Volume-6 [1981-85]
With your permission, I would like to take you 5 decades back when I was a student of High School (1967) and along with my study, I used to listen Hindi film songs being played on different radio stations like Radio Ceylon, Vividh Bharati, etc. I used to note down the wordings of the songs I liked with names of the films as well as of the singer, song writer and composer in the last pages of the exercise books that I used to take to the classes. My impatience to note down details of maximum number of songs that I liked grew day by day. But many a times, either the names of the films or the singer or song writer or composer would be left out due to bad transmission or I wouldn’t be able to pick it up correctly.
In September 1971, along with some local radio listeners, I formed ‘Flying Listeners Club’. Next month, based on radio programmes, publication of a monthly newspaper with a title ‘Radio News’ was started. For this newspaper, I was entrusted to carry the responsibility of its editing and publication. Other than this magazine, I came in touch with many music lovers through fortnightly cine magazine ‘Madhuri’ and cine weekly newspaper ‘Screen’.
Time went by and I first finished Intermediate after High School and then graduated in science in 1972. But the hobby of listening Hindi film songs grew up along with time and age. For some 4-5 years, I used to roam here and there in the hope that I would get a book which would have all the details of all Hindi films and its songs. Many a times, I used to roam for long in search of the name of film from which a particular song was played. Once I ended up in Delhi at the in-law’s place of one of my local friend’s sister but there also I didn’t get any success. No one knew the name of the film from which the song ‘Guzra hua zamana aata nahin dubaara...’ belonged to. At that time, I made up my mind that something needs to be done so that I would get a solution to my problem although at that time I wasn’t aware about the lines written by late Dushyant Kumar :
कैसे आकाश में सुराख नहीं हो सकता,
एक पत्थर तो तबीयत से उछालो यारो
In July 1972, when I joined ‘Head Office’ of ‘State Bank of India’ at Kanpur, I got an idea of what I wanted to do other than the marriage (but not before publishing one volume at least). I started participating in many weekly programmes of Radio Ceylon such as ‘Vakya Geetaanjali’, ‘Jab Aap Gaa Uthe’, ‘Pasand Apni Apni Khayaal Apna Apna’, ‘Panghat Par’, ‘Hamesha Jawaan Geet’, etc. like other listeners. More than listening to my name on ‘Radio Ceylon’, my focus shifted to getting the information about the melodious Hindi film songs including that of its singer, lyricist and composer and I started noting down the same.
In March 1974, when I visited Jabalpur to meet Manohar Mahajan, an announcer of Radio Ceylon and asked him whether out of the lakhs of radio listeners, hasn’t anyone ever tried to make a complete listing of Hindi film songs starting from the first talkie film ‘Aalam Aara’ till date. After thinking for some moments, he answered that many listeners must have thought about it but the question was who would tie the bell in the cat’s neck? Perhaps, it was a day of 1971 when I had drafted a pro forma to store information about each Hindi film with its songs. 4,000 copies of this pro forma had been printed and sent to me by a well known listener of Radio Ceylon and owner of a printing press Girish Chandra ‘Suman’ of Aligarh. Following the advices of film historian Firoze Rangoonwalla, I along with my 2 friends Girish Chandra Sharma (Kanpur) and Vishnu Swaroop Mishra from Bangarmau (Unnao), I visited Pune in June 1974 and noted down the details of songs and films from the booklets available at ‘National Film Archive of India’ on respective compilation sheets. We also noted down the details from many monthly film magazines including ‘FilmIndia’, etc. When I met well known announcer of Radio Ceylon Vijaylakshmi Desaram for the first time in 1975 at Royal Café, Hazrat Ganj, Lucknow, to inform her that I was preparing a Geet Kosh of the Hindi film songs, she instantly reacted ‘I appreciate it’. For preparing Geet Kosh of Hindi film songs, it was Feroze Rangoonwalla’s book titled ‘Indian Filmography’ published in 1970, the foundation stone, which prompted me to construct a grand palace over it. His book included the title of the film with censor year, banner, director, music director and names of selected artists but didn’t include any details of songs. Hence, it struck to me that I should make a Geet Kosh of Hindi films songs in which with the opening line of every song with respective names of singer, lyricist, composer and record number should be included. It is an astonishing fact that at that time, I did not know the sources wherefrom I would get these details. Looking to the difficulty of the task, Girish Chandra Suman (Aligarh) suggested that rather than going into an elaborate detail, just mention the starting line of every song and if known, the name of the singer can be included at the most. But I wasn’t in agreement with him because I myself wouldn’t be happy with this incomplete information. Here, I recollect a couplet penned by Majrooh Saab
मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिबे-मंज़िल मगर,
लोग साथ आते गए, कारवाँ बनता गया.
