Friday 26 December 2008

Madan Mohan: Hanste Zakhm (1972)

Hanste Zakhm

I mentioned a short while back that Madan Mohan made one of my favourite Bollywood albums. Here it is; not the most consistent soundtrack I own, but featuring two tracks that both fall into the 'stop whatever you're doing' category.

Mohd. Rafi's 'Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho' is a stunning, psychedelic marvel of a song. Weird, shifting melodies, swirling violins, tight drums, thunder crashes and frenzied interludes are all contained within its 8 minutes of magic, with a picturization that makes 'Hanste Zakhm' look like a luridly coloured nouvelle vague film (Hindi style). Which I'm pretty sure it's not, but I do for once want to see it. Fantastic stuff... yet arguably eclipsed by the second highlight of this score, 'Aaj Socha To Ansoo Bhar Aaye'. I can't even begin to describe it... slow burning, haunting, stirring, mind-bending, a thing of otherworldly beauty... Lata Mangeshkar's trippiest, and certainly among my 2-3 favourite Bollywood songs.

The rest are essentially also-rans... not bad, but nothing much in comparison. Doesn't matter. These two tracks more than make 'Hanste Zakhm' an indispensable album.

Classy artwork as well.

Track listing:
1. Mohd. Rafi: Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho
2. Mohd. Rafi, Balbir & Chorus: Han Yeh Mana Meri Jan Mohabbat Saza Hai
3. Lata Mangeshkar: Aaj Socha To Ansoo Bhar Aaye
4. Lata Mangeshkar: Betab Dil Ki Tamanna Yahi Hai
5. Asha Bhosle: Gali Gali Men Kiya Re Badnam

PS. 'Hanste Zakhm' is apparently arranged by organist and frequent RD Burman collaborator Kersi Lord. Is anyone able to supply me background info (or anything) on him? There's virtually nothing on the Internet...

17 comments:

  1. Hey PC

    Firstly - Merry Christmas!!!

    WOW - this is a great soundtrack and also one of my favourites. I have always loved the 'Aaj sochaa ...' song by Lata. She has never sounded better and the song is a masterpiece.

    I recall seeing the film when I was a kid. Can't remember anything about it aside from a majoe spoiler so I guess I can't post that here. As far as I remember the film was popular but this may have been because of the three main songs - Tum jo mil gaye ho, Betaab dil ki tamanna and Aaj sochaa to yeh aansoo. Great post!

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  2. How about his pictures? Check these out

    http://www.sendspace.com/file/3mmltk

    http://www.sendspace.com/file/rzly13

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  3. Cool, thanks. Do you know anything about him?
    (The above are photos of Kersi Lord, in case anyone's wary about opening unspecified files)
    PC x

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  4. http://www.hamaraforums.com/lofiversion/index.php/t62556.html

    Second link is google cache as the original link is not working.

    http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:wF485_FVIYEJ:www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx%3Fpage%3Darticle%26sectid%3D82%26contentid%3D2008072020080720021240406d646d942+kersi+lord+site:www.mumbaimirror.com&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=safari

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  5. Thanks for this, PC---and Merry Christmas/Happy New Year to you!

    I need to see this film SOON. Am looking forward to listening to what you think are the best songs from Bollywood! :-)

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  6. hi pc
    a pure gem
    happy new year

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  7. I found one article on the Bombay Connection site stating that Kersi Lord introduced the moog synthesizer in the early 1970s. Can't get through to the site at the moment so here's the link to Google's cache:

    http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:J9L_I_mwUyEJ:www.bombay-connection.com/press/Gurbaxani.htm

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  8. The rather good Title Music, ripped off the DVD, if anyone's interested:

    http://www.sendspace.com/file/6z034z

    PC x

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  9. this is one of my favorite albums ever. here is a link about kersi lord http://www.panchammagic.org/show-review%2004%20jan%202007.html
    thanks!

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  10. have this one cassette, so glad you posted it.... Tum Jo Mil Gaye Ho is one of my all time favorites..
    thank you!!!! !

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  11. There is a lot on Kersi Lord on the net. But here is the gist--Lord was the son of Kawas Lord, a senior music arranger for many, including Naushad. Lord himself learnt classical piano and then began playing many instruments for music directors as diverse as Naushad and R D Burman.

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  12. PC, can you re-up the Title Music? I'm late to the party...

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  13. Here you are http://www.sendspace.com/file/m8ccon

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  14. The link to the title music expired again :( could you please re-up?

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  15. Oddly, I can't seem to find it in my iTunes library... anyone else (who's already downloaded) fancy uploading it here?

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