Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav in the series of centenary tributes to Hemant Kumar (b. 16 June 1920 – d. 26 September 1989)

(Hemant Kumar’s centenary celebration was set off with an excellent article by N Venkataraman, ‘Hemantayan Part 1’, in which he wrote about his family origin, early life, and his career up to 1960. Venkataramanji would write his second and last part on Hemant Kumar’s Remembrance Day, 26 September, covering his post-1960 career.

Ashok M Vaishnav has a great interest in delving deep into film songs and present micro-analysis on various parameters. He very kindly offered to supplement Venkataramanji’s two-part overview with some articles going into Hemant Kumar’s career on various parameters in greater detail. Ashokji’s first article in the series was on Hemant Kumar’s female playback singers. in his second article he covers his male singers. This article is another evidence of Ashokji’s perseverance in going deep and wide.

Ashokji is an engineer by profession. After retirement, he is engaged in management training. I thank him for his efforts to make this series of tribute so befitting the respect Hemant Kumar commands. – AK)

Every time the topic of Hemant Kumar’s Hindi Film songs in male voice comes up, the discussion usually gets marooned in the question – was he a great composer who also sang well or was he a great singer who also made some memorable music?

This article essentially is a part of the overall portrait of Hemant Kumar as a music director. Therefore, it is incumbent of the spirit of the article that we remain focussed on the first part of the question only and leave the answer to the second part to the judgement of the readers.

The distribution curve of Hemant Kumar’s male solo song compositions is, perhaps naturally, skewed towards his own songs. However, as a music director, he seemed to be aware of the needs of the situation of the song and those of the market forces while choosing to use the voice of other male playback singers for his male songs.

Talat Mahmood and Mukesh, being nearer his own voice quality, he does not seem to have felt need for solo songs in these voices. Also, Hemant Kumar did not get to compose music for the films for those heroes for whom these voices would have been the order of the day. The case of use Manna Dey appears to be beyond discussion in an article like this, in the absence of availability of any major back-up, and dependable reasoning. In any case, Manna Dey was getting almost a similar treatment in the industry. We need to rest with the fact that he was used, very, sparingly.

As such, the tail of Hemant Kumar’s male solo compositions remains skewed in favour of Mohammad Rafi, and then to a lesser degree with Kishore Kumar.

For the purpose of our article, we shall stick to basic tenet that a music director knows which voice would do justice to his composition. Our role is here to cast our net wide across the breadth of Hemant Kumar compositions in the films for which he was music director and dig out all possible male songs on the table. Once done, the selection of songs is filtered such that picture that emerges, presents us a very representative retrospective of the range of Hemant Kumar as a music director.

Hemant Kumar

Hemant Kumar’s compositions in Hemant Kumar’s own voice would easily call for a special, stand-alone, wholesome treatment to have the complete picture over different moods, for different actors and for the lyrics penned by different lyricists. Presently, I have selected songs from three different periods, in three different moods.

1. Dil chhed koi aisa nagma, geeton mein zamana kho jaaye – Inspector (1956) – Lyrics: Rajendra Krishna

This is a song of pensive mood. Hemant Kumar’s soft, baritone voice ideally suits to such moods. The song has a twin Lata Mangeshkar version as well. The video clip here has both versions.

2. Sawan mein barkha sataye pal pal chin chin barse – Biwi Aur Makaan (1966) – Lyrics: Gulzar

Here is a song that is sheer romance, expressing a strong feeling for belonging with the beloved one when it is raining. The throw of lyric – Sawan mein – at the very beginning of the song, or scaling up the up the delivery of lyrics midway in each stanza, present the creativity of Hemant Kumar as music director as well as his flexibility in singing as a singer.

3. Tumhare nain dekh ke suna hai log jogi ho gaye – Rahgeer (1969) – Lyrics: Gulzar

The poem composed by Gulzar, with long, narrative stanzas, would be a challenge to a music director to yield a melodious song. For a singer also to sing all these lines without loss of breath is equally an imposing challenge. Hemant Kumar, in the dual role of the music director and the singer, has so deftly handled the challenge.

Mohammad Rafi

Hemant Kumar’s choice of Mohammad Rafi as the second highest male singer after himself is ample testimony of his true roleplay of a music director. Hemant Kumar’s solo song compositions in Mohammad Rafi’s voice also is a subject for a separate, full-fledged analysis, as he has used Rafi’s voice from lead actors to character actors; from romantic songs to comedy songs to pathos moods songs to pensive songs, set to a wide range of situations.

