Kalyanji-Anandji’s ‘other’ male singers

Balbir ( with MK ) .

Mausam hai baharon ka…
MERE HUMSAFAR, 1970

Wonderful article!
I think you’ve covered all the male singers. The only one left out was Talat Mahmood, which was added by Dr Shetty. I think it was his only song for KA as far as I remember.

And, I think a post-70s careers of the composers from the 50s is a good idea. Most of them were no longer on the top, but had a few assignments. If you allow, I’ll take up it. Naushad, SJ, SD, etc.
There would be scope to add a second part on those who continued successfully in the 70s. Like RD, KA, LP and more ….

Anup
🙂

Kalyanji Virji Shah had been an important resource in Hemant Kumar’s orchestration team since Nagin (1954). So Kalaynajibhai can said to have paid tribute to Hemant Kumar for his role in shaping Kalyanjibhai’s initial career.

Manhar was essentially KA’s find.

Good selection of songs for other singers as well.

AK ji
Last line of Comment No. 13:
For ‘most the time’ read ‘most of the time’.
Sorry for the error.

AK Ji
Nicely compiled theme of K-A for singers other than Rafi & Mukesh. I was searching for one of their best with Kishore-Pal pal dil ke paas tum rehti ho…maybe it was in 1973 and hence you must have excluded..it is a superb song.
Giving a link to one more Classical Kishore song that has Shuddh Hindi …or rather Sanskkrit I should say… lyrics.. Priye Praneshwari Hridayeshwari..Yadi aap hume aadesh karen to Prem Ka Hum Shri Ganesh Karen…Film Hum Tum Aur Woh-1971-Lyrics Varma Mallick

Very rare to hear lyrics like Ye Chakshu Tere Chanchal Chanchal
Ye Kuntal bhi shyamal shyamal!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K8FszzQl1E

Ak ji
Nice collection of KA songs rendered by other singers.
KA were not given to experiment too much and mostly followed tried and tested path.
However, Priya, with Sanjeev Kumar and Tanuja in the lead is an exception. The film was released in 1970. Though it did not fare well at the box office, two of its songs were quite popular and were often played by Vividh Bharati.
Na sun sun sun bura was sung by Mahendra Kapoor, Anand C, Peter and Kamal barot. A youtuber also notes that KA used Mickey mouse voices in this song, a first for a hindi movie.
She is very pretty was sung by four male singers;Anand C, Prayag (raj) , Alfred and Jerry. Anand C rendered number of songs for Rajkamal and a few for KA (qurbani) and RDB (Satte pe Satta). But other three male singers are virtually unknown as singers.
Here are the links
Na sun sun
https://youtu.be/Ky0UznAmbG8?si=tHtTVCpBU2yqGK1R
She is very pretty
https://youtu.be/g3uJ8A3r4j0?si=40ZZKZ8oS5fsMIiW

She is very pretty

# 20-AK Ji,
Slight digression from main topic…it is interesting to note that in Hindi films , many classical raag based songs were presented in a comical manner? I am sure there might have been some discussion on this in SOY in the past.
Alos one aspect of K-A I had observed, which might be the style with many other composers also , but majority of K-A’s songs had this unique beginning. There will be just a single line of Mukhda, invariably without any accompanying music and then there will be a signature K-A orchestration piece with the song starting from there…. I may not be able to express in words , but can give some examples: ( though these are not strictly with the criteria of ‘ other male singers’ )
1) Chandi ki deewar no todi …piano piece
2) Jo Tumko Ho pasand wohi baat kahenge-combination of flutes and violins
3) Deewanon se yeh mat poocho-piano with violins
4) Zindagi ka safar hai yeh kaisa safar-piano with violins
It is these unique ” signatures” each music composer those days had that made them so distinct . Even the rhythm patterns of many music composers were unique …I am sure SOY might have discussed this in the past…

Thanks for the information on the other composers and their singers.

A beautiful writeup and great songs selection. If I recollect 70% of such old songs in the post , I consider the MD as ‘popular’ . Here I recall almost all the songs.

The male singers songs series would be followed by KA’s female singers I guess.

I read in the comments that someone got a doctorate degree on one song . I believe that even more than one doctorates can be produced on the same HFM song. When there are so many songs , there is scope for an infinite number of doctorates on HFM songs . That is why I also believe that the blog ‘Songs of Yore ‘ will go on forever .

In one 1963 year movie ‘ BLUFF MASTER ‘ , there were 3 singers used for the lead actor Shammi Kapoor . I never noticed any protests from the public when the same actor sings in different voices in the same movie. Perhaps the public does not bother about such things .

