Never Ending Movie Carnival
Never Ending Movie Carnival
Do you know Madan Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar sang a duet which got removed from this film starring the legendary Dilip Kumar?!
Musician Madan Mohan and singer Lata Mangeshkar have given most memorable hits in Hindi cinema like Lag Ja Gale Se Ki Phir Ye Hassen Raat Ho Na Ho (Who Kaun Thi – 1962), Aap Ki Nazron Ne Samjha (Anpadh – 1962) just to name a couple for those who are not aware of the unforgettable magic of Madan Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar.
The above sixty-one-year songs are sung by young participants aged twenty something at top singing shows all over India cementing the fact that the music created by of the legendary genius Madan Mohan and sung by Lata Didi is timeless.
However, a duet song sung by Madan Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar got deleted from a film starring the iconic thespian Dilip Kumar. The movie became a hall mark of his career and is one of his best films.
Which is the movie and which is the song
The name of the movie is Shaheed (1948) written and directed by Ramesh Saigal. The film showcased India's struggle for independence. It starred Dilip Kumar, Kamini Kaushal, Chandra Mohan, and Leela Chitnis. It had music by Ghulam Haider. Shaheed was the second largest grossing movie of the year 1948 and its songs topped the charts.
Be it the melancholic "Badnaam Na Ho Jaaye" sung by Surinder Kaur, written by Qamar Jalalabadi and music by Ghulam Haider or the evergreen patriotic "Watan Ki Raah Mein" written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan and sung by Khan Mastana and Mohammed Rafi which is played on Indian Republic Day and Independence Day.
According to late veteran journalist Ramesh Sinha who in his book Aa se Amitabh Kha se Khayyam has written that before Madan Mohan had approached Lata Mangeshkar to sing for debut film as music director Aankhen (1950) directed by Devendra Goel and starring Shekhar, Bharat Bhushan and Nalini Jaywant.
Madam Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar did sing a duet song for Shaheed under the music direction of Ghulam Haider.
For reasons better known to God or to the makers, neither the song was included in the movie Shaheed nor there is any recording available of that song.
It’s a known story that Lata Mangeshkar refused to work with Madan Mohan in his debut as music director in Aankhen. The great Indian playback singer initially underestimated the caliber of Madan Mohan and considered him just to be bade baap ka beta (son of a rich big man) – Rai Bahadur Chunnilal the owner of Filmistan – Goregaon.
Though Lata Mangeshkar refused to sing for Madan Mohan’s debut, the songs of Aankhen became popular in those days and Lata Mageshkar’s opinion about Madam Mohan changed.
Swar kokila Lata Mangeshkar agreed to work with Madan Mohan and they never looked back.
Today on Madan Mohan’s 48th dead anniversary we shared this lesser-known piece of information to you
Stay tuned for nostalgic moments of the Hindi film industry aka Bollywood.
PS : The above write up is taken from renowned Late journalist Ramesh Sinha’s Hindi Bollywood collection
Aa Se Amitabh
Kha Se Khayyam
(It’s rewritten in English by Vishal Verma with due permission from Late Journalist Ramesh Sinha’s family)
A child born from life & fed by cinema. A filmi keeda from child & a film journalist for the last fifteen years. a father, seeker, foodie who loves crooning bollywood melodies twitter.com/cineblues More By vishal verma