Daily Times

Bhainge Shah, taking advantage of the fight, woos Choti Lachi and tries marrying her, but his servant Jagga, who happens to be an admirer of Lachi, reveals the truth about Shah to her.

Labhu also realises his mistake and apologises.

According to some of the critics, composer Hansraj Behl’s famous movies are considered to be ‘Milan’, ‘Miss Bombay’, ‘Changez Khan’ and ‘Saawan’. His memorable songs are “Bhool Ja Sapne Suhane” from ‘Rajdhani’, “Muhabbat Zinda Rehti Hai” and “Jab Raat Nahi Katti” from ‘Changez Khan’, “Zindagi Bhar Gham Judai Ka” from ‘Miss Bombay’, “Haseen Ho Khuda Tou Nahi” from ‘Mur Mur Ke Na Dekh’, “Bheega Bheega Pyaar Ka Sama” from ‘Saawan’ and “Tujhko Dhoondhu Tou Dhoondhu Kahaan” from ‘Milan’. These songs became instantly popular and crossed all barriers of success. It was at this span of time that Hansraj Behl started to get noticed.

After all these successful films, he continued to give music until 1969 but failed to give any hit because his later films were either stunts or fantasy films with little scope of having good music. Other composers like Naushad Ali, SD Burman and Shankar Jaikishen were stealing the show. Behl’s last hit song was an all-time great creation “Jahan Daal Daal Pe Sone Ki Chiriya Karti Hai Basera” sung by playback singer Muhammed Rafi for the film ‘Sikandar-e-Azam’ in 1965, starring actor and producer Prithiviraj Kapoor. In 1964, he gave music for the hit Punjabi film ‘Satluj De Kande’, starring actor Balraj Sahni, Nishi, Wasti and Mirza Musharraf. He worked with lyricists like DN Madhok, Prem Dhawan, Asad Bhopali etc.

Among other films for which Behl gave music, one notices Punjabi film ‘Bhangra’ made in 1959. It was imported in Pakistan also. I remember it running in Sanober Cinema for many weeks in Lahore. The cinema lovers liked it so much that Nishi, the heroine also visited Lahore to celebrate the success of this film. Though Nishi was taller than Sunder, the hero but the comedy created by the pair coupled with excellent songs crooned by Muhammad Rafi and singer Shamshad Begum saved the day.

Just for the record, I must mention some movies made in the later span of Behl’s career. I may have mentioned some of these names already. These were ‘Khilari’, ‘Khamosh Sipahi’, ‘Rajput’, ‘Moti Mahal’, ‘Apni Izzat’, ‘Lal Pari’, ‘Dost’, ‘Mast Qalandar’, ‘Rajdhani’, ‘Changez Khan’, ‘Sikandar-e-Azam’, ‘Rustom-e-Hind’, ‘Dou Aankhen’, ‘Jatt Punjabi’, ‘Kunwara Mama’, ‘Jatt Da Gandasa’ and ‘Insaaf Ka Khoon’. Music composers like Ghulam Muhammad and Behl could not get big banners because of monopolies created by other music composers. Even a great music composer like Madan Mohan initially got B Grade films in the beginning of his career. The beauty of melodious compositions is that even after many decades of their creation; these are sung by the present generation or are re-mixed by them. g