Wonderful Rafi, Talat songs on Raj Kapur
When Mukesh died (in 1976), Raj Kapur said he had lost his voice. And rightly so. When you think of Raj Kapur, you think of Awara hun, Mera joota hai japani, Ruk ja o janewali ruk ja, Chhalia mera naam, Mera naam Raju gharana a-naam, and countless other Mukesh songs lip-synched by Raj Kapur on the screen.
You are also aware of the outstanding Manna Dey songs in duets such as Pyaar hua ekraar hua, Ye raat bheegi bheegi, A ja sanam madhur chandni mein hum etc. This came about when Mukesh was distracted from playback singing as he became convinced by his handsome looks that he was hero material.
Mahendra Kapoor was the favourite singer of BR Chopra Films, and Ravi was their favourite composer. BR Films-Ravi-Mahendra Kapoor combination gave a large number of well known songs. After Ravi, the only music director who used Mahendra Kapoor in a significant manner was OP Nayyar, apparently on rebound when he had some rift with Mohammad Rafi. Following behind would be Kalyanji Anandji, who used Mahendra Kapoor to some degree following the great success of Mere desh ki dharti on Manoj Kumar in Upkar (1967). His songs with other music directors are few and far between.
Chalo ek baar phir se ajanabi ban jayen hum dono
If ever there was a song that could be described as the defining song of a singer, Mahendra Kapur’s Chalo ek baar phir se ajanabi ban jayen hum dono is one such song.
Mahendra Kapur, who came to the film world through a singing talent competition in the late fifties, was seen as a Rafi clone. That can be a great handicap; the world of film music is replete with the tragedies of clones not being able to come out of the shadow of the original star.
An era changes with Aradhana (1969)
When Aradhana unfolded in 1969 with the heroine sitting by the window of the hill train, tentatively browsing a book, and the hero being driven in a jonga by his friend on the hilly road alongside the toy train, with an innocent smile, a wink in his eyes and the harmonica on his friend’s lips, singing Mere sapno ki rani kab ayegi tu, a phenomenon called Rajesh Khanna was born. Also born was another and perhaps more startling phenomenon – a new Kishore Kumar who with this one film swept aside Rafi to emerge as the No.1 male singer. Rafi did have two duets in the film Bagon mein bahaar hai (with Lata) and Gunguna rahe hain bhanwre (with Asha Bhosle), but Kishore Kumar with Lata surpassed him with Kora kagaz tha ye man mera, and Rafi had nothing to counter his two solos Mere sapno ki rani kab ayegi tu and Roop tera mastana.
The Ultimate in Melody
Hemant Kumar in his voice brought the beauty of Bengal and melody of Rabindra Sangeet. When he joined with Lata Mangeshkar the effect was magical. Easily the best duets of Hindi films are of Hemant-Lata. One can also safely say no song of Hemant Kumar was pedestrian. With his deep resonant voice he could be nothing but melody personified. As for Lata, she surpasses any superlative. Here is my selection of their best duets.
Haal-e-dil unko sunana tha sunaya na gaya
Suman Kalyanur had to remain in the shadows of Lata Mangeshkar because of her uncanny similarity to Lata’s voice. Many of her songs are indistinguishable from Lata’s style, either because she was subconsciously imitating her style or the music directors were viewing her essentially as Lata’s replacement. Yet there are several songs which bear her special imprint. There is one particular song in which she seems to have clearly overshadowed Lata. I am referring to Haal-e-dil unko sunana tha sunaya na gaya from the film Fariyad (1964).
The beautiful lyric by Kedar Sharma is worth reproducing in full:
Would Noorjehan have survived the 1949 Lata tornado?
Noorjehan’s migration to Pakistan in 1947 left behind the enduring question – if she had stayed back in India, would Lata still have reached the commanding heights as she did in the following three decades? As Lata’s early songs had a distinct Noorjehan tinge, the suggestion is that Noorjehan’s absence from the scene in a way helped Lata’s rise; with her around Lata might have perhaps remained a copy of the original.
Travesty of missing the Filmfare award
This is the Golden Jubilee year of Mughal-e-Azam (1960), and the media, both print and electronic, is rightly full of the movie. Everything about the film was superlative – its lavish production, awesome battle scenes with thousands of camels, horses and soldiers (there were no computer generated imaging those days), great acting by all the lead players Prithviraj Kapur (Akbar), Dilip Kumar (Salim) and Madhubala (Anarkali), grand ornate dialogues, and above all its timeless music composed by Naushad. But all the stories in the media have missed what Sherlock Holmes would have called the most significant thing about the film – that is, the Filmfare award for the best music director which Naushad did not win. The composers who beat him to it were the duo Shankar Jaikishan for Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayee.
When I try to compile the most melodious, the most beautiful songs of Lata Mangeshkar, the following songs invariably come to my mind:
Correction: Main hun gori nagin dekhugi rasiya in the above table is a Rafi-Lata duet
All these songs are composed by Chitragupta and they should figure in any list of Lata’s best.
We all remember the following evergreen songs:
| Song |
Singer |
Film |
Music director |
| Ae mere dil kahin aur chal |
Talat Mahmood |
Daag (1952) |
Shankar Jaikishan |
| Dil matwala lakh sambhala |
Talat Mahmood |
Bewafa (1952) |
AR Qureshi |
| Chali Radhe rani |
Manna Dey |
Parineeta (1953) |
Arun Kumar Mukherji |
| Mera qaraar le ja |
Talat Mahmood |
Ashiana (1952) |
Madan Mohan |
| Na ye chand hoga |
Hemant Kumar |
Shart (1954) |
Hemant Kumar |
| Jayen to jayen kahan |
Talat Mahmood |
Taxi Driver (1954) |
SD Burman |
| Kaise koi jiye |
Hemant Kumar |
Badbaan (1954) |
Timir Baran
SK Pal |
| Ae ghame dil kya karun |
Talat Mahmood |
Thokar (1954) |
Sardar Mallik |
When Mukesh died (in 1976), Raj Kapur said he had lost his voice. And rightly so. When you think of Raj Kapur, you think of Awara hun, Mera joota hai japani, Ruk ja o janewali ruk ja, Chhalia mera naam, Mera naam Raju gharana a-naam, and countless other Mukesh songs lip-synched by Raj Kapur on the screen.
