Naushad: Composer of the century
See how Naushad crafted, in peerless Yaman, Ai ishq zara jaag tujhe husn jagaye, for Rajendra Kumar in Mere Mehboob (left). The beauty of being Sadhana, here, was brought home by the virtuoso voice of Rafi in Naushad's meticulous care. Talat Mahmood, for his part, could have been that eternal Naushad voice, hailing as he did, from this composer's native Lucknow.
"But I made the arrogant mistake of smoking in front of Naushad while recording my very first song for him, Mera jeevan saathee bichchad gaya, for Babul," Talat told me, his velvet voice full of remorse.
Manna Dey had the classical credentials to excel under Naushad. "But Manna's is a dry voice," Naushad insisted from the outset. "Rafi's vocals alone have the romantic resilience to underscore my music in all its subtle nuances."
Kishore Kumar fulfilled his lifetime's ambition when, at long last, he sang a duet, Hello, Hello, kya haal hai, with Asha Bhosle in Sunehra Sansar (1975). But his only song for Naushad was ultimately knocked out of the film!
There had been G M Durrani and Khan Mastana before but, for Naushad, once he stabilised the vocals of Rafi, it had to be this tenor almost all the way. By this stage in 1953, no film scored by Naushad was anything less than a silver jubilee hit. If it wasn't, it was a golden jubilee. Or a diamond jubilee.
Such was Naushad's aura that top distributors (financing producers) made it clear that the latter could only remain present at this master composer's recording. They could not speak while Naushad was recording!
As early as 1950, Naushad was the first to charge Rs 100,000 for a film. Plus, Rs 10,000 for the orchestra! See how it was the finesse in his orchestration that gave him a clear edge.
C Ramchandra and Husnlal-Bhagatram, Anil Biswas and S D Burman, Roshan and Madan Mohan, Salil Chowdhury and O P Nayyar, Khayyam and Jaidev (among others), composed some unforgettable music. But in trade circles, it was always understood that Naushad was a clear first among equals. Where others imposed, Naushad composed.
I never met a more composed creator in my 50 years on the movie beat than this 'Maestro with the Midas touch'. Never a harsh word by Naushad about any rival, he let his music do all the talking. And it did, near unfailingly, because Naushad keenly studied each script before scoring. He was no tunesmith manufacturing hit tunes.
"I can't carry my baaja to the singer's house," he would have me know. "At a social level, I'll call on my singer any number of times. But, for rehearsing, they all have to come here to my music room at Carter Road. Lata's Mohe panghat pe was not fashioned in Gaara just like that. Hours of fond labour went into minutely rehearsing the number."