Interestingly, in that same year, Madan Mohan had also scored the music for a classic Mughal-themed historical film, very similar to Taj Mahal: Jahanara. Main teri nazar ka suroor hoon ( Jahanara, 1964): 1964 was an unfortunate year for Madan Mohan-he created the score for Woh Kaun Thi? and was nominated for a Filmfare Award-but lost out to Roshan, who won the award for his music for Taj Mahal. And the interludes, so very different in tune from the verses, making the entire piece one of my favourite songs from 1960s Hindi cinema. There’s none of that breathiness and very Western orchestration one comes across in songs such as Jaan-e-chaman shola badan or Aaiye aapka thha humein intezaar: just Lata’s voice, clear and melodious, with little flourishes of humming, and of music here and there to act as a contrast.
The beauty of Lag jaa gale, for me lies in the fact that while it is a come-hither song, it’s not at all playful or overtly seductive. Naina barse, by virtue of the anecdote attached to it (Lata was unable to record the song before shooting began, so Sadhana had to lip-synch to a version sung by Madan Mohan), was attractive but I eventually settled on Lag jaa gale. The film had one fabulous song after another, and I dithered for a long time between this one, Shokh nazar ki bijliyaan, and Naina barse rimjhim rimjhim. Lag jaa gale ke phir yeh ( Woh Kaun Thi?, 1964): Woh Kaun Thi? was one of the films (the others were Anpadh and Mausam) for which Madan Mohan was nominated for the Filmfare Best Music Director Award-and, at least as far as Woh Kaun Thi? is concerned, in my opinion, he should have won. These are, as always, from pre-70s films that I’ve seen, and no two songs are from the same film. In memory of Madan Mohan, therefore, and to commemorate what would have been his 90 th birthday had he lived: a list of ten of my favourite Madan Mohan songs.
This was a man vastly underrated during his lifetime, a man with a talent few possessed. This was the man who gave Hindi cinema some of its finest and most enduring songs, both ghazals and not. This was the man whose compositions were used in a film made almost 30 years after his death ( Veer-Zaara, 2004). Yet, this was the man whom Lata Mangeshkar named ‘ Ghazalon ka Shahzaada’. While he was nominated for the Filmfare Best Music Director Award several times, he never won it (the only award he won was at the fag end of his career, the National Award for the score of Dastak, 1970). Madan Mohan was to go on to compose songs for dozens of films over the next 25 years, when he died in 1975 at the far-too-young age of 51. The first film for which he provided the score, at the age of 26, was Aankhen (1950). Madan Mohan too moved to Bombay, where he finished school and eventually joined the army-only to finally leave soldiering to become a music director.
His parents went on to Bombay, where his father, Rai Bahadur Chunilal, entered the cinema industry: as a partner at Bombay Talkies Studio, and then at Filmistan Studio. An oversight, and one for which I have no explanation to offer: just reparation.īorn Madan Mohan Kohli in Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan) on June 25, 1924, the young Madan Mohan returned with his family to their home town of Chakwal (in Punjab) when he was 8 years old. I have never-in all the years this blog has been in existence-compiled a list of my favourite Madan Mohan songs.
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