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.

Sharda- Singer Unknown

There was this song Titli udi ud jo chali, phool ne kaha , aaja mere paas, titli kahe main chali aakash sometime in the 60s, when I was growing up (I still am, but..). It had a voice that was unlike any other voice on radio (TV had not arrived yet). This song was good, and then I heard a few more songs sung by her. Learnt her name was Sharda, and that she sang mostly in songs composed by Shankar- Jaikishan.

A few more good ones were from films such as Around the World (title song- around the world in 8 dollars), Gumnaam (Jaane chaman, shola badan) and so on.

Wonder what happened to cut her career short. Here is a link to the first song mentioned here- Titli Udi-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W81R3Vz2o8M