The hand of destiny
“I was destined to be a singer,” Mahendra Kapoor once said in the many interviews we did together. The son of a businessman, little Mahendra was in kindergarten when he sang the film song Maar katari mar jaana sung by Amirbai Karnataki for Shehnai in 1947. Kapoor thus became a popular child in school and his parents and elder brother Jaichand encouraged him!

Born on January 9, 1934 in Amritsar, Kapoor moved soon to Mumbai. His brother took him to Mohammed Rafi, who suggested that he learn train in music. Kapoor learnt classical and light classical music from various teachers including Manhar Poddar, Pt.Husnlal, Pt.Jagannath Bua, Ustad Niaz Ahmed Khan, Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan, Afzal Hussain and Pt. Tulsidas Sharma, besides being coached by Rafi himself.

It was in 1953 that Mahendra Kapoor got his playback break in a small film, Madmast, with music by small-timer V. Balsara. “I also sang in some more films, but was not getting anywhere. That is when I entered the Metro-Murphy All-India singing competition on radio - and won it,” he said. “The judges included C.Ramachandra and Naushad, who were also supposed to give me a song under the terms and conditions. Annasaheb (C.Ramachandra) gave me four songs in Navrang and Naushadsaab gave me Chand chhupa aur taare doobe (Sohni Mahiwal). Yash (Chopra)ji heard the master-tape of the latter by chance at the recording studio and was surprised to know that the song was not sung by Rafisaab but by a young singer. He took me to B.R.Choprasaab and I got Dhool Ka Phool, which began an association that lasted till his 90s television serials. The music was by N.Dutta.” Dutta, incidentally, was to give Kapoor a large number of his subsequent Marathi hits.

By a coincidence, both Navrang and Dhool Ka Phool released in 1959 and all four tracks from the former (Aadha hai chandrama, Arey jaa re hat natkhat, Shyamal shyamal badan, Yeh maati sabhi ki kahani kahegi) and two from the latter film (Tere pyar ka aasra, Jo tum mooskura do) proved hits.

On the right‘track’
Kapoor’s ‘beginner’s luck’ was not restricted to these songs. Early popular numbers included Hum bhi hain tum bhi ho (Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai) and Kho gaya hai mera pyar(Hariyali Aur Rasta) from Shankar-Jaikishan, Sikander ne Porus se, the comic number from Madan Mohan’s Anpadh, Jai janani jai Bharat maa from the next B.R.-Yash-N.Dutta collaboration, Dharamputra and Kapoor’s first hit song with Ravi, Aaj ki mulaqaat bas itni from Bharosa.

But it was Ravi’s Gumraah (1963), a title that meant off-track, that actually set Kapoor on the highway to fame! The film made the Chopra-Kapoor-Ravi combo a team to reckon with till the 80s. Aa bhi jaa, Aaja aaja re, Aap aaye and Chalo ek baar all created sensations with their crooning melody.

After this, Kapoor made steady progress. Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne (Ramlal) saw the singer score in the title-track while classical heavyweight Kishori Amonkar sang the other version. Har dil jo pyar karega (with Mukesh and Lata) in Sangam (Shankar-Jaikishan) and Chhodkar tere pyar ka daaman (with Lata/Woh Kaun Thi?/Madan Mohan) were other hits.

From 1965, his career accelerated. Aaja re mere pyar ki raahi (with Lata in Oonche Log/Chitragupta), Mera rang de basanti chola (with Mukesh and Rajendra Mehta/Shaheed/Prem Dhawan) and Ussko nahin dekha(with Manna Dey in Roshan’s Daadi Maa) were among his standout numbers along with the next B.R.Chopra-Ravi outing Waqt that had Din hai bahaar ke (with Asha). Kapoor now had an identity of his own.

At this point, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, the new successes, used Kapoor to great advantage in songs like Mere sanam(Naag Mandir), Yeh kali(with Lata/Aaye Din Bahaar Ke), Kisne pukara mujhe and Phool ban jaaoonga (both with Lata/Pyar Kiye Jaa) and Sun ae bahaar-e-husn(again with Lata/Night In London).

The singer, however, benefitted the most when O.P.Nayyar stopped recording with Rafi and began using Kapoor, resulting in a near 100 per cent record of hits with chartbusters like Mera pyar woh hai (Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi), Badal jaaye agar maali(Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi), Meri jaan tujhpe sadke (Sawan Ki Ghata), Aankhon mein qayamat ke kaajal and Lakhon hai yahaan dilwale (Kismat), Yaaron ki tamanna hai, Kamar patli and Tumhara chahanewala(Kahin Din Kahin Raat). Haath aaya hai jab se (with Asha/Dil Aur Mohabbat) and those delights from Sambandh(Andhere mein jo baithe hain and Yeh khushi leke main kya karoon) completed the ‘hit-list’ that made Nayyar, in a brief span of just four years from 1966 to 1969, one of Kapoor’s foremost mentors.

The sudden High
But Kapoor’s biggest highs in this phase were Kalyanji-Anandji’s Upkar and Ravi’s Humraaz.

Mere desh ki dharti from Upkar remains a benchmark patriotic song even today and Manoj Kumar’s newfound identity as Mr Bharat found a seamless association with Kapoor as his new favourite voice for high-pitched, rousing songs.

Humraaz of course was a different kind of high. Kapoor sang all five songs of the film and but for Tu husn hai (with Asha), the rest were solos, and each was a rage - Kisi patthar ki moorat ko, Neele gagan ke tale, Tum agar saath dene ka vaada karo and Na munh chhupake jeeyo.

