Mother India - Music

Music

The score and soundtrack for the movie was composed by Naushad. Mehboob Khan had worked on 8 films with Naushad before and developed rapport with him. Khan would explain the scene for the song to Naushad, who would record it in Khan's absence and send it over for Khan to shot it. The lyrics were penned by Shakeel Badayuni. It made the list of "100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks Ever", as compiled by Planet Bollywood, although was not particularly well received upon release, with critics believing it didn't match the high pitch and quality of the film. The soundtrack consists of 12 songs, and features vocals by Mohammed Rafi, Shamshad Begum, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, etc. Planet Bollywood gave the album 7.5 of 10 stars.

Mother India is the earliest example of a Hindi film containing Hollywood-style classical music in a film. An example is during the scene in which Birju runs away from his mother and rejects her motherly care and goodness. It features a powerful symphonic orchestra with strings, woodwinds and trumpets. This orchestral music contains extensive chromaticism, diminished seventh, and augmented scales which are played loudly. It also features violin tremolos. The piece is unmelodic and effectively creates tension over such a negative moment in the film. This use of a western-style orchestra in Indian cinema influenced many later films such as Mughal-e-Azam (1960), which features similar discordal orchestral music to create atmosphere at tense moments in the film. The song "Holi Aayi Re Kanhai", sung by Shamshad Begum, has been cited as a typical Hindi film song which is written for and sung by a female singer, with an emotional charge which appeals to a mass audience.