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.

Mukesh & Shamshad Begum

Mukesh and Shamshad Begum approximately sang 26 duets together. Details are provided below :-

Observations

Their first duet was kiya jadoo hai tere pass piya from Chehra (1946), composed by lesser known music director M.A. Mukhtar. Their nasalish voices were a perfect match for each other and composers like Naushad, S.D. Burman, and Gyan Dutt brought out the best in them.

The maximum number of Mukesh-Shamshad duets i.e. 5 were composed by Naushad. Naushad brought out the best in them and it isn’t surprising that duets from Mela and Anokhi Ada - Bhool gaye kiyoun dai kai sahara, Mein bhanwara tou hai phool, Mera dil toodne waley remain popular even today.

S.D. Burman also used Mukesh-Shamshad voices effectively when he composed three Mukesh-Shamshad duets for Filmistan’s Shabnam (1949). Picturized on Paro and Dilip Kumar, Tumhare liye huwe badnaam, Pyar mein tumnai dhoka seekha, and Tu mahal mein rehnai wali became extremely popular and established S.D. Burman as one of the leading music directors.

Shamshad Begum on Mukesh

“My (Shamshad) home remedies always worked for Mukesh who would often fall ill. He always told me aapaji aapka formula hit hai.” (Shamshad’s Interview conducted by Rachana Dubey)

Talat Mahmood & Shamshad begum

Talat Mahmood and Shamshad approximately sang 10 duets together. Details are provided below :-

Observations

Talat-Shamshad best known and most popular duets were with music director Naushad from the film Babul (1950). Nadi kinare saath hamare with Rafi, Duniya badal gayi and Milte hi aankhein dil hua picturized on Dilip Kumar and Munawwar Sultana remain popular even today. Ironically, Babul was the only film where Talat Mahmood lent his vocals for Naushad. Naushad never repeated Talat, despite the success of Babul. The reason behind not repeating Talat again is mentioned by Subhash K. Jha in “Mohd. Rafi – The Virtuoso”. “Angered with Talat Mahmood, whom he found smoking during a recording, the perfectionist composer, hired Rafi on a whim and decided that he would sing all the songs of Baiju Bawra.”