Rishi Kapoor - 1952-2020 In Requiem

The Eternal Lover Boy

One of the most illustrious actors of Hindi Films breathed his last today. It feels like a personal loss because I grew up watching his movies.

 His first role as a leading man was Bobby. I was barely 13 when this movie came out and I remember lining up to buy a ticket. This was us! This was a movie about a young couple that looked, dressed and behaved like a young couple. The viewers approved, the viewers thronged to the movie and it was declared a super-hit. At the time the movie came out, I was really a fan of Dimple. I adored Bobby, her clothes, her way of speaking -
बीसवीं सदी तो बूढी हो गयी , मैं इक्कीसवी सदी की लड़की हूँ। 
     
 Rishi Kapoor, with his smooth looks, did not go unnoticed by us girls. I remember a friend of mine passing a hand over a magazine with his picture on it, saying क्या धाकड़ लगता है। It was the slang of that time meaning that he looks great.

I have often poked fun at older actors playing young college graduates well into their thirties and forties. Here we had an actor in his twenties playing a young man. It was bonus for us. The filmmakers tripped over each other to make young-love movies with Rishi. Dimple had bowed out of the picture post her marriage to Rajesh Khanna. Neetu Singh stepped into this void like a diva she was.  They were paired together for 12 films, starting with  Zehreela Insaan, which came after Bobby. It wasn't a success. Despite his aristocratic bollywood lineage, Rishi had to struggle for success post Bobby. 

Rishi in drag in Rafoo Chakkar

Rafoo Chakkar sealed his career with the approval of masses, as did Khel Khel Main. I was in school then and my friends went wild about these two movies. Rishi was here to stay.  Amar Akbar Anthony started a chain of multi-starrer movies. Rishi fell conveniently into the niche of a younger brother who provided light moments of romance with the heroine while his angst ridden older brothers did the standard revenge things like fighting with the villains. 

In Doosra Aadmi, Rishi Kapoor got to show his serious acting chops playing a man besotted by an older woman, despite being married. It is one of my all time favorite movies. Raakhi has lost the love of her life, Shashi Kapoor and feels attracted to Rishi because he resembles her love. It was a clever meta move as Rishi and Shashi were related. Ek Chadar Maili Si was about the tradition of marrying a widow to her brother-in-law to provide security to her and her children. Hema Malini and Rishi Kapoor put in a lovely performance as a couple forced into such a marriage.

Ek Chadar Maili Si

By 1980, Neetu Singh married Rishi and retired from films. Other young actresses like Tina Munim and Poonam Dhillon stepped in. He worked with more than 40 actresses in career. This resourceful blogger pegs the number to 45. In my opinion, only Dev Anand worked with more heroines in his career. 

His pairing with Neetu Singh was the longest, and the cutest. They were both fresh and young. Yet in my mind there was something special about Dimple and Rishi. He began his career with Dimple. Bobby was an iconic film. When Dimple returned to acting, her most touted comeback film was Saagar, where she got another innings alongside Rishi. The movie was a huge hit. Strangely, they were not cast together again, until Pyar Mein Twist. It was a senior romance between two single parents with grown children. It had it's charm though it wasn't a very great movie. My favorite Rishi-Dimple pairing was Luck By Chance. In the movie, Dimple has had a successful run as an actress and is now pushing her daughter's launch as a lead actress. Rishi is a film producer who hates Dimple. This reversal of their usual roles as a lovey dovey couple was fresh and worked very well.

Throughout the Eighties, Rishi Kapoor was in his prime. He had the unbeatable image as a romantic hero. Other actors like Amitabh Bachhan and Vinod Khanna were busy beating up the baddies. Dharmendra lurked behind them, carrying on with his good looks intact and action movies sustaining him.

Henna

The famous Kapoor tendency to put on weight thanks to good food and drinks played havoc with Rishi too. He looks pudgy in Mera Naam Joker and had to diet rigorously for his debut movie. His metabolism helped him during his youth, but middle age brought the dreaded spread. He hid his growing paunch by wearing baggy sweaters. He must have known his time as a lead actor was at an end.

In my opinion, when he handed over Divya Bharti to Shahrukh Khan in Deewana, he was passing on the baton of Romantic Star to him as well.  He lasted a few more years as a lead before seguing into character actor roles. 

