In the last calendar year I did a series of posts on Shankar-Jaikishan’s songs: singerwise for Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Rafi, Manna Dey, ‘Other singers’ and two posts on their dance songs – for Lata Mangeshkar and female dance duets. Several readers rightly remarked that SJ’s series would not be complete without covering their duets. That is true for all top MDs, but more so for SJ because they dominated the scene during the heydays of ‘Bollywood’ – when our films moved away from social issues of factory workers, farmer’s indebtedness and poverty to song and dance romance; when the heroes and heroines went to Kashmir and danced around flowers. We had not become affluent, but we went to cinema to suspend our disbelief and escape for three hours in darkness to the dream world of glamorous stars gallivanting on the screen.

Duets have always been a part of our film music right since the birth of talkies in 1931. SJ’s debut with the great romantic Raj Kapoor in Barsaat (1949) gave them scope to compose a supremely melodious and soft duet Chhod gaye baalam. Music was an integral part even in their films with socialistic theme like Aawara and Shri 420. RK-Nargis off-screen romance added to their magic on the screen with some iconic duets like Dum bhar jo udhar munh phere and Pyar hua iqaraar hua. Even in a not so successful film Aah, they gave Aa ja re ab mera dil pukara which pulls at your heartstrings.

With SJ rising to the top in the 60s’ Bollywood, they got to compose music for films with top heroes like Shammi Kappoor, Rajendra Kumar and Dev Anand. That was music with different sensibility from RK Films. Now there were breezy duets with Rafi being the main male singer.

Their duets would require a good number of posts. However, I would compress them in two parts. In the first, I present the duets with Rafi/Mukesh being the male singer opposite a female singer. In the second part I would cover the remaining, i.e. duets with other male singers opposite a female singer and hybrid songs, including songs with more than two singers. As usual, I would try to exclude songs that have featured earlier, such as in the series on the best songs for the years 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1955 or otherwise.

Mukesh-Lata Mangeshkar duets

Mukesh’s entry to RK coincided with SJ’s, and the association made him the voice of Raj Kapoor. Lata Mangeshkar, too, joined the banner along with them. Thus, SJ, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar became a part of the RK team, not to forget the lyricists Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri. Whenever SJ worked outside the RK banner, this team largely remained the same. Later, when there was rift between SJ and Lata Mangeshkar, we have Mukesh duets with other singers too. I can recall some duets with Sharda (Chale jana zara thahro, Duniya ki sair kar lo from Around the World) and Asha Bhosle (Daag na lag jaaye from Mera Naam Joker). I am aware there are some genuine lovers of these songs, but one can safely say when we think of SJ’s duets for Mukesh, what comes in our mind is his duets with Lata Mangeshkar.

1. Ye vada karo chaand ke saamne from Rajhath (1956), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

I have stated several times earlier that it would be highly unfair to describe SJ’s music as primarily due to Raj Kapoor’s musical sensibilities. Here they create a great romantic duet in the backdrop of ‘chaand’ picturised on Pradeep Kumar and Madhubala.

2. Dil ki nazar se nazron ke dil se from Anaadi (1959), lyrics Shailendra

Anaadi was the comeback vehicle of Mukesh after his ill-advised forays into acting and film production turned out to be a disaster. And, what a seamless reunion it was, as if he had never been away! The film had another great duet Wo chaand khila wo tare hanse, which has been discussed on SoY earlier. You can see the balance between the lyricists – Wo chaand khila was written by Hasrat Jaipuri. This too is from outside RK banner, though picturised on Raj Kapoor and Nutan.

3. Ni baliye rut hai bahaar ki from Kanhaiya (1959), lyrics Shailendra

Let us move from the soft and soulful to a fast paced Punjabi-style wedding song. The lead stars are again Raj Kapoor-Nutan in a film from an outside banner.

4. Duniyawalon se door jalnewalon se door from Ujala (1959) lyrics Shailendra

This is the younger Kapoor sibling who transformed into a rebel star and carved out his own niche in face of the great trinity of Dilip Kumar-Raj Kapoor-Dev Anand. SJ compose an appropriate fast-paced dance duet picturised on Shammi Kapoor and Mala Sinha.

5. Aankhon mein rang kyun aya from Ek Phool Aur Chaar Kaante (1960), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

Now a soft romantic duet picturised on a different pair, Sunil Dutt and Waheeda Rahman. The team remains the same, and they create great melodies for different banners and stars.

6. Tum roothi raho main manata rahun from Aas Ka Panchhi (1961), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

The surprise Jubilee star Rajendra Kumar owes his success a great deal to SJ’s music, and this film was the beginning of their association. One of the best roothna-manana songs, picturised on Rajendra Kumar-Vyjayanthimala.

7. Laakhon taare aasmaan par ek magar dhhondhe na mila from Hariyali Aur Rasta (1962), lyrics Shailendra

Let me switch to a sad duet picturised on Manoj Kumar (with Mala Sinha) who was another surprise star propelled by some outstanding music in this film. This film also had a couple of more excellent Mukehs-Lata Mangeshkar duets, such as Ibtida-e-ishq mein hum saari raat jaage and Bol meri taqdeer mein kya hai mere humsafar ab to bata.

8. Hum tum ye khoi khoi raahein from Rangoli (1962), lyrics Shailendra

Tucked inside this Kishore Kumar-Vyjayanthimala starrer is this wonderful duet which one is apt to miss as it is picturised on an unknown pair – Jagdev and Sadhana Roychaudhary.

