Of military melodies & melancholic Mukesh

Among the triumvirate – Rafi, Kishore and Mukesh- who were the top playback singers in Hindi film industry in its first four decades of existence since Independence, Mukesh Chand Mathur (1923-76) known popularly as Mukesh was known for his soulful, bitter sweet songs, which continue to remain popular till date.

Identified more for his songs dripping with pathos, his numbers were the balm to many a wounded heart in love and relationships. Of course, opinions differed over time whether such an amount of pessimism and defeatism was necessary to be imbibed in day-to-day lives, yet his songs are recollected by his fans at the drop of a hat.

If Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand had Mohammed Rafi as a solid playback support through their superstar years, Raj Kapoor had zeroed in on Mukesh with whom he had most of his major hit songs sailing into peoples’ hearts forever.

It was not that he did not sing for other heroes but the brand recall about him is firmly linked with the original showman of Indian cinema, as Raj Kapoor was known for his extravagant films. Both quantitatively and qualitatively, Mukesh has many hits like the others of his time, which are personal favourites and evergreen at the same time. His birthday fell on July 22.

In the times that lyricists like Majrooh Sultanpuri, Naqsh Lyallpuri, Asad Bhopali, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Sahir Ludhianvi, Rajendra Krishan and other greats straddled the movie world of Mumbai, an ex-military man who had served the Royal Indian Army, got dismissed from it and subsequently the Indian Army after its independence for a brief period too contributed his might to the reservoir of lilting lyrics of the Hindi film songs.

Bakshi Anand Prakash Vaid, popular as Anand Bakshi (1930-2002) was the unchallenged lyricist in the ‘70s as the super seniors were on the wane. An amazing output of 3,500 songs for over 630-odd films from the ‘50s till the 2001-release ‘Yaadein’, starring Hrithik Roshan is the timeline to which his output belonged. He was born on July 21.

The one female celebrity whose death anniversary fell in the past week is Geeta Dutt (1930-72), who died on July 20. A highly distinct kind of a rendition was her trademark, which had many immortal numbers to her credit. Her talents were fully put to use by the greats of the time like SD Burman, OP Nayyar, Hemant Kumar and Madan Mohan with whom she maintained an exclusive style for each one of them.

It only made her fans soak in the sheer brilliance and exclusive tone that she could alone bring on. Though she died young, her voice was more than a match to the Mangeshkar sisters all through the ‘50s when tough competition raged in the film industry. Her death anniversary fell on July 20.