He was a good actor and chose good films and had a very respectable career as a senior actor. He left us with his boots on. He was working in films till the last. Ever since I heard he was not well and seeking treatment in USA, I have been dreading this day. A part of my youth died today. The actor who I watched in his prime as well as advancing age, very close to mine, is now gone.

हम न रहेंगे , तुम न रहोगे

फिर भी रहेंगी निशानियां

Rishi has left behind him a solid body of work. It is sometime great, sometimes good and sometimes not. Yet it is a sizeable legacy and we can console ourselves by watching his movies again. We are lucky to be living in times where it is easy to access movies we want to watch. Let us make most of it and raise a toast to a life well lived.

Dil Hi to Hai (1963)

Perhaps the most enduring feature of 1960's Hindi Cinema is the music.  It is the one biggest single factor that makes us look up old movies again and again. I watched the movie mainly for the music, but more on that later.

1960's were when the big three- Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand were getting a bit long in the tooth. It never deterred Dev Anand. He stayed trim at the waist and was blessed with longevity where looks were concerned.  Dilip Kumar managed not to spread too alarmingly, but his face showed his age. Raj Kapoor lost his charming visage and slimness fast. The Kapoors were fond of their dinners and men were not metrosexual in those days. No facials or mud packs for them. Luckily the producers were not picky. For them, a few wrinkles here and there were no reason why these seasoned leading men couldn't continue to be so. Similarly, Hindi Film audiences turned a blind eye to a balding middle aged leading man pretending to be fresh out of college.

When the movie starts, we are quickly brought up to speed by Begam (Mumtaz Begum) as she converses with her husband Nawab Jallaludin (Hari Shivdasani). These two have lost many children. Fearing a similar fate for their only surviving son Yusuf, they sent him away to be reared by his uncle and aunt. He is expected back as a grown child the next day. That is when they are also expecting a nursemaid for the child. 

 

Farida (Manorama) with her own child Shekhoo

The scene switches to a railway station which reveals the other part of the story.  The Nanny (Leela Chitnis) and the caretakers (Manorama and Shivraj) are sharing a bench. The nanny can make out that these people care more for their own child and not a whit for the one they are supposed to be caring for. The mean couple abandon Yusuf sleeping beside the nanny and plan to dupe Nawab saheb into taking in their own child, Shekoo. When the nanny turns up with a child in tow, the Begam sacks her politely.  They didn't want a nanny with a child of her own.

The switch works well for Farida (Manorama).  Her son Shekhoo, now known as Yusuf, grows up as the heir of Nawab Saheb. He is also slated to marry the rich and beautiful Jamila (Nutan). The real Yusuf grows up as Chand, a poor Nanny's son. Like a true blue Nawab, he loves singing and sher-o-shairi. We are treated to Chand singing a Shri 420 kind of song, Dil jo bhi kahega...

 

Getting kicked away by a rich man and riding a donkey

Jamila is very fond of the new singer Chand who performs often on radio. She is looking forward to a chance to meet him at a friend's birthday party. 

Nutun, only 27 and pretty as a picture

On her way to the party, she encounters Chand and takes him for a ruffian and a stalker. As a result of which she makes some cutting remarks to him. Smitten by her beauty, he replies to these remarks by singing a lovely song, completely winning her over. 

Tum agar mujhko na chaho to koi baat nahi

Tum kisi aur ko chahogi to mushkil hogi

Jamila is completely bowled over. As was ordained by her parents she has found the one she was meant to be with. As audience, we are privy to the fact and cheer the couple on. The Nakli Nawab, Yusuf, is not happy. He means to make himself richer by gobbling up Jamila's inheritance also, by and by, by marrying her. One day Chand is forced to disguise himself as an old man and sing a classical song at a function.

Laga, chunri me daag chhupaon kaise

He is made to take up the job of tutoring Jamila in singing by Yusuf to keep her away from Chand.

He has in fact, delivered her right into the arms of his rival. The couple meet and sing songs and are generally having fun duping Yusuf. Alas, All good things must come to an end. They are eventually caught and separated, but only after they have sung a good number of songs. 

The audience knows the couple is on a sure footing.  Yusuf has been seeing a dancing girl and has promised her marriage and made her pregnant. But still, the requisite drama has to be gone through. So we have the usual separation, tears, sad song, blackmail by father (marry Yusuf  or I will die). We also have a famous payoff scene by the girl's father (Let go of my girl, how much do you want - 5000, 10000, 15000?).

