Madan Mohan’s Legacy

Madan Mohan Kohli, or as he was better known as Madan Mohan, was the son of Rai Bahadur Chunilal. Chunilal was one of the founders of Filmistan, along with other rebels from Bombay Talkies, Ashok Kumar, Sashadhar Mukherjee, and Gyan Mukherjee. As a child, Mohan would sneak into the Marine Drive house next door, Chateau Marine, and listen to Jaddanbai singing. Sent off to the Army to fight in World War II, Mohan left after two years to work at All India Radio, Lucknow. Disinherited by his father, who did not approve of his music, there was a shadow over everything he did, with his songs becoming more popular after his death than when he was alive. Mohan died in 1975 embittered and uncelebrated, and three months later the 1975 movie Mausam, where he worked as the music director, became a silver jubilee hit. Six months later, Laila Majnu became a golden jubilee hit and its song ‘Husn hazir hai’ was the number one song on Binaca Geetmala for 18 weeks. Mausam’s most famous song, the haunting ‘Dil dhoondta hai’, had an alternative version, which became ‘Tere liye’, one of the most beautiful melodies of Veer-Zaara, Yash Chopra’s penultimate film, which has its 20th anniversary this year. The movie, with its cross-border love affair between an Indian Air Force officer and a Pakistan woman would be unthinkable today. However, Chopra had been one of the last of a generation in the Mumbai film industry who had seen the pain of Partition and did not want to see a repeat of the bloodshed. Mohan’s son, Sanjeev Kohli, found over 200 old tunes in a cardboard box in their old home. It had several magnetic tapes and a huge tape recorder. By the time Chopra was making Veer-Zaara, then titled ‘Yeh Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum’, after the famous song from Silsila, Kohli had started working for Yash Raj Films as CEO. Upon Chopra’s insistence, he recovered 11 tunes from his father’s collection and arranged the music for Veer-Zaara. The songs continue to enchant listeners as does the movie. Says Kohli, “I wanted to do justice to my father, to fans of his music, to Yash Chopra’s magnificent visuals and also appeal to the noughties generation.” He then adds, importantly, “This is the treasure my father left behind. Can you imagine the undiscovered music of great composers like RD Burman, Pyarelal or Anandji?”

The Strange World of Somy Ali

There is an odd metronomic regularity to the threats against Salman Khan’s life. It is the same with the utterances of Khan’s former partner, Pakistani- American actress Somy Ali, whom news channels love to interview every time the star gets into trouble—which is to say, often. Ali’s latest request was for a Zoom call to gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, currently in Sabarmati Jail, Ahmedabad. Bishnoi has been connected to the murder of Sidhu Moose Wala and the Mumbai-based Nationalist Congress Party politician Baba Siddique. According to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Bishnoi is also connected to the murder of pro- Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Ali had said she would like to discuss a few things about Khan with Bishnoi. She also allegedly made several statements about Khan in a Reddit chat, which she later denied, saying she had been misrepresented because “everyone knows I can’t type so far in a live session”. Ali said she decided to speak up three years ago after living a relatively low-profile life because she wanted to promote her NGO against domestic abuse and sex trafficking, No More Tears. The media has a constant obsession with the status of Salman Khan’s love life.

The Case For Bengali Men

Looking for a man who is somewhat effeminate, loves classical Indian dance, and worships the women in his life? If you’re a Hindi movie director, you look no further than Bengal. So, first we had Rocky Aur Rani kii Prem Kahaani where Rani’s father is shown as a classical dancer who loves to perform at Durga Puja functions only to have his prospective Punjabi in-laws poke fun at his masculinity, or the lack thereof. In the latest hit horror comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, without giving too much away, there is a male ghost, played by Kartik Aaryan who loves to dance and dress up. The ghost also happens to be a Bengali. Is it a colonial hangover which typecasts Bengali men as effete and feminine (which led to a call to assert themselves by thought leaders such as Swami Vivekananda) or Bollywood’s way of acknowledging that there exists a non-Animal, non-toxic masculinity that needs to celebrated?

About The Author

Kaveree Bamzai

Kaveree Bamzai is an author and a contributing writer with Open

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