Hema Malini- Became Star with Johny Mera Naam

She got her first Hindi film offer in 1968 opposite Raj Kapoor in Sapno Ka Saudagar, Her 2nd Hindi Film was Waris 1969 with Jeetendra as her Hero. In the next year, her 5 films released but she came into prominence only after Johny Mera Naam 1970. She established herself as No 1 only after Seeta Aur Geeta. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.for this film. In 1975 alone she was part of five successes --- Sanyasi, Dharmatma, Khushboo, Prattigya and most significantly, Sholay, where she was unforgettable as the chatterbox Basanti.
The entire country was now mesmerized by Hema Malini’s beauty so many producers thought of creating a film role as Dream Girl. It was in 1977, the film called Dream Girl was released. The highlight was how good Hema could look in various avatars like a princess, a street girl or a dancer.
Hema Malini paired with top heroes of Industry but she worked maximum with Dharmendra in 28 films, With Rajesh Khanna in 19 films, with Amitabh Bachchan 15 films, with Jeetendra 11 films and Dev Anand 9 films.
In 1980 Hema defied convention and became Dharmendra's second wife. Her spotless reputation and regal demeanor saw her facing little flack for this act of societal defiance.
After her marriage, Malini made films including Kranti, Naseeb (1981), Satte Pe Satta, Rajput, and Ek Nai Paheli (1984). Her works also included Aandhi Toofan, Durgaa (1985), Ramkali (1985), Sitapur Ki Geeta (1987), Ek Chadar Maili Si (1986), Rihaee and Jamai Raja (1990)
In the 1990s, she produced and directed the 1992 film Dil Aashna Hai, starring Divya Bharti and Shah Rukh Khan in the leading roles. She also produced and directed her second feature film Mohini (1995), starring her niece Madhoo and actor Sudesh Berry in the leading roles. She then focused on dancing and television work, only occasionally appearing in films.
After taking a break from films for a number of years, Hema made a comeback with Baghban (2003), Baabul in 2006.Aarakshan in 2011. In 2017 she acted in the film Ek Thi Rani Aisi Bhi in the role of Vijaya Raje Scindia of Gwalior, with Vinod Khanna as her husband, unfortunately, it was Vinod Khanna's last film. 
Top 10 Songs of Hema Malini

Song of Razia Sultan 1983

Song of Kinara 1977

Song of Mehbooba 1976

Song of Kudrat (1981)

Song of Johny Mera Naam 1971

Song of Kranti (1981)

Song of Satte Pe Satta (1982)

Song of Andaz (1971)

Song of Sharafat (1970)

Song of Sholay (1975)

The Mesmarizing Music of the two Great Stalwarts of Golden Era of Bollywood

13 years apart were born the two great stalwarts of Hindi Film Music, S D Burman(1st Oct 1906) and Majrooh Sultanpuri(1919). to create magic in Hindi Films. They partnered in 20 films from 1957 to 1976, leaving behind many unforgettable gems. The first song written by Majrooh and composed by Sd Burman was " Woh Sapne wali Raa"t sung by Geeta Roy in the film Pyar (1950). After a gap of 7 years, they worked together in Paying Guest (1957)., they created the song Chhod Do Aanchal Zamaana Kya Kahega after this the next song was "Mana Janaab Ne Pukara Nahin" There were 6 songs in the film, all the songs were hit.
The same year Navketan's Nau Do Gyarah released, once again the magic of both was visible. Aankhon mein kya ji, rupehla baadal became an instant hit its picturization mesmerized the audience. Other songs like Hum Hain Raahi Pyar ke, Humse Kuchh Na Boliye by Kishore,   Aaja Panchhi Akela Hai/So Jaa Nindiya Ki Bela Hai,, by Asha-Rafi are still liked.
Over the years, of course, a large chunk of their films featured Dev Anand, examples being ‘Paying Guest’, ‘Nau Do Gyarah’, ‘Kala Pani’, Manzil’, ‘Solva Saal’, ‘Bombai Ka Baboo’, ‘Baat Ek Raat Ki’, ‘Jewel Thief’ and ‘Teen Deviyan’. 
Besides the Dev Anand films, SD and Majrooh combined on such classics as ‘Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi’ (which had Kishore’s ‘Ek Ladki Bheegi Bhaagi’, the Kishore-Manna Dey song ‘Babu samjho ishaare’ and the Kishore-Asha superhit ‘Haal Kaisa Hai Janaab Ka’) and ‘Sujata’ (which had Talat Mahmood’s unforgettable ‘Jalte Hain Jiske Liye’,
The two of them also worked in films like ‘Lajwanti’, ‘Sitaron Se Aage’, ‘Talaash’, ‘Phagun’ and ‘Sagina’ (remember ‘Saala mein to saahab ban gaya’?) But their biggest hit arguably was in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1973 film ‘Abhimaan’, which had ‘Tere mere milan ki yeh raina’ (Lata-Kishore), ‘Teri bindiya’ (Lata-Rafi), ‘Lutey koi man’ (Lata-Manhar Udhas), Kishore’s ‘Meet Na Mila’ and three Lata solos ‘Nadiya Kinarey’, ‘Ab Toh Hai Tumse’ and ‘Piya bina’.

