Vasant Desai is becoming one of my favorite music directors. Apparently, he could turn out delightful music for Sohrab Modi’s films just as easily as he did for V. Shantaram’s. These are a couple of very nice songs from Sheesh Mahal. The whole film is available online, but without subtitles. Near the beginning there are a bunch of great dances and group performances that actually remind me of some Shantaram films. And there are very good distinct songs, too, recently put up on YouTube in new versions by Bhandari2k (though I think some of these were also available from wwwgeetaduttcom).
Here’s a nice one of the good life at this Sheesh Mahal, with vocals by Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum:
And I like this duet a lot, from Geeta Dutt and Mohammed Rafi. (And who’s that guy playing the banjo? Uh-oh…)
Now that I’ve had a closer look at the guy playing the banjo, I have to go watch Sheesh Mahal! Was he the hero, I wonder?
Incidentally, the opening bars of when the banjo starts playing sounds a lot like the music of Yours:
Julio Iglesias of course was much later, but I think Vera Lynn sang a version way back in the early 40′s.
Thank you, Dustedoff – yes, that is the “inspiration” song!
As to whether Pran is the hero…from plot summaries that I’ve found (IMDb, etc.), it seems that the main male character is Sohrab Modi’s. It seems that Sohrab Modi also becomes the enraged guy about to do something bad, so maybe Pran gets to do a little something different in this film. :)
wah wah!
I’m happy to see Pran singing a love duet. :-)
This is a great find Richard. Such a different avatar of Pran from his normal one.
This is an uncanny co-incidence. I just finished watching the film and was googling the songs to see if anybody can identify the singers for me – and google brought me here! :D This film has the loveliest songs ever, and I can only identify Shamshad Begum and Rafi in a few songs. Geeta Dutt sounds very different from what I’m used to – less husky and a lot more ebullient. But I’m sure the soundtrack has songs by other singers whom I cannot identify! Anyhow, it’s a nice film with lots of long speeches by Sohrab Modi. Pran, by the way, is doing what he does best – being the villain of the piece.
That is a nice coincidence, Bollyviewer – glad your googling brought you here. And I’m glad you agree that this film has such lovely songs – I think Vasant Desai made a lot of great music!
After all the speculation above, though, it is mildly disappointing to see you confirm that Pran is the villain once again. But that’s OK – as you said, he is doing what he does best.
Oh no. My excitement was short lived. :-(
The song really gives the impression that Pran is different here.
Well, never mind. Perhaps search will bring up some earlier films where he’s the side hero or something. Or was he a villain ‘always’ from his first film?
I could be wrong, but I think that he gets to be a hero (not vilainous) in Khandan (1942) …
I’ve just posted my review of the film. So you can all satisfy your curiosity! :D
“I could be wrong, but I think that he gets to be a hero (not vilainous) in Khandan (1942) …” You mean you still haven’t seen it?! In spite of Noor Jehan? ;D I’m curious about it, too. So I hope you will post a review if/when you so see it.
Thanks, Bollyviewer. It was fun reading your review and good to get a detailed plot summary. I also appreciated you screen caps with made-up captions (especially the Nigar Sultana phone scene – it kind of did bring a different movie to mind :) )…
And, no, I haven’t seen Khandan in full, though I think I’ve seen all of the song clips and have listened to the soundtrack many times. The problem is, I don’t know if there is a copy available with subtitles, etc.
I think my fellow obsessive Noor jehan fan, Vidur, is planning to review Khandan some time in the near future, at his Madam Noor Jehan blog. As for me, maybe my best option would be to review the soundtrack. (I’ve thought of that – maybe I should get into full soundtrack reviews.)
Vidur, of course, doesn’t need English subtitles – and neither do you! I’m surprised you haven’t seen Khandan yet, considering that it’s about, let’s see…a year and eight months since I answered your blog quiz question asking if readers could identify the people in a picture that happened to be a still of the stars of Khandan. :)