With the melodies come the feelings. The thoughts of love were shaped into sighs that never craved a destination, never knew a goal. A melody like Lag jaa gale se could never get wrinkled. The crease of time decreases with every listening of a Madan Mohan composition. Did Sadhana, Nutan, or Mala Sinha ever look as radiantly eloquent as they did while giving physical form to Madan Mohan’s Naina barse, Aap ki nazron ne samjha, and Sapnon mein agar mere? Every heroine’s legendary status was enhanced when she lip-synced one of Madan Mohan’s expressive compositions in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice.
Mala Sinha remembers how her father and the music composer would meet at the race course and listen to the composer’s new creations. A generosity of spirit underscored Madan Mohan’s life and career. He never cared about accumulating the traditional luxuries of life. His songs were his luxuries and his life. Actress Rehana Sultan, who had the privilege of lip-syncing on screen to some of Madan Mohan Saab’s best Lata-compositions, recalls how Madan Mohan refused to talk money when she signed him to score music for her home production Dil Ki Raahein. Madan Mohan’s lifelong fans included every music enthusiast from Begum Akhtar to Rehana Sultan.
Even the mighty Hridayanath Mangeshkar, blessed with an awesome musical pedigree, bowed to Madan Mohan’s artistry. After he heard the songs of Jahan Ara, Hridaynath made Madan Mohan Saab sign a copy of the long-playing record from the film. Listen to Lataji sing Woh chup rahen toh mere dil daagh jalte hain and the composer’s other favourite singer Talat Mahmood sing Phir wohi sham wohi gham wohi tanhaai hai and you’d know why a composer as gifted as Hridayanath Mangeshkar fell for the beguiling paces, bountiful graces and sonorous spaces in the historical soundtrack of Jahan Ara.
It wasn’t easy for Madan Mohan to be part of the sham and shallowness of showbiz. He had to be comfortable with the set-up and the production house even if it meant settling for the second-row assignments. His favourite producers included character actor Om Prakash. Subsequently, Om Prakash confessed he made much more money out of the music of his films than the films themselves. The trend continues. Madan Mohan’s scores continue to score bull’s eye in every nostalgia circle. His songs can best be described as “progressive nostalgia”.
While on one end Agar mujhse mohabbat hai and Meri aankhon se koi neend liye jaata hai are soaked in the vinegar of sublime sensibilities redolent of unforgettable pain and longing, on the other end they are also compositions that sound as though they were composed four days instead of four decades ago. Madan Mohan could move from pain in Bhuli hui yaadon humein itna na satao in Sanjog to parody in Zaroorat zaroorat hai in Man-Mauji. Both the far-flung moods are divided only in purpose, never in intention. Excellence was always Madan Mohan’s goal. Says Gulzar, “Just as Ghalib was a pro of poetry, Madan Mohan was the pro of composition.”
The comparison would have pleased both Ghalib and Madan Mohan. The Ghazal was close to both the immortal artistes’ hearts. By the time Dil dhoondta hai phir wohi phursat ke raat din in Gulzar Saab’s Mausam came out, Madan Mohan was gone. He died on 14 July 1975. Madan Mohan Saab was only 51. In those 51 years, he had achieved fifty lifetimes of excellence. Upon his death, the nation was swooning to the sounds of Bhupinder and Bhupinder-Lata Mangeshkar’s Dil dhoondta hai.
According to a conservative estimate, Madan Mohan had five hundred ready tunes in his private music bank when death snatched him away so cruelly. In his lifetime, he composed music for around one hundred films. Today the world hums his creations with a possessive pride. Every Madan Mohan composition seems to suggest a close link between mankind and divinity. With Lata Mangeshkar and other singing behemoths to carry Madan Mohan’s messages across to the powers beyond the visible, we cannot help being entranced by Madan Mohan’s magnificent melodies. From Sanwari surat man bhaye in Ada the collection takes us to Madan Mohan’s final posthumous releases in the late 70s and early 80s, and beyond. That was the story of Madan Mohan’s life.
His quest for flawless melodies continued even beyond his death. His gorgeous soundtrack for Laila Majnu released posthumously cracked open every chart in the country. It created a new market consciousness in the Hindi film industry. Director Chetan Anand and Madan Mohan shared a very special rapport. Starting with Haqeeqat in 1964, Madan Mohan scored music consistently for the director’s films until Hindustan Ki Kasam in 1973. The quality of sound that accompanies the exquisite visuals of Chetan Anand’s films are an indication of the depth and dimensions of Madan Mohan’s music.
Think of Haqeeqat and the nostalgia-saturated sounds of Zara si aahat hoti hai toh dil sochta hai floods our senses. Think of Heer Ranjha and the film’s ethereal tunes like Yeh duniya yeh mehfil and Meri duniya mein tum aaye, they spread an ambrosial magic across our senses. Even the hugely talented Sachin Dev Burman was compelled to admit that no one but Madan Mohan could have achieved the sublime heights of eloquence in a “difficult” score like Heer Ranjha. Nothing was difficult for Madan Mohan. No theme too large, no project was too small to accommodate his prodigious talents.
As Lataji sings Hamare baad ab mehfil mein afsane bayaan honge / Baharen humko dhoondegi na jaane hum kahan honge… we want to cling to this magical life-qualifying moment for as long as we can. It could be Lata Mangeshkar bringing to life the non-Ghazal beauty of Kadar jaane na in 1956. Or it could be Asha Bhosle investing a breathy sublimity into the Ghazal Jaane kya haal ho ten years later in 1966. Or it could be Bhupinder cutting nostalgic ice into chunks of pain and longing in Dil dhoondta hai nine years after Asha Bhosle’s breathtaking solo. No era can hold down the aura of Madan Mohan’s creations. Matchless, timeless, peerless.
(THE WRITER IS A FAMOUS FILM CRITIC)