The Bhupinder Songs That You Don’t Know, But Should

Think  Bhupinder Singh .And you  are immediately  reminded of a gallery  of great songs like Dil dhunta hai from Mausam, Ek akela iss shaher mein from Gharonda, Naam ghum jayega  from Kinara, Beeti na beetayee raina from Parichay, Karoge yaad toh from Bazaar. What if I tell thrre is  aslew of Bhupinder  melodies waiting to be discovered? Try these for starters.

1. Dil ne tapad tadap ke(Faasla): Written by the great  Kaifi Azmi, this is a  Jaidev  composed love ballad that even Shabana Azmi, on whom it is filmed, has forgotten. Bhupinder’s sun-kissed  voice caresses the melody with tender  care. Bhupinder sang  a  handful  of memorable  songs for Jaidev, the more  popular one being Do diwane shaher  mein in Gharonda. Look deeper.
2. Darr-o-deewar pe hasrat-e-nazar karte hain(Andolan):  An  off beat flop featuring Rakesh Pandey and Neetu Singh(her  only  neo-realistic film) featured this stunning poetry of   the revolutionary  poet Ramprasad Bismil. We know  him by his other  poetry of awakening Sarfaroshi ki  tammanna  abb hamare dil mein hain.  Darr-o-deewar pe hasrat-e-nazar  is  just as  ediying inspiring and motivating. Set to an  appropriately free-flowing   music by the redoubtable Jaidev, Bhupinder sings, “Hum bhi araam  utha sakte ttthe ghar par rahkar /Humko bhi  paala ttha maa-baap ne dukh sahkar…..Naujawanon,yehi mauka hai utho khul khelo /Khidmat-e-kaum  mein /Jo aaye balaa sab jhelo/Desh azaad ho kya gham hai jawani de do…”  This is  not a song.  It an uprising.
3. Koi nahin hai kahin(Kinara):  The great Gulzar has a very special place in his  heart  for Bhupinder  who sang many very special songs in  Gulzar’s cinema, none more special than this  haunting evocative solo composed  by Rahul Dev Burman with the precious care  it deserves. It’s  a pity that this  song in Kinara got  overshadowed  by other great songs on the  soundtrack. In Kinara Gulzar allowed  Bhupinder  to  do all the male vocal  honours. He had a ball . The other  remarkable  solo by Bhupinder in this album is  Ek hi khwab kayi baar  dekha hai , a free-flowing conversational  love letter written by Gulzar and  so  naturally  put on screen by Dharmendra   it feels like the singer is improvising.
4. Zindagi  phoolon ki nahin(Grihapravesh): Filmmaker Basu Bhattacharya   had a great sense  of  music. But he  had no clue how to  use the  beautiful music in his films. Who would  shove this timeless  Bhupinder-rendered  melody  written  by  Gulzar and  composed  by  Kanu Roy  into  the credit titles of this Sanjeev  Kumar-Sharmila Tagore marital drama?
5. Jaane yeh mujhko kya ho raha hai(Ek Baar Phir): Sehmi sehmi aahen hai dehshat si mann mein jaane yeh  mujhko  kya ho raha hai…. Composer Raghunath Seth’s  unsung masterpiece  from Vinod Pande’s  beautiful film  on overstepping the  line  of restraint  in a  marriage. With minimal music and only the guitar  for company, Bhupinder creates an aura of  unconditional  romance. This  song is  one of  Hindi cinema’s best written composed and rendered love songs . Ever.