Madan Mohan - "Ghazal ka Shehzadaa",. Review on Madan Mohan

Madan Mohan Kohli( June 25, 1924 - July 14, 1975 ), better known as Madan Mohan, was a famed Bollywood film music director of the 1950s , 1960s , and 1970s . He is particularly remembered for the ghazal s he created for the film industry, mainly using the voice of India's Melody Queen, Lata Mangeshkar .

Madan Mohan was the son of film mogul Rai Bahadur Chunnilal, who was a partner in the Bombay Talkies studio and then in the Filmistanstudio. At the behest of his father, he joined the army in Dehradun and was later posted to Delhi . He subsequently quit the armed forces and turned to his first love -- music. He joined All India Radio in Lucknow , where he brushed shoulders with such ghazal and classical luminaries as Ustad Faiyyaz Khan, Ustad Akbar Ali Khan, Begum Akhtar , and Talat Mahmood . He picked up their influences and carried them with him to Mumbai when he entered Bollywood.

After assisting S.D. Burman and Shyam Sunderfor a short time, Madan scored his first big break with the film Aankhenin 1950 . This film saw the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership with Lata Mangeshkar; she would sing for him in all of his future films. Madan Mohan songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar have a certain magic and sweetness to them that few music directors , if any, have been able to emulate. Wo Chup Rahen Tofrom the film Jahan Ara( 1964 ) and Maine Rang Li Aaj Chunariyafrom Dulhan Ek Raat Ki( 1966 ) are just two such examples. Madan was also able to craft beautiful songs for male singers such as Talat Mahmood and Mohammad Rafi as well.

Madan's favourite lyricists were Raja Mehndi Ali Khan, Kaifi Azmi , and Rajinder Krishan, but Sahir Ludhianvi and Majrooh Sultanpuri also collaborated with him on a few movies. The Madan-Raja pairing in particular produced the classic Aap Ki Nazron Ne Samjhafrom the movie Anpadh( 1962 ). Among the many admirers of the song were the legendary Naushad ; he is reported to have said, "Let me have this ghazal and take all my compositions in return" upon hearing it. Madan and Raja also came up with the fantastic tunes for Mera Saayain 1966 .

Madan's talent for ghazals was unmatched in the Indian film world; Lata Mangeshkar christened him "Ghazal ka Shehzadaa", or the Emperor of Ghazals. However, his music was essentially for the classes, and he could never combine it with mass appeal like S.D. Burman or Shankar Jaikishan . Also, many of the top film heroes of the day (who were also studio heads) had fallen into a groove with their preferred composers (e.g., Raj Kapoor had Shankar Jaikishan, Dev Anand had the Burmans, Dilip Kumar had Naushad, etc.) Hence, he often had difficulty finding assignments. But when he did, he gave it his all. A testament to this fact is his 1964 Filmfare Award nomination for Best Music Director for Woh Kaun Thi. In a tightly-contested race, both Madan and Shankar Jaikishan ( Sangam) lost to relative newcomers Laxmikant Pyarelal , who had done a fine job in scoring Dosti.

During his early career Madan Mohan had been mildly critisized for creating songs that suits female voices especially that of Lata Mangeskar (Who called him Dada i.e elder brother). But this is not true all the way; in year 1957 he came out with a huge musical blockbuster "Dekh Kabira Roya" in which legendary singer Manna De gave voice to probably the sweetest song ever used in hindi movie (Kaun Aya Mere Man Ke Dwaare Payal Ki Jhankar Liye). In addition to that, he had Lata sing the divine 'Tu pyaar kare ya thukraaye' and 'Meri veena tum bin roye' numbers and he used Talat Mahmood for the superhit song "Hum se aya na Gaya" in the same movie. Once in an interview Manna De recalled that Madan Mohan 'sahab' asked him to take special care (In Hindi he told him -" manna da is geet ko bahut samhal ke gana parega") when, singing the song "Kaun aya mere" mentioned above.

He was also able to produce many fantastic songs for other legendary male singers like Mohd.Rafi (for example : 'Ek hassen shaam ko' from 'Dulhan Ek Raat Ki', 'Kissi ki yaad mein' in Jahan Ara(1964), 'Main Nigahain Tere Chehere Se' from 'Aap ki Parchaiyian', 'Aap ke pehlun mein aakar ro diye' from Mera Saaya and the all-time haunting 'Meri awaaz suno' from Naunihal ) and Talat Mahmood ('Phir wohi Saam', 'Main teri nazar ka suroor hoon' and 'Teri Aankh ke Aansoo' from Jahan Ara(1964), 'Meri yaad mein tum na' from Madhosh, 'Teri chamakti aankhon ke aage' from Pocketmaar( with Lata )). He used Kishore Kumar only once but his complex classical based compositions were hard for the non-clssical singing style of Kishore Kumar.In the famous film Haqeeqt(1964){this film was based on Indo-China War} he used Md. Rafi for the song "Kar chale Hum Fida" and "Mai Ye Sooch Kar" and Lata for the famous song "Zara Si Aahat Hoti hai" enthralling millions of Indian music lovers. And the same film saw Rafi, Talat, Manna De and Bhupendra singing the 'Hoke Majboor mujhe usne bulaya hoga' song. Madan's constant struggles took a toll on his life, and he began drinking heavily. He died of cirrhosis of the liver on July 14, 1975 , but not before enthralling millions of Indians across the world with his beautiful music.

In 2004 , Madan's unused tunes were recreated by his son, Sanjeev Kohli, for the Yash Chopra blockbuster Veer-Zaara , starring Shahrukh Khan , Preity Zinta , and Rani Mukherjee . The lyrics were written by Javed Akhtar , and Lata Mangeshkar was invited to once again sing the majority of the melodies composed by her dear friend.

It is no exaggeration to say that Hindi film music never saw and will never see again the sort of 'ghazals' that the Madan-Lata combination produced. They are timeless in their composition, lyrics, vocal rendering and music - treasures to be cherished generation after generation.

Source - Various