Saraswati Devi (music director)

Saraswati Devi, born Khorshed Minocher-Homji (1912 – 1980), was an Indian film score composer who worked in Hindi cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. She was one of the few female composers, working with Bombay Talkies, and is most noted for her score, Mein Ban ki Chiriyra Banke Bun Bun Bolun Re (Achut Kanya 1936). She was the second female music director in the Indian film industry, after Jaddan Bai.

Born in a Parsi family, she had a love for music. Realizing this her father made her study Hindustani classical music under Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande who was specialized in Dhrupad and Dhamar style of singing. Later she joined Marris College (later Bhatkhande Music Institute) at Lucknow and studied music.

With the setting up of an All India Radio station at Mumbai in the late 1920s she, along with her sister Manek, gave musical performances regularly. The programme, known as the Homji Sisters, was very popular with the listeners. The founder of Bombay Talkies, Himanshu Rai who was looking for a good classicalist for his movies, heard them on radio, got in touch with her, and invited her to visit the studio where she was shown the music room. He wanted her to take care of the music department and score music for his movies and Homji accepted the offer and took it as a challenge. Her first assignment was for the movie, Jawani Ki Hawa in 1935, starring Himanshu Rai's actress wife Devika Rani. She had a difficult time making the actors sing and had to simplify the tunes and cover some areas with music instead of song as they were no singers and play back was still not introduced.

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