Geeta Dutt - Musical Association with Various Composers

(1930 - 1972)

Vasant Desai

Vasant Desai, a great composer from the land of King Shivaji, whose career spanned from forties to early seventies, is always remembered for his memorable music for films of his mentor V Shantaram. He must be one of the composers who utilised the potential in Geeta ji's voice very effectively in spite of giving so few songs to her.

Geeta's two duets with Lata ji composed by Vasant Desai"Ankhiyaan bhool gayi hain sona" and "Meri chhoti si behen" are evergreen songs and the feelings in these are timeless. Both are teasing songs and how well does Geeta tease her friend Lata! In the first song, it is a saheli teasing the heroine and in the second it is a little brother teasing his elder sister. These two songs invariably find places in CD compilations of Geeta Dutt and that proves their popularity even after fifty years!

In spite of her being on top from 1947 to 1949, Geeta's first songs for the veteran composer Vasant Desai came only in 1950 for the film Sheesh Mahal. The song is “Jise dhoondhati phirati hain meri nazar" sung with the legendary Mohd. Rafi. When Geeta sings "jee woh hi toh hoon main..." you know that only Geeta can sing like

that! This is a must hear for the fans of Mohd. Rafi and Geeta Dutt for enjoying the voice modulations used by both the singers. She also sang a trio with Mohd. Rafi and Pushpa Hans, a famous Punjabi singer.

In the year 1956, V Shantaram's Toofan aur Diya had three songs of Geeta ji. In the film, Lata ji gave playback to the heroine Nanda and Geeta ji to her kid brother played by Satish Vyas. The natkhat duet "Meri chhoti si behen" is a cute song sung by Lata ji and Geeta ji. In the same film, there is a fruit-vendor song "Phal ki bahar hain" sung by Geeta. The real pick of her songs in the film is the song "Meri aan bhagwan kan kan se ladi hain to aaj tum se bhi ladegi, meri baat tumhein rakhni padegi". Powerful words of Bharat Vyas have been sung by Geeta Dutt with such an effectiveness! Very rarely we hear Geeta singing in such a high pitch and yet being so true to the sur. One cannot hold tears when she sings "Meri palkon ka tod kinara, lagi behene joh aansoo ki dhaaraa”! n exquisite song with deep and rich emotions!

Two years later, Prakash Pictures, the makers of Baiju Bawara (1952) came up with a musical Goonj Uthi Shehnai and it had to be the cheerful and fun-filled Geeta Dutt to tease the heroine with "Ankhiyaan bhool gayi hain sona, dil pe hua hain jaadu tona". This song is one of the best female duets of Hindi film music. The next year saw Geeta singing a duet with Mohd Rafi for School Master (Hello hello oh meri chhammak chhallo). Talking of Rafi-Geeta duets, Vasant Desai composed not one, not two but three super duets for the film Ardhangini (1959) starring Meena Kumari and Rajkumar. All the 3 songs are fun-filled and full of masti, especially "Tune joh idhar dekha, maine bhi udhar dekha". Once again, a must hear for the fans of Rafi and Geeta! And in "Dil hum toh haare" we hear Rafi and Geeta doing little bit of yodelling as well!

The last songs of Geeta Dutt for Vasant Desai came for the film Pyar ki Pyaas (1961), the first color cinemascope film. In the multilingual song "Uttar mein hain khada himalay" Geeta sings the Bengali stanza whereas Lata sings the rest of the song along with Manna Dey and Rano Mukherjee. The lori "Chanda dhale" is sung by Lata and Geeta separately in two parts where as Geeta joins Lata in the song "Meri godi mein gopala mere anganaa mein ujiyala".

We must thank the genius of Vasant Desai for composing such sweet songs for Geeta Dutt.

List of songs sung by Geeta Dutt

Please note that this list may not be complete

Year	Song	Film	Co-Singer
1950	Hum kheton ke maharaj	Sheesh Mahal	Mohd Rafi, Pushpa Hans
1950	Jise dhoondhati phirati hai meri nazar	Sheesh Mahal	Mohd Rafi
1956	Meri aan bhagwan	Toofan Aur Diya	-
1956	Aaya re bhajiwala	Toofan Aur Diya	-
1956	Meri Chhoti Si Bahen	Toofan Aur Diya	Lata Mangeshkar
1958	Ankhiyaan bhool gayi hai	Goonj Uthi Shehnai	Lata Mangeshkar
1959	Hello hello o meri chhummak chhallo	School Master	Mohad Rafi
1959	Dil hum toh haare	Ardhangini	Mohad Rafi
1959	Kal sajana milna yahan	Ardhangini	Mohad Rafi
1959	Tune jo idhar dekha	Ardhangini	Mohad Rafi
1961	Meri godi mein gopala	Pyar Ki Pyas	Lata Mangeshkar
1961	Chanda dhale	Pyar Ki Pyas	-
1961	Uttar main hain khada himalay	Pyar Ki Pyas	Lata Mangeshkar , Manna Dey , Rano Mukherjee

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