Audio India

Miyan Tansen (born Ramtanu Pandey 1506 – 1589) , one of the greatest vocalists and composers of Hindustani classical music was born in Behat, near Gwalior to Hindu Brahmin parents. He learnt music from Swami Haridas of Brindavan and later from Muhammad Ghaus (Sufi saint of Shattari order).

He was believed to be the contemporary of Baiju Bawra. He was in the court of King Ramchandra Baghela of Reva when Shehanshah Akbar called for him and kept him in his court as one of the Navratna (nine jewels). Tansen later converted to Islam. Akbar honored him with the title of “Miyan”.

Several of the Hindustani Raag are composed by him and often called…Miyan ki Todi, Miyan ki Malhar, Miyan ki Mand amd Miyan ka Sarang. He is also credited with creating major raag like Darbari Kanada, Darbari Todi, and Rageshwari.

Swami Haridas, Tansen and Baiju Bawra were “Dhrupad” style singers.

Tansen married Husseini. All his children, Tanras Khan, Bilas Khan, Hamirsen, Suratsen and Saraswati Devi were musicians.Almost all Gharanas of Hindustani music trace their lineage to Tansen. Tansen was buried in the mousoleum complex of his Guru, Muhammed Ghaus, in Gwalior.

“Khuda-e-Bartar” is based on Raag Miyan ki Todi, (similar raag..Bilaskhani Todi, Gurjari Todi).
Despite the obvious strain on my voice from not being well, I have selected this song because of Sahir’s lyrics.

I thank Rajesh for singing the Pakkad (quintessence) of Raag Todi.

Thaat: Todi
Aaroha: S-r-g-M-dh-N-S’
Avaroha: S’-N-dh-P-M-g-r-g-r-s
Jaati: Shadav-Sampoorn
Vaadi/Samvaadi : dh/g
Prahar: Morning (9 – 12)

Movie: Taj Mahal (1963)
Music: Roshan
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
Original singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Download “Khuda-e-Bartar”

Download “Todi”

Movie : Maine Pyar Kiya (Hindi)
Song : Aate Jaate
Music : Ram Laxman
Originally Sung by : Lata Mangeshkar , S.P.Balasubrahmanyam
Performed By : Parasmani Acharya, Dhiraj Barla

This song is in the offing from at least 4 months now. First of all I would like to thank the veteran singer of Audio blog world Paras ji, for accepting my request to do this song. Paras ji is a versatile singer and I think everyone who is associated with Audio blog world would agree with me. She has this great tendency to create an aura around her song choices and writing interesting snippets about them. Sorry Paras ji, It took me a while to get this song done.

This song is from the movie Maine Pyar Kiya, it created a mass hysteria among movie goers during those days. There were so many movies that were made after this movie in this genre, but not even one single movie came close to this one, if we take the success factor into consideration.

I wanted to sing this song from a long time, this movie songs have a special place in my heart. I started to show interest in learning Hindi songs only because the songs were sung by Padma Sri. S.P.Balasubrahmanyam garu. I owe him a lot.

Hope you guys like it.

Please pardon the quality of Karaoke track, I did lot of fixing, but still the quality is not up to the mark.

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