Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Naushad : Mughal-E-Azam (1960)


Even if this is a Bollywood Classic, it took me some time to get into this record, it was my first classical inspired soundtrack. It goes up and down, slow and fast, I was a little confused for what my western ear was used to hearing. But once you get it, you really get it. Evidently, "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya" is the movie anthem. Naushad is a genius.

Mughal-E-Azam took 10 years to finish (1950 to 1960), so the soundtrack has nothing really from the 60's. Clearly based on northern Indian classical music, you can hear the tabla, sitars and Kathak Ghungroos (Classical Dance Bells). The two last tracks sung by Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, are pure classical, but I'm not sure if I really like them. I don't know if I still need to get used to them or If it's just plain annoying. I don't know ?!

"Teri Mehfil Men Qismet Azmakar", is great, it's a singing battle, woh, and I honestly prefer Shamshad Begum's voice to Lata Mangeshkar's, in the song anyway.

My favorites songs have to be: "Mohabbat Ki Jhooti Kahani", because it just beautiful. "Mohe Panghat Pe" , I just love the sounds of sitars, bells, great vocals (and strangely a piano note just before the singing starts ?!) "Yeh Dil Ki Lagi Kam Kya Hogi" , there is nothing that special about this track, but I just like it. I also like "Aae Mohabbat Zindabad", because it's the only male vocal song I like on the album.

Plus for more info on Mughal-E-Azam, there is a website, because the movie just got rereleased in 2004: Mughal-E-Azam colorized, there is some info on the music too.

Tracks:

Side 1
1. Lata Mangeshkar: Mohabbat Ki Jhooti Kahani
2. Lata Mangeshkar: Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya
3. Lata Mangeshkar: Bekas Pe Karam Kijiye
4. Lata Mangeshkar: Khuda Nigheban Ho
5. Mohd. Rafi & Chorus: Aae Mohabbat Zindabad

Side 2
6. Lata Mangeshkar: Mohe Panghat Pe
7. Lata Mangeshkar & Chorus: Yeh Dil Ki Lagi Kam Kya Hogi
8. Lata Mangeshkar & Shamshad Begum: Teri Mehfil Men Qismet Azmakar
9. Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan: Prem Jogan Ban Ke
10. Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan: Shubh Din Ayo

Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni & Naushad

Stella_1's score: 4/5

Get the Music Now : Naushad Mughal-E-Azam

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great blog - and a nice couple of albums to start with!

I love this album - and just for trivia ... if you notice the recordings on the MEA album differ from the film versions. For the older soundtracks there were normally two versions of the song recorded - one for the film and the other for release on 78 rpm records.

For MEA it is very noticable that there are big differences between the record and the version recorded for the film.

Reza said...

outstanding start !!!!!
thx looking forward to more :)

Filmi Geek said...

My experience of this soundtrack was that I didn't really appreciate it fully until I had seen the movie, at which point it became an absolute favorite.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a bunch for the vinyl version. Though I enjoy both the old CD version and the re-mastered "colorized" version, I really enjoyed this one. Sadly I can't say the same for the new re-mastered re-colorized Naya Daur soundtrack, definitely prefer the original OST for that one.