We all know Mohammad Rafi singing the classic …’ Govinda Aala re…’ .But the MD used Hemant Kumar and Mukesh for two other songs in the movie. All this when it is well known that Rafi is a versatile singer who could handle and sing in any situation. In such a situation, only experts can throw some light on why the MD had to use 3 different voices in this same movie for the same actor.

Here is one song in Hemant’s voice…

‘ Aye dil ab … ‘

https://youtu.be/znNJoXP25BY?si=wOC3Onxn8FYA0Gsa

Joseph ji,

Though the theme is about male singers, I am writing this for completion sake.

There is a 4th playback singer here from Shammi Kapoor. …Shamshad Begum. ( A qawali with Usha Mangeshkar…
Oye chali chali kaise hawa ye chali. )

A few years later, SB joined another Mangeshkar sister, Asha Bhosle, for
Kajra mohabbatwala…
again for a hero. Of course, this song is much more popular.

# 34-AK Ji, thanks a lot for providing the link . Will go through at lesisure as it seems to be quite an exhaustive write up…

Adding one more KK song…from Holi Ayee Re 1970
Meri lottery lag jaanewali hai

It actually has KK singing this line in the mukhda…ab to tumko jhukna padega mera zamana aaya (and that’s what happened)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnwvVsuxFHQ

Of course, Shankar Dasgupta wasn’t quite cut out for being a Qawwali singer. Yet his song is a perfect example of KA’s willingness to experiment with diverse male vocalists and different genres, irrespective of the end results.

As far as exclusion of Naushad is concerned, when I used the word ‘versatile’, I meant those composers who are/were capable of composing both slow melodious and fast numbers in both Indian and western styles. To do so effectively, means having equal command over two distinct forms of music, which not many had. Indeed, many of our greats like Kamal Dasgupta, Naushad, Roshan, Jaidev, SN Tripathi, Khayyam etc., were largely classicists and purists. Some of them even went to the extent of scoffing at Western music and labelling it as inferior in comparison to Indian music, which if one is objective enough, isn’t exactly true or right. Both forms of music are equally accomplished and beautiful in their own ways.

So from this perspective, Naushad saab didn’t feature in. Because not only CR, SJ, KA, RD, BL, Pritam; even Chitragupt, Salil Choudhury and OP Nayyar were more adept at composing in both Indian and Western styles respectively, on an consistent basis. Of course, being versatile, doesn’t mean the greatest or the best ever. Because for that to happen, a hell lot of different criterias and perspectives need to be taken into consideration, which is a mammoth task and needs an insane amount of time, research and impartial analysis to do justice to. Suffice, to say, if the criteria were say “5 best Indian composers for Indian folk style numbers ” or ” 5 best Hindi music composers of background scores”, Naushad saab would have definitely fit in. But in the perspective under consideration, he wasn’t. So his exclusion wasn’t by any design or pre-planning on my part.

I am really thankful for your invitation/offer. But, I need some time to decide about the same. Will inform you about the same in due course. Thanks again for the kind offer. Genuinely means a lot.

Though unduly delayed, thanks for your appreciative words Akji (@28) and Hansji (@43) respectively.
Now regarding the song Mohabbat agar na hoti, Akji says “A hybrid Rafi-Mahendra Kapoor song.” Hansji seems to be sure about the two male voices in the song – Mahendra Kapoor and Manna Dey. But in the credit titles I did not find either Manna Dey’s name or Md.Rafi’s name. And that is intriguing. In the meanwhile, the search for the names of the singers for the other two songs from Satta Bazar and Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere continues.

Now let me do some number crunching. There were roughly 110 songs involving male singers, “other” than Mukesh and Rafi, who sang for KA. Earlier we have noted that Mukesh’s songs would be around 95-100 and Rafi’s around 185-190. SO, approximately the total number of songs involving all male singers of KA would add up to 380-390. Of course that is for the period 1958-1970, i.e KA 1.0. The break-up for the other male singers is as follows; Mahendra Kapoor – 49, Manna Dey – 25, Kishore Kumar – 18, Hemant Kumar 9, Manhar 4, Subir Sen 3, rest/others around 20. Since there are many songs involving more than one male singer, thus the added-up number will naturally be higher.

