5 evergreen melodies you didn’t know were filmed on Shashikala

1. Tum jiyo hazaaron saal(Sujata): One of Hindi cinema’s most popular birthday songs sung by Asha Bhosle  for Bimal Roy’s Sujata was  sung on screen by Shashikala.  It became the  most popular song  of  the film beating those other Sachin Dev Burman classics  Jalte hain jisske liye and Kali ghata chhaye.

2. Bachpan ke din bhi kya din tthe (Sujata): Another perennial favourite from S  D Burman sung by  Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle. While  Asha sang for  Nutan, Geeta’s  voice suited Shashikala’s mischievous personality to  the  hilt.

3. Bheegi bheegi fiza (Anupama):  Shashikala  actually had a  role  parallel  to Sharmila  Tagore in this Hrishikesh Mukherjee  classic where Sharmila played the wordless beauty, Shashikala  offset  the silence  with her volubility. Interestingly Sharmilaji had only one song to  herself  in Anupama (the Lata Mangeshkar  classic Kuch dil ne kaha) while Shashikala had two solos in Asha Bhosle’s voice the breezy Bheegi bheegi fiza and  the pensive Kyon mujhe itni khushi.Both  are gems composed  by Hemant Kumar keeping Shashikala’s  chul-bully personality in mind.

4. Nain tumhare mazedaar  oh janaab-e-ali (Junglee):  While Lataji’s voice was reserved for  the leading lady, Asha Bhosle  chirped  in with her seductive tones for this  chartbuster  filmed on Shashikala  and her  co-star Anoop Kumar(Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar’s youngest). The result was a  quaint Mukesh-Asha  love ballad  offsetting  the  rumbustious  Qawalli styled  Lata-Rafi  love duet Mere yaar shabba khair filmed  on the  lead pair Shammi Kapoor and  Saira Banu. No one expected a song  filmed on the second lead to be  a chartbuster. But it was!

5. Na baaz aaya muqaddar mujhe rulane se(Sunehre Kadam): It wasn’t as if Shashikala never  got a chance  to play the lead  and sing in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice. She  did! In this  1966 tearjerker Shashikala wept through two Lata gems Maangne se jo maut mil jati  and Na baaz aaya muqaddar  composed by Bulo C Rani.