THE MAGIC OF GEETA ROY IN NINETEEN FORTIES: 1/2
A tribute by Nasir Ali
Even if we restrict ourselves to Geeta Roy of the Nineteen Forties we cannot but marvel at her transformation from the unknown child to the idol of the millions when she had not even crossed her teens.
We do know that she belonged to the rich Zamindar family of Debendranath Ghosh Roy Chowdhary and was one of the tenth children born to Amiya Devi on November 23, 1930 at Faridpur in Central Bengal. Leaving their titled land and other property, the family had to shift to Calcutta in early Forties and in 1942 they shifted to Bombay (now Mumbai). The reasons for this are circumstantial and not too far to seek. Bengal had been a great nationalist centre during the British Raj. It was divided into West Bengal and the East Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905. The two parts were again reunited in 1911 and the separate states of Bihar and Orissa were also created with the capital being shifted to Delhi. Bengal came to be finally partitioned in 1947 when Pakistan was also created. The eastern portion of Bengal which was dominantly Muslim was created as East Pakistan and that in 1971 came to be liberated as the Bangla Desh. Faridpur is the paragna of the Adilpur (or Idilpur) Village where Geeta Roy was born, and is part of that portion of Bengal.
The early Forties were the worst time for the world in general and India in particular. The Japanese were trying to make inroads to India and in fact by 1942 had occupied Burma. The British India Government adopted the "scorched earth" policy beginning at Chittagong to stop the food supplies to the Japanese. In 1943, there was a horrendous famine in Bengal when more than 3.5 million died. The dead were being removed to the rural areas to keep the cities clean. With the Japanese at the doors, it was quite likely that people began to flee from rural lands and areas much earlier and made their way to the cities. Calcutta (now Kolkata) was the capital of undivided Bengal at that time. Perhaps this might have been reason for Geeta Roy's family migrating to Calcutta just before millions of refugees began pouring into the cities, especially, Calcutta. Other prominent migrants included Kazi Abdul Wadud, the educationist and writer, Humayun Kabir who was a politician, educationist and writer; Poet Sunil Gangopadhyay, and many other eminent people from Faridpur.
It seems that even Calcutta could not guarantee peace and security. Bombay was fast rising as the most promising city of India, some even calling it "Sone ki Chidiya", "the Golden Bird" or the El Dorado. By 1943, the cracking up of system in the New Theatres too became evident. In fact, this was the fate of all studio-system giving rise to independent movie makers who went on to make their own film-studios. Many artistes, too, were looking westwards to Bombay which was cosmopolitan in nature. Bombay it was that became the melting pot of the many talents that came from different parts of India, notably from the Punjab, the United Province (UP) and Bengal. The folk-tunes of UP and Rajasthan, the Rabindra Sangeet of Bengal and the Heer and the Bhangra-based songs of Punjab with a liberal dose of rhythmic dholak were all welcome. Even K.C. Dey the famous visually-impaired singer and actor had to shift to Bombay in 1942 temporarily. So what the family of Geeta Roy did was the dictate of the circumstances. Fortunately for them, they could afford to buy a flat in Dadar which was the hub of the filmy activities. Geeta was just twelve year old then.
Thereafter, for the next three-four years the young Geeta would pursue her studies just like any normal girl. The Bengali High School she attended was fortunate: for even after attaining name and fame Geeta Roy or Geeta Dutt would never fail to attend the Durga Pooja held in the school every year right up to 1971 since she was no more in 1972! As a girl, fortunately for her, she would have come across people of diverse communities and this must have brushed her Hindi language considerably. But singing was her first love and it is said that it was at Faridpur itself that she used to receive training in elementary music from a family relative named Harendranath Nandi. She picked up folk songs and music and also picked up songs from the gramophone records and films at her native place. What happened at Dadar, strikes a parallel in the career of both Geeta Roy and Lata Mangeshkar: While it was Ghulam Haider the noted music director who had heard Lata singing in the train to herself, in Geeta's case it was music director Pandit Hanuman Prasad who, while walking in the street below, heard her singing in the balcony of her flat. Both of them were thus discovered and groomed by music directors in the early part of their career. But for Geeta, it was earlier: 1946!
