'Gravelly' voice, evergreen hits

The Hindu
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 18, 2008

He had talent. His songs were and are still popular. Yet, Mahendra Kapoor was never among the top three.

Often the choice of prestigious banners: Mahendra Kapoor

It is unusual that even after 50 years of playback singing in Hindi films, Amritsar-born Mahendra Kapoor had never figured in the top three of his profession. Music lovers point out that while Kapoor was ‘good’, he was never ‘outs tanding’ in any category of playback singing, in terms of versatility, romantic or emotional songs.

Talat Mehmood, who was in the limelight only for a brief period, was the number one during the early 1950s when ghazals and soft emotion-charged tunes were popular. Neither was Mahendra Kapoor identified as being the ‘voice’ of a hero as it was in the case of Kishore Kumar (Dev Anand and Rajesh Khanna) or Mukesh (Raj Kapoor). Kapoor had a kind of ‘gravelly’ voice which did not suit many heroes.

Yet, Kapoor was often the choice of prestigious banners such as B.R.Chopra. Manoj Kumar preferred him for his patriotic films and he was the favourite of music director Ravi.

Trained musician


Kapoor was a trained musician and worked under Pandit Husan Lal, Pandit Jaganath Bua, Ustad Niaz Ahmed Khan and Ustad Abdur Rehman Khan.

He was a baby when the family migrated to Bombay from Amritsar, and growing up in the ‘dream city’ he became enamoured of film music, particularly songs of Mohammad Rafi. His favourite Rafi songs are ‘Suhani Raat Dhal Chuki’ (‘Dulari’) and ‘Meri Kahani Bhoolne Wale’ (‘Deedar’). Perhaps this hero worship led to an attempted imitation of Rafi, which in later years earned Kapoor the label of being the ‘poor man’s Rafi.’

Kapoor sang just one song in an unknown film, ‘Madmast,’ but earned recognition when in 1958 he won the first prize at an all India singing contest where the judges were the industry’s leading music directors.

One of them, C. Ramachandra gave him his first hit, the song, ‘Aadha Hai Chandrama,’ in V.Shantaram’s hit movie, ‘Navrang.’

The industry recognised the arrival of a singer and more popular songs followed.

His number ‘Chalo ek baar phir se,’ set to music by Ravi, in B. R. Chopra banner’s ‘Gumrah’ became a super hit. Film recording was different in those days. The equipment was old fashioned, the process leisurely, and one song would take four or five days to be recorded. But everyone, the producer, director, music director would be present. The singer was always on trial, it was expected that he would not goof up and delay the proceedings because the musicians had many assignments and so their schedule would be tight. Everyone wanted perfection and it took 27 retakes before Ravi and Chopra were satisfied with ‘Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se’.

Patriotic songs


Kapoor came from a family of freedom fighters and was passionate about patriotic songs. He was often the first one to volunteer to sing for the troops in the border areas in Kashmir and the North East and often accompanied the Ajanta Arts cultural troupe led by Sunil and Nargis Dutt. He often sang for patriotic movies produced by Manoj Kumar. The famous ‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti’ number tuned by Kalyanji-Anandji was a monumental effort, as it took from late afternoon to 5 a.m., the next day. This song became popular, being sung at every patriotic, national function. Mahendra Kapoor also branched to regional films, lending his voice to heroes in Gujarati, Marathi, Bhojpuri and South Indian films.

When old friend B R Chopra planned his first television magnum opus, ‘Mahabharat,’ he had one choice for the title song, Mahendra Kapoor. It was a very satisfying moment for the singer as week after week millions listened to the song. Today in contented retirement, Kapoor spends time listening to all kinds of music.