The movie is fairly well made. There is no clutter here, only a little comic side plot. The characters are kept to the minimum. Maximum time is contributed to singing gorgeous songs which keeps the audience soothed.  Pran is an unusual villain in this movie. He is not the mean-faced baddie. Rather he is a bit of a buffoon, being taken for a ride by the lead pair. It was quite refreshing to see him like this. Though he does get to do the standard baddie things like trying to kill his girlfriend and also the hero.

As mentioned earlier, Raj Kapoor quickly lost his youthful looks. He was only 39 at the time of this film's release. Yet he looks decidedly middle aged. His middle was spreading and face was lined. At 40 most young actors are only coming into their prime these days. But now, men take care of themselves. They work-out, diet and groom themselves. Yet, while dancing to a song, you can see that he has the rhythm in him. I have always maintained that Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar were good dancers You can see in the clip here that Raj Kapoor had moves. I love the way he dips to the floor and rises so gracefully. If you are older, you will know this is a hard thing to do. 

Nutan is beautiful, peppy and graceful in the film. Her emoting to the qawwali, Nigahen milane ko jee chahta hai, is faultless. She is like a breath of fresh air in this movie helmed by older actors.

The dialogues of the film were often good, at times rather high flown as if suffering from a hangover of Mughal-e-Azam.

Yet the best part of the film, which I have saved for the end, is the music. The music director of this film was Roshan. The lyricist was Sahir Ludhyanvi. Together they came up with a playlist of ten songs. These days we are lucky if the movie has one decent number. In those days there were at least seven or eight numbers and they had to be good. Here we have 9/10 number that you can listen to on loop. The movie came out in 1963, 57 years have passed, the music has been around for 57 years and is as alive and fresh as ever.

A special mention for the two gorgeous songs in this playlist. One is of course the Asha Bhonsle qawwali - Nigahen milane ko jee chahta hai. The lyrics are especially good. They bring out the joyousness of first love and longing the girl feels to keep looking at her beloved. Tum agar mujhko na chaho is another song which is in a league of it's own. It is a lighthearted dig at the girl who has just publicly rejected him. "Don't love me, if you can't. But please don't torture me by loving another." 

1. Dil jo bhi kahega, maanenge duniya me hamara dil hi to hai

2. Tum agar mujhko na chaho to koi baat nahi

3. Laaga chunri me daag chhupaon kaise

4. Gusse me jo nakhra hai

5. Nigahen milane ko jee chahta hai

6. Tumhari mast nazar gar idhar nahi hoti

7. Chura le na tumko ye mausam suhana

8. Bhoole se mohabbat kar baitha

9. Youn hi dil ne chaha tha rona rulana

10. Parda uthe salaam ho jaye

The link for the playlist is here.

 

Pradeep Kumar Songs from 1963 to 1967

This is the last installment of my posts on Pradeep Kumar songs. Here and Here are the first and second posts. Pradeep Kumar was an average actor. He bordered on overweight pretty early in his career. Maybe for a few years after his debut he looked slim and handsome. He looked very very handsome in Adl-e-Jahangir (1955), which was one of his earliest pairing with Meena Kumari. They look gorgeous in this movie. But he soon ran to fat and became a little jowly as well. Yet he had amassed a reputation as an actor who played Royalty with a flair. To be fair, he spoke well. There was hardly any trace of Bengali accent in his declamations. What I find particularly engaging is the way he fitted right in with excellent actors in movies. Here I am looking at some of his famous movies with Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari. Now Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari were formidable actors. I am glad that Pradeep Kumar never let that rattle him and soldiered on, doing what he could.

He worked in movies for a long long time, up until 1998 he was appearing in movies in short roles. He died three years later in 2001. I believe firmly that his longevity was due to adapting seamlessly to changing times. In 1967 he appeared in Bahu Begam with Meena Kumari and Ashok Kumar as the lead actor. In 1969 we saw him in Sambandh as a down-on-his-luck landlord, father of the lead actor Deb Mukherjee.  This started the second innings of his career, playing various character roles. He did not rest on his laurels or fade away.

I covered songs sung onscreen by Pradeep Kumar up to the year 1963 but missed listing a song from the movie Jab Se Tumhe Dekha Hai. This was the last movie Geeta Bali ever acted in and it would be criminal not to list a song from this film.

