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Bollywood Retrospect: 10 best Hindi film albums by music director Hemant Kumar

Was Hemant Kumar a better music director than he was a singer?

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Music lovers have always had a tough time slotting Hemant Kumar. Was he a great composer who also sang well or was he a great singer who also made some memorable music?Was he a better music director than he was a singer? For someone as good as Hemant Kumar, these questions may as well be rhetorical, but a discussion around them could help us get a better appreciation for his talent and his contribution to music.

In this post, I look at Hemant Kumar’s career as music director and pick his 10 best Hindi film albums. Considering the fact that he composed music for many more Bengali films than Hindi films and given how passionate Bengalis are about his Bengali film music, it must be said that this list is not representative of his work as composer but one aspect of it.

Anand Math (1952)

Anand Math was Hemant Kumar’s first Hindi film as music director. By this time he already had a more than a decade of experience as a singer in All India Radio as well as in Bengali and Hindi films. He had also composed music for around ten Bengali films by this time. Anand Math had some superb patriotic songs but none as rousing and widely heard as Hemant Kumar’s take on 'Vande Mataram'. Both versions of the song – a solo by Lata Mangeshkar with Hemant Kumar’s backing vocals and a solo by Hemant Kumar – are pure gold. I particularly like Lata’s version for her perfect taans and her harmonies with Hemant Kumar and a robust chorus.

Nagin (1954)

The film that brought Hemant Kumar mainstream acclaim amongst the Hindi film audience was Nagin. The songs from the film, with tastefully incorporated folk music and a been leitmotif, became a big hit and won Hemant Kumar his only Filmfare Award. An important aspect of the score of Nagin was the very popular been theme. The theme was composed by Ravi whom Hemant Kumar had discovered as a chorus singer while recording the music for Anand Math and taken under his wings. Hemant Kumar played an important role in Ravi’s ascent as a full-fledged music director, mentoring him and encouraging him to start out independently. My pick from the film is 'Man Dole Mera Tan Dole' for its iconic been sound and Lata Mangeshkar’s deceptively relaxed vocals.

Shart (1954)

Shart is the only iffy pick in this list and finds a place primarily due to one song – 'Na Yeh Chand Hoga Na Taare Rahenge'. The song came in two versions – a Geeta Dutt solo and a solo by Hemant Kumar himself and my pick is the latter.

Jagriti (1954)

Hemant Kumar displayed his knack for composing patriotic songs once again in Jagriti. It was one of his rare films that didn’t have a song sung by either him or Lata Mangeshkar. Some splendid renditions by Asha Bhosle ('Sabarmati Ke Sant Tune'), Kavi Pradeep ('Aao Bachchon Tumhen Dikhayen') and Mohammed Rafi ('Hum Laayen Hain Toofan Se Kashti') filled this void. In my pick from the film, 'Sabarmati Ke Sant Tune Kar Diya Kamaal', Kavi Pradeep cleverly weaves in Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite bhajan, 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' into an ode to him.


Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)

Despite his early successes, Hemant Kumar’s career floundered after 1954. Eight years and several low-budget movies later, he found his bearing again with the resounding success of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. The film’s score was his most well-rounded, diverse and sophisticated work till date. The variety of influences and the voices of Asha Bhosle and Geeta Dut added to the film’s score a texture that was highly satisfying. Having picked 'Meri Baat Rahi Mere Man Mein' and 'Na Jao Saiyan Chhuda Ke Baiyan' in earlier posts, my pick in this post is the playful 'Bhanwra Bada Naadan Hai'.

Bees Saal Baad (1962)

Hemant Kumar got into film production in the late 1950s. Bees Saal Baad was his first venture in Hindi under the Geetanjali Pictures banner. The film was a big success commercially and so was its music. 'Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil' won Filmfare awards for lyricist Shakeel Badayuni and for singer Lata Mangeshkar. The film’s success encouraged Hemant Kumar to revisit the genre two years later with Kohraa. My pick from the film is Hemant Kumar’s breezy, accordion-filled solo 'Beqarar Karke Hamen Yun Na Jaiye'.

