{"id":72820,"date":"2026-02-10T21:25:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/articles\/a-master-music-composer-anil-biswas\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:23:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T21:23:33","slug":"a-master-music-composer-anil-biswas","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/articles\/a-master-music-composer-anil-biswas\/","title":{"rendered":"A master music-composer: Anil Biswas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"left\"><strong>By Satish Chopra <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The immortal melody of  yesteryears -&lsquo;<em>Seeeny mein sulagty hein armaan<\/em>&rsquo; sung by Talat Mehmood and  Lata Mangeshkar for film &lsquo;Tarana&rsquo; (1952) will continue&nbsp; &nbsp;to  bewitch earnest music lovers, not only for years together, but for ages to  come. The music for the film was composed by none other than Anil Biswas. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Anil Biswas (popularly  known as Anil Da) once during an interview-telecast said -&quot;If Rai Chand  Boral is the &#8216;<em>Baap<\/em>&#8216; (father) of Hindi cine music, then I am the <em>&#8216;Chacha&#8217;<\/em> (father&#8217;s younger brother).&quot;&nbsp; This  verdict sounded egoistic&nbsp; so long&nbsp; I was not fully acquainted with the immortal  melodies he had composed for the films as music-director. <br \/>\n  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n        From then on almost five  decades have passed. During these years I have \\ <br \/>\n  &nbsp; listened to some of the nostalgic cine-music  time and again, more particularly songs composed on classical base. Amongst  such melodies were &#8211;<em>&rsquo;Mun ki been matwaree bajey&rsquo; <\/em>(Lata &amp; Rafi) for  &#8216;Shabaab&#8217; music &ndash;Naushad, <em>&rsquo;Sun merey sajnaa dekho ji hamko bhool na jana&rsquo; <\/em>(Lata&amp; Rafi) &#8216;Aansoo&#8217; music-Husnalal Bhagatram, <em>&rsquo;Sapt suran teen graam <\/em>(K&#8230;L.Saigal)&shy; &#8216;Tansen&#8217; music-Khemchand Prakash and <em>&rsquo;Ketki gulab juhee&rsquo; <\/em>(Bhim  Sen Joshi &amp; Manna Dey) &#8216;Basant Bahar&#8217; music- Shanker Jaikishan. These  fascinating songs composed by maestros continue to enchant&nbsp;&nbsp; and glitter of their glory has not faded  till date. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Then came a day, when I  listened to <em>&rsquo;Ritu aye ritu jaye&rsquo;&nbsp; <\/em>followed  by <em>&rsquo;Pee bin sunaa jee&rsquo; <\/em>sung by Lata &amp; Manna Dey for film -&#8216;Humdard&#8217;  music-Anil Biswas. I was indeed mesmerized.&nbsp;  The duet is set in four classical <em>ragas- Gaud sarang, Gaud malhaar,  Jogia &amp; Bahaar <\/em>and bears&nbsp;  complete signatures of its composer. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        After listening to this  fabulous classical number;&nbsp; I had no  option but to concur with what Anil Da said in his interview that he is the &#8216;<em>Chacha&#8217;<\/em> of Hindi cine music, which conveyed nothing but his conviction and a candid  truth. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Anil&nbsp; Biswas, like K.L.Saigal never had any formal  training in music from any <em>&#8216;Guru&#8217; or &#8216;Ustad&#8217;<\/em>. Like Saigal, he also used  to accompany his mother in <em>&#8216;Bhajan-singing&#8217;<\/em>. However, he owed a little  to Pt. Lal Mohan Goswami, who taught him a bit about <em>swara. <\/em> <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Born on 7 July 1914&nbsp; at Barisal in East Bengal&nbsp;&nbsp; (now in Bangladesh);&nbsp;&nbsp; the early <br \/>\n        childhood of the maestro  was very eventful.&nbsp; He took active part  in freedom struggle and joined <em>&#8216;Jugantar Party&#8217;.&nbsp; <\/em>For such activities he was jailed at the  tender age of 14. On his release, he ran away from his home with just five  rupees and reached Calcutta . Here, after doing some odd jobs (even working as  domestic&shy; help), he landed at the house of his childhood friend Panna Lal  Ghosh, the eminent flute player, who later on married his sister Parul (herself  a singer of repute). It would be interesting to note that in his early years  Anil Da used to play flute and Pannalal Ghosh was a Sitar player. Later on they  switched over to singing and flute respectively. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        In his days of struggle in  Calcutta, Anilda was associated with Kazi Nazrul Islam, the revolutionary poet  and a celebrated music composer. During such period he worked for &lsquo;Megaphone&rsquo;  recording company as well. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        He came to Bombay in the  year 1935 and gave music for his first film&shy; &lsquo;Dharam Ki Devi&rsquo;.&nbsp; One of its songs sung by Ratanbai-<em>&rsquo;Terey  poojan ko bhagwan, banaa man mandir aalishaan&rsquo;&nbsp; <\/em>became an instant hit and till date, the song is considered as one  of the finest numbers of &lsquo;Sentimental Era&rsquo;. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        In the year 1936 Anil  Biswas married Mehrunnisan, a Kutch muslim and a film celebrity.&nbsp; She was later renamed as Asha Lata. Anilda  had four children, three sons- Pradeep, Utpal &amp; Amit and a daughter-  Shikha.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Till the year 1940, Anil Da  composed music for&nbsp; about 26 films.  Notable were Manmohan (1936), Jagirdar (1937), Ek Hi Rasta (1939), Alibaba and  Aurat (1940). In films &lsquo;Ek Hi Rasta&rsquo;&nbsp;  &amp; &lsquo;Alibaba&rsquo;&nbsp; Waheedan&nbsp; sang some popular melodies. These two films  were directed by the celebrated Mehboob Khan. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        The&nbsp; film &#8211; &#8216;Aurat&#8217; was directed and produced  (under the banner of National Studios) by&nbsp;  Mehboob Khan with star cast- Sardar Akhtar, Surender, Yaqoob and  Kanhaiya Lal.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In addition to composing  music, Anil Da&nbsp; as well acted for the  sequence and sang- <em>&rsquo;Kahey karta der barati&rsquo; <\/em>for this film<em>. <\/em>There were however other 11 songs in this  film sung by Sardar Akhtar, Jyoti, Surender, Anil Biswas and Vatsala Kumdhekar.  The&nbsp; film was a grand success and  considered as one of the foremost classics of the decade- 1931-40. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        It should be remembered  that the much acclaimed film -&lsquo;Mother India&rsquo; (1957) produced and directed by  Mehboob Khan and music composed by Naushad, was the remake of film-&lsquo;Aurat&rsquo;. In  view of the superb performance of Nargis in &lsquo;Mother India&rsquo;; the film continues  to be rated as one of the greatest films produced in the history of Indian  cinema. Yet,&nbsp; owing to grand success of  the music of film- &lsquo;Aurat&rsquo;; the film critics have acclaimed&nbsp; &lsquo;Aurat&rsquo; as the mother of &lsquo;Mother India&rsquo;. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        B.D. Garga, one of the most  perceptive writers on films, once studied the two pictures together and in the  context of music, wrote-&nbsp; &ldquo;Anil Biswas&rsquo;s  music is more in tune with the dramatic movement of the film: his use of a  single instrument on mood was more authentic than Naushad&rsquo;s large orchestra  overwhelming the auditory senses&rdquo;. (Cinema in India, April-June 1989). <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n  &ldquo;Even then Mehboob Khan was  not fully satisfied with me, as he considered the music of &lsquo;Alibaba&rsquo; as better  than that of &lsquo;Aurat&rsquo;. Consequently some differences developed.&rdquo;- once Anil Da  told the author of these lines.&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        When another historic film-  &lsquo;Roti&rsquo; (1942) was in making, a serious dispute between Anil Biswas and the  producer developed over its music. In a fit of anger, Mehboob Khan asked Anil  Biswas- <em>&ldquo;Terey liyey Akhtari ko bulwa  doon&rdquo;<\/em> (Should I call Akhtari for you?). Anil Biswas replied in the same  tone- <em>&rdquo;Bukwa dey&rdquo; <\/em>&nbsp;(Yes, call her. Thus, Akhtari Bai Faizabadi  (Begam Akhtar, as&nbsp; she was then known)  the ghazal queen. was persuaded to act and sing for the film. And,&nbsp; a momentous chapter was created. She acted  and sang six immortal melodies for this film.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        In&nbsp; each of&nbsp;  these six numbers of Begum Akhtar, be it was the instrumentation, the  alluring orchestration and the style of singing was something unique. However,  in view of certain dispute &amp; technical complexities all the six melodies  sung by Begum Akhtar were removed from its soundtrack. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        After the release of film  &lsquo;Roti&rsquo;, serious disputes erupted between the two masters -Mehboob Khan and Anil  Biswas and they got alienated. The separation seriously effected the  career-graph and fate of Anil Biswas. As thereafter Naushad became the music  composer for more or less for&nbsp; all the  films of Mehboob Khan. This was indeed a turning point for Anil Da.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        The film &lsquo;Basant&rsquo; released  in the year 1942 though bears the name of Pannalal Ghosh&nbsp; as its composer; the fact remains that its  music was composed by Anil Biswas. This was in view of the fact that artists  used to work with the respective production company on contract basis. As such,  Anil Biswas was not supposed to work for Bombay Talkies, the producers of film &lsquo;Basant&rsquo;.  Though, he composed some enthralling melodies for this film, namely-<em>&lsquo;&rsquo;Tumko mubarak ho oonchey mahal ye&rsquo;, &lsquo;Aaya  basant sakhee, birha ka ant sakhee&rsquo; <\/em>and <em>&lsquo;Hua  kya kusoor&rsquo;<\/em>-were sung by Parul Ghosh (sister of Anil Biswas and later on  wife of Pannalal Ghosh), yet the gramophone records bear the name of Pannalal  Ghosh as&nbsp; composer. <br \/>\n  &lsquo; <br \/>\n        The film &lsquo;Kismat&rsquo; (1943)  starring- Ashok Kumar and Mumtaz Shanti it proved to be one of the greatest  successful movies in the history of Indian cinema. by virtue of its music by  Anil Biswas. The film ran continuously for three years and eight months, which  was a record till the release of film &ndash;&lsquo;Sholey&rsquo; (1973). One of its songs- <em>&rsquo;Door  hato aye duniyan walo yey hindustan hamara hei&rsquo;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/em>became an instant super-hit. The beguiling  use of trumpet in this song till date enthralls the listeners with patriotic  fervor. Since it was against the spirit of the then British Raj; the lyricist  Pradeep and the composer went underground to escape their arrest. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Additionally there were some  other fascinating numbers in this film sung by Amir Bai viz <em>&lsquo;Dheerey dheerey aa re baadal, dheery dheery  aa&rsquo;, &lsquo;Ab terey siwa kaun mera krishan kanhaiya&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;Ghar ghar mein diwali  merey ghar mein andhera&rsquo;, <\/em>and&nbsp; an all  time trendy- <em>&lsquo;Papiha rey&rsquo; <\/em>sung by Parul  Ghosh. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        In the years to follow till  1950, Anil Biswas composed music for a number of films. The notables  were-&lsquo;Hamari Baat&rsquo; (1943), Jwar Bhata (1944)- the debut film of matinee idol-  Dilip Kumar, &lsquo;Pehli Nazar&rsquo; (1945), &lsquo;Milan&rsquo; (1946), &lsquo;Anokha Pyar&rsquo; (1948), &lsquo;Girls  School&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;Ladli&rsquo; (1949), and &lsquo;Arzu&rsquo; (1950). <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        In each of these films,  consistently there were more than one fascinating melodies. Listen to some of  these numbers- <em>&lsquo;Mein unkee ban jaon re&rsquo;<\/em> &ndash;Parul Ghosh (Hamari Baat), <em>&lsquo;Saanjh ki  bela, panchhi akela&rsquo;&nbsp; &#8211;<\/em>Arun Kumar and <em>&lsquo;Bhool jana chahti hoon&rsquo;<\/em>&ndash;Parul Ghosh-  (Jwar Bhata); <em>&lsquo;Dil jalta hei to jalne de&rsquo;<\/em> &ndash;Mukesh and <em>&lsquo;Ukka ishara jaan se pyara&rsquo;- <\/em>Naseem  Akhtar &ndash;(Pehli Nazar); <em>&rsquo;Suhani berian  biti jayein&rsquo;, &lsquo;Jisne banaa di bansuri&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;Mein kiski laaj nibhaaun&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Parul  Ghosh (Milan); <em>&lsquo;Jeewan sapna toot gaya&rsquo;<\/em> &ndash;Mukesh;&nbsp; <em>&rsquo;Merey phulon mein chhupi hei jawani&rsquo;, &lsquo;Yaad rakhna chand taro is  suhani raat ko&rsquo;,&nbsp; &lsquo;Merey liye wo itnzaar  chhodh gayey&rsquo;, &lsquo;Jeewan sapna toot gaya&rsquo; <\/em>&nbsp;to name a few &#8211; Lata (Anokha Pyar); <em>&lsquo;Tumhee kaho mera man kyun rahe udas nahin&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;  Lata (Girls School) <em>&lsquo;Tumharey bhulany ko  jee chahta hei&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Lata and <em>&lsquo;Aankhein  keh gayee dil ki baat&rsquo;<\/em> &ndash;S.D. Batish (Ladli); <em>&lsquo;Aye dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Talat Mehmood and <em>&lsquo;Kahan tak hum uthayen gam&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Lata  (Arzu); <em>&lsquo;Zamaney ka dastoor hei ye puran&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Lata &amp; Mukesh (Lajawaab).