1. Chand tale jhoom jhoom (Jab se tumhe dekha hai - 1963)

 I have noticed that Pradeep Kumar acted alongside many different leading actresses. Here he was paired with Geeta Bali. It has some melodious songs like Ham aapki mehfil me sanam bhule se chale aaye and Yeh din din hain khushi ke. They were often played on the radio during the 1960s and 1970s.

This song, less heard, is no less catchy. It seems to be a stage performance with a couple of watchers acting creepy. Pradeep Kumar jumps on the stage in disguise and sings with Geeta Bali. He takes care not to be seen by the girl he is dancing with.

 I picked this song as it was sung by Subir Sen.

2. Chha gaye badal neel gagan par (Chitralekha - 1964)

This was one of the weakest films in the few that the trio - Meena, Ashok and Pradeep acted in. The story was good but it wasn't properly translated into cinema. The face off between the lead actors was weak.

The music was sublime, thanks to the deadly combination of Roshan and Sahir. The lyrics are in pure Hindi as opposed to Urdu that Sahir usually wrote in. Yet he comes up trumps. I could have chosen any of the wonderful songs but this one is a particular favorite of mine, it is so romantic.

You can see that Pradeep and Meena were beginning to show their age, yet Meena Kumari is able to emote with grace while our Pradeep Kumar carries on bravely.

3. Kya jawan raat hai baharon ki (Sindbad, Sindbad and Aladin - 1965)

You can see how un-choosy Pradeep Kumar was. Chitralekha was a period film made by Kidar Sharma, here he happily stars in a fantasy action with Meenu Mumtaz as his heroine.

He dons harem pants with ease and sings and dances with Meenu Mumtaz. Luckily for us, he leaves the twirling to Meenu Mumtaz and contents himself with looking deeply into the girl's eyes and looking romantic.

The music of this movie was a far cry from the classy music of the 50s Pradeep Kumar's early period. Yet it was catchy and hummable.


4. Dil laga kar ham ye samjhe  (Zindagi aur Maut - 1965)

Fans of B-grade cinema know the name of N.A. Ansari well enough.  Pradeep Kumar worked in two films of his. This one and Wahan Ke Log.

In this movie he co-starred with a newcomer, Faryal. Beautiful, statuesque Faryal would soon be relegated to being a dancer in film. But here she got to sing and dance with our own Pradeep Kumar in this lovely number.


5. Itna to keh do hamse (Saheli - 1965)

Right in the middle of the 1960s, under the baton of newbies Kalyanji Anandji comes this gorgeous romantic number in the dulcet voices of Hemant Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar.

This beautiful song took me back to the lovely songs Pradeep Kumar lip synched to early on in his career. He is paired here with the beautiful Kalpana.

6. Jaane wo kaun hai (Bheegi Raat - 1965)

1965 was a good year for Pradeep Kumar, going by the number of films that released that year. Bheegi Raat raat was another triangular contest between Ashok Kumar, Pradeep Kumar and Meena Kumari. Music by Roshan lifts the movie several notches above average. The story was not too bad and well executed. Too bad that the actors were rather long in the tooth and did not look at their best.

I was hard pressed to choose a song among the beauties on offer. There are some lovely duets, the memorable Dil jo na keh saka. I chose this for the beautiful lyrics, with a bow to the maestro Majrooh.


7. Milti hai agar nazron se nazar (Do dilon ki dastaan - 1966)

Back to Vyjayantimala. The movie seems pretty obscure as there is no information about it anywhere, there are no videos of the songs or the movie on YouTube.

The music is by O.P. Nayyar and refreshingly lovely. Too bad I cannot see Pradeep Kumar in a sweater (paunch hiding tactics?) walking behind Vyjayantimala with love lorn eyes.






8. Chand kitni door tha  (Afsana - 1966)

An Ashok Kumar pairing with Pradeep Kumar, sans Meena Kumari. But here Ashok Kumar has bowed out of the courting game and is content to support Pradeep Kumar.

In this nice number, Pradeep Kumar serenades his new bride Padmini. He is in his romantic element, sherwani and wig in place while Padmini poses around decked to the gills.

The song suffers a bit in comparison to the other greats in the list, yet it is not too bad on the ears.


9. Phool sa chehra (Raat aur Din - 1967)

This was the last movie Nargis ever made. Again Pradeep Kumar is pitted against an awesome talent. He plays the husband of Nargis who is surprised to find that his wife has a life he is completely unaware of.

How good this song is, no less than the lovely Awara e mere dil and raat aur din diya jale.


