Friday 27 September 2013

United Colors of Separation

Today if you ask Salman Khan who was his initial voice, it might take him a while to recall the name of S P Balasubramanium. By the time, Salman came into acting, one hero one playback voice concept had long been over. Still, it seemed, SPB had finally got a superstar face on screen to boost his career with Salman. Together they gave hits like Maine Pyar Kiya, Sajan, Love, Dil Tera Aashiq and Hum Aapke hai kaun- but that was it. Salman took a break for couple of years and when he made a re-entry with Judwaa(1997), he was a different Salman altogether. SPB-Salman can safely be termed as the terminal combination of the concept of one hero-one voice.

But there was a time, when Shammi Kapoor wanted only Rafi, Rajesh Khanna vouched for only Kishore and Raj Kapoor would never sign without Mukesh(or, Manna De at best). There were also some type of heroes who never cared who the playback was- Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar spent bulk of their career giving lips to right from Mahendra Kapoor to Bhupinder. And there was a third lot, who started with one particular voice and then with the change of times, immediately shifted to another.

Majority of Shammi Kapoor hits in the 50s were rendered by Talat Mehmood. Talat was for quite a long time Shammi’s voice till “Tumsa Nahi Dekha” happened. It is not that Rafi did not playback for Shammi before Tumsa Nahi Dekha, but the extent of Talat’s contribution was far higher. But, with a clean shaven cleared moustache and more youthful resurrected Shammi from Tumsa Nahi Dekha, only Rafi could do justice to the image. So, it was a Bye Bye for Talat henceforth from Shammi, and welcome Rafi for good.

Shailendra Singh created quite a sensation as the playback for young Rishi Kapoor with Bobby. He continued for some more years with movies like Rafoo Chakkar, Zehreela Insaan, Khel Khel Mein etc. But, then, with Laila Majnu and Hum Kisise Kum Nahi- Rishi Kapoor swiftly shifted to the more matured voices of Mohd Rafi and Kishore Kumar by the late 70s. While Rafi catered to the romantic Rishi in Amar Akbar Anthony, Karz and Sargam; exuberant Kishore gave chartbusters in Hum Kisise Kum Nahi, Karz, Jhutha Kahin Ka etc. Shailendra was there for Rishi, pitching in intermittently in Zamane ko Dikhana Hai and Sagar, but the good old days were all but over.

There was also Biswajeet, who started off his career by giving lips to the hit songs of Hemant Kumar. Bees Saal Baad, Kohra and Bin Badal Barsaat. But those were the stories of Black and White Biswajeet. With the colour era, Biswajeet turned swanky with rock and roll numbers of Rafi under the tunes of Shankar Jaikishen and O P Naiyyar. Between 1965-1970, Biswajeet carefully left his “Bhadralok” Bengali Babu image with Hemant Kumar songs behind and turned into a hip-hop hero with a good female following as well!!

 The first 5 movies of Rajesh Khanna- Aakhri Khat, Raaz, Baharon Ke Sapne, Doli and Aurat- had all of them with Mohd Rafi as his voice, just like any other hero those days. His 6th and 7th movies- Aradhana and Do Raaste- also had Rafi singing for him. The problem was in the last mentioned movies, the Kishore songs made super heavy impact and within a couple of years, although Rafi kept on singing intermittently for him throughout, Kishore-Rajesh combo became a Nationwide phenomenon.

Regarding lapse in association, coming out of hero-singer discussion, there were some worth mentionable instances in other combos as well. Director- Music Director: Well, as a director-producer, Raj Khosla was never ditched by the melodies of Madan Mohan. In fact, Woh Kaun Thi and Mera saaya might just qualify to be the best musical soundtracks of Khosla’s career. Just when the things were looking bright, Khosla suddenly changed his preference and shifted to Laxmikant Pyarelal in Do Raaste, never to return to Madan again.

 Lyricist- Music Director: We all know why S D Burman and Sahir never worked together post-Pyasa. But, who had the advantage at the end of the day? Don’t know about others, but Guru Dutt, definitely considered keeping SD in the camp to be more important.

Music Director-Singer: Chain se humko kabhi aapne jeene na diya, O P Nayyar’s last composition for Asha Bhosle ironically, told his own feeling towards the singer, perhaps.