It was in the year 1946 that Geeta Roy sang for Pandit Hanuman Prasad in a mythological movie, Bhakt Prahlad. The lines AB JAANI RE PEHCHAANI RE; and SUNO SUNO VINTEE HAMAARI were to transform her life from an unknown school girl to that of an established playback singer. The other two songs of her with chorus were: SUNO SUNO HARI KI LEELA and JAAG UTHE HAMM JAAG UTHE.
There were some other 1946 releases where she showed her calibre as the female playback singer. For Hanuman Prasad who had four releases in 1946, Geeta sang a couple of songs in Raseeli and Nai Maa. In Raseeli her songs were: NAINON KI PYALI SE HOTON KI MADIRA and NEHA LAGAKE MUKH MOD GAYAA, while Nai Maa had the lullaby or ‘Lori' number: AAJAA RI NINDIYA AAJAA. She sang this lori song with established playback singer Parul Ghosh.
As early as 1946 she sang for the phenomenal music director, Master Ghulam Haider, in the film Bairam Khan which was a Mehtab (future Mrs. Sohrab Modi) starrer. Wali Sahaab penned the song JAB CHAAND JAWAAN HOGAA TAB CHAANDNI RAATON MEIN JANNAT KA SAMAA HOGAA. In this song, Geeta Roy accompanied the most popular female playback singer of those times, Shamshad Begum. The two others who gave them company were Naseem Begum and Munawwar Sultana who went on to become big names in Pakistani playback singing. It must have been during this time that her friendship with her "Aapa" and senior singer Shamshad Begum started. Till date, Shamshad remembers Geeta as one of the finest artists she worked with.
Geeta also sang a solo in Circus King: PREETI KISI KO NA CHHODE which was composed by the duo of Abhyankar Joshi and Nageshwar Rao. Some claim that this song was probably her first released song.
Kashmir Ki Kali had YEH KISNE MERI HASRATON MEIN AAG composed by Master Vithal who was the hero of the movie. Another song in this film was a duet with a male voice, probably Master Vithal himself: HAAY IS PYAAR NE DEEWAANA.
In Rastaa, we have Geeta singing NAYEE BAHAAREN AAYEEN composed by Zafar Khursheed. This reminds us of Pankaj Mullick's famous song AAYEE BAHAAR AHA AHA AHA because Geeta too has that same refrain and the music is fast-paced as in that song.
Milan, we remember as the Dilip Kumar starrer and the first Hindi film of actor Abhi Bhattacharya that was released in 1946. It had music by Anil Biswas the legendary Bengali music director. Geeta Roy has two songs, one being a memorable number: CHHANN MEIN BAJEGI BANSURIYA. The other song was TUMHE SAAJAN MANAAYEN TUM ROOTH JAANAA. In fact she had also recorded two songs for Milan's Bengali version, Nauka Doobi. The audios of these are not easily traceable.
During the next year also, Geeta Roy had a very busy recording schedules. Geeta Roy recorded songs for B. Vasudev who was the music director of the 1947 flick, Neel Kamal - a Madhubala and Raj Kapoor starrer. Following were her songs:
BOL BOL BAALAM BEDARDI TERI KYAA MARZI RE- with Rajkumari and chorus.
MAA NE BHEJA DHOR CHARANE- with Rajkumari and chorus.
AANKH JO DEKHE HAI DHOKA KHAYE HAI- with Mukesh and Rajkumari.
JAWANI AGAR HOOK DIL KI DABAYE- with Rajkumari and chorus.
BRIJ MEIN DHOOM MACHA JA - with Rajkumari and Bhatker.
Bhookh was an Agha-Narmada-Shaikh Mukhtar starrer, where Geeta Roy recorded a duet song with Shamshad Begum: YEH HASEENON KE MELE ALBELE. Another song AANKH MEIN RAHE KYOON ASHQ was her solo song. So also IS JAGG MEIN GHARIBON KA NA KOI THIKAANA. Music was scored by Anil Biswas.
