Chhaayaageet #45 - “Please give this singer at least one song.”
It is a lost and found story. Typical Bollywood formula. Two brothers, or two sisters, or even two sets of twins get separated from the parents and each other. At the end of the film, they are reunited.
But this story is simpler than that. It’s a small family, mother, father and their little boy.
As with every lost and found plot, there is a unifying song that runs as a thread throughout.
The father sings it for his young and happy family when they are all together. He’s playing a mandolin. It’s a happy number, with a number of other instruments in the background.
Then they get lost, and don’t know if the others are even alive or not. The young boy grows up to be a handsome young man, our hero. The father has almost gone blind, and destitute. He sings the song again sitting by the roadside, with tears in his eyes, probably recalling the times gone by. This time it’s a sad and slow number, with only a few mandolin strings.
That’s when our hero hears the father sing. Something shifts inside him. He is drawn to the father. They reunite.
The hero likes the tune and song so much, he sings it for his beloved, the heroine, who is upset. She is pacified. They reunite. It’s a romantic number with much orchestration to go along.
But the heroine’s father wants her to marry someone else. The hero is angry and upset. He bangs the piano at the party and belts out the song, same tune, with a dramatic angry number, with loud instrumentation. The mother is there somewhere in the house. She is a maid. She hears the song and runs to her son at the end of the song. They reunite.
So we have four songs with the same tune in one movie, with four different moods: happy, sad, romantic, angry.
The leading singer is signed to sing all of them, two songs for the father, two songs for the son.
The music composer and his orchestra have the tune all ready. It is from a Bengali movie for which they have composed in the past. It was sung by a different singer then. They plead the filmmaker.
“Please give this singer at least one song.”
“Will he sing for the father or the son?”, the filmmaker asks them.
"The son", comes the response.
The hero is not too excited about this. After all, the leading singer should sing for the lead actor. The hero doesn’t want this other singer to sing for him. Besides, there are other songs in the film, and how can two different singers sing for him?
So it’s decided that the other singer will sing for the father. Only one stanza.
Kishore Kumar sings the happy version for Bharat Bhushan
Kishore Kumar sings the sad version for Bharat Bhushan
Mohammad Rafi sings the romantic version for Shashi Kapoor
Mohammad Rafi sings the angry/sad version for Shashi Kapoor
Both Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi sang two versions each of Tum bin in the film Pyar Ka Mausam (1969), filmmaker Nasir Hussain, music by RD Burman.
Kishore Kumar gave his voice to Bharat Bhushan, who played the role of the father. Mohammad Rafi sang for Shashi Kapoor in the lead role.
As irony has it, Rafi Saab has sung numerous hit songs for Bharat Bhushan during his days as the hero. But Shashi Kapoor did not want anyone other than Rafi Saab to sing for him. So it’s a bit jarring to hear Kishore da yodel for Bharat Bhushan.
This song spurred the debate of who sang it better, which is a futile exercise. Both singers have sung their songs in the appropriate mood beautifully.
However, this was 1969. Later that year, Aradhana released, and Kishore da established himself as the number one singer, and his star rose along with Rajesh Khanna. Rafi saab had been the top singer for twenty years until then, having sung for practically every hero.
As a result, Kishore da’s many fans believe Tum bin to be the song where Kishore established his vocal supremacy over Rafi and overtook Rafi saab. Once again, a needless debate.
The Bengali version that Kishore da sang for RD Burman before Tum bin is also worth listening to.
Singers: Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi
Music: RD Burman
*ing: Bharat Bhushan, Shashi Kapoor
Producer: Nasir Hussain
Film: Pyar Ka Mausam (1969)