Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the series of centenary tributes to Hemant Kumar (b. 16 June 2020 – d. 26 September 1989)

(Is Hemant Kumar a major singer or a music director? For his fans his mesmerising singing overshadows his contribution as a music director. Ashok M Vaishnav is known for going deep into data analysis and classification – SoY regulars have seen his perseverance in his mega-series, Multiple version songs. Ashokji plans to write a series of guest articles on Hemant Kumar’s various facets as music director, as a part of his centenary celebrations, which were set off brilliantly by N Vankataraman’s outstanding tribute, titled ‘Hemantayan – Part 1’, on his Birth Centenary, 16 June 2020.

Venkataramanji is planning his Part 2 on 26 September 2020 to coincide with Hemant Kumar’s death anniversary. His scheme, as the readers must have noticed, is to divide Hemant Kumar’s life and career in two parts chronologically – the first part going up to 1960 – taking a comprehensive overview of his career as a music director and singer in Hindi, Bengali and other languages, as well as his non-film songs.

It was very kind of Ashokji to offer on his own to supplement Venkataramanji’s two-part overview with some articles going into more detail on Hemant Kumar’s career on various parameters. Here is the first article of his planned series, on his female playback singers (in Hindi films). Since I have written on his songs for Lata Mangeshkar long ago, Ashokji only mentions her few songs, focussing more on his wide range of other female singers. He consciously chooses less familiar songs as a prudent policy.

Many readers have rightly observed that SoY is blessed with very generous guest writers. We are all lucky. Thank you Ashokji for your guest article. – AK)

Hemant Kumar (16-6-1920 | 26-9-1989) had already shown flare for music composition from his early childhood. Even though his formal career commenced as a singer, his talents as a composer also did not have to wait longer to get formal recognition. Of course, in so far as Hindi Films is concerned, the first ever film for which he got to compose the music was a decade after he sang his first film Song. He then went on to compose music for 50+ films for the next 27 years.

(Note: Many sites mention film ‘Irada’ (1944) as his debut as a singer in Hindi films. However, it is now generally accepted that his first song was ‘Aankhon ki oat jo rahta tha’ in the film ‘Meenakshi’ (1942). – AK)

Hemant Kumar’s start as music director in Anand Math (1952) was on a reasonably high note. It soon reached peak with Nagin (1954) and Shart (1954). Both these films had excellent run on box office mainly on the backing of the songs of the film. Hemant Kumar then continued to score at least one musical hit for every two or three films for which he scored the music, irrespective of the box office outcome of the film. As it happens with majority of the film songs, the songs from the films that did well on the box office had longer recall value in the minds of the listeners. These are the songs that have cemented the image of Hemant Kumar as the composer in our minds.

The full spectrum of Hemant Kumar’s range as a composer has five distinct shades of grey – his solo songs in his own voice, his songs in the voice of female singers, his solo songs in the voice of other male singers, his own duets and his duets in the voice of other singers.

Presently, we will take up the segment of Hemant Kumar’s female songs to explore breadth and depth of Hemant Kumar’s compositions

In terms of singers, the solo songs of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Geeta Dutt, in that order, occupy more that 80% of the female-singers spectrum of Hemant Kumar’s compositions. He mostly used Lata Mangeshkar as his lead singer when he did not use Geeta Dutt. Quantitatively and qualitatively, he still had enough room for using Asha Bhosle’s talent fully. This heavy skew in the distribution of the female solo songs led me to explore Hemant Kumar’s musically less successful films to dig out songs of the other female singers. In the process, I had excellent opportunity to listen to many forgotten Lata/Geeta or Asha songs from these films as well.

These deep-sea explorations have resulted into a several large catches of songs of these three singers. I, therefore, have luxury to choose from the less heard songs of the less remembered films to present a different perspective of the rich legacy of repertoire of Hemant Kumar’s female song compositions.

Lata Mangeshkar

Like his other contemporary Bengali music directors, SD Burman or Salil Chowdhury, in the Hindi Film world of that period Lata Mangeshkar was the clear first choice of Hemant Kumar. The natural melody of the Lata Mangeshkar’s voice was a logical and obvious choice for the soft Bengali tone of these music directors.

SoY has extensively covered Hemant Kumar’s best Lata Mangeshkar songs earlier. So, I have picked up only one song from an early film and another one from his one of the last films, to present as encompassing range as possible of Hemant Kumar’s female songs.

1. Kahan se le ke aayi hain kahan majburiyan meri….. Meri taqdir ke mailk mera kuchh faisala kar de – Shart 1954 – Lyrics: SH Bihari

The song opens with a couplet that epitomises the helplessness of the protagonist. Hemant Kumar deploys short pieces of violin ensemble that accentuates the mood of pathos of the song.

