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Gopikishan Sarda lives on in his collection of 311 LP records. Madhu Sarda has preserved them in memory of her late husband. Gopikishan was in the employ of West Coast Paper Mill, Dandeli (Karnataka) when he decided to make a fresh start. He moved to Chennai to set up a garment business. Around the same time, he started collecting LP records of Hindi film songs to free his mind from the pressures of running the new enterprise.

Gopikishan’s collection seems to trace Hindi film music down to its beginnings. It includes songs rendered by the likes of Pankaj Malik, one of the first playback singers in Hindi. An LP drips with mush and sentiment. It includes songs such as ‘Kit Gae Ho Khewanhar’ from Achut Kanya (1936), ‘Dhoe Mahobe Ghat’ from Pukar (1939), ‘Tum Jao Jao Bhagwan Bane’ from Chitralekha (1941), ‘Kahe Karta Der Barati’ from Aurat (1940), and ‘Aapen Jeevan Darpan Nyara’ (1941) and ‘Kamosh Nigahen’ from Dassi (1944).

The covers of the LP records provide a peek at the past. One of them features a picture of Pandit D.V. Paluskar and Ustad Amir Khan, as they are engaged in a recording session for Baiju Bawra. This record has the philosophical ‘Tera Khilona Toota’ (Mohammed Rafi) from Anmol Ghadi (1946) and the plaintive ‘Dil Mera Toda’ (Lata Mangeshkar) from Majboor (1948). Gopikishan had also picked up an LP containing songs from Anmol Ghadi. An LP that has, among other songs, two of Asha Bhonsle’s super-duper hits, ‘Jhumka Gira Re’ (Mera Saaya, 1966) and Aaiye Mehrban (Howrah Bridge, 1958), also has on the flip side of its cover a picture of a rare congregation of music directors – Naushad, C. Ramachandra, Hemant Kumar, Madan Mohan, V. Balsara, Hansraj Behl, Anil Biswas and brother Sunil Biswas.

There are LPs on films and singers. One has songs that Lata sang for 16 heroines, from Nargis to Zeenat Aman. Gopikishan had not missed out on the sound of the swinging Sixties — Upkar (‘Kasme Vade Pyar Wafa’), An Evening In Paris (‘Akele Akele Kahan Jaa Rahe Ho’) and Jewel Thief (‘Raat Akeli Hai’). One LP that seems out of character with the rest goes by the title ‘Live Tonite’. It has a much younger Amitabh Bachchan ‘donning’ a different role. He teams up with Kalyanji-Anandji on a tour of the U.S., Canada and the West Indies and sings the biggest hits from his films – ‘Main Hoon Don’, ‘Khaike Paan Banarasiwala’ and ‘Mere Angane Mein’. The best piece in this LP is a Calypso version of ‘Khaike Paan Banarasiwala’, sung again by the ‘Don’ himself.

PRINCE FREDERICK

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