10. Aap jab se qareeb aaye hain (Noorjehan - 1967)

This movie has Pradeep Kumar with Meena Kumari sans Ashok Kumar. Sheikh Mukhtar played Sher Khan. It did have Roshan bringing in his trademark lovely music with lyrics by Shakeel. There are gorgeous solos by Suman Kalyanpur and Lata, Sharabi Sharabi ye sawan ka mausam and Raat ki mehfil sooni sooni (which I think was not used in the movie, such a waste!)

This duet filmed on Pradeep Kumar and Meena is lovely, a soulful ghazal.




11. Arz e shauq ankhon me hai (Bahu Begum - 1967)

The grand finale of the Ashok - Pradeep - Meena films was the last one where (as far as I know) Ashok Kumar also played a lead role, that is, a contender to the affections of the female lead. I could write reams about this movie and probably will do soon. Here we are primarily discussing songs that featured Pradeep Kumar. This was his last male lead role too. After this he took on only character roles.

The scintillating music was composed by Roshan, with lyrics by Sahir. Together they turned out a gem of twin qawwalis. This was the first installment and more romantic than the second one. It was addressed to Allah and sung in a dargah. The lyrics also apply to the feelings of a young couple deeply in love. Meena and Pradeep Kumar look soulfully at each other, promising undying love through the eyes.

This brings my post on Pradeep Kumar to an end. Many of the movies he worked in were indifferent and would have passed into anonymity if not for the gorgeous songs. Quite a few of his films were flops. I feel he was a genial person which is why so many different heroines agreed to work for him and so many filmmakers took him into their projects.  And of course, these gorgeous songs of that era keep bringing him back to us.

Our ten favourite Balraj Sahni songs

Balraj Sahni is a name familiar to all the aficionados of Hindi Film Cinema, especially the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. He was a great actor, not particularly handsome but very personable. He was equally good as an urban gentleman, a solid householder and as an impoverished farmer trying to eke out a living.

But.
But he did not lip sync to many songs.

This is a sad truth Harvey and I discovered just after we had co-authored a post on Ashok Kumar songs. As mentioned there, unlike Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor, who moved their beaks to plenty of songs, Ashok Kumar did not, despite being a decent singer. At the end of that exercise, we set ourselves a harder job. Writing a post on songs that Balraj Sahni lip-synced to.

Mind you, Balraj Sahni has been in some of most iconic films of Indian Cinema like Do Beegha Zameen (1953), Garam Hawa (1974), Seema (1955) (he did sing in that one, thank god), Lajwanti (1958), Anuradha (1960), Sone ki Chidiya (1958) (oh Balraj, why didn't you?), Dharti ke Lal (1946) etc.

Several of our kind readers like Madhulika and Anu rattled off four songs or so. Dear girls, thank you. But, do you realise they were all? We managed (I should say Harvey managed, as he did major part of research) to squeeze out of this dry lemon a few more drops. Exhausted, we even added a couple of songs that we WISHED Balraj had lip synched to. We will be eternally grateful to readers who list songs that Balraj 'sang'.

1.       tu pyaar kaa saagar hai — Seema (1955)
MD: Shankar-Jaikishan; Lyrics: Shailendra; Singer: Manna Dey

Harvey: Balraj Sahni, in his urban role, plays the sensitive, suave and understanding mentor. Nutan, the wronged orphan, who is rebelling against the injustices of the society and distrusts everybody, is his protégé. Both gave marvellous performances under the capable direction of the veteran Amiya Chakravarty.

Ava: Balraj Sahni could carry off being a rustic peasant and an urban gentleman with elan.  Here, in his suited booted gentleman avatar,  he runs a shelter for destitute girls, Nutan being the latest entrant. She is unruly, having been buffeted by a hard life. Balraj takes to the piano to sing a song to calm her down. It is one of the best spiritual songs that does not address any particular deity, just a 'supreme being' who is a 'sea of love'.

      Manna Dey, you will soon notice, provided the voice for the most songs that Balraj lip-synched          to.

2.       so jaa re raj dulare — Jawab (1955)
MD: Nashad; Lyrics: Khumar Barabankvi; Singer: Talat Mahmood

Harvey: Jawab (1955) cashes on the success of Do Bheega Zameen (1953) and is sort of a spin off of the same story and develops the father - son relationship angle ahead. What attracted both of us to the song was not only the male lori but also the dulcet tones of Talat Mahmood.

