Madan Mohan Birth Anniversary: Remembering Music Director's Unmatched Brilliance

madan mohan birth anniversary: remembering music director's unmatched brilliance

Was Madan Mohan the best music composer ever of Hindi cinema? Many music aficionados seem to think so.

During a conversation with the late singer Manna Dey in the 1990s, he had said, "What Madan Mohan achieved with Lata Mangeshkar was unparalleled. Waisa na kabhi hua na kabhi hoga. I got a chance to sing very few songs with Madan Mohan, like Har teraf ab yehi afsaane hain (Hindustan Ki Kasam) and Sharaab ka sahara (Dil Ki Raahein). Lekin jo bhi ttha kamaal ka ttha. Was he the best? I don’t know. It’s like comparing the Taj Mahal with the six other wonders of the world. Madan Mohan was right up there with Sachin Dev Burman and Shankar-Jaikishan."

Madan Mohan did for the film ghazal, what God did for the man by giving light to earth. The radiance and the luminosity of his poetic creations have given Madan Mohan's compositions a longevity and that unique ability to surprise every listener, that no composer could hope to rival or equal.

Never one to grab every assignment that came his way, nor one to blow his own trumpet, Madan Mohan was the son of Rai Bahadur Chunnilal, the partner of the Bombay Talkies and Filmistan Studios. Madan Mohan did bit parts in films like Shaheed and Munimji before being packed off by his father to join the army from where the boy fled within one year to pursue his true vocation.

Madan Mohan joined the All India Radio in Lucknow, where he came in contact with Begum Akhtar and later spent time listening to "culturists" like Jadan Bai (Nargis' mother). After assisting S.D.Burman in Do Bhai and Munimji (much to the annoyance of his father) Madan Mohan was launched as a full fledged music director in 1950 with Aankhen alongside the film's hero Shekhar and director Devendra Goel.

The melodic omnipresence of Madan Mohan is attributable to the timeless quality of his compositions. Madan Mohan's songs pitched their tents in the heart. With considerable assistance from poets Raja Mehndi Ali Khan, Majrooh Sultanpuri and Kaifi Azmi and of course the voice of Lata Mangeshkar (without which Madan Mohan considered his songs adhura) the composer left behind what can only be described as a vast treasury of unblemished tunes.

Madan Mohan's art represents the highest plateau of the compositional process. No further refinement could be worked into a Madan Mohan composition, and I suspect even the composer himself would have agreed with that.

Madan Mohan’s son Sanjeev Kohli, a notable musicologist, spoke in throwback interview about his father. “He would ask me to observe how Lata and Rafi sang. Particularly as regards Lataji he would tell us to watch that she could never make a mistake. If at all a song would take longer to record than expected, it was because the musicians were making mistakes. This has remained a vivid memory with me. The infallibility of Lata Mangeshkar which I have observed when I have personally worked with her and now I feel I have been working with her since I was a child."

Sanjeev remembered how embittered his father was by his lack of commercial success. “My dad began to drink heavily. He died when he was only 51. Providentially, in 2004 I was able to trans-create his unused tunes in Veer-Zara. And I have only Yash Chopra who's my boss, guru and a surrogate father to thank for this. When I hear little kids singing 'Aisa des hai mera', I feel my father has come alive again.”

There is the pain of Madan Mohan not getting his due even at home. Sanjeev remembers his own callousness as a child. "I remember while driving for a family picnic, my brother and I were singing all the popular songs of the time like Shankar-Jaikishan's Baharon phool barsao and R.D. Burman's O mere sona re. He just looked into the backseat with a pained look that I'll never forget. It's sad, but despite his obvious talent he had to settle for lesser films. The biggies just went to the others."

Madan Mohan's 10 Best Songs:

1. Lag ja gale se from Woh Kaun Thi

2. Maai ri from Dastak

3. Aaj socha to aansoon bhar aaye from Hanste Zakham

4. Hai tere saath meri wafaa from Hindustan Ki Kasam

5. Dil dhoondta hai from Mausam

6. Mushqil hai jeena from Sahib Bahadur

7. Main to tum sang from Manmauji

8. Woh chup rahen to from Jahan Ara

9. Do dil toote from Heer Ranjha

10. Meri aankhon se koi from Pooja Ke Phool