Audio India

Music : Hemant Kumar
Singer : Hemant Kumar

This is a relatively less known number by Rahman from 1-2-ka-4. The movie bombed at the box office I guess, but had some good melodies- including this one and sona nahi na sahi. Found an excellent karaoke track for this one on an esnips page… and it was a long pending idea to do a duet with fellow blogger Rajesh Raman and it somehow never took off until this one.

Needless to say, Rajesh is remarkable. One of those singers who we should be lucky to have here, among us. A little about the original: A sensational duo, Sonu and Lata have sung this. Lata, despite the shake and all other age related factors sounds so expressive. I wish I could isolate her singing from her voice…

Sonu: Amaaazing as always. Check out a live version by them at the Unity of Lights concerts with Rahman here: Sonu is adorable!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gsmoWEsvpo&feature=PlayList&p=BFBDCF7A7807CBBF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=37

Now, here’s our’s Let us know what you thought. This was recorded a long time back- we kept going back and forth on mixes… finally decided to pick the best one and put it up… Many thanks to Rajesh’s friend Arun Varma for his efforts in mixing this.

Song: Khamoshiyan gungunane lagiin
Movie: 1-2-ka-4
Music: A.R.Rahman
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri
Singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Sonu Nigam
This version mixed by: Arun Varma

OR

This month’s post is a classical-based song from the movie Bhool Bhulaiyya, a Hindi remake of Fazil’s Manichitrathaazhu(Malayalam). The movie won accolades in all languages it was remade in-Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. This song appears in the climax. With the variable tempo in the composition, beautiful harkats and jugalbandhi in the sargam part, the song soared up in popularity immensely in the year 2007. I’ve performed this song atleast 4 times in various occasions, the last of which was AID benefit show in Feb 2009. The response to this song has remained tremendous till date-once again re-inforcing that it is bound to be evergreen.

Album: Bhool Bhulaiyya
Year: 2007
Language: Hindi
Sung by: Karthik R and Mayuri Ray

Absolutely fell in love with this song when I heard it in 2008, the year it released. Always have wondered why this album of ARR wasn’t as popular as his other Hindi ones. Then… I made the mistake of seeing the movie Very sad state of affairs to say the least, and definitely the lesser the said, the better!

Music by ARR, just beautiful!!! And this is the 2nd song I am covering after Tu hi mera dosth with George Kuruvilla.

This song is a beautiful romantic number with great singing by Alka Yagnik & Javed Ali. Not a big fan of hers, but I have found her giving her best for ARR consistently, and this song is no exception.

I had a pre-requisite to do this number, and that was Pradip being available. Given the complexity of the ending swarams/jathis, and the voice match— somehow couldn’t imagine anyone else giving this song the required dedication, that it so richly deserves. So, thank you Pradip, for doing Javed’s parts, and for all your help especially in my nemesis lang., Hindi LOL

Thanks in advance for your time, and happy listening!

Movie: Yuvvraaj
Original Music by: A R Rahman
Originally sung by: Javed Ali & Alka Yagnik
Cover version by: Pradip Somasundaran & Meera Manohar
Mixed by: Pradip

I have tried to sing this hit song of The Legend Kishore Kumar..Kindly listen and let me know how do u like this.

This was the first song that I had attempted to sing with a karaoke. I had lots of fun singing with a track for the first time. Unfortunalely, at that point being quite clueless about the whole mixing process. I just mixed my raw vocals with the track and saved it. I have been wanting to redo this song for a while and finally did so today. So here goes… As always your feedback is welcome.
Disclaimer: Though am slightly better with mixing, am still pretty clueless!

Song: Zara Zara
Movie: Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein (RHTDM)
Music: Harris Jayaraj
Original Singer(s): Bombay Jayashree
Cover by: Nandita

Download here

Johnny Walker (Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi… May 15, 1923-July 29, 2003) was born in Srinagar, India. His father was a mill worker. The family later moved to Bombay. Badaruddin tried different occupations and while he was working as a bus conductor on the B.E.S.T. line that he caught the attention of Balraj Sahni, who was working on the screenplay of Guru Dutt’s Baazi. Guru Dutt gave him the screen name “Johnny Walker” and they remained good friends. Guru Dutt madea special effort to have a role for Johnny Walker in his films.

