1. I take this opportunity to thank you for coming up with such a valuable page to salute such a great composer who is remembered by so few these days. It will certainly help to preserve his memory.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I You are filling up a great void by writing on the films and the music of the vintage era. Kamal Dasgupta's contribution is enormous if you consider all the non-film geets and ghazals of Hemant Kumar, Talat Mahmood, Juthika Roy. In many Geets - I prefer this term to the commonly used 'private song', Kamal Dasgupta and Faiyaz Hashmi worked in tandem. On Faiyaz Hashmi I found more material on the internet, thanks to a Pakistani enthusiast. While at this, I always wondered who the lyricist and the composer were of Pankaj Mallik's immortal Ye raatein ye mausam ye hansna hansaana. Could it be the the Faiyaz Hashmi - Kamal Dasgupta tandem?

    I I have been looking for the original version of Kishore Kumar's Koi humdum na raha (Jhumroo), which is said to be sung by Ashok Kumar in Jeevan Naiya (1936), composed by Saraswati Devi. Would be grateful if anyone having it posts it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There are a few great Music Directors, Kamal Dasgupta was certainly one of the best among them. His songs were simple without huge background music but at the same time so very sweet, examples are all songs of Jawab of 1942. In particular, 'Toofan Mail'. There is no parallel to this song today. It is most unfortunate a good video copy of this song is not available. I would like to see the film, Jawab, but I do not know how to get it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Available probably in film archives of india. I also understand it is available in pakustan

      Delete
  4. I did not have time to check whether you posted this already (spring here and grand kids have come)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAo506wXYz0&feature=related

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that is another lovely composition by KD. All his numbers are very unique. It is very frustrating that so little information is available about him and his wonderful music.

      Delete
  5. To those who earlier commented on this post: For various reasons, I have been very amiss with checking my blog for comments/feedback in the past, and responding. My apologies. I hope to rectify that from now on and be prompt as I can with my replies. Better late than never, as they say. And the comments on this post I particularly value since KD's music is very dear to me. So here goes:

    Ghulam: Yes, it is such a pity that so few people remember KD today. I hope this will soon change for the better.

    AKU: I have wondered too about who was behind yeh raaten yeh mausam-- and I won't be surprised if it was composed by KD with lyrics by FH. I have to do some digging. And I never knew that Kishore Kumar's Koi humdum na raha from Jhumroo was originally sung by Ashok Kumar for Jeevan naiyya.I may have some songs from Jeevan naiyya with me. I will see if I have it.

    P.Vijay: Your observation about KD is very apt. The Bengali version called Shesh Uttar is available commercially. Jawab is hard to come by. Do check on Torrent. I have only the songs with me, which I have already posted.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nivedita I saw the link to the Satyajit Ray post on facebook and chanced upon this post. I agree with everyone you are doing a great job of keeping the memory of such greats alive.I found this post quite interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you, Shilpi, for your kind words...hope you doing well.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Madam, I recently read that KamalDasguptha was in charge of Orchestration for the M.S.Subbulakshmi ( Santha Apte film) Savithri. I was searching for the author of a bajan record (78 rpm) by MS . On one side we have 'Rama milan ke' and on the reverse side 'maiyn nir guniya'. ..Vasantha Memorial page says that Rama mila bajan was taught to MS by Kamal DasGuptha. Is it possible that the lyrics and music were by him? Can you please help? https://sites.google.com/site/homage2mssubbulakshmi/home/31-mai-n-nirguniya-guna-nahi....Kindly have a look at https://sites.google.com/site/meera1947film/home/video-clips ( I have used your uploads to youtube)

    ReplyDelete
  9. thanks to all of you for posting valuable information. i am afraid all these exchange wii end with our generation. i read somewhere that kamal das guptha died in present Bangladesh.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the wealth of information provided. I am desperately searching for this movie "Jawab" of 1942. Any idea if I can either obtain it on the internet or if it is otherwise available to buy?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for the wealth of information provided. I am desperately searching for this movie "Jawab" of 1942. Any idea if I can either obtain it on the internet or if it is otherwise available to buy?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wealth of info a few years ago (5) i saw someone from pakistan had posted that he has cds of some precious old films for sale at 5000/ per piece it included jawab and some saigal films as well

    ReplyDelete