Indian music, especially the Indian classical form is one of the most respected streams of music. But in India itself, the Indian Cinema songs are the most popular formats and in the first edition of Music Lovers – Down Memory Lane, we would like to express our gratitude to one of the greatest Indian composer – Anil Biswas.
The name Anil Biswas rekindles musical lights as he is often regarded as the pioneer of of playback singing, is also credited for the first Indian orchestra of twelve pieces and introducing orchestral music and full-blooded choral effects, into Indian cinema. He was also the pioneer in using the counter melody in film scores, employing technique of western music, ‘cantala’, where one line overlaps the other in contra-melody, recitative prose songs as in Roti (1942), besides he was the first one to start extensively using the Ragmala.
The most important contribution of Anilda is that he introduced was western orchestration, using indigenous instruments both in the songs as well as in their melodic interludes, a trend that soon caught on and paved way for the musicals of Indian cinema today.
Anil Biswas gave break to famed playback singer, Mukesh in Pehli Nazar (1945), singing ‘Dil Jalta Hai to Jalne De’, and to Talat Mahmood in Arzoo (1949), singing ‘Aye Dil Mujhe Aisi Jagah Ley Chal’ his first song in Bombay; he was also behind the success of many singers such as Surendranath, Parul Ghosh, Amirbai Karnataki, Lata Mangeshkar and Roshan Ara Begum.
The success of “Kismat” in 1943 saw Anilda’s popularity reach the zenith of his career. The film that ran for over three years in a single cinema house in Calcutta, broke records and established Ashok Kumar as the first evergreen hero of Indian cinema. The three-plus-year record-run was broken by “Sholay” in the seventies. But that was because of the gripping tale and not the music.
In a film career spanning over three decades, Anilda composed music for over 100 films and also credited for the compositions of first-ever India mega TV serial Humlog.
“Ai dil mujhe aisi jagha ley chal jahan koi na ho” turned Talat Mahmood into an icon. The tune had come from the soul of Anilda and he has reached a place in Indian cinema music “jahan koi bhi nahin”.