Subhash K Jha turns the focus to the chartbusting songs in Prakash Mehra’s myriad of excellent films.
1. ‘Bekhudi mein sanam utth gaye jo Kadam’ (Haseena Maan Jayegi): Prakash Mehra’s first directorial starred not Amitabh Bachchan but Shashi Kapoor. And it was a superhit. The songs by Kalyanji-Anandji played a large hand in its success. This dulcet Lata-Rafi duet has lingered in music lovers’ minds and hearts forever and a day. Says Anandji, “Prakash Mehra and us, my brother Kalyanji and I, worked closely together. Even before we did the music for his first directorial venture Haseena Maan Jayegi, we worked with him when he was an assistant to filmmaker Mohan Segal. Tab se hum saath mein rahe. Ek tuning ban gayi thi… We had a good rapport. Prakash Mehra also wrote some songs for us in Purnima. And when he turned producer with Zanjeer, we did the music. After that we did Haath Ki Safaai, Khoon Paseena, Hera Pheri, Lawaaris and of course the musical hit Muqaddar Ka Sikandar.”
2. ‘Wada karle sajana’ (Haath Ki Safai): Another non-Bachchan blockbuster from Prakash Mehra in the early part of his filmmaking career. The crime caper is best remembered for this achingly sweet duet with piano interludes that plough through the melody, yielding a harvest of emotions. Lataji once told me that among her duets with Mohammed Rafi, this was a public favourite. Interestingly, the duet was not filmed on the superstar leading lady of Haath Ki Safai, Hema Malini, but on Simi Garewal.
3.’Rut hai milan ki’ (Mela): Another pre-Bachchan blockbuster from Prakash Mehra where he extracted magical melodies from the irrepleacable R D Burman. Interestingly all the male vocals in this dacoit drama featuring real-life brothers Feroz and Sanjay Khan were by Mohammed Rafi. The stand-out number was the seductive ’Rut hai milan ki saathi mere aa re, mujhe Kahin le chal baahon ke sahaare’… Sanjay Khan’s son Zayed once told me he wished he got to act to this timeless melody.
4. ‘Kaanta laga’ (Samadhi): Prakash Mehra and R D Burman again, and what a blockbuster song! The favourite of all remixers ‘Kanta laga’ is the single-most beloved song of Lataji from Prakash Mehra’s cinema. Ideally, RD should have given this number to Asha Bhosle and another solo from Samadhi, ‘Jab tak rahe tann mein jiya’ to Lataji. But the swap was a gamble that paid off.
5. ‘Yaari hai imaan mera’ (Zanjeer): Kalyanji-Anandji , and what a Qawwalli! Pran, on whom the number was filmed, regarded it as his signature song. Mr. Bachchan, who had no songs to sing in Zanjeer, once told me he wished he had lip-synced this Qawwali. Says Anandji, “My brother Anandji loved composing Qawwalis. The ones in Qurbani and Zanjeer topped our list of favorites.”
6. ‘Mere angne mein tumhara kya kaam kya hai’ (Laawaaris):A folk song that would have gone unsung had Prakash Mehra not insisted on getting Amitabh Bachchan to sing it. Says Mr Bachchan, “I used to sing Rang barse and Mere angne mein at all the Holi get-togethers at our house. That’s where Yashji (Yash Chopra) and Prakashji (Prakash Mehra) heard these songs, included them into Silsila and Lawaaris and asked me to sing them. So I am in no way instrumental in getting these songs into the movies.” The female version of the tandem was also a huge hit. It made Alka Yagnik’s career.
7. ‘Pag Ghungroo’ (Namak Halaal): If one cannot imagine Zanjeer without the Bachchan baritone, one cannot imagine Prakash Mehra’s Namak Halaal without the song ‘Pag ghungroo’. For Namak Halaal, Mehra let go of his permanent musical partners Kalyanji-Anandji for the trendier Bappi Lahiri . ‘Pag ghungroo’ was shot by Prakash Mehra in an 11-minute sequence, the longest song sequence in a Hindi film. Kishore Kumar sang ‘Pag ghungroo’ as only he could. He rightly won the Filmfare award for his vocals.
8. ‘Inteha ho gayi intezaar ki’ (Sharaabi): Bappi, Mehra, and Bachchan came together for another musical blockbuster Sharaabi, a blatantly plagiarized version of the Dudley Moore hit Arthur. But the songs , ironically, were original, although Bappi was known to be insanely inspirational. Kishore’s romance-drenched solo hit all the right notes.