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Some of these musical  marvels composed during fourth decade (i.e. 1941-50) of the previous century  establish the fact that Anil Biswas was certainly one of the finest music  composers of his time. As against all other composers, his choice of lyricist  was wide open and not predetermined. As the maestro himself had a brilliant  understanding of verse; he chose the lyricist, who he thought was the best  suitable to the situation of the story line. In a large number of films, it is  observed that there were more than one lyricist. Again, while composing a song  he deployed&nbsp; the minimal use of  instruments. Consequently, most of the songs emerged had a unique impact on the  listeners. His use of counter-melody in various songs established him a  composer with a difference. For instance,&nbsp;  listen to- <em>&rsquo;Saanjh ji bela,  panchhi akela&rsquo;<\/em> &ndash;Arun Kumar (Jwar Bhata) and <em>&lsquo;Baar baar tum soch rahi ho&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Shanker Das Gupta (Girls School). <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        The greatest contribution  of Anil Da for the cine music lies in the fact that he introduced and or  brought to limelight a large number of singers. It is a matter of record that  76 singers -male and female- sang for the maestro. Notable amongst were Mukesh  and Talat Mahmood. How can we forget <em>&rsquo;Dil jalta hei to jalne de&rsquo; &#8211; <\/em>sung  by Mukesh in film&nbsp; &#8216;Pehli Nazar&#8217; (1945)  and <em>&rsquo;Aye dil mujhe aisee jageh le chal, jahan koi na ho&rsquo; <\/em>sung by Talat  Mahmood in film &lsquo;Arzu&rsquo; (1950). Before singing these two memorable songs, Mukesh  and Talat were entirely unknown.&nbsp; Mukesh  was struggling for an appropriate opportunity and Talat was in Calcutta and  used to sing by the name of Tapan Kumar. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        The list of other eminent  singers, who came to prominence through Anil Da includes &#8211; S.D.Batish,&nbsp; Surender, Rajkumari, Sudha Malhotra,  Ameerbai, Shanker Das Gupta,&nbsp; Sardar  Akhtar, Parul Ghosh, Meena Kapoor, Arun Kumar and others. In his early career,&nbsp; the maestro had created some memorable  melodies in the voices of dancer Sitara, prominent actors- Motilal, Ashok  Kumar, Gope, Nalini Jaywant, Leela Chitnis, Sheikh Mukhtar, Sardar Akhtar,  Ashraf Khan and a few others.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Besides&nbsp; others,&nbsp;  Lata Mangeshkar too was&nbsp;  primarily&nbsp; brought to limelight by  Anil Biswas in the year 1948, when she sang the songs for&nbsp; -&#8216;Anokha Pyar&#8217; viz <em>&rsquo;Yaad rakhna chand taro  is suhani raat ko&rsquo;, &lsquo;Ik dii ka lagana baaki tha&rsquo;, &lsquo;Ab yaad na kar bhol ja&rsquo; <\/em>(with  Mukesh),<em> &lsquo;Merey&nbsp; phulon mein chhupee  hei jawaani&rsquo; &amp;&rsquo; &lsquo;Jeewan sapna beet gayaa&rsquo;.&nbsp; <\/em>These songs were originally sung by Meena Kapoor for the soundtrack  of the film but for gramophone record version, these numbers were re-recorded  in the voice of Lata Mangeshkar. She sang 115 songs for the maestro and quite a  few from them can be included amongst her best. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Once during a casual conversation the author of these lines  enquired from Anil Da, as to why K.L. Saigal and Noorjehan, who belonged to his  epoch, never sang for him. Anil Da in a fit of emotion said- <em>&ldquo;Betey <\/em>Satish, I had always longed for  composing songs for both these singers. Saigal was very close to my heart, but  he was initially under an agreement with New Theatres, Calcutta and after  coming to Bombay,&nbsp; he was too busy with  different production houses. He was also not keeping well and died young.  