Chitragupt was the music director of the 1947 release, Jadui Ratan (Magic Gem). It had her following songs:
NAYANON MEIN AANA,MERE MAN MEIN SAMANA with Radha Govind.
MERA NANHA SA DIL PIYA LOOT LIYO RE with Radha Govind.
WOH RUT BADAL GAYI,WOH TARANA BADAL GAYA –her Solo song.
Sajjad Hussain who was known for his eccentricity, such as chiding Lata Mangeshkar by saying that his was not a Naushad tune "Aap ko Aur Mehnat Karni Padegi." or calling Talat Mehmood as "Ghalat Mehmood" and who even accused Madan Mohan of plagiarism, had unflagging confidence in Geeta Roy when he gave her five solo songs to sing in the movie called Kasam. The songs were:
WOH JISSKO MITA BAITHE.
DAMAN KO HAATH SE WOH CHUDA KAR CHALE GAYE.SUNA JA KOI GEET AE DIL SUNA JA.
AE DIL BATA KISKO KAROON PYAR.
YA RAB HAMARI AAH MEIN.
Some unconfirmed sources mention that this film never got released.
Again in the film Mere Bhagwan, Sajjad Hussain gave some four songs to Geeta Roy. Two of them were:
O SHYAM MEERA KE GIRIDHARI and chorus.
MUJHE BAWRI BAWRI LOG KAHEIN.
The second song is particularly sweet and in typical "Sajjad style".
Pehli Pehchan had the musical score of Bulo C. Rani/Hansraj Behl. The former composed MAIN HOON PHOOLON KI RANI,KAANTON MEIN RAHNEWALI. The latter composed MUSKURATE HO KYON, ITRATE HO KYON where Geeta sang along with A.R. Ojha. The same year in Tohfa we have a sad number of Geeta: WOH DIL GAYAA DIL KE SAHAARE CHALE GAYE composed by M.A. Rauf. A touching number this!
Some other movies of 1947, where Geeta Roy recorded her songs were:
OH RAAJA MOHE APNI BANA LE RE in Filmistan's Leela which had music by C. Ramchandra. There was a duet song of hers with Binapani also: MERI AANKHEN CHHAM CHHAM..KYA ISIKA NAAM.
Again, Filmistan's Shehnai had C. Ramchandra as the music director. It was a Nasir Khan-Rehana starrer. There was a comedy song: JAWAANI KI RAIL CHALI JAAYE RE which is filmed on the protagonists performing a stage-show in a fair. Along with Geeta Roy, there were Lata Mangeshkar and Chitalkar (C.Ramchandra) and chorus singing the song. In another song, CHADTI JAWAANI MEIN JHOOLO MERI RAANI, Geeta Roy sang along with Chitalkar and Binapani. This song was very popular in those days.
In Geet Govind (1947) Geeta Roy and G.M. Durrani featured in two trios with Abha for songs composed by Gyan Dutt: CHAMKAT DAMKAT DAMINI, and VIYOGAN DEEPSHIKHA SI JARE.
In Utho Jaago it was Aziz Khan who provided the music. Geeta Roy sang HANS HANS KE under his musical direction.
Gaon (Village) was also a 1947 movie the musical score for which was provided by Khemchand Prakash. There was a Geeta Roy-Mukesh duet which went: WATAN KI MAATI HAATH MEIN LEKAR.
Geeta Roy's voice had captured the imagination of a new music director known as S.D. Burman who had himself come to Bombay in 1944 and despite two odd films had not found his niche. S.D. Burman gave her six out of the nine songs, i.e. four solos and two duets, for the forthcoming film, Do Bhai. Along with her love of music, Geeta continued to pursue her matriculation exams and the next year 1947 brought her double happiness: one of having passed her exams and the other of striking gold with her songs in Do Bhai which was released in 1947.
