Big B and Vinod Khanna

Big B and Vinod Khanna.

In the 70s, with the advent of action films, Vinod Khanna became the greatest competitor of Big B. Both of them acted in many films together and in most of the cases they were rivals of each other. In Amar Akbar Anthony, Big B was a smuggler, and Vinod Khanna a police officer. Both of them also fought against each other in their search for a wanted person Robert

Amar Akbar Anthony was a muli-starrer film where Rishi Kapoor also was prominent and gave memorable lips in the successful songs of Rafi in the film. Vinod Khanna was the elder brother of Big B in the film and got united at the end of the film. In Khoon Paseena, Vinod Khanna acted as the rival of Big B, and their misunderstanding was resolved at the end of the film. Before that Vinod Khanna wanted to kill Big B in the film.

Even in Parvarish, Big B played the role of police officer where as Vinod Khanna played the role of law-breaker. The mystery related to the blood relation of Shammi Kapoor was solved at the end of the film. Both the actors showed their action skills in the film and the film became extremely successful.

They also acted in romantic films like Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, where Big B admired Rakhee but she loved Vinod Khanna. Big B got attached with Rekha who played the role of a tawaif in the film but who had feelings for Big B. At the end of the film Big B died in a clash against the villain Amzad Khan and Vinod Khanna revealed the truth about the amount of love he had devoted for Rakhee

The other successful films where Big B and Vinod Khanna acted together include Hera Pheri and Zameer. Both of them were equally brilliant in their performances in the action films excepting Big B excelling with his baritone voice in some cases. Later on Akshay Kumar and Sunil Shetty had performed together in many action films, but still the combination of Big B and Vinod Khanna is admired by viewers of different ages.

Rafi and Lata in the 50s and 60s.

Rafi and Lata in the 50s and 60s.

Rafi and Lata were the premiere singers of Indian cinema and most of the composers relied on them for the success of the songs. In the film Baiju Bawra, Rafi’s song “tu ganga ki mauj”, composed by Naushad and picturised on Bharat Bhushan became successful. The film had classical songs involving legendary ragas used by Naushad.

Rafi and Lata had sung many duet songs in that age. Prominent among them include “who jab yaad aye” from the film Parasmani, composed by LP; “jo waa kiya” from the film Tajmahal, composed by Roshan; etc. The song of Tajmahal, stormed bollywood films in the 60s, and Pradeep Kumar made the character of Shahjahan look absolute lively.

The other landmark duet songs of Rafi and Lata include “o sanam tere ho gaye hum”, composed by Shankar Jaikishan and picturised on Rajender Kumar and Saira Banu; “tere husn ki kya taref karun” and “ek shahehshah ne” from the film Leader, composed by Naushad and picturised on Dilip Kumar and Vaijayantimala; “mai hoon saki”, composed by Naushad and picturised on Dilip Kumar and Wahida Rehman; etc.

Also the song from the film Shagird, titled “woh hai zara khafa khafa”, composed by LP and picturised on Joy Mukherjee and Saira Banu, became landmark hit. Also Ravi’s composition in the film Do Kaliyan titled “tumhari nazar”, picturised on Biswajeet and Mala Sinha became big hit. Also RD Burman’s composition in the film Pyar Ka Mausam, titled “ni sultana re” picturised on Shashi Kapoor and Asha Parekh became very successful.

There were huge number of solo songs of Rafi and Lata in the 50s and 60s which had become musical masterpieces. The songs and the films should be restored for their musical value. The playback singers of the modern age consider Lata and Rafi as their role models and still learn from their works.