THE MOST FEARED VILLAIN WHOSE FIRST LIP-SYNC SONG WAS A COMIC RIOT

Everyone has heard the legend of how parents from the late fifties and sixties had stopped naming their cherubic sons – the name Pran.  A word that meant life itself had been outlawed as an option by new parents – all because of the sheer realism that was Pran’s acting.

The last time this had happened, it was with the name Raavan.

Who knew what it was about him? The menace in his piercing eyes, the dread in his rough baritone, the way his lip curled to reveal his dastardly motives… even his pencil-thin moustache had an aura of evil about it. He was beyond doubt, the greatest villain the Indian film screen has ever seen.

And as a villain, he is probably among the few bad men who in the midst of their meanness have also been seen shaking a leg and crooning songs in outlandish situations. As a good guy, one is expected to carry off a tune, but as a villain?

Most people think that Pran’s first lip-sync song as a villain is the iconic song from Half Ticket, “AAKE  SEEDHI LAGI JAISE,” a song that is memorable for Kishore Kumar crossing all boundaries of gender while rendering both the male and female voices perfectly.  But Half Ticket was released as late as 1962.

Others think it is the song from Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, where Pran is seen singing with Raj Kapoor and Padmini in the classic song, “HAI AAG HUMARE SEENE MEIN.” But this song too is not Pran’s first lip-sync song and it certainly does not have one laughing his guts out.

As far I remember, Pran’s first lip sync song was in the hit Dev Anand starrer, Munimji where he is conned into singing by a suave Dev Anand and a sly Nalini Jaywant who keep egging him on to sing with false praise. The result is a cinematic gem – a song where Pran though playing the villain in the film, has audiences rolling in the aisles with his wayward Tansen act.

For a good laugh, you can see the song here. While Hemant Kumar and Geeta Dutt are the playback voices for the lead roles, a Mr Thakur is credited as the voice for Pran. Several years later though, Pran is believed to have confessed in an interview that he had indeed sung the song. The music of the film Munimji was by S D Burman and it released in 1955.

DIL KI UMANGEIN HAIN JAWAN