Thirty-two years back, Madan Mohan (or ‘Melody Maker’, as popularly known amongst his fans) left us – leaving behind fervent music lovers sobbingly clutch a wide range of mellifluous melodies; melodies that stood the fierce test of time, and that only grew in stature as time went about its cruel chore. On his thirty second death anniversary (14th July) Manohar Iyer’s Keep Alive, true to the group’s name, brought alive some of his finest tunes in the packed Prabodhankar Thackeray Hall, Borivali (West), Mumbai in a show titled ‘The Mystique Moods of Madan Mohan’.

As my hosts (a wonderful couple, M&R, but more on them a little later) and I hurriedly collected our passes, Mr Suresh Rao, co-editor of the book that would be released during the show, warned us, ‘The show will start on time’. I was skeptical, but needn’t have been. Barely had we seated ourselves that the curtains parted to the mystical strains of ‘Hamare baad mehfil mein afsaane bayaan honge‘ – a most apt way to begin the show. ‘Bahaarein humko dhoodhengi na jaane hum kahan honge’ the song says, and truly, music and nature, mind and heart wondered where the maestro had gone. Thereafter, I immersed into the music, discarding aside all sense of time.

The stage was set like the great Madan Mohan’s music – simple yet not frugal. The musicians sat in a wide arch, on spotless white seats; the percussions on the left, the keyboards on the right and the sitar – Madan Mohan’s most favorite instrument – prominently in the middle.

The chief guests for the show were Madan Mohan’s family – son Sanjeev Kohli (CEO & Director, Yash Raj Films), his wife and his son, Akshay; and Madan Mohan’s second son, Sameer Kohli.

Manohar Iyer compered the show, taking us into an insightful journey of Madan Mohan’s life chronologically (that’s how the songs were presented), peppering it with lots of information and anecdotes – some, that are now part of Hindi Film Music folklore, and some that were even new to me.

My jaws dropped several times as he narrated incidents or talked about songs – undoubtedly, he is a walking encycolpaedia on the genius composer! For example, once he mentioned how most Madan Mohan songs have a question in their lyrics (Aap kyun roye or Kise pesh karun or Rasme ulfat …nibhayein kaise ) almost as if its a rhetorical outburst from his heart. In another instance, he talked about ‘the eyes’ in his songs (Naina barse or Meri aankhon se koi or Pyaase naino ki pyaas bujha le or Naino mein badra chhaye or Teri chamakti aankhon ke aage, so much so that his debut film was called Aankhen!) – and the various effect used thereon. He also spoke about rhythm patterns, how earlier on dholak or matki were used, and in later stages tabla was deployed. We also learnt that Agar mujhse mohabbat hai was originally composed for Anpadh, but not used and thereafter incorporated in Mohan Kumar’s own production house’s debut film Aap Ki Parchaiyan.(sadly, they didn’t perform this number; instead, they chose Rafisaab’s equally outstandingly shimmering number Mai nigahein tere chehre se)

Madan Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar – two passionate artists, collaborated in numerous ventures, and as Iyer pointed out, even the show is ‘Lata-dominated’ (that’s the reason some other Lataji’s hits were left out to make way for the male songs from the same films, e.g. Dekh Kabira Roya or Aap Ki Parchaiyan). Their first recording together in Adaa is momentous, and the next song was picked from this film: the heart wrenching solo Preetam meri duniya mein do din toh rahe hote. Other hits from this illustrous collaboration included Chand madham hai aasman chup hai (Railway Platform), Na hanso humpe zamane ke hain thukraye hue (Gateway of India), Unko yeh shikayat hai ke (Adalat), Woh chup rahein toh mere dil ke daag jalte hain (Jahan Ara), Meri aankhon se koi neend liye jaata hai (Pooja Ke Phool), Naina barse rimjhim (Woh Kaun Thi), Aap ki nazron ne samjha (Anpadh) and many more. What marvellous magnificent and magical music! And as can be readily seen, so true to the title of the show!

Despite creating some flippant numbers (including the almost-frivolous but delightful O Madam do se ho gaye ek hum from Ashiyana), Madan Mohan never really got any flak for any of his compositions. In fact, the only time there was a whiff of controversy it revolved around his unabashed salute to Sajjad Hussain’s Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh chandni, which under Madan Mohan’s baton metaphorsed as Rafisaab’s brilliant Tujhe kya sunaoon main dilruba (Aakhri Dao), equally brilliantly re-created on stage this evening, sung by Srikant.

