CHITALKAR RAMACHANDRA
C. RAMACHANDRA
Ramachandra Nahar Chitalkar, also known as C. Ramachandra or Chitalkar or Anna Sahib, was an Indian Music Director and occassional playback singer. As a composer, he mostly used the name C. Ramachandra, though he also used the names Anna Sahib, Ram Chitalkar and Shamoo.
Raamachandra Nahar Chitalkar was born on 12th January, 1918 in Puntumba, a small town in Ahmednagar district in Maharastra, India, into a Marathi Brahmin family. His father was a middle-class Brahmin and worked in Indian Railways as Asst. Station Master in those days. During Ram's childhood his father was transferred to a village of Dongargarh in the Central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. From the early age young Ramachandra was fascinated by music and drama. He left for Kolhapur after leaving the school in ninth standard and tried his hand at acting. At the age of seventeen he bagged a hero's role in 'Naganand'- a film which bombed heavily at the box-office. After this early setback he moved on to Bombay.
He studied music under Vinayakbua Patwardhan at 'Gandharva Mahavidyalaya' and also under Shankar rao Sapre of Nagpur where he studied music music alongside Vasanta rao Desponde. He also had some small roles at Minerva Movietone in the movies 'Said-e-Havas'(1936) and 'Atma Tarang' (1937).
Ramachandra provided harmonium accompaniment for Minerva composers Bindu Khan and Habib Khan. He debuted as music director in Tamil movies with 'Jayakkodi' and 'Vana Mohini'. He received public notice as a good composer.
Ramachandra's juvenile songs may be sub-divided into those with highly westernised male and/or female choruses, duets or qawwalis. The mood of these songs was zany, saucy, raucous, irreverent, mischief laden joyful voice. The composer's natural ebullience, boyish vigor and state of camaraderie with the young man of Hindi cinema are evident here.
Influenced by Benny Goodman, Ramachandra introduced in his compositions the alto sax in combination with guitar and harmonica . He also included whistling in one of his famous songs, 'Aana Meri Jaan Sunday Ke Sunday'. He used a combination of bongo, an oboe, a trumpet, a clarinet and a sax for the song 'Shola Jo Bhadke'. He sang the title song "Shin Shinaki Boobla Boo" with Lata Mangeshkar, which included rock rhythms. He provided the musical score for the scat song 'Ina Mina Dika' in 'Aasha'.
' Bhagwan' a leading comedian and film maker of that era - spotted Ramachandra's musical talent and offered him his film 'Sukhi Jeevan' as composer. That year was 1942. At the age of twenty four a glittering career was about to begin. The promise turned into reality with hit sound tracks like 'Lalkar', 'Safar', 'Samrat Chandragupta' and 'Bhaktaraj'. It was during the making of 'Bhaktaraj' he was re-christened 'C,Ramachandra' by the film's producer Jayant Desai. This screen name was to stick permanently . Only when he would sing his own songs the records labeled him as Chitalkar. So as a composer he was C.Ramachandra , as a singer he was Chitalkar and to the near and dear ones he was simply Anna.
Ramachandra's biggest success as a music composer was the 1953 movie 'Anarkali' starring Beena Roy in the title role and Pradeep Kumar. Songs of this movie like 'Yeh Zindagi Usiki Hai', 'Mujhse Mat Poocch', 'Mohobbat Aisi Dhadkan Hai', 'Jaag Dard-e-Ishq Jaag' etc went on to become huge hits and were also highly acclaimed as masterpieces. Anarkali also saw the famed composer-singer combine of Ramachandra and Lata Mangeshkar at their best ever together. A film critic in London who watched the movie is said to have remarked that the heroine sang like an angel without knowing that the angel was actually Lata giving playback for the actress. Ramachandra's compositions in V. Shantaram's 'Navrang' (Adha Hai Chandrama , raat aadhi, Tu chhupi hai kahan, Shyamal Shyam varan, Arre ja re hat natkhat) and V. Shantaram's 'Stree' (O Nirdayi Priyatam, aaj mad-hava sath dole) were also quite popular and are still remembered. Ramachandra also gave suggestions to other music directors. He suggested to S.D.Burman to add 'La la la la' in the song 'Thandi Hawayen' from 'Naujawan', which SDB gladly accepted and implemented. With
this addition , the song became even more romantic.
The fifties saw him emerge as one of the leading lights of Hindi film music. His music in films like 'Nastik', 'Shagufa', 'Sangeeta', 'Kaarigar', 'Khazana', 'Teerandaz', 'Shinshinaki Bublaboo', 'Parchhain',and 'Yasmin' is still remembered fondly by nostalgic music lovers. But for the common listeners his introduction was through his more popular soundtracks - 'Anarkali', 'Albela', 'Aazad', and 'Navrang'. His music had a superb mix of melody and rhythm. Exceptional blending of piano, violins, tabla, dholak and khanjiri gave unique freshness and liveliness to his tunes. If Kishore's 'Ina mina dika' and Asha's 'Mister John O Baba Khan' showed his trendiness then Talat's 'Mohobbat hi na jo samjhe' or Rafi's 'Yeh hasrat thi' vouched for his mastery over emotional stuff. Sometimes, Ramachandra also gave playback in his voice. Many a times, his voice sounded like that of Talat Mehmood. So when Talat fell sick on the recording day for the song 'Kitna Haseen hai mausam' for the film 'Azaad', Ramachandra decided to sing it himself. He sang it very well and it was very close to Talat's voice. Similarly, he sang two songs for his film 'Baarish', which again sounded like Talat's voice.