Desired information of Hindi films and its songs was scattered all over amongst the audiences, collectors of gramophone records, music lovers. In addition to many monthly and yearly catalogues of 78 rpm records released by HMV, I found good number of 78 rpm discs at Urdu service of both All India Radio and Vividh Bharati. The booklets released by the producers of the films during its launch became the main source of information for compilation of information. Lots of monthly cine magazines published from early 30’s were referred to for the purpose of getting details. For collecting desired information, we had to visit number of cities at different times, details whereof were given in quarterly published Listeners' Bulletin (published since October 1971 with the name 'Radio News' but subsequently changed to Listeners' Bulletin by Flying Listeners' Club). In June 1974, during my first Bombay – Pune trip, I was fortunate to meet a few prominent Film personalities such as Surendra Nath B.A., LL.B., Murli Manohar Swaroop and C.H.Atma.
When this vast collection was carefully checked, I got a feeling that the details of songs of 40 years – starting from 1931 till 1970, could be published. Out of the proposed 4 volumes of Geet Kosh, with active support of Bishwanath Chatterjee (Bhopal), I made manuscript of Volume-3 (1951-60) ready without thinking as to how its publication would take place, who will do it and wherefrom the money would come for it. I made a desperate attempt by contacting a well known local publisher named ‘Sahitya Niketan’. When I met and showed him the manuscript, instead of looking at it, he started staring at me and asked what is this all about and who am I ? Instead of feeling dejected, I was angry as he didn’t even bother to see the manuscript which was my hard work of last 10-12 years. The reason I could guess in his mind was the thought as to who would buy this book and how much profit would it make. At that moment itself, while taking 4 steps back to get down the stairs, I firmly decided that henceforth, I will never contact any publisher or book-seller for publishing and/or selling any of my work. After a passage of more than 4 decades, my determination remains intact.
I used to save the money that I was getting from the bonus, overtime, etc. from the Bank. Many well wishers, music loving friends and the partners of the publication of "Listeners' Bulletin" also helped financially and thus, I was finally able to publish ‘Volume-3’ (1951-60) in January 1980. My father Sardar Sumer Singh Sachdev (01.03.1926 – 11.07.1985) became its publisher. As a desperate attempt, when I contacted music director C. Ramchandra (Poona) and Rai Chand Boral (Calcutta) for the release of the book at Kanpur, I came to know that the expenses of bringing them by plane (along with their one escort) was much more than the money spent in printing ‘Volume 3’ ! Hence, the idea was dropped and sale of Volume-3 started without any formal release and publicity. Even after few months of the start of sale, lots of music lovers did not believe that it was possible to compile and publish such a reference compendium. From Rajkot, though one music lover sent money for the book to be delivered to him, yet he thought that he would be getting a box with lots of stones in it but was pleasantly surprised when he finally got the delivery of the book. For a long time, he was stunned to realize that the book in his hands was really the first of the series of Hindi Film Geet Kosh, Volume 3 (1951–60). After the publication of ‘Volume-3’ in January 1980, music lovers slowly started buying the same and demanded rest of the volumes. In this series, the release of ‘Volume-2’ (1941–50) took place at ‘Jai Hind College’ near Churchgate Station (Bombay) on 25 February 1984 at the hands of composer Naushad Ali which was warmly attended by lots of music lovers from various nooks and corners along with film personalities like Bulo C.Rani, Hansraj Behl, Rajkumari, Zohrabai Ambalawali and Sudha Malhotra. After a gap of about 30 months, ‘Volume-4’ (1961–70) was released at the hands of Maestro Anil Biswas on his own 73rd Birthday i.e, on 7 July 1986 at AIFACS Auditorium (All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society) in which notable personalities such as Mina Kapur, Asa Singh Mastana, Bina Chopra (daughter of K.L.Saigal), Mrs.Nirmala Husnlal, etc. witnessed this historical event as exactly 90 years earlier, on 7 July 1896 at Watson Hotel of Bombay, the Lumiere Brothers (Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean, s/o Charles-Antoine Lumiere) had screened a movie in India for the first time.
