Amitabh Bachchan & Mukesh – The less-experimented combination of Bollywood Music

by Sandy · November 17, 2016

“Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein Khayaal Aata Hai” – The most popular romantic track featuring Amitabh Bachchan. This particular song is not sung by Kishore Kumar, who is regarded as the ghost voice of Amitabh Bachchan since he established as a star of Bollywood. Occasionally Mohd Rafi’s voice has been used for Big B for music scores such as “Teri Bindiya Re” of Abhimaan composed by S. D. Burman. Yet it’s bit surprising that though Mukesh was associated with Bollywood since early 1940s and sync-lipped to almost all top heroes since then, his voice was less-experimented for Amitabh Bachchan who turned a big star with mid-1970s. When it was used for Kabhi Kabhi, it turned history and gave rise to one of the iconic songs of Bollywood cinema. But it was too late, since Mukesh’s unexpected death shocked film industry very soon. No doubt, if this song was sung by any other singer, it would have never reached so much popularity!

Year 2016 marked 40th death anniversary of the great singer Mukesh, and it’s my humble tribute to the ‘Dard Bhari Awaaz of Bollywood.’ Yes he left us so unexpectedly on 27 August 1976 leaving behind a legacy.

Raaste Ka Pathar – The first movie of Mukesh & Amitabh combination

The Iconic – ‘Kabhi Kabhi’ song male Solo Version which bagged Mukesh the final Filmfare awards

As far as I know, Mukesh’s voice was used for first time for Amitabh for one less-known movie – Raaste Ka Pathar. Mukesh sang the party song ‘Raaste Ka Pathar’ which happens to be the title track too. The song also featured Shatrughan Sinha and Laxmi Chhaya. Mukesh also sang two more duets for the movie aside Asha Bhosle, and he turned ghost voice of Amitabh for both these songs too – “Ib Tum Paas Na Aana” and “Main Har Dam Kisi Ko”. The movie went unnoticed; same is the case of its songs composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal.

One year prior to Raaste Ka Pathar, Mukesh’s voice was used for one Amitabh Bachchan movie – Anand. However Mukesh’s voice was used to record the songs of Rajesh Khanna, and the songs turned to be chartbusters. Read to know more. Thus Amitabh and Khanna remain two top heroes of Bollywood, for whom Mukesh has not sung regularly, yet managed to sing a couple of songs which received iconic status in Bollywood. So it’s pretty clear Mukesh is a master of melody, though he was mostly seen as the voice of Raj Kapoor. He has also recorded many hit songs for lead heroes of Bollywood, though less in number. His romantic songs for Manoj Kumar need special mention.

Kabhi Kabhi – The masterpiece work of this combination

Kabhi Kabhi – The best work of Mukesh and Amitabh Bachchan together

Mukesh recorded two evergreen classics of his career, for Amitabh too, just a few months before his unexpected death. Both the songs – Kabhi Kabhi (in two versions as an incomplete solo and a duet with Lata Mangeshkar) and Mein Pal Do Pal Ka belong to the movie Kabhi Kabhi, one of the top romantic movies of Amitabh Bachchan. He sang the duet version with Lata Mangeshkar. Ironically, the most celebrated romantic song of Amitabh Bachchan ‘Kabhi Kabhi’ was not sung by Kishore, but by Mukesh whose voice was never used by any music directors to record songs of an Amitabh movie except Laxmikant-Pyarelal for Raaste Ka Pathar 4 years back.

The title track sung by Mukesh became the top song of the year and swept all music awards at Filmfare. Khayyam was awarded the best music director of the year of the album, Sahir Ludhianvi – the best lyricist and Mukesh – the best male playback singer posthumously. Yes, before Filmfare awards were declared the legendary singer passed away, and thus music fans had a terrible loss for not getting more songs of this combination. Originally a literal piece for an Urdu poetry, Sahir simplified the words of Kabhi Kabhi for the movie.

Yes, Mukesh’s voice was 100% perfect for Amitabh Bachchan’s character of a poet for the movie, Kabhi Kabhi. Why till 1976 no other music director tried this combination? There are many such unsolved puzzles which take birth only after years and time pass by!

Adalat – The songs released posthumously

Behna O Behna song from Adalat

As far as I know, Adalat was the third and final movie for which Amitabh sync-lipped to Mukesh’s voice. Mukesh recorded the fun-filled song ‘Humka Aisa Waisa Na Samjho’ and the marriage song – ‘Behna O Behna’ for the movie. The songs were composed by Kalyanji-Anandji.

List of songs of Amitabh Bachchan-Mukesh Combination

1. Title track of Raaste Ka Pathar

2. Ib Tum Paas Na Aana of Raaste Ka Pathar

3. Main Har Dam Kisi Ko of Raaste Ka Pathar

4. Title track of Kabhi Kabhi Solo Version

5. Title track of Kabhi Kabhi Duet

6. Mein Pal Do Pal of Kabhi Kabhi

7. Humka Aisa Waisa Na Samjho of Adalat

8. Behna O Behna of Adalat

If I have missed any song in the list, let me know.

Also read similar less-known combinations of Bollywood – Rajesh Khanna & Mukesh and Rajesh Khanna & Mohd. Rafi.

Also read: Kishore Kumar – S. D.Burman combination songs

Read a few more articles about the biggest star of Bollywood ever. Here is the page link. Click on the images to read corresponding article.

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Tags: Kabhi Kabhi Kabhi kabhi amitabh Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein Kabhi Kabhi Mukesh song Mukesh Amitabh Bachchan songs

Sandy

A freelance writer and blogger by profession since October 2011, interested in writing over a wide range of topics. Hope you enjoy my writings. I belong to one of the beautiful places of the world, Kerala, nicknamed as 'God's own country'.

mahesh panchal says:

April 12, 2018 at 4:11 pm

Hello, i’m so happy with your blog site, it contains all the matter with regards to mukeshji. Good luck to you and your well performed job.

Reply
- Sandy says:
  
  April 12, 2018 at 7:07 pm
  
  Hope you have read my post on the combination songs of Mukesh and Rajesh Khanna. More posts, on the way 🙂
  
  Reply
Sameer says:

April 13, 2018 at 11:46 am

The best combination of two Bollywood legends. Amitabh and Mukesh. Keep up the good work.

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Shaila says:

September 5, 2020 at 4:01 am

Nice. Eternal song me har ek pal ka sayar hu is missed but kabhi kabhi movie well covered

Reply