2. Mitwa re bhul gaye the rahein mitwa – Rahgir (1969) – Lyrics: Gulzar

This song also renders the mood of pathos – caused by the separation of the lovers. Hemant Kumar has used high scales of shehnai in the interlude, to immediately follow the line wherein chorus also joins the song. The song is classic Gulzar poetry which is always a challenge for the music director. However, Hemant Kumar’s natural bent for melody returns with a complex, and yet a melodious composition.

Geeta Dutt

Hemant Kumar used Geeta Dutt as lead female voice in his maiden film Anand Math (1952) – 6 songs. He then used her voice as lead singer in only Laalten (1956) – 6 songs; Police (1958) – 6 songs and of course, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1960) – 3 songs. He kept using her off and on, in solos or duets, in films like Ferry (1954) – 2 songs; Samrat (1954) – 2 songs; Shart (1954) – 2 songs; Bahu (1955) – 3 songs; Bhagwat Mahima (1955) – 1 song; Arab Ka Suadagar (1956) – 2 songs; Bandi (1957) – 3 songs; Ek Jalak (1957) 2 songs; Hill Station (1957) – 2 songs; Miss Mary (1957) – 1 song; Hum Bhi Insaan Hain (1959) – 3 songs; and Duniya Jhukti Hai (1960) – 1 song. If some of the songs are remembered even today, some were lost quickly.

3. Aa re bhanvare aa, maheki meri man ki bagiya – Anand Math (1952) – Lyrics: Shailendra

Since Geeta Bali seems to be on an espionage or a luring mission into the British camps, she resorts to amorous gestures, matching her singing to her physical movements. Geeta Dutt supports such gyrations with matching variations of her singing. Hemant Kumar has so vividly woven an earthy folk-based composition with the situation.

4. Rangili rangili chhabili rani nindiya, aa mere raja ki ankhiyo mein aa – Ferry (1954) – Lyrics: Rajendra Krishna

Hemant Kumar sets the lullaby to a soothing, soft orchestration.

5. Agar pyar mein muskuraaye na hote – Laalten (1956) – Lyrics: Kaif Irfani

Hemant Kumar has set Geeta Dutt’s voice to a tone that exudes pathos, and then goes on to support that with short pieces of orchestrations.

6. Koi door se awaaz de, chale aao, chale aao – Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) – Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni

After the success of Bees Saal Baad (1960), Hemant Kumar and Shakeel Badayuni again team up here. The deep-from-the-memory, haunting, softly echoing, sound of the song in the voice of Chhoti Bahu draws Guru Dutt to the place where he finds the bangles of the Chhoti Bahu. The film goes into flashback. (@.4.14 to 5.38 of the film soundtrack). The short, soft, sounds of violin in the background in the following frames speak volumes for Hemant Kumar’s creativity as a composer.

Incidentally, it is in this opening that the Hindi version dramatically differs from the Bengali version of the film.

The present song returns at the end of the film to encapsulate the haunting melancholy of the loneliness of Chhoti Bahu.

Asha Bhosle

Asha Bhosle, technically for the most part, did not enjoy the status of a lead singer in Hemant Kumar’s scheme of things. But Hemant Kumar has always done full justice to the range of her voice, in terms of number of songs that he gave to Asha Bhosle, as well in terms of variety of the music content. As a result many of Hemant Kumar-Asha Bhosle songs, like De di humein aazadi bina khadag bina dhal (Jagriti, 1954), Yaad rakhana pyar ki nishani gori yaad rakhana (Nagin, 1954), Sakhi ri sun bole papiha us paar (Miss Mary, 1957) or Bhnwara bada naadan and Saaqiya aaj mujhe nend nahi ayegi (Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, 1962) are placed in her most respected songs.

I have selected a few representative songs here, as a sample of the wide range of Hemant Kumar’s Asha Bhosle songs.

7. Chalo chale maa, sapno ke gaon mein – Jagriti (1954) – Lyrics: Pradeepji

This is a twin version song. The first version has strong undercurrent of hope of good tidings to come. Hemant Kumar has epitomised the high hopes by setting the opening scale of each stanza on a high note. The second version has pensive pathos mood. He reframes the initial high notes of the stanza by extending them over the whole line.

8. Bade bhaiya layen hain London se chhori, dila do hamein bhi dulhan gori gori – Ek Hi Rasta (1956) – Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri

Hemant Kumar conjures a beauty in the form of a children’s song. He seems to have taken all care to use only those instruments that are mostly seen being used on the screen in the song. Hisingenuity as a composer is evidenced in the second stanza, wherein the song switches over to qawwali style singing because the lyrics talk about the Baarat (bridegroom’s marriage procession). The transition from qawwali back to the original marching rhythm is also very deftly managed @ 3.39.

