from the personal vault I: maine tere liye [being notes on music acquired during my recent trip home (Pune, Maharashtra, India)]

Maine Tere Liye [saregama/hmv; CDF 132731 ADD] is one of those rarities that occasionally falls out of the indian toilet that is the Gramophone Company of India -- a compilation that actually includes rarities. This is a compilation of songs that Gulzar (lyrics) and the elite Salil Chowdhury (music) collaborated on. The palette ranges from the overplayed (the song from Anand that the compilation derives its name from), to the relatively less seen (Prem Patra, Anokha Daan) (NOTE: "less seen" represents my perspective -- and die-hard Salil/Gulzar fans are welcome to correct me). That this is an HMV compilation is clear given that despite the two having collaborated on more films than tracks on a single CD, this compilation features more than one song from the same film (and in the case of Swami Vivekananda, THREE!). Swami Vivekananda is available as a separate release CDF 110090 (obviously finding it would be a challenge!) or on Hamaracd

* ga.ngaa aaye kahaa.N se: A baauul beat and Hemant Kumar's ethereal voice. Just the right amount of echo, and you have a pleasant opening to this compilation.

* saavan kii raato.n me.n [Lyrics in ITrans]: The first Talat Mahmood song that I paid for, really (which only means that I have never consciously collected TM's gems -- all that fanfare has been reserved for RDB. It doesn't mean that I've been trolling the Internet for free TM MP3s!). The song itself also boasts Talat's spoken voice, and provides another example of Salil's forays into jhap taal. This is easily my favourite on this CD.

* mai.nne tere liye: Overplayed. All that needs to be said about this song has probably already been said.

* naa jiyaa laage naa: Another song from Anand. This one could have stayed, and the Mukesh song could have been ousted to a "Rare Gems of Mukesh" collection. A wonderful melody wonderfully sung by Lata, and embellished with trademark elan by SC.

* ko_ii hotaa jis ko apanaa: Very very famous song from Gulzar's directorial début. Kishore's singing makes for yet another listen. And the lyrics have their own merit.

* aane de apane bhaiyaa ko: Only proves that SC also did situational songs that barely worked standalone.

* roz akelii aaye: The second Mere Apne song. Didn't feature in the film AFAIR. Again, given a choice I might pick this one for its lower airtime.

* madabharii ye hawaa_e.N: Had never heard this before (duh!). The a.ntaraas score on the melodic front. And Lata once again makes the song her own.

* chalo man: The first of the Swami Vivekananda tail-enders. I liked this song when I saw the film (although I only saw the "first part", and I wasn't too taken up by much beyond Mithun's performance). Nice to hear Yesudas. The accent's there, but the voice makes up for it.

* maa.Njhii re: Liked Antara Chowdhury's voice. And there's some nice counterpoint offered by the flute. The orchestration is interesting, and the song is a pleasant listen.

* sanyaasii has an interesting melody for the mukha.Daa, although Asha loses to Yesudas on vocal output (WARNING: personal and subjective).