Food for Music..

Since we stopped at O P Nayyar yesterday, I feel it is him where we should start today, Aar Paar was the first movie under Guru Dutt Production. And it was the first tie-up of  Guru Dutt as a producer with O P Nayyar, the composer. Interesting Trivia about Guru Dutt Productions is that never ever any music director got 3 movies music in a row. Guru Dutt Productions made 7 complete movies and 1 incomplete (Gauri). Out of 7 complete movies as Producer, 3 gained the cult status. Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. Aar-Paar, C. I. D, and Chaudvin Ka Chand were good movies as well. Last movie Baharein Phir Bhi Aayengi was still in making when Guru Dutt passed away. He acted in all those movies except C. I. D which was Devanand and Dharmendra replaced him in Baharein Phir Bhi Aayengi posthumously.

Again like I said yesterday you don't get recognized at the moment but much later in time. Of the 3 cult movies Guru Dutt had in his pocket, 2 of them failed miserably on box office when it got released, Only Pyaasa was a financially successful movie. But if you ask any movie lovers, they can vouch for SBaG or KkP as part of best of Bollywood.

The music of Aar-Paar and C.I.D was given by O P Nayyar like I have told you. Such was the creative geniuses of Guru Dutt that even after producing the best music, O P Nayyar was dropped for Pyaasa because Pyaasa needed Dada Burman's melody. and so was the requirement for Kaagaz Ke Phool and then there was a creative clash between Dada Burman and him during Kaagaz Ke Phool, So Chaudvin Ka Chaand, picturized on the backdrop of the city of Lucknow had Ravi as Music director and then for Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam he had Hemanta Mukhopadhyay ( Hemant Kumar). O P Nayyar returned again for Baharein Phir Bhi Aayengi.

Coming to Aar-Paar, It had a beautiful number Babuji Dheere Chalna sung by none other than Guru Dutt's love interest and wife at that time Geeta Dutt. Now if you pay close attention to the rhythm of the song, you can feel that it has some non-Indian roots, it was just not a typical Indian melody. Even though a great bit of Tabla is played along with Harmonica.

While I was leaving in Sunnyvale, right across from our apartment complex there were new condominiums coming and construction was in full swing. My mother who enjoys gardening a lot did not like the idea of purchasing soil from Home Depot or Lowe's because in her opinion it was $10 or $15 were going in for dirt (literally !!). That being said she made friends with all the Hispanic workers out there in the construction site by providing them Besan ke laddu's and other things, One day when I came home from work and was parking car, saw like 3-4 Hispanic workers carrying buckets of soil to my apartment. My mother then washed the soil multiple times and prepared it for plantation. My Friends in the Bay Area at the time Peeyush, Udayan and Manish have seen her doing that. By the way, I took all those plants which she sowed there to Houston with me when I moved there and it was the Houston Heat and Mother's absence caused all the plants to die, Sorry Ma.

Back to those Hispanic guys, they ended up being regular visitors to my house and were my mother's handyman for Besan ke laddu or Parathas. She used them to fullest (You know Mothers).  One of those guys, an elderly amigo had a sweet throat and would always be humming something or other and it was through him I heard the humming which was very similar to Babuji Dheere Chalna. But to my misfortune, he could not speak or understand English  (But look at Mother's talent). But I am not as talented as my mother and was not able to find any information from him.  But at least I knew I just need to find out about a Mexican or Spanish song now. So, I started enquiring at work and it was through Juan Quesada my co-worker from Costa Rica I was able to find Quizás, quizás, quizás.

Interestingly Quizas was a Cuban song with Spanish lyrics and it is believed that it is co-authored by Cuban First Lady Mary Tarrero-Serrano. Though Song is credited by written by Osvaldo Farres. This was all done in 1947. But then this song become an English Song in 1948 as Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps recorded by Desi Arnaz Sr. But it was made more popular by Doris Day in her cover Album Latin for Lovers in 1964 and By the Way, Aar-Paar came in 1954.


I am sorry, I can not continue, I usually try to write it up during my Bus Ride to and from work, but unfortunately, I could not do so today. So I had to write it up now, that's why late and also a short one compared to previous.  I will stop it here today and will continue tomorrow on a different note.

I got a lot of feedback on what and how should be writing, I will try to keep up to your expectations and will try to make those changes in coming days

Let me know how you like today's story. Till then....