Kohraa (1964)

Kohraa was loosely based on Daphne Du Maurier’s novel Rebecca, which was also the basis of Alfred Hitchcock’s film by the same name. The song of the film was 'Yeh Nayan Dare Dare' sung by Hemant Kumar himself. While 'Yeh Nayan Dare Dare' is considered one of Hemant Kumar’s best Hindi film songs, the tune has a much bigger meaning to Bengali film music lovers. Hemant Kumar had originally used the tune for the Bengali film song 'Ei Raat Tomar Amar' (Deep Jwele Jai, 1959), one of the most iconic love songs ever in Bengali films.


Anupama (1966)

Hemant Kumar followed up his successful collaboration with lyricist Kaifi Azmi in Kohraa with Anupama. Anupama is one of Hemant Kumar’s prettiest scores. His music was as beautiful as the other aspects of the film, including Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s direction, the best looking actors of the time – Dharmendra and Sharmila Tagore – and some lovely black & white scenes. Two solos best highlight this beauty  - 'Ya Dil Ki Suno Duniya Walon', Hemant Kumar’s solo on Dharmendra and 'Kuchh Dil Ne Kaha Kuchh Bhi Nahin', Lata Mangeshkar’s solo on Sharmila Tagore. Both songs are serene melodies with an almost spiritual aura about them and it’s hard to take our eyes off the songs’ protagonist. My pick of the two is 'Kuch Dil Ne Kaha…' in which Lata’s delicate rendition and Hemant Kumar’s restrained arrangement enhances the song’s ethereal beauty.


Do Dooni Char (1968)

Do Dooni Char wasn’t Hemant Kumar’s best work but worth highlighting for two reasons. One, it had Hemant Kumar going out of his comfort zone and delivering a rather screwball score befitting the film’s theme. Second, it was one of the rare Hemant Kumar scores that featured songs sung by Kishore Kumar. My pick from the film is the Kishore Kumar ballad, 'Hawaon Pe Likh Do Hawaon Ke Naam'. Gulzar, who wrote the lyrics and dialogue for Do Dooni Chaar, made his own adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors many years later – Angoor (1982). 

Khamoshi (1969)

Khamoshi was director Asit Sen’s remake of his own Bengali film, Deep Jwele Jaai and was produced by Hemant Kumar’s Geetanjali Pictures. Supported by Gulzar’s brilliant lyrics, Hemant Kumar recorded some of the best songs ever for Hindi films – 'Tum Pukar Lo', 'Humne Dekhi Hai Un Aankhon Ki Mahakti Khushboo' and 'Woh Shaam Kuchh Ajeeb Thi'. My pick for this post, 'Tum Pukar Lo', was the Hindi equivalent of 'Ei Raat Tomar Amar'. Such was the significance of 'Ei Raat Tomar Amar' that Asit Sen insisted that Hemant Kumar reuse its tune for 'Tum Pukar Lo'. However, since Hemant Kumar had already used its tune earlier for 'Yeh Nayan Dare Dare', he was not willing to repeat it for another Hindi film song. He was able to come up with a clever compromise that, in my opinion, resulted in an end product that was far superior to a direct reuse. While recording 'Yeh Nayan Dare Dare', Hemant Kumar had discarded the introduction to 'Ei Raat Tomar Amar'. He took this introduction and used it for 'Tum Pukar Lo' as is, but came up with a completely different tune for the rest of the song. The maestro had retained the spirit of 'Ei Raat Tomar Amar' without compromising his self-imposed principles.

Khamoshi was Hemant Kumar’s last significant Hindi film score. He continued to do prolific work in Bengali films in the 1970s and 1980s though. He was offered the Padma Shree twice but he declined it each time because it came too late. Even his own protégé, Ravi, had been awarded the Padma Shree as far back as 1971.

(A longer list of Hemant Kumar’s best Hindi film songs as music director can be found here.)

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