Bollywood Music Directors

Lots of music directors in Hindi had a signature style, or a favourite way to compose songs-maybe an instrument, or beat, or orchestration. Here is an attempt to list out a few.

C. Ramchandra- Shola jo bhadke, dil mera dhadke exemplifies his style- melody, beat, simplicity..dance by Bhagwan and Geeta Bali is just too good.

Hemant Kumar- His signature style can be found in Bees Saal Baad; the two outstanding songs for me were Zara nazron se kehdo ji, and Beqaraar karke hamen yun na jaiye-melodious, minimalistic.

SD Burman- Folksy music/tunes, but very hummable. Yeh dil, na hota bechara from Jewel Thief, or O meri, o meri, o meri Sharmeelee are examples. All the Chalti ka Naam Gaaadi songs too.

OP Nayyar- had a thing for tanga (horse-carriage) beats, and used them well. Unique use of instruments, his tunes are very recognisable. Aaiye meherbaan from Howrah Bridge and Leke pehla pehla pyar from CID (Dev Anand film) are typical OPN tunes.

Ravi- The way I remember him is by the superb mellow songs he composed for BR Chopra films Humraaz and Gumraah- like Neele gagan ke tale, dharti ka pyar pale, and Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabi ban jayen hum dono. Used Mahendra Kapoor in many of these.

Kalyanji Anandji- The Johny Mera Naam songs are my favourites- Pal bhar ke liye koi hamein pyar kar le, and Ooo mere raja in particular.

Jaidev- Relatively fewer films, but some classics- Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya from Hum Dono and Yeh dil aur unki nigahon ke saaye by Lata Mangeshkar in Prem Parbat stand out.

Rajesh Roshan- from Julie (Dil kya kare jab kisi ko kisi se pyar ho jaaye) to Des Pardes (Tu pee aur jee), he is one of my favourites. Sounds very different, recognisable, like Chhokar mere man ko, kiya tune kya ishaara, in Yaarana, and Na bole tum na maine kuch kaha, from Baton Baton Mein.

Shankar Jaikishen typically used a lot of musicians/orchestration in their songs. Some songs that I liked were Badan pe sitare lapete hue from Prince and O mere shah-e-khuba from Love in Tokyo.

Laxmikant Pyarelal were not my favourites, but they had some excellent tunes, like in Parasmani (Hasta hua noorani chehra), and Shagird (Dil wil pyar vyar main kya jaanu re)

Kishore Kumar produced some classic tunes when he gave music in some films- the Door ka Rahi song sung by him and Sulakshana Pandit -Beqaraar dil, tu gaayeja- is one.


7 comments:

Diamond Head said...

Hmmm..I just realized Hummability is a word I had not seen writ anywhere.

Prof G Mohan said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Prof G Mohan said...

How about the styles of RD, Naushad, Madan Mohan, Roshan sir

Rajendra said...

I am familiar with Roshan and RD more than the other two, but I am learning..

Rajendra said...

RD would need an entire blog post, as I am a big fan of his.

Harimohan said...

Nice. We should make a collection of these songs and sing aloud next time.

Rajendra said...

Yes, Hari, good idea.

Learnings Over 40 Years

 The first step after my MBA in 1984 was into advertising, and then into Marketing Research. Followed by a trip to the U.S. that lasted 5 ye...

These Were Liked a Lot