Laxmikant Pyarelal and Lata.
Laxmikant Pyarelal had a very eventful musical combination with Lata over 40 years. They were as respectful towards Rafi as they regarded Lata. Even during the phase when music got commercialised in the 80s, Laxmikant Pyarelal survived in the industry and provided everlasting tunes to Lata.
In Parasmani, in n1963, Laxmikant Pyarelal had given immortal tunes to Rafi including “roushan tumhi se duniya”. The same film had a melodious duet song for Lata and Rafi titled “woh jab yaad aye bahut yaad aye”. Their composition for Lata and Mukesh titled “sawan ka mahina”, picturised on Nutan and Sunil Dutt became an everlasting hit in the 60s.
Laxmikant Pyarelal’s composition in the film Izzat, titled “yeh dil tum bin kahi lagta nahi” sung by Lata and Rafi was a masterpiece. In those days producers never dictated terms to the composers and as such the best compositions of Laxmikant Pyarelal came in the 60s and 70s, which included “woh hai zara khafa khafa” sung by Lata and Rafi in Shagird, picturised on Saira Banu and Joy Mukherjee. Laxmikant Pyarelal’s composition in Jigri Dost, titled “raat suhani” sung by Lata and Rafi and picturised on Mumtaz and Jeetender had a huge romantic appeal.
In the early 70s, also Laxmikant Pyarelal created semi-classical compositions like “patta patta” sung by Lata and Rafi which also became hit. After the death of Jaikishan in 1971, Raj Kapoor used Laxmikant Pyarelal for the rest of his films and Lata made significant contribution in all those films. Songs like “hum tum ek kamre me bandh ho” from Bobby, “satyam shivam sundaram” from Satyam Shivam Sundaram, became landmark hits.
Also songs like “koel bole”, “dafliwale” from the film Sargam picturised on Jaya Prada and Rishi Kapoor, and sung by Lata and Rafi, created sensation in the late 70s. Even in the early 80s, the title song of the film Ek Duje Ke Liye, became very very successful. Laxmikant Pyarelal had the capability of catering to the needs of the new generation and was the only composer of the 60s who could survive in the 80s when action films dominated bollywood.
Lata’s combination with Laxmikant Pyarelal marks diverse types of songs and some of them like “aya sawan jhumke”, from Aya Sawan Jhumke, “aap mujhe acche lagne lage”, from Jeene ki raah, all the songs from the film Banphool, had not lost their appeal even today. The songs should be restored for immense musical value.
Related Reading