Out of this 110 songs, 41 songs have been posted here. 25 by Akji and the rest 16 by the enterprising members of SoY. Interestingly, here Kishore Kumar ranks at the top with 40% of songs posted by Akji and 25% of the songs posted in the comments section. That means out of the 18 KK songs only 4 are left to be posted. Hans had rightly said that we do not belong any mythological period, we, especially Akji, Hans and myself and may be few others too, belong to this transition period. Hence I may conclude that our instant recall factor of Kishore Kumar songs of this period is obviously higher.

Let me look at from another perspective. Between 1958 and 1960, among the other singers, Manna Dey was the main singer for KA, followed by Hemant Kumar and Mahendra Kapoor. Between 1961 and 1967, Mahendra Kapoor edged out Manna Dey to move in to the top slot, with Hemant Kumar relegated to a distant third. Mahendra Kapoor continued to occupy the top slot between 1968 and 1970, way ahead of Kishore Kumar, relegating Manna Dey to a distant third. This indicates two things. First, KA’s adaptability and flexibility in using diverse male singers, with changing times. Second, it also gives the hint of KK’s emergence in a new avatar in near future.

All the above mentioned factors have come out nicely in this post, and the three posts, “Made for each other: Mukesh and Kalyanji-Anandji”, “Rafi’s best songs for Kalyanji-Anandji” and “Kalyanji-Anandji’s ‘other’ male singer”, read chronologically, provides the right spring board to get into the next two posts on KA 2.0.

Time for a song

Deewana kah ke logo ne mujhe aksar bulaya hai, Mahendra Kapoor with Lata Mangeshkar, film Majboor (1964)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEgB1s7AYgw

Akji,
I think, I lack clarity in expression, since my communications skills are not to the desired mark.

@ 51
“ Though I find some contradiction – you say during 1968-70 Mahendra Kapoor occupied the top slot under Kalyanji-Anandji. At another place you say that our instant recall factor of Kishore Kumar during this period is highest Do you mean this in relative sense, and the other in gross sense?”

If I have understood your query correctly, my answer would be in affirmative. Yes, Mahendra Kapoor continued to occupy the top slot in terms of number of songs. Here is the break up for 1968-70.
Mahendra Kapoor – 31, Kishore Kumar- 17, Manna Dey – 6, Manhar- 5

In the second part of the above statement, where I wrote “instant recall factor of Kishore Kumar”, I meant the percentage of ‘the instant recall factor” of Kishore kumar songs in comparison to the percentage of “instant recall factor” of Mahendra kapoor’s songs, during this period.

Just for information, here is the break up for the other two periods that I have mentioned @ 50.
1961-67:
Mahendra Kapoor – 15, Manna Dey – 12, Hemant Kumar -5, Subir Sen- 2, Kishore Kumar 1
1958-60:
Manna Dey –6, Hemant Kumar -5, Mahendra Kapoor – 3, Subir Sen- 1

AKji,
Since you have declared the post “KA’s best songs for Lata other female singers”, exclusively dedicated to female solos and all female duets, I would post three songs, with multiple singers, here. Otherwise I would have preferred to post them there. Voices of Birbal and Jr. Mehmood are the new additions.
Varma malik
Boli Sawan ki raat by Manhar, Mahendra Kapoor, Birbal (sings for Mohan Chhoti), Jr.mehmood (for himself) and Nutan (for herself), Yaadgaar 1970, lyrics Verma Malik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwIq4tYQV-M

And here is qawwali song by Jani Babu Qawwal and Usha Timothy, Birju Ustad (1964) lyrics Qamar Jalabadi (no video clip available)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGXX5hmt9Yo

And finally
Om Jai jagdish hare by Mahendra Kapoor, Brij Bhushan( sings for Ashok Kumar) and Shyama Chitar (sings for Saira banu)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g09YlA6hLeQ

AKJI,
please ignore and delete my comment @56

Corrections @ 50,
I wrote @50,
“Now let me do some number crunching. There were roughly 110 songs involving male singers, “other” than Mukesh and Rafi, who sang for KA. Earlier we have noted that Mukesh’s songs would be around 95-100 and Rafi’s around 185-190. SO, approximately the total number of songs involving all male singers of KA would add up to 380-390. Of course that is for the period 1958-1970, i.e KA 1.0.”

1. The figure shown for male singers, other than Mukesh and Rafi who sang for KA, is 110. And that is for the period up to 1970. Where as the figure shown for Rafi (185-190)and Mukesh (95-100) is the total number of songs each of them had rendered for KA. The figure up to 1970 for Rafi is 90-95 and Mukesh is 60-65. Thus the total number of songs involving all the male singers of KA upto 1970 should be around 260-265 and not 380-390 as erroneously stated earlier by me. And this includes Male-female duets.