Ava: The dulcet tones of  Talat Mahmood's voice suit Balraj just as well as Manna Dey's voice does. Here he is singing a lullaby for his son. On looking at the IMDB entry on this movie, I guess it is a family melodrama where the father stakes his all for his son's education and gets nothing but ingratitude in return. Or maybe it's the son's wife who drags him away. (Think Do Raaste).

Harvey: No, dear Ava, Geeta Bali would never do such a thing. There sure will be conflicts and lots of rona-dhona and girl standing downstairs. If anybody wants to watch this melodrama, he/she can do it here.

Ava: It would be interesting to see if Geeta Bali was the 'vamp' here or not.

3.       manzil wahi hai pyaar ki raahen badal gaye — Kathputli (1957)
MD: Shankar Jaikishan; Lyrics: Shailendra; Singer: Subir Sen

Harvey: I had two big misunderstandings about this song. One was that this was sung by Hemant Kumar. The second one was that this song celebrates the fact that the two protagonists have left their respective life-partners and are embarking on a journey with each other. No, although the lyrics would give one this idea, this is not the case and what do they really mean by ‘raahi badal gaye’ remains a mystery to me.

Ava: I saw this movie but remember nothing except that Balraj is the mentor of Vyjayantimala but she chooses another.  There is no mystery here Harvey dear, it means that the destination of love is the same but the travelers change. To expand, Love is sought by various people through ages. Call me if you still don't understand. 😇😇 It is a beautiful song and we thank Balraj for having sung it.

Harvey: If Ava explains, Harvey understands it. Thank you, Ava!

4.       tujh me ram, mujh me ram — Pardesi (1957)
MD: Anil Biswas; Lyrics: Prem Dhawan; Singer: Manna Dey

Harvey: From contemporary stories, we move on to a historical. I think this is the only historical in which Balraj Sahni acted. Pardesi or Khozhdenie Za Tri Moray (The Journey Beyond Three Seas) was the first Indo-Soviet co-production. The film is based on memoirs of XVth century Russian traveller Afanasy Nikitin of his journey through certain parts of India. Here he meets his friend Sakharam, who seeing that Afanasy is not allowed to enter a Hindu temple sings about god being in every person, regardless of caste, colour and creed.

Ava: Balraj sang not one, not two but three songs in this film. He plays a travelling performer who keeps bumping into Nikitin and helping him out or just talking to him.  This song was the best by far so we picked it.

The song we have chosen gives me goosebumps when I hear it. It has a powerful message which is, alas, still needed, six decades after it was sung. 'sabse kar le pyar jagat me koi nahi hai paraya re', so simple, yet so hard for people to follow.

Harvey: Just to clarify, I don't get any goosebumps. Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't even try.

Ava: I guess goosebumps are subjective. 😉

5.       naach re dharti ke pyaare — Heera Moti (1958)
MD: Roshan; Lyrics: Shailendra; Singers: Lata Mangeshkar, Hemant Kumar

Harvey: The plight of small farmers in the XVth century of Pardesi must have been similar to that of the XXth century although the agricultural tools might have changed. The plight of the rural people in India was a major theme in Munshi Premchand’s stories. Heera Moti is based on such a short story. If Premchand ever envisoned his farmers singing like they do in the Indian film industry is a different story altogether.

Ava: Rajia and Dhuri are poor but happy. They love their oxen called Heera and Moti. Alas, the evil zamindar covets Heera Moti and hounds Rajia and Dhuri out of the village. They are forced to go to the city to work and earn enough money to get back their oxen. Nirupa Roy was one of Balraj Sahni's frequent co-stars in films and they looked good together. Balraj surprisingly lip syncs to a few lines in this song, allowing us to post it here.


6.       dekhiyen yun na sharmaiyegaa — Bindiya (1960)
MD: Iqbal Qureshi; Lyrics: Rajinder Krishan; Singers: Mukesh, Usha Khanna

Harvey: After letting him play all sorts of serious men with larger causes in mind than conjugal bliss, Balraj Sahni gets to romance a bit and gets a suhaag raat to boot. A consummate actor that he is, he absolves even this with aplomb.

 
Ava: Again, cannot pass up a chance to post a song sung by Mukesh where our usually gentlemanly Balraj, who barely ever even hugs his co-star, actually sings this foreplay-ish song. Ahem!

