Happy birthday to Raj Babbar.

Happy birthday to Raj Babbar.

The viewers wish happy birthday to Raj Babbar, on 23rd June, 2010. He had been an indispensable figure in bollywood films during the last 25 years.

He was comfortable both in commercial films as well as parallel cinema. Viewers had found him in big hits like Mazdoor. He played the role of jobless engineer who was given huge break by Dilip Kumar. His performance opposite legendary actor Dilip Kumar created grand impression. He gave able lips in Jagjit Singh’s song “hoton se chulo tum” in the film Prem Geet released in early 80s.

He was remembered for his special performance in Ketan Mehta’ s film Mirch Masala opposite Smita Patil. He became immortal in his role in Raj Kumar Santoshi’s film Ghayal. He was killed by Amrish Puri, and his brother Sunny Deol took revenge against Amrish Puri’s men and Om Puri’s police force. The film did excellent business and became the greatest blockbuster of early 90s.

In the 90s, Raj Babbar, started a new innings in playing negative characters. He became even more successful in that venture. His performance in Bobby Deol’s film Barsaat in the role of the father of Twinkle Khanna was well appreciated by the audience and critics. He was brilliant in the role of a villain in Sanjay Dutt’s film Daag: The Fire. He played the role of the uncle of Chandrachud Singh who persuaded him in backing him up in his illegal business and the blame went in the name of Chandrachud Singh. He was killed at the end of the film by Sanjay Dutt. He was even brilliant opposite Madhuri Dixit and Rishi Kapoor in the film Yaarana.

He played the role of a leading villain in Sunny Deol’s film Ziddi. Not only his modulation of diaglogues impressed the viewers, his intelligent frame of thinking amazed the viewers. He also acted well in character role in JP Dutta’s film Refugee.

The viewers expect Raj Babbar to continue the great work that he started around 30 years ago.

Jagjit Singh was not exhaustively used in bollywood films.

Jagjit Singh was not exhaustively used in bollywood films.

Ghazal King Jagjit Singh’s voice was not utilized exhaustively in bollywood films. There was a time, during the 50s and 60s, when ghazal featured in every alternative film including Chaudavi Ka Chand, Mirza Ghalib, Jahanara, Mere Mehboob, Taj Mahal, Barsaat Ki Raat, etc. The songs of Rafi, Talat Mehmood, Suraiya, and others and the compositions of musical maestros like Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan, Roshan, Madanmohan, OP Nayyar, kept the flavor of ghazals intact during the golden age.

But from the 70s, music lost its overall efficacy in bollywood films with the advent of action films. Born in 1941, Jagjit Singh stormed the world of ghazals during the 80s, during a time, when the legendary composers like Jaikishan, Roshan, Madanmohan, Ghulam Mohammad, all expired. Kuldeep Singh composed landmark songs for him in the film Arth. Jagjit Singh’s ghazals “tum itna jo muskura rahi ho”, “koi yeh kaise bataye”, “jhuki jhuki si nazar” bewildered the audience with romantic appeal. Raj Kiran gave lips in the legendary songs.

Jagjit Singh kept his mark in the art film Saath Saath. All the songs were composed by himself. The songs “tumko dekha to yeh khayal aya”, “yeh tera ghar yeh mera ghar”, “hum zindagi ke rah me majboor ho gaye”, sung by Jagjit and Chitra Singh, contained sweetness and depth of voice. The lyrics were excellent. The performance of Farooq Sheikh and Deepti Naval were remembered by the audience even after 30 years of the release of the film.

The other hit film song of Jagjit Singh included “hoton se chulon tum” in the film Prem Geet. But if the success of Jagjit Singh is compared with the private albums, Ecstasies, A Sound Affairs, Passion, etc., made with Chitra Singh, the success looks insignificant. After the death of his son Vivek at the age of 21, Chitra Singh stopped singing. The last album of Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh included Someone Somewhere.

Although he had sung landmark songs in films like Dushman, Sarfarosh, Tarqeib, but it was not proportional to his immense ghazal talent. No other ghazal singer in India had galvanized the world of ghazals to the extent Jagjit Singh. The composers could have experimented more with the legend of legends.