Finally, the time arrived for the release of the Volume 1 (1931–40) also which had included the details of seven songs from the first talkie film ‘Alam Ara’ till the last certified film of 1940. In all, it included information of 931 Films with 9,000 songs approximately. For this historical event which took place on 8th October 1988 at Birla Kreeda Kendra, Girgaum Chowpatty, Bombay, there were Madhulal Damodar Master who had been giving music from 1931, P.Jairaj (an actor from the time of silent films), Feroze Dastur, Talat Mahmood, Rajkumari, Shankar Dasgupta, Ramchandra Pal, Ramesh Gupta, Sushila Rani Patel, Qamar Jalalabadi, Sitara Devi, Naushad Ali, Shahu Modak, Bhagwan Dada, Snehal Bhatkar, and such 25 Film personalities who had contributed significantly from the starting years of Hindi talkie cinema. For the publication and release of all the 4 Volumes of the Geet Kosh, music lovers had helped in their own ways as I always believed that this work couldn’t have been completed on my own. I became just a coordinator of this work and I have been able to repay the debts of the composers of the melodious songs which taught me to live life in a natural way. For the printing, making of manuscripts, alphabetical listings of songs/films and such other tiring work, Biswanath Chatterjee (Bhopal/Nagpur) helped me with an open heart and came to Kanpur many times. It isn’t even possible for me to imagine that without his help, how I could have compiled and published all the Volumes of the Geet Kosh. Although original idea was to compile songs from 1931 to 1970 only but continuing with the phrase ‘Show must go on’, we had also started collecting and compiling details of songs of films certified after 1970 as well. The pleasant surprise came with the publication and release of ‘Volume-5’ (1971 - 80) for which the tiring task of making the manuscript ready was made by Bishwanath Chatterjee along in Nagpur all by himself. As usual, I made all preparations for the printing-publication and ‘Volume-5’ (1971 – 80) was released finally in Bombay on 31 March 1991 at Birla Kreeda Kendra, Girgaum Chowpatty, Bombay at the hands of composer Sudhir Phadke which was witnessed by his singer-actress wife Lalita Phadke (Deolkar) and also C.Arjun, Talat Mahmood, Qamar Jalalabadi, Kulwant Jani, Preeti Sagar, Moti Sagar, Jagmohan Sursagar, Tushar Bhatia, Uday Majumdar and some more film personalities.
As the number of films being produced and getting certified increased considerably after 1980, it was decided that the information of forthcoming decades would have to be split and thus Volume-6 (1981 – 85), Volume-7 (1986 – 90) and Volume-8 (1991 – 95) were planned to be presented covering a period of 5 years each to the music lovers. We had been collecting the booklets, gramophone record catalogues, etc. relating to these volumes since long and I was supposed to do the publication and sale thereof but as I had very little interest in the new film songs as well as little knowledge about it, the task of preparing the manuscript similar to that of Volume-5 was to be undertaken by Bishwanath Chatterjee. However, due to unfavourable circumstances, we both (myself and Chatterjee) never got an opportunity after March 1991 to sit together to prepare the manuscripts for Volume-6, 7, etc. And thus, the publication of further volumes came to standstill after the release of 5 volumes released during the period January 1980 to March 1991.
