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Published: 23 August 2017

Last Updated: 03 November 2017

Number 7 2017/08/22

Which was the first Hindi film song?

You see that I was careful to say, Hindi and film, because there may have been a non-Hindi or/and non-film song. Of course, everybody knows that it was 'de de Khudaa ke naam pe pyaare' from Alam Ara (1931), lyrics by ?, music by Firozeshah M Mistry, sung by Wazir Mohammed Khan.

How do we know this? Because by all accounts Alam Ara was the first Hindi talkie (actually any language talkie making the word Hindi redundant) and the producer Ardeshir M Irani told us that he recorded this song first by using his Tanar system..

Who was the lyricist? Officially we do not know, but a good guess can be made, The film was based on a play Joseph David (Penkar) who is credited with the play and the dialogs. In those days usually the dialog writers also wrote the songs. But we don't know for sure in this case.

So this was the first solo song. Which one was the first duet? We really do not know for sure because in Alam Ara, all songs are solos except one, which is a chorus.

Luckily, we do know the second picture that was released. It was Shirin Farhad, also based on a popular play. The Geet Kosh lists 5 songs as solos out of 18. One is listed as chorus and Number 11 is listed as a duet by Master Nissar and Jehanara Kajjan. So, Number 11, 'naseem-e-subah tu itna unhen sunaa denaa' looks like a good answer. Unluckily, we do not know if the remaining 11 songs are solos, duets or what. All we can say is that it is Number 11 based on current research, as far as we know, it may change tomorrow etc.

Next time somebody proudly tells you he knows who did X first, you know how to respond :)

Homework: The above was  a male-female duet because of our tacit assumption. Which are the first male-male and female-female duets?

Now you know!

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Published: 26 September 2017

Last Updated: 26 September 2017

When that Julie song came, many ignorant people said that that was the first English song in a Hindi film. People with little more knowledge pointed to C A T cat and Beautiful baby of Broadway, When HFGK came, everybody realized that it was the first song from Karma here

Karma

Now you know!

Listen to Panch Ratan (1965) 

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Published: 06 March 2018

Last Updated: 06 March 2018

Should the music director prepare the tune first and then the lyricist fit the words to it or vice versa? The question has been around since the days of live theater. According to Pt Radheshyam Kathavak, an eminent dramatist of his day,

The tradition was that the music director would make the tune and the writer would then write the lyrics to fit it. I wanted to change this tradition because due to this good lyrics could not be written. I, as a writer/singer believed that good lyrics is what attracted the public first, tune came later. I wished that along with good lyrics the tune be good too, that would be like gold and fragrance. But this is possible only if both are created by the same person. Also, if there are two different but able people having the same mind, they can do it too.

Now you know!

Bharat 39 Lata Roshan