Thanks a lot Saksham for the upload. I was missing some of the songs.

The Ajab hai Dastaan song has been wonderfully sung by Rafi Sahab. The music directors felt this song was more suitable for him to sing and is one of the few songs sung by Rafi sahab and picturised on Kishore Kumar. He has done full justice to it.
I happen to have the video of this song and am uploading it for you to see if you haven't already.
It is in flv format and 02:36 minutes long.

The Geeta duets I had already and are quite good..

Since I have seen this film in the theater, this is what I know : Kishore kumar plays a double role in the film. The first one is the lover of Meena Kumari and the 2 duets of Geeta ji are sung by this role. In the film, this character dies and Meena Kumari is forced to marry another man. His brother is the second Kishore Kumar.

SJ gave Rafi sahab's voice to the second role. The first role's songs were sung by Kishoreda himself.

I hope this clarifies.

Cheers
Parag

Saksham, it was a clear case of using a different voice for the second Kishore Kumar. That is the precise reason for Rafi sahab singing "Lushka Lushka Lui Lui Sha" with Lata ji. I like all songs of Kishoreda from this film as much as I like "Ajab hain dastan". The wordings, music, situation and acting on "Ajab hain dastan" is very good and makes me cry when I listen to it. So soulful and emotional song.

Parag (Not Parag sir)

Thanks Saki, nice share

Parag sir,

I got the point the first time itself, just wanted to somehow apply my hypothesis here...hehe
Agreed its a very soulful and emotional song, sung beautifully by Rafi sahab. The Geeta-Kishoreda duets of this album are also beautiful.

Warm regards,
Saksham

PS- I cant address you by your name sir, considering you are more than twice my age! hehe...so either bhaiya, sir, uncle or some other appellate has to be used. Sorry....cant help it! Cant ignore these small technicalities!

Dear Saksham,

There were many unique (or at least different) things with this film. Meena ji playing a light role (at least in the first half), Geeta ji singing for SJ, 2 duets of Kishoreda and Geeta ji for the same film (that too as late as in 1959), Kishoreda playing a double role, Rafi sahab giving playback to Kishoreda..!

Its a pleasure interacting with you here on this thread and on HF in general. I have sent you a mail on your hotmail account. I am looking forward to your email response.

Thanks and Warmest Regards
Parag

Shararat was indeed a remarkable movie! I havn't been lucky enough to actually watch it, but the music is amazing! The fact that Rafi sahab playbacked for Kishoreda is intriguing enough. If I'm not wrong, this was not the only song Rafi sahab sang for him. I once saw a semi-classical song of his picturised on Kishoreda.


Warm regards'
Saksham

Sukesh, thanks for your valuable inputs. SJ are your favorite composers and I am not questioning the selection of singer for the song "Ajab hain dastan". This is what I remember, I could be wrong :
Kishore Kumar's first role's songs (one solo and two duets with Geeta ji) are sung by Kishoreda himself. The second role has a solo and a duet with Lata ji. Is it not a clear case of using a different voice for the second role?

Rafi sahab's rendition is out of the world and it is his top 10 songs per my choice. It makes me very emotional whenever I listen to it, esp "Tum aayi maa ki mamta liye toh muskuraaye hum"


Parag

Thanks parag and saksham for the nice discussion up.

I happen to have two more videos of songs where Rafi sahab has sung for Kishore. let me know if you want them.

Saksham

1) AFAIK, there are about 20 to 24 known instances where other singers have playbacked for Kishore Kumar.

Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey, S D Batish, either Fateh Ali Khan or Amanat Ali Khan in Ragini (1957), and ??

2) As far as 'ajab hai daastaa.n teri zindagi' from 'Shararat' is concerned, Shankar Jaikishan have said that only Rafi would have done justice (and he did) to the song. It was not a question of different playback voices for different roles.

In fact, in all the double roles in Hindi films, the voice of the such characters is the same (of the actor playing the role), possibly the sole exception was that of Dharmendra's double role in Yakeen, the voice of one of the roles was that of Vinod Sharma - the famous radio announcer.

Possibly, after the song ' ajab hai daastaa.n' was recorded, it may have donned on S-J to use Rafi again for 'lushkaa lushkaa' so that the second character has songs by Mohammad Rafi - I am assuming that the songs were recorded in that order. At this point of time, it is just a conjecture. I had seen the movie when it was first released nearly 50 yeas ago (and I was not yet out of my knickers) and do not remember much.

