MUSICAL TREASURE HUNT-2
A TRIBUTE TO TALAT MAHMOOD ON HIS FIRST DEATH ANNIVERSARY.
Tumko nind ayegi, tum to so hi jaaoge,
Kiska le liya hai dil, ye bhi bhul jaaoge,
Ye to kehdo ekbaar khwab mein to aaoge, khwab mein to aaoge.
It was one year ago, when the velvet voice of Indian Music left us alone in this bhari mehfil. The voice, that was the icon of the melody and magic of Indian Cinema. A gap, that can never be filled in again, such was the magic of Talat Mahmood.
This Treasure Hunt is designed in the memory of Talat Mahmood, the greatest Ghazal Singer of India. All the clues pertain to Hindi Film songs only.
The rules:
There are in all 18 questions (clues) and one master question (Treasure) in this hunt. You have to start at the first clue, after cracking the answer, you move over to the second one and so on. All these clues are inter related, i.e. all the clues depend upon their previous answer. Of course, even if you don’t get a particular answer you can move ahead as there are very straigh forward clues at different stages. However, knowing the previous answer definitely helps in getting the next one. You have to make occasional trips to others’ pages in the course of this hunt, so that its real fun!
Example:
Suppose at some stage you get the answer as "Jalte hain jish ke liye…." and the next clue is "The MD of this song is responsible for quite a few popular Talat Numbers. He was the MD of the mega film, famous for Talat’s songs in 1955, produced under the same banners as this song. Your next clue is the name of this movie." The answer is: Devdas.
Scoring:
For every correct answer: 1 point.
For the Treasure: 3 points.
Golden Rule:
Don’t post the answers on the net. Mail them to me at swaraj@mailcity.com by 5TH of May, 1999. I intend to post the results and answers on the anniversary of Talat Mahmood. So, happy quizzing!
CLUE:1
"Jab gham ka andhera ghir aaye, samjho ke savera door nahin"
A highly optimistic song from a highly talented singer. In this song, Talat Mehmood is all for the sad songs! Your Clue-2 is this song from a movie famous for its music by Shanker Jaikishen. (No need to answer clue-1 as it is the starter only, not a question).
See Clue-2
The actor, on whom this song was picturised, has a few good numbers of Talat in his credit. One such number was in the year 1954. As per the RMIM Article archive, maintained by Satish Subramanium, this song was the joint Binaca Topper in the second year of Binaca Geetmala. My knowledge and HMV Cassette says that Man dole mera…. was the only topper, but for this hunt, lets go by RMIM. In case you don’t know the address of Music Page of Rec.Music.Indian.Misc., visit it at http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~subraman/rmim.html and go through the article archives. Finding this particular article is your headache!! No need to ask if I go, where shall I go? First go there man!!
See Clue-3
This song is also sung by another singer as a solo. These two singers have given quite a few melodious duets together. From these duets, my favourite is a real foot tapping tune, given by a quite famous MD. I often wonder if RJGK Quizzes derived their name from this song. This song is your clue-4
See Clue-4
The MD used Talat Mehmood to his fullest potential. Many of his popular numbers were composed by this MD. The same team of MD, singers and actor had got together to give yet another memorable, foot tapping song in a "shadowy" movie. (Was this song a copy of Mozart?) If the clue 4 talked of the outcome, clue 5 has the source of the outcome in it! There is also the solo version of the song in the movie, sung by Talat.
See Clue-5
Talat has given quite a few memorable songs on tears. Such a famous song was there in this particular movie too. I am not giving any further hints as it is a too easy one. If you have got the last one, then there should be no problems in getting this one. This is clue-6.
See Clue: 6
Some more surfing. This song is one of the three continuous Talat songs in ITRAN song Book, arranged in the order of song numbers. Your next clue is the next song in this hattrick, i.e. the last song in the three continuous ones. Visit ITRAN song Book at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~navin/india/songs/index.html. This song again talks of tears.
See Clue-7
This movie is one of the last ones of Talat Mahmood. This movie came in 1964 with three very popular ghazals, in an attempt to revive Talat. All the songs are still popular, but Talat could not stay in the race with Yahoos and Ai ai o suku sukus. In his velvet voice, he has given us many memorable songs, some were the ones, which we can use to tell him that we still remember him. One such song was in this movie, with excellent music by the MD. Talat Saab, whom should we tell that your memories have come again to haunt us!