The Geeta Roy's songs of Do Bhai are:
YAAD KAROGE YAAD KAROGE IK DIN HAMKO YAAD KAROGE;
AAJ PREET KA NAATA TOOT GAYAA (with G.M. Durrani);
HAMEIN CHHOD KE PIYAA KIS DES GAYE.
MERE PIYAA TOH BASE PARDES.
YAAD RAKHNA, YAAD RAKHNA.
MERA SUNDAR SAPNA BEET GAYAA.
The success of the music of Do Bhai (especially the song "Mera sundar sapna beet gaya") catapulted Geeta to the top bracket of female playback singers.
Dil Ki Rani was another movie of the year 1947 the music of which was composed by S.D. Burman. Geeta sang: AAYENGE AAYENG RE; KYOON BALAM HAMSE ROOTH GAYE; BIGDI HUWI TAQDEER MERI AAKE BANA DE; AAHA MERE MOHAN NE MUJHKO BULAAYA for this Madhubala-Raj Kapoor starrer. There was also her duet song with two male voices: O DUNIYA KE REHNEWAALE BATAA. (This was the tandem of another solo in the movie sung by Raj Kapoor himself).
S.D. Burman would remember to give Geeta Roy an opportunity to sing a Bangla song KHELA BHANGAR KHELA too in 1950 for the movie Samar. She would continue to sing in Bengali movies till the secondd half of 1960s. The team of S.D. Burman and Geeta Roy-Dutt would produce some 70 memorable songs – the last one being a comedy number, MAIN TERE PYAAR MEIN KYAA KYAA NA BANAA DILBAR, filmed on Shobha Khote and Mehmood in the 1964 flick, Ziddi. Manna Dey was her co-singer. Unfortunately, not much information is available regarding a couple of Geeta Roy's numbers under his musical direction for the 1947 film, Chittor Vijay, which had Madhubala and Raj Kapoor in the lead. Surendra and Wasti were the supporting actors in the said film. One of these songs HO RANGEELA HO RASEELA RAKHI KA DIN AAYA RE is a Shamshad-Geeta Duet.
Continued in 2.
NASIR
A tribute by Nasir Ali
Even if we restrict ourselves to Geeta Roy of the Nineteen Forties we cannot but marvel at her transformation from the unknown child to the idol of the millions when she had not even crossed her teens.
We do know that she belonged to the rich Zamindar family of Debendranath Ghosh Roy Chowdhary and was one of the tenth children born to Amiya Devi on November 23, 1930 at Faridpur in Central Bengal. Leaving their titled land and other property, the family had to shift to Calcutta in early Forties and in 1942 they shifted to Bombay (now Mumbai). The reasons for this are circumstantial and not too far to seek. Bengal had been a great nationalist centre during the British Raj. It was divided into West Bengal and the East Bengal by Lord Curzon in 1905. The two parts were again reunited in 1911 and the separate states of Bihar and Orissa were also created with the capital being shifted to Delhi. Bengal came to be finally partitioned in 1947 when Pakistan was also created. The eastern portion of Bengal which was dominantly Muslim was created as East Pakistan and that in 1971 came to be liberated as the Bangla Desh. Faridpur is the paragna of the Adilpur (or Idilpur) Village where Geeta Roy was born, and is part of that portion of Bengal.
The early Forties were the worst time for the world in general and India in particular. The Japanese were trying to make inroads to India and in fact by 1942 had occupied Burma. The British India Government adopted the "scorched earth" policy beginning at Chittagong to stop the food supplies to the Japanese. In 1943, there was a horrendous famine in Bengal when more than 3.5 million died. The dead were being removed to the rural areas to keep the cities clean. With the Japanese at the doors, it was quite likely that people began to flee from rural lands and areas much earlier and made their way to the cities. Calcutta (now Kolkata) was the capital of undivided Bengal at that time. Perhaps this might have been reason for Geeta Roy's family migrating to Calcutta just before millions of refugees began pouring into the cities, especially, Calcutta. Other prominent migrants included Kazi Abdul Wadud, the educationist and writer, Humayun Kabir who was a politician, educationist and writer; Poet Sunil Gangopadhyay, and many other eminent people from Faridpur.