Rafi with Lata Mangeshkar

Rafi being the most versatile singer, we have his great duets with several singers besides Lata Mangeshkar, unlike Mukesh whose pairings with other singers (for SJ) were unremarkable. At a very early stage of their career, SJ gave a timeless Rafi-Lata duet Kaali ghata ghir ayi re from the film Kaali Ghata (1951). I skip a few years when they create a great haunting duet based on Arabic music.

9. Aa ja ke intezaar mein from Halaku (1956), lyrics Shailendra

This film also had Dil ka na karna etbaar, but Aa ja ke intezaar mein has this feeling of what Subodh describes as a spirit calling out to another across the divide that separates the two worlds.

10. Dheere dheere chal chaand gagan mein from Love Marriage (1959), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

We have seen some lovely songs in which the word ‘dheere’ is repeated in an earlier post (on repeat words). Here is a great romantic song which I had kept for this post.

11. Kya mil gaya haye kya mil gaya from Sasural (1961), lyrics Shailendra

In Aas Ka Panchhi, SJ had used Mukesh and Subir Sen for Rajendra Kumar with outstanding effect. But they would settle for Rafi as the long term voice for him. One of the big grossers of its time, if you watch Sasural today, it would appear trite. SJ’s foot-tapping music was enormously popular, which could be a factor for the film’s commercial success. Rajendra Kumar was well on his way to becoming the Jubilee Kumar, riding on the crest of SJ’s music.

12. Tujhe jeevan ki dor se baandh liya hai from Asli Naqli (1962), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

SJ repeat their magic they had created for Dev Anand in Love Marriage, in their next venture Asli Naqli. Readers may recall Hrishikesh Mukherjee had used Tujhe jeevan ki dor se baandh liya hai among others to show an adolescent Guddi’s obsession with films and film star Dharmendra and picturised it as dream sequence between him and Jaya Bhaduri.

13. Dil tera deewana hai sanam from Dil Tera Deewana (1962), lyrics Shailendra

Who gave the best/most successful songs for Shammi Kapoor – OP Nayyar or Shankar-Jakishan? I leave it for the readers to answer it, but the question itself underscores SJ’s central position in the career of Shammi Kapoor. Another nice Rafi-Lata duet in the film was Mujhe kitna pyar hai tumse, but Dil tera deewana hai sanam has all the exuberance of the Shammi Kapoor. .

14. Aawaz de ke humein tum bulaao from Professor (1964), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

From a fast foot-tapping dance number SJ now switch to its exact opposite on Shammi Kapoor himself with an excellent duet of long distance separation.

Rafi with Asha Bhosle

I have used the term ‘reluctant’ to describe some great music directors’ association with Asha Bhosle. SJ have to be added to this list if you consider their songs for Asha Bhosle compared to her elder sibling and the prima donna, Lata Mangeshkar. However, they composed an outstanding Rafi-Asha Bhosle duet very early in their career in the highly acclaimed film Boot Polish.

15. Nanhe munne bachche teri mutthi mein kya hai from Boot Polish (1953), lyrics Shailendra

The song sets out the theme of hope for the street-children, Baby Naaz and Ratan Kumar, who have been forced into begging by their cruel aunt. Mentored by David, the children are confident enough to proclaim, Mutthi mein hai taqdeer hamari, humne kismet ko apne bas mein kiya hai.

16. Aa ha ayi milan ki bela from Ayi Milan Ki Bela (1964), lyrics Shailendra

This title song from Ayi Milan Ki Bela represents the heydays of Bollywood of escapist song-dance romance. SJ exploited it to the hilt to give a large number of roaring hits. There was a Rafi-Lata duet too in the film: O sanam tere ho gaye hum.

17. Yahi hai wo saanjh aur savera from Saanjh Aur Savera (1964), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

From the fast and foot-tapping Ayi milan ki bela, now I present a very nice, soft and soulful duet picturised on Guru Dutt and Meena Kumari. Just shows that Asha Bhosle had more potential, but SJ did not give her enough attention until it was too late.

Rafi with Suman Kalyanpur

SJ’s tiff with Lata Mangeshkar from mid-60s came as a godsend for Suman Kalyanpur with several duets with Rafi falling in her lap, which would have gone to Lata Mangeshkar. Many of them became iconic and humongously popular, such as Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche har zaban par.

18. Tumne pukara aur hum chale aye from Rajkumar (1964), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

Shammi Kapoor is in full form with Sadhna fully reciprocating.

19. Tujhe pyar karte hain karte rahenge from April Fool (1964), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

My most favourite Rafi-Suman Kalyanpur song is this extremely melodious duet. When I hear this song, I don’t regret Lata Mangeshkar was not there. The film also had another very nice, but less heard Rafi-Suman Kalyanpur duet, Kah do kah do jahan se kah do ishq par zor nahi.

Rafi with Mubarak Begum

20. Mujhko apne gale laga le O mere hamrahi from Hamrahi (1963), lyrics Hasrat Jaipuri

This was a big picture starring the Jubilee Kumar Rajendra Kumar, from a big banner Prasad Productions of Madras. Mubarak Begum got an opportunity of her lifetime when this title duet turned out to be the most popular song from the film. She expected that she would be called by SJ for more mainstream songs on the leading lady. But that was not to be. If you believe in conspiracy theories, the story goes like this. She was called in to record the song when Lata Mangeshkar could not be available at the scheduled time. The idea was that on her return it would be dubbed in her voice. The song was so good, it was retained in Mubarak Begum’s voice, but the Empress was not pleased, and saw to it that she was put in her place.