Subhash K Jha selects Raksha Bandhan’s playlist

This Raksha Bandhan enhance your bond with your siblings with these 5 Bollywood songs:

1. Raakhi dhaago ka tyohar (Raakhi, Mohd Rafi): Most raksha-bandhan songs are sung by female singers. This one is unique in that it is the male voice reminding us of the importance of that day: Bhai bahen ka pyar rahega jab tak hai sansar, Raakhi dhaago ka tyohar. Composed by Ravi Sharma the song does not have popular recall-value because of its gender reversal. The underrated Rajendra Krishan wrote this Rafi senti-melody.

2. Rang birangi rakhi lekar aye behna (Anpadh, Lata Mangeshkar): Lataji says this song about sibling-bonding was easy to render since composer Madan Mohan was her rakhi brother. Every raksha bandhan he came to his choti bahen to have her tie that sacred string on his wrist. Madan Mohan composed this song keeping his bonding with Lataji in mind.

3. Bhaiya mere rakhi ke bandhan ko nibhana (Choti Bahen, Lata Mangeshkar): The pristine Nanda lip-syncing this Lata Mangeshkar song to her screen brother Balraj Sahni was a vision in filial affection that audiences remember to date. Composed by the hit machine duo Shankar-Jaikishan this is one of the most popular raksha bandhan songs of all times. Incidentally Nanda had a hard time erasing the sisterly image. If in 1959 she played Choti Bahen ten years later she featured in the title role of Badi Didi.

4. Behna ne bhai ki kalai mein pyar bandha hai (Resham Ki Dori, Suman Kalyanpur): This theme song from the film on sibling togetherness featured the little-known Kumud Chugani as the sister singing to ‘brother’ Dharmendra on raksha bandhan in Suman Kalyanpur’s voice. Maze ki baat yeh hai, this song is a raksha bandhan evergreen although it was put across on screen by an unpopular face. Credited to Shankar-Jaikishan the tune has Shankar’s trademark influence.

5. Chanda re mere bhaiyya se kehna behna yaad kare (Chambal Ki Kasam, Lata Mangeshkar): My most favourite bhai-bahen song, so immaculate in composition (Khayyam), so wonderfully worded (by the great Sahir Ludhianvi) and so pitch-perfectly rendered by Lata Mangeshkar this is the most flawless creation celebrating that special day set aside for sisters and brothers. I asked Lata Ji how she was able to attain such summits of emotional expression in this song and she confessed, “It is a song about a sister being separated from her brother. I thought of what raksha bandhan would be like if own brother Hridaynath was not with me to celebrate the occasion. Bass, jazbaat wahin se nikal pade.”