One of the most consummate and flawless Hindi film soundtracks of all times is Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Abhimaan. Brilliant in every note, unerring in its melodic excellence every song in Abhimaan is a tour de force.
Lata Mangeshkar dominates the album. But of course! The film is about a naturally gifted singer from the village Uma (Jaya Bachchan), who is ‘discovered’ by a superstar singer Subir (Amitabh Bachchan) a la A Star Is Born. Subir convinces Uma to not only take her voice to a wider audience, he also cajoles her to marry him.
Then starts the married couple’s tussle of supremacy in the recording room. Subir soon realizes that Uma is a far better singer than he is. He grows hostile, aloof and withdrawn. When Uma realizes why her husband has distanced himself from her, she stops singing.
This was the story of Abhimaan. Hrishikesh Mukherjee told me it was based on the marriage man mutually dependent careers of Kishore Kumar and his wife Ruma Guha Thakurta. Everyone who knew the couple knew she was a far better singer than her husband.
The fact that Abhimaan was based on the Kishore-Ruma marriage of musical minds, was kept away from Kishore Kumar’s attention. Hrishida wanted Lataji for Jaya Bachchan and Kishore to sing for Amitabh Bachchan. Kishore recorded two great songs for Abhimaan: the solo Meet na mila re mann ka and the timeless duet with Lata ji Tere mere milan ki yeh raina.
But when it came to the second duet, Teri bindiya re, Kishore had been clued into the actual story of Abhimaan. He refused to sing for Teri bindiya re.
The song situation in the film was at Uma and Subir’s wedding reception, actor David, who plays their mentor, asks them to sing. They sing Teri Bindiya Re. At the end of the song, while the room reverberates with applause, David comments, “She is far better than him. There is trouble ahead.”
On hearing of the plot situation, Kishore Kumar declined the offer to sing Teri bindiya re. It’s not that he minded taking second place to Lataji. Time and time again, Kishore had reiterated to anyone who cared to ask him, that he considered Lataji far better than him as a singer; to Kishore, Lataji was the ultimate, unbeatable singer.
To therefore play an inferior singer was no big deal. However, to have his marriage and his marita insecurities publicly up for scrutiny was unacceptable to Kishore. Besides Teri bindiya re, another duet Loote koi mann ka dagar had to be recorded in a voice other than Kishore Kumar (Manhar Udhas).
Lataji was Jaya Bachchan’s voice all through Abhimaan. Jaya attended Lataji’s recordings and imitated Lataji’s body language during the scenes showing her character Uma’s song recordings.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee showed me the place in his house where the jamming sessions happened. There, in that cozy cushioned corner, Sachin Dev Burman belted out Piya bina piya bina, Nadiya kinare hairaye aaye kangana and Abb toh hain tumse har khushi apni for Lataji as Lataji, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan absorbed the nectar of unalloyed genius.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.
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