Hindi songs of the yesteryears had a different kind of appeal to the audience of the time who used to watch vintage Hindi films with friends and family. Those were the days when Dilip Kumar, Nargis, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Madhubala, Nimmi, Meena Kumari, Suraya of the Hindi film world were as popular in Bengal as Kanon Devi, Suchitra Sen, Uttam kumar, Anil Chatterjee, Bikash Ray, Ashitbaran, Shoumitra Chatterjee, Shabitri and Arundhuti of Kolkata were with their own individual appeal. When young women would rush to watch Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand or Uttam Kumar films, young men would queue up to watch films of Suchitra Sen, Nargis, Suraya and Madhubala. And needless to mention, songs made the big difference in the success or failure of a movie in the box office. Hindi songs became very popular in Bengal in the 50s and 60s because of the melody, beat and instrumentation. The clever blending of music of various local gharanas paidoff successfully for the music directors of Bombay as it brought variation to a great degree.  
We shall conclude this series on Hindi songs with this final episode on some more iconic Hindi songs of Bombay films.  
A song that would remain lodged forever in the hearts of Hindi song lovers is, “Jalte hain jiske liye, teri ankhon ke diey, dhoond layahoon wohi, geet main tere liye...'. The song was composed by SD Barman,  and who else could sing it with so much passion but Talat  Mehmud? It is an all-time hit song of Talat.  SD Barman and Talat Mehmud gave another outstanding song, “Jayeto jaye kaha, samjhe ga kaun eha, dard  bharey  dilki juba...”.  The film Taxi Driver ran in movie theatres for months together mostly for its beautiful songs like this one. 
The song by Mukesh in the film Awara is also a record breaking number still popular with the listeners, “Hum tujse mohabbat  karke sanam, ro te bhi rahe, haas te bhi rahe...”. The poignant lyrics and the sad tune  epitomized pain and despair of a jilted lover in the song.  

Mohammad Rafi broke many records in terms of popularity with the songs he sang for the film Dosti. Music composer duo Laxmikant and  Pyarelal did a wonderful job to make each and every song of the film  super duper hit. “ Rahi manwa dukhki chinta keun satate hain, dukhto apna sathi hain...”, 'Koi jab rah naa paye, mere sang aye, meri dosti mera peyar...”,“Guriya humse rooth  rahoge kab tak...”,“Chahunga main tujhe saanjh savere...” are some of the soul-stirring songs from the film. 
Hemanta Mukherjee sang some beautiful romantic numbers for Bombay films in the 50s and 60s. “Beqaraar karke humein yun na jaaiye, aapko humari qasam laut aaiye...”,is a song sung and composed by the singer himself. 'Na tum humey jaano, na hum tumhe jaane, magar lagta hain kuchh aisa, mera hundum milgaya...” is yet another of Hemanta hit numbers of the time. 
But when SD Barman put music and Hemanta sang, “Hain apna dil to awara, najane kispe aayega...” for the film Solwa Saal,it created history. The song remained at the top of the chart for many many years. Audience in Dhaka had the opportunity to watch this film and enjoy the songs. 
Kishore Kumar surprised many of his critics with his smooth rendition of the song, “Mere saamne wali khirki mein, ek chaand ka tukra rehta hain, afsos yeh hai ke woh kuch ukhra ukhra rehta hain...”.RD Barman was the music composer. 
For the eternal lovers who believe their love for each other would survive even time itself, Mohmmad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar sang for them, “Sau saal pehle, mujhe tumse pyaar tha, aaj bhi hain, aur kal bhi rahega, sadiyon se tujhse milne, jiya beqaraar tha, aaj bhi hain...”. 
Indeed it is difficult to chronicle some of the iconic Hindi songs of the yesteryears from hundreds of them. It was only a humble attempt on my part to remember the songs that I grew up listening to in my home, on the restaurant gramophone or Radio Ceylon, Binaca Getmala and so on. When I listen to those songs today I go back to those days when life was easy for us and songs were full of melody. 

The writer is Special Supplements Editor, 
The Daily Star