Face that launched hundreds of melodies: Tribute to Rajesh Khanna
Rajesh Khanna, the first 'super star' of Hindi films, passed away recently. He was responsible for the pleasant memories of a whole generation. As expected, his passing away made people sad. At the same time it made them nostalgic for those innocent days, when the music was melodious, the singers were titans and then there was the charm and charisma of Rajesh Khanna.
There have always been Director-Music Director, Actor-Music Director combinations which have given great music. RajKapoor-Shankar Jaikishan, Vijay Anand - S D Burman, Hrishikesh Mukherjee - R D Burman in the Dir-MD combo and Dev Anand-S D Burman, Shammi Kapoor - Shankar Jaikishan in the Actor - MD combo come to mind immediately. Similarly Rajesh Khanna - R D Burman - Kishore is what comes to mind immediately when one thinks of Rajesh Khanna. While this trio gave us some extraordinary music, I feel Rajesh Khanna inspired other music directors as well to give him the best. Unlike Raj Kapoor or Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna doesn't seem to have much say in the music of the film. Atleast going by the later record, I am sure the music which happened during Rajesh Khanna's peak period did not have much input from him. Yet, his charisma was such that it led music directors to create some outstanding melodies for him. It was just as if his presence in a movie was enough to bring the best out of the music directors.
To give evidence to this theory of mine, I am going to point to songs which were not composed by R D Burman or S D Burman. For Rajesh Khanna has always been tied to R D Burman and I want to show how even other music directors gave their best for him. Rajesh Khanna's stardom lasted from 1969, when 'Aradhana' was released to till around 1975. Not a long period and yet the songs of that period are indelible in our minds.
Let us start with the film which everyone quoted from, sometimes wrongly calling him 'babu moshai'. (That's not what Rajesh Khanna is called in the film. That's what he calls Amitabh!!). 'Anand' was a huge hit. Music by Salil Chaudary. 'maine tere liye hi'. Here it is not Kishore but Mukesh who is the voice of Rajesh Khanna.
Now let us check how he inspired Kalyanji Anandji. To aid Rajesh Khanna's charisma they came up 'jeevan se bhari tere aankhe', almost matching the greatest song they had composed for 'Saraswati Chandra', "chandan sa badan". Kishore's deep vocals and lovely lyrics by Indivar, make this an everlasting melody. Safar also had that 'zindagi ka safar'. Another unforgettable song.
It is Kishore again, this time under the baton of Hemant Kumar singing the lyrics of Gulzar and creating magic. This Kalyani / Yaman laced melody is a personal favorite of mine. A melancholic song which benefits a lot from the vocals of Kishore Da
Madan Mohan isn't a music director whom you would instinctive associate with Rajesh Khanna. Yet, he came up with some lovely melodies in the movie, 'Bawarchi'. Here is Manna Dey becoming the voice of Rajesh Khanna. As is Madan Mohan's wont, he takes up a relatively rare Kaushik Dhani raga (aka Bhinna Shadaj) and tunes the pallavi in it. The charanam is in Ahir Bhairav (Chakravagam). Not a 'typical' Rajesh Khanna song I would say but an excellent melody nevertheless. This movie also has 'bhor aayi gaya andhiyaara', where Madan Mohan does fusion of sorts
And here are Rajesh and Kishore urging Laxmikanth Pyarelal to give out their best. From the movie 'Mehboob Ki Mehndi', many a times I feel it has a RD Burman touch, especially the pace of the song. (During those times R D Burman was exerting a lot of musical influence, especially in songs meant for Rajesh Khanna.) Lyrics by Anand Bakshi. I love the 'jaane kya maine sun liya, tune kuch kaha nahin'. A fetching Leena Chandravarkar is an added bonus if you watch the song.
A couple of more Laxmikanth Pyarelal songs, which sound very typically like Rajesh-RDB-Kishore songs. Here is this sad song from 'mere naseeb main hai dost' from "Do Raaste". The pace and orchestration are very similar to R D Burman. And if you are an old timer and I tell you the video features Mumtaz, you will obviously watch it immediately.
The next LP song comes from the film 'Daag' and again you will be excused if you thought it was R D Burman melody. Another super hit song from Rajesh Khanna's peak period. Shair's lyrics and Sharmila Tagore with him
Let me close this tribute with a very atypical Rajesh Khanna song. From the movie, 'Aavishkar', lyrics of Kapil Kumar and music by Kanu Roy. It is a very typical soft Bengali melody. Sung by Manna Dey.