Regards
Sukesh

YES PLEEEEEASE!!!

Thanks in advance.
Warm regards,
Saksham

Sukesh sir,

1. Were these 20 songs recorded around the time Kishoreda was starting his career as an actor/singer? Not 'ajab hai daastan' for sure. But others by Rafi sahab and Manna Dey. Its intresting but Manna Day, in one of his recent interviews (with CNN?) said that some aspects of Kishore's singing were better than his own.

2. That is exactly what I would have thought. But since Parag sir told that two different voices were used, role-wise, without assuming much, one can safely conclude that SJ had perceived it that way. Even if 'ajab hai daastan' was recorded earlier, and then the realisation dawned on them, eventually, they were using two different voices for two different roles by the same actor. Its hard to believe that they were okay with the idea of using a different voice (Rafi sahab) for just one song because they believed that no one else could have done justice to their tune, and go ahead with Kishore (for 'lushka lushka' and all the others).

Warm regards,
Saksham

Saksham

A) I said it was only a conjecture at this point in time. As far as 'ajab hai daastaa.n', it has been mentioned in many articles down the years that S-J felt that only Mohammad Rafi could do justice to the song, especially the concluding part. For the 'Raagini song, Kishore Kumar complained to his brother, Ashok Kumar, who was the producer of the film about O P Nayyar's choice of Mohammad Rafi. His brother flatly refused to intervene saying that it was the composer's prerogative.

I do not have the complete list of these 20 odd songs - you may be able to find it on the net somewhere.
One of the earliest songs was probably in 'Bhagambhag' way back in the early 50s. I am not sure but Manna Dey playbacked for him in Krorepati, someone would need to confirm this.

Regards
Sukesh

Sukesh sir,

I did not doubt what SJ thought about the song, and of Rafi sahab. What I was saying was that if SJ believed only Rafi could do justice to their tune, one second thought, it must have occurred to them that using Rafi sahab for just one song, for the same actor, but in a different role would have been weird. So they divided work equally between the two (Kishoreda- first half, Rafi- second half). This would have solved the purpose for them; having Rafi for what they thought only he could deliver. Having two singers for the same actor (albeit in a different roles) would have definitely sounded stranger than a different voice for every role. Am I making sense?

I have no clue about Ragini; whether Rafi was used only for that one song. If yes, didn’t that look a little ‘odd?’ I mean, for (only) actors, one can have two or more voices, but not when your actor is a singer, more so when he’s a singer of Kishoreda’s stature.

Sorry for dragging this…well…trivial issue this far. I hope I’m not being bothersome.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Warm regards,
Saksham.

Sukesh sir,

I did not doubt what SJ thought about the song, and of Rafi sahab. What I was saying was that if SJ believed only Rafi could do justice to their tune, one second thought, it must have occurred to them that using Rafi sahab for just one song, for the same actor, but in a different role would have been weird. So they divided work equally between the two (Kishoreda- first half, Rafi- second half). This would have solved the purpose for them; having Rafi for what they thought only he could deliver. Having two singers for the same actor (albeit in a different roles) would have definitely sounded stranger than a different voice for every role. Am I making sense?

I have no clue about Ragini; whether Rafi was used only for that one song. If yes, didn’t that look a little ‘odd?’ I mean, for (only) actors, one can have two or more voices, but not when your actor is a singer, more so when he’s a singer of Kishoreda’s stature.

Sorry for dragging this…well…trivial issue this far. I hope I’m not being bothersome.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Warm regards,
Saksham.

Saksham Ji,

Though you are around for quite some time now, it is only recently that I am getting to see your analysis and views on a few issues. Writing this post just to say that your understanding of these issues is reasonable and well-considered.

Venkat

No problem about dragging it. I understand the reason behind it. So after recording 'ajab hai dasstaa.n', they went on to use Rafi for 'lushkaa lushkaa' - that is the way I see it and would explain different singers for different chracters (albeit played by the same actor). The Raagini incident is well known and yes that was the only song where Rafi playbacked for Kishore in the film. And the pure classical number by the khan brothers.

In case of Bhagambhag, I think - both Mohammad Rafi and S D Batish playbacked for KK, in addition to himself.

Regards
Sukesh