It seems that even Calcutta could not guarantee peace and security. Bombay was fast rising as the most promising city of India, some even calling it "Sone ki Chidiya", "the Golden Bird" or the El Dorado. By 1943, the cracking up of system in the New Theatres too became evident. In fact, this was the fate of all studio-system giving rise to independent movie makers who went on to make their own film-studios. Many artistes, too, were looking westwards to Bombay which was cosmopolitan in nature. Bombay it was that became the melting pot of the many talents that came from different parts of India, notably from the Punjab, the United Province (UP) and Bengal. The folk-tunes of UP and Rajasthan, the Rabindra Sangeet of Bengal and the Heer and the Bhangra-based songs of Punjab with a liberal dose of rhythmic dholak were all welcome. Even K.C. Dey the famous visually-impaired singer and actor had to shift to Bombay in 1942 temporarily. So what the family of Geeta Roy did was the dictate of the circumstances. Fortunately for them, they could afford to buy a flat in Dadar which was the hub of the filmy activities. Geeta was just twelve year old then.
Thereafter, for the next three-four years the young Geeta would pursue her studies just like any normal girl. The Bengali High School she attended was fortunate: for even after attaining name and fame Geeta Roy or Geeta Dutt would never fail to attend the Durga Pooja held in the school every year right up to 1971 since she was no more in 1972! As a girl, fortunately for her, she would have come across people of diverse communities and this must have brushed her Hindi language considerably. But singing was her first love and it is said that it was at Faridpur itself that she used to receive training in elementary music from a family relative named Harendranath Nandi. She picked up folk songs and music and also picked up songs from the gramophone records and films at her native place. What happened at Dadar, strikes a parallel in the career of both Geeta Roy and Lata Mangeshkar: While it was Ghulam Haider the noted music director who had heard Lata singing in the train to herself, in Geeta's case it was music director Pandit Hanuman Prasad who, while walking in the street below, heard her singing in the balcony of her flat. Both of them were thus discovered and groomed by music directors in the early part of their career. But for Geeta, it was earlier: 1946!
It was in the year 1946 that Geeta Roy sang for Pandit Hanuman Prasad in a mythological movie, Bhakt Prahlad. The lines AB JAANI RE PEHCHAANI RE; and SUNO SUNO VINTEE HAMAARI were to transform her life from an unknown school girl to that of an established playback singer. The other two songs of her with chorus were: SUNO SUNO HARI KI LEELA and JAAG UTHE HAMM JAAG UTHE.
There were some other 1946 releases where she showed her calibre as the female playback singer. For Hanuman Prasad who had four releases in 1946, Geeta sang a couple of songs in Raseeli and Nai Maa. In Raseeli her songs were: NAINON KI PYALI SE HOTON KI MADIRA and NEHA LAGAKE MUKH MOD GAYAA, while Nai Maa had the lullaby or ‘Lori' number: AAJAA RI NINDIYA AAJAA. She sang this lori song with established playback singer Parul Ghosh.
As early as 1946 she sang for the phenomenal music director, Master Ghulam Haider, in the film Bairam Khan which was a Mehtab (future Mrs. Sohrab Modi) starrer. Wali Sahaab penned the song JAB CHAAND JAWAAN HOGAA TAB CHAANDNI RAATON MEIN JANNAT KA SAMAA HOGAA. In this song, Geeta Roy accompanied the most popular female playback singer of those times, Shamshad Begum. The two others who gave them company were Naseem Begum and Munawwar Sultana who went on to become big names in Pakistani playback singing. It must have been during this time that her friendship with her "Aapa" and senior singer Shamshad Begum started. Till date, Shamshad remembers Geeta as one of the finest artists she worked with.
Geeta also sang a solo in Circus King: PREETI KISI KO NA CHHODE which was composed by the duo of Abhyankar Joshi and Nageshwar Rao. Some claim that this song was probably her first released song.
