Hemant Mukherjee famously known as Hemant Kumar was a brilliant singer, composer, and producer in the Hindi and Bengali film industry.  His music career began with All India Radio (AIR) in 1933, when he was barely 13! He was born on June 16, 1920 in Benares (Varanasi). Throughout his career, he recorded around 2000 songs! Out of which, many songs were composed also by him. Hemant Kumar was blessed with an intense and passionate voice. He understood music, and therefore sang some of the most iconic numbers which have set a benchmark in Hindi film industry.  Listen to his songs just by closing your eyes, the songs take you in a different world…..his velvety voice is captivating.

Please note that the famous song ‘bande Mataram’ from film Anand Math, written by Bankim Chandra, sung by Lata Mangeshkar was composed by Hemant Kumar!

He was the voice of film star Dev Anand before Rafi and Kishore Kumar. He sang 12-13 songs for Music Director S.D.Burman and all were very popular and all of these songs were picturised on the super charming hero Dev Anand “Hai apna Dil to Awara…”, “Na Yeh Chand Hoga, Na Taare Rahenge…” or “Yeh Raat Ye Chandini Phir Kahan…”, “Na Tum Hame Jano Na Hum Tumhe Jaane…”. The famous Bengali film star Uttam Kumar used to demand that Hemant Kumar should be his voice on screen and he should be the music composer of his films. Both Uttam Kumar- Hemant Kumar made a successful actor-composer /singer pair.

Another facet of Hemant Kumar’s life was that he was studying engineering, but dropped out of engineering college to pursue his passion for music, both singing and composing. He learnt music from several teachers: the major portion of his training seems to have been under Sailesh Duttagupta.  He also studied under Phani Banerjee, and received his training in Rabindra Sangeet under Anadi Dastidar.  Much later, he even learnt music from Faiyaz Khan.

Close your eyes and listen to these melodious numbers, few of them are duets.

1. Yeh raat, yeh chandani phir kahan (Jaal) 1952 MD S.D.Burman

2. Yaad kiya dil ne kahan ho tum (Patita) 1953  MD Shankar Jaikishan

3. Muzko tum jo mile yeh jahan mil gaya (Detective) 1958 Music Director Mukul Roy

4. Neend na muzko aye (Post Box 999) 1958 Kalyanji Anandji

5. Tumhe yaad hoga, Kbhi hum mile the (Satta Bazar) 1959 Kalyanji Anandji

5. Leheron pe lehar (Chabilee) 1960 Snehal Bhatkar (Vasudev Gangaram Bhatkar gave music by pseudo name Snhal Bhatkar to avoid any breach in contract while officially working for HMV, the name was derived from his newly-born daughter, Snehlata)

7. Gumsum sa ye jahan (Duniya Zukati Hai) 1960 Hemant Kumar

8. Bekarar karke hume yun na jaiye (Bees Saal bad) 1962 Hement Kumar

9. Zara Nazaron se kahedo ji (Bees saal bad) 1962 Hemant Kumar

10. Tum Pukar lo (Khamoshi) 1969 Hemant Kumar

Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosale, Suman Kalyanpur, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Mukesh have been the magnificent pillars of our Hindi film;  their invaluable contribution to playback-singing  is eternal. Their singing has laid the foundation of the ‘Golden era’ of Hindi cinema. This was the era when melody reigned supreme and songs formed an integral and inseparable part of our films. Music directors such as Salil Chowdhary, S.D.Burman, Kalyanji-Anandji, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Roshan gave unmatched music to lyricists such as Pradeep, Bharat Vyas, Sahir Ludhiyanvi, Kaifi Azmi, Sahilendra, Majruh Sultanpuri and many more lyricists penned songs of various human emotions, abundance in nature, human life cycle, flowers, birds, sunrise, sunset, rives, hills, mountains, seasons and so much more. The singers, music directors and lyricists together gave us several incomparable solos and many remarkable duets which are set in in the psyche of every person.

