Zeenat Aman had scored more hit songs than any of her contemporaries.
This can be attributed partly to happenstance and partly to the fact that her forte for high glamour could be showcased most winningly in a crowd-pleasing number, observes Dinesh Raheja.
Zeenat Aman was the 'it' girl of the '70s and '80s.
She not only made skin 'in' with her penchant for bold outfits but also added multiple dimensions to the Hindi film heroine with her thematically daring roles like the stoned flower child in Hare Rama Hare Krishna, the happy hooker in Manoranjan or the repentant gold digger in Roti Kapda Aur Makaan.
Interestingly, Zeenat had also scored more hit songs than any of her contemporaries.
When creative ambition converges with guts, a repertoire like Zeenat Aman's takes shape.
Of course, this can be attributed partly to happenstance and partly to the fact that her forte for high glamour could be showcased most winningly in a crowd-pleasing number.
A day after Zeenat turned 73 on November 19, Dinesh Raheja continues the celebrations by looking at eight of her definitive chartbusters.
Dum Maro Dum from Hare Rama Hare Krishna, 1972
21-year-old Zeenat Aman had hitherto done only bit roles in Hindi films. But when this tawny temptress swayed to Composer R D Burman's psychedelic rock tune Dum Maaro Dum in Hare Rama Hare Krishna, she caught the imagination of a generation!
This Asha Bhosle song topped the Binaca Geetmala charts for 1972, and catapulted Zeenat to overnight stardom.
Playing Janice, the hero's (actor-director Dev Anand) estranged drug-addicted sister, Zeenat danced like in a trance and hypnotised the audience.
Her Bohemian look -- short silk kurti over palazzos, accessorized with oversized sunglasses and long, beaded necklaces -- was the talk of the town. Nobody ever cast her in sister roles thereafter.
Filmed in a smoky hashish den, Dum Maaro Dum became the clarion call for the 1970s hippie counterculture... and also for everyday teens getting their groove on.
Zeenat embodied the song's rebellious credo:
Hum Sab Ki Parwah Kare Kyon
Sabne Hamara Kiya Kya?
Even today, the music of Dum Maro Dum is recognised within a few beats. But the recent remix, despite Deepika's presence, just didn't have the 'Dum' to recreate the Zeenat magic.
Chura Liya Hai Tumne fromYaadon Ki Baraat, 1973
The R D Burman-Asha Bhosle combination has contributed immensely to Zeenat's oeuvre of songs as evidenced in this lilting karaoke favourite, Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko.
Zeenat hit the fashion scene like a tornado with this trendsetting song.
She looks like a vision in white.
With her middle-parted free-flowing hair, her hoop earrings and her flared, long-sleeved jumpsuit, she emancipated women from itchy bouffants and breath-poppingly tight churidar kurtas.
Whether she was strumming the guitar with the confidence of a band player, or dancing, maybe not with expertise but surely with grace, Zeenat is the very definition of cool.
She gets to lip sync the majority of the three-stanzas, and, without decimating the dapper-looking Vijay Arora, ensures that one will 'churao' a look at her in the actor's portions too.
The sound of clinking glasses was part of RD's musical innovations in O Haseena Zulfowali from Nasir Hussain's Teesri Manzil (1966), and it reappears in this song from Nasir Hussain's Yaadon Ki Baraat (1973), creating an unforgettable musical intro.
Haaey Haaey Yeh Majboori from Roti Kapda Aur Makaan, 1974
Zeenat displayed some serious sizzle to make a scorcher of a song which even rainwater can't dampen.
Sporting a wet, tightly-draped sari, Zeenat cavorted in the monsoons trying to entice lover Manoj Kumar into joining her, and the rain song as a siren call reached its apogee.
Armed with the sexy swivelling of her hips, Zeenat initiated this romance in the rains and altered attitudes on the depiction of sensuality in Hindi cinema.
This film had Zeenat showing some derring-do by taking on a grey-shaded role.
She tellingly turns fiancé Manoj Kumar's framed photograph towards the wall once millionaire Shashi Kapoor proposes.
But before that eventuality, she ironically rebukes Manoj for being materialistic in this Lata Mangeshkar-voiced seduction blockbuster.
