Dream Sequences..

Raj Kapoor was the first global star India has produced, He was considered the Show Man of the Industry. He would have keen involvement in every aspect of film making, whether it was lyrics or music or art or costumes. He has produced and directed multiple successful movies. One of those was Awara (1951), The movie is listed in the top 100 movies of all time. Such was the success of Awara, that it was later made in Turkey as Avare (1964)

People who have seen Raj Kapoor's Classic Awara (1951) would remember that there was a dream sequence in the movie, depicting Heaven and Hell. The entire portion starts with Nargis singing Tere Bina Aag Yeh Chandni while in heaven and calling for Raj Kapoor who in Hell singing Yeh Nahi Hai Yeh Nahi Zindagi, Mujhko Ye Narak Na chahiye, Mujhko Chahiye Bahar. And then Back to Nargis when Raj Kapoor is seen entering the Heaven and Nargis is overjoyed, expressing the emotions with the Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi. The entire sequence was very well made and much hard work was put into creating the everlasting magic, not just by singers Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey, but by the Choreographer Radhu Karmarkar (Who later on directed another Raj Kapoor Classic Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai, at least officially)

So as you can see the entire section can be divided into 3 parts Heaven-Hell-Heaven, it was the beauty of Shankar Jaikishan who combined 3 different songs to create one big sequence. However the 3rd and final segment of the sequence took the limelight, and rightly so, it left the audience with the right set of mood, It had the optimism and in general, depicted the reunion.

The only reason to bring this sequence is only last week my wife Meetu and daughter Prada along with my parents came back to states after a long layover in India. So Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi

The story goes like that it was the Famous female actor of 40's-50's Suraiya's 21st birthday (1950) when famous music director Khurshid Anwar (Who in 1952 migrated to Pakistan, so more popular there) presented her a set of famous Egyptian/Arabic singer Umm Kulthum's songs. Suraiya started playing the songs in the party. On hearing one of the songs, Raj Kapoor who was present at the party asked Sabestian who was a permanent music arrange for Shankar-Jaikishen (Shankar always considered Khurshid to be his Guru) to compose the song for the Dream sequence of his film Awaara. Hence the song - Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi was created, even though it was credited to Shankar-Jaikishan

I would have not known it if Umar, my friend from Pakistan would not have shared this Arabic Song Al Balad Al Mahboub from Umm Kulthum back in 2006 in Folsom, California, The literal translation of the title of the song is "My Beloved Come Home", No wonder it is Ghar Aaya Mera Pardesi in Hindi. However, after finding this song, I had to do extensive research to find the other pieces of information. Umm Kulthum or Om Kalsoum had a movie Album Wedad released in 1936 and this was the 4th song in the Album. Umm Kulthum is credited to bring back this Arabic folk tune into the mainstream.

Now that we are talking about Dream sequences and Shankar-Jaikishan,  I will continue with title sequence from the movie Jhuk Gaya Aasman (1968) with the star cast including of Rajendra "Jubilee" Kumar (who was credited for most Jubilee's before Rajesh Khanna's arrival in the Industry) and Mrs. Yousuf Khan Saira Banu (Whose utmost motive to be in the Film industry was to marry Dilip Kumar). The Sequence is again showing the Heaven where Rajendra Kumar and Saira Banu are in and are not afraid of death. The entire sequence is more or less instrumental except Rafi's Heavenly voice sings O Priya O Priya. Later on, in the movie Mohammed Rafi gave his voice to Hasrat Jaipuri's song to create one of the most romantic songs Kaun Hai Jo Sapno Me Aaya 

King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley in 1963 starred in movie Fun In Acapulco, like every other Elvis movie, he was the main vocalist in the movie. Paramount and Elvis had a deal of doing travelogues movies and this was the third in series where he was in Mexico. The Soundtrack of the movie released as Album was a huge success and was number 3 in Billboard Charts for that year. 

While watching the movie on videotape in 2003 or 04, I heard a song Marguerita which was very close to Kaun Hai Jo Sapno Me Aaya. If you hear Marguerita, you can see the instruments played from Mariachi Band, Something which I have talked in my previous post, Journey Continues when talking about Mexican Hat Dance being the inspiration for Jeevan Ke Safar Me Rahi. Mariachi Band's presence had to be there because of Fun In Acapulco being a travelogue for Mexico.

So Here were Shankar and Jaikishan using a Western Classic to create another dream sequence in the movie. So in normal, It would be hard for Shankar and Jaikishan to achieve, they did it in dream sequences.

More for later, let me know your thoughts on today's piece and if like it, please share it with like-minded people.

until then adios.