An interesting Trivia : @1.00 to 1.05 we get to listen a piece on harmonica which is the theme of another great Hemant–Lata duet from the film – Sanwale salone aaye din bahar Ke.

We fast-forward to the later part of the Hemant Kumar’s musical filmography.

9. Bin badal barsat na hogi – Bin Badal Barsat (1963) – Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni

Hemant Kumar has chosen to base the composition of this dance song on a folk tune, but the interlude orchestration has all the elements of a mystery-film song, since there seems to be some hidden story that connects the protagonist (Nishi) on the dance floor with the key spectator– Biswajeet. Asha Bhosle’s delivery of the song is also so composed that the elements of mystery and underlying melancholy of the main protagonist’s feelings remain evident.

10. Kyun mujhe itni khushi de di ki ghabarata hai dil – Anupama (1966) – Lyrics: Kaifi Azmi

Here is a dance song staged on the screen as a party song. Hemant Kumar has again successfully used Asha Bhosle’s voice to blend the two moods, one obvious mood of joy, befitting what can be seen on the floor and the other a hidden underlying mood of the protagonist (Shashikala) in sync with lyrics of the song.

Other Female Singers

We now move over to the ‘Long Tail’ of the skewed distribution of Hemant Kumar’s female songs. He has used the ‘other’ known Hindi female playback singers more as an exception. Shamshad Begum has two solos and two FF duets, Sudha Malhotra has one solo, one FF duet and one (an iconic) MF duet that we will take up for discussion separately, and Suman Kalyanpur has two FF duets, and Usha Mangeshkar has two FF duets. Other than these, he has also chosen to experiment with Bengali female playback singers, like Ratna Gupta, Aarti Mukherjee, his wife Bela Mukherjee and his daughter Ranu Mukhrtjee, Bula Gupta etc.

Usha Mangeshkar

Hemant Kumar has used Usha Mangeshkar for FF duets only.

11. Kaisi lagi…..jiya jaye to jiya jaye – Ek Hi Rasta (1956) – with Asha Bhosle – Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri

This is a duet dance song, so typically planned to celebrate special occasions.

Shamshad Begum

Hemant Kumar has used Shamshad Begum for four songs, of which one solo, in ‘Hamara Watan’ (1956) and a duet, with Ravi, from ‘Daku Ki Ladki’ (1954) do not seem to be traceable on the internet.

12. Hum kisi se na kahenge chup chup se rahenge – Yahudi Ki Ladki (1957) – with Geeta Dutt – Lyrics: SH Bihari

The song is set to what has now become familiar as Arabic dance tune (thanks to n-number of films based on stories from that milieu) to the listeners of Hindi film songs. Both the singers have been accorded freedom to sing in their natural range.

13. Pyar jata ke lalchaye mora balama –- Hum Bhi Insaan Hai (1959) – Lyrics: Shailendra

This seems to a mujra-styled dance song. Shamshad Begum is her at vintage best, even in 1959.

Sudha Malhotra

14. Mujhe tarke taaluk ke liye samjhaya jaata hai – Sahara (1958) – Lyrics: Bharat Vyas

Hemant Kumar has so easily been able to present a signature mujra song – with prominent tabla thaaps (beats), beginning of the stanza without the support of any instruments and of course the use of most ubiquitous instrument of a mujra music – the sarangi.

Suman Kalyanpur

Suman Kalyanpur is present in only two FF duets. Both are perfectly composed FF duets, but have differently blended the inherent vocal qualities of different singers in the respective songs.

15. Kabhi aaj kabhi kal kabhi parason – Chand (1959) – with Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Shailendra

The song appears to be a public dance stage show. As such, both the performers are expected to move and sing in perfect synchronisation. Hemant Kumar has achieved this synchronization in the vocal part of the song by perfectly blending almost similar sounding voices of Lata Mangeshkar and Suman Kalyanpur. (This duet was first discovered by Mumbaikar8 on this blog. – AK)

16. Phulwa band maheke dekho daali daali – Hum Bhi Insaan Hain (1959) – with Geeta Dutt – Lyrics: Shailendra

Shailendra has captured the two points of view of friends in the song, who seem to be visiting the flower garden – both see different hues in the same settings. Hemant Kumar has enlivened this effect by using two naturally different voices – those of Geeta Dutt and Suman Kalyanpur.

Ratna Gupta

Ratna Gupta was the wife of film director, Hemen Gupta. She has rendered songs only in the films which Hemen Gupta had directed, viz. Bhuli Nai (1948) in Bengali and Ferry (1954) and Taksaal (1956; Music by Roshan) in Hindi.

