MILESTONE FILMS OF MADAN MOHANJI - WOH KAUN THI (1964)
Madanji had a musically marvelous year in 1964. He had 8 releases and each of the films had a memorable score. All very different from each other, with a variety of songs, many of which are still loved, including JAHANARA, GAZAL, SUHAGAN, SHARABI, POOJA KE PHOOL, AAP KI PARCHAIYAAN and HAQEEQAT.
WOH KAUN THI, the eighth release of 1964, is among Madanji’s most loved scores. Working first time with old friend Raj Khosla in this Sadhana - Manoj Kumar starrer, Madanji had the opportunity to create some memorable songs from the haunting, ‘Naina Barse’, to the ghazal style, ‘Aap Kyon Roye’, the frothy ‘Shokh Nazar Ki Bijliyaan’, the romantic, ‘Chhod Kar Tere’ to the timeless, ‘Lagja Gale’.
Noticeably, all the songs had western arrangements, none of them had the sitar or any of Madanji’s favorite Indian instruments.
There are many anecdotes of the songs:
How ‘Naina Barse’ was filmed in Madanji’s voice and then later replaced by Lataji’s voice,
How the tune of ‘Lagja Gale’ was initially rejected by Raj Khosla,
How Madanji lost the sure-fire Filmfare Award for the film due to his uncompromising nature.
His consolation, as Lataji says, was when he told her it was fine with him as long as she felt he deserved the award.
And yet his biggest award is that ‘Lagja Gale’ continues to remain one of the most loved songs of all times even after 55 years of being recorded.
See article by Sadhanji on Madan Mohanji and sharing the experience of shooting the theme song of the film
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