The last song also had a different significance too. Early in his career, Kapoor had lost a song as a composer had felt he would be unable to scale the high notes. It was then that the singer realised how important lung capacity and physical fitness were, worked at them by relentless jogging at dawn, and vindication came when he held a note for four bars in this song and Sunil Dutt had a tough time keeping his mouth wide open for that time!

Kapoor ended the 60s in a blaze of glory, singing hit solos and duets like Ravi’s Man Ka Meet(Tu husn ka hai darbaan), Aadmi Aur Insaan (Zindagi ittefaq hai, Jaagega insaan, Neele parbaton ki dhaara, Dil karta o yaara dildara), Doli(the title-track) and Anmol Moti(Ae jaan-e-chaman and Sehmi sehmi kahaan chali). Kalyanji-Anandji added their might with Aamdani atthani (Teen Bahuraniyan), Aa jaao aa bhi jaao, Aayo re aayo re and Arey jaana hai to jaao (Bandhan) as the voice of new sensation Rajesh Khanna. Recalled Kapoor, “Our fathers were old friends. We met after years at the recording of Aa jaao and Rajesh was anxious. ‘How is this song?’ he asked me. I later sang most of his songs for Kalyanji-Anandji again in Malik and also the popular Jug jug se main tarsaa Sheraawaaliye (Avtaar) and Sharafat Ali ko sharafat ne maara (Amrit) which were composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal in the 80s.”

Manoj Kumar -And more
The 70s Kapoor was dominated by Manoj Kumar as well as a lot of fun songs. K-A’s Purab Aur Paschim had cult numbers like Hai preet jahaan ki reet sadaa, Dulhan chali and Purva suhani aayi re (with Lata and Manhar) and traditional devotionals Om jai Jagdish Hare and Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram. Their Yadgaar had the anthem-like hit Ek tara bole as well as Woh khet mein milega. L-P’s Jeevan chalne ka naam (with Manna Dey and Shyama Chittar) in Shor and Aur nahin bas aur nahin (which Kapoor once declared was his ‘career-best song’) from Roti Kapada Aur Makaan were highs too. It was in this decade that K-A and after them L-P emerged as Kapoor’s greatest support systems even outside Manoj Kumar, since Ravi and O.P.Nayyar were on a professional decline.

K-A got Kapoor into Gopi as the main singer for Dilip Kumar with hit results in songs like Ramchandra keh gaye Siya se, Ek padosan and Gentleman gentleman, besides giving him Neki tere saath(Ansoo Aur Muskan), Jiske sapne (with Lata/Geet), Suno saathiyon (with Asha/Paras), Jhuke jo tere naina(with Usha Khanna/Kangan) and two super-hit duets with Kishore Kumar, Do bechare(Victoria No.203) and Darbar mein ooparwale ki(Hera Pheri). The K-A-Kapoor 70s fest culminated with Pyar zindagi hai(with Lata and Asha in Muqaddar Ka Sikander).

L-P gave the singer melodies like Maria my sweetheart and Mela jagwala saathi (Dastaan), Ae gham-e-yaar bataa (Ek Nazar), Kapoor’s only song for Amitabh Bachchan, Milte hi rahenge hum (with Lata/Abhinetri), Akash pe do taare (with Lata/Roop Tera Mastana), Shaam suhani aayi (with Lata and Shailendra Singh) from Zinda Dil, Tere sang pyar mein(with Lata/Nagin), Duniya mein tere naam (Loafer) and that towering classic that was Meri saanson ko jo mehka rahi hai(with Lata/Badaltey Rishtey).

Chopra had left Ravi in Dastaan but he was back with him in Dhund, which had a haunting title-track. As Chopra moved to Ravindra Jain, Kapoor sang the amusing Thande thande paani mein (with Asha and Sushma Shrestha) and Ladki cyclewali (with Asha) in Pati Patni Aur Woh.

Winds of Change
Mahendra Kapoor had always spread his wings wide. He was a frontrunner in Gujarati films and had won several awards. Marathi films were always a Kapoor forte and he sang in several languages including English, his mother-tongue Punjabi, Bhojpuri and Awadhi.

In the 80s, Kapoor had a few highs like L-P’s Kranti (Ab ke baras, Durg hai meri maa, Kranti kranti) and Ravi’s Nikaah (Beete hue lamhon ki, Dil ki yeh arzoo) both with loyalists Manoj Kumar and B.R.Chopra. The music of their later films, however, did not work. Dada Kondke, for whom Kapoor had become a favourite from the previous decade in his Marathi films, made Kapoor his voice in his Hindi movies, but the music did not work.

The singer, however, had a minor triumph in his English versions of Boney M with Mussarat, a Pakistani singer, and through the 80s, 90s and millennium kept doing non-film albums of assorted genres like devotionals, romantic and ghazal. A major hit also was his title-track of B.R.Chopra’s television epic Mahabharat. In the 90s, his only excursions in playback were Kurta malmal kai in Rajesh Roshan’s Anjaane and Jatin-Lalit’s Dhoom dhoom luck luck in Dillagi.

About his changing career, Kapoor said, “Singing for albums is more fulfilling today, so why should I sing songs of low calibre in an environment where music directors cannot be creative because importance is not given to music and lyrics?” Shortly before his death, Kapoor had recorded also for a Pakistani film on Mata!

His son Ruhan tried becoming an actor and now remains a singer - but not in films.