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The Incredibly Sweet Sound of Impending Doom: Madan Mohan (1924 - 1975)
February 19, 2007
The seventies saw Madan Mohan's at his creative peak. R. D. Burman had gripped the nation's imagination with his western rhythms and was spawning imitations from a growing list of music directors. Madan refused to be swayed and composed some of his greatest songs in this period beginning with Rajinder Singh Bedi's Dastak - a work for which Madan recieved the country's highest honour - the National Award. Dastak had Lata at her melodious best. Baiyan Na Dharo, Hum Hai Mataye Kuchao and Mai Re Mai Kase Kahoon, and then that Rafi's painful anthem for solititude in a decaying urban chaos (the sound of a horse carriage moving through Bombay's Foras Road past midnight, rudely cutting the song in half) - Tumse Kahoon Ek Baat Paron Se Halki.... His work with Chetan Anand for Heer Ranjha and Hanste Zakhm was also in this period.
My own personal Madan favourite is an achingly sweet Khamaj from a film that ran for three days in a seedy Mumbai theatre - Dil Ki Raahein with Rehana Sultan and Rakesh Pandey. In constrast to the immensely popular Lata song from the same film, Rasm-E-Ulfat ko Nibhayein, this one never quite made it to the public memory. The same unfortunate film had a melodious Manna Dey, Usha Mangeshkar duet - Apne suron ko mere suron se milao. Yeh geet amar ho jaye. But the best of the lot was that lilting Khamaj by Lata. The song is almost happy, as if the actor had finally broken free of the melancholia that had run like an invisible thread through her voice and found true love. Like so many of Madan's gems, lyrics and melody are so perfectly matched that even after hearing it a thousand times, the experience is as fresh as it was the first time. Here it is:Aap se baatein karein, Kya Dil ka afsaana kahein. Hosh mein donon nahin, Ab Kisko Diwana kahein
Close at number two is Madan's composition - a seductive Bhimpalas for Mera Saaya: Nainon mein Badra chaaye. Both seem to bring out that extra something from Lata Mangeshkar. Every note, every twang of the sitar, every word of the lyric is just right and every feeling perfectly nuanced. As with many of Madan's songs, it is difficult to tell what came first - the melody, the arrangement or the lyrics. Like the little known Bawarchi song - Lata's More naina bahaye neer. Each of these musical classics with a handful of exceptions thudded at the box-office. Yet, Madan Mohan always had the grudging admiration of his peers. Naushad is supposed to have said that Madan ke Anpadh ki do ghazalon par meri zindagi ki sari mausiqui fida hai. Equally none of this fidayeen stopped the carping behind his back. The word that Madan bought misfortune had spread. Some of the industry's giants at that time - Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor - Madan's close friends never used him. There is a rumour that Raj Kapoor was discussing Satyam Shivam Sundaram with Madan just before he collapsed of an exhausted liver at Chetan Anand's house composing for Salim Anarkali - a film that Chetan Anand eventually shelved. Madan Mohan did not survive long. A few weeks later, leaving two doomed love stories Laila Majnu and Salim Anarkali unfinished Madan Mohan died on the 14th of July 1975. In a tribute Ratna Rajaiah - a columnist for The Hindu, wrote:His son Sanjeev Kohli recalls that his body was carried on the shoulders of Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna and Rajendra Kumar and when a photograph of this hit the newspapers the next morning, Sanjeev says that he became more popular in college than he had ever been when his father was alive - because they suddenly realised the worth of the dead man by the men who were his pallbearers...
Some of Madan's unrecorded compositions salvaged by his son have been recently re-arranged as a musical score for a film made by a company that his son heads. Like his college friends, sadly, the unfortunate young of today can grasp the measure of a musical genius only when a pouting mega star lips syncs to them to the waves of his blow-dried hair. This time the stars are right, the film director is right and who knows, the film might just about be a hit. But its just not the same. Now that is real tragedy. Related Links: A Son Remembers The King of Melody Lata Mangeshkar on Madan Mohan