Often in our films one song has been sung by two different playback singers and is woven into the narrative in such a way that they appear at different times in the course of the film depending on the story and the mood of the characters involved. The title song of ‘Raat Aur Din’ (1967) has been heard on radio more in  Lata’s voice than in Mukesh’s and has never lagged behind the male  version. Similarly, Rimzim gire sawan from film Manzil is a twin song sung by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar. There are many classic twin songs sung by both male and by female playback singers. These songs are normally used in Hindi Films with an intention to express similar-sounding sentiments under different circumstances. When two singers sing the same song with little differences may be in tune or lyrics here and there people do lot of comparison in terms of who sang it better….. At times the versions differed – one sad and one happier. In some songs the male version sounds superior while in some the female version sounds better. I give here below five twins – evergreen dual songs:

Rangoli (1962) ‘Choti si ye duniya,pehchaane raaste hain…’

Kishore Kumar gets to sing the happy version while Lata Mangeshkar sings the sad version. Once again, it was Kishore Kumar’s version which hit the popularity charts. Sad version or happy version, Kishore’s magic was unbeatable.

Baat Ek Raat ki (1962) Na tum hume jano, na hum tume jane

This song is sung very melodiously by Hemant Kumar picturised on Dev Anand and by Suman Kalyanpur picturised on Vahida Rehman. Till date this song is considered a timeless cult classic an evergreen beautiful romantic song.

Hum sab ustad hain (1965)  ‘Ajnabi tum jaane pehchaane se…’

In this song, Kishore Kumar gets to sing the sad version thus adding a lot of pathos to his emotions while Lata Mangeshkar’s version is breezier and obviously sung in happier times. But the beautiful tune composed by the duo of Laxmikant-Pyarelal  stands out in Kishore’s voice so much so that for years people were not even aware of the female version.

Chiraag (1969) ‘Teri aankhon ke siva…’

While the happy version is sung by Rafi where Sunil Dutt describes the beauty of Asha Parekh’s eyes, the sad version is sung by Lata after Asha Parekh loses her eyesight in a tragic way. In this song, Rafi’s version became more famous.

Manzil (1979) ‘Rimzim gire sawan’

This melodious composition by R D Burman had two superb versions once again by Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar. While the Lata version picturized in a unique manner on Amitabh Bachchan and Moushmi Chattetjee captures the essence of romance during Mumbai’s monsoon, Kishore Kumar’s version is a simple rendition sung by Amitabh in the film at a friend’s engagement ceremony with just a harmonium to give him company. The kind of popularity attained by Kishore Kumar’s version was phenomenal yet not surprising because there is something so unique about his simple rendition that it touches the soul right away from the very first note of the song. Somehow Lata’s version just could not whip up that kind of emotion in the listener’s hearts and had to settle for the second position.

In the 1950s, when the Hindi cinema’s music was monopolized by prominent playback singers like Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum and Lata Mangeshkar not so famous yet determinant singer Asha Bhosle was trying to establish her endeavor in the music industry. Asha Bhosale then used to get the songs refused by the top singing divas. The atmosphere in the film industry was quite conventional in the 50s so Asha used to get songs for singing for the so called bad girls and vamps. She even sang songs for the second-grade movies. In the 1950s, she sang more songs than most playback singers in Bollywood; mainly in low budget B or C-grade films. Like all beginners struggle till they get established in any trade – Asha too struggled a lot in both her personal life as well as career. Her earliest songs were composed by A R Qureshi, Sajjad Hussain and Ghulam Mohammed, most of which did not get recognized. She still continued dedicatedly and with blind consistency. Unexpectedly, her voice got noticed in Dilip Kumar-starrer Sangdil (1952), composed by Sajjad Hussain. Consequently, film director Bimal Roy gave her a chance to sing in Parineeta (1953). Raj Kapoor signed her to sing Nanhe Munne Bachche with Mohammed Rafi in Boot Polish (1954), which gained popularity.

She has rendered the on-screen singing voice for generations of actresses making them look attractive and striking. As we all know, songs add galore, anecdote, and push the story line in sequencing of a movie. They also add to the expressive content; the audience is drawn to music usually and they help the audience connecting to story as well. Indian films from beginning have always used music, and the Indian audience also watches some movies only for its good music. For them, nothing provides good entertainment than good music. Most of the movies have situational songs, piece of instrumental music; sometimes even the songs are played as part of background music.

Asha Bhosale is incomparable when it comes to expressively delivering a song; she is simply brilliant in her craft. She is so good in her work that many times she is very near to the heroine’s voice. Madhubala, Asha Parekh, Helen, Tanuja, Saira Bano, Sadhana in later years Rekha, Sridevi, Jayaprada, Poonam Dhillon, and Tina Munim she sang for these and many more heroines. Come the next generation of heroines like Tabbu, Kajol, Farha, Rani Mukherji she sang for most of them. She grew from strength to strength with each generation of actors.

