Lockdown Legends ( Day 10) : Struggling Singer

The singer featured today was destined to achieve great heights and he did succeed to an extent.However, his foray into Non-film songs brought him better dividends and it kept him away from Hindi film music. The period of his active career was during the 70s and 80s, which also were not the best years for new singers , since the old guard ( Mohd. Rafi, Manna Dey, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar and Mahendra Kapoor) was still in control.

This is  about  Manhar Udhas , the first male singer of the new generation( having been born in the 40s) who persevered in a highly competitive atmosphere and was able to make a name for himself. . Manhar belongs to a musical family ( his brothers are Pankaj and Nirmal, both singers in their own right) and is the owner of a mellifluous voice.

An interesting thing happened in the early years of Manhar. He had already sung for two films ( Fareb 1968 and Nanha Farishta 1969) and was hunting for more work. His brother-in-law, who was making Gujarati films in Mumbai, introduced him to music directorsKalyanji Anandji.  Manhar  used to hang around the recording studios of Kalyanji Anandji to help them in song recording. Once singer Mukesh was not immediately available. So it was decided to dub a song of the film Vishwas ( 1969) in the voice of Manhar and later on Mukesh would sing over it.  When Mukesh heard the song he said that Manhar  has sung the song perfectly and there was no need to record the song in his voice!
 The song became a hit. It proved to be turning point in his career.
That song " Aapse humko bichhade huye, ek zamana beet gaya" was played very frequently on Vividh Bharti and Manhar's voice though resembling Mukesh, got noticed.  

 
While Manhar kept on getting a few songs here and there, his big opportunity came when he sang for Amitabh Bachchan in the film Abhimaan ( 1973). When S.D.Burman chose Manhar for this song, everyone was surprised. Mohd. Rafi ( Teri bindiya re ) and Kishore Kumar (tere mere milan ki ye raina) were the two other voices of Amitabh in this film.

Sachin da was fond of  breaking the  trend of one playback singer for a particular hero/heroine. For one hero/heroine in the same film, he often chose up to three singers, and did it successfully many times ( examples: Shabnam, Manzil, Jewel Thief ) very successfully.

However, the song could not help Manhar much as it was shadowed by other songs of the film, which became more popular and this jinx continued with him in many films. 

Though his duet with Asha Bhonsle in Kagaz ki naav ( har janam mein hamara milan) was praised, work was infrequent. his songs in Des Pardes ( nazar lage na saathiyon) and Aap to aise na the ( tu is tarah se meri zindagi mein shaamil hai) brought fleeting success.

Then he got a good song in Feroz Khan's Qurbani ( Ham tumhe chahte hain aise), pleasant romantic song.  However, again this beautiful song trailed behind 4 other Qurbani songs ( all of which got into annuals of Binaca Geet Mala) and Manhar could not capitalise on his effort.

It was in  the mid 80s and Subhash Ghai's film Hero which catapulted Manhar to super-success as the voice of new hero Jackie Shroff. His duet with Anuradha Paudwal topped the Hit parade in 1983 edition of the popular radio programme.
Manhar had finally arrived, as a couple of other songs of the same film were also popular.

                                            


Feroz Khan reposed his faith in Manhar ( Jaanbaaz- 1986) and Subhash Ghai also repeated him in Ram Lakhan 1989 ( tera naam liya) and Saudagar -1991( ilu ilu) , making the decade of 80s and 90s bring fruits of labours of 25 years, for Manhar Udhas.

Manhar , during this period, diverted to Gujrati ghazals and Sai bhajans and this became his main focus, as the film offers dwindled. He has managed to entrall the audiences in one way or the other, even though he was  not able to reach the top bracket.

Leaving  with a Sai bahajan by Manhar , in these grave times to give us strength.