4. Paase sabhi ulat gaye, dushman ki chaal ke…..Hum laaye hain toofan se kashti nikal ke – Jagriti (1954) – Lyrics: Pradeepji

Being a patriotic song, the initial couplets open on high scale, gradually coming down to the regular singing scale. The tone of the delivery is that of firmness of conviction of a loving, soft-natured, teacher. This is the tone in which the main song begins. As the song progresses, the message keeps on being more and more intense. Topics like atom bombs reflect the heightened concerns. When it reaches @3.50, the teacher tells his wards that the time is now ripe to stop dreaming the idealism or live in the luxuries, as now is the time to go in for a quantum jump to touch the highest of ambition, of firmly and positively unfurling the tricolour of an independent nation from the top of Himalayas all over the world. As can be expected, anyone will be carried away with these emotions. Song suddenly jumps up in scale, remains there till the message is clear, and then returns to its normal flow. Pradeepji has so clearly spelt out the message in his meaningful, crisp lyrics, Hemant Kumar has weaved in the mood of the song at every stage of the song. And who else could do full justice to such a song, other than the versatile Mohammad Rafi!

5. Ab mori binati suno bhagwan – Taj (1956) – Lyrics: Rajendra Krishna

This is a prayer song, which has the earnestness in the base tone of the song, but as the new stanza begins, there is a sense of heightened urgency in the request. In the end, this request reaches a crescendo. Since he himself has rendered the other songs, Hemant Kumar seems to have specifically chosen Rafi for this song. Mohammad Rafi very naturally handles these variations.

6. Phoolon se dosti hai kanto se yaari hai, aise majhe ke pyare zindagi hamari hai – Duniya Jhukati Hai (1957) – Lyrics; Rajendra Krishna

This is one of the famous ‘tonga songs’ in Hindi films. Hemant Kumar has very innovatively composed interlude orchestration pieces. Today when I see the video clip, I note that Sunil Dutt is wearing a loud-striped T-shirt. In those days striped T-shirt was dress code for small-time ‘gunda’ or mawaali’ (ruffians or scamps) characters on the silver screen! One may even recall that David was shown wearing such a T-shirt in Boot Polish’ (1954), probably to epitomise that people who live in that kind of surroundings always have indecent ways of living. The film then goes on disprove this belief.

7. Woh kaun si mushkil hai jo na ho sake aasaan – Ma Beta (1962) – Lyrics: Prem Dhawan

Other music directors have often chosen Hemant Kumar’s baritone voice as background song. The song here is about the underlying confidence to overcome the present adversities. Hemant Kumar easily opts to choose Rafi for his capability to express such feelings even when singing at a lower scale. And once again, as Rafi has been called into the play, why not take the advantage of scaling higher notes to express the surge in confidence!

8. Ye mard bade dil sard bade, chalo ji maana, mardon ka phir bhi ghulam hai zamana – Miss Mary (1957) – Lyrics: Rajendra Krishna

Miss Mary, a remake of Misamma in Telugu or Missiamma in Tamil, was a light mood film. It was one of the big box-office grossers in those days. Its songs had also become extremely popular. Hemant Kumar has very deftly made subtle changes in the composition, as compared to the original Telugu or more or less similar Tamil version, which has made the song very melodious while retaining its comedy elements. As a result, it looks more natural that Jamuna could have been induced to dance at the music while relishing the delivery of satire in the lyrics!

9. Mareez-e-ishq hoon ae jaan-e-man meri dua lena – Bin Badal Barsaat (1963) – Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni

Under regular circumstances, this could have been a poem recital, but here we have a signature Mehmood comedy song, with all the strappings of Rafi – scaling high scales at the beginning of each stanza and then reverting back to the normal scale, or some choice words, like Mareez-e-ishq being delivered in a different style each time it repeats in song.

10. Tera husn rahe mera ishq rahe, to ye subah-o-sham rahe na rahe – Do Dil (1965) – Lyrics: Kaifi Azmi

A song in the praise of the (beauty) of the beloved has emerged as a very distinct genre in the Hindi films. As it so happens, Mohammad Rafi has a virtually a monopolistic presence in this genre.