She sang songs of all genres. Be it a Rock, Classical Blue, Lullaby, Classical, High Classical, Romantic, Rap, Hip Hop, Cabaret, a Kavalli, a Bhajan, a sad song – you name the genre and she has sung it. She has sung in more than 20 languages including Indian and Foreign, 11,000 solos and about 10,000 duets.

She rose to fame when O.P.Nayyar gave her a break to sing songs for ‘Naya Daur’ (1957). It was a movie made by B.R.Chopra. Her duet with Mohammed Rafi “Maang Ke Saath Tumhara penned by Sahir Ludhiyanvi, is an everlasting song. In this movie she sang all the songs for the leading actress, Vaijayanti Mala. Asha never looked back after the success of ‘Naya Daur’. Do you know the queen of 1950s Madhubala used recommend all her producers and directors Asha Bhosale’s voice for her songs. Asha’s voice suits Madhubala so aptly. Her ‘Aaiye Meherbaan Baithiye Jaaneja’ from the classic Howrah Bridge (1958) is one more gem. Madhubala looks so appealing and so seducing without much ado of make-up and without exposing her body – but she looks stunningly appealing on the screen enacting Asha’s velvety and romantic song. Please watch the song and its eternal charm.

Asha recalls that till 90s recording studios used to be huge places built to accommodate vast numbers of musicians with the singer placed in a separate cabin to minimize any audio overspill. Till then each song was recorded live. There would be huge orchestras – sometimes as huge as 100 instruments were used to accompany a song and each song was recorded in one single go. There was no dubbing. The singer had to work with the orchestra and if anyone made a mistake, he/she would start all over again. That’s how each song took long hours of recording.  I think friends there is no comparison to those golden age songs. The hard work of singers and instrument players (the orchestra) is unmatched. Today the story is all different; the songs are recorded in bits and pieces. Where singer’s voices are pre recorded and music is mixed and matched.  They are simply fabricated songs.

Asha credits her co-singer in her successful endeavor. She says Mohamed Rafi was a stickler for perfection; whereas, Manna Dey was the best classically trained singer and Kishore Kumar was breeze like he was always ready to experiment with different styles and tunes. He was like a whiff of wind. He could never be pinned down. She says she could experiment different styles with Kishore because they both shared similar ideas. Asha always says that all singers are actors; they just act with their voices.

From the mid-60s and throughout the 1970s Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle gave some of the most brilliant gems of songs. These great songs were especially prized by the brilliant composer Rahul Dev Burman, famously known as “Pancham”. He brought elements of western pop and hip-shaking, beat group and hippy energy to his music. Asha says “Rahul Dev’s music was way ahead of its time.” She’s right. She says. “He had so many different styles and rhythms in his music. You can hear jazz, Latin, that John Barry, super-spy sound, some blues, calypso and pop in his music. Alongside the hundreds (perhaps thousands, no one really knows) of film scores Bhosle sang on, there were many other works. She made a handful of private albums later.

Asha Bhosle says she is not fond of current songs as they largely cater to masses that prefer rhythm over melody. The current situation is such that everybody wants to dance. Be it old or young, everybody wants to dance and therefore today’s songs are rhythm based and lack the melody. Any composition depends both on melody and rhythm. Melody adds to the quality of the song, whereas rhythm adds to the pace of the song. Rhythm is measured by time, whereas melody is measured by the notes. There are several notes in a given form of classical music. Both western and eastern forms of music are solely dependent on musical notes. It is important to know that the musical notes add to the melody of the song. On the other hand, the timing of the song is dependent on the rhythm set in composition. Any musical composition for that matter can shine only if it done with proper melody and rhythm. If the melody fails then the composition may not attract the listeners. The same is true in the case of rhythm too. It is said that rhythm makes our feet to dance, whereas melody makes our heads to nod in appreciation. Both are considered to be the two eyes of music. These are the differences between the two words, namely, melody and rhythm.

This brilliant and vivacious singer has lived her life on her own terms without a trace of hypocrisy. If you look at her life closely, you will learn that successful people maintain success by consistently learning and adapting to the environment around them.