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You can watch The Golden Years: 1950-1975, A Musical Journey with Javed Akhtar on Zee Classic every Sunday at 8 p.m. Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor need no introduction. Where Dev sa’ab was known

for his urban, flamboyant persona for much of the 1950s and 1960s, Raj Kapoor was revered for his tramp-like character that he essayed in films like _Shree 420_ (1955) and _Anari_ (1959).

Together with Dilip Kumar, the three men ruled the box office for much of two decades from the late 1940s to the late 1960s.   Although Raj Kapoor had turned director early in his career,

having helmed films like _Barsaat_ (1949), _Awara_ (1951), _Shree 420_ and _Sangam_ (1964), Dev Anand had restricted himself to the twin roles of actor and producer. But with _Prem Pujari_

(1970), Dev Anand took on the role of director more than two decades after he entered the Bombay film industry. From here, he would go on to direct more than 15 films, notable among which

were _Hare Raama Hare Krishna_ (1971) and _Des Pardes_ (1978). Prem Pujari had some really melodious tracks such as ‘Rangeela re’ and ‘Phoolon ke rang se’. Speaking on the latter song in the

recent episode of 'The Golden Years: 1950-1975, A Musical Journey', Javed Akhtar made an interesting observation. The poet-lyricist said that, “This song doesn’t begin with the

mukhda. Normally, in a song, the mukhda comes first, then the antara, then the mukhda and so on. But this song begins in the opposite way. This song begins with the antara and then goes to

the mukhda. ‘Phoolon ke rang se’ is not the mukhda, that comes later – ‘Baadal bijli’ – that is the mukhda, which comes later.”     In the same year as Dev Anand’s _Prem Pujari_, Raj

Kapoor’s _Mera Naam Joker_ also released. This was Kapoor’s only sixth film as director, but came two decades after he made his first film _Aag _(1948). _Mera Naam Joker_ was an allegory of

sorts on the nature of showbiz, but, unfortunately, wasn’t received well by audiences. Over the years, however, the film has been appreciated for various reasons, with its music being one of

the standout features. Songs like ‘Jeena yahaan, marna yahaan’, ‘Eh bhai, zara dekh ke chalo’, ‘Kehta hai joker’ and ‘Jaaney kahaan gaye woh din’ are eternal compositions, with their lyrics

articulating many a profound thought. Another director, who was a contemporary of Raj Kapoor’s, was Chetan Anand. Chetan was also Dev sa’ab’s eldest sibling. Known for films like _Neecha

Nagar_ (1946), _Taxi Driver _(1954) and _Haqeeqat_ (1964), Chetan directed _Heer Ranjha_ in 1970. _Heer __Ranjha_’s dialogues were entirely in verse. This was something of a unique

phenomenon in Hindi cinema, with the poet-lyricist, Kaifi Azmi, pulling off this Herculean task with aplomb. And when the poetic dialogues were written with such deftness and beauty, the

songs also had to have the same quality. ‘Milo na tum toh hum ghabraaye’ and ‘Yeh duniya, yeh mehfil mere kaam ki nahin’ have gone on to enjoy their own pride of place in the history of the

Hindi film song.  The thing to observe with a film like _Heer Ranjha_ is that when the dialogues of the film itself were in verse, it gave the protagonists the creative license to foray into

songs organically. The poetic nature of the screenplay ordained them to sing as they pleased. This was not always the case in Hindi cinema where heroes often sang without having any

connection with music. A rare Hindi film in this regard where the hero doesn’t sing at all and has to be taught to do so by the heroine was the Subodh Mukerji-produced and directed,

_Abhinetri_ (1970). The song ‘Sa re ga ma pa, pa pa…’ was precisely an exercise towards the heroine (Hema Malini) acquainting the hero (Shashi Kapoor) with music. One final aspect to the

significance of 1970 was that this was the year that saw the actress Mumtaz get recognised for her acting talents. Mumtaz had done quite a few films by this time such as _Mere Sanam_ (1965),

_Kaajal_ (1965), _Brahmachari_ (1968) and _Aadmi Aur Insaan_ (1969) where she was relegated to playing vamp-like figures or the second lead to the heroine. But in the LV Prasad-produced

_Khilona_, which starred Sanjeev Kumar, Mumtaz made quite an impact with her performance. As Javed Akhtar noted of Mumtaz, “It was a big thing that LV Prasad took Mumtaz as a heroine in the

film. But her work was so good in this film that she became a top heroine just with this one film. She deserved this earlier but she wasn’t getting the chance. The thing is people get

typecast doing the same kind of roles…But Mumtaz proved [in _Khilona_] that she had it in her to be considered a top notch actress.”    _You can watch The Golden Years: 1950-1975, A Musical

Journey with Javed Akhtar on Zee Classic every Sunday at 8 p.m._