After I opened the Piano songs series in December, I decided to publish one list per month covering a decade.
In December I covered the 40s, and of course today it’s time for the 50s (1951 to 1960).
By now Piano songs had become an integral part of Hindi cinema and a number of melodious Piano songs were released throughout the decade. The most common occasion to find a Piano song would be a lavish party where the singer would hit the piano and start singing and mind you, you might get a blue mood song too!
While I went through the long list, I was surprised to see a couple of my favourite Piano songs not fitting the criteria and with a heavy heart I am adding just the screencaps. No points for guessing the songs.
A few songs incorporated piano in the picturisation, but strangely enough the orchestration didn’t have the piano sounds throughout. I was thinking of adding this as a criteria to filter out songs, but that would have become a tedious job in general to listen to the songs and carefully note the piano sounds. And off hand it would have been difficult to remember such songs for the readers. So I skipped the idea. Instead, I stuck to the criteria of the first part.
So here I’m with the ten Piano songs from the Hindi films of the 50s with Piano being played for the entire length of the song. The songs are arranged in a chronological order as usual.
Here we go………
1. Ae Jane Jigar Dil Mein Samane – Aaram (1951) Mukesh / Anil Biswas – Rajendra Krishan
What a beautiful composition to start today’s list! Amazing Piano pieces! Sung wonderfully by Mukesh and picturised on Premnath. The latter seems a bit disturbed. He is desperate about Madhubala.
Now let’s enjoy a couple of songs picturised on one of the most popular onscreen pairs of Raj Kapoor and Nargis. Both the films were released in 1952 and coincidentally both the songs were sung by Talat Mahmood. I am sure you must have guessed it by now.
2. Dil Matwala Lakh Sambhala – Bewafa (1952) Talat Mahmood / A R Qureshi – Sarshar Sailani
A beautiful piano song! On screen chemistry between the pair is wonderful. After the song opens with piano sounds, however later it’s not heard prominently. I’m not an expert of course, but couldn’t confirm if the interludes had piano notes or some other instrument was used!
The film sounds very interesting and after reading its review on this blog I’m extremely curious about it. I’m yet to watch it of course. But you may soon find a review here on my blog too.
3. Main Dil Hoon Ek Armaan Bhara – Anhonee (1952) Talat Mahmood / Roshan – Ali Sardar Jafri
I’m more inclined to this song among these two songs. The lyrics go well with the situation in the song. Raj Kapoor is a poor advocate, who fights with Nargis on their first encounter and the latter dislikes him. In the party however, he maintains dignity and holds his head high. His innocence and honesty touches her soul. A very beautiful song, wonderful piano pieces throughout the song.
4. Kahan Ho Kahan Mere Jeevan Sahare – Sangdil (1952) Talat Mahmood / Sajjad – Rajendra Krishan
Third song of Talat Mahmood in a row! This time we have a distressed and anguished Dilip Kumar lip synching to his voice. If piano sounds great in happy songs, it sounds great in melancholy songs too. The song has a typical Sajjad touch (listen to the interludes) to it and even Talat seems to go breathless on a couple of occasions. The high notes of piano well portray the outburst of emotions. And if you listen carefully the piano notes accompany the lyrics almost throughout. Surely one of the finest and memorable Piano songs of Hindi cinema.
5. Khamosh Zindagi Ko Ek Afsana – Dil e Naadan (1953) Jagjit Kaur / Ghulam Mohammad – Shakeel Badayuni
One of the popular songs by Jagjit Kaur. A good piano song, rendered in a typical vintage era style. Dil e Naadan was Jagjit Kaur’s first popular film. The song is picturised on the beautiful Peace Kanwal. After the opening piano piece, it’s not heard prominently in the orchestration. After a careful listen, I thought I heard piano sounds in the antara as well, though not as prominent as in most of the other songs on today’s list.
6. Shamma Pe Jalke Bhi – Meenar (1954) Asha Bhosle / C Ramchandra – Rajendra Krishan
The song opens with a couplet by Urdu poet, Allamma Iqbal. The song talks about love and its real depths. Sheila Ramani lip syncs to Asha Bhosle’s voice while Pran and Bharat Bhushan are in the audience. The song is perhaps not very popular.
7. Dil Chhed Koi Aisa Naghma – Inspector (1956) Lata Mangeshkar / Hemant Kumar – S H Bihari
A beautiful piano song picturised on Geeta Bali who’s pretending to be happy. She confesses too about it and requests her heart to come up with a cheerful song that will engage the listeners so that they will overlook her dismay. Again though she plays the piano throughout (as apparent from her movements) we can hear prominent piano sounds only in the prelude and the second antara. I however preferred it over ‘Sab Kuchh Luta Ke’ from Ek Saal which also has very less piano to be heard and I have reserved it for yet another post to be published later.
8. Yeh Mard Bade Dil Sard – Miss Mary (1957) Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi / Hemant Kumar – Rajendra Krishan
The cheerfulness of the song, beautiful orchestration, gorgeous Meena Kumari (with her cute facial expressions) and the teasy playful lyrics all compelled me to choose this song for today’s list. I think the song, which apparently has two parts, can be taken as a single song as both the parts appear successively and have the same thread to follow, the war of genders! If Meena Kumari tries to rip apart men in general, Gemini Ganesan rebukes to save men. A fun to watch and to listen!
9. Manzil Wohi Hai Pyar Ki – Kathputli (1957) Subir Sen / Shankar Jaikishan – Shailendra
What a delightful composition! And sung so well by Subir Sen! Though he couldn’t make a mark as a playback singer in Hindi films, his career in Bangla films is impressive. Balraj Sahani plays the piano while Vyjayanti Mala dances to the tune. Though they seem to be a romantic couple, I think there’s nothing between them actually. Very charming Piano pieces in prelude and the interludes.
10. Ajab Hai Daastan Teri – Shararat (1959) Rafi / Shankar Jaikishan – Hasrat Jaipuri
One of the few songs where Kishore Kumar received playback from other singers, here it’s Rafi. One of the popular songs of the movie, the song talks about the relationship between devar and bhabhi. Here it’s equated to son and Mother. If you listen to the lyrics carefully, it’s quite apparent! The piano befriends the song so effectively! A piano gels well with cheerful as well as with sad, philosophical or sentimental songs!
11. Bachpan Ke Din Bhi – Sujata (1959) Geeta Dutt & Asha Bhosle / S D Burman – Majrooh
Well! I agree Shashikala doesn’t play the piano throughout. She wanders about a bit, but only to return to play it again at an appropriate time. And what a beautiful song! Nutan listens to the song on the terrace, just humming! A lovely duet indeed. Even though Asha Bhosle is in a supporting role strictly, she certainly adds a charm to it. Beautiful use of piano. One really travels back in time listening to this song!
12. Tu Nahi Aur Sahi – Tu Nahi Aur Sahi (1960) Mukesh / Ravi – Majrooh
And a not so popular song to end the list. Pradeep Kumar on the piano addresses the song to Nishi, who ditches him. The song opens with piano pieces, though later it’s not prominently used in the orchestration. Meenu Mumtaz dances to the tune in the interludes, which looks quite odd, as the mood of the song is not joyous!
I end my list now. I’m sure you must have thought of a befitting song to add. Please add piano songs from the Hindi films of the 50s.
Disclaimer –
Mehfil Mein Meri, claims no credit for any image, screenshots or songs posted on this site. Images on this blog are posted to make the text interesting. The images and screenshots are the copyright of their original owners. The song links are shared from YouTube, only for the listening convenience of music lovers. The copyright of these songs vests with the respective owners, producers and music companies.