Ramachandra provided music compositions for a few Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, and Bhojpuri movies besides Hindi movies. In 1953, he also produced with 'New Sai Productions' three Hindi movies : 'Jhanjhar', 'Lehren','Duniya Gol Hai'. In the late 1960's, he produced two Marathi movies, 'Dhananjay' and 'Gharkul'. He also acted in them and composed music for them.
The highly popular patriotic song 'Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo', which was sung by Lata Mangeshkar and penned my poet Pradeep, was a composition of Ramachandra, it was later performed live, by Lata Mangeshkar, in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru at the Ramlila grounds, in NewDelhi on Republic Day 26 January 1963. It is said Pt, Jawarlal Nehru became so sentimental that tears rolled down his cheeks.
His soured personal and professional relationship with Lata definitely contributed to his downfall as could never really find the same magic with other playback singers. The few soundtracks ('Bahurani, Stree and Jitne Door Utne Pass') where he got Lata's vocals back again, he came up with superb compositions like 'Main jaagun saari rain', 'Jhilmil jhilmil', 'O nirdayi preetam' and 'Humne apna tumhen samjha'.
After 1970, Ramachandra didn't compose for Hindi films. Last few years of his life were spent in composing music for non-film songs. He also wrote his autobiography in Marathi in1977.
Ramachandra died of acute peptic ulcer on 5 January 1982, at Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai, a week before his sixty-forth birthday,
Mumbai based troupe Musicolor, which is promoting vintage music, presented an exclusive tribute programme featuring the gems of Ramachandra at Dinanath Mangeshkar auditorium on 22 January 2010.
His music fans were disappointed, when he was nominated for “Best Music Director” award of Filmfare twice for films Azaad (1955) and Aasha (1957) but ended up not actually winning them.
It should also be mentioned here that one of his most successful film ‘Anarkali’ (1953) was released one year before the institution of the award. The first award was given in 19564.
songs in each of them, which are presented here along with their links.
1. C. Ramachandra Songs - Part 1
(Contains 1 private song, and songs from movies Albela (11), and Sargam (6)
https://youtube.com/playlist?
2. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 2
Contains songs from Anarkali (12), Samadhi (3), and Nirala (3)
https://youtube.com/playlist?
3. C. Ramachandra Songs - Part 3
1. C. Ramachandra Songs - Part 1
(Contains 1 private song, and songs from movies Albela (11), and Sargam (6)
https://youtube.com/playlist?
2. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 2
Contains songs from Anarkali (12), Samadhi (3), and Nirala (3)
https://youtube.com/playlist?
3. C. Ramachandra Songs - Part 3
Contains songs from Parchhain (9), Hangama (5), and Sangeeta (7)
https://youtube.com/playlist?
4. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 4
Contains songs from Patanga (10), Shehnai (2), and Namoona (4).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
5. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 5
Contains songs from Khazana (9), and Ladki (7).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
6. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 6
Contains songs from Amardeep(4), Navrang (3), Sagufa (7) and Nastik (4).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
7. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 7
Contains songs from Azaad (9), Jhanjhar (7), and Zindagi aur Maut (2)
https://youtube.com/playlist?
8. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 8.
Contains songs from Aasha (6), Nausherwan -E-Adil (1) and Yasmin (10)
https://youtube.com/playlist?
9.C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 9
Contains songs from Shinshina ke Booblaboo (3), Jhamela (3), Ghungroo (2), Stree (3) and Baarish (7).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
10. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 10
Contains songs from Subah Ka Taara (2), Sharada (3), Saqi (3), Anchal (4), Bahurani (2), and Shatranj (1).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
https://youtube.com/playlist?
4. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 4
Contains songs from Patanga (10), Shehnai (2), and Namoona (4).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
5. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 5
Contains songs from Khazana (9), and Ladki (7).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
6. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 6
Contains songs from Amardeep(4), Navrang (3), Sagufa (7) and Nastik (4).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
7. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 7
Contains songs from Azaad (9), Jhanjhar (7), and Zindagi aur Maut (2)
https://youtube.com/playlist?
8. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 8.
Contains songs from Aasha (6), Nausherwan -E-Adil (1) and Yasmin (10)
https://youtube.com/playlist?
9.C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 9
Contains songs from Shinshina ke Booblaboo (3), Jhamela (3), Ghungroo (2), Stree (3) and Baarish (7).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
10. C.Ramachandra Songs - Part 10
Contains songs from Subah Ka Taara (2), Sharada (3), Saqi (3), Anchal (4), Bahurani (2), and Shatranj (1).
https://youtube.com/playlist?
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