Madan Mohan centenary: Remembering the composer, his jugalbandi with Lata Mangeshkar and his 11 ‘eye’ songs

Lata Mangeshkar was the axis around which the music of composer Madan Mohan, whose birth centenary is this year, revolved. (Photo: madanmohan.in/Twitter)

The immortal love song Lag jaa gale, from Woh Kaun Thi? (1964) — poet-lyricist Raja Mehdi Ali Khan’s words sung by Lata Mangeshkar for Sadhana — that beacon of light, that cocktail of melody and melancholy, of yearning and longing, for a final embrace, for who knows what the next moment brings in its wake, gave itself readily to being reused in later films, most notably as Ponmeni thazhuvaamal in the Jayalalithaa-starrer Tamil film Yaar Nee? (1966) and, in the Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster franchise. The foot-tapping Sadhana-Lata masti bhara tarana from the serious thriller Mera Saaya (1966), Jhumka gira re Bareilly ke bazaar mein — a folk song previously rendered by Miss Dulari and Shamshad Begum — was reimagined as What Jhumka? for Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023). He himself reused MS Rajeswari’ Meow meow punnakutti (Tamil film Kumudham, 1962) as Meow meow meri sakhee, picturised on Nimmi (Pooja Ke Phool, 1964).

ALSO READ: Madan Mohan centenary: 20 evergreen songs of the legendary Hindi film composer

“Honey-dipped melody” is how film-music historian Pavan Jha describes Madan Mohan’s haunting, beautiful, timeless melodies: there is no other way to describe his oeuvre, whose birth centenary was observed this week on June 25. Not only were the legendary composer’s creations not archaic, they — like the compositions of that era — imbue nostalgia or, as the word’s Greek root evinces, the suffering (algos) caused by an unappeased yearning to return (nostos), to the glorious past, a suffering escalated by the forgettability of the present.

Who was Madan Mohan Kohli?

Like Naushad Ali from Lucknow and SD Burman, Hemant Kumar, Salil Choudhary and Anil Biswas from Calcutta, among others, Madan Mohan is yet another instance of Partition-triggered migration of talent to Bombay. Born in 1924 in Baghdad, Iraq, to Rai Bahadur Chunilal, who served as an accountant with the Iraqi police and, on return to India, joined Bombay Talkies, Madan Mohan joined the Army for two years until the end of World War II before his artist’s voice within grew louder and he joined All India Radio (AIR) before the Hindi film industry beckoned. While he went on to sing and compose classics, from Hindustani classical to ghazal-based film songs for Bollywood, Madan Mohan was a gifted, talented singer despite not being a trained singer, his actor-niece Anju Mahendroo told The Times of India. The composer carved out his own niche and made it on his own at a time, in the 1950s, when the then trimurti (triumvirate) of the Hindi film industry, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar had chosen their respective music directors, Shankar-Jaikishan, SD Burman and Naushad, respectively.

The chapter ‘In Tune with the Times’, in the book Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema (2003), edited by Govind Nihalani, Gulzar, and Saibal Chatterjee, mentions: “Madan Mohan was an exception to the ‘pedestrian’ work…His work in the genre of the ghazal and the sheer numbers of them that he set to music — over 50 — leaves others behind. …In a relatively short career of 25 years, he created some of Hindi cinema’s most outstanding music. Madan Mohan’s songs were often based on classical ragas. Renowned musician Ustad Rais Khan played the sitar in many of his films.” Madan Mohan was renowned for using the skills of great Indian classical musicians in his songs. Besides Pakistani artiste Ustad Rais Khan’s sitar being an inseparable part of his songs, he’s featured Hariprasad Chaurasia’s flute and Ram Narain’s sarangi prominently, too. His raga-based compositions for Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Dastak (1970), from Baiyaan na dharo in Raag Charukesi to Maayee ree, main kaase kahoon in Raag Bageshri, written by Majrooh Sultanpuri (the first lyricist to be awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1993) would, after 20 years of composing classics, finally won Madan Mohan the National Award (no Filmfare awards though).

King of Ghazals Madan Mohan who brought out the best in his singers

It was, however, the ghazal — in cinema — that became the classically-oriented composer’s forte, one where he remains unequalled. “Filmein unhone har tarah ki kee hai (he composed for all sorts of films), and the two lyricists he worked with for the most part, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and Rajinder Krishan, were some of the finest poets of the time,” says Yasir Abbasi, author of Yeh Un Dinoñ Ki Baat Hai: Urdu Memoirs of Cinema Legends (2018).

Not only was the writing, the music, the instrumentation/orchestration, the composition, all blend and segued to make magic, Madan Mohan “singers ka bada kamaal use karte thhe (he would make the most of singers). Like the way he used Lata and Rafi, two most popular singers of the time, but when they sang for Madan Mohan, alag hi unka jaadu hota thha (that magic would be something else). These were legendary singers in their own right, but Madan Mohan pushed the envelope, making them touch peaks. Then there was Talat Mehmood and Manna De…bahut hi kamaal (astonishing),” adds Abbasi.

