Get Captivated By Rajesh Khanna – Manna Dey Songs

Popularity, stardom and mass appeal. His charisma is unmatched even today. Hindi cinema’s first superstar – Rajesh Khanna!! Regarded as one of the most popular and influential actors, Rajesh Khanna also had a film made by BBC for him titled – Bombay Superstar. He is still considered as the best romantic hero. He attained dizzying height of stardom which was hardly witnessed by anyone before. Amar Prem, Aradhana, Kati Patang, Aan Milo Sajna, Do Raaste, Anand are few of the blockbusters from his kitty of 15 golden jubilee hits back to back within the span of 2 years. The hysteria of his tidal wave rode high on romance, making him a phenomenon of sorts. He made best romantic pairs with Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz and Hema Malini. With landmark films came landmark music. Music had a lion’s share in the success of all these blockbusters, with Kishore Kumar becoming his voice. Aradhana (1969) in true sense set the career rolling for both Rajesh Khanna and Kishore Kumar. Kishore was to Rajesh Khanna what Rafi was to Dilip Kumar, Mukesh to Raj Kapoor. His voice, the soul of his songs.

Yet there are a few songs, for which Rajesh Khanna got Manna Dey as the playback singer, which also became famous. Some he lip synced, some he didn’t. But these songs have their fair share in the musical graph of Rajesh Khanna’s films.
A glimpse of such songs with Rajesh Khanna on screen and Manna Dey off it –

1. Anand (1971) – One of the best from Hrishikesh Mukherjee, which had Rajesh Khanna playing the lead role. We have Anand singing the philosophy of life through Manna Dey’s voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psfm3s-Wmfo

2. Aavishkar (1973) – A middle road cinema by Basu Bhattacharya where Rajesh Khanna is paired with Sharmila Tagore in a role which was very different from rest of his romantic films with her.

3. Bawarchi (1972) – Another brilliant film by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Rajesh Khanna plays the role of Bawarchi. Music by Madan Mohan, had 2 songs filmed on Kaka which were rendered by Manna Dey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ULf5H7aVtA

4. Mehbooba (1976) – Though R D Burman, Kishore Kumar and Rajesh Khanna were a team, R D Burman had Manna Dey singing this semi classical song for Rajesh Khanna.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKhg9IbAqms

5. Prem Bandhan (1979) – Towards the end of his scintillating career Kaka was paired with Rekha in several films. Here he gets Manna Dey again as his voice under the baton of Laxmikant – Pyarelal.

6. Safar (1970) – Though Kaka isn’t the one who is lip syncing, yet this film is counted as one of those which shaped his career. An inspirational song composed by Kalyanji – Anand ji.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaxNurIcFXM

7. Baharon Ke Sapne (1967) – A film from his earlier days when he was yet to set his foot in the industry as the superstar. Though the film didn’t do very well, the music of this film by R D Burman became quite famous, specially this song by Manna Dey.