Harvey: Well, he was not always coy like that in every film. In Izzat (1968) he even played an evil zamindar and you know what evil filmi zamindars do.

Ava: Nahiiiiiiiin.

7.       ae meri zohra-jabeen — Waqt (1965)
MD: Ravi; Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi; Singer: Manna Dey

Harvey: Romantic BS 2.0 wooing his lawfully wedded wife in front of everybody. Nice to see a song which gives a mature couple time and space to be romantic. I think, this must have been first of its kind. Ava: Time yes, space? In front of a full Mehfil?

Ava: Now this is classic and timeless.  This is a song worthy Balraj every bit. Here he unashamedly serenades his wife, a mother of three young boys. Balraj is dressed in a pathani suit and thumps himself on the chest and sings this beautiful beautiful qawwali which could only have been written by Sahir and sung by Manna Dey. There are several romantic songs in the film where a young and beautiful Sadhna cavorts with Sunil Dutt and Sharmila with Shashi, but this song takes the cake, icing and the cherry on top as Achala Sachdev blushes like crazy as her husband sings.

 
8.       maine pee sharab — Naya Rasta (1970)
MD: N. Dutta; Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi; Singer: Mohd. Rafi

Harvey: A bewda (drunkard) Balraj and to top it he gets to criticise the society and its hypocrisy per Sahir's lyrics! He goes as far as to announce a revolution, which will avenge all the misdeeds (we are waiting...!). I totally agree with the general sentiment of the song but I just can't stop thinking, the VAT 69 guzzlers are at least not bothering random people on the street.

Ava: He is all overwrought, Harvey, not in his sane mind. Poor Balraj, always so oppressed. Either his land is snatched away by the evil landlord or his wife runs away or his evil daughter-in-law turns him out of the house. Bechara! He should drink his 'scriptwriter ka khoon'.

9.   main tumhi se poochati hoon — Black Cat (1959)
MD: N. Dutta; Lyrics: Jaan Nissar Akhtar; Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd. Rafi

Harvey: Here Balraj Sahni does get to hum some lines in the prelude to Rafi's voice, but then it is only the prelude. So it is neither here nor there, that is why we put it at the end. the song is lovely though, isn't it?

Ava: What a gorgeous song.  Thank you, thank you Balraj for lip syncing to a bit of this one and allowing us to sneak it in. How lovely is Minu Mumtaz and how melodious the song. 

One song we wished Balraj Sahni had sung:

Ava: There were times when Harvey and I were looking at all sorts of songs that we thought Balraj would have lip-synced to.  I would even sit through the entire song because often Balraj's face wasn't visible on the video. When I listened to the beautiful 'Ganga aaye kahan se' from Kabuliwala (1961). I felt so sad that we couldn't include the song as Balraj just looks around while the song plays in the background. Just like Eliza Doolittle I wanted to scream. 'Come on, Balraj, move your bloomin' lips'.

Dharti kahe pukaar ke is a glorious song from a glorious film that won accolades and brought honor to India. Too bad Balraj did not 'sing' it, we would have loved to include it.

Harvey: I think, Bimal Roy could have made Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy sing, 'haryala savan dhol bajata aaya'. For the record I must say, I might have had crazy ideas while making this list, but I never lost my restraint like Ava did. I just hummed, 'uthaaye jaa unke sitam aur jeeye jaa' to myself. I have forebearance, I do.

10.   ae mere pyaare watan — Kabuliwala (1961)
MD: Salil Chowdhary; Lyrics: Prem Dhawan; Singer: Manna Dey

Harvey: This song stirs my heart all up. More than patriotism, I think, this song evokes up emotions of longing of a person, who has been living away from his beloved ones, feeling unwelcome in his new surroundings leading to a deep, deep sadness. This is an universal feeling with which everybody can relate to. We are living in times, where more and more people are on the move, are forced to move by war, conflict, strife, ecological upheavals and economic conditions. The recipient society sees them often as a burden and not the human being in that person. Rabindranath Tagore saw this situation hundred years back and hundred years later, the situation has not changed. In a globalised world, it seems, we are ready to accept global products but not the global consequences of our consumerism.

 
Ava: I ditto everything Harvey wrote. Such a beautiful song, that gets to the core of your heart and stays there.

So here ends our quest for Balraj Sahni songs. We would be happy to learn of any song that slipped off our radar. Dear reader, HELP.

Enjoy the playlist.