Song of Paying Guest 1957

Song of Nau Do Gyarah 1957

Song of Solva Saal  1958

Song of Kala Paani  1958

Song of  Lajwanti (1958) 

Song of  Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958)

Song of  Sujata (1960)

Song of  Bombai Ka Babu  (1960)

Song of   Baat Ek Raat Ki (1962)

Song of  Teen Deviyan (1965) 

Song of  Jewel Thief (1967)

Song of  Abhimaan (1973) 

Jeetendra - The First Dancing Star of Bollywood

Though Shammi Kapoor invented rock and roll in Bollywood, it was Jeetendra who really gave a new dimension to dancing In Bollywood. With filmmaker Ravikant Nagaich’s bond thriller FARZ, Jeetendra set the ball rolling and became the First Bollywood hero who left his heroines behind in the dance movements.
One can recollect the super hit song Mast Baharon Ka Main Aashiq from the film FARZ, Jeetendra’s fast-paced dance movement in the song is truly breathtaking. That was unique in Hindi films that the hero is dancing in such a way. After the success of this movie and particularly the mega success of this song, the media coined the term Jumping Jack for Jeetendra.
His mass appeal and naughty on-screen persona were what won the heart of the audience. They expected him to dance and songs in every film. There were many films like,Jeene Ki Raah, Jigri Dost, Waris  ‘Caravan’ and ‘Humjoli’, in which Jeetendra had more dance numbers.

In the 80s he was most frequently cast opposite heroines like Sridevi and Jaya Prada, and his career mostly consisted of South Indian film remakes of makers like Rama Rao Tatineni, K Bapayya and K. Raghavendra Rao. Among them, the most noteworthy were: Sanjog, Aulad, Majaal, Justice Chaudhry, Mawaali, Himmatwala, Jaani Dushman and Tohfa.
 Jeetendra was visible flaunting white trousers and a crisp white shirt dancing with his lead heroines. He jollily tossed around heroines in film after film, from ’60sto the ’90s but a willing audience never got tired of his dancing steps. Remember the songs like Kanwarlal Naam Hai Mera from Meri Awaz Suno

Here are some of his Dancing songs.

Song of Farz 1967

Song of Farz 1967

Song of Jeene Ki Raah 1969

Song of Jigri Dost 1969

Song of Waris 1969

Song of Humjoli 1970

Song of Caravan 1971

Song of Anokhi Ada  1973

Song of Aap Ke Diwane 1980

Song of Meri Aawaz Suno 1981

Song of Himmatwala 1983

Song of Mawaali 1983

Song of Tohfa 1984

Madhubala- A Journey from Baby Mumtaz to Madhubala

Madhubala (February 14, 1933 - February 23, 1969) the woman who was born on Valentine's Day as Mumtaz Jehan Begum in Delhi. She was one of the five children in the family. At the age of 9, she became the bread earner of the family. She was signed in for the film Basant in 1942 as a child artist as Baby Mumtaz.In this film, she sang two songs and one of them " Mere Chhote Se Mun Mein Chhoti Si Duniya Re "became immensely popular and got many films as a child artist.
 Actress Devika Rani was impressed by her performances and potential and advised her to assume the name Madhubala. At the age of 14 she got her first film as a heroine opposite Raj Kapoor who was debuting as a hero in the 1947 film" Neel Kamal"In this film her screen name was Madhubala. The film was not a commercial success, but her performance was received well. It was only a matter of time that Madhubala shot to fame and her work in the 1949 film Mahal got her the success she rightfully deserved. She was just 16.

Baby Mumtaz(Madhubala) in Basant 1942

As Baby Mumtaz, she worked in 5 films, Basant(1942) was her first film but her second film " Dhanna Bhagat" came after 3 years in 1945.. In 1946, her 3 films got released. Pujari released first in this film also she sang a song, the next release was "Phoolwari". It was the third highest grossing Indian film of 1946. The film was directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi for Ranjit Studios and is cited as one of the important films of actor Motilal. The third film of that year was Rajputani.