Manohar Iyer pointed out that even though Madan Mohan had created ghazals as early as in his debut film (Aankhen), the more reknowned ones are usually associated with the late-fifties onward, basically because with Adalat, he introduced it in the ‘Dadra shaili’ – the more popular style of the royal courts. And that he could create a geet or a ghazal, depending on the mood, with almost similar lyrics was demonstrated by back-to-back rendition of those two Ghazal classics: Naghma-o-sher ki saugat kise pesh karun and Rang-aur-noor ki baraat kise pesh karun (the former is the ghazal, the latter a geet)

Talat Mahmood & Madan Mohan had worked earlier at All India Radio. There, he had promised to utilize Talat’s silken voice, if ever he became a composer. The promise was fulfilled in Ashiyana – Mai paagal mera manwa paagal (sung with feeling by singer Gaurav on stage). Other Talat numbers featured in the show included Hum se aaya na gaya (Dekh Kabira Roya) & that pathos-laden towering solo, Phir wohi shaam wohi gham (Jahan Ara). Manna Dey sang few songs under Madan Mohan’s aegis, but some of them are extremely sensitive ones – two such numbers presented here were Kaun aaya mere mann ke dwaare (Dekh Kabira Roya) and Tum bin jeevan kaisa jeevan (Bawarchi).

Of the lyricists, Madan Mohan’s five most prominent associations were mentioned – Rajinder Krishan, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan (who worked him in Madhosh in 1952 but had a tiff due to which the two didn’t work together until Anpadh), Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaifi Azmi & Naqsh Lyallpuri (he attended the show).

From 1950 till 1964 were covered in the first half. When the curtains fell, I checked the time. 10:30. A good two-hours had passed, and I hadn’t felt it at all!

Pre-interval, Sanjeev Kohli released the book Madan Mohan – An Unforgettable Composer* Edited By V M Joshi & Suresh Rao. (More on the book in a later post). He spoke passionately about his father; and the pain behind the industry’s utter callousness towards his father during his lifetime could not escape the audience. In his younger days, he dreamt of having his father’s excellent tunes sung by top-notch stars like Amitabh Bachchan or Hema Malini (the numero unos of those days) – a dream which got fulfilled with Veer Zaara; not only did it have the current top-stars but it also had the Big B & the Dream Girl in a special appearance (singing Lo aa gayi lori ve in the film!)

Post-interval, we traversed the last decade in Madan Mohan’s life – including some splendid hits like Baiyan na dharo (Dastak), Naino mein badra chhaye (Mera Saaya), Yeh duniya yeh mehfil mere kaam kii nahii (Heer Ranjha), Hum hain mata-e-koocha-o-baazaar kii tarah (Dastak), Rasm-e-ulfat ko nibhayein kaise (Dil Ki Rahein), Aaj socha toh aansoo bhar aaye (Hanste Zakhm), Dil dhoondta hai phir wahi phursat ke raat din (Mausam) and finally rounding it off with Tere liye hum hai jeeyen (Veer Zaara – incidentally, the only duet presented in this evening).

As Manohar Iyer so correctly said- some songs of Madan Mohan’s seem to be thoughts that he wanted to convey to us or probably what we wanted to tell him – Jaana tha humse door bahaane bana liye, to which probably he would say Meri yaad mein tum na aansoo bahaana, for which our reply would be Kaise kategi zindagi tere beghair. Finally, the curtains dropped on a thought that must have been on the music moghul’s soul that evening – Mujhe yaad karne waale tere saath saath huun main, jo kabhi khatm na hogi wahi dil ki baat huun main…

…undoubtedly, Madan Mohan Saab, yeh wohi dil kii baat hai jo kabhi khatm na hogi.

Before I conclude, a word of praise for all the singers, especially the ladies who did a wonderful job in replicating Lataji‘s tough numbers: Sarita, Brishali & Priya were simply awesome. Gaurav did a deft job with the baser voiced singers like Talat Mehmood, Bhupinder or Manna Dey & Shrikant sang Rafisaab’s portions with elan!

As regards the wonderful musicians, here are the names: Jay Madan (arranger and guitar), Zuber Sheikh (sitar), Srikant (keyboards), Vijay Tambe (flute), Vishal Mhatre (rhythms), Vijay Jadhav (rhythms – octopad) & Deepak Borkar (side rhythms).

Lastly, a mammoth praise for Mumbai’s appreciative audience – to the extent that some members were actually whistling, which irked Manohar Iyer a little; but overall, I could sense that the audience had really gathered for the love of music and not just to ‘show-off’ (something that I’d expect more in Delhi).

[This post has been included in the Carnival of Music]

*Madan Mohan: An Unforgettable Composer is an analytical look at the composer’s work, a book that every music lover should have. Edited by V M Joshi & Suresh Rao, the book includes articles by Sanjeev Kohli, Akshay Kohli, O P Dutta, Uttam Singh, B R Ishara, Dr. Ashok Ranade, Alka Deo Marulkar, Mridula Joshi, Dr. Kirti Sachdeva, Deepak Jeswal and many more, and contains interviews with Lata Mangeshkar, Shreya Ghoshal, Mahalaxmi Iyer & Rehana Sultan, other than containing Madan Mohan’s filmography & statistics. The book is priced at INR 450 & can be obtained by emailing: skumar482002@yahoo.co.uk

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