Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs

Posts Tagged ‘Helen


I had mentioned in an earlier discussion that Helen’s aspirations (if any) of playing mainstream rolers in Hindi movies (where mainstream roles means donning a sari /salwar kurta etc and singing songs that are the preserve of leading ladies) were realised on movies like “Cha Cha Cha” (1964) and “Lahu Ke Do Rang” (1979). She in fact won the Filmfare award for best supporting actress too, for her role in “Lahu Ke Do Rang” (1979).
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When one thinks of Helen, one thinks of a cabarat song(typically sung by Asha Bhonsle) where Helen, suitably under dressed by Indian standards, performs her dance and then bows out, playing no further part in the movie. There are many Helen fans though who would like to see her in meatier roles in these movies.
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“Cha Cha Cha” (1964) is Bhavdeep Films production. It was produced and Directed by Chandrashekhar. He was also the hero of this movie. He had signed up Helen to play the heroine opposite him. So this movie was one of the rare occasions when Helen was not a one song wonder but got to sing lots of songs and got to act in a Bhartiya Naari kind of role.
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“Ustaadon Ke Ustaad” (1963) was produced by an ambitiously named Production house called Films & Televisions, seeing that there used to be hardly any network of Television in India those days. Thnkfully, they at least produced Films, if not TVs or TV Serials. “Ustaadon Ke Ustaad” (1963) , which was directed by Brij, had Ashok Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Shakila, Anwar, Sheikh Mukhtar, Amar, Shakeela Banu Bhopali, Helen, Johnny Walker etc in it.
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“Raat Andheri Thhi” (1967) is a B grade movie about which very little is known these days. Theinformation that I have been able to gather about this movie tells me that this movie had Feroz Khan, Sheikh Mukhtar, Lolita Chaterjee & Helen in it, which makes it an archtypical B grade movie of the 1960s. These movies had Sheikh Mukhtraa playing the same kind of roles that would later be played by amitabh Bachchan in this angrey young man movies. Sheikh Mukhtar would use his bulky figure for strongarm tactics, and he would leave the task of singing and dancing to the chocolate faced side hero of the movie, which happens to be Feroz Khan in this movie.
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This article is written by Sudhir, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a regular contributor to this blog.

The film Luteraa (1965) has seven wonderful songs, five of which are already discussed on this blog. This is the sixth song from this movie. This is a dance number by Helen, and the singing voice is that of Lata Mangeshkar. Luteraa is a grade B pirates adventure story, starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Dara Singh, Nishi, Helen, Hiralal, Jeevan, Maruti, Bela Bose and others. The storyline is convoluted with multiple parallel threads in progress. There are lost siblings, pirates, palace intrigues, battles at sea and what else not in the story plot.
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Here is a Helen song with a difference.In this song, Helen is not performing a cabarat or even a mujra. Rather she is emoting like a “normal” actress. Yes, Helen had a big enough role in this movie called “Kahin Din Kahin Raat” (1968).
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