Basic Songs in Other Languages

Non-film compositions in Hindi, Assamese, Malayalam, and more.

Salil composed non-film songs nearly always in Bengali. Obviously this has to do with his associations with IPTA. This is when he composed some of the most memorable songs. How does one categorize these songs? I asked him this question once. He replied that this was the most important time of his life. His political consciousness and his involvement in the political movement challenged and encouraged him to compose these songs which he called the 'songs of consciousness and the songs of awakening'. Later he started composing popular bengali songs and composed songs for nearly each and every well-known and less-well known singers. However, there are quite a few songs I have unearthed which he had composed in other language including Hindi, Assameese and Malayalam. Below is the list of all his non-film basic songs. I do not promise that this list is complete. I only discovered a few months back that 9 malayalam non-film songs were released in the early nineties. Aparently there's also an album called 'Shivashruti' released in Kerala sometime ago but I haven't been able to locate it yet. It sounds rather non-Salil type. I mean Salil composing Shivashruti ?

I found some other songs recorded by Lata, Kishore etc which seem to have been recorded for hindi films but they never made it to any film.

List of Basic Songs (Other Languages)

Nr	Song	Singer(s)	Year	Lang	Lyric	Any known variations
OB1	Tu zinda hai to zindagi ki	Bombay Youth Choir	1953	Hnd	Shailendra	MD4 MS32
OB2	Ab machal uthaa hai dariyaa	Satinath Mukhopadhyay	1955	Hnd	Govind Munshi
OB3	Taare Daaman	Sabita Chowdhury	1969	Hnd	Gulzar	CM2
OB4	Jaane kyaa sochkar	Sabita Chowdhury	1969	Hnd	Gulzar	SC14 MW12
OB5	O phagun re utola ba	Sabita Chowdhury	1969	Asm	Anuradha Das	TV2 OS39
OB6	Phagun tomaak	Sabita Chowdhury	1969	Asm	Anuradha Das	RS2 MW4
OB7	O kapou pahi	Sabita Chowdhury	1969	Asm	Phoni Talukdar	SC53
OB8	Mon possuaar	Sabita Chowdhury	1969	Asm	Phoni Talukdar	RL2 SC10
OB9	Beete deeno.n ke sapne	Arundhoti Holme Chowdhury	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	CD2 AS7
OB10	Koi aisi kabita	Saikat Mitra	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	AN29
OB11	Beet jaat barhka ruut	Antara Chowdhury	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	AN28
OB12	Maane na maane na bandhan	Antara Chowdhury	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	MB3
OB13	O re sun mere manjhi	Arundhoti & Sibaji	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	AS17
OB14	Aaj par sakhi	Haimanti Shukla	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	PV1
OB15	Puraane din	Chorus for TV	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	OB32 MS38
OB16	Chalo bhore ke raahi	Chorus for TV	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	MS19
OB17	Tumhe watan pukaarta	Chorus for TV	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	MS29
OB18	Milkar chalo saathi	Chorus for TV	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	MS23
OB19	Hum raahi daro nahi	Chorus for TV	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	MB2
OB20	Wo din hai kitnaa duur	Chorus for TV	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	MS41
OB21	Saathi ab milke chalo	Chorus for TV	198?	Hnd	Yogesh	AS18 SS2 MS35
OB22	Zindagi juaa hai	Kishore	19??	Hnd	??	SK8
OB23	Hum kho gayee	Lata	19??	Hnd	??	EG5 JR2
OB24	Humko kisne dekhaa hai	Amit Kumar	19??	Hnd	??
OB25	Moina o moina	Asha & Chorus	19??	Hnd	??	RL1 SR3
OB26	Gaa man mere gaa	Yesudas	19??	Hnd	??	SW3 OS35
OB27	Oru poovuthadi manna	K.S. Chitra	1991	Mal	O.N.V.Kurup	MP1 AS5
OB28	Yaathrayay	Unni Menon	1991	Mal	O.N.V.Kurup	MT1 OS31 OS65
OB29	Malarchundiel	K.S.Chitra	1991	Mal	O.N.V.Kurup	LM16
OB30	O neelanadhi	Unni Menon	1991	Mal	O.N.V.Kurup	LM15
OB31	O neelanadhi	K.S.Chitra	1991	Mal	O.N.V.Kurup	LM15
OB32	E thanindiya	K.S.Chitra and Unni Menon	1991	Mal	O.N.V.Kurup	OB15 MS38
OB33	Vaanampaadineevava	Unni Menon	1991	Mal	O.N.V.Kurup	SY2
OB34	Vinnilprakkal	Unni Menon	1991	Mal	O.N.V.Kurup	SM1
OB35	Pravathamayi	Unni Menon and Chorus	1991	Mal	O.N.V.Kurup	HM9
OB36	koduvaathi_chaaykaaruthi	Unknown	199?	Kodava	unknown	NL2 AK2 SM13

"ab machal uthaa hai dariyaa" is an IPTA song which was frequently performed by Bombay Youth Choir. This is the only recording of the song released by HMV on a 78rpm record in the '50s. The lyrics of Song#OB4 starts exactly like that famous Kishore song from the film 'Kinaara' (MD: RDB). The lyrics of both these songs are by Gulzar ! Salil composed two Bengali songs with the same melody as Song#OB4. One was sung by Sandhya Mukherjee (SM7) for the All India Radio but no records were released for this song. The other by Sabita (SC13) was released as a record.

The songs OB22 to OB26 were released in a cassette published by Salil's own company, CMR. The title of that cassette was 'New Hindi Film Songs of Salil Chowdhury'. Some excellent songs and excellent recordings. A collector's item indeed. No film names were given and no lyricist's names either. I could associate most of the songs to film names, except the song# OB22 to OB25. Hence they are listed here. Interestingly, 'Humko kisne dekha hai' is the only song Amit Kumar ever recorded for Salil, except that it never made it to a film and it hasn't done poor Amit Kumar any good. It's not one of Salil's better compositions. May be he had a bad day. 'Moina re moina', on the other hand is a brilliant composition and one of Asha's finest Salil songs. It's Malayalam version in the film 'Raasaleela' (RL1) is equally good and more varied. The bengali version (SR3) in the film 'Sister', although well led by Manna Dey, doesn't have the same punch.

The last 9 songs in the table (OB27 to OB35) are quite a surprise to me. After visiting Kerala and talking to some diehard Salil fans in early 2001 I discovered that these songs were produced by O.N.V.Kurup in an album called 'Suvarnarekha'. O.N.V.Kurup was close to Salil and he wrote the lyrics of most of Salil's Malayalam films. Basically all the songs of 'Suvarnarekha' are all well-known Bengali songs. It seems that Salil didn't spend much time in arranging the orchestration. Here and there one hears the imbalance in the mixing and in general it's not his best arrangement. I must say that the singers Unni Menon and K.S.Chitra did a fine job.

↑ Back to top