To think that the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
(CBSO) would team up with Sonu Nigam for a concert titled Rafi Resurrected in
London and perform songs such as “Hum tumse juda hoke mar jayenge ro ro ke”
sounds absurdly improbable. That’s exactly what happened recently in London. The
1965 song was composed by the underrated Usha Khanna and written by Asad
Bhopali.
The concert to commemorate Mohammad Rafi, widely regarded as
the greatest male playback singer of India (there are equal numbers who accord
that status to Kishore Kumar but that’s that), was broadcast on Sony
television. The CBSO musicians did an exceptional job of internalizing the
spirit of the wide variety of songs that Nigam sang. The songs lend themselves so well to western
orchestration even though the mood of most was anything but.
For instance, the 1967 song ‘Patthar ke sanam tujhe humne’ composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal and written by
the always outstanding Majrooh Sultanpuri is hard to picture in a western
orchestral situation. But then there is the 1968 ‘Kaun hai jo sapnon mei aya’
from ‘Jhuk Gaya Asman’, composed by Shankar Jaikishan and written by Hasrat
Jaipuri that lends itself so well. I found the 1949 classic ‘Suhani raat dhal
chuki’ composed by the great Naushad for the movie ‘Dulari’ and written by
Shakeel Badayuni particularly arresting. Try the 1975 Punjabi number ‘Main jatt
yamla pagla’ from ‘Pratigya’ composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal and written by
Anand Bakshi. You would think it practically impossible to render that number
in a symphonic framework. Think again.
I also loved the 1963 song 'Yaad na jaye' from 'Dil ek mandir' composed by Shankar Jaikishan and written by the master Shailendra.
The showstopper has to be "Tum jo mil gaye ho' from 'Hanste Zakhm' (1973) composed by the unputdownable Madan Mohan with lyrics by the great Kaifi Azmi.
For sheer variety check out these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2cckhYq_2E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH-cHVFbpkM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlrm8OjEGlY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlrm8OjEGlY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuHRtP3ZDXY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rRPLQTqYvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNzfybpt2_s