In the world of Bollywood music, which is now more and more automated, once upon a time, not so very long ago, there used to be simply gems of songs you could hear umpteen times, and yet you would feel like listening to them yet once more.
Especially unique would be a pair, a face that would lip-sync on screen a marvel of a rendition. Madhubala, for instance, insisted on Lata Mangeshkar as her singing voice. Such masterful couples have been quite a few. Most people love, for example, the Raj Kapoor-Mukesh version.
In my opinion, one such superb pairing is Kishore Kumar and Rajesh Khanna. True, Kishore Kumar, the great genius, even when he was not deep in to the classical base, could enliven any wooden face with his soulful rendition.
Yet it is with Rajesh Khanna, despite Khanna's horrible mannerisms, that Kishore Kumar's voice seems to emote best. May be, Khanna's repetitive gestures so-called as acting, needed a soul, and Kishore Kumar's voice seems to grant it.
The list is endless. Can you think of "Amar Prem" without Kishore Kumar? If it were any other singer, Khanna's phoney acting would have been impossible to bear, right? Remember the pathos of "Zindagi ke safar me"? But impossible without Kishore Kumar, right? The very many songs could be played in loop endlessly, right?
Actually, there is a quartet to such renditions, if one listens carefully. Sure, Kishore Kumar could create a wonder like "woh sham kuch ajeeb thi" under Hemant Kumar's brilliant direction. But it is mostly R.D. Burman who takes the Kishore-Khanna duets to great heights.
Did I talk of a quartet? Well, very rarely does the common man kind of audience remember the lyricists when it comes to Hindi film music, right? Mostly, it is the actor, followed by the singer, and, at times, the music director in such a hierarchisation.
It is the "words, words, words", however, that cast the real spell. It is noteworthy, hence, that it is mostly Anand Bakshi who has penned the Kishore-R.D.-Khanna greats. What masterful renditions indeed!
Pratima@The HMV records once had the logo of a doggie devotedly listening to a record. Hence the tagline, his master's voice. When it comes to such a quartet, the 'master'ful voice embellishes the lovely words set to great tunes that made the silver screen scintillate, right?
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