Karisma Kapoor is much more than Kareena Kapoor’s sister. Agreed her career was shortlived , But it was a blockbuster career while it lasted. Here’s looking at her hit songs.
Although she has a slew of hit films to her credit Karisma Kapoor was not lucky with her songs.In her debut film Prem Qaidi there was not one song to carry home. In one of her earliest film Nishchay ,the hitmaker of the 1960s O P Nayyar was roped in to compose the songs, with disastrous results. The quality of music was so abysmal, the music company Venus decided to scrap all production of the music after the film’s release.
Karisma’s first hit song was Sarkaiyee lo khatiya in Raja Babu four years after her debut. This raunchy duet by Kumar Sanu and Poornima made news for all the wrong reasons. Karisma seemed oblivious to the lewd suggestion of the song, performing all those cheesy dance steps with Govinda with blissful abandon.
Her next hit song was again a lascivious crowd-pleaser. Alisha Chinai sang Sexy sexy mujhe log bole in Khuddar. The word ‘sexy’ had to be replaced by ‘baby’ on screen. But the endresult was equally sleazy.
This was followed by Coolie No.1 where she had the hit song Main toh raste se jaa raha ttha. Hardly a masterpiece.
In Dil Toh Pagal Hai, Karisma’s first truly classy film, all the sweet-tempered Lata Mangeshkar songs were given to Madhuri Dixit .
Not until Dharmesh Darshan’s Raja Hindustani did Karisma get to sing decent numbers on screen like Pucho zara pucho , Aye ho mere zindagi mein and Kitna pyara tujhe rab ne banaya. However the blockbuster number Pardesi pardesi was not filmed on Karisma but Pratibha Sinha
Karisma’s classiest canticles were in Shyam Benegal’s Zubeida, where she got to sing for the first time in Lataji’s voice. A R Rahman’s haunting compositions Door kahin ek aam ki bagiya and Sow gaye hain kho gaye hain.
These two neglected gems apart, there is not one song in Karisma’s career that qualifies as memorable. Her sister Kareena , on the other hand, has spawned a slew of scintillating songs, from Refugee to Lal Singh Chaddha.