Recalling some of the composer-singer’s music, from the sombre Guru Dutt films to Girl Friend, which had ‘Boom booma boom’.
When it comes to films, we may admire the choices an actor makes, but there’s always a doubt: Is this great bit of dialogue delivery the actor’s own choice, or did the director prompt him to perform this way? (“Take it down a notch!” “When you say the second line, start pacing about!”) It’s the same with film music. Given a particular song, or even a particular phrase, when we say “X has sung it magnificently”, how much of it came from the directions of the composer and how much was X’s on-the-spot improvisation? That confusion does not arise with a song like Zara nazron se keh do ji, from Bees Saal Baad (1962). Before the first antara, there’s a bit of dialogue that’s half-spoken, half-sung: Hairat mein pad gaya hoon… The first syllable “hai” (of “hairat”) is uttered with an expulsion of breath that sounds like a sigh! That’s Hemant Kumar, the singer. That’s also Hemant Kumar, the composer.
Read the rest of this article here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/bollywood-features/hemant-kumar-on-his-birth-centenary-a-musical-flashback-baradwaj-rangan/
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Shalini
June 16, 2020
Much as I love Hemant Kumar, the composer, I don’t care for him as a singer. At. all. Take “jaane woh kaise log the,” you hear conscience-smiting pain, I hear: a bear, growling, snoring, mumbling. 🙂
As a composer however, Hemant Kumar’s compositional “comfort zone’ of gentle, lilting, minimally orchestrated melodies really hit the spot for me. Especially when you throw Lata Mangeshkar into the mix. Similar to Chitragupta, HK had a knack for eliciting a sweetness from Lata without tripping into cloyness. There’s a lightness, a breeziness to his compositions that prevented the sweetness from becoming overpowering, sickening. “Dheere dheere machal” is, to my mind, the quintessence of this Hemant-Lata alchemy as are “pyaar ki dastaan tum suno to kahe” or the lovely “mera akela jiya kaise lage” from Inspector.
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tejas
June 16, 2020
One of my favourite HK songs is Yeh nayan dare dare, from Kohraa (1964). In the third line, the word zara spools over four beat counts, and this becomes a motif. The song hangs in the air with the sensuousness of agarbatti smoke.
I heard this song first in the funniest of circumstances. I had taken a sibling to our family doctor. Now the doctor was a fan of using injections as a quick-fire alternative to oral medicines. The patient was mortally afraid of injections. The doctor announced that he was going to use intravenous and went to prepare for it. The patient started to cower besides me with the horrible prospect – eyes closes, and face down as if not seeing the injection being administered would lessen the pain. Such are the ways of humans.
GP as he enters reviews this scene and breaks into Yeh Nayan Dare Dare. Not at all a good voice and not even passable sur-taal. But I am completely captivated by the song. What is this beautiful thing? The zara peene do and all subsequent hooks on that 3rd line are probably the most mesmerizing bit of tune and singing I have ever heard. People throw around words like “ethereal” and “velvetty” too easily for singing. But this is what ethereal means.
Hemant Kumar did have his own faster paced songs, maybe not in the same range as what Rafi and Kishore Kumar had, but pretty awesome output nevertheless.
Good call on House No. 44. I had heard Phaili Hui hai… from the film but not the one you mentioned.
You are simply outstanding in your music-related articles.
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Madan
June 16, 2020
“As a composer for other singers, Hemant Kumar exhibited a far wider range than he was able to exhibit as a singer for other composers.” – Couldn’t agree more.
Somewhat overrated singer and an underrated composer. Khamoshi is one of the all time great soundtracks of Hindi cinema. All it’s missing is a foot tapper like Gata Rahe Mera Dil but every song is beautiful.
I had somehow never paid attention to his equally illustrious career as a producer. Wow, the man truly wore many hats.
Biswajeet reminisces here about his times working with Hemantda.
https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/100-years-of-melodies-biswajit-chatterjee-on-hemant-kumar-on-his-birth-centenary/articleshow/76392714.cms
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Anu Warrier
June 16, 2020
Much as I love Hemant Kumar, the composer, I don’t care for him as a singer. At. all.
Come into my arms! 🙂 Though I must confess I liked some of his songs.
Love him as a composer though – some great scores.
My all-time favourite would be this haunting melody from Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam
Chup gaya koi re from Champakali
And a very meditative Lata in Ye hawa ye fiza from Ek Jhalak
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Apu
June 17, 2020
What a lovely nuanced tribute!
As someone who is very familiar with his work in Bengali, I totally agree with people here that the songs he sung in Hindi would probably not sound as impressive – especially, when people have Kishore, Rafi and Mukesh to compare and argue about 🙂
However, his pairing with Uttam Kumar and later Soumitra in Bengali sort of shaped my childhood, though many of those movies were released before I was born. I can listen to his songs for ages – they range from flirtatious to melancholy and the actors provided perfect pairing.
I feel his limitation as a singer in Hindi might have been due to his lower comfort level with the language.
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TambiDude
June 17, 2020
HK was indeed an under-rated composer. He composed one of the best songs ever of Lata.
They don’t make such songs now, do they ?
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Jayram
June 17, 2020
Just reading this article and remembering songs like Ye Nayan Dare Dare, Tum Pukar Lo, Hai Apna Dil To Awara, Jab Jaag Uthe Armaan, Zara Nazron Se Kehdo Ji, Dekho Woh Chand Chupke, Yaad Kiya Dil Na Kaha Ho Tum and Raahi To Mat Rukh Jaana brought back all the childhood memories of listening to Hemant Kumar. We used to listen to him a lot during our car rides thanks to my parents who loved the glorious music of the past and made sure we kids were soaked in it. Hence, it jump-started my love for old Hindi songs which still remains strong today.
He is one of my inspirations in singing as his sonorous and soulful baritone fits my range very well. Even if his Hindi diction wasn’t impressive as others have pointed out, he made it easy for me to sing his songs. He definitely was an underrated composer with my favorite composition of his being Woh Shaam Kuch Ajeeb Thi.
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brangan
June 18, 2020
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Tambi Dude
June 18, 2020
Another off beat HK song. This song is not his usual style.
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