In 1961, in spite of all the problems they were having Geetaji and her husband, Guru Dutt, were still living together. There was still something left between the two. These brief moments of harmony were giving her enough strength to continue with her passion, singing. Her assignments were slightly down. She was doing only a very limited amount of singing. She still was able to sing in many movies, most of them were prior commitments. Details are available here for 15 of the 31 movies she sang in 1961.
By this time most of the music directors who were thronging to have her sing in their films were slowly retracting. She still had few of them left. One of them was Chitragupt. She sang in four movies for him in 1961. These were “Bada Aadmi” (a solo), “Hum Matwale Naujawan” (two duets), “Tel Malish Boot Polish” (a duet), and “Zabak” (a triplet). One of the duets from “Hum Matwale Naujawan” sung by Geetaji and Mukesh, “Beete Nahin Raat Sanam” is a beauty that is remembered even today for its romanticism and sweetness.
In “Pyaar Ki Pyaas” Vasant Desai gave Geetaji four songs to sing. One of these was a solo, two were duets, and the third one was a triplet. Usually productive Tripathiji composed music for only one movie that year. In “Piya Milan Ki Aas” Geetaji sang a duet for him. Kalyanji & Anandji were another pair of music directors for whom Geetaji sang in two movies. These were “Passport” (three solos) and “Pyaase Panchhi” (a duet) .
The other music directors for which Geetaji sang in 1961 include G.S. Kohli in “Mr. India” (two solos), Khayyam in “Shola Aur Shabnam” (a duet and a d triplet), Nashad in “Pyaar Ki Dastan” (two duets), Roshan in “Warrant” (a solo), S. Madan in “Batwara” (a duet), Shankar & Jaikishan in “Karodepati” (a duet), and Vinod in “Dekhi Teri Bombai” (a solo). Both of the duets composed by Nashadji were sung by Geetaji and Rafi Saheb. These two are very delightful numbers, especially the duet “Tu Rie Rie Rie” .
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