Gumnaam

Gumnaam (translation: Unknown or Anonymous) is a 1965 Indian suspense thriller film directed by Raja Nawathe, starring Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Pran, Helen and Mehmood. The film is an adaptation of the book And then there were none by Agatha Christie. The film became a box office hit. The music for the film was composed by Shankar-Jaikishan.

The film came to wider attention in the Western World when its opening song "Jaan Pehechan Ho" (a Hindi phrase roughly translated as "We should get to know each other") was in the opening credits of Ghost World and in the 2011 commercial "The Date" for Heineken. It is sung by Bollywood legend Mohammed Rafi, although he is not the man depicted onscreen. The main dancer is Laxmi Chhaya. The group "Ted Lyons and his Cubs" playing the song can also be seen in 1964 film Jaanwar playing "Dekho Ab To" (a cover version of I Want to Hold Your Hand by the Beatles) and Tasveer (starring Feroz Khan), Love Marriage (starring Dev Anand), Bedaag (starring Manoj Kumar), Shehnai, and Mere Sanam (both starring Vishwajeet), also featuring dancer Oscar Unger. The psychedelic choreography was by Herman Benjamin, who is also singing the song onscreen.

Mohammed Rafi

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Mohammed Rafi (24 December 1924 – 31 July 1980) was an Indian playback singer and one of the most popular singers of the Hindi film industry. Rafi was notable for his versatility, his songs ranged from classical numbers to patriotic songs, sad lamentations to highly romantic numbers, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans. He was known for his ability to mould his voice to the persona of the actor lip-synching the song on screen in the movie. Between 1950 and 1970, Rafi was the most sought after singer in the Hindi film industry. He received six Filmfare Awards and one National Film Award. In 1967, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award by the Government of India.

Rafi is primarily noted for his songs in Hindi, over which he had a strong command. He sang in other Indian languages including Assamese, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Sindhi, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Magahi, Maithili and Urdu. Apart from Indian languages, he also sang songs in English, Farsi, Arabic, Creole, and Dutch.

Lata Mangeshkar

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Lata Mangeshkar ( pronunciation ) (born 28 September 1929) is an Indian playback singer, and occasional music-composer. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over seven decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional Indian languages and foreign languages, though primarily in Marathi and Hindi. She is the elder sister of singers Asha Bhosle, Hridaynath Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar and Meena Mangeshkar. She is the second vocalist, after M. S. Subbulakshmi, to have ever been awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. India's highest award in cinema the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was bestowed her in 1989 by the Government of India.

Music director

A music director may be the director of an orchestra or concert band, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the coordinator of the musical ensembles in a university, college, or institution (but not usually the head of the academic music department), the head bandmaster of a military band, the head organist and choirmaster of a church, or an Organist and Master of the Choristers (a title given to a Director of Music at a cathedral, particularly in England).

Orchestra

The title of "music director" or "musical director" is used by many symphony orchestras to designate the primary conductor and artistic leader of the orchestra. The term "music director" is most common for orchestras in the United States. With European orchestras, the titles of "principal conductor" or "chief conductor" are more common, which designate the conductor who directs the majority of a given orchestra's concerts in a season. In musical theatre and opera, the music director is in charge of the overall musical performance, including ensuring that the cast knows the music thoroughly, supervising the musical interpretation of the performers and pit orchestra, and conducting the orchestra.

Madan Puri

Madan Puri (1915 – 13 January 1989) was an Indian actor of Hindi and Punjabi films. As a character actor mainly in negative roles (villain), he acted in about 430 films in a career spanning fifty years.

Early life

Madan Lal Puri was born in Nawanshahr, British India to Nihal Chand Puri and Ved Kaur. He was the second of four children, with elder brother Chaman Lal Puri, younger brothers Amrish Puri and Harish Lal Puri and younger sister Chandrakanta Mehra.

Career

Puri was one of the doyens of the Indian film industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was the first cousin of the singer K. L. Saigal, with whose help he started to make a mark in Bollywood. Once Puri was an established star he did the same for his brother, Amrish Puri, by helping him in establishing himself in the movie world. Puri had an acting career which spanned over 40 years from the 1940s through to the mid-1980s. He appeared in more than 430 films. His film debut was in a film titled Ahinsa in 1946. Madan made an average of eight films per year, playing not only villains and negative characters, but also the hero's or heroine's uncle, father or elder brother, grandfather, police officer and politician. He also starred in a number of Punjabi films throughout his career such as Jatti, Jatt Punjabi and so on.