This twin cassette album released by HMV-Saregama contains 30 choicest sad songs rendered by Lata Mangeshkar in her heydays.
This is a vintage collection of superb solos of Lata sung during the golden period of Hindi film music 1950 to 1970. Prime time 8 pm, lights go out, there is some or the other problem, in the sweltering heat, sitting in the candlelight, you have nothing to do, if you go out in balcony, mosquitoes will devour you, sitting inside you are miserable. One doesn’t know what to do! This is the right time for me to put on this casette in my walkman, and get lost into the world of melody, music and melancholy.
The sad songs make you temporarily forget your current worries of sitting in a dim lit room sweating like pigs! Well, they say there is one thing good about tooth-ache, it makes you forget all other worries! Sad songs are always everyone’s favorite, they are so touching. Of the 30 songs all of them good, my favorites are: 1.Tum na jane kis jahan mein kho gaye, Chaand phir nikla, both composed by SD Burman. I wonder why songs from Pyasa and Kagazke phool have not been included. 2. Mohe bhool gaye sawaria in Bhairavi from Baiju bawra composed by Naushad 3. Shanker Jaikishen’s compositions; Yeh shaam ki tanhaiyan ( which sounds like an SDB tune, I have never reconciled to the fact that this is a SJ number), Rasik Balmaa, ( In Raga Kafi, a rare raga), Tera jaana ( This is a song that showcases superb orchestration and recording talents of the days when we did not have the presently available technological tools and equipments), O Basanti pawan paagal set to Roopak taal. 4. Madan Mohan has maximum numbers featured in the album including; Tu pyar kare ya thukraye, Jana tha humse door, Yoon hasratonke daag, Who bhooli dastaan, lo phir yaad aa gayi. Each song is gem. 5. Then you have Sari saari raat teri yaad sataye, a Roshan composition which got copied in every regional language, I have heard songs based on the same tune in Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil Bangla. 6. Takdeer ka fasana from Sehra composed by Ram Lal, the Shehnai maestro who played Shehnai in all the Hindi films became music director for this one and only film.
The song though well rendered by Lata shows her limitations vis-à-vis Rafi who also has sung the same song albeit much better. This has always been the case. If any song has Rafi and Lata versions, Rafi’s version is always better. This is an album worth buying for every connoisseur of Hindi film music