Daily Times

The lyrics were by Bharat Vyas. Once again this team created the song “Meri Choti Si Behn Dekho Gehne Pehn Sasural Chali” in Rajinder Kumar, Nanda starrer ‘Toofan Aur Diya’. Finally in Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari’s film ‘Yehudi’, Lata Mangeshkar and Geeta Dutt sang a song “Bechain Dil Khoi Si Nazar” in the music of Shankar Jaikishen.

Mind you, all these songs were not very well known songs!

Geeta Dutt rendered very few songs for music composer Shankar Jaikishen, Apart from the ones mentioned above, there were songs in ‘Crorepati’ and ‘Shararat’ and ‘Badal’. I could trace two songs by music composer Sajjad Hussain for ‘Sangdil’ ‘Darshan Pyasi’ and ‘Dharti Sei Door Gore’.

Khayyam is another composer who is rarely considered to be associated with playback singer Geeta Dutt. It will be surprising to know that he sang a duet with her as early as in 1946. The song was “Kyon Neh Laga Mukh Mor Liyaa” for the film ‘Rasili’ composed by Pandit Hanuman Prasad. Khayyam was using the nick name Sharma Ji in those days. Two years later, Khayyam composed the music for the film ‘Heer Ranjha’ (along with Rehman Verma as the co-music director) and Geeta sang as many as five songs for this film, including two duets with Khayyam himself. “Dil Yoon Yoon Karata Hai” is a sweet romantic melody and in “Ud Pud Jaaniya” she sang her first Punjabi song. She even sang an Islamic devotional song (a duet with Khayyam himself) “Teri Zaat Hai Akabari” for this film. The musical score of ‘Biwee’ (1950) is always remembered for that great solo “Akele Mein Woh Ghabarate To Honge” sung by Muhammad Rafi. For the same film, Geeta Roy sang three songs. And then after five years we have a solo (club song) coming from Khayyam-Geeta combination for a low budget film ‘Taatar Ka Chor’ (1955). Again for next five years, Geeta was absent from Khayyam’s recording rooms. In 1960, she sizzledwith “Dil Ke Paar Ho Gayi Teri Aik Nazar” for the film ‘Bambai Ki Billi/Wild Cat’. This was probably the last notable song of Khayyam for Geeta.

The best performance of Hement Kumar-Geeta Dutt pair was in the film ‘Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam’ (1962) that Geeta Dutt finally delivered her best performance for Hemant Kumar. When she sang ‘Piyaa Aiso Jiyaa Main Samaye Gayo Rei’ paired with Meena Kumari’s emoting on screen, the atmosphere created was one of anticipation and hope, so natural that the viewer almost feels like a busybody, privy to her most secret thoughts and dreams. And her legacy undoubtedly remains the one classic song which blurred the distinction between the actress and the singer, which Geeta Dutt said reflected the pain of her life, ‘Naa Jaao SaiyaanChhuraaKeBainyaan, Qasam Tumhari Main Ro Parun Gi’. This one song managed to convey the complex emotions of the character of Chhoti Bahu (Meena Kumari), her pain, distress, helplessness, shame, disgust and self-loathing distilled into four minutes of melody; this one song would have been enough to immortalize Geeta Dutt’s voice even if she hadn’t sung any other song ever. I liked the pain in the song ‘Koi Door Sei Awaaz Dei Chale Aaao’.

Geeta Dutt and Hement Kumar’s first encounter was for the film version of the Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel ‘Anandamath’ (1952) based on India’s freedom struggle. This was a debut film of Hemant Kumar as well.

Continued