Chitragupt has been the most under-rated musician in the Hindi Film Industry of Mumbai.  His creative process started in 1946 and continued up to 1989. In between he created music for more than 1000 songs mostly for Hindi films and some Bhojpuri, Punjabi, and Gujarati films. He also composed music of non-film songs. For Bhojpuri films he was considered the best in the country, having given music to the first Bhojpuri film ‘Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo’. A look at the names of the Hindi films in which he has given music conveys that he created music mostly for mythological, costume drama and action or stunt films. These films are branded as ‘B’, or ‘C’ grade films in the Mumbai film industry. But if you listen to these songs, and smell the fragrance of their melody, then you realize that whatever the category of the films or whatever their genre, these songs are ‘A’ grade songs ! At the end of each film that Chitragupt has given music for, he emerges as the Hero of the film.

I have divided the creative period of Chitragupt into three parts : 1. From 1946 to 1956, 2. From 1957 to 1968 and 3. 1969 to1989,  selecting 107, 220and 38 songs from these parts respectively, i.e. a total of 365 songs. In the name of Chitragupt’s best songs, most of the music-lovers have selected at most 50 songs from the second part only, and the first and the third parts have been ignored. I have included the songs composed by Chitragupt on the basis of melody of the songs and also their variety and innovation. Though I claim that I have selected the best of Chitragupt, I genuinely feel that many of his songs have still been left out. However, 365 is not a small number, and I request the viewers to go through these songs, with patience and love.

First Part (1946 – 1956)

1. We start with a ghazal ‘वो रुत बदल गई वो तराना बदल गया, तुम क्या गए, कि हमसे ज़माना बदल गया’, written by Behzad Lukhnawi for the film ‘Jadui Ratan’ (1947). We have only the audio of this song. Please watch the melody of the notes and the freshness of voice emanating from a 16 year old gem, called Geeta Dutt (1930 – 1972) ! This song has been composed in Raag ‘Kafi’, Scale D and Taal ‘Dadra’. Geeta Dutt was a versatile singer, and could sing all types of songs with ease--- romantic, frivolous, classical, ghazal, bhajan, western etc. She was born on 23^rd November 1930 in Faridpur, East Bengal, now Bangla  Desh. She was initially known as Geeta Ghosh Roy Choudhary. Then she became Geeta Roy, and when she got married to legendry Film Director Guru Dutt, she became the legendry Geeta Dutt.

2. K. Talpade-directed film ‘Tigress’ was produced in 1948 with star cast such as (Fearless) Nadia, Prakash, Dalpat, Boman Shroff, Jal Khambata, Sona Chatterji and others. In this film both Nadia and Sona Chatterji enact the role of teachers in a school. Sona Chatterji had been active on Indian screen during 40s. She enacted the role of Seeta in the mythological film ‘Shri Ram Bhakt Hanuman’ opposite Trilok Kapoor who played Ram in the film. In the film ‘Tigress’ (1948) she plays a parallel role along with the heroine of the film Nadia. Here we present a sad song in the form of a ‘ghazal’ penned by C. M. Hunar. In this scene, Sona Chatterji is seen singing this song with tears rolling through her cheeks. The lines are ‘ऐ ग़म-नसीब ग़म को लह् कर के पिए जा, जीना है, तो दुनिया में तू मर-मर के जिए जा ...’ The singer of this beautiful ghazal is Shanti Sharma, and the video of this song is available. This song has been composed in Raag ‘Kafi’, Scale A+ and Taal ‘Dadra’.