#369

        Song:   Woh khushnaseeb hain jinko yahaan qaraar milaa
                Humen to dil jo milaa woh bhi beqaraar milaa

        Film:   Hill Station (1957)
        Singer: Hemant Kumar
        Music:  Hemant Kumar
        Lyrics: S H Bihari
        *ing:   Pradeep Kumar(?), ?

I've been on a Hemantda trip the past few days, having  acquired,
in  addition  to  a  few  others,  a fortuitous Lata/Hemant duets
compilation, mysteriously packaged in a "Basant Bahar/Goonj  Uthi
Shehnai"  CD  cover.  (Long live packaging foobars !)  (Obviously
the 'defective' CD was replaced, but not before I had transferred
its contents to tape :-))

That being the case, I thought I'd put this  Hemantda  breeze  to
some  productive  use and intersperse my next few posts with some
of my favorite new HK discoveries (musical  serendipities,  if  I
may).

Four words, with one repetition, capture the essence  of  today's
selection  -  "but  soft...  real  soft". This hauntingly fragile
melody almost got me killed a few days ago on the  road,  because
all  you  feel  like  doing when its sweet, soothing strains waft
through the ambience (the interior of my car, in  this  case)  is
close your eyes and gently rock to their call. Not a very prudent
course of action at 85 mph on 45 South, as it turns out.

Hemantda is magnificent in both his  creation  and  rendition  of
this  lovely  piece  of  musical velvet... the way he softens his
voice at the ends of the lines, and the slight echo that pervades
throughout   the   song   are   absolutely  captivating.  Vintage
Hemantda... God bless his soul !

This soundtrack is probably  more  famous  for  "nai  manzil  nai
raahen"  which,  as  I  discovered,  has  a  Lata solo version in
addition to the more popular (?) Lata/Hemantda duet.



Guest Author: Hrishi Dixit