Madanji was being much acknowledged for his creative work by the mid 60s. The various films released in earlier part of the 60s had earned him much respect and following, except that because almost all films did not do well and he got no awards , he was not considered a successful composer by industry standards, and despite such a variety of work in the earlier films, he was still being branded as a composer of ghazals, lacking versatility for commercial films.
MERA SAAYA 1966, once again proved that he could come up with a variety of moods and also be part of a commercially successful film. It was a followup to the success of WOH KAUN THI with the team of Raj Khosla, Sadhana and Raja Mehdi Ali Khan , this time with Sunil Dutt in the male lead.
Two songs as varied as Ashaji’s Jhumka Gira Re [a hit nautanki style song that reached No 2 in Binaca Geetmala] and ,on the other hand, one of the most loved classical songs , Lataji’s Nainon Mein Badra Chhaaye, amply proved he could create songs of starkly different moods. The score included the soulful Rafi Saab’s, Aapke Pehloo Mein, the very unusual dialogue based light song, Nainonwali Ne, each so different.. and the top up was Lataji’s haunting title song , in two versions. The film was originally titled SAAYA, but after the recording of the title song the haunting refrain MERA SAAYA convinced the makers to title it accordingly.
Apart from the songs , we have also shared above a rare rendition of Aapke Pehloo Mein sung by Madanji as he sang it for rehearsing Rafi Saab..Also links to Madanji speaking on how the title song was composed as well as Lataji narrating the experience during recording of the very difficult classical song, Nainon Mein Badra Chhaaye.
Madanji was originally nominated for the Filmfare Award, but due to his uncompromising nature, his name was removed from nominations not only for this film but he was never nominated again till after his demise. The Music award for the year was won by SURAJ.
6 songs of MERA SAAYA, 1966 with this post, and also some rare links
TU JAHAAN JAHAAN CHALEGA
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Lyrics: Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
MERA SAAYA SAATH HOGA [ sad version]
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Lyrics: Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
NAINON MEIN BADRA CHHAAYE
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Lyrics: Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
JHUMKA GIRA RE BAREILLY KE BAZAAR MEIN
Singer: Asha Bhosle, Lyrics: Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
AAPKE PEHLOO MEIN AAKAR RO DIYE
Singer: Mohd Rafi, Lyrics: Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
AAPKE PEHLOO MEIN AAKAR [ Madanji sings as he is composing ]
Singer: Madan Mohan, Lyrics: Raja Mehdi Ali Khan
NAINON WALI NE HAAYE MERA DIL LOOTA
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Lyrics: Raja Mehdi Ali Khan,
dialogues by Sunil Dutt
Madanji speaks on composing the title song
Lataji speaks about the recording of Nainon Mein Badra Chhaaye
