Unsung Melodies

Unsung Melodies / Different Strokes

When we think of the most perfect voice for a quintessential traditional Bollywood heroine we want to hear the most sweet and high pitch voice. It's like the leading lady has to sound saccharine sweet with honey dipping out of her on screen vocals. The immensely gifted and supremely talented songstress Lata Mangeshkar dominated the music scene for over 5 decades with her perfect renditions and lilting Melodies making every song she sang a classic to remember forever. During her reign there were some singers who came in with a lot of promise and had at least one hit song to their credit but eventually disappeared from the industry after a painstakingly brief struggle to reach the top.

Vani Jayram: Can anyone forget the classically endearing voice singing "Bole re papeehara " in Guddi  [1971]? Vani had the perfect notes to her credit and sang for musicians like R D Burman & O P Nayyar. Her soulful Meera Bhajans under the music baton of Pandit Ravi Shanker in Meera  [1979] were a major milestone in her career. But after these chart buster hits she suddenly slipped into singing for B grade Bollywood films and quietly shifted Base to South Indian music.

Sharada: The baby voiced singer is remembered for her first song "Titli Udi" in Suraj  [1966]. The song skyrocketed Sharada to super stardom and she went on to sing for films like An evening in Paris, Elaan, Around the world and Saazish. Her career as a Singer was short lived and she turned music director scoring for films like Kshitij & Garibi Hatao and soon vanished from the industry.

Sulakshna Pandit: The beautiful singing actress had the deadly combination of porcelain chiselled looks and a sensuous voice. Hailing from a prestigious Musical Gharana she'd everything in her favour and also sang for music legends like Shankar Jaikishen and Khayyam. Her most famous song being the duet with Kishore Kumar "Beqaraar E Dil tu gaaye Ja" from Door Ka Rahi  [1971]. After singing in over 50 films she suddenly disappeared from the scene and never returned back to playback singing.

Nazia Hassan: At 15 she was the youngest singer to win the Filmfare Award in 1980 for her chart buster hit "Aap jaisa Koi " from Qurbani. Her intoxicating nasal voice had an addictive quality that the youth of the 80s swooned to. She sang in films like Ilzaam, Sheela & Star but couldn't repeat the success of her debut pop hit in Bollywood and soon disappeared from the Hindi Music Industry.

Runa Laila: The talented Singer from across the border came with high hopes from Bangladesh. Her initial songs in "Ek Se Badhkar Ek"[1976] and Gharonda  [1977] reached top spot in Radio countdown but her innings were short termed in Bollywood as no Music Director was ready to experiment with her unusual yet appealing voice. After a brief struggle she vanished from Bollywood scene.

Hemlata: Her sweet voice is till date remembered for the title track of Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se [1978]. She mostly sang for Ravindra Jain & Usha Khanna and it is still a mystery why other bigger Music Maestros did not use her voice frequently in their compositions. By the mid 80s she disappeared from the music scene and was never heard again.

Each of these singers had unique and strikingly appealing voices but the standard set for Playback Singing was far too high and with due respect to each of them they couldn't meet the expectations of the music listeners and to a large extent the Music Directors of that time. But true music lovers even today love to listen to some of these voices which are like Different Strokes.