Kashmir Ki Kali had YEH KISNE MERI HASRATON MEIN AAG composed by Master Vithal who was the hero of the movie. Another song in this film was a duet with a male voice, probably Master Vithal himself: HAAY IS PYAAR NE DEEWAANA.
In Rastaa, we have Geeta singing NAYEE BAHAAREN AAYEEN composed by Zafar Khursheed. This reminds us of Pankaj Mullick's famous song AAYEE BAHAAR AHA AHA AHA because Geeta too has that same refrain and the music is fast-paced as in that song.
Milan, we remember as the Dilip Kumar starrer and the first Hindi film of actor Abhi Bhattacharya that was released in 1946. It had music by Anil Biswas the legendary Bengali music director. Geeta Roy has two songs, one being a memorable number: CHHANN MEIN BAJEGI BANSURIYA. The other song was TUMHE SAAJAN MANAAYEN TUM ROOTH JAANAA. In fact she had also recorded two songs for Milan's Bengali version, Nauka Doobi. The audios of these are not easily traceable.
During the next year also, Geeta Roy had a very busy recording schedules. Geeta Roy recorded songs for B. Vasudev who was the music director of the 1947 flick, Neel Kamal - a Madhubala and Raj Kapoor starrer. Following were her songs:
BOL BOL BAALAM BEDARDI TERI KYAA MARZI RE- with Rajkumari and chorus.
MAA NE BHEJA DHOR CHARANE- with Rajkumari and chorus.
AANKH JO DEKHE HAI DHOKA KHAYE HAI- with Mukesh and Rajkumari.
JAWANI AGAR HOOK DIL KI DABAYE- with Rajkumari and chorus.
BRIJ MEIN DHOOM MACHA JA - with Rajkumari and Bhatker.
Bhookh was an Agha-Narmada-Shaikh Mukhtar starrer, where Geeta Roy recorded a duet song with Shamshad Begum: YEH HASEENON KE MELE ALBELE. Another song AANKH MEIN RAHE KYOON ASHQ was her solo song. So also IS JAGG MEIN GHARIBON KA NA KOI THIKAANA. Music was scored by Anil Biswas.
Chitragupt was the music director of the 1947 release, Jadui Ratan (Magic Gem). It had her following songs:
NAYANON MEIN AANA,MERE MAN MEIN SAMANA with Radha Govind.
MERA NANHA SA DIL PIYA LOOT LIYO RE with Radha Govind.
WOH RUT BADAL GAYI,WOH TARANA BADAL GAYA –her Solo song.
Sajjad Hussain who was known for his eccentricity, such as chiding Lata Mangeshkar by saying that his was not a Naushad tune "Aap ko Aur Mehnat Karni Padegi." or calling Talat Mehmood as "Ghalat Mehmood" and who even accused Madan Mohan of plagiarism, had unflagging confidence in Geeta Roy when he gave her five solo songs to sing in the movie called Kasam. The songs were:
WOH JISSKO MITA BAITHE.
DAMAN KO HAATH SE WOH CHUDA KAR CHALE GAYE.SUNA JA KOI GEET AE DIL SUNA JA.
AE DIL BATA KISKO KAROON PYAR.
YA RAB HAMARI AAH MEIN.
Some unconfirmed sources mention that this film never got released.
Again in the film Mere Bhagwan, Sajjad Hussain gave some four songs to Geeta Roy. Two of them were:
O SHYAM MEERA KE GIRIDHARI and chorus.
MUJHE BAWRI BAWRI LOG KAHEIN.
The second song is particularly sweet and in typical "Sajjad style".
Pehli Pehchan had the musical score of Bulo C. Rani/Hansraj Behl. The former composed MAIN HOON PHOOLON KI RANI,KAANTON MEIN RAHNEWALI. The latter composed MUSKURATE HO KYON, ITRATE HO KYON where Geeta sang along with A.R. Ojha. The same year in Tohfa we have a sad number of Geeta: WOH DIL GAYAA DIL KE SAHAARE CHALE GAYE composed by M.A. Rauf. A touching number this!
