Monday, March 13, 2023

Emperor of Excellence

 Woh sham, to quote Gulzar, kuch alag hi si thi, ajibo-gajab thi woh. Yes, the charmed evening of March 12 was indeed unique. Special it was 'coz it witnessed the celebration of the art and life of one of the most gifted geniuses of the golden era of Hindi film music, Madan Mohan.

Madan Mohan is undoubtedly the emperor of excellence, a musicians' musician. He is the darling of both the classes and the masses. The likes of Begum Akhtar and Talat praised him. Vilayat Khan composed interludes for his songs. Rais Khan regularly played the sitar for him. Be it a complex Hindustani raag or the south Indian version, his songs needed tops three minutes to work magic with such intricacies.

As for the masses, he made the common man fall in love with the subtleties of  classical music. He so rendered the semi-classical thumri, dadra that they became the common favourites, just like his flawless ghazals. He could use folk forms as well as  the westernised tunes  with equal felicity. Why, he is the only music director to use the 'soft whisper' format for a love song . Remember "tumse kahoon ek baat paron se"  from his National Award winning "Dastak"?

He moulded the magic of Lata's melodious voice. Just as  Talat's and Rafi's silvery voices mesmerised us in his songs, Asha and Kishore's ebullience evolved in to supreme tunefulness in his compositions. Talented newcomers found in him a great mentor.

His roughly six hundred seventy five compositions from over hundred films speak to our heart. This master of mood music created mesmerising songs that evoke our deepest emotions. Sure the poets who wrote for him were great lyricists. Yet, basically, it was his great tunes that talk directly to the very core of our very soul, be it a love song of every possible hue or a patriotic song or a mehfil song or a Qawwali or the folk exuberance as they faultlessly reflected the situation/the context in the particular film.

The "Dil Dhoondta Hai" programme on March 12 was simply superb because explaining these excellences to us was his son, Sanjeev Kohli. In the first half of the programme, Sanjeevji presented a video to chart the journey through his father's timeless music. In addition to a medley of Madan Mohan's hundred best (tough choice!) songs, the video presentation had great nuggets of opinions of-n-by his contemporaries, his singers, the actors who gave screen presence to his ditties, and the poets whose witchery of words enhanced his magic.

The second half, a compered question-answer session with lovely video inputs, was truly touching. Here was a son who was upfront about the disappointments his highly talented and hugely principled father faced. Thus emerged an era of genuine creative people who could be friends despite professional competition. Thus could we catch glimpses of a highly sensitive soul who was commitment personified as Sanjeevji's anecdotes repeatedly revealed.

Sanjeevji's deeply emotional confessions were laced with a subtle dash of humour which did not allow the programme to wallow in to idolatry, a great asset indeed! Dr. Rajeshree Gokhale Madam as emcee was truly what good compering should be, supportive but non-intrusive. A fantabulous evening, in brief! Mitra foundation and the Gokhale family absolutely deserve a huge 'thank you'! True, it is a labour of love for Sanjeevji, but we, the ardent audience of Madan Mohan, owe him a huge and forever sense of gratitude for this lovely collage of memories and medleys.

Pratima Agnihotri @ The evening was a most pleasant 'rangpanchami' of 'sapt sur', great poems set to memorable music, coloured with the deep love and respect of a devoted son dedicated to forever keeping his father's memory creatively alive.

A blog by Pratima Ramchandra Agnihotri, Pune

N.B.:

Today, on July 14, I would like to add a footnote to this tribute to Madanji. July 14 is the Bastille Day, the high point of the French Revolution. Just as the French Revolution made the dream of "liberty, equality and fraternity" accessible to the common man, in the field of Hindi film music, Madanji made the classical "sur" comprehensible to every common listener. His ghazals have made Hindi film music a republic of sur, tal, laya.  Huge respect to the eternal memory of his great music-making on his Death Anniversary!🙏🙏🙏

Pratima R.Agnihotri 

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