By Santhanakrishnan Srinivasan

The last article I wrote on Rafi ji  was on a single aspect of his voice, his exceptional range over his contemporaries. Rafi ji has sung so many songs and we have heard them with so much attention, it is natural that we observe a lot of other aspects such as common and unique patterns in the way songs are made and sung.

If we have listened to the songs on the radio and then on Chayageet or Chitrahaar attentively, we would have noticed there are songs that seem to have two different versions, especially, the picturised version seemed to be longer and had something extra in them.  It was a revelation to me that there was thing called a OST version (Original Sound Track) and this was different from what was getting imprinted on the gramophone record (78 rpm) that would have a limitation on the length of the songs to about 3 and half minutes.

Then I started observing how these versions, OST and audio, differed from each other, since both of them were complete versions.  The first outcome was that there were two recordings of the songs done in earlier days, once for OST and another for the audio.  Then I found there were number of methods used to bring down length of the song from OST to audio, such as cutting down one antara, or changing the interlude music, etc.  This article is an outcome of the analysis on versions of songs mainly based on the songs sung by Rafiji, who was a phenomenon by the sheer number of songs that he sang, and generating a huge following while remaining humility personified.

Here is a brief analysis of these songs and a classification of the reasons leading to their versions.

The reasons for these versions are mere surmisals based on the verifiable facts that can be associated with the versions.  Again the facts have been collected by listening to the songs that are available. There are facts that are other than technical too, in some instances for which the reasons associated are either hearsay or unverified material available in the public domain.   Now let us see some of these versions.

The songs had a definite structure, some orchestral music at the start, in between verses (antaras) and a little at the end.  With each line repeating twice, with two antaras the song would last up to 3 minutes and with three antaras ,  it would typically extend upto of 4 minutes and 15 secs.  However, the gramaphone recording technology available then (78 rpm) did not allow anything longer than 3 minutes and 20 seconds, and this put a limitation on the length of the song. Hence if the production budget allowed, the producers would have two recordings for the same song, once for the film sound track and an abridged version for the gramophone record (78 rpm – short play).  To abridge the song, they (music director or the producer) employed techniques of reducing the length of the song by either dropping the third antara, or retaining the third antara without repetition of the lines, or cutting down on the orchestral music and in rare occasion by converting a duet into solo or a combination of these methods.  This trend followed till the Long Play (33 1/3 rpm) and extended play (45 rpm) came in to being with higher fidelity introduced through better electronics.

• The easiest option was to cut away one antara from the song.  Still a separate recording was needed as the song needed to be brought to a graceful ending with the same flourish.   The many Rafiji songs that are in this genre are “Khoya khoya chand”  from Kala Bazar the last antara “hum mit chale hain jinke liye” is deleted along with the orchestral music for the antara which is different from rest of the antaras.  There is another one from the movie Savan Badon, ‘Kaan mein jhumka chaal mein thumka’  there are two versions,  both are long, and the longer version has an antara in the middle (Teri maang mein jo main sindoor bhar doon   (Ref:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sl0MJGBDqg, counter 2:30) set to different tune than other antaras) which is not in the picturized version.  The famous romantic song  ‘Yeh mera patra padkar’ is announced as a solo sung by Rafiji from the audio version .  The picturized version has a humming and singing of couple of lines by Lataji with more of orchestral  music.
• There is another method employed Music Director  Ravi, in the film Aaj aur Kal, in the song ‘Yeh wadiya yer fizayen’, in which  antaras consist of only one line.  And 4 of these are  included but the lines of antara are not  repeated in the gramophone version.  The picturized version is a revelation in how much variation Rafiji can bring in by adding a lot of  harkat in the first time the line sung.  Both the versions of this song is a must listen for every Rafiji fan.  (audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXu6xRakykc, picturized version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1l52x3wXYw).   A similar one is “Nache man mora magan”  from Meri Surat teri aankhen.  In the picturized version, Sachin Dev Burman ji has exploited Rafiji’s ability to sing taan, while closing every antara.  In the gramophone version only a glimpse of the possibility has been recorded. (audio: Not available or not traceable video: many copies available in youtube).
• In yet another variation, Usha Khanna has shortened the orchestral interludes between antaras, thus ensuring the two antaras could be included in the audio version – listen to  Maine rakha hai mohabbat from Shabnam.
• Sometimes when the song is long and all the antaras are very meaningful, the entire song was recorded again with a break to allow for a gramophone record with the song on both sides.  The second recording was needed to give a graceful break between the two sides of the record.  An example is ‘Hoke majboor mujhe usne bhulaya hoga’  sung by Bhupinder ji, Rafi ji, Talat ji and Manna Dey ji.  Another example is of  Basti basti parbat parbat from Railway platform.  (There are two songs of Kishore ji, Khush hai zamana aaj pehli tarikh hai from Pehli tariq and Kuye mein khud ke mar jana from Parivar).
• Here are two more unique and rare examples.  In the movie Naya andaz,  there is duet sung by Kishoreji and Rafiji (Duniya ke bazaar mein bhaiya chalta khota maal) picturized on Johny Walker and Kishoreji.  In the audio version, Rafiji starts the song   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVUDHFbcu0E) and in the picturized version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r_XEEhzjvQ) Kishoreji starts the song!
• In the movie Aadmi,  for the song the first version that was recorded was sung by  Rafiji and Talatji (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvQf_NaqBM4)  which was also intended to be used on the picturized version .  However, Manoj Kumar had started using Mahendra Kapoorji as his voice on the screen and another recording was made with Rafiji and Mahendra (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZtZzdLlNe4).  Stories on internet say, that the producers liked both the versions and used a survey, and decided to retain Rafiji and Talatji version based on the overwhelming support it got.
• There were other reasons that also forced, the production team to go for two versions, specially when the song is interrupted by dialogues in the picturized version.  An example of this “Jahan tu hai wahan phir” from the movie Aao Pyar Karen. The gamaphone version without the dialogues (audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHQFvp4XfaM, video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwQhStQTiNc)

Recording a version in the olden days meant, practicing and rehearsing with the orchestra artistes and the vocalists, many times before the actual recording, and the amount of effort put in by all is evident in the outcome.  When coming out with two versions, not only the effort put in was to be doubled, the music director and the artists had to show more creativity too.

We, the fans of Hindi film music and especially of  Rafiji, must be thankful and grateful to all the music directors and the artistes who gave us gems of versions of the so many songs.

Again a lot of thanks and to all those who have uploaded the songs in youtube and to Bhaskar, my nephew (who is the next generation Rafiji fan in my family)  for verifying and reviewing the facts and also for providing additional data  from his observations. I solicit  comments on this article too from my fellow fans of  Rafiji,  as you had done for my earlier article.

And this article is numbered 1 as there is a sequel to follow on multiple picturised versions.

This blog was published on Sunday, September 21st, 2014 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Meri Awaaz Suno. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.