By chance, I am reminded of one of my well-wisher Pratap Singh Rathaur’s prediction, with whom I had availed the opportunity of working with at the Zonal Office of the State Bank of India at Kanpur. By the year 1987, 3 Volumes of Geet Kosh had been published and on seeing my passion, I heard from his mouth – ‘Now the rest of your life will be spent in compiling similar work only’.
Although, I was unaware of computer knowledge but in 1993 when I purchased a computer for the purpose of putting all the information from the previously published 5 Volumes on the internet for the benefit of music lovers, almost a period of about 4 years were spent in learning and compiling directly on the computer itself. As there were lots of shortcomings due to various reasons in the previously published ‘Volume-3’ (For example, song index could not be included in it), on experimental basis, I started entering all the information about the songs from 1,160 Hindi films of 1951 to 1960, directly into the computer. By using Ventura Publisher, when I successfully published the second and revised edition of Volume-3 with the help of the computer, I got immense pleasure as well. This revised second edition of Volume-3 ( 1951–60 ) was released in Bombay itself at Birla Kreeda Kendra, Girgaum Chowpatty, Bombay on 5 April 1997 by composer Kalyanji and as an eye witness to the same were present Sardar Malik, Prem Dhawan, Gulshan Bawra, Ajit Merchant, Madhubala Chawla (nee Zaveri), Sulochana Kadam, Snehal Bhatkar, Kersi Mistry, Krishnakant (Actor) and other film personalities. In this work, the small errors in the wordings of the songs were suggested for correction by the UK resident Gurucharan Singh Sandhu over the telephone, and thus, he became a good supporter for this Volume. It is worth to mention that video recording of all the 5 release functions were made and in due course, were transferred into Digital format. Sanjeev Tanwar of Delhi is in the process of presenting all the recordings with subtitles on VCD/DVD.
Even though Shri Chatterjee lost in his own world and as I had no intention to work for Volumes-6, 7, etc. due to lesser interest but still as from my side, I continued compiling and publishing brief information of Hindi films certified after 1980. As earlier too, Harish Raghuwanshi supported me whole-heartedly as a result of which, I could get the release Hindi Filmography (1981 – 99) on 23rd July 2000 at the hands of the Governor of Uttaraanchal, Mahamahim Suraj Bhaan. In the succeeding years, the trend of presenting similar information for all the films certified after 1999 in the form of yearly appendices continued. In this way, brief details of all Hindi films viz. name of the film, banner, producer, director, music director, lyricist, actors and details of censor certificate, certified upto 2013, have been made available in 2 volumes for the benefit of music lovers.
Since the past more than a decade, I have been trying to work on another ambitious project but haven’t been able to complete. Starting from 1931, details that are available about music directors in an alphabetical manner with their list of Hindi and regional films till now are to be presented under the title ‘Hindi Filmon Ke Sangeetkar’. Harish Raghuwanshi is also involved in this project with me although he has some family problems but we are planning to present the same in 2 volumes after gathering all the information as early as possible.
With these activities which were going on for the last more than 4 decades, when I suddenly realized on the evening of 30th November 2011 that the time of saying good bye to the State Bank of India has arrived, my joy knew no bounds. As from 1st December 2011, I was free to devote my all time fully to the above mentioned incomplete projects. But fate had something else in its mind as my 5 valuable years were lost due to some family problems from 2012-13 to 2016-17 and even though suffering with lots of mental problems, I somehow managed to publish regularly "Listeners' Bulletin" and the yearly updates of ‘Hindi Filmography’.