Noorjehan likewise migrated to Pakistan. However, I had in mind a duet&nbsp; &ndash;<em>&lsquo;Zamaney  ka dastoor hei ye purana&rsquo; <\/em>-ready for both of them; which later on Mukesh  and Lata sang for&nbsp; Lajawaab.&rdquo; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Though the song &ndash;<em>&lsquo;Zamaney ka  dastoor hei ye purana&rsquo;<\/em>&nbsp; later on was  sung by Mukesh &amp; Lata&nbsp; and is&nbsp; rated as one of the finest duets of Indian  cine music;&nbsp; the fact remains that&nbsp;&nbsp; if these two greatest &#8211; Saigal &amp;  Noorjehan-&nbsp; of undivided India had sung  together; they would&nbsp; have created a  fabulous occurrence in the history of harmony. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Continuing his musical journey after 1950, Anil Biswas composed  music for film &lsquo;Tarana&rsquo; in the year 1951 (starring &ndash; Dilip kumar and  Madhubala), which&nbsp; was certainly one of  his best endeavors.&nbsp; All the nine  melodies of this&nbsp; film were magnum opus. <em>&lsquo;Mosey rooth gayo mora sanwaria&rsquo;, &lsquo;yun chhup  chhup kr&rsquo;, &lsquo;Beimann torey nainwa nindiya na aye&rsquo;, &lsquo;Wapas le le ye jawani&rsquo;,  &amp; &lsquo;Kya khabar thi___Wo dil kahan gaye bataa&rsquo;<\/em> &ndash;sung by Lata and all time  favorite duet of Lata and Talat Mehmood- <em>&lsquo;Seeney  mein sulagtey hein armaan&rsquo;&nbsp; <\/em>besides  two other duets of Lata and Sandhya Mukerjee- <em>&lsquo;Nain mile nain huye bawre&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;Bol&nbsp;  papihe bol&rsquo;.&nbsp; <\/em>These songs&nbsp; made the film a musical super-hit. The depth  of feelings emerged&nbsp; particularly in <em>&lsquo;Wo din kahan gaye bata&rsquo; <\/em>continues to  haunt ardent music lovers, as and when the melodies is played.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        The films &lsquo;Araam&rsquo; (1951), &lsquo;Doraha&rsquo; (1952), &lsquo;Aakash&rsquo; (1953) &amp;  &lsquo;Fareb&rsquo; (1953)&nbsp; though were not&nbsp; box-office success; the maestro composed some  rare gems for these films. <em>&lsquo;Aye jaaney  jigar, dil mein samaney aaja&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Mukesh and <em>&lsquo;Shukriya, shukriya aye pyar tera shukriya&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash; Talat (Araam); <em>&lsquo;Man mein kisi ki preet basa le&rsquo; &amp;  &lsquo;Balma ja ja ja, ab kaun tujhe samjahye&rsquo; <\/em>&nbsp;-Lata (Doraha); <em>&lsquo;Muhabbat tark ki maine, gireban si liya maine&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash; Talat (Doraha); <em>&lsquo;Saraa chaman tha apna&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;So gayee  chandni&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash; Lata (Aakash) and <em>&lsquo;Mere  dukh sukh ka sansaar&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;Husn bhi hai udas udas&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Kishore Kumar&nbsp; and there was one of the finest duets- <em>&lsquo;Aa muhabbat ki basti basayeinge hum&rsquo; <\/em>&#8211;  Lata &amp; Kishore and <em>&lsquo;Mila dil mil ke  toota jar aha hei <\/em>&ndash; Lata (Fareb). <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        A few interesting lines about the duet &ndash;<em>&lsquo;Aa mohabbat ki bast basayeinge hum&rsquo;. <\/em>One afternoon Anil Da at his  residence was in the company of celebrated actors &ndash;Dilip Kumar and Ashok Kumar.  He played on his harmonium and hummed the serious tune of his forthcoming  melody &#8211;<em>&lsquo;Aa mohabbat ki basti basayeinge  hum&rsquo;. <\/em>&nbsp;As to who will be the female  singer, there was absolutely no doubt about Lata; but who will give the male  voice? &ldquo;Dada it should be Talat&rdquo;-said Ashok Kumar. Whereas Dilip Kumar  suggested &ndash;&ldquo;Anil Da, in any case looking to the serious lyrical notes, male  singer should be your favorite Mukesh.&rdquo; Anil Da had something else in his mind.  &ldquo;How if Kishore sings with Lata&rdquo;- said the maestro. &ldquo;Kishore!&rsquo; &ndash;Dilip was taken  aback; &ldquo;if Kishore will sing such a serious song, then <em>&lsquo;Aapka joota aur mera sar <\/em>(if Kishore will sing such serious song,  my head is ready for your shoe-beating)<em>&rsquo;&rdquo; <\/em>&ndash;added Dilip Kumar.