Wo chale jhatak ke daaman
Posted on: August 5, 2010
Rajendra Kumar during his heydays was a big star and he was in fact nicknamed “Jubilee” Kumar because his movies tended to be hits. It was an open secret that he aped Dilip Kumar’s acting style and mannerisms. Someone apeing the best and going on to have huge success is nothing new and we see it in so many fields of activities.
For instance, when IBM came up with IBM PCs, then Compaq and Dell began to make IBM compatible PCs, and went on to sell more IBM compatible PCs than IBM itself. Making use of this parallel from computer industry, we can say that Rajendra Kumar was a Dilip Kumar compatible actor who gave more hits than even Dilip Kumar in 1960s.
If you ask me, the main reason why Rajendra Kumar movies were such big hits was not Rajendra Kumar per se, but the music of these movies. He was lucky to wrk in movies whose songs were huge chart busters, movie after movie.
Another thing that I associate with Rajendra Kumar is “teasing” songs. I have lost count of the number of songs where he would tease the heroine and the heroine would fall for his charms at the end of this teasing. Personally I do not think this is likely to happen in real life in India where “eve teasing” is actually a serious offence.
Here is an “eve teasing” song from “Hamraahi” (1963) where Rajendra Kumar is seen doing his Roadside Romeo
act with Jamuna. The song is written by Hasrat Jaipuri and music is composed by Shankar Jaikishan. The song is sung, naturally, by Rafi.
Audio
Video
song-Wo chale jhatak ke daaman (Hamraahi) (1963) Singer-Rafi, Lyrics-Hasrat Jaipuri, MD-Shankar Jaikishan
Lyrics
wo chale
haan
wo chale
haay
wo chale jhatak ke daaman
meri aarzoo mitaa ke
mitaa ke
wo chale
haan
wo chale
haay
wo chale jhatak ke daaman
meri aarzoo mitaa ke
mitaa ke
meraa dil wo le gaye hain
mujhe raah mein bithaa ke
bithaa ke
wo chale
koyi unse itnaa kah do
main unhin kaa ho chukaa hoon
main unhin kaa ho chukaa hoon
koyi unse itnaa kah do
main unhin kaa ho chukaa hoon
main unhin kaa ho chukaa hoon
unhen kyaa milegaa aakhir
mujhe is tarah jalaa ke
jalaa ke
wo chale
haan
wo chale
haay
wo chale jhatak ke daaman
meri aarzoo mitaa ke
mitaa ke
meraa dil wo le gaye hain
mujhe raah mein bithaa ke
bithaa ke
wo chale
na bujhegi baadlon se
na bujhegi aansuon se
na bujhegi aansuon se
na bujhegi baadlon se
na bujhegi aansuon se
na bujhegi aansuon se
mere dil ki dhadkanon mein
gaye aag jo lagaa ke
lagaa ke
wo chale
haan
wo chale
ye qadam bahak rahe hain
mujhe do koyi sahaaraa
mujhe do koyi sahaaraa
ye qadam bahak rahe hain
mujhe do koyi sahaaraa
mujhe do koyi sahaaraa
wo nazar
nazar se mujhko
gaye jaane kyaa pilaa ke
pilaa ke
wo chale
haan
wo chale
haay
wo chale jhatak ke daaman
meri aarzoo mitaa ke
mitaa ke
meraa dil wo le gaye hain
mujhe raah mein bithaa ke
bithaa ke
wo chale
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 5, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Atul, one more reason for the success of heroes like Rajendra Kumar is the playback singing of Rafi Sahab.
Rafi Sahab sang some outstanding songs for Rajendra Kumar, who in my opinion did not have a screen presence, his dialogue delivery was flawed and he tried to copy the great thespian Dilip sahab in most of his movies. Yet he delivered hit after hit, but one should not compare Rajendra Kumar with Dilip Kumar, the hits notwithstanding.
The film industry has not seen an actor like Dilip Kumar again.
The actors who can rightfully claim to be his successor are, to my mind, Naseeruddin Shah and Kamalahasan. No one else can come close.
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