All the songs above give a glimpse of what it was musically in the late 60s and early 70s. That was the peak period of R D Burman, Kishore and Rajesh Khanna. They inspired other music directors as well, who came up with some amazing melodies. By late 70s Rajesh Khanna's super stardom was fading. A lanky lad called Amitabh Bachan was taking over. Amitabh could never inspire the music directors like Rajesh Khanna did and the melodies started fading. And Hindi film music went downhill from thereon.
Comments
Woh Shaam kuch Ajeeb thi and Jeevan se bhari are iconic compositions in my opinion.
Rajesh Khanna-RDB-KIshore-Anand Bakshi were the combination those days. And yet, it is amazing to see oher composers pitching in their good form to provide some fine music for his films, atleast till mid 70s.
As I am typing this, i see on TV, indian idol contestants paying tribute to Rajesh Khanna by singing Zindagi ka safar, hai yeh kaisa safar... and I cant sop wondering about the days when they made music with so much soul-involvement, be it composer or lyricist or singer. Those days are gone!
and irony is that Anu Malik is sitting there as a judge :-)
Yes, Kanu Roy's song is lovely. It does have some faithful followers though not too many in number.
Without doubt, RDB-Kishore-Kaka was the best combination. When you point out movies like 'Amar Prem', 'Mere Jeevan Sathi', 'Namak Haram', 'Aap Ki Kasam', 'Baharon Ke Sapne', 'The Train' and 'Apna Desh' who can even argue? Beyond doubt RDB and Kishore had a huge hand in making of Rajesh Khanna.
While we do get a song or two which is good nowadays, it is difficult to get songs with such soul-involvement as you say. And Anu Malik judging them, what can you say? You have to face the reality of the reality shows :)
You missed out a few gems by Khayyam for Rajesh Khanna's movies
1) "Aur kuchh der tehar" - from Aakhri Khat, supposed to be Rajesh Khanna's first movie. Sung by Rafi
2) 2 nice duets from "Thodi si Bewafaai" - Hazaar raahein and Aankhon mein humne aap ke.. though I'm not sure if they were picturized on Rajesh Khanna.
Cheers,
Ramki.
For the of completeness RD should have been included.
Snehal
I did not give the 'Todisi Bewafai' numbers because though I like them, they came long after Rajesh Khanna had lost his aura. The 'Aakri Khat' number I did not give because his true super stardom did not start till 'Aradhana'. Wanted to concentrate on how 'Aradhana's song and Rajesh Khanna's image from that had a bearing on his later day songs.
Baskar,
Thanks for the comment. Why do you feel it was written in a hurry?
Your observation is right. The more individualistic music directors like SalilDa and Madanmohan left their imprint and did not toe the standard line of those days. Hence they sound so different from the other songs.
As Kamal says in his comments, the RDB songs are being listed and run on TV regularly. So I avoided it here and wanted to explore only a small theory, as to how Rajesh Khanna had inspired other music directors of those days and also the impact of RDB-Kishore on other music directors who tuned for Rajesh Khanna. I must confess that on mail also I had people saying that they were missing the RDB songs but that was deliberate decision.
I will probably post one full article on RDB-Kishore-Rajesh Khanna trio at a later date.
It is a big coincidence. In my website krishnaprema, I posted 4 audios of non-Burman and Rajesh Khanna combination( 2 from Kalyanji and 2 from Salil da), 1 each from Rafi,Mukesh,Kishore and Manna. With LP, Aan Milo Sazna is there and With KA, Sachhaa Jhootaa.Khayyam did his best for RK, the film being the first for RK. Surprisingly, RK has an 'A-fator' Anand,Aap ki kasam, Aan milo sazna,Akhri khat,Aradhana,etc. Hence the name of his house is also called 'Aashirwaad'.
You have made a point that after Rajesh Khanna's peak days, Hindi music went South. However, during the late 70s and early 80s, Sanjeev Kumar and his semi-parallel cinema did have some good music. I agree that Amitabh's films had his voice (not much focus on great playback voices :-)).
Anyway, I am glad the music literally went true South - with Ilayaraja taking full control of melodies after that.
Cheers
RN
Saw the songs in your website. and coincidentally I could see we have put up a couple of songs the same.
Oh, I didn't realize about the 'A' factor !! It is very similar to Vishwanatha's fascination with movie titles starting with 'S' and Bharathiraja's fascination for 'R' as the starting name for his heroines.
Thanks for the comments.
Nice word play on 'South' :D Yes, there were the Sanjeev Kumar, Hrishkesh Mukherjee, Gulzar type which kept us alive till Bappi Lahari became a 'hit'. Then there was no salvation :)