Madhubala in Neel Kamal 1947

Her first film as Madhubala was Neel Kamal which was released in 1947. The next year, she starred in a number of films, namely ‘Parai Aag’, ‘Lal Dupatta’, ‘Desh Sewa’ and ‘Amar Prem’. However, none of them did much to promote her career as an actress, in fact, she appeared in 12 films after Neel Kamal none of the films clicked in Box Office.
It was in the year 1949 that success finally came Madhubala’s way. She starred in Bombay Talkies production, ‘Mahal’, opposite seasoned actor Ashok Kumar. The film went on to become a major success and established her as a star. She was applauded not only for her talent, but also for her enigmatic screen presence and beauty. Following ‘Mahal’, Madhubala was seen in a number of successful films.

Madhubala in Mahal 1949

After Mahal, Madhubala's film Dulari was released the same year that stars Madhubala, Geeta Bali, Shyam, Jayant and Suresh. The song has the hit song "Suhani Raat Dhal Chuki" sung by Mohammed Rafi and featuring Suresh. Dulari was the year's eighth-highest-grossing.

Madhubala in Mughal-e-Azam 1960

During the career span of 22 years, Madhubala was known for her roles in more than 70 films of variety of genres such as Mahal (1949), Dulari (1949), Beqasoor (1950), Tarana (1951), Amar (1954), Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Howrah Bridge (1958) and Mughal-e-Azam (1960) with actors such as Dilip Kumar, Guru Dutt, Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand, Kishore Kumar and many more as her co-stars. Out of 73 Hindi films, only fifteen of them were successful at box office. She received her only nomination for a Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her performance in Mughal-e-Azam (1960).
Madhubala had a long relationship with actor Dilip Kumar, but instead, she married her Chalti Ka Naam Gaadico-star Kishore Kumar in 1960. Together they had worked in films such as Dhake Ki Malmal (1956), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Jhumroo (1961), Half Ticket(1962). Madhubala's life and career were cut short when she died on 23 February 1969 from a prolonged illness at the age of 36 thus ends the journey of Madhubala.
Madhubala is, by far, the most iconic silver screen goddess India has produced.