&nbsp; <em>&ldquo;Mein joota le kar aataa hoon, sar tayyar  rakho <\/em>(Be ready with your head, I am bringing my shoe).&rdquo; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Kishore Kumar was called, who at the first instance, bluntly  refused to sing the said duet with Lata. But, the maestro&rsquo;s conviction  prevailed the result and eventually&nbsp; a  heart-throbbing duet was created!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Back to musical journey! The film for which Anil Da composed music  were not from a set production banner. As such, there had been some downright  box office failures with some of the finest songs. Such films include-&nbsp; &lsquo;Hamdard&rsquo; (1953), &lsquo;Maan&rsquo; (1954), &lsquo;Jalti  Nishani&rsquo; (1957) and &lsquo;Chhoti Chhoti Batein&rsquo; (1963). Perhaps the finest classical  melodies of Anil Biswas came from film &lsquo;Hamdard&rsquo;, which could&rsquo;nt even have  three days screening. Listen to <em>&lsquo;Ritu aye  ritu jaye&rsquo; <\/em>followed by <em>&lsquo;Pee bin soona  ree&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Lata &amp; Manna Dey for this film, which is considered till date as  one of finest classical based film-music marvels. This particular number was  recorded twice. In the soundtrack version, Pannalal Ghosh played the flute; and  in the subsequent gramophone record version Ramnarain played the sarangi.&nbsp; The other memorable numbers of the film  include- <em>&lsquo;Tera haath haath mein aa gaya&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;  Manna Dey. <em>&lsquo;Mere pyar mein tujhe kya  mila&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;Allah bhi hei mallah bhi hei&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Lata (Maan); <em>&lsquo;Rooth ke tum to chal diyey, ab mein duaa ka  kya karoon&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash; Lata (Jalti Nishani). Likewise, &lsquo;Chhoti Chhoti Batein&rsquo;, the  last film of the maestro, starring Motilal and Nadira had some captivating  numbers. Shailendra, wrote some heart-throbbing lines- <em>&lsquo;Zindagi khwaab hei&rsquo; <\/em>&nbsp;-as a  tribute to matinee idol Motilal, who died before the completion of the film  and&nbsp; Mukesh sang with utmost pathos.&nbsp; Lata &amp; Mukesh&rsquo;s- <em>&lsquo;Zindagi ka ajab fasana hei&rsquo;, <\/em>and Meena Kapoor&rsquo;s &ndash;<em>&lsquo;Kuchh aur zaman kehta hei&rsquo; <\/em>&nbsp;and Manna Dey&rsquo;s two classics- <em>&lsquo;Andhi duniyan, matlab ki dunian&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;Kya  laye ho, kya le jaoge&rsquo;<\/em> &#8211; were some moving melodies. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        The fact remains that for his fabulous melodies composed; the  maestro was unconcerned with the fate of the respective film-produced, whether  it will be a box-office success or failure. To illustrate, a song <em>&lsquo;Rooth key  tum to chal diyey, ab mein duaa ka kya karun&rsquo; &#8211;<\/em> film &lsquo;Jalti Nishani&rsquo; (1957)  and another number <em>&lsquo;Allah bhi hei mallah bhi hei&rsquo; &#8211;<\/em> film &lsquo;Maan&rsquo; (1954)  sung by Lata Mangeshkar, are indeed some glittering gems and very many words  may not suffice to appreciate these melodies. As stated, both these films were  bitter box-office failures and could not have even two days&rsquo; screening. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Anil Da&rsquo;s musical compositions had a&nbsp; varieties of&nbsp;  colours and shades. If some&nbsp; had  shades of folk of Bengal, he could compose the clan of Punjab, Haryana and Goa  also&nbsp; with the same fervor.&nbsp; At times, he could create songs on <em>carnatic <\/em>style&nbsp; musical notes&nbsp; as well. He occasionally even mixed different <em>ragas <\/em>in one melody. For instance, listen to- <em>&lsquo;Naa ja naa ja  balam&rsquo;-&nbsp; <\/em>Lata &ndash;&lsquo;Pardesi&rsquo; (1957) and <em>&lsquo;Intzaar  aur abhee&rsquo; &#8211;<\/em>Lata &ndash;&lsquo;Chaar Dil Chaar Rahein&rsquo; (1959). In these two alluring  classical based melodies, he&nbsp; created  some bewitching effects. Similarly, in film &lsquo;Sautela Bhai&rsquo; (1962) starring Guru  Dutt; he composed a few classical classics- <em>&lsquo;Ab  Laagi naahi rama&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;Jaa mein to se naheen bolun&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash; Lata &amp; Meena  Kappor and <em>&lsquo;Phuley ban bagia&rsquo; <\/em>&ndash;Manna  Dey andMeena Kappor.