I write this article to highlight 3 films of RD Burman, every song of which is practically a gem, a masterpiece. A few of the songs may be known to a few aficionados of film music but most of them remain largely unknown and undiscovered. They are as good as any Panchamda creation, but have remained in obscurity, probably because the films were colossal flops. These films are – Harjaee, Sitamgar and Heeralal Pannalal. Panchamda often had this misfortune of putting his best into some films that were to bomb miserably at the box office. Let us analyse the songs of these films one by one
Harjaae -
Randhir Kapoor and Tina played the leads and directed by Ramesh Behl. Now, Behl, Randhir Kapoor and Panchamda always created magic whenever they came together but unfortunately in this case Behl’s direction and the insipid screenplay destroyed this film. The songs
Tujh sa haseen – a foot-tapping disco by Kishoreda with a throbbing background score
Sun zara shokh haseena - Kishore-Asha at their best in a racy, teasing number
Ye rut hai haseen – Kishore again in a soft and sensuous romantic ode
Jeevan mein jab aise pal ayenge – Kishore- Asha in a super romantic duet
Kabhi palkon pe aansoo hai – a touching and tragic solo by Kishore with great lyrics
Tere liye palkon ki jhalar bunu – One among Lata’s best numbers rendered in a whisper- soft voice quality
Mee raksam – Rafi and Chandrashekhar Gadgil in a song resembling a Sufi pop-qawwali.
Credits for the lyrics were shared by Gulshan Bawra, Vitthalbhai Patel and Nida Fazli
Sitamgar –
There was no reason to believe that a multi-starrer big-budget film directed by successful director Raj Sippy and starring Dharmendra, Parveen Babi, Rishi Kapoor and Poonam Dhillon, would fall flat on its face. But somehow this film did flop and along with it RD Burman’s great numbers too, sunk without a trace. Let us list these great numbers
Pyaar jab na diya zindagi ne kabhi – Kishore is a racy philosophic rendition with super lyrics by Majrooh saab, the lyricist of this film. It was filmed on Dharamji on horseback, in cowboy Western style. It appeared in the beginning of the film as the credits rolled on. It was probably among the best songs of Kishoreda. This cinemascope film, interestingly, starts in 35mm format. Dharamji is shown as sleeping atop a train and as he wakes up and stretches his arms, the film too stretches into cinemascope.
Chand roz aur meri jaan chand roz – This was probably the only song that gained some amount of popularity. Rendered by Kishore, it had a brooding appeal, sung in Kishoreda’s inimitable style.
Mausam Pyaar ka – A romantic and soft Kishore- Asha duet
Hum kitne nadaan they yaaro – Kishore again in another great number
Meri tarah allah kare tera kisi pe aye dil – A soft seduction number by Asha and Kishore, this is another absolutely unknown gem.
Tum dilwalon ke aage – A spirited dance number by Kishore-Lata, filmed on Rishi and Poonam on stage.
I have heard that this film also had an unreleased song sung by Shailendra Singh which goes like this – Kisi gareeb ka dil*. Though I have never heard this one, it is said that this was perhaps one of the best songs sung by Shailendra.
Heeralal Pannalal –
Directed by Ashok Roy and released in 1978, this was another multi starrer that starred Shashi, Randhir, Zeenat, Neetu and Premnath. A miserable flop again but RD came up trumps again with super numbers which unfortunately met the same fate as the film.
Kahiye kahaan se aana hua- Kishore, Bhupender, Lata and Asha – A foot-tapping playful number
O padosan ki ladki – Kishore in a racy fast paced number
Aaja mere pyaar aaja- Filmed on Premnath this song was sung by Hemant Kumar, many years after his singing career had ended.
Kis ne dekha hai kal – RD Burman and Asha
Dhal gayee rang mein tere – Kishore Asha duet
Seedhe raste chaloge to – Kishore & Rafi sing this light funny number
The sad fact is that you may never get a CD or tape of these films in the market to enjoy these songs. You may probably try to download them from some site if available but I doubt if you can get them. If only some music company would be smart enough to put these three films together in one album and release it