Remembering Nazia Hassan

Nazia Hassan was a great pop singer of the eighties. She sang a number of Hindi songs for film and non-film albums, and all of them were at the top of the charts. She forced Binaca Geet Mala to bring in non-film music in its countdown, if I remember correctly-such was her popularity. Her songs featured in some Hindi films like Qurbani (Aap jaisa koi meri zindagi mein aaye to baat ban jaaye- there was a joke about this song, which used the words baap ban jaaye instead of baat ban jaaye) and Star (Kumar Gaurav starrer) too.

Many of her songs were composed by Biddu, who was an NRI (non-resident Indian) based in London.

Some of the well-known songs were Disco Deewane, Aao na pyar karein, and Boom Boom....you can enjoy some of them at this link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZqawa_lmSo

Shailendra Singh and Kanchan

Rishi Kapoor had a resounding start to his career in Bobby. It was a superhit, and the voice that launched his singing in this film was Shailendra Singh. The songs like Mujhe kuch kehna hai, Main shaayar to nahin, and Hum tum ek kamre mmein band hon, topped the charts for many weeks.

This continued with a few more films, such as Khel Khel Mein in the song Humne tumko dekha and later in a few more like Rafoo Chakker. In Rafoo Chakker, there was also a female singer that was new to Hindi films-Kanchan. Though she sang only in films with Kalyanji Anandji's music, she was very good in some of them, like "Tumko mere dil ne pukara hai bade naaz se"from Rafoo Chakker, and "Laila main laila" from Qurbani. Also, Kya khoob lagti ho from Dharmatma, a duet with Mukesh.

Sharda was another singer who sang only in a few films, but two or three of her songs were very popular. "Titli udi, ud jo chali," for instance. And "Chale jaana zara thehro," from Around The World, with Mukesh. She had a unique voice.

Feroz Khan- Our Own Cowboy

Feroz Khan was a handsome Pathan who gave us some stylish films. And some good songs. Apradh, from the seventies, had car-racing as its background, and some good songs. Two of them that I still remember, are

Tum mile, pyar se, mujhe jeena gawara hua..

Hamare siwa, tumhare aur kitne diwaane hain.

In the film Dharmatma too, there were some good numbers like

Tere chehre mein woh jadoo hai, bin dor khinchaa jaata hoon..

Kya khoob lagti ho, badi sundar dikhti ho, with the expected response from the lady...phir se kaho, kehte raho, achcha lagta hai.

Tumne kisise kabhi pyar kiya hai..

Qurbani also had some path-breaking songs such as Laila main laila, and Aap jaisa koi meri zindagi mein aaye, which introduced Nazia Hasan (singer) and Biddu, the music composer, to us.