Johnny Walker met Noor(actress Shakila’s sister) on the set of Aar Paar and married her later. They had 3 daughters and 3 sons. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was quite fond of Johnny Walker.

He acted in several films…including Baazi(1951), Aar paar, Mr. & Mrs. 55, Pyaasa, Devdaas, Mughal-e-Azam, Chaudhvin ka chaand, Kagaz ke phool, Anand, Shaan….his last film was Kamal Hasan’s Chachi 420(1998)

Some of his very memorable roles were in C.I.D.(1956), Chhori chori (1956),Madhumati(1958) and Mere Mehboob (1963).

Awards …
Best supporting actor, Madhumati (1958)
Best Comedian, Shikar (1968)

Some of the very popular songs, filmed on Johnny Walker…
Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan…C.I.D.
Dekhta chala gayaa main zindagi ki rah mein…Gateway of India
Tu aja re, ke dil hai beqarar…Naya andaaz
Gareeb jaan ke…Chhoo mantar
Sar jo tera chakraye…Pyaasa
Mera yaar bana hai dulha…Chaudhveen ka chaand
Jangal mein mor nacha…Madhumati

I thank Azam for helping me pay tribute to the one and only, Johnny Walker…

Movie: Mr. & Mrs. 55
Music: O.P. Nayyar
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri
Original singers: Mohammed Rafi & Geeta Dutt

Download “Jaane kahan mera jigar gayaa ji”

Guru Dutt (Vasanth Kumar Padukone) was born on July 9, 1925 in Bangalore, India.
He did his schooling in Bengal and spoke fluent Bengali. He was a well known actor, director and producer in Bombay film industry. Some of his memorable films were Baazi, Jaal, Aar Paar, Mr. and Mrs. 55, C.I.D., Pyaasa, Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam and Kagaz ke Phool. He married Geeta Roy in 1953 overcoming a great deal of family opposition. He later had a romantic involvement with Waheeda Rehman. He died on October 10, 1964 from overdose of sleeping pills.

“Pyaasa” is a story of a struggling poet Vijay (GuruDutt) who was ditched by his love, Meena(Mala Sinha). She married a wealthy publisher, Mr. Ghosh(Rehman). Vijay meets a prostitute, Gulabo(Waheeda), who loves his poems and gets those published. At the end, Vijay, who had enough of this selfish world, leaves with his true companion, Gulabo.

In 2004, the sound track of Pyaasa was chosen as Best film music by British film institute magazine. This was the last collaboration of the popular SDB, Sahir team. The story was partly based on the life of its writer Chandra Shekhar ‘Prem’ . The song… “Hum aap ki aankhon mein” was added upon pressure from the distributors…as a relief from a pessimistic story. Guru Dutt had initially hoped for Nargis, Madhubala and Dilip Kumar for the roles of Meena, Gulabo and Vijay.

For this tribute, I am posting one of my live recordings from 2 years back.

Movie: Pyaasa (1957)
Music: S D Burman
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
Original singer: Geeta Dutt

A very nostaligic song reminding me of my childhood. A very favourite song of my eldest brother Mani. Mani anna , a wonderful singer hmself used to sing this whenever he used to come home from his engineering college Hostel on vacation. I was the tablist (on a plywood Chess/Draught Board). We used to have hours and hours of music session till mom comes shouting to stop…Wowow….what a nice time we had those days…

Mani Anna..this one is for you – a very sincere and affectionate dedication.. I still remember the song in your voice..I am sure I have not reached anywhere near your standard, but have given it my best shot…

Hope you all will hear and give your views on my attempt…

This song and Pradip Somasundaran need no introduction

Qurbaani was an extremely popular film during its times and had sold the most number of music records that year. It also introduced Pakistani singer “Nazia Hassan” who rendered the popular “Aap Jaisa Koi”. “Kya Dekhte Ho” was probably one of the last few duets by Asha-Rafi so it makes it even more special.

I want to thank Pradip Sir for suggesting this song and giving me an opportunity to sing this classic. Its a privilege to be singing with him! He has done a fabulous job with the mixing too as usual.

Hope you like our attempt. Do leave your valuable feedback.Song: Kya Dekhte Ho
Movie: Qurbaani
Music: Kalyanji-Anandji
Original Singer(s): Asha Bhonsle, Mohammad Rafi
Cover by: Smitha Passanha, Pradip Somasundaran