Some songs have afterlives. They are reborn in other languages, repurposed as jingles and cover versions, discovered and nurtured by new generations and geographies. Madan Mohan’s haunting composition, ‘Lag Jaa Gale’, a brew of melody and melancholy, belongs to that elite club of single malt songs.

Here are the facts: the classic from ‘Woh Kaun Thi?’ (1964) was reused in a bunch of films, notably as ‘Ponmeni Thazhuvaamal’ — lensed on a teenage Jayalalitha in the 1966 Tamil film, ‘Yaar Nee?’ — and, more recently, in ‘Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3’ (2018). Several Pakistani singers have crooned it; there’s a qawwali version, too. The track was used to promote digital audio player, Saregama Carvaan. No wonder, the song, written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and voiced by Lata Mangeshkar, has over 300 million YouTube hits.

And here’s the irony: ‘Lag Jaa Gale’ didn’t figure among the top 32 songs of 1964 in Binaca Geetmala’s annual hit parade even though two other numbers from the same film — ‘Jo humne dastan apni sunayee’ and ‘Naina barse rimjhim rimjhim’ — made it to the coveted chart.

Lag Jaa Gale’s fate is emblematic of Baghdad-born music director Madan Mohan’s chequered career, which brims with moody melodies that have stood the test of time and changing taste but that seldom became chartbusters or won awards. In a career spanning 25 years, the composer didn’t take home a single Filmfare statuette.

Only three of his songs figured in Geetmala’s Top 5 hits of the year. The frisky ‘Ae dil mujhe bata de’ (No.5 spot, film: ‘Bhai Bhai,’ 1956), the folksy and dancey, ‘Jhumka gira re’ (No.4, ‘Mera Saaya’, 1966), which was recast in Karan Johar’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ (2023), and 1977’s ‘Koi pathar se na maare mere deewane ko’ (No.1, ‘Laila Majnu’). Tragically, the music director had breathed his last a couple of years before that. He was only 51.

His eldest son Sanjeev Kohli writes that the lack of mass adulation always caused him anguish and, over the years, embittered him. “The man who was acknowledged as a genius by people who understood and appreciated music was never at the top rung in the hit parades or with the big banners or the big stars,” he says in the website, madanmohan.in.

With exceptions like Madras-based production house AVM and filmmakers like Chetan Anand and Raj Khosla, Madan Mohan mostly scored music for smaller producers and directors. He worked for Devendra Goel (who gave him his break with ‘Ankhen’ in 1950), Shakti Samanta and Pramod Chakravarty, too, but that was much before they became industry biggies.

The songs he composed were invariably better than the movies they were located in. Often, they are the only notable element of a film. Some of his finest works, ‘Dekh Kabira Roya’ (1958), ‘Jahan Ara’ (1964), ‘Dulhan Ek Raat Ki’ (inspired by Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ (1967), was for movies that were mega flops. The songs are remembered, not because of the movie, but despite its failure.

There is a timelessness and universality to his compositions, says film music historian Pavan Jha. Veer Zaara’s tunes were used about 30 years after his death, but they don’t sound outdated at all, he says.

Nobody composed ghazals better in Hindi films. The music director with leading man looks had the gift to imbue songs with subterranean sadness even when the words were not overtly so, notably in ‘Aapki nazron ne samjha’ (‘Anpadh’, 1962), ‘Teri aankon ke siva duniya mein’ (‘Chirag’, 1969) and Dil dhoondta hai (‘Mausam’, 1975).

Jha reasons that unlike some of the more popular music directors, Madan Mohan understood and appreciated Urdu poetry. He sang as well. “Which is why there’s a special symmetry of words and melody in his compositions,” he says. His niece, actor Anju Mahendroo, reinforces the point. “He wasn’t formally trained in music. But he was blessed with inborn talent. His music came from his heart,” she says.

He was also a master of the mega song, best illustrated in ‘Tum jo mil gaye ho’ (‘Hanste Zakhm’, 1973) and ‘Har koi chahta hai’ (‘Ek Mutthi Aasman’, 1973). Like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, these ambitious tracks change tempo, evoking a multitude of yearnings. He was versatile, too. Few patriotic pieces are as moving as ‘Kar chale hum fida jaan-o-tan saathiyon’ (‘Haqeeqat’, 1964). And, you’d seldom have heard a more joyful track than ‘Zaroorat hai zaroorat hai’ (‘Man-Mauji’, 1962).

Songwriter-singer Amitabh Bhattacharya stumbled upon a Madan Mohan track from the unreleased film, ‘Jahan Tum Wahan Hum’. “Over the days, I kept returning to it and I think it underlines the strength and class of the composer who is making us listen to his song in an era where everything is fleeting and clutter rules our audio universe,” he says. The song goes, ‘Kaise kategi zindagi tere bagair’.

In 1970, Madan Mohan won the national award for best music director for ‘Dastak’. Writer-director Rajinder Singh Bedi’s movie had some of the composer’s most poignant and sensitive melodies like ‘Baiyan na dharo’ to ‘Hum-hain-mataae-koocha’ and ‘Mayee ree’. “He was extremely sensitive. During a song recording of ‘Hanste Zakhm’, he was so moved by a note of a sitar that he started weeping profusely,” recalls Mahendroo.

He was also a man of conviction and principles, a trait he shared with fellow composers such as Jaidev and Khayyam. “While he was convinced that Talat Mahmood was the right singer for some of ‘Jahan Ara’s’ songs, the director was insistent that Rafi saab be given all the songs. My father did not budge and was willing to give up the film. The same thing happened when he chose Rafi saab over Kishore Kumar for the songs of ‘Laila Majnu’. The directors finally gave in and these films became musical landmarks,” Kohli writes. Overshadowed by Kishore Kumar in the post-‘Aradhana’ era, the superhit songs of ‘Laila Majnu’ helped Rafi stage a strong comeback.

Like the finest of whiskeys, many of Madan Mohan’s compositions have aged remarkably well and his reputation vaulted. In the run-up to his 100th birth centenary, celebrations of his life and songs are planned in places such as Mumbai, Surat, Pune and others. The master music maker would have loved that.