Page 42 - Seniors Today - June 2021 Issue
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it was in as it had different dialects of Hindi Sparsh. Uttam Singh, known as an
and Gujarati. I would say it was studio arranger, provided music for Ashok Ahuja’s
language. People from Gujarat, Madhya Aadharshila. Another music director active
Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, all identified in parallel cinema was Rajat Dholakia, who
with it.” composed music Ketan Mehta’s Holi and
Benegal’s Bhumika had the hit ‘Tumhare Mirch Masala, Kamal Swaroop’s Om-Dar
Bin Jee Na Lage’, composed by Bhatia, written Ba-Dar and Sudhir Mishra’s Dharavi. The
by Vasant Dev and sung by Preeti Sagar, with biggest surprise came from Nihalani, who
Smita Patil on screen. Reminisced Bhatia, “I got in legendary classical vocalist Kishori
used Preeti’s voice again in the Kalyug song Amonkar to compose and sing for his 1990
‘What’s Your Problem?’ Some people felt film Drishti.
I chose her because her song ‘My Heart Is
Beating’ from Julie became a hit, but the fact No mass impact
is I never liked that song. The truth was that Top-rung music directors stayed away from
I preferred simple songs. That was the good parallel cinema for two main reasons. One,
thing about Preeti. She sang straight, without songs from such films never created the mass
any frills.” impact that the big grossers did. Secondly,
By this time, it became clear that songs could since they worked on limited budgets, they
be used increasingly in parallel cinema – couldn’t afford the fees demanded by the
‘What’s Your Problem?’ in fact had a disco big names. Still, there was a set of quality-
flavour. This was contrary to the earlier conscious music directors who chose films
notion that only background scores suited simply because the storylines gave them a
this genre. Other music directors began chance to hone in on their musical creativity.
contributing, in some cases promoting Jaidev’s music in Muzaffar Ali’s Gaman
unconventional singers. In Govind Nihalani’s and Jagjit Singh’s songs in Mahesh Bhatt’s
1980 film Aakrosh, music director Ajit Arth did well commercially. Khayyam
Verman used the voices of Madhuri brought in different sounds, using mujra
Purandare and Vandana Khandekar. His songs written by Shahryaar in Muzaffar Ali’s
later work included Nihalani’s Ardh Satya Umrao Jaan, which added a new dimension
and Mahesh Bhatt’s Saaransh and telefilm to Asha Bhosle’s repertoire, and ghazals in
Janam. Sagar Sarhadi’s Bazaar, where he used Lata
Mangeshkar, Talat Aziz, Jagjit Kaur, Pamela
Chopra and Bhupinder Singh. In the cassette
era, all these soundtracks did good business.
Smita Patil lit up the screen performing to Tumhare Bin
Jee Na Lage in Bhumika
Music director Kanu Roy used the voice
of Sulakshana Pandit in Sai Paranjpye’s Seene Mein Jalan from Gaman, practically an anthem for
urban angst
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