'Teri Do Takiya Do Naukari Ke Mera Lakhon Ka Sawan Jaaye,' she seductively teases the hapless leading man who has to stay dry for a job interview.
But he is sorely tempted. The audience totally empathised.
Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein from Ajnabee, 1974
The rains are a popular staple to establish intimacy between nubile lovers in Hindi films, and many a film drenched Zeenat in rain songs.
One spinoff was that it engendered some melodious numbers which proved to be immense crowd pleasers like Ajnabee's Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein.
Rajesh Khanna was the reigning superstar but Zeenat also was a bonafide film star by now and the twosome set the screen afire with their smouldering expressions and antics.
Zeenat's windblown white-and-pastel nightgown has strings which Khanna unties with his teeth!
Ajnabee was not a hit, but this Lata-Kishore Kumar number was. And it remains a favoured choice at antakshari.
One can feel the raindrops on one's face whenever one recalls the song's spirit of joyous abandon.
Hai Agar Dushman Zamana from Hum Kisise Kam Nahin, 1977
Zeenat was the hottest pin-up in the country by the mid 1970s but the westernised star proved she could do justice to a traditional qawwali as well with Hai Agar Dushman Zamana.
Watch Zeenat shine in a floor-grazing black dress with silver trimmings too.
She styled her shoulder-length hair in a trendy step cut to ensure that her pairing with a younger and shorter Rishi Kapoor didn't jar.
Zeenat couldn't match Rishi's myriad expressions but like him, she had panache.
For several youngsters, this hit Asha-Mohammed Rafi number became an ode to rebellion against parental tyranny.
When Zeenat defies her domineering father, Ajit, and joins Rishi on stage, the song made for riveting drama.
Zeenat had but a cameo in the film but with her spirited performance she asserted: Hum Kisise Kam Nahin!
Satyam Shivam Sundaram from Satyam Shivam Sundaram, 1978
One of the most famous devotional songs in Hindi films of the last 50 years, the title number of Satyam Shivam Sundaram was a landmark for all concerned -- Composers Laxmikant Pyarelal, Singer Lata Mangeshkar, Director Raj Kapoor and Zeenat Aman.
Though the urbanised Zeenat may not have been the right choice for the role of a village girl, and though the film wasn't a box office bonanza, Satyam Shivam Sundaram remains a cultural milestone thanks to the tremendous hype it generated. Not least because of Zeenat's famously abbreviated costumes.
The conflict between the physical and the emotional realms in Satyam Shivam Sundaram's theme was mirrored in Kapoor's highly eroticised treatment of an emotional story about the unmarked soul of a woman, Roopa (Zeenat Aman) with a scarred face.
The title song eloquently articulates Roopa's faith in the divine which has helped her overcome the many misfortunes in her life.
Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Zindagi from Qurbani, 1980
When Zeenat Aman grooved to Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Zindagi Mein Aaye Toh Baat Ban Jaaye, she unwittingly echoed the male audiences' feelings for her.
Showing off her svelte figure in a scarlet dress with a neckline that plunged deep, Zeenat looked so hot in this chartbuster, it sent the mercury jumping right out of the thermometer.
And that come-hither wink she lavished on hero Feroz Khan, it left him as well as the paying audience breathless and wide-eyed.
Teenaged Nazia Hassan became a brief sensation after singing this number.
Aap Jaisa Koi was composed by Biddu, and his beats plus Zeenat's fluid moves heralded the start of the disco era in Hindi films.
Laila Main Laila from Qurbani, 1980
The times they were a-changin. But even with the onset of a new decade, Zeenat proved she was a durable diva who could smoothly cross over into the 1980s.
In a low decolletage and high-slit white column dress, Zeenat Aman as a club singer crooning Laila O Laila was a surefire showstopper.
Kanchan's voice, Kalyanji Anandji's composition and Indeevar's words, Jisko Bhi Dekhoon Majnoon Bana Doon, all rang true when they were fronted by the visual of Zeenat holding the floor with her sinuous steps.
Qurbani's male leads, Vinod Khanna, Feroz Khan and Amjad Khan were not the only ones who went ballistic over this luscious Laila.
The audience rocked to Laila with a frenzy that Sunny Leone could only hope for with her remix.
