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More than anything the phenomenon of song and dance
gives Indian Cinema its unique identity. Unlike Hollywood,
where the 'Musical' was a separate genre by itself,
song and dance has been an integral part of the narrative
in Indian Cinema be it in any language or whichever
genre often leading the Western world describing our
films as those 'Indian musicals.'
 Over
the years, the Indian film song has evolved and has
been developed and perfected to a T. Further, film songs
have pervaded all aspects of Indian life - weddings,
funerals, state occasions, religious festivals, parades,
parties or political conventions. Consequently Film
music is by far the most popular brand of music in India.
Filmmakers too have realized the importance of the song
and dance in their films. Even today, with its stunning
camerawork, eye-catching locales and sets, colourful
costumes and energetic choreography, the Indian film
song is at times singularly responsible for the success
or failure of a film giving it that so called 'repeat
value.'
But
then the use of Music and dance in Indian Art forms
is nothing new. The use of song, dance and music was
inseparably linked to drama in India for centuries be
it the Golden Age of Sanskrit Theatre in ancient India,
Indian Theatre in Bengal under the British in the 19th
century, the tradition of Jatras in Bengali Theatre
or the Ojapali of Assam, the Jashn of Kashmir, the Kathakali
of Kerala and the Swang of Punjab. Thus when the first
Indian Talkie Alam Ara was made, it inherited
a river of music that had flowed through unbroken millennia
of dramatic tradition.
March
14, 1931 saw the release of Imperial Film Company's
Alam Ara. The Indian Film song was born as along
with 'talking' the Indian Film also 'sang', the wafer
thin plot merely serving as a rope to string together
the dozen or so musical numbers. The film's director,
Adershir Irani, himself chose the lyrics and the tunes.
For recording the songs, just a harmonium and a tabla
were used out of the camera range and the singer sang
into a hidden microphone. The film was a smash hit and
all the songs were extremely popular particularly the
fakir song sung by W.M. Khan - De De Khuda ke Naam
Par Pyaare.
With
Alam Ara's phenomenon success other 'All Talking
All Singing All Dancing' productions were hurriedly
put into production. Alam Ara was followed by
Jamai Sashti, the first Bengali Talkie and then
by Shirin Farhad featuring the most popular singing
pair of the Urdu Stage - Jahan Ara Kajjan and Master
Nissar. It is said that a Punjabi Tonga driver in Lahore
pawned his horse to see the film 22 times! Recorded
on RCA photophone sound system, the film was not only
technically superior to Alam Ara but also contained
three times as many songs. In fact, all early sound
films produced in India had a profusion of songs - it
is said that Indrasabha starring Master Nissar
and Jahan Ara Kajjan had as many as 71 songs!
 With
the advent of the Talkie Film, the Hindi film song gave
birth to a whole new song writing and music composing
industry. Each of the major film studios had their own
Music Directors who had associations with Marathi Parsi
and Bengali Theatre. Saraswati Devi, perhaps India's
first woman composer, composed the songs of the films
made by Bombay Talkies. Her real name was Khurshid
Minocher-Homji and she was trained by the well-known
musician Pandit Vishnunarayan Bhatkande. She then studied
at Lord Morris college in Lucknow with music as her
subject. With the setting up of the radio station in
Bombay in 1925-6, every month Khurshid and her sisters
would present a programme on the radio. Known as the
Homji sisters they were extremely popular. A chance
meeting with Bombay Talkies owner Himansu
Rai at a musical performance in Bombay led her to
work at Bombay Talkies where she was re-christened
Saraswati Devi. Once she joined Bombay Talkies,
Saraswati Devi was taken to an empty room and told that
this was her music room! Relishing the challenge, she
got to work immediately. Small stools and stands were
made for musicians and a tall stool for her to stand
on and conduct the orchestra. Her songs at Bombay
Talkies mainly with Devika
Rani and Ashok Kumar
proved to be extremely popular.
Two
other major Studios that left their mark on Indian Cinema
in the 1930s and early 1940s were the Prabhat Film
Company at Pune and the New Theatres at Calcutta.
The former studio's musical repertoire was shaped mainly
by Bal Gandharva'a Gandharva Natak Mandali providing
its two most famous music composers Govindrao Tembe
and Master Krishnarao.
New
Theatres at Calcutta was one of the most elite banners
of pre-independence India. The studio with its richly
educated personnel, unlike those at Prabhat who were
uneducated, aimed for a cinematic equivalent of literature.
