MILESTONE FILMS OF MADAN MOHANJI - MERA SAAYA (1966)
With the scores of SANJOG, MANMAUJI and ANPADH in early 60S followed by a blockbuster year in 1964 with JAHANARA, GAZAL, HAQEEQAT, WOH KAUN THI among other musically appreciated films, Madanji had set high expectations for himself. At same time he had to adapt to the different styles of films being made in mid 60s. some with more light situations in romantic, youthful films.
MERA SAAYA (1966) was the second Raj Khosla directed Sadhana starrer which had Madan Mohanji as composer and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan as lyricist. Sunil Dutt co -starred in this film, which was adapted from a Marathi film. Madanji worked tirelessly to repeat the magic of WOH KAUN THI. He created 5 songs, each so different from the other. Once again, Madanji was nominated for the Filmfare Award, and yet once again, he refused to compromise and thus his name was removed from the nominations list.
The title song was difficult to compose as Madanji had to create as haunting a melody as ‘Naina Barse’ from WOH KAUN THI. It had two versions. The faster Indian rhythm based romantic one and the slower, western based sad one.
The classical, Raag Bhimpalasi based ‘Nainon Mein Badra Chaaye’ was a difficult song to record as Lataji was unwell and the song was awaited at the shoot in Udaipur but recording kept getting cancelled. When under pressure she did agree to record, the actual recording took a long time and Madanji was consequently in an agitated mood.
Jhumka Gira Re, the folk based dance number by Ashaji topped charts, became the No 2 song on Binaca Geet Mala and is still remembered.
‘Nainonwali Ne’ was an experimental song with dialogues of the lead pair interwoven in the melody.
For ‘Aap Ke Pahloo Mein’, Madanji wanted to rehearse Rafi Saab to get the right mood and hence did a dummy recording at home and sent to him to get familiar with the nuances before recording.
In the four rare audio links below, we get a better idea of the creation and success of these songs.
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