Some other movies of 1947, where Geeta Roy recorded her songs were:
OH RAAJA MOHE APNI BANA LE RE in Filmistan's Leela which had music by C. Ramchandra. There was a duet song of hers with Binapani also: MERI AANKHEN CHHAM CHHAM..KYA ISIKA NAAM.
Again, Filmistan's Shehnai had C. Ramchandra as the music director. It was a Nasir Khan-Rehana starrer. There was a comedy song: JAWAANI KI RAIL CHALI JAAYE RE which is filmed on the protagonists performing a stage-show in a fair. Along with Geeta Roy, there were Lata Mangeshkar and Chitalkar (C.Ramchandra) and chorus singing the song. In another song, CHADTI JAWAANI MEIN JHOOLO MERI RAANI, Geeta Roy sang along with Chitalkar and Binapani. This song was very popular in those days.
In Geet Govind (1947) Geeta Roy and G.M. Durrani featured in two trios with Abha for songs composed by Gyan Dutt: CHAMKAT DAMKAT DAMINI, and VIYOGAN DEEPSHIKHA SI JARE.
In Utho Jaago it was Aziz Khan who provided the music. Geeta Roy sang HANS HANS KE under his musical direction.
Gaon (Village) was also a 1947 movie the musical score for which was provided by Khemchand Prakash. There was a Geeta Roy-Mukesh duet which went: WATAN KI MAATI HAATH MEIN LEKAR.
Geeta Roy's voice had captured the imagination of a new music director known as S.D. Burman who had himself come to Bombay in 1944 and despite two odd films had not found his niche. S.D. Burman gave her six out of the nine songs, i.e. four solos and two duets, for the forthcoming film, Do Bhai. Along with her love of music, Geeta continued to pursue her matriculation exams and the next year 1947 brought her double happiness: one of having passed her exams and the other of striking gold with her songs in Do Bhai which was released in 1947.
The Geeta Roy's songs of Do Bhai are:
YAAD KAROGE YAAD KAROGE IK DIN HAMKO YAAD KAROGE;
AAJ PREET KA NAATA TOOT GAYAA (with G.M. Durrani);
HAMEIN CHHOD KE PIYAA KIS DES GAYE.
MERE PIYAA TOH BASE PARDES.
YAAD RAKHNA, YAAD RAKHNA.
MERA SUNDAR SAPNA BEET GAYAA.
The success of the music of Do Bhai (especially the song "Mera sundar sapna beet gaya") catapulted Geeta to the top bracket of female playback singers.
Dil Ki Rani was another movie of the year 1947 the music of which was composed by S.D. Burman. Geeta sang: AAYENGE AAYENG RE; KYOON BALAM HAMSE ROOTH GAYE; BIGDI HUWI TAQDEER MERI AAKE BANA DE; AAHA MERE MOHAN NE MUJHKO BULAAYA for this Madhubala-Raj Kapoor starrer. There was also her duet song with two male voices: O DUNIYA KE REHNEWAALE BATAA. (This was the tandem of another solo in the movie sung by Raj Kapoor himself).
S.D. Burman would remember to give Geeta Roy an opportunity to sing a Bangla song KHELA BHANGAR KHELA too in 1950 for the movie Samar. She would continue to sing in Bengali movies till the secondd half of 1960s. The team of S.D. Burman and Geeta Roy-Dutt would produce some 70 memorable songs – the last one being a comedy number, MAIN TERE PYAAR MEIN KYAA KYAA NA BANAA DILBAR, filmed on Shobha Khote and Mehmood in the 1964 flick, Ziddi. Manna Dey was her co-singer. Unfortunately, not much information is available regarding a couple of Geeta Roy's numbers under his musical direction for the 1947 film, Chittor Vijay, which had Madhubala and Raj Kapoor in the lead. Surendra and Wasti were the supporting actors in the said film. One of these songs HO RANGEELA HO RASEELA RAKHI KA DIN AAYA RE is a Shamshad-Geeta Duet.
Continued in 2.
NASIR
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