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Singer Manna Dey received the Dadasaheb Phalke award recently for his contribution towards Hindi cinema music. While the media, both print and electronic, offered due coverage, there was an underlined suggestion that the award had come a bit too late.
Yet, both the recipient and his admirers were content that the honour was finally bestowed upon the legendary artiste. But not all deserving musicians have been honoured in accordance with their achievements.
The same Manna Dey was overlooked so many times by his own film fraternity that it seemed that he would never get an award. Songs like ‘Sur na saje’, ‘Puchhon na kaise maine rain bitayee’, and ‘Kasme vaade pyaar wafa sab’ went completely unnoticed. When he finally got the Filmfare award, it was for ‘Aye bhai zara dekh ke chalon’, which Manna Dey himself found to be the least impressive of all his renditions.
Though a musical attempt is a subjective matter where tastes and choices differ, some individuals and their work has been blatantly ignored. S D Burman repeatedly lost to some of the most inconsequential soundtracks in his career, many times to Shankar-Jaikishen. The duo has won Filmfare awards a record nine times, out of which a number of times there were more deserving candidates.
Guide lost to Suraj and Mughal-e-Azam lost to Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi. Even Pyaasa, hailed as one of the best soundtracks in Hindi Cinema to date, did not receive any award for its music. In 1973, Shankar Jaikishen received the award for Beimaan, which was produced by the actor Pran. Pran himself felt embarrassed to accept that award as he thought Ghulam Mohammed for Pakeezah would have been the apt choice.
S D Burman was again ignored after Pyaasa and Guide. In 1970, many were shocked when Aradhana did not receive a Filmfare award. This time, Laxmikant-Pyarelal won the award for Jeene Ki Raah. A handful of people in this country would recall a single song from this film today. Yet it was preferred over the album which set many trends and re-launched many careers. Though R D Burman has won many awards, his finest work for Aandhi was bypassed over Kalyandji-Anandji’s Kora Kaagaz, which had only one good song. Even Gulzar was overlooked for the lyrics of Aandhi that year.
It is ironic that Gulzar should win an award for ‘Do deewane sheher mein’ and not for ‘Ek akela is sheher mein’ from Gharonda. Even Sahir received only one award in 30 years, for Kabhie Kabhie. Ironically, the movie’s protagonist was a poet too, just like Sahir whom Yash Chopra handpicked as the movie’s lyricist.
From 1958 to 1974, the award for female playback singer had gone either to Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhonsle. Only once in 1970 did Sharda manage to get an award for Jahan Pyaar Mile. It is as if to suggest that there were no female playback singers in the industry for 30 years, except for the two sisters. More recently KK, who has been singing untiringly and delivering hits after hits, has had to be content with just nominations, while relatively new singers like Shaan and Kunal Ganjawala have already scored. Name one song which was sung better than ‘Alvida’ from Life in a Metro in that year and you will get the drift of bias towards this singer.
Even Kailash Kher got the award along with Shaan for singing just one word ‘Subhanallah’ in the song ‘Chand Sifarish’ from Fanaa. He did not deserve to be on the podium for that song but he certainly deserved a trophy for ‘Allah ke Bande’, which despite being a big hit and trendsetter for many Sufi songs, was not even nominated.
Every individual who has failed to garner recognition has not diminished in his stature. Just an award does not make or break an artiste – their works do. If the outcome is good enough, it will stand the test of time.
source- planetradiocity
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