Prior to Do Dil, Biswajeet has had a string of films under other banners, wherein it was Mohammad Rafi who was his playback voice. Songs from those films had been quite successful too. That, perhaps, has weighed in the use of Mohammad Rafi for all Biswajeet songs in this film!

Kishore Kumar

All the songs that Hemant Kumar composed in Kishore Kumar’s voice were for the films wherein Kishore Kumar was also acting. The only exception is Woh shaam kuchh ajeeb thi (Khamoshi, 1969- Lyrics: Gulzar), where Kishore Kumar comes in as Rajesh Khanna’s default playback voice.

I have selected three songs here, each representing a different mood, each one representing three different phases of Hemant Kumar’s career in Hindi films as music director.

11. Ek roz humari bhi daal galegi – Bandi (1957) – Lyrics: Rajendra Krishna

The opening lines follow a parody form of popular folk lyrics, Kishore Kumar freely improvising his frustrating progress with cooking the food. The couplet ends with Kishore Kumar’s signature style of parodying of some of the classics, KL Saigal’s Panchhi kaahe hote udaas in the present case. The song then moves in, providing enough space to Kishore Kumar’s antics.

12. Aaj rona pada to samjhe, hansne ka mol kya hai – Girl Friend (1961) – Lyrics: Sahir Ludhyanvi

The song ranks as one the Kishore Kumar classics. Composed with minimal orchestration support, the composition fully brings into play the beauty of Kishore Kumar’s vocal cords.

13. Hawaaon pe likh do hawaaon ke naam – Do Dooni Chaar (1968) – Lyrics: Gulzar

The prelude to the song, mainly in the form of base-tone humming and slightly-higher-scale short aalaps by Kishore Kumar sets the pensive mood of the song.

Aside trivia: The child artist in the frame @0.57, subsequently shown strolling with goat cub, accompanying Kishor Kumar in the whole song is Baby Neetu Singh.

Manna Dey

Even as Hemant Kumar has used Manna Dey very sparingly, he has fully exploited the flexibility and range of his singing prowess.

14. Ek bade baap ki beti ko kal ghar ke munshi sang, dekha ghul mil batiya karte aur jamaate rang, ki lag gayi aag zamaane ko – Bandi (1957) – Lyrics: Rajendra Krishna

The ‘common men’ are enjoying behind-the-back jibes at ‘bade log’ and their lifestyles. The song is filmed as a street nautanki performance, and Hemant Kumar, too, has composed it as such and then let Manna Dey do the rest of the job.

15. Rahne ko ghar do – Biwi Aur Makaan (1966) – Lyrics: Gulzar

The song seems to be tailor made for Mehmood’s signature theatrics on the screen.

16. Dost kahan koi tumsa, tumsa nahi koi mister – Khamoshi (1969) – Lyrics: Gulzar

This is a typical mandatory song that must be assigned to a comedian in the film. In most the cases, the music directors, lyricists and singers have turned such occasions into presenting a song that, at the minimum, ensures that the public in the cinema hall remains seated during the song.

‘Other’ Male Singers

We now have two songs from two different styled singers. It also so happens that each song belongs to two different generations.

Kavi Pradeep

Pradeepji was essentially a poet, but the beauty is whichever film song is recorded in his voice has become a massive hit.

17. Aao bachcho tumhein dikhayein jhanki Hindustan ki – Jagriti (1954) – Lyrics: Pradeepji

When I look at the song now, I realize how imaginatively the song has been conceived, filmed, composed, and rendered. No wonder, we found the song so enchanting in our school days in the latter half of 1950s.

Yesudas

Yesudas was playback voice for many of the songs filmed on Anmol Palekar on the screen., Probably, hence the choice.

18. Kise khabar kahan dagar jeevan ki le jaaye – Do Ladke Dono Kadke (1979) – Lyrics: Yogesh

This film is produced by Hemant Kumar’s son, Jayanta Mukherjee. Hemant Kumar, the music director, has easily been able to rhyme in with the NextGen singer in the song.

This representative selection of Hemant Kumar’s male solo songs abundantly endorses the tenet that a music director knows whose voice would justice to the composition. For the purpose of the debate of deciding whether Hemant Kumar is a better composer or a better singer, we can always have a couple of more of such samples, in the future.

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 male playback singers first appeared on Songs Of Yore.