Not just Rafi, Madan Mohan gave some iconic songs to Talat Mahmood, Manna De and Bhupinder, and even Kishore Kumar. Bharatan writes, “If there was one composer whom Kishore Kumar dreaded, it was Madan Mohan, who composed for Kishore on one provision that the ‘prankster performer’ would try nothing impromptu.” And, thus was born the evergreen Zaroorat hai zaroorat hai in Man-Mauji (1962), the same year Kishore sang the comedy song Cheel cheel chillake kajri sunaye in Half Ticket for Salil Chowdhury. In 1971, he sang Simti si sharmai si for Madan Mohan in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Parwana.

Unceasing innings with Lata Mangeshkar

But no singer found a pride of place quite like the ‘nightingale of India’ Lata Mangeshkar in Madan Mohan’s discography. While Lata-Madan “team made the ghazal its signature tune. He had revealed his ‘GhazaLata’ lineage with Ada (1951) and Madhosh (1951). Reinforcing it with Adalat (1958) and Anpadh (1962),” notes Bharatan, further quoting the composer himself, “Maine Lata ji ke liye bahut ghazlein banayi hai, aur unhone kya khoob gaaya hai unhein (I made many ghazals for Lata and she sang them with aplomb).” It is well-known that when Naushad heard Lata’s song Hai isi mein pyar ki aabroo picturised on Mala Sinha in Anpadh (1962), he is reported to have said, “meri saari mausiqui iss pe qurbaan (all my music I sacrifice for this).”

Four of the five big music composers in the 1950s' Golden Era of Hindi film music: (from left) Naushad, SD Burman, Jaikishan (of Shankar-Jaikishan duo) and Madan Mohan. (Photo: madanmohan.in via X)

The big five music directors: Naushad, SD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan, Madan Mohan, and C Ramchandra, “is a telltale pointer,” notes Bharatan, “to the calibre of composers turning the 1951-60 decade into the golden era of Hindustani film music. The most daringly Westernised, musically speaking, among the five was C Ramchandra,” further quoting Madan Mohan, “‘We music directors, as a Metro-Murphy team, went all over India, end-1956, only to discover there is no one even remotely as good as Lata.” Mangeshkar’s unforgettable Rasm-e-ulfat from the forgettable Dil Ki Rahen (1973) is another gem.

In Lata: A Life in Music (2023), biographer Yatindra Mishra writes, “Madan Mohan extracted the sweetness of Lata’s voice as did [SD] Burman…Her soft enunciation of words, her effortless liquid notes… Equally one cannot overlook the enormous influence of Begum Akhtar’s ghazal-singing on Madan Mohan. He was a minute observer of the Begum’s style… he befriended Begum Akhtar during his Lucknow AIR days, where he also met Talat Mehmood.”

Mishra further writes, “When she sang for Madan Mohan, Lata Mangeshkar uses shruti, a quality that is more prevalent in Carnatic rather than in Hindustani music. Madan Mohan’s fondness for Lata’s voice extended far beyond the ghazal… Madan Mohan believed that had it not been for Lata’s expert handling of all their complex demands, they may never had tried blending classical music into popular songs. She understood perfectly the mood that they were trying to evoke.”

And, so, like a perfect closure to the chapter that was Madan Mohan, Lata Mangeshkar was brought on board to sing the late composer’s unused scores and tunes for Yash Chopra’s Veer-Zaara (2004).

Madan Mohan and his obsession with the eye imagery

And so, after all this you thought Madan Mohan’s raakhi-sister Lata Mangeshkar was the central pole of his musical axis, you are not very wrong.

Strongman Madan Mohan was capable of giving a black eye to anyone who said something male chauvinistic about his raakhi sister, Lata Mangeshkar, writes the late music journalist Raju Bharatan in A Journey Down Melody Lane (2010). But Lata Mangeshkar came second only to the leitmotif of the eye imagery in his songs.

His debut film happened to be called Aankhen (1950), directed by Devendra Goel, starring Bharat Bhushan and Nalini Jaywant. The eye imagery has been a recurring motif in his song lyrics, whether it is literally the aankh/aankhen (eye/eyes) or it being a metonym for disha (direction/goal), dhundna/dhundta (to look for), khwaab (dream), ashq/aansoon (tears) and neend (sleep), or the lack thereof owing to restlessness as it happens when one falls in love. Of his many ‘eye’ songs, here are 11:

Aapki nazron ne samjha, pyaar ke qabil mujhe (Anpadh)

Naina barse rimjhim rimjhim (Woh Kaun Thi?)

Shokh Nazar Ki Bijliyaan (Woh Kaun Thi?)

Naino mein badra chhaye (Mera Saaya)

Haye unki woh nigaahein (Aakhari Dao)

Nainon waaline haaye mera dil loota (Mera Saaya)

Main toh tumse nain milake haar gayi sajna (Man-Mauji)

Teri aankhon ke siwa duniya mein rakha kya hai (Chirag)

Tumse nazar mili, dil ko khabar mili (Jaagir)

Aankhon aankhon mein ho gaye mast ishaare (Khazanchi)

Teri chamkati aankhon ke aage yeh sitaare kuchh bhi nahin (Chote Babu)