Tanga Songs Part 1

Today I feel like remembering some Tanga Songs from our old melodies. Tanga songs are nothing but the melodious compositions with a background rhythem of a running Tanga.....(the horse cart). Most of these tanga songs were actually picturized with the hero/ heroine in the tanga.

The first name that comes to my mind when I start remembering tanga songs is obviously O. P. Nayyar. Nayyar was no doubt the king of tanga songs. In fact Nayyar was one of the trendsetters amongst our music directors. He had to establish himself against a fierce competition of Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishan and Dada Burman, who were at the peak of their popularity when Nayyar began to rise in the industry.

But more memories of Nayyar later......Today I will mention about some of his famous tanga songs.

The first song that may come to even a layperson's mind is.....
Maang ke Saath Tumhara Maine Maang Liya Sansaar.....from Naya Daur. Year 1957. The song is picturized on Dilip Kumar and Vaijayanti Mala and that has made it extremely pleasent. This pair gave a number of hits and probably Naya Daur was the hittest of all of them. The singers are Rafi and Asha.....Naya Daur was the beginning of Nayyar's long term association with Asha, and Rafi was always a favourite singer of Nayyar. It is interesting to note that Nayyar seldom used the voice of other singers. To the extent that he used Rafi's voice for Raj Kapoor...(a very rare phenomenon!) in the film Do Ustaad (Raj and Madhubala). So in Maang ke Saath, Rafi and Asha have been just at their best!

Next, the title song of Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon......It begins with the lyrics...Bandaa Parwar, Tham Lo Jigar.......A solo by Rafi picturised on Vishwajeet(!). Most of the Vishwajeet's movies used to be crap, barring excellent songs composed by his music directors! This song is in similar lines, and the pieces of Saarangi match so well with Rafi's soft voice, that the song remains fresh even after listening so many times.

The third song is not credited to Nayyar but inspired from him.....I am talking about Tushar Bhatiya's "Ilo Ilo" from "Andaz Apna Apna". A tune of Nayyar so lively, so virile that even after two generations, it could express perfectly the romance of Amir and Ravina. In fact Tushar based other two songs of the film "Yeh Raat aur Yeh Doori" and "Dil Karta Hai Tere Paas Aaoon" on the typical Nayyar styled, which created a lot of fun and helped the movie in becoming a smashing hit.

We go back to the Nayyar era and remember his another hit of the year 1956. It was Tumsa Nahin Dekha of Shammi Kapoor and Amita.There are two tanga songs in this movie. The first one is "Kisi Na Kisi Se", a solo by Rafi. The orchestration of this song is louder than ordinary tanga songs, yet Nayyar has maintained the basic tanga rhythem in it. And then the naughty title song, "Yun To Humne Laakh Haseen Dekhe Hain....Tumsa Nahin Dekha". Again a perfect tanga song, picturised on Shammi and Amita in tanga, with Shammi seducing Amita in his own style and she hitting on his forehead.......too cool!

Well that was the first lot of five Nayyari tanga songs....there are more to follow, and mind you, Nayyar did not have the monopoly of tanga songs. There are other music directors who have their own share. But more of it later.