Now, let us see how the preparation for the publication of ‘Volume-6’ started. During the period 1995-96-97, my wife’s elder sister’s daughter had already entered the information for the songs of about 850 Hindi films certified during the period 1981 to 1985 for 'Volume-6' and data feeding for ‘Volume-7’ (1986 – 90) had also started. I obtained a printed copy of the information relating to ‘Volume-6’ (1981 – 85) that was prepared using a computer. As the project of publishing ‘Volume-6’ didn’t materialize, due to various changes that took place in the computer world, the computer data file became useless. Before I proceed further, I am reminded of late Dushyanth Kumar’s lines :
सिर्फ़ हंगामा खड़ा करना मेरा मक़सद नहीं,मेरी कोशिश है ये सूरत बदलनी चाहिए.
मेरे सीने में नहीं तो तेरे सीने में ही सही, हो कहीं भी आग लेकिन आग जलनी चाहिए.
In the year 2016, during a telephonic conversation with Film Historian and author of the book ‘Melodies, Movies and Memories' (2016), Nalin Shah casually asked that if Bishwanath Chatterjee is not working on the future volumes, would the material collected by you for the purpose such as Gramophone record catalogues, booklets, etc. go waste ? His words terribly shook me and I thought that since I have already collected the information of the songs of Hindi Films for Volume-6 (1981 – 85) to Volume-9 (1996 – 2000), I took it as a challenge to make the information available through further volumes with the help of computer. In late sixties, when I had started this compilation, as I had lesser interest in new songs, I had restricted my work upto 1970 with a hope that someone else would definitely come forward to continue it. One Mr. B.V.Dharap of Poona had already started compiling and publishing ‘Indian Films’ series released after 1971. Thus, I was relieved of compiling information of films released after 1970. Although ‘Indian Films’ was published from 1972 to 1978 and later for the years 1983, 1984 and 1985 but it did not give that much information which would satisfy music lovers' quest.
After saying ‘Show must go on’, Bishwanath Chatterjee got lost in another world and retired from the Postal Department by the end of May 2006 as well but the process of working on Volume-6 didn’t start. In the last few years, incomplete details of films produced after 1980 were published by others which hardly satisfied the music lovers' interest and their expectations of getting detailed and authentic information weren’t met. During this period, music lovers used to complain and gave a challenge similar to the one when after the release of first edition of Volume-3, on not finding the song index, a music lover from Bikaner had sent me a legal notice saying that either I should present a new edition with its song index or else be ready for a legal battle. Although I wasn’t scared of his threat but as even I was fed up with going through all over the book repeatedly to find a particular song from the book that I decided to make a new edition of Volume-3 on experimental basis with the help of computer with an intention to include corrections and all left out information.
It must be on the Independence day in August 2016 that I started putting in details in the computer from the printed manuscript which was prepared about 2 decades ago. As family problems were slowly getting solved day by day, I started devoting my time into entering the information for Volume-6 (1981-85) into the computer. And thus, during the last 14-15 months, I finished entering all the information in the computer. Some additional information about films released in 1980’s that Bishwanath Chatterjee had seen on Doordarshan, etc. were noted down by him directly in the booklets itself or on small pieces of paper and kept inside the booklets, was also used to update the data. Needless to add that as usual, Harish Raghuwanshi provided plenty of information via emails, etc. until the release of this volume and will continue in future as well. One Mahesh Kumar Shukla (retired from Bank of India at the close of business on 30 September 2015) of Lucknow supported at large and pointed out not only corrections but provided some additional information too. Without his help, it wouldn’t have been possible to publish this volume in a short time. Devi Shankar Kanaujia (Madhoganj, Hardoi), Sanjeev Tanvar (Delhi), Abhay Jain (USA), Dr.Rajesh Deshpande (Bombay), Biren Kothari (Vadodara), Urvish Kothari (Mahemdabad) and many other music lovers and well-wishers have contributed in various ways in providing information and I have attempted to make it as accurate as possible. By using the available communication media, some information about regional films and its songs in the last stages of the publication of this volume was provided by MD Soni. Although I have little knowledge about the songs mentioned in this volume as compared with the older ones, there is