Insight into golden songs of Hindi cinema

There are lakhs of people in our country who love to listen to melodious songs of old Bollywood movies instead of the present day Hindi film numbers which, according to them, are neith­er catchy nor well written.

However, there are very few people who not only love these old songs but also are extremely passionate about them.

One such example is Krushna Chandra Mish­ra, a Cuttack-based former employee of the government of Orissa who on his has already published four volumes of an encyclopaedia of old Hindi movie songs.



The fifth one is in the pipeline. This is perhaps for the first time in the country that such a book of records on Bollywood songs has been produced by an individual.

“I was very keen to know the details of all these melodious old Hindi film songs which ultimately led me to produce this encylopaedia”, said 54-year-old Mishra, now a part time teacher. Each volume contains songs made during a decade.

The volume one of the interesting record book carries the songs of Hindi movies produced between the year 1931 and 1940. They include the first movie in Hindi language Alam Ara. While the second volume contains songs of Hindi films between 1941 and 1950, the third one is having songs of movies released between 1951 and 1960. The volume four presents the Hindi film songs released between 1961 and 1970. The yet to be published fifth volume consists of songs from Bollywood movies produced
between 1971 and 1980.

The details of songs of 4334 Hindi films have figured in the first four volumes. They include the names of the lyrists as well as music directors of each of the songs besides the “ragas” on which the songs were based. The four volumes have certainly provided the music buffs a rare insight into the songs of old Hindi movies made during the four decades between 1930 and 1970.

Originally from a village in coastal Puri district, Mishra’s interest in Bollywood movie songs began in 1965 when he was just eight years. In those days, Radio Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) was a hot favourite of music lovers in India and he (Mishra) was no different.

“Programmes like Bhule Bisre Geet, Purane Filmo Ka Sangeet, Jane Pehechane Geet and Meri Pasand Ke Koch Geet in the Radio Ceylon were some of my favourites”, he said adding that his interest had driven him to note down the names of the lyrists and music directors of the songs while they were being announced on the radio (in those days the announcers at the radio stations used to read out the names of the movies, lyrists and music directors before playing the songs).

The idea to produce a book on songs of old Bolloywood films struck him in 1980 after some of his well wishers suggested him about it. Four years of relentless
efforts, which included running from one library to another, finally bore fruit and the first volume of the encyclopaedia saw the light of the day in 1984. Subsequently, the second, third and fourth volumes of the interesting book were published in 1987, 1992 and 1995 respectively.

Mishra said, he was keen to come out with the fifth volume of the encyclopaedia as early as possible but funds became a major hurdle. He is also facing financial difficulties to reprint the first four volu­mes of the book for interested buyers.

“I have managed to produce the first four volumes at a cost of nearly ~3 lakh withdrawn from my GPF as well as individual contributions from my well wishers”, he said lamenting that neither the government nor any other agency had so far come forward to help him in his efforts. Asked if he would try to produce an encyclopaedia of songs of present day Hindi movies, immediately came the reply – “no”.

“From 1980 onwards Hindi movie songs gradually lost their classical touch and melodious flavour. People are now listening to the movie songs but nobody wants to remember them”, Mishra obse­rved adding that the golden era of stalwarts like Rafi, Lata and others may not return to the Bollywood again.