17. Yehi hai mere sapnon ka sansar – Ferry (1954) – Lyrics: Rajinder Krishna

Geeta Bali, with her two children, is on a joy tour to her beautiful world of dreams. Ratna Gupta’s pleasant Bengali-intoned voice adds to the refreshing charm of the situation.

The song also has a sad twin version.

In the clip here, we get to hear a soft call of a boatmen to keep pushing the boat – the metaphor for the life – in the voice of Hemant Kumar. The main song is composed in a high scale, to reflect the anguish of Geeta Bali as the moments of her past happy family life flash in her memory.

Kamal Barot and Neelima Chatterjee

We have one more just one-off experiment in so far as use of these two singers is concerned.

18. Main laal laal muchkoon – Majhli Didi (1967) – with Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Neeraj

The song is a children’s song, based on quiz game. Kamal Barot sings lines for a child artist who we can now recognise as Baby Sarika. Neelima Chatterjee sings for a boy, identified as Master Khalid.

Ranu Mukherjee

Hemant Kumar has used Ranu Mukherje’s voice in different moods, in different situations, at different stages of her age.

19. Nani teri morni ko mor le gaye – Masoom 1960 – Lyrics: Sahir Ludhyanavi

Ranu Mukherjee must be five/six years old when the song would have been recorded. So, the natural childlike discordant notes in her voice can be felt, but otherwise this is as virtuoso performance as any professional would have rendered!

20. Mera qatil haseen jee qatil javan qatil hai – Farar (1965) – Lyrics: Kaifi Azmi

This is the mother of all scoops. Just five years after that childlike innocent song, Ranu Mukherjee comes up with this full-fledged western club song, in an equally virtuoso performance.

21. Ab to muskuraiye, muskuraiye zara, aapki sharatein gul khila chukeen – Do Dooni Chaar (1968) – Lyrics: Gulzar

Hemant Kumar’s bag of scoops has still more surprises. Three more years down the line, and Ranu Mukherjee now comes up trumps as a lead singer – in a film that is pure comedy, giving playback to a vivacious, mischievous sister-in-law character enacted in such a lively style by Tanuja, and to enliven the lyrics of Gulzar with that correct throw of a word.

Ranu Mukherjee had two more, equally interesting, solos in the film.

Asides Trivia for the records: Gulzar seemed to have made up his mind to remake this film which was made under the banner of Bimal Roy Productions, inspired from Shakespeare’s play, ‘Comedy of Errors ‘. He went to onto make a classic, in the form of Angoor (1982).

Bela Mukherjee

It should be redundant to state that Bela Mukherjee is the wife of Hemant Kumar and quite a singer on her own. Hemant Kumar has used her voice for just a handful songs which at best can be classified as special situation songs.

22. Ae Deendayal daya do humein – Farar (1965) – Lyrics: Kaifi Azmi

This is a school prayer song. Hemant Kumar has deftly used the voice of Bela Mukherjee for a boy.

Bula Gupta

There is reference to a name Bula as ‘Baby Bula’ in Ferry (1954). Knowledgeable co-bloggers had identified her as the daughter of the director of that film Hemen Gupta. In fact, there is mention of a child duet song in that film, wherein this Baby Bula has joined Master Jayant (Hemant Kumar’s son). If we put two and two together, this Bula Gupta seems to be the same person, now a young lady.

23. Jaam utha ke tod ke tauba pi – Us Raat Ke Baad (1970) – Lyrics: Gulzar

Hemant Kumar has persisted with experimenting with Bengali singers to sing ‘special’ songs. He has blended the use of mid-east string instruments with western instruments in the orchestration.

Aarti Mukherjee

Aarti Mukherjee is a trained singer, who has worked as playback singers more in Bengali films than Hindi films.

24. Billi bajaye baja, gaye chuhiyon ka raaja, naache bandariya lahenga dal ke – Sahara (1958) – with Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Bharat Vyas

After Aarti Mukherjee won the All-India Murphy Metro Music contest held in Mumbai, in 1957, this is her reward. She was in school in those days, so she gets to sing for the child artist in this song.

25. Do do pankh laga ke panchi banenge – Rahgeer (1969) – with chorus – Lyrics: Gulzar

It seems the song may have been rendered by some character in the adolescent age on the screen.

Hemant Kumar’s female songs has so many shades that one article by any one person will never be able to do full justice to the subject. If I were to do this article once again, even I may choose some other songs over what I have chosen here. There is always hope for that next time.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer:
The song videos have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over these songs which vests in the respective owners, such as Saregama India Limited and others.

The post Hemant Kumar’s Female Playback Singers first appeared on Songs Of Yore.