November 7th, 2009

Hemant Kumar – Shamshad Begum

Hemant Kumar - Shamshad Begum

Hemant Kumar & Shamshad Begum

Hemant Kumar (the music director) and Shamshad Begum – Like other music directors from Bengal belt i.e. Anil Biswas and Salil Chaudary, Hemant Kumar used Shamshad’s voice sparingly. As far as I know, the only song he composed for Shamshad, was a duet with Geeta Dutt from Yahudi ki Ladki (1957) – Hum Kisi Se Na Kahenge. Sadly, this was also the last duet Geeta and Shamshad Begum sang together.

Hemant Kumar (the singer) and Shamshad Begum – This is one of the most unusual combination of singers singing together. Shamshad and Hemant sang only 1 to 2 duets together in their long careers. One of them was from the 1953 film Sholey with music by Naresh Bhattacharya and Dhaniram – Ae dil to kahin lai chal. The song appears two times in the film – once as a solo by Hemant and then as a duet by Hemant and Shamshad. The solo version starts slowly and the opening lines are sung at low pace without orchestral support. In duet version the orchestra is right from the beginning. The duet is more catchy owing to change  of  rhythm  from Hemant to Shamshad after mukhada; and then again after the antara.

Bollywood