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On the trail of old melodies
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Har Mandir Singh Hamraaz's five-volume documentation of Hindi film music is without parallel
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MAMMOTH TASK Hamraaz has toiled for decades to compile information on Hindi film songs, an effort even universities and institutions haven't dared take on PHOTO: K. Bhagya Prakash
It's almost lunchtime when I meet Har Mandir Singh Hamraaz. Should I wait till he finishes lunch, I ask. He smiles gently and goes on to tell me a story — of a time when he and a friend spent days on end in the musty archival section of HMV in Bombay, looking for disc catalogues of old films, often forgoing food and sleep. "Khana tho hamesha hi last priority raha hain!"
What has constantly driven this renowned archivist of Hindi film music, of course, is an insatiable hunger for information on old films. And he will tell you endless stories on his search for material for the five-volume compendium, Hindi Film Geet Kosh, a landmark document. Starting from right where the saga of Hindi music started, Alam Ara released in 1931, the volumes takes you all the way till the '80s.
Hamraaz points to the two pictures of Zubeida who played the female lead in Alam Ara — as a young heroine and then as an elderly woman — on the cover page of Volume I and tells me the story of how he met her. "She was very ill by then and was refusing to see anyone. But she allowed me to meet her when she was convinced of what I was doing. I took this picture myself during the meeting," he says. "Unfortunately she passed away before this volume came out."
Many journeys
Hamraaz's search for material for the compendium to remote corners of the country and his meetings with hundreds of people could be the stuff of many compendiums themselves. But then what could have got him started on such a Herculean task, considering that even institutions and universities have been too intimidated by the very idea?
It was a teenage fascination that steadily grew into a fiery passion, explains Hamraaz, who was recently in Bangalore to attend a meet of old Hindi film music buffs. As a 16-year-old in Kanpur in the mid '60s, Hamraaz spent a lot of time listening to Radio Ceylon. He would note down the credits of the songs he liked, and gaps in details always left him unhappy. Then he began to look for a directory on film music and found none. "That's what gave me the idea of compiling such a book." But when he started out, he had no clue it would end up being such an arduous journey. "As they say, ignorance is bliss!"
Work on the project picked up momentum after Hamraaz finished his graduation and found a job in State Bank of India in 1972. "I began to spend every LTA on my quest for information on Hindi film music. In fact, most of my overtime and bonus money have also gone towards this work."
And some of these LTA journeys were indeed high adventures. For instance, his visit to Indore looking for some old film song booklets that a paan shop owner had collected. "We had to wait in front of the shop near a theatre for four days before the guy agreed to even let us look at the booklets." Not that it was easy once permission was granted. He and a friend who accompanied him spent days in the sweaty, dusty, dark and crammed room in which the paanwala had dumped all the booklets, trying to pick out what they needed. "Some books were so old they just came apart when we just touched them."
Another rich source was the National Film Archives of India, Pune. That was where he read 1,500-odd song booklets and volumes of the monthly Film India (published in the '30s) for days on end. "There was a booklet of Indrasabha released in 1932, which had 69 songs out of the total 71 the film had. That's an unbeaten record!" Equally fruitful was his trip to the Central Secretariat Library in New Delhi that had vital information in fat gazetteer volumes.
Not that all trips were as fruitful. He went all the way to Calcutta, for instance, to meet a studio owner, who just shrugged and said: "We have no records of our films. If you come across any, please give us."
While Hamraaz has encountered many unhelpful people, he has also met numerous good Samaritans and made great friends along the way. While people like K.D. Sharma drew his attention to good source books like Firoze Rangoonwala's Indian Filmography, Radio Ceylon announcers contributed their mite by announcing his appeal for information on music. Ratanlal Kataria made some rare songbooks available to him and Veerbhadra Sinh Jhala gave him a huge treasure of gramophone records. A journal for radio listeners Hamraaz had started, Radio News (now called Listeners' Bulletin) had grown into a community and worked as a support group for his work.
Hamraaz met countless film personalities of various eras and film music lovers. And friends like G.C. Sharma and V.S. Mishra accompanied him on many of those "some sweet and some bitter" journeys. "If only I was born a decade earlier, I could have met many more people from the early talkie era who had died or were untraceable by the time I began my search," says Hamraaz.
`Who are you?'
Once substantial information was collected and material on some decades was given a presentable shape, Hamraaz took it to a publisher in Kanpur. He took one look at the voluminous manuscript and then at Hamraaz, and said: "What is this? Who are you?" Hamraaz quietly retraced his steps and made up his mind never to go to a publisher again. He began putting together money to publish the volumes himself. Friends and well-wishers pitched in.
He brought out Volume III (which has songs of the '50s era) first since he thought it would be more commercially viable. "It was the golden age of film music and I thought more people would be interested in it." Due to paucity of funds it came out in 1980 without an index and had a very quiet release. "It took four years to sell 800 copies because there was no publicity."
But slowly and surely, his phenomenal work gained ground through word of mouth and subsequent editions came out with greater fanfare. He has had music stalwarts like Anil Biswas and Naushad release the later editions.
All sold out
All the editions of Hindi Film Geet Kosh (except Volume III, recently revised and expanded) are now sold out and Hamraaz makes photocopies of the books on special request. He has also published a book on Saigal, Hindi Filmography (which he intends to update periodically) and a two-volume Hindi Talkie Film Index, all priceless reference material.
But predictably, while Hamraaz has been quietly and relentlessly working away in distant Kanpur, the glamour-obsessed Bombay film industry has remained completely indifferent to this amazing compilation work. Not that it affects the amiable Sardar. He says with a smile: "Kuch karna hain tho apne bharose karo!"
You can reach Har Mandir Singh Hamraaz on hamraaz18@yahoo.com
BAGESHREE S.
This column features those who choose to veer off the beaten track.
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