31 January 2014

Known songs: Unknown actors

Some times it happens in Hindi cinema that very very melodious song is either badly picturised or on relatively unknown actors.

When tv was not so much available (and still so many songs are not shown on tv) we used to listen songs on radio and tried to visualize on whom and in what situation it might have been picturised. This is such song. Jane kaisa hai mera deewana. Film Aansoo ban gaye phool. Sung by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle. Music composed by Laxmikant Pyaeelal. But on whom it is picturised?

Alka Bir Sakuja, Aansoo Ban Gaye Phool actress


Well, you can identify hero Deb Mukherjee, brother of romantic hero Joy Mukherjee. But heroine is very unknown. Her name for screen is Alka Bir Sakuja but real name is Firdaus. She was appreciated for her beauty but not for acting talent. She had also acted in Khilona against Sanjeev Kumar. She has played sister of Shatrughan Sinha in Kalicharan film.

Another such song is Ek tera saath humko do jahan se pyara hai. Film Wapas. Sung by Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar.  Music director again L-P. Alka Bir Sakuja also acted in it but this song was picturised on lead pair Shekhar Purohit and Azra. Both were not known so much.
Now let's take one more song. Film Buddha mil gaya. Hero was Naveen Nischal. But heroine? Many might have forgotten her name. She was Archana. It was her only movie. But songs picturised on her were still popular, be it Raat kali ek khwab mein aayi or bhali bhali si ek surat.

If you take video films (i.e. films were available only on vhs or in today's terminology you may call them music videos) made by Gulshan Kumar of Super Cassette and T Series, most of all sings were quite melodious, but actors were and still quite unknown (even after film release). E.g. Lal Dupatta Malmal ka. All songs composed by Anand-Milind starting from Kya karte the sajna to Suni suni ankhiyon mein were hit and melodioua too. But who were the lead pair? Well hero was Saahil Chaddha and heroine name is Viverly. Saahil Chaddha is comparatively known as he acted as one of the sons of Amitabh Bachchan in Baghban. But Viverly is seen only in its sequel (yes sequel was rare, but this movie's sequel waa made.).

Gulshan Kumar made another such film - Aayee milan ki raat. Heroine was Shaheen. She made sensation at that time because she is niece of famous actress Saira Banu. Later she married to B grade hero Sumeet Saigal. In Aayee milan ki raat hero was Avinash Wadhawan. Comparatively known face as he is still acting on small screen. This film had also melodious songs-kitne dinon ke baad hai aayee sajna raat milan ki, kasam se kasam se, maine kisi ko dil de diya, mat to mere dil etc..

Jeena teri gali mein produced by Gulshan Kumar too had melodious songs like tere hum ai sanam (sung by Kumar Shanu who was new comer at that time), teri baahon mein hai jannat meri sung by S. P. Balasubramaniam, Jaate ho pardes piya sung by Nitin Mukesh (for new generation, father of Neil Nitin Mukesh). By default all songs were sung by Anuradha Paudwal who was regular in T series. Now who were lead pair in this film? Hero was Suraj. His other film was Pyar hua chori chori in which Mithun Chakraborty was lead actor. Lead actress of Jeena teri gali mein was Kavita Kapoor. Yes, same Kavita Kapoor whom you appreciated in tv soap Saas and one of the most successful and longest running comedy serial Yes Boss! She was very slim in this film. 

We are talking about known songs picturised on unknown actors but at this point you may feel that I am continuosly talking about Gulshan Kumar's films, but I have to because he made such films. Now take this Bahar aane tak. Its song were such melodious that on Vividh Bharti (Mumbai) , famous radio announcer Ameen Sayani said in this film advertisement: Aisa lagta hai jaise film ke gaane Rajesh Roshan ne naheen, unke pitajee swargiya Roshan sahab ne compose kiyen hain. Remember its songs? Mohabbat inayat sung by Pankaj Udhas, Kali teri choti hai paranda tera lal ni (sung by Mangal Singh who also could not succeed much), Ek pal hasna jo chaha, etc.

Gulshan Kumar produced another films Aashiqui, Dil hai ki manta nahin, Meera ka mohan, Kasam teri kasam, Bewafa sanam and Papa the great. But they are not included as the had either known faces (before or after the release of the film) or not so much good songs.
If we talk about bad picturisation, there may be long list of the songs. To name few-

(1) Ye jo mohabbat hai (atleat Ihad not imagined that this song is sung by drunken kaka)

(2) Patta patta buta buta- well, this gem song is picturised on Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri (now Bachchan) but Amitabh was still passing through bad initial phase.

(3) Dum dum diga diga- Beautiful song was wasted by showing Raj Kapoor running after wine bottle!

(4) Milo na tum to hum ghabraye- what a song! But picturised on Priya Rajwansh whose only talent or luck was 
that she was favourite of Chetan Anand. In this song, Raaj Kumar doesn't look good dancing like bouncing or jumping whatever you call it.

(5) Chap tilak sab chhen li- originally penned by Aamir Khushroo, this song is sung by so many singers from Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Abida Parveen, Richa Sharma (on tv music singing show Dhoom macha de). But in Main tulsi tere angan ki, L-P had composed and orchestred in way that there was good scope of dance and expression but somehow director Vijay Anand failed.

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