Legendary Singer Mukesh’s Birthday, His 5 Best

Legendary Singer Mukesh’s Birthday, Subhash K Jha Picks His 5 Favourites

Mukesh  occupies  a special niche, Among the quintet of iconic playback singers—Lata Mangeshkar, Mohd Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Kishore  Kumar  and Mukesh

His voice  was  a craggy  path to pain and salvation. Raj Kapoor swore by  it. But  other superstars  were  just as fond  the singer who sang pain into  glory.

1. Tum  bin jeevan kaise beeta(Anita):  This is my favourite  Mukesh melody. So steeped in a aching sense  of longing  I am reminded  of what Tina  Turner once  trilled, “All you get  from love is a love song.” Raj Mehndi Ali Khan’s words are  like woundstabs. Laxmikant–Pyarelal adorns  the  number with painlashed notes.Goosebumps.
2. Sajanwa bairi ha gaye hamaar(Teesri Kasam): For Raj Kapoor, Mukesh went that  exrtra mile  down that road of meditative  melancholy. Bullock cart or  no.Teesri Kasam  boasts  of two other great Mukesh melodies Sajan re jhooth matt bolo and Duniya banaanewala.But Sajanwara bairi is my favourite. Its rips  a hole in  the soul each time. Every time. Timeless….
3. Koi jab tumhara hriday tod de (Purab Aur Paschim)  Kalyanji–Anandji reserved  their best songs  for  Mukesh: Chand  si mehbooba(Himalay Ki Gode Mein),Deewanon se  yeh matt pucho(Upkar), Hum chhod chale hainmehfil  ko(Jee Chahta Hai),  Chandi ki deewar na todi(Vishwas), Waqt karta  jo wafaa(Dil Ne  Pukara), Humne  apna sab kuch khoya pyar tera paane ko(Saraswatichandra), Khush raho  har khushi hai tumhare  liye(Suhag Raat)….But my favourite  Mukesh number composed  by Kalyanji–Anandji is this extraordinarly worded  lyric by Indeevar. Manoj Kumar’s preferred  ghostvoice was Mahendra Kapoor. But when  it came to something extra-special it was always  Mukesh.
4. Jis gali mein  tera ghar no ho balma(Kati Patang):  The biggest puzzle  of Rajesh Khanna’s   career:  when Kishore Kumar  was the Superstar’s  chosen  voice then why  did he  opt for Mukesh for this one song  in Kati Patang?   Even with Kishore cooning  Pyar deewaana hota hai , Yeh sham mastani and Yeh  jo mohabbat hai, Mukesh’s  sole solo stands  out.When asked why, R D Burman had a classic reply.  “Because  this one , belonged  to  Mukesh,no matter  from which angle  you  looked at  it.”
5. Mubarak ho sabko samaa yeh suhana(Milan): I  tossed between  Zindagi khwab hai from Jagte Raho and this  number from the Laxmikant–Pyarelal chartbuster Milan. I finally opted for  the latter for two reasons. One, because   Mukesh’s voice texture in this  haunting song  is  astounding. The  lyrics are  about  feeling happy. But  all we  hear is  the deepest sorrow embedded  in every word. And  then…Main to deewana  deewana  deewana….  Love  drives  you nuts.  Hadn’t Mukesh warned us  before  in Yeh mera deewanapan  hai in  Yehudi?