15 rare treasures from Madan Mohan

Nearly 35 years after his death, composer Madan Mohan continues to mesmerise his fans with his 'fresh' compositions. Who can forget the impact late Madan Mohan's unused tunes had in the Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta-starrer Veer Zaara on music lovers?

Now fans of the legendary composer are in for more treat as 15 rare songs, some of them unheard before, are going to be released on Thursday on his 85th birth anniversary in an album called Tere Bagair by Yash Raj Music.

A website dedicated to the composer, who gave music in films like Mera Saaya, Woh Kaun Thi, Manmauji, Haqeeqat, Heer Ranjha and Mausam, will also be launched. The 15 songs are of various moods -- songs of pathos, ghazals, naghmas, romantic ditties, ballads, and even cabarets.

Mohan passed away at the age of 51, on July 14, 1975, after composing for over 100 films. "Due to his untimely demise, various tunes composed by my father remained unrecorded. They remained unused, till 30 years later Yash Chopra decided to use some of them to form the soundtrack of his film, Veer Zaara. This historical attempt met with resounding success and won him various posthumous awards," says Mohan's son Sanjeev Kohli.

"Additionally, there were some recorded songs from films that remained incomplete -- films that were shelved for various reasons. Tere bagair features 15 such rare treasures, of which five have never been ever heard before as they have been exclusively excavated for this album.

These are songs found from his master tapes, which had been preserved by the family. "These songs were recorded by Madanji in his peak years, in his characteristic style," he says. The songs in Tere Bagair were recorded from 1964 to 1972 and sung by legendary and Mohan's favourite singers Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi, Talat Mahmood, and Kishore Kumar in their inimitable styles.

The album has been aptly titled Tere Bagair, which is the haunting refrain of its opening song by Rafi Kaise kategi zindagi. The other songs in which Rafi lends his voice are Mera paighaam, Mehbooba meri mehbooba, Kadamon mein tere, Jahaan mile dharti aakash, Yeh tera husn and Dhadkan hai tu har dil ki (with Asha, Balbir and Brij Bhusan).

Tum juda hokar is a classic effort by Mahmood, sung in his unique style. Yeh duniya ek maikhaana hai is a cabaret by Asha, while Lata sings Mere Ashqon ka gham, Main ek baalak besahara and Khile kamal si kaya.