It was not by design, but a coincidence, that last two songs on this
page had Asha Parekh as the heroine. Having done that, now by design,
let me present another duet that starred Asha Parekh. Asha Parekh being
the key protagonists of all Nasir Hussain movies from Dil Deke Dekho to
Caravan and also one of the topmost actresses in 60s, it was quite
natural that Pancham had some of his best compositions picturised on
Asha Parekh.
The duet presented here is from a movie - Rakhee
Aur Hathkadi - another spin on the cliched formulae of "Lost &
Found", so popular amongst the producers-directors of late 60s &
early 70s. The movie had Asha Parekh in double roles - one as a
courtesan and another as of her daughter. Apart from Ashok Kumar, Pran
& Helen, all other key protagonists of the movies were rank
new-comers at that time - including Danny for whom this was perhaps the
first movie as a full fledged villain. Asha Parekh herself being past
her prime by then, the movie had nothing interesting for the cine-goers
and hence tanked. Fortunately, some of the songs survived, due to freshness that RD offered.
Getting back to the composition, it is a
lilting duet - penned by Majrooh - that starts of with a Sax prelude and
has very subtle score through out, including interludes. The harmony is
created by relying more on the vocal chemistry of Asha & Kishore -
who carry out their bit so well that song remains as sweet as it was 4
decades ago.
Unfortunately, same can not be said true about
the chemistry of the performers on-screen, the other Asha - looking a
bit tired, and her co-star Vijay Arora - who tries his hardest to find a
balance between his hangover of Shammi Kapoor & Rajesh Khanna.
See for yourself, and then close your eyes, and just enjoy the song:
Thanks for this song.
ReplyDeleteAsha Parekh was not yet past her prime in 1972, she was still doing films with the popular heroes of that time, I think that she started going doing down around 1975-76. Somehow I never liked her! :)