Watch Madhubala as Baby Mumtaz singing in her own voice 

Song of Basant 1942

Song of Neel Kamal 1947

Song of Mahal 1949

Song of Dulari 1949

Song from Tarana 1951

Song from Mr &Mrs 55 1955

Song from Phagun 1958

Song from Kala Paani 1958

Song from Howrah Bridge 1958

Song from Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi  1958

Song from Barsaat Ki Raat  1960

Song from Mughal-e-Azam  1960

The musical Journey of Kavita Krishnamurthy

Kavita Krishnamurthy was born in a Tamil Iyer family in New Delhi, India to T.S. Krishnamurthy, an employee of the Education Ministry. She began her music training at the insistence of her aunt, Protima Bhattacharya who enrolled her with Suruma Basu, who taught her Rabindra Sangeet. She began her formal training in Hindustani classical music under Balram Puri, a classical singer. At the young age of eight, Kavita won a gold medal at a music competition. She won many medals participating in the Inter-Ministry Classical Competition in New Delhi in the mid-1960s
Jaya Chakravarty, Hema Malini’s mother, suggested Kavita that she sing for Bollywood and try her luck in filmdom. Though her father was apprehensive initially, yet later Kavita managed to assure him that she would complete her college education first.
She took admission in St. Xaviers’ College, Mumbai. Here she came across Ranu Mukherjee, a singer and the late composer-singer Hemant Kumar’s daughter, who was her classmate. She introduced Kavita to her father. Kavita’s first recording was a Bengali film duet with Lata Mangeshkar in 1971. Hemant Kumar was impressed by her performance and gave her a chance to perform on stage with him. Later she sang with Manna De. She was widely noticed in the TV music show — Aarohi, with Manna De and got chances to do jingles. 
After the TV show, Hema Malini's mother took the initiative of introducing Kavita to the music director Laxmikant (one of the composer duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal) in late 1976. Kavita impressed Laxmikant with her extremely strong grasp of Hindustani classical music. Laxmikant gave her an opportunity to work as a dubbing artist.
In 1978, she first sang the Kannada song "Ondanondu kaaladaga" in the film Ondanondu Kaladalli directed by Girish Karnad. This song became a hit and earned fame for Kavita Krishnamurthy. Then she went on to sing many Kannada songs.
She got her solo break in 1980 film Maang Bharo Sajana composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal. In 1985, her career took off with her first major hit, "Tumse Milkar Na Jaane Kyon" from the Hindi film Pyaar Jhukta Nahin (1985) - Tumse milkar.Na Jaane kyun Post the success of the song, it opened up opportunities beyond the Laxmikant–Pyarelal camp. However, "Hawa Hawaii" and "Karte Hain Hum Pyaar Mr. India Se", two popular songs from the equally popular movie Mr. India (1986) - Karte Hain Hum pyaar Mr. India se, roved to be a turning point in her career. (The songs were composed by music composers Laxmikant-Pyarelal, the latter being a duet with Kishore Kumar and lip-synced on screen by actress Sridevi.) Her collaboration with Laxmikant-Pyarelal produced several hits.
The 1990s thrust Kavita into being known as one of the leading female playback singers. In 1994 released 1942 A Love Story which won her much popular acclaim.She went on to work with several music directors of Hindi films of the 1990s, such as Bappi Lahiri, Anand-Milind, A. R. Rahman, Rajesh Roshan, Raamlaxman, Ismail Darbar, Himesh Reshammiya, Aadesh Shrivastava, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin Lalit, Viju Shah and Anu Malik. Her work with A. R. Rahman and Ismail Darbar remains some of the most critically acclaimed renditions of the last two decades. During her stint as a playback singer, she sang duets with the leading male singers of her times. Early in her career, she sang duets with Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, and Shailendra Singh. Her most prolific work was with the leading singers of the 1990s: Amit Kumar,Mohammad Aziz, Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, and Abhijeet Bhattacharya. She has also sung extensively with younger singers in the 2000s such as Sonu Nigam, Shaan, and Babul Supriyo. Her female duets mostly have been with Alka Yagnik, Anuradha Paudwal and Sadhana Sargam.
She married  to violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam in Bangalore on 11 November 1999, Kavita got extremely selective and cut down on her film singing. She started expanding her artistic range to areas which were never explored. She was the main featured soloist in the Global Fusion album released by Warner Bros. featuring musicians from five continents.
She also lent her voice for many pop and devotional albums. The most prominent ones being: Pop Time
Together Tagore, Athens etc.
Kavita Subramaniam has been making appearances in various music reality shows as a guest judge owing to her popularity as a playback singer.

Song of Teri Meherbaniyan 1985

Song of Pyar Jhukta Nahin 1986

Song of Mr India 1987

Song of Chaalbaaz 1989

Song of Ram Lakhan 1989

Song of Hum 1991

Song of 1942 A Love Story

Song of Khuda Gawah 1992

Song of Yaarana 1996

Song of Khamoshi: The Musical 1997

Song of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam 1999

Song of Kya Kehna 2000

Song of Devdas 2002

Mahendra Kapoor - The Most Popular Voice of Patriotism

Mahendra Kapoor's voice has always been associated with Manoj Kumar. His many songs filmed on Manoj Kumar, most of them are patriotic. He won a National Award in 1968 for the patriotic song Mere Desh Ki Dharti in the film Upkaar, the topmost playing song in All India Radio.
He was one of the golden era singers when Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh and Manna Dey was ruling the main platform of playback singers of the Bollywood. He remained as one of the most popular singer in the Bollywood who has given his voice to almost all of the popular heroes like Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shashi Kapoor, Biswajeet, Raj Kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bahchcan, Manoj Kumar, Jeetendra, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha and many more. 
He was born in Amritsar, on 9th Jan 1934. He was a fan of Mohammad Rafi and created a style of his own moulded largely on Rafi, and won the Metro Murphy All-India singing competition, which led to his debut as a playback singer in V. Shantaram's Navrang in 1958, singing Aadha Hai Chandrama Raat Aadhi, under the musical direction of C. Ramchandra.
In a career spanning five decades, he sang more than 25,000 songs in various regional languages, including memorable hits like ‘Chalo ek baar chalo’ (Gumrah), ‘Neele gagan ke taale’ (Hamraaz), and in various language.
He got 3 filmfare awards and one National Award as best singer, he was also awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India. 
He had three daughters and also one son. His son Rohan Kapoor is an actor and singer, who acted in a few films in the 1980s such as Yash Chopra's Faasle (1985) and Love 86(1986), and Prakash Mehra's Imandaar, and later did stage shows together with his father. He died on 27th September 2008,  following a cardiac failure at his home in Mumbai, aged 74. 

Song of Upkar 1966

Song of Purab Aur Paschim 1970

Song of  Navrang 1959

Song of Shaheed 1965

Song of Watan Ke Rakhwale

Song of Purab Aur Paschim 1970

Song of Rajput 1982