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Anil Da, though a Bengali  by birth, had a wonderful command over Urdu language and a deep understanding  of <em>ghazal.&nbsp; <\/em>Thereby, before  composing a song he&nbsp; could imbibe deeply  the emotions, thoughts, feelings, messages and the entire composition of the  respective lyricist. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        In view of his deep concern  for poetry he wrote a book on the history of <em>ghazal<\/em> in <em>BangIa<\/em> and  its cover page was designed by well the known painter- M.F. Hussain. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the celebrated Urdu poet of Indian sub-continent  was a close-friend and a great admirer of Anil Da&rsquo;s music. Both of them used to  recall each other&rsquo;s memories with passionate regard. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Anil Biswas was perhaps the first composer, who understood deeply  various complexities of background music and also introduced counter-melody in  his music. This was the reason that another maestro -Naushad called him his &lsquo;<em>Guru&rsquo;<\/em>.&nbsp; He was indeed a master of invaluable  techniques of singing. As a seer and a visionary, he closely witnessed the  music journey of Indian cinema &amp; also that of classical music. He was thus  cherished by most of classical musicians.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Lata Mangeshkar once confessed- &ldquo;Anilda always stressed on where  to pause, to take a breath, so that it neither disrupts the flow of the song,  nor rankles the&nbsp;&nbsp; listener&rsquo;s ear. He  would, &lsquo;If you must break up the line, do it in a manner that does not change  its meaning.&rsquo;&rdquo; She further said- &ldquo;Anilda taught me how one should move away,  even so slightly, from the mike, while drawing a breath between two words and  then return, almost instantaneously, to continue with the song&rdquo;.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        In the year-1965 somewhat  unhappy Anil Da left Bombay and joined All India Radio, New Delhi as Director,  National Orchestra. He gave music for the first TV soap opera &shy;&#8217;Humlog&#8217; which proved  a grand success. <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        A question generally arises  after going through the maestros brilliant career-graph, as to whether&nbsp; he got the recognition he deserved? Perhaps,  not ! The <em>Chacha<\/em> of Indian cine music  was denied a <em>sarkari <\/em>&lsquo;Padma award&rsquo;.  Besides, he was certainly a front runner in the line of recipients of &lsquo;Dada  Saheb Phalke Award&rsquo;.&nbsp; About the reasons  for such notable omission, it is lesser said the better!&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        Nevertheless, in  recognition of his contribution to music, Anil Biswas was awarded Madhya  Pradesh Government&rsquo;s- Lata Mangeshkar Life Time Achievement Award,&nbsp;&nbsp; Sangeet Natak Academy fellowship and life  time achievement award by Indian Motion Pictures Association (IMPA).&nbsp;&nbsp; <br \/>\n  &nbsp; <br \/>\n        What an irony! As a totally  unknown&nbsp; person (in the posh South  Extension colony of New Delhi) Anil Biswas breathed his last on 31 May,  2003.&nbsp; <br \/>\n  <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"574\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/pictures\/index_clip_image001.jpg\" alt=\"Description: http:\/\/apnaorg.com\/research-papers\/satish-8\/images\/temp\/picture-1.jpg\"> <br \/>\n  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>-Satish Chopra, BA\/26B Ashok Vihar- I, Delhi-110052&nbsp; #011-27134229\/27450869<br \/>\n  &nbsp;Email:  satishchopra@rediffmail.com<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\n      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":72821,"template":"","language":[],"class_list":["post-72820","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/72820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnaorg.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=72820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}