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Published: 24 August 2017

Last Updated: 03 November 2017

Song structure

In the songs of the 50s to 80s a very similar structure is heard. It may begin with an intro line, e.g. in the aayegaa aane walaa, one hears Khaamosh hai zamaana ... Then there is intro music. Then the sthaaee or the refrain. More intro music, the first antaraa or stanza, followed by more interludes and stanzas.

But if one listens to songs from the 30s or early 40s, in most songs, there is hardly any interlude music. The singers start singing, keep singing and singing till the end. The music is in the background playing almost a secondary part.

The sthaaee-antaraa form became standard some time during the late 40s. Many people believe that it was Anil Biswas who did that. But it is a matter of ongoing research.

Now you know!

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Published: 23 August 2017

Last Updated: 03 November 2017

Number 7 2017/08/22

Which was the first Hindi film song?

You see that I was careful to say, Hindi and film, because there may have been a non-Hindi or/and non-film song. Of course, everybody knows that it was 'de de Khudaa ke naam pe pyaare' from Alam Ara (1931), lyrics by ?, music by Firozeshah M Mistry, sung by Wazir Mohammed Khan.

How do we know this? Because by all accounts Alam Ara was the first Hindi talkie (actually any language talkie making the word Hindi redundant) and the producer Ardeshir M Irani told us that he recorded this song first by using his Tanar system..

Who was the lyricist? Officially we do not know, but a good guess can be made, The film was based on a play Joseph David (Penkar) who is credited with the play and the dialogs. In those days usually the dialog writers also wrote the songs. But we don't know for sure in this case.

So this was the first solo song. Which one was the first duet? We really do not know for sure because in Alam Ara, all songs are solos except one, which is a chorus.

Luckily, we do know the second picture that was released. It was Shirin Farhad, also based on a popular play. The Geet Kosh lists 5 songs as solos out of 18. One is listed as chorus and Number 11 is listed as a duet by Master Nissar and Jehanara Kajjan. So, Number 11, 'naseem-e-subah tu itna unhen sunaa denaa' looks like a good answer. Unluckily, we do not know if the remaining 11 songs are solos, duets or what. All we can say is that it is Number 11 based on current research, as far as we know, it may change tomorrow etc.

Next time somebody proudly tells you he knows who did X first, you know how to respond :)

Homework: The above was  a male-female duet because of our tacit assumption. Which are the first male-male and female-female duets?

Now you know!

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Published: 22 August 2017

Last Updated: 03 November 2017

Number 6 2017/08/21

Film Booklets

So, the gazette gives you basic info. What if you need the names of actors, director etc.? You could look at old magazine issues. They review films and do have some more info. What if you want all the info about all films? For that you need film booklets.

I don't mean the 5-10 paisa pamphlets I used to buy in my childhood. What you need is the publicity film booklets. These were used by the distributors, the premier attendees and so on.

Har Mandir Singh got the booklets or the information therein from various sources the main ones being the NFAI, Poona,  a booklet seller in Indore and another one from Bombay. Many individuals also contributed.

During the preparation of my book on Indurani, I asked Har Mandir to send me copies of all the booklets for Indurani's films. He was generous and I used the material liberally in my book. Here is a sample. As you can see, it has a lot of valuable information.