Madan Mohan: The king of melodies who gave Indian cinema some of its most loved songs

On his birth centenary, The Hindu looks at how one of the finest composers of India collaborated with great talents like Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi to create incredible melodies in Hindi cinema

In the stillness of the night, play on your speaker, Lag jaa gale. Nothing will soothe your senses more and make you feel serene.

Lag jaa gale could be one of India’s most popular songs. Look at the astounding number of views it has had on YouTube. One video of the song has around 30 crore views. There are several other versions, including the cover versions, some enjoyable and some not quite.

Lag jaa gale is one of those perfect works of art. It has superb lyrics (by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan), immaculate singing (by Lata Mangeshkar), and it is well shot too (by director Raj Khosla), featuring the good-looking couple Sadhana and Manoj Kumar for the film Woh Kaun Thi.

But, the biggest credit goes to the man who composed it – Madan Mohan. Today, June 25, marks his birth centenary. He is one of India’s greatest composers of all time. But sadly, he isn’t among the most successful ones as he didn’t get his due in his lifetime.

He, however, was respected by his contemporaries. Naushad, who achieved more success as a composer in popular films, once went to Madan Mohan’s home, moved by the Lata song Hai isi mein pyar ki aabroo. He told him he could give away all his songs for that one composition by Madan Mohan. That song, however, wasn’t the most popular one from the film Anpadh. It was Aap ki nazron ne samjha.

Only a few composers have been loved and admired by fans and musicians as much as Madan Mohan. He wasn’t the most versatile of composers like S.D. Burman, his son R.D. Burman, and Shankar-Jaikishan, but he stood his own.

He created an incredible number of sweet melodies – mostly in the voice of Lata – in the ghazal or semi-classical mold. In that space, he had no peer.