New Theatres attracted major creative and technical
talent and made some of the finest films of the Studio
era. New Theatres has such stalwarts like R.C.
Boral, Pankaj Mullick and Timir Baran on its musical
payroll and introduced Rabindra Sangeet to the Cinema.
Producers
now tried to get artistes from the stage because now
voice was the chief criteria and not many actors of
the silent films could adapt themselves to sound. Anglo
Indian stars like Sulochana
who did not speak fluent Urdu or Hindi were the worst
hit. Also those who could not sing suffered the same
fate since playback was not invented. And those who
did survive and yet could barely get a note right still
had to sing their own songs. Ashok Kumar, Devika Rani,
Leela Chitnis all had to do their own 'singing'. Thus
the era saw the rise of several 'singing stars' that
went on to become extremely popular.
 Undoubtedly
the greatest singing star of them all was the legendary
Kundan Lal Saigal.
A school dropout, heworked first as a railway timekeeper
and then as a typewriter salesman before B.N. Sircar
recruited him at New Theatres. Saigal's first film was
Mohabbat ke Aansoo made in 1932 but it was with
the success of Chandidas in 1934 that he became
a star. The following year, 1935, saw Saigal's career-defining
role - the title role in P.C.
Barua's masterpiece, Devdas.
The film was a triumph for Saigal and took him to dizzying
heights as he brought alive the character of Devdas
creating the archetype of the relentlessly luckless,
tragic hero. His brooding looks, the vagrant lock of
hair, the resonant voice filled with love and despair
drove the nation into a frenzy. Crowds thronged to hear
him sing Balam Aaye Baso More Man Mein and Dukh
ke Din Ab Beete Nahin. Seeing Saigal's phenomenal
success, a rival studio Sagar Movietone went
ahead and launched their own singing star as an answer
to Saigal - Surendranath and though he was a reasonably
popular star in his own right, Saigal was still Saigal.
If
Saigal was the leading male playback singer then without
a doubt the reigning diva of the Indian film scenario
was Kanan Devi
whose singing style in rapid tempo was responsible for
some of New Theatres' biggest hits. Born Kananbala
in 1916, she made her debut as a child actress with
Joydev in 1926. She later worked with Radha
Films in films mainly by Jyotish Banerjee. P.C.
Barua's Mukti made her a star and led to a fruitful
association with New Theatres. The success of
Vidyapati (1937) in which she gave perhaps her
finest performance, made her the studio's top star,
Saigal notwithstanding!
The
early film songs were extremely simple in terms of music,
lyrics and orchestration. Often, just a harmonium and
a tabla would accompany the actors and the lyrics too
were almost like nursery rhymes. Music Directors used
to compose simple little songs, which could fit into
the range of the actor's voices. Soon however more and
more instruments began being used in film songs - a
sitar, jaltarang, and clarinet accompanied the tabla
at different pitches. And as most of the music directors
had a classical music background, the instruments were
mainly Indian musical instruments. Early on a handful
of people, many of them carefully handpicked by the
Music Directors, from all over the country comprised
the orchestra, which rose gradually in number to 20
or 30.
In
the early days of the Indian talkie, direct recording
meant that not only did artists had to sing their own
songs but due to technical and initial teething problems
the picturizations of songs had to be done in a single
static shot live as the artist actually sang during
the shot! (A far cry from today when often a single
beat constitutes a single shot!) But 1935 saw the biggest
revolution in the development of the Hindi Film song.
At New Theatres in Calcutta, Nitin Bose along
with his younger brother Mukul Bose and music director
R.C. Boral introduced pre-recorded singing where the
song was first recorded and then played back and picturized
thus freeing the artiste and the camera from the bondage
of the microphone. This was for the film Dhoop Chaon.
(Though there is some debate on this as Bombat Talkies
claimed to invented the sytem with Jawani ki
Hawa). Initially, even as songs were recorded and
picturized in this manner, artistes continued to sing
their own songs. However slowly this process paved the
way for trained musicians and singers to enter the film
industry. Now songs could be recorded in the voice of
a different singer while picturizing it on a totally
different artiste thus being a boon in disguise to those
artistes who could not sing. Thus one artist sang the
song while another enacted it on screen.
With
the advent of playback the Indian film song
was poised at a very delicate yet exciting stage
of development. From here on the possibilities
were endless. Indian film music was still in
its infancy but was moving ahead by leaps and
bounds. The Best was undoubtedly still to come…
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