After a prolonged battle with illness, the man popularly known as the first superstar of Indian Cinema, Rajesh Khanna, passed away earlier today. I won’t get eloquent about how I grew up to his movies and was a fan of his acting, because I have seen very few of his works and what I saw weren’t persuasive enough to turn me a fan (probably have to give Anand and Bawarchi a try to see if they convert me). What were persuasive though, were the songs that his movies brought with them. Of course I did not realize until much later that many of the beauties I used to hear from our tape recorder were Rajesh Khanna songs, barring a few that I happened to see on telly, like Mere Sapnon Ki Rani and Jai Jai Shiv Shankar. But today I do know of the golden era his peak period was for Hindi music, particularly with Kishore Kumar, and in that a lot with R D Burman. And as a music lover I couldn’t be more grateful. On that note, a small tribute – a playlist of 25 songs from the musical legacy left behind by Rajesh Khanna.
RIP, Rajesh Khanna.. So long, and thanks for all the music..
