Some of the Best Devi Songs From Old Hindi Films

 

Some of the Best Devi Songs From Old Hindi Films

 Shrikant G. Talageri

 

This is a totally different kind of article from my usual ones. Today is the second day of the Chaitra "Navaratri" ─ to be honest I was not aware that there was more than one Navaratri in the Hindu year, although I knew there are at least two Ganesh Chaturthis (the regular one in the Hindu month of Bhādrapad, and a second slightly less known one, but celebrated in many parts of Maharashtra in the month of  Māgh), and for some reason the discovery made me feel very much in the mood to hear some of the old Devi songs from Hindi films.

And then by a strange coincidence I found an old Kannada song, which I had heard sung either in the house of certain Kannadiga family friends (living like us in mumbai) during the (regular) Navaratri as part of the "Bombe Habba" (the Kannada name for it) celebrated in homes all over the South during that period, or in some temple in Karnataka during a visit in my childhood. That song (or the first lines), which I remembered as "Dēvī  Bandu Nelesau, Indire Yennave Mandiradoḷagā Bandiri" sung beautifully and zestfully by an assembled group of devotees, has haunted me since childhood and I had no idea where I had heard it. My mother, born and brought up in Mangalore till the age of 19, and steeped in Kannada bhajans and even Telugu Tyagaraja kritis and Tamil devotional songs in her childhood, said she had never heard this song, and the Kannadiga family friends also denied any knowledge of it, and any number of google searches failed to elucidate the mystery of this song. Today the internet suddenly revealed this song to me, with slightly different words from what I remembered, as "Tāye Bandu Nelesau, Indire Yennaya Mandiradoḷagānandadi":

https://raocollectionssongs.blogspot.com/2019/12/others-taaye-bandu-nelasau-indire.html

Strangely, the Kannadiga family friends in whose house I suspected I had heard the song were also "Rao" by surname! The accompanying audio in the above blogspot, as well as other videos I immediately discovered on the internet after substituting Tāye for Dēvī, have a rather abrupt rendering of the main line, not exactly like the beautiful lilting version I have been haunted by from the lost days of childhood; but the satisfaction of finally finding that this song existed, and was not a figment of my imagination, elated me so much that I decided to upload the youtube URLs of my five favorite old Hindi film Devi songs ─ they are the five I remember the most, and the views of others as to the five best songs may differ ─ on my blogspot (which I had thought of doing today morning, but then decided not to since it was not in line with my other blog articles). So here they are:

1. He Adishakti Durga Maiya - Har Har Gange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRp7nQZG3cc

2. Jay Jay He Jagdambe Mata - Ganga Ki Lehren

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOsyMO5l3hc

3. Ambe Tu Hai Jagadambe - Navaratri

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjEaQvhpcuA

4. Ayo Ayo Navratri Tyauhar - Johar Mehmood in Hongkong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt-cT72alOQ

5. Ambe Bin Tere Hai Kaun Ab Mera- Durgamata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpwu0BokJf0

6. Jayjaykar Karo Mata Ki- Navadurga

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsu2BjO9ySU

7. Mata Sarasvati Sharda - Alaap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb51Kunk-bg

6. Sabse Bada Tera Naam O Sherowali - Suhaag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV6-R_y9cNg

7. Tune Mujhe Bulaya Sherawaliye - Asha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK7eTIyJoOE

 

Is it possible to put up the URLs of the best Devi songs, and restrict it only to old Hindi film songs and not put up the URL of this ultra-beautiful video of the mahishasuramardini stotra?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np28O3Y_P2o

 

And while I would have loved to put up URLs of the best Devi songs from different Indian languages, I don’t really know which I would consider the best so I am in no position to do it, except for this one Marathi film song:

Jay Devi Mangalagauri - Kanyadaan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfgwYn1aoXA 

 

And the following two Hindustani Classical pieces, Mata Kalika by Pandit Jasraj, and Dayani Bhavani by Parween Sultana:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg1TNcZD4GM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovi2YDBhfw8

 

 

And finally, while I am a staunch Hindu and love bhajans and devotional music (and I wish someone would upload well-sung videos of the rich repertoire of Marathi "zogwa" songs, which are missing on youtube), I am a more or less agnostic Hindu. In my opinion, the only Two Gods for any individual should be his two parents. Being a fan of the serial "Crime Patrol", I am of course aware that there do exist monster parents who commit monstrous and unforgivable crimes against their own children, but those are the exceptions to the natural rule. my parents were certainly the most wonderful parents in the world. So I want to end this article by giving the URLs of two very beautiful Marathi songs (which never fail to leave me in tears) about a departed Mother and a departed Father, and then two Kannada Purandaradasa kritis sung by my mother long ago (which, likewise, I cannot listen to without a similar reaction):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4wYToaqljw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTNOY03Dxgs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06sIl7AcrHI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUqEsKgWFU4