User:Nvvchar/sandbox/Music in Mughal E Azam (film, 1960)

Music in the Hindi film Mughal E Azam comprises 12 song which are some of the greatest songs of the Hindi cinema. The film was released in 1936 in black and white and later in 1960 in colour with the same music as in the original. K.Asif, Producer Director of the best film of Indian cinema till date approached the thespian of Hindi music Naushad Ali who accepted the assignment after some heated arguments. The song lyrics were written by Shakeel Badayuni, and Thakur Prasad composed some of the songs. The music in the film has been called the "soul of the film", and K.Asif and Naushad were instrumental in making it so.

The soundtrack, heavily inspired from Indian classical and folk music, contains 12 songs. It is often cited as one of the best soundtracks in Bollywood history. Hindustani classical vocalist thespian Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi and Shamshad Begum provided the background vocal voice to the music many of which were supplemneted with chorus. Of the 12 songs nine songs are sung by the legendary Lata Mangeshkar. Hindustani classical vocalist thespian Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan rendered two songs. Many of them are in Indian classical music ragas such as Rag Darbari, Rag Durga, Raag Kedar (a version of Hamir Kalyani of Karnatic Music) and some in folk music tradition. Symphony orchestras and choruses added grandeur to the music and the soundtrack of Mughal-e-Azam received universal acclaim from critics in India, and is often cited as one of the best soundtracks in Bollywood history. One of the the most oustanding of these songs is the

History

Baldev S Chauhan of Sun Post called the 12 songs as "some of the greatest songs of Hindi cinema."

After conceiving the idea of the film, K.Asif visited renowned music director Naushad Ali and handed him a briefcase filled with currency notes, telling him to make "memorable music" for Mughal-e-Azam. Offended by the explicit notion of money as means of gaining quality, Naushad threw the notes out of the window, a situation which attracted the attention of his surprised wife. She subsequently made peace between the two men, and Asif apologised for the "misunderstanding". With this, Naushad accepted the offer to direct the film's soundtrack.