5 Evergreen Melodies You Didn’t Know Were Filmed On Shashikala

Must watch melodies on Shashikala

Tum jiyohazaaron saal (Sujata):  One of Hindi cinema’s most popular birthday songs sung by Asha Bhosle  for Bimal Roy’s Sujata was  sung on screen by Shashikala.  It  became the  most popular song  of  the film beating those other Sachin Dev Burman classics  Jalte hain jisske liye and Kali ghata chhaye.

Bachpanke din bhi  kya din tthe(Sujata):  Another perennial  favourite from S  D Burman sung by  Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle. While  Asha sang for  Nutan, Geeta’s  voice suited Shashikala’s mischievous  personality to  the  hilt.

Bheegibheegi  fiza (Anupama):  Shashikala  actually had a  role  parallel  to Sharmila  Tagore  in this Hrishikesh Mukherjee  classic where Sharmila played the wordless beauty , Shashikala  offset  the silence  with her volubility. Interestingly Sharmilaji had only one song to  herself  in Anupama(the  Lata Mangeshkar  classic Kuch dil ne kaha) while Shashikala had two solos in Asha Bhosle’s voice the breezy Bheegi bheegi fiza and  the pensive Kyon mujhe itni  khushi.Both  are gems composed  by Hemant  Kumar keeping Shashikala’s  chul-bully personality   in mind.

Nain tumhare mazedaar  oh janaab-e-ali(Junglee):  While Lataji’s voice was reserved for  the leading lady, Asha  Bhosle  chirped  in with her seductive tones for this  chartbuster  filmed on Shashikala  and her  co-star Anoop Kumar(Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar’s youngest). The result was a  quaint  Mukesh-Asha  love ballad  offsetting  the  rumbustious  Qawalli styled  Lata-Rafi  love duet  Mere yaar  shabba  khair  filmed  on the  lead pair Shammi Kapoor and  Saira Banu. No one expected  a song  filmed on the second lead to be  a chartbuster. But it was!

Na baazaaya muqaddar  mujhe rulane  se(Sunehre Kadam): It wasn’t as if Shashikala never  got a chance  to play the lead  and sing in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice. She  did! In this  1966 tearjerker  Shashikala  wept through two  Lata gems Maangne se  jo maut mil jati  and Na baaz aaya  muqaddar  composed by Bulo C Rani.