This article is written by Raja, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
Today (16 october 2016) is the birthday of Hema Malini, MP from Mathura.
But we will not go into her political career here. That is not of any particular interest to this blog. What we are interested in here is music and the film industry – and that is what we will focus on.
If I were a Britisher, I would probably say “It is fair to say that Hema Malini had a fairly successful career as a leading actor of her time, with a not insignifant number of successful films. ”
That would be typical British understatement. And anybody who’s familiar with the British style of speech, will translate this into “She must have had a phenomenally successful career, with a very large number of hits.”
And that would be a pretty accurate assessment of Hema Malini’s career. She was the reigning queen of her time, with others playing catch-up.
Being a 70s kid, I had the privilege of following Hema Malini’s career first hand right through that decade. She made her debut in the late 60s (so that was slightly before my time) but I do remember watching her early movies (Sapnon Ka Saudagar, Aansoo Aur Muskaan, Tum Haseen Main Jawaan, Abhinetri, Johny Mera Naam, Andaaz) when I was very young.
With the arrival of the 70s decade, Hema Malini seemed to come into her own. That was the period when Sharmila Tagore, Asha Parekh and Mumtaz were probably the top heroines. But Hema Malini, who was a newbie compared to these ladies, was soon right up there with all of them as a much-in-demand heroine.
And then, while these heroines’ careers as leading women gradually ended, Hema’s just took off. She dominated the 70s decade like none other.
In fact, one can say that, while the 70s decade was split between Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan in superstardom for the male lead, it was singularly dominated by Hema Malini, for the female lead.
This is no disrespect to the other heroines of the time. They were also popular – but Hema’s popularity easily surpassed all of them.
Not for nothing did we have dialogues like “apne aap ko Hema Malini samajh rahi hai kya?”
Not for nothing was she called “Dream Girl” – and even had a film by this name in which she played the female lead.
Not for nothing were her co-stars like Jeetendra and Sanjeev Kumar, not to mention Dharmendra, interested in wooing her.
Through all this, Hema Malini maintained a professionalism – probably also under the watchful eye of her mother, Jaya Chakravarty.
The successes kept coming. There were many – I am not going to list them here, except mention the odd film.
Johny Mera Naam (1970). An early film in her career – and a MASSIVE hit. This kicked off the Dev Anand – Hema Malini partnership. They acted in quite a few films thereafter, never quite with the success of Johny Mera Naam. Hema did admit later that Dev Anand was one of her favourite directors.
Lal Patthar (1971). Early film for Hema, but one in which her performance could be said to be every bit as impressive as the highly-rated Raj Kumar. One could hardly think this is somebody just starting out on her career.
Andaaz (1971). Hema played the role of a mother. Again, rather uncharacteristic for someone so early in her career. But clearly Ramesh Sippy had confidence in her, even then.
Seeta Aur Geeta (1972). Another Ramesh Sippy film, Hema Malini was the standout in this delightful “separated twins” story (remade as Chaal Baaz later). She won the Filmfare Award for this film – and deservedly so.
Sholay (1975). Again, a Ramesh Sippy film. Amongst the many fond memories of this film are the scenes involving Hema Malini. Who can forget Basanti? In fact, she has often said that even today, when she travels to places, she meets people who refer to her as Basanti. She was just fabulous in Sholay.
Kinara (1977). A Gulzar film. Hema Malini was by then a superstar, but many of her films had been “typical” films of the time. Often masala, with a lot of running around trees, song and dance and typical dhishum-dhishum. This was a different film – one in which Hema got a chance to dispay acting depth. Gulzar had earlier worked with Hema in Khushboo (1975) – another lovely film, with a good storyline.
Meera (1979). Another Gulzar film, which centred around the female protagonist (Meera) played by Hema. I remember reading about this film when it was being made. Hema was very keen on this role.
Razia Sultan (1983). Now this is a film I haven’t seen (and I think it didn’t do well), but again she had the female protagonist role. It’s a film I’d like to see.
Ek Chaadar Maili Si (1986). Hema was just outstanding in this film – again a role with maturity and depth.
Rihaee (1988). A powerful film that talks about women and their experiences in the village, when left behind by their husbands who’ve gone to the city for work. It’s a bold film – and Hema Malini’s performance (20 years after Sapnon Ka Saudagar, her first film as lead heroine) is still pretty spot on.
