Two posters adorned the walls of my room in my schooldays. One was of Kumar Gaurav and the other was of Rati Agnihotri. They remain my ‘popstars’ of my teens.
Seeing Rati Agnihotri films now has made me realise that her films always had great songs, most of them by Laxmikant Pyarelal and R D Burman. She was one of the few actresses of her time to have music director Ravi compose music for one of her films (Tawaif). Here’s following her journey with some of her best melodies.
Ek Dujjhe Ke Liye was directed by K. Balachander. It
was a remake of his Tamil film Maro Charitra. Rati’s first Hindi
film and definitely among her best. This film was a super hit in its time and
has made a place in Indian films history as one of the lasting love stories. Vasu-Sapna
became legendary at that time and rewatching this film tells us why. The magic
is intact in this film with the chemistry between Kamal Hassan and Rati, no
matter how many times we watch it. It was tough to choose just one song from
this film as Rati Agnihotri shines brilliantly in all of them. Based on Raag
Ahir Bhairav, Solah baras ki touches very poignant chords as Sapna visits
various places to relive moments that she spent there with Vasu. Written by Anand Bakshi and music composed by
Laxmikant Pyarelal, this song is rendered beautifully by Lata Mangeshkar.
Trivia: The tune of Solah baras ki can be spotted
in the background score composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal for Raj Kapoor’s film Bobby
during the scene where Bobby ( Dimple Kapadia) leaves for Kashmir.
2. Chalo haseen geet ek banayein Shaukeen 1982
Rati plays the role of Anita as a singer at a local club in Goa. This film was a huge hit and was the among the highest grossing movies of 1982. The music of this film was by R D Burman and the song Chalo haseen geet is sung by Ashok Kumar and Chirashree Bhattacharya and written by Yogesh. A fresh and breezy song which is timeless and can get our feet tapping every time we hear it.
Trivia: Shaukeen is based on Samaresh Basu’s novel. Gulzar’s Kitaab and Namkeen are also based on this author’s novels.
3. Aisa to socha na tha Pasand apni apni 1983
Pasand Apni Apni was a Basu Chatterjee film and the song Aisa toh socha na tha is filmed in the classic Basu Chatterjee style. Local train of Bombay, heroine in a simple cotton saree with situations and emotions that the common man can relate to. It is interesting to note how Rati Agnihotri readily took on a deglamourised role in this film. She plays the role of a struggling actress whose life path crosses with a millionaire (Mithun Chakraborty) and events unfold in a light yet engrossing tale. Aisa toh socha na tha is sung by Asha Bhosale with music composed by Bappi Lahiri and lyrics by Yogesh.
4. Boom Boom Star 1983
Right after the Nazia
Hassan wave in India with Qurbani, Nazia Hassan and her brother Zoheb Hassan made
a couple of private albums with Biddu, following which Biddu produced Kumar
Gaurav -Rati Agnihotri film Star. Rati Agnihotri was the only screen persona to
get the playback of Nazia Hassan on screen besides Zeenat Aman. Star had a very
successful soundtrack and Boom Boom remains mint fresh every time we see it. She
played the role of Maya who works at a nightclub.
As my opening
paragraph will tell you, knowing that Rati Agnihotri and Kumar Gaurav were
coming together in a film had made my schoolfriends and me nearly delirious
with expectations. It was a bit of a setback to see that they were not paired
together in the actual sense ( I will avoid spoilers here in case someone sees
the film now!) It was also a disappointment that the film didn’t click at the
box office.
5. Sajna sun sun Rishta Kagaz Ka 1983
The first thing you
will realise when you see this song is that the whole situation looks very familiar.
Aarti, played by Rati Agnihotri, is
trying to woo and distract Arun , played by Raj Babbar , from his work. It
feels like this song was made as a tribute to Bindiya chamkegi from Do Raaste.
The tribute is complete with Rati wearing an orange saree with a clear accolade
and salute to Mumtaz in this song. This
is purely my conjecture and, despite searching on the net, I have managed to
find no reference to this. However, I am totally convinced that this song was
filmed keeping Bindiya chamkegi in mind. It just seems too much of a
coincidence to have so many unintended similar points in a song (I have this
same conjecture for another song in this list and you will come across that
soon!)
6. Mujhe tum yaad karna Mashaal 1984
The lyrics of this song caught my fancy the first time I heard them. All songs in hindi films that precede any parting between lovers talk of parting as an anguish of love and say things like ‘Bhoolne waale yaad na aa’ or ‘tum yaad na aaya karo’. This song instead asks to make sure they remember each other.
Mujhe tum yaad karna aur
Mujhko yaad aana tum
Even the stanzas are out of the box with the boy telling the girl to meet people and stay busy and smiling, while she tells him to smile and be friendly with every approaching girl. Which is very different from the standard parting duet where the boy and girl concentrate on telling each other to keep on remembering them!
Sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar to the music composed by Hridaynath Mangeshkar, this song is written by Javed Akhtar. Rati Agnihotri plays the role of Geeta who is a press reporter and comes across Raja (Anil Kapoor) who decides to turn over a new leaf under the mentoring of the editor Vinod Kumar (Dilip kumar) who she works for.
7. Bhool ho gayee jaane de Zabardast 1985
The conjecture I
mentioned for another song is for this one! This song also feels like a clear
tribute to Shammi Kapoor- Asha Parekh song O mere Sona re from Teesri
Manzil. Here, there is a distinct connection as both are Nasir Hussain films.
The heroine wooing the hero, the female solo with lyrics laced in mischievous
pleading, the broken handbag strap of the hero halfway through the song…well,
this was elementary, my dear Watson! This is an Asha Bhosale solo composed by R
D Burman and written by Majrooh Sultanpuri. O mere sona re also had the exact
same creators. If you see both these songs one after the other, you will
realise the joie de vivre is the same in both, a lot of which is a credit to
the actors Rati Agnihotri and Rajeev Kapoor as Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh
were a tough act to follow. People who just do remixes should observe these
songs to understand what a real tribute is. The entire creation is new, there
is a lot of hard work and the team brings together something that is a
masterpiece even when seen after the original.
6.
We see that Rati’s films have very little stereotyping
if we follow her career graph. From a career-oriented journalist in Mashaal to
a housewife in Rishta Kagaz ka to a tawaif in the film Tawaif, she took on a
wide range of roles and made a mark even though the films in those days mostly centered
on the hero. Hope you enjoyed following Rati Agnihotri’s musical journey in Bollywood.
Comment with your favourite Rati Agnihotri song!