no doubt that I have done full justice with all sincerity in compiling-editing and presenting of this Volume. I was happy to see that there were lots of media available such as CDs, VCDs which had information about songs and films for collecting information whereas no such sources for cross checking were available when older volumes were published in the period between 1980 and 1991. However, I would like to caution music lovers about one thing that whatever information is nowadays available online such as YouTube, Google, etc., it is not authentic and it would be very unfortunate if one blindly takes it for granted. Lot of misleading and wrong information is not only being circulated but multiplied too through internet freely and fearlessly without giving a second thought of cross checking and no one is able to stop it. For the desired information, everyone refers to the internet and is doing the crime of (without checking the truth) forwarding it further with his name and there is no way to stop it. Hence, I have tried to collect information about singers, song writers and composers for songs from authentic sources only and I have left blanks for missing or doubtful information like earlier volumes rather than copying blindly without verifying the data as others have done. Without giving any credit or asking permission, they have lifted the titles of films, years, names of actors, etc from my earlier published ‘Hindi Filmography’ (1981-99) and have presented the so-called compilation by simply copying the wrong or incomplete details of songs from the gramophone record catalogues released by HMV and other companies. On the top of it, with such false and copied information and with lot of pride, they consider themselves as Researcher and Compiler of Geet Kosh. For this volume, which has details of 843 films, I not only listened to the songs many times but also watched the films to extract correct information about the singers, lyricists and composers of songs. Some films have been watched fully and the cast-credit list also has been checked many times to ascertain the correct names of song writers, composers and music directors. In this effort, Harshvadan Bhagat from Surat provided me with some films on a pen drive from his personal collection as I believe that for any missing information, the only source which is the last one without any impurity is the film itself although there can be errors therein too exceptionally. That is why I cannot claim that the information given in this volume is complete. But I have tried honestly, like earlier volumes, to keep it authentic and complete as far as possible. I request and expect music lovers also to rely on authentic sources while trying to match the information given in this volume rather than depending on the one available on internet.
I would like to mention about a bitter experience without which my long story would remain incomplete for which I am showing the indelicacy to highlight as it is relating to the preparation of Volume-6 and the whole project of Geet Kosh as well. Music lovers and well-wishers will be surprised and may also feel angry to know that there are species in this world who are not only against the publication of the Geet Kosh volumes but also meet personally or make calls over the telephone or in a written manner through registered letters, bother those music lovers and well-wishers who helped in preparing these volumes and try to unsuccessfully convince them not to help in the process of preparing the Geet Kosh volumes. I don’t have any problems with those who even though keep the information required but are reluctant to share with me. But I experienced for the first time during the last 5 decades of this work that there exist a few who even though have no information about the same are discouraging others from sharing information or helping me for Geet Kosh volumes. It is difficult to imagine that by one’s behavior, one goes so low a level in morality. Not only this, some are even photocopying previously published Geet Kosh volumes illegally and immorally to sell for the last 26-27 years. They are thus not only putting obstacles in the publishing new volumes but also selling illegally the previously published volumes. I only pray God to give some sense (...दे और दिल उनको जो न दे मुझको ज़बाँ और...) who are involved in such illegal activities. Looking to these activities who are creating obstacles, I have been encouraged more to do my task with even more vigor (‘Ekla Chalo Re’). I believe that there will be even many more who oppose my compilation work but I will never get affected by their attempts.
During the compilation of Volume-6, I felt that the way in which additional information has been presented in footnotes under each film, the same should have been done for the previously published Volume-5 (1971-80) to make it more precise and useful.