She’s acted in films after that too – more recently in character roles, like opposite Amitabh Bachchan in the hit film Baghbaan (2003). I must admit I’ve not seen many of these “recent” films.
I’ve listed only a few films here. Other than these, there were plenty of films which were not only very successful, but where she played a big part in the film’s success. She was also an accomplished Bharat Natyam dancer – and in several of her films, she had a chance to display her dancing skills.
I will admit one thing though. For all her superstar success in the 70s, Hema was NOT my favourite heroine of the time. That was possibly partly because she was the favourite for many – and I wanted to be the rebel. I would support a Moushumi or a Sulakshana or a Vidya Sinha, but not Hema – just to be “hatke”. Besides, her accent was always a bit of a dampener for me, though I must give her credit for getting to the top, despite it.
Now to the song for today.
I’ve picked a song from one of Hema’s early films. A song that I vividly remember from my childhood – it was a popular song in its time. A pretty catchy tune – one that I used to sing a lot. I was quite surprised this song hasn’t been posted yet.
But beyond these reasons, a reason to post this is that the song is composed by Shankar Jaikishen. Yesterday (15th October) was the birth anniversary of Shankar. I did not post a separate song on this occasion, so I am using this song to pay tribute to this maestro too.
The song is “aap ko pehle bhi kahin dekha hai” from Tum Haseen Main Jawan (1970). Those who like catchy tunes will like this one. Typical Shankar Jaikishen of the time. They could do classical tunes – and they could do foot-tapping ones too. This one belongs in the latter category. But don’t miss the interludes – they have a classical bend to them! So this song has both.
Hope you like it. I believe this was also the film where Hema and Dharam acted together for the first time – and there was a sort of initial attraction between them.
And wish you a very happy birthday and many happy returns of the day, Hemaji.
Song-Aapko pehle bhi kahin dekha hai (Tum Haseen Main Jawaan)(1970) Singers-Rafi, Asha Bhonsle, Lyrics-Hasrat Jaipuri, MD-Shankar Jaikishan
Both
Lyrics
Aap ko pehle bhi kahin dekha hai
Khwaab mein ya rubaroo par dekha hai
Aao hil mil jaayen
mauj udaa lein zindagi mein
Tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Aap ko pehle bhi kahin dekha hai
Khwab mein ya rubaroo par dekha hai
Aao hil mil jaayen
mauj udaa lein zindagi mein
Hah tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Ah tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Aap mein aisa jalwa nazar aa gayaa
Aap mein aisa jalwa nazar aa gayaa
Pyaar banker khayaalaat par chha gayaa
Pyaar banker khayaalaat par chha gayaa
Ab to koi haseen mujhko janchta nahin
Apni manzil ko main khud ba khud paa gayaa
Haaye
Aap ko pehle bhi kahin dekha hai
Khwab mein ya rubaroo par dekha hai
Aao hil mil jaayen
mauj udaa lein zindagi mein
tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Aap ki baat ka kaise kar loon yakeen
Aap ki baat ka kaise kar loon yakeen
Jis ne dekha mujhe ho gaya meherbaan
Jis ne dekha mujhe ho gaya meherbaan
Ye jawaani ka shaayad chamatkaar hai
Is fasaane mein warna haqeeqat kahaan
Aap ko pehle bhi kahin dekha hai
Khwab mein ya rubaroo par dekha hai
Aao hil mil jaayen
mauj udaa lein zindagi mein
Tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Dil ke sheeshey pe mujhko bharosa to hai
Dil ke sheeshey pe mujhko bharosa to hai
Jhooth boley kabhi aisa sheesha nahin
Jhooth boley kabhi aisa sheesha nahin
Aap maanen na maanen khushi aap ki
Dekh le jisko dil bhoolta hi nahin
Ho
Aap ko pehle bhi kahin dekha hai
Khwaab mein ya rubaroo par dekha hai
Aao hil mil jaayen
mauj udaa lein zindagi mein
Haah tum haseen main jawaan
Haah Tum haseen main jawaan
Haah tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Aap ko pehle bhi kahin dekha hai
Khwab mein ya rubaroo par dekha hai
Aao hil mil jaayen
mauj udaa lein zindagi mein
Tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
Tum haseen main jawaan