See Clue-8
I often wonder, if this song was made as a sequel to a previous hit of Talat 11 years ago. However, this song was not composed different MD with different lyricist. With music by Khayam, this Dillip Kumar-Meena Kumari starrer has all you can expect from this combo; sorrow, loneliness, bothered heart, lonely nights and of course, the evening, which turns into the night by the time the ghazal ends! I swear!
See Clue-9
In fact, you don’t need clue-9 to answer 10. In this year of success of Talat, he rendered his velvet voice for one of the immrtal sad numbers of Ghulam Mohd. It was a Talat Mahmood Starrer with Shyama. We can use the words of this song to tell Talat Saab that, without him, neither the days pass nor the nights, he has given us such wounds, which don’t heal. (Sorry for the cheap translation, but I am never too good at this.) Beware, these lines come late in the song!!
See Clue-10
You must have got the movie name by now. There is a very famous duet starting with the name of this movie, but not in the same movie. Your task is to name this ghazal composed by Ghulam Mohd. This is from a movie, which is considered to be one of the most famous ones of Talat Mahmood, along with Devdas.
See Clue-11
The female singer in this song has given quite a few popular numbers with Talat Saab. She is a singer, who did a lot of songs picturised on herself only, ultimately doing several movies with Talat. Another of their immortal songs came with music from Anil Biswas. The antras of this song went as
"kalii-kalii chuum ke pavan kahe khil jaa
kalii-kalii chuum ke,
khilii kalii bha.Nvare se kahe aa ke mil jaa
aa piyaa mila jaa, kalii-kalii chuum ke
dil ne sunii kahii.n dil kii pukaar
kahii.n dil kii pukaar "
I should not be giving such sitters at this stage!
See Clue: 12
The last stanza of this song talks about something becoming a bride. Do you know what is it? Talat has sung so many songs on this situation! Perhaps the most famous one on this category of songs (of course subject to dispute!) is from a movie starring Madhubala, Dillip Kumar with one more actress. In fact, in a page on top fifty songs of Talat, its given the number-1 rank. No need to surf for this one, but if you know where the page is, then it make this clue a sitter. Your next clue is this beautiful number.
See Clue-13:
Who was the other actress in the movie? In case you don’t get this new answer, you can check it out at ITRAN Song Book. The name of the acterss is there. This actress was there in another movie, portraying an immortal love story, the story, which has been the icon of love in India. In this movie, Talat has sung for an actor, who brought revolution in the Indian Film Music in the sixties, but with the voice of Rafi. He is associated with Rafi, whenever we talk of his songs, but we can never ignore this number of Talat. (Was it the actor’s first movie?). It’s a very short but sweet song. (recently discussed in the short songs query in RMIM).
See Clue-14:
A film with the same title was made after nearly three decades with the nephew of our hero as the lead actor. Rafi rendered his voice for one of his last movies and the last movie of the MD who had given so many beautiful numbers with Talat. Your next clue is this music director, who teamed up with Jaidev for probably first and last time in this movie.
See Clue-15:
This deadly duo of MD and singer, with another female singer, who also was used by the MD to the fullest extent, has given us some memorable songs. One of them is a duet with excellent lyrics from Indeever. One of its lines I had first seen in Sami’s Home Page. It goes like, "Bandh liya bandhan mein tujhe bas mein kar liya sitaron ko….". This song is your next clue.
See Clue-16:
These two singers have done some numbers as separate solos. One such example was the song in clue-3. However, there is yet another one from a movie made in 1952, where both these singers have sung two separate solos. This movie had bagged quite a few Filmfare Awards in the very first year of these awards. Well, the duniya is not all gham!!
See Clue-17:
The associaton of this actor and Talat Mahmood started in the late fourties, with a film wellknown for its music. There has been two more movies with the same title in the later years, one starring Rajendra Kumar and the other Akshay Kumar. Though all these three movies are claimed to have better music of their times, a close look clearly indicates the deteriorating standard of Hindi songs. Hence your last clue: the name of this movie.
The Treasure:
The treasure is the song from this particular movie, that marked the beginning of stardom for Talat Mahmood. The sonng opens with somewhat similar lines as clue-17 also.
Hope you have got the treasure. Now, mail the answers to swaraj@mailcity.com by 5th May along with your comments. Please don’t post them.
Aapni ek aur raat uljhano mein jayegi,
Saukh Saukh who ada hum ko yaad ayegi,
Mast mast har nazar dard ban ke chhayegi, dard ban ke chhayegi.
Regards,
Swaraj