It was the first day of the year 2018. Even before 6 a.m. that Devi Shankar Kanaujia called me over the phone and informed me that while going through the advance copy of Volume-6 for checking, not only were the details of a Film is found wrong but also incomplete. But I wasn’t afraid as until and unless the mistake is found out, simply one cannot accept it blindly. I asked him to tell the name of the film. He mentioned a film titled ‘Farz Aur Pyar’ of 1981. When I also checked that particular page which had the film related information, he remarked that he had the booklet of the film, according to which not only were the artist names are incomplete but same page carries 6 songs only whereas the booklet contains 7 songs. During this conversation, I had also taken out the booklet from my collection. On seeing carefully, I realized that based on the booklet that was in my possession, the details given in Geet Kosh were correct. Kanaujia was adamant as going one step ahead, he had checked the names of the artists from the film which was available at YouTube. Then I told him that from the booklet of the film alone, I had got the information relating to the film and the same was included in Volume-6 which carried 6 songs only. At that moment, when he said that he had the booklet that contains 7 songs, it was revealed that the producer had released 2 different booklets which were in possession with both of us but weren’t matching. Now under this situation, readers can understand my problems. But my efforts continue to make it as accurate as possible. Corrections and updating in Volume-6 will continue till it gets published.
Music lovers would be happy to know that the details in this Volume have been presented with the help of a computer in such a way that when the missing information is received, the same can be entered in the computer and the next edition can be published easily. Not only that, information from the previously published volumes is being entered into the computer and with the new technology of ‘Digital Printing’, revised and updated editions of previously published volumes can be brought out as soon as data entry is over. Efforts are also in hand to make available all the information published in Geet Kosh volumes and Hindi Filmography online.
It is worth to mention here that after publishing the volumes under ‘Geet Kosh’ series, it has been labeled as the ‘Mother of all Geet Kosh’ and based on it, not only have small compilations of individual singers or composers been brought out in the later years but also many students have been awarded Doctorate based on it.
For the compilation of information for Geet Kosh volumes, various sources such as film booklets, gramophone records and its catalogues, various film magazines and films available in various media were referred to. Information gathered directly from film personalities has been taken into account for all the volumes for the past few decades. But I was pleasantly surprised in the year 2017 when the Director of National Film Archive of India, Pune called me one day to inform that when he tried to find the title of a film, print whereof on celluloid was unearthed by him, he consulted Geet Kosh Volume-1 (1931-40) and was able to spot the same successfully. He had got the print of the film but the first reel was missing in the lot and so, he was unable to spot the title of the film. Then, he watched the remaining reels and heard a song ‘Yeh sunaa hai maine jaadu hai rajaji ke pad pankaj mein...’ and successfully spotted the title of the film (‘Khudaai Khidmatgar’/ 1937) from Volume-1 (1931-40) of Geet Kosh.
While giving the finishing touches to ‘Meri Kahaani Meri Zubaani’, I felt like taking too much time on an open platform to narrate my story. Hence readers can read this in parts as well.
After presenting Volume-6, it is very much likely [And it is the belief of Nalin Shah(Bombay) as well that ‘However forgettable, the songs remain an integral part of Indian Cinema....the show must go on...'] that the demand for the next volume will increase. Considering it, I have already gathered and preserved the information which can be compiled and edited in a short time and organized manner to publish Volume-7 (1986-90), Volume-8 (1991-95) and Volume-9 (1996-2000). Seeing the current situation and other lengthy tasks viz. computerization of published Volumes of Geet Kosh, Hindi Filmon Ke Sangeetkar (1931 till now), Hindi Filmography (Appendices of 2014 onwards) making, it is difficult to say when Volume-7 will be released. With the continuous support of Harish Raghuwanshi, Mahesh Kumar Shukla, Bishwanath Chatterjee, Devi Shankar Kanaujia, Sanjeev Tanwar and such well-wishers, I hope to complete the above mentioned proposed tasks in near future.
Kanpur : March 14, 2018 Har Mandir Singh ‘Hamraaz’
